It’s The Ting Tings Jim, but not as we know them…

The Ting Tings in a delightful 450-capacity venue in Shepherds Bush, yes please. Only £20 a ticket, hell yeah! However, in their long absence they have been reincarnated as the spirit of Fleetwood Mac… ummm, okay?

Coco and The Lost

Tonight’s support is from the pop-centric Coco and her backing band The Lost. Rather cutely, she has all three of them in matching t-shirts with a sparkly sequined ‘Lost’ printed on them. She is fun and genuinely excited to be supporting heroes of hers. It is entertaining enough, and Reading Indie Life will keep an eye out for future releases.

The Ting Tings

Back in the day, The Ting Tings performed as a two-piece band with bits on a backing track, expanding to a few more hired hands after the huge success of their debut album. Today, they barely fit onto the small stage at Bush Hall with a grand total of nine musicians. Whilst Katie White and Jules De Martino are still the creative force there are up to five people playing guitar on some tracks, a regular drummer and a second percussionist, a keyboard player, and a backing singer all onboard for this radically revamped version of the band.

Katie tells us that this new album (not due until June) has music that they just felt in their bones. That they seriously considered creating a new band with a new name as this album reflects such a radical change of direction for them. I get the concerns. They are likely to alienate a chunk of their older fans with this new approach, though they may well win over new ones too. If you want to just hear hits off their zeitgeist catching debut album played straight, this is not the place to be. What we are treated to is a pure slice of 70s leaning Americana. Think Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles and other bands of that era. Unreleased track ‘Dreaming’ delves into this further, as they wistfully consider what it would be like to change the band name and be free of their history.

With the exception of ‘That’s Not My Name,’ which is played relatively straight as the encore, the rest of the older tracks sprinkled in tonight are put through the same filter as their new material. ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’ is the most striking of these, a country-esque gentle lilt replacing the original bags of attitude. It just about works, though a more in keeping rendition would have probably remained better. They open with their debut single ‘Great DJ’, this version is a little more laid back. ‘We Walk’ fits in very well with the new stylings, benefiting from the larger ensemble.

There is much goodness in the new material. I get the impression the bands they are emulating are ones that they grew up on, that their parents shared with them, and feel a great affinity for. Good People Do Bad Things could slot straight onto the 1977 Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours’ album. It is lovely, but perhaps a tad too derivative from the source inspirations. ‘Danced On The Wire’ showcases Jules’ vocals in a way that they have only used sparringly previously. ‘Down’ grows on me more and more with each listen.

In all we are treated to nine of the ten tracks on the new album ‘Home.’ Only ‘Mind Thunder’ is not given a run out. It ought to be well worth a listen and I am slightly less concerned about finding it too derivative collectively having had a listen to the majority of it. There will be more live dates. The new band had been working hard on the matrial all week and are a very talented bunch of musicians. Given more time before new dates appear the understanding and subtletly should continue to gel and improve things further. This random decision to play two intimate gigs at Bush Hall to a very faithful crowd paid off hadsomely. It gives them the practice and confidence they clearly sought, and for the lucky few present it is a real treat, and an insight into the next iteration of The Ting Tings.