Come on Gang!, Alison and the Mings and Poor Edwar

Source: The List (Issue 598)
Date: 13 March 2008
Written by: David Pollock

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The Ark, Edinburgh, Tue 4 Mar

GARAGE FOLK

With the best will in the world, local charity showcases are almost always a wildly mixed bag, although The List did take some mild amusement from the fact that this benefit for homeless charity the Ark Trust was taking place in the entirely unconnected Ark venue. Such diversions were necessary during the somewhat torpid folkery of Poor Edwar, a man who takes his musical cues, vocal style and ginger dreadlocks from Newton Faulkner.

Alison and the Mings were a little more of a treat, a sweetly home-made folk-pop quartet from Glasgow who eulogise ‘Maryhill Road’ with the same passion Roddy Frame applied to ‘Killermont Street’.

However, the Edinburgh College of Art-formed trio Come on Gang! were worth waiting for. Their odd personnel dynamic and Jones’ folksy voice shouldn’t really work alongside the raw, noisy garage-punk fire of ‘Wheels’ and ‘Bang’, but a performance where such dissonant elements fell together nicely snared the attention without mercy. We say: like Beth Orton fronting Television.

More: Alison and the Mings, Come on Gang!, Garage Folk, Poor Edwar, Reviews (Music)