Venue:
The Horns, Watford. WD17 3RL
Date: 29/11/2018
Stanley Dee comprise Cavan as frontman and principal vocalist with Amelia, Katy and Jen backing singers with their own featured spots. Alto and tenor saxes are played by Derek and Paul respectively, trumpet, flugelhorn, 12-string acoustic rhythm guitar and occasional vocals are from Steve, guitar from Darren, keyboards by Keith, bass by Mark and drums by Don.
The gig was scheduled to start at 9:30pm and I arrived at about 8:45 as the band were completing their soundcheck, culminating in a repeated run-through of the chorus of “Midnight Cruiser”. The band and the pub’s sound man were satisfied so the band trooped off the pub’s slightly-crowded stage until start time. At 9:30 they were all back and ready to go.
It must be said that “Can’t Buy A Thrill” works pretty well as a distinctly front-loaded vinyl album but is problematic as a live performance, played in sequence. “Do It Again”‘s all-percussion intro is not suited to a slightly-rowdy pub crowd but once the keyboards etc. come into play it’s all systems go.
The surprise with this outfit’s rendition of the song is that female vocalist Amelia takes the lead, with the other 3 singers harmonising on the chorus. Great guitar from Darren. Also they’ve added a rather good brass arrangement to beef up the ending segment. Katy takes lead vocal very effectively on “Dirty Work” with Amelia, Jen and Cavan harmonising as necessary. Good sax solo from Derek and fine work from the other brass players. Cavan finally gets to sing lead on “Kings” and “Midnite Cruiser”. More superb guitar from Darren. Jen takes lead vocals for “Only A Fool Would Say That”. They blast through “Reelin’ In The Years” with guitar pyrotechnics from Darren and the brass section thickening out the sound very effectively. Lots of Audience Participation by this time. The strange dynamics of the album become apparent now as they go into “Fire In The Hole” which is not, to my mind, one of The Dan’s finest. My memory of their rendition of “Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)” is a little shaky but I seem to recall Katy and Cavan sharing the vocal on this (mainly Katy) and the other two joining in on the chorus. A blast through “Change Of The Guard” gets the crowd excited again but then comes the rather tricky “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again” which they perform admirably, with Steve coming up front to swap vocal lines and harmonise with Jen and Katy. Cavan and Amelia sit this one out. Not the best of numbers to go into an interval from, but that’s how the album was sequenced all those years ago.
After a break of about 15-20 minutes they assemble back onstage and roar into “Black Friday”, a superb opener which they usually start their opening set with. Guitar pyrotechnics again from Darren, with a good punchy horn arrangement to drive it along. The crowd go nuts. Beautiful horns and precise vocal harmonies next on “The Caves Of Altamira”, followed by more of the same on “Black Cow”. These pearls are followed by “Doctor Wu” and “FM” and the audience are lapping it up. They roar as the band start into “Hiatian Divorce”, singing along lustily. The brass section get a breather on “With A Gun”, apart from Steve who plays rhythm guitar. Punters are still in singalong mode and they follow that with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”. Next they take the opportunity to have a go at “Rose Darling”, a fairly new one in their repertoire which to my mind needs a little more work on the tricky vocal harmonies. They stray into solo Fagen territory with a great version of his cover of “Ruby Baby”. Great vocal harmonies and a nice funky brass arrangement on the outro. Steve steps up to the mic again to sing lead on “Josie”, the other four singers harmonising on the chorus while he adds his trumpet back into the brass arrangement that underpins it. “Pretzel Logic” is next, giving Darren another couple of opportunities to tear it up. Cavan sings lead with the girls harmonising where needed, on all but the “I stepped up to the platform…” bit where Amelia takes over for a bit.
