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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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ALABAMA
3
The Astoria, London, October 7th 2007
I’m
not quite sure why journeys to Alabama
3 concerts have to be so dramatic.
This one took us from London to Oban, to Ballycastle
and Bushmills Distillery, to Campbeltown and Springbank
Distillery, to Arran (dinner only, as mobile ‘phones
kept us abreast of France’s astonishing
victory over the All Blacks), Largs, Glasgow and
London - just in time to get into the queue snaking
round the side of the pickle factory at 7.30.
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| It’s
Sunday night, there’s a strict curfew, and
the band are due on stage at 8.15 sharp. And give
a minute or so they are. I can’t quite put
my finger on it, but there’s something a little
different about the Alabama
3. It’s not just the now slightly road-worn
off-white suits and rhinestone studded shirts –
a sartorial wink at the title of their new album
M.O.R. And nor is it the addition of second guitarist
Steve Nicked (Steve Finnerty) whose style contrasts
with and complements the driving rhythms of ace
Fender Thin line maestro Rock Freebase, resulting
in a deeper and richer sound on some of the songs.
And it’s not just the brass section –
featured on MOR and here on some of the songs both
old and new – which also adds a new aural
layer to the A3 experience. And it can’t be
the still remarkable voice of ever-present Devlin
Love who now has to be regarded as an essential
element in both their sound and their stage-show.
Well – it’s all of these and more. These
“techno situationist crypto-Marxist-Leninists”
are being very obedient – there’s no
smoking (of anything) on stage, and not a great
deal of drinking either. Apparently they’ve
got new management. And here’s a word that
I don’t associate with the lexicon of the
First Presbyterian Church of Elvis the Divine –
they’re almost, well…slick. “Trust
me to leave them just when they’ve started
to get their act together” says former bass
player, Mr Segs. |
| And
they certainly have. With assistance from the usual
range of suspects - Errol T, the Rev. B Attwell,
Sister Francesca Love, M C Pablo, and a rather tired
looking yet funky Mr Segs on a blistering version
of ‘Up above my head’ that closed the
main set – they turned in a cracking four
and a half star set. It’s a clever mixture
of old and recent favourites – ‘Too
sick to pray’, ‘U don’t dance
2 techno’, ‘R.E.H.A.B.’, ‘Speed
of the sound of loneliness’ (the second encore)
and a brilliant ‘Honey in the rock’,
and ‘Hello I’m Johnny Cash’ (both
from the last album Outlaw) and songs from MOR.
There’s ‘Fly’, Lockdown’
(with the brass section taking the stage for the
first time), ‘Are you a souljah’ (which
is pretty good on the album but seems to suffer
from slight timing problems tonight) and ‘Amos
Moses’ – about a one-armed alligator
hunting Cajun, and a hit for country singer and
composer Jerry Reed in 1970. Here it’s given
the full Rev D Wayne Love swamp-funk treatment,
with support from Francesca and Devlin Love, and
Rock Freebase’s guitar. Larry Love, as tireless
as ever, growled his way through ‘Middle of
the road’, a tribute to the excesses of bands
such as the Eagles, featuring Finnerty’s Harrisonesque
guitar. The whole thing – as I’ve already
said – was bought to an end with ‘Up
above my head’. |
| There
followed a rather long interval when I imagine the
majority of the band were taking (at the very least)
an extended nicotine moment in the alley at the
back of the theatre. |
| They
eventually returned to play ‘Holy love’
– an impressive duet between Larry and Devlin
Love and some excellent and soulful piano playing
from the Spirit – “Here’s some
motherfucking gospel singing for you on a Sunday
night”, before finishing with ‘Sweet
joy’. It’s a bizarre Black and White
Minstrels moment (a television programme that my
late father insisted on watching just to wind everyone
up) because it’s a bluesy almost anthemic
reworking of the 1916 popular classic ‘If
you were the only girl in the world’ much
beloved of the monochrome vaudevillians. Original
composers Clifford Grey and Nat D. Ayer don’t
get any writing credits on the album – instead
they’re shared with Proclaimers
Craig and Charlie Reid who are also featured on
the recording. They’re not on stage tonight
– although by this point almost everyone else
is. It’s a suitably climatic finish - with
the stage gradually emptying before Freebase and
Nicked – supported of course by the excellent
drums and percussion of Sir Eddie Real and LB Dope
– jam it out to the end. |
 |
Clutching
copies of Drive Time, a ‘for sale at concerts
only’ remix of some of the MOR tracks, along
with some new recordings of older tunes (and well
worth a listen if you can find it) we were ushered
out to a side exit. When we got outside we were
assailed with a pungent burning smell – the
band at the top of the alley lighting up again?
No – as it turned out there was a major fire
on Oxford Street and chaos ensued as we tried to
get home.
- Nick Morgan (concert photographs
by Kate) |
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