Ural Thomas at Nell's Jazz and Blues

The story of Ural Thomas and his band the Pain is a remarkable one. Now in his early eighties, he made his second London appearance in three years last night at Nell's Jazz and Blues promoting the band's new album 'Dancing Dimensions'. Ural's career started in the 1960s with records such as 'Can You Dig It' and 'Pain Is The Name Of The Game' and appeared at the Apollo in New York and on stage with the likes of Otis Redding and Etta James. But it was only around ten years ago that it really began to take off when Scott Magee, a DJ in his home town of Portland, Oregon, put together the Pain to back Ural's vocals. This seven piece band, wearing matching paisley pattern jackets, have a big sound which occasionally overpowered Ural's singing but are clearly well rehearsed and a really solid unit. His songs - all of them originals - ranged from sixties style Sam and Dave type numbers to pure rock and roll with one or two slower songs and some excellent raucous numbers with the Pain adding backing vocals. Some of his songs came from his 2018 'Right Time' album, (a copy of which I bought at his 2019 show), including 'Gotta Say (I Love You)' and 'Vibrations', while others were taken from his new LP, including the title track, 'Hung Up On My Dream' and 'Gimmie Some Ice Cream'. It was a fairly short set, lasting little over an hour, but went down well with the rather thin crowd. The band was due to have appeared at the Porretta Soul Festival this year but cancelled because of Covid, but it was good to see that they are still around and producing some exciting music. Long may Ural thrive.