Blog: The June Brides

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I had a GLITTERING night out in That London on Friday, beginning with a meeting with Mr J Kell. Over BEER and CURRY we discussed a new IDEA that we're going to have a go at over the next few months. It was all VERY exciting as THORTS flew across the formica table in Indian Veg, and we agreed to have a good old THINK before regrouping over the Christmas Holidays to discuss CHARACTERS. It's basically an idea for a podcast sitcom thingy, and I already have the KILLER CATCHPHRASE for one of the characters which, I am convinced will lead to it taking over from That Bit With The Chandelier as Most Loved British Comedy EVER: one of them says "Actually, I'm a Cellist." Teachers beware, that one is BOUND to take over the playgrounds of 2012!

After all that we went back to The Lexington and were soon joined by The Jokes In My Sitcom to head upstairs to see The June Brides. We've seen The Phil Wilson Big Band several times, but only the actual June Brides once, a few years ago somewhere near Stoke Newington. It was pretty much the SAME band - there's two other June Brides who play with Phil anyway, but i think the key is that if Mr S Beesely plays then it's The June Brides, if not it's a SOLO show.

Anyway, it was very much June Brides on Friday, not least because they did a set ENTIRELY of their songs, though it did feature "Small Town" from his solo album which, it turns out, was meant to be the fifth June Brides single. POP FACTS! I bloody love that solo album, and it's a shame to see Phil and NOT hear huge chunks of it, but GOODNESS ME they went some way to making up for that minor disappointment by being BLOODY FANTASTIC. It's always funny seeing Mr Wilson on stage - in normal life his is a gentle man and indeed a GENTLEMAN, but when he hits the stage he ROCKS OUT like nobody's business, and I always think "Oh yes, I forgot - he isn't just Phil, he is Phil Wilson, ROCK LEGEND."

As ever at The Lexington the sound was FANTASTIC and a HUGE crowd of people got WELL into it - it was GRATE to see them get the LOVE, also RESPECT, they are due, but even better to watch them just being FANTASTIC. There is a school of thought that says that the reason the C86 era indie bands are thought of as being a bit twee and/or jangly is because they had tiny little amps and were recorded tinnily, whereas if they'd had the GEAR we have today they would have sounded IMMENSE. This theory was very much BORNE OUT on Friday, it was GRATE!

After they'd finished we went downstairs and saw many of the Old Faces from Back In The Day - it was a bit STRANGE, as it was like seeing the GROWN-UPS (i.e. the Senior Scene Members) from around 1996 when I first started coming to gigs in That London, and now as then it made me feel a little TIMID. We also bumped into Phil who was looking VERY happy with things, as well he might do, whilst smoking a very FUTURISTIC looking Electronic Cigarrette. You didn't get THOSE at Alan McGee's Living Room Club!

The excitement continued when we went back up and had a chat with Mrs P Wilson, who reported that it was even MORE full of The Old Faces, as loads of the people from the distant NINETEEN EIGHTIES scene, a whole DECADE before my first time, were lurking around. "Someone said they saw Midge Ure!" she said. I pointed out that it might just be someone doing MOVEMBER, but he was just one of a long list of people that had been reported, including a number of BOOKING AGENTS. I've seen talk on the interweb between people discussing the need to BOOK a PROPER TOUR for The June Brides, rather than relying on PALS doing one-off gigs. As a PAL who BOOKED a couple of those one-off gigs I could not agree more - this is a GRATE band making a MIGHTY sound who need to be heard by people as much now as they did then. Come on, FESTIVALS and SO FORTH, make them do it!

posted 28/11/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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