As this year draws to a close there are a few of interesting and odd gigs happening.
Audio is not the most glamorous of places but it has a decent sound system and sightlines and that is enough to put a good gig on – BM did not see enough of the first band on (Gothzilla) to say too much except they had matching symbols on their costumes and are from somewhere in England…
Next up were Scottish contenders The Cathode Ray, who BM might have thought might be a bit out of place on the retro billing but BM knows they are B Movie fans and they turned up and played an extensive set, drawing from their previous albums and the current one ‘Heightened Senses’. The lineup has changed a bit since they emerged in the 2000s but Jeremy and his cohorts rock a fine line between The Velvets, Postcard and Elvis, great influences and the songs are great as well. BM was not sure they were exactly playing to the right audience here but they seemed to enjoy it and the songs flew by, occasionally adventurous – ‘Make Believe’ , but mainly on the note, ‘Heightened Senses’, ‘Love and Death’ and several oldies. They are evergreen and BM looks forward to seeing them supporting The Monochrome Set next year…
The next band were In Isolation, a four piece outfit from Nottingham, and they also played a good few songs, including a superb cover of Bauhaus’ ‘She’s In Parties’, which they made their own… They played quite a few from their 2016 album ‘A Certain Fractal Light’ including ‘Not Noticing’… The overall BM take was they were like The Sisters of Mercy fronted by Andy Bell from Erasure but maybe that’s a bit crude, however lead singer Ryan did mention that Erasure were remixing one of their tracks…
Headliners B Movie, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, had a brief moment in the early eighties which spawned a brace of classic tracks, in BM’s opinion. So the fact they were bothering to venture north of the border (first Scottish gig since 1981) made this one essential… for nostalgic reasons but you cannae be nostalgic if you were 14 at the time and could not get out to the gig…
Have the years been kind to B Movie? After many years of inaction they released albums in 2014 and 2016, (‘Another False Dawn’) and have been sporadically touring since in the UK and Europe. With the original singer/bassist (Steve) and keyboard player (Rick) – (the lead guitarist and drummer are more recent additions) they blasted through recent material as well as some golden oldies…
In good fettle, the band played their hearts out to an audience of maybe 50 people, some of whom had clearly (as BM had) loved them in the early 80s, mainly on evening Radio 1 (the band recording sessions for Jensen, Skinner and Peel). Especially classic single ‘Marilyn Dreams’ (still the catchiest single of the 80s) and the more gothic ‘Nowhere Girl’ and the WW1-heavy ‘Remembrance Day’ (another song which transcends time) – they played all of this and more, and although time was short (they skipped a couple on the setlist) they still played a riveting cover of Magazine’s ‘Shot by both Sides’ for a excellent single song encore.
This band may be getting a bit older but on this showing there is plenty of life in these old dogs and BM hopes they will back very soon – a great night altogether…