JIM JONES ALL STARS + SCARE TAXI – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 18.10.24
Jim Jones All Stars is the current vehicle for the eponymous garage rock cult hero, former frontman of Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses, The Jim Jones Revue, and Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind. This lineup formed during the pandemic, and with a horn section of honking saxophones, adds a dash of soul to the blend of dirty rock’n’roll and punky blues energy that established Jim Jones’ formidable reputation for incendiary live shows. A debut album, ‘Ain’t No Peril’ was recorded in Memphis and released in September 2023, and the band toured the UK and Europe earlier this year supporting The Black Crowes. The present headline tour is mischievously titled ‘We’re All Billionaires Now’, and tonight’s Brighton date at The Prince Albert sold out so quickly that an extra show was slotted in last night. That sold out too, and by all accounts was a spectacular performance, so there’s a palpable buzz of anticipation as we all file up the stairs to the first floor live room.
The relatively intimate space fills quickly during an excellent set by local support act Scare Taxi, which is described in more detail below, and by 9.30pm it’s time for the main event. There are eight players tonight in the Jim Jones All Stars, and there’s a loud cheer as they crowd onto the stage and launch into an intro piece of tumbling drums and stabbing guitars. This builds to a crescendo and segues neatly into the swelling organ and lolloping lilt of ‘Cement Mixer’, a classic from the 2008 debut album by The Jim Jones Revue.
The massive keyboard sound emanates from former Revue member Elliot Mortimer, who is tucked away house right, behind the twin sax horn section of Stuart Dace on tenor and Tom Hodges on baritone. The main man is front and centre, as you would expect, looking cool in a fancy waistcoat and toting a particularly stylish BillyBoy guitar. Behind him, Aidan Sinclair is giving the kit a thorough pounding, and house left we have guitarist Carlton Mounsher, sporting a wide-brimmed hat and riffing hard on what looks like a Jazzmaster with a Strat neck. Bassist Gavin Jay, another Revue veteran, is particularly animated, whilst backing singer Ali Jones is rocking a 1960s look and rattling a tambourine.
It’s clear from the get-go that we’re in for a blistering show. The twin saxes lead ‘When You See Me Hurt’, a cover of a 1961 single by Carl Lester with the kind of funky sound popularised by James Brown. The stomping beat is punctuated by big stabs, and the horn players exude a classic cool lifting their instruments in unison. Jim’s vocal is raw and urgent, reinforced with plenty of soulful backing. He dispenses with his guitar for ‘Burning Your House Down’, and Elliot gets busy on piano. Sax player Tom is off stage and into the crowd, and Carlton showboats with wailing guitar. A nifty motif of howling lead drives the insanely dancey ‘Gimme The Grease’, from the recent album. A busy shuffle beat leads to an absolutely glorious tenor sax solo by Stuart, whose sartorial choices of big hat and sparkly western shirt warrant a mention too.‘Parchman Farm Blues’ is a cover of a 1940s Delta blues number, propelled briskly by stuttering handclaps and busy boogie piano. There’s more great sax playing, a series of key changes, neatly executed stops, and a massive build in intensity. I suspect the kitchen sink might be in there too.
Jim tells us that a new album is due soon, and they are working on material for it. ‘Let U Go’ sounds very promising indeed, with thumping toms and a powerfully soulful vocal. Aidan gets some tasty drum breaks in amongst the descending riffs of ‘Drink Me’, from the last album, and I’m surprised and delighted when The Velvet Underground classic ‘Run Run Run’ gets the big soul treatment, with a thumping beat and an audience singalong section. Thunderous drums underpin chunky rhythm guitar on the brilliant ‘1000 Fire Horns’, which is new to me at least, and I am powerless to resist dancing to ‘I Want You (Anyway I Can)’, which to my ears is pure James Brown. The beat is unfeasibly insistent, and Gavin adds a great bass throb amongst a lovely descending keyboard line. The familiar twanging riff launches an excellent cover of The Cramps’ ‘Human Fly’, with Gavin thrusting his headstock upwards between glowering bass hits.
There’s an effective dual vocal between Jim and Ali on another catchy newer number ‘Make It Rain’, whose breakdown features deep baritone sax from Tom, who has managed to cover all of the available stage and dance floor as the set progresses. A marked rhythm change segues into the big riffing of ‘Cat Fight’. The title of ‘Satan’s Got His Heart Set on You’, a Righteous Mind number, seems more polite than the lyric. The personification of evil actually has “a hard on for you”, which is a fine opportunity for Jim to single out individual crowd members. He instigates another singalong on a straight cover of ‘Troglodyte’ by The Jimmy Castor Bunch, though repeatedly singing “sock it to me” at breakneck pace proves rather more difficult than it sounds.
The slightly more sedate r’n’b vibe of ‘The Greatest Love’ provides the calm before a storm of older numbers to finish the set. ‘Rock N Roll Psychosis’ is a piano driven hurricane from the Revue debut album, and we go back to the days of Thee Hypnotics with the glowering riff of the magnificent ‘Shakedown’. The crowd roar their approval, and Jim bids us goodnight. The band would go off and come back for an encore, but as the route to the dressing room is through the packed crowd, they wisely decide to stay put.
“Have we got time for one more?” Jim enquires. Of course they have, and they actually play three more songs. Jim’s had a bit of a cold, and encourages the audience to help him by singing along to the familiar hooks of The Beatles’ ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’. It’s a cracking version, followed by a stratospherically soaring soul workout on a cover of Eddie Floyd’s ‘Big Bird’, given extra lift by brilliant chanted backing vocals on a wonderful chorus progression of trebly guitar, swelling organ, and punchy bass octaves. It’s utterly sublime. We end a brilliant evening’s entertainment with some appropriately dirty rock’n’roll, the manic piano-driven ‘512’, the front row players all holding their instruments aloft in triumph at its conclusion.
