Review | The Jim Jones All Stars at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea: 'One of the greatest live bands around - fact'

There, job done.

I could leave it there, but then this would be a very short review and I am obliged to elaborate.

The eight-piece band were created by the titular Jones to play a festival set in 2021, but clearly feeling they were onto something good they’ve stuck together, slowly gathering momentum ever since.

Jones is the result of splicing the DNA of late-60s Detroit proto-punks The Stooges and MC5 with Chuck Berry’s pop nous, and that feral growl recalls Tom Waits at his most outré.

He is more than ably assisted by his band. Saxophonists Stuart Dace and Tom Hodges bring a fierce swing, guitarist Carlton Mounsher has punk attitude in spades, Elliot Mortimer on keys could have stepped out of a New Orleans’ honkytonk bar, and backing vocalist Ali Jones gives the ‘don’t mess with me’ vibes. And of course there’s Gavin Jay who’s been Jones’ bass-playing wingman through his previous two bands.

Respect due too to drummer Lawrence who has only stepped in tonight because of illness.

So far they only have one album to their name – Ain’t No Peril – but a new record is in the works and a clutch of new numbers get an airing tonight.

Whether it’s on their own material or a well-placed cover (The Velvet Underground’s Run Run Run, or Troglodyte by The Jimmy Castor Bunch), they punch it up, give it the funk and drag it kicking and screaming for several rounds on the dancefloor.

And their cover of The Cramps’ Human Fly is as deranged as you’d hope. It’s safe to say everyone in the band had been listening to Lux and Ivy long before their recent Netflix-inspired revival (although all are welcome into The Cramps’ debauched church).

They also delve deep into Jones’ own back catalogue – there are several welcome tracks from The Jim Jones’ Revue, but the honours go to The Righteous Mind’s Satan’s Got His Heart Set on You, which throbs with demonic fervour, and Shakedown by his first band, Thee Hypnotics, has found a titanic swagger that eluded even those garage-rock demigods back in the day.

The new numbers fit in nicely alongside the All Stars’ existing songs such as Gimme The Grease and I Want You (Any Way I Can). Tricky second album? Not with tracks like these on board.

So there you are: one of the greatest live bands around. It’s not an opinion, it’s a statement of fact.

Go see them for yourself and tell me I’m wrong.