Not Quite Music Journalism

Zombie Invasion

2012-02-17T11:39:00.001Z

Friday 10th February: I can’t think of many gigs I’ve been to in York where there has been a “Hollywood celebrity” in the audience…

Stolen Earth are seemingly on an ever-steeper upward curve. After a handful of gigs in 2011, a debut album is due in June, with a launch party planned at The Duchess on the 16th and a further few promotional dates, including a second appearance at the Cambridge Rock Festival, already announced. Before all that, though, they seem to be warming up by providing support for a number of bands/artistes who have their roots in the late 60s and early 70s, having already appeared with Roger Chapman (Family, Streetwalkers) and with upcoming gigs with Curved Air and Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash. Tonight saw them play a short but enthralling set of just four songs. This was the first time they have performed at The Duchess but the sound was superb, which bodes well for the album launch. Heidi’s vocals, still soulful, were somehow more silky and were showcased brilliantly during Tuscany Sun, while John’s keyboards were more prominent than I remember them from the previous two gigs but never swamped the overall sound. Given the wintery weather outside Into The Virgin Snow seemed a very appropriate choice of song and Perfect Wave appeared to be just that, with the song seemingly rolling out from the stage in, well, waves before Adam once again launched into his quite simply stunning guitar solo.

I freely admit that I’m not a big fab of 60’s pop music – too much of it sounds very similar to me (although, I have been chastised for saying so…) – and when Andy started getting a little excited that Colin Blunstone was going to be playing York, my first reaction was, “Who?”. I don’t think I would even have been able to come up with The Zombies if I had been asked to list bands from that era, but I did know She’s Not There, perhaps their most famous song. During tonight’s two-part set (with, it seemed, a rather long break) we were treated to songs from throughout Colin’s near fifty year career, included with the aforementioned She’s Not There were solo efforts I Don’t Believe In Miracles, Caroline Goodbye, Misty Roses and Time Of The Season. There was also Old And Wise, which he recorded with The Alan Parson Project and covers What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, Tracks Of My Tears and On The Air Tonight. The sheer range of his career meant that I was entertained, rather than bored as I could have been if it was just sixties pop. Colin’s voice is still near crystal clear, especially between songs when he fired off entertaining and insightful snippets about most of the songs he performed and made light of his age and forgetfulness. While not exactly lively on stage (he is, after all, in his mid sixties, perhaps not quite as young as some of his publicity shots imply) he remains a strong vocal performer and is surrounded by a talented band – Pete Billington (whose varied keyboards were a highlight for me), Pat Illingworth (drums), Chris Childs (bass, also of The Union) and Tom Toomey (guitar, also a Zombie). This might not have been high on my list of gigs to attend this year, but it ended up being more entertaining than I expected.

…and the “Hollywood celebrity”? A certain David Gest was spotted. Apparently you can’t open a door in York without bumping into him at the moment.

A Rising Return

2012-02-03T21:07:00.001Z

Saturday 28th January: It’s the end of January and I’m on my fourth gig of the year already. If I can maintain this average, records could be broken. Tonight it’s a solo outing to the Duchess to see a homecoming gig from a favourite band.

“WE! ARE! LOST EFFECT!” barked Dave Wells from behind both his keyboard and an impressive amount of hair that, at times, turned him into a more than passable double of Cousin Itt from the Addams family. At first glance and first listen, Lost Effect appear to be heavily influenced by the Scandinavian Death Metal scene – Dave’s death growls bring to mind the heavier moments of Opeth, while the facial hair sported by Steve Wells (guitar) and Shaun Wainman (bass) give them a look of Norwegian fisherman (all that’s missing is a couple of cable-knit sweaters). But once you get past the near-brutal guitar and pounding drums (courtesy of Pete Rutherford), there is a whole lot more going on. Dave’s growling ends up being used sparingly while still being an integral part of the set, while his keyboard playing gives the songs a more symphonic, melodic and, in some places, progressive sound. Even better is the centre-piece of the band. Visually, vocalist Emily Burt could give a fair few of the current crop of femme leads a run for their money and, more importantly, vocally she plays the likes of Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish) or Amy Lee (Evanescence) at their own game. It’s a shame, then, that she looks so uncomfortable head-banging along with the rest of the front line – it might just be the lack of numbers watching them, but despite a stunning performance, she occasionally looked as though she wished she was anywhere else. Despite being in places a bit too extreme for my tastes, I found myself liking this set overall. I didn’t catch many of the song titles – Dave’s speaking voice is a heck of a lot quieter than his growling one – but I think that, among the set, we got Wolves, Archangel and something that might have been called Embrace The Silence, which ended the set with a superb assault on the ears. I’m not sure I would want to see Lost Effect as a headline act (yet, perhaps) but I certainly wouldn’t shy away from seeing than as a support act.

Bastrad were described by Simon Wright (and if you don’t know who he is, read on…) as possibly being the new Judas Priest. That didn’t help me much as, I have to admit, I don’t really remember the old Judas Priest. Looking about as far removed from a rock band as it is possible to – vocalist Tristan Fayers was sporting a pencil-tie… – they are another twin guitar band but one with a slightly lighter guitar sound than Morpheus Rising but with the same powerful and, during One Thousand Tears Of Pain, staccato drums. Fayers’ vocals seemed to struggle a bit during some of the quieter moments, during the more melodic Lost In Mind (again, I’m struggling to remember song titles) for example, but there was no denying his overall power. A much more lively band than tonight’s openers, their music at times came across as a little chaotic but always worked, especially during the fast and furious Drive, which was a great way to end a set.

It was at this point that I stopped taking notes. I’ve seen Morpheus Rising, tonight’s headliners, a fair few times now. Their debut album, Let The Sleeper Awake, was one of my top ten albums of 2011 and tonight saw them returning to York for the last gig of the tour promoting it. You only have to compare the backs of the two tour t-shirts they have produced to see how far this band have some since 2010. While that year’s tour saw them play ten dates spread out over more than a month (and including two in York and one at a forces festival), this year saw thirteen gigs in seventeen days, taking the band across the UK, with gigs in Wales and Scotland. I’m told that the tour was a great success and the band looked to be really enjoying themselves on stage tonight, with Pete and Daymo trading smiles during their guitar solos, Gibbo sending forth huge grins from behind the drum kit and even Andy cracking a rare smile or too when venturing forward from behind the speaker stack. Simon was in particularly manic mode, stalking across the stage between vocal sections, filming the audience and producing his distinctive laugh. Musically, they were as good as, if not better, than usual and now that we’ve had a chance to hear recorded versions of the songs, the live versions seem somehow more complete. You can’t beat live music but, in my opinion, it always helps you appreciate it when you have heard cleaner versions of the songs. There’s not much else I can say about Morpheus Rising – my regular reader will know that I think they are brilliant. Tonight’s set contained no surprises, concentrating on tracks from Let The Sleeper Awake and ending with the band’s anthem, Lord Of The North which now not only has a video but has also provided one of the two props used tonight – a huge Morpheus Rising flag which threatened to do some damage to the ceiling of the Duchess when Simon waved it during the encore. (The other was a horn which, apparently, had no special meaning but had been blown at least once during each gig of the tour. Drinks provided by the audience during the set don’t, in my opinion, count as props.) A superb live act, and now with a more than decent debut album under their belts, it seems that Morpheus Rising are hell-bent on getting better.

Very Vocal Youngsters

2012-01-26T19:41:00.001Z

Wednesday 25th January: It’s extremely rare for me to go to a gig outside of York these days. Tonight, however, saw me heading over the Pennines for a first ever trip to the M.E.N. Arena. In all honesty, I was treating this as more of a “duty” trip – Elizabeth was among a number of pupils from her school (and thousands of other kids from schools around the country) performing as part of the last of three Young Voices concerts held in Manchester this week. It’s not that I was forced to go, just that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it that much.

It might be a little hard to picture the scene that greeted us inside the venue, unless you’ve been to an arena concert before. If you have, you will know that the stage is, generally, at one end of the floor and the seats behind and immediately to the sides of it are blocked off or empty or behind huge banks of speakers and lights. Well, it was more or less the same tonight, except that those seats were filled with thousands of kids, all dressed in white t-shirts and all supplied with small torches or glow sticks – perhaps the biggest set of backing singers you will ever come across.

Through a two-hour performance the kids perform alongside or, perhaps more accurately, behind four very different celebrity acts, with a full band (including Musical Director Craig McLeish), conductor (David Lawrence) and more grown-up backing singers on stage as well. Sprinkled among these performances are a a few medleys – songs from The Monkees, Toy Story and a pop song medley - which were performed just by the kids and the band. The celebrities tonight, in rough order of appearance were:

The High Kings – an energetic Irish folk band of multi-instrumentalists who performed Rocky Road, Gaudette, Step It Out Mary and, according to the programme The Fields Of Athenry (although I don’t remember that one…)

Randolph Matthews – an extremely talented (and barefoot) voice artist who not only sang Norwegian Wood, Precious and Something Inside So Strong but also led up to his first song with a story, complete with sound effects (footsteps, a car horn, a bird flying away, etc) all done with his own voice. I’m sure that some of the bands I’ve seen have used a loop machine when performing, but this was the first time that I have been able to truly appreciate how one works and what it can do to enhance a song, as Randolph started Norwegian Wood with vocal rhythms before building the actual song on top of them.

Connie Talbot – runner up in the 2007 series of Britain’s Got Talent, Connie’s performance really put me in my place in terms of my opinion of people who appear on that show. I admit that I’ve never watched it – too many thoughts of juggling dogs and dancing Grandads put me off – but my opinion has always been that, even if the singers can sing a bit, real talent includes writing your own material. Not only does eleven-year-old Connie have an incredible voice that belies both her age and her size, but she wrote one of the songs (I’m afraid the programme doesn’t list the title) herself when she was just seven. I’m guessing somebody has tidied it up a bit for her, but even so, that’s impressive. As was her rendition of Snow Patrol’s Run.

Urban Strides – were on stage quite a bit of the time, if only to provide guidance for the kids as to what dance moves they should have been performing during the songs. Street Dance specialists, I’m afraid that they were the least impressive part of the evening for me. I simply don’t “get” Street Dance (it’s probably my age) and during their showcase dance there was, at times, just too much going on at different parts of the stage to be able to take it all in. I’m sure that they are very good at what they do, it’s just that body-popping and robotic dancing (a style famously made fun of in Friends a decade ago – are dance styles cyclical, just like fashion?) just aren’t my thing.

As well as their “solo” slots, all the celebrities returned to the stage for the finale – a Queen medley during which they showed just how much fun they were having performing, with Randolph visually taking the mickey out of other performers and Martin Furey (from The High Kings) getting down on his knees to perform alongside Connie Talbot.

But it wasn’t the celebrities that made the evening, it was the kids. We were lucky enough to have seats that were not only very close to the stage but were also so close to where the Headlands Primary School kids were positioned that we were able to pick out individuals, including Elizabeth. We could see their enthusiasm and the energy they put into the performances. We could also hear them. Boy could we hear them. It was fairly obvious that they had been told to shout and scream at various key points in the evening – for example, when the lights went down and the announcer told everybody the show was going to start – and shout and scream they did, at near-deafening volume. Getting some 6,000 kids to perform in sync, both singing, dancing and, at times, using their torches must have been something akin to herding cats. Most of the work was down with the individual choirs at their schools but the whole of tonight’s set only had one afternoon of rehearsal to get working together. Somehow, though, it was made to work and to say that the evening blew me away is a bit of an understatement. I’m fairly certain I spent the whole two hours with a big grin on my face and an even bigger lump in my throat. During the finale, the crowd were encouraged to their feet and the kids reproduced one my all-time favourite live spectacles – the synchronised clapping from Radio GaGa – while the torches were used to great effect, reproducing a sky full of stars during the rendition of Who Wants To Live Forever.

It was a very long day for the children involved. Our group didn’t get home until near midnight (on a school day) but Elizabeth’s enjoyment shone through her exhaustion and I wouldn’t think twice about letting her be involved again next year (assuming that the school is involved).

Not necessarily the sort of gig I would normally attend, tonight turned out to be a whole lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be and is, in fact, an early contender for gig of the year.

Gig Of Dreams

2012-01-23T20:13:00.001Z

Friday 20th January: I would like to start this post by saying “Thanks” to Roy (a.k.a. Seldom Seen From Strensall) for offering me a lift to tonight’s gig, for reasons that will become apparent.

This was my first trip to The Fulford Arms because, in the past, I had thought it too far out of town to be a feasible gig venue for me. I don’t mind cycling into the centre of town if I want a couple of pints with my music but, until tonight, I hadn’t realised that the pub was just a couple of minutes further out than The Barbican, which I had already cycled to. And what a lovely pub it is – open fires, loads of candles and fairy lights, big leather sofas (although I don’t know how early you would need to get there to get use of them) and, tonight at least, eight real ales to choose from. I stuck with the Ruddy Ram, a dark porter from Masham’s Black Sheep Brewery.

The pub also has a large, regular-shaped room, which makes it a better venue for music than some of the city centre pubs that we have frequented in the past. Tonight, Roy tells me that the room is quite a bit fuller than the last time Roy was here. That also made it quite a bit noisier, which was a shame as very few people seemed to be listening to tonight’s opening act. David Breslin is another man-and-guitar act, one I hadn’t come across even by name before tonight. From where we were sitting, it wasn’t easy to hear either his music or his introductions, so this “review” isn’t to be taken as comprehensive. My regular reader will know that I’m generally not averse to a bit of acoustic action, but Mr Breslin sounded just a little too “folky” for me. His opener, which may have been called Part Of The Problem, sounded OK but the second song was what I would class as more archetypical folk – slower, finger-picking and with slightly warbling vocals. The third was similar and the fourth seemed to get even slower and quieter. From the fifth onwards, I’m afraid that the ambient noise got too much and that, together with Andy finally arriving, meant that I lost interest. I think I only missed two songs and I do feel a guilty for not paying more attention. For the second post in a row, I find myself apologising to the opening act, although this time it’s more for not giving him much of a chance to impress me, rather than not liking him that much. Sorry David. He does, however, have one of the more interesting MySpace Bios that I have come across…

I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate but, when the main act took to the stage area, David and some of his friends had occupied the table next to us and, together with a group of rather loud women a little bit further away, started drowning out the music with their chatter. This eventually, after a couple of songs, prompted us to leave our seats and move closer to the front, standing but resisting the temptation to glare at the sofa occupiers until they took pity on us and gave up one of their comfy perches. This was a last chance to see the full band line-up of Dream Of Apollo for some months as bass-player Rhys was about to head off down-under to get married – best wishes, Rhys. Hope all goes well – and I’m glad I took the opportunity. The band are my favourite of the smaller (and I don’t mean that in any derogatory way) local bands and, since a brief flurry of activity last Summer, it’s been a while since I’ve managed to catch them play. Tonight’s set was, more or less, the same as the other times I’ve seen them live, with the addition of Over Me, a new song which was receiving its debut. Most of the songs are now familiar, but seem to offer something new whenever I hear them. Sandman, for example, is the song that convinced me to see the band in the first place, but it is only after listening to it on a demo-CD that Rhys kindly passed to me tonight, that I have realised that it is about somebody who can’t sleep. (I can almost see the band rolling their eyes in disbelief as they read that statement…) The main body of Too Lost, Too Late sounded just as before, but I don’t remember the superb instrumental jam ending to it. Leander was played without Winston, who was busy replacing a string that he had broken during the previous song, so definitely sounded different to previous versions, while I don’t remember Jamie leaving the stage during Jolene before tonight. And it was only tonight that I realised how haunting Vicki’s vocals can be, especially during the slower songs such as Someday and In A Manner Of Speaking. Vicki herself seemed a lot more relaxed than other times I have seen her. I’m not sure whether it’s true that that was down to her not driving to the venue and, therefore, being able to have a tipple or two, but that might also explain the near-premature end to the first half of the set – Vicki, “We’re going to do one more song, then take a ten minute break.” Winston, “I thought we had three songs left before the break…” – and the huge smile when one of her friends rushed forward to retrieve a dropped plectrum.

I don’t know how many of the crowded room were there specifically to see Dream Of Apollo but it seemed to me that the applause grew with each song. At the end of the set most people were shouting out more more. A few were even suggesting what the encore should be. The deliciously dark Anatole seemed to be the crowd’s favourite but we got one of Vicki’s solo songs, played with Rhys and Jamie but with no guitar from Winston, who seemed content to provide backing vocals.

I’m told that, while Rhys is away, there is a possibility of some acoustic support slots for the rest of the band. Work will also continue on recording a debut album. Personally, I can’t wait.

Free And Easy

2012-01-16T20:33:00.001Z

Monday 9th January: It’s been a while since I’ve seen a gig at Stereo. The last time I was here (in fact, the last two times) I was pretty much the only person in the audience and, I have to say, I was a little worried tonight – with just minutes to go before the gig was due to start and there was only me, one of the acts, the soundman and one other person loitering about. Thankfully, the addition of a few chairs and tables, as well as quite a few more punters, made the venue look reasonably full by the time the first act took to the stage.

Tonight is a free-entry acoustic showcase, a mix of acts I have seen before, ones I’ve heard of and one that I haven’t come across at all. Elliot Matthew Partridge is the latter and, I’ll be honest, he didn’t do a great deal with me. It’s not that his six song set was particularly bad, just that none of the songs grabbed me. For me, there were germs of promise in Moon Pies And Penny Whistles, We Are The Sons and something previously by Don’t Let Paris Fool You – a band that Elliot used to be guitarist in until recently. Unfortunately, I found the stories between the songs just the wrong side of irrelevant to the performance. It was almost as though he just wanted to get things that had annoyed him off his chest in front of an audience and that, as well as a propensity for slightly crude in-jokes with friends in the audience, distracted too much from the music for my liking. Sorry, Elliot.

Next up was Alice Ostapjuk, who I have seen perform solo before but who, apparently, now plays mostly with a band. Alice rails against the seemingly small things in life, using music and humour as her weapons. Incredibly the room was near-silent as Alice started her set with Samuel’s Secret and Love Game, a song inspired by Motown and Diana Ross (who is obviously a favourite as, just like last time I saw her, the set included a very different cover of a Diana Ross song – Where Did Our Love Go?, I think…). Her sisters playing of R&B songs inspired the aptly titled R&B Song, the lyrics of which were brilliantly humorous, blaming the genre for a large number of life’s ills. Kiss Me Better was followed by Paper Planes And Shooting Stars, another song I had heard last time out and one that most people seemed to know well enough to join in the clapping section. Finally, we got the first solo outing for Rage Against The Tangerine, another song that takes aim at the downside of some people’s lives, in this case the “perfect” girls at school, without being too serious about it. This was another interesting and enjoyable support slot from the young songwriter.

Johnny Gill was, I believe, a late replacement for Marck (Marbled) Whiley, who had to pull out due to ear problems. I knew his name, but hadn’t seen him perform before. It was, perhaps, appropriate, given his slight stature, that he started with I Was Never A Giant, a nice song played in an intricate and slightly mesmerising finger-picking style. Thieves Amongst Honour was followed by the wonderful Wolves And Waves, during which Jonny effortlessly switched between quiet and near-shouting vocal styles. Made Of Glass was a cover (I don’t remember if we were told who did it originally) and, again, featured great vocals but for me the best song of the set was something that might have been called Worst Things Happen At Sea. With just enough time to squeeze in two songs, Jonny failed to introduce the first, but finished with Friday Night Lights. A nice mix of songs, and a great voice complemented by some excellent music. Definitely an act I will be looking out for again.

I still haven’t managed to catch Mantra live, but I have seen frontman Oli Stevens-Vallecillo and guitarist Catherine Redfern perform acoustically once before. Tonight they are joined by James Fletcher, whose shiny electric bass looked just a touch out of place and seemed to be to be too loud in the mix for the early part of the set. Mixing Country and Western covers from the likes of Neal McCoy and Alan Jackson (Midnight In Montgomery) with what I assume were acoustic versions of Mantra songs such as Counting My Reasons and Always Drive Alone, provided for a varied set which was further enhanced by the use of effects pedals, some incredibly tight playing by the two guitarists and, on one song, a bottle neck playing style. Oli’s voice is superb, a kind of rich Southern drawl without coming across as too laid back and the backing vocals from Catherine were lovely. I doubt that this is what they sound like as a full band and one day I’m going to have to find out.

Finally, with the time already past the advertised finish (and with a cold bike ride home ahead of me), Boss Caine, in his now seemingly usual solo guise, took to the stage. Dan/G.T./Boss is probably my favourite acoustic act in York. Most of his songs are now so familiar that I can pretty much mime (you don’t want to hear me sing) along to the them, much as whoever was standing behind me could (only louder and more in tune) and it was nice to see people hanging around to see his set. Too many times when I have seen him opening for another act or performing in a crowded pub and, in both cases, having to try to punch through the ambient noise. Tonight’s crowd was certainly more appreciative and while Dan made light of his apparent miserablist reputation, it was also a pleasure to see him having a laugh on stage during his set. Opening with the brilliant and sombre Ghosts And Drunks he then treated us to the more uplifting duo of A Kind Of Loving and Dead Man’s Suit and then a new song which, if he did tell us it, I missed the title of. It was back to the slightly downbeat with Be My Grievous Angel, a tribute to Graham Parsons, and Sweet Sorrow Surrender before taking an audience request for Murder On My Mind for his final song.

Overall this was a great night of acoustic music. Maybe such a showcase should be a regular or semi-regular Stereo event, with rotating, varied acts. I’d certainly be up for more nights like it.

2011 In Review–Part 3, The CDs

2012-01-13T21:31:00.001Z

Friday 13th January: OK, I’m probably not in the best position to put this part of my year in review together but if I don’t do it now I’m probably never going to get round to it. So, here goes…

During 2011 I added eighty-two albums and five EPs/Singles to my CD collection.

Starting with the EPs/Singles, I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not really a fan of either format. To me, both seem to be a waste of time – you’ve no sooner put them into the CD player and pressed play than you have to go back and do it all again. (Yes, I still play most of my music through a CD player – I guess if I used MP3, EPs and singles would work better for me.) Anyway, two of the five were freebies. One was a Judy Dyble sampler which came with an issue of Prog, the other a copy of Morpheus Rising’s Fighting Man single, which the band were giving away during Graeme Tennick’s farewell gig. Of the others, I bought Differences of Light (Also Eden) as part of a bundle offer of all their recorded material and, at nearly twenty-five minutes long, you don’t have to revisit the CD player quite as quickly as some others. Altitude (Panic Room), I bought more or less for completeness sake and was a little disappointed by it as it only really contains one track, the cover of ELP’s Bitches Crystal, that I didn’t already have in other. The animated video for Satellite is quite impressive but, obviously, has to be played on a computer. On the other hand, I put off buying The Phoenix Suite (Heather Findlay) until it was available from Play, having heard less than brilliant reviews of it. It didn’t grab me when I first listened to it but while re-listening in preparation for seeing the live performance it really did start to grown on me.

I won’t bore you with a full breakdown of the eighty-two albums that I bought (or had bought for me). Even discounting the ten that were given away free with Prog, it’s more than I expected to buy and I haven’t had a chance to listen to a lot of them yet. I did take advantage of cheap deals from Play to start working on back catalogues of 70s prog bands such as Camel, Caravan, The Strawbs, Uriah Heep and King Crimson as well as more modern prog from Dream Theater, Opeth and Porcupine Tree and straight rock from Foreigner, Alter Bridge and Wolfmother. I also carried on my tradition of spending money to support bands that I saw live, buying albums from local bands such as Glass and Two, as well as those from touring bands like Vega, The Crave, Jeniferever, Also Eden, Amplifier and The Pineapple Thief.

Ignoring the free albums, twenty-four of my new albums were actually released during 2011 and, as is the tradition I have tried to pick my favourites from them. Firstly a few words about my criteria. I have listened to all twenty-four at least once and I have tried to rank them in order. It’s impossible – some of them are so different to others that it would depend on my state of mind while listening to them as to whether one was better than another. Similarly, my choice of favourites might change from one day to the next. Also, I very carefully chose the word “favourites” – these aren’t necessarily the best albums that I bought (I’m certainly not qualified to judge a CD based on the production or writing), but they are the ones that, as I look at the list, jump out as ones that I would l listen to right now if I had the time. With repeated listening to some of the others, that list might change over time. This might also explain why some albums which feature highly in other people’s top ten lists don’t even make an appearance in mine. Anyway, enough preamble, without further ado here are my favourite ten albums (in alphabetical rather than any other order…)

The Octopus (Amplifier):

This is a monster of an album – a double CD of proggy goodness, a concept album (but I rarely “get” concepts) that is choc-full of interesting and, at times, sublime music. It took me a couple of listens to get into but, eventually, was worth the effort.

Tao Of The Dead (…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead):

This was pretty much an impulse purchase, based on a review in Prog and the fact that I thought there was a free graphic novel with it. Sadly that turned out not to be the case with the version that I ended up buying. The music, however, is quite brilliant – prog tinged with a little punk and, in one small section, something unmistakably “indie”. It’s not the easiest of listening experiences but it is powerful and, with its repeating themes, ends up being quite memorable if not catchy. Worth listening to for the epic, sixteen-minute final track, if for nothing else.

Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay):

Coldplay are one of the few non-prog bands that I am guaranteed to buy a new release from and their latest is, for me, a return to form after the disappointing Viva La Vida. This one is definitely catchy and, with few tracks lasting over four minutes, nothing one it outstays its welcome. I liked this album from the first play and it is one of the few from this year’s releases that I can get away with playing while Debbie is in the room. Perhaps the only weak spot is the collaboration with Rhianna.

Live At The Cafe 68 (Heather Findlay and Chris Johnson):

This is a recording of a special, acoustic live gig that Heather and Chris played in front of just a couple of handful of lucky ticket-holders. Sadly I wasn’t one of them although, if I had known how good the recording was going to sound, I might have made more of an effort to get hold of a ticket. Comprising track from Heather’s solo EP, Mostly Autumn’s back catalogue and Parade (now Halo Blind) along with others, it’s an extremely nice album which is enhanced by the stories told to introduce some of the songs. Easily the best of the three live albums I bought this year.

Sleep Sound (Hope & Social):

The third album from one of my favourite live bands is another return to form. Also, being released on the “pay what you want” basis, it can represent superb value for money. Once again, Hope & Social push the boundaries of self-recording/release, this time by including a full choir on the opening track. Sleep Sound is full of great songs that you just can’t help singing along to and that manage to run the gamut of emotions while you are listening to them.

Eclipse (Journey):

Apart from a Best Of album, this is the first thing I have bought by Journey and, in my opinion, most of it is better than a lot of the “Best Of”. Yes, everybody knows Don’t Stop Believin’ but this album’s opener. City Of Hope, is head and shoulders above that anthem. There’s an energy to Eclipse that makes the album seem to erupt to the speakers. A definite must-buy for fans of AOR, as well as air-guitarists and air-drummers everywhere.

Sangreal (Mandalaband):

Telling the story of the Holy Grail as it travels across Europe after being used by Christ at the Last Supper, this is a suitably grand and epic album which might easily be the soundtrack from a stage musical. Full of pomp, wonder and theatrics it sometimes hovers on just the right side of cheesy but ultimately it is superbly written and features not only great music but some fantastic vocal performances.

Like No Other (Chantel McGregor):

Chantel is another live favourite and I have been looking forward to this album since she announced she was working on it. It ended up being not quite what I expected and is, perhaps, a more commercial album than the solely Blues/rock album release I suspect most fans were expecting. Opening with the pop-diva Fabulous could be seen as a brave move but the inclusion of a stripped-down, acoustic version of Rhiannon and a superb rendition of Daydream was inspired. Original songs easily stand alongside those and even the, for me, uninspired Cat Song can’t take away the fact that this is one of the best debut albums I have come across.

Let The Sleeper Awake (Morpheus Rising):

Let’s face it, this release had very little chance of disappointing me. Not just one of my favourite live bands but my favourite York band (at the moment), Morpheus Rising survived the departure of vocalist Graeme Tennick and his replacement with Simon Wright to produce one of the best heavy metal albums I have heard in a long time. I sometimes worry that people think I “big up” certain bands in my live reviews because I have got to know the members. I don’t and in the case of Morpheus Rising they have never failed to impress me and have continued to do so with this album, which may have single-handedly revived my interest in a genre that I have barely listened to for some time.

The Unforgiving (Within Temptation):

I’ll admit to a little reticence before I first played this album. I had bought a couple of prior releases on the recommendation of a friend and they hadn’t grabbed me, to the point where I wasn’t actually certain why I bought this one when it came out. After leaving it on a shelf for a few months I finally gave it a play and was more than impressed. It’s a bit more mainstream rock than the others I had listened to and a little less dark than I remembered them. It’s a mark of how good it is that, after the first listen I immediately put it on again.

So, there you have today’s rather varied top ten. On another day it might include Steven Wilson’s Grace For Drowning, another album I worried about listening to when I started reading reviews saying that it was dense and inaccessible but which I found quite easy to get into during its only play so far. Or, perhaps, Anathema’s Falling Deeper, mostly instrumental re-workings of some of their back catalogue, which is pleasant enough but which I don’t know enough about to appreciate properly yet. Also bubbling under would by the newest releases from Whitesnake (Forevermore) and Yes (Fly From Here), while the new album from returning veteran Stevie Nicks (In Your Dreams) is unlikely to ever make my top ten – not that it’s bad, it’s just not that good. For completeness, the 2011 releases that I haven’t yet mentioned are: Think Of The Children (Also Eden), Breaking The Silence (The Crave), A Treasure Of Well Set Jewels (Liam Davison), Gown (Jo Hamilton – probably my least favourite of the year), Silesia (Jeniferever), Still Beautiful: Live 2011 (Mostly Autumn), Heritage (Opeth), Live In The U.S.A: The Bottle Of Gettysburg (The Reasoning), and Siren’s Song (The Union)

2011 In Review–Part 2, The Books

2012-01-05T19:54:00.001Z

Thursday 5th January: 2011 saw a couple of relatively major changes to my reading habits. My regular reader will know that I haven’t bought many new books for a while now – I have had a “to read” pile which, when you add in the books I need to complete series that I have started buying, numbered quite a way into treble figures. Until this year, I had been concentrating on individual books, or series that I had already owned all the volumes of. Last year, however, I started reading incomplete series and if I found that I wasn’t enjoying them as much as I thought, I decided not to carry on buying them. Series that fell by the wayside in this way included Jan Seigel’s Fern Capel (after the first volume) and Orson Scott Card’s Tales of Alvin Maker (after four volumes). I also, for only the third time that I can remember, gave up on a book – The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison. Small changes, but they are helping bring the pile down a bit more quickly.

At the beginning of the year I also bought a Kindle which, if nothing else, is saving me shelf space and making purchasing books a bit easier (at least in some cases – not all the books I want to read are available as e-books yet). I have to say that I think the Kindle is one of the best pieces of kit I have come across. Whether it is better than other e-readers I can’t say, but I have yet to find anybody who doesn’t like it and, while I doubt I’ll ever completely give up on books, I really enjoy reading on it and can see a future when all my fiction is bought on it if available.

During the year, managed to read (or give up on) a total of fifty-eight books and added, either through purchases (anything I bought, I read) or gifts, twenty-five, leaving me with a total of sixty in the to read pile at the end of the year. These figures don’t include twenty-six Stephen King novels that I bought as a special offer from a book club – I really shouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol at tea-time – and which are still sitting in a box under my bed.

Part of the reason that I managed to get through so many books was my foray into the Paranormal Romance genre, out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about. I managed to pick up a number of Sookie Stackhouse novels (Charlaine Harris) and the first three Twilight books (Stephanie Meyers) very cheaply. I had previously given up on watching True Blood, the TV Series based on the Harris books but found myself enjoying the books which not only diverged quite dramatically from the TV version but only took a couple of days (if that) each to read. They are, perhaps, the literary equivalent of a Milky Way bar – the books you can read between other books – but are quite fun. I was less enamoured of the Twilight books but decided to read the fourth for completeness and found myself completely hooked by it, desperately hoping that the inevitable didn’t happen and wondering what direction the story would take after it had. I doubt I’ll be dipping my toe into the genre anymore.

My crime reading has also tailed off recently. I haven’t read a Patricia Cornwall for ages but did read three Jonathan Kellerman novels this year. Again, these are novels that I seem to fly through so it’s probably a good thing that crime isn’t my genre of choice as it would probably hurt my wallet more than SF and Fantasy do.

Disappointments in 2011, as well as those mentioned above, included Rainbow Mars (Larry Niven) which I just didn’t “get” and which went straight to the charity shop when I finished it, and the five books of Juliet E. McKenna’s Tales Of Einarinn, a fairly standard fantasy which suffered, from what I can remember, by having different viewpoint characters in each book but being written in the first person which, reading one after the other, left me confused at times.