Jim Jones has a reputation for awesome live shows, and tonight certainly didn’t disappoint. I was hugely impressed with the expansive soul sound of the current band, and will be very much looking forward to the next album.
Jim Jones All Stars:
Jim Jones – vocals, guitar
Elliot Mortimer – keyboards, percussion
Gavin Jay – bass
Carlton Mounsher – guitar, backing vocals
Ali Jones – backing vocals, percussion
Aidan Sinclair – drums
Stuart Dace – tenor saxophone
Tom Hodges – baritone saxophone
Jim Jones All Stars setlist:
‘Intro’
‘Cement Mixer’ (from 2008 album ‘The Jim Jones Revue’ as The Jim Jones Revue)
‘When You See Me Hurt’ (Carl Lester and The Show Stoppers cover)
‘Burning Your House Down’ (from 2010 album ‘Burning Your House Down’ as The Jim Jones Revue)
‘Gimme The Grease’ (from 2023 ‘Ain’t No Peril’ album)
‘Parchman Farm Blues’ (Bukka White cover)
‘Let U Go’ (unreleased)
‘Drink Me’ (from 2023 ‘Ain’t No Peril’ album)
‘Run Run Run’ (The Velvet Underground cover)
‘1000 Fire Horns’ (unreleased)
‘I Want You (Anyway I Can)’ (from 2023 ‘Ain’t No Peril’ album)
‘Human Fly’ (The Cramps cover)
‘Make It Rain’ (unreleased)
‘Cat Fight’ (unreleased)
‘Satan’s Got His Heart Set On You’ (from 2019 ‘CollectiV’ album as Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind)
‘Troglodyte’ (The Jimmy Castor Bunch cover)
‘The Greatest Love’ (Lee Dorsey cover)
‘Rock N Roll Psychosis’ (from 2008 ‘The Jim Jones Revue’ album as The Jim Jones Revue)
‘Shakedown’ (from 1991 ‘Soul, Glitter And Sin’ album as Thee Hypnotics)
(encore)
‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’ (The Beatles cover)
‘Big Bird’ (Eddie Floyd cover)
‘512’ (from 2008 ‘The Jim Jones Revue’ album as The Jim Jones Revue)
Support tonight is from Scare Taxi, a local act who describe their sound as “trash rock”. I’ve seen them before and was really impressed, and very much enjoyed their 2019 debut album ‘Death By Music’. They have previously played with live drummers, but seem to have settled on the core duo of Alexander Boag and Tara Guitara, with drums supplied by a rack mounted unit controlled by a foot switch. Tara is house left, her dark t-shirt contrasting with a white Jazz bass adorned with stickers. Boag, as he likes to be known, is house right and 100% rock with black spiky hair, a white outfit and a white Telecaster with a black scratchplate. He was formerly in 1990s glam punks These Animal Men, so has had plenty of time to perfect his extensive repertoire of cool moves and slick tricks.
There’s a tiny false start with the mechanical drummer beginning the wrong song, an error that I imagine would be equally possible with a live player. We get properly underway with ‘Great Things On My Mind’, a brilliantly catchy piece from the debut album, with Boag taking the lead vocal and Tara joining in on an insistent chorus motif of staccato pushes. Tara sings lead on ‘Fly’, its jolting rhythm accompanied by a cool jerky dance. Boag throws some shapes whilst delivering wailing guitar lines, and the rack unit gets busy around the toms. My very limited knowledge of Spanish is just about sufficient to deduce that recent single ‘El Lobo Solitario’ means “The Lone Wolf”. I’m rather taken with the line “admitting the past and not being an ass” and the impressive sweep of the instrumental section.
Vocal duties revert to Tara for another recent single, ‘Gimme Sensation’, a moody and introspective piece. The rhythm switches to rim shots and it sounds like there’s some additional keyboard on the track too, which works well to enhance the vibe. ‘Anna’ has a choppy riff alternating with jangling treble, and the jolting groove of recent single ‘Personality Junkyard’ is augmented by more tasteful backing. Boag adopts some wild-eyed poses as the number builds, and the neat ending is topped off by a cool leg kick from Tara.
The last three songs in the set are new to me. ‘Perfectly Cruel’ features a lot of atmospheric backing interspersed with busy tremolo strumming, and there’s a great dual vocal on the chorus of ‘Animal Heart’ as Boag lets rip on guitar. Final number ‘Senseless’ is equally urgent, driven by trebly stabs. The quality of songwriting is one of the main strengths of Scare Taxi, and I’m hoping that this year’s flurry of singles, along with unfamiliar numbers on the setlist, is heralding the arrival of another album before too long.
Scare Taxi:
Alexander Boag – vocals, guitar
Tara ‘Guitara’ Harley – vocals, bass
Scare Taxi set:
‘Great Things On My Mind’ (from 2019 album ‘Death By Music’)
‘Fly’ (from 2019 album ‘Death By Music’)
‘El Lobo Solitario’ (a 2024 single)
‘Gimme Sensation’ (a 2024 single)
‘Anna’ (from 2019 album ‘Death By Music’)
‘Personality Junkyard’ (a 2024 single)
‘Perfectly Cruel’ (unreleased)
‘Animal Heart’ (unreleased)
‘Senseless’ (unreleased)
