He then briefly rebranded himself as R John The Revelator, a psychedelic messiah who was around just long enough for a live-streamed lockdown show with migraine-inducing visuals. I might try to persuade him to resurrect this persona, it would be well suited to a night such as Sensateria.
The latest incarnation is his most ambitious project to date. Dandy The Vandal is a time-travelling glam rocker who witnessed the 1970s winter of discontent and the country's subsequent ruin during the Thatcher years. He has now materialised in the 21st century on a mission to save us from Brexit. R John Webb's first full-length solo release could almost be called a concept album, using elements from all eras of popular music to help us learn from the past and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes.
The album kicks off properly with the title track. With its Ziggy Stardust/T Rex vibe, this is the most obviously glam rock number on the album but the spirits of Bowie and Bolan will continue to permeate as we progress through the tracks. Our time traveller arrives in the present day and is clearly baffled by what he finds here. The obsessions with celebrity - "They all love him, he don't wanna know" - and social media - "Don't need a like for him to get high" - are alien concepts to him. This leads straight into a familiar song, "We Are the Subterraneans", which was previously heard on "The Bridge" but it's presented in a different form here. Rather than the piano of the EP version, this is a soul-funk piece that could have come from Bowie's "Young Americans" album. Here we see how the style in which a song is played can give it a new meaning. The original version hinted at outcasts banding together in a desperate attempt to survive but here they are a clandestine group plotting to undermine what we have come to take for granted.
Next up is "Small Island", which has definite hints of Bruce Springsteen. Listeners with more modern tastes might think of Arcade Fire, but let's not forget that they were influenced by Springsteen, another reminder that musical history, and perhaps time itself, is not linear but a continuous loop. At first the lyrics seem at odds with Bruce's love of cars, starting off with a criticism of driveways packed with Audis and BMWs. But it's an attack on consumer culture in general, and the urge to put on a show just to outdo the neighbours. This is not too far removed from Bruce and his working class values, and I'm also reminded of the "status symbol land" that the Monkees longed to escape in "Pleasant Valley Sunday".
"Do Juan Don" is an oddity, with a melody taken straight from "Blame It On The Boogie" but the stream of consciousness lyrics put a dark slant on it, simply because it's almost impossible to imagine what the time traveller could be talking about. But that may well be the point - the line "signifying nothing, written on a bootstrap" neatly sums up much of today's throwaway pop music.
With its 1950s rhythm and do-wop backing vocals, "Coup Coup Collider" is the closest in style to a Rhino And The Ranters track but lyrically we're still in surreal territory. There are references to Covid and the "call for isolation, moral degradation" of living in lockdown, with a strong implication that Dandy The Vandal, rather than our hapless government, would be the best candidate to lead us out of our current malaise.
"We Belong To Her" has an eastern vibe, which many have done before in a contrived hipster way (remember Kula Shaker?) but this feels more authentic. At the same time this could be a dig at those who use mystic imagery with no understanding of its origins. Who is the mysterious character "shrouded in the charts and she speaks in astrology" ? The message here is to abandon your new age beliefs and follow the common sense advice of the Vandal.
Bowie resurfaces on "Feel The Madness" but we have now left the 1970s and "Let's Dance" is directly referenced in the lyrics, suggesting that the only way to escape the madness is to immerse ourselves in music. Another reference point is Talking Heads and I'm sure I can detect a hint of Peter Gabriel's 1980s work, which makes me think that these songs would lend themselves to animated videos.
Closing song "The Moment You Love Me" brings us up to date, starting with a delicate guitar intro that could be from one of Radiohead's more accessible tunes before developing into a neo-folk piece that I can imagine being played in one of our smaller venues such as Kitchen Garden Cafe or Tower Of Song. The time traveller tells us "the moment you love me, I'm gone" before a choral rendition of "Land Of Hope And Glory" disintegrates into the same cacophony of looped voices that started the album, creating a TARDIS-like effect as our hero is transported back to his own time zone. Maybe he feels his work here is done, but it's more likely that after just 40 minutes in the present day he's realised that society is screwed and there's nothing more he can do for us. Whatever, I don't think this is the last we will see of Dandy The Vandal.
With so many direct references to classic artists you might accuse the album of being derivative but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's a cleverly constructed piece of work that shows us how it's important to learn from and be inspired by the past without blindly copying. To quote the title track, "Bohemian chic of the charity store, they all imitate but they don't know the score." I've been listening to music for long enough to know that it's almost impossible to find something completely new, but it's refreshing to hear an album that takes those charity store finds and uses them in an innovative way.
"Dandy The Vandal And The Godforsaken Sweethearts" is released on 28th July and can be pre-ordered from Catch The Buzz records on Bandcamp:https://catchthebuzz.bandcamp.com/album/the-ingenious-gentleman-dandy-the-vandal-the-godforsaken-sweethearts
There will be a launch gig on the same day at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Birmingham/Hare-And-Hounds/R-John-Webbs-Dandy-The-Vandal-Album-Launch/36040628/
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