If you are a true metal warrior who revels in gloom, for whom only the grimm and kvlt can fill the void in your dark soul and long for fimbulwinter to wipe the sun from the sky, then sorry, the music of Bobbie Dazzle is not for you, so look away now and stare into your bone framed mirror and touch up your corpse paint. If however, you want a bit of fun and some joyful sounds to bring a smile to your face, well, in the words of the only schoolboy less convincing than Angus Young and unlikely swinger Janette Krankie, ‘Fandabidozi’! Fresh from fronting the transition of Alunah from a band rooted in dark UK mysticism to something all the more psychedelic, Sian Greenway has donned a time travelling catsuit to voyage back to the age of Seventies Glam Rock and bring a massive slice of it back to the present.
‘Lightning Fantasy’ starts the party, dancing from the speakers and into your face with a heaping helping of toe tapping beats, rocking guitars, and sheer joie de vivre that grabs the listener and demands they join in with the fun. The celebration continues apace with ‘Merry-Go-Round’, soaring vocals ably supported by some Sweet sounds of the Seventies, the addition of a flute solo harkening to the less po-faced Progressive bands of the era, further backed up by some Wakemanesque keyboard flurries. ‘Revolution’ rocks out like a tribute to Suzi Quatro, laden with hooks and some glittery gang vocals designed to be chanted along to by a bouncing audience, before ‘Magic of Music’ slows down the pace and invites a swaying crowd to hold lighters aloft.
Following this comparative introspection Miss Greenway dons a couple of golden earrings to reinvigorate the festivities with ‘Back To The City’, then busting a block or two with the galloping stomp of ‘It’s Electric’ before traversing the cosmos to an age of loon pants and platform boots in her ‘Antique Time Machine’, and if you’re of a similar vintage to me you may well have images of a mini-skirted Jo Grant dancing along whilst a crushed velvet suit clad Doctor watches on. The fun just continues through the album, from the confident swagger of ‘Lady On Fire’, through the more self-reflective, but nevertheless uplifting ‘April Showers’, before concluding the musical journey through space to land upon the red planet to see ‘Flowers On Mars’.
‘Fandabidozi’ truly is a homage to the golden age of Glam Rock, where the likes of Marc Bolan and Mott The Hoople competed for the scant air time available on the three UK television channels that shut off their transmitters at midnight, and telephones were bulky devices fitted with a dial and attached to your house by a cable. For old sods like me, it is a massive blast of nostalgia, harkening to an era where autotune didn’t exist and music came on vinyl and tape not because it was trendy, but because that was what was available. For those of you still waiting for your hair to turn grey, Bobbie Dazzle provides a new and uplifting soundtrack to a future parties. All I ask is, consider playing ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ as the last track of the night; it was once a tradition of the era this album recreates, and one I would encourage the return of.
(8/10 Spenny)
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