The Prisoners at King's Hall Herne Bay, Saturday 28th February 2026

Band reunions can be hit and miss affairs – some acts resist the temptation all together in the hope of not tarnishing a legendary reputation such as The Clash, The Smiths and Talking Heads, for example. Some bands you think have reunited have never actually gone away, they just evolve over the years – dealing with various bust-ups, court cases, serious illnesses, and of course untimely deaths along the way by replacing key members. Kind of like a football team, you still support them despite them selling your star striker, sacking a favourite manager and dropping down to the lower leagues, occasionally to rise again like a phoenix. The Stranglers were totally reinvigorated when they reverted to the traditional four-piece and moved Baz Warne up front and are now selling out huge venues like the Royal Albert Hall again. The Undertones with Paul McLoone now fully grown into his role as frontman, are probably playing more gigs now than they have in years. Then at the other end of the spectrum are some bands who are more like Trigger’s broom and really should know better, somehow continuing without any original members in the line-up at all. Some misjudge it completely and get in totally inappropriate replacements so that you wonder who is actually advising them. There are some bands who tread the cabaret circuit, happy to get together for the occasional festival, play the hits and collect a big pay cheque. 

 

Then there’s the rare case where some reunions really work, such as Pixies – which hit to a completely new generation of kids and some like Wire, who still produce superb new and vital music. So, what happens when it’s one of your really ‘special’ favourite bands, and it’s no secret that The Prisoners are one of mine. Thankfully, like The Soundtrack of Our Lives, another act who mean so much to me that the announcement of a reunion a few years ago stirred up mixed emotions. On one hand it’s ‘please god, let it be good, don’t tarnish the many happy memories, don’t let yourselves down’ and on the other, there’s the excitement that you’d get to see them play again. Thankfully in both cases, neither band let me down in the end. Of course, The Prisoners did get back together for some shows and a so-so single “Shine On Me” in 1997, but that didn’t last long, it was over pretty soon. Once it was clear The Prisoners reunion wasn’t a long term prospect, Graham and Allan followed up on the Prime Movers with the superb Solarflares, a three-piece that  eventually reverted to the classic Prisoners style line-up by adding Parsley on the organ. Then Graham recruited The Woggles’ rhythm section for Graham Day & The Gaolers and released two brilliant albums with material that matched the quality of The Prisoners. After a hiatus, the news was out that Graham had got the three-piece Solarflares line-up back under the guise of Graham Day & The Forefathers - “we’re basically a tribute band to ourselves” he told me in our Retrosonic Podcast special. There was no talk of new material – just a set of stripped back versions of classics from the back catalogue – The Prisoners, Solarflares, Gaolers and Prime Movers. They went down a storm and released a raw, live in the studio album of choice cuts called “Good Things”. 

 

Fed up with the pressures of fronting a band, Graham then started The Senior Service where he could indulge in his love of Barry Gray’s wonderful themes to Gerry Anderson TV shows such as Thunderbirds and Fireball XL5 and John Barry and Ennio Morricone’s evocative Spaghetti Western and Spy movie theme tunes. Of course, this aspect was nothing new, The Prisoners and Solarflares in particular would often include at least one or two instrumentals on their albums and in their live shows. Graham seems to have a love/hate relationship with both singing and fronting a band and with the Hammond organ. He sometimes needs a break from both. He once told me his dream was to just play guitar in one of those groovy bands you saw in a 1960’s hippie exploitation movie, where assorted spaced out kids dance away under psychedelic liquid lights. Either that or just playing guitar in The Woggles, his favourite band, would have been cool. The opportunity for this wish did occur, although in rather sad circumstances, when The Woggles guitarist Jeff Walls passed away in 2019 and they needed a replacement. So, Graham ended up touring the States, Europe, the UK (you can see a feature on The Woggles brilliant 100 Club gig here) and even Japan, where Graham, that icon of cool, was enjoying himself so much that he even performed in fancy dress costumes such as lederhosen or karate monkey suits! But the pull of The Prisoners was strong, and circumstances conspired to facilitate the latest and long-awaited reunion. The Prisoners had that something special, that all important chemistry and a hugely dedicated fanbase, as shown in the brilliant book “A Taste of Ink! The Prisoners Sentenced By Their Fans”. Plus, they had James Taylor on the Hammond organ. James had gone onto forge a respected career in Jazz, Soul and Funk with The James Taylor Quartet and it didn’t seem likely that he would be interested in revisiting The Prisoners given his success. Wrong! The news filtered through that the original line-up was getting back together, initially incognito at a friend’s party at the Billabong Club in Rochester in 2021. 

