Once upon a time blues had led rock to a powerful, muscular, emotional place.
You don’t see this much anymore. And most of the practitioners who plod from town to town are long, long past their relevance (never mind their heyday).
But Love Child from Sydney...now here’s the kind of band you want to see on a Saturday night but you’re not allowed out anymore. There are no duff musicians here, it’s all tight and glossy and yearning. The singer, Steve Hancock, has the sort of voice which swells men’s chests and moistens um, erm, lady’s lips. He really knows how to belt a song out. The girls must heave themselves at him like despairing lemmings.
Dennis Val’s guitar snaps in and out, rather thrilling structures. I could say the songs are guitar-driven, which I spose they are, but the composition is such that it doesn’t seem like that. The bass and drums are an old-fashioned rhythm section, which means they’ve got nothing to prove and they know how back up the meat of the matter. For once we have a keyboardist who knows just how to soar at the right time and when to haul back to smoulder behind the song.
There’s a lot you’ll recognise in passing, but all these songs are originals. Perfect - this is the stuff most Australians know and claim as their own. I’d love to see them, they’re definitely a commercial type of band, c’mon Sony, get on with it.
Where do you go to get Love Child? Their website of course.
