I (don’t) hate rock n roll. Primal Scream get down at The Scala

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As a teenager trapped in a steel town with little cash and only my mind as means of escapism it was inevitable that I would turn to tunes to soothe the crushing numbness of nothingness that hung around in the air.

It started with simple rock n roll  - it wasn’t even real rock n roll – it was some sort of working man’s club revival with aged fellas in drapes sporting DAs and thus there was an inevitable Showaddywaddy type lock on, Shakin’ Stevens and Stray Cat struts and shit.  Don’t get me wrong it filled a hole. I know it was only rock and roll but I liked it. From there I would listen to Elvis, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and through that came The Stones and The Beatles.  This would have been back in the early eighties.

By 1985 I had stopped my association with rock and roll. It wasn’t that I hated it but I associated rock and roll with the worst excesses of TOTP culture  - all men in denim with collars up shaking their hips and pursing their lips but looking like stout middle aged men hanging on to some sort of milkshake dream – you know it’s not Nashville it never would be – it’s Ashby and we’ve got a Kwik Save.  

I had begun to define my self in opposition to this. I began to hate rock and roll and all those people with nothing to show.

Yet looking back I was simply a rock and roller by another name.

My rock and roll was reaching beyond the kiss curl and jumpsuits. It wanted it to be fierce and untamed. It began with The Velvet Underground. It would take some time to find the dirty end of scuzz rock and bawling but in the beginning The Velvets provided this antidote to the bland chug a lug-lug-lug of the behemoth rock and rollers.  Screeching and full of bittersweet romance and loss The Velvets was the band I wanted to be in. Artful outsiders to the mainstream of fat rock and rollers – maaaan.  Appropriation occurs at every stage of living when you are a youth – so I searched out winkle pickers, tight black canvas and blunt scissors for bowl headed cuts.

And then as I was morphing into my own zone came the Jesus and Mary Chain. Year zero for the rebirth of independent pop music. It was 1985. Suddenly it was the ‘rebirth’ of rock and roll in this house. Screaming teenagers and loss of control.  

Real rock and roll.

Maximum rock and roll.

Bobby Gillespie was part of this new rock and roll. Two drums and this supra-cool aesthetic. It was instant love – heaven’s above! Then there was talk that he was only moonlighting in the most original band I’d ever heard. The Jesus and Mary Chain were a band who’d taken all the elements of rock and roll and merged them into one pure blast of sonic magic. But this Gillespie had another band – a band called Primal Scream.  Cool name and one cool motherfucker. So into town to purchase their single was the next move – once again you have to remember that we weren’t downloading this and having a listen through streaming. You had to go to the shop ask for a copy – sometimes order it – without listening and then buy it – we weren’t brave enough to listen to it in store and say no. So it would be bought, bagged up and returned to bedrooms to revolve on cheap record players turned up loud (when we could get away with it.)

‘Crystal Crescent’ was a beautiful song. Psychedelic and tripped out lite and tight not noise and full of rage. There was a gentle side to this rock and rolling. Flip the record and find Velocity Girl. Simple, chiming and over in seconds.

Suddenly there was a new rock and roll in town.

And that rock and roll was in town again tonight (or in this case a few weeks back as it’s taken far too long to write this) Primal Scream played the Scala for a night of maximum rock and roll.  And after many years I was back in the fray again. I sort of lost touch with the Scream after the heady Screamadelica days and lows of the Give Out but Don’t Give Up long player. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them but rather they were verging on something I wasn’t quite aligned to. I’d got rid the winkle pickers ( as had they) and most sounds in my head were electronic and made for dancing to through the night. The Scream seemed to be mutating into something like the behmoths I couldn’t take anymore – it had all gone a little too rock n roll.  

But how wrong I was.

Following ‘Give Out’ came a blistering set of long players and The Scream found that Stooges fright and scowl blended with motoric electonica that was always at the heart of what they did/ do. Tonight is no exception. It’s the greatest hits and they are the greatest. A two-bit indie rock band from Glasgow with all killer and no filler delivered a wonderful evening of music for the maximum capacity crowd rammed into The Scala on a Tuesday evening.

