From Waco to Gwent

Another Thursday, another great gig.

Following on from King Ayisoba in Dalston, last week Mister F and I made our way to the Lexington in London's swinging Islington to see the Waco Brothers. It was an evening of delights both expected and unexpected.

The expected delight was the Brothers themselves. They were out in full force with their three front men - Jon Langford, Dean Schlabowske and Tracey Dear - and the rest of the gang all in fine raucous form. They bashed their way through hit after hit leaving no shit left unkicked and a great time was had by all (apart from one sour-faced old bastard but he doesn't count).

The unexpected delight was the support act, a Jon Langford project that had previously passed me by. Jon Langford's Men of Gwent is mainly him and a bunch of other blokes from his home town of Newport. Most of their set was performed without La Langford - we were encouraged to think of them as The Shadows without Cliff "but not the Glitter Band" - but the show did not suffer at all from his absence.

Musically they reminded me a bit of 1970s pub-rock (in a good way). Think Brinsley Schwarz or Ducks Deluxe if they only sang songs about Newport and other seaside towns in South Wales.

Today's selection features two of the 20+ highlights of the Brothers' set, plus a song about Tenby from the Men of Gwent. I chose it because back in the early 1970s my uncle managed a zoo on the St. Katherine's Island mentioned in the song.

"Do You Think About Me?" - Waco Brothers

"See Willy Fly By" - Waco Brothers

"Tenby Boatman" - Jon Langford's Men of Gwent

Finally in the videos we have the three songs that made up the Brothers' rabble rousing encore.