Kula Shaker

In the autumn of 1999 Kula Shaker vanished from our airwaves, just weeks after what is largely considered to be their best ever performance at the V Festival, then V99.

After a six-year period of virtual paucity, where the remains of Kula Shaker cropped up among the line-ups of Aqualung, Thirteen13 and Crispin Mill’s own band The Jeevas, Kula Shaker have returned. Named after an Indian Monarch, and deeply routed in spiritual meaning and a love for all things Indian Kula Shaker’s comeback has been dubbed the "revenge of the king".


Saturated in swirling 60’s psychedelia, blistering riffs and Hendrix licks Kula Shaker were always one of the more appealing bands of the Britpop scene. Front man Mill’s presented the order of the night, saying that they were going to play "a mix of new songs, old songs and middle songs".

The opening of ‘Knight on the Town’ signals a frenzy of hysterical Scots to pogo around in time with the upbeat opener. Suddenly it’s Oasis haircuts, drug-induced mystical horizons and cheerful lightweight chord strumming all over again.

Whatever happened in Kula Shaker’s untimely sojourn certainly hasn’t dented the positive affluence of charisma generated by the band whose new songs like ‘Big Bad Wolf and the Bogeyman’ go down just as well as the hits taken from multi-platinum selling debut album ‘K’.

‘Dictator of the free world’, (emphasis on the ‘Dic’) is a scathing attack on modern politics, which is every bit as amusing to tonight’s audience as it is contemptuous of its subject.


As the rest of the journalism world look down their noses with predictable disdain, happily ushering in the freshest new trend setters while knocking aside the ridiculous notion that Kula Shaker’s new material may actually be any good, tonight’s audience bounce around with unbarred enthusiasm to each and every song performed.

Apart from the glaring omission of ‘Sound of Drums’, missing like an empty bottle of Buckfast from a drunk tramp, Kula Shaker managed to fit in practically every one of their hits, including the homage to the Glastonbury pilgrimage ‘303’, and their iconic cover of ‘Hush’, now perhaps better known than Deep Purple’s version.

Mills was energetic and threw his all into the performance, a facet that boosted the mood of what quickly turned out to be a fantastic gig.

For some, Kula Shaker’s Indian influences were what kept them from hitting the big time, for others it was what made them unique. The reaction the band got tonight really begs the question "Why did they go away in the first place?"
Set List:-

Knight on the town
Big Bad Wolf and the Bogeyman
Revenge of the king
303
Die for love
Dictator
Grateful when you’re dead
Last Farewell
Shower your love
Tattva
6ft Down
Hush

Hey Dude
Govinda

FUTURE GIGS

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