Lady Winwood’s Maggot/Kentucky Fight Club/The Jack Ratts

Talking Heads, Southampton

The Talking Heads in Southampton is the venue for new west country promoters Fuelled by Cider’s latest gig, a line up of three bands usually found performing at venues in and around the Dorset area.

The quality of the line up, and the fact that it is a Friday night, should mean that the venue is packed out, but at just before 8:30pm when The Jack Ratts take to the stage the place is virtually empty. This is a great shame, but the band did not let that stop them putting in their usual solid energetic performance. The six piece band power through numbers from their debut album “Sail The Deadly Seas” which includes a good mix of original numbers along with a few covers including a storming version “Streams Of Whiskey” by The Pogues.

A fiddle, banjo, accordion and an expertly played mandolin are used to create the band’s folk rock sound which takes on a real pirate feel during songs like “The Tale Of No Hope” and title track of the album “Sail The Deadly Seas” which was performed at a frantic pace. The highlight of the set was an excellent version of the song “New York Girls” a song made famous by the Martin Scorsese movie “Gangs Of New York”, the band even added the own special outro piece to it to finish it off perfectly. A well executed set by a very well rehearsed bunch of musicians who perform well with an audience in from of them or not. This gig was merely a warm up for their own headline set in Bournemouth at one of their favourite home venues on the coming Saturday night.

The Jack ratts 1

Next up we have some rednecks from Poole called “Kentucky Fight Club who busted over the county line to spread the word about their Dorset inspired brand of Cowpunk. The trio made up of Ski Daddle (Bass), Harry Cobeans (Mandolin) and the Boy Wonder (Drums) combine their passion for country music with influences from the world of rock. With an expertly played electric 8 string mandolin Harry recreates the guitar rifts of some well known songs by The Cult, Iron Maiden, Guns n Roses and Nirvana. Putting their own spin on things with cleverly rewritten lyrics to produce something quite unique.

Ski and Harry dressed in their stylish matching Hank Williams 1950’s style shirts both take turns on lead vocals with songs like the very catchy “Rumble In The Jungle” and “Silver Surfer”. Thankfully at last an audience have turned up and KFC put on a show that entertains even the hardest of critics with the audience giving the band some much needed positive reaction. They leave the stage to decent applause and will return here to the Talking Heads on the 2nd May to do it all again with Graveyard Johnny’s and The Devil’s Rejects!!

Kentucky Fight Club 1–2–3

One of the hardest working local bands, Lady Winwood’s Maggot, are tonight’s headliners, they take to the stage to a warm welcome from their fans who all seem to follow them around to see them at every opportunity. They kick off with “Unleash The Dogs” from their album “Buffalohead”, combining a banjo and electric six string guitar to great effect with singer Mark Baynes unmistakeable gravel style vocals. The bands have a massive back catalogue of songs to chose from within their repertoire and they play it safe with some tried and tested songs such as “My Hometown” all about New Milton and “Billy Tango” a song influenced by William of Orange.

There is a great speech from Mark about his sheer dislike of Simon Cowell and his TV programme “The X Factor” before launching into the title track of their latest album “The Rise Of Karaoke Culture & The Death Of Rock n Roll” which lyrically says it all really. These guys really know how to entertain, with some great original Clash meets Cash style songs including a few well chosen covers, along with some hilarious on stage banter. The four try to leave the stage but loud cheers and applause prevent them from doing so. Lady Winwood’s Maggot dutifully perform just one more song to keep the audience happy before they leave and it is the popular cover of Gogol Bordello’s “Start Wearing Purple” which leaves everybody singing out lous with a smiles on their faces ending the evening off perfectly.

Lady Winwoods Maggot
1–2

Set-List
Lady Winwood’s Maggot
Unleash The Dogs
Banjo Hill(The Cropdusters)
I Know What’s Mine
Drowsie Maggie(Trad)
Chase The cat
Bad Moon Rising(Credence Clearwater Revival)
My Hometown
Billy Tango
Buffalohead
Bulldozer
Chupacarbra
The Rise Of Karaoke Culture
(& The Death Of Rock n Roll)
Ever Fallen In Love(Buzzcocks)
Start Wearing Purple(Gogol Bordello)