Monkees, Sweets & Dyson Air Blades

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PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Concert Review :Peter Tork/Smashing Time - 100 Club, Saturday 10/02/07
I was dead chuffed when I heard my friend Jim's band 'Smashing Time' were supporting a Monkee, Peter Tork, at the 100 Club. Top gig I thought. Must go. Several years ago I had seen all 4 Monkees at Wembley Arena, and although it's a gruesomely big venue to see a band at, it was still spine-tinglingly brilliant. Peter Tork got a solo slot on piano as I recall. He played something very complicated and so proved he was a proper musician, but it wasn't as impressive as the four of them on their own performing a full-on version, with multi-layered harmonies, of 'You Just May Be The One'.

This time there was quite a lot of hype for Tork's only London gig and so I was a little surprised that it wasn't a sell out, although it was £19.50 a ticket even without a booking fee.
The evening opened with an excellent solo guitarist whose name I'm
afraid I didn't catch. Then it was time for 'Smashing Time'. These
cheeky chappies make me feel like I'm watching a Madness covers band,
except they're doing their own original songs. It was a very
good-humoured act, which went down well with the crowd.

Several young and not-so-young ladies were dressed in suitable sixties attire,
ignoring the well-trailed fact that Peter Tork's guys were to be a
blues band and not a Monkees experience. However, it was in part a Monkees
show. Tork sang the major hit songs, which of course he never did at
the time. He asked us to imagine the records as we listened. He also sang a
song he did sing at the time, 'Auntie Grizelda', which he introduced as
'a song made famous by … me!' There were also several fairly major
train-spotters in the audience. I think the guy that impressed me most
(and I'm being a tad sarcastic at this point…) was a guy in a leather
jacket in front of me. In the middle of the gig, with us all standing
watching the band, he turned round to tell me that he was going to the
toilet and I was to recognise that the space in front of me, where he
was standing, belonged to him. Say what ?!

Several people shouted out the names of Monkees songs, which prompted Tork to say it was time for
'the speech'. He said if anyone was asking for a request they could
shove it. He said they only knew the songs on the set list. Tork was
the 'dumb' one in the Monkees. He was the Ringo, the Harpo Marx, or the
Snork (Banana Splits) character. The rare appearance of his voice had
an almost choir-boy richness, although it was quite deep. Now it's a much
grainier bluesy one. When I hear old musicians going for the blues, it
usually means they're too worn out to do anything else. However, in
Tork's case it was a pretty slick affair, and would have made many an
evening in the roadhouse gigs of America, even without his pop
heritage.

He said that unlike the 100 Club's sign saying there should be no
photos of the band, he was happy that everyone filmed and took pictures that
they then sold or traded with friends. In return he only asked that if
they should manage to make money out of it they should tell him how.

The band climaxed with 'I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone' which he took pride in
telling us was the Sex Pistols' version rather than the Monkees' one. I
particularly enjoyed at the end when he managed to sing 'I'm not your
stone, bitch'. Couldn't bring myself to join the trainspotters queuing
for a chance to have some of his words said direct to me. Instead I
went for the much easier to meet bass player, who was a thoroughly nice
good-humoured chap. He was very polite and appreciative of our
appreciation. All in all it was a respectable performance from a legend
that doesn't want only to do what made him famous.

New technology : The Dyson Air Blade
I have never been a fan (ha!) of hand blow dryers in toilets, which I
regard as a pointless cop-out. However, in the 100 Club I experienced
this new variant. It focuses the blast into a line and you slowly
withdraw your hands over that line and they actually get dry. Wow!

Retail therapy : www.cybercandy.co.uk
My friend Matthew introduced me to this amazing shop in Covent Garden.
They also have an online site. They import everyday sweets from all
around the world, and some of them are wild. They have some blasts from
the past, presumably from countries where they still have them. My
friend's a fan of mini-sacks of 'gold' nuggets of chewing gum. I found
myself in the Australia/New Zealand corner checking out 'Picnic
Hedgehogs' (a 'Picnic' with hedgehogs - small balls - of chocolate
fudge stuck to it), the 'Big Turk' (a long Turkish delight bar), 'Wunderbar'
and several others. They also stock the American Hershey bars, and
Hershey 'kisses' (small 'blobs' of Hershey chocolate). Pricey, but good
fun to visit.