Sink Or Swim Promotions present – The Bevis Frond – Pete Bassman – Coventry Live Review

Sink Or Swim Promotions present – The Bevis Frond – Pete Spaceman – Just Dropped In Records – Coventry – 4th June 2026

The Bevis Frond, a name I’d not heard for a good while, I think I saw them back when I was young but don’t ask me where or when. The Photographer and I had a beer and reminiced as Joe from Sink or Swim played another blinder and got yet another brilliant gig at the record shop.

As insults go it’s a pretty funny one, ‘Is that in aid of the Cramps releasing a new album??’ my quiff comes under the watchful eye of the fashion police, but no, I just combed it and it goes however it wants. It’s a warm evening in Coventry, there’s a queue at the brewery and a Jazz band has just arrived at the venue around the corner from the record shop. The photographer is sitting outside the record shop and I join him, there are a fair few people here already.

Pete Bassman is renowned for playing bass for Darkside and Spacemen 3, tonight he’s not playing bass, he’s got a guitar and a table of electronics which for whatever reason don’t seem to be working properly. There’s lots of fiddling and swapping of wires alongside friendly help and advice from audience members and the Bevis Frond. Even so you can see that Pete is not happy at all and goes on the mic to apologise various times. The crowd are very much on his side, waiting patiently for the equipment to be sorted and eventually after various false starts he gets to play some music.

It’s a clean sound underneath with a fuzzy guitar over the top, the slow synth waves circle creating a warm atmosphere as the guitar wobbles. The groove turns low and psychedelic and carries on cycling, he sings quietly and the sound is laid back and relaxed. It turns to a big dramatic backing track with the guitar melting into it and a more focused vital vocal, the track is more direct but still leaning back. The groove turns psychedelic again and the guitar fuzzes out then swirls down into nothing.

The good thing is that the crowd are really showing their appreciation that he’s playing after the initial technical problems. The backing goes robotic and squelchy with more low down guitar. The singing is held back again and then a shimmering hi hat and sparkling rich sounds which carries on and on. It moves into drone, guitar and voice with slow measured beats and a wealth of noise underneath trying to prise its way out. The crowd call for an encore and reluctantly, as the song he plays is the one that went wrong, he smiles and agrees to play, he dedicates this last song to Alf Hardy out of psych nutters Tubilah Dog who I got to see a long long time ago. It starts with children talking and high guitar, melts into a throbbing synth sound and over a beat he gives us total weirdness on his guitar, it goes on and on and on. An ace set even with the flaws at the start.

The Bevis Frond have been going for forty years or so, the band a name used by Nick Saloman for his musical projects. They played Coventry once before he reminisced about General Wolfe. I wasn’t there. Nick has long grey hair and a Dead Kennedys tee shirt. There’s a bassist with long hair who hangs his jacket on the mic stand grinning, a guitarist with slicked back hair and a spotty shirt looking cool and the drummer who has, well, no hair. The audience matches the band perfectly. One thing that Nick likes to do, and it is wonderful, is to tell stories between songs, about old gigs and old friends, about Coventry’s architecture and his hate for the City Council who are knocking it down.

He starts with a high guitar riff and cymbals which descend into a massive psychedelic mass, his high pitched voice works well over the trippy background, the band holding the tune down as he spirals away with his guitar, brilliant! They launch into the next track and it’s straightforward rock music, a bit Crazy Horse to my mind but then I like them too. It’s just great rock’n’roll with Nick’s vocals which makes it stand out. The extended guitars go a bit Dinosaur Jr which again, is a great thing!

Nick talks about songs of his that have been covered and he got money for them, then someone mentions Countdown, this is very much a crowd participation gig, and he talks about his time on the quiz and getting a cheque for very little off the BBC for using his music. I could just listen to him talk. The guitar burns and then drums start, slow, measured and sad, his vocal makes it sadder as the band melt back. It all just fits together perfectly, a great heartstring tugging song. You can tell he’s been doing this for years by the way that the songs flow and the amount of emotion he has invested inside of them. The band are rock solid and keep the Frond going but Nick is the heart and soul of it all.The next one is slow and languid with a slowed down blues sad feel and then the guitars lift off and it is glorious. The groove is infectious, the crowd afre moving to it, more enthusiastically than others but from the looks on their faces all are having an ace time. There are hippies, punks, space heads and kids here, a great crowd.

He says that the next song is off the latest album and it’s another weird, slow atmospheric song. He sounds weary and tired as the music is fuzzed out and loud. The drums pick up along with the guitar and I’m gone, this is brilliant.

A side note, the drummer is brilliant, and I described him on the night as a Jazz Drummer, huis fills are natural and fluid, he doesn’t just keep the beat, he shifts everything around and keeps you watching.

The music keeps coming, emotional and rich. It gets in your head, the feelings and love behind it all seeps out at the edge of the music and makes me smile. I am no more than a couple of feet away from the band as they play and it’s perfect. Why aren’t they massive? Probably because they don’t care, they are playing this music for themselves and as an afterthought for us. That’s good enough.

The room is full of mad drum fills and spiralling guitar, moving off and out there. It just keeps going, drifting up to the Psych Gods on the huge pyramid in the sky, mesmerising and capturing us all. The groove is recaptured with a wonderful wah wah guitar sound, this track has lasted about four days, the guitar goes off again and there’s no sign of them stopping yet.

Nick talks about football, then starts a fast guitar riff, it morphs into a very Black Sabbath sort of groove, it sounds brilliant. It slows down to a spaced out and lost feeling. Nick says that the next song was covered by Teenage Fanclub and I recognise the cover, very laid back with huge fuzzy guitars and drums. The next is slow and massive again, Nicks vocal showing no signs at all of having sung for an hour or so, it all seems so effortless and easy but then I suppose that’s what doing something for forty years is like, it’s second nature and we are privileged to be listening.

Nick talks about the doctors, going in feeling fine and coming out feeling liek he’s on the edge of death… I’ve been there… but then watching a hearse drive past him on the way home and start laughing. There you are, that pretty much sums up the philosophy of The Bevis Frond for me. He says that this is the last song and it’s off the new album. Fast drums, hard heavy music over them and then down to an R & B groove low, steady vocal and then straight into noise. It gets lower and then as loud as you could imagine. He introduces the band and then it all goes bonkers as they finish.

The crowd want more so Nick asks if they have time, an agreement is made and they launch into the final song, another rock psych groove. Another slice of The Bevis Frond. I hope they don’t leave it as long until the next time, that was a brilliant gig.

The Bevis Frond