396) Eat - Sell Me A God

The two things I would say I am knowledgeable about are football and music, anything else I forget because I am not really interested, my much better half cracks up because we go on holiday and within a week of being home I cannot remember the name of the hotel we were in, if I’d have bumped into Kenny Dalglish or Mick Jones in the hotel then it would be engraved in my mind forever but alas that has yet to happen.  However am I really that knowledgeable about music, I thought I was but I chat in DMs on X to two people who have become friends and they both know so much more about music than me, they both mention bands and I have no idea, I am the amateur of the group.

This is a long way round of me saying I have no idea who Eat are and this is a huge hole in my knowledge because their drummer was a certain Pete Howard who replaced Topper Headon in The Clash and I like to keep abreast of all things Clash, clearly not.

Eat released two records although with different line ups as guitarists, the Noble brothers, left after this debut and new members were recruited for the follow up Epicure. The band reformed for a couple of years performing gigs and releasing an EP before splitting with bassist Tim Sewell and Howard joining The Wonder Stuff, I knew that about Pete, get me.

This is an enjoyable record where the band go for an assortment of sounds. Opener Tombstone is all guitars and a solid beat from Howard with lead singer Ange Dolittle confident, funnily enough The Wonder Stuff come to mind when Miles Hunt was at his arrogant best.

Fatman has a funk like groove with Dolittle approaching the song in different voices, live I can imagine this would have been a favourite and Stories is relentless from the start and the guitar in Walking Man is a pleasure before disappearing then storming back in.

Skin appeals to me simply because a harmonica appears (ditto Body Bag which has a brilliant drawn out ending), always gets me, but there is a hypnotic shuffle from the band that draws you in, Howard never lets up as Ange leads from the front.

Judgement Train is a recurring riff, all of the band becoming more manic as it progresses, The Woodentops spring to mind, don’t ask me why they just do, and the final track Mr & Mrs Smack has a laid back style the band providing space as they suck us in and build the intensity before bowing out.

Musically this record goes in all over the place, maybe that worked against them, as they never crossed over but this is an excellent listen and Pete Howard, can claim to have been in three excellent bands.

 7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Skin