Monday 13/06/05 The Deadbeats, Alchemy, Eliza @ The Bedford, Balham, London

Someone needs to tell the compere that he isn’t quite yet addressing Glastonbury festival, but apart from his rather melodramatic delivery he does a good enough job of getting the crowd of fifty or so punters warmed up for an evening of live entertainment.

 

It’s a mixed bag tonight alright, with the lovely Eliza opening the billing with some good Amy Winehouse/Joss Stone-esque singer/songwriter stuff. “So last year,” I hear you murmur, but hey, there’s always a market for a good tune, and for her tender years, she has a fair few up her sleeve. Her delivery is pretty sharp, though sometimes you get the feeling that she maybe has a couple more years’ work to put in before her voice develops to its full potential. Still, at any rate, being able to accompany herself on keyboards and having all the time in the world, she will no doubt only get better.

 

Student-looking four piece Alchemy strut onto the stage to, well, strut their stuff, and soon show themselves to be a highly proficient, if somewhat formulaic indie/pop band. Their sound switches bilaterally between slow keyboard-driven balladeering and more up-tempo funky riffing. It’s all very neatly put together and you can’t really fault their musicianship, but nothing really cuts through; in the end you are left with a pleasant-sounding set but with no real hooks. Perhaps sensing this, the college boys throw in a cover of ‘All Along The Watchtower’, slowing the tempo right down to accommodate the singer’s lounge-act crooning, before speeding up dramatically to, er, rock out dude. Not one to be a killjoy, but I think Jimi’s interpretation still rules the roost…

 

A fair bit has been said about Salford quintet The Deadbeats since they won the Glastonbury Unsigned Band of the Year award, not least that they are due to play the festival as a reward, where (so it was rumoured) the now almost-legendary Keith Richards would be joining them. Well, maybe… But in the meantime, they settle down to show us why they won, striking up an instantly likeable blues-roots groove with touches of country to it. The guitars are low-key and simple; the keyboards colourful and idiosyncratic; the rhythm section solid, with drums providing a no-frills backbeat throughout the set. Frontman Sam Hammond’s voice is sufficiently bluesy to carry off this vintage sound, which echoes just about all the pre-punk rock ‘n’ roll influences you can think of. There are no surprises or shocks, (though the piano refrain on ‘Emptying My Pockets’ does really stand out); it’s all just good ol’ fashioned hometown music, the kind of stuff you’d expect to hear playing in a saloon bar in some bygone age, as you strolled in off the street for your first shot of the day. As we said, instantly likeable.