From the Science Fiction genre, highlights for me were Orson Scott Card’s Shadow Saga, a parallel series to the Ender’s Game series. I originally read Ender’s Game some years ago and didn’t particularly get on with it, finding it hard to reconcile the age of the main character with his actions. I did, however, enjoy the sequels, perhaps because in them Ender had grown up. The Shadow Saga doesn’t necessarily need to be SF, and could under other circumstances just be a completely separate technological thriller series but it was an easy read and, for some reason, I didn’t find it as difficult to accept the very young characters as I did with Ender’s Game. I also enjoyed Alastair Reynolds Century Rain – I have yet to read one of his books that I don’t enjoy – but, in much the same way as Rendezvous With Rama (Arthur C. Clarke), I find myself wanting more. My favourite from SF, though, was something I read way back at the beginning of the year (and which, in fact, only found its way into my collection when the SF/Fantasy Book Club mistakenly sent me two copies…) Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire’s Fall trilogy is a Man versus aliens, navy in space story with parallels to the likes of the Hornblower era. The spaceships of the series have Captains who fill their cabins with fine art and employ what amount to interior decorators among their servants. Reading as slightly satirical in places, there is plenty of action, both in space and planet-side and I found the three books very entertaining. It reminded me of a less brutal version of David Feintuch’s Seafort Saga.

The best straight fantasy I read was Maggie Furey’s Shadowleague trilogy – generic fare but with a slight hint of science fiction entwined in its story. However, fantasy takes many forms and while the urban grime of China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station was as good as all the reviews made it out to be and, in my opinion, better than The Scar, its linked but indirect sequel it was Stephen R. Lawhead’s King Raven books which really grabbed me. Not strictly fantasy by definition, they re-write the Robin Hood legend, transplanting one of England’s most well-known heroes to a Wales of a slightly different era. Lawhead gives his reasons in the afterword of the first volume and they certainly sound plausible to me. Most of the standard ingredients of the legend are included and each of the three books concentrates on and fleshes out a different main character (Hood, Scarlet and Tuck, as per the titles).

As usual with these roundups, I have left out many “medium enjoyment” books in order to concentrate on what I really enjoyed. Despite the series I have now consigned to the “Well, I gave them a try” category, there were more books that I enjoyed than that I didn’t (but, then, I’m quite easy to please…) Hopefully, I can continue to chip away at the remaining pile during 2012, getting ever closer to being able to buy newer novels again. You never know, I may even get round to reading those Stephen King books one day…

2011 In Review–Part 1, The Gigs

2011-12-30T21:44:00.001Z

Friday 30th December: I still haven’t managed to listen to all the 2011-released CDs that I added to my collection and the year isn’t over yet, so I haven’t finished reading books. That means that the first of my round-ups for 2011 concentrates on the live music I have experienced during the year.

After the turmoil seen by the local venues in 2010, this year was reasonably stable in terms of where to go if you wanted live music in York. The big news was, of course, the opening of the refurbished Barbican Centre, after sitting empty way too long. Inside the money touted as being spent on doing up the building seems to have been mainly allocated to the areas the public see in the light – the bar and restaurant, for example – while the auditorium itself still has the same seating and, as far as I could see, floor. There has been a pretty good mix of live acts appearing there but I only managed one gig, at least partly because of the ticket prices which, like the Grand Opera House (which also showcases some reasonably big names) are much higher than the other venues in the city. Being honest, in most cases I’d rather pay less and see more (and less well-known) bands.

Getting the boring stats out of the way first, I managed to attend thirty-eight gigs in 2011, the highest number (by one) since I started keeping records. Strangely, during those gigs, I saw the same number of individual acts and total performances – eighty-eight and seventy-three respectively. I guess that means that the average number of bands per gig was down this year. Most attended venue, by far, was Fibbers with eighteen, followed by The Duchess with five. The Basement Bar, The Golden Lion and Stereo all came in with two gigs and I attended one each at The Barbican, The Grand Opera House, The Post Office Club, The Red Lion, The Roman Bath, Rowntree Park, The Victoria Vaults, The White Swan and The Yorkshire Hussar. Venues highlighted in bold above are ones that I attended for the first time. I managed to see a wide variety of acts – ranging from heavy metal to a sixteen-year-old ukulele-player. There was a nice mix of local and touring acts, the latter including three international bands. Cover acts were down on previous years, with only four acts whose majority of songs were covers and one tribute band. As usual, most of the acts were good, a handful were superb and a few I won’t be bothering to see again.

While this year saw the three original gig-goers meeting up less often, I did get a new, irregular gig-buddy in the form of my nine-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. I had planned to take her to her first gig this year (assuming she wanted to go) but she ended up going to three “first” gigs (four by the “two venue” rule above). At the end of the Summer holidays we headed off to Rowntree Park for the York Peace Festival, not as hippies but to see a handful of bands in the open air and this also gave Elizabeth the chance to say “hello” to one of her favourite local acts, G. T. Turbo. We also spent a very pleasant afternoon in the October sunshine in the Red Lion’s beer garden and, later, Fibbers (where I seemed to have got special permission for Elizabeth to attend) for York’s Guitar Festival weekend, where she saw G. T. perform again and also experienced her first heavy metal gig with the mighty Morpheus Rising – earplugs were a must. Towards the end of the year, we both went to the Grand Opera House to see Mostly Autumn – no earplugs this time and Elizabeth actually struggled to stay awake for the entire set, twitching along to the music towards the end and only waking up to applaud along with the rest of us. I don’t think the sudden onset of narcolepsy was anything to do with the standard of music and, afterwards, she did tell me that she enjoyed the experience.

Before I bring forth my highlights of the year, I will take a few lines to bemoan the seemingly dwindling crowds seen in York. Some bands that deserve much bigger attendances seemed to be bringing in fewer people but the worst was the two gigs I saw at Stereo – in both cases I was the only person in the audience not connected to any of the bands performing, which I guess is about as bad as it gets for a band. In these cases kudos goes to Stirling’s Miniature Dinosaurs and their support acts – not only did all the acts stay around to watch each other (and make me feel a little less lonely) but the Dinosaurs themselves had the attitude that it didn’t matter whether the crowd was one person or one thousand, you still give it your best. On the other hand, a big thumbs down goes to Leeds’ Arthur Rigby and The Baskervylles who, in a similar situation stayed in whatever green room there is at Stereo until it was their turn to take to the stage, giving no support to any of their support acts. Personally, I think they got what they deserved as most people left when they took to the stage.

As with last year, I definitely have a favourite gig of the year but first, a few highlights. Panic Room played York twice this year supported firstly by York’s own Marbled and then by touring support David R. Black. Both were excellent gigs and Panic Room are definitely a band which deserves a bigger audience than they get. My worry is that, unless that audience comes forth, York may soon be dropped from future tours. Hope & Social also appeared twice, but the Fibbers gig in October was a definite highlight – not only was I right at the front but the whole atmosphere was brilliant, a fantastic mixture of music and laughs. Swedish band Jeniferever also popped into Fibbers and gave us a “wall of sound” performance of ambient rock that pretty much knocked the socks off both me and a newcomer to our band of gig-goers. I went to see Nils Lofgren at the Barbican simply because I knew his name and that he was a sometime member of the E-Street Band. I didn’t really know what to expect but was enthralled by the gig and surprised that the man himself came out after the the show to sign anything anybody wanted him to. Stolen Earth, the band risen from the ashes of Breathing Space so impressed us during their debut at the Post Office Club that even Andy bought advance tickets for their Christmas gig at Victoria Vaults, and this turned out to be one of the best pub gigs I can remember. Long-time live favourites Chantel McGregor and Morpheus Rising both released debut albums this year – Chantel’s tour to promote hers saw her pitch up at Fibbers for what I think is the best I have seen her play, while Morpheus Rising launched theirs at the same venue and gave one of their best performances as well. That gig also formed part of a mini prog explosion in November and December. I managed to see The Heather Findlay band not only perform tracks from The Phoenix Suite, and Odin Dragonfly’s Offerings but also revitalise some of the Mostly Autumn back catalogue that I doubt anybody realised needed revitalising. With the bar raised, the next night saw Mostly Autumn themselves with the best performance I have seen them give in York and then, in the space of a week, I saw Amplifier, The Pineapple Thief and Also Eden (the latter supporting Morpheus Rising). Fish also appeared that week, but clashed with Pineapple Thief and I opted for the latter. There were many more good performances but I suspect you are already getting bored.

…and so, to my favourite gig of the year…

One of the things I like about local gigs is that you can, occasionally, get something completely unexpected. That was to be the case in the Summer when, devoid of anything to see at our normal venues, if was suggested that we head to The Yorkshire Hussar to see something new. To be honest, I wasn’t going to go, but I gave MySpace a quick visit and, after listening to one track, changed my mind. We arrived at the Hussar, which I think had only started putting on live music recently, to find a small crowd which seemed to be made up of friends and family of the band. That band was Dream Of Apollo and, by the end of the night that had impressed us all. So much so that we saw them twice more in the space of just over five weeks, even paying for the last gig as they headlined Fibbers. More or less unique, they don’t seem to have a specific genre of music but, instead, perform a bit of everything, melding it all into one extremely likeable whole. The lovely dreaminess of Someday, the epic, near-prog of Free, the atmospheric Regrets Of The Devil and the rest of the set, including Sandman (the MySpace song that convinced me to go to the gig) and a handful of covers that included Depeche Mode, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, made for a totally unexpected but entirely stunning performance. I may have seen bigger names, at better venues, but for its sheer originality and surprise, this was the best gig of the year for me.

A Bit Of Christmas Stollen

2011-12-23T15:32:00.001Z

Saturday 17th December: It was, perhaps, a mark of how much Stolen Earth had impressed our seemingly increasingly disparate group of gig-goers when we saw them at the Post Office Club a few months ago that I was not only joined tonight by Roy, on a rare outing, but that Andy (who generally can’t commit more than a few days in advance) had also splashed out on tickets weeks ago. Add my wife to the mix and we had a reasonable turn-out.

Tonight’s gig had originally been advertised at Fibbers but, for various reasons, had later been moved to The Victoria Vaults, as smallish pub on the outskirts of York’s town centre. It was billed as an “intimate” gig but I wasn’t quite expecting how small the venue actually was. Even with Barry swapping full drum kit for a smaller, electronic version, the band took up about half the available floor space, with bass-player Paul tucked away behind one speaker stack and only John having more then enough room to move about in. (I guess that’s the advantage of playing keyboards – you get to build yourself a little fort in the corner.) The limited number of tickets available meant that the audience, while perhaps not having enough space to swing much more than a small cat, weren’t too squashed together, even if some of them were positioned away in little nooks and crannies around the bar. Having said that I did, once again, seem to get stood next to the one couple who were determined to talk very loudly during the performance, pausing in their chat only to politely applaud each song as it finished. Again, I ask, why buy a ticket???

It may have been a small venue, but it was a big performance. The set contained pretty much the same songs as the last time we saw them – I Live, Bitterness Fades, Mirror Mirror, Tuscany Sun, Unnatural Disaster, Soul In A Jar, My Lips Are Too Dry, Into the Virgin Snow, Silver Skies and Perfect Wave – but the sound was superb. So much so that I took time out to thank the soundman for a job well done. Each instrument was clear in the mix and both Heidi and Adam’s lead and Paul’s backing vocals came across superbly. Add to that a light show which never seemed to overwhelm, despite the amount of equipment on show giving the impression that it could have done, and we got one of the best pub performances that I can remember seeing.

Of course, being a Christmas gig, there were the obligatory Christmas songs and, towards the end of the set, Santa hats were donned as Heidi took as short break and the rest of the band performed I Believe In Father Christmas and Stop The Cavalry (with Barry’s facial expressions and near-comedy drumming during the latter providing no small amount of amusement). Heidi them returned for a brilliant rendition of A Spaceman Came Travelling.

There is a lot of variety in Stolen Earth’s songs, from the ethereal dual-acoustic, low whistle infused Soul In A Jar, through the atmospheric bottle-neck playing of Into The Virgin Snow all the way to the screaming guitar of My Lips Are Too Dry, but my highlight of the night was Perfect Wave which contained a brilliant solo from Adam, during which he could almost have been channelling Dave Gilmour, so Floyd-like was it.

With an album due out next year and a tour to promote it, Stolen Earth could well be a band on the verge of big things.

Dreaming In Paradise

2011-12-18T16:54:00.001Z

Friday 9th December: There was a bit of a theme running through the gigs I attended this week. Previous headliners, Amplifier and The Pineapple Thief are both bands that, until this week, I hadn’t heard anything by but that I had read about in Prog magazine. The same is true of tonight’s support act – Also Eden.

Many years ago, when I was young(er) and (even more) musically naive, I dismissed Marillion as Genesis wannabes. I suspect that, if Also Eden had been around then, I may have dismissed them as Marillion wannabes. Thankfully, my tastes have matured since then and I can appreciate both bands for what they are. Also Eden play a more eighties orientated style of prog, but with enough modern influence to allow them to to pick a somewhat rocky but still atmospheric set for tonight’s gig, to fit in a bit more with the headliners. Rich Harding, still on crutches off-stage and barely mobile on-stage after what I believe was a near-fatal motorbike accident, has more than a passing vocal resemblance to Fish and the band, as a whole, have a more traditional line-up (guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocalist) than the others mentioned above. From what I remember, most of the set came from this year’s superb (I can say that now that I’ve had a chance to listen to it) release – Think Of The Children – with the title track providing an excellent opener with powerful lyrics. Oversight contains some great guitar work and showed that, in some ways, prog can defined as “heavy metal with added keyboards while 1949 used those keyboards to eerie effect. Distortion Field, released as a free download and with vocals recorded by Rich whilst sitting on a bed on in his living room (recovering from the crash, presumably) showed influences from another of my favourite bands, Rush. The set ended with the epic, three-part Reality Cheque, taken from the Differences As Light E.P. The track started out a lot slower, but no less powerfully, than the rest of the set before building to a stunning climax and convincing me (not a fan of the format at all) to add the E.P. to my purchases that night. I have liked all the prog bands I have seen this week, but I have to say that Also Eden, based on this performance are my favourite of the three.

Also Eden were in York in a reverse line-up of their album launch gigs, which saw them supported by Morpheus Rising. I have been a fan of the Morphs (as Also Eden referred to them) since I first saw them two and a half years ago and they have gone from strength to strength since then, even overcoming the departure of original vocalist Graeme Tennick earlier this year. His replacement is, in some opinions (even, apparently, Graeme’s), even better and he seems to be growing in the role with each performance. I have made no secret of the fact that I have been looking forward to tonight’s gig for some time, as it is the launch of the band’s long-awaited debut album – Let The Sleeper Awake. What can I say about tonight’s performance that I haven’t said about previous ones? Not much, being honest, as I’ve gushed about them a lot in the past. The truth is that their brand of heavy metal is what I originally started listening to when I first properly got into music back in my teens. My one Thin Lizzy and handful of Iron Maiden CDs may not be played as much as some from my collection and the likes of Saxon may not be represented at all but Morpheus Rising could well have single-handedly rekindled my interest in that particular style of music. If anything, tonight’s performance was the most relaxed I have seen them play, almost as if a weight had been lifted from them. One fellow member of the audience commented that it was the best he had seen from them. The only complaint I would have is that the songs, as good as they are, are getting a bit familiar now. Time to start work on some new material, maybe? Having said that, I (obviously) bought the album and I have barely stopped playing it since. Familiar, perhaps, but still very, very good.

Don’t Stop Thief!

2011-12-13T20:06:00.001Z

Wednesday 7th December: It seems slightly incredible to me that, in a week when three highly regarded prog acts are playing headline acts in York, two of them are scheduled to clash. Surely such clashes end up taking money away from both venues. Tonight saw Fish playing the Duchess while the slightly less “mainstream” The Pineapple Thief are a matter of yards away at Fibbers. For me, having seen (and enjoyed) Fish last year, the choice was to see a band I hadn’t had the opportunity to see before and while there were people in the audience who were sporting Amplifier T-shirts from the previous night’s gig at The Duchess – Amplifier and Pineapple Thief being closer in sound than Pineapple Thief and Fish – there must surely have been people who chose to see the arguably(?) bigger name.

Tonight’s openers were Playing The Pilot, a young local band with that wonderfully generic label of “alternative/indie/rock”. The high-slung guitars had Roj worried and, being honest, the band seemed a little out of place on tonight’s bill. At least vocalist Kat had a bit of stage presence and an engaging smile whenever their own fans, dancing at the front, cheered and showed their appreciation. Vocally, Kat sounded very like Lily Allen, with that sort of Cockney-accented spoken style of singing and a propensity for extending words by increasing their vowel count (if you see what I m-e-e-e-an…) but, when she did sing, she had a pleasant enough voice. Musically, it was all a bit generic and samey. In fact it was only with the fourth song of the set that I noticed the beginnings of a bit of variation. The mix sounded a little wrong as well – most of the guitar was muffled behind a very loud bass. Having said all that, I’ve certainly seen worse support bands and this one got a better reception than some who don’t quite fit the bill. At the end of their set the band left the stage to generous applause from the whole audience, perhaps showing that prog fans aren’t necessarily as narrow-minded musically as they can sometimes be portrayed.

Of course, calling prog fans “narrow-minded” opens up a minefield in itself. Gone are the days when you could easily point to a band and label them as “progressive rock”. In my day, it was the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes and most people can see similarities between them. These days prog rock has, ahem, moved on and the sub-labels sometimes read like a secondary school timetable, with Space and Kraut Rocks sitting alongside Math Rock and Art Rock. All we need to invent is Biology Rock, Frog Rock (sorry, couldn’t resist) and Free Period Rock and we’ll have ourselves an A-Level curriculum. These days prog-rock can be all but indistinguishable from its own roots. And that is the case with The Pineapple Thief. While they are similar to what is considered modern prog bands – one that immediately sprang to my mind was Porcupine Tree – you would never get them mixed up with any of the bands mentioned above. Their’s is, for the most part, a heavier, darker sound, sometimes mixed with an occasionally annoying electronic pseudo-dance beat provided by one of Steve Kitch’s laptops (I think I saw two nestled in with his keyboards).

As with Amplifier the night before, I hadn’t heard any of the Thief’s output before tonight. I reasonably certain that the set started with three song from the highly regarded 2010 album Someone Here Is Missing. These consisted of moments of calm interspersed with intense activity Then, vocalist, guitarist and founder Bruce Soord announced that they would be playing new material which was currently being worked on for a new release next year. The first of these, receiving its world debut tonight, was introduced as the heaviest song on the next album, consisted in parts of what I can only describe as “grinding” keyboard playing, with Kitch producing sounds you wouldn’t normally associate with keyboards before changing to a more symphonic style of playing. The next song, also a new one, was a quieter, acoustic number which showed a nice variation and also allowed the keyboards to take more prominence.

…and it was there that I stopped taking notes and allowed myself to become immersed in the superb music - a set containing a mixture of old and new songs all thoroughly entertaining and ending with an epic, nearly fifteen minute encore. Soord is an energetic frontman and both his guitar-playing and vocals were superb. In what seems to be the way of keyboard players, Kitch is the quiet, almost studious, man of the band and was often seen studying laptop screens while playing (I’m fairly certain I saw him reading the music for some of the songs – maybe they are so new that he hasn’t learned it yet…). The rhythm section of Keith Harrison (drums) and Jon Sykes provided a solid backdrop for the set, with the latter also providing backing vocals. Overall, it was a very tight performance and I really hope that the band returns to York in the future. Maybe Sykes being a local lad will help. Inevitably, I visited the merchandise table after the gig and treated myself to a couple of CDs.

Furious And Loud

2011-12-11T17:49:00.001Z

Tuesday 6th December: “Uh-oh, here we go again,” was pretty much my first thought tonight. I had arrived at The Duchess ten minutes after the doors would normally open to find a “crowd” of just half a dozen people still standing outside in the cold, damp evening. To make matters even more worrying, one of them seemed to only be there to hand out flyers for a music shop. To be honest, I never know what sort of turnout to expect these days. Music rarely seems to attract anything like sell-outs in York and, given that I had only heard of tonight’s headliners through a couple of articles in Prog magazine, maybe a small crowd was to be expected. By the time the doors opened numbers had swelled into double figures but, like the weather, it was still looking a bit bleak on the crowd front.

Support tonight came from Belfast’s Mojo Fury and they started promisingly with an instrumental track that immediately brought to mind Lost From Atlas, only louder. And it was that loudness that was the problem as the rest of the set contained songs in which the vocals were pretty much drowned out by the music. What vocals did make it through during the second song reminded me a little of David Byrne from Talking Heads. Other than that, though, they barely raised above indistinct. Having said that, the music was OK, mixing an indie sound with a touch of progressiveness thanks to time changes and variations of sound within the songs. A good example would be All In All, which featured quieter sections interspersed with crashing drums. Sadly, one song was backed by an electronic rhythm which, annoyingly, gave it a sort of 80’s, Howard Jones type vibe. The rest were intriguing, atmospheric rock. I just wish the mix had done them a few more favours. One other thing, for some reason, the bass-player spent most of the gig playing with his back to the audience. I’m not sure why – if he was aiming for moody and mysterious, it came across more as rude. (If it was a nerves thing, I apologise…)

By the time Amplifier had started setting up the crowd had increased into triple figures, many of whom were sporting various T-shirts or ties featuring the front cover picture from the band’s latest release, The Octopus, which had been lauded as one of the albums of the year by Prog magazine. Indeed, the merchandise table – probably the best stocked I had seen in nearly thirty years of gig-going - seemed to be doing brisk business. It took a while for the set-up to be completed as, for the first time that I can remember, the monitors were removed from the front of the stage and trays of effects pedals were put in place. Each of the two guitarists (Sel Balamir being joined by Steve Durose, ex of Oceansize, for touring duties) and the bass player seemingly had access to more pedals than your average band put together. So impressive were they that some of the audience were taking photographs of them. The band finally took to the stage dressed uniformly in black with the aforementioned Octopus ties and unleashed a wall of sound that immediately reminded me of The Engineers with a generous dollop of Muse mixed in. I couldn’t tell you what songs were contained in the ninety-minute set but the music was an effects laden mix of teasing harmonies and crashing chords. The vocals were clearer but, even so, none of the songs could be said to be catchy enough to lodge themselves in my brain (except, perhaps, for one which may have been called Faster Than Light and which contained more than a hint of a Rush influence). But that’s not the point of bands like Amplifier. They’re not trying to produce radio-friendly music but music which pushes the boundaries, music that’s different and, in some ways, music that makes you think and that has to be listened to properly to be appreciated properly. I enjoyed the set, but maybe I’ll have a better appreciation of Amplifier when I get a chance to listen to The Octopus, the special edition of which I bought tonight from bass-player Neil Mahoney who, when the band left the stage, pushed the merchandise guy out of the way and proceeded to shake the hand of everybody buying anything and thanking them profusely for turning up, while Sel chatted with fans and calling out goodbyes to everybody who walked past him. Nice touches.

Autumn in York

2011-11-22T21:29:00.002Z

Saturday 19th November: I sometimes get the feeling that Mostly Autumn’s annual Christmas concert at the Grand Opera House is a sort of “comfort” gig for both the band and the audience. For most of the former, it’s a hometown appearance, with an audience which seems to consist largely of long-term fans and more than a few friends (and family). For the audience, or at least some of those who review the gigs (and who, collectively, travel hundreds of miles to see the band at various venues), there almost seems to be a lack of expectation – not that they will put up with any old dross (and not that they would get that) but that, somehow, the band can be forgiven if the performance isn’t quite up to the standard of other gigs on the tour. From a personal point of view, I only ever see them play York so can’t compare the performances, but for the last few years the gigs, with their Christmas song finales, have formed an integral part of my festive season. Oh, and it’s one of the few gigs I go to that is completely seated so, arguments about the merits of seated gigs over standing ones notwithstanding, that makes it a bit more comfortable as well.

This year, I had offered Elizabeth – my nine-year-old daughter – the option of coming along to what was to be her first full-length gig (beating my record by about six years) and, being a girl of varied and, for the most part, very good musical taste, she readily accepted.

With no studio album to promote this year (although the new live album – Still Beautiful 2011, which contains much of the set from tonight, taken from a performance earlier in the year – was promoted quite heavily) the set list had been tinkered with to present a sort of “best of” tour using material from the full thirteen year history of the band.

The set opened with the ambient instrumental Distant Train before launching into Answer The Question, which gave us our first taste of Livvy’s vocals. Last year I commented that I thought she had yet to hit her stride in the live performance. This time around she was, for the most part, quite simply stunning. Vocally stronger and looking a lot more relaxed – “She’s having a good time, “ pointed out Elizabeth as she watch Livvy smiling and dancing around the stage – as well as throwing the odd quip Bryan’s way and appearing a lot more comfortable (there’s that word again) with the audience, she seemed to own the stage a lot more than last year. Evergreen followed, again showing how much improved Livvy’s vocals were but also highlighting the incredible job Anne-Marie Helder does as backing vocalist. The more macho Deep In Borrowdale and Something Better, with Bryan taking over lead vocals, changed the tone of the set for a while but the former still showcased Livvy towards the end. Then it was back to Livvy for an impassioned rendition of Passengers. (I realise that I seem to be going overboard on Livvy’s vocals, but that’s an indication of, to me anyway, how much she had improved since the last time I saw her perform.) The set continued with the brilliant Ice, my personal favourite from the last album, which gave Iain Jennings, on the keyboards, a chance to shine then moved on to The Last Climb, which saw Anne-Marie front and centre for a lovely flute solo. Questioning Eyes, previously a Breathing Space song and a very personal one for Livvy provided a powerful end to the first half of the evening.

By this time, it was obvious that Elizabeth was flagging a bit, despite it being nowhere near her normal Saturday evening bedtime. An ice cream was a reward for her being dragged along to the merchandise stall so that I could pick up a copy of the latest album and she promised that she would try to stay awake for the second half, which started with Fading Colours and continued with Caught In A Fold, The Dark Before The Dawn and Nowhere To Hide. Then Bryan announced Spirits Of Autumn Past, before leaving the stage to allow the band’s unsung hero, Liam Davison to open the track with a wonderfully varied guitar piece, alternating between crashing power and delicate intricacy. “You should buy his album, it’s incredible,” extolled Bryan as he returned to the stage for the main part of the track. I have and I agree, it is. The somewhat overblown Go Well Diamond Heart followed and, once again, the dedication to our fighting forces was greeted with applause. Half The Mountain was followed by Hold The Sun and by now Elizabeth was actually nodding off – twitching at any loud bits of songs and waking up to applaud what she had only heard in dreams. I’m fairly certain that her sleepiness was nothing to do with the performance, which was superb. The set drew to a close with The Last Bright Light, Forever Young, which again brought forth a powerful performance from Livvy, and And When The War Is Over…

I managed to rouse Elizabeth for the encore which began with the band’s anthemic Heroes Never Die. Livvy, with just Iain on keyboards, then performed a beautiful version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow before the whole band donned red cowboy hats for the traditional Christmas ending, this year trimmed to just one song – I Believe In Father Christmas – due to the earliness of the gig. “We couldn’t get a gig here in December due to the pantomines,” complained Bryan.

I started by saying that I felt that expectations are never that high for this gig. Whatever the audience expected this year, they were treated to the best Grand Opera House performance that this relatively new fan has seen. (This was my fourth such gig.) The set was brilliantly put together, containing old and new favourites and a nicely varied mix of songs and the band not only played superbly but looked as though they were having a good time. Everything seemed to gel and the interaction with the audience – whether it was Bryan’s delightfully rambling stories behind the songs or Livvy’s more succinct introductions – was spot on. Add tonight to the blisteringly good performance from Heather Findlay last night and you get one of the best Mostly mini-festivals that I can remember.

And, thankfully, Elizabeth tells me that she enjoyed it as well, despite missing out on getting Bryan’s hat by just two people.

A Phoenix Rising

2011-11-21T20:48:00.001Z

Friday 18th November: I had been looking forward to tonight’s visit to Fibbers for a while, mainly because of the headline act but also because of the pedigree of the support.

Shadow of the Sun are a relatively new band, put together shortly after guitarist Dylan Thompson had left The Reasoning. As well as Thompson, the band consists of Matthew Alexander Powell (guitar and vocals according to the website, vocals only tonight as far as I remember), Lee Woodmass (bass) and Rhys Jones (drums) and together they list influences from Pink Floyd to Motorhead by way of Tool, Alice Cooper, Muse and the delightfully named Snot, as well as a fair few bands that haven’t registered on my radar. Which might explain why I found it difficult to classify their music – not quite heavy enough to be metal and not quite light enough to be the sort of prog that I’m usually drawn to. Musically, the songs were intricate so I am leaning towards prog, but with a darker tone than what I’m used to. Powell’s vocals started off raw but very clear and he seemed a little nervous. By the end of the set, however, he’d shown a good range and seemed a lot more relaxed, even if his banter between songs sounded like little more than mumbling from where I was standing. Highlights for me were the set opener, which contained some very intricate time changes and Crimson Flags, which started with a rat-a-tat drum beat before Dylan cut loose on the guitar and built the song to a crescendo. Never Enough was heavier, faster (and, vocally less clear) and imbued with a dense bass line. I’m not sure whether it segued into the next song or whether it was itself a very complex number. This was followed by a much more mellow duet with Dylan taking an increased vocal role, although not coming across as powerfully as he did when he sang with The Reasoning. The rest of the set contained a mixture of rockier numbers and one song which was very understated musically, but had great vocals. (I wish I’d managed to get a set list, then I wouldn’t have to be so vague…) In all, it was an excellent set, well received by the crowd with enough content for what must be the inevitable album release.

Apart from an acoustic, limited ticket performance alongside Chris Johnson a few weeks ago and a couple of gigs at Kennedys, it’s been a while since Heather Findlay performed in York. I don’t think she’s played a gig here since she left Mostly Autumn back in early 2010 (and her last local performance with that band would have been in 2009). She still has her fans, though and Fibbers was very well attended tonight, with lots of familiar faces, including former band mates, in the crowd. This was just the second night of Heather’s tour with her new band – Dave Kilminster of Roger Waters’ band on guitar, Steve Vantis formerly of KT Tunstall’s band on bass, Alex Cromarty on drums and longtime friend and collaborator Chris Johnson on guitar, keyboard and vocals – although they did play a few of the Summer festivals.

With just one solo E.P. – The Phoenix Suite - released so far, tonight’s set relied heavily on re-workings of Mostly Autumn songs alongside a couple of songs from Odin Dragonfly, Heather’s collaboration with Angela Gordon. At least three songs from the E.P. – Seven, Mona Lisa and Cellophane - were peppered throughout the set and, while I admit I was more than a little underwhelmed by the release when first listening to it, the live versions are much better and the CD has been growing on me since I started playing it to get familiar with the tracks again. From the Odin Dragonfly release, we were treated to Yellow Time, a rocked up version of Magpie and This Game, which featured one of the few times you will see a drummer take to the front of a stage. But it was the Mostly Autumn songs that seemed to be getting the biggest response from the audience. Although I recognised all of the songs, I’m not enough of an aficionado to know all the titles. I do know that we got Caught In A Fold from Passengers, Half A World and Blue Light from Heart Full Of Sky, Black Rain from Storms Over Still Water and Unoriginal Sin and Paper Angels (as part of the encore) from Glass Shadows. Throughout the set Heather showed near boundless energy, seeming to thrive off the responses she was getting from the audience, whether it was the enthusiastic cheering and applause that came after every song (and before some) or the banter being directed her way from friends in the crowd. The band were quite simply superb, as you would expect from such accomplished musicians and there was a relaxed atmosphere on stage, with jokes aplenty about Fibbers’ variable temperature. Special mention must go to Kilminster’s brilliant guitar playing and to Chris Johnson who worked incredibly hard as the line-up’s own one-man-band. But this was Heather’s show and she was, all the way through, stunning vocally. Highlights were her performance of Blue Light, which retained it’s peculiarly distinctive vocal sound and the final song of the encore. Shrinking Violet has long been a favourite of mine (as well, I think, of many others) and hearing it always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Tonight it was performed with such emotional power that it nearly brought a tear to my eye. There aren’t many performers that can do that.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

2011-11-01T19:12:00.001Z

Wednesday 19th October: I’m afraid this entry will be a bit brief because, I’m ashamed to say, I completely forgot to review tonight’s gig. That’s no reflection on the evening, though.

I arrived at the Duchess just as Mad Dog, a three-piece from London, were starting and the first thing that struck me was the fact that vocalist (and guitarist) Tommy Smith had more than a slight hint of Robert Plant in his voice. The lyrics were a tad repetitive, but Roj eventually pointed out that they reminded him of York’s own 98Pages so that’s possibly no bad thing. The music, however, was an excellent mix of rock and blues and certainly got the crowd’s attention. Each song was applauded and cheered as though the band were already a favourite, despite this being their first tour and the debut album not arriving until next year. A brilliant opening performance from a band who, apparently, only arrived at the venue just before they were due to go on stage. The van breaking down? Very rock and roll…

Fighting Wolves, on the other hand, seemingly failed to get the crowd’s attention. People were listening but the songs weren’t being greeted with as much enthusiasm. At one point, the vocalist (I’m not sure which one – the above link lists three) commented that it seemed that the crowd wished that they and Mad Dog had played in reverse order. It was a bit of a shame really. Despite, perhaps, being slightly too heavy and the vocals a bit too screamy, for tonight’s bill there wasn’t actually anything wrong with the music. In fact, they reminded me a little of Black Stone Cherry. The performance was a little less slick than that of Mad Dog, with a bit too much messing about and some barely audible jokes (I assume) between songs. I didn’t get many of the song titles but would say that Wait One Minute was a very good end to an under-appreciated set.

