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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES with N’Dea Davenport,
David McAlmont,
Carl McIntosh and
Omar, the Barbican, February 2nd 2007 |
| In
recent years the Barbican has had a pretty good
track record of running themed concert series. ‘It
came from Memphis’, loosely inspired by Robert
Gordon’s obsessively detailed yet compelling
book of the same name, saw an inspired series of
concerts focussed on the city’s main record
labels and spawned a double CD (produced by Gordon)
narrating the development of the distinctive sound
of Memphis. Last year we had Folk Britannia, staged
in conjunction with BBC 4 (the digital TV station
with a 0.4% share of the British TV audience - which
doesn’t include me), a well thought out series
of three shows which traced the progress of the
‘folk tradition’ in the UK since the
1950s. These featured a veritable who’s who
of British folk from young to old, and also, as
readers may remember, Billy Bragg. So I had high
hopes of this year’s Soul
Britannia, even if an aversion to the square
box in the corner and a lack of digital connectivity
meant I wouldn’t be able to follow the TV
documentaries. I bought tickets for the Soul Britannia
Allstars (with the likes of Madeline Bell, Linda
Lewis and the AWB’s Hamish Stuart) –
a night which promised to “illustrate soul
and reggae music as the soundtrack to a Britain
torn asunder by the new politics of race”
and was frankly pissed off when the event was moved
a day and replaced by The
Brand New Heavies and their guests,
a gig marking “the triumph of black culture
in the UK”. For the sake of completeness the
third concert was Transatlantic Soul Connections,
with Geno Washington, Jimmy James and veteran Sam
Moore (the other half of Sam and Dave, who’s
been doing the rounds in the UK promoting his new
CD Overnight Sensational). |
| I
have to say that taken on their own merits the concerts,
unlike those of previous series, seemed to do little
to support the conceit of the theme – perhaps
you really needed to see the (apparently well received)
TV shows to get the bigger picture around the contribution
of American and Caribbean influences to the development
of British music. As it was, the programme - “Soul
Britannia is a transformative journey in which black
and white Britons are brought through difficult
times by music, who find their identity in taking
from the Americans rather than copying them; it’s
a journey into the body, into the groove, and out
of that old-time stiffness into something funkier”,
sounded like bullshit. In fact I began to wonder
if Billy Bragg hadn’t written it. |
| Moan
over. What I should say is that the Brand New Heavies,
pioneering acid-jazz tinged funksters from the unlikely
London Borough of Ealing, were simply awesome. Fronted
by the tireless N’Dea
Davenport the three original Heavies, bassist
Andrew Levy, drummer Jan Kincaid and guitarist Simon
Bartholomew were given added presence by keyboards
and a thumping three-piece brass section. They played
throughout the night, first with Davenport on vocals,
then as backing band to a series of guests showcasing
the best in current British soul talent –
sometime Bernard Butler collaborator David
McAlmont (who wouldn’t win any prizes
for dress-sense with his awful brown suit), the
reclusive Carl
McIntosh of Loose Ends, and ‘nu-soul’
prodigy Omar.
|
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| Mica
Paris was apparently also on the bill but called
off. The ‘guest stars’ didn’t
get a lot of time – really just long enough
to remind us of their big hits and why they were
there – so McAlmont sang ‘Yes’
(sadly without Butler’s guitar), McIntosh
‘Hanging on a string’ and Omar ‘There’s
nothing like this’. Davenport then re-emerged
for another thirty minutes or so (during which she
sang the Heavies’ outstanding version of Stevie
Wonder’s ‘I don’t know why (I
love you)’, which I’ve been humming
ever since) before the whole crew joined for a funk-fuelled
finale tribute to the late James Brown. |
|
The
Brand New Heavies and Omar |
|
Really apart form McAlmont’s suit and shoes
(did I mention the shoes?) my only complaint was
that the mix gave such prominence to Levy’s
bass at the expense of the skilful and subtle guitar
work of Bartholomew – but that’s a minor
point really. The audience, a mixture of 1990s soul
survivors and clubbers, for whom much of the Heavies’
songs have become dance floor anthems, loved every
minute of it. Davenport had the audience in the
stalls on their feet and dancing half way through
the second song and they didn’t stop all night,
despite the best efforts of the Barbican’s
aghast stewards. It was a fantastic atmosphere which
continued afterwards in the foyer with MC for the
night Jazzie B and the Soul 11 Soul sound system.
So maybe I shouldn’t moan at all about the
weakness of the intellectual construct that had
been shaped around these gigs, and instead simply
accept the fact that Soul Britannia was really just
an excuse for a few cracking nights at the Barbican.
- Nick Morgan (concert photographs by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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