The withdrawal of Xander And The Peace Pirates affords Derby’s MuddiBrooke a longer set than they might have anticipated, and MV our third look at the band in the space of a few months. Truthfully there’s not a lot I can add to what I wrote about them a month or so back when they opened for Virginmarys, but somehow they seem more interesting every time you see them. “ADHD” underlines it from the get-go, but they are just a little bit more raw than you expect them to be, a little bit more angry.
It makes for brilliant music. Music like “Liverpool Guy” or “Devil” (“it was written about an absolute knobhead” reckons Brooke, the force of nature who fronts them) and you can’t help but wonder how much of this is true – and then come to the conclusion that it all is.
New single “Float”, to be released next month, is appreciably heavy, and their cover of “You Don’t Own Me” seems to be something of a mission statement for them, with its “I’m free and I love to be free” hook, it might just sum them up. Anything could happen for MuddiBrooke, they really are that good, but whatever does, expect it to be as engrossing as it is enjoyable.
It was in this very room when I last saw Wayward Sons play live. The 25th October 2019 to be precise, when they opened for Black Star Riders. It scarcely seems possible.
There’s been pandemics, round-the-world trips for singer Toby Jepson, and a gig here a couple of years ago that got rescheduled, but they’re back. “We thought we’d dip our toes in the water and here you all are” offers a beaming Jepson. If he’s surprised (and he gives every indication of being genuine) then he needn’t be. Frankly Wayward Sons, up until they disappeared were one of the finest rock bands in the UK.
Indeed, there’s a moment second song in, “Feel Good Hit” when you look at the band on stage and you think “Yep, this is what Jepson was born to do.” He’s a natural, the band are so natural, there’s a warmth about them, but more importantly than all of that, they – almost under the radar – gathered together a collection of songs to rival any around. Whether that’s “Be Still” off the first album, or the fun of “Even Up The Score” they’re all bound together by the same thing: their absolute class.
Playing these songs live – some for the first time given how soon after the third album they exited the scene – gives them another dimension. Nick Wastell’s bass is to the fore on “Small Talk” but there’s also a near punk thing to the way Jepson spits out the words to the track. Let’s just say the words “Thatcher’s disaster” are spat out with the same venom as I would do it.
They are also helped by the emergence of Sam Wood. He was a young unknown back in 2015, these days he is as Jepson notes “fast becoming the best guitarist of his generation” and he is wonderful. He exudes a coolness, and his riff for “Crush” is right up there. “Looking For The Punchline” is welcome (“That’s the first time I’ve ever got that right, give me a round of applause” laughs the frontman) and “Land Of The Blind” likewise as it was a standout on the “Even Up The Score” album that they haven’t really toured.
When they first arrived on the scene Wayward Sons announced themselves with the song “Until The End” and its a fitting conclusion to the main set, offering yet another fists-in-the-air, singalong moment.
After exiting briefly, they return (“It’s bullshit all that innit” laughs Jepson) with “Totally Screwed” which in many ways underlines their skill. On the one hand, it’s a singalong rock n roller, as good as any, but on the other, it’s an acerbic, angry study of the world. Jepson has always had that in his writing, the Little Angels (his first band – and if you need me to tell you that, you’re reading the wrong review) were one of my favourites precisely because they eschewed the normal “maybe, baby” cliché so prevalent at the time.
Another of the touchstone early moments, “Ghost” and “Jokes On You”, from a similar ballpark to the aforementioned Black Star Riders (who these they share a guitarist with in Wood) round out the night, but it is “Looking For A Reason” that sticks with you as you leave.
The track, played towards the end of the set, contains the line, “looking for a reason to begin again” and you can’t help applying that to the band itself.
Wayward Sons were perhaps concerned when they returned as to what their place was, they need not have worried, we weren’t. Their reason to begin again? They are a magnificent rock n roll band and the UK hard rock scene is infinitely better with them back in it.
