Mamas Gun

Mamas Gun were in town last Friday as part of the first leg of their European tour which will continue in April and June. It was totally refreshing not only to be able to go out again for some live music, but also to see such an amazingly tight band with the perfect combination of soul and pop. The UK-based group with Andy Platts (voc, g), Terry Lewis (g, voc), Dave Oliver (keys, voc), Cameron Dawson (b, voc), and Chris Boot (dr, perc, voc), celebrated their upcoming release “Cure The Jones”, due out on April 1st and clearly their best effort to date. With totally infectious songs such as “Party For One”, our current favorite, the Bill Withers-inspired “Looking For Moses”, amazing “When You Stole The Sun From The Sky”, catchy “Good Love”, their next single due out this Friday with an accompanying video, or “Go Through It”, Mamas Gun had the audience on their feet at Quasimodo from the very first beats of “Friends To Lovers”, their opening peace for the night and also one of the tracks from their upcoming album.

We also got the chance to listen to some older material, primarily from their 2018 album “Golden Days”. Andy Platts easily switched to falsetto vocals and showed his versatility throughout. The group’s harmony vocals are one of a kind. Dave Oliver had some jazzy and funky moments on keys and with tracks like “We”, “On The Wire”, “You Make My Life A Better Place”, or “This Is The Day”, they also once again reminded me of their ability to write perfect soul songs, which often turn into wonderful AOR-type tunes. And whereas groups like The Pasadenas were riding the nostalgia train in the late 80s, Mamas Gun perfectly blend classic soul (Smokey Robinson, The Stylistics, Marvin Gaye, Philadelphia International Records) with a modern twist.

Look out for our review of “Cure The Jones” very soon and make sure to visit one of their next shows:

April 7 – Nijmegen, Dornroosje
April 8 – Eindhoven, Effenaar
April 9 – Utrecht, Tivoli Fredenburg
June 2 – Manchester, The Bread Shed
June 3 – Glasgow, Audio
June 4 – Birmingham, The Dark Horse
June 14 – Cologne, Helios 37
June 15 – Hamburg, Nochtspeicher
June 16 – Frankfurt, Brotfabrik
June 17 – Munich, Ampere
June 18 – Erfurt, Franz Mehlhose
July 9 – Brighton, Patterns