FONDA 500 + KID SAMSON + THE MISSHAPEN,
‘HULL ADELPHI.’ 1/ 10/ 02.
THE MISSHAPEN collective is the weirdest of entities. Largely a Fonda
500 side-project with Simon on keyboard, Ian on drums as always and
Bod on bass, the epic instrumental stage show is powered along by lead
guitarist Jez Riley, and subtly backed by ‘Adelphi’-regular
Tom on guitar for scuzzier measure. Jez has long been striving to promote
true experimentalism in his own and other peoples’ music and often
shrouds himself under the CAPRA moniker when playing solo, and once
collaborated with The Edible 5ft Smiths’ Matt and Tom –
who has since left the band – when said musicians performed for
one-night-only as ‘Jean Arthur Smith.’ He once said, and
I paraphrase, that he can do anything with a guitar – just not
play it properly! But as dynamics waxed on and waxed off, Jez proved
he’s a stunningly accomplished guitarist, pummeling fantastic
melodies into the backing noise created by the fearless Fonda creators
of fascination. And with Jez, the set always swaggers slowly-but-purely
to a monumental and happily deafening peak of raw guitar power that
rocks the very foundations of genuine originality in music. Jez Riley
is a genius. An absolute genius.
When you want a day off work you aren’t allowed one. And then
you’re forced by your boss to hurry up and take your holidays
in one mighty cluster when he realises he’s bolloxed up the timesheets.
And, whatcha know, some more geniuses then invaded the stage, announced
they were KID SAMSON (named after a ‘Catch 22’ character),
and that they had landed and were here to rape and pillage mediocrity
in music. Singer Mark ain’t a stranger to fronting hugely-popular
Hull bands after his stint with the acclaimed Summerbee who have since
disappeared, simultaneously wafting his glo-stick above-head with one
hand while thigh-slapping a tambourine with his other. Oh and he sings
with northern soul, treading clever lines from the sur-reality of set-starter
for 10 points, ‘Don’t Touch The Eggs,’ through to
their staple ‘Fat Man’ love anthem (‘Why would the
birds and bees lie to me?’) that seals proceedings with a rocky
finale. To the untrained ear these 6 kids could be cast off as a late-arrival
indie band, but listen… and you will revel.
As if the former 2 sets hadn’t been inspiring enough, this mammoth
celebration that was The Adelphi Music Club’s 18th Birthday had
to be… it just had to be rounded off with an inevitably classic
performance from one of the owner Paul Jackson’s fave bands, FONDA
500. They are a band he has long championed for being so intelligent
yet unadulterated, so loud and thrilling and yet so sweet and lo-fi,
so rough-hewn yet so silky smooth. They are everything, my everything,
and so many people’s everything. They look good, they gel together
as a band great, and the songs are like nothing you’ve ever heard
before. Frontman Simon rarely ventures centre-stage these days without
his black furry ears, retorting to a request for ‘Super Chimp’
by quipping ‘nah, don’t do it anymore!’ Recent single
‘Computer Freaks of The Galaxy’ is so gorgeous I’d
happily have it cranked out at my wake, while ‘Orson’ is
a song anyone with taste in anything alternative has to hear…
creeping from charming beginnings to its cracking, soul-powered chorus.
Both Ian and Bod are also permanent Edible 5ft Smiths drum and bass
providers (while Ian is also the mainman of t he great Elly Lake and
Bod the mainstay of foxy femme fatales Harvey), which - as Matt ‘Edible’
Thompson succinctly professed - ensures healthy intra-band incest is
high on the agenda.
Far from the man pulling the strings behind the venue’s independent
success since 1984, ‘Jacko,’ what followed Fonda’s
‘Jiro’ was an impromptu sing-a-long to ‘Do They Know
It’s Christmas?’ Yes, the charity behemoth which was coincidentally
penned back in 1984 and recreated tonight via Simon’s Minidisc
and vocal efforts from various Hull band members, with Simon playing
Boy George, Matt Edible doing Sting and a ghost-drummer hiding behind
the amassed mugs muscling-in on Phil Collins’ bashful drum solo.
So, what a night. And what bands. So, remember their names. (SR)
www.kidsamson.co.uk
|