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Oh Yes, Mama!

Mama Oh No / Grandbaby / Robin Evans

Norwich Arts Centre, Saturday, 22nd June 2024

Surprising as it was, summer arrived in St Benedict’s Street like a man struggling to explain why he was late for a date because he was so into a spreadsheet at work.  Well, stuff you summer!  All the enthusiastic attention and beautiful flowers aren’t just good enough.  I digress.

It was a beautiful evening and the old church that is Norwich Arts Centre, with its delightful back garden, was a joy to be at on Saturday.  In fact, the Fine City was an overall delight.  Music, live or otherwise, filled the old streets, lanes and alleys.  Even the occasional poser in a loud motor, had the bass thumping through the side panels, adding an authentic urban boom to Britain’s Biggest Village.  The warm still air was perfect acoustically.

 

The backyard at The Plough, one of the very best summer drinking locations in town, was burning, as Damp Matches entertained an enthusiastic crowd.  I arrived as they were about to play the last three numbers of their early evening set, introduce their parents to the crowd and thank everyone for ‘turning out’ as the saying goes. Damp Matches signed off with a Johnny Cash number that got toes tapping and some white wine drinkers swaying in the shade.  They have a whooping and hollering type of following, who clearly had a good time. 

I moved across the street to the Norwich Arts Centre, where I found the headliners, Mama Oh No, with support acts, Grandbaby and Robin Evans sweating it out in the garden.  There were precious few others in sight. The hope was that the crowd would pitch up after the Damp Matches excitement had settled.

 

Robin Evans, still hot from headlining as the lead player of SNAKEMILK at The Reindeer on Friday night, opened proceedings on stage.  His imposing black-clad figure (with white key-lines) and magnificent greasy mane announce Bad Boy Bayou Swampy Blues.  Evans never disappoints.  With heel-tambourine added to his heel drum, the man thumps his way through his thirty-minute set, sparing nothing, except his dodgy left knee.  A smattering of an audience at this time of evening still get one hundred percent from the man.  His voice clear as a bell, his dark tale of a liaison with the Devil in Oregon, covers of Take Me To The Electric Chair and Goodnight Irene are delivered with all the perspiring effort you would want to find in some Crescent City bar on Frenchman’s Street.  Evans, is as always, superb.  The Arts Centre should bump him up the bill and pay him more. 

Besides some very quirky merchandise, (he’s out of hair pomade just now, but microphones are still available), Robin Evans has a few copies of his Demon Swing EP CD.  Do get yourself a copy while you can, it’s a gem.

 

The second band, Grandbaby get to play to an audience that has swelled with sunburnt faces, tipsy lads and a couple of visiting city planners from Sighisoara, central Rumania, over to see their friend, who seems to know every band in town.  Personally, I found Grandbaby to be a tad mechanical, so chose to get some air in the cool garden, where I could enjoy the last good light of the day and listen to a blackbird calling up the Strawberry Moon.

Suitably refreshed, I returned to the nave for Mama Oh No time.  

Red Rooster’s second stage had witnessed a crazy set from Mama Oh No, in difficult weather conditions, I was keen to see them in full flow tonight, in a warm, dry setting. 

 

It was actually good to be able to see the band.  At Red Rooster, Mama Oh No were crammed into what was basically a three-sided shed.  At the NAC they are arranged across a beautifully raised stage and some of the best acoustics you could imagine.  The auditorium, (nave of this old church) is closer to full than not by the time Mama Oh No plug into their amps and settle in position. 

 

Jack Blair, tall as you like, with centre-parted, blond hair shining all the way down to his guitar strings, towers over the centre of the stage.  Tordi Blair, queen of the keyboards, is positioned to his right. Simon Reinhardt’s drums are to his left, which leaves the effervescent bassist, Eli Bidmead the whole of the back-stage area to practise his moves. Projected behind on a screen and across the happy visages of the band is the slow bubbling of a lava lamp projection moving through a red, orange, green, blue rotation, which adds further visual interest.

 

Mama Oh No are very good.  The Blair siblings, Bidmead and Reinherdt have a set of songs that are catchy, melodic and blended with a swirling sophistication.  Jack’s vocals are incredible and incredibly high.  I am not sure when he decided that he would present himself in Jon Anderson’s territory, but he sings at a pitch that would shatter many a male vocal cord.  Not only does he reach some inconceivable highs, but he manages to do so within the context of the band’s classic pop song vibes.  This band lays down beats that tune into the human feel-good rhythms of heart and soul. 

Mama Oh No with dinosaur friends

After up-tempo numbers, Mama, Hurt and Four-leafed Clover,  the set slows to accommodate Sometimes, before racing on with Early Warning Sister, The Bang and Suzuki. The songs are clever, the music has depth of texture, like Worstead, not nylon.  

 

There is an element of repetition in the way the band plays some of their songs, which is effective once or twice, but becomes a little, not tedious, but maybe predictable, when it is done so often in the set. The band play through what seems like a complete song, appear to have finished the number, then launch into a mini encore of crashing drums, heavy bass lines and soaring keyboards, with rocking guitar. They do this well, but it begins to break up the flow of the set. This is a set that has already been a little stop-start with guitar re-tuning and a couple of guitar changes. 

Overall, the audience is gifted a well-developed and enjoyable set of tunes, almost concludes with The Bang (continued) before the encore of Don’t Be Shy, the poppiest song of them all.

 

Should bands do encores?  I am grateful that Mama Oh No were modest enough to not leave things too long before re-appearing.  The crowd and I loved every minute of the set, but why go through that “One more song!” rigmarole?  Play all the best tunes and then tell us, it’s over, then get off.  I feel encores should be for very special moments when the crowd is going to trash the venue if the band doesn’t reappear. This lovely mob would not have trashed this, or any venue.  They had come to see a bunch of very lovely musicians play great tunes, which is what they got.  Mama Oh No are sophisticatedly poptastic.

Drummer, Simon Reinherdt and Motte Posselt have made a superb Mama Oh No video, for a song called L O W T I D E that I have clipped in here.  

There is so much to enjoy about this band. I hope you enjoy finding out about them too.

You can find out a lot more about Mama Oh No from the official website here.

~

Spencer Ide

Norwich Arts Centre

22nd June 2024