FISH / JO McCAFFERTY live at The Venue

Well, I'm shallow enough to admit that it was a photograph of Ms McCafferty that encouraged me to amble along early enough to catch her set. And it was well worth it. As well as for aesthetic reasons, I should add. Jo has a powerful singing voice, idiosyncratic enough to attract attention, especially over a largely uninterested gathering of Fishheads. Some interesting songs, the names of which escaped me, due to the large array of boorish attendees, and a spark that says 'here is someone of interest, pay attention'. Definitely someone I would pay to see, and I would even have bought a ceedee, had I not been nearly crushed to death by a marvellous array of beerguts near the merchandise stand, which put mine to shame.

And then it's Fish. I must admit I was there in the early days (and I'm talking pre Market Square Heroes). I did the theatres, the Monsters of Rock, the Milton Keynes Bowl. However, I did drift from the fold, around about the time I started getting regular sex, if memory serves. Stopped paying attention to the records, once they started sounding sounding like retreads, perked up after hearing "Incomplete", and now here I am, back in a sweat soaked box in Edinburgh , 20+ years after first being in a sweat soaked box in Edinburgh watching that man Fish in action. A brief moment of amusement as the band arrive on stage, only for the engineer to forget to turn off the in-house music. So it wasn't the new trip-hop Fish album.

Finally, "Long Cold Day", "So Fellini" and "Lucky". A worthy, if somewhat bitter start. And why do people pay good money to go to a show, only to try and have shouted conversations over the top of the band. Feck off back to Glasgow, that's what I say. And they did. Mid-set lagged a bit with the horrors of "Kayleigh / Lavender", a couple of new choons, one shocking, one good ("Numbers"). A storming version of "Incommunicado", which brough wry smiles to a couple of drink scarred veterans. And a highly appropriate rant before "State Of Mind". It was also tremendous to hear "Market Square Heroes" again during the encores. Aah, the memories. It was a home town gig, so "Internal Exile" went down a treat with the crowd, despite being something Runrig would steer clear of. Things ended with "The Company", and all was well with the world.

The man was in fine form, despite some sound problems, with a particularly fine impersonation of curlers on skunk and gak. A Fish audience can also be a scary place, all you needed was a snake handler and cousins having sex to complete the picture. Everyone knows the words, the gestures and each other. But if two hours spent with Fish prevents people from invading small countries, then who am I to quibble. An excellent evening of entertainment, and I'll probably go back for more.

 

TYPEWRITER - “Skeleton Key”

An esoteric, eclectic collection of 31tracks like ‘Skeleton Key’ could be construe as conspicuous disregard for quality control by some. However, Typewriter, the brainchild of Mark Bandola pulls it off- just!
Described as a ‘soundtrack to life’ this is certainly not a new form of pop music as hinted on the sleeve notes. It is far too innovative for that.
After the ‘lo-fi’ opener we wait three minutes and four tracks for the first song, an enjoyable driving rock number called ‘When Our Lost Lamb Returns’.
Bandola was a member of The Lucy Show who supported the likes of REM and New Order in the late 80’s and has already produced music in the style of psych-rock and Krautrock (as Ausgang)
“These sonic experiments convinced Bandola to go all the way and create the ultimate Frankensteinian/ multi-personality song cycle LP.”
‘Damned for Sure’ is another heavy rocker with drums and bongos added by Martyn Baker and some nice electric guitar arpeggios from Bandola proving that he can write pretty good songs with catchy choruses and neat little guitar breaks when he puts his mind to it. This track segues into a short psychedelic instrumental reprise.
‘More Than I Deserved’ is a highlight of the album, a beautiful tune with vibes and Mark handling the psychedelic Beatlish vocals, bass, drums and guitar and an early Hendrix vibe about some of the flowing guitar fills.
After some classical piano ‘Oblivion Now’ has a Porcupine Tree quality about it. The light and airy ‘Proof, Dear’ has a trumpet player and a guest bass player and could have gone on longer than the 1:38. Some of the pieces are not fully developed but the whole project has a remarkable cohesion considering it contains material spanning the years 1978 and 2002! ‘Up Against the Wall’ samples an old film recording before a heavy Hawkwindy type song emerges. There is a snatch of bottleneck guitar and a very full sound (with organ and guitar) on ‘Lemming’s Night Out’. There is a sample of Beatles backwards stuff and a band is assembled for 36 seconds then some Floydian acoustic guitar, a bit more blues then the extraordinary narration of ‘3 Lesbians and a Baby’ by Holly Penfold. (For some unknown reason I thought of the film ‘Moulin Rouge’) ‘Saxy Stingray’ has Anatoly Vapirov on sax doing a fair impersonation of ‘Ian Underwood Whips It Out’. ‘I Hava No Home’ has a great bass and drums groove. Rob Lord provides ‘additional drums’ and indeed the drumming and percussion are a particular feature of the album. The penultimate song ‘1st Things 1st’ is a nice little slice of psychedelic vocal harmony.
‘Skeleton Key’ pushes the boundaries and is music that’s well worth exploring- recommended.

((Reviewed by Phil Jackson)