 

Then came the announcement of a show at the Royal Function Rooms in Rochester (check out our feature here), in early December 2022 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album “A Taste of Pink”. Due to the demand, it ended up as a four-night stand from November 30th – 3rd December 2022 and it was also live streamed on-line. It was emotional, it couldn’t end there could it? Thankfully no, there were shows in Herne Bay in December 2023 and the fantastic news of a brand new album, “Morning Star” followed by a gig in May 2024 at the legendary Roundhouse in London’s Chalk Farm (read all about it here), actually the band’s biggest show to date. But “Morning Star” was superb, the sound of a band having fun, embracing their influences, although sometimes sailing a bit close to the wind in the shades of The Who, Ramones, Small Faces and Hendrix, which coloured the songs, but who cared. The quality of the songs was what mattered and there were some that easily stood up to the classics, in particular “Winter In June” and “Something Better”. Everyone was on top form, with James Taylor in particular shining out with some superb Hammond. Then came the feeling that was it, all over again. In some ways it would have been a fitting way to draw a line under it all, to go out on a high, but it seemed a fire had been lit. This year came the announcement of a new single “Autumn Skies” and live shows at King’s Hall in Herne Bay, an impressive Edwardian Pavillion on the sea front where they would celebrate three albums over three nights. On the Friday night it would be 1983’s “The Wisermiserdemelza” (and my entry point to the band back in the day), Saturday would be the classic “The Last Fourfathers” from 1985 and then Sunday it would be 1986’s “In From The Cold”, where they would be joined by the James Taylor Quartet’s sometime Brass section. 

The venue was great, and in some ways better than the Roundhouse, where the sound can sometimes get a bit lost in that cavernous building. It was packed out on the Saturday night, sadly the only night I could attend and there were so many eager, happy and familiar faces in attendance, many of whom I’d got to know through my Retro Man Blog  gigs with Graham Day & The Forefathers and The Solarflares. Kicking off proceedings were Lord Rochester, featuring Russ Wilkins, formerly of The Milkshakes, Saskia Holling on bass and vocals and Lois Tozer from The Embrooks on drums and maracas. Their Bo Diddley influenced rhythms went down really well and they were the perfect opening act. My personal favourite was the Crampsian rumble of “Transcontinental” and the insanely catchy “Chicken Salt” and Russ closed the set by announcing “This is for the Mods… and the Punks” and they launched into a cracking version of “What’cha Gonna Do About It”. Next up the always reliable Masonics, aided and abetted by Ludella Black, entertained the crowd and played my favourite track “Silently By Night”, so I was happy. DJ Wendy May was spinning some mighty fine tunes, putting everyone in an even better mood and you could feel the atmosphere start to build.

 

 

Then The Prisoners took to the stage, looking great and starting strongly with “I Am The Fisherman”, the crowd went mental, you can’t get much better than this. They play a good chunk of “The Last Fourfathers” including “The Drowning” and “Take You For a Ride”, ending the section with a powerful version of “Night of The Nazgul”, one of their best instrumentals. Then we get “This Road is Too Long” and “Save Me” from the current album and in between there’s the new single “Autumn Skies” before a nice surprise from their debut album, “Til The Morning Light”. They then flit between the “Last Fourfathers” and “Morning Star” albums including a great version of “Whenever I’m Gone” and I see that Eddie Piller, who released the single on his Countdown label back in 1986, is in the crowd. The James Taylor written and sung  “Go To Him” is a highlight as it channels the way the Ramones took those Phil Spector, Shangri-La’s melodies and married them with fast Rock ‘n’ Roll, plus it has a classic “Blitzkrieg Bop” style call and response section of “just go, just go, just go with him!” Considering Johnny Symons isn’t regularly playing like his bandmates, his drumming is superb throughout and Allan’s impressive bass riffs and backing vocals complement Graham perfectly, who is in mighty fine voice. When he’s not singing, Graham stalks the front of the stage, guitar pointing out to the adoring crowd. There’s a really nice chemistry fizzing between all four of them, from Allan with his deadpan between song banter to James’s cheerleading and encouraging the crowd to sing along, they look like they are having as much fun as we are. They always did carry a reputation for being ‘surly’ and ‘difficult’, but it’s certainly not been evident at any of the reunion shows. After all, all four members spent a long time afterwards signing the new single  and chatting to fans at the impressive merch table stocked by our favourite record label Spinout Nuggets and Sound Is Colour clothing.