Last year, The Union’s debut release was one of my top five albums so there was no question about going to see them again. Touring to promote their second album – Siren’s Song – they gave a no-nonsense performance, letting the music do the talking. Very near to the end of the set, Pete Shoulder commented that he thought that he’d hardly spoken to the audience. Indeed it was so - beyond a “How are you all doing?” and a handful of song introductions, barely a word was spoken. And when the music is this good, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t buy the new CD until after the gig, so didn’t know most of the songs played tonight but, alongside those new songs were a handful I remembered from the first album. My memory of all the songs played has failed me but Lillies sat comfortably alongside the likes of Siren’s Song and Blame It On Tupelo. Near veterans of the industry, Shoulder and Luke Morley along with bass-player Chris Childs played and sang superbly but special mention has to go to drummer Dave McCluskey – he really does play brilliantly, slamming the sticks down from above head-height and seeming to put his whole upper body behind his performance. It was only two songs in that his incredibly energetic performance necessitated the removal of his top and a head dowsing from a handy water bottle. And he does all this with a near constant grin. Overall, a top notch performance from a band that I can only hope continue to grace York with their presence.

Whole Lotta Rosie

2011-10-22T13:19:00.001+01:00

Sunday 16th October: “That’s odd,” I thought, “You don’t often see a dancing banana. Even at Fibbers…”

Five minutes earlier (a much over-used dramatic cliché but, hey, band-wagons are there for jumping on) we had been sitting next to the merchandise table chatting, wondering when the bands were going to start and, in one case, purchasing one of Hope&Social’s splendid new “blue blazer” t-shirts. Attracted forwards by a sudden burst of frenetic (and loud) keyboard playing we found Rosie – Doug Wallace (rhythm guitar and vocals), Tommy Leatherbarrow (drums and backing vocals) and Louis Leatherbarrow (keyboard and bass) – on stage and the aforementioned dancing banana in front of it, with a second dancer and, after a couple of minutes, Rich Huxley joining in. I’m not sure how to describe Rosie without making them seem awful. One quote on their Facebook page says “bouncy electro-powered party punk” and I noted that one song – Aftaparty, I think – sounded like the squalling offspring of a liaison between Madness and any Brit-pop band. What they delivered was high-energy, exciting music in a style that I wouldn’t normally listen to but which managed to draw me in and paint a wide smile on my face. It was a short set, slightly extended by the unexpected addition of I Like To Move It, but it was a very entertaining one that somehow fit with what you would expect from a band supporting Hope&Social.

Sadly, an update on the band’s Facebook page this week states that Doug has decided to leave the band. It’s a shame, really, as while the band definitely performed as a package, Doug’s shouted vocals, powerful guitar and wide grin was a big part of the whole.

It’s not really fair of me to try to review People In Airports as before they took to the stage I had moved towards the back of the venue to chat to another friend. Staying there for their performance I couldn’t really see of hear them clearly. Suffice to say that nothing really enticed me forward. From where I was standing, it sounded like a fairly bland performance and I couldn’t help thinking that, given the headliners, it might have been another of those evenings when the support acts were the wrong way round on the bill. I’ll leave it at that and hopefully give them a more considered review if I catch them again.

“We've been accused of not taking our last couple of gigs seriously,” announced Hope&Social frontman Simon Wainwright. “Last Friday we jogged on the spot for fifteen minutes, which was good. Unless you were in the audience…” This less-than-startling “revelation” came a few songs into tonight’s set. A few songs that were interspersed with the usual H&S shenanigans, including references to a band member’s current ailments (suffice to say we were informed of this in case bass player Simon Goff had to leave the stage quickly and as a warning to stay away from his Mum’s cooking), an allusion to guitarist Rich Huxley recently electrocuting a sensitive part of his anatomy and what he likes to do with it and two hairdryers (it was at this point that I started crying with laughter and got the beginnings of a stitch), the opportunity for some of the audience to discover what wonderful odours were present in Simon and Rich’s blazers and Simon ad-libbing a rendition of “There’s Only One Gary Stewart” along with a section of the audience dressed in tank-tops and and adorned with false beards, much to the apparent embarrassment of the drummer.

And it didn’t stop there. There was indeed jogging, although it didn’t last for fifteen minutes before trumpeter James Hamilton led Rosie and Katie the rest of the brass section (Rosie and Katie) into the audience to encourage some of us to jog on the spot. This eventually brought cries of “next song!” from the Gary Stewart appreciation section, who had been told that they couldn’t stop running until the song had finished.

That’s the beauty of a Hope&Social gig – you don’t just get music, you get thoroughly entertained. With three albums under their collective belts and Sleep Sound heavily promoted on the last tour, tonight was almost a Greatest Hits tour. The set had been shaken up quite a bit and included songs from all three releases. Sadly, there was no sign of Simon taking to the audience with Looking For Answers but we did get the likes of Rolling Sideways, Sleep Sound, Red Red Rose, The Road Never Lies, Marching On Through and Gary Stewart’s rendition of You Can Call Me Al all delivered in the customary style of a band that genuinely enjoy playing together. Hope&Social may not take their gigs seriously, but they certainly take their music seriously and it is that combination that means that, however many times you see them, each performance seems as fresh and original as the last. They are easily one of the best live acts around at the moment and I can’t recommend them highly enough. Go, give them a try – their albums are available on a pay what you want basis here and you can even download them for free. For the full effect, though, go see them live.

York Guitar Weekend

2011-10-17T20:47:00.001+01:00

Saturday 16th October: This weekend saw the first of what is hopefully going to be an annual event. Sponsored by MOR Music and raising money for half a dozen local charities, the weekend saw a number of free gigs at venues around the city, all with free entry, showcasing locals bands. A few bands that I like or had members that I knew were due to play so, in order to break the monotony of decorating, I decided to take the family out to sample some live music.

First off we headed to The Red Lion in Merchantgate, where a convenient raised area in the beer garden had been rigged up as an outdoor stage. Thankfully, the day was blessed with some unexpected and quite warm sunshine, so the idea of a beer garden was quite pleasant. Events seemed to be running a little behind schedule as we aimed to get there in time to see a colleague’s band but, in fact, arrived just as All The Spies who entertained us with a set of covers (they are, apparently working on their own material) including Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Stuck In The Middle With You (Stealer’s Wheel), Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon), Hearts On Fire (Bryan Adams) and Here I Go Again (Whitesnake), along with a few others that sounded familiar but that I couldn’t put a name to. The band played well and entertained between songs as well. Vocals were shared between bassist Trev and drummer Adam (and were better when they sang together) while Si concentrated on the guitar work. A pretty good start to the afternoon.

Next up were L&P Blues (“Leon and Paul. It’s easy!”). Leon plays various guitars while Paul sings and plays various harmonicas and, between them, they gave us an hour of classic blues tracks including Big Boss Man, Baby What You Want Me To Do, Pride and Joy, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out, Police Dog Blues, Talk To Me Baby and many more. Artists covered included Stevie Ray Vaughan, B B King, Elmo James and Ray Charles. We even got one original – Ultra Smooth, written by Leon. This was the duo’s first official gig and they were very entertaining. Keep an eye out for them.

Holly Taymar took to the stage next. Lovely voice but she wasn’t really getting the attention she deserved from the audience and it was a little difficult to pick out her songs. I did hear her introduce one as being called Toes. Almost certainly worth checking her out another time but, unfortunately, we had to be moving on.

With the sun setting, we were heading off to Fibbers where I seemed to have arranged special dispensation for 9-year-old Elizabeth to be allowed into the usually 14-and-over venue in order for her to see where her Dad spends quite a few of his evenings. On arrival we kitted her out with a pair of (glow in the dark) earplugs and, after a brief chat with members of Morpheus Rising, settled down to listen to the music. Sadly Fibbers was pretty much empty, a sad indictment of the local live scene with people seemingly unwilling to venture out for something new even when the gig is free.

I had deliberately picked a time when a couple of acts I knew and liked were performing and so we started off with Boss Caine who, despite an early broken string gave us half an hour of some of his best songs, including Ghosts And Drunks, Dead Man’s Suit, A Kind Of Loving and Everybody Loves You More When You’re Down On Your Knees. The album The Ship That Sailed is one of Elizabeth’s favourites and she was keen to say hello to Dan when he had finished and even happier when he remembered her from when I introduced her to him a few weeks ago.

Our final act for the day was Morpheus Rising. Again it was a shortened, just thirty minute set but they guys gave their all, despite the small crowd (it had grown slightly but mainly by the arrival of the next couple of bands.) Performing Lord Of The North and Fighting Man amongst others, the band gained a new fan in Debbie who said that she would consider going to see a full gig.

She Really Is Like No Other

2011-10-16T17:32:00.001+01:00

Friday 14th October: Tonight sees a welcome return to York for Chantel McGregor, fresh from not only releasing her debut album – Like No Other – earlier this year, but also being crowned Best Young Artist at the British Blues Awards.

Support came from Patrick McCallion, a very confident and talented A-Level student from Halifax who added a twist to the man and guitar format by adding a couple of harmonics (not both at the same time) and who, at various points in his set reminded me of James Blunt, Bob Dylan and a Yorkshire Billy Bragg. His set was a nice mix of songs, from the upbeat opener Stephanie to the slower and more melancholy Petals, which was inspired by the poetry of Wilfred Owen. He threw in a couple of covers – David Ford’s lovely ‘Til The Day and The Barenaked Ladies’ One Week, which he performed so fast that I nearly couldn’t pick out any lyrics to search for and work out why it sounded so familiar – as well as one song – Nice - which he normally plays with his band, Small Words. This latter song brought a wry smile as the chorus described relaxing in the sun with his Raybans on, just after Patrick had played one about giving up on living the American Dream and called I Don’t Suit Shades. One of the nice things about this set was that we did get a bit of background about most of the songs. Another was that, just after announcing that we was going to play his last song, Patrick got a message to say he had a bit more time and so decided to play another of his own which ended up being my favourite of the set. Unfortunately, he didn’t introduce this one but it might have been called New York Nights or, perhaps, Neon Lights (based on the lyrics). The very entertaining set ended with a medley that included snippets of Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Hey Jude and, I think, Elbow’s On A Day Like This.

Tonight is the first time I’ve seen Chantel McGregor in too many months. (The last time she played York was on my birthday last year and I couldn’t justify going that night.) I’m not sure whether I had simply mis-remembered who good she was or whether she has actually got better, but tonight’s performance was nothing short of brilliant. This was the first time I have managed to get close enough to the stage to closely watch the Guitar Goddess perform, seeing her fingers dance across the strings and fly up and down the frets and to truly appreciate how such wonderful sounding riffs such as those in her cover of Joe Satriani’s Up In The Sky are played. Being up close also let me see just how she treats the intricate guitar work of both the covers that she has laid as the foundations of her career and her own songs on which that career will rise with not just mind-blowing ease but verging almost on utter contempt, barely breaking into a frown of concentration let alone anything like a sweat. It also gives a better view of Martin Rushworth’s incredible drumming and newboy (to me, anyway) Richie’s bass-playing, allowing me to more easily pick out the bass-lines of some of the songs.

To a degree it appears that the set-list is fluid, Chantel often turning to Rushworth and Richie and saying, “Let’s do…” or asking the audience what they want to hear next and only turning down one request because that song was due to be the encore. Classic covers are still part of her set, which opened with Bridge To Better Days and A New Day Yesterday and included Sloe Gin and Red House (with the latter producing howls of appreciation from the crowd and chuckles of amusement from Rushworth) as well as crowd favourites including the brilliant interpretation of Daydream and Rhiannon, both of which feature on Like No Other. Her own compositions are now coming to the fore, though. The first we heard was album opener Fabulous which, with its killer riff and stripped of the production that made it more of a pop song on the album, is much heavier in sound. Not as heavy, mind, as Caught Out, which Chantel introduced as her “metal song”. The middle section of the set was given over to a solo acoustic performance and it was this section which showed that Chantel, despite having a more than adequate voice for the rockier songs is, perhaps, even more suited to the quieter ones. The riff from the title track of the album might not sound quite so dirty when played live, but if vocals from Screams Everlasting and the exquisite Rhiannon don’t tug at your soul, there’s a good chance that nothing will. The set ended with Had To Cry Today before Chantel, encouraging the crowd to shout for more, gave us the inevitable encore of Freefalling without leaving the stage.

But it’s not just the music. During the two-hour, fifteen song set, Chantel manages to both charm and amuse with her anecdotes and asides to the band. Despite the leaps her career seems to be taking, Chantel appears to remain grounded, picking out familiar faces in the audience and giggling at the number of people who indicate that they’ve bought the album. There’s little doubt that you are unlikely to see a better guitarist perform in York and that you would, in fact, have to travel quite some distance to see one.

Bright New Stars

2011-10-12T20:53:00.001+01:00

Saturday 8th October: I have to admit, I was torn tonight. One of my favourite bands had moved up to headline a gig at the Duchess while another, newish band were playing Fibbers. I had only read about Vega a few days before I realised they were due to appear in York and that single page article (in Classic Rock Presents AOR magazine) had got me interested enough to want to see them live. And so it was that I decided to head off to Fibbers. After all, I have seen Morpheus Rising almost every time they have played York and there will be opportunities to see them again in the future.

My first impression on arriving at the venue was that I had somehow mistakenly crashed a crèche. Quite often I (with or without the rest of the gang) am one of the oldest at a gig but it’s rare that I could easily have been a parent of most of the audience. I suspect most of the early attendees were there primarily for the first band, who were just starting when I got there. It took me a little while to get my “support act bearings” as this band didn’t seem to match up with the description of the first act on the bill. It turns out that they were Sonic Tractor, presumably a late addition to the bill. Comprising of Steve Lawson (guitar, vocals), Cal Harrison (guitar, backing vocals), Adam Inglis (bass) and Arthur Newell (drums), they started with a riff reminiscent of Aerosmith and strong drums which all but drowned out the vocals and. Unfortunately, as the song went on, it all seemed to me to get a bit muddled. Admittedly the vocals got stronger and the songs seemed a little more structured as the set went on and the guys were pretty good musicians, as evidenced by covers of Knocking On Heaven’s Door and I Believe In A Thing Call Love (during which Steve pulled off a more than fair impression of Justin Hawkin’s vocals). Their own songs were varied enough to be interesting but, to my mind, they lacked something. Maybe I was just being unfairly prejudiced against the apparent youth of the band, although they have been around for more than a year. Or maybe it is just that they need to polish up a bit, perhaps working on a little stage presence – during an extended period when Cal was retuning, Steve didn’t really seem to know how to keep the audience engaged. Overall, not a disastrous start to the evening, but I’ve seen better. Although it has to be said that they know how to finish a set, ending with a song that, although the vocals were once again impossible to hear, contained some great music.

Unfortunately, drowned out vocals and retuning seemed set to be recurring themes of the evening, as Dimension also suffered from both. Formed in early 2011 and comprising Tom Bennett (vocals, guitar), Mark Robinson (lead guitar), Steve Kane (bass) and Richard Wappett (drums) they are billed as an alternative rock band working to create an original sound. Apparently, that mostly means heavy and loud with vocals that might as well have been non-existent. (It’s either my ears, the venue’s soundman or the bands themselves and I’m not willing to put my money on any of those options.) One Last Chance was a more melodic number than the opener, while the fourth of the set featured a staccato guitar sound that was, to me anyway, original but not very pleasant to listen to, which is a shame as the song contained a nice solo. This was followed by a song whose quieter moments allowed us to hear Tom’s vocals much more clearly and which had more melodic guitar work coming through the somewhat brash rhythm section and another during which Tom played by tapping the neck of the guitar, producing a slightly weird and interesting sound. Ultimately, however, there was little apart from the added gimmicks and effects to distinguish the songs. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen musicians wandering about the stage retuning their own and each other’s instruments during songs, especially not by ear. Again there was a hint of promise with Dimension that tonight didn’t quite seem to fulfil. Best song of the set was one I think was called Miles Away, but I even struggled a bit to hear the introductions (which might mean that the poor vocals weren’t the fault of the band).

There seemed to be a bit more maturity to Black Lit City, a blues/indie/rock band from York made up of Steve Lee, Alex Staples, Rob Yates, Dorin Botez and Lee Johnstone, and seemingly doing their best to look as far removed from a rock band as possible. I didn’t catch many hints of blues in their set, but I did hear entertaining, atmospheric, expansive songs, with a fuller sound. Keyboards and guitars both vied for lead instrument and combined to produce very pleasing music which in no way swamped the vocals which were, in their turn, strong and clear. The songs were varied. One was rock - with the guitarist’s fingers blurring as he furiously stroked the strings – another more poppy and another (Too Much Inspiration) very much 50’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. In one case genres were combined genres into something that sounded like a heavier version of a 60’s pop song. The whole set was a good mix of well-crafted songs. The only problem with this set was that it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the bands playing tonight.

By the time Vega took to the stage, in a very similar manner to how Morpheus Rising do so, Fibbers had filled up nicely and I found myself towards the back of a reasonably large and very varied crowd. In places it reminded me of the times I have seen Elliot Minor, with women of a certain age chaperoning their sixteen-year-old daughters. Except, in this case, the daughters hadn’t bothered turning up… A four-piece (Nick Workman – vocals, Tom Martin – guitar and bass, Dan Chantrey - drums and James Martin – keys) melodic rock band with, I think, two members originally from York, Vega play live as a sextet, joined by a bass player and second guitarist. Having said that, Tom is only credited with lead guitar on three of the twelve tracks on their debut album, with the rest going to either Nick Horne or Vince O’Regan. I’m by no means trying to be derogatory by saying that, if it were still the 80’s, I could see them opening for the likes of Def Leppard. Much like prog, melodic rock seems to be going through a renaissance at the moment and Vega, with a sound reminiscent of latter-day Bon Jovi, could well be at the forefront of the genre in the UK. Most of the audience seemed to already own the debut album (last year’s excellent Kiss Of Life, which I bought after the gig) or at least knew the songs, including the obligatory sing-along and shout-along sections and this was one of the biggest crowds I had seen at Fibbers for a while – not bad for a band which seems to have a minimal internet presence (the official site, linked above, is still under construction and the Facebook page wasn’t easy to find). Somehow, though, word has got round and, on the basis of this performance, rightly so. Memorable songs, great tunes and a very charismatic performance all added up to a great set which somehow seemed more suited to a bigger venue than Fibbers.

Whether I made the right call in my choice of gig tonight will forever remain unknown. I do know, however, that I ended up seeing one band liked a lot and another that I liked even more. Hopefully Vega, who billed tonight’s gig as a hometown one, will return to York again and hopefully, next time, they won’t clash with another band I like.

Stealing The Show

2011-09-20T22:07:00.002+01:00

Saturday 17th September: When the support act took to the stage at the Post Office Social Club tonight, my first impression was that they seemed a little out of place opening for what we were expecting from the headliners. The two tank-top clad ladies, one with acoustic guitar and the other with (I think) some sort of Mandolin, practically screamed “Folk music!” at the audience who, practically to a man, would have been expecting something a bit louder later on.

Two are Helen Turner and Sharon Winfield, who have been writing and playing together since 2006 and have released two albums (One and Two). Tonight’s opener, Morecombe Bay (which, like most of tonight’s song, appears on neither of those albums – and may or may not have been about the cockle-pickers who were drowned there in 2004) sounded a little discordant to me, with a handful of out-of-place “twangs” seemingly intruding into the playing. As the song progressed it became much more flowing, with tight playing and nice harmonies. Grandfather’s Ghost started more softly, leading into a powerful chorus, while Spontaneous came across more as folk-pop than straight folk. One guitar was replaced by a concertina for Dunwich, a hauntingly beautiful song about the small town in Suffolk which has been falling prey to coastal erosion since the 13th century. Raven Mother was based on the German insult, Rabenmutter, for working mothers but I couldn’t hear the lyrics clearly enough to work out whether Helen and Sharon were angry about the term, whether they were being ironic or whether they were simply poking fun at it. The simple guitar work and powerful lyrics of Guns, written about the Columbine school shootings, but just as relevant to those that have happened since, didn’t get the attention they deserved as the swelling crowd also meant increasing background noise. With its lively tone, Shoulder upped the pace a bit, while Witch Song made good use of the girls’ vocals to represent the horror of a woman accused of being a witch during the 1645 trials. Sisterhood, telling the story of women’s rights campaigner Mary Wollstonecraft, ended the set.

Between the songs there was an entertaining line in sometimes self-deprecating humour – “When she was pregnant, we used to play the ‘guess which of us is pregnant’ game. I think I came off quite badly in that.” And the perfect timing of the very funny introduction to Sisterhood simply can’t be reproduced on the printed page. The various themes behind their lyrics may not always be uplifting, but the songs themselves are thought-provoking and, being contemporary in style if not always in content, were certainly more appealing to me than the traditional folk music I have come across. Two may have looked a strange choice of support act, but they certainly entertained my little group and seemed to go down well with a large portion of the whole audience, getting a good reception and seemingly shifting a number of CDs after their set, including a couple to yours truly.

At the beginning of the year, Breathing Space announced that they were splitting up and you could almost hear the sigh of disappointment from their fans. It didn’t take too long for four of the final line-up – Heidi Widdop, Paul Teasedale, Adam Dawson and Barry Cassells – to announce that they were to form a new band, recruiting John Sykes, a past band-mate of Barry, to play keyboards. And so Stolen Earth was born. The band’s first outing was a few weeks ago, at the Cambridge Rock Festival, but tonight is their York launch gig and unsurprisingly the quite large audience features a fair few familiar faces, many of them regular fans of the Mostly Autumn “family” of bands, to which Breathing Space belonged.

Stolen Earth are not, however, Breathing Space resuscitated. Guitar-driven, with Adam alternating between effortless noodling and brash strokes across the strings, rather than keyboard-led they have opted to move away from the proggy ambience of the previous band and towards a rockier sound, the sweeping songs belonging more to the A.O.R. genre, but without the pomp and bombast often associated with that style of music. The new sound is probably better suited to Heidi’s vocals, which are very different to Livvy’s (Breathing Space’s original vocalist). I know that there have been some comments about the sound quality and there were problems with feedback during some parts of the gig. Personally, I thought there was little wrong and was impressed that Heidi’s acoustic guitar could be clearly heard throughout the set. The only “complaint” our group had was that Heidi’s vocals were a little lost in the mix, something which I think was at least partly down to “new song syndrome” – it’s always easier to hear the vocals when the songs are familiar to you and your brain can fill in the gaps.

Tonight’s set, though, was almost totally unfamiliar. Opener I Live begins with a staccato drum beat before bursting into some fairly heavy guitar while Bitterness Fades features a more jangly style with a slightly 60’s feel. Mirror Mirror saw Adam taking over the vocals, appropriately enough seeing as it was one of the tracks on his Lazy Susan single, and had a fantastic sound, with all the instruments coming through. Tuscany Sun is a slower, ballad-like song which, with the help of a video posted on youtube, has already garnered the band airplay on European radio. Unnatural Disaster is, perhaps, the song most like those of Breathing Space (and had already been performed by that band), with its prominent keyboards, fast drum-line and nice guitar and bass solos. With Soul In A Jar, the band edged slightly into Mostly Autumn territory, if only because of the inclusion of some low whistle from Heidi, while Adam started off with an acoustic guitar before moving back to the electric for a rousing middle section leading into John’s lovely ending. My Lips Are Too Dry, which somehow reminded me of both Bon Jovi’s Cowboy and Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, featured some very strong vocals from Heidi, helped along with a healthy dose of reverb, while Adam came to the fore once again, playing bottleneck guitar during Into The Virgin Snow. A couple of covers followed. The first had us guessing for a while as Adam’s noodling intro seemed to morph around Pink Floyd and The Animals before finally settling into The Eagles’ Hotel California, then Paul switched four strings for twelve for a version of Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Adam took over the vocals again for a reworked version of his own superb and very emotive Silver Skies and the set ended with the epic Perfect Wave, perhaps the proggiest song on show tonight with a nice change of pace at the end and some superb screaming guitar. The obligatory encore was Clear, Paul’s own song from Breathing Space’s third album, showing that the past hasn’t been completely forgotten.

There were a few hints of nervousness during the set – Adam getting “guitar not turned on” and “guitar not plugged in” mixed up and Heidi dropping her guitar while adjusting a mike stand – along with a slight sense of amazement that so many people had turned up to see them, but overall this was a very assured performance by some top class musicians. The demise of Breathing Space may mean that one branch of the Mostly Autumn rock family tree has been trimmed but, from tonight’s showing, it’s obvious that a seed has broken free and is growing into a strong sapling just outside the shadow of the “parent” band.

Another camera in my face / Another hand around my waist

2011-09-15T20:52:00.001+01:00

Friday 9th September: It’s been a while since the whole gang have been out together but tonight we managed to synchronise diaries and turn up at Fibbers for a band whose output we all know (to varying degrees) and like. One of my favourites – the superb Welsh proggers, Panic Room.

On their latest and, so far, longest tour, Panic Room are being supported on a number of dates by David R Black, a self-financed and self-managed rock trio who seem determined to live the rock ‘n’ roll dream. Hailing from Manchester and comprising of David R (guitar and vocals), Sarit Black (bass and backing vocals) and Pai (drums), the band has just released its second album, Secret City, and tonight we were treated to songs both from it and full-length debut Hearts And Stars, as well as from earlier EPs. Opening with the bass-heavy Dark Side Of Her they showed us a style of uncompromising, yet uncomplicated rock. Empire Building gave us strong vocals building to a crescendo, while Secret City had a middle section of pounding drums, with the melodic guitar just about pushing its way through them. Crawl was written by Black who, throughout the set, seemed to be doing her best to play the dark and mysterious, determinedly keeping her eye-line above the (rather small) crowd and avoiding looking at any cameras pointed her way. No Code was followed by Trinity, which featured my favourite guitar work of the set and included a nice change of pace at the end. Signals, with its slow, atmospheric start leading into a lively performance with a guitar sound reminiscent of The Who was, for me, the best song overall. I didn’t catch the title of the next song but the final one, new single Ezra, was helped by another lively performance along with the best lights and backing vocals of the set. I described the set as uncomplicated, by which I mean no slight. It was a set of short, punchy songs for the most part, with no screaming guitar solos or musical histrionics. A good, solid performance and, in hindsight, I wish I had picked up one a CD or two.

Tonight is the fifth time I’ve seen Panic Room – I think that is every time they have played York – and the second time this year. It’s also by far the smallest crowd I have seen them play to, with one or two regulars missing from view. It’s a shame as I doubt it can be sustainable playing to such a small number of people and I can’t help but worry that, even with the band’s tenuous ties to York (two members also play in York’s own Mostly Autumn and Halo Blind) that, eventually, they won’t play here as often. There’s no new album to promote this time around (their third isn’t due until next year) tonight’s set was a slightly re-jigged version of the one I saw back in February. Opening with the monumental Song For Tomorrow, which will feature on the next album and is almost a definitive prog track, with individual sections allowing each musician to shine briefly. Next came Freedom To Breathe and I still can’t help wondering what Anne-Marie is thinking as she sings about the perils of celebrity while having multiple cameras pointed in her direction. This was followed by (I think) 5th Amendment from the Little Satellite bonus disk, Picking Up Knives, The Fall, which somehow seems to exude and air of improvisation, and Reborn – a nice mix of songs from the first two albums. Fans seem a bit divided on I Am The Cat. Personally, I think it’s a nice piece of fun which can be used to break up a set of sometimes quite serious songs. So, when Anne-Marie announced a bit of “pussy action”, I couldn’t hide a wry smile. A return to seriousness with the destruction of the rainforests and Yasumi was followed by a song I haven’t heard played live before. Exodus originally appeared on Contact, Anne-Marie’s solo EP, has been beefed up from a piano-led piece to a full band rocker and is very entertaining. There was mention that it might be recorded in this format some time. The second newly-written song, Promises – another one with obvious brief individual sections – was followed by the brilliant cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Bitches Crystal, which has finally seen the light of day on an EP available for sale only on this tour (also including an instrumental version of Dark Star, a very nice animated video for Satellite and two songs already available on the albums – the latter, perhaps, making it less of a bargain than it should have been) and produced an incredibly sultry performance from Anne-Marie. The set ended with the powerful Dark Star and Satellite before the band returned to give us Sandstorms, with the most prominent use of Jonathan Edwards’ keyboards in the set, as an encore.

And it is perhaps those last few words that show my only downside of seeing Panic Room at Fibbers. There always seems to be something wrong with the sound-mix. As ever, Anne-Marie’s vocals were top-notch (it’s not for nothing that she was voted best female vocalist of 2010 by readers of Classic Rock’s Prog spin-off magazine), Yatim’s bass-playing is always clear (and entertaining – tonight he was quite literally climbing the speakers) and drummers always seem well-catered for in the sound department. But, while Paul’s guitar-playing is brilliant (and, from his facial expressions, he sometimes seems to enjoy playing a little too much…) it never quite seems loud enough and I always struggle to pick out Jonathan’s keyboards, unless it’s during a solo spell.

But that’s a small niggle in an otherwise excellent set. The band obviously enjoy playing together and there is a noticeable chemistry between them on stage, with Anne-Marie and Paul trading looks and smiles that seem to imply they are sharing a secret joke. Definitely one of the best live bands around and I hope they continue to grace York with their presence for some time to come.

All We Are Saying Is Give Peace A Chance

2011-09-04T18:57:00.002+01:00

Sunday 4th September: The last day of the school holidays and, contrary to the forecast I had seen, the sun was shining this morning. After having my first suggestion for an activity vetoed (due to the the possibility of having to walk through a field of cows) I tentatively put forward the fact that there was live music on in Rowntree Park this afternoon. Surprisingly, the family thought it was a good idea to head down.

In fact, it was the York Peace Festival which, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, provides a mixture of music, activities, and fund raising through the afternoon and early evening, spreading itself along the length of the ornamental lake. The music itself was divided across two main stages – the Arena and the One World Stage (with enough distance between them that you couldn’t hear the acts on one while standing at the other) and a smaller Backyard Cabaret Area, which provided some more “off-the-wall” acts than those of the main stages.

There were specific acts I was hoping to see but we started by having a walk around and Elizabeth was soon entranced by Scrap Value, in the Backyard Cabaret. As the names suggests, they produced percussion music, using “scrap” – pieces of pipe, empty water cooler bottles and what looked like table tennis bats, amongst other things. They were, it has to be said, quite entertaining, producing some unusual noise from everyday objects, but we didn’t have time to watch for long as one of the bands I wanted to see was about to start on the Arena stage.

I’ve seen Falling Spikes three times now and their brand of psychedelic shoe-gazing seems to get better every time. Strangely, the sound for their set today was the best I've heard it and the music came across very well, despite the outdoor setting. I can only remember one song played (I wasn’t taking notes) and that was Shotgun. The band obviously had friends/fans in the audience as a few people got up to dance, staying towards the rear of the concreted area, despite being urged forward by frontman Alexander Peck. It being a festival, it was almost inevitable that the rain would come. And it did, a fine drizzle starting halfway through the set, forcing umbrellas and, in one case, a parasol up and waterproofs on but failing to dampen the spirits of those watching. Despite not being an upbeat band, the Spikes’ set got a warm reception from the increasingly damp crowd.

The next band on were We Could Be Astronauts, were formed last year from the remnants of Hijak Oscar and Idle Jack & The Big Sleep. I hadn’t seen them before today but had heard some positive things about them and, I hav eto say, they were a bit of a revelation. With flamboyant and energetic frontman Robert Loxley Hughes almost seeming to channel Robert Plant (in looks, if not in vocals) they rather appropriately play in a style reminiscent of seventies rock, without making it sound cheesy. Highlight of their set for me was the emotional and near-epic Lost At Sea. There’s a CD in the offing and, if that is one of the tracks on it, there’s a good chance that I’ll be adding it to my collection. It’s perhaps testament to their performance that the crowd, which had diminished between acts at least partly due to the increasingly heavy rain, had swelled considerably by the time the set was done. Debbie, who (let’s face it) isn’t the biggest music fan around, declared them her favourite act of the two so far because Hughes seemed to “have more about him than the other guy”. I think it’s apparent that she doesn’t really appreciate the more introspective aspects of the likes of Falling Spikes. On the basis of this performance, though, I will be trying to see these guys again.

Next it was over to the One World Stage, so Elizabeth could finally get to see one of her favourite acts perform live. No, Justin Bieber hadn’t made a surprise appearance at a small local festival (a la Elton John in The Vicar Of Dibley…) Instead it was Boss Caine, whose songs she has liked since the first time I played his (their?) album The Ship That Sailed. In a short (but very sweet) set we were treated to A Kind Of Loving, Dead Man’s Suit, Ghosts And Drunks and (Everybody Loves You More When You’re) Down On Your Knees. Again the sound was handled very well. It may have been that we were standing (at Elizabeth’s behest) closer to the stage than anybody else, but the vocals and guitar both came across as very clear. Elizabeth declared this as her favourite act of the afternoon and was only slightly disappointed that none of the songs came from the album and, therefore, that she didn’t know any of them. She did have an opportunity to say hello to GT himself earlier in the afternoon but actually went a bit shy (either that or she was starstruck…)

We didn’t really listen to any other acts as closely, although you could hear them as you were wandering around the park. The only other one I feel I could comment on were, according to the programme (and assuming the running order was correct), Atlantika. The programme notes stated “Funky deep house band with uplifting vocals, sampled dance beats and live drums”, which didn’t make them sound that appealing to be honest. However, if it was them that preceded Boss Caine, they actually sounded pretty good and, despite what the quote leads you to believe, also included live guitars and, as far as I could hear, very little sampling.

