Well as you have no doubt guessed from the title, I attended a Duke Special gig last night at the Glee club in Birmingham with the very cheap price of £6 for admission. Okay so you may not have guessed the when, where and how much from the title but you know what I mean

I first heard Duke Special performing "Portrait" in late 2005 on the Jools Holland show and was instantly impressed by how different the music sounded from anything I had heard before. At first I enjoyed listening to the song for this fact but quickly developed a liking for it and the other great tracks on the album "Songs from the Deep Forest".

The gig was, simply put, amazing. The music was great and the whole act was very entertaining, visually too. I could watch it all again tonight and enjoy it just as much. It was as good as my expectations were and better. I particularly enjoyed the variety of instruments played that night. There was, a piano, a keyboard (or synth?), a clarinet, a bass guitar, an electric guitar (which was at times played with a bow), a saxophone, a most unusual drum kit setup, some stick like instrument with bells, springs and blocks which is struck with a drum stick of which I have no idea as to it's name, an accordion and a whisk and cheese greater. All played by four men, though of course, not at the same time. I was surprised by how good a cheese greater played with a whisk could sound!

I have to comment on the drummer, who was nearly an act on his own. With apt clownish behaviour in appropriate songs. Many songs played were from the album "Songs from the Deep Forest" which was much to my delight as it is the only Duke Special album I own (at the moment). The songs played that I had not heard before were all very good however and some of the songs were very funny (as in comical) sounding. Coupled up with some funny acting and many laughs were to be heard.

If you haven't yet heard Duke Special but consider yourself a connoisseur of music and aren't afraid of listening to something with a style you may not have heard before then be sure to check out http://www.dukespecial.com

2 Comments

Dugahole Location: Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Joined: 27/03/05	Gday Chris They are pretty good I suppose, seems like the sort of thing you would have to listen to a bit before you start loving it. BTW I am going to start using my blog more lol, I am at uni now so I want to be able to look back at some memories.

Chris Location: West Midlands, UK Joined: 24/03/05

Sorry for taking so long to reply Dug, I really need to code the facility whereby posters get notified if someone replies to their post. Regarding Duke Special, yes you do have to acquire a taste for them unless of course you have heard music like that before which I had not. I don't think the style is very mainstream yet but who knows? I'm glad to hear you are going to start using your blog more, I'll have to use your blog more too. I admit I'm terrible at remembering to check other people's blog's for updates. I'll try and get back into the habbit of using a feed reader so I can keep up-to-date

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