| Reviews |
| Lineup: Dan Treacy (guitar, vocals), Ed Ball (bass, keyboard, bk vocals), Victoria Yeulet (bk vocals), John Bennett (drums). |
| Antoine Leblanc: Now Brighton was another story to say the least, and could teach a thing or two about shambolism (if there is such a word) and proper rock'n'roll chaos to the likes of Pete D and others. Many of the 100 Club songs were played, but generally not more than 1 minute each. Dan got "upset" about various essential things like mic stands, not being in London, being the only straights in the village amongst things, but still managed to play a very funny and entertaining set for 30 mns. Then he (and I, and quite a few people in the audience) got irritated by a bunch of very loud and drunk people talking during songs next to the stage, these sad people ruined a lovely piano version of Silly Girl, then from there it was just chaos, the gig started again just to stop after a few chords, then was put to an abrupt stop around 8.45pm. A shame, still we had a really good time, Dan thank you for these 2 great sets in a week, brilliant to see you on stage and meet you. Also, it was good to have another confirmation that Mr Ball is actually and by far the nicest and loveliest man in the music industry. We love you. |
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| Mark Murphy: I went down to Brighton with my brother and had a very interesting evening's entertainment. Dan looked great in his parka and Ben Sherman shirt. There were a few morons in the audience who spoiled things for Dan, the band and the rest of us, still, it was great to be there. . . My highlights were the stripped down version of Silly Girl with Dan on keyboards and the great pop of She Can Stop Traffic. I bought the DVD, which I hadn't got round to ordering, it's great, I really like the Strangely Beautiful track, aaahhh! We had to get the train back to London so don't know if Dan's planned acoustic set on the beach ever happened. |
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| Patrick Chadwick: Saw their gig in Brighton last night, it was extremely shambolic to say the least! But I still enjoyed it, it was like watching a car crash on stage. Dan was drunk, loads and loads of banter with the audience, Dan would play the guitar when and if he felt like it, change lyrics, was unable to tune his guitar, the mic stand wouldn't stay up, audience members would walk on stage etc etc. Ed Ball helped keep most of the songs together (bass/impromptu keyboard) with Victoria (?) (backing vocals) and a drummer who I can't remember the name of but was supposedly their first ever drummer, he had to stand in at the last minute. Anyway they also had a DVD for sale for £10 (hand drawn cover) but it only had about 6 songs on it. |
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| John Gammon: If you weren't there, you might have heard about Dan's appalling performance with TVP on Saturday in Brighton. He came on seemingly drunk or drug racked, and began to berate his Brighton audience. Then bad went to worse, with Dan frequently losing his way during songs, forgetting both lyrics and music, tuning up his guitar loudly in mid number to the obvious chagrin of his excellent band, all of whom except the hapless female singer (Victoria Yeulet?), gave up and left him on stage. Finally, the management had to step in to tell him it was time for him to finish. A guy in the audience shouted out "This is the worst gig I've ever seen" and I'm afraid I had to agree. Shame, because the band was so good. I went up to Mr Ball and John Bennett (who was brought in after their latest drummer fell ill) afterwards and told them they were great, but I got the impression they would like to forget the whole thing. |
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| Nigel Bailey: First thing to say is that I'm a bit of a Johnny-come-lately as far as the TVPs are concerned. It's only been in the last 12 months that I've had any interest in them. Second thing is that my expectations were low having heard the 100 club gig was somewhat patchy. Despite this I had a great time. A small friendly crowd were very up for it. For the first 30-40 minutes the band were pretty together and every song was a winner. Then Dan started having problems with his guitar. New guitars appeared from time to time but there was something wrong with each one. Meanwhile it started to become apparent that Dan was getting increasingly annoyed and disturbed by some of the banter. Some sections of the crowd seemed to enjoy winding him up - something akin to shooting fish in a barrel - but that's what some pissed people do. From this point on the gig started to degenerate. They still managed a few good tunes. Crowd favourite 'Salvador Dali' being one of the better ones, and a new song called, I think, 'She Stops Traffic'. Eventually the gig just ground to a halt. Ed Ball wandered off with the drummer. Dan started hammering the keyboards for about 10 minutes whilst, I think, singing songs too. All very weird but strangely compelling. The whole gig took place with a Terence Stamp film from the sixties (that I didn't recognise) playing behind them. Anyway, despite the lack of a big finish and encore - not what I expected anyway - the whole thing was pretty damn fine and I've had no hesitation in going to see them again. Hopefully with each live gig Dan will get more resilient and confident. Despite having no great history with the band it's great to see them back. |