The Mob / Idiot Strength – The Macbeth Hoxton – 04/06/11

Idiot Strength performance

The Mob performance part one

The Mob performance part two (track 11 – I Wish is performed after track 15 – No Doves Fly Here)

How did this gig come about so suddenly and with no notice to the public? Well…Mark and Leah were contacted by Allison of The Kills two weeks ago. Allison was organising fellow Kills member Jamie Hince’s stag night before he is wed to the Croydon supermodel Kate Moss. Allison inquired whether Jamie’s favourite ever band and main inspiration in his teenage years could perform at a (then unspecified) venue in London. Mark asked the other band members and it was agreed to perform in London at a free party organised by Allison.

Allison got busy organising a suitable venue whilst Leah, Tess, Steve Corr, Mick Lugworm and myself (Penguin) sought out suitable guests to invite. The band had been given permission to invite 150 guests and the logistics should have been a nightmare. Happily though almost all the people invited were old Mob followers who jumped at the opportunity to see this band perform for the first time in London since late on in 1983. The few old faces that unfortunately could not attend were quickly and easily replaced with other willing souls.

All the invited guests were asked to agree to the one demand placed on them for the eventual entrance to this gig. The guests were asked to remain silent about this gig on any blogs, facebook or any other online forum. After all it was meant to be a surprise for the happy groom to be, and no one wanted to spoil the surprise, least of all the organisers! To the joy of everyone involved in setting this event up, this one demand was met with total agreement and was respected throughout.

Below: The guest list for the night, not including Jamie Hince’s entourage of twenty or so.

