http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/-Mills-grinds-out-the.3729928.jp

LOOK BACK: Kula Shaker tried, with some success, to recreate their glory days of a decade ago

By BARRY GORDON
Kula Shaker ***
Liquid Room

IN August, 1999, Kula Shaker played one of their last shows to coincide with the total eclipse. Now, almost nine years after they split, Crispin Mills and his psychedelic-rock band are awakening to a new dawn.

The reformed quartet, featuring new member Harry Broadbent on keyboards, have done precious little since the height of their fame – way back when TFI Friday was still on the telly, and when The Spice Girls were an unknown girl-band.

But they were received like long-lost friends last night at the Liquid Room, leading off their pulsating live show with MC5's garage-rock classic, Kick Out The Jams. As lead singer and guitarist Mills said prior to Hey Dude, the band's third single released in 1996: "Imagine you're driving a Corvette – with Jeremy Clarkson tied to the roof – heading off a cliff."

And that was pretty much the case, as the band powered their way through a 75-minute set with all the energy of a souped-up hot rod race car.

The high energy of Hey Dude flashed by early on in a midst of dirty, distorted guitar riffs, Mills shaking his floppy, dishwater-blond hair to head-banging effect. And the incense sticks were still burning away on Mills' monitors by the time he paid homage to Jerry Garcia (Grateful When You're Dead/ Jerry Was There), psychedelic images of The Grateful Dead singer beamed across two giant screens either side of the stage.

Amidst the flurry of Cream and Jimi Hendrix-inspired riff-driven rock tunes, the majority of the set became bogged down with songs inspired by Mills' mystic, Eastern influences; renditions of the singles such as Tattva and Govinda (the latter performed during the encore) based on chants used by Hare Krishnas.

The band's new material, however – third album Strangefolk was released last summer – doesn't sound too dissimilar to The Beatles during their flirtation with music and Hindu spiritualism back in the 1960s. Thankfully, things got back to familiar ground with their near-identical cover version of Deep Purple's interpretation of the Joe South song, Hush.

Other than thanking the crowd for their continued support, Mills, who is also the grandson of actor Sir John Mills, said very little onstage. His band's demise began when he made some ill-advised remarks regarding the mystical properties of Swastikas in 1997. Mills, though, kept his politics to a minimum, choosing only to pipe up towards the end of his band's set with a short spiel about the NO2ID campaign ("I know everyone's fascinated with the 80s right now, but it's not 1984 you know") and its raising of awareness against the Government's intention to make identity cards compulsory. But that was before Mills light-heartedly questioned Hilary Clinton's sex prior to finishing off with a air-punching version of Govinda.

Whether or not Kula Shaker will make the kind of impact they did ten years ago remains to be seen. Based on last night's evidence, though, it seems the band are happy to look back at glories that were never that glorious in the first place. Only time will tell.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2-J,

what is it with all these lukewarm reviews...

i know that press is press, and press is good... but it's always the bloody same!

Sounds to me like yet another reviewer who came in with the notion KS suck, found himself enjoying quite a bit and couldn't live with the conflicting ideas.

...and he got some facts wrong, too, but, oh well!

Why write a review if you have nothin to say? I could have written that just from looking at the set list, and I wasn't even there

"air punching version of govinda"? govinda is not a frantic air punching song!.was this guy even there at the gig?.i was.and its the single best performance ive seen the band give.

quote:

Originally posted by d0nnydark0:
"air punching version of govinda"? govinda is not a frantic air punching song

True, although there is a bit at the end of the chorus (the last "govinda, jaya jaya") where people tend to punch the air. I guess I've been to so many KS gigs recently that I've started to memorise the bits that generate particular crowd responses heh

I agree with what Pitry said; in fact I sense a lot of that in KS reviews, be they live or for the album i.e. journalists expecting to hate it, then finding they actually like it, and the subsequent conflict of urges results in a strangely-worded luke warm review instead.

Best KS gig ever, fantastic set, Mr Mills on top form!!!

Been away since the gig, but need to add my piece - what a flaming fantastic gig!!! The support were excellent, took me a minute to figure out who was who though - Crispian with black hair is quite disconcerting!!! But the main set was superb, and I cannot believe how utterly mind-blowing Mystical Machine Gun sounded, and that is not a term I ever use but the only one that describes how amazing it sounded. I took my friend along who liked K, but hadn't really heard much after that and had never seen them live and she had a great time. I think I may have another convert!! I haven't been to such a good gig in a long time, and really wish I could see them again. Think they will ever do a DVD?