This is what I told Lorna of Skinny Lister I say to people about Skinny Lister, as we had a quick chat before the gig.
I first saw them at the West End Centre in Aldershot, where they literally burst onto the stage with the first note of their set and blew me away with the rest of it.
I've seen them since, but due to their relentless touring and recording schedule, recent gigs have nearly all been in the depths of December (It's the same again this year!), so when I saw they were doing an 'album launch' gig in Kingston (for Banquet Records) the day before my birthday with a CD copy of their new album included for just £16, it was a very easy decision to book a ticket as soon as they were available.
I had expected the gig to be at Pryzm, the nightclub/venue I'd seen all the other Banquet run events at, but this was just around the corner in the pub/venue called The Fighting Cocks.
I found the venue easily enough and there was virtually no-one there when I arrived, so I went back to the main bar, where the variety of beers was better, and purchased an excellent Stout.
The venue almost certainly counts as the smallest I've ever been to, making even the West End Centre seem capacious by comparison.
An email had arrived the previous day to say there was an 'issue' with their support and another followed early in the day to say "Man The Lifeboats" where the support - The presence of a support at all marked this out as unusual amongst the 'album release' events I'd attended, none of the others had one.
Two men appeared, one with a guitar and the other an accordian and they described themselves as "two-fifths of Man The Lifeboats" and started their set.
They are not dissimilar in style to Skinny Lister, 'Shanty Punk' being a term the Lister's termed but could equally apply to MTL.
They were lively, entertaining and quite humourous between songs. "We make a bigger noise with a drummer and two more members, but we go out of time a lot more, so this is probably as good as you'll ever hear us", the guitarist quipped after one song.
We even had an impromptu cèilidh at one point, stepping forward and back and clapping, although due to my location, I quickly gave up as I was mainly stepping on people sitting by the wall's feet!
An enjoyable 40 minutes or so passed with Man The Lifeboats, but, of course, we were here for the main event.
By 9PM, the venue was packed and it was feeling pretty hot inside, but that didn't stop the energy or enthusiasm of Skinny Lister or the audience, an interesting mix of 60 somethings and 20 somethings on the whole, all of who seemed to know at least most of the songs.
They started with a couple of songs from the new album, which I'd heard, "Yorkshire Belle", "Plough On", "Set Us Straight" (I hadn't heard that one before) and "Song From The Yonder" (the title track).
Then we had "Wanted", "Bristol Bound" (another new, very catchy, track) and then old favourites "George's Glass", "Tragedy in A Minor", "Unto The Breach", "Mantra" (better live than on the previous album, I felt), "13 Miles" (a great song) and numerous others definitely finishing out the 'official' set on "Rollin' Over", "Colours", "Cathy", "Company of the Bar" and "Trouble on Oxford Street" (their most famous song, perhaps and an energy packed one to finish on.
Lorna then, rather academically, asked if we were in a rush to leave and of course, got a resounding "NO!" and we had two more songs, one of which was a request from the crowd and a young man and woman picked from the crowd came up and joined in (The same happened with a woman who clearly didn't know the words to 'her' song earlier and for a bride to be, who did, for Forty Pound Wedding in the main set - hence the list below isn't 100% right for this venue) for Six Whiskies to end on.
With that it was nearing 10:30PM and as we left, we were presented with our signed copies (a really nice touch, which I hadn't expected) of the album in whichever format we had chosen.
So, were Skinny Lister still "The most exciting live band out there today"? It's a bold claim, but I struggle to think of a band who can so instantly engage an audience and deliver such an energy packed set from end to end, so prove me wrong!
Setlist: (From a different night, but close)
Yorkshire Belle
Plough On
Set Us Straight
Song From the Yonder
Wanted
Bristol Bound
George's Glass
Tragedy in A Minor
Unto the Breach
Mantra
13 Miles
Arm Wrestling in Dresden
Bold as Brass
John Kanaka ([traditional] cover)
Rollin' Over
Colours
Cathy
Company of the Bar
Trouble on Oxford Street
Encore:(more of a continuation really!)
Hamburg Drunk
Six Whiskies
#SkinnyLister
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