overlap

In the spring of 1992, Radio1 playlisted a song that leapt out of the radio at me, and grabbed my imagination to the point that I made what was then an infrequent trip up the road, primarily to see a support band. That song was called Megalomania, and the band was called Pele, not to be confused with some Americans who used the name for their post-rockish band later on.

 

Fifteen years on, Ian Prowse who wrote and sang in Pele has a newish band called Amsterdam, who do the odd Pele song in their live set. Due to the workings of the web and by virtue of longevity, Ian and I are what you might call very good acquaintances - I wouldn't presume to say I know him very well, but well enough.

 

The gig got bounced from a full size proper venue to a bar upstairs, and for the first time in quite a while I stood at the barrier at the front. All the better for messing about with a camera. Before the show I was asked what they sounded like, and I copped out by saying that a rock-pop band with a fiddle is always going to be compared to Dexy's, just because. Amsterdam have been through a number of line up changes, and this is the first time I've seen Anna Jenkins playing fiddle and singing backing vocals.

 

In all the changes the band has been through, this seems like the clincher – AJ's voice melts perfectly into Ian's, and gives another dimension to Arm In Arm in particular. Sure, I'm hardly a floating voter by this point, but the seven songs we get are superb, and I'll youtube a couple in due course.

 

The main act, Ian McNabb's Icicle Works, had at best a patchy tour to that point – you can find your own internet analyses of debacles and disasters, so it was a matter of some concern exactly what sort of show we were going to get. With a mix of Icicle Works songs and McNabb solo songs, you're never going to please everybody with what you pick from a quarter century of catalogue.

 

Seeing the 25th anniversary Icicle Works show last year was fantastic, just because I'd never expected to hear the likes of Understanding Jane in their full electric majesty, but reformations are an event in their own right, and it's what follows that where it gets more difficult. Starry Blue Eyed Wonder and Little Girl Lost are pop simplicity as always, Understanding Jane comes with the same howl of guitar that the live version on the single has, and for all the expectations of trouble, it's a decent enough gig. I could live without Birds Fly getting on a Magic Bus that takes it through Hey Bo Diddley and a couple of other places it needn't go, which turns the last ten minutes into a bit of a clockwatchfest rather than a triumphant spectacle, but from what I've read of the other shows, we still did rather better than average!