03 September 2009 (gig)
04 September 2009
For a long time New Model Army have been virtually ignored by the media in the UK despite a continually growing and evolving fan base in Europe and the US. I never hear their music played on XFM, the major music mags don’t review their releases and to be honest it leaves me a little bewildered as to why. Yet NMA deliver everything you’d want from a band – passion, energy and conviction. Even after 30 years what they have to say has as much relevance for these times we live in as it did when they spoke out against the Thatcherite Britain of the 80’s.
Later this month NMA are going to release their 11th studio album, 'Today is a Good Day’, and begin an extensive tour of North America and Europe. Last night I was privileged enough to get down to the Garage to see Justin Sullivan and Dean White give a semi-acoustic set ahead of the upcoming tour – showcasing new material as well as a selection of songs from their extensive back catalogue to a small audience in the upstairs room.
With Justin on acoustic guitar Dean filled in the musical-scape with electric guitar and keyboard. The set-list drew predominantly on a lot of relatively recent material from the last few albums with only a few songs from before 2000. Stripped down, the very bones of the song writing are laid bare. Most striking are Justin’s lyrics, poetic and compelling - though, of course, the tunes are great too. Identity, love, life and humanity are all common themes and though NMA wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed as a political band, the songs often carry a moral undercurrent. Performing 'Another Imperial Day’, Justin spoke a cappella, and the songs lyrics - challenging the disparity of human value - struck a heavy chord.
Other inclusions to the set-list were 'You Weren’t There’, 'Stranger’, 'Dawn’, 'Turn Away’, 'Heroes’, new song from the new album 'Autumn’, and 'Stoned, Fired and Full of Grace’, a song not recorded anywhere else as yet other than on YouTube (of course!). They ended the encore, and the night, with 'Ballad of Bodmin Pill’, which ended up as one big sing along.
Despite the omission of drums and bass, which have always been significant to the overall NMA sound, tonight’s performance certainly didn’t lack a sense of energy. The quality of the song writing is overall excellent, and it’s a damn shame that so many are missing out simply for lack of knowing.
Check out www.newmodelarmy.org for gig info and other news. The new album is released 14th September. A review for that will follow later.
