It was nice to see Cornershop picked by Jarvis Cocker to play as part of his Meltdown selection. It would also have been nice to hear from the man himself the reasoning behind his choice. This is a band who haven’t released an album in over 5 years ( 2002’s Handcream for a Generation).
They suffered from some awful sound problems for the first few songs, rendering Tjinder Singh’s already quiet voice virtually inaudible. Following that they belted out most of their well-known stuff – Brimful of Asha, Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III etc. The rhythm section pumped out fat, loose 70’s funk riffs, and if they put their mind to it Cornershop could have been one of the great party bands. A small crowd of people did run down the aisles of the Queen Elizabeth Hall to boogie at the front, but Singh’s notorious aversion to live gigs and audience interaction meant that this gig was disappointing.
They debuted no new material. They don’t seem to have progressed at all in the last 5 years. Why were they here, why turn up if you have nothing to say?