May–A Round-up Part 2

Thursday 31st May: The second and final part of my round-up of May’s gigs, featuring slimmed-down reviews. For an explanation of the sudden (and hopefully, on my part anyway, temporary) change in format, see the last post.

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Saturday the 19th. My lift to tonight’s gig had had to change his plans, so it was either drive myself – which wasn’t really an option given that the gig was in a real ale pub – or cycle. Thankfully the weather held and, after a small amount of cajoling from one of the band, I made an almost last-minute decision to attend. It might have been the rush to get out that caused me to turn up at the wrong pub. It was only after I’d ordered a pint in the Fulford Arms, and noticed the poster advertising a different band to what I was expecting, that I realised that I should be at the Waggon And Horses and that I didn’t actually know where it was. Thankfully, the barmaid was able to give me directions (I’d practically cycled past it already…)

Dream Of Apollo were playing the Waggon’s regular Saturday night acoustic slot. It was a slightly smaller line-up than normal, with drummer Jamie missing and Rhys, newly returned from his Antipodean nuptials, playing the first acoustic bass that I remember seeing. It was, possibly, a bad night to attempt to play music in a pub, with a number of people watching the Champions League final in the main bar. (I had, I’m a little ashamed to say, already given the match more attention than I had given to David Breslin, who provided support tonight.) The band played in a smaller “room” to one side of the pub and, I’m told, that it would have been easier to hear them properly if I had been in the room itself, rather than standing in the doorway. Most of the songs, however, are familiar enough to me now that I don’t have to hear them fully, so I was able to keep half an eye on the football, which eventually finished during the band’s break, much to the delight of a portion of the attendees. Peppered among the familiar were a couple of new songs – All For You and Your Loving Arms – as well as a couple of songs I hadn’t heard for a while, including the wonderful blackly comedic Dead Pets. The band battled gamely against the football while it was still on - bringing to mind a previous evening when they played a pub gig while Andy Murray played tennis on the TV – before eventually being allowed to shine during the second half of their set.

The Waggon itself looks to be nice venue for acoustic music. Those that were there for the music were friendly, even if some of them appeared to be there more the atmosphere, spending more time talking about who else they had seen perform that week than actually listening. Again, I’m told I could have avoided that by going into the room itself. Unfortunately it is, perhaps, just a little too far off the beaten track to consider it as a regular venue.

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Thursday the 24th was the first evening this year when two gigs I fancied clashed. I decided to forego Girls With Guitars (the description sounds better than the name) at Fibbers and, instead, see another long-established prog group at the Duchess.

This being a band who started out in the seventies, it seemed almost inevitable that Stolen Earth would be supporting. With hands presumably still aching from signing two hundred copies of their debut CD, A Far Cry From Home, the night before the band took to what must have been an incredibly hot and sticky stage (the May heatwave was making the Duchess feel something akin to Hell) and, once again, seemed to hold the audience entranced. It might simply be that fans of the bands they are supporting “get” what Stolen Earth are doing musically but this band seem to get a much better reception from the off than most other supports. Tonight’s set had, again, been tweaked slightly from the previous time we saw them. Highlights included Soul In A Jar, with Adam teasing notes out of both acoustic and electric guitars, and Silver Skies, the sound for which was much better than at Fibbers a few days ago. From the third song onwards, just after she asked for more vocals in her monitor, Heidi’s vocals hit top form, with the lyrics coming across much more clearly. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting more familiar with the songs. As usual the set ended with the brilliant Perfect Wave, which got a near-rapturous response from the crowd, almost certainly due in no small part to the very Pink Floyd-like instrumental section.

I’m fairly certain that, many years ago, I had an album by Dutch proggers Focus on tape. If I remember rightly, a friend of mine had bought it, didn’t like it and gave it to me. It must be about thirty years ago, but that album was probably Moving Waves, containing the (in)famous yodelling track Hocus Pocus, and was probably my first dalliance with prog rock. From tonight’s crowd it seems that not only are Focus still a big draw but that their fans cover a wide spectrum – from the usual middle-aged beer-bellied men right through to more attractive, younger women who looked barely old enough to be drinking.

