80's rock/Rockabilly legends Twenty Flight Rockers have reunited for a few shows and to celebrate the bands phoenix like rise from the ashes they are releasing Live in '85 recorded in the most rock & roll location the band could find back then, The Bull Inn in East Sheen on the 6th July 1985. I saw them back then in more usual rock and roll haunts. Twenty Flight Rockers were Gary Twinn, Mark Laff, Ian McKean and Jeff Vine. The album was produced by Kevin Daly and mastered by Joe Burnham. The album will be launched this Friday at the band's reunion show at The 100 Club.
The album opens with Punishment & Crime with a good chunky riff and Rock & Roll sentiments, they hope you can make the Punishment Fit the crime an issue that seems even more prevalent now than it did in the mid 80's. This flies straight into Weekend Revolution keeping the pace and intensity up, to let us know what the bands appetites are, on that weekend rampage that might end in revolution at the Marks & Stalin stall at Kensington Market or the end of the next super speedy guitar solo.
Fall In Love With You has almost power pop sensibilities for this gently riffing song for begging and pleading, that they will indeed Fall In Love With You, it doesn't matter if you hear them or not, while sounding a bit Generation X, although Gary Twinn doesn't sneer as much as Billy idol did.
The bands biggest hit Tower Block Rock is a proper sing along fist pumper as it always was, celebrating living in a tower block and still being cool, Ian McKean's guitar sounds like it is keeping the lift working, going up and down that Tower Block fret board again and again.
Everybody Knows that Twenty Flight Rockers knew how to have a great live rave up, while making you feel like you were the only one for them, Jeff Vines bass helping to drive this along, before Ian McKean's guitar fusillades take over.
Dreams That Kill has the Rockabilly edge that sets your heart and soul on fire with desire, like Eddie Cochran crossed with the Lizard king Jim Morrison himself, this easily reminds me of why they so excited me when I saw them play with Gene Loves Jezebel back in the 80's.
Real Rain isn't going to come and wash you away and go all Travis Bickle on you, but the guitars will flail at the edges and make clear you know what you're missing, this full-on Leather biker boy anthem is it.
One Man Town is for that feeling when you are the only bloke that really counts, but you're leaving and going to the other side of the tracks, if he's not careful he'll end up in Mortlake, while reflecting on what happens when you are by yourself, going up to Notting hill to try and score once more, on the most stripped back song of the set.
I Love to Rock & Roll is an anthem for going out and having a blast. Your Fashion would have meant everything to most of the band's fans in the 80's, when we all posed and preened as much as possible and they played at some of the coolest clubs, with the guitar really flying off this is perfect to strike a few poses too.
The album and show concludes with Young Man which was a phrase they had every right to scream back in 1985, I wonder if they will still scream it 41 years later in their leather jackets, while they celebrate the joys of being young and on the prowl rocking all night long. Gary asks can you hear me, well of course we can and I want to hear loads more from him and Twenty Flight Rockers, welcome back.
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