Sandman Live Review

http://www.sandmanmagazine.co.uk

Captain Wilberforce
Cloth Cat Night @ The Primrose 28/10/2005

Several pints later, it’s time for the irrepressibly perky Captain Wilberforce. As before, the Captain uses his four-track as a great asset. Backing himself on guitar, bass, keyboards and accordion (!), his music shifts between the DIY grandeur of, say, Gene, and harmonised, sunshiny pop reminiscent of (gulp) the Beatles. It’s indie like your mother used to make- sweet and strong. More than that, you knew real love had gone into it. The Captain lets rip through eight songs, most from recent album Mindfilming. ‘Algebra, Take Me Dancing’ conjures the same dreamy sense of disquiet as the Cure’s ‘Lullaby’, while ‘Vaselined Eyes’ (the Captain is so cavalier with his song titles) sounds like Mcfly gone, erm... Mcfly. But it’s still very pretty. If there is a downside, it’s that one is made to imagine how great this would sound with a full live band. With all else in place, all the good Captain needs now is a beat to get the troops marching.