MAMAS finished 2009 with one of the best ever live acts to appear in Crieff when the Spikedrivers provided a night full of life, good humour and highly impressive musicianship.
The night was opened by Sandy and Charles swapping from solo to duo while they covered tunes from Lindisfarne to Stevie Ray Vaughan and finishing off with some tip top blues harp from Sandy on Little Walter's Easy.
The biggest surprise of the night was when the Spikes walked on to open with an acapella start to their first set, but it certainly got people listening.
With Ben Tyzach on guitars, Constance Redgrave on bass and washboard and Maurice McElroy on drums and all sorts of percussion with the vocals shared by all three, you expected some hard driven blues to start the night but the acapella was a "sit up and watch moment" leading in to some gutsy slide guitar and rhythmic drumming on Train Done Gone.
A few tunes into the set and the band had the crowd in the palm of their hands. There is a big difference between polite applause and an enthusiastic response to bands and both the crowd and the band were obviously having a ball. Highlight of the set had to be Ben's tribute to his youth called Layin' Down Lincoln's, about placing 1 cent pieces on railway tracks to get a flattened coin! With Maurice playing a rootsy beat on his Spanish box drum over a blues riff you could hear the train rushing by.
Thinking the first set had been good didn't prepare anyone for the second set as the band stepped things up with some outstanding blues. After nine years of playing together the band have a good back catalogue of their own material but still like to throw in some old classics from the masters of bygone days and thanks to a request via their website on the day they included James Moore's Shake Your Hips. A slow starting number that builds and builds to a 10 minute masterpiece that you don't want to finish. Mr. B had brought all his moothies with him and was a bit chuffed to be asked to join the band for Bright Lights Big City with a bit of a duelling moothie/guitar improvisation. And of course the Spikes had saved the best tune of the night as they finished off with Dust My Broom and no blues night is complete without a Robert Johnson number. A proper blues tune with driving bass, powerful drumming and jaw dropping slide guitar to leave the crowd wishing the night could go on a bit longer.
Probably the best band ever to appear at MAMAS over the last eight years. A big thank you to everyone who came along to make the night so memorable.
If you would like to know more about MAMAS view www.mamas.org.uk or call Norman on 681667.
