A fantastic evening with Nursery Cryme at The Oak

I do not often write about bands that I see in pubs because that would be a lot of writing and usually there is nothing new to say; one rock covers band is pretty much like another. The sheer brilliance of Nursery Cryme last night has forced me to change my habit.

I had seen the band a few times before so knew what to expect, as did the other people who filled out The Oak and who sang along to far more of the songs than I did. If anything the set was less commercial than previously in that they did not play some of the more obvious early Genesis songs, like I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe). What they did play was a lot of longer more complex songs, like In the Cage. This was symphonic rock at its very best and I absolutely loved it.

Nursery Cryme at The Oak

Nursery Cryme are obviously doing something right.

When I saw them play at The Oak in July the fans were enthusiastic but not that numerous and I our group of five easily got good seats at the music end of the bar. This time the place was packed and the best two of us could do was grab the final stool at the beer end of the bar, where we could hear but not see the band, for the first half and then stand at the far edge of the music end for the second half.

Those two halves were long halves too with Nursery Cryme playing from 8:30 to 9:30 and then from 10:00 to 11:00.

The Oak played its part too. I have had unfavourable experiences with their beer in the past but I had no complaints this night. They had four bitters on with a genuine choice to make (and something I would not dream of touching). I settled for the Adnams Southwold and that proved to be a good choice and one I repeated a couple of times over the evening.

Having seen Nursery Cryme twice before I had a good idea of what to expect though there were some new songs, including one from Wind and Wuthering (1976) which we referred to as Wuth and Windering at university for reasons that made sense at the time. My roommate and I also recorded a version of Your Own Special Way which was called Your Own Obvious Way and was dedicated to Mr Obvious who won that nickname for standing next to the pinball table (Big Ben) and saying obvious things. One lyric that I recall was, "I'm almost there my score's 53, He tells me I just need a G".

Nursery Cryme also seemed to have done a little on their presentation with the lead singer dressed all in white and everybody else all in black. Note a massive change but a noticeable one and it helped.

The Nursery Cryme mission is to play early Genesis songs as they were originally recorded and that requires skillful musicianship in all departments, which they have, and part of the joy in watching them perform is seeing the way that they play together and flourish individually. They play (generally) long complex songs to people who appreciate that sort of thing, not everybody does but those who do had a great time. And the growing following that they have quickly established shows that there are lots of fans for this sort of music played this well.

Nursery Cryme are obviously doing something right.

Nursery Cryme at The Oak

I have admitted several times in recent years that I was never was much of a Genesis fan and now, finally, I might be beginning to change my mind.

I probably would have gone to see Nursery Cryme at The Oak anyway, as long as I had found out about it, and a couple of good nudges meant that I had to go.

The first nudge came from their bassist, Oran Halberthal, who I first came to know when he played with Echoes then came to know better when we bumped into each other regularly at the Fox and Duck.

The second nudge came from various friends who were also interested in going to the gig.

I took the opportunity to walk to The Oak, steps were still being counted, and arrived there pretty close to 9pm and just a few moments before the band was due to start, time enough to get my first pint and join the others at one of the high tables at the back of the seating area.

Nursery Cryme take their name from Genesis' third album released in 1971 and that sets them very much in the "early Genesis" phase, though there was some discussion on our table when this was stretched to include 1978's ...And Then There Were Three... Personally I'd draw the line at 1976's A Trick of the Tail, though I recognise that including the first, and only the first, post Gabriel album is hard to justify. At least we all agreed that the early proggy stuff was better than that later dancey stuff.

They opened with Watcher of the Skies and took it from there with songs like Get Em Out By Friday, Squonk, The Musical Box, The Return of the Giant Hogweed, Carpet Crawlers, I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), In the Cage and Trick of the Tail. There were more songs than that but you get the idea.

Despite claiming not to be a Genesis fan I found that I knew almost all of the songs reasonably well, though nothing like as well as Kate who seemed to sing along to every word of every song and to enjoy herself mightily while doing so. The rest of us were very happy too.

The songs have their merits but they need good musicians to tease the merits out and that is exactly what Nursery Cryme did. To be honest, I expected less from a pub band who were only just getting out on the circuit and I was exceedingly impressed by their playing. They sounded like early Genesis and that is just what I wanted to hear.

Nursery Cryme are a band well worth seeing and making something of an effort to do so. I might not admit to being a Genesis fan but I'll gladly admit to being a fan of Nursery Cryme.

