Music > Live Reviews
Inspiral Carpets - Floral Image
EPIC Studios
29/08/23
Support band Floral Image are a band that I have been told are very good, well worth checking out in fact, and judging by this quite exhilarating performance this evening, ‘live from Norwich’ my tipster was absolutely spot on.
From the kick off they light up the room with their swirling psychedelic hedonistic frenzy of songs, think of Hawkwind’s, Silver Machine. Its spectacularly electric, a real wall of sound and already there is a great vibe in the room for the band, a real buzz is circulating around the former TV studio.
They have swagger, charm, energy and wild guitars coming at you in abundance, the strong sixties influence is evident, mixed in with a cool nineties’ indie vibe. Think of The Doors and The Stone Roses, coming together until the early hours. I am rather curiously trying to work it out and take it all in at the same time, as I am quite literally blown away with what I am seeing here.
By the time they wrap their set up, there is plenty of fresh love and good will going on around the venue, they have without doubt won themselves many new fans. It really was a quite fabulous set, mind blowingly good.
This is the most excited that I have felt about a band from Norwich in some forty years, not since East Dereham’s Farmers Boys have I felt this good. We can for sure expect to hear so much more from Floral Image. They are the most accomplished support act that I have seen since a turbo charged Radiohead supported James back in 1994.
Currently on their ‘world tour’ around the UK, promoting their debut e.p, with twelve gigs already booked up and more to follow. Floral Image are playing Voodoo Daddy’s in Norwich on Friday the 15th of September 2023.
You can’t beat a Friday evening listening to the unmistakable keyboard ‘Farfisa’ delights of Clint Boon aka, The Inspiral Carpets now can you and clearly many people from the fine City feel the same way, judging by the size of the crowd here this evening.
The band features original members Clint Boon (keyboards), Stephen Holt (vocals), Graham Lambert (guitar), Oscar Boon (eighteen-year-old son of CB) on bass and Kev Clark on drums.
Starting off with Joe, the set is made up of classic Inspiral album tracks and hit singles.
Boons playing has always been very unique, he has such a distinctive sound and looks as stylish as ever, as they launch into Generations, Holt is also in fine form belting out such great tracks as Butterfly, Sackville and Uniform.
Naturally it’s the biggest hits that, this forty plus something crowd have more come to hear and there is plenty for us all to get our vocal chords wrapped around, as they just keep on coming from She Comes in the Fall, to This Is Is How It Feels, Two Worlds Collide, Dragging Me Down, Let You Down (featuring Salford’s finest poet, John Cooper Clarke) and then finally Saturn 5.
There’s also a cover of the Mysterians track 96 Tear, which was of course also covered famously by The Stranglers too back in 1990.
Bitches Brew is for some reason absent from the show, rather disappointingly. I am sure that they have their own reasons for not playing it, but it still would’ve been great to have heard it!
Oldham’s finest sons have also sprinkled some additional magic in the room tonight and they come across as a fine set of men, happy, smiling and very clearly still enjoying playing and being together on the road, they have just finished a tour of New Zealand and Australia, with more UK dates planned during 2023.
It’s great to see the banter between them and there are plenty of stories to tell as well as Boon reflects on how hard it was to work with Mark E Smith when they recorded, I Want You, although there is still clearly plenty of affection towards him from the band. He ponders for a moment and wonders if Noel Gallagher would want his old job back sometime in the future (he was a roadie for them if you didn’t know).
He also explains that they have on occasion had to explain to their confused crew when playing abroad that the crowd are not booing them, they’re just mooing the band a sign of their appreciation. Its just something that has become a thing at their gigs, a very unique thing at that. How many other bands get mooed at?
It’s been a quite fabulous performance and as the T – shirt says, The Carpets are still as ‘Cool As Fuck’. Moo, Moo.
