The Zutons @ The Brickyard, Saturday 24 April 2004

Reviewed by Rory Dollard.

The Zutons
The Zutons are very definitely a band on the up. Their recently released debut album “Who Killed The Zutons?” has been garnering rave reviews in every publication this side of Gardeners Weekly, their new single ‘You Will, You Won’t’ is rubbing its unlikely shoulders with the latest batch of pre-pubescent pop trash on the Radio 1 playlist and they appear in the NME this week donning zombie outfits and boasting an impressive write-up.

The only way they could make things more obvious for the public is if they each got the words “NEXT BIG THINGS” branded in bold type on their foreheads. It is then, something of a (pleasant) surprise to welcome The Zutons to Carlisle.

It can feel at times like the music industry has Cumbria pinned down as some kind of leper colony to be avoided at all costs but with The Fall having visited not so long ago and the hotly tipped “The Yards” arriving in May, The Brickyard is doing a sterling job of changing things. Tonight though, is all about The Zutons.

They are a young Liverpudlian five-piece whose list of influences stretch out almost as long their uniformly bedraggled haircuts. At one moment rocking, at another lamenting – theirs is a truly eclectic sound. Opening song “Zuton Fever” is a sax-heavy affair with a lot of energy and a simple vocal refrain.

The band seem to enjoy it and the song opens out into an extended jam totalling 6 or 7 minutes, in the wrong hands it could have gone horribly wrong, but with The Zutons at the helm the energy is infectious. There are a few numbers like this played over the course of the night (the band obviously keen to show that they can rock out) but they are matched in equal numbers by some less obvious sounds.

The Zutons are: Abi Harding, Saxophone 20 David McCabe, Lead Vocalist 22 Boyan Chowdhury, Lead Guitar 23 Sean Payne, Drums 23 Russell Pritchard, Bass 23

Weblinks The Brickyard The Zutons Review: Who Killed The Zutons The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

On more than one occasion the band stray into that most irregularly plundered of genres known only as ‘white-boy reggae’ – if that means nothing to you then think Patti Smith’s ‘Redondo Beach’ but this time played at double speed. If this is still foreign to you then I suggest you go and buy her album ‘Horses’; it’s a damn good listen.

In truth, the only time it is actually apparent musically, that that the band are from Liverpool is mid-way through the set when lead singer Dave Mcabe takes an acoustic guitar to lead the band through a couple of Echo and The Bunnymen/La’s soundalikes. There is something about a scouse-accent feeling its way around a mid-tempo ballad that just works though and as such even these less original efforts were a resounding success.

Sadly the band are nearly always plagued by mentions of their one time touring partners and fellow Scousers The Coral, it is an albatross I get the feeling that they could do without because in truth The Zutons outshine their forerunners on all counts.

Where The Coral seem to think that inane lyrics, silly photo shoots and shambolic instrumentation equate to some kind of Captain Beefheart-esque quirkiness The Zutons don’t need to resort to such antics. The songs stand up for themselves. If they stop dressing up as Zombies I think they’ll have cracked it.

Read Rory's interviews with The Zutons »

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