{"id":897,"date":"2011-03-07T10:54:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T10:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/?p=897"},"modified":"2011-03-08T10:21:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T10:21:57","slug":"gaffa-the-triumphant-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/gaffa-the-triumphant-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaffa – The Triumphant Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Contemporary\u2019s caf\u00e9-bar is rammed for a historic reunion. There are plenty of half remembered faces in the crowd. Wasn\u2019t that guy in Some Chicken<\/em>? Aren\u2019t they Fatal Charm<\/em>? Most of the crowd are, like the band, into their fifties. The rest are here to see what they missed first time round. This is the band\u2019s first gig since 1980. When Gaffa take the stage at nine, the years roll back.<\/p>\n

Lyricist Wayne Evans is on bass and vocals. John Maslen, who wrote the music, plays guitar and keyboards. Youngest original member and co-writer, Clive \u2018Myph\u2019 Smith, on guitar, is about to become a grandad (sorry, from where I was standing, I couldn’t fit Myph into shot, but you get half of him in the distorted photo directly above). Each has grown a small beard. Simon Bowhill ably stands in for absent drummer Mick Barratt, now \u2018the kebab king of Hereford\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018You know what they say: \u201cIf I\u2019d known I was going to live this long, I\u2019d have taken better care of myself\u201d,\u2019 Wayne tells the crowd. Then the group launch into \u2018Stage Gear\u2019 and \u2018Married Men\u2019 from their debut EP, an NME single of the week. They remind us how quickly they moved from post-pub rock to more ambitious, intricate and varied material, including never released numbers like \u2018Organic Shuffle\u2019 and \u2018Haunted.\u2019 The songs are augmented by excellent sound and thirty added years of musicianship.<\/p>\n

After three numbers, Wayne’s famous frog shaped bass is unveiled to a massive cheer. Final single ‘Attitude Dancing’ gets an airing. \u2018Different Story\u2019 and \u2018Words Fail Me\u2019 mark World Book Night with a touching shout out to a local author (yeah, you guessed). Evans\u2019 warm Nottingham wit is as sharp as ever. The old songs still nail the experience of working class life in the seedy inner city. \u2018Radford Soul\u2019. There\u2019s been no way to hear most of these songs since just after they were written. Wayne apologises if they haven\u2019t played our favourites. \u2018It\u2019s like dipping a bucket in a river, which songs to learn. None of them were written down.\u2019<\/p>\n

Their one LP, \u2018Neither Use Nor Ornament\u2019, is represented by \u2018Back To Villainy\u2019, \u2018Throw Me To The Christians\u2019 and \u2018X Marks The Spot\u2019. 90 minutes and 19 songs, all they have rehearsed, fly by. The reunited band finish their set with the never recorded, \u2018Parish\u2019. Wayne spreads his arms to sing \u2018this city is where my friends are, this city is where I’m going to stay.\u2019 Legend.<\/p>\n

The crowd won\u2019t let them leave, so they busk a couple of easy ones that they used to do as encores: \u2018Lucky Lighter\u2019 and \u2018Loon Pants, \u00a32.50 Blues\u2019. For those last few minutes it could be a Tuesday night in the big back room at The Imperial on St. James Street, back in the day.<\/p>\n

The above is a slightly extended version of my review for the Nottingham Post<\/a>. John Maslen was kind enough to provide me with the setlist:<\/p>\n

Stage Gear<\/p>\n

Target Practice<\/p>\n

Married Men<\/p>\n

We Used to.<\/p>\n

Attitude Dancing.<\/p>\n

Organic Shuffle<\/p>\n

Common Knowledge.<\/p>\n

Haunted<\/p>\n

Bad Thing.<\/p>\n

Different Story.<\/p>\n

Words Fail Me.<\/p>\n

Crying Lessons.<\/p>\n

I Am Not Your Friend<\/p>\n

Man With A Motive<\/p>\n

Disco Funeral<\/p>\n

X Marks the Spot<\/p>\n

Villainy<\/p>\n

Parish<\/p>\n

Throw Me to the Christians<\/p>\n

Unrehearsed encores:<\/p>\n

Lucky Lighter<\/p>\n

Loon Pant 2. 50 Blues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contemporary\u2019s caf\u00e9-bar is rammed for a historic reunion. There are plenty of half remembered faces in the crowd. Wasn\u2019t that guy in Some Chicken? Aren\u2019t they Fatal Charm? Most of the crowd are, like the band, into their fifties. The rest are here to see what they missed first time round. This is the band\u2019s first gig since 1980. When Gaffa take the stage at nine, the years roll back. Lyricist Wayne Evans is on bass and vocals. John Maslen, who wrote the music, plays guitar and keyboards. Youngest original member and co-writer, Clive \u2018Myph\u2019 Smith, on guitar, is about to become a grandad (sorry, from where I was standing, I couldn’t fit Myph into shot, but you get half of him in the distorted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}