{"id":3461,"date":"2019-01-26T05:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=3461"},"modified":"2019-01-26T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T12:06:54","slug":"alvin-gibbs-the-disobedient-servants-%e2%80%8e-your-disobedient-servant-tm-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=3461","title":{"rendered":"Alvin Gibbs & The Disobedient Servants \u200e- \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 (T&M Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Forty years into his career as the number one 4-string plank spanker on the UK punk rock scene you can perhaps forgive Alvin Gibbs the \u201cself indulgence\u201d (his words, not mine) of a solo record. I mean he\u2019s worked with some of the biggest names on the scene during that time, plus he\u2019s also penned some absolutely amazing songs along the way too\u2026 and the musician\u2019s modesty aside, I for one was straight out the blocks to order my copy when the pre-order for \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 went live on the T&M Records website just after Xmas. So, why all the rush of anticipation I hear you ask?<\/p>\n

Well, the best place to start is with the guest list of musicians that Alvin has assembled to help him make this record. It reads like a veritable who\u2019s who drawn from his expansive career and boasts the likes of Brian James, Mick Rossi, Timo Kaltio and James Stevenson amongst the names eager to offer up their services as Disobedient Servants. It was only the name of Iggy Pop that for me was the real glaring omission, but then when I first got to hear \u2018Ghost Train\u2019 the lead single from the album, I had to double-take. Could my jug-likes be deceiving me? That is surely Iggy crooning his way through this belting \u2018Instinct\u2019 like rocker, but no\u2026it\u2019s actually Alvin Gibbs, and what a great voice he has too. \u2018Clumsy Fingers\u2019 the flipside of that mega limited and long since sold out 7\u201d also proved to be a fun time piece of Iggy influenced garage punk, and these two tracks alone were enough to convince me that this was certainly no vanity project and Alvin Gibbs was possibly about to do a Keef and release a solo album fans of his day job band would be clambering to hear too.<\/p>\n

With Alvin having also released one of the best books about being in a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band, the awesome \u2018Neighbourhood Threat\u2019 (recently re-released as \u2018Some Weird Sin\u2019) written about his time spent playing bass for Iggy Pop. It kinda feels eu natural for \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 to kick off with \u2018Arterial Pressure\u2019 a (just shy of 2 minutes long) barnstormer of a track written about how Alvin got to know Joey Ramone through Mr Osterberg.<\/p>\n

Next up is the aforementioned \u2018Ghost Train\u2019 which here perfectly segues into the equally Iggy -like strut of \u2018Dumb\u2019, and right here we have as near a perfect opening 1-2-3 to any album I\u2019ve heard in many a long year. Seriously folks if these tracks were on a new Iggy record the mainstream music media would be spunking their chinos over them.<\/p>\n

\u2018Camden Gigolo\u2019 takes things down an anthemic gear or two before \u2018Clumsy Fingers\u2019 speeds off in a frenzy of glam tinged punk rock guitar complete with few week\u2019s road dirt under those nails.<\/p>\n

Not unlike Glen Matlock\u2019s excellent \u2018Good To Go\u2019 album from the tail end of 2018, where \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 really excels is when it throws you a curveball and in side one closer \u2018Heaven And The Angels\u2019 Alvin delivers a menacing slice of southern fried psycho-drama that challenges the listener with each new listen twisting and turning itself into your very soul.<\/p>\n

Flipping the record over and side two kicks off with perhaps the most UK Subs like track on \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019, the riotous \u2018Back To Mayhem\u2019 a track that simply fizzes with raw energy, that\u2019s before the more subtle slide driven \u2018Polemic\u2019 takes you on a fascinating trip through what influenced Alvin to get into the music business in the first place.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s here that for me the LP flips from the overarching influences of Iggy and garage punk to that of one drawn from the likes of Mott and Bowie with \u2018No!\u2019 hinting at latter day Hunter and \u2018Desperate Dave Is Dead\u2019 doffing its baker boy cap to one of the young dudes passed all to soon. \u2018I\u2019m Not Crying Now\u2019 too has more than just a little bit of cracked acting going on within its grooves, whilst album closer \u2018Deep As Our Skin\u2019 hints at just how great Cheap And Nasty might have been if Alvin had been given more a role in front of the microphone.<\/p>\n

Having been lucky enough to get a good few preview listens of \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 the immediate thing that leapt out at me was just how much this sounds like a band, not a solo record. So kudos indeed to the real heartbeat of The Disobedient Servants; guitarist Steve Crittall, drummer Jamie Oliver and of course Alvin himself for making this one hell of a riotous rock \u2018n\u2019 roll record\u2026.and one I just can\u2019t wait to get my finished vinyl copy of.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in the intro to this review \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 is available to pre-order right now via T&M Records on LP\/CD and via Bandcamp for the download (the links are below). If you are after the LP\/CD combo you best make sure you snap one up sharpish as when those red and white splatter babies are gone they really will be gone. So, trust me when I say, \u2018Your Disobedient Servant\u2019 is one record you really do not want to be without.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buy It Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n

Author:Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty years into his career as the number one 4-string plank spanker on the UK punk rock scene you can perhaps forgive Alvin Gibbs the \u201cself indulgence\u201d (his words, not mine) of a solo record. I mean he\u2019s worked with some of the biggest names on the scene during that time, plus he\u2019s also penned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[144,1097,1093,148,146,141,1067,665,1090,1092,1094,1096,1095,1091,145],"class_list":["post-3461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-alvin-gibbs","tag-bandcamp","tag-bowie","tag-brian-james","tag-cheap-and-nasty","tag-iggy-pop","tag-james-stevenson","tag-jamie-oliver","tag-mick-rossi","tag-mott","tag-steve-crittall","tag-tm-records","tag-time-and-matter","tag-timo-kaltio","tag-uk-subs","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}