Hobblin' to the Hobgoblin.

 

Staines be very ashamed of yourself – I went to The Hobgoblin on a cold and wet December Saturday night but that’s no excuse; the place wasn’t full and it should have been.

By the end of an evening where the only thing to worry about was my ‘Ian Dury’ style walking stick, the Bouncers only had themselves to throw out.

If you were one of those discerning patrons who were there, you were lucky enough to get not one band but a double bill; all fired up and full of fight.

MOD night?  Maybe not exactly.

MOD attitude? Definitely.

If you drew a triangle from Camberly to Woking and then down to Staines you would catch most of the bands that make up our local MOD scene and a revival that’s been just great for me.

That said neither Redeye nor The Sha La La’s from Woking are covers bands or pretending to be something they aren’t.

 

the

Sha la la’s

First up we had a Hammond Organ as a special treat for me (did they know I was coming?),  good solid Drums and Bass and a high powered Lead guitar and vocals;

 

 

               

 

This is from a recent article in ‘The Woking News and Mail’;

Woking four-piece The Sha La La’s have finally got round to playing the music they love, and it turns out so do loads of other music fans.

Frontman Darron Robinson said; “All of us have been in other bands, I’ve been in loads,” he says. “But now I’m finally doing what I’ve always loved….. I thought ‘Sod it, I’m going to make the music I want to play’…..So, he wrote a bunch of songs in a style that he calls ‘Motown punk’.

“It’s the soul music that I love but with that energy and urgency of white working class people,” says Darron. “It’s part of what I think of as a mod tradition, of British working class kids that love American soul music.

 

“It’s a tough mix. Even The Small Faces couldn’t quite pull it off but they came up with something equally as good. Anyway, it’s not going to stop me having a go.”

 

The switch in style has definitely worked for the band which features drummer John ‘Pax’ Piccirillo, guitarist Louis Lucano, and John Lee on Hammond organ, as well as Darron who plays bass and sings (and is a full-time dad and part-time decorator” at other times).

 

“The whole thing took me by surprise,” he says. “We did a video for Something I Can’t See and put it on YouTube and it went mad. We started getting gigs without trying

The Sha La La’s then recorded an EP with (Keep On) Risin’ Up To Love as the main track, and did a limited run of 2,000, which quickly sold out.

 

“Then Detour Records contacted us to say they wanted some EPs to sell,” says Darron. “We said ‘There’s none left’, so they said ‘We’d like to release an album by you’.”

The result is Feelin’ Real, which shows off Darron’s musical passion to perfection. “I just love music,” he says. “When I listen to music I get the biggest thrill out of it. I can’t listen to music without it inspiring me to do something.

 “When I was 14 I started getting into stuff on the Stax label and people like Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield and at that time people like Dexy’s Midnight Runners and The Jam were around.

 

 

 

“Back then I didn’t know what to do with it. I couldn’t dance – still can’t – but it made me feel so fantastic that I knew I had to do something. So I started making music and it’s still the greatest thing to me.

Hard, fast and furious - I wonder why I liked it?

It was a great hour and I wouldn’t have minded if they hadn’t stopped. It was Motown with fuel injection and a cylinder of nitrous oxide from “ somewhere between Detroit and Canvey island”.

Then there was;

 

redeye

 

 

What was that all about?

According to their webpage it was; ‘aggressive MOD’….’a Punk twang’. Mmmmmh I think that's me.

 

Add to that Ollie Foord, exploding with rage and anger every so often – almost as angry as I used to be (and that was at least two days ago).

That was fun, really it was. Arm windmilling around like Pete Townsend;

 

 

 

 

This is from the band’s webpage;

 

Jez Dubery on Vocals

Ollie Foord on Vocals and Guitar

Mark Clancy on Bass

Chris Prendergast on Drums

Although Redeye as a name goes right back to 1999….it started with Ollie Foord & Jez Dubery playing original material that Ollie had written around each other's houses starting around mid 2010….They met through other friends of theirs at the time then the set the sound and aggression got bigger……The sound of Redeye is that of power and guts with lyrics about real life, politics with a punk twang to some lines, but sound wise very indie rock, Motown, Ska and especially aggressive Mod all rolled in to one depending on the song influenced down to the sharp image they have.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great night – and you missed it.

 

 

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)