Fallen Leaves and London in Brighton. Confused?

Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves and London play in Brighton

Tonight (24 06 2017) two bands were to play to a packed out Hope and Ruin in Brighton. One band I had not seen or heard about, and seemed to miss them playing in Brighton and the other band was London, and I had heard about them, had seen them play and had a couple of their early vinyl releases.

FALLEN LEAVES: PUNK ROCK FOR GENTLEMEN – “If you can imagine a cross between The Who and The Ramones you might get somewhere close….
“Sharp, angular, melodic garage-pop”.

LONDON – London is a four piece punk band formed in London in 1976. The original line-up was Riff Regan (vocals), Steve Voice (bass/vocals), Jon Moss (drums) and Dave Wight (guitar). Jon Moss had briefly been the drummer in The Clash before leaving to form London.

A shared billing tonight, last band of the night was The Fallen Leaves.

FALLEN LEAVES

“What does the Manifesto say? No jeans. No t-shirts. No cover-versions. The Fallen Leaves believe in the DIY Punk ethos. Song, Sound and Performance are all. Recordings are live.
Minimal overdubs. As the self proclaimed champions of the glorious underachievers The Fallen Leaves ask you to remember …… “Simple and easy are not the same thing.””

The Band:

Reverend Rob Green Vocals with an English accent
Sir Robert Symmons Sniper guitar
Matthew Karas Bohemian bass
Brett Buddy Ascott Dangerous drums

This is a band made up of err, how shall we say this, of older gentlemen. The seem to want to take you back to when pop music was simple and to the point. Guitar-sounds which cut through the air like a knife through the old fog of London town. The guys looked like extras from Ripper Street or from an old Sherlock Holmes story. Finely groomed with immaculate hair which one could imagine being shaped by Sweeney Todd himself! What was going on here? The punk rock time machine had really lost track and pulled four characters from history, gave them guitars, an old crooning mic and drums. Excellent!

I like this band, a lot! The songs and choruses lift you, and with some menacing maracas thrown in give you some finely crafted music you can dance to. I don’t have any of their physical releases but with four, I think, CD albums and one vinyl offering, one really must indulge oneself!

The Set

The set ran for almost an hour and was packed with exciting songs such as “Against The Grain” and more from the catalogue of releases. “Passing By” – a punk rock stunning guitar and bass with a damn fine drum backing all topped off with a great vocal and show from Rob Green. It was a great fun night, and the crowd lapped up everything that was given to us. Rob used more stage props than Alice Cooper! His items included a shooting stick, maracas, E-Cigs and a flask of tea! An instrumental break saw Ed take off his jacket and with great care addressed his sleeves. He bent open, grabbed a flask of tea and poured himself a cuppa. He finished and put the flask away as it was time for him to pick up the vocal duties again.

A Video

Fix your blue velvet smoking jacket, pour yourself a brandy, turn down the gas light. Fill that lead crystal glass with a fine brandy and ready yourself and listen to some fine Punk in your olde worlde London gentleman’s club. Who said the age of the cravat was dead?

London

London: Riff Regan (vocals)

London have been around for a while, since about 1976. London still retain their early punk edge but these days there’s a nod towards The Move, The Who and the 66/67 freakbeat and psych bands such as the Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era), The Creation, Fire, The Smoke and their mighty U.S. contemporaries The Electric Prunes. London is a four piece punk band formed in London. The original line-up was Riff Regan (vocals), Steve Voice (bass/vocals), Jon Moss (drums) and Dave Wight (guitar). Jon Moss had briefly been the drummer in The Clash before leaving to form London and later formed Culture Club.

The Band

(from the bands Facebook page)

Riff Regan (vocals)
Steve Voice (guitar)
Hugh O’Donnell (guitar)
Colin Watterston (drums)
Rick De’Ath (bass)

Former members:
Dave Wight (guitar)
Jon Moss (drums)

The Set

A real treat to see this band performing again. Its been a while. To hear some of those classic songs being played live once again was a thrill for me and the assembled crowd. The band has got it and so has Riff – his hat pulled down low but his eyes peering out twinkling under the lights looking out into the crowd. The guiitars and bass powered thru the set with some pretty fine drumming from the back. Riff owned the stage, as he moved around delivering such classics such as “No Time”, “Summer Of Love” and “Everyone’s a Winner”.  We got old and newer material, some from their latest CD “Rebooted”. “Minute Man” and “Animal Games” proove the song writing prowess of London. The sublime “Siouxie Sue” was also tucked into the set. Brilliant.

A video

What a great set and brilliant to get a chat with Riff. What a gent.

The Fallen Leaves are on Facebook

London are on Facebook

Promoted by Spinningchilli who are on Facebook

Save