Mark Mathews and the One T's, and 'The Difficult Third Album'

PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK

Concert Review : Mark Mathews and the One T's, Clapham Grand, 07/08/08
My good friend Kieron of The Dilemmas tempted me south of the river to experience singer/songwriter Mark Mathews as he starts performing with a full band lineup, instead of his usual solo set.

The first thing to say was that the Clapham Grand is the most outrageously enormous venue to host what appears to be a new band night for feedmemusic.co.uk. For the bands lower down the bill this means a characteristically booming sound and a vast expanse of floor between punters and band. It's also too dark to check out who has come for the gig, except for some quite nice seating at the side and back of the hall where I ended up. I guess if venues were cinemas, this place would get split into a multiplex of 3 or 4 venues, which could have 3 bands each. However, I shouldn't give such ideas to money-minded promoters.

Courtesy of the tfl journey planner I arrived 40 minutes early and was treated to a 3 piece Irish combo with a left-handed bassist. The way that the sound here gave them bass drum and rack toms above all else took me back to my youth. It didn't do what sounded like reasonable songs any favours. The last people I remember seeing here were The Prisoners many moons ago. I'm rather impressed that it doesn't seem to have changed one bit. Our host announced that the band was called Paravida. 15 people had given them a rousing if echoey reception.

The next guy/band (Stewart Mac - myspace.com/officialstewartmac) managed to get 29 people to watch them plus a further 3 in the officially unavailable balcony. The bass player reminded me of Slaine from 2000AD. He had a mop of dyed blonde hair and put his foot onto the foldback speaker without a hint of irony. The lead guitarist provided very reasonable harmonies. He and the bass player had chains on their trousers. Mr Mac himself was chirpy and cheeky between songs. Overall they were extremely professional in a rock way and as a result I was having difficulty concentrating on them as it felt like I was watching a video. They were all good looking types, wearing black tops.

After a while they offered men at the back a beer for coming down front, or a fruit based drink for ladies. I wasn't sure about that, but I took up the challenge and was pleased I did, as the sound and vibe was much better when standing near the front.

Afterwards I caught up with my friend Kieron, and met the man Mark Mathews himself, whilst the next band (Philanthropy) were on, so I'm afraid I totally missed them. Kieron has been educating Mark about his Medway (Prisoners, Milkshakes) heritage - Mark's from Maidstone.

I'd had a quick listen on myspace.com/markmathews and the live set added even more energy to his catchy songs. His left-handed drummer was sporting a Beatles T-shirt and this nicely echoed the chorus of the 2nd song "I don't love you, yeah yeah yeah" !

They were on at 10:30 and there seemed to be a rush because of other bands overrunning and because of the need to turn the venue into a late night club as soon as they got off. Still they could be happy that they were playing to around 80 people, and the first audience to make the venue seem vaguely the right size.

For most of the set Mark did some high energy acoustic guitar strumming, and this gave his poppy songs a driving spirit. Despite the time pressure they were allowed an encore, during which another friend Heather pointed out to me the flashing disco square dance floor under our feet.

Mark writes good tuneful songs and his new band gave them a very natural accompaniment, which left the appreciative audience very happy. For an early gig they were very accomplished, and they have a string of further dates coming up as detailed at myspace.com/markmathews.

Music Review : The difficult 3rd album
There is a syndrome referred to as 'the difficult 3rd album'. The enthusiasm that causes a band to form begins to wane after producing 2 albums, and is hard to sustain by the time of the third.

A case in point for me is The Stranglers, whose first two albums are chock full of classic moments. Their third album 'Black & White' is still unmissable, but is marked in my mind by more rambling instrumental passages at the beginning of songs, and lyrics that were more self indulgent than the previous clear ones.

I have rediscovered these truths as I have rediscovered my vinyl when I was missing The Stranglers on my iPod. This caused me to revisit another wonderful group - The Comsat Angels. Their third album Fiction is fantastic. 'How did they do that?' I mused. It then dawned on me: their second album 'Sleep No More' whilst being compelling for devotees such as myself, is pretty heavy going.

So I propose that the secret to enjoying an easy ride on your third album is to deliberately make your second album an absolute dog.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]