Hoodoo Gurus

20 May 2010-21 May 2010 ,

Music

Critics' choice

Improved image coming soon!

First published on 16 Mar 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

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Axeman Brad Shepherd talks about the new dawn of the Hoodoo Gurus.

Purity of Essence is a remarkably strong album: it almost sounds like a collection of singles.

Review: The thing that's so easy to forget when you see the Hoodoo Gurus is this: dear god, they have the songs. It means that they can play a kick-ass set filled with hits and still leave out more classics than they include. Looking energetic and inspired the quartet were rapturously received by the packed OAF, throwing out a good number of new tunes - ‘Crackin' Up', ‘I Hope You're Happy' and ‘A Few Home Truths' sounded particularly good live - with a collection of knock-down-drag-out classics: ‘Bittersweet', ‘Come Anytime', ‘Poison Pen' (with Brad Shepherd damn near inhaling his harmonica), ‘The Right Time', ‘Miss Freelove ‘69', ‘What's My Scene' and – ye gods! – even a solo Dave Faulkner performance of ‘My Girl', with the entire audience hitting the chorus harmonies. It's moments that like that show what a great decision it was to mark their return with a couple of packed-out nights in a smaller room rather than a big show in a less intimate venue. There was only the one brief encore set (finishing with a thundering ‘Be My Guru') but they could easily have played for another hour without breaking (more of) a sweat. If you're seeing the second show tonight, prepare to have your love justified. Andrew P Street

Well, that was kind of the mission for this album. The principal model was Creedence Clearwater Revivals' Cosmo's Factory. That's really what we tried to do, was to make a record where every song was like a single, an instant Greatest Hits. It's a long record too, plays in at a full hour, 16 songs, but that was as lean as we could possibly make it without losing things we were fond of. We did feel like there was something extraordinary going on with the writing and rehearsing. It's up to other folks to say whether or not its our ‘best album', but I think it's probably the record that we are most proud of in our careers.

That's a big call.
I acknowledge that: the shadow of [debut album] Stoneage Romeos still looms large, and Mars Needs Guitars, and a lot of people love Blow Your Cool, but for me this record exceeds them all.

That's especially good to hear, since you had us worried there for a while.
Ah. The melanoma thing?

Yeah.
Well, it's something I'm going to have to manage the rest of my life. It was just a mole on my collarbone six years ago, and I always had my eye on that mole, it looked like it had the potential to go a bit wonky. I mean, I had it checked out 20 years ago and they were like "get out, there are actual sick people here" – but they caught [the cancer] fairly early, in a lymph node in my left arm pit. So they took the safe option and took thirty lymph nodes out of me. But there's nothing showing up in me now, so all things considered I'm in good shape. It's taken a while though: they operated on me in the end of June and its taken 'til now to feel like I'm back at my physical capability.

I'm not an oncologist, but I'm pretty sure that rock is the best medicine. I think you're right! If there's any argument that endorphins eat up free radicals then you could be on to something. Andrew P Street

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