Kula Shaker

Smash Hits used to print pictures of quirky Crispin Mills and would make jokes about what a posh boy he was. For a thirteen year old reading it at the time this was all very quaint, and the fact that his band Kula Shaker had managed to penetrate the pages of the now defunct pop bible, wrestling for space with Kavana & 911, stood as testament to the mainstream success they were enjoying.

Their derivative psychedelic indie had the Beatles to thank for a lot, but even with the obvious influences, the musicianship was masterful. But after the string of initial hits came a weak second album and, after a few unworldly comments made in the press, Mills called the whole thing off.

Fine. So why on earth are people congregated before a stage in the heart of Sheffield, cheering for Kula Shaker in 2006? Your guess is as good as mine. Whatever the reasoning, the Britpop anomalies are back for our consumption.

The good news is that songs off their debut ‘K’ are still as thrilling to hear performed today as they were for a thirteen year old to witness on Top Of The Pops the first time round. The bad news is that Kula Shaker’s musical proliferation didn’t follow them into the new millennium meaning tonight’s new material is little more than a massive failure.

‘The Big Bad Wolf’ is an embarrassing tale about a nightmarish bogeyman built on a pounding but forgettable rock riff. More crass, however, is ‘Dictators Of The Free World’, with it’s cringe-worthy chorus, ‘I’m a dick/ I’m a dick/ I’m a dictator!’ made all the more galling by Mills’ conspicuous eyebrow movements that translate roughly as ‘Can you see what I’ve done here? I’m being political!’

The crowd stand largely unimpressed as each new song lollops out the speaker system, but there’s an instant change in pace the second a classic like ‘Tattva’ rears its head. In these moments the place goes wild and rightly so. It’s a self-indulgent treat to hear ‘Hey Dude’ and ‘Govinda’ played live again, so good it even seems worth sitting through the dire new material for.

Kula Shaker could do wondrous things performing on a small stage at festivals later in the year, but any success they muster this time round is likely to be solely for reasons of nostalgia. Go along to one of their shows, re-live a bygone era, but don’t expect Kula Shaker’s second coming to be taking place any time soon. Even if Smash Hits were still with us, I doubt they’d be bothering the charts to earn the magazine’s support.

FUTURE GIGS