From the moment we arrived at the Hoe & Anchor on Friday night it was clear that this edition of Rockaway Beach #111 was going to be rammed with the coolest rockers around. We went into the basement in good time to catch all of Knox's opening set, he was playing solo acoustic and opened with one of his biggest hits Automatic Lover that sounded a little fragile until the entire room joined in on the chorus, then Nigel Mogg decided he was Knox's biggest fan and perched himself on the onstage monitor and placed his beer on the stage as Knox sung I Like You Girl, it took under a minute, for Nigel to prove he was trying to behave more like his brother Jacob than a rock legend, when he kicked his beer all over the stage and reacted like it was someone else's job to clear up his mess, even when handed the paper towels he was rather reluctant to clean up, while everyone was still laughing at his actions.
Knox did his best to ignore the distractions while singing Dance To the Music and having the odd sly dig at Nigel who was insisting on calling out at every opportunity, I must remember to heckle him next time I see him playing live. Knox rose above it on I'm A Politician that featured Knox's normal digs at Paedophiles while Nigel made a bigger fool of himself by attempting to join in on drums, that he couldn't play. Everyone sang along to Baby Baby Knox admitted he was now 81 years old and chasing London Girls still, at the end of a short and entertaining set.
Thankfully by the time Electrics came on The Mogg was nowhere to be seen, a packed Hope & Anchor could enjoy Electrics from the moment they burst into Think Ya All That that could easily have been dedicated to Jacobs brother Nigel. Alan upped the pace a bit on Looks R Deecvin with Gary Pearce's rhythm guitar providing the solid bed it needed. Victim Suspex was driven along by Jenny Lane's bass and they all chanted the chorus in unison. Serves Me Right was a bit frantic with Alan letting rip on guitar.
No Shiz was about the mood they were, in to take No Shit from anyone and the crowd were in full agreement singing along. Nite Falls Dahn had the right edge of danger and excitement for what happens in the dark. Remember felt a bit of a cautionary tale, with signs of a mosh pit or certainly a bit of audience movement. NBK always sounds good and this version had some real bite when they started to evoke the spirit of that Natural Born Killer prowling the streets again. Gary and Al ripped it up through U Don't Know Me with a few diversions along the way. Looking Like The One was about the most loved up they got, before they closed with the heavy riffed My City having gone down a storm.
Soon enough it was time for Rockaway Beach to welcome the latest line-up of legendary under achieving sleaze rockers The Crybaby's to the stage, for this show they had one original member in Drummer Robbie Rushton, who was joined by Gary Pearce who switched from guitar to bass, Alan Moreno on guitar and vocals and Gary Guitar Lammin' the latest addition on Guitar, filling in for Lester Greenowski and being sort of the Ronnie Wood of the band, he was far too sober to be the Mick Taylor in the group, well judging from the last time Mr Taylor playing with Darrel Barth, whose memory along with Honest John Plain this show was dedicated to.
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They opened with the bands theme song Woo Hoo I Ain't Your Crybaby totally driven by Robbie's pinpoint drumming, with Alan Moreno getting nice and close to the original spirit, while nice and loose on guitar. This Is What We Want to get down and rock like hell with Gary Lammin's guitar weaving nicely. You Don't Have To Wear Boots lurched a good bit around the stage with Gary P and Robbie holding the beat and rhythm together, while Alan seemed to wink at us like a Juvenile Wreck while singing it. Operator looked like they were holding on for dear life and having a great time doing so.
They were soon Crawling round the place like they had been on a week long bender with Darrel and Honest John god rest their souls, Who Were You Thinking could almost have been a mental list for who they wanted to join them onstage, in the slightly off, rampaging rock and roll anarchy they were creating. My notes being suitably messy allows me to guess that the first guest Rachel Storm joined them on backing vocals for Good Girls while behaving like the complete opposite obviously, then they got Andy Hekkandi from Trench Dogs up to howl his way through Thin Ice, he was almost in time with the band but had enough sass to pull it off.
Gary then switched to backing vocals so that Matt Sargent, who I last saw with Splodgelessabounds at Rebellion could take over on bass, for a brilliant rampage through Terminal Love sounding like they had needle issues, that took them to Hell 'N Back. Gary was back on bass for Never Trust A Blonde that was Sleazy good fun. Gary Lammin took over on vocals for Country Debris like he did singing it for Juvenile Wrecks. Things got messier still when Johnny Gowcho joined in on vocals with Rachel Storm back on stage for a rambunctious take on Bo Diddley's Pills and all sorts of audience members grabbing the microphones for backing vocals, this continued through an amped up and teetering on the brink version of Dead Flowers that closed the set.
They of course got an encore and made my night with a brilliantly all over the place version of The Box Tops classic The Letter with lots of different vocalists having a go, while Robbie just nailed the songs backbone, allowing all the madness to go off from his rhythmic bass, bringing to a close a brilliantly messy nights music.
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