Lion Patch/Klauss Shnopplejagen

Chaplin’s Cellar Bar, Boscombe

For a rare event on a Friday, a band that has not played in public before get to grace the Cellar Bar stage, as Lion Patch Too play their debut gig. Before they join the stage, Klauss Shnopplejagen starts the evening with some musical mastery of loops and beats. I’ve heard snippets of his busking before a few months back and liked what I heard; this is my first experience of him plugged and on a stage. I’m impressed, especially when during a chat afterwards he admits he’s been working in this way for only a couple of years. Klauss also admits to back pain and pushing through to do this gig, so a trouper too.

Klauss Shnopplejagen

Using his toes in a prehensile manner to control his various pedals and foot switches, he starts with a basic slow beat on his loop pedal, and cycles through some short loops before stopping the beat. A couple of toe-turns and the beat is back as full drums, doubled in speed, the manner very impressive and polished. I hear evocations of the late 80’s solo Gary Moore work in Klauss’s material, the whole is beautiful tuneage, and seems to be over far too soon after half a dozen songs.

After a short break for a changeover, Lion Patch Too take the stage. Fronted by Tim Smart who previously seems to have had as many band names as gigs with said bands, they are already renaming themselves the Lion Patch Collective. They start with “Shed Shed Melala”, this has a rhythmic Latin lean that progresses into a Jazz Funk groove, very saxophone focused with Ed Pope taking a strong lead. The inspiration is their rehearsal space: a tiny shed at the bottom of the garden, where they say they’ve only met three times before

Lion Patch

Second track “Bonjon Ruby” strikes up in a reggae style, while giving space for each of the bass, drums and sax to play their part. Doctor Martens was our third track, see the video for this, where the band are joined by guest rapper / MC James Meadows. Looking afterwards at the setlist, Tim has the instruction to himself “Now Play the Game”; this consists of asking for someone in the audience to shout out a beat picked up by drummer James, then a bass line echoed by Pete. The band then jam to this with some guitar and vocals over the top. The 5th song is just entitled Funky Bass, I attempted to put this out over Facebook live, stymied by poor reception and Wi-Fi signal. I wanted to share bassist Pete’s permanent grin from ear to ear, evident pretty much throughout the set.

I recognise PJ Harvey, a staple from the county hospital stable, though with a new Acid Jazz overtones groove to suit the new sound. This leads me on to my only wish of the night – that there was more of this guitar sound evident, the music lends itself to it, it just isn’t present. We notice the band are reaching the end of their material, as opener “Shed Shed Melala” is repeated, now a crowd of people are dancing and gyrating to the tunes. Finally MC James is invited back for a repeat of Doctor Martin, before a final big jam to finish off the night, with each of the band again providing spaces and solos. They’ve managed to provide nearly 90 minutes of musical and entertainment, more songs are still in the offing. Next gig is again at the Cellar Bar, on Bank holiday Monday. Expect something different again, Tim Smart’s creativity rarely lets him rest on his achievements…

Lion Patch Collective are
Guitar & Vocals: Tim Smart
Bass: Pete Cochran
Drums: James Adams
Saxophone: Edwin Pope
Additional Vocals / MC: James Meadows