fatbacks

EVENTS

FATBACK BAND - McClusky's Bristol - 4 November

The Fatbacks duly arrived amongst great expectation in the Bristol public. The Soul Train crew had worked tirelessly in promoting this event. There certainly were some major plusses and the people involved should be hugely congratulated for what they achieved. I hope that when all the dust has settled and the debriefings taken place that they made sufficient out of this to bring other acts to Bristol, which for live acts, has not been brilliant in the past. If the whisper I have been given comes to fruition then we have much to look forward to. Personally I wasn't too impressed with the performance but hey that's me. For me the positives and negatives were as follows:

Positives:

The band was tight and well drilled (which I guess after all these years they should be). For me they held the show on the basis of this tightness, the rhythm and the familiarity of the material.

The extended show gave value for money, they must have performed for about an hour and a half.

The venue was good and it probably helped having this in the adopted home of Soul Train.

The up for it crowd of I'd guess 350 or so. The crowd was very enthusiastic and this was conveyed to the band and if they were in any way tired or reluctant then this was soon forgotten amongst such adulation.

Every one seemed to enjoy it so who am I to criticise. I always feel deflated when so many people have a great time and I come out feeling something less than euphoric.

The familiarity and to an extent timelessness of their material. The slower stuff like 'Keep on Stepping' was particularly good.

It was good to see the band after all this time. Last saw them in the 70's!

Negatives:

The sound could have been better - the female vocalist Quinetta Simpson could not be heard on some occasions, neither could the trumpet (George Williams) or the sax (Ed Jackson) or Johnny King. At one point Ed clearly told Johnny not to bother when he took the mike. The vocals could have been higher. There was an extended 'break' whilst the drums were sorted (by the band!). Perhaps it sounded better from behind!

Certain members of the band looked tired and unenthusiastic to start with - which after a few nights at the Jazz Cafe - they probably were. Fortunately the more extrovert members of the band (Ed and Johnny Flippen) carried the performance, ably assisted by the enthusiasm of the crowd.

The Fatbacks were and are icons of their genre. I would hate to see them lose that place in Funk history. However the fact remains that there has been no credible new material for 15 years - the 90's albums hardly set the world alight. There is currently a massive new Funk following and an enormous amount of new Funk material out there. Conversely there is a huge market in retrospection with old groups reforming to cash in on the past and copycat bands abound. I would prefer to see the band enhancing their reputation by following the former of these two routes. However it seems to me that over the top hero worshipping will lead the band down the latter 'greatest hits' route because enjoyable though it was that's all it was.

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