Taking to the stage to a kind of science-fictional choral opening, the band played an energetic, mostly instrumental set, although some compositions also featured founding member Thijs van Leer, now in his mid-sixties and apparently as mad as a box of frogs, on vocals, even if said vocals, for the most part, weren’t words. Yes, there was yodelling. For most of the set, van Leer sat behind a battered old Hammond organ, with “Focus” spelled out on it in black tape. Alternating between two microphones, depending on what effect he required, he played the organ and flute (occasionally at the same time) while frantically and wild-eyed conducting both the band and the audience. The rest of the band were all allowed their moments to shine – Menno Gootjes on guitar was incredible throughout, moving from studious calm to a finger-flying solo with ease, Bobby Jacobs performing the very best bass solo I have ever heard and, being a fan of good drumming, I was more than pleased that Pierre van der Linden performed two solos, a shorter one at the end of one song and a proper one towards the end of the set. Putting the set together from throughout the band’s history, including the forthcoming Focus 10, we were treated to an hour and a half of superb, if slightly quirky, music which, despite having its roots in the seventies, still sounds incredible today. As the band left the stage, the audience shouted for more but Van Leer himself returned to the stage to apologise that there was no time for an encore due to the venue having to get ready for a “pop-show” (he meant the following club night). Disappointment all round.

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And that’s it. May 2012, overall the busiest month I have had for local gigs (so far…) And there could have been more – apart from missing Girls With Guitars, I chose not to see Blackbeard’s Tea Party (supported by the incredible What The Cat Dragged In) and Only The Young (who some friends will be enjoying even as I write this) and missed Cryptic Age’s album launch due to having to work in Scotland that day.

As far as I know, I’m only going to three gigs in June, and each is separated from the next by at least a week. So, with a bit more free time, hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.

May–A Round-up Part 1

Thursday 30th May: Quite frankly May has been a bit of a ridiculous month for gigs. I had been to seven in the first three and half weeks, decided not to go to one because I couldn’t really justify it and only missed another because I was working away.

I have already posted reviews of the first two but for a number of reasons haven’t had a chance to get round to the others. Now, with memories fading, nice weather meaning I’d rather be outside reading a good book and, in all honesty, a feeling of being a little “wiped out” in terms of putting together reviews (me with writers’ block… who’d have guessed) I find that I’m falling further and further behind. This blog was never intended to be as detailed as it has turned out and, while I’m grateful to the number of people who read it and, in some cases, like my work enough to share it, every so often there will be times that I can’t keep up. So, in order to fulfil its primary purpose as a record of my gig attendances, I’m simply going to round-up the rest of the month in a couple of smaller, less detailed posts. So, without further ado…

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Friday the 11th saw me at the Duchess for Morpheus Rising’s first gig since their triumphant tour to promote their debut album earlier in the year. It’s too soon after the album release for any new material to have been completed (if even started) so the set is still comprised completely of tracks from Let The Sleeper Awake. Changing around the running order serves to freshen up the performance in some ways, helped by the fact that the musicianship is superb and that the band clearly enjoy playing live. Even Andy Smith, who normally lurks at the back of the stage (both when playing with Morpheus Rising and with Mostly Autumn) seems happier coming forward and interacting with the rest of the band. Once again, we were treated to some entrancing and intricate guitar work but I think this was the first time we have also heard Damien provide vocals during the album’s title track.

Support came from Four Stones Deeper – a four-piece femme-fronted rock band with a slight difference in that the power guitar-playing seemed to come from vocalist Amy Humphrys. I can’t find much about them out there, but I believe that Amy’s brother Luke plays bass while Joe Garlick and Tom Reed complete the line-up. Tonight’s performance suffered slightly with the vocals which, despite being powerful enough to be heard above the music, were a little flat to start with, but the melodic/thrash mix was different enough to be interesting. The six song set included one cover, but I didn’t catch the title. Overall, the playing was tight, with Amy looking very relaxed and handling the changes of musical style with ease. Also bill was BastRad, who also supported Morpheus Rising at their last York gig. I was slightly more impressed this time around, although Tristan Fayers’ vocals are still a little strained in places. It was a slick performance, loud, energetic and powerful.

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Saturday the 12th and I’m “next door” at Fibbers for a band who I’ve only heard about, not heard anything by. When I arrived, the support – two ex-members of the headliners, whose names I never got – had already started. A broken microphone was making the vocals sound as if they were coming from a very dusty record and it was hastily replaced between songs, just in time for there to be no more vocals, just virtually indecipherable introductions to the tracks and a bit of between song banter between the performers, one of whom played a variety of hand drums and the other acoustic guitar and wind instruments that I didn’t recognise, accompanied sometimes by backing tracks. The music was, in the main, mellow and laid-back and occasionally had a kind of Eastern sound to it. 

