Kimberley Rew – Great Central Revisited
He was a Soft Boy, then he was a Wave, and now he’s a Soft Boy again. After parting ways with Robyn Hitchcock in the early 1980s, Kimberley Rew released his first record under his own name, the 1982 EP Bible Of Bop. He then enjoyed chart success with Katrina & the Waves, playing guitar and penning some of their hits (including “Walking On Sunshine”, later covered by Dolly Parton on her Treasures album).
Rew returned to American shores at the end of the 1990s, accompanying Hitchcock on a series of shows. That led to a full-blown Soft Boys reunion tour, timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of their classic Underwater Moonlight. In the midst of those activities came Rew’s first full-length release, Tunnel Into Summer. Now, two years later, comes Great Central Revisited.
The disc is overflowing with gorgeous guitar parts, opening with the chiming “Life Itself”. While evoking the 1960s’ Three Bs (Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys), it stands squarely in the 21st century, with a healthy dollop of the higher volume and tempoed developments that followed, and a winningly varied selection of material.
Grand Central Revisited is a very British affair. Rew chronicles the demise of “Screaming Lord Sutch” and, on “EC Blues”, celebrates the enduring legacy of Eddie Cochran, an American who was embraced in England more than at home, dying on the highway en route to London’s Heathrow Airport in 1960. Rew sings of Cochran, “His music still shines brighter than the star he was”; that seems an equally fair assessment of Rew’s own career, shining just outside the spotlight.