Look Out Government! Here come The Kabeedies… interviewed on 16/02/11, 10ft Tall, Cardiff

15 Feb

The band are sports fans – Evan, who at one stage in his life shot up by a foot in height in three months, played rugby for about 9 years and is a Welsh rugby fan. Now at 6 foot 3, he looks like he would be a handy player (and currently single, ladies). Roary is a Watford football fan, with the scarf to prove it.

This is not to say they’re not proud of their Norwich roots. They claim to be the biggest thing to come out of Norwich since Stephen Fry’s brain. They try to disassociate themselves from Alan Partridge, although Roary quotes the poster seen in Norwich, “The book that simultaneously spills the beans, and makes other people eat their words.” Beneath, he says, it also mentions that “this book is not a culinary book, although if publishers are interested…” so clearly the Partridge sense of humour must have rubbed off on them. They’re all keen to be known on a much wider scale though. As Fab says, “It’s too easy to be comfortable in your own city.” Evan then jokes, “If you think that after about a year in Norwich, we can play to a pretty good crowd, we should just move from city to city every year, and eventually take over the world!”

Well, at the latest stop in their world domination quest, Cardiff, the crowd, on a wet and miserable Thursday night, was disappointingly sparse, but it’s when playing live that The Kabeedies really come into their own. When I’ve seen them before, Evan, Katie and Roary all dance along; now the dancing is mostly just left to Katie, who kicks off her shoes and really goes for it. No longer the slightly shy indie kid, on stage, now dressed in leather hot pants, she becomes Katie the crazed sex kitten! I saw a group of Burlesque dancers at this very venue a few years ago, and Katie would beat all of these hands down, with some amazing moves, and I wish really that I’d asked more about her dancing, as it’s such a feature of the live show.

They’re such a good band with such a good sound, I don’t think they need to be using sex to sell themselves, and I joked with Katie afterwards that she could try wearing denim dungarees instead. But if she’s comfortable with it, which clearly she is, why not? She makes gestures as if she’s cracking a whip, and now you can understand more about the idea of her keeping the boys in the band in their place.

There’s a lot of what Alan Partridge would call “good banter” among the band at both the Cardiff gig and the gig at Porth Factory the following night. In Porth, they get a group of lads at the front doing the conga, and a girl who claims to be their biggest fan is in her element.

Back in the recession of the 1930s, it was dancing that many people turned to in order to escape their woes, and maybe it could be a cure for people’s money worries in today’s times. The cover of “Soap” is a black and white photo of a couple in the throes of a dance. If you’re looking for feel-good factor music, you need look no further than The Kabeedies.

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