The Humans Live 2010 – A Review
The Humans; Warm-up gig, Bishops Cleeve, somewhere in the deep dark depths of Gloucestershire
Having been introduced to Toyah in 1980/81 by fashion designer Richard Sorger (www.richardsorger.com), who at the time I was at school with, I jumped at the chance to see her play live. I had owned vinyl copies of Anthem and The Changeling…. I still have a cassette tape of Warrior Rock in my attic.
Robert Fripp on the other hand, was a name that I had heard but I have to admit, his music, I had not. I own many CDs by Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Michael Brook etc but for some reason he had missed my radar. But not any longer! He has a new fan today.
The church at Bishop’s Cleeve was full. I believe there were about 300 seats.
Robert Fripp started proceedings with The Humans (Chris Wong, Bill Rieflin & Toyah Willcox) joining him after the opening track.
Ms Willcox started off unnecessarily nervous, or at least came across that way, but that seemed to lessen further in to the show. The audience was very receptive and appreciative.
The Humans are a three piece, four when Robert Fripp joins them as a special guest. The band has two bass players and no drummer.
The Humans played all of the tracks from their “we are the humans” along with a reprise of “We are the humans” at the end. This was followed by an encore comprising of excellent versions of “These Boots Were Made For Walking” and “Purple Haze”.
Chris Wong’s bass playing on “Is It Wrong” stood out for me. You can hear this track on Toyah’s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/toyahofficial). It reminded me of Mick Karn (Japan / Dali’s Car / Rain Tree Crow) although Chris may not appreciate me saying that!
I personally liked it so much that I am hoping to be able to make it to the Cambridge gig on Tuesday.
Review by Symon Payne
