CLT DRP + ELLIS.D + BIG LONG SUN – THE OLD BLUE LAST, SHOREDITCH, LONDON 7.5.25
Tonight is the London launch gig for The Great Escape festival which will take place in Brighton next week. Therefore all of the bands appearing tonight are either from Brighton or are Brighton based. Headliners are CLT DRP, but before they appear there are two very interesting support bands to entertain us.
First up we have Jamie Broughton’s band Big Long Sun who I reviewed when they supported Van Zon at Brighton’s Hope & Ruin back in January (Review HERE). They are a heavily psychedelia influenced eight piece, and I recognise most of them, so it doesn’t look as if their line-up has changed in the four months since I last saw them. What also hasn’t changed is that live Big Long Sun have a lot of interesting stuff going on, starting with opening song ‘When The Mood’s Right’’s reverb-drenched Floydian guitar swoops.
‘Ad Dominum’ has a surprisingly funky bass intro from Malte, with the backing vocalists together with violinist Mina Alexander adding some storming percussion. There’s also some very psychedelic guitar. ‘Love In A Day’ starts in 6/8, and then goes into 4/4 for a guitar freak-out (that’s what my Grandad tells me they were called ‘back in the day’ anyway). Both guitarists solo throughout the set. This band and their material definitely hark back to a bygone era. However, they don’t ape the past. They take what was done before and add to it. For example, ‘The Sound’ has a sonic flavour of 1966-67, until the guitars come in. They are much heavier than anything that could have been achieved in the mid 1960s.
‘Homme De Plus’ wears a Syd Barrett influence proudly on its sleeve, but is far more together than anything Barrett produced as a solo artist. During ‘Orpheus Wakes Up!’ the guitarist who isn’t Jamie Broughton appears to be playing his guitar with his teeth. It looks great, but seems to have no audible impact. He does this again later in the set, again unfortunately with the same lack of effect. It probably sounded wonderful in rehearsal! ‘Between The Air and the Water’ is a definite highlight of the set, with the vocals and backing vocals having something of a sepulchral air. Jamie announces the last song, ‘Such A Scream’, and describes it as “a little parting gift”. It features an impressive falsetto from Jamie, which we didn’t hear earlier in the set. The song’s something of a banger. There’s a bit of Super Furry Animals about it. One of the backing vocalists ‘plays’ a siren through a megaphone, and then proceeds to make unintelligible announcements through it. They were probably quite important…. Big Long Sun are one of the more interesting and accomplished bands that I’ve seen for a while. Keep up the good work guys.
Big Long Sun:
Jamie Broughton – guitar and vocals
Mina Alexander – violin and vocals
Malte – bass
Tom – drums
Ocean – backing vocals and percussion
Zosia – backing vocals and percussion
Bobby – synth and vocals
Olly – guitar
Big Long Sun setlist:
‘When The Mood’s Right’
‘Ad Dominum’
‘Love In A Day’
‘The Sound’
‘Homme De Plus’
‘Orpheus Wakes Up!’
‘Moth Star’
‘Heaven Is By Your Side’
‘Between the Air and the Water’
‘Such A Scream’
bfan.link/big-long-sun-speaking
Next up we have ELLiS·D (better known to his mum as Ellis Dickson). ELLiS·D is a drummer who became a solo artist, although he plays live with a band. I can’t think of many people who have made that particular transition. Only Iggy Pop springs to mind, although doubtless there are many others. The band come onstage to an initially disgracefully sparse crowd, although the room does gradually fill up. The first song starts with a whole band cacophony, before a passage with just Ellis and his guitar, before the whole band come in again. The lead guitarist looks disturbingly like Duane Allman. I’m not sure whether he ever made it over to the UK, and if he did, it’s unlikely that he would be haunting The Old Blue Last. The opening song is something of an epic. There are a few time signature changes and the drumming is particularly impressive.
‘Shakedown’ also has a touch of the epic about it. It starts with a guitar squall from Ellis, and also features a solo keyboard interlude. ‘Humdrum’ is probably one of the better known songs in the set, and has more of a post-punk flavour, particularly with regard to the bass line. Most of the songs are fairly complex, with the aforementioned time signature changes, and also the fact that many of them stop mid-song, only to restart, often catching the audience on the hop. ‘Insect’ is a case in point, with Ellis cracking up as some of the audience applaud. This song has a drum intro that is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock And Roll’, but on steroids. The riff becomes rather Sabbath-esque, and then speeds up after pausing.
Ellis announces the last song, to some vocally expressed disappointment. However, he tells us not to worry, as “it’s really f*cking long!”. He’s not lying. It’s long and once again, multi-sectioned. There’s a guitar duel! Ellis and the Duane Allman lookalike are literally head to head!!! Like all good things, the song has to come to an end, and it does so with a cataclysmic drum-led finish. Whilst ELLiS·D is technically a solo artist, this is very much a band. Like the other bands playing tonight, they’re playing The Great Escape. Go see ‘em!!!
ELLiS·D:
Ellis Dickson –vocals, guitar
Sammy Jones – bass
Harrison Whitman – guitar
Kianna Blue – keys
Jed Johnson – drums
ELLiS·D setlist:
‘Chasing The Blue’
‘Shakedown’
‘Humdrum’
‘Spill’
‘Insect’
‘Drifting’
craftingroomrecordings.bandcamp.com
I’ve seen CLT DRP (no – I don’t know how to pronounce it either) a couple of times before at festivals, and was under the impression that quite a bit of their sound (the bass parts in particular) were on the backing track. Tonight I am proven wrong. As guitarist Scott’s pedal board is being carried onstage, I can’t help thinking that it must be the biggest pedal board in the world!!! Well, there’s a reason for that. Those pedals (I didn’t count them, but there were a lot) give Scott’s guitar a very wide sonic vocabulary, and I can confirm that everything that you hear coming out of the speakers, is played onstage. I must confess that this makes me see the band in a different light! There’s nothing wrong with using a backing track per se, but……
Drummer Daphne is utterly awesome, indeed the whole band is incredibly tight. Their music is a maelstrom, but in a good way. It’s undoubtedly wild, but it’s controlled at the same time. It’s a long time since I’ve watched a guitarist and thought “how’s he doing that?” It’s happening tonight though. This is pure rock ‘n’ roll, with elements of rap and hip-hop, but mostly rock. Annie Dorrett is a fantastic frontperson, and has a great rapport with the audience. They ask the audience to scream, and don’t have to ask twice! The last song has machine gun drums and a deliciously funky guitar riff. I wish their set could go on for ever, but it doesn’t. Indeed, they’re gone after 25 minutes. Short but sweet!! I don’t think anybody feels short-changed – it was after all a free gig!!! The Beatles only used to play for 25 minutes anyway, so CLT DRP are in good company!
All three of tonight’s bands play at The Great Escape. I’ll be seeing them all there.
CLT DRP:
Annie Dorrett – vocals
Scott Reynolds – guitar & bass
Daphne Koskeridou – drums
