The Gresham Flyers/ Scaremongers/ Sparky's Magic Piano
1 Comments Published by Nat Lady on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 15:10.
Live at The Gramaphone, London on May 8th, 2008Oh, what a night! as someone once sang.....Probably as warm and as sticky a night as you'll get in the middle of London Town, travelling to a gig by tube and wearing loose-fitting clothes that hopefully won't make you feel as though you've just trudged through some Amazonian swamp. The weather suited the mood though, with the muggy atmospheric conditions lending an air of build-up and anticipation to proceedings, this gig of course being The Scaremongers' first ever live performance, hot on the heels of a successful publicity campaign for their singer Simon Armitage's book Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock Star Fantasist. BBC cameras were present, filming their set for the Culture Show, and there were even rumours of Mark Radcliffe turning up. (These proved later to be unfounded, unless Mark was hiding beneath a giant hat, which somehow seems quite possible!) For the unitiated among you, Simon Armitage is a poet of long-standing calibre, a behemoth of GCSE set reading lists and a flippin' nice bloke to boot. If you haven't read any of his poetry, or seen any of his television productions, you really ought to. His Millennium poem Killing Time is still one of my favourite things to read ever and - before you read the rest of this review - I will readily admit that I was in a state of over-excitement about this gig for weeks beforehand.
I had originally thought that I would feel a little sorry for the two other bands, with the prospect of so much attention being diverted away from them, but actually there was no need, as they both put in great performances. Sparky's Magic Piano soft and balmy sound was a delicious refreshment for such a hot summer evening , with Marion's honeyed vocals ringing clear and true without being overly saccharine. You Like Her and Like Falling in Love sounded particularly fab, and there was much swaying and hand-clapping in the DJ booth, where myself and Andy from Pocketbooks were playing records in between bands. Headliners Gresham Flyers also played an extremely tight set, and seemed much more practiced than at last summer's Pop Art all-dayer event. Their strengths lie in the variety of their songs and their Pulp-influenced lyrics, although I will admit that I do prefer them when they venture towards the poppier, lighter end of the scale, with Waz and Sharon sharing vocal duties.
But to The Scaremongers. First-gig nerves or not, they did a bloody great job of looking and sounding, like, a PROPER BAND. Simon seemed to spend a huge proportion of the gig hiding behind his glossy fringe, but this only added to his frontman mystique, recalling Mark E Smith or Ian Broudie at their most reticent. Craig seemed equally unperturbed, ignoring the cameras and the shouts and the noise, and only occasionally looking up from his guitar with a wide smile on his face. Aw, bless. But the great thing about The Scaremongers is, poet frontman or not, they have Top Tunes. Cardigan Girl, Less is More and Nodding Dog - all shamelessly jangly pop songs with wry, astute lyrics and irresistible melodies that grab you by the waist and force you to shimmy along. There was a bit of a lull mid-set when Simon's vocals seemed to disappear into the ether and the guitars sounded over-noisy, but they soon picked up the pace again with a joyous rendition of first single You Can Do Nothing Wrong (In My Eyes) - clearly the highlight of the evening. Not even a year old, the band already have a hardcore of devoted fans, most of them situated in the front row and mouthing along to every word. With such infectious pop melodies and happy, smiling faces, it was impossible not to dance, despite the looming cameras! I only hope they play their next gig again soon - apparently there's talk of a gig in Cheshire - exciting! In the meantime, do check out the video for You Can Do Nothing Wrong - if my beloved ITV Chart Show still existed it'd be top of the indie video chart, I'm sure!
It was a brilliant gig. With songs like that they're going to be around for a long time yet!