The Woggles at The 100 Club London with The Len Price 3 & The Galileo 7, Friday August 16th 2024

The Woggles made a very rare trip to the U.K. for two shows, first of all in Bristol on the Thursday and then Friday night at the legendary 100 Club in London, where I finally got to witness what many people claim are one of the best live acts around. I've been a fan for a long time now and watching videos of them over the years and seeing comments from those lucky enough to have seen them play I was wondering if they could live up to my expectations. Well, I wasn't to be disappointed, in fact they exceeded all of those expectations and then some. Another big fan of The Woggles is Graham Day, frontman of one of our favourite bands, The Prisoners. In fact, he is such a fan that he invited The Woggles to play at his wedding and he also borrowed their rhythm section of drummer Dan Eletxro & bassist Buzz Hagstrom for his Graham Day & The Gaolers line-up on their excellent debut album "Soundtrack To The Daily Grind". I've spoken to Graham about The Woggles on a few occasions in previous interviews and chats and he has now been in the band for over five years, the opportunity arising after the sad and untimely passing of guitarist Jeff "Flesh Hammer" Walls in 2019. Graham has expressed how difficult he sometimes finds the pressures of being a frontman and his struggles with singing and lyric writing - although if you take the Gaolers for example, this seems somewhat hard to believe. He told me once in our Retrosonic Podcast interview that he always fancied being the guitarist in a band seen playing at a dance or 'happening' in one of those American sixties teen movies. Either that or in an instrumental band, an ambition he was to make happen when he formed The Senior Service, his side project that was heavily influenced by those classic Spy, Sci-Fi and Spaghetti Western movie and TV theme tunes by composers such as Barry Gray, John Barry and Ennio Morricone. 

So tonight, the London crowd gets their first chance to see Graham playing guitar with The Woggles and he seems to be having as much fun as we are. Busting out all the moves and shapes with his cool looking Nineteen67 Jones guitar and despite the proliferation of Prisoners T-shirts in the crowd, he is relishing the spotlight being on the livewire frontman The Professor Mighty Manfred Jones. Manfred has to be one of the best rabble-rousing all action vocalists I have ever seen - he does not stop moving for a minute, he demands your attention with his cheerful cheerleading antics. One minute he's lifting the mic stand high above his head, then he's on his knees blasting out on his harmonica, before leaping up and pirouetting around with some nifty dance steps. He also likes to get down among the crowd, encouraging us to participate. I'm exhausted just watching him and I wonder how he gets his energy as he never lets up. His energy levels are matched by Go Go dancer Moana Santana who also doesn't stop for the duration of the show and she adds even more glamour to the visual extravaganza. We saw Moana dancing at the 100 Club for the fantastic Lenny Kaye plays Nuggets gig (which you can read about here) and she really adds to the whole swinging sixties vibe. 

Bassist Buzz Hagstrom and guitarist/saxophonist Shane Pringle also seem to be in their element, they have to compete with some strong personalities to their right and yet they acquit themselves perfectly, they are superb on the night. Only super-cool drummer Dan Eletxro in his trademark cap, remains seated throughout and that's because he has to keep the relentless groove going, I'm sure he was dancing inside. The perfectly plotted set unsurprisingly draws heavily on the excellent new album "Time Has Come", which is out now on green vinyl via Little Steven van Zandt's Wicked Cool Records, and is surely going to feature very high in our best albums of 2024 come the end of the year. I would go so far as to say it's up there as one of the best, if not the best Woggles albums and it positively bursts out of the speakers, coming very close to capturing the live energy we witnessed tonight. It's going to be lauded as a future classic in the Garage Soul genre, I'm sure of it. Graham contributes a couple of songs to the record along with guitar and backing vocals and what with The Prisoners stunning reunion album, "Morning Star", he's on a great creative streak at the moment. My personal highlights included "Telling Me Lies", "Paisley In Paradise", "Mr Last Chance", "Her Majesty's Pleasure" and the blistering "Flesh Hammer" which was written by Pat Beers by another of our favourite bands, The Schizophonics. "Karate Monkey" is also superb, with everyone joining in on the "ooh aah" karate kata moves. I sincerely hope that The Woggles don't leave it so long before returning to our shores - in these sometimes dark and depressing times we all need a regular shot of their peerless good-time Garage Rock 'n' Soul. 

