Dressed Naked, Johnny Horizontal, Glyn Bailey @ Billys, Rhyl
(review n pix by neil crud)
On hearing Glyn Bailey‘s voice I was immediately drawn to the need to go home and stick on David Bowie’s ‘Heathen’ album – even if you don’t like the Thin White Duke, that’s one LP you should at least listen to, if not own. The Bowie comparison was cemented by song 2 when Glyn (pic below) played ‘Andy Warhol’ off the Hunky Dory album, his only cover of the pretty impressive performance in a cabaret kind of way.
With a guitarist as bald as I am in tow and a pre-programmed and chunky sounding backing track, he kicked off with ‘School Reunion – The Class of 1970’ – surely he can’t be that old?
From the acoustic Nick Harper-esq previous encounters which should’ve been shunted across to the Nant Hall, this performance was far more to my liking. Agreed; the emo-kids couldn’t have hopped on one leg while carving their names on their chests and they chitter chattered throughout the set. But to us duffers at the back there was enough to hold our attention as Glyn and sidekick pumped out his new (and free) CD ‘Songs From The Old Illawalla’, with shades of Lux Interior doing a Stars In Their Eyes of Andrew Eldritch, complete with a foot pedal activated strobe light. Chuck a bit of flour over that nice velvet black jacket!
By song 5 he’d turned into Stan Ridgeway… Is there no stopping this man..!
My reason for pedalling the 4 miles into town tonight, ingesting midgey flies through my eyes on the way, was for all things Johnny Horizontal. They were so good I had to celebrate with the Fatman and have a fair few pints too many, thus rendering my bike jobless (I got a taxi) and me jobless (I stayed in bed).
Call them shoegazers, wishy washy, wankers even! But Johnny Horizontal (top pic) are nothing short of sublime excellence. Three guitarists one drummer, no words and five, maybe six ‘songs’ constructed around the weather. Starts off with a light wind, before the drizzly rain sets in, a few gusts and then the thunder and lightning crashes around you and the downpour begins; and yet all the way through the sun is shining brightly (I really must stop smoking this stuff!!).
Sync and Fatman reckon kids from Denbigh should be out smashing windows and vandalising phone boxes, not playing music like this, although we did notice on the way home that all the phone boxes in town had self ignited in a supernatural horizontal kind of way!
I didn’t want it to stop and when I got in I snorted some acid laced cornflakes and spent the rest of the night tripping the light fantastic.
Shame it went over the heads of the plebs.
Jumping on the bandwagon of every band that ever was has now reformed, Dressed Naked have done so. I’ve even heard that the Arctic Monkeys have split up just so they can cash in on a reunion tour next week!
Sync, with some inside knowledge prepared me to the fact that the opening number was a cover of Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ – you fucking twats! Read my blog, you’ll see that song has a profound affect on me, bringing poignant memories of my youth. After borrowing a razor from an emo-kid I had sufficiently self harmed the sorrow from my veins and got on with the show.
This was the best I had seen Dressed Naked (pic below) and the best they had sounded. Most of the songs were recognisable; after all, I’ve seen them probably 5 times, and they had a big audience to cheer them on. The vocals have never been the band’s strong point, and I guess they don’t really care, it’s all about having a laugh and enjoying yourselves and that’s what we all did.
Video Killed The Radio Star (live in Rhyl July 2007)
You Were Gone Alcohol and Weed Flaunt It She Youth Swank Useless Ambition |
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