The original artists: Double gig for Electrasy on Portland and in Dorchester (From Thisisdorset)

The original artists: Double gig for Electrasy on Portland and in Dorchester

10:15am Friday 20th January 2012 in Leisure By Nick Horton

LAST weekend I was playing at a 40th birthday party when a woman came up to the band during our ‘swift-half-and-a-roll-up’ break.

She said to me: “Do you know that My Sex is On Fire?”

“Sorry to hear that, madam,” I replied. “Have you tried putting yoghurt on it?”

As I nursed my blossoming black eye, I pondered the perennial equation of the covers band.

It goes something like: (Summer of ’69 + Mustang Sally) × Sweet Home Alabama ÷ Brown Eyed Girl = Happy Punters.

The equation for bands doing their own material, however, has different factors but, hopefully, the same outcome.

And we’re lucky to be graced by two outstanding bands this weekend. They’re poles apart musically, but well worth checking out.

Come, step into my Tardis and wind the clock back to the 1990s and you’ll find Electrasy on the cusp of Making It Big Time.

ELECTRASY: Roll It Up

As one the select few bands to achieve great things after starting out from this part of the world, Electrasy had a UK top 20 single (Morning Afterglow), were based in Los Angeles, recording at the studio used by the Rolling Stones, toured the globe and truly lived the dream until it all went the shape of the pear and imploded into a humungous black hole of record company collapse and years of legal wrangling.

Their third album, the outstanding Wired for Dreaming, was shelved and was gathering dust for almost six years because of the resulting fall-out until those nice people at Pink Hedgehog records came to the rescue back in 2007.

So, four-and-bit years on, what has happened?

“We’ve just been living our lives,” singer Ali McKinnell tells me.

“We stay in touch and I had a phone call from one of the guys back in November asking if I’d like to go out for a couple of drinks.

“It must have been a bad line because I thought they said: ‘A couple of gigs.’”

That brings us neatly to this weekend when you can catch the band at the Royal Portland Arms in Fortuneswell, Portland, tomorrow (Saturday, January 21) from 9pm and again on Sunday, January 22, at Tom Brown’s in Dorchester from 5pm.

Blimey, you wait for ages for an Electrasy gig and then two come along at once.

“We’ve got a huge back catalogue of songs,” says Ali. “None of us are getting any younger and it’s just a privilege to go out and play them.

“This weekend is just for fun, but who knows where it might go.

“We’ve been working on a few new songs so we’re looking forward to playing them.

“Weymouth (and the surrounding area) is a great breeding ground for music and I have fond memories of playing in the town back in the day.

“And the landladies of the two pubs (Jill at the RPA and Jo at Tom Brown’s) are good friends of the band,” Ali added.

If you can’t make it on Saturday or Sunday, you can see what you’ll be missing at the online version of this page at dorsetecho.co.uk/ leisure/music/livemusicandclubs Support for both gigs this weekend comes from one of Portland’s finest, Hallelujah Bay.

Now then, pop pickers, by way of complete contrast, tomorrow marks the welcome return of the Mike Porter Collective.

MIKE PORTER COLLECTIVE: Hail Mary

The Torquay-based five-piece were a big hit at last October’s Lupus Festival at the Kings Club in Weymouth and are back in the town at the Golden Lion on Saturday, January 21.

The band formed by accident while warming their ging-gang-goolies around a camp fire with Celtic folk rockers The Dolmen a couple of years ago.

Their unhinged folk, reggae and Balkan-style rhythms and, er, enthusiastic live performances have prompted one fan to comment: “If someone held a gun to my head and demanded comparisons then I’d say they were a cross between Gogol Bordello and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – a sort of Bonzo Gogol Dog Doo-Dah Bordello Band, if you will.”

And presumably on a night out with Shane McGowan, Keith Moon and Oliver Reed, no doubt.

Yes, they are pretty wild and their unique blend of genres encompasses soft gentle ballads to outrageous shanties of drunken one-night stands.

“People often go out to see a band and have a good time,” singer Mike tells me.

“We like to take it one step further and get the crowd involved. There’s nothing like the feeling that gives.”

There’s a clip of the band in action on the online version of this page, again at dorsetecho. co.uk/leisure/music/livemusicandclubs (Although those of you of a nervous disposition should probably not go there).

Support tomorrow night comes from The Harmonix, a three-piece classic rock outfit, also from the English Riviera, who do their own material plus covers from AC/DC to Lady Gaga.

Right, that’s it for this week. Almost two pages of live music today and it’s still only January. Phew, I’m off for a lie down.

‘Till next time…