The night was made even more special with the added bonus of The Galileo 7 and The Len Price 3, two more of our long-time favourites. In fact what with Graham Day on stage with The Woggles and so many familiar friendly faces in the crowd, it took me back to the good old days of our Retro Man Blog nights at the Half Moon Putney. The LP3 powered through a raucous set including a couple of promising sounding new songs which seemed inspired by their Medway and North Kent roots. You realise just what a great back catalogue the band have built up and they treated us to a pick from most of their albums, culminating in the classic "London Institute". The Galileo 7, who are of course fronted by Graham's colleague in The Prisoners, Allan Crockford, opened up proceedings quite early but thankfully there was a healthy crowd already in the venue to witness another great performance from the band. Their dynamic and memorable Psych Pop songs, with all four members having a go on vocals, went down really well with the crowd. They also debuted two new songs which are due out early next year and they sounded excellent, I'm really looking forward to hearing them recorded. So, all in all it was a perfect night out, proving the importance of the communal spirit and positive vibes of a room full of fans enjoying no-nonsense, uplifting live music. 

The Galileo 7

The Len Price 3

For more information on The Woggles and details on how to order the new album, please check out their official web-site here. Please click on the highlighted links throughout the feature for more information. I'll put more photos of the night at the Retro Man Blog Facebook page so please head on over here, like and subscribe for access. All photos and videos copyright Retro Man Blog.

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 46 "Stupidly Happy" with Special Guest Buddy Ascott

In Episode 46 of Retrosonic Podcast, Steve from Retro Man Blog welcomes The Chords & The Fallen Leaves drummer Buddy Ascott for an update on his recent musical adventures. We cover The 79'ers tour with The Vapors, recent shows with The Fallen Leaves and his production work with Proper. There's also news on his charity bass drum skin which he is getting signed by as many famous drummers as possible to auction for the Roll Out The Barrel water-aid trust. So far there's the signatures of Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Clem Burke of Blondie, Rick Buckler of The Jam, John Maher of Buzzcocks, Mick Avory of The Kinks and many more. We actually interrupt the podcast to capture the very last autograph, that of Terry Chambers of XTC. There's music from The Vapors, The Chords and XTC and then we play and discuss some new superb new releases from Ruts DC, The Price, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Eels, The Len Price 3, The Wedding Present with Louise Wener, Lester Square, Telefis with Jah Wobble, The Jukeez, Goodbye Victory Road and Tiny Flaws. Please click on the highlighted links below for more information on each band and how you can buy their music.

Retrosonic Podcast · Episode 46 "Stupidly Happy" with special guest Buddy Ascott

XTC "Bottle From A Rocket"

XTC "Stupidly Happy"

The Len Price 3 "She's Making a Film"

The Vapors "One of My Dreams"

The Chords "One More Minute"

The Price "Between The Lies"

Ruts DC "Something That I Said" (Electracoustic Version)

Telefis (feat. Jah Wobble) "Falun Gong Dancer"

Eels "Steam Engine"

Elvis Costello & The Imposters "My Most Beautiful Mistake"

Newtown Neurotics "Liar Liar"

The Jukeez "Turning You Into"

Tiny Flaws (feat. Bobby Tarlton) "Photogenie"

Goodbye Victory Road "Tomorrow's World"

The Wedding Present (feat. Louise Wener) "We Should Be Together"

Proper "Harlequin"

Lester Square "Zulu" 

Buddy Ascott with Terry Chambers of XTC - photo Retro Man Blog

You can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify and SoundCloud. You can listen to our special Lockdown Lowdown episode with Leigh Heggarty from Ruts DC and The Price here. Our Lockdown Lowdown with Buddy Ascott can be found here and the "Rhythm Method" episode featuring Buddy's favourite drummers is available here. Then there's our first episode together with the original story of the charity bass drum skin in the archive here or direct below. Thanks for listening, check out the Roll Out The Barrel charity here and look out for news on the drum skin auction date! Retrosonic Podcast has a valid on-line music PRS Licence.

