Cushty Corporation

I went to see Cumbrian prog rock legends It Bites last night. It was a ‘special’ gig at Carlisle Art college , being filmed by a small army of camera men for a forthcoming live DVD release.

I last saw IT Bites in 1986, so this was really an excuse for a trip down memory lane.  The opening act was Jon Amor a bluesman from Devizes in Wiltshire, (home of the delta blues?) . Poor fella had one or two technical hitches to deal with but managed to pull off a convincing set – I particularly liked his cover of Tainted Love (in a blues stylee of course).

IT Bites were on stage for two hours . They filled the time with some pretty top notch musicianship and the appreciative diehard fan audience lapped it up.  I haven’t seen that many ponytails and very old tour t-shirts in one room for a long time.

I was especially impressed with bass player Lee Pomeroy . He plays bass left handed on a bass that is strung right handed (i.e. upside down). He looked like he was having a ball. I suppose the music must be a little more challenging than his other main gig with Take That?!

I did come away feeling disappointed  - the band didn’t play a single song from their very first album ‘The Big Lad In The Windmill’ which is odd as their only really ‘big’ single ‘Calling all the Heroes’ was taken from it.