Ozric Tentacles took to the stage with a plea from bass-player Brandi Wynne for somebody to “turn that dreadful music off”, referring to the background music that had been playing while the acts swapped over, before she engaged in an increasingly frustrating fight to liberate herself from her Fibbers VIP wristband. The Ozrics are a space-rock (think ambient rock with added ‘droid and space battle sound effects) or psychedelic instrumental rock band from Somerset who have been around, in one form or another, for nearly thirty years. I didn’t know what to expect from this gig, but ended up thoroughly enjoying it. With an animated backdrop which cycled through a mesmerising kaleidoscope of images and with the band occasionally disappearing behind a bank of smoke, onto and through which was projected the best light show I’ve seen at Fibbers (apart from the three banks of incredibly bright lights which seemed to have been strategically placed to blind as many of the audience as possible). The performance was tight, a set full of incredible instrumentals in which everything was played with a calm precision and no histrionics or posturing and no hint of any two tracks sounding similar. Towards the end of the performance, the band was joined by the guitar-player from the support, who played flute and seemed to also launch into some spoken vocals (poetry?) to the apparent wonder of Ms Wynne and possible confusion of anybody standing around me as I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying. Was the microphone even on?

Perhaps the strangest part of the gig, however, was the audience, which pretty much filled Fibbers. Parts of it looked as though they were auditioning for a low-budget zombie movie, with blocks of people simply swaying along to the music, while others could only be described as dancing their hearts out. All-in-all, it was like being at a hippy rave.

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Friday the 18th and I’m back at the Duchess. Opening proceedings tonight was Jon Amor Blues Group and I don’t think I’ve heard the volume cranked up so high at any previous Duchess gig. Frankly, in places it was too loud and, from where I was standing there appeared to be a fair amount of distortion in the sound. One song, Angel In A Black Dress, looked as if it contained a guitar solo, judging by the facial expressions and posturing coming from Mr Amor himself. Personally, I couldn’t make it out. A few of the songs sounded more like Rock ‘n’ Roll than Blues to me, but what do I know? Eventually, towards the end of the set, something seemed to click and during She Thought I Was An Eagle we finally got to hear some audibly clever guitar work. Unfortunately, by the last song the vocals were almost completely swamped by the music. Despite the sound problems, the band showed promise. Their debut album is gathering good reviews and I wouldn’t be averse to seeing them perform again, just with the volume turned down a few notches.

Until recently the only thing I knew about It Bites was their mid-eighties hit, Calling All The Heroes. I didn’t even know they were still together (albeit with the inevitable line-up changes) until Prog magazine covered their latest release, the concept album, Map Of The Past. Of course, when any band covered by that magazine play York, I’m almost certainly going to go along. Coming onto a stage adorned with artefacts representing the album’s concept (an old clock, an oil-painting, a globe) to the sound of a radio being tuned in, the band eased gently into the set with Man In The Photograph, performed simply on accordion and with no small degree of audience participation. It seems that I was in a minority in not having heard the new album yet (something I have since put right). What followed was, more or less, a play-through of the album leaving me with no doubt that It Bites had indeed morphed into a prog / rock fusion band, with influences ranging from Genesis to Runrig. It also left me wondering where everybody in the audience was when perhaps better known prog bands play York. The band left the stage after just over an hour which, I originally thought, was a slightly disappointing set compared to other gigs. They soon returned, however, with new frontman John Mitchell asking, “Shall we do some old stuff?” much to the delight of the crowd. The back catalogue seemed a bit faster and lighter than the somewhat darkly toned new material and, I think, much of it was taken from the band’s previous album, The Tall Ships. The audience, me excluded, seemed to know all the songs that were played, including the one from the final encore. The “hit”, however, was nowhere to be heard.

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Planetary Curve

Wednesday 9th May: I don’t know whether the support slots that Stolen Earth have been playing recently – The Strawbs, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, Colin Blunstone and, tonight, Curved Air, all with roots in the 70’s and, in all but one case, with prog sensibilities – have been a conscious choice by the band, with a view to building a fan-base by playing to audiences who would be predisposed to their music. Whether it was or not, though, the reception they get every time means that it’s working. By the third song of tonight’s set people were taking notice, something that doesn’t always happen with support bands. I even heard one punter, standing just behind me, telling whoever he was with that he was “enjoying this already”.

