Wednesday 29 April - a mid week foray into the murky world of post-punk. "Here's a dirty little ditty, you might want to go home and wash yourself down after we've finished this one..." So here we are at The Duchess (where else?) and, again, despite a house full of music I've once more found myself about to watch a band I've heard of, but never heard. How rubbish am I? Still, at least I can console myself with the knowledge that my partner in crime,'A', hadn't heard them either.
First up, and already playing as we enter, were The Idol Dead a four piece that I think comes from Leeds. They consist of: Polly Phluid (vocals), Tim (guitars), Miguel (bas), and Nish (drums). Is Polly formerly of the band Phluid? (Yes he was, thanks Carmen!) That would be bizzarre given that we saw the drummer of Phluid on our last outing.
Anyway, they played a not-terribly-original-sounding set of post-punk tunes among which I spotted Babylon, Eye Of The Storm, She's So Spooky and the finale, Church Of Hate, which they renamed tonight in honour of the headliners as Theatre Of Hate. All a bit uninspiring really; cue a visit to the bar
There was a reasonable turnout for the headliners but it was a very strange crowd; a lot of loutish ladies, and blokes who were mostly short and stocky with gelled up hair and beige jackets that they seemed reluctant to remove, plus two old giffs in the middle of course.
Spear of Destiny came onto the stage to a pretentious soundtrack overlaid with some indistinct speech, followed by a bowel shuddering bass note. SOD are a British rock band, established in 1983 by singer and songwriter Kirk Brandon and bassist Stan Stammers. It's had an ever-changing line-up through the years and currently features Adrian Portas, Robin Goodridge, Craig Adams and Kirk Brandon. Brandon had previously been in The Pack, and from 1980 to 1982 in the post-punk Theatre of Hate best known for its Westworld album. SOD are touring their second album One Eyed Jacks which was released 25 years ago in 1984 and reached number 22 in the UK album chart, their best effort to date.
As far as I could tell they performed the album in its entireity so; Rainmaker, Young Men, Everything You Ever Wanted, Don't Turn Away, Liberator, Prisoner Of Love, Playground Of The Rich, Forbidden Planet, Attica, These Days Are Gone, Rosie, and Grapes Of Wrath. They went off and then came back for a 35 minute encore which I believe featured a number of b-sides and some Theatre of Hate material including the single Do You Believe In The Westworld?
The playing was very tight, as one might expect, the vocals were a bit strangled, and the lyrics sounded a bit pseudo-Nietzschean. The songs had strange time changes but were generally strong enough to make my foot tap and body sway to the beat. There were singalong lines we could all join in with and the songs were sufficiently different that I didn't get bored over the 90 minute set, so they must have been doing something right. Will I be buying an album? Perhaps not, but I did enjoy the night out, which is always a bit of a result.
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