Mother Earth
Simon Brown (zcfbm25@ucl.ac.uk)
Thu, 20 Jul 1995 18:41:27 +0100
Tuesday 18th July.
Saw Mother Earth at the Blue Note Club - 1 Hoxton Square, London - promoting
their new Freethinker E.P. out here on July 24th.
I've raved before about the Blue Note Club - it's a very pleasant place to
be. On Tuesday night, following much posterage around London and an
announcement on Virgin Radio, it was packed to the rafters with punters
eager to hear the stuff off the new E.P.
Supporting Mother Earth were Sugar Beat (or is it Sugar Beet?) playing
ballsy funky rock. I spent a good deal of the time while Sugar Beat were on
upstairs as it gets awfully crowded downstairs and I didn't enjoy the band
too much. Superb vocals and some good keyoards, but a spare guitarist is not
a useful thing to have on Blue Note's diminutive stage and it was all a bit
too heavy for me.
They left the stage, the DJ (JY) did his stuff and, after what seemed like
an eternity, Mother Earth came on.
They played possibly all of the stuff from the Freethinker E.P. (I haven't
heard it yet so I don't know), a number of tunes from People Tree, one from
Stoned Woman (Stoned Woman) and a couple from their LP which is coming out
in the autumn perhaps. Mother Earth are musically much more aggressive live
than they have been on their albums and, as they change the structures of
the songs around too, it gives them a whole new edge which many bands who
just reproduce and regurgitate their studio stuff don't get.
The performance rocked and the audience, packed in like as many smiling,
waving, screaming sardines in a can, loved it. From the front it doesn't
look like Matt Deighton and his band as much as a tight and equal unit. The
drums are driving, tight and loud - Chris White is not a skinny wimp by any
stretch of the imagination! Neil's bass playing is incredibly funky and
brilliant, yet tasteful and melodic, sometimes sounding like a second guitar
for a few split seconds of certain songs. Bryn's Hammond howls and rumbles
like a beast next to Matt Deighton's powerful but varied rhythm playing and
his soulful voice. Both Bryn's and Matt's solo's are hummably good (and not
bullshit twiddling). The backing vocalist had an incredible voice (and she
was beautiful too!)
Well we all went wild and they played a 4-song encore with Chris walking off
by mistake part way through thinking it had all finished (or perhaps to get
a drink).
The most distinctive part of the performance (apart obviously from the
music) is the way in which they seem to love what they are doing - it's not
a kind of, "I'm playing for 60 minutes EXACTLY then I'm walking off and fuck
the rest of 'em", they smile, laugh, throw paper towels at each other,
applaud the techie who comes on to wipe up some spilt water and generally
have a laugh. It's what makes them so endearing - they seemed to be having
as much of a good time as we were!
A friend who came with who was not previously a fan was converted (I'm
trying to get all my mates here at uni. to listen to their stuff) and they
seem to have a growing following here at UCL - they deserve to be massive.
Simon Brown
Department of Geological Sciences,
University College
Gower Street
London, WC1
ENGLAND