The set had, once again, been tweaked. This time it included the gentler Soul In A Jar and Silver Skies, both of which see Heidi playing the low whistle, which we hadn’t heard since last year’s Christmas gig. I suspect the ever-changing set-list not only gives the band more chances to practice all their songs ahead of June’s album launch gig, but also aligns their output more to the headliners, increasing the chance of picking up new fans. Tonight’s sound was, mostly, the best we’ve heard since that Christmas gig. In my opinion, though, it needed to be a bit quieter during Silver Skies, a lovely emotional song which tonight suffered slightly from a bit of “booming”. Ending, as usual, with what is almost certainly going to be the band’s anthem (initially, at least), the superbly Floyd-ian Perfect Wave, we were treated to another short, in terms of number of songs if not in length, but highly enjoyable set. Apparently, there had been a few technical issues, which had been solved with the cooperation of the headliners, before the gig started. You couldn’t tell. It’s not long until the debut album – A Far Cry From Home – is released and I’m looking forward both to it dropping through my letterbox and to hearing the full set once again.

I understand, from a few friends just slightly older than me, that posters of Sonja Kristina adorned many a teenaged boy’s bedroom wall during the early 70s. I missed out on that pleasure by a few years, being just nine when the band split in 1976, and had only heard of Curved Air through word of mouth. A couple of years ago, after reforming in 2008, they were due to play York and I had a ticket – that gig was cancelled and I was told tonight (by the person who had the other one) that it was because only two tickets were sold. I don’t know how true that figure is, but there was a lot more sold for this gig and, as seems to be the norm for gigs by 70s bands, there was a more than reasonable crowd. Sonja, now in her sixties but still showing a hint of past glories even if she can’t lay claim to a youthful figure anymore, is joined by just one original member – the marvellously named drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa. Rounding out the rest of the band are Kit Morgan (guitar), Robert Norton (keyboards), Chris Harris (Bass and backing vocals) and Catweazle look-a-like Paul Sax (violin). 

It’s Sax who took the lead during a stirring instrumental track before Kristina entered stage left for an energetic, if slightly underwhelming vocal, performance of It Happened Today. This was followed by (I think) Young Mother which included a wonderfully dextrous keyboard solo in its middle section. Originally, Curved Air mixed prog rock with classical and folk influences, the latter being apparent in Melinda, with its gentler start and Kristina on acoustic guitar. The quieter sound allowed the vocals to come across much more clearly showing the Kristina still has a good voice as well as a formidable stage presence. Mixing the rockier with the slower, the set continued with Propositions, Screw and the lovely piano opening of Easy. It wasn’t until Hide And Seek, a much rockier number featuring a staccato drum-line, that we get the first noticeably guitar-led song, showing how much prominence the keyboards and violin have been given so far. This was followed by Midnight Wire which featured a range of guitar work from subtle to near-screaming and, finally, some good vocals during a louder song. Unfortunately, the sound seemed to be wandering at this point and The Purple Speed Queen suffered from the bass suddenly being too high. After his time in the spotlight, Morgan left the stage and Kristina once again took up the acoustic guitar for Elfin Boy, which was followed by Phantasmagoria (with Morgan back on) and the epic Marie Antoinette which showed exactly how powerful Kristina’s vocals could be (and proved to be my favourite song of the set). Everdance was followed by the only Curved Air track that resides in my CD collection (until tonight, that is), but this version of the band’s 1971 top ten hit, Back Street Luv, was more the album version than the one that I vaguely recognise. The set ended with Metamorphosis, with it’s near classical piano opening leading into crashing drums and a superb guitar solo, and then a continuation of the instrumental opener with some fast and furious violin playing from Sax. There was no encore but, after nearly and hour and three quarters of quality music, you could hardly complain.

A magazine review of another gig on this tour includes the quote “Curved Air’s music may not have aged as well as some of their contemporaries, but equally there’s no denying that they remain formidable live”. In hindsight, I’d have to say I agree. I walked away from tonight’s set having had my expectations of Curved Air exploded. With their much touted folk and classical influences, I expected something a little gentler or, perhaps, less rockier. I also expected the music to be slightly more dated than it sounded tonight. Having bought a two-CD retrospective and listened to some of it, I think that the originals sound more like what I was expecting. It seems that the live set has been spruced up and modernised slightly. While I like both, I know which I prefer.

After the gig, Kristina came to the merchandise table to sign purchases and chat to fans, meaning that I got to say a few words to a 70s icon. Be still my beating heart…