The county of Essex has raised more than its fair share of rock and pop icons: Blur, The Prodigy, Alison Moyet, Dr Feelgood, Humble Pie, Ian Dury to name a few. Following hard in the footsteps come Chelmsford punk/rock/pop/rap three-piece Bilk, whose second album Essex, Drugs And Rock And Roll is released today.
Bilk
The title of course is an homage to one of Dury’s finest works and the similarities don’t end there. The lyrics, written and spewed at warp speed by frontman Sol Abraham, contain much of the verbal dexterity that Ian brought to The Blockheads and they’re delivered in a similarly monotone Thames Estuary drawl.
Whilst the first, eponymously titled album resided unashamedly at the punk end of the punk rock spectrum, the new one swings the needle in varying directions. Opening track RNR starts life with a guitar riff more glam than Audrey Hepburn, but soon puts on twenty years and resolves into a thinly-veiled pastiche of Britpop’s Royal Family. In fact, making the opening track on your album sound this much like Oasis, calling it ‘RNR’ and singing about being a rock ‘n’ roll star is bordering on taking the piss. Bilk have balls, I’ll give them that.
But it’s not all music to piss off mum and dad. Summer Days is such a lightweight jangly pop tune you’d be forgiven for thinking it had been inspired by The Housemartins. This is a comparison that the band might not entirely approve of, assuming of course they have the slightest idea who The Housemartins are.
Whether or not the swing into alternative genres is entirely successful can only be determined by the individual. Personally, I prefer Bilk when they operate at extremes – ear drum shattering chaos or stripped back acoustic; and I especially like them when Sol is rolling out his most acerbic wit.
Skidmark is one of the acoustic numbers, but somehow manages to be one of the most gratuitous diss songs I’ve ever heard and is just fantastic:
“If it became a situation I was locked in a room,
With Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler and you,
And I had a gun with two bullets to make shit right,
I’d let those evil pricks live and I’d shoot you twice.”
The chorus is so offensive I can’t write it here. Suffice it to say it uses the kind of words that Dury himself didn’t shy away from.
There are some absolute bangers on here too at the window rattling end of the spectrum. F Up has lyrics detailing Abraham’s struggles with making toast that made me laugh out loud and This Room Is Caving In On Me is 2:48 of joyous punk-rap profanity.
But the best track without doubt here is Tommy, the harrowing story of a girl with aspirations who got with the wrong guy. It dispenses with the self-deprecating humour in favour of a pumping rock tune and some sharp observation:
“So now she’s bunking off of college, no longer sees her mates,
She’s too busy rehearsing all her lines round Tommy’s place,
And Tommy all he wants to do is get completely off his face,
Her goals and aspirations slowly going down the drain.
He gets her on the soft stuff but of course she upgrades,
And now she’s getting twisted every night she’s forgotten her own name,
And all I can think is how it’s all such a shame,
‘Cos now she’s sat in front of the tele sticking needles in her veins.”
Probably the best way to enjoy the new tunes (and certainly all the old ones) is to join in the manic fun at one of the forthcoming live shows. I photographed Bilk at Omeara a couple of years ago. There’s no photo pit there and the flying carpet of non-stop crowd surfing left me with a few temporary dents in my forehead, one permanent dent in a camera, and one massive bloody smile on my face.
Bilk @ Omeara
This time around the band were booked to play The Garage, but demand outstripping supply has seen them upgraded to Camden’s Electric Ballroom. It’s a near five-fold increase in capacity from last time and RockShot will be there to witness the ensuing carnage. The EB has a pit and the stage is absurdly high, so unless the fanbase are looking to break a few neck vertebrae, my forehead and cameras should be safer this time. But there are two things of which I can remain certain: I’ll still be retaining the smile and the crowd behind me will still be going bananas.
If you want to be a part of the experience, the dates and venues for the UK tour are below:
JANUARY
24th – Hot Box Live, Chelmsford
FEBRUARY
5th – Thekla, Bristol
6th – The Globe, Cardiff
7th – The Electric Ballroom, London
13th – O2 Academy 2, Manchester
14th – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
15th – Northumbria University, Newcastle
16th – SWG3, Glasgow
19th – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
20th – Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
21st – O2 Academy, Birmingham
22nd – The Engine Rooms, Southampton
Tickets are available from the Bilk website.
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