After my rave review of the Sons' current album (December 2002), this was my first chance to finally catch them live. They had brought a big following up from Norfolk and Suffolk to pack out the Borderline, and they positively set the club alight. With the glitzy rocker Ian Brown on vocals and guitar, country influenced Jason Scopes on lead guitar, Dominique Metz on drums and new boy Franck Bedez (from Strasbourg, France) on bass guitar, they kept their fans fired up from start to finish. From the opening psychedelic chords of Smouldering Sons they revved up the throttle through the album's title track Something Good, Something Bad, and into the Led Zeppelin styled Dangerous. Ian is an excellent front-man, from his silver shirt and flowing hair through to his amazingly clear and powerful voice. But one man doesn't make a great band, and he is accompanied perfectly by the rest of the guys, who together form a very tight musical combo.
The latest single She's Wasting Time came across as a catchy tune that portrays Brit-Rock at its very best.
Jason then played some brilliant guitar throughout the incredible No Fool Like An Old Fool, which I couldn't help comparing to the classic rock ballad Stairway To Heaven. Jason then excelled again as he played a haunting guitar intro to the beautiful slowey Free Fall, with Ian proving that he can change from rocker to emotive ballad singer with relative ease. Dom's strong, balanced drum beat ruled the roost on the mid-tempo tune You Don't Try, which then eased smoothly into the vibrant dance of Good Girl, which had a flurry of young girl fans dancing in front of the stage. Ian's raw emotive vocals then shone through on Toper's Rant Part ll, which he introduced as a "folk song that goes astray!"
The driving beat of No Line Of Reason was followed by the almost glam-rock Pure Reaction. And I wasn't surprised when I later read on their website that the first album that Ian bought was Sweet's Sweet Fanny Adams (which I also owned as a youngster), as this song was vintage Sweet through and through!
The psychedelic-folk tune Johnny Allen rounded the set off, with the Sons blasting out a long instrumental outro.
They then encored as they had begun with the heavy rocking Smouldering Son.
I left this gig on a massive high, as these guys had performed an incredibly good show. It is very pleasing to see a British alternative country rock act that is on a par (if not better) with the best that America can offer.
Perhaps their next step could be to try and conquer the states!
David Knowles