As somebody who visited Captain Tom’s recording studio in Aberdeen many times, there was a sense of nostalgia attached to attending their 20th anniversary night on Saturday.
The venue may have had humble origins, but it has prospered during the last two decades and this quirky mix of a studio, rehearsal space, and community enterprise, stands as a bastion to local music surviving against all the odds.
Tom Simmonds himself was instantly recognisable when I arrived at the Lemon Tree; a tall and lanky figure with long hair, nodding appreciatively as Aberdeen metal act Ray Brower screamed a rather frightening serenade of thanks in his honour.
Despite the passing years, he doesn’t seem to have aged at all. And his youthful brio definitely rubs off on other people.
The acts were all guitar-orientated, with most spare seconds filled up by gleefully indulgent top-string bends, warbling wah-wah and ripples of machine-gun drumming; all of it augmented by a passionate front man belting out motivational rock messages.
The highlight of the night was the staff of Captain Tom’s, with the man himself on bass, coming together and performing a one-off celebratory set. The Waccy Baccy Wookies delved into a mix of the classic and the obscure.
When the first drip-drop of bass in Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name of” leaked out from the stage to the audience, hands were raised in the air for the first time, and when the deluge of a riff was finally released, the night had truly began.
The Lorelei and Hot Mangu both provided a showcase of their very different styles, with the former adding a cheerful folksy flavour to the evening, while the latter provided the conventional rock/metal backbone which was needed to close the celebrations.
The sheer variety of the acts on show was refreshing and cemented Captain Tom’s role in the local music scene; a space or community that stimulates creativity and growth in an organic, healthy way – a safe haven in a business where there rarely is one.
At one point during the proceedings, he spoke humbly to the crowd and precipitated a few laughs when thanking his staff, admitting he didn’t actually do any work apart from “wearing a nice smile” and “putting everybody at ease”.
Yet, even if that’s true, it underestimates the fashion in which a place such as Captain Tom’s has helped to transform a grey, granite city, into an ever changing and increasingly colourful cultural meeting point.
As he delivered his final words for the night before being presented with a bespoke wooden guitar – and with a tipsy crowd fully supporting him – the Captain concluded: “Thanks for making the last 20 years of my life awesome. I can’t wait to get started on the next twenty.”
It was a sentiment shared by everybody in the auditorium.