Someone posted a nice photo in The Prisoners forum from one of the Herne Bay nights of Allan and Graham smiling at each other, one wag commented “must be A.I.” and Allan himself replied “Fake News!” The set draws to a close with the Prisoners very own Garage Rock classic “Melanie” and then “Reaching My Head” the song which started it all for me and quite obviously The Charlatans too as they nicked the bassline and made a career out of it. A stunningly emotional “Thinking Of You (Broken Pieces)” nearly has me welling up, something in my eye! Then “I Drink The Ocean” segues into a fantastic version of Deep Purple’s “Hush” and sadly, that’s it, all over. An absolutely momentous night, we got twenty three superb songs from a band that despite starting over forty years ago, strangely seem to be at the top of their game. Maybe it’s the impressive back catalogue, the lessons that have been learned, of getting older and wanting to do things right. Maybe it’s the huge wave of respect and affection that the crowd shows towards the band, that special bond, I don’t know what it is but all I do know is that I don’t want it to end, again. I’m hopeful that there will be more to come from The Prisoners in the future so let’s hope it becomes more permanent so that we can finally stop labelling it all as just another reunion.

 

You can read all about how I first got into the band and my experiences of putting on shows for the Forefathers, Solarflares and Senior Service, in my feature on The Prisoners Roundhouse gig here. Our thoroughly entertaining Forefathers Retrosonic Podcast with Graham, Allan and Wolf Howard is still available in our archive here. You can listen to them discussing and playing a pick of their favourite songs from all aspects of their musical careers. 

Retrosonic Podcast · Graham Day & The Forefathers

 

Unfortunately, the brilliant book “A Taste of Ink!” is now sold out, but if you are interested, then please contact them here and register your interest as I’m sure they will consider a re-print if there is a big enough demand. However, don’t despair if you did miss out on “A Taste of Ink!” as a new book has just been announced. “Graham Day - 45 Years of Music”, originally a limited edition book in Italian by Antonio Bacciocchi and Luca Frazzi, has now been translated, expanded and revised by Thomas Buch and Les O’Hare and will be available to order on 20th March. Please check out their Facebook page here for details on how to get hold of this promising looking book.

 

For more videos from the gig, please head on over to our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel and subscribe for free here. All Photos and Videos copyright Retro Man Blog 2026.

The Prisoners at The Royal Function Rooms Rochester Friday December 2nd 2022

Back in one of our earliest episodes of Retrosonic Podcast – myself, Rock photographer Paul Slattery and Adam from The Jetsonics all happened to choose a Graham Day related track for the playlist – in the end we decided on The Solarflares “Windsor Oval” and bemoaned the fact that Graham’s most recent outfit, The Gaolers had sadly called it a day after two blistering albums. There were rumours that Graham had packed in music all together and sold off all his guitars and we all mentioned how good it would be for him to play again. Well, not long afterwards we got our wish as Graham Day and The Forefathers emerged. This new band consisted of Graham, his former Prisoners colleague and bassist, Allan Crockford along with Wolf Howard on the drums and all three were bandmates in Graham’s other post-Prisoners bands, The Solarflares and The Prime Movers. Graham told me in a later Podcast that The Forefathers were “basically a tribute band to myself” – the band were to play the best tracks from The Solarflares, Prime Movers, The Gaolers and of course, The Prisoners too. I knew I just had to get involved and through my dealings with the Medway based band The Len Price 3, who we were championing at the time, managed to secure a show for The Forefathers at The Half Moon in Putney for one of our Retro Man Blog nights. So, despite warnings from more than one person that the band may be “difficult” to deal with I wasn’t to be deterred and the gig sold out pretty much immediately. In fact, I was to go on to promote more shows for The Forefathers along with The Solarflares reunion at the Water Rats in Kings Cross and The Senior Service album launch as well as various gigs with Allan’s own Galileo 7, so obviously I never got to experience their so-called difficult reputation. I must admit though, I was in awe to meet Graham, Allan and Wolf for the first time and it was a bit difficult to separate the fan from the promoter in me initially. Luckily, this is all just a hobby for me, I’m not a professional, so the fan easily won out and I made sure I was down the front among the “middle-aged mosh-pit” as Graham christened us from the stage – leaping about and singing along to all those classic songs. The Half Moon gigs seemed to go down a storm and thankfully the band enjoyed them too, so we did a few more shows together over the years. I’d told the band that the first time I ever became aware of The Prisoners was seeing them on CH4’s The Tube when they played “Reaching My Head” dressed in Star Trek outfits and then before one Forefathers show at The Half Moon, I went backstage to see Star Trek costumes hanging in the dressing room. I was almost moved to tears! It was great hearing The Forefathers play those Prisoners songs again even if they were stripped back and raw minus the Hammond organ. 

