1/3/2011 Bucket & Co. + JOANovARC @ The Purple Turtle

Subject	Bucket & Co. & JOANovARC @ The Purple Turtle
DateCreated	3/9/2011 3:02:00 PM
	Tonight I find myself back at the Purple Turtle - once a regular haunt of mine, but these days less so as there aren't often bands I want to see playing here any more.  However, since the recent closure of The Gaff and The Garage turning into a corporate rip-off joint it's now back to being possibly my favourite venue. I was trying to remember who the support band was when I saw Bucket & Co here last year - then I remembered is was actually JOANovARC that night as well! So here I am again watching the same two band bill in the same venue - no complaints about that though. There might only be two bands on the bill, but they are top quality. JOANovARC have a lot of newer songs in their set these days - the only drawback being that some excellent songs have fallen by the wayside to make way for the new ones. JOANovARC are back down to a four piece tonight with one member being away, but to be honest I still think they were always at their best as a 'power trio'. To cater for the older and more conservative rock crowd in attendance tonight the band throw in a couple of covers - a very good 'Foxy Lady' and possibly the best version of 'Freebird' you'll ever hear anyone play - apart from the band who wrote it. Put them on a proper ROCK bill and you can count on these girls to really rip it up!  It's good to see JOANovARC play a longer set of around 50 minutes tonight - they easily have enough quality songs to play for a lot longer given the chance. And so onto the headliners. Bucket & Co are playing to a noticably smaller crowd than their last show at this venue. It's not surprising though as the last show featured an all star lineup with members of the Quireboys and Thunder among others and was much better promoted - this is just the basic band on a Tuesday night in Camden. You can't fault the quality of the band though. As guitarist and band leader Paul 'Bucket' Colwell spent a few years in Bad Company it's not surprising that there are a few of their songs in the set - including a rather good 'Shooting Star'. We also get 'Alright Now' mixed in with a load of original 'Bucket' material - and Sam and Shelley from JOANovARC join the band on backing vocals for a rousing finale of 'Can't Get Enough'. A good evening of quality rock music in Camden - a pity more people weren't there to see it.