Sat 28 Apr
There’s so much to love about this booking: shitkicking old-tyme rock’n’roll, performed by a band who do it better than nigh on anyone else on the circuit, for a Saturday night rock club crowd in a small Valleys town. The only thing needed to complete the package is a fight where someone is thrown across the length of the bar, but that will have to be arranged by Abertillery’s finest and, perhaps, Henri Herbert’s rabblerousing powers.
Herbert is a pianist in the boogie-woogie style, who assaults the keys with a fearful clatter worthy of Jerry Lee Lewis’ proto-protopunk amphetamine rush. He first came to prominence in sleaze-garage outfit The Jim Jones Revue, but is arguably better known in bandleader guise. (You know that piano at St Pancras railway station? A YouTube clip of Herbert having a bash on it has racked up 17 million hits to date.)
His first solo album, rather prosaically titled Boogie Woogie Piano, is out this month and is a smokier, slightly more restrained set of r’n’r instrumentals. For a taste of what to expect in Abertillery, though, you’ll need 2017’s Live At Gypsy Hotel, recorded with his band The Fury (bassist Jez Southgate and drummer Aidan Sinclair) and slotting Hendrix and Little Walter covers into a glut of originals with barnstorming results.
Admission: £5. Info: 01495213300 (NG)