Working Men's Club, Honesty and Ashnymph at the 100 Club

The 100 Club, despite its great prestige (the walls are lined with photos of stars that once played here), is not my favourite venue. Good location, on Oxford Street, but it has a weird configuration, having a very wide stage but very shallow auditorium. So standing at the back you are maybe not more than 5 metres from the stage, but if the band is strung along the full length of the stage you cannot see them all at the same time. And then add their favourite gloomy lighting with intermittent flashes, then some of the band are barely visible at all.

But here I was to see my penultimate gig of the year, Working Men's Club who I hadn't seen (or heard of) in years (well four years I reckon).

The other two acts on the bill were completely unknown to me. So they were going to be a surprise. Openers Ashnymph were a nice surprise - a duo, bloke on guitar, deck and vocals and a drummer. In composition like Public Service Broadcasting. And they were surprisingly good. Just liked their electronic dance music. (Given below are the best photos I could get, you can see what I mean about the gloomy lighting. The drummer to the left was effectively invisible, not unphotogenic!)

Followed by Honesty, who were a less pleasant surprise. Not so much that they were bad, just utterly pointless. Now this sort of rave music was never really my scene when current in the last century, let alone now. But I describe them as pointless because there was no stage act. They could be replaced more than adequately by a tape. Mostly just guys standing behind  decks. Unless you count the guy in the fur hat playing electronic drums. But honestly, just skip the turning up - nothing to see and nothing interesting to hear. To be fair they did have a black guy come on for two or three of their pieces to talk unintelligibly over the music, but that felt like tokenism. And frankly made the dull even less appealing.

So finally to Working Men's Club. I had seen them here before Covid struck. And then post Covid they opened for New Order at Heaton Park in Manchester before a crowd in five figures, so I had expected them to break into the big time. But then instead, nothing. And here they were again playing to a crowd of I guess around 300, and a surprisingly elderly audience at that. Since I had first started seeing them, they have moved in an increasingly electronic dance oriented music direction. I think the band are basically the creature of lead vocalist Sydney Minsky-Sergeant. The line up has changed radically from the original.

And again they (or rather I) suffered from them being a six piece strung all along the stage. Girl on keyboards at far left disappeared completely into the gloom and dry ice. Their 10 song set literally melted into each other - the music never stopped. But while this was sort of computer based, there were always live musicians, playing real stuff. And while the other band members were as static as mannequins, Sydney did his usual prowling with distinctive vocals. Zero audience interaction - not a word. As I say there were no breaks. And no farewells. The end was only marked by them walking off stage. But don't get the impression that I disapproved. It was good. Worth coming out to a basement on a chilly night before Christmas

 

Laurie Wright. Lucca Mae, Sweet Unrest and Super Swamp Jellyfish

I had tickets for this show at the Electric Ballroom for a while. Laurie Wright was promoting it quite hard in days leading up to the gig, but apparently it was sold out. What they couldn't, it seems, manage was to co-ordinate doors open on the ticket (7pm) with the actual doors open (6pm), which had the advantage that I walked straight in, but the disadvantage that I missed the first act, Rudi. As he was a rap act I was less devastated that I missed hearing him than I was that I couldn't get place to stand on the barrier at the front.

First act I did see was the brilliantly named Super Swamp Jellyfish. Lead vocalist had a surprisingly sweet voice (I think I assume that a young guy with a shaven head will belt out punk), but nothing generally to excite

Second up were my favourites Sweet Unrest, at least now playing on a large stage with a large audience. Played a new song, and new intro, with Tom starting on guitar on his own. Was possibly the best performance I have seen by them.

At this point they were joined by an attractive young lady in the shortest sparkly skirt imaginable playing on violin

And Laurie Wright chipped in too.

Playing above Sweet Unrest on the bill was the utterly wonderful Lucca Mae. This young lady really should become a big star. Totally amazing voice, great looks, super sleek sound with her band. Just everything

And then headliner Laurie Wright. Now I had seen him on other bills before, just playing himself with his guitar. And I was non-plussed. So to be honest I was half thinking I would listen for a little while and then depart early. But I was soon won over. He was fantastic with a band, and Lucca Mae on backing vocals (and Leo Stewart whom I have also seen solo playing guitar). Totally engaging. Got the crowd truly hyped, proper mosh pit going.

The man has a back story to which he referred to a few times. He was a smackhead, but cleaned himself off drugs and was now playing to a 1500 crowd. And next year he is moving up to the even bigger Forum, so hope he fills that too. If I am around I will definitely go. More of this please

Lucca Mae and Leo Stewart

Laurie looking well dressed, and buttoned up. Which couldn't last as he must have been sweating buckets. Well one look at his glistening visage and matted hair tells you that

Leo Stewart

Obviously the jacket had to go to reveal well patterned shirt.

And then the shirt went too

Towards the end Laurie and band was supplemented by a couple of seasonal trumpeters 

And finally on came Rudi, the rapper lad that I had missed at the beginning

Gig went on until quarter past eleven, so  far from going early (as had to be in the office for 8:30 next morning) I stayed to the far from bitter end. Great show, great atmosphere, one of my favourite gigs of the year. And I bumped into guitarist from the Station and Troy Mitchell of the Mitchells in the audience, and saw a couple of guys from the Stereo Cupids in the mosh pit. Its a tight music scene.