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Friday

Jim Jones Revue & Lewis Floyd Henry 02 Academy Birmingham


One man band Lewis Floyd Henry really does look like the most genial of New York buskers – think a down on his luck Hendrix trying to make a buck playing Heavy Trash with a pram mounted amp and a tiny bass drum and cymbal.  If that sounds dodgy, it’s the guitar that saves it all.  Loud, dirty and played with casual abandon.  Lewis is having a party and he really doesn’t seem to care if the audience are with him or not.

In fact most of the audience are.  His brand of fucked up street, punk & blues, gets a deserved good response.  A well chosen support act, worth checking out.  Oh yeah – he talks to the pram as well!


Unless you’ve spent the last 18 months under a rock you’ll know that The Jim Jones Revue have married the maniac piano driven rock ‘n’ roll of Jerry Lee Lewis and the er maniac guitar driven rock ‘n’ roll of the MC5 to magnificent effect on latest album ‘Burning Your House Down’.

For the full Jim Jones Revue effect, of course you have to see them live.  Right from the off you know this band fancy themselves.  And rightly so!  Anyone who comes on to ‘Raw Power’ has to be able to deliver in full and with guitarists circa London Calling era Clash and frontman Jim Jones giving Grinderman a run for the title of ‘sleaziest suit wearer in rock’, they look the part.  But can they cut it?

The answer comes in 2 minutes 30 seconds dead, in the shape of opening number ‘Dishonest John’.  As a statement of intent it doesn’t come much better than this, screaming guitar riffs and falling down the stairs piano hammering compete to demand your full attention.  If this doesn’t give you an immediate adrenalin rush then you’d better get your coat.

Yes it’s clichéd, dumb rock ‘n’ roll, with all the cock rock posing you can handle.  And then more of the same.  But it’s done with such messianic zeal that it works.  It really works.  The twin attack of guitar and demented boogie-woogie piano soon has the band and audience working each other into a sweat as they run through ‘Cement Mixer’, ‘Burning Your House Down’, ‘Shoot First’ and ‘Elemental’.

All that and they have seamlessly brought in a new keyboard player.  With the piano being so fundamental to the band’s sound, it’s a real credit to new boy Henri Herbert that there’s no discernable change to the Jim Jones Revue live onslaught.  Just to prove it the band finished with a devastating version of ‘The Princess & The Frog’ from their debut album.  Still a remarkable song, still a remarkable band.

However, to be absolutely honest (John), this may not have been Jim Jones Revue at their absolute peak.  Being a rescheduled show it felt like it took the band a while to get up a head of steam as they seemed to be battling with a less than perfect onstage sound.  

That quibble aside and despite (or because of?) all the obvious referencing in their music – and along with the usual suspects, Gallon Drunk really ought to get a nod – it’s hard to disagree with the current thinking that right now The Jim Jones Revue are the best balls out rock ‘n’roll band in the country.  Simply unstoppable.

 
 
 

 Go here for live footage from the gig.

What makes humans different..?


Spotted this exchange on Richard Dawkins You Tube channel a while ago, but it still makes me laugh:

Comment 1:
Humans are not the "end product" of evolution, we are not the "goal" we are still evolving and growing (well, some of us are anyway.) aside from a larger brain, what difference is there between us and "animals"?

Comment 2:
Cake! 


It works for me!
You can see Richard Dawkins You Tube channel here

Sunday

Is Wrestling Fixed?

The media here in Blighty has been full of calls for FIFA to be investigated and / or President Sepp Blatter to stand down or face re-election against an ‘anti-corruption’ candidate.  I'm not even sure what a world football 'anti-corruption' candidate would look like.  Does such a person exist... somebody call Martin Bell.

Perhaps it's just a new way of keeping our attention in the closed season, along with frenzied 'speculation' - you might like to add words like 'guessing' and phrases like 'making it all up' at this point - but I couldn't possibly comment.  Let's face it, the international window didn't even open until July, so in the meantime, it's be mean to Sepp time.

Don't get me wrong, he's a very appealing target and there may well be a whiff of something less than transparent to some of FIFA’s dealings, whether it’s Qatar’s winning 2022 World Cup bid or the ‘Goal’ project, but the rest of the world isn’t listening.

If the allegations have any weight at all, why isn’t the story being picked up abroad?

The sad truth is, it’s England's own fault. With no friends in World Football, England always comes late to the party and then complains about the rules, before reminding everyone that as the home of football  the next World Cup should be hosted in England, before adding that England is also home to the most commercially aggressive league in the world.
  
Yet England still took part in the rather opaque bidding process for two recent World Cups – losing out to Germany and Russia – and for all I know employing some of the questionable lobbying tactics now being complained about.  In short, England are seen as sore losers.  Unfortunately, with good reason. 

England need to start developing and coaching much younger, move the focus from winning at all costs to taking part and encourage a real passion for the game.  Then maybe in 20 years time we might start to see some results... 

Players? Well yes they could do with all that too, but I'm talking about administrators here.

Of course we could just take our ball home and set up our own 'World Football Union', with er, the USA, Scotland, Australia and Wales.  Better odds I'll grant you, but here's two words of warning; boxing and darts.

OK, all a bit do bears shit in the woods I know, but I'm not the only one in the greenhouse chucking bricks.


For a much more considered view of this - and most other football related issues, for that matter - you could do worse than check out When Saturday Comes (WSC 293 in particular).