EVENING NEWS www.edinburghnews.com Re v i e w s MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2002 25 A tonic for Gomez the troops provided gun for by Sir Bob ROCK Bob Geldof Rothes Hall, Glenrothes ★★★★ IT’S all too easy to forget what a it with great live performer Bob Geldof is. He has been in the limelight so often for things other than music that it can sometimes slip your mind that this guy really knows how to rock. Geldof has the charisma that’s part of the job description of all great rock ’n’ roll frontmen, avivid latest presence that draws the eye and makes you hang on his every word. He’s blessed with patter, too with an easygoing manner that has a hint of steel – clearly, this is not a man who suffers fools gladly. Bearing this in mind, it’s hardto gauge whether Geldof is kindly in- dulging the man or whether he’s album setting the fellow up for a fall when he invites a local Stars in Their Eyes imitator on-stage to sing i Don’t Like Mondays. Geldof and his band have just finished a tremendous, New songs satisfy fans vital version of the song that has all the impact and immediacy of the GOMEZ could live to be a recorded original, and when the million years old and they ROCK would never, ever be cool. Gomez The Strokes, now they’re The Corn Exchange ★★★ cool. The White Stripes? Cool. But Gomez –no shop chic and unkempt hair. And their experimental lo-fi jazzy rock chance. But then what is similarly imbued with a kind of does cool matter? lackadaisical appeal. Being cool by no means nec- The band have had mixed for- essarily leads to actually hav- tunes since their MercuryMusic ing agood time or being Prize winning debut album Bring entertaining, and a boisterous It On launched them on to the Saturday night crowd at the world stage in 1999. But their follow up, Liquid Skin, didn’t fair Corn Exchange wereafter nearly so well, and a couple of precisely just that –a simple, half-hearted releases since then no fuss, good time. And on the haven’t helped. whole, they got it. But all that could well change as FULL STRENGTH: Geldof new album, In Our Gun, displays a Ps y c h e d e l i c band back to full confidence with imitator is asked to come on stage Before the headliners did their the tunes to match. And that newly Geldof’s manner is morechalleng- shambling rock thing, the early regained confidence was echoed ing than fakeshowbiz-friendly. arrivals to a packed venue were on stage on Saturday. Starting with Nonetheless, the band run through treated to a similar brand of ablasting version of new single CHARITY SHOP CHIC: BenOttewell proves you can be uncool and still have agood time the song a second time straight, and noodly pleasantries from Aussie Shot Shot, the band were clearly the karaoke singer acquits himself nice guys Gelbison. up for it, and their enthusiasm was have earned a reputation for a sional lull in proceedings and there Tracks from Bring It On brought well, despite not really looking or The shaggy-haired foursome mirrored by afanatical reception certain amount of self-indulgence always exists in any Gomez song a the biggest responses from the sounding like Sir Bob. sauntered sleepily through a from loyal fans. when performing live, and the tendency for showy,muso over- crowd, with the drunken shamble It’s hard to fault his set selection – handful of unspectacular stoner Inevitably new material made fancy jazz element of their music playing, especially from a drum- of Love Is Better Than AWarm he begins and ends with the stomp- pop, but their somewhat wishy- up the vast majority of the band’s does lend itself towards that kind mer who can’t seem to shut up. Trombone and agently anthemic ing, double-edged Irish singalong washy psychedelic stylings be- set, and that was no bad thing as of thing. And with so many influences in Here Comes The Breeze standing of The Great Song of Indifference, came a little bit tedious. Happily the songs stand up alongside the Thankfully though, any signs of their music, from jazz to folk, out above the rest. and in between he puts together a they never outstayed their wel- band’s debut recordasamongst ponderous introspection were country and blues, there is a feel- This was apparently Gomez’s solid 90 minutes that takes in the come, and kept things brief. the best they’ve written. conspicuous by their absence, and ing sometimes that the band first ever gig in Edinburgh, but Boomtown Rats days and the best And soon enough it was the turn And if anything, there’s even the band rattled through amain never settle into their own judging by their ecstatic reception songs from solo albums Vegetarians of Gomez. The five-piece, who more variety on show in the 2002 set of 15 tunes at a fair pace, rhythm, preferring to flit from one and their wide grins on exiting, it of Love and The Happy Club. met at university in Sheffield, version of Gomez. Everything keeping the momentum for the to the other within songs. won’t be their last. The new LP, Sex, Age and Death, is have the look of perennial stu- from King Crimson-style prog to most part. Overall, Gomez live is a pretty given agood airing too,and the dentryabout them, all charity electronica. In the past, the band There was inevitably the occa- chilled, easy-going night out. Doug Johnstone Leonard Cohen-likedrawl of Pale White Girls indicates that Geldof is losing none of his insight or abil- ities. The band areasolid if in- Grandmaster proves he’s still the daddy of them all congruous-looking lot, and as for Geldof,there’s no sloganeering, none of the harried defensiveness A RECORD-breaking crowd of over 1000 merised by the turntables and barely utter hop snobbery that permeates the genre, we’ve seen so often when his pri- hip-hop disciples crammed into La Belle HIP-HOP a wordas they self-indulgently man the the Tu rntable Scientist had the venue con- vate life has been the subject of Angele on Saturday night to bear witness Grandmaster Flash decks, Flash never forgets wherehecame stantly bouncing to adiverse range of media intrusion,just a man in his to the record-breaking mastery of the dad- from – the block parties of the Bronx in the crowdpleasers – from Queen to Public element, doing what he does best. dy of them all, Grandmaster Flash. La Belle Angele ★★★★★ mid-70s. Enemy; Michael Jackson to Kraftwerk. Why he’s slugging it out in a half- Along with Kool Herc and Bambaata, Continually stoking up the Edinburgh Complementing his infectious patter and empty hall in Glenrothes and not Flash pretty much invented hip-hop, and crowd by dissin’ Glasgow (not quite the supreme choice of music, Flash showed he playing a Capital gig is hard to or you’re better because remember – i did it can still scratch and mix with the best of during aeuphoric two-hour set, the DJ first and daddy’s home.” east coast/west coast rivalry that springs to fathom, but you get the feeling that illustrated why he is considered to be the Despite being fully awareof his place in mind in hip-hop and rap circles) and them at 44 years of age. Geldof would give his all to two old Godhead of that Holy Trinity. musical history, the unique appeal of Flash initiating achant of “Edinboro’s number Don’t be fooled by his flashy descendants. geezers and a dog. Of course, while Sure, there may be more technically lies in the fact that he has never forgotten one” during a breakdown of Chic’s Freak When it comes to hip-hop, the Grand- he is putting on shows this good, gifted DJ’s around today but as Flash what he is there to do – to make sure Out, Flash ensured the temperature never master is indeed the daddy. that’s unlikely to happen. announced to any young pretenders pre- everyone has the party of their lives. fell below boiling point. sent: “I don’t care if you think you’re faster While other DJs often seem to be mes- By refusing to submit to the smug hip- Stuart Farquhar Simon McKenzie.