Nine Below Zero

Nine Below Zero were billed as performing the whole of their classic ‘Live At The Marquee’ album but in fact they did a whole lot more than that as they brought a full crowd to a sweating and bouncing mass after more than an hour and a half of classic R&B.

The 100 Club is virtually their spiritual home and they tore into ‘Tore Down’ hard and fast with Mark Feltham’s harp howling like a banshee and Dennis Greaves cockernee vocals rasping out. Brendan O’Neil & Gerry McEvoy make one of the tightest rhythm sections around and they were anchoring everything from the off.

Every track was a classic of one kind or another – ‘Can’t Do My Homework’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Coo’, ‘Got My Mojo Workin’ and a belting ‘Riding on the L&N’ ripping out one after the other, the audience singing along to everything and having a great Friday night out..

The band play at breakneck speed – their origins in the mid-seventies sometimes clear – but the sheer brio and sense of fun they bring to everything is a feature of their live set and the 100 Club was no exception – they may play the classics but they are never slaves to the origins of the music and they do whatever they need to to enjoy the music and make the audience enjoy it to.
They seem to understand that the origins of a lot of the Blues and R&B is from the dancehalls and they play it get the crowd dancing and not to stand in awe at the talent of the band. R&B as it should be and not as it so often is.

The 100 Club is a perfect venue for this kind of music and there seemed to be a general sense of disbelief that this year might see the end of the place but NBZ played with the sense that if this is the last time they play there then they were going to make it memorable – job done because it WAS a great night and the lads should be happy.