Codeine Velvet Club

The 100 Club takes it's name from the venue's address at 100 Oxford Street in London's retail heartland. Despite its iconic status in pop music history, it has an inauspicious location north of Soho, nestling next to a branch of Ann Summers largely unnoticed by the early Christmas shoppers who bustle past it's single door entrance.

Hosting only 350 punters, it's now a bit of a basement dive surviving, you'd have to suspect, on its glittering reputation. If you weren't aware of its importance in the annals of rock before you arrived, you're soon brought up to speed by the collection of photographs that adorn practically every spare inch of wall space. A bit of a museum for rock photography that includes legends such as The Clash, The Rolling Stones, The Who and Oasis to name a few.



It may have been the venue's links with the past that motivated Codeine Velvet Club to book it for the London leg of their short tour. The band is Jon (Fratelli) Lawler's sabbatical project in which he indulges his love of orchestral Barryesque pop music in collaboration with jazz vocalist and former Burlesque dancer Lou Hickey. Lawler's wife encouraged him to write a song with Hickey and they enjoyed the experience so much they decided to form a band and make an album. The rest, as you might say, is historical sounding pop. Think Last Shadow Puppets with Italian Suits, puffball skirts and heels.

There's no support tonight so there's plenty of time to survey the crowd and get an idea of who CVC's constituency is. A mixed bunch they are including a posse of female Fratelli fans who admit to being taken by Lawler's change of image from arena rocker to sharp suited cocktail clubber. "He scrubs up well!" to quote one devoted fan from Australia. A good turn out of skinny jeaned youth rubs shoulders with more mature media trendies from Soho's creative studios.



The house lights dim, the volume goes up and the sound guy spins 'MacArthur Park' to set a suitable atmosphere. This is my second glimpse of CVC so I was expecting good things. Sadly this is a much smaller stage, too small by far for a line-up that includes a brass section and stage design that features large retro styling spot lamps.

A large part of the band's appeal is the dynamic between the lead vocalists Hickey and Lawler, but tonight they are at opposite sides of the stage separated by drums and other hardware. Hickey appears un-relaxed, her style cramped.

On the strength of their recorded output and their live performance at Loopallu I know this outfit to be a quality one and surely destined to be one of 2010's Big Things, but this performance was less than 100%.

FUTURE GIGS

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