WORLD OF TWIST
(Supported by Dr Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations)
LONDON ICA
...For a more soulful second-half Manchester's World Of Twist kick off with their full field of keyboard players, Inspector Gadget displaying all the elegance and passion of a lobotomised chimp let loose on a Stylophone. Nutty nursery-rhyme plonkings eerily augment the Avenger-style kitsch of the spiral wheel and rolling-heads stage set as Hendrix' debauched Electric Ladies leer from the slide show backdrop.
Singer Tony Ogden sleazes things up still further in his leather shirt and white strides, resembling a better-looking John Cale. He stands to one side of the ample stage adding to a sense of detachment created by the music, a definite case of art (and humour) on a pedestal.
It's an odd mix but it works, brass bands, Kraftwerk, The Doors and Northern soul all apparent influences as the '60s are revisited over a dance backbeat, broken up and spaced out as Tone croons through the gentle warmth of forthcoming single 'Storm' with its deft touches of the dreaded wah wah and the flipside cover of The Stones' 'She's A Rainbow'.
There's a lot of space here, in the music and on the stage, that is until the obligatory space invaders queer the pitch, raving up the encore, fags in gobs, visibly irritating the singer and cramping his style as life meets art head on and kicks down the walls of the ivory tower. Ooh, it's a twisted world.
Mick Meikleham
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