The last End of the Month Club! The organisers had decided, after seven years, to call it a day. I hadn’t been to EotMC for a while now I live on the east coast, but had to make the trip through to Glasgow to see the finest monthly shot of electronic fun anywhere. As this was the last EotMC, the gig was free, and goodie bags (packet of refreshers, CD, party popper) were being handed out.
Thriftshop XL opened proceedings, mashing up video at blipvert speed – viral ads, 70s cultural references, hip hop, Big Brother, R&B – too many images to process and remember, but there was a great Franz Ferdinand / Run DMC mashup, and I especially liked the 1950s Glasgow Underground folky promo that morphed into the Prodigy’s Firestarter. (www.thriftshopxl.com)
A short and enjoyably odd episode followed, when the beehive glamour of Miss Leggy Pee (video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_mwRfa_E_c) – think Pam Am lipsynching to Nancy Sinatra – entertained us from in front of the stage, then it was Over the Wall, performing a couple of the kind of tunes we have come to know and love at EotMC, singing a song about keyboard heaven: “I want my keyboard to live forever!” (www.myspace.com/overthewall)
One of the great things about EotMC has been the sense of participatory fun – like the pass the parcel competition that followed Over the Wall – though, disappointingly, the prize wasn’t a two-foot high Patrick Swayze!
There was more fun – Frankie Ferdinand (who looked suspiciously like one of the members of Bozilla wearing a wig) covered Calvin Harris with lyrics about Bernard Manning – “he told racist jokes, he told Irish jokes, he told all the jokes – it was acceptable in the 70s”, then a Hi De Hi dance competition, judged by Miss Leggy Pee dressed as Sue Pollard, a manic curriculum of mirth topped for me by Innes Smith of Cnut singing his louche showtunes. There’s no getting away from it – Innes just moves funny, his live show a whole extra experience on top of Cnut’s recordings. It was less electro, more erecto, with ad libs like “There’s nothing here to fuck! Here’s a jacket – there’s that I suppose” – yet the humour was sexily potent, the men, women and animals in the room looking knowingly at each other whilst Innes’ unique combination of Fred Macaulay and Marlene Deitrich cavorted around the room. (http://www.myspace.com/cnutmusic)
Finally it was time for the EotMC host band Bozilla to showcase their different line ups from down the years. Lady Miss Fi belted out a cover, Penny gave us advice on zombies, Innes guested on ‘Awkwardly Dance’ and finally a heavily pregnant Amy sang ‘The Box That Got Away’. (www.bozilla.co.uk)
As the night ended, the last gig in a 84-long series, it would have been understandable had there been a maudlin undertone – but rather than singing ‘those were the days my friend’ the Bozilla boys sang ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ – and punters walked in and out of the Notecave, getting drinks, chatting. The EotMC may be over, perhaps never to return, but for these punters it was just another Saturday night. Cake was handed out, and I left the crowd dancing to ‘Mr Blue Sky’. Outside, rain. A drunk dropped his chip poke on the damp street in front of me. I felt like the only sober man in Glasgow.