Pension lawyer meets world: Entitled Sons at Komedia, Bath

I thought this would be a nice combination - visit friends in Bath that I hadn't seen in a while, and go to two gigs on consecutive nights at the same venue, an Elton John tribute act on Friday night (see next entry), but first Entitled Sons. The venue, ironically, is better known for stand up comedy, which I do a lot of. But it can also be converted to open space for bands performing (stand up I believe is done here with more traditional method of sitting around tables). As I learnt during the night, Komedia used to be an ABC cinema, but it has been rather well converted.

Now, I have seen Entitled Sons a few times before always playing small venues to a relatively sparse audience. So I expected to arrive at doors open and waltz to the front. But I found instead a substantial queue of teenage girls.

As I discovered from chatting to the lady behind me in the queue (with her teenage daughter), the band had been doing some personal appearances at local schools and this had drummed up good business - sufficient that they had sold the place out. And teenage girls love to get within touching distance of the band. So while, when I was inside, I could get down to quite close to the front, I didn't feel utterly comfortable amongst a throng of girls a quarter of my age.

However, the way the Komedia has been converted is to leave a simple flat hall at the front, but then stairs up to a bar above it, with a space in front effectively forming a low balcony over the audience below. So that is where I plonked myself, next to parents or grandparents of audience members beneath them. My desire to always get at the front is not to be able to look up the nostrils of the band in front of me, but not to have anyone between me and the act. At five foot four almost anyone will obscure my view. So I was perfectly happy being out of the action but with no one's head in my line of sight.

For this gig there were no fewer than three supports. The first of which was sufficiently obscure as to be listed as just "1st support". In fact, as they introduced themselves, they were siblings from Halifax, not a renowned hotbed of rock and roll. Olly and Jessica Chapman were genial enough but not my cup of tea - acoustic guitar being strummed enthusiastically by Olly, but he had a slightly hoarse sounding voice and his sister a rather grating one.

Second support, by contrast were a punk/goth wannabee quartet called Battery Acid. Apart from anything else they just felt out of place at this gig. I don't think the supports were particularly well chosen for the main act or the audience. But at least Battery Acid's lead singer had a surprisingly pleasant voice. I was expecting screeching from the appearance, but no...

The final support was more in keeping with Entitled Sons. Although on stage there was a large band, in fact this was a solo artist called Nico Cann. Looks like a lot of promotion going into him (band was handing out glossy flyers afterwards) and I can imagine him being considered a worthwhile bet. Very good looking young man. Able band behind him, totally looked the part. But. There is a but. Very flat voice. And no discernible personalty on stage. And none of the songs seemed great.

They did finish with a cover of a great song, but a very unfortunate one, which made me wonder if there was any coordination between the bands. They played the old Chuck Berry classic Johnny B Goode. And what is wrong with that you might ask. Well what is wrong is Entitled Sons always play that as the one cover version in their set. And, as the audience would soon hear, play a far better version than Nico and his bandmates.

Nico Cann

So then on come Entitled Sons. As I said, I have seen them several times before and they have always been very good. But tonight they knocked all their previous performances out of the park. They were superb. It wasn't difficult to put one's finger on what made this performance so much better. For the first time they were playing literally on the big stage, and to a big crowd. These guys are all about the performance and at last they had the environment to make that count.

I did have my reservations at the start when they came on to the screams of the girls at the front. Inwardly I groaned and thought this could be like some boy band concert where overexcited girls just scream all night and you can't hear anything. But it soon settled down, and I am quite happy with them screaming appreciatively between songs. Just not over the band.

I should point out that there is nothing wrong with a band appealing to teenage girls. Before you get all sniffy I would offer as evidence the Beatles. They did always play live to besotted squealing young girls and Paul McCartney was a total heartthrob, difficult as it is now to imagine when one sees the croaking pensioner that he is. And the Entitled Sons are all good looking boys so a move to get on board the schoolgirl following is probably a shrewd move (and yes there were a decent number of teenage boys along too, but just when I had seen them before it would have been 50/50 gender split and probably under a hundred watching).

So what makes them so special in my books? Well first I like guitar bands. And second I think they have a string of very distinctive songs with strong hooks. But as I said they are very much a live band. Lead singer Charlie has a terrific rock voice, just the right amount of gravel. And has personality to burn. Untrammeled by a guitar he is just a superb frontman, bounding around the stage with great energy. And normally when you see a band with such a frontman, your attention is inextricably drawn to him and the band are background figures that you register but don't focus on. But Entitled Sons feel like they are increasingly a band with two frontmen, Charlie and his teenage brother Raffey on lead guitar. Although he says nothing, his guitar speaks volumes and his movement around the stage means your focus is on two guys not one.

And then there is the dynamic, as it appears on stage. I think everyone likes to see a band that seem to get on, and like each other, and are out there enjoying what they do. This lot, being four brothers with dad on bass, have that nice friendly unity. Charlie is always bounding around hugging the others and having a brief chat. It feels warm.

Charlie and Raffey

Not sure about Charlie's eye liner but guess I am not his target demographic😃

Eldest brother Billy on keyboards comes across as the quiet one. For all I know he may be the brains of the outfit!

Laurie on drums is the youngest member of the outfit at 15 although quite a big lad for 15. And he is far more prominent than most drummers, getting up out of his seat and hammering away. All the band members are given a share of the limelight. I can't give a fair representation of that only because of the limitation on my photography. Very difficult to get focus on someone at the back of the stage as there is always someone dashing in front of him! Basically you have to get out and see them.

Dad Graham nicely keeps a rather lower profile, not hiding away but just not trying to steal the limelight from his kids. One gets the feel that he is loving every moment of this, living his best life!

So, this was undoubtedly the best performance I had witnessed. It was also their longest set and the first time they did an encore. Frankly I would have liked a longer set still, like a top headline act. Its nice to see how a set builds up - the fast numbers, slowing it down, warming up an audience, then cooling us down. And they obviously knew this was the show of their young lives. You could see it in the hugs and bows at the close.