I did go and see Spear of Destiny with special guests Crazy Pink Revolvers in Leicester on Tuesday night. CPR really were
special guests - a much misused term I’ve often found as it is frequently a euphemism for ‘crappy local band you’ve never heard of and hope to never hear of again!’ - as they were formed, and are now fronted, by none other than Theatre of Hate’s (and ex-Straps, Spear of Destiny, etc., etc.) Stan Stammers. For those of you desperate for the set list, they played:
Rest of my Life;
Let the River Live;
Brixton Nights;
God Click Snap;
Wednesday 19:45;
Dragon Time;
Saddest Blue;
High Plains Drifter; and
The Driver.
Stan now sings, and as a singer, he’s a great bassist! In fairness, Dan Drummond was never the best singer, so no great loss there. If you’ve never seen them, they have a rather unusual line up: guitar, drums, 'rhythm bass' and Stan on lead bass. They were joined by Clive Osborne on sax for a couple of numbers too. Anyway, their mix of post-punk tinged with occasional blues rock and reggae, went down nicely. At one point they even ventured mid-song into a tribute to their old touring mates, The Clash, by incorporating “Bank Robber” into their material – nice one. Catch them if you can as they are only on the tour for the next three dates.
http://www.crazypinkrevolvers.com/ Spear of Destiny stormed through a fourteen song set focusing mainly on new album “Tontine” and their first one “Grapes of Wrath” (as it is its 35th anniversary), but included material from all of Kirk’s career. Proof of this came in the encore where an absolutely barnstorming version of The Pack’s “King of Kings” was sandwiched between “The Wheel” and “Liberator”. This gig was unusual as it was a rare outing for any performance involving Kirk Brandon not to include “Westworld” – as rare as a TV gig without GGE! “Super Sub” Clive Osborne joined them on sax for a couple of songs, as did Sam Sansbury on cello. Steve Jones (
still not that one!) was also ever-present on keyboards. Cracking stuff! I intend to catch them in Nottingham next week too, but sadly, without CPR this time.
10/10: A great night – although I did get a bit too close to the PA for comfort as my ears were ringing all of yesterday.
What?
What?https://www.kirkbrandon.com/shows