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Billy Mahonie / Caretaker - London, Monarch Thursday 9th August 2001 Caretaker - what the fuck has happened? I think maybe they have been practicing even harder than usual. The sound of Caretaker tonight was fat - really fat - no… phat! I think I may throw away the mini album, out on (you guessed it) Fierce Panda, and just get a bootleg to listen to. I've been to quite a few of their shows and first saw them in February 2000 (when they were only 10 years old) and they have steadily got better and better. But the last couple of months - fuck - it looked like they'd been giging for years and didn't seem fazed by the fact that the show would be going out on John "God" Kennedy's show, (that's on Xfm for the people outside London), a week later. Harry seems to have honed his voice to good effect - its far less 'Thom Yorke' whiney now and fits just right in the quiet/loud mayhem around him. I've said it before, but another band to watch in the coming months. Billy Mahonie came on to rapturous applause and launched straight into new song 'Fishing With A Man For A Shark'. Howard then started his usual dry retorts with the crowd. He them told us "that last song was called John Kennedy… in fact all our songs tonight are called John Kennedy". Bruce did his usual magic with the sound and the audience just lapped up every note. Things seem to be happening for the Mahonies since the Too Pure cock-up, with a lot of talk of the new album around. The set was ended with the only track possible lately - 'Dusseldorf' - amazing! (I hear that this track got an airing on daytime Xfm - a coup indeed!) skippy Caretaker set-list: Learning Curve / Coda / Hidden Agenda / Safe as Houses / Raze Billy Mahonie set-list: Fishing With A Man For A Shark / Little Feet / Watching People Speaking When You Can't Hear What They're Saying / Nacho Steals From Work / Dusseldorf

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