“My Old School” allows Darren to let rip again with some nice tight horn section work. The audience are still in singalong mode. Onwards and upwards to “Kid Charlemagne” (with audience participation – “Yes, there’s gas in the car!”) with a carefully-crafted backing vocal arrangement and more guitar solo wonderment. They finish off by a headlong charge through “Bodhisattva” with another punchy brass arrangement beefing it up. The audience is demanding more so they give them a second rendition of “Reelin’ In The Years” and then that is our lot for the evening, and indeed for 2018 as their next 3 scheduled gigs are not until February 7th, March 8th and April 28th.
The audience:
Every age group from late teens to geriatrics. Those who scoff at Steely Dan’s music as being only for nerds might have been surprised at the number of females present. Those who think The Dan cold and clinical might have been surprised by the amount of dancing, jiggling, swaying and singing/bellowing-along.
It made me think..
An 11-piece band playing mostly free-entry pub gigs and only the occasional paid-entry one, cannot possibly be in it for financial reward. It further amazed me that the singers used no crib sheets and the musicians no written music despite the complexity of the material. They obviously know this stuff really well.
Vulpes Vulpes says
When do they hit Bristol? That sounds absolutely magnificent.
Twang says
These guys are good too – one for your diary next June…
http://www.nearlydan.co.uk/gigs.html
Vulpes Vulpes says
Oh Michael, Oh Jesus, the Fleece is an absolute pit of a venue! Rats.
Neilo says
@Mike_H: kudos, man. Makes me wish I was there. I suspect Stanley Dee are leagues more entertaining than the Don Fagen Revue currently masquerading as the real thing.
Moose the Mooche says
Brave souls. Bless ’em.
Twang says
Sounds brilliant, wish I’d been there.
Tiggerlion says
Inspirational review! What a set list!!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Now that’s what I call a review!!!
Vulpes Vulpes says
Jiji, solamente un tonto lo mencionara!
Moose the Mooche says
Oh… about half past three!
Junglejim says
Honestly, only a fool …oh I see what you did there…
Mike_H says
As usual, although I put the URL for the band’s website in the requisite box, it hasn’t shown up in the review. Here it is. http://www.stanleydee.co.uk/
Furthermore, after I linked to this review on the band’s FB page, it was pointed out to me by Derek that it wasn’t in fact him who played the tasty sax solo on “Dirty Work” but tenorist Paul.
Kaisfatdad says
Very enjoyable review that made me extremely envious. They seem to be a band who are having enormous fun playing together. Bless their cotton socks!
Chris says
Ever since this post, I’d been desperate to see them play live, but they quite literally don’t venture (much) north of Watford. Rinsed every bit of them on Youtube. Even asked them politely via the interweb if they’d hit the north and had a lovely reply explaining how they tried it once, but little interest on the night meant they were out of pocket.
So I was more than excited to see that a week of touristy stuff in that London coincided with another SD show at The Horns last Thursday (Walter Becker’s birthday, funnily enough). Dragged Mrs Chris along, who is not really aware of Steely Dan much beyond Rikki & Reelin’, and had an absolute blast. Don’t think I’ve seen any band ever have quite so much fun on stage. As above, a Midnight Cruiser soundcheck, then on stage at 9.15pm for two substantial sets. No album in full, but a run through all the Dan classics, plus some Fagen too. Bonus on the night; between every song we got one of the Steely Dan questions from last week’s Mastermind.
Oh, and that guitar playing…..(not worthy emoji…)
Please go and see them. Can’t begin to explain just how good they are.
Mike_H says
Glad you enjoyed them.
Now down to a 10-piece as Amelia has got herself a long term regular gig as featured singer/ actor with a touring rock & roll revue. Katy now sings her featured spots on Do It Again and Pretzel Logic.
Playing Sunday late afternoon/early evening (approx 4:30pm start) April 5th at The Oddfellows in Apsley (near Hemel Hempstead). Free entry.
Next one after that is at The Half Moon in Putney on Sunday night May 31st. £10 entry (£12 on the door).
Nothing else until the annual Summer Garden Party at The Farmer’s Boy in St. Albans, on the afternoon of July 18th. Free Entry.
Junior Wells says
Is that true or has Katy lied ?
Mousey says
😂😂😂