Crispian Mills. The Charlotte. Leicester. England
Crispian Mills (former leader of karmic rockers Kula Shaker) has done a brave thing. He has named his new band 'Crispian Mills'. Probably not a good move by someone who is seen by a lot of people as an egotist and bit of a prat. So how will 'Crispian Mills' follow in the shadow of the recently departed and very successful Shakers, lets have a look through the haze of josstick smoke and beads and find out...
As we stand and wait the arrival of the band, the house lights dim and Indian music starts to play. The room fills with smoke. The ceiling is opened up and Crispian is lowered from the heavens on a cloud, sitting cross legged and playing the sitar. No not really. They just amble on stage to applause.
It's immediately obvious as the band come on stage that there has been no major image re-think for Crispian, same hairstyle, same guitar although he is looking more like the 'K' era Crispian than the ill advised Peasants Pigs and Astronauts bag lady look, and that’s got to be a good thing. It's also very obvious why he picked the girl bass player, (called Kim I think), she's extremely fit and a lot easier on the eye than Alonza Breadbin or whatever his name was. Oh and shes also a really good bass player. The drummer has the look of a session guy, probably because he is and the keyboard sample bloke is from the Jedi knights. Borrowed musicians make for a temporary feel to a band (although Mike Patton has pulled that off brilliantly with Fantomas), so I don't know how permanent this line up is.
We realise just how new some of this material is when a new song breaks down half way through, but no one really minds. It’s just nice to see someone play close up who was playing arenas only a year or so before.
Most of the set is made up of new stuff which is in the vein of Kula Shaker and while they are decent nice songs, they are nothing that different from said band. Which begs the question why split up Kula Shaker in the first place? Old Kula songs are also played and do still sound pretty good. The band do seem to enjoy themselves and Crispian is as charming, witty and musically impressive as ever. The crowd enjoy the show and it was worth the entry fee, but as for whether they will have much appeal to the public? Maybe he doesn't care, after all he's been there and done that already.