 Retrosonic Podcast · Buddy Ascott of The Chords & The Fallen Leaves

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 41 "Nosferatu Elegant Debauchery" featuring Baby Shakes, Oh! Gunquit, 5 Billion in Diamonds, Autoramas, The Len Price 3, Spizzenergi & More

Cover Star Wanda De Lullabies by Steve Vonlanthen

Welcome to "Nosferatu Elegant Debuchery", episode 41 of Retrosonic Podcast and it's another totally non-retro show featuring some more superb new music. As it's going to be our last episode of 2020 I'd like to say a huge thank you to all those who have contributed to the Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcasts during this extremely tough year, in particular my colleague the 'legendary' Rock Photographer Paul Slattery, Ms Sheringham-Boom, Amy K-B, Mayumi and Adam Donovan. I still find it hard to believe that since the lockdown started in March, I've managed to release four whole episodes solely dedicated to brand new releases and I have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for all those Bands, Artists and DJ's that put aside the incredible disappointment of not being able to perform live and channelled it into some absolutely fantastic records and/or on-line broadcasts that kept us all entertained. Also, to the record companies such as Spinout Nuggets, Dimple Discs, Damaged Goods and many more that made a lot of the records possible. I also thoroughly enjoyed doing the twelve episodes of the Lockdown Lowdown series too and massive thanks to my very special guests, Damian O'Neill of The Undertones/That Petrol Emotion/The Everlasting Yeah, Mary, Judy & Claudia of Baby Shakes, Duncan Reid of The Boys/Big Heads, Raymond Gorman of That Petrol Emotion/The Everlasting Yeah, Buddy Ascott of The Chords/Fallen Leaves, Mike & Elsa from The Jack Cades, Leigh Heggarty of Ruts DC/The Price, Ian Person of The Soundtrack of Our Lives/Pablo Matisse, Allan Crockford & Viv Bonsels from The Galileo 7, Ian Greensmith of The Dentists/Armitage Shanks and DJ Jawa Jones of Wanita Music. All of the episodes are still available at our Soundcloud site here. I hope you enjoyed listening to them as much as I did making them. Actually, as the lockdown looks set to continue and I have lots more interesting special guests on the wait-list, I might well do some more episodes in the New Year. Finally, huge thanks and cheers to all the regular readers/subscribers/listeners to Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast, it is very much appreciated and I hope to see you at a gig somewhere, sometime in 2021. So, pour yourself a drink, turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy Episode 41!

Retrosonic Podcast · Episode 41 "Nosferatu Elegant Debauchery"

Track-listing

Groovy Uncle (featuring Miss Modus) "The Man Who Calls The Shots"

5 Billion in Diamonds (featuring Ebbot Lundberg) "Weight of The World"

Baby Shakes "Sweet & Sour"

Oh! Gunquit "Attack of The Killer Cranes"

Autoramas "Boneco"

The Len Price 3 "Weekend Hippies"

The In-Fuzzed "Lost Time Rock 'n' Roll"

The Ace "Nosferatu Seduction" 

Jetstream Pony "If Not Now, When?"

The Dupont Circles "Everywhere Girl"

OHMS "Horizon Lines"

Keller Machine "The Sink"

The Nettelles "You Lied To Me Before"

The Know Escape "The Eyes of Angel Blake"

Eileen Gogan & The Instructions "More Time"

Dragon Welding "Lights Behind The Eyes"

Hederosgruppen "Protokoll För Bohemer"

Mattias Bärjed "Jakten På en Mördare Intro"

Ian Person "Forever"

Jonny Magus & The Bursting Bubbles "Melody Delight"

Dirt Royal "Lose Our Way"

Human Toys "He Said Yeah"

The Folk Devils "Forever"

Spizzenergi "Christmas In Denmark Street"

Please click the highlighted link above to check out more information on the featured bands and more importantly, how to buy their lovely records. This episode's cover star Wanda De Lullabies photographed by Steve Vonlanthen. Title from "Nosferatu Seduction" by The Ace. Retrosonic Theme Tune by Adam Donovan. Retrosonic Podcast has a valid PRS Licence. You can subscribe to Retrosonic at Soundcloud, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Mixcloud and we are now at Spotify - please subscribe/follow so you don't miss an episode!

