IT BITES - When The Lights Go Down

Okay, so how did the news that It Bites were reconvening for their first live dates in 15 years make you feel? From my own perspective, joy was tinged with uncertainty. Although the Union Chapel live reunion in mid-2003, which saw all four original members playing together for the first time since the Cumbrian group’s fractious demise in 1990, had been a glorious event, it also raised the hopes of the fans to unrealistic levels.

When guitarist/vocalist Francis Dunnery finally got around to declaring that he wouldn’t be committing to an album and tour after all, the remaining three members were caught at a difficult impasse. But when they actually sat down to consider this conundrum, help was close at hand.

Keyboard player John Beck and drummer Bob Dalton had already made the acquaintance of guitarist/vocalist John Mitchell in a project called Kino, going so far as to swell that band’s live set with some choice It Bites numbers. Mitchell, whose CV includes work with Asia men John Wetton and Geoffrey Downes, Arena and Frost among others, is among the biggest It Bites devotees you’ll ever meet. More significantly, as John Beck later commented, John was the first person the group (completed by bassist Dick Nolan) had met who could master Dunnery’s guitar parts and vocal parts.

With a title cleverly lifted from the song ‘Plastic Dreamer’, ‘When The Lights Go Down’ was recorded on the group’s comeback tour of the UK last December – primarily from a date at the Manchester Academy, but also incorporating material culled from appearances in London and Birmingham. Until the new line-up gets around to recording a successor to the 1989 masterpiece ‘Eat Me In St Louis’ (something they’re still working on), it represents a clear-cut vindication of their decision to continue without Dunnery.

Hearing these songs being performed onstage again is really something to be cherished. Mitchell’s voice doesn’t possess the nasal quality of Dunnery’s, but his voice certainly has its own character. His digits also glide up and down the fretboard in just the same way as those of his illustrious predecessor.

Still formulated around a pulsating synth line and Nolan and Dalton’s tight, bouncing rhythm work, ‘Kiss Like Judas’ begins the show impressively, ‘I Got You Eating Out Of My Hand’ revealing just how well the band’s vocal harmonies – always a key feature of their sound – continue to interweave. Musically speaking, you’ll be pleased to hear, it’s difficult to separate the It Bites of 2006 from the band that cut the records in the first place.

Capturing Dunnery’s vocal nuances on ‘Plastic Dreamer’ was always going to be a tough call, but Mitchell passes with flying colours. On paper, the intro to ‘Leaving Without You’ could have been another moment of potential anxiety, though there was no reason to worry.

Just one of the three brand new songs aired during the tour makes it onto ‘When The Lights Go Down’, but ‘Playground’ is a well-crafted and memorable track that bodes well for the much-awaited studio disc.

Full marks to the ‘new’ It Bites for being brave enough to tackle – and master – the epic collection of colourful twist and turns that is ‘Old Man And The Angel’. ‘Ice Melts (Into Water)’, meanwhile, is a song that Dunnery sang with such emotion, it was hard to imagine anyone else daring to try. Once again, however, Mitchell was to prove man enough for the job.

Commercially speaking, ‘Still Too Young To Remember’ remains a euphoric and commanding centrepiece of the set. But when Beck’s tinkling keyboard intro to ‘You’ll Never Go To Heaven’ kicks in, and the audience add their collective voices to the chorus, the love that floods back towards the stage somehow goes up another level. Despite being the band’s biggest hit, ‘Calling All The Heroes’ was probably responsible for causing the chasm of misunderstanding that blighted their group’s original lifespan. Consequently, it’s never really been a personal favourite of mine, though there’s no denying that it sounds good ‘n’ raunchy here.

And so ends ‘When The Lights Go Down’, an album that proves that despite such a fundamentally personnel loss, It Bites still have the wherewithal to maintain their status as a classic yet adventurous hard rock band.

Dave Ling
www.daveling.co.uk