The Lamb Lies Down in Putney

Somehow I never really got into Genesis in the way that I got into bands like Yes and Pink Floyd. Most of that was probably down to lack of exposure during my formative years and the first time that I really listened to them was at university in 76 with the Trick of the Tale album which I absolutely loved, and still love.

This prejudice has carried forward to the present day and when I see prog rock tribute bands like secondSight or INdisciplineD I enjoy the Genesis songs but I enjoy the other songs more.

That said, I did go and see Genesis tribute act Carpet Crawlers at The Peel in 2010 and that was alright.

It was through secondSight and INdisciplineD that I was persuaded to go and see ReGenesis. The common link was bassist Nick Loebner who has been in all three bands. It is Nick playing the double neck guitar in the photo below.

While Carpet Crawlers covered the whole of Genesis' career, including the later middle of the road stuff, ReGenesis only cover the early period when Peter Gabriel sang and Phil Collins just played drums. Oddly, that period included the concept double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway from which the song Carpet Crawlers comes from. And this concert by ReGenesis was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety.

The venue for their first performance of their new show was The Half Moon in Putney, conveniently close yet far enough away from the station for me to get some steps in. I got there not long before the advertised 8pm opening time and fought my way through the busy pub to get a pint of something wet before going in to the concert area. The gig had sold out and the pub was very busy, lively without being unbearable. Unfortunately it was far too busy to wander around looking for familiar faces, I am sure that there were a few there, but I did manage to exchange a few words with Nick when he popped out to test the mood.

Without trying too hard I managed to get, and hold, a spot somewhere near the door to the concert room and so I was one of the first in. It surprised me that the very first ones in ran for some seats against the wall on one of the wides and so the space next to the stage, where I wanted to be, was free. I chose a spot just to the right of the centre.

I had not been there long when somebody came up and said hello. He followed this with, "You do not recognise me, do you?", which I had to confess was true. He quickly admitted to being formed secondSight lead guitarist Norman Leader, then resident in Dorset, who I failed to recognise despite having seen and spoken to him many time simply because he had gained a significant amount of hair and lost a significant amount of weight since I last saw him. We talked for quite a while about music and Dorset and that was a fine way to fill the gap before ReGenesis came to the stage.

I was not entirely sure what to expect. I had bought The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, eventually, but I knew it much less well than the albums either side of it. I deliberately avoided doing some research beforehand by playing it a few time as I was quite content to go into the concert knowing just the general sound of the piece, i.e. early Genesis, and some of the highlights.

ReGenesis tried to recreate the original sound rather than reinterpreting the songs their way and that meant matching the original band man for man. Obviously Peter Gabriel was the hardest role to fill because of his distinctive voice and with Tony Patterson they had an able frontman who sounded like Gabriel, engaged well with the audience and even wore a little makeup. ReGenesis also do full costumes concerts, this was not one of those but Tony's effort was appreciated.

For the next hour and a half or so we got The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and everybody in the packed room loved it. It was what we had all come to hear and that is what we got skillfully delivered to us.

There was an encore of two songs and the final one had to be I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) from 73's Selling England by the Pound. My first exposure to Genesis may well have been seeing this on The Old Grey Whistle Test. We were encouraged, not that we needed much encouragement, to sing along and that was when by position in the front row became a liability and Tony's mike was thrust at me as I delivered the line "Getting better in your wardrobe" badly.

That one badly sung line apart it was a brilliant evening and while I am not yet fully converted to the Genesis faith I am enough of a fan to go and see ReGenesis again. Good music played well is always worth going to see.

secondSight back in Croydon

Amazingly it is almost three months since I last saw secondSight when they rocked the Scream Lounge in Croydon at the end of December. Deep in to March they returned, and so did I.

The routine worked well last time so I repeated it this; wore smart-casual to work, went to The George for a beer and some food before hand, went for the Nachos and walked to the venue early to get a good seat.

Then I turned tradition on its head and went to the right of the stage instead of the familiar left.

My main motive for this was to take get a different view of the stage so that I could photos from a different angle and of different band members.

Unfortunately Julian Veasy (keyboards) anticipated this and moved from his usual front-left to back-right where the lights could not get to him and so my point-and-press camera could not get any decent close-ups. I'll get you next time Julian!

The other advantage of being on the right is that I could see lead singer, Chris Baboon, without having to peer over the music stand he uses to remind him of some of the lyrics.