Other, non-musical, highlights of the afternoon included Elizabeth trying to boil a kettle using just pedal-power (apparently it took three hours of combined effort last year); me continuing to prove that coconut shies aren’t as hard as they look (I’ve had three goes in my entire life and knocked a coconut off twice – hence I’m now retiring…); Local celebrity-spotting – as well as members of bands who were performing we saw Bryan and Livvy from Mostly Autumn and Heidi from Stolen Earth; the largest and stickiest (it must have been the organic sugar) candy floss you will ever lay eyes on; and bumping into Rachael from Coffee On Demand, thereby ensuring we got decent cups of coffee throughout the afternoon. In fact there was almost too much to do – we were primarily there for the music and didn’t look at much else but could have watched dancing, puppet theatre and many other things if we had the time. It may have been damp, but it was certainly enjoyable. Elizabeth got her first taste of “proper” live music and seemed to appreciate, as well as enjoy, it.

And wouldn’t you know it, just as we left the sun came out.

A New Beginning

2011-08-02T19:45:00.002+01:00

Sunday 31st July: It had been a bit of a worrying weekend (for reasons that I won’t go into here) but I was looking forward to a solo outing to Fibbers to see an amended version of one of my favourite bands. Before I set off, I took the opportunity to do a little bit of research about the support band and slightly spoiled my anticipation by letting my preconceptions take over.

According to their Facebook page, Mörderstein are primarily a Rammstein covers band and according to their Wikipedia entry, Rammstein are a German industrial metal band. An ex-colleague of mine is a fan of the genre and, having described it to me, had somewhat put me off (although I freely admit that I hadn’t heard any of the bands he recommended). So, if I’m honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to hearing Mörderstein. This was their first gig and they had, handily, already published their set-list as Intro (a sort of choral and bells opening), Ich Tu Dir Weh, Feuer Frie!, Keine Lust, Links 2, 3, 4, Du Hast and Sonne. Of course, I have no idea whether they stuck to this. Being a six-piece band and, tonight, using their own drum-kit, which had been placed in front of the headliners’ own kit, they appeared a bit cramped on stage. So much so that newly appointed keyboard player (John Diver, also of Rubix Cube) was hidden behind one of the large speakers. The music was pretty much as I expected it – huge guitar sounds and crashing drums making the floor and walls vibrate, with more subtle sounds from both guitar and synthesizer occasionally coming through. Being in German, the lyrics sounded barked and harsh but, unusually for the venue, were very clear. To me, the synthesizer sometimes sounded a little out of place but at other times added a nice extra layer of sound. This may have been the band’s first gig but it was a very assured and entertaining performance. By the time the set came to a rather abrupt end (if the last song was announced, I missed it) I had changed my opinion slightly – I had thought that the genre would consist of very similar songs of mostly noise. Rammstein and, by extension, Mörderstein can obviously be slightly more melodic than I expected and songs such as the faster-paced Feuer Frie! show that it’s not the near-plod that I was expecting. See what I mean about preconceptions? There’s probably still very little chance that I’ll add any Rammstein (or similar) albums to my collection, but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Mörderstein perform again. Oh yeah, and at least one band member seems to be a Leeds United fan. Good man!

While clearly not their first gig, tonight was the first for Morpheus Rising with new vocalist Simon Wright (Graeme Tennick having departed for work-pastures new and currently working on new music under the name Scaedunengan). This was a warm-up for their appearance at the Cambridge Rock Festival next weekend and, by tonight’s showing, they could well be gaining a whole new set of fans down there. Opening with a different, heavier piece of music to the usual Carmina Burana, before launching into Save The Day and Brave New World, the band gave us a familiar but slightly different set. The vocals on the first two songs sounded incredibly clear and I initially put this down to a mix of Simon’s talent and a good soundman. However, as the set went on, I realised that it was also, at least in part, my growing familiarity of the songs as during newer ones I couldn’t make out the lyrics as easily. As with any band, however, the lyrics are only part of the live experience. In the case of Morpheus Rising, the guitar solos (and duets) are equally important (and as ubiquitous as three-word song titles). Tonight both Pete and Daymo were, pretty much as usual, on fire and as tight as can be when playing together. Daymo seemed particularly proud of what I think was a new toy – an illuminated guitar. With Gibbo and Andy performing thumping rhythms, the audience got the usual high-standard of heavy metal. There seemed to be some slightly amended arrangements to some of the songs tonight. Those Who Watch opened with a keyboard-like sound that I don’t remember from previous gigs and Gypsy King (another song that I struggled to hear the lyrics for) contained a superb guitar solo that I didn’t recognise, but that could just have been my memory.

In terms of performance and stage presence, Simon is very similar to Graeme. He doesn’t quite conduct the band in the same way, his vocals are slightly lighter in tone while still retaining the required power and there’s no small amount of humour in the banter with the audience – song titles were mangled during the introductions so Those Who Watch became Those Who Wash and Quench Your Thirst became Clench something else. Whether he will become as much as an ambassador for the band as Graeme was remains to be seen (by me, anyway – I couldn’t hang around to chat after the gig, as I suspect many did.) So, if the question is whether Morpheus Rising have suffered from the loss of one of their founding members I would say not. Conversely, have they been enhanced by the recruitment of Simon – that’s something we’ll probably never know. From Graeme’s perspective, it may have been a bad time to leave the band, with their biggest gig to date on the horizon and work still continuing on the debut album and, again, conversely, it may be a good time for Simon to join. But we will never know what might have been and, let’s face it, plenty of bands survive line-up changes and plenty of frontmen have enjoyed solo careers.

A Quiet Friday Out

2011-07-28T20:06:00.001+01:00

Friday 22nd July: Musically, it was quite a busy evening in York. The DV8 Festival had taken over the regular major venues for the whole weekend leading to, presumably, a horde of black-clothed Goths descending on the city. Over at the Knavesmire, Blondie were (was?) providing a post-race concert for those interested in the Sport of Kings. And that was on top of all the usual pubs, bars and smaller venues that are increasing eager to entice punters in by putting acts on. Personally, I’m not a creature of the night (I only spotted a handful of Goths as I made my way around – maybe it was still too light for them at eight-thirty…) and have very little interest in watching horses run around as a pre-cursor to my musical entertainment (although I wouldn’t have minded seeing Blondie). I am, however, by self-admission a tight Yorkshireman who prefers good, reasonably priced beer, free-entry gigs and supporting local talent. And so it was that Andy and I convened at The Golden Lion to see, in my humble opinion, one of York’s best singer-songwriters, all-round nice guy and, as described to me recently, legend of the York music scene, Mr Dan Lucas, tonight performing (as seems to be the norm these days) as Boss Caine.

Now, given the circumstances, tonight could have gone one of two ways. I have to say, I was expecting the pub to be overrun by drunken race-goers, in which case the music would almost certainly have been drowned out by chatter and hysterical laughter, making the whole thing a bit pointless, or the revellers. As it turned out, however, it was very quiet. Not just the pub but, from glances outside, the city centre itself. It may have been busier elsewhere, but I suspect that the staff of the Lion have rarely seen a less full pub on a Friday evening in what we are currently laughingly calling Summer. A few people who knew Dan personally passed in and out, with one woman singing along to all the songs played while she was there. But it seemed that very few people had turned out specifically to see him, a fact part-attributable, perhaps, to a friend’s up-coming wedding and a need to save money for it. Unfortunately, while this meant a slightly more intimate (if that can be used to describe a few people in a reasonably large area) gig and that we could hear the music much more than I expected to, it also resulted in a bit of a muted atmosphere and, at least before his set started, a seeming reluctance on the part of Dan to actually get going. After all, it can’t be fun playing to a near-empty pub.

Once he did start, however, we got another excellent performance. Dan has an unfair reputation of being a bit of a miserablist when it comes to his songs and, being honest, some of them aren’t going to drag punters in off the street. Tonight’s two-part, nearly twenty song set, however, contained a lot of his more up-beat, more jovial songs mixed in with some of the more serious ones. Complimenting songs that, these days, feel as familiar to me as a comfortable pair of shoes, there were a lot I didn’t recognise and even a scan through the (hastily amended) set-list afterwards didn’t really help me identify them. I know we got, amongst others, Kinda Loving, Dead Man’s Suit, Smoking In My Backyard, Self-medication Blues, Your Drunk Baby (a.k.a Lovesick Blues?) and the wonderful Joe Solo written Ghosts And Drunks. There were some fantastic vocal inflections during Murder On My Mind, evident anger in both the playing and singing styles during the anti-government, Everybody Loves You More When You’re Down On Your Knees, humour and light-hearted lyrics in a song about a drunken wedding and a heart-felt tribute to a country singer (I didn’t hear which, but research suggests Gram Parsons) in something that may have been called Be My Grievous Angel. Perhaps best of all, however, was a rendition of The Life In Your Years – one of my all-time favourite songs which always stirs up contrasting emotions in me. Sadly, looking through the songs on the set-list that had been crossed out, I note that the brilliantly varied set could have been made even better (for me, anyway) by the addition of Sha La La and the superb Leaving Victoria. I guess you can’t have everything.

It also seems that big things may be beckoning over in America. Apparently, off the back of some Arizonan pod-cast, Dan got his first U.S. radio air-play with what he thinks was Dean Street Devils, another song he played tonight. There’s even talk of “discovery” by Johnny Cash’s niece/manager and the prospect of a tour over there, if all the financials and paperwork can be sorted. Unfortunately, work on a second Boss Caine album has been put on hold for a while, until certain key personnel are available again. Probably quite selfishly, I hope the album happens before the U.S. stuff as it is apparent from tonight that Dan has a wealth of great material that I wouldn’t mind being able to listen to whenever I want to.

The Soundman Killed The Sandman

2011-07-21T20:44:00.001+01:00

Sunday 10th July: In my lost post, I made much of the fact that we, as a group, had seen the same band twice running for what I thought was the first time ever. If it wasn’t the first time, it was certainly a rarity. Tonight, we saw the same band for the third time and, because they are so good, not only had we recommended them to so many people that there was seven of us out (even without Roj and Lynn, who had tied the not the day before) but we had actually paid to get in.

We had decided to meet in the Black Swan for a couple of pint before venturing on to Fibbers so, unfortunately, we missed the beginning of the first act. Oliver Salisbury (I can’t find a link for him) is a man and guitar act but, unlike the majority of the ones that I have come across around York is less folk/Americana and more upbeat, slightly “poppy”. It was, to be honest, a little refreshing (not that there is anything wrong with the rest of them). Despite looking a little nervous and having to fill the opening - otherwise known as “try to sing above the talking” – slot, he showed that he had a good voice and a nice playing style. The set, which was at least six songs long (I’m not sure how many we missed) included Hey Mister, which was slower than the rest, In Your Soul, Fight The Good Fight and something I think was called Things That Remind Me Of You, which was my favourite.

The Robin Pierce Band hail from Manchester and a three piece comprising of Robin Pierce on vocals and acoustic guitar, Pete Lilley on keyboard and Rick Wilson on drums. It has to be said that the latter plays like a whirlwind, with so much energy and power that it is hard to take your eyes of him. On the negative side, the drums were mixed a little too high and for at least part of the set drowned out the keyboards. It was a little hard to pick out song titles as, between songs, Robin was a bit of a mumbler. His vocals were a lot more impressive, at least as the set went on. Going through the set, I think the first song was Where I Want To Be while the second, the title of which I didn’t get, ended up being my favourite. The third started slowly and quietly, with Rick playing just with his fingers, before speeding up and beginning to sound a little like Led Zeppelin, but that from the keys. Richard thinks it was Outkast’s Hey Ya, but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t recognise it. Coming Home featured the best vocals of the set, which ended with two strong songs that I couldn’t hear the titles of. Tonight’s headliners had played with this band in Manchester and had invited them to play tonight’s gig. They are certainly worth looking out for again. The songs were, for the most part, upbeat, cheerful and catchy. Very entertaining.

Paintings Of Ships are another band invited up by the headliners. Another three piece, this time from London, they are billed as Indie / Rock / Shoegaze, but were sounded, at least in places, a little more punk to us – references to The Skids and Magazine were made. Having said that their first song, also called Paintings Of Ships, had the guitar style of the Jam. It was Love Will Always Follow You… that garnered the Skids comparison, as the beginning reminded us of Into The Valley. The first two songs had a big sound, energetic without very much movement from the band, but Thoughts (I think that was what it was called) started out in a much more laid back manner. After We Only Talk About The End there was an impromptu drum and bass duet, while a string was replaced on the lead guitar and, because this took so long, the the band seemed to lose the audience a little (and, possibly, had a knock-on effect on the headliners’ set). Eventually, Fantasies In The Dark provided us with what was musically the most varied song of the set and was followed by two more songs, each of which topped the previous one, meaning a good end to the set. There’s no doubt that Paintings.. are good at what they do. Unfortunately, they are just a little too far removed from my musical tastes and I probably didn’t enjoy their set as much as the rest our group did. Sorry boys and girl.

In case you haven’t worked it out yet, tonight’s headliners were the incredibly good Dream Of Apollo. This was the final gig of a ten day, twelve gig tour of England and Holland, which included an impromptu gig on the ferry. The set was familiar, if slightly tweaked to work with the shortened length. There was no solo start from Vicki and the band launched straight into Regrets Of The Devil which, as usual, segued into Children Of The City. Hold Me, Leander, Someday, Anatole, the cover of Depeche Mode’s In A Manner Of Speaking, Too Lost Too Late, Free and Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues all followed. I’m not sure whether it was the perennial problem of Fibber’s sound system or whether the tour had resulted in a bit of fatigue, but it took a while for the vocals to sound as good as we knew they could be – the best vocals probably came during In A Manner Of Speaking. The playing, however, was as superb and tight as usual and it was nice to finally see Jamie taking advantage of a proper venue and playing with drum sticks rather than brushes. There’s not a lot more I can add to what I’ve said in previous entries – Dream Of Apollo are quite simply one of the best local bands around at the moment. Unfortunately, tonight the set came to a slightly embarrassing (for the band) end. After leaving the stage for a few minutes, they returned for what should have been an encore of the brilliant Sandman. However, the sound engineer had already turned off the feeds to their instruments and microphones, depriving us of what is a superb song. I think the band’s next gig is the Summer Sanctuary Festival - an all day charity festival raising money for Ryedale Special Families and the Alzhiemers Society, taking place at the Judge’s Lodgings on August the 20th. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it, but if you are in York on that day, look in on it and, perhaps, donate to the cause.

CD Review: Esther O’Connor

2011-07-14T20:39:00.001+01:00

Tuesday 12th July: A few years ago my first dalliance with social networking involved me signing up for a MySpace account. I didn’t do too much with it (except check out bands to see whether they were worth going to see and print off flyers to get in cheaply). For quite a while “Tom” was my only friend and it wasn’t too long before a colleague told me that I was too old for that site and that I should, in fact, be using Facebook. Eventually, though, a rather attractive red-head got in touch.

It’s probably not what you think (although I still have the account and I do occasionally get those type of messages as well…) This was Esther O’Connor, getting in touch, as some musicians are wont to do, with people who might like her music, to tout her albums and get people to sign up to her mailing list. I’m fairly certain I responded (although I can find no evidence of having done so) and, having listened to some samples, told her that I had added the albums to my “to buy” list. Then, rather rudely, I completely forgot about them. In my defence, there are rather a lot of albums on that list and I only maintain it mentally. A few days ago another message came through – with a third album in the offing – this one to be released under the name of Ashton Lane - Esther was offering the previous two at just £5 each. Well, I’m rarely one to turn down a bargain, especially when comparisons are being made with Stevie Nicks.

The Place Where We Are was self-released in 2003, after an EMI deal fell through and my copy is by-lined simply “Esther” and vocals are attributed to Esther Duffin. (Esther is the daughter of Wet, Wet, Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin and most of the songs on both albums are co-written with him and producer Sandy Jones). I’m afraid that I don’t get the Stevie Nicks comparisons – there’s none of the trademark warble in Esther’s voice. I can hear, in some songs, the quirkiness that I associate with Tori Amos (what little I know of her) and there’s a hint of Meredith Brooks in the likes of Bring It On, Move On and Nirvana Man. What you do get, though, is a richly emotive voice which is used to great effect in a variety of styles. The beautiful simplicity of the title track melds superbly with the slightly more complex and no less entrancing Piano Girl, while Fragile State shows that you can do rock without necessarily needing power and Driftwood And Dreams shows that you can do powerful without resorting to rock. For the most part, this is a chilled out album – quiet and almost introspective with mostly acoustic guitar or piano-led songs, the best of which is Beautiful. Tracks such as What’s A Girl To Do and Clear And Blue raise the tempo slightly, but even the electric guitars of the latter are somehow subdued, allowing the vocals to shine. In Too Deep and I’ll Be Yours veer away from the sweetness and light by incorporating a kind of discordance that somehow still works, while Sailing Solar Wind ends the album on a lovely relaxed note. I have to admit that, now that I’ve listened to it a few times, this album is growing on me. Even Remote Life, my least favourite track on the album, makes the geek in me smile with its reference to The Matrix.

On the other hand, 2006’s Right Here bursts into life from the first note of the title track. The addition of flute and violin gives some tracks slightly more of a Celtic feel and the increased use of electric guitar makes the album seem a bit more pop-rock and a lot more up-beat. Hold On feels particularly folky with, I believe, the first use of a cajongo (I had to look it up) in my CD collection. There’s something really familiar about Saturday Man - I can’t put my finger on exactly what – and the Meredith Brooks comparisons resurface during the rockier All Right, Right Now, which contains some very nice guitar work from husband Tim, who also plays on four other tracks. Things quieten down as Honesty almost sees a return to the quiet style of most of the debut album, but still manages to give the impression of a fuller sound, before Yesterday’s Too Late and Out On The Water explode the album back into a catchy pop-rock style, The latter is one of my favourite tracks on the album, with its vocal harmonies reminding me a little of (Canadian trio) Shaye while showcasing Graeme McGeoch’s lovely violin playing. Chasing Rainbows contains a nice guitar riff among its melange of styles and is this album’s “discordant-but-works” track. Hope returns to the folky feel, with more cajongo and lots of violin providing a suitable backing to Esther’s gorgeous vocals while Tomorrow’s City, my favourite track, has a fascinating atmospheric sound thanks to both keyboards and the vocal mix. Like the previous album, Right Here is rounded off in a relaxed tone, this time with the all-too-brief You.

Overall, two very nice additions to my collection. It’s probably obvious from the above that I prefer the second album, which has a fuller sound overall. If the increase in quality continues, the third album will definitely be worth looking out for.

A Recurring Dream

2011-06-27T20:02:00.001+01:00

Friday 24th June: I don’t think I had quite realised how much Dream Of Apollo had impressed our little clutch of music lovers when we saw them just three weeks ago. Andy and I had both taken time to chat to band members at the end of that gig, with both of us saying we would be seeing them again, and Roj had definitely liked them according to his blog post, but it’s not often (if ever) that we have seen the same band on consecutive group nights out. (Admittedly, I had been on a solo trip to see Nils Lofgren two weeks ago.) Tonight, however, it was a unanimous and, it has to be said, quite eager, vote to head down to The Golden Lion to see if the magic could be recreated.

It was fairly obvious that the venue wasn’t going to do the band any favours – it’s a bigger, more central and, therefore, more popular pub than The Yorkshire Hussar and, while there were a few familiar faces ensconced in front of the stage area, there was also a large number of people who were there for the beer rather than, it seemed, for the music. It also turned out that the acoustics aren’t that great – we started the night at the front of the pub, as far away from the stage as you can get, gradually moving forward as seats became available and it was only when we finally made it to a table directly in front of the stage (or, in Andy and Yvonne’s case, standing even further forward) that we got the full effect and that Vicki’s vocals started to sound as clear as we remembered them.

Tonight’s set was slightly different from last time. Vicki started with just three solo songs – her own Mine, Tracy Chapman’s For My Lover and the still nice Boats And Birds (Gregory And The Hawk) – before calling the rest of the band to the stage for the full set. Unfortunately, we were still at the front of the room at this point and couldn’t hear them too clearly.

I’m still not sure how you classify a band who do covers of songs by Dolly Parton (Jolene), Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues, which saw Winston really cut loose) and Depeche Mode (In A Manner Of Speaking) but one thing I do know is that they are not a “rock covers” band as advertised on the various posters dotted around the pub. As last time, those were the only covers they performed with the rest of the set being taken up with their own songs, with only the bluesy Jimmy missing from last time out. There isn’t a bad song in the, style-wise, very varied set but if I had to pick highlights they would be the dreamy Someday, the harder-hitting Anatole, the three-minute pop of Hold Me and the vibrant, atmospheric rock of Regrets Of The Devil, along with everybody’s favourite Sandman and the simply stunning near-prog of Free with its incredibly tightly executed time changes and tonight moved to the end of the first half of the set. (If I were egotistical, I would wonder whether that was because of what I wrote last time – but that would imply that I know what I’m talking about…) Such variation from a lesser band might indicate a lack of clear musical direction – with Dream Of Apollo, it just seems to work somehow.

Again, this was a totally assured performance with the whole band looking as though they were enjoying themselves, despite the more difficult conditions (at the end of Home, a huge cheer went up from the crowd and the band looked slightly surprised, until somebody pointed out that the T.V. screens had just showed Andy Murray winning his third round match at Wimbledon. “We liked the song as well, though,” shouted one voice from the bar) and, by the end of the evening, there seemed to be a lot more people taking notice of the music than there had been at the start. Despite the strange acoustics of the venue, this proved that we weren’t wrong last time and Dream Of Apollo are one of the best local bands around at the moment. They are about to embark on an eight gig tour, including appearances in the North East, The Netherlands and London, before returning to York to headline Fibbers on the 10th of July. We are already making plans to be there.

Back At The Barbican

2011-06-13T20:46:00.001+01:00

Friday 10th June: Nils Lofgren must have, at some point in the past, registered on the periphery of my musical knowledge. While browsing the first few acts booked to appear at the newly re-opened York Barbican, I knew that I wanted to see him but didn’t quite know why. Or, for that matter, exactly who he was. A quick Google (what did we do before the internet…?) revealed that he was not only a virtuoso guitarist and singer-songwriter in his own right, but that he had also been a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band (as well as playing alongside such luminaries as Neil Young and Ringo Starr). So it was that I found myself out on a Friday evening, with a completely different set of music fans, having paid what was, for me in recent years, a record amount of money to see somebody who I hardly knew anything about.

Firstly, a few words about the Barbican. During its first stint as an entertainments venue I saw quite a few reasonably big names perform there, including Lisa Stansfield (whose tour consisted of nights at the Glasgow SEC, Birmingham NEC, Wembley Arena and York Barbican – somebody somewhere knew somebody, I suspect), Big Country, Runrig, Lindisfarne, All About Eve (who were booed after giving us just a half hour set) and Mel C (twice!). Sadly, I missed seeing Robbie Williams there. I always liked the idea of having a venue of its size in York as it gave us the chance to see such names without the hassle of travelling. So, it was with no little excitement that I greeted the news that it was to re-open, with a recognised promotion company running it. While few of the currently announced acts have resonated enough for me to consider going along, I really hope that the place is successful enough to survive. While I’ve got used to paying smaller amounts to see bands play live, there are undoubtedly times when I would pay more to see bigger acts (and there is at least one local band that I can think of who would be more suited to play there than their current regular venue). Inside, the Barbican hasn’t changed much – the seats appear to be the same ones as before and look a little worn in places and what we could see of the floor in the arena didn’t seem to indicate that it had been tidied up, let alone replaced. I guess most of the refit money will have gone on the public-facing and business areas – the bar and conference rooms and a new (I think) restaurant – as well as cleaning the place out. Presumably, there’s little point in spending too much on a room that most people will only see in darkness.

Tonight was part of Nils’ “acoustic” tour, although that was a slight misnomer as he played electric guitar for a few of the songs. Appearing with just one other musician – the very versatile Greg Varlotta – meant that the stage appeared a bit sparse and under populated, with just a few speakers, a single keyboard, a couple of guitars, an electric harp and some strategically placed wicker baskets visible from the beginning. The harp quickly disappeared (with the help of a hard-working roadie who seemed to be constantly swapping instruments or re-arranging the stage) after Nils used it for an intricate opening to the first song, Too Many Miles, before changing to electric guitar and staggering around the stage while playing some extraordinary solos with Greg accompanying on the keyboard. Electric was replaced by acoustic for Everybody Wants and a different acoustic, with an incredible sound, was used for Share A Little, during which the aforementioned baskets were used as foot rests, giving us a better view of the intricacies of Lofgren’s playing. Two requests followed – solo versions of Neil Young’s Long May You Run and the much simpler Take You To The Movies Tonight. Keith Don’t Go showed even more versatility as guitar strings were gently plucked one minute and brutally punished the next. By this time I had given up counting the number of guitar changes and had no idea whether they were simply being rotated and whether the one used for You had been used before or whether there was a seemingly infinite stock in the wings. During Girls In Motion it became obvious that Nils was, at least on occasions, utilising backing tracks to provide a fuller sound. I have no problem with that – I assume it saves on touring costs and certainly doesn’t detract from the superb solos he was playing – and I think it’s the first time I’ve experienced it, at least for guitars. Greg, who had been absent since the end of the third song, returned to the stage to play trumpet during Rusty Gun, inevitably giving the song a slightly Mexican feel, then teased an almost choral sound from the keyboard for Black Books, which Nils described as a “dark country song” as he donned sunglasses to play it. Eschewing instruments altogether, Greg then made his way to a previously unnoticed board lying at the back of the stage and, during Cry Tough, proceeded to thoroughly enjoy himself while performing what can only be described as “Dad tap-dancing”, providing an unusual and hugely entertaining rhythm section which sounded a lot fuller and deeper than the usual clickety-clack sound associated with tap shoes. It was all change for Irish Angel, a lovely ballad which saw Nils take to the keyboard and Greg pick up a guitar and which was similarly followed by the lyrically superb Goin’ Back, Believe and the very radio-friendly The Sun Hasn’t Set On This Boy Yet. It was then Greg’s turn in the spotlight as he played a nice guitar solo, during which Nils changed his shoes and donned a radio mike while the roadies brought back the harp, moved the board to the front of the stage and brought on a silver cane. I’m told that Be Humble started life as a simple rock and roll song, the version we got tonight, however, with Nils tapping out the percussion with both feet and cane, playing harp and guitar (with his teeth for one section) could almost be described as “epic”. With the plethora of instruments and effects, it seemed that this was to be the big finish but, when it was followed by a return to relative simplicity with Like Rain and then Greg returned to the once again repositioned board for Mud In Your Eye, which got a fair few people in the audience singing along. No Mercy brought an almost AOR sound to the set before Nils and Greg, both on guitar, gave an atmospheric opening to Because The Night (the only song I recognised in the whole set), with Greg also providing his strongest backing vocals of the evening. After two hours continual playing there was a brief departure before the guys returned for an encore consisting of I Came To Dance, with its near Honky-Tonk keyboard section and the inevitable and crowd-pleasing tap duet and, finally, the brilliant Shine Silently.

Nils may be a few days shy of his sixtieth birthday and may have undergone hip replacement surgery back in 2008, but it didn’t show tonight. Over the course of two and a quarter hours, his playing was superb, innovative, bordering on genius (at least to a non-musician like me) and with an incredible variety of styles. At one point, he played so frantically that his thumb plectrum flew across the stage, to be retrieved a few minutes later during a quieter section. While there may have been no back-flips during the performance, he staggered and spun around stage like a man half his age. The Barbican has, in the past, faced criticism for its acoustics. Tonight, however, despite a bit of hiss in the quieter parts, the vocals were as clear as you can get, showcasing a still strong voice. On top of all that, this is the first time I’ve seen a “big star” announce on stage that he would be coming out to sign autographs after the show. Chatting with and shaking the hands of everybody who approached him and showing no impatience with all those who wanted photographs, Nils belied the generic rock star image and delighted the crowd both on and off stage. Quite simply superb.

A Dream Of A Band

2011-06-05T12:07:00.001+01:00

Friday 3rd June: There wasn’t much to suit our collective tastes in our usual haunts tonight but it seemed that Andy was keen on meeting up anyway, so he came up with a couple of alternative suggestions. Roj’s response of, “I’m not fussed for folk” to the thought of heading to the Black Swan left just a band we’d not come across before (and one I incorrectly assumed must be newcomers – they’ve had a presence on MySpace since 2007) in The Yorkshire Hussar, a venue we hadn’t frequented for music before. It’s certainly changed from the real-ale pub I remembered from the days I worked almost next door to it, now just serving two hand-pulled ales. To be honest, I wasn’t going to venture out – I had already been to one gig this week and have to balance a love of live music with family time. Out of curiosity, though, I had a look at the band’s MySpace page and had a listen to Sandman, to which my initial response was something along the lines of, “Wow!” and, on the basis of that song, I changed my mind. It’s a good thing I’ve got such an understanding wife.

Dream Of Apollo was born when solo performer Vicki Mack started collaborating with other musicians in order to give her songs a bigger sound. Appropriately, tonight’s set, with the band’s equipment taking up half of the pub’s back room and a reasonably sized (for the venue) audience crowding the bar area and watching from doorways, started with Vicki performing five songs acoustically on her own. Starting with Burn (originally by Ray Lamontagne) she promised us that the rest of the songs wouldn’t be quite so depressing. Following that with Lovesong (The Cure), For My Lover (Tracy Chapman) and Boats And Birds (Gregory and the Hawk – who I’ve never heard of but will now be checking out) and then a song of her own, Mine. Throughout, Vicki’s vocals were superb, mixing the quieter bits with more powerful sections while staying incredibly clear. She performs with a slightly detached air, often starting at a space somewhere above the audience, occasionally flashing a smile and spoke rarely between songs. I’ve seen guitarists mark time in a number of ways, from foot tapping to stomping, but I’ve never seen anybody do it by rocking onto the sides of their feet before.

After those five songs, Vicki was joined by the rest of the band – Winston Sanders on guitar, Rhys Bevan on bass and Jamie Bradley on drums (and also doubling as soundman). For some reason, I had been expecting an acoustic set, but, while Vicki stayed with her acoustic guitar and Jamie played mainly played with brushes (due to the small venue, maybe?), the guitar and bass were both electric. After Sanctuary, Winston joked that they only did songs starting with the letter “S” as he introduced Someday with its lovely slow start leading into some crashing drums and a much stronger finish. Winston then asked the band whether they had any other songs beginning with “S”. “Sandman,”shouted some wag from the audience. (I don’t know what came over me…) “Ooo, we have. Are we doing that one?” he asked Vicki. “No,” she replied. (Dammit!) Instead they played their first cover of the set, In A Manner Of Speaking (Depeche Mode), which was similar in style to the last song, but with a quieter end. Then it was back to their own songs with Leander and the darker toned Anatole with its references to the “brimstone of Hell”. All these songs had been good but I was about to be blown away. Free turned out to be an epic rock track with lovely guitar work, complimentary vocals from Winston and so many changes of time signature towards the end that it was hard to keep up. If ever a song was created to end a set on a high, this is it. However, the band were nowhere near finished and continued with Home, which had a bit of a rock-a-billy feel to it before covering Jolene (Dolly Parton) and then taking a break.

I’m always a bit wary of somebody else taking the “stage” when a band is taking a break. Sometimes the audience, as well as the performers themselves, needs time to take a breath. Tonight, however, a “good” friend of Winston (prompting some amusement when he didn’t know his surname) – Maartin from The Netherlands – was invited to play a few songs. We had been commenting (between songs, obviously) how quiet the audience was being while Dream Of Apollo were playing. It seemed as though everybody was listening intently or, at least, not trying to shout over the music as is the case at most gigs. Unfortunately, when Maartin was playing two blokes behind me decided to break the spell and discuss, rather loudly, the Bramham Horse Trials, so it was a little difficult to concentrate on his performance. Roj, standing a bit closer than I was, recognised his first song as a cover of Radiohead’s Don’t Leave Me High and he also played Dutch song Slaapliedje (Lullaby) by Acda en de Munnik and his own song Not Going Home, which was much faster and lighter in tone than the other two.

Dream Of Apollo returned with Regrets Of The Devil and segued into the bass heavy Children Of The City. For the only time during the evening, Vicki’s vocals seemed a little swamped during Regrets, but any fan of the likes of (T.V. show) Supernatural would understand the references to souls being taken at crossroads. At this point it has to be said that, while I’ve seen some laid-back bass-players in my time I don’t think I’ve ever seen one as relaxed as Rhys, who spent a fair bit of time sitting down. Sandman, with its superbly atmospheric guitars, followed, with Winston saying it was for me and it was every bit as good live. Next up came Jimmy, with Vicki playing harmonica for a slightly more bluesy sound then Too Lost Too Late and Hold Me before the set finished with a cover of Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash). The audience were definitely keen for more but the band didn’t seem to have an encore prepared. After a bit of discussion Vicki and Jamie gave us one of her own songs, the darkly humourous Dead Pets, but the audience still weren’t satisfied and, were asked what they wanted to hear again. The vote was unanimous and we got a second helping of Sandman.