1. Mark Wilson

2. Graham Fallows

3. Curtis Youe

4. Leah Wild

5. Jackie Fallows

6. Mary Youe

7. Tess Wilson

8. Chris Stanley

9. Mickey Penguin

10. Steve Corr

11. Claire Wilson

12. Rosie Wilson

13. Madeline Dring

14. Alex Dring

15. Nav Sabet

16. Shane Sealey

17. Ella Sheehan

18. Min

19. Rowan

20. Phil Ritchie

21. Jodie

22. Max

23. Justine Butler

24. Marc Adams

25. Ian Harris (Ebo)

26. Peter Russel (Lumpy)

27. Ben Corrigan

28. Mick Luggy

29. Bob Buttler

30. Andy Tuck

31. Ian Glasper

32. Andy T

33. Pid Sensa Yuma

34. Beki Teeth

35. Kim Holmes

36. Bristol Blue

37. Tony Tsuk

38. Fran Tsuks

39. Hugh Murray Marine

40. Paul Light

41. Conchita

42. Duna

43. Ian

44. Sid Rubella

45. Zillah Rubella

46. Ian Aitch

47. Shane Dabineti

48. Chris Low

49. Romina Loi

50. Gita Malhotra

51. Paul Shrapnel

52. Liz Rowland

53. Mark Palmer

54. Micheal Victor

55. Pauline Victor

56. Richard Percy

57. Elaine Seymour

58. Andy Barker

59. John Turner

60. Nick Hydra

61. Paul Venables

62. Del Blyben

63. Jim Wafford

64. Sean Forbes

65. Rob Challice

66. Kate Riddihough

67. Andrew Rawlings

68. Tinsal

69. Tony Woodrow

70. Pete Alberto

71. Tony D

72. Des Hoskins

73. Jaz Wiseman

74. Deb Googe

75. Kath Gifford

76. Keith Reynolds

77. Alex Reynolds

78. Simon Rix

79. Christine Moeller

80. Val Drayton

81. Tex Rockerfella

82. Rachel

83. Steve

84. Gary DIRT

85. Rona DIRT

86. Paris

87. Peter

88. Lee Dalby

89. Lee Gibson

90. Deep Sea Dave

91. New Zealand Darren

92. Neil Keenan

93. Rosy Hayward

94. Shaun McLoughlin

95. Neale Williams

96. Gordan Wilkins

97. Nick Wilkins

98. Aithche Smyth

99. Chris Hunyh

100. Vicky Ridley

101. Spencer Kelly

102. Charles Loft

103. Stephen Spencer-Fleet

104. Gayle Colyer

105. Martin Manners

106. Shay

107. Guillaume Ruffat

108. Marie Berjon

109. Mark Ripper

110. Alastair McCaughtrie

111. Yasuyo Hosoi

112. Hooch

113. Simon Hobbs

114. Satu Salonpaa

115. Andrea Jameson

116. Paul Forder

117. Annie D’arcy

118. Pete Webb

119. Grant Showbiz

120. Ian Moss

121. Carl Kirton

122. Mark Astronaut

123. Kate Riddihough

124. Ban

125. Terry Dwyer

126. Dion Bunting

127. Spencer Batiste

128. Janice Tripney

129. Peck Woodrow

130. Gail Thibert

131. Cheryl Barclay

141. Harry

142. Karen Lack Of Knowledge

143. Boo Dendy

144. Chris Mortimer

145. Tom Fallows

146. Sylviane Decroliere

148. Geoff Collis

148. Giff

149. Laverne

150. Shaun

Allison found a venue, The Macbeth in deepest Hoxton, East London, and with the date of the stag night coming up fast, The Kills on their short tour entered Bristol to perform a gig there. Mark, Steve Corr and Leah plus assorted family members all went along to the gig and managed to speak to Jamie afterwards. Steve Corr was Jamie’s band mate in the third line up of Blyth Power, a band with strong Mob connections,  so he knew Jamie well. This was the excuse to introduce Mark from The Mob to Jamie. Jamie was overjoyed on meeting Mark for the first time and the night was finished off nicely with no one letting on to knowing  anything about a party a couple of days later. It must have been a strange moment as Allison had obviously been in touch via the phone and via email several times a day for almost two weeks with both Mark and Leah and then had to sit there pretending not to know or care too much about the guests backstage that night.

On the Saturday morning, during one of the finest and hottest days of the year so far the various members of the bands performing on the night travelled down from South Wales, Yeovil and Bristol.

The Mob and Idiot Strength arrived at the Macbeth around four in the afternoon, the sound check was completed courtesy of Grant Showbiz and with Harvey, the engineer from the venue. Grant Showbiz had been asked to work the mixing desk for The Mob on this hot June night. Grant had engineered the first two singles by The Mob ‘Crying Again’ recorded in 1979 and ‘Witch Hunt’ recorded in 1980. Grant had also done most of the live sound engineering on many of the early gigs performed by the band. The very last time Grant Showbiz would have engineered a Mob gig would have been the last time the band had performed at the Meanwhile Gardens all day free festival in Westbourne Park back in August 1983.

I had lugged my superb Denon cassette deck all the way from North London to record the performances through the PA, this also was set up through the sound desk with the help of Harvey. The Mob stage banners were placed up and I sorted out the DVDR of KYPP images that were now safely inside the Macbeth’s DVD player ready to go…A small merchandise stall was also made ready for the guests of this private party. Now all that was needed was the guests.

Around seven thirty, guests had started to arrive, by eight thirty just about all the invited guests were in the pub either at the stage area or up on the outside terrace a floor above happily being reunited in some cases after an absence of thirty years.

Idiot Strength, originally Yeovil based and old Mob followers, started off the night with a brilliant set. I have witnessed this band many times over the years and have always enjoyed the occasions. This performance was no exception. The band started off with ‘Rather Nice Pheasant’, which is one of my favorite songs of the mid 1980’s period. The band only performed six tracks and had only one rehearsal for this gig. They sounded tight enough although the tape of this performance I recorded off the desk seems to be missing the loud guitar that the spectators of the gig heard front of stage, but never the less a blinding performance by the band and the tape recording is fine, just a little light on the guitar sound.

The Mob milled around the guests throughout the night (some of which had not crossed paths for twenty five or thirty years) until Allison phoned through to advise that the first part of Jamie’s stag night was finished, and that Jamie and his entourage were on route from the resturant and heading towards the venue. The resturant part of the evening had overrun by around thirty minutes but none of the crowd were restless as there were too many old faces to reconnect to in the audience. The Mob placed themselves onto the stage ready to start off at the thumbs up signal from Tess on the door.

