The brilliant sold-out nights for the Mid Wales R&B Club at the Muse continue. Tonight we welcomed Nookee back for a third time. Looking back at reviews of those previous performances (I was there!) I notice several things. First, the enthusiasm of the reviewer and secondly, the difficulty of pinning down the genre. I agree with both.

Also, thanks to checking their website and various articles and also confirmed by Barry Hill’s brilliant photos, I see that the line up has increased with the addition of djembe and bongo drummers. His pictures capture their performances better than my words will manage.

Nookee told Buzz magazine that they’d like to add a horn section and a string section, and a choir! Sign me up for that choir.

Connor Jillions

Opening for Nookee was Connor Jillions who thanked the band for bringing him to the club’s attention. He entertained us with a mixture of blues classics and his own more folky compositions.

I say ‘classic’ but, like some classical composers and all jazz musicians, he added variations so you might recognise a line but then the tune would go off somewhere. These were not reverential covers or karaoke but delivered with the same passion as the originals.

His first song Cabin Fever suddenly morphed into ‘are you going to San Francisco’ and then all the ‘lonely people’ of Eleanor Rigby! None of which feature on his recorded version.

Connor Jillions

The second number was a blues I failed to recognise (sorry). Next up was Happyshack People (also the name of his EP) which even reffed ‘my old man’s a dustman’. Very upbeat. Robert Johnson’s Hellhound was easily identified by the chorus but lyrics were often stripped back to allow for extended guitar breaks.

Connor didn’t chat much but did tell us the next song he had been written for his late father who introduced him to blues and folk. The song had no name yet. It was folkie and nostalgic.

Watercolours was the first song he ever wrote. Online he describes himself as ‘Some sort of cockney troubadour’ and this gentle song feels his most troubadorian. But perhaps a troubadour might have more tales to tell. Connor put so much into his singing and playing that chat played a very small part but a little more biog would have been nice and covered the breaks for tuning. Such stage presence and craft will come. Book him.

Finally we are back to hard driving blues in the form of ‘If the river were whiskey and I was a diving duck’ and then ‘Give Me Central 209’.

I fear for his strings, squeezing both high and fuzzy bass notes from the one amplified acoustic guitar. He clearly has some great musical influences – a peek into his dad’s record collection? – but perhaps he tried to cram too much in.

After the interval we are treated to non-stop Nookee.

Nookee

I sneakily took a photo of their setlist but their songs often merge into each other so apologies for being sketchy about song titles. See picture and check out their website and streaming services for more details.

Nookee – setlist
(photo by Nic)


This eight piece (tonight’s line up) hippy funk band has two extraordinary sisters as lead singers (twins Gemma and Violet Hunt-Humphries) who have sass aplenty and the lungs and strut of James Brown.

If Connor was occasionally quoting other music, Nookee appeared to be quoting fragments from an imagined galaxy of soul, funk, psychedelia and rock.

‘Gem’s was a very melodic ballad to contrast with the busier numbers, featuring one sister on guitar. The additional djembe, bongos and drum kit came into full effect on ‘Drum Interlude’ which ran into the major funk of ‘Slinky’ and ‘Disco’.

If I have a criticism it is that the band are so inventive and talented they find a great groove but then move on too quickly to more great stuff. I think I wanted the 12″ dance mix on some tracks.

Buzz magazine said they were one’s to watch in 2024 – I’d say that’s even truer now. Catch ‘em before they become superstars.

https://www.facebook.com/NookeeBand

https://www.facebook.com/connorjillmusic

Photos by Barry Hill
Review by Nic Groombridge

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