Having a Rave Up with The Strypes

courtesy Daily Telegraph

I know I’m a bit late for this bus, but I finally caught it last night when The Strypes played Canvey Island’s Oysterfleet Hotel. They were joined on stage for two numbers by their ‘musical heroes’ Wilko Johnson and John B Sparkes, both late of local template makers, Dr Feelgood. Or is that The Yardbirds… or The Kinks… or even the Downliners Sect?

Their show was peppered with many of those 1960s beat group staples, including Slim Harpo’s Got Love If You Want It (dipping into The High Numbers’ I’m The Face), Jessie Hill’s Ooh Poo Pah Doo, and of course, Route 66. For a more contemporary edge they cover Nick Lowe’s Heart Of The City. They've also got some home-baked songs, notably Blue Collar Jane and What A Shame, and boast an astonishingly tight rhythm section; a child prodigy on electric guitar, and a singer in whom the ferocity of Brilleaux meets the onstage bashfulness of Joey Ramone. And most importantly, in my mind, they've got the look.

With a combined age a little lower than that of the youngest member of the Rolling Stones, and a musical power that channels the Jeff Beck Group on steroids, the precocious Strypes are surely the most exciting new musical prospect in years for lovers of old school rhythm and blues. Handled with care, as they seem to be judging by their mentally muscular entourage, they could become a national phenomenon. And, if this is what they can do at – close your eyes and you won’t believe it – 15, they may one day take the world, or that little part of it that is still populated by rock and roll nuts.

The Strypes with Wilko and Sparko, Canvey Island 8 August 2013
http://thestrypes.com/

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