Saturday 28 May 2011

The Len Price 3 - Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival London May 27th 2011

The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Paul Slattery
The Len Price 3 put on another wonderful show on Friday at the Club Fandango in Kentish Town, surely they must be the best British live band around at the moment...Decked out in natty boating blazers, looking like residents of The Village in cult classic The Prisoner, they are not just numbers in the Garage Rock fraternity, they are definitely Number 1. They cannot be pushed, filed, stamped or indexed...(OK, enough with The Prisoner waffle...) - but they have their own sound that, although does encompass many classic references, still manages to sound fresh and exciting.

The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Steve Worrall
Probably in their favour is the keen ear for melody and the superb back-up vocal harmonising of drummer Neil Fromow. From behind his drumkit Neil actually bears a passing resemblance to Keith Moon and he's a damn fine drummer too, pushing the band through a quick-fire selection of power pop classics from all three of their albums.

Glenn Page of The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Steve Worrall
The night's highlights for me this time round included "You Tell Lies" with it's irresistible "lalala" chorus and crunching riff.  "Shirley Crabtree" from first album "Chinese Burn", a witty tribute to the old pantomime wrestling, it mixes a terrace style "easy easy" chant with Beach Boys harmonies Then there is of course "Rentacrowd", which is probably the best example of the sheer class of their songwriting all distilled into two and half minutes of power pop genius.

Steve Huggins of The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Steve Worrall
The cover of "Comanche!" sees singer/guitarist Glenn Page leap from the stage and shoot around the audience and bassist Steve Huggins is hardly the archetypal, quiet bassist standing in the background as he is just as lively as Glenn, making the whole show a multi-coloured blur of energy.

Neil Fromow of The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Steve Worrall
They are a band that makes you smile, makes you dance, makes you play air guitar (and air drums...) and makes you fall in love with live music all over again. Your head will be crammed with hooks and melodies coming at you from all angles, so if you can deal with feeling like a teenager then get yourself down to the next Len Price 3 gig!

The Len Price 3 Live at The International Pop Overthrow Festival - Photo by Steve Worrall
With thanks to Paul Slattery for the top photograph.

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