Steve might get his fonts from his Wordsworth word processor and his drapes from Showaddywaddy but he gets his songs from his rock n roll beating heart. Oh, and he wears the best boots no question.
Joking aside Steve comes from a world that should have ruled the airwaves in the mid-eighties from Hanoi to the Lords to the Quireboys to the Throbs, sleazy rock n roll wasn’t hair bands they were genuine rockers writing soft songs for tough guys and living the dream twenty-four seven. Here Steve spills ten songs onto the digital airwaves made with style and an unwavering dedication to his beliefs. Steve is true to those roots and continues to fly the flag for punky sleaze n roll with plenty of the real Glam carved out of the likes of Stiv, Monroe and the Dolls.
The album opens with the sprightly rocker ‘Baby Don’t Cry’ and Steve wheezes a pretty mean gob iron to boot. Steve not only has his name in lights but pretty much does the heavy lifting from the drum programming to guitars, harmonica and vocals and no doubt tea-making duties as well. Steve has a distinct gravel n whisky vocals but holds onto some decent melodies throughout and also adheres to the rules of the old school in making sure the songs have a strong chorus and melody and then you can dress it however you like from the barroom guitars to the big boy solos ‘Baby Don’t Cry’ has got the jewson lot.
Steve does a decent lyric in reminiscing about the good old days and it’s a question I often ask about where have all those people who used to frequent the Buttz n Spike Club, st Moritz, the marquee a well as the clubs across the country that would sell out for shows from some sleazy mofos. Just where have all those “cool Kids” gone? They didn’t all get jobs cut their hair and have families did they?
There’s a good energy about ‘Live For Today’ and that twelve bar boogie is made for a cowboy booted foot on the monitor and lots of man hugging whilst the guitar player windmills those solos out like their shots from a bottle of jack that’s going out of fashion. Whilst Steve does the heavy lifting throughout the record he does get a heft amount of help throughout especially on the guest solos which helps add different flavours to the songs and I do like the harp throughout ‘Forgive And Forget’ is another with a standout chorus and embracing modern technologies on ‘Living In The Digital Age’ is probably a place the likes of Steve Vincent never anticipated but has embraced and used to his advantage knocking out a couple of solo albums that might never have seen the light of day otherwise.
I think Steve kept the best til last and a vibrant ‘Stop Messing My Heart Around’, the penultimate track, enhanced with the good old underused handclaps and late-night tempo the perfect set ender before the encore gets called for. That encore is the barroom honky tonk title track. Last orders boys n girls and get your dancing slippers on. Had this been on the new Quireboys album people would be saying they’ve turned the clock back to the early days and knocked out a banger but it’s not Spikes its Steves and the honkin’ Saxophone only elevates it further in my humble opinion. Good on ya Steve this is worth keeping on on its own, a slice of pure good-time rock n roll to warm the cockles of your heart. Now whisper it quietly but the best kept secret in Rock n Roll is zipping up his best Cuban-heeled Chelsea boots and he’s ready to rock, so join him and get involved you know you want to. Buy IT!
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