Reign Lee and Sue Shearman at The Island Bar: 11/9/09.

By Nick the Bookman

"And the routine continues. Another month, another gig at the Island Bar. This time, it's a fund-raiser for Reign Lee and Sue Shearman who are about to embark on a two-month tour of America. They'll be performing at major festivals and minor honkytonk bars scatttered across the country and it should be fun, fun, fun. But touring (and health care) ain't cheap, so, a small fund-raiser has been organised on Lamma. I'm pleased because I've seen them play at bc unplugged twice and I thought they would have been a natural for the 2008 Lamma Fun Day. Didn't happen because of prior commitments, but their debut has finally come...

"It's 20:40 and there's quite a decent turnout for tonight's show. Not everyone has come to see Reign and Sue. There's another (partly) Lamma band making their debut tonight as well. Dark Himaya are a quintet who play slightly prog-pastoral indie folk. The home-grown hereoes are Ivy on lead guitar and softly, softly vocals. Sue on lead accoustic guitar (and having a warm up before taking to the stage with Reign). Aileen plays deft an d tinkly keyboards and adds backing vocals. Aless, formerly of The Sinister Left, handles the bass duties. Keith is the beatbox drummer. He's using an old crate with a microphone in front and tattooing out the rhythms.

"The band perform a short and quirky set of five songs to a rapidly growing and appreciative audience. My notes say the tempo is "slow shoegazing speed" with hints of feedback. Ivy apologises for the distortion. I thought it was an integral part of the tune. Nice, quiet keyboard melodies and some robust strumming from Sue in the background. The bass and drums are understated, but effective. The second song appears to be a caustic view about the stock market. The third tune is called "Paper Cuts In Your Eyes" with a sort of early sixties psychedelic feel. Bit Pink Floyd versus Girls Together Outrageously. GTO were the super-groupie band put together by Frank Zappa. The ladies on the table next to me are flashing furiously with their cameras. none of them seem to be from Lamma.

"Dark Himaya are growing in confidence as the set progresses. There are hints of old Deep Purple organ runs in the fourth song and some more confident guitar exchanges. Ivy and Sue aren't really cutting loose yet. That will take more practice and performance and possible eventual levels of Grateful Dead jamming expertise. The final track has some nice electronic "bees" circling around the bar and an early Jethro Tull sort of bluesrock approach. Overall, they show lots of promise and hopefully they'll get a chance to play at Dickstock or Lamma Fun Day. Depends if Sue is back from her travels by then. I'm looking forward to hearing more from them.

"There's a short break before Reign and Sue take to the stage. There's about 100 people here now, mostly outside. Terry is having trouble keeping up with the drinks orders, especially from the line of lovely ladies, sitting to my right. The second set starts about 2130 and comprises most of Reign's Broken Skylines" CD. It's not the best performance I've heard from them, even allowing for the Island Bar's accoustics. The crowd is chatting over the music and the concentration factor seems diminished, although no one is leaving. However Peta(?) is doing well with the donation bottle and there's a steady trickle of people buying merchandise to help swell the coffers. The set highlights for me include "Summer's Faded", "Helena" and "Don't Close Your Eyes". All available on the CD, which is worth getting. The set is interrupted occasionally by Reign saying "We need money. You can get CD's, caps and tee-shirts by the front door. Thank you"

"There's another short break and Sue performs a few solo songs in front of a rapt audience, including sister Marion. She's quite a revelation. Her voice is fey and robust. The songs are mostly confessional, but I'm not sure how fictional they are. Lamma's fellow musicians, including assorted Curs, are certainly enjoying themselves. Magnus has even stepped up to do some impromptu "beatbox" drumming with her. Dennis is chatting to me about how good the Spice Boys are now and I must see them again. They made their debut Dickstock 2006, but don't seem to have extended their repetoire much according to Dennis. Their blend of late Sixties blues rock is fun.

"Sue has finished a short set of about five songs and has reluctantly been allowed to relax. It's almost turned into the Sue Shearman Talent Night, having started with Dark Himaya, dueted with Reign and surprised/impressed everyone with her own short solo set. Now it's time for a trimmed down pack of Yung Shue Wan Curs to end the evening in their usual rambunctious/shambolic/superb style. Davy is a little out of sorts and isn't playing fiddle tonight. However, he tells me it's a great opportunity to see the Curs in concert as he's never seen them before. So, it's Gareth on his new lo-tech plastic washbowl/broomstick/one-string bass. Harry and John on random vocals and accoustic guitars and Magnus banging on the beatbox.

"There seems to be about five varied attempts at singing "my blue skies are turning to grey..." interspersed among other crowd vavourites like, oh you know. Harry is in preacher mode for "I Saw The Light" and "Blessed Saviour". John slurs through "These Boots Are Made For Walking" while mock-insulting the crowd. There's a fairly cohesive version of "Fixing-To-Die Rag" and -almost- a lapse into "Surfing Bird" before semi-sanity prevails. All too soon, it's midnight. There have been three noise complaints and officials have arrived to end the show as John goes all Anti-Nowhere League on a discordant version of "Scarborough Fair". Basically, just anothger unique night at The Island Bar. Sue pretty much stole the show. She and Reign made some money for their tour. Dark Himaya (later described by Kelly to me as sounding like Aussie band The Waifs) are Worth Watching. Someone slipped a large vodka into my seven-up (cheers, Roz!). My notes make no sense, as usual. The walk home seemed to take forever. Can't wait for November's gig action..."

Anybody got photos from the gig?

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