Danger – High Voltage! Flashy Electric Six meet Heavy Metal BeeGee tribute band Tragedy (but it isn’t!)

 

Shepherds Bush Empire Theatr

Built in 1903 and sold to the BBC in 1953 for television shows like Hancock, Crackerjack, Old GreyWhistle Test and Wogan.

 

 

Shepherds Bush empire The Gods

 

 

We came in when the second band of the night were just about to come on; ‘Tragedy’: heavy metal tribute band to the BeeGees. We wondered what these were going to be like. Metal meets glam, well that was done in the 70’s with many bands. The Sweet springs to mind and everyone said the same thing ‘The B sides were HEAVY’ But metal meets BeeGees? How is this supposed to work? Should the two ever meet? Do we care? Well, I for one couldn’t tear my eyes away from the car crash! Absolute genius and very entertaining.

 

 

Tragedy BeeGees tribute band

Most of the Beegee songs translated to metal, Staying Alive (on Acid presumably) high octane, fast and furious. But ‘You should be dancing’ (and you know you SHOULD’NT be…..but oh sod it…!) well one guitarist who looked like a very young Ozzy (Osbourne), and yes I do remember what a young Ozzy looked like all those years ago. I asked him if he really believed in Satan and Black Magic. That man clutched my 8 inch wooden cross and told me that THAT was the only TRUE thing to believe in!!! How responsible was that eh? I was most disappointed to be diverted from that dark pathway lol! This was a VERY long time ago and I thought I’d been transported back in time when I heard the Jurassic call of ‘Iron man’ that had somehow managed to embed itself into ‘Staying alive’ and a kind of Satanic invocation seemed to be going on. The girls (Women’s Gibb) provided good back up; some wore wings (angel wings). I believe their names are, Angelpussy, Olivia Newton-Chong and Linda Gibb. I am so glad I managed to see this band! They were really unusual, quirky and entertaining (good musicians in their own right too, I may add) and just the right mood appetiser for the Electric Six that followed.

 

For interview and film

 

We took quite a few pics at this concert, none that came out very clearly: probably  would have been better off using our mobiles, with hindsight.  The first thing that struck me about the Electric Six was how small Dick(Valentine) was!  I know the feeling mate;   I’ve had to live with being a Lilliputian from Liverpool!  This was Dick’s opening line by the way: ‘I’m from Liverpool’ I had to stand on a step, and even then I was surrounded by giants.  But I digress: that guy can REALLY sing, and sing he did: non stop.

 

 

Electric Six

 

 

 

‘Flashy’ album Electric Six

 

 They did a few off ‘Flashy’ (‘Flashy man’, Formula 409’ and ‘When we were Witchy white Women’ that I can remember).  Oh, and ‘Dirty Ball’.  Amusingly, this was accompanied by a young crowd surfer who had started trying to reach the stage when ‘Tragedy’ was on.  He had been passed around the crowd like a bag of Werthers Originals and seemed to be bouncing higher and higher with less and less clothes on.   The lyrics  ‘Let the bouncing ball bounce you higher’ seemed to take on a whole different meaning as this lad’s leg appeared then his chest, then a bare arm!  With each new wave, one new limb flashed by.  This ‘Radiant Child’ must have had the time of his life!   That’s one concert he’ll always remember!

 The crowd absolutely erupted to ‘Gay Bar’ though.  I would have liked ‘Space commander’, but I got ‘Electric Demons in Love’, ‘Synthesizer’, ‘Improper dancing’ and by then, I was putting that dancing into improper practise, pint in one hand, jumping on and off a step (God it’s hard being small you know, whenever you get a great view, there’s always a GIANT in your way.  They just appear from nowhere IN YOUR WAY!!  I lost sight of the Radiant Child (who had been joined by another surfer at one point, but had since dropped out, the Radiant child having more stamina of course

 

Electric Six were GOOD, very polished in fact.  It is an absolute mystery to me why more people don’t like them.  ‘Gay Bar’ may have given them the prospective as one hit wonders (well two with Danger High Voltage).  But they are much more than these hits.  Their music really is eclectic and progressive.  It changes, depending on the line up.  It is never samey or predictable: can’t really be pinned down or categorised.  This is a GOOD thing too.

 

 

 

Radiant Child?

A good site about the radiant child

  Update:  Just remembered (4 days later I know..) They DID do Dance Commander!  Was one of their encores .