Music / Reviews
Review: Luke Morley/Bobbie Dazzle/Willie Dowling, St. George’s
Forever known to many of us as “Willie from The Grip” in honour of his first band to rise to prominence, Willie Dowling is a great songwriter who has never really had the breaks he deserves. Labouring in the orbit of The Wildhearts, who are not short of a song or two themselves, Willie has flitted from band to band, the best of which was arguably Honeycrack with CJ Wildheart. Now he’s out on his own, with just his trusty keyboards and a bassist – billed as “the invisible band” – playing before a modestly proportioned audience of early arrivals.
If he’s unhappy about this state of affairs, he doesn’t show it, keeping up a constant stream of quips and political remarks. The latter can be dangerous territory for anyone labouring in the field of rock, because unlike those smug indie bands there’s no guarantee that your audience will agree with you. But Willie is so likeable and funny that he gets away with it. The Simpleton is dedicated to “the orange baboon who’s taking tea with the king”, while his splendid Brexit song Long Drop Down is introduced as being about “the worst mistake we’ve made in 200 years”.
is needed now More than ever
Every so often, a band comes along who’ve rediscovered the great British glam rock of the early ’70s: Slade, T. Rex, The Sweet and – dare one say his name? – Gary Glitter. This week it’s the turn of Krankies-referencing Bobbie Dazzle, who were last seen supporting Alice Cooper and whose frontwoman’s real name is Siân Greenaway.
They take a while to warm up, which is tricky when you only have a 30 minute slot, but succeed in winning the audience over with a set of infectious glam that doesn’t sound too derivative, Ms. Dazzle/Greenaway appearing to wear one of Justin Darkness’s cast-off catsuits and playing one of Ian Anderson’s old flutes. They risk alienating the audience by performing an Abba cover – Watch Out, the B-side of Waterloo – bit this is suitably rocked up so it doesn’t really matter. Whether they can take this any further rather depends on whoever succeeds Gen Z developing a sense of fun.
As Thunder’s chief songwriter and ace guitarist, Luke Morley has been particularly badly hit by vocalist Danny Bowes’ illness, which has cruelly rendered him unable to sing. Morley has previously relied on his childhood mate Bowes – and, in The Union, Pete Shoulder – to interpret his songs, since his own voice is serviceable if unremarkable. It’s not clear how he feels about having a solo career forced upon him, but he’s taken the opportunity to write songs that suit his own register and has assembled a crack band that includes Thunder bassist Chris Childs.
His set is drawn mainly from his last two solo albums, highlights being the CCR-ish title track of Walking on Water and Errol Flynn from Songs from the Blue Room, which he introduces as being about the realisation that he’s turning into his father. A couple of Thunder classics are also included – River of Pain and a terrific reading of Like a Satellite – but whether we’ll ever see that band again remains a mystery.
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
