words Lee Taylor
This is the latest band to be touted and courted by Alan McGee, legendary music svengali who discovered Oasis and Primal Scream. He’s heralded some flops and stinkers too but that’s not in the script.
This endorsement meant for a strange crowd at the Deaf Institute. The crowd really varied in terms of age and style. There were some old punks desperately hoping for those ancient punk flames to spark back into life. There was an older trendy crowd to here to see the next big thing. There were also some very fresh faced nerdy neo-punk types who looked like about as far away from punk as you could possible get. Still they’d done their homework and did a studied portrayal of po-going as the band strutted their stuff. A couple of very old punks tried to join in reliving the glory days.
The Clockworks themselves do have a whiff of the real thing. It’s tight, aggressive and they look like they mean it. Some of the songs really cut through with the staccato spoken word delivery. ‘Bills and Pill’s has some great lines. Simple, direct and funny.
It went down well at the Deaf Institute. It’s a small intimate venue and so the power of the band really hit you. When they stick to the angry and sarcastic vocal lines this band are great. There seemed to be a dip in the middle of the set where they showcased some newer songs that were not quite strong enough at least not yet. They finished though with a flourish.
One of the standouts for me was ‘Can I Speak to a Manager?’ We can all relate to the frustration of trying to speak to someone to sort out a problem on the phone. Down the rabbit hole of digital communications where we just seem to hit robots and automated switchboards when trying to sort an urgent life problem. The band hung around at the end freely talking to people in the crowd. The older punks strutted off home to bed with a tear in their eyes.
The band continue their tour at:
Oct 13th – The Garage London
Oct 14th – Rough Trade Bristol
Nov 4th – USC Newtownabbey
