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Insanity Beach and 'the joes' live at Jaks in Liverpool

After a somewhat chilly soundcheck and tense wait for the bar to open
and the heating to be turned on, Jaks was finally ready to open its
doors to the masses to sample the delights of Insanity Beach (first
up) and 'the joes' (second on followed by a band called Speedy). OK -
where's L!ve TV got to? A dozen or so phone calls reveal that all of
L!ve TV's cameramen have got flu and their mothers have told them all
that they have to stay in bed. Ah well, no TV coverage after all;
still, we know who's loss that is...

The Beach acquitted themselves marvellously - despite an amount of
somewhat unprofessional heckling by Speedy - with 'Lied 2 Me B4'
sounding even better than the very well-recorded version on their
'Bootleg' demo. Their set was a brain-bending straight through 45
minutes with only a couple of spoken words here and there. It's
immediately obvious how much trouble these guys go to to create their
live sets with fills and links between songs doing their jobs so you'd
not even notice them. Well... you couldn't help noticing 'Close To
You' � la Insanity Beach, and is Rolf Harris REALLY Ian's dad? I think
not, sport. If I'd had my way I'd have swapped Speedy and Beach's
position on the evening's bill in an instant; it was a big shame that
these guys got the warm-up slot when they should have been pounding
their way into peoples' ears via a few bottles of Becks. Yum.

Next up came 'the joes' (yes, lower case...). I was hoping for a
little more from these guys but they were plagued by 3 cases of
tonsilitis and 1 case of flu which makes me think that Jaks was lucky
to see them at all! Was this going to be a joes' set without a
rendering of the classic 'Paper Plane'? Apparently so as band's
manager Martin informed me... the guys were a little fed up of the
song which is quite old by comparison with the rest of their material.
The guys' tiredness and general state of health was apparent
throughout the set which is a shame as I've heard live stuff by these
guys which is guaranteed to get any audience on its feet and grooving.
By the end of the set, however, the boys had warmed up considerably
and seemed to have started enjoying themselves thoroughly - the
difference in the sound showed, too. Was that Speedy at it again?
Maybe next time complimentary gags should be handed out... The opening
bars of the song 'She Knows' sailed forth from the PA and lo! The joes
had got their sh*t together and were playing to the time-honoured
standard this reviewer's used to. The groove's spot on and tight as
ever but importantly the guys look a lot healthier at last! Finally a
pleasant surprise - it seems as if 'Paper Plane' is going to be played
after all. Just cos it's an oldie doesn't mean it's naff, guys!

Recomendation of the evening definitely goes to Insanity Beach for a
bang-on performance under unfavourable conditions. An additional
recomendation for band 'What's this crap?' Speedy... be careful what
you wish for.

If you want to see how these guys (Insanity Beach & 'the joes') sound
for yourself then pop into the Project 9 website at
http://www.apcg.demon.co.uk and have a gander at the AUDIO department.
Don't forget to check out some other artists too!

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site (their tour ends 23rd December 1996)