Johnny Foreigner/Tellison – Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut

15 October, 2009

There’s no place quite like King Tut’s to see a live band, anyone who’s ever been will surely affirm. Tonight, gracing the stage are two of the finest young bands making waves on the UK scene currently, Tellison and Johnny Foreigner.

Speaking to Tellison singer Stephen Davidson before the gig he tells me that the tour is going well for them: “Yeah, it’s been super so far,” he said before finishing: “but Johnny Foreigner havn’t had such a good time, last night they broke the PA.” Tonight should be interesting.

Tellison’s rise to prominence has been fairly meteoric after two sold out 7” presses were followed by debut album Contact! Contact!, which was largely well received and has probably been heard by the majority of Brits under twenty. Though they won’t know it, I’m willing to bet that 70 per cent of this country’s youngsters have heard at least one tune from Contact! Contact!. That’s because seeming every music commissioner in the country has borrowed a track for their youth orientated show – The Inbetweeners, Skins and Nearly Famous, among others have all featured songs from the debut, making them probably your favourite band you haven’t heard of.

Tonight’s show is a mix of new songs from the imminent follow up and the anthems from C!C!, when positioned together it’s plain to see that the new album will be a very different offering. When I first heard Tellison I called them “a better-read, more literate Get Up Kids” but on the strength of these new songs, in particular ghosts which features a brooding saxophone riff. I await the release keenly.

Johnny Foreigner take to the stage and, true to Stephen’s testament, fire through a set that is sadly riddled by technical faults. The first fault takes less than a minute to rear its ugly head, as bugs stop Kelly’s bass from working in the middle of the set opener, later Alexei throws his guitar down in frustration as it too has stopped working. Only drummer Junior manages to navigate the gig, successfully avoiding the pitfalls that technology sometimes presents. This is made all the more impressive when you consider that the majority of the time he is playing drums and keyboards simultaneously.

For the meatier songs Johnny Foreigner borrow Peter from Tellison to play guitar and the sound instantly becomes truly epic. The three piece have just put the finishing touches to their second album, Grace and the Bigger Picture, the follow-up to waited up ‘til it was light which was released on 26 October. They’ll see out the year on tour and I certainly hope they have better luck with the rest of their live dates, because as good as the show was, the problems with technology could only detract from the fluidity and overall feel of the live show.