BOXER’S WARM-up gig, one of a few, prior to their major tour which
starts shortly and the hall was about a third of the size which would
have been appropriate for their P.A. The result was a volume sufficient
to stun elephants. Of course, you get used to it after a few numbers,
but the ringing in my ears was loud enough to wake my wife when I got
home.
Inevitably, the set was composed mainly of the songs from Boxer’s
just released album – the one with the controversial sleeve, as you’ll
no doubt be aware. But since the sleeve has very little to do with the
music, I shall forget it forthwith.
All of the first side of the new LP was played, including the single,
"All The Time In The World", which was slightly reminiscent of
The Who.
One was also left with a slight feeling of deja vu because this group
is not really so different from Patto, in which Patto himself and Ollie
Halsall were the leading lights. Admittedly, a different rhythm section
of Tony Newman on drums and Keith Ellis on bass is used in Boxer, but
several of the familiar, and I might say pleasing, facets of Mike Patto’s
previous group were still visible.
Of the material played which was not self composed, "Hey
Bulldog" from the "Yellow Submarine" album, which I
confess I didn’t recognise, came off very well, as did a pair of songs
by the urban guerilla songwriting team of Terry Stamp and Jim
Pitman-Avery, "Dinah Low" and "Town Drunk", the
latter of which is on Boxer’s album.
The connection here is presumably that Halsall and Newman played on
Stamp’s recent neglected LP "Fatsticks". At any rate, their
violence quotient fits in well with the kind of frantic image which
Patto and Halsall put over so well.
There was one original, "The Teacher", which is not on the
album, and which provided both the highlights and the low points of the
set. It’s a number on which Halsall, Newman and Ellis do their solo
bits, and the guitar and drum solos were excellent, Halsall’s
predictably so.
On the other hand, Ellis proved little during his bass solo, although
perhaps I should be charitable and blame the sound equipment for the
holocaust that occurred when his turn came. Even so, using a mike stand
as an enormous bottleneck and finally throwing it to the floor is
something I could have well done without.
With that one exception, the standard of playing was high. Both Patto
and Halsall played some keyboards, Patto played some guitar on a couple
of numbers, and there is no question of the group’s potential. They
were called back for an encore of "I Don’t Know Why" (Stevie
Wonder) and "Jumping Jack Flash", and despite the volume
problems, were well received by an audience who I imagine considered
themselves lucky to get such a fine band, even allowing for the fact
that the band considered the gig as a preliminary to the main part of
their tour.
I’m looking forward to seeing them again, but in a place equipped
for this band. Now I must try and turn my ears off.
John Tobler
This issue of NME had another Boxer-related bits...
From the NEWSDESK page:
BOXER’S BIG TREK
BOXER, Mike Patto’s new band, begin a six-week British tour in the
middle of this month. It has been timed to tie in with the release of
their debut album "Below The Belt", which comes out this
weekend. Distribution of the album will, however, be restricted due to
the controversial nude pictures on the sleeve. Despite the
"offending zones" having been covered up by Virgin’s
artists, some multiple stores are adamantly refusing to stock the LP,
and it has also been banned in America.
Confirmed tour dates are at Northampton County Ground (February 14),
London Chalk Farm Roundhouse (15), Cambridge Students’ Union
(17), Norwich East Anglia University (25), London Chelsea College (28),
Birmingham Barbarella’s (March 2), Leeds University (3), Manchester
Polytechnic (4), Newcastle Polytechnic (5), Loughborough University (6).
Swansea University (10), Bromley Stockwell College (11), Guildford Civic
Hall (16), Plymouth Fiesta (18). Exeter St. Luke’s College (19), St.
Alban’s City Hall (27) and Huddersfield Ivanhoe’s (30).
Nitpicking: "Teachers" was not written by Boxer --
it is a Leonard Cohen song. The LP was released in January, so I
assume the News Desk article refers to the re-release with the new LP
cover that covers up Stephanie's naughty bits.
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