Voodoo's, It's Been A Pleasure

 Wild Paths 2025:  Day 2 Evening

Pleasure Inc. spitting fire

At last a decent picture of my own for a review, as luck would have it. The second Wild Paths event of this year's festival presented a lively crowd with another three acts: Chest, Canned Pineapple and Pleasure Inc. To put it simply, this was a fun night out. 

Chest were refreshing to the ears after last night's intensive aural workout.  With audible lyrics, tunes, chorus, who would have known that such ingredients were a recipe for a good time?  As proponents of shoe gaze that leans towards the poppie side of that style, Chest are a band who engage with the audience through lively songs, structured in a standard form: guitar intro, singer comes in with a verse that blends into chorus, then round we go again. The songs are delivered by a front man who makes extended elegant shapes with his long limbs, emphasising his emotional input to the act. Each number gives the instrumentalists room to feed in extended guitar breaks, venting their rocking inclinations.

Chest: Serious pop

The band got a very positive response from the Wild Fields audience.  There was variety in the tone of the songs they played, all transmitted with concentrated sincerity. Their set was an enjoyable start to the evening.

You can find Chest on the streaming channels and on Instagram @chest_band They have a couple of videos out on their You Tube channel, Gospel and a recent release, Machine. Follow the link and have a listen.

We had a bit of a wait for the next act.  The drummer took a while to get sorted, then he wandered off. The guitarists had already plugged in, strummed a couple of times and stalked away. Everything seemed set. The crowd chatted away, but with a discernible buzz of excitement. Some of the crowd had seen Canned Pineapple before, some even had a favourite number. It was noticeable that the audience wasn't just young women collecting at the front, but older fans were prominent across the floor. Have this band been on the wireless, I wondered. Have they been championed by a Radio 1 DJ who has migrated with the ageing listeners to BBC Radio 2? Or are BBC6 Music, the Boomers musical rebel hideout, on the case of this gang? With all that supposed money, capital and freed up time, Boomers remain a serious income stream for musicians and many of the grey generation are looking for new sounds, stimulating sonic sensations and a bloody good night out, away from the neighbours.

In all the chatter, a slight figure rushed down the stairs and ran to the back of the stage. Wearing a long coat and with a Celtic-green banded scarf, top and tailed with the unmistakable shamrock emblem of the IRFU, this lad was either late to the party, or a bag of nerves. He cannot be performing in that winter wear, can he? Thankfully not, for his sake, but Seán Drury did seem to still be wearing three layers, (living on the South Coast and coming to the Norwich cold is a shock),  the top layer being a grotesque, patterned v-neck sweater.  He took to the stage, guitar dangling from its shoulder strap, and grappled with the mic stand, that was set for a man a foot taller. 

"What kind of sick fucking joke is this?" he asked, struggling with the stand.  He was delighted to see an audience filling the room, twice the turn out he'd seen at the band's Norwich debut.  With that, the band kicked into I do. Short, snappy and no-nonsense rock songs followed, with short, snappy and witty chat between each.

"It doesn't matter what day of the week it is. If I don't know what day of the week it is, you don't need to know."  And away we go into another rock-pop-smasher. You cannot help but love these guys. They dress like cartoon rock stars, tracksuits, funny face t-shirts, posing in their shades, dancing about the stage, doing that Status Quo thing of two guitarists leaning on each other back-to-back, as they squeeze their eyes shut and rock it. We even got a classic move, lead guitarist leaning over to strum the singer's guitar and vice versa. The two enjoyed that so much, they tried it for a few more bars, laughing their heads off.

Canned Pineapple are a gas! There is a strong hint of Ramones in the band's music, a touch of Weezer, a heavy metal throb, all with bite-size, sing-a-long bits for the fans...they are instantly lovable. They are great fun and the main guy challenges the crowd to join in, knowing they will, because Canned Pineapple  are doing the most difficult thing of all, making everything seem easy.  This are no surprises, open the tin and you get what you hoped for, from the first to the last..a bloody good time. 

