Live Review - The Len Price 3, St Moritz, London

THE LEN PRICE 3

The Club For Losers, St. Moritz Club London July 01^st

I find myself here in the early hours amongst the alcoves of the legendary afterhours drinking club, The St. Moritz. There aren’t many bands that would rouse me to travel up to the big city for a gig due to start at a time when I would normally be tucked up in bed, but The Len Price 3 are certainly one of them.

It’s like a scene from '60s cult TV show The Prisoner, hallucinogenic psychedelic lights play across the band as they take the stage resplendent in colourful striped boating blazers. Then it’s, bam, straight into two new songs 'Words Won’t Come”'and 'Frustration'. Opening with two unrecorded numbers might be a risky strategy for many bands, but it’s testament to The Len Price 3’s song writing that half way through each one you find yourself singing along to the choruses as though they were old favourites.

Up next is 'You Tell Lies' one of the stand-out tracks on latest album Pictures, the superb harmonies and backing vocals of drummer Neil Fromow fix the chorus in your brain for days to come. 'Rentacrowd', up next, could be the band’s signature track with it’s’ tales of life in the Medway Delta, excluded from the trendy London scene. It is a classic, with Glenn Page’s slashing guitar chords and more of those impossibly catchy harmonies.

I’m right at the front crammed between the PA speakers and band, so close that I’m almost decapitated by Steve Huggins’ bass as he swings it, lost in the moment. There’s such an energy and joyfulness, smiles are everywhere, especially after the double hit of 'With Your Love' and 'If I Ain’t Got You'. The jaunty new single 'Mr Grey' leads into a fantastic run of tracks that culminates in Glenn joining the audience for a cover of 'Comanche'.

Two enthusiastically received encores of 'Amsterdam' and 'Christian In The Desert' from the debut album end things on a high and then, all too soon, it’s over. I’m left with the dawning realisation that I’m already desperate for my next fix of The Len Price 3.

Steve Worrall