The Stuff of Revolutions: Wazlo & DH Temple at The Holloway, Norwich

Front Seat Drivers

The Holloway, Norwich, Friday 24th April 2026

It is not good form to post twice in a day, but this is an emergency.  I have just got home from The Holloway, a small grass roots venue that barely lets a night go by without something different going on. It’s always worth a visit.  Tonight, not really thinking much more than it’s Friday, don’t stay in, go somewhere, I grabbed a couple of tickets and met Sean The Cyclist of Sean Cycles (at your home bicycle repairs and servicing) at the top of St Lawrence Steps, for a trip to the increasingly popular basement music hotspot.

Upstairs, there is really cool bar, (bottles and cans only), bookshop and magazine display and retail area.  The books are on the fascinating end of the interesting spectrum.  On display, available for immediate purchase are tomes on music, politics, folklore, witchcraft, various belief systems.  I don’t think the stock has been assembled on the basis of a best-sellers list, but more on a ‘Hey this looks interesting!’ vibe.  It’s that kind of place.  Similarly, look down the listings for any given month and you’ll see what I mean.  

Will Carruthers , first heard of playing bass for Space Man Three in the mid / late 1980s played a set there not so long ago, with local musicians such as Matt Kennedy supporting.  Will had not played anywhere for many years, choosing labouring on historic buildings, in preference to the head-twisting life of the rock biz, but The Holloway gave him a venue where he felt comfortable to pick up live performance again.  As I said, it's that kind of place.

 

I heard about tonight’s entertainment via DH Temple’s Instagram account.  It was a last minute thing for me and it turned out to be for him and his musical compadre Oli (Wazlo) too. This unlikely duo had received a late call to open for the headliners, Rowan & Friends, which was billed as an acoustic act. 

 

Wazlo and DH Temple assume their positions

When the (rising) expectations of the middle classes are frustrated you are living in the pre-conditions for revolution, (which might explain the political mess the UK is in right now, with so many Brexit voters realising they had been sold a pup and finding the mess is worse than before Brexit and after too many Tory lies), but tonight despite expecting an acoustic set, as the audience tip-toed gingerly down the wooden staircase into The Holloway basement, Wazlo and DH Temple were obviously not set up for anything remotely acoustic. An Apple MacBook, supplemented by a miniature keyboard, all plugged into the mains and the tiny sound board operated from the back corner of the, well let’s call it a cellar, were all that could be seen.  That and the two members of the cast sat side-by-side, in what might be imagined as a front-seats-of-a-car combination.

The Dynamic Duo

Happily, expectations were blown to pieces without revolution, although the two elderly, leather jacket wearing gentlemen, who were insistently and persistently talking at top volume through most of the set, certainly pushed the patience of those around them. Violence was possibly only averted by the tolerant nature of the audience (that’s Norfolk for you), who respected the old boys’ for their age, excusing the ignorance.  In any other town such bad manners may not have escaped stern admonishment.  

Things get lively down in The Holloway

Returning to the main business of the night, Wazlo and DH Temple's semi-improvised sit down comedy act.  These guys ought to head to Edinburgh in August.  Even in that creative, alternative world of entertainment, this pair, who have not got a stage name for this performance, would add something priceless to The Fringe Festival.

 

Broads and Dames, Darkness, Progressive Man, Goodbye, in fact all of their songs, were founded on a solid base of highly danceable electronic beats.  Progressive Man, featuring the line,  “Everyone is taller than me, but I don’t mind.” was a gem and the closing number, a paean to bromance, or something a bit more lustful, was hilarious as the visually mismatched duo finally stood up and performed a duet right in front of the assembled standing audience.  DH Temple declaring in love song style, “I love you more than my wife, I love you more than my three kids, I love you more than Christmas.” was met with a deadpan Wazlo rejoinder, “I like you too.” 

This dynamic duo, comfortable in their straight-faced presentation, were rich comedy.  With sparse use of gesticulation and even less movement from the seated starting position, provided vibrant and hilarious amusement for about forty-five minutes. That the whole set was written and practised in just under a couple of days was mind-blowing.  The idea of sitting side-by-side throughout the act came from simply repeating how the two worked up the material in a bedroom somewhere in the city. 

DH Temple gets all continental with his gesticulating.

There is a video out there of the event, which may appear somewhere, sometime.  DH Temple, used car salesman par excellence, said afterwards that this was a one-off performance.  Which would be both a pity and also a magical thing.  It was a bloody good laugh. Perfect Friday night material.  A little bit Sparks, a little bit Pet Shop Boys, a little bit Flight of The Conchords, but very much the kind of stuff that just seems to happen in Norwich, especially at The Holloway.  It was one of those moments, when you just had to be there.  Thanks men. That was great. 

I must confess that I didn't hang about for Rowan and Friends, sorry, but this was perfectly plenty.  Nothing could match what I had just witnessed.

~

Spencer Ide

24th April 2026