The Broken Family Band say Adieu @ The Portland Arms - 31/10/09

The Broken Family Band have been a staple diet for my gig calender since I first saw them at the Cambridge Arts Picture House in October 2003 alongside Ruby Nichols, who we now all know and love as Captain.

Since then, TBFB have gone from tongue-in-cheek alt-country with the likes of Jesus Songs, The King Will Build A Disco and Cold Water Songs to harder, romantic renaissance post-rock in .



These changes were warmly embraced by fans and (most) critics alike, and Glastonbury, Koko and International tours began to replace their previous tendency to play more intimate pub venues as their fanbase grew. Their stint on Skins with It's All Over and offers to play on Later With Jools Holland looked set to propel them into the bigtime, but they always lurked tantalisingly beneath the surface, never quite 'making it'.



Their last album, Please and Thank You seemed to baffle a lot of the committed BFB-ers. While the music and lyric-writing was still solid, the album seemed to lack the personality so integral to the Broken Family way. Perhaps whatever musical horse they were flogging had begun to die a little. Other sources suggest conflicting interests between the boys. Whatever the reason, it was announced in September that The Broken Family Band would be playing their last ever gig on Hallowe'en at their Cambridge pub of choice, The Portland Arms.

I expected the atmosphere to be somewhat demure or reflective, but with most of the gig-goers dressed up trick-or-treat style, it was quite a hard attitude to maintain. There was an air of excitement - more of a wake than a funeral.



The band came on without a support at around 9pm. I wondered if there would be costumes or adornments but no, they were simply focussed on the task at hand - and boy what a task. They ploughed into a stonking 2 and a half hour set with a repertoire covering all artistic corners. As well as beautiful renditions of At the Back of the Chapel and Dancing on the 4th Floor they surprised us all by cracking out beauties from their ancient archives. (I Don't Have The Time To) Mess Around was hilarious, with Steve's grostesque embellishments about granny spunk in the intro reminding us just exactly what made this band special.



The Cambridge crowd did themselves proud - they sang, they laughed hell - they even danced! About an hour in you could see the sweat dripping off the walls and back onto the faces of the people it came from.



And so it came to the end with John Belushi. The four boys stuck their absolute heart and soul in as if they were pushing in all the work of the last 8 years. Jay cradled his guitar like a baby, Steve looked intensely into the middle distance, Mick leant back mouth open and Gav stood up. The song ended, the people clapped and there were post-coital manhugs all-round. I'm gonna miss these boys dearly, but it was one hell of a ride that saw me through my teen years. As Steve mentioned one fan reckoning, they're probably the sort of band that will reform every 10 years. Not quite a compliment, but here's to hoping! There does seems to be promise of new musical escapades from the boys on the horizon at least - the legacy lives on!