Robb Johnson & The Irregulars
The Mystery Gets Your Number & The Poetry Makes The Call
Irregular Records
2022
Of necessity, the pandemic lockdown saw the closure of venues and the cessation of live concerts with audiences. Many musicians, however, took the opportunity to embrace the available technology and live-stream gigs, from living rooms, kitchens and hallways, on social media platforms. For some, Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers and Hannah Scott immediately spring to mind; this was a regular, weekly event. Robb Johnson, with his Sunday Night At The Hove Palladium (superseded by Live At The Shoreham Palladium), Zoom broadcasts were equally fertile.
Once some initial restrictions were lifted in 2021, at least facilitating studio recording, if not live concerts, Robb booked studio time at the Brighton Road Studios of his long-time friend, Ali Gavan, to record a “noisy” album. Working with the Irregulars who had made Pandemic Songs the previous year, John Forrester, bass & backing vocals, Arvin Johnson, drums & percussion, Fae Simon, backing vocals & percussion, Robb is credited with songwriting, vocals and guitar.
There was, however, one live gig which The Irregulars had been invited to play that July, the covid-safe, reduced-numbers annual Tolpuddle Festival. For this event, Robb assembled additional musicians, cunningly named The Tolpuddle Irregulars. Ironically, a week before the festival, Robb had to self-isolate as his son tested positive, and the gig was missed. Nevertheless, ‘the band that never was’ was recorded anyway.
Initially, Robb, Arvin, Fae and John recorded 12 songs, including some songs that would have been played at Tolpuddle. Robb decided that eight of those songs, six of them being the noisiest, would, in his words, “make a reeeeally good LOUD vinyl”. The other songs grew into a CD album featuring the Tolpuddle Irregulars, recently released as Stay Cool, Keep Left, Shine Bright.
Very much a guitar-based set, The Mystery Gets Your Number & The Poetry Makes The Call album was originally set for release last year, but the initial lack of funds and long turnaround time for vinyl manufacture allowed Robb to revisit the mix, add some more guitar and generally make the album sound a bit more “Raw Power”. Selling his Martin D35 provided the missing funding.
Side 1 opens with Scream Till The Walls Fall Down. Radically different sounding to the version on the Live at Hove Palladium 2021 CD with Fae Simon, with minor lyric changes too, this is a song about Covid and lockdown as poetry, as a metaphor for the rest of our lives. Lockdown reminds us we are imprisoned in a political system that cares not for the poor, the weak, the old, and the young; the more marginalised you are, the less the care. Even the clichéd lyric “All I ever wanted was the moon” seems sincere here.
Danny Kustow’s Gibson, a tribute to the late, great Tom Robinson Band guitarist, has a definite Power In The Darkness feel about it. Robb claims that seeing Danny play live with TRB at The White Bear in Hounslow back in the day was an epiphany for him. In one of the excellent essays written and available as a “Pledge” for the Kickstarter campaign for the album, Robb writes “He looks like a time bomb might look if it had legs”. Moving from the present day and a sardonic line about an app turning “water into vinegar” back to the late 1970s referencing, amongst other things, Fullers ESB beer and the Berlin Wall, the lyrics are sharply observed. Forgive my nerdiness then; the Gibson Black Les Paul (Custom) line, which features in the chorus, and essay, may have been the guitar played that time in the Bear, but I understood that the Gibson Les Paul Standard Sunburst (1959 model) was his axe of choice. Poetic licence? Whatever, a cracking song and a marvellous tribute.
At just over six minutes, much longer than versions appearing on the Second Division Life EP and Live At Hove Palladium recordings, Lost In Space is a great track featuring a fine bass introduction, captivating guitar solo and highly appropriate celestial chorus vocals. Again referencing technology, the lyrics initially talk of a musician’s aspirations with regard to streaming and an online presence, but this swirly, almost psychedelically-tinged track appears to make wider comments too about the influence of cyberspace and the cloud in all of our lives.
A change of tempo and volume for the fourth track, One Day We Go To Wembley, a previously unrecorded song, inspired by Brentford winning promotion to the premiership, but also resonating with the recent events at Euro 2020, this is a more gentle offering, with another delightful guitar solo, although once more there are possible depths of interpretation beyond mere football, a world in which there are no winners, no losers and everyone unites possibly?
“One day we go to Wembley….
One day we don’t come second and nobody comes last
One day we stand together and the fuckwits do not pass
One day we all got lucky
Just don’t ask me when….”
The second side opens with Yes Please Louise, which I have to admit I always assumed was written about/for Louise Regan, ex-president of The National Education Union (UK). The aforementioned essays suggest differently, however, with Louise Michel, a teacher and important member of the Paris Commune who throughout her life was dedicated to educating people to revolt against the forces that oppressed them, and Lou Reed, actually being those he had in mind, obviously both key individuals for him.
“like a carousel goes round
how come you never let me down?”
Having already written a song called 422 to pay respects to the number of people who had, at the time, died of Covid, Start Counting is another pandemic-related offering, with Fae Simon taking a beautiful lead vocal. Written in April 2021, the song was originally titled 127K +45, after the number killed by the virus; the tally is, though, rendered an irrelevance, after all, “we stopped counting long ago”, or is it, the rousing ending seems to implore that indeed we “start counting”.
It’s reggae, reggae, reggae all the way with this LP’s version of From Tolpuddle To Timbuktu, a track which appeared on Humbug 2020 at the Hove Palladium as a straightforward vocal/guitar song. The song, as do others here, also demonstrates Robb’s propensity to write a catchy chorus-song, Fae’s backing vocals adding greatly to the sing-along vibe created by the others, with its straightforward entreaty “stay cool, keep left, shine bright” lyric obviously providing the inspiration for the “sister” CD release mentioned above.
The second side closes with Anytime, a new song more or less written on the Sunday night before the recordings started. Another slower piece, which nevertheless underwent several iterations following comments from Arvin, features more gorgeous phrasing from Fae, and, for me, is the perfect ending track for the release, even if that was not the original plan.
The Mystery Gets Your Number & The Poetry Makes The Call is a mighty fine post-punk rock‘n’roll record. Somewhere down the line, Robb asks, “Does it work for you?” The answer from these quarters is an unequivocal yes.