Wild Card energise and entertain at the Elgar Room
James Rybacki
Monday, January 30, 2023
The guitar/Hammond-led group were on fine form as they launched their latest album Cabin 19 Fever
Clement Regert’s Wild Card are a band that reminds you of just how fun live music can be, when performed by players who are in sync and at the top of their game. In the Royal Albert Hall – a venue whose grandeur may leave it at risk of feeling stuffy – the Elgar Room hosted a show that offered equal doses of skill, creativity and, yes, fun.
Wild Card embrace a range of genres, and manage to do so without it feeling contrived: from the all out jazz of pieces like Copycat and Tweenies, through the driving arab-tinged rock of Aleppo Express, to the easygoing latin rhythms of Olympus. All are performed with prowess and panache.
The joker in the pack, Regert brings a likeable, cheeky sense of humour to the stage, deprecating of both self and other, as evidenced when ultra-talented drummer Sophie Alloway is introduced as “the best in her price range”. Never short of an anecdote between tracks, Regert has a wry twinkle in his eye as he explains the experiences that inspired the songs, be it the woes of raising pre-teenage daughters or the agonising uncertainties of the height of the Covid-19 era. More importantly, his guitar playing is always fluent and on the mark, and the music he writes is irresistibly lively – the sort that demands you sit up, tap your feet and engage.
In the horn section, Binker Golding and Graeme Flowers are a formidable duo, interlocking and harmonising with ease. Golding’s solo playing is as dynamic and freewheeling as ever, while Flowers finds shades of Roy Hargrove with his powerful blasts of melody. Alloway keeps things pulsating along with her serene mastery of the groove and feel needed on each track. Underpinning it all, organist Andrew Noble fills the role of reliable bassist with one hand and show-stealing keys master with the other. Emerging from the back of the room, guest vocalist Corina Kwami brings her infectious enthusiasm to centre stage on two tracks, including a catchy cover of Toto’s ‘Georgy Porgy’ that closes the show. Overall, Wild Card are a treat to watch live, and are sure to have left many wishing they’d dealt another round.
