HW: Bedouin/Alan Davey stuff

[rob burton]

Saw them at Newcastle under Lyme two weeks ago and totally agree with you.
Bedouin are awesome and need to get a cd out soon.

Rob


>From: Jon Jarrett <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
>Reply-To: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
>To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU
>Subject: Re: HW: Bedouin/Alan Davey stuff
>Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 23:15:06 +0100
>
>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"

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