One of the best things about supporting the local music scene, if only by attending gigs and buying CDs directly from bands, is that every so often you stumble across a band that really does blow you away and you don’t want the evening to end. Tonight was one of those times. Totally at ease on stage, with the audience (which tonight, I suspect, consisted of a fair few people who knew the band members) and with each other, Dream Of Apollo produced an enthralling set full of very good songs and one of the best gigs I’ve been to this year. Sadly they haven’t released an album yet but if they do I will certainly be buying a copy. (I’d even go so far as to say that, with the right songs on it, I would consider purchasing an EP.) I will definitely be making an effort to see them live again, either in the Golden Lion on the 24th of June or at Fibbers on the 10th of July, when they are headlining. Maybe even both. I think I may have a new favourite live band.

Graeme’s Last Blast

2011-06-03T18:43:00.001+01:00

Monday 31st May: I know, it’s a Bank Holiday, time to be with family sitting in front of the T.V. watching the increasingly dire output. But tonight is a special night for one of my favourite York bands so there was nothing else for it – I just had to drag myself to Fibbers.

I hadn’t known in advance what time the first band was going to be on stage tonight so, after realising that I had nearly an hour between me handing in my ticket and the show starting, I headed back up the road to the Black Swan for a swift(ish) pint of the good stuff before re-entering Fibbers to find it already reasonably full, including a fair few people attired, like myself, in t-shirts proclaiming the name of the headliners. It’s not often you see that outside of big gigs these days and, perhaps, shows how far the band have come in building up a loyal fan base.

Velvet Star were tonight’s support and vocalist Danny Jones started off by asking everybody to move forward (most people were still further back than my usual, fairly conservative position. Like most people, I stayed where I was, which proved to be a good move as we were then treated to an ear-splitting scream (I pity anybody who had moved closer to the speakers) from Danny before he launched into the first song, Revolver. The performance was fast, furious and loud. The sort of rock that has a little too much punk in it for my tastes. Indeed the set finished with Danny taking a “noise vote” on whether the band covered a Sex Pistols song or one from Iggy and the Stooges. There was a nice variation in tone, with a song sounding like Run To The Hills era Iron Maiden being followed by one a lot slower with a nice melodic riff – I think this one was It Ain’t Over – while Fifteen Minutes More was one of the punkier songs. One song, the title of which I didn’t catch, even seemed to contain elements of all their influences, starting slowly before a huge change of pace towards the end. Danny is a great frontman, taking the show to the audience and riding over any audience ambivalence. Guitarist Adrian Lamming gave us some screeching, neck-in-the-air solos, while Corey Jones (bass) and Ginna Rhodes (ex-vocalist of $lash Vega$, now on drums) provided pounding rhythms. I doubt that their album will find its way into my CD collection, but Velvet Star are a very good live act and were a superb warm-up for tonight’s show.

I think I’ve seen Morpheus Rising every time they have played in York (except the first gig, which I seem to remember was acoustic and on a Boxing Day a couple of years ago). Tonight see’s the end of a relatively short era for the band is it is vocalist Graeme Tennick’s last performance with them. He’s been offered a job which is just too good to turn down and the added commute time precludes him staying with the band. Kenya is just too far away…

Taking to the stage to their usual intro music and this time adding a few pyrotechnics, the band launched into a set which contained much of the usual material, a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before and, eventually, a version of one of their songs that was just a little bit unusual. Save The Day was followed by Brave New World then Fighting Man, with Graeme milking his last performance for all it was worth – bouncing around the stage, climbing the barrier, conducting (and, in some respects, mimicking) the rest of the band. Each song was given a short introduction, in some cases explaining the inspiration behind it – like Quench Your Thirst, which I had always known was about vampires, but not that it was inspired by the film 30 Days Of Night. Fear Of Nothing was the first of tonight’s songs I didn’t recognise and Graeme himself had to revert to reading the lyric sheet. Pete and Daymo, sharing guitar duties, showed two different characters – Pete has an almost cheeky demeanour, peppering his performance with face splitting grins, while Daymo’s smoulderingly intense concentration is only rarely broken with a quick smile. Both provide some stunning sounds, whether it’s the crunching riff of Those Who Watch or the more elegant harmonics of Gypsy King. Shades Of Grey, with the vocal highlights of the set, followed In The End and then we reached the end of the set with Hold On and the band left the stage. There followed a few rather muted shouts for more before Graeme and Pete returned to the stage for an acoustic version of An Ordinary Man, which made up for what it lacked in raw power compared to the rest of the set by the emotional punch that it packed. Finally the rest of the band returned for These Four Walls.

It had been an emotional performance, you could see and feel that from off stage. But the band hadn’t let the occasion bring them down, choosing instead to treat tonight as a celebration (of Graeme’s tenure rather than the fact that he was leaving) and turned out what was, in my opinion, the best performance I have seen from them. They may not have raised the roof at Fibbers but I’m sure I saw a few cracks in the ceiling. My only regret is that the band didn’t get a chance to complete their debut album before Graeme left. Not only would it have been a worthy addition to my CD collection, but I’m fairly certain it would have been a very good legacy from his time in the band. It has already been announced that Simon Wright (Burnwylde) will be replacing Graeme on vocals and will make his debut when Morpheus Rising rise again at the Cambridge Rock Festival in August. I suspect that the band will pick up more than a few new fans from that performance.

Marc’ing Time

2011-06-02T11:33:00.002+01:00

Friday 27th May: There was nothing in the way of original music to tempt us out tonight so, given that it was the first time in what seemed like ages that everybody was available, we decided to revert to a covers performance. I realise that sounds a bit denigrating. It’s not meant to. Every so often, at least in my opinion, it’s nice to head out somewhere where you know pretty much all the music, can enjoy a few decent beers and, to be honest, not worry too much about having a chat – after all, being in a busy pub (in this case, the Old White Swan) on a Friday night the performer can’t and, I assume, doesn’t expect everybody to be hanging on his every note.

Tonight’s performer, York ex-pat Marc Atkinson, is a very good singer/songwriter in his own right. He has already released two solo albums – one of his own material and a double CD of covers (one disc acoustic, the other electric) – and is involved in a number of, in my opinion, exciting projects. As well as lead vocals on a number of songs on this year’s forthcoming Mandalaband album, he is getting closer to finishing his own long-awaited Riversea project (of which he was kind enough to give me a copy of some of the work in progress) and is already working on a third solo album.

Tonight, though, it’s down to what he sees as his “day job” – entertaining the punters, getting them to stay a bit longer and, hopefully, spend more money in the pub. In a kind of reverse-karaoke scenario, Marc hands round a comprehensive and, in some cases, unusual list of songs he can perform and asks for requests from the audience, which seems to include a few regulars and fans, including one young, recently betrothed couple who had Marc sing at their wedding. If no requests are forthcoming, he simply picks something himself, varying the set nicely.

The guitar playing is kept relatively simple with few real flourishes, which isn’t an issue as it is Marc’s vocal talents which really cut through the ambient noise and, eventually, the crowd in the small room in which he is playing do seem to be taking more notice. In fact, this is a better behaved pub crowd than I would have expected, at least from previous experience. Maybe it helps that the music is effectively tucked away in a corner of what is quite a large pub, leaving more space for those who don’t want to listen to wander away into (unlike say The Roman Bath). In fact so good-natured was the crowd that, even the addition of some rather drunken Grandad-dancing, from a Dylan loving OAP who walked with a stick but discarded it to dance, only seemed to add to the entertainment (at least for a while…) A very entertaining and, it turned out, very late evening.

For the record, Marc’s set tonight comprised of: Yellow (Coldplay), Human (Killers), Tumble And Fall (Feeder), Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Many Of Horror (Biffy Clyro), Iris (The Goo Goo Dolls), Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House), Happy Birthday (the traditional one, not Altered Images, but sung in the voice of Donald Duck), Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen), Someone Like You (Adele), Stand By Me (Ben E. King), Stop and Stare (One Republic), Light Up (Snow Patrol), I’m Yours (Jason Mraz), Grenade (Bruno Mars), Angels (Robbie Williams), after which he stopped for a well-deserved break, before starting again with: Walking In Memphis (Mark Cohn), Lying Eyes (The Eagles), Wherever You Will Go (The Calling), Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.), Knocking On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Summer Of ‘69 (Bryan Adams), Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon), Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), Heaven (Bryan Adams), Valerie (Amy Winehouse), Still In Love With You (Thin Lizzy), Hotel California (The Eagles), a Beatles/Monkees medley, Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison), Don’t Stop Believing (Journey), Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd), Babylon (David Gray), I Don’t Want To Talk About It (Rod Stewart).

From The Archives: A Night Of Summer Magic

2011-06-01T20:46:00.001+01:00

Wednesday 1st June: “I was there,” I pointed out to Debbie when the 1986 tour, specifically Wembley Stadium (you know, the old one with the towers) was covered on the second part of this weekend’s Queen: Day Of Our Lives documentary. Then I remembered that, back in those pre-internet (well, mass market internet) and hence, pre-blogging days, I had actually sat down after the gig and written a review of the whole thing, tucking it away in the pages of the program (yes, in those days, I not only went to stadium gigs, I also bought programs) for posterity.My nineteen-year-old self must have known that, years later, I would spend a good part of my spare time pretending to be a music journalist. A quick trip to the loft and I had the nearly two sides of A4, handwritten review and, just to prove that my writing hasn’t improved at all, I thought I’d share it with you, in all its naivety and unedited glory (although I may add the odd bit if retrospective commentary in red).

A Queen tour is always something special and, after missing the 1984 tour, when I got a chance of two tickets to see them at Wembley on the 11th July 1986, there was no holding me back. (Good job, really, as it turned out to be their last tour.)

Of course, this was to be no ordinary Queen gig. Three other groups were also billed as guests. The Australian group INXS were first on and thankfully didn’t stay for long. Although it might have been better if I’d heard one or two of their records, (records!!) their performance only served as a teaser for what I hoped would be happening next. A couple of songs did sound as if something could have been done with them, the group and the sound system didn’t sound too well matched. (I think this was one of INXS’s first appearances in the UK and I remember that, on the tube back to Victoria Station most of the people in our carriage were saying that they were rubbish, except for one bloke who came out with something along the lines of, “No, they were OK. I think they’re going to be big.” How prescient of him.)

Although a bit disconcerting at times, the fact that (as we were sitting near the back of the stadium) we saw what was happening on stage (via a large screen) two or three seconds before we heard it, (I had gone with then girlfriend and soon to be first wife, who didn’t want to go anywhere near the front) seemed to dwindle in importance when we started listening to the music more and watching the screen less. This was the case with the next group, The Alarm. Such classics as 68 Guns, Where Were You Hiding and Spirit of ‘76 blasted off the stage and through the four huge speaker banks, as this North Wales group gave a powerful and charismatic performance. A performance which, although it could only be a short one, nevertheless seemed too short. (Eh?)

It was between this group and the next that one of the two large crowd spectacles started. Undoubtedly stemming from over exposure to the World Cup, our half of the crowd started to emulate the Mexican human wave, only to be met with a total lack of response from the terraces at the back. After a bout of booing at the hapless lot, the far corner to the right of the stage set it off again, this time in a clockwise direction and this time with more success, as the whole thing lasted about a quarter of an hour and finished up quite competitively, with each side booing each other down.

Next up, the new Status Quo, with new bassist and drummer, the latter being a real powerhouse. As expected, the emphasis was on Parfitt and Rossi (Rossi’s wit being unimpaired by two years off the road) as the combo ploughed their way through (I’m fairly sure I didn’t mean it to sound like it was an effort) old Quo songs including Roll Over Lay Down, Whatever You Want, Dirty Water and, to the crowd’s delight, Rocking All Over The World. Quo were also the first band to do an encore, which consisted of Caroline and at least one other that I can’t remember. (No mobile phones in those days and I didn’t take pen and paper with me…)

Then, after half an hour’s wait, came Queen. The whole stadium rose as, without announcement, the speakers started blasting out One Vision. A thunder went up when the four stars of the show swept onto the stage. The flamboyant Freddie Mercury pranced and strutted along in time to the music and his own voice. Hit followed hit. One Vision, Kind Of Magic, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Love Of My Heart (Life, surely?) and a tear-jerking Is This The World We Created? to name a few. With the hits came the rain. Thankfully we were under shelter (good thinking by future wifey…) but it didn’t bother many who weren’t and brought wisecracks from Freddie.

Instrumentals from Taylor and May were then followed by more hits. I Want To Break Free, Another One Bites The Dust, Under Pressure and the excellent Bohemian Rhapsody. With Quo and Queen the sound system had really taken flight and the audience had taken voice, as a lively performance of Tutti Frutti showed. Then, as the group left the stage (after two or three more hits, including an excellent Hammer To Fall) the crowd rose as one, demanding more. As the lights went down, the lighters appeared, small pinpoints of light in a sea of blackness. A roar went up as Queen came back on, another one as Radio Ga Ga started. With the chorus thousands of pairs of hands shot into the air to do the clap sequence from the video, a great sign of unity and a wonderful sight. Again they went off. Again the lighters, again they came on. (Must have been magical lighters, I suppose.) A grand finale in every sense of the phrase. We Will Rock You, then Friends Will Be Friends and finally and appropriately We Are The Champions, all of which were heard for dozens of yards outside the stadium.

Finally it was over, but the crowd as one was still reluctant to go. It had definitely been a night of Summer magic, rain and all.

Pelico Crossing

2011-05-17T20:50:00.001+01:00

Monday 16th May: There are some bands that I like so much that not only will I go to see them as often as I can (even if the last time was only a matter of weeks ago) but I will also try to “sell” them to other music fans (and anybody else that will listen or who just happens to be standing in the way of my voice…). Tonight, however, is the first time that anybody has ever listened to one of my recommendations. Hopefully, the headliners won’t make a liar out of me.

Unfortunately, due to a desire for a decent drink and the vagaries of knowing when acts are due to start at Fibbers, Roy, Richard and I missed the start of Nick Tudor’s set. I say unfortunate for two reasons – firstly I like to think that I give all acts an equal listen and secondly because this one was actually very good. Nick himself looks like a cross between Paul Weller and Liam Gallagher and postures a bit like Mick Jagger. Tonight playing with a drummer and bass-player, Nick gave us some pretty good vocals and impressive guitar work. The handful of songs we heard included (and I’m guessing at some titles, here) the rocky Bring Me Down and Tears Roll Down as well as the slower, but equally good, Brick By Brick. The final, epic song of the set started out with hints of Oasis before turning into second half of blistering, effects-laden guitar. Definitely an act I wouldn’t mind seeing again.

It is, perhaps, a little unfair to judge local band Pelico on the basis of tonight’s performance as, from where I was standing (my usual spot, a bit in front of the sound desk), I could barely hear a thing over the noise of the large, ignorant section of the audience who insisted on ~~talking~~ shouting to each other over the music. It’s a shame because, from what I did hear, the band sounded as if they could be interesting. A four-piece comprising of Brian (vocals), Nick (bass, vocals and percussion), Rob (drums and percussion) and Ash (vocals and, unusually, acoustic guitar) they play an indefinable and unusual (in my experience) sort of folk rock, with nice vocal harmonies. Manfully battling on against the ambient noise and looking only slightly annoyed at the lack of attention they were getting, they gave us Passing Places, Sleeping On The Floor, Who You Are and something which I noted down as Fine, but might actually have been Fly, featuring Ash on lead vocals, along with a much more catchy song which may have been called Throw Me A Lifeline. Strangely, between songs they were applauded and cheered by more people than who seemed to be listening, including people standing behind me who can’t have heard a great deal and I can’t help but think that they were, perhaps, the wrong sort of band for tonight’s crowd and that they might, in fact, do better at a more intimate venue.

And so to the headliners and, being honest, the band that the vast majority of the crowd was here to see. Micky-taking, banter, laughs, blue blazers, audience sing-alongs, superb music and an impromptu line-dance from the brass section… Yes, it has to be Hope & Social, back in York to promote their third studio album, Sleep Sound, which was released last week on the usual pay-what-you-want basis (available in physical and download forms from their website and from no good record stores…) and, less than twelve hours later was already number on on Bandcamp. It’s no mean feat to get nineteen people, as well as instruments for an eight-piece band on a stage the size of the one at Fibbers but, opening with Sleep Sound itself, Hope & Social managed it by inviting a choir on stage with them. There was the usual banter between songs as Family Man was followed by old favourite (and, apparently, my daughter’s current second favourite song) Pitching Far Too High and then a return to new material with Rolling Sideways. You could almost see the idea cross Simon’s mind when, instead of taking to the front of the stage to deliver the crowd-pleasing Looking For Answers, he wandered out into the crowd to deliver an excellent acoustic performance “in the round” and show exactly what a superb natural voice he has. After that we were treated to Marching On Through, which was amusingly and almost seamlessly morphed into My Girl and followed by another new song, The Road Never Lies, which not only started a round of “musical instruments” (as opposed to chairs) by having drummer Gary Stewart on keys, but also showed that the band can take you from hilarity to lump-in-the-throat in a heartbeat. Gary also got time in the spotlight when he was allowed to infiltrate the middle of Red Red Rose with Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al, which he sang while also drumming. Abba’s Take A Chance On Me also made a brief cameo towards the end of Red Red Rose. Another new song, Fast Train, ended a set which had already overrun but there was no way that we were leaving without an encore (“Or we could riot,” enthused Simon, fist pumping) and after a very brief call for “More!” and a quick check with the sound desk, the band returned for the banjo-led A Darkness Now Is Coming before some band members worked the crowd, selling copies of the new album. Despite only including one song from the first album and, obviously, favouring the new material, this was a nice mix of old and new.

I find it hard to describe Hope & Social (I wish I had come up with “A Yorkshire E Street Band”, but somebody else beat me to it) and easy to enthuse about them. All three of their albums are superb, but they are even better (and excellent value) live. Entertainers in every sense of the word, their gigs are always included as highlights in my annual round-up and, while tonight may have been a bit subdued by their usual standards (and definitely compared to the last time we saw them) it was still head and shoulders above most bands. They work hard, they play hard and they have a superb attitude towards music. It’s fairly obvious that I can’t recommend them highly enough and would urge anybody reading this to at least download and try out some of their stuff. You can do it genuinely for free – they don’t even ask for your email address. Oh, and for the record, debutante Richard was impressed and is already talking about seeing them again…

No Longer A Punk Rocker

2011-05-06T20:33:00.001+01:00

Friday 29th April: It’s the day of the Royal Wedding and, having spent the day walking in the countryside away from all TVs, I’ve decided to spend the evening inside the Duchess. (I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist…)

Marcus Bonfanti is a half-English, half-Italian, self-taught Blues guitarist (and former guitarist for tonight’s headline act). Tonight he is playing solo rather than as part of a trio. He has already released two albums, with a third on the way and has been nominated for British Blues Awards for two years running – Best Male Vocals and Best Album in 2010 and Best Male Vocals and Best Guitar in 2011. Opening with a deceptively simple harmonica and vocals number, Marcus immediately set his stall out by showing what a strong voice he has. Moving on to the likes of Devil Girl, with its almost shouted lyrics, and What Good Am I To You?, with its much lighter, catchy riff, he also showed how versatile that voice was and how good he was with the guitar. Peppering his act with amusing interludes delivered in a nice easy-going style and thereby providing more entertainment than just the musical performance, he continued with Now I’m Gone Is Your Life Better?, Cookie (I think) and the ironically meant Sweet Louise (for which he apologised to anybody in the audience thus named…) Finishing with Give Me All Your Cash, even more ironic than the previous song given how many times he’d reminded us that he would be selling his CD during the interval, Marcus provided a very entertaining set and turned out to be an addition to the growing number of man-and-guitar acts, not to mention Blues artistes, that I find increasingly engrossing. And yes, I bought a copy of the CD and, while chatting, discovered we had a mutual appreciation for Seasick Steve and abhorrence of people who talk through gigs. Nice, as well as talented guy.

I came across Sandi Thom at much the same time as most other people, when I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker… was riding high in the charts, at a time when I was working up and down the country and generally travelling with somebody who preferred listening to the radio rather than CDs. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the hype surrounding her and her live webcasts. I just liked the song. Liked it enough to buy the album, Smile… It Confuses People, which I also enjoyed a lot. I eventually noticed that she was appearing live near York at the Pocklington Arts Centre and thought about, although never got round to, seeing her perform. Later I bought the second album, The Pink & The Lily, and was disappointed, if not underwhelmed, by it, leading to me not bothering to venture out the first time she played the Duchess and to her disappearing off my radar for a while. However, I never really give up on artists I like and, seeing that a return trip to the Duchess was on the cards, as well as having read good things about her third, very different album, was already planning a possible solo excursion when Roj said that he and Lynn would also be interested in going along.

As the support may have intimated, Sandi has moved more towards a Blues style and, together with her four-piece band, opened with an un-introduced which started out folksy but ended much more powerfully, before treating us to some harmonica playing for Heart Of Stone, which also built to a loud ending. The set continued to be varied, with a more rock-and-roll/country number followed by a slower, more bluesy song which should probably have showcased Sandi’s vocals, except that they ended up being slightly drowned out by cymbals. I’m fairly certain that the set featured songs from all three albums, but I failed to recognise anything from The Pink & The Lily. I did, however, recognise What If I’m Right and I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker from Smile…, despite both songs being heavily tweaked to reflect the new style, the latter being played just on harmonica, with the rest of the band just clapping along. We also got a few covers, including Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, The Animals’ House Of The Rising Sun and Blues standard Help Me (Sonny Boy Williamson and also recently on Chantel McGregor’s debut album), all of which were delivered in style. Sandi herself played a mixture of acoustic rhythm and electric lead (albeit as part of a duet) guitar, as well as harmonica and the rest of the band (whose names I didn’t note down, sorry…) all played well. Particularly of note was the lead guitarist, who also provided backing vocals and whose facial contortions at times made his playing look painful, and the nice sounds which came from a nigh-on invisible (from where I was standing) keyboard player. There were also guest spots from Bob Powell on trombone and Marcus Bonfanti, who returned to the stage to play harmonica for the Runaway Train encore. It really was an excellent set, mixing country, folk, rock-and-roll and blues to great effect and proving that Sandi (and her band) is more than the hyped-up star of a few years ago. I’m glad I ventured out, may have to re-evaluate The Pink & The Lily and will definitely be ordering a copy of Merchant And Thieves.

CD Review: Chantel McGregor–Like No Other

2011-04-28T20:54:00.001+01:00

Thursday 28th April: It sounds like the sort of 5-point plan that a lot of bands/artists will have:

Play gigs in pubs to get noticed by the public. Maybe try to get a few support slots.
Get on stage with one or two of my heroes, widen the fanbase.
Move on to headline slots at ticketed venues.
Break into mainland Europe and get some radio airplay.
Write and release a superb debut album that deserves the sort of wider recognition that more established bands get.

(I know, I’ve merged a couple of steps together to bring it down to five, but it’s my review…)

I doubt, however, that many have completed the plan in what seems as little time as Chantel McGregor, whose album Like No Other, was released just a couple of weeks ago. It’s actually three years since I first saw Chantel live (and was blown away by what turned out to be the soundcheck), but it seems a lot less and it I’ve been eagerly awaiting the album since it was first mentioned, with the feeling that it would have the potential to be my favourite album of whatever year it was actually released in. So, does it live up to my expectations?

Opening with a sort of heavy riff, Fabulous soon defies expectation by adding electronic effects and bursting into life as a Pop-rock song about living for the weekend that wouldn’t feel out of place on a release by the likes of Cheryl Cole. As somebody who has touted Chantel as a Blues/Rock artiste to people who are “serious” music fans, I can’t help but think it’s not the track to open the album with, if only because I don’t think some of those people would be put off by it. Personally, I’ve grown to like it more and more. It’s catchy, the electronics aren’t too intrusive and Chantel’s guitar work is always going to raise it above the level of any average pop song.

I’m No Good For You also opens with a riff, this time a Delta blues one that starts off sounding as though it’s been lifted directly from vinyl before emerging as a much cleaner sound. This is more like what I was expecting. Livingstone Brown’s bass is stunning, Chantel’s different guitar lines are brilliantly overlayed on top of each other and her voice is pure emotion.

Like No Other shows another of Chantel’s influences. After a slow, beautifully sung beginning, it blossoms into something very like Fleetwood Mac. You can almost hear Stevie Nicks singing the lyrics. It’s a very laid-back song with a brilliant instrumental middle-section.

Freefalling is one of only two of the original songs on the album that I had heard before. It has been tweaked a bit since the version I remember hearing live and takes the album back into slightly heavier, rockier territory. As far as I can tell, there’s no tweaking on the vocals, showing that Chantel can sing with power when required and it’s perhaps this track that shows Chris Taggart’s drums at their best. It’s a great song live, retains its power in the recorded version and, once again, has a superb instrumental section mixing screaming guitar with a very nice riff.

Rhiannon is the first of three covers on the album. It’s a dreamy, stripped-down version of the Fleetwood Mac original, using acoustic guitar and cello as a perfect backdrop to Chantel’s lovely vocals to produce a version which I’m beginning to think is better than the original. I really hope we get to hear this version live some day.

Chantel’s album blog mentioned sitars and it’s Caught Out that opens with their sound (albeit electronically reproduced, I think, as their is no credit for them on the album), giving the song a hint of Eastern mysticism, merged with traditional rock. Once again, the guitar work is superb, although that should go without saying, and there is a nice change of pace towards the end of the song.

Robin Trower’s Daydream is a favourite of mine from Chantel’s live set. I don’t know the original at all (and really must seek it out one day) but her version has captivated me from the first time I heard it, so it is a welcome addition to the album. Clocking in at over thirteen minutes, of which much more than half is instrumental, it showcases just how exceptional a guitar-player Chantel is. Listening to it, you can visualise her fingers flying along the frets as the playing flits between intricacy and simplicity, laid-back and full on. Parts of it could lull you to sleep while other parts practically vibrate the speakers out of their housings. A beautiful song, played and sung beautifully.

Cat Song, on the other hand just doesn’t do it for me. Wholly instrumental (with added electronic effects), just over two minutes long and, I believe, inspired by Chantel’s own cat, it just feels out of place to me. It’s clever but, personally, I don’t think it’s right for the album.

It’s back to the acoustic guitar for Screams Everlasting, another lovely song which, for me, contains the best lyrics on the album. I don’t know whether to credit Chantel or co-writer Chris Bucknall with them but they are sung with so much feeling that it’s hard not to be moved by them. Switching to electric guitar for a powerful second half elevates the song beyond the traditional ballad.

Happy Song reminds me so much of something else, but I can’t put my finger on what it is. I love the vocals which, for the first time on the album, almost seem to overpower the music. There’s a folkiness to it which means that, again, it’s not what I expected from the album but I can’t help but like it. It’s difficult to describe but something about it says that if there’s ever a video made to accompany the song, it will include bits where the camera spirals around Chantel as she plays guitar in a meadow. That’s the sort of image it evokes for me.

Not Here With Me is the second original song that I have heard before. Again, it has been tweaked for the album, with some nice backing vocals and the reappearance of Jocasta Whippy’s cello. Beautiful in its simplicity, it’s more superb writing from the McGregor/Bucknall team.

The album ends with a third cover. This time it’s Sonny Boy Williamson II’s Help Me, another song I recognise from the live performances and a return to the blues that I was expecting more of. As well as more genuinely brilliant guitar playing, Chantel’s voice is at it’s very best here, effortlessly switching between oozing syrup and raw power.

If you haven’t already gathered, the album as a whole isn’t exactly what I was expecting. It’s more laid back, less heavy and less bluesy than suggested by the songs covered in the live performances. It’s still excellent, though. The whole thing has a very clean sound with Chantel’s vocals being particularly impressive all the way through. Even though a number of influences are present in the writing (and in the chosen covers) they all seem to work to complement each other. I love the way that the songs have been placed to come at you in waves, building in power before easing away again and, notwithstanding the placing of Fabulous at the beginning and the inclusion of Cat Song, it’s the first album I can remember listening to where the placing of the songs seems to matter. There’s a long way to go in 2011, but I can definitely see this being one of my favourites of the year, if not my overall favourite. Chantel can be justifiably proud of what is a stunning debut album

…and might I suggest that the above plan might just have two more steps. You never know, they might happen sooner than you think:

Get picked up by a major label
Headline stadium gigs.

And They Played Forever And Ever.

2011-04-23T11:19:00.001+01:00

Friday 15th April: After what seems like an age some of the gang get together as Roj, Lynn and I meet up at an incredibly warm Fibbers for three bands that are, I think, new to us all. I’ve even managed to convince friend/work-colleague/music-fan Richard to use some of his new found freedom to come along for a taste of something different.

I had been warned in advance that openers Panic Procedure’s line-up for this evening was slightly different to that listed on the link, with Antony Capstick stepping in on rhythm guitar at relatively short notice (two weeks and one rehearsal to learn four songs…) He started off looking a bit nervous (as you would) but soon seemed to loosen up and the fact that he only played two thirds of the set lent itself nicely to a hint of humour during our chat afterwards – “I’ve never seen a guitarist sacked halfway through a set before.” Also, looking slightly nervous was Hayley, and that might have been the reason that her vocals came across a bit flat to start with, although they did improve as the set went on. Musically, the band aim to play “rock with killer riffs” and they just about hit that mark. I didn’t catch many of the titles but those I did get (or guess) were Never Give Up On You, the slower and more atmospheric Get There In The End, which included a very nice guitar solo from Nick and something with the word “Drowned” in the title. The set’s fifth song that started out with much sparser guitars (that’ll be because Antony had left the stage…) and was more bass heavy and they ended with something that sounded much heavier. Musically, Panic Procedure are very good. Unfortunately tonight, for me anyway, the vocals were a bit weak. It may be that they improve with time and, let’s face it, the sound system at Fibbers doesn’t always do vocalists any favours. The band have two more gigs coming up on the 5th of May at Stereo, York and the 7th of May at Selby’s Riverside.

Despite an on-stage look of a much grungier Haircut 100, primarily due to their high strung guitars, Scarborough’s The Tiny Eyes bill themselves as “punk rock indie”. They certainly had a very generic indie sound to them, but that didn’t stop us all being impressed by their energy, strong vocals and overall performance. Again, failing to introduce the first song doesn’t help me with a set round-up, but second song Truth And Lies was followed by the radically different Mad Hatter. He Can Be Nice featured more spoken lyrics (think Blur’s Parklife), while This City Can Be Ours By The End Of The Night was an out and out rocker. The set ended with a slower song, featuring some excellent backing vocals from bass-player Mat. The band were a bit disjointed between songs, often taking quite long breaks where they seemed to be discussing what song to play next and there was little interaction with the audience (apart from Carl telling us that he liked York and liked it even more after winning a netbook at McDonalds earlier in the day) but the music was excellent and very tight in all the songs. Definitely worth seeing again.

And so to the headliners. Jeniferever hail from Uppsala, Sweden, are touring their third album Silesia and have been around for fifteen years, something which seems hard to believe given Kristofer Jonson’s university-age appearance. Likened to Sigur Ros, who I like, and Appleseed Cast, who I’ve never heard of, I would suggest a more apt link would be The Engineers (although I suspect fewer people will have heard of them than of Sigur Ros) with their ambient, shoegazing rock building to stunning crescendos, and rounded off with soaring although somewhat unclear vocals. I’m afraid I took no notes as to the song titles, partly because I could hear most of them through Jonson’s almost sullen tone and partly because I just like to let this sort of music wash over me. This is a multi-instrument band in the fullest sense of the word, with three sets of keyboards and a variety of guitars on stage, there was only drummer Frederik Aspelin who stuck to one instrument, if a drum kit can be said to be one instrument. The rest moved between the various pieces of kit and were, for at least one song, the only band I have ever seen feature two bass players and the second one even helped out on drums for another song. Rich harmonies and dense wall-of-sound music made this one of the best performances I’ve seen this year and I’m looking forward to finding time to really listen to the new album.

Misty Played For Us

2011-04-18T20:50:00.001+01:00

Monday 11th April: Given my last two start-of-the-week outings, I was a little bit apprehensive about going to another Monday night gig. One advantage of The Basement Bar is that it is a lot smaller than the other venues I frequent so, if it was a small audience, it wouldn’t look quite so empty. Conversely, a disadvantage would be that, if it was a small audience, even lingering at the back would leave you quite visible from the stage. It turns out that I needn’t have worried as a reasonably large audience made the place look quite full and I didn’t have to feel any guilt about helping to turn away the extremely drunk young man who tried to get in. (Although, if I’m honest, I doubt he even knew where he was, let alone who he might have seen if he’d been allowed in…)

Opening tonight was a young lady with the rather tongue-twisting name of Alice Ostapjuk. Self taught on the guitar and playing solo after several attempts to form a band, her quirky mannerisms and, in some ways, her voice may have given the impression that she would somehow be better as a comedy act but some of her lyrics had the ability to take your heart and wring tears out of it. Despite playing just an acoustic guitar, Alice opened with a cover of Where Did Our Love Go? (Diana Ross and the Supremes) which was instantly recognisable as one of their songs but very different to the original. From then on, it was mostly her own songs, continuing with Samuel’s Secret, the introduction for which showed her comedic overtones even if she did, in my opinion, blow the delivery by extending the story just a few words too far. Tripping, a new song, was written because a hatred of arguments and was followed by another cover, this time Fairground Attraction’s Perfect, which she had only learned recently and, despite starting off wrongly, gave a pretty good rendition. Then came the emotion. What About Us? was dedicated to her Gran, who loved to listen to her sing and, presumably, is no longer with “us” as the lyrics deal with those left behind – “The angels they took care of you, but what about the rest of us? Left bleary-eyed, we cried and cried and cried.” – and the song is delivered in such a heartfelt fashion, I suddenly found myself welling up. Thankfully, Paper Planes And Shooting Stars was much more uplifting and had the audience clapping along. Alice finished with The Chase, which was inspired by a dream and prompted another humorous story during the introduction. With a clipped but emotive delivery, simple but varied playing and, at times, some very mature writing, Alice is definitely worth checking out if you like acoustic folk/pop and most of the set can be found on Soundcloud.

