The Duke Spirit

I’ve never understood why The Duke Spirit haven’t made it big; they do the blues rock thing better than the likes of The Black Keys or Jack White (no, really they do) and in singer Leila Moss they have a born star leading them. As I’ve always suspected, the general public have no taste whatsoever. The Londoners’ debut album Cuts Across the Land is a beauty of a record; angry, bluesy, dirty and highlighting both the brilliant voice and song writing of Moss. She has a voice and stage presence to die for, spitting out the words to ‘Everything Is Under Your Spell’ and ‘Surrender’, one moment battering her tambourine into submission, prowling the front of the stage like a born rock star the next. Those tracks from Bruiser are matched and bettered by explosive versions of ‘Lion Rip’, ‘This Ship Was Built to Last’ and the long-time set closer ‘Cuts Across the Land’. No matter how many times you hear that final track, the chiming and aggressive brilliance of it never dims. Moss’s London accent and delivery kills each time, drawing the crowd in before she turns her back, lost in the music. The Duke Spirit should be playing these songs in huge arenas to thousands of people, yet the fact that they’re not means you can still get to see these thrilling songs performed up close and personal in small venues. I guess there’s an upside to everything.

Duke spirit returned to Bristol after a few years. They were on fine form and played a good mix of old and more recent songs. Before Duke Spirit took to the stage, Daisy the keyboard player played a couple of songs just with a guitar. She has a smoky sultry voice similar to Hope Sandavool from Mazzy Star. Hope she records and puts some records out as more people need to hear her voice.

Always liked The Duke Spirit, hoped they would be a 'live'kinda band....are they ever!
Got into the flow at one of the best small venues I've been to, between band and building....very memorable night....we all felt it!

What an awesome gig, the Bodega is a great little venue, a really intimate place and The Duke Spirit rocked it.

Loads of energy, a great pace and the guys looked relaxed & like they were enjoying it...