Tonic at the Troubadour

TONIC; noun: a medicine that invigorates or strengthens; anything physically, mentally or morally invigorating; the first degree, the keynote, of an eight note musical scale…and the name of the funkiest goddam funking funk band in London. If you want to feel better about your life, pour this Tonic all over your hearts and dancing shoes…as soon as you possibly can.

Last Friday the Troubadour Club lent its downstairs cavern-esque venue to a heaving funk-loving crowd. Given the dimensions of the club’s intimacy, it seemed that any serious attempt at busting some proper shapes would surely have ended in some kind of kung-fu mess, but from the beginning of their set to the end, we occupied every breathing space to be able to imbibe their soulful gifts.

And that’s just it, this band makes you happy. Ms Gabriella Romano, their accomplished, tuneful and sexy red-shoe-wearing front woman, kept the entertainment rolling with crowd interaction as smooth and as engaging as her voice when she was singing. ‘I wanna see your hands in the air’, she cried, and there was nothing you wanted to do more.

You could find virtuoso guitarist Mr Alan Burgin grinning from ear to ear whilst rocking perfectly tight solos. Mr Peace, the man on bass, bopped and rapped too, and every so often I really wanted the band to break into 2009’s UK Christmas number one single with a resounding ‘Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’. That’s just my wandering mind though, and no comparison to the wandering trumpeteering of Mr Phil Smith, who topped off a well-oiled ensemble, driven from the back by the brilliantly tight and tempered drumming of Mr Tobi Andersson.

This band really works, and through their songs you feel part of the history of their music (not least because every now and again you will find that they have paid subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, homage to the funk, rock and reggae pioneers of the world who have gone before them). This is no less than a brilliant thing. 

On Friday we were not merely at a Tonic gig, we were at a living funk memoir, strutting into the future with a blueprint for feeling great. It’s good to be alive.

Troubadour Club
263 Old Brompton Road
Kensington
SW5 9JA

Information, videos, songs and happiness can be found at Tonic’s websites: www.myspace.com/tonicfunksouljazz and www.tonicmusic.net