Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Baxter Dury
"Happy Soup" @ The Glee Club Birmingham
31st October 2011

With "Happy Soup" Baxter Dury has most certainly arrived. It's been six years since his second LP "Floor Show" and almost ten since his debut "Len Parrot's Memorial Lift", to have taken so long to "arrive" his Routemaster must have got snagged up in a traffic that well and truly cruel. But that's neither here nor there. With "Happy Soup" the psychedelic meanderings that dominated his first two destinations are gone and to the fore come a whole clutch of idiosyncratic popular songs. Songs like "Gingham Smalls" and "Francesca's Party" and "Love in a Garden" were there on albums one & two, but only as wonderful fleeting moments. On "Happy Soup" the songs are what matter, they are the order of the day, and they there in abundance.

But musically what is "Happy Soup"? Where does it fit? Genre? Well thankfully it doesn't have one. Most of the tracks are guitar driven but it certainly ain't Britpop. It has the most wonderfully naff plinky casio-esque collection of keyboards sounds (almost surpassing The Specials "More Specials" on the naff-o-meter), but it certainly ain't electro. Tracks like "Isabel" and "Leak at the Disco" have got a funky groove thing going on, yeah - but "Happy Soup" certainly ain't dance. "Happy Soup" is simply its own thing. It's a sorbet. Something sharp, tart, and sweetbitter, something that can't quite be pinned down but is perfectly designed to cleanse the pallet in this increasingly bland & homogenised sounding world.

The sound of "Happy Soup" is I guess "popular quirk" (there you go I've just classified it) - "sorbet bop" (there another). But whatever genre it really is, it's the perfect frame for Dury to hang his fragile vocals on, the vocals of Madelaine Hart on, and more importantly to hang his words upon. And words spills out of young Baxter: tittle tattle - "She's a like a letter bomb waiting for another man", anecdotes from the bar - "I think my mate slept with you when you were in Portugal" and memories of times past - "Do you remember when we were younger, those days". There's a deal of nudge nudge wink wink. There's a few teardrops running down a straight glass of ale. Because "Happy Soup" is an idiosyncratic glorification of the everyday; a simple yet perfectly formed unpindownable album - an item that is all too rare nowadays.

Once upon a long time ago we had a whole room full of English songwriters that looked at the world askew and tried to make sense of it the only way they knew how. In the sixties the quintessential idiosyncrates were Davies, Marriot and Barrett. In the seventies most of the idiosyncrates were signed up by STIFF; the likes of Jona Lewie and Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric. With "Happy Soup" Baxter Dury has arrived - he's in very good company.

Baxter Dury
"Happy Soup" @ The Glee Club Birmingham
31st October 2011

So it's Halloween and I headed off to The Glee Club in Birmingham armed only with "Ju Ju" by Siouxsie & the Banshees and "Pornography" by The Cure; it did the trick. Ok so let's get the other miserable stuff out the way first. The Glee Club is not a music venue. I've been there a couple of times now and for me it's most definitely "a horror show, you should come on round, horror show the horse is brown" (whatever that means). I saw "Cherry Ghost" here, in the main room, some years ago now, they played their whole set with the house lights on. It was like being at a bleeding university lecture rather than a gig (not that I've ever been to a university lecture obviously). Yep The Glee Club is not a place to see a band. It may well be a damn fine comedy venue but who needs comedy nowadays? Especially when we have the comedy c**t Cameron in charge telling us we should be proud of killing 30,000 people in Libya and spending 30 million quid to kill just one shit bag. Who needs comedy when we have the Head of NATO Anders Fogh (don't know how he pronounces that) Rasmussen telling us that NATO had to act to prevent Colonel Shit Bag from killing the Libyan people? So who the f**k have NATO and the NTC been killing in the thousands Anders, you dim witted lickspittle? The Inuit? Yes the real comedians aren't at the Glee Club they're running the show "plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose".

Now where was I? Oh yeah The Glee Club, it's not a music venue! Can you sense how angry it makes me! Having to SIT(!) here with a load of middle class dicks still wearing their coats, whetting there whistles on red wine, and chatting about money, work and house prices. It's enough to mek me want to flob on me own chips. But then again if it's a toss up between Baxter Dury at the Glee Club and no Baxter Dury I guess I better shut the f**k up and start feeling the love........Sorry tried, can't do it.

When nine rolled around "smart casual" was the order of the day. In black suit & white shirt Dury and et al took up their positions in the lecture hall and quickly rattled off "Francesca's Party" - it was gratefully received. The picture to the left (is for the hard of understanding) roughly depicts the set list - "Happy Soup" in its entirety (except for "Trophies") all sandwiched between the aforementioned opener and "Love in a Garden". NB: When you've finished reading this shitola stop ogling mine and go and get one of your own. Thanks.

Between tracks Baxter indulged in a deal of abstract rambling, a few quotes from Twain and several grumblings about the lighting. I could have told you that meself mate. The Glee Club isn't a music venue! Dury introduced "Cocaine Man" dryly as "their international global hit". And "Lucifer's Grain" from his debut was also somewhere in the set, it was rattled off with great gusto with plenty of "shoulders" on the piano. The band, all four individual subsets, were as tight as a ducks doo dah, and the packed room of reclining punters were roused just enough to make Dury's trip seem worthwhile. Hopefully enough KA$H was also raised to pay the driver.

Twain once said "I can live for two months on a good compliment". Well Baxter Dury needs more than just a good bleeding compliment cos on the evidence of this evening we need him to stick around. Anyway "Picnic on the Edge" was my favourite projectile of the evening, and I guess if Peter Hook had been there he'd have loved it too - especially the bass line. I'd have liked to have seen Baxter at the old strip club in Birmingham the Tin Can Club back in the day, or the HMV Library tonight, or better still at the Hare & Hounds some time soon. Hey Baxter, play the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath! Oh shit he didn't hear, he's gone.

Finally………..Like Julian Lennon, Ziggy Marley, Jeff Buckley and Dweezil Zappa etcetera etcetera etcetera Baxter Dury will never escape comparison with THE OLD MAN. Also, like Julian Lennon who inspired "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" with his nursery school drawing; and like Ziggy who is enshrined in Bob's lyrics on "Keep on Moving"; Baxter will always be that kid on the cover of "New Boots & Panties". Annoying as comparisons may or not be for Baxter, he has at least been able to achieve something that escaped Ian after "Hit Me" got to No.1. Baxter isn't a "household name", he's a little bit "in the shade", he's "a lurker", he's anonymous. And as every writer worth his salt knows, that is the best way to be.