Put on your sequins and primp your hair, there’s a soul revival steaming up the city. On a low-lit stage at The Toff In Town above Swanston Street, four microphones stand in readiness. The throb of a bass line pulses faintly then is joined by a percussive backbeat. The audience waits. Then, they hear it – a voice rich and rumbling, filling the room with its seductive request: “Come a little closer, please. Clap like the girls.”
Three identically dressed women plant their gloved hands on their hips, and wait for their cue. Clairy Browne steps up the microphone and starts to sing. It’s a smoky, sultry sound, full of sass and verve. This is it. This is the sound of soul.
It’s a local take on a trend that took off in Britain in the early 2000s, when singers such as Joss Stone, then later Duffy and the late Amy Winehouse stormed the charts with the sort of smoky-voiced style not seen since the days of Etta James, Aretha Franklin and the Supremes.
More recently, the runaway success of Adele’s album 21 has set off a wave of soul sounds worldwide, recruiting millions of new fans.
Melbourne, too, has been caught up in this soul revival. Fans across the city have been dusting off their brogues, primping their curls, and getting ready to twist and shout.
Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes have been shimmying through their glamorous shows for two-and-a-half years. They’re a high-camp affair, with sequins, bouffant hairdos and winged eyeliner.
Renowned as much for her tasselled glove collection as for her feisty vocals, Browne says soul music is unique in the way it empowers women – divas, no less – while mainstream music mostly spits out two-dimensional pop starlets. “(Soul) is a celebration of glamour, and bringing back some of the showmanship of that time,” she says. “As a woman, being able to express this strength and power, that’s a beautiful thing. It’s kind of ball-grabbing, if you know what I mean.”
Fellow soul singer Chelsea Wilson is one of the newest voices on the circuit, having begun performing in late 2010 after six years singing jazz interstate and overseas. She says there’s a real sisterhood among Melbourne’s female soul singers, borne of the city’s lively music scene and events like the Toff’s regular “Women of Soul” nights. “There’s no competitiveness or bitchiness – we are all friends and team up together to do gigs and have a great time,” says Wilson. “Strong front women have always been part of the genre and inspired women worldwide to sing soul.”
Ruby Jones agrees. As one half of the soul-driven outfit Paris, Texas, she says it’s understandable that mainstream audiences – inundated with dance tracks and laser light displays – are moving to the pared-back authenticity of soul.
“Now there’s the pressure on artists to do the Gaga thing and be up on a trapeze, juggling midgets,” she says. “After a while, I think people just get exhausted by that because it’s all just gimmick.”
So if pop music is a one-night stand, is soul a fully-fledged love affair? Vince Peach, host of PBS’s Soultime program, certainly thinks so. He’s been playing the best Motown, soul, blues and country tracks as a radio DJ for 26 years, and believes audiences are increasingly indifferent to the manufactured sound blaring from commercial stations.
A regular DJ at Thursday’s “Soul in the Basement” night at Cherry Bar – now in its 11th year – Peach says bands such as Saskwatch and The Bamboos are finding innovative ways to interpret the traditional soul sound.
A native Liverpudlian, Peach says when he arrived in Melbourne in 1982, Grand WaZoo (still playing today) was the city’s lone soul band. “Now there are dozens,” he says.
Peach regularly creates the playlist at PBS’s “Soul-a-Go-Go” night, a dance-hall event that has been bringing the boogie on the first Saturday of every month for four years. Event organiser Janelle Johnstone says this year’s venue, the Bella Union at Trades Hall, attracts between 400 and 500 people every month.
“It’s pretty rare that a monthly event like this has been going on for that long and hasn’t lost its soul, if you’ll pardon the pun,” she says.
Peach thinks soul underscores Melbourne’s reputation for a live music scene that is at once innovative and affectionately old-school.
Having toured the country, Clairy Browne agrees that Melbourne, with its penchant for alternative culture and underground musical movements, has a natural affinity for the sound of the ’60s. “Melbourne’s fairly progressive; it just seems to fit,” she says.
Still, the scene is changing. Soul purists and the experimental younger set are learning to get along.
When Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes started playing at “Sweet Jelly Roll” nights around the city, the crowd was decidedly niche. But recently, she’s noticed younger fans giving up their grungy pub bands and learning to shake their tail feathers.
If there is a soul revival happening, the Bangin’ Rackettes are right in the midst of it. The group has just released its debut album, Baby Caught the Bus, which has already sold out – on vinyl, naturally.
Recorded with producer Steve Schram (Little Red, Little Birdy), the album is creating a buzz with those who can’t get enough of the retro sound.
While she’s happy to pull on the tasselled gloves and head north for the Sydney Festival next month, Browne says the soul scene in other capital cities just can’t compare with Melbourne’s. “Here, there’s definitely a buzz.”
Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes perform from 9pm tonight (December 22), at Cherry Bar, 103 Flinders Lane, city. Call: 9639 8122.
Get on the soul train
* Community radio station PBS runs Soul-a-Go-Go soul/funk night on the first Saturday of every month at Bella Union, Trades Hall (corner of Swanston and Victoria streets, Carlton) with regular DJs and bands. From 9pm to 3am. Tickets $15, $10 for PBS members. Visit pbsfm.org.au
* Cherry Bar’s Soul in the Basement night has been an inner-city fixture for more than 10 years, with soul DJs Vince Peach and Pierre Baroni entertaining the crowd with swinging soul beats every Thursday. Tonight you’ll also catch CW cover girl Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes in a Christmas-themed show featuring some original tunes. Begins at 9pm, call 9639 8122.
* Melbourne Soul Club bills itself as ‘‘Melbourne’s home of Motown’’, and few would argue. The monthly event, which features live bands and DJs covering and spinning all your favourites (think Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson), will return to the Bayswater RSL on February 11. Visit melbournesoulclub.com
* Prahran’s Red Bennies (level 1, 373 Chapel Street) will ring in 2012 with a combination of soul, funk, jazz and cabaret. Headlined by self-described ‘‘gypsy swingers’’ the Woohoo Revue, the New Year’s Eve party (dress code: vintage) will also feature renowned jazz and soul DJ Mike Gurrieri. Tickets from $85. Visit redbennies.com
– Kathryn Kernohan
Email a friend