Original Acoustic/Electric Folk/Rock music from England playing in England, Ireland and the U.S.
Rude Knot To Reviews
Rude Knot To at Mullen's
[Reviewed in "East Magazine"]
[Reviewed in "East Magazine"]
Posted: 12/12/2005 20:23:34
Author: Dan Burt
Date of event: 08/12/2005
Location: Mullen's
Author: Dan Burt
Date of event: 08/12/2005
Location: Mullen's
Mullens on Thursday gave us a taste of Dublin that we will never, ever savour again. Upon entering Eastbourne's answer to the Groucho Club, the smell of burning Marlboros and sight of men revelling in a pool tournament surrounded by a plume of dense smog equalled only by that over Hemel Hempstead, gave one a brief reminiscence of the time when booze, not bureaucracy, governed the shores of the Emerald Isle.
I was here not only to get a head-rush off the copious amounts of passive smoking I was indulging in, but to see an Irish Folk band steeped in the heritage of their Irish ancestors, whilst at the same time not delivering spurious and downright crap covers of old Irish favourites such as 'Danny Boy' and 'Where the Shamrock Grows'. Rude Knot To are a band from Hastings which by their own description is 'a drinking town with a fishing problem'. You can guess from that ethos what sort of path the night was heading down.
From the outset, their firebrand playing and gravelly vocal snarl brought back memories of sitting in Temple Bar, Dublin with the black stuff in one hand and a cheap roll-up in the other.
As daft and drunk as they appeared, Rude Knot To played their music with uncanny accuracy. Anyone who has seen live Irish music over the years will testify to the fact that 20 pints of Guinness is in fact no impediment whatsoever to the performer's ability to play a guitar perfectly.
Their songs on the night were all self-penned numbers written from a local perspective. Instead of recounting tales of life by the sea, cold and lonely with fathers, mothers and brothers away at sea they sung of life by the sea, cold and lonely… Well OK the songs talked of similar themes but were given a very local context in terms of the lyrics and the stories the band members Martin, Jeff and Andy told us throughout their meandering set. Particular favourites on the night were 'Shake my Bones' and 'Prodigal Daughter'.
It is unfortunate that these smoky atmospheric nights will cease to exist in Ireland and soon in the UK due to the overbearing bureaucracy of Brussels. What nights like that at Mullens offer are those of real musical purity, devoid of commercial ambition, delivered to give the people assembled a bloody good time. We all know the health risks attributed to the evils of passive smoking, but I'd choose a couple of hours of this atmosphere over The Conway Sisters even if it were the last few breaths I ever took.