5/9/2015 Towers Of London @ Nambucca

No - that date isn't a mistake! The infamous Towers Of London played at Nambucca back in 2006 - but now a whole nine years later they are back at the same venue. Both band and venue have seen some big changes since then - not all of them for the better. Nambucca closed last year, and later reopened after a change of ownership and yet another massive refurbishment. The 'new' Nambucca is virtually unrecognisable inside. One major change is that the bar has been moved to the other side of the front room - I can't see any reason for doing this and it seems a complete waste of time and money to me. The other major change is to the back part of the pub and the stage area. Again. The dividing wall which was put in during the last refurb has now been ripped out again, and the whole downstairs is effectively one large room. The stage has been moved from the side to the back of the room and is now much larger. Unlike the apparently pointless  work done in the front half of the building this is a major improvement. A new bigger PA and lighting system has also been installed and the back part of the building now looks far more like a proper purpose built music venue.

So what are Towers Of London like these days? Much the same as they were in their earlier days really, but without that spark they used to have - the band has never been the same since Rev and Snell left. Tonight there is no bad behavior, no audience baiting, and not as much excitement. Unlike this band's old shows, the only outrageous thing in this venue tonight is the bar prices! That said, Towers play well enough if not brilliantly and are worth seeing for old times sake. If you liked them before then you'll probably still like them, but maybe not as much. And if you hated them back in the day then you'll still hate them - but maybe not as much.

Fortunately Towers Of London seem to have disowned their dreadful 'Fizzy Pop' era and it's ill-advised fashion choices - they play no songs from that album tonight - there were only a couple of decent songs on it anyway. Image wise the band have returned to their earlier pseudo punk/Glam look of leather jackets and slogan painted vests.

Yet again the band have a new lead guitarist and another new drummer. Both of them are competent enough, but just seem to be making up the numbers rather than adding anything to the band or bringing anything new. How long they'll last is anyone's guess.

Naturally, most of the bands setlist for this low profile comeback is picked from the first album 'Blood Sweat & Towers' and we get the expected 'I'm A Rat', 'Kill The Pop Scene', 'Fuck It Up', 'Air Guitar' and so on - all the crowd pleasers. They don't have enough time to play the full album, but we do get several brand new songs - which sound OK but nothing special.

Frontman Donny informs us that there is a new album on the way - hence the new songs. More gigs seem set to follow, and the album should appear next year. The band do seem to have retained at least part of their old following, although Nambucca is obviously not sold out and many of the old faces who used to be regulars at Towers show are conspicuous by their absence. Still, that's not so surprising considering how long the band have been away and how many times their comebacks have petered out before even starting. It's hard not to think that this is a band who had a chance to get somewhere, but then blew it. Not many acts get a second chance. It will be interesting to see what their plan is - assuming they actually have one? It might be that they have a different agenda this time round and are just doing it for fun now.

As for the 'new' Nambucca... They seem to have 'fixed' a few things that weren't actually broken, although the new stage area is a major improvement. Like the refurbished Unicorn only a mile away it looks in places like they are still waiting for the builders to come back and finish the job - did they run out of money? Unfortunately, the bar prices are something Nambucca doesn't have in common with The Unicorn. When the previous version of Nambucca opened the beers were reasonably priced and there was real ale on tap - neither of those things apply to the new Nambucca. Not only is there no real ale to be found, but the prices for a pint are fucking outrageous and Newcastle Brown is £4.50 a bottle. They can stick that up their arse - I have added this place to the list of music venues I will no longer drink at.