Cast / Brixton Academy, London
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Your support makes all the difference.Often written up as poor scally relations to Oasis, Cast's bright- eyed resuscitation of Sixties British guitar pop is a stadium away from the Gallaghers' necrophiliac relationship with their forebears. Tonight, the Liverpool four-piece's brand of cheery Merseybeat is epitomised in the bouncy figure of John Power, who combines the toothy chirpiness of Tommy Steele with the droopy tresses of a Botticelli cherub, and who takes us on an assured if uncomplicated tour of their two albums, All Change and 1997's Mother Nature Calls.
From the wreckage of The Las, ex-bassist Power has been canny enough to salvage Lee Mavers' knack for vocal harmony underpinned by crisp guitar parts, even on some pretty ordinary songs. Although faithful to their recordings to the point of doggedness, Cast live prove a lot more fun than their CDs might suggest. Cast, you suspect, really do feel a bit poncy being waited on hand and trainer in the exclusive confines of a recording studio, and, along with those other pop nostalgists, Ocean Colour Scene, they look relieved not to have to mind their Ps and Qs in the rowdy democracy of a gig.
What is absent from most of the evening, however, and remains safely locked up in Lee Mavers's indie treasure chest, is any sort of lyrical nuance. Buried in the undeniably soaring harmonies of "Finetime" and "Guiding Star", Power's chunterings make passable chant fodder but creak in the songs which do anything other than attempt to create an atmosphere of boozy affability.
This is a pity, because on the evidence of a broodily funky "Soul Tied" and the Stonesy boogy of "She Sunshines", Cast have realised that Dodgy comparisons await if they don't mix up the formula. However, confronted by a crowd who could quite happily lap up the singles on All Change all night, Cast don't quite seem to know how to get the most out of their more pleasing excursions, preferring the dismaying comfort riffing of "History" and the concluding "Dance of the Stars". Life was never meant to be this complicated for bass players, retired or not.
Mike Higgins
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