Question: What happens to musicians who pioneer a particular sound but then don’t sell out and capitalise on the name they made for themselves decades ago à la Johnny Rotten, Chris Cornell et al?
Answer: They end up, in their sixties, playing to a quarter-full Whelan’s and plugging their own EP from the stage.
Fair dues to Simeon Coxe, the remaining Silver Apple (drummer Danny Taylor died in 2005) – at least he looks like he’s enjoying himself. The man who blazed the trail for synthesisers in the late 1960s – in the process paving the way for every electro-rock act since – seemed genuinely happy to be there, on a stage draped with some rather sad-looking tinfoil.
Regrettably, there’s a huge amount of taped stuff in this show and, obviously, there’s no rhythm section so the ‘live’ dimension of modern day Silver Apples is almost negligible. Coxe sings, plays the odd melody on a little keyboard and makes weird, early Dr Who-style sound effects on a home-made looking synth-machine.
There’s no doubt that this digital psychedelia would have blown your mind if you’d heard it in 1967 – it’s as though someone had posted a copy of Kid A (on which Coxe should probably be credited) back to the decade before Kraftwerk existed.
Does it work today? Kind of. Hot Press was standing behind a couple who seemed to be having a fantastic time. The rest of the crowd weren’t exactly set on fire, particularly when it came to Coxe’s new material, which is dissonant and fragmentary.
Support act Twin Cranes were excellent; surprisingly so as the drummer is also the singer, which goes against nature. They passed the support act litmus test – you’d happily pay to see them headline their own show.