SOUL POWER

They’ve been off the radar for a while, but Vintage Trouble have returned with new album Heavy Hymnals, and this time their blazing rock’n’soul is fuelled by heartbreak, social commentary and racial injustice. Just don’t call it a comeback

- Joe Daly

In 2012, The Who had Vintage Trouble as the opening act on the first leg of their North American stadium tour. One night on the tour, as the LA band were due to take the stage, Pete Townshend pulled them aside and began unspooling a very, very long joke.

“He knew it was time for us to go on stage but he kept the conversation going!” recalls Ty Taylor, Vintage Trouble’s charismatic frontman.

The band realised it was a test: “Are we going to keep talking to him because he’s telling this joke, or do we leave him because we’ve got to get on stage?” says Taylor. They had two choices: listen politely so as not to piss him off, or cut the conversation short and go do what they were here to do. “We took the stage. We had to!”

That stint opening for The Who was followed by support slots with several of rock’s biggest bands, including the Rolling Stones, Kiss and AC/DC. Vintage Trouble’s blazing amalgam of vintage R&B, Motown soul and speaker-blowing rock’n’roll, along with their hyper-kinetic live show, won over pretty much every audience they played to, no matter how partisan. Their debut album, 2011’s The Bomb Shelter Sessions, garnered attention and acclaim, and brought them a Classic Rock Award for Best New Band. Now, eight years after their last album of original material, 2015’s 1 Hopeful Rd., they’re finally back in business with a new record, the pulsing Heavy Hymnal.