However, nothing quite beats the real thing and that’s what we got treated to courtesy of Lee Grimshaw and his team at the fabulous Spinout Nuggets, a Prisoners reunion to celebrate 40 years since the release of their classic debut album “A Taste of Pink” with the original line-up of Graham and Allan, James Taylor and Johnny Symons. The four of them had got together to play at a couple of benefit shows over the summer and I guess that’s where the idea for a full-scale reunion sprang from. So, some 37 years since I last saw The Prisoners, I was to get the dream opportunity to see them again at The Royal Function Rooms in Rochester, the jewel in their Medway home. The rush for tickets was phenomenal, the initial Friday night sold out in an instant and was soon followed by the announcement of further shows on the Saturday, then the Wednesday and Thursday were added too. Due to the demand, the Saturday was to be filmed for an on-line livestream which enabled even more eager fans around the world the chance to see their heroes in action. I must admit to being a bit concerned on how the shows would pan out and doubts were raised – would the band get along, Johnny doesn’t seem to have played drums regularly since The Prisoners, is James Taylor “too famous” nowadays? But as they took the stage to the strains of the theme from “The Sweeney” and Allan announced “track one, side one” and they powered into “Better In Black” and that crunching guitar riff hit everyone between the eyes, you could sense a huge tide of emotion spread through the crowd around me.

 

It was a real mixture of relief, disbelief and all those memories of being back at the Hammersmith Clarendon, the Star Trek outfits on The Tube flooded back. The band look great, sound great, turning back the clock – sounding as fresh, youthful and powerful as you could ever have wished for. For the first set, they play the whole of the debut album from the Garage Go-Go stompers like “Creepy Crawlies” and “Maybe I Was Wrong” to the emotional heartfelt numbers like “There Can’t  Be A Place” and my particular favourite “Til The Morning Light” which brings a lump to the throat – it’s a classic track that surely paved the way for The Charlatans and Inspiral Carpets to plunder and take to far more commercial success than the Prisoners ever achieved. It’s a travesty, but there you go – sadly, true originators often get overlooked. I mean, I can’t remember any other band on the scene at the time using a Hammond organ – The Fuzztones used a Farfisa to conjure up that authentic Nuggets sound but generally, keyboards and in particular the cumbersome Hammond, were a rarity. Of course, James Taylor has now become an internationally acclaimed Hammond maestro with his Quartet and it’s a truly wonderful experience to hear those swirling riffs again, in particular on “Say Your Prayers” which is a personal highlight.

There’s an interval and a chance to catch up with friends and exchange delighted chatter about just how bloody marvellous it all is and there was a real buzz of adrenaline coursing through the Royal Function Rooms. I bumped into a lot of people I’d got to know through our Retro Man Blog gigs over the years, many of whom are in their own bands including The Past Tense, Jetstream Pony, Thee Girl Fridays, The Beatpack, Of Arrowe Hill, The Len Price 3, The Dentists and everyone agreed we were experiencing something very special indeed. Thankfully, the band seemed to be enjoying themselves too – there’s lots of smiles and a nice chemistry between all four bandmates and in particular, between Johnny and James. One thing that hit me was to reminded just how good a drummer Johnny is, he’s lost none of the chops, powering away cheerfully through some quite complicated drum patterns and his performance gets a thumbs up from everyone I spoke to. “Hurricane” opens the second set and then follows most of the superb “The Last Fourfathers” album, although sadly no “I Am The Fisherman” which is saved for the very last number on the Saturday night Livestream. Of course, “Whenever I’m Gone” gets a huge cheer but for me it’s the “Thinking Of You (Broken Pieces)” that hits me right in the heart and I must admit to a tear in the eye as everyone sings along to the uplifting chorus. It would have been worth the entrance fee alone just to experience that one moment of magic. 

