Ardrossan
may not be the rock’n’roll capital of the world, but full marks to the
organisers of the Ardrossan Music Experience, who go the whole hog to create a summer
highlight for the town. The town's Civic Centre
is a bright and spacious venue, with a neat stage, and they take the trouble to
invest in a professional sound and lighting system for a couple of nights. And as a visitor from further afield, all and
sundry give you a warm welcome.
The
friendly atmosphere is epitomised by opening act Sonny Daze and the Restless
Knights, a local band who knock out a breezy set of covers and originals. The
five-piece are amiably fronted by Gordon McNeil with his confident vocals,
while his partner in crime Willie Harvey serves up some pretty damn good
guitar. Drummer Ash McNeil only took to
the skins last year when the band were let down by another drummer, and she accidentally
and literally became the “first lady [performer] of the Experience” in the
process – pretty much summing up the adventure the event offers locally.
The one
drawback of a spacious venue like this, set up cabaret style, is that it can
reduce the intimacy between the band and the audience, who can get all too
comfortable in their seats. But Marcus
Malone aren’t to be denied in the course of their hour-long set, and end up
rocking the house.
The set
tonight is a mixture of old, new and nothing borrowed, that lives up to the
title of their rocking set opener ‘Living The Blues’, from most recent album
Stand Or Fall. Next up is newie ‘House
Of Blues’, which keeps up the momentum with a guitar riff redolent of ‘Green
Onions’. Another new song, ‘Feeling Bad
Blues’, gets a run out a little while later, again boding well for the next
studio album.
Marcus Malone gets down and gets with it, with Sean Nolan (left) and Yo Yo Buys (right) |
Marcus dips
into his back catalogue, going all the way back to 1999 and One More Time for
the gutsy, hard-riffing ‘This Heart’s For Rent’ and the swinging boogie of
‘Tell Me Why’. By the time they get into
‘Slow Down’, people are well and truly in the groove, responding as the rhythm
section of Yo-Yo Buys on bass, and especially Chris Nugent on drums, push the
tempo along. ‘One More Time’ itself,
meanwhile, is a soulful showstopper, with a barnstorming, stinging guitar solo
from Sean Nolan and bravura vocals from Marcus, both of them teasing the
audience with spells of tension before letting go.
‘Detroit
City Blues’, Malone’s testimonial to his long-suffering home town, drives home
the rocking vibe, and it’s no wonder that the traditional set closer
‘Christine’, with its crunching riff, sees folk up and dancing, and singing
along as instructed. There are deserved
solos too for Nugent and Buys.
To this
observer, Grammy-nominated country singer Kim Richey is on a hiding to nothing
after that, but clearly she has a loyal local fan base, who get right into her
set. She certainly has a great voice,
and some good songs too, in particular 'Just My Luck' – apparently several have featured in the TV series
Nashville. She also gets some subtle colouring from her lead guitarist, but her own acoustic playing is sometimes a
little humdrum, and with a four piece set up involving bass and keys but no drums
things feel a little flat at times.
Flat is not
a viable proposition with Kaz Hawkins on stage, as she and her Band O’Men set
about things in style, Kaz resplendent in 50s vintage dress and her sidekicks
in mix and match hats and bow ties. She
lives up to the hype about her forceful presence, leading from the front with
her extraordinary voice – not just because of its power, or her occasional incredible
falsetto, but more importantly because of its soulfulness. She also straps on an acoustic guitar
periodically to add some additional welly, and has the occasional whack on her
own personal drum for good measure.
The thing
is, Kaz Hawkins, is far, far more than just a rock’n’roll shouter. As her first EP Better Days demonstrated,
she’s a thoughtful and varied songwriter.
So the original material in her set shifts effortlessly from the
dramatic ballad ‘I Saw A Man’, underpinned by subtle drum rhythms, to the
disco-fied ‘Coz You’ and the offbeat ‘Drink With The Devil’.
If she
protests that she loves Etta James but can’t tackle her ballads because they
make her cry, she’s damn right to say that she can have some fun with ‘I Just
Want To Make Love To You’ (though truth to tell, her own ‘Born To Be Lovers’ is
also scorchingly sassy), and she goes on to have just as much with Nina
Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’. Never mind the rockabilly stage persona or the comic
book cover of her debut album Get Ready, there’s a whole lot more to
come from Kaz Hawkins, as a writer, a singer and a performer.
Coming soon - The Holy Ghosts at Ardrossan, Crow Black Chicken's new live album, and Hamilton Loomis live in Edinburgh.
Coming soon - The Holy Ghosts at Ardrossan, Crow Black Chicken's new live album, and Hamilton Loomis live in Edinburgh.
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