Review of Listen to This
Our Listen to This event last week was reviewed in Echo by Steve Crancher yesterday:
Well worth a listen for £5
The first of Metal's Listen to This events last week was billed as featuring talks about Dr Feelgood's 1973 Esplanade gig and the Horrors' Junk Club sessions at the Roayl Hotel, 30 years later. The event, at the 19th century Chalkwell Hall, was sold out long before the night and, on this evidence, the others ought to be too.
The intro mentioned the concern this was an evening of talking about music, and it has once been said to do so was "akin to dancing to architecture". That said, the evening was a real triumph, with three talks, interspersed with clips of relevant performances.
Will Birch gave the first talk, telling us about Southend's early rock'n'roll years, with daytrippers from the East End looking to be entertained. His story took us into his own part in the local scene and we were priviledged to hear rather laconic entries from his 1972 diary. Dr Andrew Calcutt was next, intellectualising the theme, aligning popular music with social history and cultural references.
After the break came former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilco Johnson. He produced laughs galore while telling us about his role in Canvey's R&B legends, the Feelgoods. Although we ran out of time for the Junk Club, let's hope they can be included in a future event.
At a fiver for entry, this event was great value and I would highly recommend getting along over the coming weeks.
Steve Crancher, Echo, 29 February 2012
You can book your tickets here.
Written by Colette Bailey 01 March 2012