Saturday 22 October 2011

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.

Monday 17 October 2011

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.

Sunday 16 October 2011

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.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

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.