Saturday, May 19, 2012
B I D Spells Bid
Once upon a time there was Janice Long and then John Peel on Radio1 in the evenings. This period pretty much pre-dates me listening to music in any meaningful way, having records of my own or having the slightest inkling that going to see bands in a live environment would be possible, never mind a commonplace part of my life.
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff was plenty that I didn't really understand - well, it didn't have the same singalong immediacy as Neil Sedaka and all the other stuff Sir Jim'll was playing on Sounds of the Sixties which was the weekly musical input to my young life - but even though I was never a regular listener, Peel and Long (and Nightingale) brought me names that would stick in my mind.
Names and the odd tune, Annie repeatedly offering Napoleon XIV's They're Coming To Take Me Away and Barnes and Barnes' Fishheads on the sunday night request show, Camper van Beethoven's Take The Skinheads Bowling and the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit and Bogshed sneaked their way through into my consciousness. One of Peel and Long, I assume, also brought me This Island Earth's See That Glow and Jacobs Ladder by The Monochrome Set.
Fast forward a couple of lifetimes and I'm looking through a local venue's website for confirmation (and ticket price) of a show by one of my favourite bands and who should pop up out of nowhere? Apart from the 'we're climbing Jacob's ladder' line from the chorus I can recall nothing else beyond that I remembered that I liked it but nevertheless that residual memory was enough. True, I picked up a copy of Eligible Bachelors somewhere along the way, for 99p in the Virgin Smegmastore closing down sale, I think, but I hadn't even looked up Jacob's Ladder on youtube till the evening of the gig just before leaving the house.
So who on earth is going to go and see The Monochrome Set in 2012? At 8.30, there were four or five of us in the upstairs gig room but by showtime at 9.00 something like 60 people had crammed into the room, not bad on a wednesday night for a band who haven't exactly shared the ubiquity of Adele in recent times. There's a handful of diehard fans and a healthy swathe of the relatively youthful curious.
As for me, I thought they were great and I had a really good evening. There's a fair amount of Monochrome Set on youtube and I've looked at plenty of it since the gig. And I heartily recommend it if you want some slightly off-kilter pop music chook full of melodic and lyrical hooks.
_
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff was plenty that I didn't really understand - well, it didn't have the same singalong immediacy as Neil Sedaka and all the other stuff Sir Jim'll was playing on Sounds of the Sixties which was the weekly musical input to my young life - but even though I was never a regular listener, Peel and Long (and Nightingale) brought me names that would stick in my mind.
Names and the odd tune, Annie repeatedly offering Napoleon XIV's They're Coming To Take Me Away and Barnes and Barnes' Fishheads on the sunday night request show, Camper van Beethoven's Take The Skinheads Bowling and the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit and Bogshed sneaked their way through into my consciousness. One of Peel and Long, I assume, also brought me This Island Earth's See That Glow and Jacobs Ladder by The Monochrome Set.
Fast forward a couple of lifetimes and I'm looking through a local venue's website for confirmation (and ticket price) of a show by one of my favourite bands and who should pop up out of nowhere? Apart from the 'we're climbing Jacob's ladder' line from the chorus I can recall nothing else beyond that I remembered that I liked it but nevertheless that residual memory was enough. True, I picked up a copy of Eligible Bachelors somewhere along the way, for 99p in the Virgin Smegmastore closing down sale, I think, but I hadn't even looked up Jacob's Ladder on youtube till the evening of the gig just before leaving the house.
So who on earth is going to go and see The Monochrome Set in 2012? At 8.30, there were four or five of us in the upstairs gig room but by showtime at 9.00 something like 60 people had crammed into the room, not bad on a wednesday night for a band who haven't exactly shared the ubiquity of Adele in recent times. There's a handful of diehard fans and a healthy swathe of the relatively youthful curious.
As for me, I thought they were great and I had a really good evening. There's a fair amount of Monochrome Set on youtube and I've looked at plenty of it since the gig. And I heartily recommend it if you want some slightly off-kilter pop music chook full of melodic and lyrical hooks.
Labels: gigs, The Monochrome Set
