Get Out More.............................Gig Review

SHARON JONES AND DAP KINGS (Yardbird, Birmingham)

22-04-2008

Soul veteran Sharon Jones has come to belated prominence thanks to her role backing Amy Winehouse on the Back To Black set. But could she cut it in her own right? Paul Samuels sweats on it at a packed Yardbird.

I had really fancied this gig. I’d previewed it at this link here

From the records and the clips I’d seen I was expecting a full on, all out funky soul, sold out treat. And it was. There was no support but the dj’s delivered some furious funk and the Yardbird is just a good place to be anyway.

Eight Dap-Kings squeeze onto the small low stage. Suited and booted to various degrees of dapperness and exuding bar band nonchalance.

They’re all great players and look like they could probably play their instruments with one hand and use the other to skin you at poker. Except for the conga player who looks like he’s only a costume change away from a part in ‘Allo ‘Allo.

I felt I’d had my moneys worth even before Sharon Jones took to the stage.

MC and guitarist Binky Griptite led the band into a couple of warm up numbers and instrumentals. It was just so good to be standing so close to a band who had so completely captured the sound of classic soul. Northern and Southern, Country and Western. Sacred and profane and all points in-between. They had a handle on it and they were turning it. On!

Trumpet, 2 saxes, 2 guitars, congas and the effortless funky shuffle of the peerless Homer Funky Foot Steinweiss using the world’s smallest kit with no toms. (Or gongs. It didn’t levitate or explode into flames either!)

Bosco Bass Mann’s shades were straight from Starsky and Hutch and his bass lines were straight from all the best Rare Groove records. No complaints on either count then.

Binky Griptite’s stage patter is a delight. It’s 70’s dj/George Clinton meets Hendrix. In his world the merchandise stand isn’t a trestle table with some t shirts and cds. It’s a Supersoul Superstore?

Sharon Jones is an Etta James style soul belter, with a sideline in the Tina Turner strut on unfeasible heels. (She probably didn’t wear them when she was a warder at Rikers Island. At least not on the days when she’d have to run after someone.)

Her act includes lots of chatting to the audience and she explains how she tackled the pitfalls of being a big woman dancing in a little dress. “I’ve got my shorts on!?”

She does like to get people on stage though. One by one they’re dragged up to be danced at/with and sung to. The classic moment though was in a song called Be Easy.

She pulled a fresh faced fellow onto the stage and explained how this song was going to be an education to him and would help him in matters of love.

She asked if he was here with his girlfriend. She asked if he was here with a woman. “Are you here with a lady tonight?”

"Er I'm with my mum"....which was true. �And his dad too. �A family outing. �Mum got dragged on stage as well. �His dad plays drums in Ramones covers band Havana A Go Go. �The Havana A Go Go hero was beaming "That's my boy".

The songs capture the sounds of all the best years of classic 60’s and 70’s Soul. Aint Nobody’s Baby opens out into a soaring Staple Singers type chorus and Mean Man positively shakes it’s tail feather.

Songs are stretched out or shortened with nods and glances between the band. So it feels as if the material is being moulded to the mood of the evening. They could have rehearsed being spontaneous though!

They finish with a covers of It’s a Mans World and There Was A Time. (Both Jones and her childhood hero Brown were born in Augusta Georgia).

A great gig then.

As on the records they’re not out do anything new or clever, just capture the sounds and feeling of classic era Soul. And they do it impeccably.

Jones herself has said “Maybe it’s coming back for others but I’ve lived through segregation and Stax and Otis dying. I’ve lived this part of history and now I’m singing it”.