Chatham Singers (Billy Childish) + The Surgens April 7, 2006

Musician, artist, writer and resolute rabble-rouser, Billy Childish has stomped and stamped through a terrific range of bands since forming The Pop Rivits in 1977. Touted as an inspiration by behemoths like Kurt Cobain, Jack White (who has also recently called him a plagiarist!) and even Madonna, Childish himself has been an avatar of everything from thrash?folk to punk. In a rare outing away from his mainstay band the Buff Medways, Childish tonight collaborates with his wife on bass and with friends in tow in a return to rawer roots. Guitars twang and mouth organs squawk whilst Billy?s fractured and fragile voice is possessed of an effortless, un-showy power, all the more effective for its uncommonly exposed setting. A distorted, visceral and mystical channelling of the truly satanic roots of the blues.
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