"Evening Stannit! Get your Evening Stannit!"

Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed and the True Loves are in London in the middle of a string of small venue dates after appearing at Latitude before moving up north for a couple more, and tonight generously turned out for a free set at Rough Trade East. Although criminally poorly attended, it was a great chance to check out Eli and the lads. And after enjoying his storming new release, I can confirm he’s certainly the real deal live. They belted out about eight numbers, three of which are not on Roll With You, finishing off with a nice off the wall touch - a rock’n'roll style cover of ‘The Ace Of Spades’. Just about as loud as Lemmy would have liked too. Eli was rocking a pair of purple suede shoes and what looked like a tasty vintage guitar (though I know nothing about guitars), and was happy to jam along with classic tunes blaring out from the Rough Trade P.A. system while waiting for more punters to show. Continue Reading

Jesus H. Christ! Here’s a voice and a half that means the name of Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed can be uttered in the same sentence as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam Cook without fear of embarrassment. With his electrifying live act (”I rip a lot of pants.”), he’s on his own ‘mission from God’ to pick up the mantle of Jake and Elwood as flag bearer for the Stax/Chess/Motown legacy. There’s been a lot of retro sounds around lately of course, from the ladies mainly, but this is so immediately authentic that, just as with the original soul classics, critical analysis really isn’t relevant. It either mainlines to the gut and throws you around or it doesn’t. Simple as. Continue Reading