Former Imelda May guitarist turns celebrated midlands rock venue into Hell’s Hotel for an evening of raucous Rockabilly.
Nottingham’s Rock City basement is the venue for a rockabilly revue on a balmy Monday evening. Darrell Higham and his Enforcers are in town. Higham has made a career of defining and then re-defining old school rock n’ roll through his former wife Imelda May and also his rockabilly collective Kat Men. This time however, he takes center stage to promote his stunning new album Hell’s Hotel.
Those in attendance are first treated to local heroes Howlin’ Bones. With a second EP, “Shamboolala” just out this fearsome three-piece pave the way for the headliners by righteously stompin’ several size 10 holes through the floor. They are tagged as untraditional and it’s fair to say that they have a uniqueness about them that charms, but no doubt also concerns their family & friends!! It’s gloriously odd and off-kilter. Take the track “She Said”, which closes their set, as an example in disturbed psychobilly acoustic rambling.
If you ever saw the much-missed cow-punk band The Crocketts back in the early 2000’s then Howlin’ Bones provided a similar level of glorious instability, in all it’s forms, and frenetic musical freedom of expression. Whether the track is “Free The Cat” or “Black Diamond Train” there is a certainty in their unpredictability that ensures they are nothing less than committed keepers of your attention.
Darrell Higham, backed by his talented band enters stage right and the party can truly gets into full swing. The Enforcers are bassist Dave Konig who keeps the rhythm whilst sticksman Russ Chadd provides the beat all set to the soul of Higham who uses his Gretsch as an extension of his personality.
A superb high octane rendition of the Eddie Cochran classic “Something Else” sums up what is special about rock n’ roll. To be fair it is the man’s favourite rock n’ roll track of all time so it’s never going to be anything other than full-on. And then some. Not that Higham needs to rely on cover versions to demonstrate that he has a rockabilly soul. When you can pull tracks out of your back catalogue like “Eternity”, a track that first appeared on his former wife Imelda May’s album Mayhem, or “Scary Story” then it is clear that the man is responsible for many classics of his own.
However, he is not a man to live in the past though, how could he with a great new album from which to plunder some modern day classics. Tracks like “Hank Williams & Me”, “And The Angels Cried”, the saddest song he’s ever wrote according to the man himself, and the title track “Hell’s Hotel” are examples of how rockabilly music can survive and thrive in the modern day.
There are also moments of genuine heartfelt delight such as the track he wrote about his young daughter “When You Smile” which raptures as much as it rocks.
Authenticity is the keyword when referring to Darrell Higham. If he wasn’t around the mid 1950’s, and detailed checks have proved that he wasn’t, then he damn well should have been. That said it good for us that he is here now and providing lovers of old school rock n’ roll with music that is not out of place with the genre’s established highpoints.
The party finishes with a floor shaking version of “Ring Dang Do” and the excellent new track “Turn Around And Go”. If any of the attendees had a complaint it would have been about which tracks from Hell’s Hotel he did not play. I’m sure he will settle for that.
Considering his hero is Eddie Cochran it might be a little cheap to label him a modern day version of the great man. However, Cochran was a pioneer and a man of invention, style, wit and no small measure of talent. The same things have been, will be and should be said of Darrell Higham.
Donnie’s Rating: Howlin’ Bones 8/10
Darrell Higham & The Enforcers 10/10
