Graham Coxon / The Futureheads / Cathy Davey - London Camden Electric Ballroom - 8/6/04
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
The prize for T-shirt of the night undoubtedly goes to the fella walking around with the slogan 'Blur's new guitarist is shit' emblazoned across his back. Whoever you were, whilst it's sadly unlikely it will be taken up as a piece of official Coxon merchandise, well done to you all the same. For whilst Simon Tong may be competent enough, the lad has a point - he's sure as hell no Coxon. Tonight's the proper return of a real English guitar hero.
First, however, it's Cathy Davey's turn to provoke some intrigue. Whilst her quaint, both dark and quirky takes on guitar pop would be adequately listenable in anyone's hands, it's the voice that helps them resonate. While there's something slightly unnatural about it, the feeling that if you were to engage in a conversation with her she'd sound nothing like the sweet husk of her stage tones, it's certainly an instrument more than worthy of our ears, always effortlessly hitting the peaks you at first think she just might not be capable of. The day will arrive when it isn't tempting to compare all female indie songwriters to a certain era of PJ Harvey, but it sure ain't here yet - Davey is 'Stories...' with some added sunshine. This surely isn't a bad thing.
These Futureheads though, another influence springs to mind with every awkward jitter and spiky riff they throw our way. At first, you think you've got it pinned - somewhere between the swagger of The Clash, the tunes of The Jam and the thorny avant-garde nature of Gang of Four, but then they remind you that occasionally, they can even go all Adam & The Ants on us if they want. It's invigorating to watch, enthralling to hear, and an honour to witness this foursome hammering great tunes (often involving some wonderful, four vocal-harmonised 'whoa-oh-ohs' for good measure) without any regard for whether the average listener can consistently sing along or even tap their feet to them. Believe us, these beats are barmy.
More straight-up, but no less eccentric or vital, is the man Coxon himself. Somewhere along the line, he became a frontman - a proper guitar-abusing, joke-telling, stage-ruling one at that. What's most heartening is how much it suits him, this new found persona as the centre of attention hasn't turned him arrogant, just made him an absolute pleasure to observe. He jests about his prior introspective nature too, wryly introducing a jaw-dropping rendition of 'That's All I Wanna Do' as 'the first song on the first record that I recorded all by myself...'
The old stuff has been beefed up by Graham's superb backing-band, 'I Wish' another example of how he's actually been writing top tunes all the way through his solo career, but it's the brand spanking new material with which he really shines. He's been known to refer to 'Happiness in Magazines' as his first 'proper' record, which is debatable, but what is for certain is it's by far his best. Tonight it's here in all it's glory, from an early airing for the cocky swagger of 'Spectacular' to the inclusion of a frantically paced, brilliantly received 'Freakin' Out' in the encore.
In between, he visits a large part of the solo-career (nobody shouts for 'Coffee & TV', praise be), dropping in on the ludicrous fastness of 'Fags and Failure' ('this is about insecurity, and, well, cigarettes') seminal punk covers (Mission of Burma themselves do only a slightly better version of their own 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver') and fittingly 'Ain't No Lie', what with it being about Camden Town, our suitably grimy host for the evening. Strangely, only material from the well-received 'Crow Sit On Blood Tree' LP is omitted, but few people notice, as the new stuff is going down so well; the lad now writes 'hits', and whilst the crowd reaction isn't the punk-rock mosh-fest we may have predicted, it's still a rapturous, distinctly homely one, where words are sung along to and adoration is thrown at their author so blatantly, he couldn't fail to notice.
It doesn't feel like we've got Graham back; it's as if he's just starting, finally comfortable with every aspect of his playing, writing and performing. All that considered, this really is some debut.
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