Wednesday night found me at the O2 Academy 2 in Islington to see Alistair Griffin play with his band. He sang a bit too. There hadn’t been a band gig in London for two and a half years, so anticipation was running highish. What would his new band sound like? Would it be like the album? Would he play anything even a little bit new? Since trekking here last with a van full of amps and stuff, he’s announced a new album, hung about in a few studios, had a little tune played on the BBC, and done a few re-mixes of re-mixed mixes of already mixed songs.
The gig was a support slot at Two Spot Gobi’s album launch. The Gobies had a trumpet and were good but didn’t have enough spots for me so I won’t be buying that one.
New Age Griffin first awoke from his slumber party a couple of weeks previously to play Just Drive with his latest band of session musicians on the TV channel ESPN. They were sounding good, with a guitarist who could obviously play well and a nice sounding girl drummer joining bass player Paul ‘Foda’ Fothergill, who’s stuck with Griffin though thick and thin.
By the time they got to Islington Academy the line-up had changed. The drummer and guitarist were new. The drummer really went for it and would’ve been right at home in a metal band. I’d have liked to have heard more from the guitarist, but perhaps my issue here might be that some of the best intricately picked, energy-driving riffs have gone from the songs. This is disappointing. Long-term accompanist Simon Waggott re-appeared to play keyboard and Foda again played bass with Alistair strumming along on his acoustic. They sounded fine for a live gig, there were cracks, but nothing broke.
Everyone was at the bar or chatting in corners when Griffin materialised on stage and launched abruptly into opening number Blinding Lights. Definitely a lack of anticipatory build-up! Taken by surprise, and not wanting to appear impolite by actually moving, everyone shifted a step away from their corners but any closer to the stage was ruled out. It was a shame because Blinding Lights turned out to be a stonking opener, but people weren’t paying attention properly in a sort of ‘Oh, has he started’ kind of way.
This was the first time I’d heard Blinding Lights played live with a band and overall it sounded pretty good and rocking. Compared to the demo, it had a new bridgy verse bit, which was dead catchy and added some depth, a more intricate musical structure and some lyrical changes which made it sound less like it might possibly be about Griffin’s first time! The band sounded great, if you ignored the slight all-over-the-placeness and lack of cohesion borne from throwing a bunch of musicians together at the last minute. But the best bit of the song – the extremely catchy, picked electric guitar riff which drove the energy of the second half on the demo version – had been dropped. I missed it.
Another oldie was up next, Blown Away. I always look forward to seeing which of the vocalists hit the tricky high notes in this and which notes they choose, as anyone who has read my blog before will know. I think they both chose the same notes this time, at least. A good rendition, you can jump about a bit to this one and it had a guitary bit in to keep me quiet, a bit different to previously played, but sounded ok.
Next we got a brand new song, although its title wasn’t announced so I’ll have to refer to it as Chemistry. If I’ve got that right I’ll treat myself to a Bunsen burner, but it’s safer than calling it Kipper. It’s a very upbeat, bouncy sounding song, and quite catchy. You could very easily pogo along to it if you were into that sort of thing, although nobody did. I really liked it, though not sure I’d ever play it at home as it’s a bit poppy for me. But it’s good.
I’ve not much to say about Following the Light, which was played acoustically, I think with just Alistair’s acoustic guitar and maybe keys. This is a fairly new song, one of the ones up on Alistair’s SoundCloud until recently. Although it has a catchy chorus, I am failing to be excited by this song, although the potential is there and perhaps some intricate acoustic guitar accompaniment would lift it and add a bit of much needed pizzazz.
The next tune will be forever known as the Smelly Fish Song but it’s Griffin’s fault for temporarily naming it Kipper, a puzzling choice even by Griffin standards! Seems like the sponsorship deal with Fortunes must not have come off, as I’m guessing this is the song he’s referred to lately as Save This Day.
The lyrics have undergone some changes and whilst the sacred ground was unceremoniously dumped a long time ago, there’s no more swimming about naked or exhaustedly trudging brutal streets with broken feet now either. I liked the street verse, it sounded personal and you could relate to it. The song came across well overall, but wasn’t the best I’ve heard it, the thump-crash-wallop drums were particularly apparent on it, I’ve a headache just thinking about it but they do add momentum and energy.
The last song was the ubiquitous Just Drive. The gigged version sounded pretty good. Formula One fans may remember this song from the BBC outro video following an emotionally charged final Grand Prix of the season at Abu Dhabi last year. Griffin appeared to pick up a lot of F1 followers who associate the song with the excitement and passion of F1 and the emotion that the last Grand Prix for a while brings to the hardened F1 fan. I’m a keen F1 watcher myself, so I recognise this. The song certainly works brilliantly for the purpose for which it was written, which after all is what a song should do.
Alistair Griffin – Just Drive
I would have left it at that, except it’s been announced as Griffin’s re-launch single*. This forces me into voicing a slight doubt about it being strong enough to stand alone without the feelings associated with it from being an F1 fan. It’s certainly not Griffin’s best song. It’s a good song but for me it needs a bit more grit and a stronger lyric. I’m not bowled over by it in isolation but thought it sounded absolutely fantastic over the BBC F1 video which is what it was basically written for, so fair enough.
After the Grand Prix, the track was offered as a free download, an excellent ploy that contributed to its success virally, then put onto iTunes with little actual promotion. It did tremendously well considering this, reaching an excellent number 38 in the official chart, driven almost exclusively by what was referred to on Twitter as ‘The Power of F1 Fans’. I’m sure Griffin knows it’s a risky choice, those F1 fans won’t be buying it again. But there are some marketing related benefits in releasing a song that seemed to catch people’s imagination, and with some actual promotion to reach the majority who won’t have gone and searched for it, it might just make it.
Just Drive brought the short but very enjoyable set to an end. Although it deserved a larger audience, the crowd was by no means small considering the rather low-key promotion for the appearance and the £10 ticket price. Griffin has a much rockier band sound live than many expect, so I think if gig-goers get over the block of going to see ‘Alistair Griffin from Fame Academy’ rather than a cool sounding band, they’ll be surprised.
The music speaks, but pushing people over that hurdle is hard and he needs some very clever promotion to achieve it. I hope he gets it.
*Alistair Griffin’s single Just Drive is released on 20 June 2011 with the album Albion Sky following in August.
I heard a ghost 