January 29th 2019, certainly a day that will live long in my memory, you know one of those “Do you remember where you were moments?”.
As I walked down tourist central in our Capital City where one of the once great and historic stores sit, with the iconic giant letters screaming “His Masters Voice” outside but crumbling from the very inside as the media would have us believe that music just isn’t tangible anymore, well Fuck that, nights like this tell me quite the opposite ……..
So as the rain starts to hammer down on me and the streets sandwiched between Oxford and Regent Street, I’m piss wet through but without a care because I know I am on the way to a place on Little Portland Street that is going to be warm and dry, hopefully some like minded people and a great pint, oh and there is a small matter of Alan McGee and his latest Creation baby, Creation 23 putting on a night at The Social featuring “Wales Finest Punk Funkers, Young Garbo” plus a host of special guests including The Novus, songwriters, troubadours and punk rock n’rollers in Chris Grant, Christian Pattemore and Nadia Sheikh.
The Social is not the kind of place you expect around here, a bit of a hidden gem with a cosy little bar, currently a breathtaking photo exhibition and the velvet tones of The National gracing the speakers, that’s when I knew I was home. The downstairs stage area is intimate, it’s intimate but it’s where you want to see bands, great bands for the first time or the second or third time if you’re lucky. The Social just seems the perfect fit for Creation 23 and Alan McGee to showcase Young Garbo, I mean its punk, it’s indie and it’s what it’s all about right?
The Novus kicked off the evening and if ever there was a band to kick off an evening, The Novus are the band you want to do it. It’s rock n’ roll, it’s in your face, it’s tight, the frontman is a frontman and 3 lads with guitars and drums at their fingertips sound like 6 lads, I mean, It’s loud and it’s exactly what you want from a rock n’ roll band.
Christian Pattemore is a talent, a singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice, beautiful lyrics and just his acoustic guitar, jumping on the bus with Young Garbo, for those of us that were there it was worth the trip.
London based Nadia Sheikh has an amazing voice, delicate in places but fucking hell can she turn it on, amazing lyricist but it’s rock, sometime punk at times in this setting and well worth a delve deeper.
Liverpudlian Chris Grant just seemed to have something different about him, a voice that you won’t forget in a hurry and a great fucking tune called “Like a 45”
Over to you, Young Garbo. From the moment these boys set foot in the venue you could tell this band was a band before they had even got near a microphone. It’s punk, it’s rock n’ roll and at times it’s disco. It’s insane, they took the fucking roof off and they meant it, I can’t stress how fucking great this band are. McGee has unearthed and absolute fucking peach of a band, Wales finest?? UK’s finest?? I’d be happy putting them in either of these. In the week that Alan McGee told the NME that “new guitar music is great again” well fuck me, he wasn’t wrong was he?! Young Garbo only have a matter of time to enjoy playing venues like The Social and they better get used to playing Acadamy’s and then onto god only knows where. For me there are just different to anything out there, don’t get me wrong there are some fantastic guitar bands out there at the moment, for me that’s people like The Blinders, Fontaines D.C and Cabbage but Young Garbo seem to have something special, something different and it’s a sound of their own. A sound that you need to hear more of and you’ll just “get it” when you do.
I just have one small piece of advice to anyone reading this. Instead of sitting indoors on a rainy Tuesday thinking about how much you hate your job and that fact that you’ve got to deal with that cunty commute again in a few hours whilst deciding what new series to watch on Netflix ……. put down the remote, put the microwave meal back in the fridge and get your arse out to watch some new guitar bands because you might just be surprised by what you hear – rock n’ roll is still very much alive and it’s up to you, me, us and bands like Young Garbo and people like Alan McGee that have always believed that new music can be great if we just stay away from the mainstream. There is a world full of amazing talent out there and nights like this at The Social and venues such as The Social are so important for us as decent music fans to continue to be able to see great music live so get your lazy arses out and see this talent, at the very least you can have a few hours immersed in great music and forget about those fuckers at work.
Rock n’ Roll aint dead x
Ramble On 