GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE
Who
Tickets had cost just £7.50 and there was no booking fee as, technically speaking, there were no tickets! The idea was to simply quote your name then you got in but I didn't quite trust that so took a copy of the confirmation email as well. It was a cold and wet day and I had a rushed chip shop tea before heading out to Birmingham. I'd had a fairly lazy day and, just to rub it in, my phone had decided to break, leaving me with yet another thing to worry about. Doors opened at 7:30pm and last admission was bizarrely advertised as being 8:15pm, leaving a rather small window of opportunity to get inside! I quoted my very common surname and was waved inside with no further questions and can't say I was very impressed by the flimsiness of these arrangements, which also prevented me from having a ticket to keep as a souvenir. The Glee Club had clearly tried to go upmarket and diversify a bit more into comedy as well, and the show unusually was advertised as unallocated seating. Quite a few people were already inside but there was still plenty of choice of seats and the whole set-up was much more civilised than I was used to. There was even proper food being served and a few tables towards the back plus announcements making it clear exactly when you were still allowed to order food. It was a rare example of great organisation and, although I can't say I like the idea of seated gigs, it fitted the music quite nicely. In fact both Euros and Norman spent the whole show sitting down as well! Also I enjoyed a very rare decent gig beer, which was a lovely pale ale in the hardest plastic glass I'd ever seen. Until I basically trod on it I hadn't even realised it wasn't glass and it was a nice follow-up to the bottles of Budweiser Budvar and Budvar Dark I'd enjoyed at Wetherspoons before heading over to the venue. I took a seat pretty close to the front but towards the edge for if I needed to make a fast exit to catch the last train. I thought unallocated seating was a bit of a dodgy idea as arguments could start when people opportunistically try to save seats by leaving their coats on them, but I guess it works OK when the band aren't crazily popular. In fact there were quite a few empty seats so I felt no qualms in reserving a seat myself, in fact successfully guessing which side of the stage Euros would be on!
There was a very simple set-up of two chairs, two keyboards and a couple of guitars also lying around and surprisingly there was no support act, so it was all ready to go. The Glee Club even had a shiny banner behind the stage and Euros appeared briefly to fiddle with his instruments, although I'm ashamed to say I still often fail to recall the correct pronunciation of his name. A couple of rare sociable guys took the seats next to me and I asked them if their allegiance was to Gorky's or Fanclub and they surprisingly were neutrals, not being big fans of either. The crowd looked as you'd expect a typical Gorky's crowd to appear - namely there were no teenyboppers - which probably goes to show that similar people like both the bands. Euros and Norman took to the stage pretty early and opened in brilliant manner with Bread, one of the sillier tunes from the album. Euros then told a bizarre tale of how he'd found a new plectrum by going through the BBC bins while doing a Mark Riley session and of all the good stuff you come across, and it made me wonder if he really is that much of a starving musician? The fact that a couple of the early songs were about food and he gleefully pointed that out to us would also support that theory! Euros did the bulk of the talking and announced that tonight was their ninth show under the guise of Jonny and that, apart from a bad show in Nottingham, things were generally going OK. He also did some ad libbing to fill the time while Norman was retuning his guitar by expressing his fear of saying something incredibly offensive, but ultimately filled the time without saying anything much at all. Wich Is Wich sounded great and certainly makes a top album opener and Candyfloss was introduced as the single and sounded fantastic until towards the end when Euros forgot how to play it and they broke off. It was highly amusing as he apologised and made a joke of how bad it had been, before promising to tackle the song again later in the show. Much of the issues came from the use of a drum machine as the duo tried hard to find the correct speed, sometimes starting off then deciding it wasn't right and breaking off to adjust the settings. Gloria was the sole representative from the Jonny EP and it was introduced as being about a Gloria EsteFAN fan, which I thought was a snazzy play on words!
Cave Dance meanwhile is the epic centrepiece of the album and the band revealed that on the previous two nights they'd had a female support act helping them out with it who sadly couldn't be here tonight but they still had a very good stab at it. One thing that strikes me is that Euros, despite now being in his mid thirties, still looks incredibly young and slim and still has his very full head of amazing Gorky's-era hair. Norman meanwhile is ten years older and wears glasses, but their styles blend together so well it would be easy to believe that this was a Euros solo show if you closed your eyes. This was best demonstrated by the stunning I Want To Be Around You, which could easily have been a classic Gorky's single. Also one of the few songs led by Norman was played for apparently just the second time where he read the lyrics from notes he'd made, and Euros revealed at the end that they hadn't made it through the tune the night before, making this a bit of a first! A stranger moment was when a cover version was announced as being written by a murderer and it was one of many bizarre statements from Euros which amused the crowd, who it seemed were enjoying proceedings. Everyone was happy to join in when Euros explained that rather than leaving the stage and coming back on they'd just remain where they were and try to figure out the correct drum machine setting to have another stab at Candyfloss! We all played along and screamed for an encore, pretending they'd left the stage, and the band "returned" with a flawless take on the utterly brilliant song. They then played a weird a cappella song about a spaceman which demonstrated how beautifully their voices work together until they messed up the ending. This was also a nice reminder that the sound quality had been flawless throughout the entire evening. Norman then explained that they'd be playing one song each from their back catalogues and first up was a Teenage Fanclub song called I Don't Want Control Of You. It was greeted by a bit of a cheer so I assume it's one of their more popular cuts.
