Proud Mary review

Proud Mary? As in Creedence? I gotta see this!

The Sun gets up to temperature and we frazzle in it happily. The band walks out to a decent response and they kick off. First thing that hits me isn’t that they aren’t playing Deep South Blues as their name suggest but that his voice has a great quality.

The music is however despite my thinking of contacting trade descriptions, slightly tinged with Blues and some great singalong tunes. In fact despite the fusion of music styles it’s heart lies in Country soaked blues!

His voice reminded me of Blood, Sweat and Tears and they have a full sound reminiscent of the Black Crowes.



It is very promising stuff and kind of like other Brit band Gomez I really hope they can sustain this momentum and not drift off as Gomez did. Denim clad sporting a rock shiner (adding to the bands potential) with a tambourine and neck scarf the frontman is all pent up energy as he whirls around the stage. Behind him is a tight well crafted sound.

Rain On Me is a definite future single and despite the name the hot American sound conjures up a hot dessert and a thirst for rain, or in my case a cold beer. They do indeed ‘carry the song’ and feet get moving! From here on it’s sheer joyful Country.

For instance my fave tune is All Good Things has an immensely strong vocal and slide guitars with a big sound to it. It’s an anthemic tune in an early Aerosmith kind of way.

And their closing tune Rolling Stone ends to the largest applause of the day so far. Though for me the glory is slightly detracted.

Why? It appears your average barrier hugging IOW fan likes poppers by the tanker and from here on the weekend has a very strong head ache inducing smell about it. Why poppers? And why so much the whole front of stage reeks both afternoons I have no idea. I think it’s the kids who have discovered a new drug or maybe as a lot of people come from across the Solent in Southampton, Poppers is the drug of choice there. Whatever a few strong spliffs manage to clear the aching blood vessels in my temples and those older ones in the crowd around me seem appreciative of the change in smell.

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