The Refreshments - A Band's Gotta Do What A Band's Gotta Do

The Refreshments - A Band's Gotta Do What A Band's Gotta Do

1. A Band´s Gotta Do What A Band´s Gotta Do
2. I Still Love You
3. Keep Movin´ On
4. Cadillac Rock
5. Takin´ A Chance
6. He´s Doing Well
7. Rock´n´Roll Heaven
8. A Man Among Men
9. Forever Yours
10. She Makes Me Cool
11. Just Like Jerry Lee
12. Day By Day
13. Hard Luck Jim
14. High On You

This year sees the twentieth anniversary for Swedish band The Refreshments who formed in the Autumn of '89, looking to enjoy themselves and make a few records. Their reputation has grown consistently over the ensuing decades with 2003 seeing them top the Swedish charts with their album Rock'n'Roll X-mas. This year seems like being their biggest yet with a summer long tour planned and this new album has shot straight to number one in the charts within two weeks of release. It's their twelfth release and looks like being their biggest to date. The album cover looks like the cover shot on one of the Sopranos box sets I recently bought, I don't know whether they're fans or it's just a co-incidence - it doesn't matter either way.

They started off as a covers band but have developed as solid writers in their own right - this latest album has just one cover. They worked with Dave Edmunds (check out the great live CD, A Pile Of Rock) and Billy Bremner and their sound is very much in the Dave Edmunds/Rockpile mode. The band line-up has been the same for years and features Joakim Arnell (bass/vocals), Johan Blohm (piano/vocals), Micke Finell (sax/vocals/guitar), Mats Forsberg
(drums) and Robin Olsson (guitar/vocals). Joakim Arnell produced the album and he's obviously learnt along the way from Dave Edmunds, as he has the mixture just right with a rolling piano always present in the mix without dominating at the expense of the others.

The opener says everything about the band, it's a good-time, rock 'n' roller with piano and sax underpinned by a solid drum beat and upbeat vocals. The Refershments are not the band to commit suicide too. Al Anderson's I Still Love You has backing vocals that give it a catchy pop sound that again sounds like Dave Edmunds - I won't mention him again alright. The first single is Keep Movin´ On, a great hypnotic rocker that sounds like, well, you know…. I wish songs like this were getting into the UK charts. What's with the Swede's, all them leggy blonde bombshells and rock 'n' roll in their charts.

Other highlights include the sax driven Cadillac Rock and Rock´n´Roll Heaven pays homage to the greats that are no longer with us, and is delivered with a Buddy Holly and the Crickets beat. I was expecting the same of Taking A Chance as it was written by Finell, Brian Hodgson and Holly perv Mike Berry, but it's more Mavericks than Crickets. Arnell's semi-autobiographical She Makes Me Cool wasinspired by Annie Marie Dolan, daughter of Linda Gail Lewis - "Well I never was one of the boys/I was just a weird dressed kid making noise/when the guys hit the town I stayed in/playing old records again and again".

Just Like Jerry Lee is set to the Killer's early Sun sound and acknowledges all the piano pounders who worship at the Church of the Ferriday Fireball. Johan Blohm, take a bow. Hard Luck Jim, based on My Babe, is okay but nothing great. Don't let that put you off though, this is a cracking album that is the perfect way for the band to celebrate twenty years. You can buy this with confidence.

Mickey Gee - RIP

THE GODFATHER OF THE ROCKABILLY TAFIA

Today the world lost one of the great rock ‘n’ roll guitarists when Mickey Gee passed away after suffering from emphysema. It’s a sad day for music in general and Wales and rockabilly in particular. His passing will probably go criminally unnoticed by the outside world but for us lucky enough to have appreciated him, the loss is immense. Born in Cardiff in the 40’s, Mickey Gee was like a generation of teenagers who fell in love with the guitarists from across the pond like Carl Perkins.

The 60’s saw him backing Tom Jones as part of the Squires, as well as one of Lulu’s Luvvers and he even had a spell with Joe Cocker. Don’t blame him for that though – you gotta pay the bills! He was influential in the sounds of Love Sculpture and Rockpile and sang and picked for the tragically short-lived Welsh band Memphis Bend. Everyone will have heard his playing on the early Shakin’ Stevens hits and who hasn’t grooved to his hypnotic playing on Dave Edmunds’ I Hear You Knockin’. Highlights of his career had to be the wonderful Carl Perkins tv special where Mickey traded licks with the likes of Clapton and George Harrison and Dave Edmunds’ New Years Eve MTV Party as 1986 turned into 1987 with Edmunds and Gee trading licks with Brian Setzer and Carl Perkins. I can’t remember what I was doing that night but I bet you everyone at that gig remembers. Always so unassuming, he just stood to the side and played in his easy, flowing style – steeped in the tradition of the rock ‘n’ roll he loved. This guy was a genius, the Welsh flags should be flying at half mast tonight. Rest In Peace Mickey, those that believed, truly believed. If you were Dave Edmunds’ favourite guitarist, that was good enough for me.

MEMPHIS BEND – GOOD ROCKIN' TONITE
UAS 30036 1977

Musicians: Micky Gee - Guitars,Vocals. Lincoln Carr – Bass. Tom Riley – Drums, Vocals. Additional musicians: B.J.Cole - Pedal Steel Guitar. Mick Weaver – Piano.
John Jenkins – Piano. John David – Bass.

Produced by the band and John David at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, South Wales, Good Rockin’ Tonite is one of the finest tributes that a British band has paid to the American originators. A mix of straight ahead rockabilly and some Hank Williams’ covers, the band play with great respect for the originals but with their own splash of flair. Mickey Gee is astounding throughout, with flying fingers making new classics out of old favourites Red Hot and If You Can't Rock Me. Sun pervs can drool at the covers of Mystery Train and one the albums best numbers, a high-stepping wade through the Big River that Cash would've loved. If you think Jerry Lee's Folsom Prison Blues was funky (and it was!) you'll be changing your boxers during this one. There's a real pep-in-the-step to Hank's Setting The Woods On Fire where Mickey and BJ Cole sound like everything Nashville wishes it was. I love BR549 but they can only dream of being this good. I think everyone would agree that the glorious version of Tennessee is better than Carl Perkins’ original, just listen to that guitar – it’s splashed in more Tennessee than the lyrics.

Shaun Mather
22 January 2009.