Newsround Extra.
When you arrive at a gig and you realise that there is a separate section for non-drinkers and under-age members it lets you know quite early on that there is going to be a fairly young crowd for the evening’s action. Get Cape Wear Cape Fly even sounds as though it was taken from the instructions booklet of a Mario game and the name, whilst being fairly abstract, does seem to align Sam Duckworth with his audience.
At times it was hard to tell if you were at a gig or had been conned into watching a Newsround Extra special on environmental issues. Given the fact it was an over 14s gig, there was probably a lot of scope for the younger fans to be wowed by Duckworths ranting and ravings but to anyone a bit older or having at least read one news item about the topics there would have been a lack of interesting statements to get you more involved in the subject. The soapbox politics of the night was at an introductory level as opposed to in-depth discussion but it seemed to suit the tone of the evening and if it got a few people more interested in finding out about these issues then it wasn’t a complete waste.
Rock n roll clichés can generally be the death of an act but in this instance, the gig went better when the standard breed of rock n roll lyrics were tossed out and when the music was more raucous and lively. Not to say the gig was dull but there were a lot of moments when the side musicians faded into unlit obscurity and the front-man had the crowd to himself.
Having never caught Get Cape live before, the full band was a pleasant surprise and the horn section worked well. The PA music throughout the night contained many soul classics and a few James Brown foot-stompers and this tied in with the set brilliantly. The addition of the horn section provided a counter-balance to the electronic wizardry that was floating in the background and GCWCF manage to pull some varied styles together to make a cohesive sound.
The crowd clearly dote on Duckworth and many of his singalongs were taken over loudly and enthusiastically from the audience, with the favourites of the previous record still going down well. There were also a lot of la-la-la sections where the crowd took over and it’s fair to say that the vast majority of the crowd who saw it, enjoyed the evening. At times it was slightly dull and a little too preachy for its own good but with a new album to be released shortly, GCWCF will be around for quite a while yet so if you enjoy mixing genres with a little bit of politics, check him out soon.