Adam Franklin

Welcome to this edition of What Are Indie Rock Stars Doing Today? This time featuring Adam Franklin, former lead pilot of renowned 90s space guitar feedbackers, the soon-to-return Swervedriver. With that back catalogue plus his Toshack Highway / solo collection in tow comes a man whose history also includes those perennial massive black sunglasses and dreadlocks. Now short haired, bearded and slightly resembling INXS' Andrew Farris it’s still the same English geezer, with same distinct love of warped guitar pedal buggery; same relaxed shoe-gazing (or pedal-gazing) stage presence and same alt.rock slacker vocals. Cool.

But first, what of this much spoken venue? Outside lies a seething substance-fuelled new wave Blue Light Disco although without the blue light, so if you’re into peace and serenity then hey, stiff glow sticks. Inside The Oxford Art Factory it’s intellectual, it’s modern, it’s… empty. Where were you? Granted, it is still only 8:30pm and although starting a little behind schedule, it seems cruel for local girl Rosa Agostino (Red Ghost) to warm an audience barely into double figures - she’s way too good for this array of floorboards. But battle she did, successfully captivating us: the inaugural ten, then fifteen, then twenty sippers… until enough people rocked up just in time to miss a fine performance, some fine songs and a fine artist worth following.

A quick trip to the john where I realize this must be ‘art de toilette’, or at least how it smells. Complete, or perhaps incomplete with minor hole in major wall, these dunnies are weird. Out by the bar, a massive clear cube contains an enigmatic arty structure with endlessly rolling large wooden ball. In the opposite room, the entire wall seems to represent a massive jukebox’s play list racked with trashy hip-hop. Conversely artistic, there’s always the bong shop (next door) displaying empty VB cans come candleholders, which at $25.00 are just begging to be stolen.

Call me uninitiated or even call me Al, but I’ve never seen The Red Sun Band play live. So I’m not sure if Sarah Kelly, joined occasionally by her sister Lizzie - is always this passé, or if she too is feeling 'arty'. Either way she compensates for her certain lack of conviction (“thanks for lending me ah… everything…. I forgot all my gear tonight”) with increased volume and a familiarity of tunes for the mounting audience. Not bad, though despite the faithful cover of Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’ I still preferred the opening act. Oh yeah, Simon Day the former front man from Ratcat also played a set, which my mind kindly placed in the recycle bin. I can tell you he played a cumbersome ‘That Aint Bad’, plus ‘Don’t Go Now’ – or was it ‘Baby Baby’? Either way, the durable ‘Tingles’ EP & ’Blind Love’ LP deserved better. Adam Franklin, please grab a nice goblet of red wine and come to the stage. Audience, take your places.

Hi Adam! Hi guys. Shit, no backing band? Oh well. Here goes: cue very laid back, methodical riffs through waves of effects; important contemplative pause, vocal warble, sigh and repeat. So forms the basis of this intimate, exclusive and musical performance of a late night conversation with Mr. Adam Franklin. From Swervedriver, remember? This bears repeating as few more than 100 punters make this a half-full room. It’s not like some kind of Good Vibrations festival is on tonight or something. Actually, yes it is on tonight. On the bright side, there’s no-one talking really loudly over the really quiet moments (most of the set), so that’s great. There’s actually more noise from fans of the electrical type than that of the two-legged kind, except for healthy lashings of between-song applause. Franklin coolly delves into both old and new territory and hasn’t lost his touch, or his distinct looped psychedelic perspective. If anything artistically he has matured quite well. Ah, red wine indeed. Bring it, Swervedriver. Bring it.

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