Nina is doing some work for Oxfam Books and Music (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/) setting up in-store music, poetry, and children's days. To support her in the search for artists willing to perform for free, Nick and I went along with her and some mates to Ditch the TV at its new home at the Maudesley (http://www.ditchthetv.co.uk/). On the bill: Malc Evans, Shaugnessy, and Crowded Out. £3.50, doors at 8pm.
Upstairs at the Maudesley speaks of former grandeur. An expansive carpeted room with gilded ceiling and two ornate ceiling roses for chandeliers long since decommissioned. It was easy to imagine the tea dances held here between the wars. The seating arrangements had been retained; small tables, lit by tealights. They stretched lengthwise from the unplatformed mics, backed by a white sheet, a long way back. The compere was clearly passionate about the project, and it had a loyal and vociferous band of followers, majority age range 40-60, intent on having a good night.
We caught the end of Malk's act (he was also compering). This was a well rehearsed blues set that seemed a little out of place basking in the atmosphere generated by the desperate to be cheerful. The crowd were better pleased with Shaugnessy, down from Liverpool, CD in the offing. They started by complaining that the equipment was primitive. One of us remarked,"He thinks he's Noel Gallagher". The music was a good attempt at American style soft rock, nice singing voice, tunes that although they were original, you thought you might have heard. The asides between songs continued arrogant, engagingly football based, and at one point distastefully homophobic. The crowd seemed not to mind, heckling back at them, and cheering loud. At the end of the set, a woman called out to ask if they would play at her wedding. Later, it was made known that she and her intended had left before firming up arrangements with the band.
Headliners, Crowded Out, had quite a hard act to follow and started soft and slow which may have been a mistake given the crowd's exuberance. They didn't attempt to be a stars in their eyes facsimile of Crowded House, sang and played well given that they were missing the drummer, most importantly, they gave us all of the old favorites. I was reminded of how many hits Crowded House had, and that Nick and I had one of their CD's that we used to be able to agree upon listening to in the car. This says something about universal appeal, as our musical tastes are usually poles apart.
The problem though, is that there is something terribly lame about tribute acts. The evening reeked of reduced expectations. A middle aged audience making the best of a cheap night out in Coventry, remembering a band most of them never got to see, listening to a group of competent musicians who never made it. The musicians lacking in the talent or maybe the confidence to write and perform their own stuff, and the audience lacking the interest in keeping up with new music happy to indulge in nostalgia for a mainstream, un-challenging body of work. Nick and I (the kids long since gone on to the bars in town) leaned on each other and whispered and joked about it all quietly, tapping our feet none the less. I'm not looking down on it, but I don't want to get that old, and I won't go again.
Next day, Nick said that I didn't like it because that crowd were my crowd of unstylish Coventry forty-somethings. Now, I'm of an age where being able to get a seat has become appealing, but even so.......We fell out.
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