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by Oliver Gray (from Independent on Sunday, 1998)
Seemingly the only Bristolians not at Glastonbury were Rob Ellis and John Parish. Whilst preparing for the autumn P.J. Harvey world tour, they have also found time to bring Ellis's Spleen project to the live stage. They gave a fright to the good ship Thekla in Bristol on Wednesday. Eleven days' rehearsal for just two gigs, that's dedication. Spleen, whose second album is out this week on the Swarffinger label, are a carefully-structured eight-piece whose esoteric recordings translated into a blinding live experience. Unmistakably West Country, with Blue Aeroplane-style spoken vocals (the extraordinary Tim Farthing), Portishead-via-Ute Lemper torch singing from Pinky Maclure and Blurt-ish sax outbursts from Terry Edwards, they stirred in a healthy dose of Frank Zappa to produce a hellish exciting noise.
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