THE DEL STRANGEFISH INEXPERIENCE – HOTEL PELIROCCO, BRIGHTON 5.4.24
Del ‘Strangefish’ Greening is rather well known around these parts on the account of being a co-founding member of those lairy ‘Peacehaven Wild Kids’ Peter & The Test Tube Babies (along with Peter Bywaters) who have been bringing smiles to the world of punk with their humorous tongue-in-cheek lyrics since the band’s formation way back in 1978.
Having been on the case with the ‘Test Tubes’ as well as being a former member of Flesh For Lulu, plus being a DJ on Radio Reverb and Rebellion Radio, there are many stories to tell and thus Del recently released his jovial 326 page ‘Jinxed: How Not To Rock’n’Roll’ book, the second edition of which can be snapped up HERE.
Tonight though is all about Del’s forthcoming debut album which is currently going under the working title of ‘The Inexperience’ – ‘First Day’. The inexperience is in reference to his own band The Del Strangefish Inexperience, who this evening are Del Strangefish (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jim Phelan (guitar), Dom Smith (bass) and Caveman Dave O’Brien (drums). It’s my very first time here at Hotel Pelirocco which is located at 10 Regency Square, Brighton, which is billed as “England’s most rock ‘n’ roll hotel” and boasts itself as “the original boutique hotel in Brighton – with 19 individually themed rock n roll bedrooms to choose from there‘s something to tickle every tastebud…”. With the variety of different themed bedrooms it is no wonder that they were voted “Number 1 on Trip Advisor from July 2022!” and “Best Independent Hotel 2019”. Sadly we aren’t here to check out the rooms, but here to listen to Del and his chums perform 10 tracks from the forthcoming album (plus a surprise medley), including their new single ‘Shiver’, for which there is a crew here tonight from Germany who are shooting the performance for a promo video of the track.
The performance is taking place in the compact lounge area of the hotel and those specially invited guests, (including UK Subs legend Charlie Harper), that are gathered for this (almost) secret performance are looking forward to seeing what the quartet have to offer. There’s so many in attendance they are literally bursting out of the compact room into the hallway. Thankfully we are positioned at the very front in order to not miss any action. Due to the venue being an actual hotel in a famous row of buildings, ear defenders are no longer required for the occasional special music performance here, as obviously they don’t want to upset their neighbours. The music however is sufficiently loud, but certain set adaptations have been made by Del and his chums, for instance Del has swapped his Gibson electric guitar for a Crafter acoustic guitar, and ‘Caveman’s drumkit doesn’t have the full deep drums but thin plastic skins instead. Jim and Dom are however sticking to their Fender guitar and Fender bass respectively. And so it’s with these set adaptations in mind we set about reviewing tonight’s performance.
At 9:01pm they kicked off with ‘You Get On My Nerves’ aka ‘Nervous’ which has a chugging beat with an easy singalong chorus and surprisingly there was even some dancing from the very off which was encouraging, especially as folk didn’t know the tune. Next up was the more rocky ‘Weak’ which goes “I need somebody to make me strong as I’m weak” and has the vibe of a Test Tubes number, especially the “Hey!” shouts. I preferred this tune to the opener and was rather already impressed with this soon to be released material. Selection three was ‘Highwire’ which was penned about drugs and this reminds me of The Heartbreakers, but with a pub rock style, but this was just as good as ‘Weak’. Tune four was ‘Up And Down’ and this certainly has a riff to remember, but isn’t as immediate as the previous two tunes in my mind.
Next up were a couple of tunes written by Del about not wanting to go out on tour anymore. The first of these being ‘Hassle Machine’ which opens with the statement “Shut up!” and is another decent tune, quite possibly their best of the set. It had a 1978 Jilted John vibe to it and Del light-heartedly exclaimed that he was hoping that the album doesn’t bring fame as they will have to go out on tour with it. Del’s style on the radio is light-hearted and witty and his demeanour spreads to his recorded work. The second tune regarding not wanting to tour was ‘Run Del Run’, with it’s “Run Del run into the sun this ain’t no f*cking fun” line. This surprisingly is a slower standard number which reminds me of Tom Petty. I would have thought a running tune would have been faster, but maybe it’s just tonight’s stripped back delivery? Sandwiched in between these two tunes was ‘Why Bother?’ which Del said was written about artists like Rod Stewart and Robert Palmer (RIP) who come back with a new album with only one new track on it. This song has another decent swinging beat with a repeated catchy chorus.
Selection eight was ‘No Hesitation’ and Del said it was time for some comedy, as they performed a stop-start intro and a momentary gap in the middle of the track. This strangely reminded me of Mink DeVille, I’ve no idea why, but it just had that late 1970’s vibe going down. It ended with “No no no…” without the “hesitation” at the end. Their penultimate main set track was ‘First Day’ which Del informs us is about “A first day at your new job. It’s the album title track”. This is a faster tune which put Del into a strumming frenzy on his acoustic guitar. This track for me was better than the last few tunes. They closed the set with their new single ‘Shiver’ which witnessed Del trade in his Crafter for his trust Gibson electric for the benefit of the German video crew who suddenly appeared and recorded the number for which they are going to make a promo video to accompany the track. Surprisingly this was a slower tune and can be likened to the first few single releases from Squeeze. It wouldn’t have personally been my choice of lead single from the forthcoming album, but clearly the guys know better.
Album done and it was encore time, not that they had enough room to vacate the performance area, so instead stayed put and rattled off an unlikely two tune medley combination of Peter And The Test Tube Babies first ever written tune ‘Elvis Is Dead’ which was on the (local) legendary ‘Vaultage 78 – Two Sides Of Brighton’ vinyl album released on the Attrix Records compilation, and this segued straight into the Elvis Presley smash ‘The Wonder Of You’. The time now being 9:43pm and that was our lot!
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised just how good this new material is, with some better than others, but in the main, I reckon it will be well worth the purchase price! So Del, get the release date sorted then!
Del Strangefish:
Del Strangefish – lead vocals, acoustic & electric guitars
Jim Phelan – guitar, backing vocals
Dom Smith – bass
‘Caveman’ Dave O’Brien – drums, backing vocals
Del Strangefish setlist:
‘Nervous’
‘Weak’
‘Highwire’
‘Up And Down’
‘Hassle Machine’
‘Why Bother?’
‘Run Del Run’
‘No Hesitation’
‘First Day’
‘Shiver’
‘Elvis Is Dead’
‘The Wonder Of You’
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