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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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THE INMATES,
The Borderline, London, 6th May 2006 |
| We
really should go to the Borderline more often. Although
the décor may be somewhat lacking (if Quentin
Tarantino ever wanted to dream up the Mexican restaurant
from hell this would be it. Wait, hang on a minute
…) it’s a small friendly dive with an
always interesting schedule of gigs, combining new
and old British talent with lesser known touring
bands who might find it hard to find a venue elsewhere.
It’s not full tonight, but it’s busy,
a mixed audience, a good few of whom I clock as
regular 100 Clubbers. |
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The
Inmates: Bill Hurley (left) and Peter Gunn (right) |
| Having
miserably failed to find the names of the first
two bands – one a nice young R&B outfit
with a good harmonica player, the other a VERY LOUD
thrash punk meets Black Sabbath thing – I
can assure you that the main attraction were veteran
London rockers the
Inmates. Formed at the tail end of
punk in 1977 they remain famous (to me at least)
for their fantastic single ‘Dirty water’
(originally recorded by the Standells) which turned
out to be a hit both here and across the pond. I
still have my copy somewhere, but you can find it
on the Inmate’s myspace
page. The band were also very popular in France,
famously performing a huge gig in Paris in 1987
organised by the newspaper Liberation to celebrate
the twentieth anniversary of the release of Sergeant
Pepper – the ‘legendary’ resulting
album, Meet the Beatles: Live in Paris has recently
been re-released, as has the classic Fast Forward,
which, unless I’m much mistaken, makes up
the majority of the set. |
| There’s
nothing slick about the Inmates; their trademark
is raw sound and raw energy, and they’ve retained
this (more or less) over thirty years. By and large
they’ve aged pretty well too, although the
cameras can’t lie about front man Bill Hurley’s
burly beer belly and flowing grey locks. But forget
that – his voice is remarkable, with a huge
range that he puts to good, if sometimes theatrical,
effect. The rhythm section is tight, and lead guitarist
Peter Gunn (apparently he left the band for a while
but is now back in the fold, as we were emotionally
told by Pete himself) is in fine rocking shape.
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| That’s
all – they were great fun, played like demons
for an hour, and then came back to play ‘Dirty
Water’ as an encore. Perfect Saturday night
whiskyfun. - Nick Morgan (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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