Kid Canaveral – Live, Henry’s Cellar Bar Edinburgh, Friday 20th June 2008
Ah Kid Canveral, one of the very few successful purveyors of spiky indie pop in a city so devoted to its agit-folk that you’d think there was something in the water. Their last single Smash Hits is a slice of bouncy indie pop so perfect it could more or less define the genre.
I fact, that’s kind of what Kid Canaveral do. They are pretty much a perfect incarnation of indie pop – you don’t need to use any more words to describe them. They are supported at what is the launch party for their new single by a local band pretty much everyone I know has seen and they all seem to rate them very highly. This, however, is the first time that I have caught Come On Gang live.
It’s definitely a tentative thumbs up for the punk-poppy three-piece, I’d say. Sarah, the lead singer, suffered a little from having to play the drums at the same time, perhaps not quite having the puff to set about both tasks with the gusto to which her instincts compel her. It’s some set of lungs she has on her though, reminding me a little of Sonya Madan of the late Echobelly in some ways. As a friend of mine said, you can definitely hear the record in there, and their single release party is approaching, so that’ll definitely be one I stretch my pocket money to buy.
The main event didn’t disappoint either. They don’t do anything clever, Kid Canaveral, and there’s not much I need to say bar let you know that what they do, they do very well indeed. There’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about the music, but in every single song they manage to find that hook – the sticky bit that worms its way into your head and makes you hum a song for weeks afterwards. The self-same reason that, even from amongst a music collection thousands of songs deep like my own, every time a Kid Canaveral song come on, you always know it and you always know who sings it. No matter how rarely you’d heard the thing.
It’s brilliant fun watching them play, too – the fun in the music evident in the cheek of the lyrics. It’s so Scottish: they just can’t ever, ever be entirely, one hundred percent serious: an infectious, happy joy in a city full of dour miserablists. The single can be bought from Fence Records here, and so can the previous one, here. Don’t expect to be surprised, but I’d be downright amazed if you were at all disappointed.
Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits
Thanks Matthew! I’m glad you enjoyed it. We all certainly did. I don’t mean to be a pain in the erse but it’s Sarah who sings and plays the drums for Come On Gang. How was your head on Saturday? Worse than the previosu Sunday?
Shite – I remember writing that and thinking that I must check it before I published, and then completely forgetting. I’m looking forward to hearing their single – sounds like it’ll be a good one.
I am not sure – I slept in longer on Saturday so it wasn’t too bad. And although the crockery in Henry’s leaves a great deal to be desired, in terms of memories the levels of drunkenness were surprisingly similar. Chips & cheese on the way home!
Cracking gig, it was. Really good tunes.
Yes there was a bit of a lack of fine china. I have a cheeky advance copy of their single and it’s most excellent. Will hopefully catch you soon but alas, not at their single launch as we are playing in London that night.
I met Robert Smith & Simon Gallup on Sunday eve. Adolescent dreams now fulfilled.
I met Paul Weller in a Mexican restaurant in London a couple of weeks ago.
I met DAVE CANAVERAL!!! at his single launch on Friday.
(He was surprisingly patient, too)
I also once served an orange juice to Cheryl Baker from Buck’s Fizz.
Surely one of the others was there too. There must have been at least half of Buck’s Fizz somewhere!
No, this was later in her career, to be fair. The Record Breakers years.
So technically I didn’t serve an Orange Juice to Cheryl Baker from Buck’s Fizz, but instead to Cheryl Baker from TV’s Record Breakers.
Roy Castle wasn’t there though.
It’s sort of a disappointing story when you put it that way.
It’s always s shame when stars fade that once shone so brightly.
I once served a Buck’s Fizz to each member of Orange Juice.
Roy Castle opened the bottle for me.
(Some of those facts may me made up.)
I am either going to have to have a good cry or get horribly drunk by the time this conversation peters out.
Guess which is more likely.
I had intercourse with Donna Matthews from Elastica.
OK, it was before she had joined the band & before she was recruited for The Darling Buds, but I still emptied a good quart of man sauce up her.
There’s a lyric repeated in that song about Brad Pitt that could be intepreted as less than complimentary.
I happen to think that Mr. Pitt is a fine actor who has rarely shyed away from difficult and unusual roles, and has largely avoided the stereotypical Hollywood blockbuster path that would have been so easy for him to follow.
Just so you know.
Nice little tune though, apart from the anti-Brad prejudice.
Fuck Brad Pitt and fuck his…
Ah never mind. No, he’s not all that bad is he, really. And it is a fine tune. I enjoyed the gig so much there was dancing. Comically bad dancing, but dancing all the same.
Dylan, I must apologise as it was not meant to be a slight against Mr. Pitt. Although Mr and Mrs Smith was total shite, I have wholeheartedly enjoyed some of his previous work. Angelina did e-mail us calling us a bunch of “nobodies” and “front bottoms” (not the term she used), and repeatedly asked if “Jen had put us up to this”.
Bottom line is: No anti-Brad sentiment here.
Glad to hear it, Dave.
I have to agree that Mr and Mrs Smith sucked scabby dog balls. Unlike your song – which revisiting a month or two later – is really rather splendid.
I’ve now got an image stuck in my head of Angelina Jolie calling someone a “front bottom” in that terribly precise BBC English accent she used in Tomb Raider, which is making me giggle like a schoolgirl!
Thenk hugh vary mahch. (The Jolie’s English)
Snigger. Yes, her English was that shit.