Well a while back Rich drew our attention to the talented Imelda May an Irish Rockabilly chaunteuse from the 1950s. As the excitement of her discovery wained amongst the Dukes it was left to Messers Stillman, Schillace and me to go down to the Louis and check her out. Thanks to Mig's hospitality we had free access to the gig and an almost free run on the bar (Cheers Mig!) We were also provided with insider knowledge on the day's events where the legendary Julian Temple had been filming Imelda May's first video. In fact JT filmed the gig as part of the video so you may see me and Pete in her video along with a load of drunken rockabillies.
And so to the gig the Hinkley Veltones were the support and I only saw a couple of their songs, they were a bit sloppy, but I'm a sucker for a dick dale riff and lots of whammy bar guitar, unfortunately only one of the songs was like that and they had to start it a second time as the guitarist forgot to start playing. The other song a slow Tindersticksesque song which droned on a bit and wasn't saved by a bit of whammy guitar even though it came from a very spangly guitar. The drunken rockabillies were a tad unfair in their assessment of the band, as one left the upstairs room he loudly told punters making their way up the stairs not to bother as the band were fuckin shit! Honestly those rockabillies, they're the sort that would rip up your cinema seat as soon as look at you!
During the break between bands I quizzed a friendly rockabilly as to how many of his kind were in fact bus drivers. I don't know about you, but I remember that before all the bus drivers in Bristol became Polish they were all ageing Rockabillies. The friendly rockabilly said he didn't know exactly, but in % terms, he suspected that the figure maybe as high as 70/75%.
After the support band came the headliners (that's the rules in rock n roll) and Imelda May's band arrived on stage and up from nowhere popped Imelda. She's quite small you know, but quite saucy too. The formidable Half man half biscuit once sang 'She's got Dickie Davis eyes' and whilst I can't quite recall what Dickie Davis' eyes were like Pete did comment that she definitely had Dickie Davis hair, which is undeniable (see above). The band were good and just when I was getting a bit irritated by Imelda's half pronounced jazz/blues warbling it all suddenly clicked and I got it and started enjoying the whole thing. A trip downstairs for Guinness meant I missed the only song by her that I knew 'Johnny goes boom boom' but they kindly played that again at the end for those who missed it first time round - in an acton replay type scenario that Dickie Davis would have been proud of. Pete and I dared each other to shout our for some Shakin' Stevens songs, but the Rockabillies looked hard, they'd been drinking all day and I bet they had flick knives in their waistcoat pockets just waiting for a reason to stick us one. At one stage Imelda explained that the bass player, who for most of the set had been playing a double bass, switched to an electric bass. Pete wittily shouted Judas which was very funny, but unfortunately he didn't shout it loud enough and some slower witted member of the audience shouted it louder and got the credit. Incidentally as I'm sure you all know the 'Judas' reference relates to the first return gig Bob Dylan did at the Albert Hall (I think) when he went all electric and folk die hards thought he had betrayed folk and started shouting Judas. However, this is an urban myth and in fact what actually happened was that a man attending the gig was calling for his wife Judith who he had momentarily lost in the large audience. Those cloth eared and no doubt stoned hippies simply misheard and so an inaccurate legend was born.
Anyway I digress, the gig was great and in the end I really warmed to Imelda May (she's got a lovely smile). Thanks to Rich for recommending it and thanks to Mig for providing the means for me and Pete, the Dukes of Mumbai's First Cultural Attaches, to attend the gig for nowt.
See you at the next curry meet.
Cheers Tom