Next up was David McCaffrey who, it has to be said, seemed to have managed to entice a few friends along to swell the audience. With a very mature sounding voice, which belied his youthful and slightly geeky (in the nicest way possible) appearance (David’s MySpace bio says he is still only 16, but there’s no note as to when it was last updated, so he could be as old as, gasp, 18…) and playing his guitar from the back, if you see what I mean, David started off with Sons And Daughters, a very mellow song that, even so, had some soaring vocals and was followed by Train Track North which had a nice catchy riff. Apparently, David’s favourite band is Stornaway and his only cover was a version of The End Of The Movie. Knowing neither the band or the song, I can’t comment on how good a cover it was but, again, he delivered it in style. Musically, Through The Sun was a much faster, lighter song and was followed by Mountain Tops and, finally, Stars which contained a lot of screeching of strings as fingers flew between the frets and was, in my opinion, the best song of a very good set from a promising new(ish) artist.

I couldn’t help but smile as Misty Miller prepared for her set by tuning her ukulele on what appeared to be an iPhone balanced on her knee, proving that there really is an “app” for everything. Continuing the theme of the evening, 16 year old Misty is self taught on an instrument that I always think has comedic overtones (perhaps solely due to George Formby), something which proved far from true tonight. Perhaps trying a little too hard to eschew what could have been a dainty image (young blonde girl playing a “miniature guitar”) by performing in holey t-shirt and designer shredded jeans and complete with nose ring, Misty proved to be a very confident and capable young lady. Soft spoken between songs, with a singing voice that, at times, sounded like a more refined version of Lily Allen and playing simply by brushing the strings with the fingernails, Misty started off with Evergreen Love, a lovely dreamy, wistful song before launching into Remember (the song that really made me think of Lily Allen) a much faster song with some really nice lyrics about growing up and unrequited love. Rail On Me was followed by Bones, introduced with a story about seeing her brother performing live and wanting to write a song that she could stamp her foot along to. It may have been a little stronger but I still wouldn’t have said there was much stamping going on. Wild Thing was followed by a cover of Why Try To Change Me Now? (originally by Cy Coleman and covered by Frank Sinatra) which she said she loves to sing but which, I’m afraid, did little for me. Born Bad was written while thinking about a place at college and was followed by Rabbits and the set was completed with Vampire which, being a love song to one of the undead was, perhaps, the song most expected from a girl of that age, despite containing some wonderful lyrics. It’s a very nice song but I’m willing to bet that Misty has read the Twilight series…

I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and had a thoroughly entertaining evening.

Halloe, Is There Anybody Out There?

2011-04-01T20:55:00.001+01:00

Monday 28th March: The last time I went to a start-of-the-week gig at Stereo, I was the only the only member of the audience not connected to any of the bands performing that night. It couldn’t happen again, could it?

“Well, this is a bit depressing.” More or less the opening words from Joe Baker (I think), guitarist and vocalist (in that order) of Halloe Away. Of course, it could have been Alex Partington, but as he is listed as “vocals and guitar”, I’m assuming the order is important and tending towards the former. The reason for the depression was that the audience for their set comprised of about eight people, including four members of the second act on the bill. Quite where the rest of the Halloe Away, as listed on the link, were tonight is anybody’s guess, but we got Alex and Joe, singing and playing guitars in a kind of folky, rocky, acoustic way and sounding, for one song anyway (I think it was called Just To Let You Know) a little like Ralph McTell. As usual, I didn’t catch all the titles but the set included a covers of songs by Cee-Lo Green and, I think, Girls Aloud(!). Of their own compositions, I quite liked the dual guitars of the third song of the set, as well as the softer, quieter Halloe Away. Yes, they have a self-titled song, and why not? Best of all was the final song of the set, which I have noted may have been called If A Sin. Overall, however, I got the impression that the boys weren’t really giving it their best shot, due to the small crowd and I can’t help but wonder what they would be like to see as a full band, complete with violin, cello and double-bass. At very least it would have been something a bit more original.

To give them their due, Joe and Alex, along with the young lady who had been watching them (one of the missing members, maybe?) did stick around to see InSpades.Inc. I had only seen them a few weeks ago, at Fibbers, and I have to say they sounded a lot better tonight. Frontman Stewart didn’t announce the first song and I don’t yet know their output well enough to recognise it with any certainty. Twenty Minutes From Now, however, is one of my favourites and it seems to sound more epic every time I hear it – tonight it sounded superb. Cannibals, written and sung by Adam Brady, tonight performing with the band for the last time, was much better served than last time out, benefitting both from better sound and a less nervous performance. Lost Track Of Time has a huge sound, again helped by the venue. The band performed all the tracks from their debut EP, joking that they didn’t have any copies with them tonight, so we couldn’t buy it. This is the second time I’ve seen the band at Stereo – the first was only their second ever gig – and they sounded so much better tonight. Once again it was a shame that a band on top form should have such a small audience watching the and, perhaps, even more of a shame that they were losing a member so early in their career. Thankfully, they ignored the lack of audience and gave a full-on performance tonight. Hopefully the band can also bounce back from Adam’s departure. Last I heard, they were advertising for a replacement guitarist and a keyboard player to complete the line-up.

Two of the reasons that the last gig I went to with such a small audience wasn’t a complete failure was that all the acts stuck around to watch each other and they all gave the same performances that they would have done for a bigger crowd. So far tonight, we’ve had one full-on performance and one that seemed a bit down-key, but the two support acts have had the good grace to watch each other. Which kind of begs the question of where were the headliners?

Well, Arthur Rigby And The Baskervylles finally put in an appearance, along with a handful of extra audience members who may (or may not) have been connected to the band, when it was their turn to take to the stage. Normally an eight-piece band, tonight they were missing the pianist and nobody seemed to know why. Still, it was quite a crowded stage and the band included quite an impressive brass and woodwind section, including James Hamilton on trumpet – yes, the same James Hamilton who plays with Hope&Social. The set started in a somehow chaotic fashion, with the brass instruments all seeming to play on top of each other and the first thing I noticed was that Benjamin’s vocals sounded more like those of Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon than whoever it was I said that about last time (Dorien Starre, I think…) The first song was, again, unannounced, but was followed by Far Far Away and then White Houses (the band’s current single) which contained a nice violin part (and you won’t hear me say that too often) from Hannah. The fourth song showcased Katie’s flute while the fifth – Ode To God (?) – contained some great lyrics and had an old-fashioned, somehow typically Yorkshire feel, thanks to the brass, which I have to say I found a bit overpowering during Here In My Arms. The more catchy Spies is the B-side of the first single and again allowed Katie to shine, this time with her saxophone. The set ended with a nicely extended Holding Hands, with another nice violin solo (blimey, I’ve said it again..) and One Stormy Night. As the set ended, Stereo’s Andy asked me what I thought and we agreed that we kind of liked the band but couldn’t really say why. They were certainly different and, like InSpades.Inc, gave a full performance, but they seemed a little reserved if not aloof and, in my opinion, didn’t really connect with the audience. The fact that they didn’t watch the other bands was, I think, a bit strange (and I can’t blame Halloe Away and most of InSpades.Inc for not sticking around to watch them). Having said that, the three bands were quite a bit different so it might just be that the others weren’t quite their “thing”. Even so…

In my opinion, only one band made the most of the circumstances tonight, which is a bit of a shame.

The Boss Hopes To Take A Gambell And Gaines A Superb Gig

2011-03-29T21:29:00.001+01:00

Friday 25th March: It’s a sell-out at the Basement tonight as a favourite band (with all ages, judging by the audience) returns to York to headline what is being billed as an extravaganza. Sadly, one of the support acts, the excellent Dave Woodock and the Dead Comedians had to pull out at nearly the last minute, leading to a change in the line-up.

Standing in for the Dead Comedians, but further down the bill, is Rob Gambell, ex of Hijak Oscar and currently hailing from Canterbury. Playing acoustic guitar, Rob opened with a folky, country number which turned out to be a cover of William Elliott Whitmore’s Take It On The Chin, following that with what I think was another cover – Ben Harper’s Power Of The Gospel – and then If A Letter Makes It Better (Krissy and the Jackdaws). Switching to his own compositions, he sang Mama, I’m OK then Bucket and finished with another cover – Townes Zan Vandt’s If I Needed You. Rob used a variety of guitar styles and had a nicely clear voice along with an affable, almost nonchalant stage persona. The overall impression was of somebody singing around a campfire rather than at a gig. Personally, I found his covers to be more enjoyable than his own songs, despite the slightly humorous lyrics of Bucket, a song about loving somebody enough to look after them, which seemed to involve making sure they had something to throw up into. A pretty good start to the evening.

Rob was followed by Andy Gaines, ex of Cardboard Radio and The Runaway Sons and now a solo artist (and, I think, creative photographer and designer). No less affable, but slightly more bumbling (in the nicest possible sense of the word – “I have an EP for sale, but I have no idea where you can get it from. Just search for my name on the internet, something will come up…”) Andy seemed to be constantly trying to hide a huge grin underneath his extremely floppy fringe and was clearly having fun on stage. There was a nice mix of styles in his songs, most of which I didn’t catch the titles of. A “country-ish” number was followed by one that I can only describe as Billy Bragg sings about York. The Lights People Leave On was a jangly, catchy little number, while The Hand You Once Held was a passionate, almost angry song both musically and lyrically and was, in my opinion, the best of the set. He finished with The More Things Change, a much gentler folky song. Given Andy’s contributions to music around York, I’m surprised that this is the first time I have actually seen him perform. Hopefully, it won’t be the last. Oh, and for anybody interested, the EP is available from here.

I have waxed lyrical about Boss Caine a few times in the past but usually it’s GT Turbo/Dan Lucas performing solo under the name (presumably to avoid confusion when trying to sell CDs at gigs). Tonight, however, we were promised a few guests, making it a performance more akin to the musical collective of the name. GT started the set on his own with the song that I still don’t know the title of, but which I think is probably The Kind Of Loving (or something similar) before playing a brand new song – Ghosts And Drunks - which had been written for him by the wonderful Joe Solo and which will feature on the next album. It was a lovely yet melancholy tune which, like the best of GTs songs, both paints a picture and fits him perfectly. Another old song – Dead Man’s Suit – followed before Adam Rogowski, over from Russia, joined him on stage to provide a second guitar during Dreamer, a song which benefited from the harmonies of the two guitars by sounding more like the album version. (Roy commented that it was the best song of the evening up to that point and, as far as I know, didn’t revise his opinion.) Andy Gaines and Dom Smith then joined the pair for a welcome live debut (at least for me) of the brilliant Santiago, followed by another favourite of mine, Leaving Victoria. I have to say that I’m not sure whether the occasional sounds coming from Dom’s keyboard or Andy’s slide guitar (?) added anything to the songs, but I’m never going to complain about hearing them live. Everybody Loves You More When You’re Down On Your Knees (dedicated to “the prick currently running the country”) was another new song to me and included Vin North on harmonica, then Andy returned to the stage for the more upbeat Sha La La, a song which is at least partly about the demise of Cardboard Radio. Much was made tonight (albeit somewhat less than seriously) about the downbeat and, perhaps, depressive nature of GT’s songs. Admittedly, about half of tonight’s set was somewhat less than upbeat but, to me anyway, even the downbeat ones aren’t necessarily depressive and while some may be about the sadder parts of a life lived, they do show that it is possible to come out the other side and, maybe also show the cathartic effect of writing. Whatever, the songs remain some of my favourites of recent years and the makeup of tonight’s set, with its mix of new and old, regular and rarely heard provided a freshness to an artist that I never tire of seeing perform.

Another band that I never tire of seeing are Hope&Social who, even while recently performing more or less the same songs (new ones are just around the corner with the promise of a third album to be released in May) maintain a freshness and originality with their humour and what can only be described as on-stage antics. Opening the set with Living A Lie, with the audience joining in the frantic clapping opening, Simon seemed to forget that he, usually, performed a middle section on the keyboards, turning to stare at the brass section before exclaiming, “Do I do this bit?” Staged? Who knows. Bloody funny? Definitely! And that really set the tone for the rest of the evening. Pitching Far Too High was followed by a reminiscence of Simon hitting one audience member in a rather private area with a soup ladle (something which resonated with me given how close I was sitting to the business end of Rosie’s trombone…) A superbly extended version of Sunlight Hold Me included such delights of Rich seemingly trying to play guitar while cavorting around like somebody seen under a strobe light, Ed playing the keyboard with his palms and Simon managing to somehow prevent his microphone falling over without actually handling it. Compared to the set so far, Ripples Rock My Boat was performed uneventfully, which is not to say not brilliantly (if you see what I mean), although it might have been during it that a shout of “Zumba” (apparently “really good” in South Yorkshire) from the audience totally confused Simon. Normal service was soon resumed though when, during Red Red Rose, Simon felt the urge to get the audience involved in a Mexican wave backwards and forwards across the room, with Rich adding the suggestion that, at one end, the audience shout “Zumba, zumba” while at the other they shouted “Ooo, ooo”. Not only did we all comply but, in true pantomime fashion it developed into a competition between the two halves of the room and was soon followed by more audience participation as Simon got everybody responding to chants along the lines of, “I say Zumba, you say Ooo ooo. I say Zumba, you say Ooo, ooo, I say Zumba, you say <insert audience shouting “Ooo, ooo” here>”. Believe me, it works better when you are there. There was more to follow as the now ubiquitous acoustic version of Looking For Answers had us joining in the backing vocals for the chorus without any prompting – it has always been as much a song from the audience as it is from the band. Rich and his banjo weren’t quite ready for the beginning of A Darkness Now Is Coming which, somehow, led to Simon singing the first verse of Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer when Rich did start playing, before eventually giving up and singing the correct song. Add to that Ed playing an impromptu solo on his broken amplifier, matching hilarious facial expression to sounds something akin to dolphins singing while Simon Goff practically collapsed in hysterics, and James playing the trumpet between his legs (and seemingly to experience some dizziness afterwards) and you have yet another unique performance of a familiar song. The set ended with Marching On Through before continuing (or ending again) with an inevitable encore which was the only song of the evening that none of my group recognised. I’ve said before that you don’t see a Hope&Social gig, you experience it. They seem to get better every time I see them and, inevitably, this was the best so far. Truth be told, I doubt I’ve done it justice. If you fancy trying out their music, both albums are available on the above link on a “pay what you want” basis. Alternatively, if you read this and know me, ask and I’ll copy them for you (the band actively encourage it). Both albums are very good but, to be honest, the best way to experience Hope&Social is to see them live.

A Flock Of Siegal

2011-03-24T19:51:00.001Z

Tuesday 15th March: Regular readers will know that I have a wide taste in music, if not a wide knowledge. If there was one genre I would like to know a lot more about, it’s Blues. From my narrow experience, I know that I like Blues music but I also know that what I have heard barely scratches the surface. Take tonight, for example – I know that I like the headline act and this is the third time I’ve seen him but I couldn’t tell you which particular style of Blues he plays.

I haven’t knowingly seen The Blueflies before tonight. (I think they may have been playing at the York Beer Festival when I was there but can’t be sure.) They play what I would describe as riff-laden, bass heavy Blues and a lot of what they played tonight sounded familiar. I did note down a few lyrics but, despite extensive Googling, I have only managed to come up with the fact that one of the songs was Riot In Cell Block Number Nine (The Blues Brothers), another may have been Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) and their final song may have been Sugar Sweet (Freddie King). As to the rest, I don’t know – they could have been originals, they may have been covers that I can’t track down. What I do know is that they were certainly played well. Helped by some astoundingly clear vocals and superb guitar solos, the band certainly got more than one person in the better-than-average sized Fibbers crowd tapping their foot, especially during a lengthy third track which was an effortlessly varied instrumental. There was even a nifty little drum solo to fill time during a guitar change. If, like me, you’re a bit of a Blues fan, you could do a lot worse than to see The Blueflies play, especially since you can generally do so for free – keep an eye out for them at the Roman Bath or Victoria Vaults in York, or at a whole host of other venues around the North.

As I have already mentioned, this is the third time I’ve seen Ian Siegal and the second time he’s been the headline act. Either the British Blues scene isn’t very good, or Ian and his band are (I’m putting my money on the latter), as they seem to win a fair few awards, getting best band and best bass player (Andy Graham) at the inaugural British Blues Awards last year as well as Broadside winning Mojo magazine’s Blues Album of the Year in 2009. His style is very different to that of The Blueflies and is described (by Wikipedia) as “rootsy”. He’s a very laid-back performer and doesn’t introduce all of his songs so, again, I have to rely on catching lyrics and t’internet to put together anything like a full set list. Something which, this time, I have singularly failed to do. There was mention of a new album, from which at least The Skinny came from, but there doesn’t seem to be an mention of it on his website. Other songs may have been called Dirty Brown Dog and Hard Pressed to Find Another Man Like Me, but I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter, though – it’s the performance that counts. With a variety of vocal styles, outstanding guitar work, a great variety of songs, including one that starts out slow and simple but developed into something so complex that I had no idea what was going on and another that I would be hard-pressed to recognise as a Blues song, Ian never fails to impress. There’s the occasional nice line in dry humour between songs – “When I got my first tattoo my mother told me that she didn’t really like tattoos. So I recommended she didn’t get one…” – as well as a few anecdotes (I hesitate to call it “name-dropping”) about who he has played with, making it a more genial and, perhaps, more intimate performance than some artists give. We even get a solo performance as part of the encore, which also includes the one cover that I know of – Hot Legs (Rod Stewart) – and, finally, Take A Walk In The Wilderness, from the already mentioned Broadside.

A Gig, In Miniature

2011-03-12T20:56:00.001Z

Tuesday 1st March: I’m at Stereo tonight, to see a band from Scotland playing York for the first time and it might be the fact that it is their debut that leads to the elephant in the room. Not, of course, that there was an actual elephant and, as I’m going to talk about it, it’s not really a normal use of the phrase. However, it does provide me with the opportunity to say, “if there was an elephant in the room, it would have had plenty of space to move about…” You see, apart from me, the only other people in the audience were either the two support acts or people associated with one of the support acts. Admittedly, it was a cold Tuesday night and, as we are constantly being told, money is tight these days but I understand that, across town, Fibbers was sold out, so there were people going out to enjoy live music despite the weather (and the current government…) I admit I was only there due to a unique set of circumstances and I couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for all the acts, especially the headliners who probably hadn’t expected their English tour to end with such a poor turnout.

First to take the stage (and, being a solo artist, having the biggest audience) was Sophie McDonnell, who doesn’t seem to have her own page to provide a link to, but she does play and sing in Hot Fudge, a ska, reggae, funk band. Tonight, however, Sophie provided a variation on the man-and-guitar act by, well being a girl with a guitar. Two Hot Fudge songs, Feeling Torn and Lay Down, Play Dead, featured in the set, complete with vocal renditions of the trumpet solos, as did a covers of VV Brown’s Shark In The Water and Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good (if memory serves). I assume the other three, Iron Man, All These Things I’ve Done and one that I missed the title off, were originals. The variety in the songs was nice and Sophie has a good voice and a winning smile and she plays with confidence and more than a touch of humour, which made for an entertaining opening set.

Tonight is the third time I’ve seen The Blueprints in a relatively short time but tonight, perhaps because they were essentially playing to the other bands and their friends, they decided to have a bit of fun and play around with the set-list a bit, which freshened it up a bit. Starting with their “normal” three songs – one I still haven’t caught the title of, Three Minutes and Staring At The Sun – there followed a short interval, during which Stuart changed his guitar and the band launched into Layla (a song Stuart, apparently, hates). Back to the serious stuff and we got the superb City Skylines, a cover of Ryan Adams’ Two (which may just have inspired me to try some of his material), Spectrum Vs Commodore, No Melancholy and a song I don’t think I’ve heard before which may have been called Walk Away. As usual, The Blueprints gave a very entertaining performance of some striking songs. In fact, each time I see them I find myself liking them more.

Thankfully, both support acts hung around to see Miniature Dinosaurs, a young band from Stirling who were touring to promote their second EP, Off The Radio. After the first song, vocalist Barry Maclean thanked everybody for staying around and said that a wise man had once told him that whether there was one person or a thousand in the audience you put on the same show. And what a show. Occasionally breaking the set up by asking the audience whether they knew answers to a pop quiz, Barry showed an easy camaraderie (and sound-man Andy a nice humourous touch with the lighting when he briefly sent the band to hell…) The music is indie-pop with a touch of 80’s electro-pop both from the keyboards of Craig Ferrie and Barry’s vocals and the performance deserved a much bigger audience than it got tonight. We were treated to songs from both EP’s, including Off The Radio, (I Want To Watch) Top Gear, Alligator (a personal favourite of mine), Cold Shoulder, Light Speed, Fight Or Flight and two others and all were played brilliantly. As a rule, I don’t dance but my feet were certainly tapping tonight.

After the set, I had a chat with Alban Dickson, the Dinosaurs’ bass-player. We covered a variety of topics including football, the Stirling music scene, the band itself and my lack of passion for the EP format. Alban was very pragmatic about the small turnout, telling me that it was something that, being a new band, they had to accept and that the next time they play York, they would hope to play to five more people and ten more the time after, building a following. I can only say that, if they do come back, I will definitely make every effort to see them. Highly recommended.

Satisfying A Craving

2011-03-04T20:43:00.002Z

Monday 28th February: Way back when, many years ago, when I first started going to gigs, it was rare for me to know anything about the various support bands I was due to see. In fact, I can’t even remember many of them, especially those from your standard two-act gigs. Most of the time, I doubt I even knew who the support were due to be and rarely did I like them. These days, however, I’m as likely to go to a gig based on who (one of) the support bands are than I am for the headliners.

Tonight is one of those occasions as I make a solo trip to Fibbers to see Inspades.inc, a band I’ve seen once before and really enjoyed. Seeming to write their songs around lovely guitar solos (or, perhaps, duets as, once I took proper notice, I did spot one “solo” actually slide smoothly across from Stewart King’s guitar to that of Adam Brady) and with some nice changes of pace, the band came across as a lot more confident tonight than the last time I saw them (which was, to be fair, only their second gig). There was still a hint of nervousness, most especially during Cannibals a song written and sung by Brady and hampered by the fact that tonight’s sound man didn’t seem to have realised that the vocals were coming through a different microphone – vocals are hard enough to hear through the more dance-music orientated sound system at Fibbers without inattentive sound engineers… There’s little doubt (in my mind, at least) that King is the “main man” of the band. The rest of the songs featured his vocals, he did all the talking and, as far as I could tell, the majority of solo’s were his as well. His understated (i.e. not too showy) posturing was counterpointed by the more relaxed performances of the rest of the band (P.G. Branton on drums and Jim Quinn on bass) and he’s another of those frontmen who, if he can’t tempt the audience closer to the stage will just shrug and get on with the performance. And it was a very good performance. Along with Cannibals, the six song set was made up of Seanachai, Twenty Minutes From Now, Lost Track Of Time, Of It’s Own Accord and Sucker Punch, some of which I recognised from the previous gig and some of which were new (I’m ruling out “less memorable”). If you like your rock slightly less heavy than metal, you will probably enjoy this band. A debut EP is available now and there is the possibility of a longer release towards the end of this year.

In contrast Leon Sanford, vocalist with Tiger Please, seemed more insistent that the audience moved closer to the stage, calling us forward after completing their first song. Hailing from South Wales and being around since at least 2009 (when they released their debut EP), this is a slightly more established band who had supported tonight’s headliners all through their tour and who are about to be supporting Funeral For A Friend. With twelve guitars and a spare drum visible on stage, I was expecting big things. Sanford has powerful vocals, even if they were helped by a fair bit of echo/reverb, which somehow reminded me a little of The Manic Street Preachers, while the music varied from pseudo-Killers in the quieter moments to something bordering on heavy at other times. I didn’t catch any song titles and none of the songs immediately took up residence in my head, but it was a reasonably enjoyable set. There was a great deal more showmanship in evidence, with band members (including a stand-in for the usual guitarist) moving around the stage on a whim. The band are about to write an album of songs based on the real-life stories of their fans and the last song of their set was, apparently, the story of one woman whose father committed suicide early in her life. Opened by the stand-in guitarist basically beating seven shades out of the extra drum and containing slightly more than a hint of Runrig, this epic song turned out to be my highlight of the set. The band were joined on stage by the members of the headliners - all togged out in Tiger Please T-shirts - and yet another drum halfway through the song, ensuring a rousing end to the set. I may not be beating any doors down in order to see Tiger Please again, but I enjoyed what I saw tonight.

The Crave, on the other hand, I would definitely see again. Apparently they last played York a couple of years ago, to a slightly smaller crowd at the Duchess. (Tonight’s crowd was somewhere in the region of fifty people, many of whom seemed to be friends or family of Tiger Please…)

Looking like a mix of any number of rock or metal bands, The Crave play fast and loud, but still melodic, rock and mix the accessibility of the likes of Bon Jovi with something that has a bit more edge. Songs like Crash and Burn, with it’s heavy metal vocals and almost finger-plucking guitar work, mixed easily with the more commercial, audience sing-along of High, while a more ballad-like song whose title I couldn’t hear once again suffered from a poor vocal mix in the sound, but not as badly as the cover of Limp Bizkit’s Mission Impossible theme, when the vocals from drummer C.J. Evans were, once again, ignored by the sound-man until some frantic gesturing from the stage woke him up. This song also featured the reverse of the end-of-tour hi-jinks,as The Crave were joined on stage by the members of Tiger Please, all sporting Scream masks and some just their underwear and some strategically placed sticky tape… Most of the songs played seemed to come from the recently released album, Breaking The Silence (which I bought on the night) but there was also one brand new song – Star Tripping – which at least shows that the band aren’t resting on their laurels. There was a great deal to like in this performance and, like Inspades.inc, I would highly recommend The Crave if you like guitar-driven rock. (As an aside, this is the first gig I’ve been to this year where none of the band used a keyboard.) I couldn’t put it any better than the tour poster – “Back in a simpler time there was no indie, no emo, no nu-rave. No post-this, post-that, just riff-laden, ballsy rock ‘n’ roll; huge songs, life-changing gigs and a whole world of noisy, gutsy fun.”

2011 – A Personal Preview

2011-02-25T22:27:00.001Z

Friday 25th February: With no plans to attend a gig this weekend (never fear, though, I have one planned for Monday…), I thought I would treat my faithful reader(s) to a preview of which albums I’m looking forward to so far this year, along with one or two that I hope will see the light of day sometime in 2011.

So, in no particular order, here are my “must buys” so far…

First up is Out Of An Ancient World, by Marc Atkinson’s Riversea. I’ve seen Marc play live a couple of times and have both his solo, acoustic albums, but this has all the hallmark’s of a big project. Ex-York resident (and biggest Dr Who fan… ever!) Marc will, once again, be playing acoustic guitar and has been joined by Brendan Eyre on keyboards, along with a whole host of guest’s (from the York area and further afield) to provide the rest of the music and backing vocals. I’ve heard just the one track, played live back in December and haven’t taken advantage of any of the preview clips available on MySpace or dotted around Facebook but, with the project billed as acoustic/progressive/rock, as well as with the amount of talent to be found in the project, there’s something about this album which is calling out to me, helped in no small part by the stunning cover by Ed Unitsky. Out Of An Ancient World was due to be released around Easter time, but I think that may have slipped slightly recently.

Marc is also involved in Sangreal, the second release from the new, third version of Mandalaband. This album sounds very much a concept piece, as were the first three, and tells the story of the Holy Grail as seen in the Romano-Spanish version – the history of the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper (as opposed to the King Arthur version). Marc seems to have upped his contribution from the last album, providing lead vocals for five or six of the fourteen tracks and backing vocals for others. The album also includes the last song Woolly Wolstenholme (Barclay James Harvest) recorded before his death last year. The previous album, BC – Ancestors, was one of my favourites of recent times and the newly re-mastered re-releases of the original 70s albums may sound a little dated now compared to the prog rock being released today but that doesn’t matter to me (after all, I’ve only just discovered Camel and Caravan…)

I like to think that I’ve been a fan of Chantel McGregor from the beginning of her career but I know that, although I first saw her live while she was still playing The Roman Bath, with no entry charge, she had been performing for quite some time. On a personal note, she was the first artist to put a link to this blog on her website, an act that I was honoured by. The pocket prodigy plays guitar like nobody else I have seen and now, after completing her degree, she has had the time to concentrate on writing her own music and has recently been recording her debut album which is due for release in April. Some of the new songs have already made it into her live set and sat comfortably with the Hendrix, Cream, Trower, Fleetwood Mac, Bonamassa, etc. covers that she was known for performing. With details of the recording being blogged on a daily basis, we are promised the likes of a “13 minute epic”, a “swampy, bluesy thang” and “progging it up a bit”. The only downside is that we won’t get Chantel’s rambling monologues, usually about dresses, take-away food or equipment malfunctions, between songs. (Unless she goes down the Seasick Steve route, of course…) If you are a fan of the blues, this is one album you must look out for.

The first and, so far, only time I saw Haze play live was back in 2003, in the Bay Horse (now Stereo) in York and they were, therefore, my initiation into the world of live prog-rock. A magazine review of a more recent gig jogged my memory and alerted me to the fact that they were still around, if only sporadically. I had a brief email conversation/trip down memory lane with bass-player and vocalist Chris McMahon before buying a copy of a double live CD from their 30th anniversary tour, only to find that some of the songs had been lodged in the back of my brain for all those intervening years. Now performing more regularly as Treebeard, a more folky, “heavy wood” ensemble, Chris recently decided to write a new Haze album, their first studio album since 1987’s Stoat And Bottle, although an album named Haze was released in 1994 by World Turtle (Chris and his brother Paul) and contained material that would have been on Haze’s third album. A new album so soon after I get in touch? Coincidence? Almost certainly, but I’m still looking forward to it.

As the year goes on, there are bound to be other releases that I look forward to as eagerly as the ones above, they are just the ones I know that are on the horizon. I also know that Hope & Social have started work on their third album, but that’s as much detail as I have at the moment.

If I could have a wish list, however, it would probably include the following (some of which may be in the pipeline already):

A second album from Boss Caine – it’s hard to imagine a better album than last year’s The Ship That Sailed but if main man GT Turbo can put together another mix of old and new and manage to include some of my favourites from his live sets, it might just be possible.

A debut from Stolen Earth – formed from the ashes of the recently disbanded Breathing Space and featuring the writers of the new songs we heard live during that band’s final gig back in December Stolen Earth are, arguably, the most exciting new band in York at the moment. I don’t know whether the band has enough output for an album yet, but they are trying to get on the bill for this Summer’s Cambridge Rock Festival and, I’m told, are aiming to put together some demo material to help promote the band.

A second album from Parade, or whatever they are going to call themselves to avoid confusion with the same-named pop band. New material is being written, but a release date (and new name) has yet to be announced.

A second release from blues-rockers 98Pages – they will almost certainly always be better to see live than listen to recorded but the new songs performed recently are part of a batch that have been written with an eye to either release a second album or a series of EPs. My vote goes to the album format.

There’s bound to be more. I’ve concentrated on smaller and, for the most part, local bands, most of whom I have seen perform and some of whom I have become friends with (if only through social networking). Bigger, more “established” bands that I like are bound to be working on new albums and, when they arrive, there is a very good chance that they will be added to my collection, but the ones I have listed are, in my opinion, bands that deserve supporting. I realise I’ve leaned somewhat in the direction of progressive rock but, given my tastes, that’s to be expected. I doubt that any of the albums will be inaccessible to general music fans, though. So, if you like music why not keep an eye out for one (or more) of the albums and try something a bit different?

Spikes and Tears

2011-02-24T11:17:00.001Z

Saturday 19th February: Another weekend, another trip to Fibbers. This time the bill is two bands that I last saw play (on the same bill again) back in 2007. Unfortunately, I had only just started blogging these reviews back then so details of that gig are a little sparse.

Last time around, The Falling Spikes were second on the bill. Tonight they are openers. I don’t quite remember there being so many people on stage last time. Starting off with six people on stage (I assume the six listed on the above link) they were soon joined by a seventh, mystery man who accompanied Maria Tjader on percussion as well as seeming to take the lion’s share of backing vocals.

Last time around, I wasn’t overly impressed with the music. I don’t know whether it’s my tastes or the band’s output that has changed, but I found myself enjoying it a lot more tonight. Perhaps best described as danceable psychedelia, there were hints of Hawkind and Engineers but with a lighter touch permeating the music due to the tambourines and maracas. The vocals were subjected to a fair amount of reverb and were still a little droney and monotonous, but in a way that I have now come to expect from shoegazers. Standout song was Midnight Train, the twin vocals for which provided a soaring end to the set.