Opening with the gospel rock of ‘Movin’ On Up’ Gillespie resplendent in Flying Burrito Brothers meets Viet Cong black suit whips up the crowd to a frenzy and we are only one song in. This is a stripped back Scream this evening and possibly for the future. Innes – blue tonic suit, pork pie hat and Hawaiian themed shirt (perhaps he was going on holiday afterwards), Duffy tucked behind the keys (I can’t tell you what he was wearing – I couldn’t see him), Simone pwering away on bass and Darrin firmly sat behind the kit.

Tonight’s proceedings take in 1986 to the present. A full on 33 years. Gillespie still has that awkward charm of a man who knows he’s a rock and roll star but isn’t going to pander to the obvious. Tight lipped except a few acknowledgements and thanks and a heartfelt tribute to the very recent death of Jake Black from the Alabama 3. Gillespie lets you know how he feels through the songs.

Innes is in towering form with his guitar tonight and being up and close is a  pleasure. The last time I saw the Scream was at a festival and everyone was talking through ‘Damaged’. It wasn’t great. Tonight though they can see our eyes and we can see the whites of theirs. And it all makes for an hour and half of sonic mayhem and merriment.  Every tune is greeted with a cheer and there was always one part of the crowd bellowing out the words and boogying on down whether the tunes were coming from Sonic Flower Groove or Chaosmosis.

It was wonderful to see The Scream acknowledge some of the tunes that had brought me to their door so long ago. ‘Velocity Girl’ was aired tonight and it probably hasn’t been played since 1988. It was longer and there was a sense that Gillespie had done a Lou (Reed) on it with a change in inflection of the lyrics. But you know what. He wrote it  - he can sing it however he likes. We didn’t have a surprise visit from Martin St John. I think the ‘Confessions of a Primal Screamer’ but the stop to that. So there are no tambourines but Bobby did have maraccas. 

And Innes got the Rickenbacker out for a blistering ‘Imperial.’ Which for old men like me was a lovely addition.  I was gutted that we didn’t get ‘Ivy Ivy Ivy’ from the second album even though it had apparently been soundchecked in Brighton the day before – but hey ho the set list made up for it with sublime cuts from Vanishing Point (Kowalsi and Star) and Exterminator (Accelerator, Kill All Hippies and Swastika Eyes – with Innes in full siren effect)

Of course we got ‘Loaded’. And we had a party. We had a good time. With Gillespie holding his microphone aloft for the crowd to chant back at him as he grinned from ear to ear. I think the biggest surprise for me was seeing just how popular ‘Country Girl’ is for The Scream. It’s a sure fire crowd pleaser. I wasn’t too certain when Riot City Blues came out. I was in the camp that I thought they could do better with what they had but clearly that’s the reason why I never ran a record label nor fronted a successful band.  Bobby is in his element and the stripped down Scream give all their worth in a rock hoe down and the crowd sing along in unison to what seemingly is their ‘biggest’ hit. And I guess that’s what it’s all about. You don’t last 33 years if you don’t have the tunes that make the whole crowd sing. Tonight Primal Scream don’t even play half of the ones they have in the locker. This is a rock and roll band that can command a crowd.

When I think back to those early days of catching glimpses of Primal Scream on TV you can see that it’s all still there in Bobby G and his merry band of brothers and sisters. It’s charisma, self-belief and the ability to have a god time.

Primal Scream were good tonight.  

Actually Primal Scream were great tonight.

Primal Scream are a maximum rock and roll band.

I think I might love rock n roll again.

Good (Friday) Times with Panda Bear

Noah Lennox passed me on his way across the pelican crossing in Brixton. Hood up and inconspicuous simply blending with the comings and going of South London. In some ways Noah Lennox takes this on to the stage tonight. There is an effortless in his performance as he creates a psychedelic electronic storm through repetition, clipped beats and sonic dissonance.  There is no real interaction with the crowd until the end and little after the encore. Whilst in front of us and clearly central to all proceedings Panda Bear seems larger than his lone figure. The whole performance commanded from his workbench of electronic wizardry knits with the huge LED screens positioned either side and behind to present Panda Bear as something futuristic and otherworldly.

