Secret Affair rock the Guildhall in Northampton says Jimmy Bowman

The rain may have washed away the festival period into the background along with the sun, however keep smiling as it is not all that bad. It has just cleared the way for artists to get back on the road and into the warmth of venues across the country (as well as a rouge clown in Northampton.) The gig listings are growing bigger day by day so if you thought it was going to be a quiet winter in by the heater for you think again. Although the students are making a return to Northampton this week, there is still something going on to suit everyone.

The Guildhall was turned into a Mod haven Friday as Secret Affair took to the stage. Despite the relentless rain the audience looked pristine (just how do these Mods keep their desert boots so dry?) as they piled in from the damp and dingy conditions.

The band wasted no time in getting proceedings going and played a seamless set with tracks coming at the audience thick and fast. It didn’t take the crowd or Secret Affair long to turn this unusual venue into an atmospheric performance, treating us early on with their classic ‘Going To A Go-Go’.

Original members Ian Page and Dave Cairns left the stage momentarily leaving the audience in the more than capable hands of their brass section along with their extremely energetic Hammond player (a real credit to their live show) as he relentlessly strung together a frenzy of notes. It really was something quite special to behold.

And for those who like to class themselves as a true ‘mod revivalist’ (despite Mod culture having never left us since it first appeared) and worry themselves sick about having to listen to new material, fear not, you wouldn’t think Secret Affair had ever been away. They may have had a thirty year gap before releasing 2012’s ‘Soho Dreams’ but boy do they still have energy. New tracks such as the very catchy ‘All The Rage’ were almost undetectable in regards to spotting new material partly due to the strength of the song writing and ongoing relevance of their original tracks, tracks that sound so fresh they are still fit to be played at any modern day respectable club and partly due to the musical vision and dedication that Ian Page and Dave Cairns quite clearly still possess resulting in Soho Dreams.

Soho Dreams as an album itself features some incredible song writing with plenty of big choruses. As for the aforementioned ‘All The Rage’ well, it’s got everything you’d expect from a Secret Affair track and more. Undoubtedly for me it displays some of the best Page vocals I’ve ever heard, a crazily catchy riff, a crisp, sharp brass accompaniment and a memorable guitar solo that merges into a sequence of erratic but wonderful sounding Hammond (presumably from the same Hammond player they tour with.) Other stand out tracks on Soho Dreams include ‘Turn Me On’, ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ and ‘In Our Time’. This is everything a comeback album should be, bands of a similar era or on a comeback themselves should take note as this is how it should be done.

Back to the gig and Ian Page announces, “It’s that time” before the band launch into old favourite ‘Time For Action’ sending many of the older section of the audience back in time, into a sweaty frenzy reminiscent of their youth. The hit filled set also included an extended live version of ‘My World.’ A sea of “We are the Mods” chants welcomed back Secret Affair for their encore after tearing up Guildhall with my personal favourite ‘I’m Not Free (But I’m Cheap)’ a track that really has to been seen live to appreciate just everything that is going on within those seven odd minutes.

Ian Page certainly hasn’t lost his voice with age either, A solid performance all round from the Mod heroes. The beauty with this band is that they have found the right balance within their live shows. We were not bombarded with new material as some artists do, ramming it down our throats; we were more gently introduced to quality new tracks, like bumping into someone at a party and hitting it off from there onwards, but yet they remember why they are where they are today and still appear to take great pride in playing a large selection of their timeless hits making their live shows a very successful affair.

Dave Cairns commented after the show: “The venue is fantastic. It’s a historic venue that hasn’t been played in for what? 25 years? So to be part of getting events happening here again and making it all work has been worth it. Great audience, it’s very difficult in a big hall like this to get a good atmosphere going, it’s not a club environment, but we got a great reaction. It couldn’t have been better. Yeah, I’d love to play Northampton again.”

And we’d love to have you back.