Alabama Thunder Pussy - Rock City, Nottingham, 7/12/2012

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 6 / 12 / 2012

intro

Dave Goodwin at Rock City in Nottingham attends and photographs his first ever gig by anarchic country acid act Alabama 3, and finds them making unusual, yet perfect sense

After going to the wrong venue and missing the support act, we got to Rock City about ten minutes before Alabama 3 were due on. Far from being a full house, Rock City was reduced to having only its main floor open while the balcony was shut. As seems the norm nowadays, like at some football grounds you go to, you look around and there' is no-one there, and then you turn your back for a minute and - kerblam ! – the place is rammed. I don’t think it helped either that it was party season because the centre of Nottingham this Friday evening was absolutely crowded with folk milling around and partying. In dribs and drabs, Alabama 3 took to the stage which initially confused me because there were more than three of them. There were actually eight of them. All dressed like they had come in from outside! This for me was one of those weird moments because I realised that half the crowd were die hard Alabama 3 fans, and the other half such as myself didn’t have much of a clue about them. The lead singer, Larry Love, an aging Marc Almond lookalike, confirmed my initial suspicions about him by informing us later on that he was actually from the old mining town Merthyr Tidfyll, and that 65% of adults in the town there were languishing in the reality of being on prescription drugs. He swayed to and fro along the stage beckoning the crowd for applause, and getting a rather subdued retort from some of them and ecstatic welcome from others. There was another guy, the Reverend D. Wayne Love, who stood on the left of the stage in a suit and dark shades, and who spent the whole time staring out the crowd and cussing and adjusting his tackle like it was the normal thing to do. As I first started to take the photos for the night, I caught him staring down at my lens and transfixed on me like some Exocet guided missile system . As I dropped the lens for a second, he motioned with his head and eyes downwards to his nether regions, and to my delight I copped a two-fingered hello. When I looked back at him, he looked back at me, cocked his head to one side and shrugged as if to say “Photograph that, you turnip!” Marvellous! And then there was Aurora Dawn, a black girl on the right, who, given the chance, has a great voice to match any of the current and sadly missed soul divas. A little on the thin side, she seemed to be in a world of her own, and especially disturbed by Larry Love’s taunting and harassment. I am sure and hope that they were not the best of mates. The drummer, however, seemed quite normal, as did a couple of the guitarists, except for one on the left who now and again came to the front and declared himself Jesus on the cross. The Spirit, the rather pasty looking individual on the keyboards, gave me a couple of eerie glances too as I passed by him in the pit to get the best angle for him. Unfortunately there wasn’t one. I'll put it down to his bowler hat getting in the way. That said though, when they struck up to play, the whole floor was jumping. Billed as Country Acid, I was a little apprehensive at the start having never seeing this mob before. The only thing I can say from then on- BOOM! – and the moment the drum kicked in and the guitar rung out onto the Rock City faithful it all made perfect sense. Enough said. Set List: Mansion Bad to the Bone Up Above My Head Stop the Clock Bullet Proof Woke Up Wong is Right Techno Terra Firma Bruce Reynolds Kurt Cobain/Black Betty Rehab Klan 2129 Flag Johnny Cash Peace in the Valley Encore: Sinking Too Sick Shoot Me Up