Dead Men Walking LIVE
The Cavern: Liverpool: Dec 20th 2005
It’s my birthday and there’s fuck all on the T.V. (not that I watch it anyway apart from the footie or VH1). 24 hours previously I had been on the net checking out sites, and low and behold Dead Men Walking were doing some end-of-year shows. So, I got in the car, picked up TP with his photo gear, and off to the land of the scouser we drove…
We get into the legendary Cavern venue at around 9pm. It’s a strange place; you wind around stairs as if you are going down to an underground train station. You then exit into a cellar that looks just like those pictures from the 60’s. Mad as fuck to be honest, but those crafty people at the Cavern have added a second room, this is the place we find DMW.
The band consists, this time around, of Mike Peters (The Alarm), Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats), Kirk Brandon (Spear Of Destiny), and Captain Sensible (The Damned). They have been in the city over the last few weeks recording a studio album at Elevator Studios (and Christmas shopping), so they seem to be right at home there. Many other artists have passed through the ranks of DMW, including Billy Duffy (The Cult), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Bruce Watson (Big Country), and Pete Wylie (Mighty WAH), and a couple of others who lasted an hour, sometimes a full day!
**page*
So what you have is a ‘Band Of Gypsies’, Rock N’ Rollers who just get together, go on tour, play some songs, have some fun - does anyone remember laughter? The whole project was the brainchild of Mike Peters, with no real plan. Future or fucked? Only time will tell, but you do get the feeling that when DMW hit their stride, it’s going to rock for sure…
Opening up with Rock This Town by The Stray Cats, then Spear Of Destiny’s Do You Believe In The Westworld, onto Strength from The Alarm. Then into Neat, Neat, Neat which is the first Damned song of the night and that is how the set shapes up; each band member does one of his own songs and it moves around in rotation. It’s like a rockabilly hoedown at times, but it puts a smile on your face. Over the next 60 minutes we hear classics such as Happy Talk (err, scratch that one because it was played especially so a young lady; who’d decided she could drum better than Slim Jim; could try – for real). You do get the feeling that DMW still lacks a killer punch, like Iggy Pop or Lou Reed, or Bruce Springsteen, well you got to have dreams - right!
Overall, a DMW show is a good night out, and they end this one with a rousing cover of Fight For Your Right by the Beastie Boys, throw in a couple of Christmas songs including Mr Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War Is Over), and before you can blink an eye, they are gone, and so are we. Thanks given to tour manager Liam and we ease on down the road with a smile on our faces, and with some of the best songs ever written ringing in our ears. DMW won’t change the world, but they will make it a place to be in for one night. So get off your arses, check out their site, get down and get with it!
JJ
Dead Men Walking Live
N.E.W.1.
23 September, 2003
It’s only very recently that I started to listen to vintage 80’s rock from bands like The Alarm. The reason is that I was given the opportunity to review brand new Alarm material and liked it - a lot. Since then, I’ve seen Mike Peters perform in both solo and Alarm guise and have been blown away by some of the best live gigs I’ve seen in a while.
But what’s this? Well, Dead Men Walking comprises of Mike Peters (The Alarm), Billy Duffy (The Cult), Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny), Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) and from the band’s name you’d think that these were has-beens taking their last ‘green mile’ journey to the electric chair. This of course is far from the truth as these bands are still alive and kicking in live performance terms - in fact they are almost as busy touring now as they were in their prime.
Their rock hymns also have as much relevance today as they did back then, and judging from the enthusiastic audience participation I’ve witnessed at Alarm gigs, many others think so too. I suspect if Jo Strummer were still with us, he’d become part of this amazing line-up. The latest recruit is the wonderful drummer from USA’s Stray Cats, Slim Jim Phantom who (I’m told) reckons this extensive Dead Men Walking tour is the most enjoyable musical experience of his career.
As I took my place at the front of the vast stage, I was greeted by an array of mics, and news that Bill Duffy had strained his wrist and was being replaced by Bruce Watson of Big Country.
The audience was surprisingly mixed and included younger music lovers who no doubt have recently discovered these players from their parents’ music collections or from other enlightened friends. Around 300-400 people, an exciting vibe and then the band members trooped onto the stage. Let the fun begin! And it was fun. You see, I don’t know most of the songs that flooded from the stage but the selection of songs from each of the day-job bands struck a chord.
I’ve seen many new bands over the last few years who have gone on to bigger and better things, but I seldom genuinely enjoyed the performances as much as I did this one. I tried to think of the reasons for this, and concluded that it was because these guys had music and songs in their blood; the songs were part of their history, part of their tradition. I also felt that live performance is so much part of their makeup that events like this are easy, casual affairs and they ENJOY them.
It was no accident that all songs were the best of their back-catalogue best, and were performed with conviction, passion and skill. And all that enthusiasm and belief spread like the most contagious virus as the audience joined in during virtually every song, and genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves. Every song had an anthemic quality and raw vibe, and I am sure that today’s youth would find something from the band to connect to, empathise with, and even be inspired by.
**1 dmw7*
This is my tip for the rest of 2003: when Dead Men Walking visit your neck of the woods (as they probably will - check out www.deadmenwalking.co.uk), get your glad rags on, harness your kids and go along. I promise, you’ll have a great time, and your kids will thank you for it. And now I’ll let my photographs tell the rest of the story….
A great night.
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