Anyone who knows my taste well will know that I have something of a taste for the bonkers. That runs from Irish eccentrics The Frank & Walters to the mostly sane but occasionally bonkers Vampire Weekend taking in Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine on the way. So, if you are familiar with the work of My Life Story it will be no surprise that I am a fan. After all, you have to be slightly unhinged to think your best chance of success is with a massive band complete with brass and string sections.

 

Well Jake Shillingford decided to give it a go. If that meant trying to cram a dozen people and their instruments including trombones onto tiny stages then so be it. Those gigs in small venues were among my live highlights in the mid 1990s.

 

Sadly despite such gems as Girl A Girl Boy C (not a reference to a character from Only Fools And Horses) and Twelve Reasons Why (originally seven reasons before an extended version) they never really made it. Even naming an album after a London tube stn that owes its fame to an utterly daft panel game with no discernible rules (Mornington Crescent) didn’t give them the success they deserved. The writing was clearly on the wall when their record company insisted they axe most of their members and they called it a day in 2000.

 

Their comeback started slowly with occasional London gigs in December from 2007 onwards. Now, to celebrate their 20th anniversary they have re-formed - in a smaller incarnation of five, occasionally increased to six with the addition of Roxanne the trumpeter - for a short tour. Tonight, the second night of the tour, they played in Bournemouth in a venue they last visited in 1996, the year before I moved to the area so I missed that one.

 

The attendance was disappointingly small (with a fair few who couldn’t possibly have been at the 1996 gig). Still, the advantage of that was that members of the support band could set an example with some frantic dancing in front of the stage. MLSa started with the glorious Sparkle and worked their way through material familiar to long-standing fans as well as a couple songs from Shillingford’s post MLS - and slightly more traditional indie - band ExileInside.

 

Jake Shillingford may have abandoned the bleached blond hair, he now looks more like Steve Punt, but he still has a great stage presence. The set ended, predictably enough, with a manic Twelve Reasons Why with at least one member of the audience wondering what happened to Girl A Girl B Boy C.

 

The tour continues with dates in Brighton, Bristol, Sheffield, Glasgow. Leicester, Birmingham and Liverpool before a special gig with a full line-up in London on 19 December. Perhaps at that gig they can play Girl A...

Here are some of their finest hours

 

 

And, perhaps, their finest hour

 

12 Reasons is fantastically camp

12 Reasons is fantastically camp

That's not exactly their only moment of campitude :lol:

They are back :cheer: They have written some new material and will be touring (mostly in the north) in November.

 

Jake was asked about the supposed "final gig" on Facebook and replied

 

Don't believe the music press, for most bands; gigging is a way of loosing money and building fans which is I guess is ok when you're 18. Blame me for creating an 11-14 piece band and actually paying them in a climate where everybody expects music for free! On top of this I was in a pretty bad way last year having been ill through the last tour having cancelled a couple of shows and the original Christmas SBE date. I was put under pressure by someone in the music industry to announce that this would be our last show as they couldn't foresee MLS as a business concern. My judgement was impaired. Now I'm healthier and a separate major personal trauma is behind me. I have made the decision to carry on. Why? Because I'm a performer and musician with an almost dibilitating passion for songwriting and communicating through that medium. My Life Story is me, it’s my journey and I’m not ready to end it yet. I’ve got some new songs and great band and I want to get out there and see you all again. Maybe there will be another original line up, an orchestral show too. Who knows.. if we can make it work. I love that band and spent most of my existence in their excellent company. But for now my songs are the most important thing to me and I’ve worked out a way to get them to you - in a van going around the north of England.