HW: Bedouin/Alan Davey stuff

[Jon Jarrett]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Neil Ward wrote:

> Alan then wanted Bedouin to play some gigs Feb/March, but did not want to
> book anything which might clash with Hawkwind dates, so they got held off
> until the Hawk dates were confirmed. This is why there was no chance of him
> playing the Cambridge Rock Society gig in early March, which he was not
> actually contacted about properly until mid/late January. He is still
> willing to play this or any other venue, but only if they don't clash with
> any proposed future Hawkwind dates, other projects, etc. He said he was
> still waiting to hear back from the promoters confirming the Cambridge gig,
> and very much resents being accused of 'he couldn't be arsed to sort out a
> gig in Cambridge' by some. (There, I've put it in nice words rather than
> quoting Alan directly :-) )

        Well, since I've just found this lying in the lesser-trod portions
of my INBOX (which you may have noticed have been undergoing a clearout
lately), I felt I should post a review of that there gig that eventually
did get organised. Obviously it's not impartial :-) But this will be going
up on that BBS I usually write my reviews for, and so though it preaches
to knowlessmen I thought some of you might be interested anyway...

Subject: Bedouin + The Nova Express, Cambridge Boat Race, 18/05/01

        "Okay, it's difficult to be dispassionate about this one
considering I started it. Andy Hudson did the work but I linked the people
up. You may therefore be unsurprised to discover I thought it was great.
Do I ever go to a bad gig, you may be asking? Well of course not! Why
would you? I can't afford many gigs, I make bloody sure I go and see good
bands. And Hawkwind of course but just lately they've been on the nail
anyway.

        "This sort of gets me onto the actual gig of which I speak, in
that Alan Davey, who is Bedouin's main man and plays the bass and sings,
is also in Hawkwind. But first, The Nova Express. Paul Simmons, their
guitarist, had described them to me as noisy punk acid folk sort of stuff
with female vocals, and that was all I knew as they took the stage except
that the drummer looked like a dweeb but was apparently going out with the
clearly personality- and brains-full singer. So I was quite pleasantly
surprised to find that they sounded a lot like a punk band founded by and
sung for by Tori Amos. The singer wasn't as good as Tori or anything but
she sounded that way, and on an empirical scale she was pretty good.
Everything from the jagged-edge gasping sigh through the achingly sweet
melodic melancholy to the full-out teeth-bared punk bitch yell. But she
had pigtails. And her other problem was being upstaged by Paul. He is
really an excellent guitarist. Psychedelic doesn't cover it. He plays
beautifully. And also riffs like a so-and-so. At different points, and
sometimes even at the same ones. His technical ability may not be as good
as say, Bari Watts or Steve Hillage, to name two psych guitar kings, but
his diversity of styles is massive and he seems natural with it. He played
one song with a bow. He also has a ruddy huge Orange amp which always
helps. But she kept attention on herself when he wasn't soloing. Her face
doesn't carry as much as her voice so watching her was slightly odd. Also
she sang to the drummer a lot of the time so the audience had to look at
her rear. Nice enough but that's not the point as far as expressing your
words goes.

        "I did like her attitude though. Brought up there for no money
worth mentioning to do a gig for a different band's slot, she had them do
an Alchemysts number, `so you can hear what that sounds like. When it's
done properly.' And they made several new fans. Their set-list, as she
wrote it down, was: 2 Bit Punk/ Clone Star/ Electro (the Alchemysts
number)/ False Ramblin/ Ten Lions/ She Moves through the Fair (yes that
one, done in 4/4 with guitar breaks). So if you get a chance go see them,
they're good. Album out some time soon.

        "Bedouin get better every time I see them. As I said to Alan. To
which he said, `That's the point, isn't it?' But they were bloody good.
Bedouin sound, often, like a psychedelic Motorhead. Except that they
occasionally attempt to sound vaguely Arabic, and their songs go on for
longer and have more complexity. But in terms of speed and attack, they're
in that space. With the synths up as well there doesn't come any more
high-octane a brand of space rock than this. How it should be done. And
they didn't disappoint. Danny Thompson isn't the best drummer in the world
but he's good enough now. Glenn Povey isn't the greatest guitarist in the
world but he's getting better than just being a Fast Eddie Clarke replica
as he used to be and that was still quite good. Alan plays very well
indeed as long as you're not one of these bass pedants who thinks that
treating it like a guitar is a bad thing to do. He can't sing but neither
can Lemmy (no small influence on Mr. Davey).

        "I think what's worth mentioning more than that they kicked our
behinds brutally and that `ya know, it's a good kind of hurt,' and things
like that, that their sense of light and shade has developed in the years
they've been on the road (which are, even in this line-up, beginning to
approach three with no bloody album out yet - Alan's ideas about promotion
are rather old-fashioned, he won't release an album until he has a good
deal and he won't have his stuff up for download, which as we know
basically radio play to targeted listeners as far a promotion goes, so
there's naff-all product except CD-Rs going for a tenner with sub-album
material on them... mmm.) and that they play more interesting stuff than
Motorhead who nevertheless remain their closest point of comparison. So if
that sounds good try and catch them. I did and I still hurt from moshing
in a state of utter but uncaring fatigue. Album will be out in August, he
says.

        "Set-list was, for those in the know about such things: LSD
(Hawkwind number of Alan's)/ Say Goodbye to Babylon/ Rock Palace/ As Above
So Below (this is such a good song)/ Air Space/ Elric Pt. 2 (Hawkwind
again)/ One Moon Circles/ Demons in Denial/ Wings (another Hawkwind song
transformed by the Bedouin arrangement)/ Sputnik Stan/ Dagger Dance/
Vision Quest// Chasing the Dragon. Which missed out nothing I wanted to
hear except maybe `Arioch' and `The Call' but believe me I’m not
complaining. 18/20."

        Yours,
                Jon
--
       Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
   =====================================================================
  "There is a certain pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know"