Preview

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Bill Mallonee is a pioneer of 'alt-country' and Americana music. His career as the prolific frontman of cult band Vigilantes of Love (with no less than ten marvellous CD's to their name) has just earned him a home-town exhibit at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, alongside R.E.M.

Over the course of ten years and hundreds of tour dates, the Vigilantes of Love (a band beloved of Radio 2's Bob Harris) won critical acclaim from scores of music publications and developed a fanatical following throughout the United States and across the world.

Mallonee finally put the Vigilantes to bed at the end of 2001, and his first solo CD 'Fetal Position' came out earlier this year. It continues the tradition of Bill's articulate and humane writing skills, containing 'songs that will borrow your soul, shake it, re-shape it, massage it and hand it back to you with a wry smile'. From early exposure to (proper) Britpop - Beatles, Kinks, The Who - through later post-punk pop - Costello, Clash, Squeeze - alongside an abiding lovee for Dylan and Neil Young, and informed by all that's best in Americana, this man knows a thing or two about fine songwriting, coupled to great melodies. He describes his music as 'thinking persons' folk-rock'.

Bill loves to play to British audiences, and after a number of visits to these shores, he's a firm favourite here. We welcome Bill Mallonee to Tregaron fronting a fresh band line-up, The Trophy Wives. If the music is even half as wonderful as the band's name, then we're in for a great night.

Review

There's nothing like hard work (at what you enjoy) to keep you young, some say, and alt-country workaholic Bill Mallonee's the living proof - a fit, wiry, and absurdly youthful 48 (we understand), the ex-Vigilantes of Love leader from Athens, Georgia belted out all the great songs from his new 'Fetal Position' solo CD and many more from the prodigious Vigilantes back catalogue with the energy of a man just starting out (which, in a sense, we reckon, he always is...). His stage presence is an engaging mix of informality and professionalism, laced with good patter (Bill's an articulate, even wordy man: 'My mother drilled it into me', he told us). His wayward vocals and occasional Dylanesque harmonicas are underpinned by consistently workmanlike guitars (some might criticise his current obsession with a chorus effect that sometimes outstays its welcome). The Trophy Wives consisted in the main of the solid presence of drummer/percussionist Kevin Heuer, with occasional keyboards from Peter, a.k.a. Duke Special.

And it was Duke Special himself who provided us with the evening's biggest surprise. A small, elegantly dread-locked and eye-shadowed young man from Belfast, his 30-minute opening set was a true revelation. Both supremely musical and rivetingly theatrical, equipped only with a vintage wind-up gramophone, his keyboards, and his beautifully conceived backing tracks (shades of Joseph Arthur), he held us unexpectedly spellbound with a set of gorgeous, yearning songs, each one of which had all the hallmarks of hit potential. Duke Special writes and sings like an angel, and deserves to be famous. Encores are rarely required of support acts, but the Talbot audience insisted on second helpings from this remarkable and completely original performer. (STOP PRESS: Duke Special and Susan Enan are booked to appear on 13 June!)

Bill and the boys endeared themselves to us by chatting animatedly with all and sundry after the gig, and Bill, quite unbidden, even helped us hump the speakers into the van: ever the hard-working man, and an all-round good egg.