THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS – EVENT
There must be something wrong with the Great British weather. It’s a bank holiday weekend and the weather is NICE. Nice, I tell you. Sunshine, shorts and T-shirts, cool pint in the beer garden kind of warm. And that’s where we are: sat on a bench outside the Command House, Chatham, pints in hand, awaiting the start of this month’s Electric Circus gig.
Kevin Barraclough set up these regular gigs to help kick start the music scene in Medway again. The venues change from gig to gig. While this one’s at the Command House, the next one will be at the Oast House in Rainham. It is, we both agree before the gig starts, a great time for music in Medway.
“I was arguing about this with my brother the other day,” says Kevin. “He was asking what was so good about Medway. But there’s so much beauty in the place.” He says this as we stand beside the river with Rochester’s castle and cathedral in silhouette against the setting sun.
You know, I think he might just have a point.
Tonight’s gig features a mix of musical styles from 60s garage through punky grunge to world music infused pagan folk rock. All that for the princely sum of a £2 entrance fee. Not bad. Not bad at all.
The Muswells
THE MUSWELLS:
The first act on are The Muswells. The four piece are clad identically in vintage military uniforms complete with blazers, ties and lance corporal stripes. The lead singer, mop-topped Liam McManigan, is also wearing some Roy Orbison style shades. Probably not military issue, but never mind.
So, they’ll be the 60s garage act then.
This is the perfect setting for such an act. The venue of the Command House basement goes some way towards recreating the darkened intimacy of the Cavern Club circa The Beatles’ return from Hamburg.
Over the course of their set, they’ll play a variety of covers (such as “Van Morison’s “Gloria”, The Animals’ “We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place” and best of all, The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”) and original numbers like “Still the Same” and “Sunshine” stand out in particular.
As with their cover versions, the first of these original songs is delivered with all the urgency and ferocity of their garage band idols. It’s a dirty, distorted sound of guitars with ridiculously fast drumming, occasionally interrupted by a Hank Marvin style guitar solo or melody.
It’s a trait they share (minus Shadows aspirations) with a band from further to the east of Kent, Margate’s Two Wounded Birds. Meanwhile, “Sunshine” has something of the weirdness and wonder of an early Pink Floyd track – all psychedelic and spaced out. Perfect for the end of a day where summer seems to have come early.
Dogtown
DOGTOWN:
Next up is Kevin Barraclough’s own band, fronted by his wife, Michelle. Dogtown are the punk/grunge act celebrated on the gig posters. Michelle Barraclough seemed rather mild mannered when I spoke to her before she hit the stage. Not anymore though.
“HELLOWEAREDOGTOWN!!!” is the first thing we hear from her. It’s not really possible to do justice to her caterwauling in the written word alone. I’m not sure she has an off switch. And even if she does, she’s probably welded it into the “on” position.
The opening song is “The Dream”, as good an introduction to Dogtown’s music as any, showing the band’s emphasis is more to the punk end of the punk/grunge spectrum. At the helm of the band, Michelle Barraclough is a female Johnny Rotten – without any of the restraint of the nation’s favourite butter salesman. “Some one give me a drink. I’m going to die if you don’t,” she screeches at the end of the song.
The crowd love it. They adore it. Many of them are already converts to the Dogtown cause, sporting Dogtown T-shirts and yelling along with the band throughout. After the band’s set there will be a rush for copies of the band’s EP, “The DEMOlition EP” which Dogtown are giving out for free.
On and on the band’s set goes, filling the room with a wall of the band’s own brand of “unsophisticated noise” (Kevin’s words, not mine). It’s a riot of sound – a musical explosion – where the song titles only go some way towards hinting at the sheer sonic chaos we are witnessing: “Bastard”, “Bitch in Me” and “Don’t Fuck With Me” are some of the radio unfriendly treats on offer. So you can be pretty much assured that their song “Memories” won’t be a cover of the Lloyd Webber classic.
The highlight from the set comes with “Waster” where Kevin takes to the microphone. Though he admits before the song begins “You’ll be pleased to know I can’t sing”, this isn’t strictly true. The band take on a slightly different form with the different lead singer.
His gruffer sound matches up with the dirty sound of the guitars and drums as they hurtle towards Hell itself. There’s a change in shade and texture as the sound moves towards the grungier end of the spectrum.
At the end of the set, I obediently queue up for my copy of the EP for my home listening pleasure. If that doesn’t annoy the neighbours, I don’t know what will.
Brides of Rain
BRIDES OF RAIN:
The next act to take the stage is Brides of Rain who describe their music as alternative heavy folk rock with a bit of blues and world music thrown in for good measure. Not content with the usual combinations of guitar, bass and drums, Brides of Rain have clarinets, flutes, tubas, two drum kits, a violin and a mediaeval double reeded instrument called a shawm to add into the mix. This is going to be good. How can anything with a shawm in it not be good?
The band take songs by artists like Nick Cave (there’ll be a lot of Cave coverage from the band tonight), Jane’s Addiction and Tom Waits and put new twists on them. “We’re going to take you round the whole world and end up back in the Costa del Medway,” says front man James Cook at the beginning of the band’s set. And he’s true to his word.
Within the space of an hour or so, they take us from the Celtic folk of Ireland, through the East End of London, down to the rich, spicy world of the Middle East, further East to India and then on, across the international dateline to the dusty, sweltering landscape of Central and South America – sometimes within the space of the same song.
Their cover of Loreena McKennitt’s “Gates of Istanbul” is, as you might expect infused with Middle Eastern promise with the wind instruments echoing the sound of a muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, but there is also a thick funkiness beneath near oriental sounds. What Led Zeppelin did for Kashmir in their song of the same name, Brides of Rain are doing for Istanbul here.
Meanwhile there’s something of a Hebrew meets Cockney knees up in the Tom Waits cover “God’s away on Business” which is later followed by the Far Eastern exoticism of a song featuring the familiar lyrics of “Govinda Jaya Jaya” . Well they’ll be familiar to anyone familiar with Kula Shaker or, more importantly, the Indian devotional chant which inspired the 90s hit.
The crowd are revelling in this. They pound up and down as one during epic drum solos and dance and jump and holler through the musical world tour happening in this small corner of Chatham.
Brides of Rain take you on a whimsical adventure across continents within the space of five minute long songs in the comfort of your own local music venue. It’s a multi-textured, multi-cultural sound which is as beautiful as it is glorious. Each instrument plays a vital part in the creation of the richest blend of sounds you can hope to hear this side of heaven. Was that too gushing? Oh well, never mind.
And there, in the space a few hours and three bands, Electric Circus has taken us on a high speed tour from the 60s to the present day and around the world a couple of times into the bargain.
Not bad for a night out. Nice one, Mr Barraclough. I think you’ve done Medway proud.
22/04/2011 • The Electric Circus, The Command House, Chatham
By Stephen Morris • Photos by Chris Steel
2 Responses to “THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS – EVENT”
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On April 24th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
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On April 25th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
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