MSF Benefit playing Abbey Road
Robyn Hitchcock - guitar, John vocals
Graham Coxon - guitar, tambourine
Sean Nelson - Paul vocals, tambourine
Paul Noble - guitar
Terry Edwards - saxophone (last couple of tracks)
Jenny Adejayan - cello
Mark Bedford - bass
Stephen Irvine - drums
Ruby Wright - musical saw

Online review by The Osireion
I guess it was only a matter of time before I started copying and pasting highlights of my Myspace blogs. This is from a couple of years ago – here in the present, I understand Robyn’s next classic cover undertaking is going to be Clear Spot by Captain Beefheart. If it’s even half as good as this one, it’ll be well worth looking forward to!

I don’t know what it is about Abbey Road, but it’s hardly ever the Beatles album I reach for when I’m feeling fab fourish. Perhaps it’s the post-psychedelic Beatles-in-everyday-suburban-setting of the cover; it’s the Beatles crossing over from the 60s to the next decade on the pelican crossing of 1969, leaving behind wide-eyed idealism and LSD and heading for cocaine, long guitar jams and the Frog Song…

Of course, on hearing it, this opinion is entirely washed away by the music. Some critics may say it’s patchy, that side two is made up of unfinished material hastily stitched together but really, I wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, on some days, I’d even go as far as to say the album holds some of the Beatles’ best material.

It’s pretty needless to point out that I’m a massive Beatles fan. Strawberry Fields was the first piece of music I chose to play the day I was deemed old enough to learn to use a record player, and musically, it’s been largely downhill from there.

Robyn Hitchcock has been doing these cover gigs for a while – so far, from the Beatles, he’s done Sgt Pepper and the White Album. Sort-of annual, they’re all in the tiny Three Kings pub in Clerkenwell Green, and all for Medecins Sans Frontieres. The first one was Naff 70s Hits Against The War, so it’s appropriate that this weekend’s takings go directly to surgery for maimed Iraqi Children.

The Three Kings pub is a lovely spot – over the road from the church in sleepy Clerkenwell Green, it’s small and welcoming. Decent beer, friendly staff, nicely, slightly psychedelically decorated. Actually tonight it’s been decorated in an Abbey Road style – there’s an octopus hanging above the instruments, a gold foil sun coming from the back wall and a giant silver hammer.

The pub filled unbelievably quickly – thanks to Jim, who’s meticulous in these things, we were at the front of the queue, so found ourselves stood where the monitors should have been. Jim’s always maintained that the best place to see a gig from is the very front, and he’s proved it to me many times. Tonight’s no exception.

About 8.30 the band take the stage-area. There’s no stage as the pub is really too tiny to require one, except on occasions like this – unless you’re really tall, if you’re not standing pretty much at the front, then you’re not going to see the band at all.

The band, from left to right: Jenny Adejayan on cello; Graham Coxon on, apparently, a 1967 gibson SG; Sean Nelson with nothing but a beard and a big voice; Steve… uh… someone on drums (and very good too); Somebody who’s name I just didn’t catch, who may have played bass for Madness, on bass; Robyn; Paul Noble, who’s not on bass tonight but wielding a Les Paul pretty skillfully.

It’s very slightly weird to be standing this close to the band, but as soon as the music starts it doesn’t matter. As for the performance, it’s outstanding – the band is tight but loose enough to find its own groove in the familiar material, and the whole band seem to be really enjoying playing. Three guitars and a cello means the sound is really full – so much so that I don’t miss the electric piano and synths of the original. Strangely, the cello fills in nicely for it, especially in Come Together.

Sean Nelson fills in brilliantly on the higher-register McCartney songs, particularly on Oh Darling. Robyn mentions his theory that this is Macca’s song to Lennon. Sean Nelson says no, that would be You Never Give Me Your Money…

It’s difficult to pick stand-out moments – I think I’ll remember this gig just for its excellent sound rather than any finer details. Even Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was a lot of fun. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) is a fantastic set-closer – as they were covering the original record, rather than any subsequent releases, there’s an interval at the end of side one to turn the record over. During the interval, Peter Blake (designer of the Sgt Pepper cover) squeezes past me as I hold a couple of drinks out the way. He smiles and observes I look like an archer. I simply wonder at the turn of events that culminated in this moment…

Side Two kicks in with Here Comes The Sun. Yep, it’s still a great song. Because is more problematic – I was looking forward to this one as the harmonies on the original are so good, but there doesn’t seem to be enough confidence in the singers tonight to be able to replicate it. Where’s Morris Windsor when you need him, eh? All gig long I’m supressing the urge to sing along out loud – after all, I’m standing beside and behind the keenest audience members. As I’ve been told off by fans for using a noisy lighter at a Robyn gig, I decide that bellowing along would probably not win me any friends. Unfortunately, by Carry That Weight I just can’t help joining in with the chorus, drunkenly oblivious to criticism.

We’re right at the end of the record – even Her Majesty is covered adeptly, then it’s straight into the encores. In a venue this tiny, there’s not really anywhere for the band to go, at least not without fighting through a dense crowd to and from. That the encores are the relevant b-sides comes as no surprise. Old Brown Shoe I love but Don’t Let Me Down and Ballad Of John And Yoko, though I loved them when very young, I thought they’d fallen into the Beatles-songs-I-no-longer-really-like category. Maybe it’s just the lovely vibe of the whole gig, but I find myself enjoying these numbers as much as the rest of it.

The crowd slowly thins out as Mark Ellen (these days the editor of The Word mag) conducts an auction of stuff donated by the artists, the best of which is a Sgt Pepper screen print by the artist. That fetches 1100 quid – not bad for MSF, also good for the winner. The pub slowly empties and eventually we too leave. Though I’m sad to be splitting at what seems to be earlyish (somewhere between 11 and 12), I’m certainly glad to make it home at a reasonable hour. Wow! When’s the next one?