2011 In Review–Part 1, The Gigs

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.