Today is Good Friday and Panda Bear is back in London to celebrate the release of Buoys at the Electric Ballroom in Brixton. After a thorough search on the door I make my way in to the venue – it’s dimly lit and blurred. It does not have the same vibrations as last year at the Village Underground in Shoreditch. The crowd slowly fills up for this early start – Panda Bear will start at 8.30. Early evening electronics for the soul served up for this diverse and disparate crowd who have found themselves in South London. There are Americans of all shapes and sizes, young emo kids, multicultural hipsters,  a couple from Scotland, a young guy who’d travelled from California and healthy LGBT+ mixing as one for the sounds of one man and one part Animal Collective.

Noah arrives without fanfare and checks his instruments before we check his track record. (Check the record – check the guy’s track record)  Plugging in headphones and turning things on there is a sudden burst of the opening of ‘My Girls’. He can’t possibly be teasing us?  It stops and that snatch is all we will hear. Yet in many ways Panda Bear’s brand of electronica is captured in that phrase. He deals in repetition and distortion, out of chaos and never ending reverb emerges beauty and fragility with supersonic bass shaking stomps to unite the floor as one nation under a (digital) groove.  Tonight we are mainly treated to the delights of Panda Bear’s last two wonderful records, the vinyl only release ‘A Day with the Homies’ and the new long player ‘Buoys’.  Through a harmony fuelled opening of simple keyboard drone emerges ‘Dolphin’ with its water drop beats and robotic vocal codas as Noah intones that he is ‘gonna switch of the screen – unblinded’ as the visuals power up behind and at his sides in what will be a profound light and video accompaniment throughout the show. Frazzled dancers, liquid drops and pulsating static merge with op art lines and symmetry and lysergic dreams and nightmarish grins as all that is solid melts into air (well light – but you knew where I was going?) throughout the whole set. They do not detract but add to the chemistry as we are exposed to the finer moments of his recent work, Dolphins becomes ‘Nod to the Folks’ and the set lists switches between the new album and its previous release.

Then within the inter song sound swathes comes the familiar strains of ‘Comfy in Nautica’. Where it started for me. Person Pitch was my first encounter with Panda Bear and I instantly fell for its Beach Boy wonk and skronk. As Noah urged us to ‘try to remember always, always to have a good time’ it struck me how wonderful a lyricist he is. Songs are constructed and delivered with words that hint at situations of danger, confront confusions and question it all. Panda bear is a wonderful singer his range and fearlessness in moving through scales and tones to create the most effective sonic delivery of any other singer currently on the scene surely deserves wider exposure. He’s a harmony group in one. A pocket sized Beach B Buoy. Words delivered in harmony with himself should be heard by more people and its evident that tonight isn’t quite the sell out I had expected. The top part of the venue is closed yet it doesn’t result in a lacklustre performance despite the early start.

Panda Bear continues to craft the tunes with a nod to his tussle with the Grim Reaper as he plays only one number from that album tonight in the form of ‘Crosswords’. The songs from ‘Buoys’ are greeted with cheers and yelps and even some air fist pumps (there was a guy from Chicago there – he dug it maaaan). ‘Token’ with its repetitive motif of guitar and soaring climax of longing as Noah repeats ‘ I want to tell you that I want you’ is astounding in it’s simplicity but delivered through a clear full on PA hits you hard and right in the gut. I was wondering how the sparseness of ‘Buoys’ wuld play out in a larger venue as I’d spent most of my time with this long player in isolation and headphones. The album has this return to  the ‘real’ but its cut up samples of guitars mixed with the open and honest recording of Noah up close felt incredible personal in its approach. It stills feels incredibly personal up close tonight even with jutaxposed visuals and full on volume. Buoys is a tough one. It can hold its own when turned up loud. 

Panda Bear is a tough buoy.

