My Life Story - Mean Fiddler, 26th May 06
After a six-year break, the return of My Life Story was always going to
be an occasion. In the early 90s, the band brought strings, orchestral arrangements and a sense of grandeur to an indie scene mired in grungy guitars, starting a good year or two before Britpop made such revivalist trappings common. And suited and booted frontman Jake Shillingford (son of pop artist Alan) was every inch the old fashioned pop star, good looking and always ready with a quip, a kiss curl or a quote.
And that combination of right place, right person gained them a more than merely devoted following and a few hit singles to boot. So a one-off appearance at London's Mean Fiddler (to launch a new best of CD) has a huge weight of expectation on its shoulders.
Thankfully, the band (here tonight in force, with strings and wind section back alongside the later abbreviated line up) can still deliver.
Of course, some great tunes help. Opener Sparkle is a glam epic in search of a Bond film to soundtrack, all punchy violin stabs and a sweeping chorus. Early tunes follow, with Girl A, Girl B from the band's very first ep keeping up the pace. The audience reaction is suitably insane; like a deep south evangelical meeting, the audience know every word and shout them right back at the preacher. When mid-period anthems like King of Kissingdom and Twelve Reasons Why get an outing, the audience are louder than the band and even Shillingford (never one to shirk when it came to being a little ... well, cocky) looks surprised.It's not all songs from a Bond film soundtrack, of course. My Life Story had a later, quieter period when Shillingford's lyrics took on a more bitter twist, and his voice moved from Anthony Newley camp to an Elvis Costello sneer. Tunes like (If You can't Live Without Me) Then Why Aren't You Dead Yet and It's A Girl Thing weren't as well received as those earlier stompers when they were released in 2000: they've weathered well though and actually stand up as some of the band's best material. It's great songwriting that's at the heart of their endurance.
I first saw My Life Story at the bottom of a Blur bill. In fact, as a member of the local crew, I was told to throw them offstage after just four songs when Blur frontman Damon Albarn thought Shillingford was upstaging him. Commercially, Albarn might have had the last laugh, but - thirteen years on - Southend-born Jake could still upstage the middle class boy from Colchester. Tonight's triumphant gig is proof of that.
Photographs of My Life Story at the Mean Fiddler courtesy of Kathleen Snooks.
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