Gandalf Murphy: Thunderbolt

Friday 5th February 2010

This is a Crackerjack review of Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

Their name suggests a San Franciscan band from the Sixties who play psychedelic songs with surrealistic drug-induced lyrics about transcendental meditiation, wizards and fabled beasts.

In fact, Gandalf Murphy and Slambovian Circus Of Dreams came together in the Nineties and the mythical kingdom of Slambovia is actually somewhere in New York State.

But their music was not so easy to place, for they seemed to take bits of everything and everyone and somehow merge it into a sound that is very much their own.

So, if you can imagine a melting down of country rock, bluegrass, southern rock, The Band, psychedelia,  prog rock, Neil Diamond, David Bowie and a whole lot more besides, you still wouldn’t be getting close to describing their unique sound.

They opened with Slambovia, which was introduced as a Christmas song and came complete with Byrds’ like chiming guitar, although the words were far from Christmassy.

Slow rocker Sunday In The Rain gained a big cheer of approval from the packed audience, most of whom already seemed well acquainted with the band.

And when singer Joziah Long invited everyone to dance to Pushin’ Up Daises, introduced as “a Slambovian waltz”, he must have known there wasn’t a chance of anyone finding space to do more that jig up and down.

The Who’s Pinball Wizard was introduced as a “country pop song”, and actually it sounded quite good with a shuffling country beat as it seamlessly morphed into their own I Wish.

With the suitably spacey and quite inspired Flapjacks In The Sky with its ferocious crescendo they went more into Pink Floyd territory, including name-checking their classic album Dark Side Of The Moon. 

It would have been the standout number except that that was still to come in the form of Tink (I Know It’s You) with a screaming slide mandolin solo (yes, really) from the ever-inventive guitarist Sharkey McEwan.

And the very rocky Trans-Slambovian Bi-Polar Express, with which they closed the first half, really did drive along like the proverbial steam train.

Picture was almost southern swampy rock with echoes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, while Longo’s vocals on the slow and remarkably restrained Light A Way sounded like Cat Stevens.

Their debut album was entitled A Good Thief Tips His Hat, and they tipped theirs to The Who in Circus Of Dreams, featuring Longo’s multi-instrumentalist wife Tink Lloyd on accordion, and to King Crimson in the sprawling Talking To The Buddha, featuring a staggering extended soaring guitar solo.

They closed the night with The Yodel Song, which Longo introduced by saying that  “you can’t yodel and be cool at the same time”, which is undoubtedly true.

It is probably also true that no other rock band could persuade a Bristol audience to yodel and to do so with quite so much enthusiasm.

The name and the whole Slambovian thing might be comical and the introductions were rambling and funny but there was nothing jokey about the quality of their playing or their ability to write well crafted songs with serious, very thoughtful lyrics.

And we were left in no doubt why this band has built up such a big reputation in the States for its legendary live shows. Catch them at Glastonbury if you can.

Keith Clark

This is a Crackerjack review of Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.