Glamour. Style. Class. Where did it all go wrong eh?
Look back at old photos and no respectable lady would dream of leaving the
house without her slap on, a smart outfit and a hat to match. Chaps were just
as well turned out, heck even the coal man wore a waistcoat. Now? Good grief.
Where do we start? Onesies? Flip flops? Shell suits? I’m pretty convinced that
the decline and fall of western civilisation began once we all started wearing
jeans and discarding our hats and ties. Think about it. If you look like you’ve
just crawled out of a bin is it any surprise you act like trash? Happily there
is a small but growing band of resistance fighters in the ‘vintage scene’ who
scour charity shops and save up their pounds, shillings and pences to buy
faithful recreations of clothes from a more glamorous era. Clearly tonight’s
band The Lamours well and truly fall into this category, not only dressing the
part but bringing a vintage flavour to a dazzlingly wide range of top tunes (ancient
and modern) too.
Fronted by the glamorous Lola Lamour this13
piece band is here to play one of the biggest gigs of this year’s BirminghamInternational Jazz and Blues Festival in the delightful surroundings of the
Botanical Gardens. With the ground in front of the bandstand thick with picnic
rugs overflowing with dips, chips, olives and all manner of delightful
comestibles from Mssrs Marks and Spencer Lola and her Lamours kick things off
in fine style with a sultry jazz tinged version of Tainted Love, slowing down
the original (Gloria Jones’ Northern soul stomper) and the more famous synth
pop version (Soft Cell’s global smash hit) and transforming it into a sassy
come on. Lola’s a natural glamour puss, constantly shimmying across the stage
like a Hollywood starlet and rhythmically waving her arms about whilst her
young but impressively tight band provide an authentic sound. It’s not just the
vocal performance, movement and music that makes the night though. The between
song banter, especially the innuendo laced references to Tom’s trumpet (which
seemed to tickle the fancy of several ladies in the audience) harked back to the
days when Mae West could scandalise a nation with just a few words and a raised
eyebrow.
Across the two hour set the band plunders a wide
range of genres (jazz, rockabilly, country, pop, death metal...oh alright, I
made the last one up...I reckon they could get away with it though) and eras,
from vintage staples like Minnie the Moocher through to imaginative reworkings
of Touch and Go’s sole hit Would You Go To Bed With Me (naturally aimed at Tom
this evening...that boy must have some trumpet) and Britney Spears seminal
(ooooh dodgy choice of words there) Oops I Did It Again. In the latter Lola
becomes Jessica Rabbit made flesh and for a few minutes, the sedate setting of
the Botanical Gardens magically becomes a smoke filled speakeasy in 1920s Noo
Yoik. Lovely to hear the late great Kirsty MacColl’s In These Shoes get a fresh
airing too. Sensibly they’ve not messed with the original too much, keeping the
original samba vibe in tact...although I imagine one or two gentlemen were rather
distracted by Lola’s shapely legs. Ahem. Loved the version of Tom Jones’ early
number This and That too, slightly darker than a lot of the set it was a
particularly feisty performance featuring some cool guitar electric guitar from
Kev (another band member on the receiving end of Lola’s tongue...as it
were...). They even tackle country via Tear Stained Letter, albeit country with
a bit of a Latin flourish...and rock ‘n’ roll...(and why the heck not eh?) with
Lola donning a suitable ‘yee haw’ hat to mark the occasion. Ending with I’ll
Fly With You (cue another hat...this time the kind of thing that Carmen Miranda might dismiss as being a little OTT) , which inspired a small but enthusiastic conga line to snake its
way between the picnic rugs, this hugely entertaining evening comes to a
suitably up beat end.
And, with a sassy wiggle, she’s off into the night. Oh
L’amour...I think I’m in love...
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