Ex-Blur guitarist plays sticky local venue to prove modern life is not as rubbish as Norwich would make you believe otherwise.

Trademark stripy t-shirt two-sizes-too-small Coxon arrives on stage around 9:30pm into ‘People Of the Earth’ and stays on latest LP theme Happiness In Magazines by continuing with ‘Spectacular’.  It’s an interesting, typically sarcastic Coxon song, the downside is it sounds like Jet being molested by the Manic’s James Dean Bradfield.  (Why did JDB have to immortalise ‘You’ in such a way to ruin every ‘You’ sung badly in a song ever?)   Moving on…

The more subtle acoustic sounds from Coxon’s debut The Sky is Too High are present in the early set, and in some ways this is a pleasant interlude.  Yet it’s the inventive heaviness from efforts such as ‘Jamie Thomas’ and ‘I Wish’.  which has brought Graham Coxon’s solo efforts so much adoration.

I wrongly thought Coxon seemed a little tired during the first half or so of this evening’s set; however, it’s safe to assume the temperate conditions contributed to this.  The storming ‘That’s When I Reach For My Revolver’ livens the pace dramatically and this doesn’t let up for the rest of the set.  His loudest songs are here in abundance and Coxon knows it.  ‘Fags & Failure’, ‘Leave Me Alone’ and everything from The Golden D album sound superb.   ‘Hopeless Friend’ is a fantastic tale of how people ‘Try To Fit In/Try to Stay Fin’. This is of course the alternative way of pronouncing ‘Thin’, as I managed to work out all on my own without the need for an international translator.

The encore receives latest single ‘Freakin’ Out’ well, that dominating Ramones guitar hook sounds like a new Coxon anthem and is placed back to back with the amusing yet strangely menacing ‘People Of The Earth’.  Also, b-side ‘Life Is Shit’, reminds the optimist in me that life is “shit, shit, shit, shit, shit”.  

Tonight’s performance along with the his new release Happiness In Magazines, proves Coxon’s direction continues to stay in a prolifically (this is his fourth release in as many years) youthful direction and sounds far, far removed from the remainder of his previous collective.  Coxon does exactly what Blur did up until the fourth track on Parklife; he reinforces the notion that pop can be tongue-in-cheek and rip off everyone in sight.  But it is still great music.

I vaguely recall a bloke say “Graham Coxon is nothing without Blur” when I turned up this evening.  Put on Think Tank, boy, reverse the phrase and nature might make a man of you yet.
(4/5)

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