Eugene Kelly & Francis McKee - London Luminaire

First up – how good is the Luminaire? A Retro looking venue with a great stage set-up that has easy viewing from most of the room – even the couches in the corner! Good sounding PA. The staff seems friendly and it’s easy to get a drink. Best of all – they have signs pinned up around the place advising noisy punters that people didn’t pay to hear them yabber so shut up! No wonder Time Out gave it Live Venue of the Year in 2005/2006. Good choice.

Anyway – after navigating our way to deepest darkest Kilburn – arrived at The Luminaire about 10 minutes before Eugene Kelly came on for a half hour solo set.

Francis later advised that they’d gotten Eugene off his deathbed to play tonight – but he certainly sounded in good voice. Playing mostly material from his highly underrated 2005 ‘Man Alive’ album – kicking off with “You’re Having My Sex” (which he said was written about Robbie Williams but could now be applied to The Artic Monkeys) and including a fantastic harmonica-rich version of “Older Faster”. I was pretty happy he delved back into some Eugenenius material with “River Clyde Song” from their second album ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.

Francis Kelly came on about 15 mins later accompanied by cello, acoustic guitar/accordion, and her sister Marie on harmony/backing vocals. Playing mostly material from her just released solo album ‘Sunny Moon’ (all but one song – which was from her previous, post-Vaselines band Suckle) I still find Francis something of an acquired taste. At the right time – it can be exactly what you want to hear, but other times it can be a little one-dimensional. For those not familiar with her – the closest comparison I can come up with is Nico on the early Velvet Underground stuff.

Anyway – after a reasonably short set – Francis called Eugene back to the stage “for the reason you’ve all come tonight” a Vaselines reunion.

In the spirit of The Vaselines they confessed to being incredibly under-rehearsed – although “Molly’s Lips” (done in the original, much slower tempo) sounded great. The Divine cover “You Think You’re a Man” also sounded great, but “The Day I Was A Horse” was suitably shambolic. Highlight for me was a cello-rich “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” and the show-closing “Son Of A Gun”.