Capdown / The King Blues

It’s not often that a support band grabs you and makes you listen, especially at a highly anticipated show such as this one. The King Blues not only make a great racket between them, but also practice what they preach. Political issues are high on their list of agendas to use as subject to their mixture of heavy dub and comical punk music.



Singer Itch (or Jonny Fox, I prefer the latter name) is multi talented, not only kicking out some good vocals but also playing both a plastic melodica and a ukulele. At times he jumps onto the speakers at the side of the stage and shouts his views onto the crowd, who are loving every minute of if. You can tell this band takes no bullshit; they even have ASBOs for trying to play in the centre of London’s financial district, and are actively involved in political happenings in the Capital. The first thing they did onstage is spray paint the words “The King Fu*king Blues” onto a white sheet for their backdrop.

‘Come Fi Di Youth’ makes use of the bands talent for heavy dub, whereas ‘Mr Music Man’ is a more upbeat track. The could not praise Capdown enough, saying that they have influenced more bands in the UK than anyone else (I’m not sure on the truth in that fact) and it’s an honour to tour with them.

And then it’s time. Capdown’s last Leeds show. In fact their last Yorkshire show. It all ends in their home town of Milton Keynes on 9th November. At the moment singer Jake Sims-Fielding is starting to loose his voice, but unlike some artists that flake (Sting) and cancel shows Sims-Fielding is giving it his all, and could probably have no voice to end the tour with. He asks for the crowds help singing along to the songs like ‘Headstrong’, but doesn’t need to as they already are.

Play is stopped temporarily while the mosh pit are instructed to look for a silver box (I didn’t see it, standing at the back). They come up with a mobile phone and someones passport, and finally a girl called Lisa is declared victorious with the silver whatever-it-is in her hand. The suggested prize for finding it is just to stand on stage for ten seconds, but she looked happy with that.



More crowd involvement comes in the form of splitting the already cosy gathering into two groups, straight down the middle to chant with either Sims-Fielding or The King Blues’ Jamie Jazz and battle it out to be the loudest chanters. A circle pit is also encouraged for the penultimate song in the encore, which sends the crowd mad.



Sims-Fielding dedicates many songs to the other band members, to “perk them up a bit”, as they are tired but still going hell for leather. The band seem to have been constantly touring during their ten years together, and will leave a large gap in the live punk circuit plus many disappointed fans. For final song ‘Ska Wars’, we are told that “this is our last three and a half minutes together; make it count”, and that’s when the place explodes. As the cheers ring out on the sound of the last note, it’s clear that Capdown are a very influential band (capital downfall, I just got it), and it will take a while for someone to fill the huge space left by their Dockers and saxophone.

Unite To Progress
Cousin Cleotis
Surviving The Death Of A Genre
Positivity
MV4
Headstrong
Keeping Up Appearances
The Neverlution
Pound For The Sound
Dealer Feaver
Home Is Where The Start Is
Truly Dead

Bitches & Nike Shoes
Ska Wars

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.