On Wednesday me and a couple of pals strolled along London's crappy Oxford Street to the 100 Club to see Zamrock pioneers WITCH in action.
WITCH started life back in 1972, disbanded in the mid 1980s and were then rediscovered and reissued by the diggers of crates in the early 2010s. This led to the band reforming under the original frontman Emanyeo "Jagari" Chanda and this iteration has released a couple of albums, "Zango" in 2023 and "Sogolo" last year. You can find them and pretty much all of the back catalogue on Bandcamp.
Mr Chanda is still going strong and was joined at the 100 Club by fellow veteran Patrick Mwondela on keyboards and assorted whippersnappers who between them did a very good job of recapturing the sound and the spirit of the original band.
WITCH stands for We Intend To Create Havoc. Things didn't quite reach havoc levels on Wednesday but personally I put that down to the fairly sedate audience rather than the band who were in fine form. If the ratio of headbangers to hipsters had been more favourable and if they had been allowed to turn their amps up to 11 I think we would have got there.
Support was by The Heavenly Bodes (sic) who hail from Cornwall via an acid trip in a garage somewhere in America in 1967. They weren't wildly original but they make a good noise and I enjoyed their set, especially the extended freak-out with which they closed.
Their debut album "Green Hills" was released last month and is worth checking out, and I am looking forward to hearing them when they have had time to meld their influences into their own sound.
We finish with a track from both the old and newer versions of WITCH - including the song with which they opened their set on Wednesday - and the one from the Bodes. Give them a listen then head over to Bandcamp Friday to spend, spend, spend.
"Thou Shalt Not Cry" - WITCH
"By The Time You Realise" - WITCH
"Faux Pillars" - The Heavenly Bodes
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