The Godfathers - Live at Guildford G-Live

The Godfathers - Photo by Steve Worrall

The Godfathers are back with a bang! The brand new album "Jukebox Fury" is stuffed full of top tunes and riffs and positively bristles with all their classic trademarks; Peter Coyne's sneering delivery and world-weary cynicism, the stinging guitar riffs and powerhouse rhythm section, it's all here. Original Sid Presley Experience guitarist Del Bartle is back with his old colleagues, the Coyne brothers again and contributes some mighty fine songs to the album. Live he covers what was always a twin-guitar assault on his own, and although the band are lacking a bit of the Dollimore/Gibson-era stage visuals, musically Del covers remarkably well.

Peter Coyne - Photo by Steve Worrall

The band have been supporting long time pals The Stranglers on their lengthy "Feel It Live" Tour and this, along with overseas dates earlier this year, has seen the band tighten up considerably since the last time I saw them back at the Valentine's Day Massacre gig in February last year. Tonight, the band are allowed a generous 40 minute set despite being the support act, and they take full advantage, playing a perfectly balanced set of old classics and tracks from the new album. Peter goads the audience into letting loose, winding up the attentive but quiet crowd until they relax and join in the singing on some of the more familiar numbers. And there are a lot of familiar numbers to enjoy, kicking off with a three song blast from the past "She Gives Me Love", the first single to be taken from "More Songs About Love & Hate" and then two numbers from their faultless second album "Birth, School, Work, Death", the storming "'Cause I Said So", and "If I Only Had Time", two of my favourite Godfather's tracks.

The Godfathers - Photo by Steve Worrall

Next up is "I Can't Sleep Tonight" from the new album, a melodic bubble-gum Punk song which Peter introduces as their tribute to the Ramones. Then it's "Back Into The Future", the first of the new album tracks that originally saw the light of day way back in 2011. It's built around a Stooges-heavy guitar riff from Del, and Peter Coyne snarls every line with relish, twisting every syllable up and spitting them out with pure venom. It's a fantastic track, that proves that time has not dulled their South London gangster-chic aggression in the slightest. One of their best ever singles "Love Is Dead" is followed by "If I Only Could" from the new album, which should be earmarked for a future single, no mistake. We then get a real treat with "Public Enemy No. 1" the instrumental classic from The Sid Presley Experience. It takes me right back to those dark days of the mid to late '80's, that musical wasteland where only The Sid Presley Experience and later The Godfathers, were keeping that raw Rock 'n' Roll spirit alive for me.

The Godfathers - Photo by Steve Worrall

The band have always grabbed their influences, embraced them and then given them a mighty slap round the head, and tonight their cover of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is just immense. Another new song from "Jukebox Fury" is next entitled "Primitive Man", which has brilliantly witty lyrics and a stick-in-your-head-for-days chorus. "Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues" with it's Dr. Feelgood Wilko Johnson style choppy rhythm, gets a fair few more people dancing along and it's into another Sid Presley song. The familiar military drum beat heralds probably The Presley's finest moment "Hup 2-3-4", which they once performed live on the much-missed TV show The Tube. Then it's the only track from their debut "Hit By Hit", but what a track it is, "I Want Everything" is The Godfather's at their very best, and it perks the crowd up for the last song, the anthemic "Birth, School, Work, Death", a brilliant way to close the show. 

Chris Coyne - Photo by Steve Worrall

Credit to The Stranglers for letting The Godfathers support them, many less able bands might have been quaking in their boots to have to follow such an impressive set. Anyway, please make sure you check out the brilliant new album "Jukebox Fury", it is a stunning record and after a few patchy releases such as "Unreal World", the "Orange" album and "Afterlife", The Godfathers are now back where we came in, with a bang! You can read the review of The Godfathers 2012 Valentine's Day Massacre gig along with some excellent and exclusive Paul Slattery photographs, by checking out the earlier Blog feature here.

Del Bartle - Photo by Steve Worrall

Peter Coyne - Photo by Steve Worrall

The Godfathers - Photo by Steve Worrall

We also picked our favourite Godfathers track in the very first Pilot Episode of Retrosonic Podcast, find out which one we went for here...although, please bear in mind this is the Pilot, our very first attempt at a Podcast, so it is a bit rough top say the least...