Retrosonic Podcast · Graham Day & The Forefathers

The set is punctuated by only two tracks from the “In From The Cold” album, luckily they are “Find And Seek” and the soulful strut of “Deceiving Eye” which has always been one of my favourite Prisoners songs. The band also play a fair selection of instrumentals including “Revenge of The Cybermen” and “Night of The Nazgul” – tracks that would lay the foundation for Graham’s current project The Senior Service and their Ennio Morricone, Barry Gray influenced tunes. The set closes with the classic “Melanie” which sparks off some frenetic dancing down the front and then sadly, it’s all over. But is it? Of course, there are encores, and the instrumental rarity “American Jingle” gets an airing along with “Reaching My Head” the very track that I first heard from The Prisoners and then finally it’s their cover of “Hush” and it really is all over. What can I say? Better than I could ever have hoped for – if it is to be The Prisoners last stand then I’m just thankful I was there to witness it. However, the reaction and demand was just too good to be ignored – and taking into account, the band seemed to be having fun too – I’m sincerely hoping that they will consider more gigs in the future. 

Sadly, just prior to the gigs the news filtered through that The Royal Function Rooms and worse still, the legendary Ranscombe Studios which is housed in the premises, are due to close soon. This is a nightmare and yet more damning evidence that cultural buildings have no protection in these relentless greed and profit driven times. How many great venues have we lost – not just the traditional down and dirty places such as the Marquee, The Fulham Greyhound, The Hammersmith Clarendon and the 12 Bar Club but historic buildings in their own right, like the Astoria and the Hammersmith Palais too. There is a fundraising concert at The St. George’s Hotel in Chatham on January 13th to help with the relocation of Ranscombe Studios that features a mouth-watering line-up of Medway talent including The Solarflares, The Len Price 3, The Galileo 7, The Masonics, Theatre Royal and more. Tickets and information can be found at this link. 

Huge credit to Lee and Dave Grimshaw at Spinout Nuggets and their team for organising the shows so brilliantly. Don't forget to check out the Retro Man Blog archive for loads of previous features on Medway related bands and music including reviews, videos and photos of all our shows with The Forefathers, Solarflares, The Galileo 7, The Len Price 3 and more. Also, all episodes of Retrosonic Podcast are available at our archives at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iTunes or Soundcloud including interview specials with Graham, Allan & Wolf, The Len Price 3, Billy Childish, Ian Greensmith of The Dentists and much more besides. More videos from the Royal Function Rooms show can also be found at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel, here's a taster...

The Fay Hallam Band at The 100 Club with Special Guests Magnus Carlson, French Boutik & DJ David Edwards

Fay Hallam and bassist Andy Lewis at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

What a great feelgood Friday night down at the legendary 100 Club with a superb line-up...The Fay Hallam Band featuring a very special guest appearance from Swedish Soul star and frontman of Weeping Willows, Magnus Carlson along with support from our good friends French Boutik and then there was DJ Dave Edwards from the Sidewinder club night too. French Boutik played a superb set, bravely introducing a few brand new numbers which went down really well. After all the band have a knack of writing instantly memorable and catchy songs, so even though they might start out as unfamiliar, by the last chord the melodies are already stuck in your head for good.

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Tonight we were treated to the full line-up of the band with vocalist Gabriela, guitarist Serge, drummer Zelda and bassist Jean-Marc augmented by Olivier Popincourt on keyboards and Graham Lentz on percussion and acoustic guitar. They started off with their recently recorded version of The Jam's "The Place I Love" as a happy 60th birthday tribute to Paul Weller and ended up with a well deserved encore and a Punky run through of a cover of "Beta Gamma" by Henri Salvador. Highlights for me included a storming "Je Regarde Les Tigres" and "Mieux Comme Ca" with Serge on lead vocals and new song "Loin de Moi" which sounded like it could become a future crowd favourite. The band are on fire at the moment and I'd recommend catching them play live whenever you get the chance.

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam and her excellent seven piece band kicked off their set with a great version of the "Dave Allen at Large" theme tune which had many of us old nostalgics looking round for a cigarette and glass of whisky and checking that they still had their fingers intact! We were then treated to an uplifting and uptempo set that touched on most aspects of her career stretching right back to a couple of Makin' Time numbers including the classic "Feels Like It's Love". We were brought right up to date with some really promising new tracks "Magic Potion" and "Lie Detector" which featured Fay's son Josh taking on lead vocals and he did a great job, such a talented family!

