I've just heard the new album "Chess masters" and also a minidisc recording of one of their shows here in Finland last January. And I  have to say that the current line-up is an alltime low in Feelgood history and the new album is the worst Feelgood album ever. This new singer simply has no voice, no charisma and no dignity at all. He's a very average vocalist and certainly can't play any harmonica. As they said in the brand new issue of Q-Magazine, he is very one-dimensional.

"Chess Masters" is, as I already said, the worst Feelgood album ever, and also a very boring one too, especially if you listen to it from the start to the end. Songs like "Suzie Q", "Hoochie coochie man", "29 ways", "Talkin' 'bout you" and a couple of others are simply one of the worst versions I've ever heard. I don't see the point of this album, especially with a singer like Robert Kane. The only song he sounds a little bit better (as Roland already mentioned in his review) is "Don't start me talkin'", but that's only because he is singing through harp-microfone!?! So-called "Dr Feelgood of 2000" is a very ordinary rhythm & blues band, the world is full of bands like that. When Lee was still there, and even when Pete was there, it was much more than that, it was something special.

Now it's just another rhythm & blues band. A very, very sad affair. They should stop using the name. They should be ashamed. Also to me and to lots of other fans, it's an insult to think that they can replace Lee Brilleaux every couple of years with a new singer. When Pete Gage was sacked from the band last summer, Kevin said to him that "the audience doesn't care who the singer is". To me that sentence says it all, what this comeback is all about! Lee was a very special singer, he doesn't deserve this kind of "tribute". I've been a fan since summer of 1975 when I bought "the Jetty"  album, so I think I have every right to express my humble opinion.

T.Nättilä/Finnish Broadcasting Company/Radiomafia (teppo.nattila@yle.fi)

Message dates June 6, 2000