When you live in the basement of life as I do, you ponder all sorts of things. Things like what do Daleks do of a Saturday night? Go down the boozer and exterminate everybody maybe? I would hazard a guess that they probably wouldn’t be greatly interested in the music of Colin James Murphy, Rafiki, Rolled Up 20’s, Michelle Jean or Ripley although additional target practice would always be welcome. It’s a Dalek thing at the end of the day.
I have no doubt however that the hand of God would save Michelle Jean from extermination. One woman and a guitar might not seem like something special but Michelle Jean kept her feet nailed to the ground with a refreshingly naturalistic musical take on the world around her. A straightforward and direct performance perhaps – and one that reminded me of Jill Jackson - but a performance nonetheless.
Swaggering into target range next were the Rolled Up 20’s. Although the lead singer was far more into being in a rock band than his cautious onstage comrades, this was nevertheless a band with a decent degree of focus on what they were trying to achieve even if they were missing that fire in the belly that marks out the best rock bands. As an aside, nobody in their right mind would say “fire” to a Dalek.
I’ve heard it told that the Daleks once came to Coatbridge and immediately decided it wasn’t worth owning. Fortunately those metal conquerors did not exterminate everything as that would have deprived us of Ripley. Moving dextrously between power pop and post rock, Ripley would be rightly lauded if this were the nineties. However, it is now rather than then and Ripley might just be too good for these times.
Tonight was Rafiki’s first Glasgow appearance, or so I was told anyway, and they did indeed sound like a low mileage band. Tolerance is my middle name but a Dalek would probably have exterminated them on a point of principle. Daleks do that sort of thing.
Rounding things off for the night, and launching his new EP into orbit, was Colin James Murphy. He must have pissed off God personally given the technical problems that derailed his set right from the start. Still, he struggled on manfully to demonstrate he had the foundations of a good songwriter which is great for us as the world needs another songwriter to save us from passing Daleks.
You probably don't know this but Daleks don’t like pakora. It gives them the boke, apparently. That stroke of good fortune means more pakora for me. I am, once more, a man on a fried food mission.