THE MILKMEN/MAX MANNING
Musician Pub 14th December 2024
Back at The Musician Pub last night for one of the annual highlights... but more of that later...
Opening the evening was a solo set by Max Manning (of the Della Grants). I've seen Max a number of times both solo and with the band, and always thoroughly enjoyed it... but to be honest for me this wasn't one of his best nights.
Max was in great voice and playing well, both with assurance, and he delivered a great set of covers including "Have you Ever Seen the Rain" (CCR) "Let it Bleed" (Stones) and "San Francisco Bay Blues (Jesse Fuller)... and some originals, such as 'William Clay" and "Apple Seeds" (i think it was called that).
The problem was I am not a big lover of using loopers... i've heard Max use a looper before, but tonight i felt it overdone and made the overall sound uncomfortably cluttered and a bit messy which, for me, detracted from the performance.
Max is a fine performer, he doesn't need to clutter the sound, his voice and guitar alone make a very strong performance.
Final point... Max said at one point that having a music stand and ipod on stage is unprofessional... yes.. it is!
On to the main event... as the strains of Benny Hill's "Ernie" faded, the superb The Milk Men - Band took the stage to huge applause and kicked into what proved to be an epic set...
The band are loved at the Musician and they had the audience rocking from the off.
The standard of musicianship in this band is phenomenal... at the back Mike is a real musical drummer... he rocks and swings throughout and never resorts to the "wildman" style... just superb precise drum work. Lloyd tends to stand quite quietly (in the way of the great bass players) and simply delivers superb powerful bass. Adam is the guitar man.. playing fluent rocking guitar and delivering some scorching solos. Jamie is the perfect singer for the band... singing with power and control and delivering the songs with style and aplomb.
The set was typical Milk Men, featuring the classics from their albums and a few well chosen covers...
The band started off rocking fiercely then built up and up... and just when you think they have peaked they find another couple of gears and go to a higher level... a major highlight of the show is always their version of "Oh Well" (Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac) which has Mike banging his tambouring somewhere in the audience and the other 3 in close formation on the stage apron... and featuring some superb guitar work by Adam.
From there, they found another level and rocked like fury... I lost track of what was in the set and what comprised the encores... but we got a scintillating "Pinball Wizard" which had the crowd singing along... by now the band and audience had hit fever pitch and the classic rock'n'roll gems rocked the room to the foundations... in there were, among others, "Going Back Home" (Mick Green/Wilco Johnson) "Bad Case of loving You" (Robert Palmer) "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran) a reprise of "Make Mine a Double", which hadn't gone perfectly early in the set, and this time included Adams guitar lead falling out... and the final ecstatic medley of "Johnny B Goode/Sweet Caroline/Rocking all over the World" which had the audience singing in full cry and all but lifted the roof...
"i like it i like it i la la like it.... "
Not only is this band musically superb... but they play with great joy and pleasure, a great rapport between the musicians and the audience making a Milk Men gig one of the great joys on the music scene...
They've always been a fabulous live band, but this gig (which was being recorded for potentially a live album) saw the band hit greater heights than ever... absolutely magnificent performance
Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues
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