Gig review: Bad Manners, Edinburgh Picture House

By DAVID POLLOCK
Published on 23/06/2012 02:23

IF BUSTER Bloodvessel never plays a comedy relief baddie in EastEnders, he’s missed his calling in life. In which case the 53-year-old Hackney geezer (real name Douglas Trendle) must settle for fronting Bad Manners for a few years longer, their seemingly never-ending ska knees-up having endured on the live stage for 30 years and more.

What impressed here wasn’t so much the slick musicianship of Buster’s seven-piece band or the fact he’s still an attention-grabbing frontman with a voice like metal being filed, so much as the ages and apparent backgrounds of the packed crowd who came to see him. Students, middle-aged housewives and frankly frightening geezers with both the girth and a shine on their head to match those of Buster danced all night, while our host wriggled through a few jerking moves as if he were trying to manoeuvre his fitted camouflage suit jacket off his shoulders. His fans greeted him with the now-traditional and still deeply odd chant to which he’s become accustomed, and he welcomed it with benign acceptance. “Yes,” he barked, “I am fat and I am a b******.”

His lively band were set off perfectly by a blasting three-piece horn section during old singles like Walking in the Sunshine, Fatty Fatty and the instrumental The Court of King Ska Fa, while a sunny cover of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You was Busterified with a couple of saucy lyric changes.

History might not remember Bad Manners for either the unerring pop precision of Madness or the political edge of the Specials, but in the blokey closing crescendo of Wooly Bully, Lip Up Fatty, Special Brew and the frantic Can Can, there was plenty to keep the party going.

Rating: ***