A highly appreciative review of my latest album, “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” from Brian Hinton in the latest edition of Caught In The Act.
Many thanks, Brian!
***
BEAU
“The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur”
Cherry Red BEAULC1 – DL-only – (49:29)
…by Brian Hinton
The recent CD celebrating the troubadours and one man bands who plied their trade in Les Cousins basement dub in Soho reminded us of that amazing spurt of creativity. And they were built to last. Often after a long silence, I have been hugely impressed by recent gigs by Keith Christmas, Bridgit St John and other long lost visionaries.
Beau aka Trevor Mldgely, no longer plays live gigs, but has been extremely prolific on line, with virtual albums in 2021, 2022 and 2023 His latest album doesn’t hold back - "dogging on the pleasure beach" - but is a startling set, lovely 12 string guitar backing up his crystal clear vocals and pin sharp lyrics. Beau skewers some dangerous targets - Islamic extremists, champagne socialists, the bottom feeding media and cancel culture. Indeed in some parts of the Internet he might find himself cancelled. If not silenced.
For those who lost touch with him with his two long lost albums on John Peel’s label Dandelion, Beau is still a class act. I was reminded by a less plummy Jake Thackeray, or an English version of Loudon Wainwright when he had a weekly slot on a satirical TV show, to put the everyday world in context. If future generations want to know the preoccupations and irritations of the world of the mid 2020s, here it is, neatly skewered. It’s not easy listening, you can’t just put this on in the background at dinner parties (and those in Islington would be hugely affronted) but it is funny, to the point, and strangely energising. Good tunes too. It will gradually worm its way into your subconscious, and maybe help to explain the contemporary world in a witty, bemused and pun-enhanced manner, all of Beau’s own.
Brian Hinton
Beau song comments:
01 Shipwreck Island (3.46)
Courtesy of Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, R. M. Ballantyne and countless others, kids of all ages have imagined the perils of being shipwrecked on some remote desert isle. ‘Shipwreck Island’ feeds into this proud tradition.... almost!
02. Publish And Be Damned (4.58)
Celebrating the journalistic integrity of the free press, for so long the guardians of our liberty....
03. The Sound Of The Poulterer’s Man (4.23)
A song of possible redemption... In much the same way Sir Tom Stoppard used minor characters from Hamlet in his Rosencrantz and Guildenstem are Dead, so I’ve rather shamelessly dragooned a few personalities from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Sorry; Sir Tom for pinching your idea, and Mr D for the impertinence!
04. The Barbershop Quartet (3.56)
We know what it’s like with cities; how unpleasant things have to take place underground to maintain the veneer of hygiene on the surface. Further up the food chain, nation states are remarkably similar; and almost always, what happens down below is something we’d rather not know about..,.
05 Never Trust A Cat (4.08)
In the sure and certain knowledge this will alienate 50% of the population.
06. The Passing Of Eli Mackay (5.07)
A modern morality tale.
07. The Minnow (3.24) Looking at many of the postings I see on social media, I fear one day I may understand human nature.
08. Chavasse (4.44)
‘The past is a foreign country: they did things differently there...’ (apologies for slightly misquoting L. P. Hartley).
09. A Cautionary Tale (4,36)
A jaunty little song about no-platforming — the intellectual equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going la, la, la.—
10. Revolution Rendezvous (3.06)
Is a paean to champagne socialists everywhere....
11. The Watchmaker’s Arms (3.26)
Anyone who’s eavesdropped on taproom conversations in an old-fashioned British pub — the drinking-establishment kind that doesn’t serve up effete items such as food — will understand where this song’s coming from....
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