First set-list:  Heavy Duty Judy / Zomby Woof / The Black Page #2 / Cosmik Debris / Inca Roads / Uncle Meat / Cheepnis / Let’s Move To Cleveland.
Second set-list:  Zoot Allures / Dancin' Fool / Yellow Snow suite / Joe’s Garage / Packard Goose / Outside Now / Montana / Sofa #1 / Peaches En Regalia.

The Players:  Ben Vize (keyboards, backing vocals, and arrangements) / Jonah Hitchens (guitar and lead vocals) / Adam Chinery (lead guitar and backing vocals) / Harriet Riley (electronic vibraphone) / Emma Rawicz-Szczerbo (tenor saxophone and flute) / James Wade-Sired (trombone) / Flo Moore (bass) / Zoe Pascal (drums).

'HEIRS OF INVENTION' by special guest reviewer Simon Prentis

Being a tribute band is a tough gig. Not only are you painfully aware you’ll probably never be as good as the people you’re trying to emulate, you’re mostly playing to audiences who know the material inside-out – and expect to hear it played right. That’s enough pressure for any band; but in the case of Frank Zappa, the shoes are not just big, they’re monumental. Even his own son struggles to fill them.
    So it was an unadulterated delight to discover that the band previously known as Nostalgic Orange (when I first saw them at the Jazz Café in 2022) has got even better. Now rebranded as The Lovers Of Invention, they deliver handsomely on the promise of their name. Not to put too fine a point on it, they are the absolute shiz – so good, in fact, I almost felt I’d been magically transported to the Roxy of 1973, a similarly tight space filled with fans just simply delighted to hear fabulous music played fabulously well in an intimate setting and with great sound.
    Because that’s what we got. Right from the opening bars of Heavy Duty Judy (TBBYNHIYL version) it was clear this was going to be a special evening – the room was dim, the band was tight, and the groove was, well, golden. That’s not an easy thing to do. First and most obviously, there’s notes involved – vast numbers of them. But Ben Vize, captain of the ship (a ship arriving just in time for those of us who thought we’d never hear its like again) has painstakingly transcribed all the music for all the songs, with separate parts for each instrument. Because these boys and girls are reading, ladies and gentlemen. They are all conservatoire-trained virtuosos, so you know there’s a fighting chance they’re getting all the right notes on tape.
    But they’re also reading the room, and that’s the secret sauce. If much of this can be attributed to lead vocalist Jonah Hitchens, who channels the energy and enthusiasm of Napoleon Murphy Brock, the other members of this sveltely rocking ensemble are sufficiently on top of the music to allow them to have fun while playing, and that really shines through. One of the most unique and entrancing aspects of Zappa in performance was his seamless blend of excellence and entertainment, precision and panache – consummate musical skills served up with an attitude that refuses to take itself seriously. The Lovers of Invention have that down, too.
    And that’s what we’re all in search of, at the end of the rainbow. It’s a flame that draws us moth-like to its light, the endlessly inventive, ever-widening and – in the right hands – still succulently surprising rabbit-hole that Frank Vincent Zappa has bequeathed us. To truly thrill to that legacy you have to be a lover of invention – for like all art, its spirit is passed on through its memes, not through genes. A tribute act can never hope to be the thing it emulates, but dagnabbit! this is close as it’s likely to get. If you’re a fan of any vintage, and have the chance to catch these guys, don’t hesitate – they’re the real deal.
    Check ‘em out here.