Hope & Anchor
Details
- Date
- March 22, 1978
- Venue
- Hope & Anchor London, England (Islington)
- Billed As
- The Soft Boys
- Gig Type
- Concert
Reviews
Review from 'Record Mirror' dated April 1, 1978 - page 23
THE SOFT BOYS
Hope and Anchor
THANKS to the Soft Boys for expanding my vocabulary beyond even my wildest dreams. I now feel quite competent in my usage of words such as nauseate / emetic / insipid / tedious / irksome / dreary / prosaic / somnolent . . . Is that enough to convince you non -believers?
The band are trying to be . . . ahh, shall we say original / unique, and certainly, one point to them their melodies are a little . . . hmmm different.
Splashes of inspiration veering from the bountiful realms of the highland fling / reggae / New York Dolls. Such a pity. Perhaps it did / does have potential, but as It stands, with the lead singer echoing melancholia and profundities and his own personae so obviously more the stand-up comic, well, what is one to think?
Mustn't be too hard on them I suppose, but as they say, It's a croooell world on the Inside. Sure, they had plenty of fans, maybe I was the only one out there fingerin' me ear plugs, and yes, there was applause. Maybe it picked up a little in the middle, maybe I was just beginning to feel that they had a sense of direction, but this was more than overshadowed by that feeling of musical anarchy which introduced the set.
So there was a bit of yodelling between numbers, a lead singer with a personality crisis and a drummer in shorts, and perhaps I'm just getting old, but I've seen it all before - and there's nothing worse than seeing one band plagiarise another band's mistakes. A word of comfort for the bassist - at least he looked the part promoted an image and impressed the media.
But I'm never as reliable as the speaking clock, so perhaps it was just one of my premature migraines which marred a rather strange set, so don't prejudge on the strength of this.
I wasn't impressed, and I did get a headache - but after all, I'm nearly human too.
BEV BRIGGS
THE SOFT BOYS
Hope and Anchor
THANKS to the Soft Boys for expanding my vocabulary beyond even my wildest dreams. I now feel quite competent in my usage of words such as nauseate / emetic / insipid / tedious / irksome / dreary / prosaic / somnolent . . . Is that enough to convince you non -believers?
The band are trying to be . . . ahh, shall we say original / unique, and certainly, one point to them their melodies are a little . . . hmmm different.
Splashes of inspiration veering from the bountiful realms of the highland fling / reggae / New York Dolls. Such a pity. Perhaps it did / does have potential, but as It stands, with the lead singer echoing melancholia and profundities and his own personae so obviously more the stand-up comic, well, what is one to think?
Mustn't be too hard on them I suppose, but as they say, It's a croooell world on the Inside. Sure, they had plenty of fans, maybe I was the only one out there fingerin' me ear plugs, and yes, there was applause. Maybe it picked up a little in the middle, maybe I was just beginning to feel that they had a sense of direction, but this was more than overshadowed by that feeling of musical anarchy which introduced the set.
So there was a bit of yodelling between numbers, a lead singer with a personality crisis and a drummer in shorts, and perhaps I'm just getting old, but I've seen it all before - and there's nothing worse than seeing one band plagiarise another band's mistakes. A word of comfort for the bassist - at least he looked the part promoted an image and impressed the media.
But I'm never as reliable as the speaking clock, so perhaps it was just one of my premature migraines which marred a rather strange set, so don't prejudge on the strength of this.
I wasn't impressed, and I did get a headache - but after all, I'm nearly human too.
BEV BRIGGS