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam & Magnus Carlson - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

I particularly enjoyed "Do You Know How To Love Me?" taken from the latest album "House of Now" which was produced by Andy Lewis who I'm pleased to see is adding his considerable bass playing talents to the line-up tonight. Two tracks from the excellent "Lost In Sound" album with The Bongolian, "Dancing" and a fantastic "Freefall" in particular highlight how good a drummer Kieran McAleer is and they get a warm reaction from the appreciative crowd. There's a couple of cover versions included, a faithful run through of The Flirtations classic "Nothing But a Heartache" and a perfect take on Dusty Springfield's version of "Spooky". Magnus Carlson is invited on stage to join the band for a great run through of Nolan Porter's "If I Could Only Be Sure" on which the excellent guitarist Jim Bishop tackles that great melancholy riff perfectly.

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam & Magnus Carlson - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

There is a sparkling chemistry between Magnus and Fay, they look like they are having as much fun as we are and their voices work perfectly together. I understand that Fay will join the line-up of his band on an upcoming tour of Sweden to promote his new LP "A Nordic Soul" on Cosmos Music. In fact the main reason that Magnus is here tonight is because he just released a stunning new single "Now That It's Over" featuring Fay on vocals and organ. It's a stomping slice of classic Soul and it was definitely one of the highlights of the night, almost lifting the roof off of the 100 Club. Magnus says his goodbyes and the band are called back for an encore and end with a great version of "Greenhouse" from The Prime Movers early 90's album "Earth Church" which was a nice surprise. Great night out, great music and great people - you just can't beat it.

Magnus Carlson at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

French Boutik are currently finishing off work on a new LP so please check out their Facebook page here for more details. You can pledge your support at their IndieGoGo campaign here. For more news and information on The Fay Hallam Band please check out their web-site here. Information on Magnus Carlson and his upcoming album "A Nordic Soul" along with his collaboration with Fay can be found at his web-site here or over at the Cosmos Music site here. There are more photos from the night at our Retro Man Facebook page here and videos of both bands over at our YouTube channel here. Here's a sample of what you will find...

The Senior Service "Depth Charge" Launch Party with French Boutik and Of Arrowe Hill at The Half Moon January 30th - Paul Slattery Photos

The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

Well, I'd just like to start off by saying a huge thank you to the fantastic crowd that turned up on Saturday to witness the first ever live performance of The Senior Service, the gig completely sold out over a week in advance so I, and of course all three bands, really appreciate your superb support. The evening started off with a short sharp set from Of Arrowe Hill whose spiky melodic tunes really went down well. Of Arrowe Hill are a difficult band to categorize but with those insistent melodies, dry Scouse humour and his ever-present Ringo Starr hat, it's not hard to see where singer songwriter (and Rickenbacker guitarist) Adam Easterbrook draws a lot of his influences from. In fact "She Said She Said" from "Revolver" springs to mind as their songs have dreamy harmonies floating over spindly razor sharp guitar riffs. The rhythm section comprises ex-Aardvarks drummer Ian O'Sullivan and bassist Jason Hobart, who both quietly and unobtrusively go about their business, with simple but mightily effective arrangements that allow the songs to shine.

Of Arrowe Hill photographed by Paul Slattery

Easterbrook has quite a bit in common with fellow Liverpudlians The Coral and Michael Head from Shack as it is all about the tunes even though they are sometimes half-cloaked in mystery and off-set against some jarring guitar work or the odd Psychedelic passage. Having said that, on "She's Leaving? (No, She's Gone)" it's all thrown into one glorious headlong rush of a Pop song that Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook would be proud to call their own. I must confess that I sometimes get a bit frustrated though, as rather like Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices, Adam's songs can sometimes appear to be more like an Artist's preliminary sketch rather than the finished masterpiece that they promise to be. You see, there are very few Of Arrowe Hill songs that even reach the three minute mark. Just when you get a hold of that catchy riff or ear-worm melody the song can sometimes end abrubtly and you just want to hear more of it or see how it will develop. It's not necessarily a bad thing though and I guess that's part of Of Arrowe Hill's quirky but undoubted charm, they cram more into those short precious minutes than most bands manage in an entire career!

