Classic Rock UK - April 2019

‘It all climaxes with

a riotous Keep On

Swinging, throats worn,

triumph consolidated.’

The Sheepdogs look good. Real good. Dressed

as if by the prop department from the dismal

Martin Scorcese series Vinyl, they channel the sound

and spirit of the 1970s so accurately it’s almost

a surprise that the Roundhouse doesn’t smell of

fondue and Hai Karate. Guitarists Ewan Currie and

Jimmy Bowskill are resplendent in dazzling

rhinestone suits, bassist Ryan Gullen is a medley in

tasselled suede and leather, and keyboard player

Shamus Currie sports a tie with a pattern that would

look at home adorning the walls of a Rusholme balti

house circa 1973, and the kind of drooping

moustache that went out of fashion with Yosemite

Sam. They look magnificent.

Amid all this elegance it would be easy to dismiss

the band as pastiche, another act lampooning the past,

were it not for the fact that their performance is

delivered without even the merest hint of irony, and

the fact that they have the songs to back up the

schmutter. From the sweet southern rock of I’ve Got

A Hole Where My Heart Should Be to the drowsy boogie

grind of Who? and the cocksure swagger of Bad

Lieutenant, The Sheepdogs have melody leaking from

every pore. They’re

operating in an age when

many bands prefer to wield

a riff rather than write

a chorus, and while they

may not have come up

with a Sweet Home

Alabama yet they’ve

probably got a dozen songs

that are headed in the right direction. Closing song

Nobody even throws in a section that sounds like Jet-

era Wings. Of course, the ghosts of the Allman

Brothers are never too far away, and when Currie and

Bowskill step to the lip of the stage to perform those

interlocking harmony solos it really could be the

Fillmore East, and it really could be March 1971.

They’re back in June. Go see them.

R

ival Sons are

another band

with clear

sartorial leanings. Jay

Buchanan is perhaps the

only white male to have

successfully pulled off the

poncho look since Clint

Eastwood, and Scott Holiday always looks like he’s

fresh from the chair of an Edwardian gentlemen’s

Rival Sons / The Sheepdogs

London The Roundhouse

After The Sheepdogs’ impressive trip back to the 70s, the headliners deliver quality, class and great promise.

‘Six (^) album
s in,
Rival Son
s (^) are finall
ge y^
tting (^) start
ed.’
Rivals Sons’ Jay Buchanan
and Scott Holiday: music to
match the sartorial style.
110 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM