Damian 'giving it some' at the Queens Head

Jayne and I hit the town in Horsham tonight: an Italian meal, followed by a walk down to the Queens Head to see Covered playing.  We did that because Damian (AKA Pootergeek) sings with the band.  He keeps inviting me to come along to shows, but previously they have all been down on the coast.It was a good show they put on.  I think its a bit of a hobby band where they are doing it for the pleasure of playing rather than with any expectation of getting rich.  Usually I drag Jayne to concerts or shows and she doesn’t really like it (the only exceptions being Santana and Erasure) but she liked this one, and I was impressed.

As their name suggests, the band do covers of songs, mostly classics like Knock on Wood or Soul Man but with some more recent stuff like Amy Winehouse or Scissor Sisters.  There was even a decent version of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer.  I was a bit worried when they said they were going to do some Motown (I am more of a Stax fan myself) but it turned out to be a Stevie Wonder song, and not just any Stevei Wonder song but Living for the City – one of my favourites.

I liked the bass player.  Totally unashamed to be wearing shades at night in November, he reminded me of Donald Dunn a bit, which is high praise indeed.

No complaints about the set or the playing, but a couple of suggestions:

• I’d love to hear them do Green Onions. It would give the keyboards and guitar a chance to show off a bit.
• Would also love to hear them do Alexander O’Neal’s Criticise.  If I was in a band I would fight to get that on the set list, even if it was a thrash metal band.
• Damian should pack a harmonica.  There were a couple of moments just crying out for a bit of gob-iron.

The funny thing is that Damian assumed it would not be my sort of music, because I tend to bang on about world music and prog rock a lot here.  I think he is forgetting my Essex roots…