Tuesday 5 March 2013

The Truth live at The Borderline 26th October 2012


They Just Can’t Seem To Stop! The Truth take a Step In The Right Direction back on the live stage.

At the tail end of 1982, Dennis Greaves split Nine Below Zero and formed The Truth, a clean cut pop soul band. If Nine Below Zero had musically been based in Chicago then The Truth had upped sticks and moved to Detroit, swapping blues for soul.  And 30 years after they were selling out the Marquee constantly, they reconvened a mere 5 streets away in The Borderline off Charing Cross Road for their 2nd gig this year, after their appearance on 5th May at 229 Great Portland Street with the original line up of Dennis Greaves, Mick Lister, Brian Bethell, Chris Skornia and Steve Phypers.


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Joei Supernova. Photo by Dave Edwards.
 Support for the night came from The Supernovas and the Holloway lads warmed the crowd up nicely with their spikey 21st century power pop.  Frontman Joei Silvester shoots his guitar at the audience ala Wilko Johnson and spits his lyrics out like a young Paul Weller while the rest of the band keep the pace with a clutch of riffs the Buzzcocks would be proud of.  Crowd pleased, job done and time for a well earned beer before the theme from Stingray drums up the audience as The Truth take to the stage to great applause. They start with From The Heart and right from the off the crowd are singing along, I look around and there’s a sea of smiling faces and for a moment I’m back in the Marquee all those years ago.
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Dennis Greaves. Photo by Dave Edwards.
Even Dennis Greaves seems a little overwhelmed at the welcome but leads the band straight into Love A Go Go before Mick Lister takes over vocal duties on Is There A Solution from the Playground album. All the favourites are there, debut single Confusion, follow up A Step In The Right Direction, Playground and I’m In Tune, all sounding as fresh as they did back in the day. The Truth built their reputation as a solid live act and did nothing to tarnish that reputation, getting the audience involved with Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby and the traditional set closer Just Can’t Seem To Stop. An encore was guaranteed and they came back for Everlasting Love and finished as always with a fine take on The Equals I Get So Excited.  It may have taken a couple of years to get this gig on but I can honestly say it was well worth it and judging by the reaction of the band as well as the audience, I think we can safely say it won’t be so long before we get see The Truth live again.
Dennis Greaves and Mick Lister in tune! Photo by Dave Edwards.
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With Mick Lister and Mark Notton. Photo by Dave Edwards.

Originally published on 31st October 2012.

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