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Glen Matlock’s career to date has included playing with many of his own personal favourite bands and artistes – ranging from the Faces through to Iggy Pop. His latest venture is King Mob, featuring the Pretenders‘ Martin Chambers on drums, Steve Parsons aka Snips (ex Sharks) on vocals plus guitarists Sixteen and Chris Spedding with Matlock himself of course on bass duties.
I’d had the band’s debut album (released on Steamhammer/SPV) for about 10 days before this first London gig and I was really looking forward to seeing them play live. The album has a 1950s classic rock’n’roll sound to it – packed full of energy, excellent guitar riffs, a raw edge, atmospheric vocals from Snips and some great catchy songs.
As I walked to the venue I realised that it was literally a stones throw across the Euston Road from where the Thames Television studios used to be where Matlock’s first band, the Sex Pistols of course, achieved national notoriety on 1st December 1976 on the “Today” show hosted by Bill Grundy. Spedding and Matlock go back a very long way, with Spedding having produced the first Pistols studio demos back in May 1976. Thirty-five years on, when many bands are struggling to pull a crowd, it was great to see a good turn out for the gig with fans traveling from as far as the Netherlands to see King Mob. The 229 is an excellent venue with a high stage and good sound. The support band, The Bermondsey Joyriders, accompanied by the legendary MC5 manager John Sinclair on spoken word, warmed the crowd up very nicely with their high energy music.
King Mob took to the stage around 9.45pm for their third ever gig, after two shows in Carlisle and Bristol earlier in the week. They went straight into ‘Lover of High Renown’, also the albums’ opening track. I was amazed at Snips as a front man. Very eye catching with his hair pushed up almost into a bouffant hair do – strolling around the stage and grabbing everyone’s attention. After the third song, ‘Vah Vah Voom’, Martin Chambers left his drum kit to introduce the band with a white towel draped around his neck like a boxer in the ring. This is a band that clearly enjoys each other’s company and playing live as could be seen from the smiles from the whole group.
‘American Slaves’ was up next, written by Snips and one of the stand out tracks on the album with its driving beat and excellent riffs, ‘I said hip – hip – hip hooray for the USA’. I can see the band being a big hit in the US, especially if they’re able to dip into an audience with a love of bands like the Stray Cats and attendees of events like the Rockabilly Rave and the annual Coney Island festival .
The set closed with ‘China Waters’, ‘Selene Selene’ and ‘King Mob’ with ‘Who’s chasing who’ saved for the encore. All in all a highly enjoyable night – great bands playing in a great venue in front of an enthusiastic audience. What more could anyone want?
My lasting memory of the night with King Mob is of a group of talented musicians playing music that they all enjoy for the fun of it. Exactly how music should be – but so rarely is. Have a listen to the album and go to see them if they play live near you; you’ll not be disappointed. Live dates are currently being set up to promote the album in Europe in early 2012 followed by shows in Japan, Australia and South America.
