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A mild, dry, evening in south London, all absolutely ideal for a soiree of fine football and body rattling indiepop. The former pre-occupies me via the TV for the first two bands, which is bloody stupid because what I can hear wafting over from the other side of the venue sounds rather good. Luckily the final whistle coincides perfectly with the School mounting the stage. They’ve had a reshuffle since I last saw them with a few new faces and seem a tighter leaner outfit for it. Musically it’s the same joyous 60s candy pop though, with Steph’s strings giving a Spector-esq Wall of Sound to the rhythms provided by the boys and Liz’s chirpy keys and vocals (with the odd bit of glock n roll thrown in). Everything about them is so yummy and scrummy that when balloons are released and one somehow gets buffeted on the side of Liz’s face by the draft from an electric fan for about ten seconds, everyone, including Liz and her band, is almost doubled up with laughter. When even latex bags filled with air want to join in the fun, you know you’re doing something right.
Pelle Carlberg
It’s a tough act for Swedish pop minstrel Pelle Carlberg to have to follow. He may not have the inflatable props but he has a boyishness and fresh faced charm that belies the fact that he’s in his 40th year. He sings with practically no accent, apart from a very convincing Glaswegian one he puts on for a few lines of Pelle and Sebastian, and his ‘tween track banter is pleasant and engaging. The set is mainly plundered from new album The Lilac Time and are chiefly mid-tempo and acoustic vehicles for Pelle to show off his English lyrics. While the tunes are invariably strong and hook filled, his lyrics are unfortunately less impressive with the attempts at humour sounding a tad clumsy in translation. Still, he has the ace up his sleeve with the fantastic Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls off the In a Nutshell album and he duly delivers it at the end of his main set to very warm applause. One of those gigs I didn’t really want to end, which is not bad for a school night (pardon the pun!) and much credit is due to Ian of How Does It Feel To Be Loved and Tim, the Windmill’s resident Ted Bovis like entertainments manager, for serving it all up.
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