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I, LUDICROUSBull & Gate,
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I, LUDICROUS > Gigography > Bull & Gate 5 Jul 2003 |
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Set
list:
My Baby's Got Jetlag |
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"I blame Thatcher", proclaimed the eponymous Bar-Room Bore in the closing
number from I, Ludicrous on a mild Saturday night, down at the old Bull & Gate.
Odd to think that The Blue Widow was still ruling the roost in Maggie's Den
So, with the launch of a new CD by the band - the first in eleven years, the
first this millennium,
It's satisfying to hear a goodly mix of both old and new material, ranging from
the one-hit wonder flexi debut of Preposterous Tales, a mysterious no-show on
that year's Now That's What I Call Music 9, through Jet Lag, the night's
energetic opener, to the near-wistful Approaching 40, "written ten years ago".
And no Ludicrous gig is complete without the inevitable nod to the guy who once
interviewed them for the NME, hence the new track Never
Will, John and the slickly operated drum machine seem mightily up for it on the
night: if they were in the play-offs, they'd walk it in Cardiff. I came away
with a smile on my face and a shrink-wrapped disc to play |
when the lads put out their first two long-players in the late 1980s.
Bizarrely, albums three and four coincided with Major coming to power and the
collapse of the ERM respectively.
the first under a Labour-ish government, etc - can we
expect upheaval at Number 10, or is it simply heightened sunspot activity?
Perhaps there's a clue when during an acerbic rendition of Trevor Barker,
announced as album 1, side 1, track 1, the lyrics mutate with a hint of menace
into "My name is Tony Blair". Little bit of politics, anyone?
Been Hit By Mark E
Smith.
at home. Doesn't seem
to be available on Amazon as yet, though there is a single by a band called
Ludicrous Idiots. Stupid name.
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Review © Ed Broom. Photos © Jeff Higgott. An alternative review from in love with these times in spite of these times web site: .....oh, and the live set was one of their better ones.
"Preposterous Tales" and a dizzyingly heavy "Trevor
Barker" updated with an extra verse that nailed not only bush
and Iraq but a v. topical reference to current business ("the
workforce call me a bastard / because I close their pension schemes
down") finishing with the dcf's "Glad All Over" (hint:
it was brought back to the charts in 1990 by Crystal Palace F.C. 1990
cup final squad), the Mekons' "Where Were You ?" [reply
has to be "the Bull and Gate, again] and the album closer "Bar
Room Bore", which ends fittingly as the music just stops, with
will in his guise as the bar room bore continuing to yap on until
the house lights come down. they joke - of course - about the future
("our next album should be out in about 2015. it's called The
I, Ludicrous Pension Plan") and it is odd, you know, that,
unlike their main rivals as social commentators over the last two
decades, Half Man Half Biscuit, I, Ludicrous cannot pack a
thousand into the Astoria (although they did play there as support
to the fall in the 1980s!), but have to settle for a sporadic residency
at this rather more austere venue (although on the other hand, they
attract a rather larger crowd than some of the excellent bands that
we also rave about on these pages... The Windmills, who are one of
the finest guitar groups of their generation, still seem to be playing
to audiences in london two human, one canine). still, I, Ludicrous
are coming south of the river for their next date, so we'll see you
(and them) in Brixton this autumn. |
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