French Boutik by Paul Slattery

When I was thinking about suitable support acts to complement The Senior Service everything drew me towards French Boutik. The only stumbling block was that the band are based in Paris but I took a chance and offered them the slot knowing that they did play in the UK quite regularly and hoping it might coincide with something else over here. Unfortunately at first the date didn't fit but the band made a quick decision to just go for it anyway and I got my wish! The band are currently working on their debut album following a fine run of excellent vinyl E.P.s and are trying to raise funds for the release via a crowd-funding campaign here. I'd urge you to get involved as, judging by the selection of new tracks they played tonight, the album is going to be something special.

French Boutik photographed by Paul Slattery

I think the new tracks like "Le Mac", "Je Louche" and "Le Casse" fitted in seamlessly alongside their more familiar favourites such as "Les Chats De Gouttiere" and "Ici Paris". The usual band line-up of Gabriela on vocals, Serge on guitar, Zelda on drums and Jean-Marc on bass was tonight augmented by Olivier (Popincourt) on the Hammond organ and surprise guest Graham Lentz on bongos and huge smile! Their Pop Moderniste sound was soulful and rich with Serge's superb Rickenbacker guitar work adding a welcome edge to proceedings. Gabriela is an engaging vocalist and backed up by the impressive harmonies of drummer Zelda the songs really took on a life of their own over the Half Moon's excellent sound-system. A sparkling version of "Tiptoes" by Madness was a highlight and the band seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as we were. French Boutik went down a storm with the crowd and I was really pleased for them, they also charmed everyone they met with their easy going nature and I really would like to thank them again for coming over.

Graham Day of The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

So after the great warm up provided by both support acts, the sense of anticipation for The Senior Service was building and I must admit there was a bit of trepidation too. How would an all-instrumental band go down live? Would the crowd be open minded and go with it or would they start shouting out for "Melanie" after ten minutes! Thankfully it all went rather well indeed - songs from the forthcoming debut album "The Girl In The Glass Case" were all short and punchy and had enough variety and groove to keep the audience extremely satisfied throughout. Of course all of the band's instrumental influences were touched on - whether it was John Barry's Bond themes such as their cover of "On Her Majesty's 'Senior' Service" or the Spaghetti Western Ennio Morricone twang of "Caballo Sin Nombre" with the addition of a trumpet player adding that authentic Tex-Mex feel.

Wolf of The Senior Service (and Sophia...) photographed by Paul Slattery

The Booker T & The MG's groove of opening number "Abandoned" got everyone's toes tapping before the crunching single "Depth Charge" blew our minds with it's scorching guitar riff. Along the way we are treated to a dazzling backdrop of movie projections taking in classic TV shows, Psychedelic movie interludes and even a stripping Sophia Loren, during which the band can't help sneaking furtive looks back towards the screen! Tonight Gerry Anderson, Captain Scarlet, Lalo Schifrin, Bullit and Barry Gray are the order of the day, replacing the more familiar Rock 'n' Roll references. There was so much crammed into the perfectly crafted tunes all driven along by Wolf's pin-point drumming and Darryl's inventive bass lines, all underpinning some great guitar work from Graham and of course topped off by Jon Barker's surging Hammond organ runs.

Jon Barker of The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

Each Graham Day line-up has always included a few excellent instrumentals in their repertoire and tonight we get "Come To The Mushroom" and "Explosion on Uranus" from The Prisoners and my personal favourite "South Avenue" by The Gaolers, which was an absolute cracker. The set comes to a close with The Prisoners classic "Find & Seek", Graham knows what we are thinking and approaches the microphone "I'm not bloody singing it! You'll have to sing it yourselves!" And we do!

Darryl Hartley of The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

I'd like to thank the following people for their much appreciated help: Carrie and Staff at The Half Moon, Ian at Damaged Goods Records, Debbie at Muso's Guide, Mark Raison at Monkey Picks Blog, Alan Powell at Down In The Basement Radio Show, Ged Babey and John Robb of Louder Than War, Wayne Lundqvist-Ford at The Ice Cream Man Show on Radio Andra, Alan May at The Glory Boy Radio Show, PJ & Paul at Dirty Water Records and their excellent Gig listings, Artrocker Podcast, Gideon Coe and Mark Radcliffe at BBC Radio 6 Music. Please do take the time to check out the highlighted links if you can, these people deserve your support too, after all they obviously have great taste in music! There's already a great (and impartial...) review by Debbie at the Muso's Guide web-site which you can check out at this link here, she says it much better than I can!