The only problem then is to try and catch when he is not moving too much, which is not easy. I have lots of rejected photos with blurred head, arms and legs. But that's fine, I'd much rather an active hard-to-photograph front-man than somebody in the Val Doonican mold.

On the far right you can just about see Norman Leader on lead guitar, sadly playing his last gig with secondSight before moving on to other projects.

That leaves the flamboyantly dressed Nick Loebner on bass at front-right and Mike Lane on drums in his new position behind him.

The minor tweaks to the staging were echoed in the set with one small change making quite a difference. Gone was the one Yes song, Siberian Khatru, to be replaced by another Pink Floyd song, the marvellous Wish You Were Here. It is a great song but it made most of the set a battle of the bands between Genesis and Pink Floyd (Pink Floyd won!).

The battle was broken up with songs by King Crimson, Radiohead, Jethro Tull and The Cardiacs. Of these The Cardiacs song, The Whole World Window, is the one that I know the least, though it is becoming more familiar. It also got the most positive reaction from the crowd who needed no encouragement to sing along.

Oddly, the same people were equally enthusiastic about Supper's Ready.

The final surprise of the evening was the guest appearance of a saxophonist for Money. Good plan!

One of the best things about secondSight is that they play some of the less expected songs of the famous bands.

So, for example, the Pink Floyd numbers included Dogs and Echoes. We had Money and Comfortably Numb too, but nobody is going to object to that.

Add to the evening the opportunity to mix with the band, to be part of an appreciative audience, the opportunity to catch up with some other fans and you have another great night out.

The only disappointment was having to leave very promptly at the end to catch my train to Clapham Junction, which I made with just a minute or so to spare. So even that worked well.

I'm not sure what happens next with secondSight with Norman's departure but I hope that they get back on stage before too long. And I hope that I'm there too.

secondSight warm up on a cold night

This was bit of a strange gig but there's nothing wrong with that.

The venue was The Old Explorer just off Oxford Circus, and just a reasonable walk away from where I work in Victoria. First impressions are that this is a chain pub in the Wetherspoons mould with thick carpets, an assortment of tables and chairs and a bland corporate menu of meals prepared elsewhere. My choice, the Red Leicester and Spinach Burger, revealed this to be a Greene King pub.

The band were setting up downstairs when I arrived. This is an extension of the ground floor (same décor another bar) but was roped off a "private party".

The area assigned to, or claimed by, the band was generously wide which gave a lot of space for Chris Baboon to wave his tambourine in (he does that a lot) and for Nick Loebner to swap between his impressive collection of guitars.

The room being devoid of regular customers, I was able to grab a table in the centre of the room (somewhere to rest the occasional glass of Royal London) with the band just a metre or so away. It was just like having the band in your own front room.

The front room illusion started to fade a little as the secondSight groupies started to fill the room but the lack of privacy was offset by having other prog rock nuts to speak to about, er, prog rock.

But soon it was time for the talking to stop and the music to start.

I had seen secondSight a couple of times before so was expecting a selection of prog classics with a heavy slug of Genesis and that is what we got, starting with The Knife.

The important thing about secondSight is that they are tied to one band's catalogue so there sets contain more variety and more surprises than some.

This was evident early on when The Knife was followed by Aqualung then Epitaph; possibly my favourite two songs of the set.

Along the way we got some Yes (Siberian Khatru), Pink Floyd (Money, Dogs and Comfortably Numb) and loads more Genesis (Musical Box, Afterglow and Supper's Ready). There was some Cardiacs too but I'm not familiar with their stuff.

Some of these songs were clearly new and we were seeing them mid-rehearsal ahead of their big gig in Croydon so it was no surprise that there were a few fluffs (who was meant to say "A flower"?!) but, as previously, I was impressed by their musicianship (if not with Nick's Michael Jackson jacket!).

Another fine evening with fine music, fine playing, fine beer, fine company and a passable burger. Must do it again sometime.

A short burst of SecondSight

Live progressive rock in a good local pub has to be worth going to. So I did.

The venue was the Grey Horse just down the Richmond Road that has a justified reputation for delivering live music for many years and the headline act was SecondSight who I had seen play there before.

I arrived a little early to give time to mix etc. and made the mistake of seeing some of the penultimate act whose rambling Texas rock did absolutely nothing for me.

