Monday 31 January 2011

Designs On Piracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 16 January 2011

2010 In Review - Part 3, The Gigs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 15 January 2011

A Final Hazzard

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 2 January 2011

2010 In Review - Part 2, The CDs

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

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

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

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

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

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

And so to the top five....

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

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

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

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

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

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