Graham Day of The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

I'd also like to say how much I appreciate the support of the Retro Man Blog regulars and subscribers, especially those that travelled to attend the show...and a very special mention to the Breakfast Club! Of course thanks to my Retro Man Blog & Retrosonic Podcast colleagues Adam and Paul Slattery, especially to Paul for contributing the superb photos, here are some more...

French Boutik

French Boutik

French Boutik

The Senior Service

For more photos of The Senior Service Launch Party please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and if you are not already following, hit "Like" for access to the Photo Album. There are videos from the show at the Retro Man Blog YouTube channel at this link here.

Graham Day & The Forefathers, The Len Price 3 and The Galileo 7 at the Retro Man Blog Night on May 08th at The Half Moon Putney

We are very pleased to announce that the next Retro Man Blog Night at the Half Moon in Putney will be a repeat of last summer’s sold-out “Medway Garage Rock” special featuring Graham Day & The Forefathers, The Len Price 3 and The Galileo 7. Since last year’s show all the bands have been very busy, The Forefathers released their debut album “Good Things” with a launch gig at 229 The Venue in London. The Galileo 7 released their third album “False Memory Lane”, re-vamped their line-up and will release a new single shortly. The Len Price 3, fresh from their excellent work on the soundtrack to the movie Pubmonkey, will release a one-off 7” vinyl single for Record Store Day. So, all three bands are at the top of the game and this gig is one not to be missed, especially as it is a rare chance to catch The Forefathers in such an intimate environment.

As last year’s show sold out well in advance we’d recommend pre-ordering tickets, especially if you are travelling, as it is highly unlikely that there will be any tickets available on the door. Tickets can be booked via the Half Moon web-site here or directly at the venue over the bar.

Graham Day & The Forefathers at last year's Retro Man Blog Night by Paul Slattery

Graham Day & The Forefathers are the crucial ingredients of The Prisoners, Prime Movers, Solarflares and The Gaolers extracted and squeezed into one stripped down power trio. Cranking out choice live cuts from four Graham Day-fronted bands, The Forefathers (triple) distil 30-odd years of high quality song writing, low-fi production and high energy performance to their raw garage-rock essence. After a handful of dates as the Prime Movers, Graham Day, Allan Crockford and Wolf Howard, now rechristened Graham Day and the Forefathers, are unashamedly pumping out the best material from all the line-ups, including the Prisoners, with an uncompromising verve and energy, undiminished from their earliest days. All of this was perfectly captured on the excellent debut album from The Forefathers entitled "Good Things". 

The Len Price 3 at the Half Moon - Photo by Paul Slattery

The Len Price 3 are an adrenaline pumped pop band from England, forged in the traditions of their Medway Delta roots. With each album and single release receiving glowing reviews and every live show leaving behind a highly satisfied audience full of enthusiastic devotees, The Len Price 3 are fast becoming a true national treasure. Expect a brand new 7" vinyl single to be released to coincide with Record Store Day, we'll be playing an exclusive track from the single on Retrosonic very soon!

Galileo 7 at the Half Moon - Photo by Paul Slattery

The Galileo 7 are a Psych-tinged garage-rock/power pop from The Medway Delta featuring Allan Crockford ex-Prisoners/Solarflares/James Taylor Quartet. The band are riding high on the praise heaped upon their latest album "False Memory Lane" and their new look line-up has upped the live energy levels even more. The band will soon release a brand new 7" double A-Side single on State Records entitled "One Lie at a Time"/"The God of Gaps".

Graham Day & The Forefathers and The Len Price 3 both contribute a track each to The Half Moon's "Live From The Moon" Ltd edition 12" vinyl album - available from The Half Moon website and over the bar. The tracks were recorded live at last year’s Retro Man Blog Night.

Don’t forget our special Retrosonic Podcast with Graham Day &The Forefathers, where we talk to Graham, Allan and Wolf about their illustrious musical careers and play a great selection of tracks from their back catalogue. There’s also the Pubmonkey Podcast where The Len Price 3’s singer/songwriter Glenn Page tells us about their involvement with the movie’s soundtrack and we chat to the writer and actor Jamie O’Hara about the making of the film. All three bands also feature heavily in our regular episodes of Retrosonic Podcast and in our next episode we will play the new Galileo 7 single and we also have an exclusive play of the forthcoming  single by The Len Price 3.

For a report and photos of last year's Retro Man Blog Medway Garage Rock Night check here.