Dead Cat Bounce

An odd week

bruceonthefringe 2023, Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe history, Live bands in Edinburgh, Music shows Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This has been an odd week, well, a week of oddities, flashbacks, fun and not-so-much fun. It started on Monday when I got an email that Apocalypse Clown a film I had booked to see in Glasgow the following day was cancelled due to technical difficulties. Dammit! It was my only opportunity too, it only had a very limited release (yup, not a single cinema in Edinburgh was showing it!). You may be wondering what’s so special about Apocalypse Clown that I’d be prepared to trek over to Glasgow for it?

Three of the co-writers were one of my all-time favourite Fringe acts, Dead Cat Bounce, that’s Demian Fox, Shane O’Brien and James Walmsley. Sure its quite some time since they were at the Fringe but they were supertalented, very original and achingly funny; the trailer for Apocalypse Clown looks so good, they obviously haven’t lost the spark. It’s a film with clowns (obviously), vengeful human statues and a slow-motion walrus fight (so I’ve read) – what’s not to love?! A film of semi-epic proportions, I reckon.

So, I wasn’t happy at missing that, for consolation I went to see Barbie for a second time, yay. It made a good start to my evening before Nicole and the Back-up Crew in Stramash, finishing off at Whistlebinkies with The Scat Rats and a wonderful, unexpected delight – the first acoustic rendition of Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, oh my heartses!

Wednesday I decided to check what other old Fringe favourites of mine The Les Clöchards were up to these days – they only have a new album out and it’s on Spotify! Stop, Drop & Rock is a lot of fun, those hobos from a small island near Corsica have still got it – blimey Charlie, it’s ten years since they last played the Edinburgh Fringe when I bought their CD Never Don’t Not.

Interestingly there’s new versions of two songs from that previous album, Love Baby has definitely gone up a few notches but I prefer the raunchier, heavier earlier version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (but you will love the new version if you’ve never heard the first one, truly you will). I love what they’ve done with Material Girl a great Clöchards reworking, but my current favourite is Bunch of Assholes, delightfully lackadaisical and bouncy.

Thursday night, yay, a rare visit from over West for Baby Face and the Beltin’ Boys to Stramash. Who? Baby Face aka Julen Santamaria of Awkward Family Portraits, purveyor of Western Swing with a very distinctive voice. There was actually just one Beltin’ Boy with him on this occasion, but the two of them were more than enough for a fun time (I’ll stick a reel on Instagram later). See, this is why I pay so much attention to who’s playing where and when, to catch such gems!

Friday morning and a big downer, my throat was on fire, bloody painful. It had been threatening a while, I’d hoped nightly gargling with TCP would do the trick, nope! Nothing was going to soothe it now, it was only a matter of time before my sinuses joined in the revolt. They did and how, for about forty-eight hours and two boxes of tissues; just a few foot soldiers are left behind now, the rest have moved to my chest.

Okay, so twice I’ve missed The Scat Rats this weekend, hey, I do see them plenty, but The Buccaneers were playing The Jazz Bar after midnight on Friday and I was fully intending on going, damn. Not impressed.

Other bits of news, Logan’s Close have announced 20th October as the release date for their long-awaited debut album Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, get your order in! The loveliest man on the Fringe Aidan Goatley is writing a new show, “the show I’ve wanted to do for several years but only now feel ready for”, this will definitely be one to see next year, can’t wait. Austrian stand-up Elias Werner will be in the UK on Thursday 12th October at The Pen Theatre in London as part of their Fresh off the Fringe season; well, he did tell me he’d be back!

Well, that’s all my news, now I must go gargle some more TCP and get to my bed.

Oh, my precious!

A red beret, a megaphone, Action!

bruceonthefringe 2023, Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe history, Logan's Close, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Am I right? Belly nicely full, strong coffee beside me, air scented with essential oil vapours, yes I’m right, time to write something. Oh, today’s oils are grapefruit for levity and clarity, frankincense to ease my still ailing body and fennel, just because it’s been in my oils box for ages and needs using up. Since I last wrote I’ve been lurgied, losing my voice for three days, it’s come back very grudgingly accompanied by a body-shaking cough, bah.

So, I was about to head back to Yorkshireland for Mothering Sunday and Logan’s Close were about to release the video to Babestation ….. didn’t manage to hit the road until the crack of noon, did manage a first look at the video before I left. Haha, watching the video reminded me of a bit from my review of the single release “… a seedy wedding band playing unnoticed …” inspired by a song by Fringe favourites Dead Cat Bounce; I grabbed the CD for my journey.

Dead Cat Bounce were a bunch of talented Irish lads who combined their musical and comedic skills to produce witty, bitingly funny, un-PC songs (this was back 2008 to 2012). The scenario DCB painted in Christians In Love was what sprung to my mind while listening to Babestation. From being a song about a young couple on their wedding night, a sudden twist reveals it’s actually being played in the couple’s room by the wedding band who don’t plan to leave until they’ve been paid (the young newlyweds are “possibly deaf or just incredibly focused”). I’d envisaged Logan’s Close in a back corner of the room, not quite, they’re on a different tv channel.

