★★★★★★★★★☆
There's a well-known phrase or saying that states that some bands come with bells and whistles. For Factory funk stalwarts A Certain Ratio, this is certainly true - cowbells, whistles and all manner of percussive add-ons designed to create something of an all night party are their typical order of the evening.
Sadly, due to a venue curfew of 11pm, tonight's show at Chelsea F.C.'s swish Under The Bridge venue wasn't all-night, but it certainly felt like it in places. And this was a good thing. Now in their (cough) 36th year, ACR still sound like they formed a few weeks ago after listening to James Brown, The Meters or Warsaw records. They don't tour anymore, preferring to juggle rare live dates with, well, life's duties - this is their first London headliner since an intimate Dingwalls show in 2009.
For tonight, ample support was provided by the melodic quirky electro outfit Gramme who set the tone with a decent clutch of tunes and a satisfactory turn out (for a support act in London, they were blessed, believe me).
ACR's set comprised the old and the new with a few surprises and a healthy dose of the usual. Do The Du, Shack Up and Forced Laugh were delivered with the usual impeccable groove and, in the latter's case, a certain element of menace, due in part to the doleful vocals and toe-trembling bass-line from Jez Kerr. For rave-heads there were the solid bonuses of Won't Stop Loving You (The Big E) and Good Together and newcomers' cravings were satiated with a handful of funky turns from recent (well, five years old) album Mind Made Up, including a beefy rendition of I Feel Light.
The much-forgotten '90s album Up In Downsville was revisited with a rare run-through of Wonder Y and it was good to hear Sextet cut Rialto given a proper shoeing in the style of the remade version on Mind Made Up. And they could have played Flight all night, it was that good.
For me the highlights came thick and fast towards the end of the hour. I made the mistake of standing near one of the venue's main speakers for Be What You Wanna Be, a track so good that it still seems wholly ridiculous that, back in the day (1989/90), the song was relegated to a b-side - twice. Singer Denise Johnson peaked and guitarist Martin Moscrop's wakka-wakka rhythms drove the song home in celebratory fashion. All of which thrust a now-packed clientele towards a fever-pitch encore that included Knife Slits Water and the ever-reliable Samba-informed curtain call, Si Firmir O Grido. If the BBC ever need a theme-tune for their Brazilian World Cup coverage in the summer, they should seriously consider this track. Seriously.
And for all its neon glamour, its high-end decoration and the framed photos of a musical bygone age hung in an orderly fashion, Under The Bridge proved to be a very decent venue for ACR's faultless trunk of carnival funk. Good arrows.
Another cracking night then from the Manchester band that sounds like they have probably had, at one time, the best record-collection in the city. Or the entire country.
Check out the home-made playlist 'Hulme Made' for some key selections from A Certain Ratio's lengthy career - some tracks made it to last night's set-list - plus the original Shack Up 12" recorded by Banberra (because the ACR version ain't on Spotify).
There's a well-known phrase or saying that states that some bands come with bells and whistles. For Factory funk stalwarts A Certain Ratio, this is certainly true - cowbells, whistles and all manner of percussive add-ons designed to create something of an all night party are their typical order of the evening.
For tonight, ample support was provided by the melodic quirky electro outfit Gramme who set the tone with a decent clutch of tunes and a satisfactory turn out (for a support act in London, they were blessed, believe me).
ACR's set comprised the old and the new with a few surprises and a healthy dose of the usual. Do The Du, Shack Up and Forced Laugh were delivered with the usual impeccable groove and, in the latter's case, a certain element of menace, due in part to the doleful vocals and toe-trembling bass-line from Jez Kerr. For rave-heads there were the solid bonuses of Won't Stop Loving You (The Big E) and Good Together and newcomers' cravings were satiated with a handful of funky turns from recent (well, five years old) album Mind Made Up, including a beefy rendition of I Feel Light.
The much-forgotten '90s album Up In Downsville was revisited with a rare run-through of Wonder Y and it was good to hear Sextet cut Rialto given a proper shoeing in the style of the remade version on Mind Made Up. And they could have played Flight all night, it was that good.
And for all its neon glamour, its high-end decoration and the framed photos of a musical bygone age hung in an orderly fashion, Under The Bridge proved to be a very decent venue for ACR's faultless trunk of carnival funk. Good arrows.
Another cracking night then from the Manchester band that sounds like they have probably had, at one time, the best record-collection in the city. Or the entire country.
Check out the home-made playlist 'Hulme Made' for some key selections from A Certain Ratio's lengthy career - some tracks made it to last night's set-list - plus the original Shack Up 12" recorded by Banberra (because the ACR version ain't on Spotify).