With David J.
Matt Cockerill says:
Feeling close to ecstatic at the thought of being back in
the town of parking tickets and wingless pigeons, I headed
along to Slurp's wino bar, a small island of bohemianness and
Jaegermeister in the morass of XR3is and shell-suits that is
Northampton. Company was provided by my brother who is
(un)fortunate enough to actually live there.
Heart-warmingly, the moment we walked in through the door at
8.30pm, we got a cheery wave from Pat. Surely soon comes the
day when Pat is pesonally acquainted with every single purchaser
of his latest album...
Anyway, it was good to see the man again, and I can break the
news (which Jim Murray for some reason found unworthy of mention)
that Pat is now the proud owner of a rather fetching goatee.
The music? Well, we missed the openers by Curtis, cos we were
in the bar asking Pat about the new album (has a good song about
dolphins, 'pparently). Then the oddly familiar sound of David J.'s
voice (to someone who has never listened to his solo stuff)
summoned us into the music tent. (Slurps had extended its
lebensraum into the frosty December night with a large
semi-permanent marqueee, heated by what appeared to be a
decommissioned military jet engine.)
Anyway, David J.'s minimalist 2 guitars plus vocals set was short
and sweet, finishing with a stomping version of "Run,
run Rudolph!" (by Chuck Berry, of course).
Then came the headliners, Dooj Wilkinson, Pat Fish, Gabriel Turner, and the two guys
who I don't know their names. Somehow, whenever I see Dooj now,
I'm put in mind of The Grim Reaper (see the report on the last Northampton
gig), but anyway, reports that he had excelled himself on
the new album were amply confirmed. Pat claimed defensively
that the 3 or 4 songs they played from the new album, they
had played together for the first time only the day before, but
everything came together regardless. A particular stunner was
a kindof inverted version of "![[listen to Excellent!]](/images/iconMP3.gif)
Excellent!", called something like
"I hate!", which involves Dooj shouting an awful lot.
Plenty of other great songs, oldies too, including Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present and Take The Skinheads Bowling.
But the most amazing thing about this gig, as opposed to all
others? They didn't play Mr. Odd (nor Sister Death, for that matter). Looks
like the band is finally ready to move off in a whole new direction.
A fine evening. Look out for the combined Lovebus/New Album North American
tour coming your way soon.
Matt
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