My mind went into overdrive wondering what Gorky's song would be played and I guess Spanish Dance Troupe was a suitably crowd-pleasing choice. Something much more off-kilter would have been nicer but wouldn't really have fitted the Jonny vibe and in fact the "crazy bit" of Dance Troupe was taken out and the tune was delivered fairly flatly, albeit pleasantly. The song was greeted with equal reverence to the Teenage Fanclub number and once again the guys got a bit mixed up towards the end when Norman tried harmonising on the "then we'll be married and then we'll be happy" bit, which itself sounds suspiciously like a certain Beach Boys song! The big finale though was another cover version, a beautiful rendition of Let It Be Me by The Everly Brothers. It's a song I was slightly familiar with and I was very pleased to discover a version on my iPod afterwards, but it's a shame that the show had finished early when they could have fleshed it out with 30-40 minutes of awesome greatest hits to demonstrate the brilliance of their back catalogues! Although we'd all remained seated throughout there was a suitable amount of applause as Euros bounded off the stage to man the CD stand, where he presumably was signing everything. I took a quick look and saw the Candyfloss vinyl, Jonny album and Face Dripping on sale but as I'd purchased them all I decided it would be best to leave and try to get home early. I hadn't anticipated such an early finish and therefore had no idea what earlier trains home may be available so headed straight to the station to find out. Annoyingly there was a half an hour wait but rather than going back to the pub I decided to listen to my Gorky's Zygotic Mynci hits selection in full. I also scribbled down some notes for this review, unusually by hand thanks to my aforementioned broken mobile phone. I'd gambled by clambering onboard an unlocked train but it turned out to be the "fake train" which was just being pulled behind the train that would be taking me home so I had to move seats. However it was worth it to be comfortable and insulated from the unnecessarily loud platform announcements while I was waiting. I can't guess if Jonny will prove to be a one-off project or not but I hope it helps raise the profile of Euros Childs so he can continue to make fantastic music. Sadly the band went onto cancel their European tour due to poor ticket sales but I was fortunate enough to see them and have my fingers crossed that this won't be the last time I see Euros doing his thing onstage. I also expect I'd quite like Teenage Fanclub, but most likely won't investigate them further unless one of their songs "hits me".
Mark: 7.5/10
Jonny
Where
Birmingham Glee Club
When
15th February 2011
Price
£7.50
Who with
No-one
Position
Seated, towards the front
Comments
Back in March 2007 I experienced the nightmarish scenario of Gruff Rhys and Euros Childs playing the West Midlands on the same night so I was pleased to finally be able to rectify this and to buy tickets for both Gruff and Euros playing the Birmingham Glee Club just two weeks apart. This also gave me something to look forwards to after my amazing trips abroad to Egypt and South America, which meant I'd now been to all six major continents! Surprisingly this was the first time I'd seen Euros Childs since September 2007 and, although playing with Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub under the guise of Jonny, upon hearing the album it seemed clear that Euros was the dominant partner thanks to the distinctiveness of his voice. Also I do wonder if the name Jonny was in any way a reference to Sweet Johnny by Gorky's? I discovered a free Jonny EP online which I enjoyed very much but only got my hands on the album itself 10 days before the show. I heard it many times over and as it was catchy it sunk in quite quickly. I hope that this link-up will help thrust Euros a bit more into the mainstream but it didn't help that NME gave the album an unjustified bad review. Although hardly on the same level as Gorky's at their best, there are some lovely songs on there, and barely any other "new" bands of 2011 could do better! I'd searched for prospective setlists online but to no avail so I had no idea if this show would be focused exclusively on Jonny or if Euros Childs/Teenage Fanclub/Gorky's Zygotic Mynci would be strongly represented as well. I therefore heard as much Euros and Gorky's records as I could, even purchasing a couple of his solo albums despite already having downloaded them for free. When they arrived in the post I was shocked and delighted to find they came with a note written by Euros himself saying "hello Gavin, thanks for buying the CDs. Hope you like them." I thought that was pretty awesome service, and I was grateful I check my envelopes carefully as I could easily have thrown this away without spotting it! I didn't find the time to listen to any Teenage Fanclub though, and went to the gig knowing just one of "their" songs - a cover of Christmas Eve by Gorky's!