The band also tried to utilise visuals in their set, with a black and white film on loop behind them. Unfortunately, the low ceiling at Fibbers meant that much of it was obscured by the shadows of the musicians.

It can’t have been too long after I saw Ishtar that the band split up (amicably). Last year, it was reformed as Tears of Ishtar and, from speaking to drummer Greg Parsons (also of RSJ), there are big plans for the new version of this post-rock/experimental/progressive band. Tonight was, I believe, only their second live performance (after last year’s appearance at the Galtres Festival) and there was high expectation from my party at least.

Tonight we were treated to a forty-five minute version of Trials of Descent, a shorter version of which can be found on the page linked above. Well, I say forty-five minutes, it turns out that the band played it slightly too fast in places (I saw one of them motioning to the others to slow down) and it eventually came in at a little over forty minutes. The performance is also split by very brief pauses, almost as though the music is split into suites, which give the audience a chance to show their appreciation throughout the music. And appreciative we were, fervently applauding music that varied so much that you could almost have been listening to a Pink Floyd/Metallica mash-up. (I’m not knowledgeable enough about the new bands that are listed as influences and have to revert back to “dinosaur rock for my references…)

The music was tight and any mistakes (I was told there was a few) weren’t noticeable by us. It was a shame that the cries for “More” weren’t answered. Who knows how long an encore we could have been treated to. If this was just a taster of things to come from the revitalised Tears of Ishtar, then I personally can’t wait.

Spotlight On: Miniature Dinosaurs

2011-02-14T19:10:00.004Z

Monday 14th February: I can't think of many bands who hail from Stirling, Scotland. In fact, Miniature Dinosaurs are the only one I know of, and that's probably only because they are about to play a gig in York.

Comprising of Barry Mclean (vocals, guitar), Alban Dickson (bass), Craig Ferrie, (guitar, keyboards) and Sam Waller (drums), Miniature Dinosaurs play indie pop that has been compared to the likes of The Killers, with vocals that are reminiscent of David Bowie mixed with tones of 80's electro-pop (opinion is split in this household as to whether Mclean sounds more like Gary Numan or Phil Oakey...)

The band's first single, (I Want To Watch) Top Gear, was played on Radio One three months before they played their first gig. Since then, two EPs have been produced - 2010's Chatterbox and Off The Radio, which the band are currently promoting on tour and which includes their latest single, Fight Or Flight.

The music is bright, bouncy and a world away from some of the dreary stuff currently being touted as the next best thing. Songs such as Write Back and Showgirl, both of which featured in MTV's teen drama, Being Victor, are ripe for live performances and show a maturity that belies the band's relative youth, having been formed less than two years ago.

As well as music, the band love football and will be appearing in May at a charity dinner in tribute to Scottish (and Leeds United, obviously) footballer, Billy Bremner, as well as hosting their own 5-a-side football event in their hometown.

As well as the current UK tour, there are also plans for a European tour later in the year.

Miniature Dinosaurs play Stereo, York on Tuesday 1st of March, supported by The Blueprints and Idiophonic. Other dates are available on the links below:

Band Website
MySpace
Soundcloud

Panicking Folk

2011-02-12T15:05:00.005Z

Friday 11th February: Once again, there's three of us out. This time it's Fibbers to see one of my favourite bands on the first date of their 2011 Satellite Tour.

First, though, we have Marck "Marbled" Whiley taking the stage with his acoustic guitar to play us some "folky" songs (his description). This is the third time I've seen Marck and, I have to admit, I find him a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy some of his songs and dislike others, but none really engage me. There is no denying that he is much more than competent on the guitar, using a mixture of techniques (no finger picking tonight, though) and that he has a good voice, although it can be a little too piercing when he hits the high notes. What he does do very well, is engage the audience - after renditions of Licking Electricity, Birds And Bee (with its repeated picturesque line of "White swan on an ink black lake"), Mary Poppins Blood Line with its minimal guitars starkly contrasting with the more powerful Spider In The Bath, during which most of the audience were pretty apathetic, he asked whether we wanted something more up-tempo or something slower. "Up-tempo!" shouted Roj, which prompted Marck to leave the stage, gather the audience around him and play The Beat Goes On completely unplugged, much has he did last time we saw him. I even spotted members of the headline band peering through the green room window in what appeared to be incredulous amusement as he did so. He followed this with another unplugged song, A Pony That (if I remember correctly...), which is his "Valentine's Day" song and was duly sung directly to a lady from the audience. Returning to the stage, the set ended with the quiet Notre Dame which segued into the much faster, almost rockier, Run Rabbit Run, which is one of my favourites. Once again a mixed set from a very confident artist. I just wish his songs did more for me than they actually do.

I guess it's something to do with the size of both the city itself and, perhaps, its venues, that means that York doesn't get too many of the current crop of UK progressive rock bands playing here. Panic Room, however, with their obvious links to the city's own Mostly Autumn, have a reasonably sized York-based following and are playing their fourth gig here tonight at Fibbers. The venue itself has had its detractors since the refit last year, but it does seem to be ironing out some of the problems and is certainly attracting some decent bands. Panic Room themselves are a band most definitely on the up. Lead singer Anne-Marie Helder was recently voted best female singer by Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine, while the band's 2010 album, Satellite, featured as a top ten entry in end of years polls in both that magazine and Classic Rock itself.

Taking to the stage through a haze of blue smoke, the band make an entrance worthy of a bigger venue, before bursting into a rendition of Freedom To Breathe, following that with Picking Up Knives, Yasuni, The Fall and Black Noise, all from Satellite. Switching to their debut album, Visionary Position, the band seem to have tweaked Elektra City a little, using new vocal effects and making it a bit darker towards the end. Reborn is followed by a return to Satellite and a welcome return to the live set for Into The Fire. This is followed by Song For Tomorrow, a new song the lyrics for which were reportedly being written in the van on the way up to the gig. It opens with just keyboards before bursting into life with some of the band's heaviest guitar work and a middle piano section leads to a simple drums and vocal section before it bursts into life again - a fantastic new song. next up comes 5th Amendment, from Little Satellite (the bonus disk that shipped with last year's album), then it's back to the debut for Apocalypstick, with it's haunting Eastern tones. There's a brief departure from their own material as the cover version of ELP's Bitches Crystal, originally recorded for a Prog cover CD that is now very unlikely to ever see the light of day, is performed. Dark Star and Satellite, the latter with a very interesting if somewhat brief spacey bass section from, end the main set.

Unsurprisingly, Anne-Marie et al return to the stage for an encore, this time of another new song, again being completed on the way up. "I think this one is going to be called Promises," states Anne-Marie, perhaps to the surprise of the rest of the band. It's a bit funkier than the rest of their output but, like Song For Tomorrow, remains unmistakeably a Panic Room song.

I've seen Panic Room every time they have played York and this is by far the best performance they have put on in the city, helped in no small part by a very good light show and, for the most part, unusually clear sound which meant that Anne-Marie's vocals could be heard above the music for most of the set. Clearly enjoying themselves and singing the venue's praises, the band played a superb nearly two-hour set, mixing it up just enough from the tour last year. The addition of the new songs must surely promise that work on a new album is around the corner and, if they can come up with songs anywhere near as good as tonight's it's going to be a cracker. Finally a word about Paul Davies - I love watching him play guitar. His facial expressions convey everything from the ease with which he plays to the fact that he seems to live every note.

It may only be mid-way through February but tonight is an early contender for best live performance in my round up of the year.

Images Of Dorien Behind Glass

2011-02-08T17:58:00.003Z

Friday 4th February: With Lynn on a girlie night out, it's just the three of us attending the Duchess for the second week running, this time to see a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar bands.

First, one of the new ones. The Bitter Image are a four-piece rock band from York. They came across as a bit grungy, a lot heavy, very loud but still melodic. Powerful drumming provided the backbone to songs which also included some very nice guitar pieces and some surprisingly clear vocals (for a rock band at the Duchess). I didn't catch many song titles, but did note down that the fourth song of the set was a lot slower than the rest, almost ballad-like, with more metallic sounding guitars and that the sixth was a new song. The one title I did get, Forget Me Not, turned out to be, along with the previously mentioned slower number, the best of what was a pretty good set. A band to look out for.

I last saw Dorien Starre back in 2008. Since then, they have won Hive Live (a competition for local bands) in March 2010 and blown Roj's socks off in November of the same year. Their extended indie rock songs are, quite frankly, superb. Fast paced, with great music and vocals which still remind me a little of The Divine Comedy. Last time out I singled out drummer Andrew Ackroyd for special mention. I still think he is one of the best local drummers around at the moment, but there is no singling out this time as the rest of the band are equally as good. Don't let the brevity and lack of detail regarding their set fool you - I was simply so enthralled by the music that I forgot to make any notes. Dorien Starre are highly recommended. I just wish I'd picked up a copy of their EP on the night. (Previous comments about EPs notwithstanding...)

It's not that I had deliberately avoided Glass, tonight's headliners, but the description of the band from front man Alexander King's YorkMusicForum signature ("Dark, gripping, post-punk influenced rock") somehow put me off, despite not actually knowing what it meant. I suspect it was the word "punk" in there that did it - I've never been a fan of that particular genre. So, when tonight's gig was put forward as an option, I asked a friend what sort of music they actually played. "A bit Gothic," was the somewhat vague response. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see the stage festooned with fairy lights and King himself decked out in vest and trilby, in a very un-Goth way. Next surprise was the lack of instruments on stage - we could hear keyboards, but we couldn't see any... Shock, horror! A backing track was in use. More to the point, the music was a bit light and airy, at least at the beginning of the set. It got a bit more edgy and heavier as the set went on, but I would struggle to describe it as dark. (Although, in hindsight, I suppose that could be a relative term.) Overall, it was a slick and, for me anyway, enjoyable performance which seemed to mix New Wave and generic rock in a pretty successful way. I even managed to put the backing track to the back of my mind after a while - to begin with you can't help but wonder how much of what you are hearing is part of the track and how much is being played live but it seemed obvious later on that the band is comprised of some very talented musicians (including another superb drummer in Dan Whiting). Unfortunately, as the backing track seemed to be one long recording, rather than something that was started at the beginning of each song, there was little room left for introducing the songs or other interaction with the crowd. From what I can remember a quick "This is the new single" was all we got. It impressed me enough to buy the band's debut album, The Sound Of Glass, which I've only had the chance to listen through once so far but which does come across as bit darker than tonight's performance. The concept of the music being transmitted through time from Victorian times via a steam-driven machine, conveyed by text in the CD "case" and by the band's wonderfully intriguing web-site is original and adds a different dimension to the band as a whole.

I have since found out, via the same friend, that Glass have in the past performed with a keyboard player (Andy Curry is credited on the album) and that King has talked about a change in direction for the band, perhaps more in the use of electronics. On the basis of tonight's performance and the brief listen to the album I have learned one thing - not to judge a band by a few words of description or an attempt to label it.

Club For Sombre Kids

2011-02-01T18:14:00.003Z

Friday 28th January: For the first time in months we manage a full turn-out, this time to see three new bands at a slightly tweaked Duchess. There's new speaker stacks, the games tables have been removed and the venue has been made slightly smaller by bricking up the area to the far right of the stage (which always seemed a bit of a waste of space anyway).

First up were Sombre, listed on the link as Luke Saxton and Robert Green but tonight a threesome, presumably joined by an unnamed drummer. Sounding like a cross between Sigur Ros and the more introspective bits of Pink Floyd, Sombre are one of the most interesting new bands I've come across recently. Three of the four extended songs that they filled their half hour set with had the same basic structure - quiet start, building to a louder middle section before fading away again - and some of the lyrics were a bit repetitive, but the shared vocals were nice and the fourth and final song was much bouncier and emotional. Overall a highly enjoyable thirty minutes which turned out to be the highlight of the evening.

I was, indirectly, recommended Missing Kids by somebody who has, before tonight, not steered me wrong and it was partly that recommendation that saw me going out tonight. A kind of reverse Ting Tings, the band comprise solely of D'Mudie on guitars and vocals and S'Anderson on drums and whispers (and other sounds). Unfortunately, their very short punchy songs failed to engage tonight's audience, which was strange given the number of people who seemed to be attending with flyers from the band. Quite a large number of the people who had stood at the front for Sombre had retreated to the back of the venue, where they inevitably tried to talk over the band who, in turn, seemed to take a long time between songs and came across as just a little too moody (excuse the pun...) and disjointed, not helped by some muddy (again, forgive the pun) vocals. There was some effortless yet effective drumming and, it has to be said, I thought the set took off during its second half. However, I can't help but think that a slicker performance to a more receptive audience would showcase Missing Kids more than tonight's outing did.

The ABC Club are pretty much being touted as one of the next big thing, with plaudits coming from the likes of NME. A five-piece from Leeds, it seemed strange that on stage only the lead guitarist and drummer actually seemed to want to be in a band - the rest just sort of stood around, playing their instruments without any conviction or, in the case of vocalist Zandra Kleivins, staring into space (or at the floor) with her hands firmly clasped behind her back. A shame, really, as she probably had a good voice but her slightly nasal tones failed to make an impact above the slightly too loud music. The music itself reminded me a little of the Killers, except that none of the songs really stood out for me. And then, just two thirds through what should have been a forty-five minute set (and while Roj was, shall we say, otherwise disposed), something strange happened... The rhythm guitarist simply stood his guitar against a speaker, the lead guitarist literally threw his to the floor (and his plectrum in the air) and both walked off stage. I might be wrong, but it seemed to me that the drummer looked a bit shocked and, shortly afterwards, the stage was empty. Nobody shouted for an encore and we were left wondering whether the whole thing was part of the act, an outburst of petulance or, perhaps, an indication of turmoil within the band.

Whatever the reason, it was a strange end to a mostly underwhelming evening.

Designs On Piracy

2011-01-31T18:26:00.003Z

Friday 21st January: Three weeks into 2011 and tonight should have seen the whole gang making their way to Fibbers for our first gig of the year. Sadly Andy's engine decided to blow up, resulting in him missing a cracking night out. As is usual, I arrived first - except this time, it wasn't just first of the four of us. Apart from band members and staff, I was the first person through the doors and, therefore, could get a better impression of exactly how soulless an empty Fibbers actually is. Granted, it's not meant to be experienced in that way and, I guess, most people don't actually turn up to a gig on their own.

First to take to the stage, after a greeting and a brief chat, was GT Turbo (again under his Boss Caine guise - I suspect so as not to confuse anybody who might be tempted into buying one of his excellent CDs). Being on first is never easy and GT had to contend with the usual swell of noise as the crowd started to grow. Despite a concerted effort from some of the other acts, few people seemed interested in listening, standing instead at the back and catching up with people that they probably hadn't seen for an hour or so. LOUDLY! By now, you probably realise that I'm a big fan and tonight's set, with it's mixture of old - Dead Man's Suit, The Kind of Loving (I'm still guessing at the title of this one...) - and newer - Dean Street Devils, Murder On My Mind, Father Time - was one of the strongest I've seen him perform, even if he was struggling with the sound and general apathy. There was even a brand new song, which may have been called Down On Your Knees, which was introduced as something that he has "big plans" for, and another (which I didn't get the title of) but which was an epic booze and drug-filled "real life" love song. Highlight for me, though, was the first live performance I have heard of The Life In Your Years in what was, I think, a change to the original set-list. For non-regulars, this superb, heart-rending autobiographical song was my favourite of 2010 and I even got a shout-out from the stage when it was played.

I had been telling people that, of the four acts on tonight, I had only seen two before. However, I soon realised that I had, in fact, seen The Blueprints back at the beginning of December, at Stereo. Tonight's set was quite similar to that one, with the first song being performed without Tom Williams on keyboard, before he joined them for the rest of the set. Song-titles I picked up included Breaking Walls, Three Minutes (with its dark opening eventually turning into a more dancey number), Staring At The Sun, the superb City Skylines and Walk Away. As last time, there was a degree of cheekiness, epitomised by vocalist Stuart Allan's mischievous grin, in their playing and a lot of fun on stage and, for some reason, I found myself enjoying their music a lot more tonight that I did last time. If infectious indie pop is your thing, you could do a lot worse than to see these guys.

Last time I saw 98Pages I was a little disappointed - despite being the headliners that night, they performed a very short set which came across as a bit underwhelming. Tonight, however, they were on very top form, proving once again that, however good their debut album - Broken Homes And The Halfway House - is, they excel themselves with their energetic live performances. I'm afraid I have no idea what the first song they performed was, but it had a very definite Led Zeppelin feel, thanks to the riffs. Nor did I recognise the second song, while the third was the band's "anthem", Goodbye Jojo, from the album. I also recognised Only Let You Down, but I'm fairly certain that the rest of the set was new music. Extremely good new music, some of which will, hopefully, be released on a second album soon. (There was also talk of some EP releases, but I'm not a big fan of that format - no sooner have you put one on and sat down than you have to get up to change the CD...) As usual, there wasn't a great deal of interaction with the audience (hence the lack of titles above) as the band let the music do the talking. And a very interesting monologue it was.

So to the only band on tonight's bill that I hadn't see before, The Buccaneers. Perhaps best described as rhythm and blues for the indie generation, they provided the longest set of the evening, with their eleven, mostly fast-paced, songs including Out Of Sight, Singing The Blues (with its rather abrupt ending), Take My Soul, Ride with it's superb solo and slightly more rock 'n' roll sound, the very repetitive Don't Break Down, a nice cover of blues standard Baby Please Don't Go and, best song of the set, The Pistol's Warm (it's your groove that's killing me) - the video for which can be seen on YouTube - with it's metallic sounding guitars and slightly chaotic ending.

I might have switched the bill around slightly but, overall, this was a very enjoyable evening with four very strong acts. In terms of live music, a great start to the year.

2010 In Review - Part 3, The Gigs

2011-01-16T20:18:00.002Z

Sunday 16th January: ...and so to my final roundup of 2010 - the live bands that I saw during the year.

This year saw somewhat of a shake-up in the venues of the city. The controversial takeover and subsequent refurbishment of Fibbers by a company perhaps better known for their nightclubs than for live music divided opinion, caused the cancellation of at least one gig (with some fairly vitriolic comments for the band's spokesman on the night) and led to some arguably enforced changes in some of the familiar faces within its staff. I still don't like the interior (or the bar prices and choice - I've yet to actually buy a drink in there since the refurb) but they do seem to be getting more of the sorts of acts that I like again. The Duchess, on the other hand, seems to have gone a little downhill, which may or may not have been tied in with staff changes there. Despite rumours that they were about to start hosting local acts with cheap entry, they haven't actually had anybody I've been tempted to see since the middle of the year.

On the other hand, from my point of view, Stereo has come more to the fore as a venue. In the past the acts appearing there haven't appealed to me because of the seeming darkness and punk links. Recently, however, it has hosted some old favourites and, in some ways, proves to be the best venue in York.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year was the fact that the long-empty Barbican Centre is to be refurbished and reopened in 2011. The venue will be operated by SMG Europe, who currently run Manchester's MEN Arena and will be running the new Leeds Arena (among others). In the past the Barbican attracted some reasonably big (for York) names and, despite the potential impact on my wallet, I hope that I can start to do so again.

Anyway, onto what I actually saw in 2010. It is perhaps indicative of the fact that I kept bemoaning the dearth of what I considered good music that I only went to thirty-four gigs in 2010 (down from thirty-seven in 2009). However, I did see seventy-three individual acts in a total of eighty-eight performances (up from sixty-five and seventy-two respectively). The venue split was - Fibbers: 11 (9 before the refurb); Duchess and Stereo: 6 each; Basement and Roman Bath: 4 each; Punchbowl, Royal Oak and Grand Opera House: 1 each.

Last year, I decided not to choose a "best" gig due to to the difficulty of picking one from such a list of different items. This year, however, despite the list perhaps being even more eclectic, I definitely have a favourite. There was only one band that I could say I wouldn't cross the street to see again. Or, the words of my Dad, "If they were playing in my back garden, I'd close the curtains." A few more bands didn't do much for me on the night, but I wouldn't be put off seeing them as support acts in future. One or two others were slightly disappointing, for various reasons - Nick Harper was one of my 2009 highlights but I wasn't as impressed with his performance this year and Heavens Basement came highly recommended and didn't quite perform to my expectations. On the other hand, a few bands surprised me into enjoying them more than I expected (if, indeed, I expected anything) - new band Boys Off The Bench showed great potential while a reduced line-up Eureka Machines were superb.

In terms of highlights, I seem to have picked old favourites. Gun and Morpheus Rising, this time supported by Scream Arena, once again rocked the Duchess, shortly before Toby Jepson left Gun to go back to a solo career. April's Hope & Social gig (with support from Robert Loxley Hughes, the full version of Dave Woodcock and the Dead Comedians and the always excellent GT Turbo) was, as expected, the most fun gig of the year, mixing superb music with great personalities to produce yet another memorable show. I thoroughly enjoyed the final of York's Battle of the Bands, even if I didn't agree with the outcome. Acoustically, Fish (supported by Marbled) and Otis Gibbs (supported by Joe Solo and the ubiquitous GT Turbo) were revelations. More fun was to be had with the founders (and possibly only proponents) of the Rockgrass style of music, Hayseed Dixie and from the second time I saw Adam Dawson - something about the atmosphere and clientele at the Royal Oak that night turned an already enjoyable gig into something a bit more special.

Long-time performers in new bands were represented by The Union (with Ricky Warwick and, you guessed it, GT) and Stringer Bessant (with Patchwork Grace, Boys Off The Bench and Eureka Machines) provided two of the best, if completely different gigs of the year, while line-up changes for Mostly Autumn and Breathing Space both garnered good reviews of their live gigs, but different fortunes for the bands - the Mostlies seen to have grown in stature, while December's Breathing Space gig turned out to be their last as it was announced this week that the band had breathed its last.

My favourite gig of the year was back in April, when Morpheus Rising supported The Reasoning at Fibbers. I had seen Morpheus Rising a few times by then but there was something about there performance that night that pushed all the right buttons for me. The vocals were superb, the music brilliant and the crowd appreciative. The band has been on hiatus for a few months now, due to the vocalist's posting overseas, but this gig showed just how strong they can be as a live act. British heavy metal is definitely alive, well and in good hands and I, for one, can't wait to hear the new material. Putting them on the same bill as The Reasoning was a stroke of near genius. Two very different, yet complimentary, bands whose respective audiences could, therefore, appreciate both. The headliners were also brilliant that night. It was the first time I had seen them perform (indeed, I didn't even own any of their albums until I found out they were playing York) but I hope it isn't the last. Their slightly dark, slightly heavy brand of progressive rock is just different enough from other stuff of that ilk to make it interesting and, while the seven-piece (at the time) may have struggled to fit on Fibber's stage, they performed superbly. Overall, a near perfect gig.

A Final Hazzard

2011-01-15T19:01:00.004Z

Thursday 16th December: Given the time span between attending the gig and actually getting around to blogging about it, together with my sometimes over-reliance on memory (rather than taking notes), this will be a somewhat sparser entry than usual.

I had thought that I had seen my last gig of 2010 but then discovered that two of my favourite local acts, along with one I hadn't seen before, were performing at the Basement tonight (or, rather, a month ago) so, with the other guys unavailable, I set out for one last solo attendance before the end of the year.

Sadly, shortly before the start of the evening, GT Turbo let the other acts know that he was no longer going to make it. Shame as regular readers will know that I'm a big fan.

I had never seem Sam Forrest before tonight but I had heard good things about his work with Nine Black Alps and knew that he was producer on my favourite album of 2010 (Boss Caine's The Ship That Sailed - if you haven't bought it already, why not???) Unusually for a man and guitar act Sam plays electric guitar but there was something different about how he was playing it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. The best way I could describe it would be that he played it as if it were acoustic. It was a low-key performance with little audience interaction and if I heard any song titles, I have since forgotten them. Somehow, Sam's voice didn't quite fit his playing, which detracted a little from the performance for me. That's not to say it was a bad performance, though, just that it wasn't what I was used to. It was a short set, but it was good enough to tempt me to buy a copy of Sam's latest album, No Imagination, which I have had a chance to listen to and, as I mentioned in my CD roundup, ended up bubbling just outside my top five of the year.

Hazzard County don't get together as often as they used to (which, to be fair, was weekly for quite a long time) but are always worth watching. Tonight, Dave, Simon, Chris and the one whose name I can never remember were joined by Sam Forrest, who played bass while the rest of them rotated around the remaining instruments and vocals, playing the usual mix of country rock songs. As usual the set included a number of songs I recognised but couldn't remember who originally performed them. Occasionally, the band helped out by introducing songs by the likes of Texas Tornados, J.J. Cale and Ryan Adams. They also performed Chris's own Luckiest Man Alive and favourites of mine such as Rock Me Mama, Crickle Creek and The Weight. (The last two originally by The Band.) As usual, it was a foot-stomping, sing-along performance of great songs and excellent musicianship and another entertaining evening. Sadly, chatting with Simon after the gig, it seems that this this could be the last reunion for quite some time as all the current members are busy with other projects.

2010 In Review - Part 2, The CDs

2011-01-02T17:48:00.002Z

Sunday 2nd January: I started 2010 with the idea that I might reach a total of six hundred CDs and during the first few months seemed to be well on target, thanks in large part to cheap on-line offers and much-anticipated releases from some favourite artists. However, as the year went on, financial constraints and a lack of interesting releases (together with a smaller than normal number of CDs as birthday and Christmas presents) meant that I eventually fell a few short. I can confidently predict that I will reach the milestone this year - it's now that close.

Overall, I added sixty-four CDs to my collection, including one single and one EP. Of those, just thirty-three were released during 2010. Stripping that down even further, the single was released this year and a further ten were compilation albums given away free with magazines (nine from Classic Rock Presents Prog and one from the inaugural issue of Classic Rock Presents A.O.R.). So, that just leaves twenty-two from which to pick my top five of 2010.

Of the non-2010 albums I bought, favourites would have to be Marillion's Misplaced Childhood with which, along with three other of their albums, I finally exorcised my dismissal of them as Genesis wannabes. Before this year, I had heard of The Reasoning, but not heard them. Now I have all four of their albums and it is the first, Dark Angel, which I think is the best - unfortunately their two releases this year weren't, in my opinion, as good as the previous two, although the stripped down Acoustically Speaking did give us some interesting interpretations of some of their songs. Another couple of favourites were Uriah Heap's Demons and Wizards and Mandalaband's B.C. Ancestors - the latter being the band's third release in the short span of nearly thirty-five years, albeit with their third line-up. If I had bought this last year rather than this, there's a good chance it would have made my top five of 2009.

The previous two Mandalaband albums were reissued in one package this year, sadly without a reproduction of the illustrated insert from the original vinyl release of The Eye Of Wendor, and it is this package which I would choose as my reissue of the year.

For me, the biggest disappointment of the year was Meatloaf's latest, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. It's almost a given that Meatloaf is at his best when teamed with the writing of Jim Steinman but this album, although not completely bad, didn't do as much for me as any of his previous releases and there's just no need for Beastie Boy style (c)rap on a Meatloaf album.

There are a few albums from the past year which are just bubbling under my top five and honourable mentions go to the self-titled debut from the superb Lost From Atlas, Hope & Social's April (which isn't quite as good as the previous album) and No Imagination from York's own Sam Forrest.

And so to the top five....

In fifth place comes Omega, the second release from the reformed original line-up of Asia. The previous release (Phoenix, 2008) may have been a bit of a disappointment to some, but Omega is, perhaps, the best release since Alpha back in 1982. Perhaps a bit too "pop" to be classed exclusively as prog but nonetheless a great album which includes some really good songs, including the brilliant Holy War - how many other songs have you heard which include the word "trebuchet" and which rhyme "Agincourt" With "Conquistador"?

Fourth place goes to Mostly Autumn's Go Well Diamond Heart. Not only have the band survived the resignation of Heather Findlay as female lead, promoting Livvy Sparnenn from backing to lead vocals, but they have also produced their best album for some time. While I may have been dubious about Livvy's live performance, the album really shows how good her vocals can be. Being a big fan of the band, I bought the two-CD special edition of the album and, being honest, I'm not sure the later-released single CD version would have made the top five as the extra disc includes some of the best songs, including the superb Ice, which was a contender for my song of the year. (More on that later...)

In third place comes the first non-prog album. The Union's self-titled first release is a blues-soaked rock album which drew me in from the first listen (probably helped by the fact that I'd just seen them perform most of it live). The album contains a lovely mix of songs - the sublime ballad Lillies and the niceness of This Time Next Year are counterpointed by Saviour and the Deep South tinged Holy Roller, while Easy Street could be the anthem for the current state of our country. A really good debut album from some very experienced musicians.

I head back to prog-land for my second favourite. Karnataka's The Gathering Light is one of the most joyous progressive rock albums I have ever heard, with some great vocals from Lisa Fury and fantastic musical passages. For a while it was heading to be my favourite release of 2010. Sadly the band seemed to implode shortly after the album was released, with only two of the line-up remaining and, I believe, auditions continuing to replace those that left. This doesn't (and shouldn't) detract from the release itself, but does make me wonder how many times Ian Jones can reform the band.

So, what finally knocked Kanataka off the top spot? A little album called The Ship That Sailed by York collective Boss Caine. With songs written by G.T. Turbo/Dan Lucas, over a period of years, this is an intensely personal album which contains more talent than an entire season of reality T.V. shows. There really isn't a duff song on this (although, as I said in my original review, one does outstay its welcome just a little bit) despite it not including most of my live favourites. The lyrics are thoughtful and thought-provoking - for example, the brilliant Leaving Victoria is probably not about what you imagine it to be - and the music is excellent. To quote my own review, this is a "beautifully crafted album... Powerful, raw, emotional, simple (and, paradoxically, complex) superb and highly recommended."

Boss Caine also released my song of the year. Towards the end of the year, they (he?) released a split album with Mark Wynn. The final song on the Boss Caine "side" is The Life In Your Years. It is, in keeping with other songs written by Lucas, based on experience and heartfelt. In this case, it's a celebration of friends and of the life Lucas was living at the time he wrote it while, at the same time, an explanation to his family of why he lived life the way he did. In no way apologetic for the things his mother worried about, it is the very epitome of bitter-sweet. A wonderful song from a truly exceptional song-writer.

2010 In Review - Part 1, The Books

2010-12-29T17:37:00.003Z

Wednesday 29th December: I didn't get round to writing about my year of reading last year so I'm going to get it out of the way first this time.

As most people who know me are aware, I have had a huge "to read" pile of novels, biographies and short story collections for some time now and, therefore, rarely buy new books of those sorts, relying on birthday and Christmas presents to help me complete series that I have already started. That means that I can't have a favourite book published in he last year and the following is limited to what I read in 2010, whenever it was published.

In the last year, I finished thirty-five books, with a final one expected to be completed before the end of the year. I also received eighteen, meaning that the pile should have reduced to ninety-three by the start of 2011. As usual, most of my reading has been science-fiction or fantasy (or at least related to the genre) with only a small-press history of female comic characters - the excellent, if somewhat fannish, Supergirls, by Mike Madrid - being even slightly removed.

Getting the disappointments out of the way first, I have to mention Kate Elliott's Crown Of Stars saga, an ambitious seven volume fantasy series which I found very dense and lacking in action, with a cast of characters that you needed a notebook and family tree to keep track of. Consequently, I seemed to take forever to read it and, if reading becomes a chore, it's obviously not enjoyable. My biggest disappointment, however, was Shelters Of Stone (2002) - the fifth volume of Jean M. Auel's prehistoric Earth's Children saga (in which lead character Ayla seems to invent everything from the domestication of animals to sex). It's been a while since I read the fourth volume (Plains Of Passage, 1990) and the huge gap in publication may have contributed to the fact that all that seemed to happen in this volume was that Ayla and Jondalar finally arrived back at the latter's home cave and reiterated everything that had gone before, before setting up the final volume, due next year.

In terms of fantasy, I'm not going to choose Neil Gaiman's Stardust as my favourite of the year, primarily because I have read it before, albeit in a different format (it was originally published as four "comics" and later collected as a trade paperback, both released by DC Comics). Nor am I going to choose the solid Soldier's Son trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I enjoyed immensely, but only because I read a rare single-volume fantasy by somebody much less prolific, which was superb. War Of The Flowers by Tad Williams may not be completely original but it has enough new ideas in it to be a refreshing read. Part urban fantasy, part "fish out of water" story and part Faerie tale, it provided a new take on the world of the Fey. Exciting in places, scary in others and, it has to be said, obvious in some, it did what a good book should do - kept me entertained (and, at times, amused) for the whole read and I would recommend it to anybody with even the slightest interest in fantasy.