The Len Price 3 Return with New E.P. "The Strood Recording Company."

Long time Retro Man Blog favourites The Len Price 3 make their hotly anticipated return with a brand new four song E.P. entitled "The Strood Recording Company". It's released on limited edition coloured vinyl only and is available to pre-order from here. We'll be playing a song from the E.P. in the next episode of Retrosonic Podcast, but in the meantime the band have also released a great video to one of the tracks called "Noddy Goes To The Pentagon", check it out below.

The Len Price 3 at The Snooty Fox, Torquay 29th March 2019 by David Leach

The Len Price 3 - Photo copyright Paul Slattery

If someone had said to me you would be going to see The Len Price 3 in Torquay, on a Friday night,  I would have probably laughed as, despite being a long-time fan, it’s 200 miles from where I live. However, when I found out that they were playing the night before my local football team, Wealdstone, were playing at Torquay United, it seemed rude not to have an overnight trip and go to both. The band were playing at an event called ‘Torbay March of the Mods’ which was spread over two days and was primarily a fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The venue was a large pub called the ‘Snooty Fox’, a perfect size venue for this type of event and housing a decent stage and live music room. It also has the added attraction of a spacious area for the dance-floor and DJ unit  that kicked into action in between and after the live music. There had been other live performances but, by the time I got to the venue, the final support band were on – a local band called The Underground who were playing together for the first time. Hearing this news just before I was about to watch them, I feared the worst, but their set of ‘event appropriate covers’ by bands such as The Jam, Wings and the Small Faces were well-received and took an interesting turn with a cover of the Kinks’,  “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”, which went down well with the audience. Despite being the headline act, it was clear that the Len Price 3 were a bit of an unknown quantity to many here and, as well as being the only contemporary band playing their own songs, it’s fair to say they were a long way musically from the Northern Soul and Motown end of the modernist spectrum that the DJs (the excellent Vinyl Avengers) were playing between sets with which many associate the Mod genre. Indeed, their opener, "You Got Nothing I Want’ is one of their more spartan, jagged, angry numbers that channels the spirit of Medway pioneers, The Milkshakes, with its venomous lyric targeting a wealthy UKIP-voting builder who doesn’t pay tax…as well as his surgically-enhanced wife.

The Len Price 3 live in Torquay - photo by David Leach

For me, their set really took off with the claustrophobic, psychedelic, early Pink Floyd-sounding, ‘Man in the Woods’, a tension-filled tale that tells a stark story of a hermit lost in time in a hostile world with a new housing development closing in on him. It’s a song that is arranged so that you can hear every word singer and songwriter Glen Page is singing and something that audience unfamiliar with their songs really seemed to feed off. Classic Len Price 3 tunes followed - the catchy sing along, 'Swing Like a Monkey' followed by, arguably, their best song, 'After You’re Gone’, a tale of an elderly person alone after the passing of a lifelong partner that is wrapped in the most perfect verses and chorus the Beatles never wrote.  It was clear than an initially uncertain audience had been completely won over; and a double whammy of the dynamic, ‘Girl who Became a Machine’, and the ferocious ‘Praying Mantis’ focusing on the perils of internet dating demonstrate what a compelling live band they are. It was then time for the three-song encore, amongst which was the dark and disturbing but ultimately triumphant anthem, ‘The London Institute’ which channels the spirit of The Who with its changes of dynamic, pace and direction. It’s fair to say that The Len Price 3 gained a few new fans as a result of their set tonight. I had a brief chat with the band afterwards and was pleased to hear that they have recorded new songs. All that was left for me to do after this was to go off to the dancefloor to do a bad impersonation of northern soul dancing amongst some real experts that only several pints of Otter Ale can give you the courage to do.
- David Leach March 2019

Retro Man Blog's Top 20 Gigs of 2017

Retro Man Blog's Top 20 Gigs of 2017...

