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Photo credit: Retro Man Blog
The Prisoners, one of the most influential of the U.K. mod garage bands emerging from the aftermath of punk in the early 80’s, never got their due during their initial 1980-1986 heyday. While putting on incendiary live performances and influencing charting bands like the Charlatans UK and the Inspiral Carpets, the Prisoners were known by most (if at all) as compatriots of the Billy Childish led Milkshakes and other stalwarts of the Medway scene. Despite occasional brief reunions over the ensuing years, it was a shock to fans like myself (who last saw them 41 years ago) that they were booked to perform at the famous Roundhouse in Camden Town (hosting a who’s who of legendary 60’s shows by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Doors, and David Bowie, not to mention a July 4, 1976 performance by a certain crew of jeans and leather jacket clad youngsters from Queens that is said to have helped spark the punk movement in the UK).
Aging mods from all over the globe converged on Camden Town to relive youthful memories of their heros, and filled the largest venue the band have every played (capacity 1,800). After warmup sets from famed BBC DJ Steve Lamacq (introducing the band as “one of the greatest unsung British bands of the last 40 years”) and the Inspiral Carpets (who acknowledged their debt to the Prisoners), the four original members of the band (Graham Day, Allan Crockford, James Taylor, and Johnny Symons) blasted into garage stomper and 1983 single, “Hurricane,” and didn’t let up for the next two hours, playing virtually every song their fans wanted to hear. Not merely content to bask in a nostalgia fest, the band unveiled powerhouse versions of several tunes from Morning Star, their stellar LP released two weeks ahead of the gig, which were received as enthusiastically as a cohort of crowdpleasers from their 1982 debut, Taste of Pink. While perhaps impossible to replicate the atmosphere of a hot sweaty 1983 night at the Hope and Anchor, the band summoned the energy of decades gone by, while displaying tight musical interplay and infectious joy at simply being there.
With the guitar crunch of the early Who and the pop and soul smarts of the Small Faces, Day channeled his inner Steve Marriott and delivered impassioned versions of Prisoners classics like “Coming Home,” “Melanie,” and “Reaching My Head,” while Taylor (leader of acid jazz forerunners, the James Taylor Experience) mugged for the crowd and wailed on organ, particularly on instrumentals like “Come to the Mushroom,” “A Taste of Pink,” and “Explosion on Uranus,” working the crowd into a bobbing and shimmying frenzy.
When the evening was done, and the last chords of (Joe South penned and Billy Joe Royal and Deep Purple hit) “Hush” and long time set closer, “Don’t Call My Name,” faded into the rafters of the Roundhouse, the crowd could only hug and smile in amazement at the good fortune to have experienced one more time a legendary band at the top of its game.
