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REVIEW OF SPECTOR/DAVID’S LYRE/FATHER SCULPTOR – KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT, GLASGOW – 15 FEBRUARY
Another late call, this time from Drew who is the brains behind the excellent Across the Kitchen Table blog, sees me setting off for the first of two consecutive nights at one of the world’s best places to see live music.
I wake up on the morning of the gig knowing nothing about any of the three bands. On the way to work, there’s a preview piece in the Metro newspaper vhich tells me the headline act are tipped to be massive and that in years to come all of us lucky to have been at the sold-out King Tut’s will be able to boast about seeing a really massive and popular band before they were famous. Later in the day, there’s a two-page spread in the Glasgow Evening Times bumming up Spector, again predicting great things and also pointing out they are supporting Florence & The Machine on an arena tour in the next few months. I’m intrigued enough to come home and do a quick on-line search where I learn that they’ve already been on telly via Later with Jools Holland at the back end of 2011, have released four singles with an album on the way and that the NME as well as the BBC, The Observer and The Guardian have all said very complimentary things about them. Oh and the lead singer Fred McPherson is a bit famous in certain circles for having had a relationship with Peaches Geldof, being a presenter on MTV 2 and having been involved previously with a couple more London-based wannabe indie bands.
But I deliberately don’t listen to anything to keep an open mind.
There’s three bands on the bill.
First up is Father Sculptor who get the night off to a very entertaining start with a short but varied five-song 20 minute set. It begins and ends with bog-standard 80s indie-pop enlivened by excellent playing – Drew thought the drummer was great, while I was impressed by the guitarist. But the second song of the night was one that caught my attention – very reminiscent of the Sire-era James...i.e the time when they were really struggling commercially but making great music. It’s after this song they announce it is their first ever gig which does make the performance all the more impressive. They’re worth keeping an eye on and hopefully I’ll come across them over the course of the next 12 months - it will be interesting to get Aldo’s take on them.
Before the second band come on, Drew casually says “You never know what you’re going to get with a 3-band line up at Tut’s. It can be a bit iffy.” Turns out he was Mystic Meg on this one....
David’s Lyre turns out to be a ten a penny bloke with guitar singing about his love life into two mics, one normal the other with an echo effect. There’s no doubt he can sing, but he doesn’t have a big enough presence nor are the songs strong enough to hold either or our attentions. So much so we almost find ourselves breaking the cardinal rule of gig-going of ‘Show respect and don’t talk loudly while the artists are on stage’. But we stop ourselves just in time...
It’s another short 20-minute set so he didn’t overstay his welcome and so by 9.45 the stage is clear for the headliners.
Except they didn’t come on until 10.35...to be fair they were listed as being 10.30 -11.15 but with the other acts finishing well ahead of their expected times they could have come on a bit sharper....
Drew comments that it’s the smallest crowd he’s ever seen at a sold-out gig at King Tut’s. This means either the capacity has been reduced (unlikely), the guest list numbers weren’t as big as anticipated (possible), ticket-holders have been turned away because they had no i.d., fake or otherwise, showing they were 18 years of age or over (almost certainly).
First song played makes me think it’s a Libertines tribute act but made up of five blokes who are chartered accountants or marketing execs. Drew points out that the guitarist could well be a slimmer and younger Boris Johnston. I’m staring at the singer trying to work it out who he is a ringer for.
Second and third songs make me think more pop than indie, full of ready made ‘sha la la la’ chant along choruses. It’s easy to see from this early juncture why they are liked, and with a frontman oozing confidence and talking at length inbetween the songs, there’s more than a fair degree of stage presence.
Songs four and five bring something home to me. I can’t ever remember in all my years of gigs at this hallowed venue of ever hearing such a crystal-clear vocal and backing vocals at the expense of the instruments. It’s almost as if the mix is trying to disguise a paucity of tunes......
Track six it hits me that Fred McPherson is a doppelganger for the character Brad in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And I’m sorry but after that I can’t take him seriously.
They close with two songs that bring the house down – Drew tells me these are the better known singles. After 37 minutes, they depart. The crowd for the most part are happy. But neither myself or Drew will be joining the whores, sorry I meant to say hordes of the London meeja proclaiming Fred and his boys as being the saviours of indie rock’n’roll.
But here's link to the highlight of the night.
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