Somebody asked me who I was there to see and when I said it was SecondSight he moaned that they were useless old farts, or words to that effect, before confessing to being their lead guitarist! Nice one Norman.

Not liking the music I retired to the bar with fellow prog rock fans Pete and Adrian to pass the time with musical conversation and some decent beer.

Time passed and so did the official start time and it was quite late before we were back in the room ready for SecondSight to entertain.

The late start meant a reduced set of around forty minutes which, being prog rock, meant only around five songs.

Genesis got us going and popped up again in the middle. Not my favourite band but good enough and SecondSight do them well with two guitars and keyboards.

I felt that the Yes song, Siberian Khatru from Close to the Edge, was less successful but that's because I associate the voice of Jon Anderson so much with Yes and few other singers sound anything like him.

Jethro Tull's Aqualung was another strong song and a welcome addition from the previous set that I had heard.

And all too quickly the cruel curfew fell and that was it. Nick (bass) then said how angry the band were with the reduced timing but it is to their credit that this anger was not at all apparent during the set and they played with obvious enjoyment, love and skill.

SecondSight may have been short-changed this time but they are getting out more now and I hope that they get a better crack of the whip when they play Central London in early December. A chance to hear the rehearsed but unplayed Dogs perhaps.

secondSight and friends

I almost decided not to go to the Grey Horse on Friday night, but what a mistake that would have been!

The only reason for going that I had was the promise of some classic prog rock delivered by secondSight, a band unknown to me at the time. Against that were stacked the formidable attractions of a quiet night in after a difficult week.

In the end the call of the prog rock pulled through and I walked through some light rain to the pub just in time to grab a pint of Guinness (I asked for Youngs!) before their set.

secondSight did what they said they would do and and played a selection of Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes and King Crimson covers. Some were expected, e.g. Money, and others not so, e.g. Epitaph.


The balance of the sound was good with lead guitar and keyboards to provide the highlights and it would be a little churlish to say that a flute would have been good too.

It would be equally churlish to mention that the newish lead singer fluffed a few lyrics as that mattered little, we all knew them anyway.

Retired to the bar and was soon joined by Nick from the band and some other prog fans and the fun started.

This was helped in no small measure by the unexpected presence of three members of Hoaxwind. Even more conversions on music followed. The Cardicacs got a lot of mentions, not least because Adrian is writing a book about them, but I had to leave that debate alone as I've never managed to get in to the band. I did say that I would try again and must dig out their best-of CD that I bought the last time a fan of theirs said I must listen to them.

All too soon the bar closed and it was time to go home, or rather to head for the Willoughby for a night-cap. The pub was buzzing with familiar and friendly regulars and we were joined, unexpectedly for the second time that night, by some of Hoaxwind also looking for one for the road.

The last bus home made its journey just after 1am but it was too good an evening to leave early so I lingered and talked for about another hour before deciding that it really was time for bed.

So what could have been a quiet night in alone became a social night out with friends. Good call me.

Carpet Crawlers at The Peel

It's a well known fact that 70's music is the best and that prog rock is one of the reasons for this. Sadly most of the bands that played then are either dead, retired or too rich to play these days and so the many tribute bands are the closest that we can get to reliving those glory days.

So when the House of Progression at The Peel announced a show by the Carpet Crawlers it went straight into my diary.

Carpet Crawlers recognise that one of the things that made Genesis legends was the grand performances that they put on, starting with Peter Gabriel's costumes and acting then on to the light shows of Seconds Out, so this is a large part of what they do - even in a small place like The Peel.

Their act is in two parts with the early era first and then a short break and a change of tempo to the Phil Collins era with songs I'd never heard of before.

Part 1 was, as expected, a joyous ramble through the early catalogue with songs like Watcher of the Skies, Supper's Ready (all of it!) and a medley from the Lamb Lies down on Broadway (oddly without Carpet Crawlers).

Part 2 was all new to me but I appreciated the extended instrumental sections that clearly descended from Genesis' progressive origins. I was rather expecting to hear at least one of the classic ballads from Trick of the Tail, i.e. Entangled and Ripples, but all we got from their last great album (my personal prejudice) was Los Endos which, not surprisingly, closed the show.

There is a great deal going for Carpet Crawlers, the show is well planned and delivered and they really do look and sound a lot like Genesis. But that is their problem too because thirty years on the Genesis songs do not stand-up to close examination in the same way that, say, those from Yes and Pink Floyd do.