I’m having a bout of nostalgia for my mis-spent youth. Anyone remember any of these? Who have I forgotten?
FNAAZ - Soukous: Zaireian electric guitar rhumba belted out with incredible energy. The backing singers, who never wore very much, used to get down off the stage and dance with the audience.
The Lost T-Shirts of Atlantis - psychedelic skiffle played on an electric eukeleli, stylophone, and homemade double bass. You’ve never lived until you’ve heard their version of ‘Fireball XL5’ played to a room full of people who have been drinking scrumpy all night. I remember they brought a guest act one night - an entire troupe of morris dancers they had picked up hitchhiking! Sheer class.
K-Passa - Simon LeBon’s cousin on squeezebox, a fiddle, and mean bass player. Sort of cajun folk rock. They always finished with a song called ‘Shit’. I used to have a T-shirt that said ‘Folk Bollocks’. They were apparently big in Belgium too.
Eddie Martin - One man R&B outfit. Can’t think of a better way to spend Sunday afternoon, and his evening shows were even better.
The Innes Sibun Blues Explosion - last I heard he broke up the band and went off on tour with Robert Plant. He was one seriously good guitarist, and there was some guy called Skimpy on vocals that culd really get a crowd going.
Old Man’s Hat - a bunch of pissed-up old men who didn’t care about anything except drinking beer and singing old R&B covers. Yo Ho, Yee Hee, you’re just as drunk as me! And falls over. Amazing.
The Havana Fireflies - covered people like Rory Ghallagher, and wrote a lot of their own songs too. For some reason I always ended up half-naked at their gigs.
Sigh. You can never go back.