King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys have been dishing up their particular brand of old school rock n’roll, swing, jazz and jive to audiences across the world for 25 years now. Perhaps something of an anachronism back in the late 80’s with the whole ‘vintage’ thing being so hip and cool at the moment they’re arguably at their most relevant right now. The King himself has also grown nicely into the part, the quiff may be a little greyer, there may be a little more...ahem...jelly in his roll...but with the voice, showmanship and energy still firmly in place a good time's pretty much guaranteed.
Being an outdoor gig, on a Sunday, with picnics (bottles of wine, M&S dips, something nice from Waitrose’s variety of endangered species in breadcrumbs range) very much the order of the day (some people seemed to have bought half their kitchens with them) the mood was distinctly mellow. The fact that it wasn’t bloody raining for a change probably stunned most people into a stupor too. No matter. Gradually the band got some folk up and dancing though, inspired perhaps by the King’s forays into the crowd and impromptu dances with some of the braver (or perhaps more well lubricated) members of the audience.
Playing authentic sounding original compositions as well as plucking well known classics (together with a few more obscure but equally strong numbers) from the likes of Chuck Berry, BB King and Ray Charles (the latter two the band actually toured with) King and the Boys blew up a storm (happily metaphorically speaking) invoking an era when music came on shellac, the web was something spiders span and Twitter was strictly for the birds. Pick of the set included a schwiiiiiinging version of Louis Prima’s Oh Marie and a particularly horny dash through Tequila. Oh...special mention goes out to double bassist Shark Van Schtoop's (hmmm possibly not his real name) game of hide and seek with a photographer too. Every time the hapless snapper got him in focus he moved or hid behind his instrument. Hilarious! Still the kings of pleasure? You betcha.
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