“You’re sounding fuckin good, London!” shouts The Twang’s frontman Phil Etheridge, midway through the opening ‘Took The Fun’, down in south-west London’s hot and sweaty Watershed. He could well have added rat-arsed too, given that most of the 300-plus punters packed into this warm-up show for their following night’s Guilfest appearance, had spent the previous 30-minute delay before the band took to the stage getting fuelled up on pints of lukewarm lager.
If ever there was a band to divide the music buying minds and music writing media then it’s The Twang. Three years ago, the five working-class lads from Birmingham were the plat du jour: hyped to the hilt, the new saviours seemingly of indie, producing a debut album (“Love It When I Feel Like This”) that rocked with the finest. Then last year, the follow-up, “Jewellery Quarter”, whilst a hit with their ever loyal army of fans, was largely slaughtered by the reviewing press (unfairly, perhaps, but that’s another matter) and gave another salvo in the armoury of their detractors. Along the way they have played to festival crowds of thousands, and venue audiences of four figures (their Birmingham 02 Academy show last year saw a 3000 capacity sell out) to, well, tonight’s relatively small Watershed.
Converted Twangers see them as one of their “own” (seemingly as opposed to, say, the likes of U2 or Coldplay who are, well, of the other ilk), and there’s a cross between devoted admiration and comfortable familiarity on the faces of the audience as they adhere to Etheridge and co-vocalist Saunders’s entreaties to vent their vocal chords, bounce up and down and generally let rip. Which they do. Each song is met with rapturous acknowledgement but it’s when they hit the evergreen “Either Way” that the place ignites. You’re likely to get thrown out if you don’t know the words by heart of what has become the Twang anthem, and this crowd certainly did. With Jon Watkin, as usual, putting in some sterling guitar work on bass quietly in the background, whilst Saunders as ever windmill arms a-waving, aids and abets Etheridge as he prowls the stage, coercing the singalong “I think I love ya’s” from the room.
The pace of the night is pretty much set with the likes of “Barney Rubble”, “Ice Cream Sundae” and “”Back Where We Started”, all powering along at a pace. “I’m expecting it to go mental for this next track,“ says Phil, as the first opening bars of “Wide Awake” ring out. And he’s right. Up go the arms, up go bodies onto the shoulders of others, and the crowd are ‘avin it, big time. It’s not all robustious testosterone-pumped swaggering energy though. They show they can do equally well with the jangly shuffle and disarmingly sentimental lyrics of “Encouraging Sign” and the brusingly fragile “Answer My Call”.
It has been a relatively quiet first half of the year for The Twang (which has also seen the departure of guitarist Stuart Hartland, and the introduction of newcomer Jimmy Jazz), during which time they have been working on an all-critical third album. Two new songs making their debut tonight: “Between The Lines” and “Don’t Take It To Heart” both flow in the familiar Twang style, although the latter with its catchy chorus line and bouncy rhythm could well have the makings of a potential future crowd pleaser. Tonight, let loose on a virgin audience, they are received politely, if a little distantly.
At the end of the night, the cleaners move in to mop up the lake of beer flowing across the floor, while the ardent fans shuffle outside to pose for photographs with various band members, while inebriatedly professing their undying love for “the lads”. The Twang may not be everyone’s preferred tipple, musically, but their down-to-earth approach and honest to goodness, what-you-see-is-what-you-get lack of pretension does makes them a little endearing in a way. Bless ‘em.
Photo courtesy of Roger Goodgroves
Alex Litton
