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REVIEWS

‘Wild’ Billy Childish & The Chatham
Singers—Step Out—Damaged Goods

Records

Since the 1970s ‘Wild’ Billy Childish has

combined a career as a visual artist with
playing in various bands including The

Pop Rivets, The Milkshakes, Thee
Headcoats, The Buff Medways and The

North Kent Folkways Revival. These
bands have combined 60s R&B and Beat

with a DIY punk aesthetic and this his
latest release with The Chatham Singers

combines 60s R&B classics like Bo Diddley’s ‘I Can Tell’ and Slim Harpo’s
‘King Bee’ with original songs. The band is Billy (vocals, guitar), Jim Riley

(harp), Juju Claudius (bass, vocals) and Wolf Howard (drums).

We start with two originals the title track and ‘Fine and Mellow’, ‘Step Out’
sounds like early Pretty Things, it’s tight with blasting guitar and distorted

harp but ‘Fine and Mellow’ is a loping slow blues that is a bit pedestrian.
‘I Can Tell’ is again raw early 60s R&B with a down and dirty production,

‘Beneath the Midnight Trees’ is like ‘Fine and Mellow’ with heavy tremolo
on the guitar and the blues chestnut ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’ is a bit of a mess

with slightly out of tune slide guitar. ‘The Same Tree’ is a clone of Fred
McDowell’s ‘You Gotta Move’ with unison guitar and harp, while ‘I Love My

Woman’ is a tender ballad. We then have three R&B classics – Muddy’s ‘I
Just Want to Make Love to You’, ‘King Bee’ and Wolf’s ‘Meet Me in the

Bottom’ all done in loose early 60s R&B-style and we finish with ‘I’ve Got
Everything Indeed’ in the same style - probably the best of the original

songs and reminding me of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Compared to the
blues bands of today this will sound very amateurish and crude to most –

but I guess that is the point – this is the music that I grew up listening to -
The Stones, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things and the music that I myself

began playing in the 60s so I can’t help but to have a certain affection for
this.

Graham Harrison