Hard as though this set list may be to read, it gives you a fair idea of what you get in +40 minutes (a vinyl LP length set) from these Brighton-based funsters. Elvis, by the way, refers to Elvis Costello with the chorus, She thinks I look like Elvis Costello (repeat). He does, he plays to it, its all part of the act. The audience do, they are in on it too and its a laugh.

For simplicity of lyric, catchy tune and rockiness, She's Gotta Car is the signature number of the set.  "She's got a gotta car. I've gotta job. She takes me everywhere, everywhere."  Doesn't that just hit the spot? A time in life? A moment? It's pretty much a perfect pop, rock song lasting less than 120 seconds, I reckon. 

Canned Pineapple are the sherbet pips of rock'n'roll.

Next stop for them is a festival in Spain. If you are looking for a good time hunt this bunch down.  They're worth every second of your time. 

It's not all about Seán,
Canned Pineapple is packed with goodness.

My only word of caution is, bands this good on stage are not easily captured in the studio. That adrenalin doesn't happen without the nervousness of live performance. Compare Dr Feelgood's early studio work to their blinding live album Stupidity and you'll know what I mean. I wish these guys all the best and all the luck those twin shamrocks might carry. Hopefully somebody has the recording kit to fully capture them live.

Phew!

After a necessary breather, to a heavy rap soundtrack, the savvy quartet that is Pleasure Inc. picked their way through the even more densely packed audience, to do their unique thing. What their thing is exactly seems to be evolving.  Pop-hip-hop was where they were headed, but it's definitely getting to be a heavier and dirtier sound.  Important times for these men, as they put together an album, with the eyes and ears of The Biz on them.

The crowd at Voodoo Daddy's Showroom had decidedly shifted for this act. Gone were the Boomers, in were the youth (over 18s), the hip and the kool. Yep, hip-hop is a younger woman's and younger man's game and this crowd were really into the headliners. Many of those punters toward the front knew all the words of the popular, early releases. That is not an easy thing to know, as there are quite a few words, but packaged up with memorable lines. 

Kenny Pleasures: kicking it

With their set coming in at just around an hour, the band stuffed it with plenty of new stuff.  The band's new material seems a serious musical development, not that these guys weren't seriously good musicians before.  These numbers were less 'fun' than I had previously felt. There was greater intensity, more hard-hitting vocals. Still very much the band we know and love in Norwich, but now with a heavier feel.  The crowd stayed with them. The band's eccentric, loopy image of the early days still glints through, but they are becoming more like artists now, with less focus on the entertaining for laughs. The new material is very good, I liked it and want to hear more of it.

Was this a hip-hop set, with a reduced input from the pop side? It felt like that to me.  Do the band need to take a short break from all the hard work they have been doing since the pandemic and just sit for a while to settle and re-focus? There is little sign that they will. The Party of the Year 2 (link to tickets) at The Waterfront on 20th December is looming. There will be a great line-up, (these guys just can't help making friends wherever they go).  So much work goes into such an event, rest will be the last thing that happens. 

Trying to make a living from music has never been so hard. Every band has to work second, properly paid jobs, like in the acting trade. Pleasure Inc. are giving it their damnedest to find a way. They've started out different and put on  great shows. All they know at this time is, 2026 will be another round of hard work.

Tonight, their aim was to play a lot of new material. Their Norfolk audience really got into it, appreciating that Pleasure Inc. are a bit different. Bands cannot play a 'greatest hits' set all the time, they need time and space to develop, (we all do).  I am looking forward to hearing the new stuff on release.  If this headline set was anything to go by, then it will be well worth a listen.   

Pleasure Inc. and a lot of the low ceiling at Voodoo Daddy's Showroom, Britain's best dive bar.

Thursday sees Wild Paths 2025 launch in all its glory. Good luck with your itinerary. Do let me know if you discover something that floats your boat, or rocks your world. 

Spencer Ide

16th October, 2025