Here come the snakes

No, not a reference to Lib Dem leadership contenders, but the best album by my favourite /band/group/artist/beat combo, Green on Red. They split more than a decade ago, but played a reunion at the Astoria, London last night.

I wouldn't have missed it for the world. So instead I missed it for a meeting of Watford Borough Council's Development Control Committee, of which I am a member.

This is not the first time such a thing has happened. Indeed it has happened so often that sometimes I almost become paranoid that my favourite artists checked the register of Watford Council meetings and set their London dates to clash with them.

In fact, I didn't even know Green on Red were playing until I saw them listed as the 'live choice' in yesterday's Evening Standard, which I read over the shoulder of a fellow passenger on the Silverlink County line. I have got to the stage in life where I don't regularly read the music press or check for concerts. GoR never really had that big a following and there is no website official or unofficial in existence. So I didn't go and I wasn't there!

Still, in the cause of championing the underdog, I would encourage readers to check out Green on Red. In many ways they are the precurors of bands such as Wilco, Son Volt etc. who blend country, punk, folk and rock influences and who made country music almost cool again in the late 1990s. The best way I can describe their sound is as a cross between Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground. Their lyrics consisted of tales of outcasts, outsiders and underdogs. Somehow these carried more conviction than, say, Bruce Springsteen who dealt with similar themes, because whereas Bruce was clearly wealthy and successful, Green on Red never quite made it.

I don't know how the gig went because I can't find a review of it. Interested readers can view the Time Out preview here