The thumb went up just after ten and giving a few seconds to ensure Jamie and his entourage were in the pub, The Mob then blasted off with ‘Youth’, Grant Showbiz on the sound desk wrestling with some small feedback issues at the very first few bars of the track. Jamie sussed the track immediately and after recognising Mark from the Thursday night meeting in Bristol, he then realised that this was the real band not just some cover band performing Mob classics! I was next to Grant at the time, pressing the play / record button on my tape deck and saw Jamie’s overjoyed face around the door way. He let out a yelp and went straight down the front and remained there throughout the set. He left some of his party to enjoy the band from a distance. Some notables in Jamie’s party were Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream and Mick Jones from The Clash.

The Mob performed one of the best gigs I had ever heard or witnessed. Listening to the tapes above will verify this. Perhaps it was the tiny venue, perhaps the free entry to the guests (donations were gratefully recieved near the front door), perhaps it was the amount of old Mob followers, All The Madmen records operatives, Puppies and other ex squatter types in the audience. It was more than likely a blistering combination of all these factors, The Mob relaxed after ‘Youth’ and went onto to ‘What’s Going On’ straight into ‘Shuffling Souls’ not missing a beat, and hitting the absolute minimum of bum notes for the whole set. The performance had energy and power, The Mob were at there absolute best throwing out classic song after classic song…

Jamie sweated every last beat of the drum and downward strum of the guitar, all throughout the set.

The Macbeth staff were all helpful and busy. The invited guests came from far and wide to witness The Mob, many tales of travelling were told throughout the night but by far the most cherished in my memory must be Hugh ex of the Brougham Road co op who spent twelve hours hitching from Penzance, I felt slightly ashamed at just coming from north London with my Denon cassette deck in a hessian bag for weight hassle!

After the performance the band milled around upstairs and were in the company of Jamie Hince and some of his entourage including the great Mick Jones from The Clash. The Clash were always a favorite to the members of The Mob, although it must be stated here on KYPP that Mark Mob did give The Clash a little bit of a slag off when he wrote a review of a gig he attended in Plymouth which was published in All The Madmen fanzine number one way back in 1978! This was not mentioned to Mike Jones on the night though…!

I got a big sweaty hug from Jamie before he left to attend the third section of his stag night and he told me that he was absolutely chuffed with the effort that everyone had made to make this second part of his stag night so special. I knew Jamie quite well from the mid to late 1980’s and it was a joy to see him so excited after a couple of decades of not seeing him. I was now in charge of taking a rather drunk Tony D home in a cab with my trusty cassette deck and the only audio archive of this magnificent gig on two tapes that I held onto very very tightly throughout the cab ride.

I hope all the guests enjoyed The Mob’s triumphant return to the capital after twenty eight years and the next one of course is with Zounds, The Astronauts and The Hamsters (from Manchester) at the Jamm in Brixton on 18 November 2011. The Mob and these three other bands all went around the country in 1979 and 1980 on the Jonathan Barnett inspired Weird Tales tours. This event in November 2011 is the first time all these bands have performed together since 1980. Hopefully Grant Showbiz will do the sound for that gig, like he did on the original Weird Tales tours.

The Mob’s support slot at the Steve Ignorant Shepherds Bush Empire on the 19 November 2011 that was going to happen the night after the band’s self promoted gig, has been cancelled due to the ‘well established’ music business rules and regulations written within the contract which The Mob were not comfortable with…

Mickey ‘Penguin’

Above: Mark Mob, Rosie, Jamie Hince, Mick Jones, Leah, Lee and KYPP’s Tony D after the Mob’s performance (all photographs from Mickey Penguin’s collection)

Thanks to Allison from The Kills for making this performance happen and to Leah and Tess for all the grafting that made it a success. Good luck to Jamie Hince for the wedding in a few weeks and also for the future from Mickey Penguin and all at KYPP.

Steve Lamacq’s Radio 6 piece on the stag night broadcast on 06/06/11

More photos of the event described above may be glanced at HERE