01. Hipsville A-Go-Go Weekender: The Rezillos, Viv & The Sect, Los Sustos etc.

02. The SolarFlares, Fallen Leaves, Embrooks, & King Mojo at Water Rats (Retro Man Blog Night)

03. Nymphet Noodlers at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress

 

04. Las Aspiradoras & The No-Things at Weirdsville

05. Oh! Gunquit at Windsor Firestation & Weirdsville

06. The Skids & The Vapors at The Roundhouse

07. The Stompin' Riff Raffs at Club 3, Tokyo

08. Michael Head at The Social

09. The Blue Aeroplanes & Ian McNabb at Islington Academy

10. Sparks at Shepherd's Bush Empire

11. The Len Price 3 at Water Rats (Retro Man Blog Night)

12. The Stranglers and Ruts DC at G-Live Guildford

13. Papa-san & Friends, Tokyo

14. Tonbruket at The Vortex Jazz Club

15. Robert Forster at Shaw Theatre

16. Jane Birkin at The Barbican

17. The Len Price 3, Galileo 7 & The Embrooks at Nambucca

18. The Fallen Leaves & The SD5 at The Hope & Anchor

19. The Moot, Trees & The Slipway & Andy Hepburn at the Cabbage Patch Twickenham

20. Stag & Jon Auer at The Islington

For features, reviews, photos and videos please click on the highlighted links above. All photos copyright Retro Man Blog and Paul Slattery.

Retro Man Blog's Top 10 Albums of 2017

 

Retro Man Blog's Top 10 Albums of 2017 (in alphabetical order...)

The Blue Aeroplanes: "Welcome Stranger"

The Galileo 7: "Tear Your Minds Wide Open"

Groovy Uncle (featuring Suzi Chunk): "A Clip Round The Ear"

Joss Cope: "Unrequited Lullabies"

King Mojo: "Do Not Feed The Dancing Bear"

 
The Len Price 3: "Kentish Longtails"

 
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band: "Adios Senor Pussycat"

 
Oh! Gunquit: "Lightning Likes Me"

 
The Woggles: "Tally Ho"

 
5 Billion In Diamonds: "5 Billion In Diamonds"

Best Albums 11-20, Gigs & Happenings, Singles, EPs, Tracks & Reissues etc coming soon...

 

The Len Price 3 "Kentish Longtails" Album Launch Gig at Water Rats September 15th

The Len Price 3 at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

Our first Retro Man Blog Night at the Water Rats in Kings Cross since moving from the Half Moon in Putney was the sold-out launch party for The Len Price 3's new album "Kentish Longtails". Amy Kilroy-Buck reports back and Paul Slattery provides the photos... "The Water Rats in Kings Cross may be better known to some readers as The Pindar of Wakefield, famous for hosting Bob Dylan, The Pogues and numerous other big name acts and recognisable to fans of The Prisoners as the location for the band's now legendary appearance on The Tube in 1984. Since then it has undergone a name change and a facelift, and is a rather pleasant little pub with a back room that holds 200 people. It's a new location for Retro Man Blog to host one of their special gigs, which had sold out some weeks previously, as have their next two shows at the same venue for The SolarFlares. 

The Len Price 3 at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

The Len Price 3 at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

The Len Price 3 have always had a reputation for electrifying live shows, and as the promo for the gig had promised us 'unexpected sights, lights, sounds and guests' there was a good deal to live up to. DJ Dave Edwards took the place of a support band and after the doors opened at 8pm he had a good hour of tunes, with the back room lit by swirling psychedelic oil lamp projections. 'Unexpected sights' were amply provided by film projections onto a screen as we were treated to the quite staggering weirdness of "El Topo", a 1970 acid western (apparently that's a thing). The band arrived on stage shortly after 9pm, and opened with a blistering rendition of "Childish Words". The striped blazers of their early gigs are long gone, and have been replaced with some rather fetching dark red shirts, but the swaggering attitude and energy that sets them apart from many of their contemporaries remains unchanged. Obviously as an album launch the focus was always going to be on new songs, but there were plenty of old favourites mixed in too, with "My Grandad Jim" and "Pictures" appearing early on, much to the delight of the audience. 

