Skip to main content

Paul Vickers and The Leg/Andy Brown/Zed Penguin

Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
Thursday April 14th
4 stars
Edinburgh eccentrica in exelcis is the order of the day for this triple
bill based around the unveiling of Paul Vickers and The Leg's
forthcoming third album of wacked-out Beefhearian music-hall blart.
Opening proceedings, however, is Zed Penguin, aka Aussie ex-pat Matthew
Winter, whose vintage amp appears to have a heartbeat, and who ushers
himself in with an elaborate backing track intro before launching into
a set of heavily-echoed thrash-blues that errs towards the left-field
in a twangingly captivating fashion.

Even more of a show-man is Sara and the Snakes guitarist and best
dressed man about town Andy Brown, who in his Victorian Karaoke guise
plays to backing tapes, effectively duetting with himself in a voice
somewhere between a whisper and a growl. Brown changes hats, gives a
singalong rendition of tiny tots nursery rhyme 'This Little Piggy,' and
does warped disco segues into George McCrae's mid-70s dancefloor
shuffler 'Rock Your Baby' in a way that looks and sounds increasingly
Robert Wyatt.

Vickers and co themselves are in splendidly abrasive form, mixing
material old and new as a diversion from their sorely overlooked
concept opera, 'Itchy Grumble.' Drummer Alun Thomas still dresses like
a panda, only now with extra-added goatee whiskers. The remainder of the
band stand newly unmasked, with cellist Pete Harvey and guitarist Dan
Mutch clearly having fun while Vickers belts out a selection of brand
new short story oddities, most of which seem to be based around
gardening. As the band play like their lives depended on it, first
album classic 'The Ballad of Bess Houdini' becomes a jaunty roar of
serious fun on a night that veered towards alternative cabaret revue in
all its dressed-down glory.

The List, April 2011

ends

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL