Reviews
Artists: Levellers + The Wonderstuff
Venue: O2 Academy
Town: Bournemouth
Date: 8th March
Website:
http://www.levellers.co.uk
Apart from carrying a stone or two more and having a plethora of grey hair, Tuesday night at the 02 Acadamy was almost like stepping back twenty one years. The Levellers were on their "Levelling The land Tour" with support from the Wonderstuff.
The changing of the years was brought home by the video that The Levellers played before their set, a blast through the last twenty one years, in which, surprisingly, the image of Tony Blair was booed more loudly than that of Thatcher. I guess that also reflects the age range of the audience, some of whom would have not even been born when "Levelling The Land" first landed on the shelves. More of the Levellers later.
The Wonderstuff weren't on my gig going radar back in the nineties. Naturally I was aware of "Size Of A Cow" and "Dizzy", but can't remember catching them live, unless maybe at one of the festivals they played. That said they always came across as something different from a lot of their contemporaries. I remember a story about the band giving up a chance of a really big gig because they had already committed to a smaller show on the same night.
I actually first saw them at Cambridge last year, a gig they referred to during their set, in the line up that includes newest addition to the band, fiddle player Erica Nockalls who also plays in an acoustic duo with front man Miles Hunt.
It meant that the Wonderstuff's set was more than a run through past glories, but also featured more recent material, all of which seemed to go down as well as the old favourites. Erica left the stage when the band really kicked into nostalgia mode giving the set two really distinct phases and an interesting opening to the evening.
If it's the support band's job to get the audience buzzing, then the Wonderstuff hit an exceed, even allowing for the stage change, you could feel the vibe in the audience, one that grew as the video at the start of the Levellers set took us on a snapshot tour of the passing years.
Very few bands can be considered to have defined a genre in the way the Levellers did. Taking folk rock adding punk sensibilities and political attitude and mixing it with a good time that was able to define a live feel as much as a vinyl one, arguably "Levelling The Land" was the album that gave 'crustie' it's soul.
Like the band, many of its fans have grown old disgracefully and it was funny looking back from the pit to see an audience of forty somethings giving it large with fans that have discovered the band in their twenty plus years of existence.
When you've been performing live as long as the Levellers have you know how to put on a show that doesn't need to rely on smoke and mirrors to build an atmosphere. Showmanship is what makes a night and this is a band that lives that to the bone.
Occasional wanders on to the top of the speaker stacks, sing-a-longs , pace changes, a bouncing stomping audience screaming and shouting, it's what rock 'n' roll is all about. Frighteningly the political songs sound as fresh and relevant today as they did back then. Mix that in with the songs about relationships and having fun and you've got all the ingredients for a great night and a great night is what we all had.
Dreadlocked bass player Jeremy Cunningham still seems to cover so much of the stage, turning an instrument that's often viewed as chugging into a more integral part of the show and giving fiddler Jon Sevink a real foundation to kick off from.
Even though this was a gig celebrating the band's longevity and the album that established their reputation, the Levellers showed that age doesn't have to take a tool, they sound fresh and full of fire and the audience lapped it up.
If you've not caught this yet, fear not they are back for a second leg in May, in Leicester, Sheffield and London. Enjoy.
Neil King