The King Blues live at King Tut's - review

Oct 12 2009 By Michael Pringle

The King Blues

KING Tut’s was packed to capacity last Monday night for the visit of London band The King Blues.

The sold out signs were up in advance and support was provided by fellow Londoners; Imperial Leisure and hip hop duo POS and Paper Tiger. The crowd in the Glasgow venue were well up for a good time and the ska sound of Imperial Leisure soon had them moving and skanking wildly. They even managed to coax a couple of individuals onto the stage to get involved in some star jumps. The half hour set passed far too quickly for most of the audience and they howled for more as the band left the stage to raucous applause.

After a short intermission Minneapolis’ POS took to the stage with his hard hitting rap style. This is rap with a raw energy normally associated with punk, hard hitting social commentary interlaced with rock riffs and hip hop beats. The crowd took to this with surprising ease and the artist showed his appreciation in his comments about the crowd’s interaction. This guy is the perfect anecdote for all of the commercially motivated hip hop artists who have followed on from Eminem – a breath of fresh air for those among us who think that rap and hip hop has lost its way somewhat in recent years.

Unusually, the times allotted to the support artists are nowhere near long enough but not shorter than at any other time. The quality of the acts shone through and made their time on stage seem far too short.

Eventually the main course is served as The King Blues take to the stage just before 10:00pm. The crowd has been suitably warmed and the sound of front man Itch’s (aka Johnny Fox) ukulele pierces through the roar of the crowd as the band launch into the instrumental Intro before continuing into Blood on my Hands. The crowd sings along at the top of its voices to the next track is Let’s Hang the Landlord.

The band play for the best part of an hour and the set list includes; Mr Music Man, My Boulder, Underneath this Lampost Light, I Got Love and they even have a pop at the far-right with the rallying cry of The Streets Are Ours.

On asking the crowd if they want to hear a new poem or an old one, Itch is astounded that the preference is for a new one: “That’s the first time on this tour that has ever happened, I wasn’t prepared for that”, he admits. He then recites Five Bottles of Shampoo. As they are about to leave the stage at the end of the set the crowd chant: “Punk Never Happened” – the title of the older poem and Johnny Fox duly obliges with a passionate recital and the crowd leave the venue buzzing. Next time around I suspect that The King Blues will be playing one of Glasgow’s bigger venues as the bandwagon shows no signs of slowing at this moment in time.