As the set builds to the final song we are treated to a new number as yet not released, ‘Playing the Long Game’. In its heavy bass and repetitive beats Panda Bear is forever reinventing and representing sound in his time away from Animal Collective. His work is truly original and uncluttered by the modern yet by its very existence repositions itself as the most modern and urgent music being made in the 21^st Century. As if Van Dyke Parks and AFX collaborated whilst Eno recorded the results.

Panda Bear thanks us for coming, thanks us for listening and thanks the support band and is gone. Lights power down. And we begin to clap and shout.

There is a fleeting return. 

Two songs. One from Tomboy, a sublime ‘Last Night of The Jetty’ with its beats turned to sledgehammer blows as Lennox asks ‘didn’t we have a good time?’  Followed by the bowel quaking ear wrecking sub bass bombing of ‘Sunset’. The crowd moves in unison, tripped and blissed out as sonics merge with soul and we all feel uplifted.  

Then Panda Bear is gone.

I don’t believe in God. I do believe in Panda Bear. It had been a Good Friday.





Panda Bear's site can be found here: https://pandabearofficial.com/

Here is Comfy from Nautica from the evening: courtesy of Lucas Moreira



Here is the video to 'Token' from 'Buoys' 

Pop Glam Folk Explosion: Lavinia BlackwALL and Stilton at The Social

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I headed over to London last night in anticipation of catching up with old acquaintances and intent on making new ones. I was going to see Lavinia Blackwall’s new musical venture since leaving the highly rated Trembling Bells in 2018. The gig was at The Social which has seen its fair share of upheaval recently and currently is still a venue for live sounds – a wonderfully cosy and tight space built for all sorts of hedonism to go off.

Tonight I was to be part of this hedonism with a side of gentle inflection and introspection. And for Monday in this part of town it was heartening to see that the show had sold out. The third to sell out on this short tour of cities and spaces up and down the country.  Now selling out a show is great for the band but as I travelled on a train into Charing Cross the news that I wasn’t going to get in had me pondering what my next move would be.

It’s here that Marco Rea came to my rescue. Marco is simply the best. A Superda extraordinaire and one part of Lavinia’s Stilton – her incredible band of musical brothers bringing light and shade to her lyrical journeys. Marco has been creating wonderful sounds from Scotland for sometime now, a man born full of melody and harmony that comes out in abundance tonight.  I first became enthralled to Marco’s musical world as he and Stuart Kidd sang together as The Wellgreen before a Euros Childs gig way back when.  Marco has remained pretty much constant in my musical life ever since.  And boy was I glad he was in it now – a quick message here and there and Marco had me in and I was very much relieved. 

First up were Solveig and Mike offering surreal folk trips and dreams in violin and acoustic guitar with harmonies cartwheeling and rolling around in lyrical play and smiles. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think – I don’t have the folk antennae – I can’t always here the connections or the drift from the norm. Yet I felt I was being challenged by them – in a good way. It made me curious to check them out further. They also recounted stories of falling in ditches which tickled me, sang tales of sandwiches, misheard a request for a song with Kite in the title and brought to life the cinema of the sea.  Not many groups can do this in one set. Technically they are wonderful and Mike’s acoustic guitar ticklings and jangles are complimented by the supberb violin of Solveig creating a rising folk psychedelia for the growing crowd.   Although I hope Mike doesn’t have to play in such tight spaces for the rest of the tour as his accident prone frame nearly caused the violin to be absent for the rest of the set (possibly tour)  after he knocked it in a moment of punching the air.  A great opening set and they would later return to help out Lavinia and her ever expanding band.

John Martin played next  - a person’s name but a band – do you get me? He’s John but there were other people there on the stage. There were flashes of beatific chord sequences and witticisms in jangles and tremolo. Reminded me of The Divine Comedy.