Once down in Yorkshireland it was all go, ’til I was laid low and silent on the Monday; at least I finally had some time to check out Babestation again. That was a week ago, I’ve watched it a few times since. Wow, there’s a lot packed into those five minutes and twelve seconds!! (short, intense, bizarre, like you’ve just been Tango’d) Love it, the eye is in the right place on this duck, LC‘s go-to film guy James Gilhooly is so in tune with their vibe, so many exquisite little niblets (yes, okay, I’ve watched it plenty times).

A few of those niblets to tantalise your tastebuds – the retro television, also seen in the Heart-shaped Jacuzzi video, is sooo cool. Greenscreen guy, ha, a nice touch! Hats, wigs, fake moustaches, perve it up with a nod to 60s looks. Lots of closeup shots, very closeup, eyes, fingers, mouths, and a nipple shot!! That’s a nipple belonging to Gareth Mutch a local comic and actor who plays the Babe brilliantly, going through a whole gamut of emotions within five minutes (I told you it’s intense). The punch-ups look great but Gavin Lamont takes first prize for violence – and he seems so quiet! And the potentials waiting to do Babestation auditions, haha!

The tempo of the action beautifully mirrors the changes in mood and tempo of the music. I like the mixing up of eras, the modern with retro 60s, mirroring the Close‘s sound; even the modern isn’t that modern, apart from maybe the caller’s nails? This “midnight observer” is gorgeous, feisty, sexy – from the glimpses we get to see of her (erm, I’ve no idea of what sorts phone up these channels, yes, I’m that naive, but I’m guessing she’s not what a female equivalent to the usual caller would look like). I had wondered about this particular video, but yay, they pulled it off – how else to film Babestation but by subverting the whole scenario? A highly entertaining fast-paced, fist-flying film, Edgar Wright-like glimmers in there.

Do give it a watch, as Kenny Everett would say, it’s all done in the best possible taste! The next single is already being lined up and it is another beaut, well, all the songs are, but it’s another that The Scat Rats occasionally sing which always adds a little extra sparkle for me. They’ll hopefully do it at Whistlebinkies on Saturday afternoon, some time after four.

Toodle pip!

What ever happened to the sideburns?

bruceonthefringe Comedy, Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe history, Music, Music shows, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

So back in April Logan’s Close played the Voodoo Rooms with a new addition of a keyboard player – fine. Next thing, the new pics on FB only show four guys, four plus one should be five? Was it an aesthetics thing – sorry only four to a photo, five would be too much!? The drummer with the great sideburns seems to be oot of the picture, literally. The Close have a new single out soon, no doubt they’ll play Edinburgh to herald it’s arrival, and we’ll see who’s in or out. Same drummer, new drummer, drum machine?!?

It’s reminded me of one of my favourite Fringe acts, Dead Cat Bounce. They wrote a rather magnificence song about the day they fired the drummer, performed at the end of the show literally as though the other three had just agreed earlier that day to fire him. Nine years later I still laugh when I hear it, absolutely brilliant, but then Dead Cat Bounce were top class comedy writers and performers as well as being great musicians. They would most definitely be one of my Desert Island Fringe Acts!

Ironically it was the keyboardist who left the band just over a year later. Sadly the remaining trio only played the Fringe one more time in 2012, it wasn’t quite the same without Mick; and it put Outsized Orthopaedic Shoe and Four Lads off the playlist, shame. In 2013 they called it a day, well, playing live, until in 2017 they apparently did a 10th anniversary reunion show, and there’s a DVD of it!! I must hunt one down. I shall keep on with the occasional stalk to see what they’re up to, in case they reform proper!

The Penny Dreadfuls, particular favourites of mine, were originally a four-man sketch show when my buddy and I first came across them in their Victorian sketch show Aeneas Faversham. It was our favourite show that year, silly, surreal, clever, witty, and thoroughly British! The following year they pulled it off again with Aeneas Faversham Returns, by George, even Bud’s elderly maiden aunt loved it, especially the Invisible Man sketch – the one part we feared she would disapprove of! Why? Specimen 626 had escaped from the lab and they had to find him, he was invisible, at least to them on stage, we could all see Specimen 626 who was stark bollock naked! He was prancing around, jiggling about between the others talking trying to put them off, he even did a cartwheel across the stage! By the following Fringe Jamie (aka Specimen 626) had left them. Had the naked cartwheels been too much for him? So 2008 saw the Penny Dreadfuls down to a trio for Aeneas Faversham Forever, and they’re still loosely together, every now and again popping up on Radio 4 and Radio 4extra, besides following their own solo careers, occasionally popping up at the Fringe. David Reed is up for  four nights with Inside the Comedian and of course, Thom Tuck is up as usual doing lots of silly things with lots of silly people.

Just to show you there were originally four Penny Dreadfuls and also what an awesome act they are……

2019-07-16 19.14.09

behold, the Penny Dreadful playing cards! Yes, they didn’t just do badges, they had decks of playing cards! Three years in a row! The chap at the back of the middle card is Jamie. I wonder what became of him? And can he still cartwheel?