The Courtelles

Live at The Unicorn Marden, Saturday 14th July 2012


For The Courtelles to be described as a comfy old pair of slippers is not meant to be derogatory, but a group that plays 60s songs of which every word is known and happily sang along to, makes them as comfortable as the old slippers.

The Courtelles played The Who’s My Generation and that is where the music came from. But a glance across the bar at the 18-year-old who was also contentedly singing along to 50-year-old songs illustrates the timeless nature of what is, to be fair, rather simplistic songs in comparison to the heavily produced tracks of the current day.

The group were a standard four-piece with one guitarist who could swap his strings for an organ or a harmonica as the set demanded. The drummer was the lead singer and like the barmaid was just a kid singing these old songs. His brother was the bass guitarist. There were at least a couple of older hands front stage, both of whom did their share of the vocals.

The 60s songs ranged from the very simple Manfred Mann numbers Doo-Wah-Diddy and 5-4-3-2-1 to Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady and Purple Haze. Add in a little Cream, Small Faces and a huge dollop of the Beatles and you have a night that is a lot of fun.

It was a like an episode of Pop Quiz as the “who sang that” question was posed many times with only one song, Green Tambourine, escaping us. Lemonpipers being the answer.

A three song encore was finished with The Monkees’ Daydream Believer that left the audience begging for more, but sadly, as Bruce Springsteen found out at Hyde Park this evening, closing time is closing time.

This was really good fun, for the children of the 1960s and likewise for the teenagers of today.