Those Pretty Wrongs at Prohibition Recording Studios, Liverpool (17 Sep ’23)

My ticket

My second gig in three days brought me to a brand new venue for me, Prohibition Recording Studios, which seems to have only been staging gigs for a few months, to see Those Pretty Wrongs with Tim Nova in support.

Spoiler alert: I enjoyed this show much more than the preceding Deacon Blue at the M&S Bank Arena, as reviewed here.

This is a working recording studio, as well as a place for gigs, which is highly unusual. I’d never been before, managing to find it easily enough in the rain, bagging a very comfy place to park myself on a sofa after being “shown around” by the man on the door.

The venue was all seated, with a very select audience of approximately 25 people – pretty much all that could fit in comfortably.

Prohibition Recording Studios

Before things got underway properly, there was a nice mix of music, often picking songs I didn’t really know by performers I very much do, such as The Rolling Stones, Madness and Nina Simone.

The support act

Tim Nova was a completely new name to me before discovering his presence on the bill. I found out very little about him beforehand, other than the fact that he hails from Elton in Cheshire.

He started off with a song called Fate, with his very pure, strong voice reminding me a bit of Robert Vincent (who has also played this room), from just up the road from me in Crosby.

All of his numbers seemed to be about the trials, tribulations and joys of love, like this one with its line “I’d go back in time, when I saw your future in mine.”

Every song appeared to be very well crafted, with each of them using a capo on his semi-acoustic guitar, moving between pretty much every tune to create a slightly different pitch.

Tim Nova

While also coming across as a down-to-earth fella, his tunes just didn’t quite grab me as much as I’d hoped they might.

Next up was Pieces, which was very much about lost love:

“I built a wall so high, I held my guard up and put up a fight
When all I needed was your love to pull it down and build another around us.”

In amongst his originals, he played a version of Pompeii by Bastille, a song and band about whom I knew very little, beyond their name.

A bit of post-gig research reveals that this song was actually a #2 hit in the UK in March 2013 as it became the eleventh best-selling song of the year, coming from their debut album which was a chart-topper.

The last song of his set was I Believe In You, one of his most streamed songs on Spotify, but the numbers suggest he’s very much someone still waiting for proper discovery.

While he didn’t especially move me, I can see him reaching a much wider audience, given the right breaks.

Tim Nova

My history with the headliner

I must confess that I had never knowingly heard a note of Those Pretty Wrongs’ music before buying my ticket for this show, although I was well aware of their name and strong reputation, and the connection with the legendary Big Star.

I got the new album Holiday Camp as an anniversary present from My Beloved Wife in July (along with the current Robert Forster record), adding the two-fer of the self-titled 2016 debut and 2019’s Zed For Zulu from Amazon for the fairly hefty sum of £15.39 later that month.

They are Jody Stephens, former drummer with Big Star, who also helps runs the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis (where albums in my collection such as The Replacements’ Pleased To Meet Me, Green by R.E.M. and Cat Power’s The Greatest were made, as well as Big Star’s records), and Luther Russell who used to front The Freewheelers, allegedly a “seminal roots-rock band”, but one I’m unaware of.

Stephens was a member of Icewater with Chris Bell and Andy Hummel, who evolved into Big Star when Alex Chilton joined.

He plays on all of their classic debut album #1 Record and most of its follow-up Radio City, co-writing the beautiful Daisy Glaze on the latter. He was also in the band for the later, final Third LP. All three of these probably fit snugly into my Top 100 albums of all time (but not in my Top 25).

As well as Big Star, Stephens is also on a track on The Afghan Whigs’ Gentlemen (recorded at Ardent) as well as songs by Matthew Sweet, Bill Lloyd and Golden Smog lurking in my racks.

Russell has featured on Get Well Soon by Sarabeth Tucek that I have (bought from Amazon as a limited double-CD version for just £7.99, at the same time as the eponymous Wild Flag sole LP), also appearing on records by the likes of Richmond Fontaine and Robyn Hitchcock, but not ones that I have.

The main event

The moustachioed Russell revealed that this was Stephens’ first time in Liverpool, doing a fair share of the talking.

They started with a brace from Zed For Zulu, although the latter of these (A Day In The Park) was abandoned after Jody called it to a halt and then gave up a second attempt. As he said, that meant “you know it’s not Memorex,” (a nod to its old advertising slogan of “Is it live or is it Memorex?”).

Those Pretty Wrongs

Instead of that, they played another off the second LP, Time To Fly, which was genuinely lovely.

Jody’s voice shows some signs of age, unsurprising really as he’s now seventy, but remains a fine instrument, especially when harmonising with Russell.

They then proceeded to play the whole of side one of the current album, in order, beginning with the slightly psych-influenced New September Song that brought the likes of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to mind.

Ride Along was utterly fabulous, with there then being some chat about The Beatles meeting Elvis Presley in Bel Air, thus linking the location of this show with the hometowns of Jody (Memphis) and Luther (Los Angeles).

Paper Cup is apparently “definitely not autobiographical”, being about couples abusing each other in public. Let’s Active frontman and R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter plays glockenspiel on this on the record

It was revealed that Scream was inspired by Frank Capra’s 1938 movie You Can’t Take It With You, with the final tune of this first set being This Painted Sky.

There was only a short break before they returned to do a full version of A Day In The Park, before raiding the eponymous debut album for the only time to do Never Goodbye.

Then it was time for side two of Holiday Camp, starting with Always The Rainbow, one of two tracks that features Wilco’s Pat Sansone on the album.

Brother, My Brother didn’t miss Chris Stamey from The dB’s’ string arrangement that’s on the recorded version.

Those Pretty Wrongs

The last album cut is The Way, which has Jason Hiller from The Freewheelers on bass on record. Every song off the LP was lovely, making me realise what a really excellent record it is.

They were enticed to play a couple of extra songs, with the first being done off-mike, the gorgeous It’s About Love from Zed For Zulu.

My t-shirt

The very last number was a real treat as they did a Big Star song, the utterly spell-binding Thirteen from the 1972 debut LP.

I was able to tell Jody Stephens that the show had been “wonderful” on my way out. It had been a truly fantastic show.

Tonight’s t-shirt

I obviously wore my red Big Star tee.

There was someone else in a Big Star t-shirt, with the only other one bordering on being a band tee being one from Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green.

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Playlist

Here is much of the music from the night on Spotify: