This is, I’m ashamed to
say, the first time I’ve partaken in the delights of the Swindon Shuffle, an
annual event around the town to showcase the best of Swindon’s unsigned,
up-and-coming and veteran acts. It’s now in its’ eighth year, after my friend
Rich Craven was sat in the Vic one night and came up with the concept of a
Swindon version of the Camden Crawl… Still, better late than never, and this
year my recent interest in the excellent Nudy Bronque was the key factor in my
attendance. They’re up the Vic, so so am I!
Rach and the kids were
camping in our back garden Friday night – I hate camping, me, so this was also
an excellent reason to get out of that! So I parked up around the corner from
the Vic about 9, bumping into Swindon’s punk rock queen Debby for a chat before
wandering into the back room, expecting to see The Racket, scheduled for 9.
Instead, a well-attended room were bathing in the aural candyfloss of WILDEST
DREAMS, the new musical brainchild of Zoe Mead, apparently a well-known name in
local rock circles. First time I’d come across her or her music, and I was
impressed; the 2-girl plus boy drummer trio played some wistful ethereal mood
music midway between the lazy indie pop of The Sundays, and the more woozy
shoegaze of Slowdive. I caught an unexpected half dozen of these dreamy
soundscapes, their penultimate number, a more upbeat, haunting and pseudo-Goth
one possibly called “Solitude” being my favourite of their set. Made me miss
2:54 a little, a very favourable start.
A quick chat with MC Ed
Dyer revealed the Vic was running late, so my upsetting clash wouldn’t happen
and I had time to go round to The Castle to catch the on-time set from FAYE
ROGERS. Having chatted through most of her quietly impressive set at Riffs last
time out, I was determined to pay attention this time! Faye had some technical
issues during opener “Thunder”, but ploughed admirably through, getting her
lovelorn little acoustic numbers back on track by 3rd number, the
heart-achingly beautiful “I Can’t Help But Love You”. This was a stark, raw
little gem of a set, delivered by Faye in a pure, innocent sounding voice
reminiscent of Harriet Sunday or Madder Rose’s Mary Lorsen, with sparse yet
fitting musical embellishment from her backing band. “He’s Not Himself” was my
highlight, a darkly dramatic but no less heart-tugging paean to her
grandfather, who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, the chilling musical layers
articulating the despair of the situation as succinctly as the lyric. I’m glad
I paid attention this time, as this was a splendid set from a naturally
talented, self-effacing young voice.
Quick chat with Faye
and her mum, my old BT colleague Stella, before hot-footing back over to the
by-now completely rammed Vic back room, for NUDY BRONQUE’s entrance at 10.30
after a fiddly set-up. Aiden, arms aloft, led the band (a 4-piece tonight,
again augmented by their producer on keyboards!) into the Pulp-esque opener
“Luggage” which segued straight into “Yoo Hoo”, the usual schizophrenic chord/
tempo/ mood changes immediately a feature, often a little frustratingly so, as
you’re never entirely sure with Nudy Bronque, when one song actually finishes
and another begins! But then that sense of unpredictability, that feeling of
flying by the seat of your pants, is all part of the Nudy Bronque charm, right
kids? Third (I think!) number “Allsorts” featured the stripped back base as the
background to Aiden’s vocal gymnastics and pseudo-yodels, and eye-catching
shape throwing and general frontman showing off! “No Wives, No Children”
highlighted the fact that this band aren’t scared of often using almost complete
silence as a feature of their songs, a sign of real confidence in my view,
before switching suddenly to cacophonous noise in the same number! “No Wives”,
for me also reminiscent of Boston’s Rocketscience’s excellent song “Killjoy”,
segued effortlessly into the galloping Orange Juice “Blue Boy”-esque rodeo ride
of “Peachy Keen”, their best number tonight, Aiden throwing in a “Hound Dog”
reference before delivering the hook through a toy bull-horn. Barking mad!
A rocking “Juliet
Ottewell” was the precursor to the denouement; a stretched, epic “Space Travel
2013 By Phone”, featuring another cacophonous, discordant outro which saw Aiden
screaming the title through the bull horn again before seemingly thanking
everyone in the packed room individually. Excellent stuff; this is not “wacky”
or “funny” by design, it’s just pure entertainment, and tonight the Bronque
took the showcase occasion of a packed Shuffle Vic and really upped their game,
delivering probably the best performance I’ve seen from them. Well done boys!
I grabbed the list as
MC Ed announced a 15 minute break, “to clear up [Nudy Bronque’s] bloody mess,”
before headliners British Harlem. By now, this old boy was flagging a little
so, with an early start for tomorrow, I said my farewells and left.
However, there was more
Shuffling in prospect on Saturday! Having picked up Evan for his Summer stay
with us, and having dropped Logan off for a playdate, we took a drive into town
for a couple of Shuffle shows. Firstly, we headed into a sun-drenched lunchtime
Central Library courtyard, bumping into Danny and Ellen (acting as MC for the
afternoon), catching the last knockings of DAVE CORRIGAN’s strumalong kitchen
sink drama and Americana tinged set, accompanied by Nudy Bronque’s producer on
keyboards! Then we enjoyed another FAYE ROGERS set, a truncated 5-song version
of last nights’, with “I Can’t Help But Love You” and “He’s Not Himself” again
the highlights, Faye this time accompanied just by her guitarist and the set
consequently having a more pastoral feel.
Then we grabbed pasty
lunch and took a walk down to That’s Entertainment for SIMON HALL. I was
expecting an outdoor full band set, but this would have been in direct
competition with the big band noise from Wharf Green, so Si played a solo set
in the shop window. Much more overt a delivery than other Shuffle performers so
far, and generally falling between the blue collar anthems of The Gaslight
Anthem and the heart-on-sleeve raw angst of Dashboard Confessional, this was
again a fine set punctuated by no little wit (“I fell off my doorstep, so if my
guitar playing sounds ham-fisted, it’s because my fist looks like a ham!”). I
thoroughly enjoyed his own “Face For Radio”, a warts-and-all road movie for all
bottom of the bill workaday acts, a well-observed “Fisherman’s Blues” which
made up for a slightly incongruous “True Colours” (yup, the Cyndi Lauper
song!), and some nice incisive lyricism elsewhere (“it’s been my mission to
make bad decisions” and “I wrapped four chords around a girl who I thought
meant the world to me” being 2 of my favourites). Shame no more than a dozen
punters availed themselves of this nice little set.
So that was me all
shuffled off for the day, as an overtired daughter necessitated a departure
from town thereafter. Still, I’ve really enjoyed my first taste of The Swindon
Shuffle; after all this time travelling around seeing bands, I’m finding that
there’s good stuff right on my doorstep, especially Nudy Bronque, definitely my
favourite Swindon band since Tim’s early You Are Here days, and who might be
the first band to deservedly gain more national exposure since, ooh, XTC and
Shriekback??? Either way, long may Swindon Shuffle, and in future I’ll be
shuffling along with it!
