One of the weirdest things about The Pixies was that I don't have too many friends that liked them. Mind you, some of my mates think that INXS were good, 'nuff said! I can remember that when I bought Surfa Rosa, I was the only person that could recognise their genius amongst my social group and, therefore, sufferred much derision. Because of all this, I never got round to seeing The Pixies live, as I never had anyone to go with. Tonight, I am in London on my own finally having decided to at least go and see Frank Black. I have a couple of the 'Catholics' albums at home and to me they sound much gentler than Frank's previous Nirvana influencing band. A sort of Indy Country & Western style if you like. I am just about to settle down to a pleasant evening when I am rudely awakened by three guitarists, a bassist and drummer claiming to be The Catholics. Well it looks like Frank, but live, this is a whole lot louder and nastier. Excellent!!! I particuarly enjoyed their run through of ' Black Letter Day' and ' Cold Heart Of Stone', but the biggest cheers of the evening were for the Pixies songs ' Cactus' , ' Veloria' and ' Caribou'. There are rumours of a re-union and world tour next year and I doubt I will give that a miss. On a few of the songs one of the guitarists would sit down and play pedal steel guitar. Played well, this is a particuarly effective instrument and neither musicians let me down. After the very acoustic encore, one of the blokes next to me kept shouting the word ' Legend'! at the top of his voice and on this evidence I wouldn't disagree. My mates are wrong, big time!


Ric Mansell


Check Out The Official Website Of The Band Frank Black & The Catholics