Ellipse Promotions Presents
Superhooch
The Merciful Wizards
You Dirty Blue
Lucy Anne Sale
The Maudsley, Coventry
13th September 2019
The latest gig from Ellipse Promotions is again at the Maudsley in Coventry and yet again is a great night out, four bands and a good venue, unfortunately Fighting Boredom didn’t go quite as well as expected, the lack of words in the review will be explained as you read.
I have one job when it comes to reviewing, write the things I’m thinking, feeling and hearing into my trusty little notebook with barely legible handwriting. Then translate the ramblings and thoughts into a piece of writing that I feel is good enough to share with everyone who may want to read it. This has worked well, I don’t have bag of camera equipment like the Fighting Boredom snapper, I just need my notebook, and there lies the problem with this review. l admit it, I’ve lost my notebook, I’m unsure at what point the fount of all bad scribbles and wisdom has disappeared but this is not my finest moment. I’m blaming my age. Nothing whatsoever to do with the beer and gin, just my age.
These Ellipse gigs are ace, the Maudsley is a fine old building with a big events room that has seen it’s share of weddings and eighteenth birthday parties and it lends itself excellently to bands playing. These events attract friends, there are people here I haven’t seen for at least a couple of years or so, old friends that I have not so much lost touch with just that life has happened and we have drifted apart. So it’s a good night even before it’s got going. The crowd feels amiable and it’s a good atmosphere for a gig.
First up tonight is Lucy Anne Sale, who stands playing the guitar and sings. But it not just singing, and it’s not just playing guitar, she sings like she’s in the middle of a gale trying to make herself heard, the word I kept writing down was strong, it’s strong like a force of nature, strong like it owned the building, so strong that the songs were fabulous, they almost didn’t need the guitar. The drum loops that she used sounded clumsy but did add to the songs. Remember that I like clumsy, I like things not being perfect so this was spot on. Lucy played folk music, but folk music with huge attitude and effect. A star in the making, a singer from the sidelines not the mainstream which is my preference nine times out of ten.
You Dirty Blue played the last event too and don’t disappoint, they kick in to their hard blues vibe and stay there, the metal head looking guitarist and drummer even adding a guest vocalist for one song who just locks into the groove. They are heads down rocking tunes with a healthy dollop of heavy hairy blues rock and just a smidgen of metal, fighting boredom like them a lot.
Right, the downside of having different styles of band on are that sometimes you’re not taken by them. Merciful Wizards are not my kind of band, they are good musicians and the songs flow well in their sixties folky hippy vibe but they leave me cold. As I say, there are lots of people watching and getting into the music but it’s not for me.
However, Superhooch are very much my thing, Rock and Roll stars, the poise, the clothes, the hat, they ooze rock’n’roll attitude and they have the songs to back it up too. They play to a room that should be fuller but that’s just the way it goes. There’s a sixties Britishness to the slower tracks invoking the spirit of classic Kinks but the way the ideas in the songs switch around puts them just one step behind fellow Coventrians Futumche. The vocal is messed about with from classic epic rock to quirky English accents and the music is perfect for both. They are a well deserved headliner, and the best band of the night.
So the next Ellipse gig is on the 8th of November and I will keep a strong hold of my notebook.
–
Superhooch
All professionalism and pictures by Martin Ward, all meagre words by Adrian Bloxham.