Science fiction has been going through a bit of a boom period recently and I am now catching up with some best reviewed books of the last few years, as well as some older ones. I finished reading my stack of SF Masterworks some time in 2009, so I didn't read any of the so-called classics this year. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap cycle, which I completed after reading the first, rather slimmer, volume some time ago. Donaldson has a reputation, I believe, for unlikeable characters and the first volume put me off reading the rest a bit as it contained both the physical and mental rape of one main character by another. So, when I finally got hold of the remaining volumes, it was with some trepidation that I started reading them. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of nastiness but, as the story went on, the target character grew past it and I became somewhat inured to it (perhaps a sign of good writing or perhaps a sign of numbness, I'm not certain) and from struggling through volumes two and three, by the time I'd finished all five, I realised I'd read a cracking if flawed space opera. Indeed, it's space opera that dominates my favourites of the year. Peter F. Hamilton is one of the new British masters of the genre and the first part of his Commonwealth duology, Pandora's Star was almost a sure thing for my book of the year. However, because I don't like selecting parts of a series as my favourite - it's the whole or nothing - it was let down by the second volume, Judas Unchained, which, although containing more action, was more of a struggle to get through, again due to the number of characters and the factions they represented. Hamilton also seemed to have forgotten that having distinctive names helps those of us with limited thinking power to keep track - I mean, three characters called Ozzie, Orion and Oscar... come on! Also, towards the end, the action got a wee bit too complicated and I struggled to keep up with who was wear, fighting with whom and for what. So, my favourite SF novel goes to Matter, the 2008 entry in Iain M. Banks' Culture series. I'm not a huge Banks fan and have found some of his Culture stories frankly dull. This one, however, was brilliant in its weaving together of two stories which eventually came together as one with an ending that was unforeseen and yet, in hindsight, extremely obvious.

My overall favourite book of the year, though, is one I haven't even read yet....

I'm a sucker for coffee-table style books on various subjects, especially the history of American comics. This year was DC Comics 75th anniversary and Taschen published the massive (so big it comes in its own carrying case and would probably cause our coffee table to collapse) 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking in celebration. With text by Paul Levitz, who has been associated with DC for over 35 years, this is a treasure trove of rare art and photos from the entire history of the company. My copy of the book arrived today and I spent most of the afternoon browsing through it and trying to stop the drool from falling onto it. It's a lovely thing to look at and I'm sure that the text will live up to expectations. Well worth the price. (Don't ask...)

A Breath of Fresh Air

2010-12-12T19:16:00.002Z

Sunday 5th December: While it's not quite the mini Mostly-fest of last year, today sees Iain Jennings taking advantage of the fact that Mostly Autumn played York last night (and, possibly, that some of the crossover fans are still in York) to organise an afternoon gig for Breathing Space. So Debbie (who, for some reason, was under the impression that this was to be Livvy's farewell gig) and I find ourselves at Fibbers for a rare afternoon out together.

Support today was provided my Marc Atkinson who I've seen once before, who performed on one of my favourite albums of the last couple of years and who has one of the best biographies I have ever read. Having being involved in a number of projects over the years, it seems odd to me that Marc has weaved around the sort of "stardom" experienced by the likes of Bryan Josh without actually making it as big. Having said that, both his biography and his attitude when performing both seem to show that he is happy with his lot and it may just be that he prefers to more grounded and, for want of a better word, local than Mostly Autumn.

The last time I saw Marc he was performing acoustic covers in The Terrace. This afternoon, he mined his own material to give us a thoroughly enjoyable (still acoustic) set. Sadly, due to what seems to have been an incorrectly advertised start time, we missed the first song, but the second came from Gabriel, one of Marc's previous bands, while the next came from his much anticipated Riversea project (the album of which, he informed us, is due to be released at Easter next year, with many guest appearances). Other newer songs were the reminiscing of When We Were Five and Through A Mirror Darkly, while Clockwork Man dated back to 2006. For his final song, Marc reverted to a cover and produced a very good version of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb (perhaps a brave choice given the Worst Band Ever video which has been doing the rounds on the internet, but I'm happy to say that this afternoon's version was infinitely better than that one...) Despite some guitar problems - apparently you shouldn't re-string guitars on a cold day - which seemed to both frustrate and slightly embarrass Marc, this was a very varied and, as I say, enjoyable set. The vocals were very clear and the choice of songs complemented each other. The first time I've heard Marc's own material and it impressed me enough to buy both of his available albums.

The departure of Livvy Sparnenn from Breathing Space (and, indeed, Bryan Josh from the live shows) had necessitated the second line-up change of the weekend. Replacing Bryan is Adam Dawson (who regular readers will know that we have already checked out), while Heidi Widdop is now the lead vocalist. Again, I have seen Heidi before, opening for Mostly Autumn last year as part of The Secrets. It had already been said that Heidi's voice was completely different to Livvy's and that this was leading to a new sound for the band, but I hadn't realised how much of a change it would be.

The band opened with Run From Yourself, my favourite track from Beneath The Radar, but the track sounded more rocky than normal, something that was to be reiterated with the new material that was to be peppered throughout the set. Before that, though, we took a trip back to the original Breathing Space album for a version of No Promises which featured some wonderfully atmospheric guitar work from Adam. Heidi then took up an acoustic guitar for the new song Unnatural Disaster, before Adam stepped up to perform vocals on Silver Skies, one of his own songs which has been revamped as a full band version, and an excellent version it is. Next up was Searching For My Shadow, proving that all the previous albums were fair game for the new line-up (and surprising me as I thought this track might have left the band with Livvy). Again, it sounded as though the track had been reworked slightly to provide for Heidi's stronger voice. The title track from Beneath The Radar was followed by When I Hold On To You, from Coming Up For Air and then another new track (the title of which I didn't hear). Finally, we got the second rendition of the weekend of Questioning Eyes and hearing the two so closely together showed just how different Heidi and Livvy's voices are - both superb versions, but very different. After a brief respite, the band returned to the stage for an encore and, in my opinion, a very welcome return of The Gap Is Too Wide - lovely to hear it live again.

This wasn't a perfect set. Heidi was struggling slightly with her voice and the sound was a little dodgy. At first I thought that the latter was due to my standing right next to one of Fibbers' main speakers (which, I can confirm, can give you the impression that it is driving a spike through your eardrum) but somebody who was standing at the bar has also criticised the sound. It seemed fine for Marc's set but didn't seem to cope too well with the increased volume of Breathing Space. Despite that, it was a really good performance and, despite the band being off the radar, let alone below it, for a few months now (at least locally) with very little news or updates being released, it bodes well for the future. The new, rockier sound is brilliant, Heidi's voice will be even stronger once her chest is better and Adam's playing was good enough to give any of the previous guitarists a run for their money. Given the number of new tracks played, a fourth album can't be far away and I, for one, can't wait.

Mostly New

2010-12-10T13:21:00.003Z

Saturday 4th December: ...and it's time for the now annual trip to see Mostly Autumn at York's Grand Opera House. Much has already been said, by better writers and critics than me, about the line-up change resulting from Heather Findlay's departure from the band and with Go Well Diamond Heart marking a return to form for one of my favourite bands I was really looking forward to tonight's gig. Overall, I have to say that it lived up to expectations. However, some of the following may seem a little controversial.

The first set started with an instrumental introduction while album covers and photos of band members, past and present, were projected onto a screen above the stage. I think I can understand why this was done - the message seemed to be that the band were experiencing both a departure and a new start and that this was a new chapter in their history - but, at around fifteen minutes long, it did start to overstay its welcome just a little and I almost breathed a sigh of relief when the band finally took to the stage and started playing Deep In Borrowdale, the rocker from the new album. What followed was a mix of songs both old and new, including two from the second disc of the special edition of Diamond Heart (The Sound Of The World and the superb Ice) and the live staple Spirits of Autumn Past. I had a vague feeling that this set was a bit more Bryan-centric than previous times when I had seen the band and this seemed to be confirmed by watching the That Night In Leamington DVD the next day. (Although it is possible that the Leamington gig, given its significance as Heather's swansong with the band, was more tailored to her and that I just have a bad memory.) Livvy only really seemed to really front Passengers and Questioning Eyes, a personal song that she has brought with her from Breathing Space. One highlight of the set was a guitar solo from Liam, used to introduce one of the songs (I forget which - there's that bad memory again) and give most of the rest of the band a few minutes off stage. This solo seemed a little more intricate than those of Bryan and if it is the sort of thing that can be found on Liam's recent solo album I will definitely be seeking out a copy.

After a short break the band returned to the stage and started the second set with Fading Colours then continued with most of the remaining songs from the standard release of Diamond Heart, including the lyrically challenged Something Better, For All We Shared and the title track, during which some effective light effects were added to the sounds of war to provide a somewhat harrowing backdrop to the song. Back To Life showed that Livvy has, indeed, got a superb voice and was the best song she performed all night. In fact, she seemed to almost be finding her voice so far into the evening as this was followed by Slow Down (from Bryan's solo album, Through These Eyes) for which she provided some stunning backing vocals and, shortly afterwards, she performed Evergreen very well. As usual, the main set ended with Bryan's dedication to his father, Heroes Never Die but the band soon returned for an encore which included Forever Young and the brilliantly performed When The War Is Over, before regaling us with the usual Christmas songs and, from Livvy, an unaccompanied version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

As usual, it's a treat to see arguably one of York's biggest bands perform in their hometown. I'm never sure of the Opera House as a venue but maybe that will be put right when York's Barbican opens again next year. I couldn't help thinking, though, that this year there was just a little something missing. Livvy isn't bad. In fact there's very little wrong with her performance except that she doesn't seem to have the vocal power that Heather had (something I think I've also mentioned when reviewing Breathing Space). One thing that did strike me was that, when Heather sang, I never really noticed Livvy or Anne-Marie's backing vocals but, when Livvy was singing tonight, it was easy to pick out Anne-Marie. It might just be a matter of time or it might be that the sound mix and, indeed, set list is being tweaked to make up for the new singer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pining for Heather to come back - Livvy isn't Heather and there will, inevitably, be a change in the band dynamic - but I certainly can't agree with the person sitting somewhere nearby who, when Bryan jokingly said, "some of you will have noticed that Heather isn't with us tonight" was heard to mutter, "thank f*** for that."

Sonic Engineering

2010-12-03T19:41:00.004Z

Tuesday 23rd November: On of the joys of going to gigs either on-spec or on somebody else's recommendation is that you occasionally come across a band that you wouldn't hesitate to see again. Hence tonight's solo outing to Stereo.

It's not often that I've seen a band from outside the UK play in York, so it was a bit of a surprise to find that Freaky Age, tonight's first support, were from Belgium. They play in the time-honoured choppy guitar style and their first song reminded me a bit of One Night Only. The start of their set was a bit disappointing. Despite having their own sound engineer the mix seemed all wrong. The vocals were drowned out by the guitars and the guitars themselves were almost indistinguishable behind the too loud drums. It wasn't until the third songs in, Never See The Sun, that I managed to catch a title, let alone any of the lyrics. The introduction to the next song was just guitar and vocals and, without the battle of the sounds, I started to make out that the vocalist did have a good voice. Throughout the first half of their set, some interesting guitar noises threatened to surface above the rapidly becoming tiresome drums and backing vocals were non-existent - you could see mouths moving, but could hear nothing. It was a bit of a relief when, starting with the sixth song, the drums faded a bit into the background, the guitars were allowed to come to the fore and I started to hear lyrics with some clarity. Where Do We Go Now spent four weeks as a Belgian number one in 2008 and was slightly more "pop" than the rest of the set. This was followed by a cover of Pinball Wizard and a final song which I didn't get the title of but was the best of the set. The band are all young - nineteen or so, but have already released two albums and toured across mainland Europe. There was a lot of enthusiasm and energy on stage. It's unfair to write them off on the basis of poor sound and the second half of an unusually long set for a support act was hugely enjoyable.

Second to take to the stage were York's own The Blueprints, who are billed as "alternative/indie/new wave", which either means all the same thing or that they don't quite have a distinct style. Their first song was light and airy while the second started off much darker and added keyboards to the mix before lightening up again for the main section. Staring At The Sun was, for me, just a tad too repetitive, Skylines was a much slower, less bouncy, more melodic song while the next was true rock and roll. Spectrum Versus Commodore must be the only rock song written for the 1980s geek generation while So Melancholy was anything but. Their final song was, again, the best - heavier and louder than the rest. There wasn't quite as much energy on stage, but there did seem to be what can only be described as in inherent "cheekiness" in the performance, helped by a small amount of barracking (and, in the end a minor stage invasion) from members of fellow York band The Buccaneers. Like many local bands, The Blueprints aren't exactly my type of thing, but are well worth seeing perform live.

Engineers aren't exactly a York band but I believe that Mark Peters does live here. They have had a major line-up change since I saw them at Fibbers last year. Mark has moved from bass to guitar and vocals (and is also the main songwriter), Daniel Land now plays bass and Matthew Linley plays the drums. Keyboards are provided by Ulrich Schnauss who is now a full time member after previously playing live with the band. Original member Simon Phipps, on vocals, guitar and bass, completes the current lineup. Despite the membership changes, their sound has stayed more or less the same. Engineers weave the individual instrument sounds together, crafting music that hangs in the air, music that you can almost touch, that envelops you and is almost hypnotic. So hypnotic, in fact, that I couldn't actually say how far into the set we were before a song was played that could actually have been said to liven things up. Most of their songs simply sit there, refusing to be moved, resonating in a bass-line that vibrates the floor. Despite touring to promote the third studio album, In Praise Of More, tonight's set comprised of songs from all three albums. One song, simply announced as "from our first album" opened almost discordantly and was a little jarring before it settled down, but this was the only blip in an otherwise superb set. Whether you describe their style as shoe-gazing, ambient or prog (they were recently covered in Classic Rock Presents Prog) there is no doubting that Engineers are excellent.

A Hazy Memory

2010-11-16T18:14:00.003Z

Tuesday 16th November: A bit of a strange posting this one. I haven't been to a gig recently and haven't had the time to listen to any recent CD purchases properly enough to make notes for a full review. (Bang goes the plan to review all of my 2010-released purchases.)

I am, however, currently listening to a CD that arrived in the post on Saturday and there's a bit of a story behind my purchasing it (which is probably of absolutely no interest to anybody, but when has that ever stopped me putting fingers to keyboard...?

Recently, I was skimming an issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine and came across a gig review for a band called Haze, who had played the Peel in Kingston. The review caught my eye as I remembered seeing a band of the same name in York some time ago, while I was still in school. The review ended with:

"It beggars belief why they never quite got the breaks earlier on in their career, and it's a real shame because Haze should have been as popular if not more so than their counterparts during the early 80s: their neo-prog influence should have enjoyed far more success. Yet to see this band still tread the boards after over 30 years - albeit as sporadically as they do nowadays - should make anyone's musical journey that little bit more complete."

It couldn't be the same band, could it? My memories of the gig in question really boiled down to the facts that I went with a group of friends, we were at the front of a backroom of a pub, the crowd showed their appreciation by "whooping" rather than (or perhaps as well as) applauding and the band themselves reminded me a bit of Rush, in looks if not in music. I also remembered that I bought a cassette on the night. Yes, even as a near virgin gig-goer, I still couldn't resist spending money on the musical media of the time...

A quick search of the internet and I found the Wikipedia entry for Haze (band) but nothing really jumped out at me as conclusively linking the review with the band I remembered. In fact I was beginning to doubt it, as I had it in my head that the band I saw came from Bradford, while the Wikipedia entry was for a Sheffield band. I'm not one to give up easily, though and so clicked on the "official site" external link, where I couldn't help but notice that the band's logo looked very familiar. And there were gnomes on the site. Hang on, didn't the cover of the cassette have a gnome on it???

To cut a long story short, the two bands were in fact one and the same and Haze had experienced a degree of success back in the 80s, self-releasing two albums and touring extensively in an old ambulance. Unfortunately, lack of genuine success (and the writing off of the ambulance) eventually led to Haze splitting up after ten years, although they do, obviously, reform now and again for anniversary gigs and the like.

Even before I had confirmed that it was the same band (final confirmation coming during an email conversation between myself and bassist/keyboard player Chris McMahon, who not only remembered which pub it was, but the name of the cassette - The Cellar Tapes, which puts the date that I saw them play somewhere in 1983 and, therefore, one of my first gigs - and the fact that the "whooping" originated in either York or Nottingham) I had decided to order a copy of the double CD recording of the 30th anniversary shows, recorded back in 2008, mostly at Sheffield's Boardwalk. And it's that CD that I'm currently listening to and thoroughly enjoying.

Strangely, although I can't have heard The Cellar Tapes for something like twenty years, I recognised the second track of the CD - Turn Around - as being one of the tracks from it almost immediately.

The CD itself is an excellent live recording, one of the type that leaves everything in, including the banter, and is therefore, an full and accurate account of the gig rather than a watered down, edited version. The music is superb, maybe not quite as prog as the other bands around in the 80s (those that I know, anyway). There are some vague hints of Rush, especially around some of the keyboards sections, but there is also a more folky element supplied by the flute of Ceri Ashton, which also, somewhat inevitably, reminds me of Jethro Tull, especially during Train. There's an energy and confidence to the performance that belies the fact that the band rarely now performs (as Haze, anyway - the members do perform as Treebeard, an acoustic, more folk flavoured band). There is also a relaxed feel to the whole thing, evident in the slower numbers and between songs camaraderie. The audience doesn't sound huge but is definitely appreciative even if there doesn't seem to be any evidence of "whooping". Apart from Turn Around, nothing is immediately recognisable to me but, overall, it's definitely my kind of music. According to the liner notes, the song selection spans the whole thirty years, not just the Haze era. Hearing it, I can't help but feel a bit nostalgic for that 80s gig and would echo the sentiments expressed in the magazine review. Haze definitely deserved more success than they got.

Stringing Us Along

2010-10-31T16:24:00.003Z

Wednesday 27th October: An unexpected email from Andy leads to an unplanned night out at Stereo.

Andy himself had yet to arrive when the first band, Patchwork Grace, took to the stage. It must be something about bands from Nottingham as, like Baby Godzilla a few weeks back, they did nothing for me on the basis of this performance. The MySpace page linked above states their genre as "rock" and there are citations from Kerrang, but tonight's set was acoustic and comprised of vocalist Tori Tea dressed like a gangster's moll and sitting between guitarist Christoph Marrizon and bassist Scott O'Conner (drummer Dan Rolfe was absent from the full line-up). The seated performance and simple guitar work provided for a less than dynamic set and, while Tea's voice sounded as though it could have been strong, on this occasion it came across as just a little monotonous. None of their own songs stuck out for me and the best part of their set was a cover of Love Cats (The Cure). It's perhaps unfair to judge them on an acoustic performance (the only one on their list of upcoming gigs) and maybe we'll see them back in York as a full band sometime.

Andy Finally arrived as the second band were starting their set. I got the impression that Boys Off The Bench were a relatively new band and nothing in my research for this post suggests otherwise. Their MySpace profile has only existed since July this year and only lists brothers Luke and Adam Henderson (vocals and drums respectively) as members, although there is mention of them being joined by bassist/guitarist Kenny. Tonight, however, there were five members on stage - Kenny, not being able to play both guitar and bass at the same time had been joined by a second string-man and there was also an electric piano, which proved to be the lead instrument in most of the songs while the guy tinkling its ivories also provided backing vocals, leading to some nice harmonies particularly during Bugle Boy. Overall, Luke's vocals seemed a little tentative and hesitant and it didn't help that the drums were mixed too high during You Make Me Smile which made the lyrics difficult to hear. Ravens, however, was a fantastic song - lyrically almost post-modern folk and ending with some incredibly dark drumming which superbly complemented the imagery of the song. Following this with a bright and breezy pop song and a vocals-and-keyboards-only number meant a varied and interesting set, while the final song, When Nothing Else Matters, was a thoughtful, intelligently written number and the best song of a very good set.

Leeds based Eureka Machines are another band with differences between tonight's line-up and full membership. Tonight we just had Chris and Dave, both doing vocals and guitar (one might have been a bass, I wasn't watching closely enough...) Apparently, they wish they had proper "rock-star" names. Well, Chris, without too much effort you could change yours to Chas... Anyway, billed as Rock/Punk/Pop with more citations from Kerrang and a track on a past Classic Rock cover CD, tonight was another acoustic set with a nice line in banter and songs which, perhaps unintentionally, managed to raise a smile. As did Dave's somewhat unnerving doorman stance, including piercing stare, when he had little to do and his dragging a chair on stage and sitting looking bored when Chris decided to do a song on his own. Despite some degree of audience apathy, the boys played a mixture of their own songs, including the excellent Story Of My Life (which was the Classic Rock CD track) and covers. "Who wants to hear the best song ever written?" asked Chris to no reply. "Nobody," he sighed before asking again and getting one "Yeah" from a woman in the audience. So, the duo left the stage to sit on the woman's table and serenade her with Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell). Apparently, the second best song ever written is A-ha's Take On Me, which was also played tonight. Overall, a very enjoyable set which, in this format, would be highly recommended to fans of Hope & Social, of which there was more than a resonance of in the performance.

StringerBessant is comprised of Gary Stringer and Jack Bessant, both formerly of nineties Brit-rock band Reef. I don't remember the band and so went to tonight's gig with no preconceptions. However, it's hard to imagine two people less likely to have been in a successful British band of the nineties, with Gary looking like a surfer dude and Jack perhaps having wandered in from a remake of Grizzly Adams, in which he was playing the lead. Nor would the music have given you any clues. Jack played acoustic guitar and harmonica and occasionally sang while Gary sang, occasionally played guitar and provided a rhythm section by playing tambourine (or his knees). As with The Union, a few gigs back, I got the feeling that I had crashed a private party. Most of the audience seemed to know the songs, which were from the recently released album The Yard, with Wild Day and Give Me The Keys - two completely different songs, the former slow, the latter bouncy - getting particularly good reactions. A lot of the songs were quietly introspective and almost brought a lump to the throat, particularly in the vocals. Both guys have strong voices, just different from each other to be complementary and they gave us an incredibly involving set which was topped off by the vibrant encore Cross The Valley. It's safe to say that I'll be ordering a copy of the album soon.

Adam Again

2010-10-22T19:10:00.004+01:00

Friday 15th October: Weekends in York are still providing sparse fare in respect of new music to tempt us to the city's bigger venues. Thankfully, while the "clubs" are failing to entice, those pubs which try to drag the punters in by providing musical entertainment (albeit generally in the form of covers bands) are still providing ample opportunities to see some good acts. Tonight it's a rare full complement, including one new-comer, on an even rarer visit to the Punchbowl (Stonegate version) to see someone who is rapidly becoming a favourite.

I suppose, if we were to be totally honest, none of us would have known about Adam Dawson if he hadn't been chosen as Breathing Space's new guitarist. Although he plays regularly in York, it's generally not in a combination of venues we frequent and the nights we frequent them. Tonight, though, is the third time I've seen him, in a third different venue. It's not just the music, either - Adam seems happy enough to take time to speak with the punters and comes across as a genuinely nice guy.

The Punchbowl is a bit of a strange venue for music. The acts perform in one of its three rooms. In fact the room that doubles as a dining area and that people have to walk though to get to the back bar and the, errm, conveniences. The former means that the music doesn't start until food has stopped being server and eaten and the latter means that it can be quite a busy thoroughfare. Tonight, as Adam started his set, all the tables were taken and my usual standing spot was occupied. In fact, by the time we had all turned up I found myself standing through the doorway of the back bar, listening to the music rather than watching the performance and directly in line with the Table.

Why the capitalisation? Well, for me at least the Table has taken on a degree of notoriety. The smaller of two tables directly in front of the stage area it seems that every time I've seen an act at the Punchbowl it has been occupied by people who are determined to shout at each other over the music. Tonight was no exception but it was slightly embarrassing when I pointed out the Table to Adam while chatting to him during his break only to have him tell me that the occupants were friends of his. You know those times when you wish that the ground would open up underneath you...?

Anyway, as the second half of the set started, the occupants of both of the tables in front of the stage had moved, meaning that we got a chance to sit down, a much better view and less shouting. For all its faults, the Punchbowl does serve a very good selection of real ale and is a pretty good venue for music.

I realise that I've yet to mention Adam's performance. The set comprised mostly of songs we've heard him perform before and which are becoming familiar, even if I can't remember what some of them are called or who sang them without resorting to noting down lyrics, hoping I can read my won writing when I got home and Googling. Tonight a mixture of technical difficulties and a voice suffering from a week of teaching meant that Adam felt the need to apologise for a below par sound and to choose carefully which songs to perform. Not that it was too noticeable and it was still a thoroughly entertaining evening.

We were even treated to three of Adam's own songs - two more than last time. Along with the ubiquitous Lazy Susan, his latest single, we got I'm Coming Home and the beautiful and emotional Silver Skies, another track from the single, as the encore. I'd like to think that it was my request that got the latter played but it could just be that he was planning it anyway.

A more or less complete set list for tonight is:
Forever Lost (The Magic Numbers), unknown, Cannonball (Damien Rice), Dream Catch Me (Newton Faulkner), Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T's), Sewn (Feeling - not sure about this one), Rule The World (Coldplay), Poker Face (Lady Gaga), Use Somebody (Kings of Leon), Lazy Susan (Adam Dawson), Streets of London (Ralph McTell), Shine (Take That), I'm Coming Home (Adam Dawson), Little Lion Man (Munford & Sons), Sloop John B (The Beach Boys), Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), Silver Skies (Adam Dawson)

Union Meeting

2010-10-08T19:25:00.003+01:00

Thursday 30th September: ...and I finally get to see the inside of the newly refurbished and, in some quarters, somewhat maligned Fibbers. Somebody has turned the inside around, made it a bit roomier (although I'm told that part of it was curtained off tonight) and made the decor a bit brighter, with a long bar selling expensive drinks (I didn't bother) and a sound system that, at least in part, looks as though it has been stolen from the TARDIS. It certainly seems to be easier to see the stage, with random walls and pillars having been removed, but the stage itself seems a bit smaller and I couldn't help but wonder how some bands I saw at the pre-refurb'ed version, particularly the seven-piece The Reasoning, would fit onto it. But that's for the future. What about tonight.

I wasn't too far down the queue when the doors opened but the first act, Boss Caine, had already started his set when I got through the doors. Must be a new tactic, starting the first act just minutes after the doors open (and, personally, I think it's slightly insulting to any first act). Dan (the Boss) Turbo, arguably the hardest working musician in York, who seems to be everywhere at the moment, performed pretty much the same set that he did in support of Hope & Social a couple of weeks ago. A mix of new and old songs, but with only one, Sweet Sorrow Surrender, from the first album. The few people who had made it in when he started gave him a pretty good reception but as the place filled up and the ambient noise level rose he struggled to make an impression, especially when calling for a round of applause for Tim Fox, who once again joined him on harmonic for Devils On Dean Street. I got the feeling, towards the end of his set, that he wasn't really enjoying himself. Not that that made any difference to his music, which was as enjoyable as ever. It may simply have been that the crowd wasn't right for GT's style of playing - after all most of them would have been hard core rock fans.

Speaking of fans, there seemed to be two distinct sets there tonight. As Ricky Warwick took to the stage, a portion of the crowd stepped up to fill the empty area in front of the stage and we took the opportunity to move with them, ending up directly under the air-conditioning unit. (I can confirm that the leak I'd heard about had been fixed and that the unit itself worked very well, pumping extremely cold air directly onto me for the next thirty or forty minutes...) But I digress.

Belfast-born Ricky is soon to be touring as lead singer of Thin Lizzy (perhaps the ultimate tribute band) and tonight performed edgy, acoustic rock songs at least two of which came from his third album, Belfast Confetti (the title track and Arms of Belfast Town). Jesus Loves You seemed to be a favourite with the audience, but I can't find it listed on any of his albums and there was an (almost) humourous song which seemed to be based around memories of Dickie Davies and World of Sport. His new single, The Whiskey Song, also featured as did a cover version of Motorhead's Ace Of Spades. His guitar-playing was energetic and at times verged on raucous, and his voice was superb and a little reminiscent of somebody who I can't quite put my finger on. I'm reasonably certain that Ricky was originally down to headline tonight's gig but was dropped to second place simply because he was playing acoustically, while the new headliners were playing full band. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing him again and, while I probably won't get the chance, would certainly consider catching him with Thin Lizzy.

As Ricky left the stage, a strange thing happened. Most of the audience seemed to move away, meaning thtat we managed to get even closer. I ended up just two people from the front, with an absolutely superb view (and no cold down-draft), something I had never achieved at the old Fibbers.

Last year, Thunder announced that, after twenty years, they were retiring from recording and touring as a band in order to spend more time on their individual activities. The Union is the first of these that I have come across and features Luke Morley (ex-Thunder) and Peter Shoulder (ex-Winterville) sharing guitar and vocals, if not evenly. For the tour they have been joined by Chris Childs (also ex-Thunder) on bass and a drummer introduced simply as "The wee Scotsman". Playing most, if not all of the songs from their self-titled debut album, they treated us to a set full of rock which proudly displayed its Southern Blues and Country roots. Highlights included the subtle Lillies, which invoked an "Awwww" response from the female portion of the audience when it was introduced and the slow, melodic Saviour. That's not to say that the ballad-like songs were the best - there was an incredibly epic live song towards the end of the set (I didn't catch the title) while Black Monday somehow evoked images of Speakeasies. Even the catchy sing-along, This Time Next Year (The Union's anti-X-Factor song but perhaps their most commercial), somehow managed to stick in my mind. The band's encore consisted of their own Come Rain Come Shine followed by a cover of Proud Mary, which featured a guitar duel between Morley's blood-red Gibson and Shoulder's black Les Paul, during which the two men could, at times, barely keep a straight face. Superb music and a fantastic voice, somehow reminiscent of Springsteen and Clapton at the same time, this was one of the best gigs of the year so far.

Parading, In Spades

2010-10-01T19:06:00.003+01:00

Saturday 25th September: After the disappointment of Tuesday's very late cancellation of Oceansize's gig at the newly refurbished Fibbers, which would have seen all of us out, tonight it's a solo outing for me to Stereo to get a second dose of some of the band members from last Saturday.

Tonight's support act, In Spades Inc, were only playing their second gig and, in some ways, it showed. There was an air of nervousness surrounding Stewart King's self-depreciating banter, almost as though he was apologising for the band turning up. He needn't have worried. While their music couldn't be said to be completely original, there was something just a little bit different about it which made it interesting and entertaining. Their forty minute, seven song set (including one cover, which I recognised but, for the life of me can't remember...) contained a nice mixture of material from the slow, haunting opening of Hurricane, which eventually built to a much louder climax, to the brash heaviness of Sucker Punch. But it was the guitar work that really caught my ear - each song seemed to contain an intricate piece of guitar, from either King or fellow guitarist Adam Brady, which sometimes didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the music but in all cases enhanced it.

This may have only been the band's second outing but, in researching this post, I realised that we had, in fact, seen another of King's bands, Satori, supporting Panic Room at the Duchess almost a year ago to the day. Both Roj and I enjoyed that performance so much that we bought the album that night. In a strange piece of symmetry, I picked up two copies of In Spades Inc's free EP preview tonight, one copy of which I have passed on to Roj. I don't think I could honestly say that I liked tonight's performance as much as I did that of Satori, but i certainly wouldn't be averse to seeing In Spades Inc again. Definitely one to watch out for.

...and now a confession. In order to remember thoughts and set-lists at gigs and to help write these posts, I make notes on my phone. Tonight there was a human/technology interface failure (I forgot to save the note I made for the headline act and subsequently managed to inadvertently delete it while the phone was in my pocket) which means that the following review is based solely on my somewhat poor recollections.

Parade are (or, possibly, were - their website says that they are changing their name) another band that we saw last year and so impressed us that we bought the album. One of the loose family of bands centred around Mostly Autumn, Parade was, at the time, made up of current MA members Ann-Marie Helder and Gavin Griffiths, past member Chris Johnson and two long-time collaborators of Johnson, Paddy Berry and Simon Snaize. Tonight ex-Yards guitarist Chris Farrell stood in for Snaize, whose name is strangely absent from the above website. Anyway, The Fabric ended up being one of my top five albums from last year and, therefore, I wasn't going to miss seeing them live again.

Tonight's set featured most, if not all, of the songs from The Fabric, including all my favourites - the epic The Diamond, the nasty The Dogs, pop-tinged but very rocky Start Again and the fantastic Feedline - along with an encore comprising of an acoustic song which I feel I should remember and a full band version of Science and Machinery. Chris Johnson played an acoustic version of the latter last Saturday. It's a song which appeared on the special edition of Mostly Autumn's Heart Full Of Sky album but which, apparently started life years before with Chris J, Chris F and Paddy, providing a nice link with tonight's line-up.

As expected the musicianship was superb. Chris Farrell played some incredible guitar, Paddy's bass was superb, at times making even the floor vibrate and Gavin's drumming was brilliant. Anne-Marie performed some pretty impressive vocal gymnastics - particularly during the wordless ending to High Life - despite apparently having voice problems during the whole of both this (very short) tour and the Panic Room one she had just completed. She and Chris perform some wonderful harmonies, which are just one of the high points of the album and live performance.

There is a reliance on technology, with a laptop tied into Anne-Marie's keyboards in order to produce some of the more unusual sounds. (There are enough pops and whistles on the album to make R2-D2 wonder if it contains a message for him...) Normally, for me, this would be enough to make me a little sceptical about the quality of the music - is it being "played" or just reproduced? But, somehow, I can forgive Parade this extravagance. Maybe it's because of the pedigree of the band members.

Anyway, the whole performance was brilliant and the whole band seemed to be enjoying themselves, playing off each other and practically pushing each other around while still managing to make wonderful music.

Hopefully, whatever the future holds for the band, they will continue to make and play such quality music.