Former Divine Comedy bassist Bryan Mills makes a welcome appearance at King Tut's this evening with his new band, The Kittens. This is only one of a handful of live shows that the band have played in The UK this year. It's a half hour slot supporting Garlic and The Kittens make the most of their allocated time.
The music is deliberately slow, reflective, gentle and laid back, yet extremely effective. This is music to float away with. "It doesn't get much more exciting than this", exclaims Bryan at one point. It doesn't need to and that's one of its main attractions.
"One guy started dancin' cos he recognised Joe Jackson". "Who's Joe Jackson"?, enquires a wag in the audience. Songs like Tiny Motions and A Song To Mend A Broken Heart tug at many of one's inner emotions and there's an extremely moving cover of The End Of The World.
Along with Bryan on guitar and keyboards, there's Paul on drums, Ruth and Jon on keyboards and Nick on moog and bass. Ivor Talbot also makes an occasional appearance at live shows. There's an EP due out before the end of the year and hopefully that will give us more opportunities to catch The Kittens live on stage. Long may they continue to purr.