Ashley Naylor Spaceship @ Velvet Underground, Adelaide 8/12/2024
Ashley Naylor was in town with The Church on the evening before this show, so he decided to hang around and do a Spaceship show, the Adelaide edition of his band Spaceship that is. Ash’s “partner in crime” Wez Prictor on keyboards came to Adelaide for the show, Nicholas Meredeth, who has been touring with The Church on drums joined in and local resident Amr Zaid (Ratcat, Johnny Seagull & The Hotchips) on bass completed the line up. The band hadn’t actually played together till this evening but the talent on stage said it would work, and it did.
While it is great going to big shows, hanging with thousands of other fans, it is equally nice to go to a small club show and get up close to the artist. The Velvet Underground is a great venue for smaller rock shows. The sound was brilliant and everyone could see the band.
The show was mostly instrumentals from Ash’s Soundtrack’s albums, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 and despite some reservations I initially had about just instrumentals being played, it really did work. Weeping Johnny was recorded in 2014 in London and is reference to Johhny Marr guitar. Swing Time came next, complete with Paul Stanley impersonation from Ash at the beginning.
Cry Baby Cry lays homage to “classic rock” jam bands like Back Street Crawlers. The song gives Ash the chance to show off his skills on the guitar, while the band behind him keeps everything together. It was obvious right from the start the band were having as much fun as those of us in the audience.
Ash invited drummer Danny Leo up to play on Les Paul Waltz, as Danny played on the record. However, the band started Free the Air as according to the set list. Ash had missed a song. Laughter ensured and they played Les Paul Waltz, returning to Free the Air when Nicholas returned to the drum seat.
Set highlight was Hazel, a dedication to Eddie Hazel from the band Funkadelic, a band a young Ash Naylor heard in his early twenties and then realised there is more to music than “indie rock”. The song morphed into Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain, the band doing an astounding jaw dropping version of the great song.
The “world live premier” of Ash’s recent single Donovan Dreams was the first song with vocals and despite the band having never played together before, they nailed it. Every time Ash plays a solo show with the band Spaceship, he plays a David Bowie cover and tonight’s classic was Rebel Rebel. The song went down a treat with the crowd hanging around the front of the stage. Rhys Bowkett, from Adelaide band Trafalgars, was called to the stage to join Ash on guitar, the two making a great sound. Ash did his Marc Bolan impersonation during the song, Get It On, to the amusement of everyone.
Booker T & the MG’s classic Time is Tight was dedicated to Ash’s father, who loved the song, Wez’s keyboards leading the band to a fine finish.
The ever humble Ash changed into a T.Rex T shirt, then personally handed out the free Ashley Naylor T-Shirt people got for purchasing their ticket, along with autographing albums, CD sleeves and having selfies taken. Not many rock stars do that.
Musically it wasn’t always perfect but that is the great part of live rock n roll. Who wants to listen to live tracks that sound exactly as they were recorded? It’s about changing things around, extending and jamming within the music. It’s about the audience and band having fun, about being able to get up close and at the end interact with the band, with all members being approachable.
That is what made this the perfect evening.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke