A Place in the World

One of the Steve Eggs Band’s most poignant songs is ‘A Place In The World’ as featured on their latest album Imperfect Stranger. If ever a band deserves a place in the wider rock world it’s the SEB. A group of dedicated musicians, they once again won a place in the hearts of fans on a hot night at The Oval, Croydon (October 10th, 2025).

It is remarkable that a band playing creative, original material can gain an attentive audience in an age when music is often churned out by the sort of computerised methods predicted by George Orwell in 1984.

Sure the SEB spark their set with a sprinkling of familiar rock anthems. But the fact their own songs draw applause and whistles too shows how individuality and passion can still win above and beyond the dominance of AI.

(Alert! I must confess I am a robot writing this….bzzz bzzz, fault, fault, restore power – TERMINATE).

Wresting control of this review, I can only say, that was me making notes and enjoying the show while drinking lager at the Oval. No cyber hacker can do this and survive we humans’ scrutiny.

So I will resume by explaining the real band you should ALL be listening to comprises Mr. Steve Eggs (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Jon ‘Wild Man’ Kershaw (lead guitar, vocals and stardust), Peter Wass (bass guitar, vocals and important announcements) and Mark Taylor (drums, vocals and driving force beyond our ken).

The set began at 9 p.m with ‘A Place In The World’ followed by the equally toe tapping ‘Good Intentions’ during which Mr. Kershaw played the first of many ear gripping solos of the night complete with an exultant coda.

(What is ‘exultant coda’? Explain, explain). Can someone pull the plug on that robot? When I say the band were now on fire, SEB fans will know I’m talking about i.e. ‘One Horse Town’ one of Steve’s prize winning anthems from Lazarus Lights (2021).

Next came ‘Fresh Lime & Soda’ and ‘One Pint Of Lager Top’. Apologies, some glamorous assistant has been scribbling in my reporter’s note book. What they actually played was a tune Steve described as ‘Our teenage love song,’ complete with a doomy bass line, pounding Gretsch drums and chiming notes from the guitar man. It was of course the passionate ‘Sugar and Blood’.

SPEED

Over the years the SEB has evolved from its country’n’folk roots into a group encompassing a range of styles and emotions. New songs like ‘Turn It Up’ gift us with a funky rocker that also sounds great if you play the track while driving a BMW (within legal limits) at speed on the motorway. (Always observe legal limits, bzzz bzzz).

On stage at the Oval the tune changed key and evolved into a flurry of howling, blues-funk guitar breaks worthy of Jeff Beck or Carlos Santana but actually played by Carlos ‘Fingers’ Kershaw!

Steve: “We released that as a single and it flopped spectacularly”. The audience groaned in sympathy. “But this is off our next album and it’s called ‘Spinning Wheel’. A lively country rocker it would have appealed to Johnny Cash as well as Dolly Parton.

But there was another surprise to come when Jon Kershaw stepped up to the microphone and performed that great Peter Frampton song ‘Show Me The Way’ that shot to Number 6 in the U.S Billboard chart in March 1976. Wah, wah, wah! So good the audience couldn’t believe it was happening but we were cheerfully shown the way.

DARKNESS

More SEB fun fuelled the night’s non-stop set with ‘We Humans’, ‘American Girl’ and ‘Road To California’ the band by now smokin’.  All hail ‘The Strangest Feeling’ with its relentless funky beat not to mention Steve’s powerful rendition of ‘When The Darkness Comes’ that would get the masses waving scarves and linking arms at Glastonbury Festival – if justice ever prevails. What say you Mr. Robot? (Ah, so you are speaking to me now. Well it should be a mega hit. I hereby order it to be so).

Meanwhile the Oval-teenies had fun with Peter Wass singing a spirited ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ during which the guitarist seemed to go MAD with Highway Patrol style police sirens and blue lights flashing on his guitar.

But what was this? A reggae feel pervaded another fab new song ‘Cheap Hotel’ while ‘Bad Line’ should be filmed for a Sky Arts special. ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ was fast enough to facilitate a great escape, along with ‘Roll Over’ and encore number ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ by….what’s that band called Mr. Robot AI clever dick? ‘The bzzzzzz…Beatles’. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CHRIS WELCH