Press

You know you are in for a good night when there is no one at the door to check your ticket and the band are just milling around waiting to start the gig.

 


Citizen Cope, aka singer, guitarist, producer and former DJ Clarence Greenwood, may not be a household name but he still managed to draw in a small, but perfectly formed crowd of fans to the legendary 100 Club in old London-town on Wednesday night.

It’s a bit of a cliche, but while the set was a little short on banter, the music really did all the talking. His four piece band pounded out some tight reggae and funk grooves, while Citizen Cope himself was soulfully sweet on tunes like ‘Sideways’. The funked-up approach really brought the songs to life.

(And without wishing to get too geeky, it was great to see a Leslie speaker on stage. The greasy sound of a vintage Hammond Organ can be replicated on a tiny little keyboard cartridge these days, but you can’t beat the real thing, and the guy playing it was amazing. Sorry.)

The crowd were totally into each song and some pretty young things were grooving away to the hypnotic ‘Hurricane Waters’ and loving every minute of it. I suspect a few of them were students from his native America, judging by the accents at the bar.

Citizen Cope himself has quite an amazing story. He originally signed with Dreamworks, but after they ‘mishandled’ his first CD, he bought himself out of the contract.

But you can see why his music is a bit too eclectic for corporate tastes. The influences seem to range from Bob Marley to G Love and Special Sauce, from Jimmy Buffett to Jack Johnson and back again.

The music was a wonderful surfer-friendly mix of funk, soul and reggae, with the old folksome ballad, like ‘D’Artagnan’s Theme’ thrown in for good measure. For the encore, the band stood at the back, while Citizen did an accoustic set. With every song, the crowd became more and more enthusiastic, singing along as if their lives depended on it.

It might not have been the biggest crowd in the world, but Citizen Cope is a class act. Sometimes all you need is a great band, a great singer, some great songs and a few beers for a truly amazing night out.