The Len Price 3 at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

The Lennies are always an energetic band, but all three were particularly animated and did genuinely seem to be having a whale of a time. We didn't have to wait too long for the arrival of the promised special guest, none other than long term LP3 associate Graham Day, who joined the band on keyboards and guitar for a few songs (yes, apparently there is nothing he can't play) before sidling back into the wings to watch. In previous years its been very unusual to hear the band do their slower, gentler songs live, so it was good to hear the minimalist renditions of "Pocket Full of Watches" and "Letting You Down" before they stormed back into the rest of the set. I can't think of many gigs I've been to where everything has gone completely smoothly, and this was no exception; a broken kick drum pedal early on, Glen's Epiphone taking a nosedive onto his pedals and a brief scramble to get things working again before giving up on the pedal board entirely and going straight through the amp. Of such things is live music made, and the band approached these hiccoughs with good humour and some gentle banter before carrying on regardless. 

The Len Price 3 with Graham Day at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

A mix of old and new material rounded out the set, with singalong favourites "London Institute" and "Julia Jones" drawing a particularly enthusiastic response from the crowd. The band played for just short of two hours, no mean feat in a rather cosy venue, and were joined again by Graham Day for a cover of The Gaolers "Get Off My Track" before rounding off their encores with "Chinese Burn". The Len Price 3 occupy a strange place in today's live music scene; they dislike being labelled as Mod apparently (possibly another reason for the retirement of the blazers) and have never perhaps enjoyed the success and popularity fans feel they should, playing only a small number of gigs each year and remaining largely ignored by the music press. It's important to consider though that this may be exactly the way they want it, although as "Kentish Longtails" gathers momentum there are more reviews than ever springing up online, and dates already being advertised for gigs next year. Could this be the start of something bigger for The Len Price 3? As a fan, I hope so. All in all a fantastic gig from a band who just keep getting better". 

- Amy Kilroy Buck September 2017. 

The Len Price 3 with Graham Day at the Water Rats Kings Cross photographed by Paul Slattery

This feature first appeared on the Louder Than War web-site here. With thanks to Amy, Paul Slattery and Geb Babey. All photos copyright Paul Slattery.

The Len Price 3 "Kentish Longtails" - Amy Kilroy-Buck reports on the band's fifth album for Retro Man Blog

In the build up to Retro Man Blog's sold out "Kentish Longtails" album launch party Amy Kilroy-Buck gives her verdict on The Len Price 3's fifth album, which promises to be their best so far. 

Medway based Power Pop Garage Rock three-piece The Len Price 3 have been making waves on the live music scene since the release of their first album “Chinese Burn” back in 2003. 14 years later the blazer-wearing trio (although not so much these days) are still playing sold-out London venues and album number five is just about to be released. Ask any LP3 fan what they like about the band and the answers are likely to be much the same; catchy riffs, snarling vocals from front-man Glenn Page, witty, acerbic lyrics and slick, swaggering performances that translate just as well on stage as in the studio. Five albums is a lot, and the quality has been consistently high but the question on my lips before I listened to their latest offering, “Kentish Longtails” was 'is this going to be more of the same?' I should mention that that is in no way intended as a criticism, 'more of the same' would still make for a great album of blistering tunes, but “Kentish Longtails” actually goes way beyond anything we've heard from The Lennies before, and is a pretty extraordinary record. 

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

Before you start to worry that they've deserted their traditional sound and started dabbling in Prog-Rock concept albums or any other silliness, don't; there is plenty here to keep the most die-hard fan happy; “Nothing I Want”, “Ride on Coat Tails” and “Saturday Morning Film Show” are all classic, riffy LP3 and would sit happily in amongst the current set. The same can also be said about “Childish Words”, a not very thinly veiled dig at Billy Childish. There's clearly a bit of history there, about which I shan't speculate, but it's a storming song all the same. “Lisa Baker” is an LP3 classic in the making, full of wry humour and with a trademark singalong chorus. So far, so Len Price 3, but nestling in amongst these catchy little numbers are some absolute gems where Messrs Page, Huggins and Fromow have really thrown the rule book out of the window. The piano led “Pocketful of Watches” is utterly different to anything else I've ever heard from this band, but right from the first listen it's a captivating track. The lyrics are from a far more poetic LP3 than we're used to ('a box of rainbows waits for me' is a long way from “London Institute”) and the overall effect is a gloriously sunny pop song that may catch many existing fans off guard, but is impossible to dislike. 

