Here&Now at the Fighting Cocks

My main interest in going to the Fighting Cocks on a Thursday evening was to see the support band, INdisciplineD, and so it was a bonus to also have the much heralded Here&Now headlining.

Their fame had escaped me but not many of my friends and I found myself in a room full of familiar faces.

Wikipedia tells me that they were formed in 1974 and have been associated with Gong so it is even more surprising that I had not come across them before.

There sound is reassuringly psychedelic and spacey with the electronic whoops and tweets brought to the attention of the masses by early Hawkwind.

There is also a surprising (to me anyway) dollop of reggae/ska, The overall result feels like it was birthed in the late 70s from Hawkwind and The Specials. And that's a parentage to be proud of.

I recognised the sounds that they were making but none of the songs. And that was enough familiarity to get me jigging  little if not actually dancing (I don't actually dance).

Other audience members were less restrained, including some I previously though to be "ordinary" people, and it got a little manic on the dance floor, in  good way.

I really loved the music, the way the longer songs were constructed, and the techniques used to produce them. In the top picture the lead guitar is being played with an Allen Key!

The last impression of the evening is of fun. The fun I had listening to the band, the fun they seemed to have playing and the huge amount of fun that the audience clearly had.

Researching Here&Now has proved to be difficult and even had me sending them a friend request on MySpace! I need to find where they hangout on cyberspace to make sure that I learn about future gigs because I definitely want to see them again.