Then came the psychedelic beast of Green Seagull bedecked in the ramalamma of late sixties freakbeat fashions. They had this

incessant chug which was good. Reminded me a great deal of The Zombies meets early Pink Floyd uptown in a battle of harmonics and minor keys. They are supporting The Seeds in mid April at the Beat Bespoke – it will be night of getting down and shaking your fringe if you’re into that sort of thang. And I am. The keyboardist parents were there too. They should be proud of their daughter as her groove holds the whole thing together whilst guitars riff out and the bass provides staccato throbs to their psychedelic garage chug a lug.I reckon with a little more space they’d be ones to wig out.

So after three quality sets the main act arrived and there was a good crowd and a good feeling about it all.  Now at this point I am yet to be able to name all the songs and like a fool I forgot to swipe a set list to help me piece this all together. So it’s going to get rambling.  Lavania arrives backed by the kaftan bedecked Stilton a sort of pop folk glam group of wayward souls who know how to party and dance the night away.  The set showcases the range of Lavania’s vocal sorcery moving through the scales and tones with ease. It really is quite mesmerizing and in Zepplin’s words, ‘tight but loose’ adding rich textures to the groove and goo of Stilton. Marco has written a few songs with Lavania and all have this richness to them as they start one place and then by way of George Harrison, Neil Young, Arthur Lee and some part of Wings end somewhere else in a perfect blend of chime and harmony. Pop punch in folk structures. It works and the crowd knows it too. Whilst all of this might be new to us and even to Lavinia (after all these are new songs only just getting aired and may not yet be finished) there’s an understanding that they will become classics and we are witnessing the start of a different chapter in Lavinia’s choral quest for something after the bells have stopped.

The night has a fun feel to it. It’s not earnest  - nor serious – but it is honest. There’s in song chatter and discussion including some recollections about lost phones in ditches (the theme of the tour) and projectile vomiting in Oxford Circus. We also get to hear the tales of the tunes  - one song ‘Watson’ is apparently about a werewolf who is committing murders and the detective investigating is actually the suspect. To be fair it works better in melody and performance than me trying to explain it here.  Another was called ‘Keep Warm’ – you can probably work that one out yourself.. It isn’t all one tempo of souped up folk glam rock shenanigans some songs aired tonight have a creeping melancholic undertow to remind us that sometimes things can be lost and not clear in this day and age. There are waltzes and ballads mixed within the up-tempo adding to the dynamics and all round brilliance of what will surely be a storming debut album which we’ll hopefully get to hear this year.

For the final numbers – there could have been three or possibly two – Lavinia and Stilton are joined by Solveig and Mike. It’s getting rather cramped up there and I’m not sure The Social can contend with that many musicians on ‘stage’ at any one time. To be fair you can’t really say Seb was on stage – he’s pushed up in the passage to the toilet – but he still played like a trooper adding flourish and power throughout the evening to Lavania’s delicate sounds.  However Solveig and Mike are a good addition further complimenting the charm of it all. As violin merges with acoustic guitars, melody filled guitar licks and shapes, pianos , expert bass, tight rhythms and soaring vocals it only adds a further magical quality to it all.  Finishing with an incredible version of current single “Waiting for Tomorrow ’ the night is over. There are shouts of ‘play it again’ and ‘more’ but it’s not to be – it’s 11 o’clock on a Monday and time to get home and rest for the day ahead.  

I told Lavinia and Marco that I was going to pursue a Kate Bush fronting The Lost White Album take to it all – but the more I return to the evening and listen closer to the sounds on the single – I’m hearing Joni Mitchell – this is Joni’s ‘Esher’ sessions  - a White Album conceived through another dimension of feeling. Live there’s a Beatles sense of playfulness throughout whilst the vocals send you somewhere else. There’s a nod to the past and a rush to the future with this folk rock feeling. This band and their music comforts in its reminder of previous times yet feels modern and alive as it delivers smile after smile in abundance.  

I’m glad I know Marco because it led me to this. 

Lavinia BlackALL and Stilton have already sold out three dates this tour. They will go on to sell out even more. 

I had a wonderful time and you will too  - go and see them  - they are still out on the road this week.

You can find music by them here: https://laviniablackwall.bandcamp.com/releases 

Here’s the video for “Waiting for Tomorrow’