Dan Thorne's Recent Postings

I arrived at an earily empty Koko in Camden last Monday night, and after paying a king's ransom for a can of Red Stripe lager it was time for some eardrum-shaking reggae from the monstrous Koko sound rig. Warming up proceedings were Ed Rome & The Connectors. Ed's last LP A Life In Minutes was named as one of Steve Lamacq's Albums of 2008, and has been graced with critical praise throughout the grizzled and grimy UK scene.

Ed and the band have put in a lot of graft on the European ska and reggae circuit over several years, playing alongside most of the surviving and still touring bands; The Beat, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Bad Manners and various members of The Specials. The band were tight and raucous, delivering an energy that only comes from years on the road. Ed Rome is a force to be reckoned with, a seven foot tall dancing ska man-mountain with a surprisingly melodic gruff Essex voice, harmonising with saxophonist/backing vocalist Bella. The now present crowds started to gravitate towards the front and seemed to be liking what they heard about mid-set.

His song writing has been compared to Billy Bragg, with themes of social injustice and unrequited love (but also some slightly less serious issues, like getting angry about the fakery of after show parties and chain pubs). Ed and The Connectors are like an improved ska version of the Zutons, but with added personality and humour.

Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band is the latest release from reggae reinvention/covers band Easy Star All Stars (main picture), and the New York collective have just hit #1 in the U.S. Reggae Billboard charts. Previously they've reinvented Radiohead’s OK Computer and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon to great effect, creating bass heavy nods to the originals, namely Radiodread and Dub Side Of The Moon.

The band have established themselves as cult favourites of the digital age, narrowly avoiding kitsch novelty act status by recording with reggae legends Horace Andy and Steel Pulse. The live show is a more stripped down affair, with a regularly changing touring band, but the crowd lap it up.

'Airbag' sounds spectacular live, with Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood's original bass line shimmering and shaking, reinvented in a dub. 'Breath', from Dub Side Of The Moon, is the highlight of the evening, giving the song an entirely new lease of life. The Beatles covers are slightly less successful; nobody needs a reggae cover of 'When I'm Sixty Four', especially when it sounds like Chas and Dave on a slow day at Camden Market. 'Lucy In The Sky' is another fairly pointless and limp exercise. Rather charmingly, bass and vocalist Ras I Ray plays a classic McCartney/Hoffner violin bass, and (whisper it) the band actually improve the previously quite dreary 'She's Leaving Home', adding more optimism than was ever intended.

The Easy Star All Star collective are consummate crowd pleasers, and there’s nothing an audience like more than novelty and songs they already know and can sing along to. In this respect, the Sgt. Pepper covers are a success, but half of the songs never seem to get off the ground, even with the best intentions.

www.edrome.co.uk
http://www.easystar.com/
Fortunate to have been born into musical royalty, Ben Taylor has not one but two superstar parents, James Taylor and Carly Simon. I went along to a preview of some songs from his new record this evening at The Social, a rather intimate red-lit underground bar near Oxford Circus.

The Legend of Kung Folk is the rather awkwardly titled latest album (Taylor is a keen martial arts enthusiast) and the several tunes betray the breezy laid-back acoustic country & blues style of his father, but also Jack Johnson minus the twee (thank goodness). He comes across as a likeable, down to earth type, with a frank and honest song writing style that's at times quite charming. Playing alongside him this evening was a small backing band with friend and label-mate David Saw, who provided some fine harmonies.

With a few obvious singles destined for radio play Ben Taylor could well be a name you'll hear about in the next few months. He's playing a UK tour thorough April including a night at the Union Chapel in Islington.

http://www.myspace.com/bentaylorofficial Well I'm not really one for West End musicals (especially the super camp kind aimed at cashing in on the pink pound), but I was given some comp tickets to see Priscilla Queen Of The Desert: The Musical at the Palace Theatre on Shaftsbury Ave.

It was a jolly fun affair of lively disco cheese, glitter everywhere, great songs and some pretty amazingly attired drag queens. But sadly about half an hour into the show Jason Donovan and co's bus broke down, literally. The mechanics of the computer driving the buses mechanics gave up the ghost, and after some long delays the musical's director came out to announce it was all over!

Hopefully the teething problems of this Ozzy musical will be sorted out. It started out promisingly enough....
In these times of rising folky types - Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire et al - it's refreshing to hear there are folks on this side of the pond taking up the organic sounds of acoustic mandolins, guitars, flutes and ukeleles.

Ladies and gents, I present to you School Of Imagination: http://www.myspace.com/schoolofimagination

Enchanting stuff, I hope you'll agree. They seem to play up London way fairly often on their trips in from the far-away tree-houses and forest caves in which they dwell, so check them out some time if you can, listening to them playing live is a thrill.