Hats off to The Brilliant Corners for organising the above event at The Exchange in Bristol over one weekend recently. Chance to catch the rarely seen Go Kart Mozart, as well as Amelia Fletcher's latest excellent musical endeavour, and lots of other great bands and nice touches in the mix.
Having missed a Sarah Records inspired live event in the city this year, it was time to jump at the above. Sadly, I have to admit that it was only possible for us to hang round for the first leg of the event, with Go Kart Mozart, and how hard it was to miss Amelia Fletcher sing with both The Brilliant Corners and her new band The Catenary Wires...as well as missing the incredible Haiku Salut, missing out on more free gummy bear sweets, and just the general ace atmosphere. I love Bristol for gigs. There is such community, and so much of a free and easy feel. It's an incredible city.
We did get the chance to chat to Amelia Fletcher on the Saturday, which was kindly and lovely. You can still get hold of copies of issue two of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill paper fanzine, from the Etsy shop with this link, resplendent with a really in depth article on and interview with Amelia Fletcher/Tender Trap.
Go Kart Mozart/Lawrence were written about in our first issue of the fanzine, and since the event had the title of Fanzine, I managed to bring a bunch of copies along. Why do I keep ending up drinking halves and folding and stapling fanzines in the pubs of Notting Hill? I even copied the fanzines up in the area beforehand too. I ran out of staples, and have to apologise for that. Copying up issue two went awry and had to be forfeited for sale as well, which was glum.
There were some smart Go Kart Mozart keyrings on sale on the merch table, alongside copies of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill fanzines... Earnings from the fanzines basically went on the keyrings. Sad that there were no Go Kart Mozart Tee shirts though.
It was surreal hearing that Lawrence had made it and was in the building about to perform. I mean, the last tour was pretty much all cancelled and I had never seen the band live up to then. I felt a genuine excitement, anticipation that I don't often get at gigs anymore, having been to so many. It was the most brilliant extravaganza of 70s style synth pop, and I was startled at the lack of dancing.
Couldn't really have asked for too much more from the setlist, it was an even mixture of stuff from all the albums. No Denim songs is a shame but totally expected. Some heckling requests for them, though not Felt for a change. I haven't much love for Felt in the face of Lawrence's newest material. I can't understand all the indie kids that go for all that, its comparably drab and they're missing out on ridiculously bright, fun, amusing, off kilter pop like no other with Go Kart Mozart.
Setlist, as transferred from my handwritten one on the back of some hotel stationery, went pretty much like this from memory:
West Brom Blues
Lawrence Takes Over (excerpt)
Come on You Lot
The Sun
Summer is Here
Electric Rock and Roll
We're Selfish and Lazy and Greedy
Retroglancing
Donna and the Dopefiends
Glorious Chorus
Drinkin' Um Bongo (!)
White Stilettoes in the Sand
(a new song)
Donna and the Dopefiends (again!)
The most memorable, enjoyable gig in years.
