Psicle: The Rebel part 1

It's a wet and windy night (Storm Dennis) so Debbie and I call a cab rather than cycle. We arrive first and having bought drinks and chatting propped up at the bar soon enough Cardinal Fang take the stage. An odd looking group. Well, the front man definitely is in with an odd Aussie / public schoolboy look about him. The keyboard player looks like a guy I knew in Birmingham being one of the Mayhem Merchants (don't ask). They start off a bit odd, like they look, and haphazard with nothing quite fitting in. I couldn't hear the guitar (front man) that much and think he was playing the odd clashing bit rather than a rhythm. Mainly pushed along by the keyboards and their drum machine with the bassist and guitars and vocals popping in a bit. But they gradually pick up into what turns out to be a really good sort of Talking Heads, Hugh Cornwell, psych ish groove. So unsure whether the start was not as they wanted or part of the build up. Anyways left us on a high. By this time Pete, Wendy and Todd have arrived so we get a round and pop out back to brave the storm with the kids. Next up are a threesome of a drummer and two bassists. It's my sort of line up. The woman sings and plays traditional bass lines pushing the songs along with the drummer whilst the bloke on the other bass uses it more like a guitar running around the bottom of the neck (the high notes) and hitting chords too. He's very animated throwing guitar hero poses as he's playing which is a bit off putting both aesthetically and health and safety wise on the small Windmill stage. Sorry, I didn't say we're at the Windmill. Where else on a Saturday night!? The woman singer looks the part for a heavy rocker think Joan Jett and the Runaways. And she's a yank. It's a right rollicking rocking set with just the right amount of straight up heavy rock mixed with a modern groove. Yeah, Pretty Sick are pretty damn sick as the kids would say. So I'm enjoying it so far. And more to come. We hang around inside rather than getting beaten up by Dennis outside and the signs are not good. ELP and other prog rock on the sound system with the only relief being Reward which me and Pete can't think for the life of us who did it but Debs comes up with Julian Cope and of course it's The Teardrop Explodes. So maybe our prog rockers will have a psychedelic tinge? So next up are a twee looking group with a less that twee name Black Bordello. We've had 2 trios and we have an extra now. Drummer, bassist, keyboards and singer guitarist (the woman in the band). Again, a slowish start slightly meandering around the slower light side of indie mixed with a little bit of jazz and even a bit of French chanteuse thrown in reminding me of the Contrieres festival with the climax of Anti Social which turned out to be by a French band and not Skrewdriver. I digress. Wouldn't say it was prog rock though. Phew. Black Bordello pick up as they go on with the bassist especially impressing with his running style. I was watching in awe thinking that I'll have to stay with rock standards rather than tackle anything approaching jazz. I digress further. They come together with some fabulous indie arty jazz club tunes reminiscent of The Creatures that fabulous post Banshees Siouxsie and Budgie band. And our singer guitarist sounds like Siouxsie with strong soaring vocals and a great vocal range. She ditches the guitar and I think that makes the vocals even more of a core part of each song. At one point she says they're going to do a rock cover but I didn't recognise it. Perhaps some obscure Yes track beefed up a bit? They go down very well with the punters and a fair bit of grooving going on which to be fair the other two groups had too. After I say to the singer how good she was and reminds me of The Creatures. She hadn't heard of them but knew of Siouxsie and promised to check them out. Am sure bands get fed up with me telling them that they remind me of some band from the 1980s. I called her out for putting on prog rock but she said she liked it. Ah well. She also said she'd trained as an opera singer which explains the strong and versatile voice. From the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden to the Windmill up Brixton Hill. I know which I'd rather be playing at. Last up is the headliner (obviously!) The Rebel who is old enough to be the father of everyone else who's played and apparently is an old hand on the music scene. He's oddly dressed in a Superman baseball hat (not good) and comes with simply a guitar and musical box of tricks (aka synth drum machine thing). Again, a slowing slightly incoherent start although the lyrics if you catch them are meaningful and he's a good guitar player. As we get into the set he puts the box to good use pumping out a dancy beat and we're eased, or rather slung, into a full on banging dance party vibe with slick guitars and well yeah we all love it and feet are moving body grooving. Difficult to explain the sound but think of a hard core dance version of Killing an Arab with more psyche than The Cure (and they had it live) which is exactly what it was cos he covered that early Cure classic. Lovely. He has a Tuesday night residency here throughout June so we'll have to come back. After all the excitement we troop outside with Debs still clutching the bunch of bananas (did I forget to say these were a present from Wendy - very practical at a gig) to use our Uber apps. As usual I have major issues with two drivers who are meant to "at your location" calling me to say that they "can't get through the closed gates". I told them to go via Brixton Hill the fuckwits. Eventually Debbie takes control of my phone and one miraculously arrives within 2 minutes. Why can't I use Uber? Anyways it doesn't spoil another great evening at the Brixton Windmill. And the grumpy bar man (who threatened to chuck Simon out cos he had a bottle with him once) seems to have gone. And I re-instated the The Burnout sticker in the bogs. See pics.