Vardis 100 Club Tottenham Court Road London 13/03/2020

Vardis

100 Club, Tottenham Court Road London

13/03/2020

Words and Photos Stephen Johnson

Vardis’ show at the 100 Club in Tottenham Court Road London, started off like a juggernaut and promptly deafened everybody in the room, as a result of the bands enthusiasm to really make their musical prowess felt, none more so, than Vardis Frontman and Guitarist Steve Zodiac, who along with his bandmates Bassist Roy Bailey and Drummer Joe Clancy, were off to not only have fun but to make it as enjoyable for the crowd as they could.

The majority of the set, at least a good 45 minutes of it, was given over to the tracks that appeared on the 1980 Live Album ‘100mph’, namely;’Out Of The Way’, ‘Situation Negative’, ‘Dirty Money’, ‘Move Along’, ‘Destiny’, ‘The Lion’s Share’, ‘’Loser’, ‘Let’s Go’ and ‘If I Were King’.

The band had decided beforehand that were going to honour that album, by reproducing the tracks for posterity in audio and visual formats, for release sometime in the near future.

Steve Zodiac was keen on pointing out to the crowd that participation was important to make the audio and visual as good as it can sound and look, and they duly obliged by clapping and cheering as loudly as they could, in all the right places.

The band decided to fill out the other 45 minutes, by performing ‘Steaming’, ‘Paranoia’, ‘Red Eye’, ‘Mods And Rockers’, ‘Shoot Straight’, ‘Radio Rockers’,  ‘Jolly’ and ‘Loot’.

The problem came in the last 20 minutes of the set, when it became obvious, that the band were struggling to keep up the frantic pace of their full on Bluesy Boogie Rock extravaganza, and there were signs of trying to calm things down, and even though it was a welcome relief, it did marr the enjoyment for me, at least, from what had gone before, definitely a shame, but not greatly unexpected.

Vardis certainly made their presence felt,  as the fans loved ’em, from the very start to the end.