There’s a rumour going around that the life of a music reviewer is only a tad less rewarding than that of Tom Cruise, Andrew Lloyd Webber or your privileged celebrity of choice – all those free tickets – “Cor, you don’t know you’re born, mate.” And yes, when the outfit on the other end of those free tickets is Down For The Count, the envy is not misplaced, for the band is, as I find myself repeating time and time again, one that I would cheerfully shell out good money to watch and listen to.
But for every Down For The Count that I get to see off the cuff there are four, five, six or more bands that I’d gladly shell out an equal amount not to have to leave a warm home on a freezing night, stand shivering in the rain at the mercy of public transport, arrive soaked to the skin at the applicable venue, collect my free tickets and then sit, still drenched, through a couple of hours of something that makes Fink’s Mules seem like Frank Sinatra with the Buddy Rich outfit behind him. Let’s hear it for the Reviewer’s Life.
I saw Down For The Count for the first time when they played The London Jazz Festival in 2018. It was a routine assignment and I hadn’t a clue what to expect. As it turned out, the band was right down my street because, quite incredibly and certainly against the run of play, they were replicating the sounds of the swing era. In 2018! Babies! Not one of them was over 30 and yet here they were laying on the audience the wholesome nutrition that I, in my salad days, ingested as my contemporaries ingested Farley’s rusks and Benger’s Food. After the gig I chatted briefly with Mike Paul-Smith, the pianist-leader, who actually transcribed from original 78s.
Recently I chatted with him at greater length when we sat down together on the eve of what will be the band’s longest tour to date, 30 concerts in 41 days, culminating at their favourite venue, Cadogan Hall, on December 28. Although I’ve seen the band several times since that initial gig, and own several of their albums, I’ve never actually spoken to Mike face to face until now, and whilst he, not unnaturally, wanted to discuss the forthcoming tour, I was eager to learn about the band itself, in short, how it happened.
“We were a group of students at college in Buckinghamshire,” he said. “We played largely because we loved doing so, we all loved those swing bands of the 40s and tried to get close to those sounds. Gradually local people began asking us to play at things like weddings, office parties, bar mitzvahs, etc. We became aware that we were becoming popular on a local level, and one day we decided to give it a go.”
Although it’s a mere six years since I saw them initially it feels much longer, and as the band has grown in popularity, so it has expanded in terms of sidemen and for the last couple of years they have been augmented by what is now a permanent string section. I still find it passing strange that so many of a younger generation – even today the oldest member is a mere 41 – can get such a kick out of playing the kind of music that was eclipsed by beat long before they were born. But… “It’s true, we really do love the music of that era.”
I’m not quite sure even Mike himself fully realised the significance of the song that has just gone into the band’s book, and for which he has just written a chart. It’s Been A Long, Long, Time was written in 1945 by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn to celebrate the end of WW2 and the return of G.I.s to their wives and sweethearts. The message was “Kiss me once, and kiss me twice, and kiss me once again/It’s been a long, long time.” It’s been a long time since that era and may it be a long time that Mike and the band bring their music to delighted audiences.