Recent months have seen a groundswell of comment, of rumour and hearsay regarding Decoration; they first came to attention of many with their Peel Session last autumn – one of the last before the great man passed on. Talk at gigs, in pubs and on the good old internet suddenly seemed to always include the word ‘Decoration’. Now many bands reputations are established through media furore, hype and stuff and nonsense, whilst many more have to struggle for years playing in the toilets of back street venues up and down the country before they gain any level of success – if of course they ever do attain these accolades; and it seemed that Decoration may have been getting a little more attention than they deserved. That was until I heard their forthcoming album, a collection of songs, written from a thoroughly refreshing perspective. Decoration take the standard four piece rock and roll guitar, vocals, bass and drums line up and add in a definite northern angle, a distinctly definitive style, and a sense of individuality. Imagine Jack Duckworth fronting The Fall and you’re on the right tracks.

The Cuba Café is, surprisingly enough a balmy beachside Caribbean hangout in the backstreets of Manchester’s Ancoats, bordering the city centre on one side and the wastelands on the other. Its usual guise of a lap dancing joint is sidelined tonight for the welcome appearance of Decoration – although the question does arise, would I rather have live music or a live woman, clad in her scanties parading her assets in my face – a tough one, but for tonight, and tonight only I’ll go for the band.

Arriving late from London, due to the bank holiday traffic mayhem Decoration take to the stage in a hurry, and the logistics of being unable to sound check are soon evident, the band appear slightly troubled by this, but at the same time self assured and confident in both their songs and ability, it’s not cockiness, just a sense of comfort which soon spreads to the audience.

It is patently clear that the majority of people in attendance are here to see Decoration, despite them being place second on the bill (bumped up from third due to the aforementioned traffic jams). ‘Pavey Ark’ opens the set – perhaps the first ever song to be named after a Lake District peak – a significant block of rock that is mirrored perfectly in the song. Lyrically a poignant tale of the failed desperate search for peace and a place to call your own, told through the eyes of a boyhood search for solace in Britain’s foremost National Park. Broken strings make for a slight pause before the set continues with ‘Escape Routine’ and despite ongoing tweaks with the sound there is a definite glow in the crowd. The music is infectious, impossible to ignore and the crowd who had nattered endlessly through the support act are all taking note with intent.

‘Joy Adamson’ is an out and out cavalcade of a song, if you can’t shift your feet to something like this then I suspect there is something wrong, seriously wrong. It is, like the vast majority of Decorations cannon an up tempo pop rock number, again with a thrillingly unique and heart warmingly objectivity on its subject matter. Lyrically a tale of a hopeless romance told as a parallel to Joy Adamson’s relationship with the lions basking in the Savannah sun, and when the guitars explode on the break they literally take your internal organs along with them, it’s that powerful.

The ‘technical hitches’ again rear their ugly collective heads on the intro to ‘Job in London’, which on record is ushered in with a beautiful dynamic guitar arpeggio which slowly builds up to a luxurious crescendo throughout the song. These picked guitar lines are bordering on inaudible, and it mars the performance somewhat – although it still has the audience swaying and oozing obvious appreciation. ‘Pine’ which contains the classic line “Who knows. I might never have found you, touching your toes in the Alpine section of the garden centre – where anything grows” is destined to become a real crowd favourite. Stuart Murray’s flat northern vowels are shown off to their full. Lovers of the likes of David Gedge and Mark E. Smith will appreciate the delivery of a song in something other than an American accent. Northern pride at it’s best. ‘Intercom’ follows swiftly on and again shows off the lyric writing at its best, with a few stolen lines at the least. Songs that actually tell stories, songs that paint pictures, songs that make films obsolete – the imagery is so vivid you have all these mini kitchen sink soap operas going on in either glorious technicolour or scratchy old black and white in the cinema that is your imagination. This is not background music, it’s not passé and it’s impossible to let it slide by without being dragged into the undertow.

The utterly euphoric and intensely optimistic double whammy of ‘I Tried It, I Liked It, I Loved It’ and ‘Every Dog has its Day’ bring the set to a rapturously warm ending. Music has the power to bring you down, that is undoubted, but Decoration show here how music can bring you round with an inherently positive outlook, when even tales of loss, of disappointment, of betray and disillusion can somehow be tempered with inner strength and the commitment that “I’ll carry on...without you”, and deep down you know that they will, and that they will be better for it, and that, without exception they will succeed.

The band were obviously disappointed with tonight’s show – in contrast to the audience. A Lack of a sound check and, it must be said, a somewhat ineffective sound engineer didn’t set them up to blow us away with the intensity and volume that they have both captured on record and that their songs so richly deserve. They vowed to put this right for the Manchester audience at their forthcoming show at Dry Bar. However, if this show will do anything it will (at the end of a series of great shows) make them just that little more determined to be the best that they possibly can be. From a spectators point of view, here is a band that are poised on the edge of something, it can go one of many ways, it could be deserved greatness, it could be cruel obscurity, it could be simple inertia; but if you ask me I would, without exception tell you that this band should go directly to the top of your ‘bands to see’ and ‘records to buy’ lists. Decoration are simply the most comfortable, individual, exciting and innovative band around, and with their forthcoming record (Don’t Disappoint Me Now) they have put together a set of songs that are both second to none and totally unparalleled in today’s music scene. They have guts, flair, panache, balls, style, skill and maturity...they write fucking great songs and deliver them with a smile.

What more do you need?

Words by Johnny Mac
 

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