My maternal grandmother (God rest her soul) was, among other things, a staunch tee-totaller and zealous member of the local branch of the Temperance movement. She tried many times, without success, to get me to 'sign the pledge' when I was about 8 years old: by the age of 22 I sometimes wished I'd taken the hint. But I'm pretty sure that she would not have been that keen on this Temperance Movement.
I came across the band 'The Temperance Movement' at the recent Greenbelt Festival, and was quite simply blown away by their energy and the sheer earthiness of their rock 'n' roll, and decided there and then that their up-coming debut album was one to buy.
The eponymous collection loses nothing of the dynamism of their live performance. This is rock music in the tradition of the Stones: riff-heavy, driving, bluesy for the most part, but with light and shade too. Ballads like 'Pride', the country-tinged 'Lovers and Fighters' and the delightful 'Chinese Lanterns' sit wonderfully alongside the heavier R'n'B (in its original sense) of 'Ain't no Telling' and 'Be Lucky', and the downright boogie of 'Midnight Black' and 'Take it Back'. Phil Campbell, the singer, gyrates on stage like a youthful Jagger, and his voice has the edge of Frankie Miller, with the band reminding me of Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band - but with balls!
A genuine delight of an album - if you like good old-fashioned blues-based rock 'n' roll, then you won't be disappointed.
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