Mood Six | Gig Review | The Venue 1982

Published in Sounds, 26th June 1982

Mood Six | Gig Review | The Venue 1982 | SADLY I arrived late, thereby missing the Poetic Slav, the very character I’d vowed not to miss. In fact, for a moment I thought he was onstage, a myopic caped beanpole, a mutant crossbred mixture of Ian Hunter and Batman, a veritable oddity.

But no. This was instead, I’m told, The Doctor, who talked us through Gary Glitter‘s ‘I’m Back’ by way of introducing the Marble Staircase — and no, I don’t understand it either!

The Staircase are a difficult one to talk about, being neither good nor very bad, just extremely dull. I even tried my usual trick of closing my eyes and concentrating on the music, to no avail. It remained bland and inoffensive, quite safe to play on the piped system at Sainsbury’s.

Mood Six | Gig Review | The Venue 1982

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Mood Six. I’d never seen them before, and had tentatively ventured down on the strength of liking their new single (more truthfully I was frogmarched by a colleague).

Being of that peculiar age that just missed the tail end of the Sixties, I was weaned on the strange amalgam of early Seventies glam rock and tantalising Sixties spill over, and have always felt that I missed something.

Because of this I have harboured more than a slight suspicion of this ‘psychedelic revival’ thing, feeling that it was orientated towards people who couldn’t possibly have any conception of the true atmosphere of the original, and therefore would be a pathetic attempt at reproduction.

Certainly some of the crowd reinforced this idea — the ruffled shirts, minis and pendants — bless us and save us, I even saw one couple burning incense at their table.

But Mood Six were marvellous, transcending all this psychedelic hype, proving that they don’t need the prop of this classification (why do they pander to it?).

If you can listen to the songs and screen out the electric organ and tambourine, you end up with something very far removed from authentic psychedelia.

I’ve got to admit to wincing at the film backdrop of spirograph acid trip coloured blobs (twee) and Phil Ward‘s pink satin jacket with ruffles at wrist and throat, but who cares what people look like when they can produce great dance music like ‘Its Your Life’ ‘Party Time’ and ‘Hanging Around’.

Mood Six | Gig Review | The Venue 1982

The only comparison to the Sixties that I could say was partly genuine was the overall feeling of friendship, a very rare commodity at gigs these days!

Mood Six played one semi-slow song that I fell in love with, ‘Life In The Dark Age’ and, as an encore, we got that great old Flamin’ Groovies classic ‘Shake Some Action’ rounding off what was for me a surprisingly enjoyable evening.

So don’t be put off. Mood Six are not all love beads and acid. Instead they form their own brand of instant karma, good solid pop songs that don’t need this regressive ‘revival’ label as an excuse for existing. (Helen Fitzgerald)