News and Reviews: 17th October 2011
16 Oct 2011.Head Cat + Ginger live at The Garage, London.A rammed sold out show for the first ever UK gig by Head Cat.
Head Cat is a rockabilly supergroup formed by rock legend Lemmy (of Motörhead), drummer Slim Jim Phantom (of The Stray Cats) and guitarist Danny B. Harvey (of Lonesome Spurs and The Rockats).
Up first we have Ginger from The Wildhearts who played a bunch of songs that went down well with this crowd.
Head Cat was formed after recording the Elvis Presley tribute album Swing Cats, A Special Tribute to Elvis in 2000 to which the future band-mates all contributed. After recordings were finished they stayed at the studio and Lemmy picked up an acoustic guitar and started playing some of his old favorite songs by Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.The rest of the guys knew them all and joined in. The name of the band was created by combining the names Motörhead, The Stray Cats and 13 Cats, which resulted in The Head Cat, similar to what Lemmy did in 1980 with Headgirl, a collaboration between Motörhead and Girlschool.
Slim Jim Phantom has also played with loads of people over the years including Dead Men Walking that also had Glen Matlock and Mike Peters in its fold.
In 2006 Head Cat released their first studio album, Fool's Paradise, which was a re-release of an earlier album titled Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B. It included cover songs from artists such as Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Jimmy Reed, T-Bone Walker, Lloyd Price, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. On the recordings Lemmy played acoustic guitar but on live performances Lemmy uses his signature Rickenbacker bass saying "I'm just not that good on guitar". A year later a DVD of a live performance filmed at the Phantom's Cat Club on Los Angeles Sunset Strip which included 13 songs performed live and interviews with the band.
The band's second studio album, Walk the Walk...Talk the Talk, was released by the Niji Entertainment Group in June 2011. This is the first new material by the band in eleven years, following up from the Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B album in 2000 which was re-released as Fool's Paradise in 2006 when the group finalised their official name.
As expected the 70 mins on stage is made up of their 1950s and 1960s cover versions which were all sung by Lemmy apart from the brilliant Stray Cats gem "Rock This Town" which was sung by Slim Jim.I have always loved his stand up drums front of stage style.
Other tracks played inc "Good Rockin' Tonight",the recent single "American Beat","Something Else","Not Fade Away","Fools Paradise","Shakin' All Over","Bad Boy","Crossroads" and encores included "Blue Suede Shoes".A really enjoyable club gig and next time they play London it seems certain to be in a much bigger venue.
Reminder that Lemmy and Motohead tour the UK in November.
See www.livenation.co.uk for info and tickets.
12 Oct 2011.Stiff Little Fingers + Ed Tudor Pole live at Sub 89,Reading.
My first visit to this 500 capacity club.I have seen punk legends SLF over 20 times since 1978 when they were a support band.Type the bands name into the band search to see the early gigs i saw them at.
Their debut album "Inflammable Material" is a proper punk classic.This was the opening night of their tour.
Up first we have Ed Tudor Pole.He is always fun to watch and another with punk history as he was in The Sex Pistols film "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle" back in the late 1970s.He finished his set with good versions of "Who Killed Bambi?" and "Swords Of A Thousand Men"
SLF played an 85 mins set that had the front stage area jumping around from start to finish.Lethal catchy guitar riffs and powerhouse drumming from Steve Grantley.So many cracking tracks played including "Wasted Life","Nobodys Hero","Fly The Flag",
"Barbed Wire Love","Strummerville" and "Tin Soldiers".
Encores were a surprise version of Alice Coopers "Schools Out" and explosive versions of "Suspect Device" and "Alternative Ulster".A great gig in a great venue.
See www.slf.com for future gig info
See aftershow page for this gig.