We went to the Water Rats after a fantastic run of events over the last 2 months. I go out more now at 58 than when I was 21. A few highlights in those 2 months including a 5 day Northern festival in Benidorm, the fantastic Junior Jump at the Bassment, the Fling Festival (I don’t know why people moan about this event, what’s better than having nothing to do all day apart from watching great bands, Burlesque, comedians and drinking beer with your mates. Some people are never happy), Len Price Three at the 100 Club and off course the Chelmsford Beer festival. There were lots more and it was all as equally as enjoyable.

The Water Rats is a pub in Grays Inn Rd with a room in the back that holds gigs and for the princely sum of £9 we saw some of the best live bands on the circuit at the moment. Sadly we only caught the end of the Proper Set, a shame as they are a great band from South London who I have seen before and are well worth seeing. They are very mod, powerful and what you would want from a four piece guitar band. The problem was they were on at 7.30 and it is not that easy getting home from work to Chelmsford, showered, changed and back to a place where I was only about half a mile away from about 3 hours before.

Next on was one my favourite bands of the moment, the soulful rock sounds of the Sha La Las. I love this band, they are Hammond Organ driven with a 60’s overtone. As I said very soulful without being soul if you know what I mean. They don’t play often so are well worth looking out for.

The Buns followed, these were the only band out of the ones on show who I had never seen before. They were a two piece girl band from France, guitar and drums. White Stripes, Royal Blood and our own Midnight Barbers (or whatever they are called now) have a lot to answer for. They were good but not my kind of stuff. Paul who is an aficionado of this kind of music said they were excellent so that is good enough for me. Not sure about the Gary Glitter cover though even though they reckoned they did “Do you wanna touch” by the Runaways.

Last on was the fabulous French Boutik, very poppy, very mod and very cool. Another band that I like a lot. As you can probably guess from their name they come from France. They rattled through a set of very nifty songs in both French and English and they have been adopted by the English audiences fully and are often seen in our country. They are also Hammond Organ influenced but not to the same extent as the Sha La Las. They are just a top band and out of all the bands there, they were easily the sharpest dressed with their own distinctive style.

All in all a top night, I went with some good mates and as usual at these gigs I always meet people who I like a lot. To finish another great weekend I attended the Mr Jones Sunday Soul Lounge at the United Brethren, Chelmsford. Great music at this event, I think there is another one of these coming up in October so if you like proper soul music you will love this, not much Northern just very rare sweet soul music, 100% vinyl. Other events coming up which may interest you are The Solar Flares at the Water Rats, Len Price Three at the same venue, Stone Foundation at Chinnery’s in Southend and the Small Fakers at the Bassment, Chelmsford. There’s lots of stuff on so get out there and support live music.

Duncan, July 2017

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