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Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
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Y Niwl
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The Windmill
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On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Gig Review

Fergus and Geronimo / Fanzine / Prizes
Madame JoJos, Soho

Article written by Paul M - Jul 21, 2010

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I seem to be attending more and more of these White Heat Club gigs. The promoters have gone bonkers in recent months, organising two a week, Tuesdays here at Madame Jojos and Fridays at the Lexington. That’s a lot of gigs. And it shows. While they’ve continued to tempt some top drawer headliners to appear, the support acts are rarely anything like being of a similar quality. Tonight’s line-up includes two utterly unremarkable bands. Fanzine play 90s US slacker indie with plenty of Pavement, Weezer and Guided By Voices style riffs peppered with the odd comical Wayne’s World wigout. It’s fairly forgettable stuff and all I can remember now is that the drummer had great hair and the frontman had a dwarf’s face on a normal sized body. Not a criminal offence, clearly, but quite disconcerting. On the day the Mercury panel announced its utterly predictable list of nominees, I find myself watching Prizes, who gain the award for the most tedious act of tonight’s line-up. Two keyboard/drum machine/sampler fellas and two guitarists churn out some very simple dance rhythms that even I could deliver given thirty minutes on my own with a few fancy knobs to twiddle. It’s all so irritating that I suddenly long for dwarfy and his chums to return. They finish with a track that finally interests me… Mmmm sounds good… Quite catchy…. My toes tap… Oh hang on… it’s nicked, from Two Door Cinema Club.

While I wait for the headliners, my other gripe about White Heat Club gigs starts to ferment. The place is full of teenagers, most of whom must be herded in from one of the nearby uni’s, presumably tempted by the prospect of after hours drinking and dancing in the west end and sadly most are more interested in their haircuts and libidos than the bands performing. Still I hope they appreciate the ‘tween act electro babble that passes for DJing at the WH Club. I don’t, resembling Geoffrey Palmer, grumpily scowling at the DJ booth and tutting under my breath.

Thank God Fergus and Geronimo remind me at last why I’m here. A duo, joined for live shows by a rhythm section, they’re not much older than the majority of the audience and the bass player reminds us of this by downing a bottle of Smirnoff Ice in one almighty glug. However they have an eclectic approach to music, partly through alternating vocals according to who penned the song, and partly their own diverse influences from the Four Tops to the Mothers of Invention. It makes for an interesting show and covers over the current shyness of the frontmen (though a traditional “we love your city” drawled Texan compliment amusingly follows a grumble that we all walk too fast). There are average moments, mainly fairly standard college rock material, but the highs when the surly keyboardist/guitarist Andrew Savage takes centre stage, are wonderful. Powerful Lovin’ is an amazing effort. The most doleful soul ever delivered by a white man, it has hints of Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves A Woman but the cheesy organ gives it an extra edge. Other picks are the fuzzy powerpop with great whiney harmonies of Blind Muslim Girl, the 60s psych-pop of Harder Than It's Ever Been and the pop punk cover of TVP's Silly Girl. With a little tweaking, a touch of honing in their musical focus and Fergus and Geronimo could be bigger than any of the fools currently being backslapped over their Mercury nomination.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/fergusgeronimo