THE SOFT BOYS + OF ARROWE HILL
Notting Hill Arts Club 12th December 2001
Bit of a weird one this - sort of a Poptones Christmas party before the
'proper' bash next week, yet tonight is only billed as Of Arrowe Hill +
'special guests'.
Of Arrowe Hill are a band I've been trying to see all year yet the
closest I got was narrowly missing them support Guided By Voices so, as
this is my first encounter with them I'll just assume that this wasn't
their typical set. They don't play very long, and they have a bit of
trouble with a broken string as they have neither spare guitars or
strings! They carry on anyway, and I heard the singer say "Let's just
wing it!' a couple of times. Nothing wrong with that in my book and
there's very little wrong with Of Arrowe Hill's brand of heavy
pyschedelia either. It's pretty refreshing to hear a band who aren't
compelled to equate psychedelia with folky-noodlings. The obvious
comparison is Guided By Voices - the songs are short, sharp and
surprising, and or any hook that hints towards power-pop there's
another time change or tangential guitar part to take it somewhere
strange. Their strongest song is the second single 'Gadfly
Adolescence', and with a few more like that in the bag they could
really establish themselves. Unfortunately Robyn Hitchcock joins them
for one of his own songs at the end and this is so good it overshadows
their own material a bit. Still, overall very promising.
Of course, most people are here for Mr Hitchcock and the Soft Boys so
it's not surprising that they take the stage to a heroes welcome. I'm
no expert on their music and apart from the recently reissued (and
expanded) 'Underwater Moonlight' I have heard precious little from
their shortlived career. I'm clearly in the minority as there are a lot
of Soft Boys obsessives here, who seem to recognise everything! I can
tell they're going to read this review and shake their head at my lack
of Soft Boy knowledge.
For those of you who don't know anything about them I would direct you
to their official website www.underwatermoonlight.com which told me all
I need to know. It didn't tell quite how fantastic they would be in an
intimate venue like this though! They run through over an hour's worth
of material, touching on psychedelia, guitar-pop and Beefheart style
blues. 'Only the Stones Remain' is the first one to send the crowd
mental, closely followed by 'Kingdom of Love'. Robyn Hitchcock
towers above the crowd, still completely in command of his band, and
Kimberly Rew's guitar playing makes it hard to believe that he is best
known for writing 'Walking on Sunshine'! '
Underwater
Moonlight' is dedicated to David Blunkett and Condoleeza Rice after one
of Robyn's rambing rants, another is described as "necessary and
effective like Daisycutter bombs", and yet another is respectfully
dedicated to George Harrison and Sterling Morrison - two definite Soft
Boy influences.
'Old Pervert' is the most obvious Beefheart style they do tonight,
though a few of the songs I don't recognise hint at Syd Barrett as
well. I imagine 'Japanese Captain' is a newer song which can hold it's
own with any of the back catalogue, especially for Robyn's wonderfully
rambling middle section. His talent with words is often over-looked
when people are compiling lists of great songwriters. 'Insanely
Jealous' is the song I was hoping they would play and they don't
disappoint me, and total classic 'I Wanna Destroy You' is saved for the
first encore.
Should the Soft Boys reform and play gig near you, you really should
try your best to see them. Perversely, although I've never really
missed them, tonight I'm very glad that they've back- if that makes any
sense at all!.