SPEAR OF DESTINY + BAND OF THE UNDERHAND – CON CLUB, LEWES 3.6.18
I hot-footed it to The Con Club in Lewes from the Glastonwick festival, seventeen miles away, in order to see the final date of Kirk Brandon’s Spear Of Destiny tour. I was particularly keen to catch the lads as I hadn’t witnessed a Spear Of Destiny concert before, although I have seen his Theatre Of Hate outfit on many occasions.
Kirk Brandon has been ‘spear-heading’ Spear Of Destiny for 35 years and during that period there has been the inevitable ever-changing personnel as one would expect over such a period of time. However, one thing was certain about the performance and that was the fact that Mr Brandon would be giving it his all as he always does.
Spear Of Destiny were formed in 1983 after the demise of Kirk Brandon’s post punk iconic rockers Theatre Of Hate and today Kirk still records and produces music at a pleasing rate for his fans. For instance on April 6th this year Spear Of Destiny released their 14th studio album. It’s called ‘Tontine’ and I have a copy and it is very good indeed.
On the latest live shows including our Lewes Con Club gig, Kirk and the lads expertly draw on songs from their new 2018 ‘Tontine’ album, seven of them to be precise, as well as a mirroring seven tunes from their debut 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’.
Although I personally have to say that I did enjoy the one or two surprises that they played, namely the 1982 Theatre Of Hate single ‘The Hop’ and The Pack 1979 single ‘King Of Kings’. The Pack were in fact Kirk’s first band before Theatre Of Hate, so you can see that was indeed a special one. If I was forced to choose a favourite track from the evening then I would plum for ‘Soldier Soldier’ which can be found on the 1988 album ‘The Price You Pay’. Seems as though ‘Soldier Soldier’ is a great name for a tune as Spizzenergi released a single of the same name in 1979, however the songs are different, but both equally as good.
I am guessing, but I would strongly suspect that Kirk and everyone involved with putting the gig on were over the moon as The Con Club was literally rammed full and I have to say that I have never seen the beer garden at the rear so busy, it was chokka. I looked up to grab some air and above us all was a large hot air balloon. I suspect hardly anyone in the garden noticed as they were all happily gassing about Brandon, music and life in general. A great night out!
Tonight’s Spear Of Destiny setlist reads:
‘Brighton’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘Flying Scotsman’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘The Preacher’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘MK Ultra’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘Medievalists’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘Enigma’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘The Hop’ (taken from 1982 Theatre Of Hate single ‘The Hop’)
‘Second Life’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘Roof of the World’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘The Murder of Love’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘Afrikan Proverb’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘Come Back’ (taken from 1985 album ‘World Service’)
‘Solution’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘Grapes of Wrath’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘Mr Livingstone I Presume’ (taken from 2018 album ‘Tontine’)
‘World Service’ (taken from 1985 album ‘World Service’)
Encore:
‘The Wheel’ (taken from 1983 album ‘Grapes Of Wrath’)
‘King of Kings’ (taken from 1979 The Pack single ‘King Of Kings’)
‘Soldier Soldier’ (taken from 1988 album ‘The Price You Pay’)
‘Liberator’ (taken from 1984 album ‘One Eyed Jacks’)
For more information visit: https://www.kirkbrandon.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/kirkbrandonofficial/ and for the evenings support act, Band Of The Underhand visit https://www.facebook.com/Band-Of-The-Underhand-485868624805258/
Great review as always Nick!
Thank you so much Andrew 🙂