I saw a thing. It was good.

Read my slightly longer review at Latest 7

I took this photo as I made my way to the gig by hot air balloon and spied the Bad Shep’s leaving their luxury caravan to…

No. No, it’s off the Internet.

Review: Adrian Edmondson And The Bad Shepherds

Vyvien. Eddie Hitler. A swan. Adrian Edmondson’s career involves trading blows or insults with Rik Mayall. But for this gig he wielded a mandolin rather than a rubberised frying pan and traded licks with a violinist and a man playing a sort of electric bagpipe. The Bad Shepherds play Eighties punk classics in a folk style. And they mesh surprisingly well; perhaps because punk was the folk song of the era, perhaps because the songs arrangements disguise the original until a key lyric or an important hook. There was some great banter between tunes with Ade bemoaning his broken foot, but this was the only hint of slapstick. Until the encore when Rik Mayall leapt onstage and hit him with a frying pan. Okay, that didn’t happen.

Komedia, 24 November 2011
Rating: Four stars
Jim Holland