THE GALLERY: Jim Noir @ Sunflower Lounge, Sat 22nd Nov -

Ed’s note…

Last weekend saw Jim Noir play at The Sunflower Lounge; Manchester’s psychedelic Indie-Popster came to Birmingham’s best little basement venue. A gig not to be missed.

So I missed it. But luckily for Birmingham Review Paul Reynolds had his weekend in better order and covered the gig for The Gallery, leaving me duty bound to be front-row-centre the next time Noir is in town. And I owe Paul a beer.

Touring the UK with his new album, Finnish Line, Jim Noir was in Birmingham halfway through a North-to-South-to-North eight date tour – which can be a cobweb free blessing or hotel apathy curse.

Finnish Line is much more polished and lacking the retro zaniness (a word that actually appears in my spell check) of Noir’s earlier stuff. Plus it’s very… erm… reminiscent of a band I’m compelled not to mention, due to most reviews of Finnish Line citing them somewhere. I’ll just say walrus, make a sort of sneezing noise and leave it at that.

But I reckon The Sunflower Lounge, with its crowded anarchy and subterranean approach to health & safety, would have been a cracking way to rough this new work up a bit. Or it would suck tired mid tour balls and you’d feel awkward with a man you’d never met, in a very intimate setting. Either way worth a tenner. Plus there’s a bar.

I was having a mini melt down on Saturday night (started about 12noon, finished about Wednesday) so didn’t go. And by the time you read this Jim Noir will be safely ticked up in whatever he safely tucks himself up in, having finished his Finnish Line tour yesterday (Nov 27th). So that’s it, for me. Over. Done. Fin. My only friend…

But don’t fret, Paul Reynolds has done a sterling job for The Gallery and Finnish Line is out on general release now.

YOU MISSED NOTHING.

For more on Jim Noir, visit http://www.jimnoir.com/

For more from The Sunflower Lounge, visit www.thesunflowerlounge.com

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BPREVIEW: Jim Noir @ Sunflower Lounge, Sat 22nd Nov