June review by Destouches

Friday's Floor was the last of the season and if the weather wasn't up to Flaming June we had some toe-tapping vibes to keep us amused.

Andy and Jim opened the show with 'All the bad times', a rambunctious singalong, Andy observing at least a healthy minot third distance at all times from Jim.

With an introduction transposing the words 'Bel Canto' to 'Can Belto' we were into the world of early 20th century popular song. George Shearing's 'Lullaby of Birdland', 'Ain't misbehaving' by Fats Waller, and 'Sweet Gingerbread Man', Elaine Padwick told it like it was with Robert Gordon-Blacker on piano. Her voice is powerful yet pleasantly modulated. She brought her set to a close with Stevie Wonder's 'For once in my life'.

Dave 'Mr Breeze' Taylor played a solo set next, opening with 'If you could read my mind'. His guitar tone was hauntingly authentic with just an element of danger suggested - his voice achieves a craggy urgency at times on 'We just talked'. He was then joined on stage by his band 'The Fishmongers'. 'This ain't love' was one of the numbers. Dennis the sax player who was persuaded to learn accordion for 3 to 4 weeks showed what a useful addition this instrument is to a guitar-based group, melding his sound harmoniously into the mix and giving it an elegiac feel. Lynette the singer applied her powerful voice to 'This is my Vietnam'. Dave took vocals again for 'Fly like an angel', finishing with a Bob Dylan number: 'Make you feel my love' with Dennis on accordion again and Graham James on second guitar.

As an encore, what presented itself as a mere throwaway 12 bar kicked into monster mode as Lynette suddenly took on a whole new persona that had only been hinted at in the previous numbers. Sliding down a scale cracking off whoops at intervals of seconds and thirds she took care of business at a whole other level that what had preceded it. Dave Taylor providing cadenzas that meant something, damn it, on the guitar.

Ali Webb - I can't say I was expecting him but you knew after thirty seconds you and he were in the right place and didn't want to be headed off anywhere else too soon. Accompanying himself on piano he worked through a fine repertoire, finishing with 'Rocket Man'. His voice reached effortlessly for those ledges that Elton John had rested upon momentarily before soaring off elsewhere. For an encore he played another Elton number, adding his own rich timbre to 'Your song'.

Andy and Jim came back with 'Stormy hornpipe' and then a rollicking 'this land is your land' where we all sang along.

The stage was set up to look like a roadworks. Musicians clad in high visibility clothing ascended the stage piece by piece. Celia Kimberwhite on 'saucy saxophone' and Caroline Beaumont on 'voluptuous violin' joined them. Songs were: 'Life is what you make it', 'Everything is so glamorous these days', 'I just can't be bothered', and a whole lot more. At this point the beer I had drunk rendered me incapable of writing any more so in the interests of vox pop, I passed the notebook along the table. It came back with these comments: 'brilliantly sardonic', 'Pythonesque', 'Neil Innes circa 2009', 'very street', 'singing Luddites', 'Bonzo Dog doo dah band'. I hope this means something to you.

- Destouches