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

“Telegraph Hill” similarly takes the band into previously uncharted love song territory, but with its Kinks-eque chorus and quietly wistful lyrics it's a sure-fire winner. The Len Price 3 are a band who have always done their own thing regardless of expectation and this has the feel of an album in which they haven't tried to cater to audience demands but have experimented with different styles, gone slightly off-piste and generally had fun. There are elements of Britpop in there, hints of psychedelia; comparisons with The Who are unavoidable on “Stop Start Lilly”, but throughout they still maintain their own very distinctive sound. This is the fifth album of a band who have no intention of picking the safe option, and I admire them for it. “Kentish Longtails” could have been 'more of the same', but it's turned out to be so much more than that. It's a fantastic album, go and buy it.

- Amy Kilroy-Buck, August 2017

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

Unfortunately, the new album launch party has completely sold out now and sorry but there will be NO tickets available on the night. For more information on future gigs and how to order "Kentish Longtails" then please head on over to The Len Price 3's official web-site here or check out their Facebook page here. Photos copyright Paul Slattery. With thanks to Amy for the review.

Graham Day & The Forefathers + The Len Price 3: Paul Slattery photos from the Medway Weekender at The 100 Club

Graham Day & The Forefathers photographed by Paul Slattery

The Medway Weekender at the 100 Club saw some of the now legendary area's biggest names performing over three nights. Friday saw the return of The Claim with a special guest appearance by Jim Riley from Wipeout (and now head of Ranscombe Studios) along with ex-Dentists guitarist Bob Collins and his new band The Full Nelson. Also on the bill were Theatre Royal who will be releasing a new album "...and Then It Fell Out of My Head" on March 31st. Unfortunately we couldn't make the Friday but we were there on the Saturday to witness Graham Day & The Forefathers and The Len Price 3. The Forefathers played a slightly different set to usual, after all they do have an absolutely huge back catalogue of classics to pick from. They kicked off with The Prime Movers scathing "Good Things" and took in early Prisoners tracks such as "Don't Call My Name" and "Till The Morning Light" as well as lots of classics such as "Reaching My Head", "Melanie" and "Whenever I'm Gone" along with a couple of Gaolers tracks and of course a heavy dose of The Solarflares including "Sucking Out My Insides", "You Want Blood" and "Can't Get You Out of My Mind". They threw in the (recently) rarely played "I Just Wanna Be Bad" a cover of Fire's Freakbeat classic "Father's Name Is Dad" and "I Drink The Ocean" which morphed into "Hush". They ended the set with a raucous run through of the Ramones "Glad To See You Go" and left a very satisfied audience baying for more. 

Graham Day & The Forefathers photographed by Paul Slattery

Graham Day & The Forefathers photographed by Paul Slattery

Graham Day & The Forefathers photographed by Paul Slattery

Before that, The Len Price 3 opened proceedings to a nicely packed club and played a great selection of tracks that took in oldies including "Dorolia" and "Lai Ha Lam" as well as some of their singalong classics like "Rentacrowd", "Billy Mason" and "Pictures". They also treated us to a couple of really promising new songs entitled "Ride On Coat Tails" and "Man In The Woods" which will hopefully appear on the band's forthcoming fifth album. This will be the follow up to the critically acclaimed "Nobody Knows", which they are currently mixing and preparing for mastering for a vinyl release. Of course we will keep you updated on news of the official release date as soon as we have it and even better, we may have an exclusive new track or two to play on Retrosonic Podcast. 

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery

Thanks to Paul Slattery for the excellent photographs, all pics copyright Paul Slattery 2017. For more photos of the Saturday and Sunday night, which featured Russ Wilkins (from The Milkshakes and more...) and The Mindreaders, The Galileo 7 and The Masonics - please visit the Retro Man Blog Facebook page, hit "like" if you are not already following, and check out our Photo Albums.

The Len Price 3 photographed by Paul Slattery