16/4/2008 The Jim Jones Revue @ Madame JoJo's

Subject	The Jim Jones Revue @ Madame JoJo’s
PostedDate	4/16/2008 4:52:00 PM
	It's wednesday night and I'm off to Soho's notorious Madame JoJo's to see The Jim Jones Revue. It's the first night of a new club called God Don't Like It. It's only a fiver on the door - a bargain considering there are four bands playing.  However, it stops being so cheap when you visit the bar;  £3.50 for a small bottle of watery Magners = £7 a pint!  - but what do you expect in a Soho sleazepit like this?  The rip-off bar prices discouraged me from getting to the venue early enough to see the other bands, but from what I saw of penultimate band The Nuns that was probably no bad thing... The place was surprisingly full for the first night of a new club featuring virtually unknown bands, and by the time the Jim Jones Revue hit the stage the atmosphere was pretty lively. Fortunately, so was the band!  People wanted to dance, and Jim Jones and his crew were just what they required - raw dirty greasy rock 'n' roll.  I've never seen so many people dancing in a small club mid-week - this band really got people going! One of their secret weapons is their keyboard player - or rather, their piano player. A good rock 'n' roll piano player can really drive things along - and the guy in this band is great!  The thing is, nothing gets people going like good old fashioned rock 'n' roll - a lot of people seem to have forgotten that. And the Jim Jones Revue are a damn fine old style rock 'n' roll band. It's not rocket science, but a lot of bands just don't seem to understand it these days. The thing is - real old 50's & 60's style rock 'n' roll appeals to a far wider range of people of all ages and tribes than any other type of music - and they will all dance to it. You can see it in a pub when you watch a covers band - as soon as they play a Chuck Berry song everybody is on their feet and going for it!  That is what happens with this band - only they achieve the same effect without playing any covers. The Jim Jones Revue are the best old style rock 'n' roll band I've seen in a long time.