ACR At Band On The Wall- Early, Current And Future

During the lifetime of this blog I've reviewed live gigs by A Certain Ratio more than other band. ACR have played a range of small and medium sized venues around Manchester in the eight years and I've been at many of them (with a foray to Blackburn a few years ago too). On Sunday night they finished their current tour with a gig at Band On The Wall, Manchester's oldest/ longest running gig venue, with two sets. It was the third time I've seen them in 2023 alone- previous gigs took in a memorable celebration of this year's album 1982 at New Century Hall and an outdoor set at Factory International in the summer at Dave Haslam's request, with Dave DJing afterwards. At both the outdoor gig (thankfully with a roof) and Sunday's night's at Band On The Wall it poured down in typically Mancunian style, driving rain and wind welcoming us as we traipsed out onto the dark streets having seen ACR provide the punk, the funk, the post- punk, the Latin, the jazz, and the Manc- noir and signpost the way to the future. 

The tour, ACR45, is a celebration of the journey they've been on since 1978. The first set was the early songs, Martin Moscrop and Jez Kerr arriving on stage and kicking into debut single, 1979's All Night Party. It's quite the opening, the dark, scratchy, definitely inspired by punk sound of Martin's guitar and Jez's bass and doomy vocal standing out starkly- very early Factory. Halfway through the song Donald Johnson gets behind the drum kit and joins in, suddenly, both in the song live and back in 1979 when he joined the group, they change, the punk/ post punk dread instantly becoming fuller and funkier. Donald brought the groove to ACR and they never really looked back. 

All Night Party

All Night Party is a seminal Factory single, numbered Fac 5 in the catalogue system, produced by Martin Zero (Hannett) at Cargo in Rochdale. All Night Party was so early, that the only Factory record that precedes it is Fac 2 A Factory Sample. Fac 1, 3 and 4 were all Peter Saville posters. In the late 70s cultural commentator/ style guru Peter York was shown a photo of ACR and said they looked 'early'. 

'Early what Peter?', Tony Wilson asked. 

'Just early'. 

Back in 2002 when they reformed after a few years apart they played Band On The Wall to promote the album Early, a two CD compilation on Soul Jazz Records. Tonight, twenty one years later, they still have that feel, that feel of being early, of being pioneers. 

As All Night Party ends ACR expand to the current six piece line up, with new bassist Viv Griffin giving Jez the freedom to concentrate on vocals, whistle, percussion and triggering samples, long running sax player Tony Quigley, keys/ synths player Matt Steele and Ellen Beth Abdi, vocals and percussion, a youthful foil at the front next to Jez. Their early songs, those singular Factory songs, singles and album tracks, sound superb- Do The Du, Flight, Shack Up and Knife Slits Water, all as dark as the night outside and cut through with that skeletal funk. In the middle the rhythm and drone of Winter Hill shows how far they could go. Wild Party and Lucinda bring the jazz to go with the punk funk. At one point the six players are cooking up a storm, the sound filling the room and the crowd bobbing and moving, with various percussion instruments, lithe bass, keys and saxophone- none of the trappings of rock 'n' roll, no squealing guitars and crashing drum solos, but instead an alternative, a cinematic, dancefloor soundtrack. Just to show they aren't doing a nostalgia show (and at no point does the gig feel like nostalgia or a revival) on Mickey Way they update the 1986 jazz funk with its atonal trumpet and sax parts with the appearance of a rapper, Chunky- and it works perfectly. 

After a short break the come back for the second set. Jez is in good form, cracking jokes and muttering sardonic asides. He opens the second set by dedicating the first song to Denise Johnson- Won't Stop Loving You is as good a late 80s/ early 90s Manchester song as any of the others, and is lit up. Then they play a deep, dub house version of Good Together complete with Matt's freak out synth ending and then 27 Forever, a glorious piece of electronic pop from 1991. It's followed by their cover of Talking Heads' House In Motion, a song they recorded at Strawberry Studios in the early 80s with the intention of having Grace Jones on vocals. Grace made it to Strawberry but never put her vocal down. ACR released the cover in its demo form with Jez's guide vocal a few years ago. Hearing it played live tonight is worth the price of admission alone, Viv leading the way pushing Tina Weymouth's bassline into new spaces, ACR covering Talking Heads making perfect sense. 

It's testament to how revitalised they've been in recent years and how much of a streak they are on that the new songs they play for the rest of the set stand alongside the older ones they've played up to this point. Their 2020 album Loco felt like the result of four decades work, a distillation of their sound, experiences and influences. Yo Yo Gi and especially the sleek, early 80s noir pop of Berlin are immense. 

Berlin

The title track of this year's album 1982, a love letter to the time the band spent in new York in that year, is a modern Manc funk groove. SAMO is clipped, driving hook heavy dance music, Ellen Beth Abdi all exuberance and cool vocals. At the end they bring on a trio of new, young co- vocalists for Day By Day, the newest song and a nod to the future, three early twenty- somethings crowded round the mics, ACR the next generation, with Ellen's lead vocal front and centre. The finale is the customary set closer Si Firmir O Grido, everyone on drums and percussion, a heady, good time groove, Jez blasting his whistle, Martin and Don swapping seats behind the drum kit and then back again. At Gorilla a few years ago when they played Si Firmir O Grido they marched off the stage and into the crowd, the crowd gathered around ACR's tightknit circle. Tonight they stay on the stage, the crowd's faces grinning back at them. 

Earlier on between two of the songs Jez paid tribute to Alan Erasmus, the co- founder of Factory and co- manager of ACR in the early days. Alan turned up backstage before Sunday night's gig with a bottle of champagne for each member and apparently an apology for letting the band down in the early 80s. Looking at ACR tonight, it's difficult to see how they were let down- they've outlasted almost everyone else, they're making new music that is streets ahead of their contemporaries, have adapted and changed, bringing new blood in to update themselves and they look like they're having more fun than everyone else too. More power to A Certain Ratio.