The Albion Band–The Duchess, 11/11/12

I had got myself a little confused by days/dates a week ago and, therefore, missed out on seeing Fairport Convention for the first time. Tonight, however, saw me at The Duchess for a kind of spin-off from the purveyors of folk-rock. More on that later.

First to take the stage tonight were Stuart Giddens and Pip Jopling, a folk duo based here in York. Opening their set with Adieu Adieu, Pip’s simple guitar work and Stuart’s occasional melodeon interludes provided a backing to the latter’s folky yet, at times, powerful vocals. The guitar was then replaced by a fiddle for the rest of the set, starting with what was introduced as a sea-shanty. It seemed to me to be a bit slow to be a shanty, but I bow to those with greater expertise. Despite it also being billed as a sing-along, there was no audience participation – perhaps expecting some this early in the evening was a little ambitious. I think the first two tracks were traditionals, but The Sonnet was introduced as written by Pip and The Comedown as written by Stuart. The two were played without a break and either the former, which started out slowly, turned into a jaunty fiddle piece or the latter was a jaunty fiddle piece, I’m not sure where the join was. During gigs I make small notes to jog my memory about things. The one for the next song states that it was “about shagging” and that it was called Blow Me Jack “or another title”, bit I have no recollection what that means. I do remember it was introduced in a light-hearted way but have no other memory about it apart from a vague idea that it sounded more like what I expected a sea shanty to sound like. The last song was The Cuckoo and had a very traditional sound to it, both musically and vocally. Stuart and Pip got a good reception from the audience and, despite traditional folk not being high on my likes list, managed to keep my attention for their short, yet still entertaining set.

Next up was Esiotrot Waltz, comprising the floppy-fringed Sam Brigss and Charlie Tophill (I hope I’ve got those the right way round, both names could apply to either gender, but this was a male and female duo…). Both played guitar and they alternated vocals throughout the set. The first song saw Sam taking the lion’s share, both of vocals - which reminded me slightly of Boss Caine - and guitar, with Charlie playing a lighter guitar line and providing some nice vocal harmonies. Charlie’s vocals for the second song can only be described as lovely, obviously lighter than Sam’s. The first song to be introduced was called, I think, Sanity – it was more lively than the first two and, apparently, there is a dance sequence which goes with it but a practice session ended in a broken bed (!) so we didn’t get to see it tonight. The set continued in the livelier vein with the next song. Once again, I have to apologise for a lack of song titles – I did note down snatches of lyrics for songs that weren’t introduced, but this band are so new (formed in June this year and with, so far, just two likes on Facebook, one being me…) that I can’t find anything on-line. After Hours, however, was introduced and was another lovely song which painted a picture of a couple at the end of an evening together. I got the impression that all these songs were originals, but only the next one was specifically mentioned as being written by, and performed by, Charlie. The set ended with final Sam-sung (puns and everything in this post…) song and, overall, had a pleasant, more modern feel to it that Stuart and Pip’s set.

The Albion Band were formed in 1971 by Ashley Hutchings, who was also a founder member of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. One look at their promotional photos, however, showed that it was unlikely that many of the current line-up were even born in 1971. It turns out that this version, formed in 2011 after the original was suspended as a full band in 2002, was a sort of Albion Band: The Next Generation. For the first time in its history, Hutchings would not be a member, instead passing the baton on to his son, Blair Dunlop, who would be joined by current folk performers from diverse backgrounds, thus retaining the feel of earlier versions of the band. In short, this isn’t the Albion Band your father would remember. Not that my Dad would have a clue who the Albion Band were at all…

Opening with traditional sounding vocals over acoustic guitar and mandolin, A Quarter Hour Of Fame eventually saw the rest of the band joining in, causing the track to burst into electric life and it was followed by a lively and noisy instrumental, one of the “new jigs” for this tour. This was followed by the somewhat headier Ragged Heroes, opening track of the 1978 album Rise Up Like The Sun and a then rallying-call for English folk music, with it’s opening verse of "Songs of hope and tunes of glory / Half remembered Albion Hymns / Rise up Saint George and tell the story / This is where your song begins”. Powerful stuff, with the multi-vocal style adding real-depth to the song. After a track about “having and losing stuff” which, it was said, was something traditional jigged about with, Katriona Gilmore introduced her own Coalville as an attempt to produce a second popular song about a place she had never been to, first checking whether there was anybody in the audience from Leicestershire. (There was, but he didn’t announce himself until after the gig, using social media to confirm the town is indeed a grim place.) Between songs, instruments were often changed (and, this being a folk band, I couldn’t identify most of them, although there were things along the lines of mandolins) and there was some funny and deprecating (not necessarily of the “self” kind) banter, with perhaps a few such occasions showing why drummers shouldn’t be given microphones as Tom A. Wright often interrupted stories and sometimes mercilessly took the mickey out of other band members. Another jig was followed by How Many Miles To Babylon, a ghost story with nursery rhyme lyrics and some incredibly haunting music. It must have been a night for sea shanties, as One More Day was introduced as one and, again, was much livelier than the one performed earlier on. Katriona’s fiddle, playing over Blair’s introduction, drowned out the title of the next song, but it was a traditional English song which ended beautifully with just harmonised vocals over Tim Yates’ bass. Thieves Song brought folk sensibilities right up to date, using the poetry of Hark Hark The Dogs Do Bark in its lyrics to produce a song about hating politicians – Some in rags / Some in jags, do you get the reference? Another shout-out from Katriona showed that there were two Morris Dancers in the audience (at different sides of the stage not, she joked, standing together with nobody else around them…) then jig was followed by a nod to the original incarnation of the band with the playing of a song which was originally a seventeenth century poem set to music by Phil Beer. Then there was a bit of a country vibe to I Was A Young Man, with Benjamin Trott playing lead guitar in a bottle-neck style. The main set was completed by a couple more instrumentals, starting off slowly and gradually moving to something which certainly got the foot tapping. Throughout the set these instrumentals had reminded me of the type found on early albums from Mostly Autumn and I, for one, miss them.

After a short break the band returned to the stage for a much-demanded encore, only to find that Gavin Davenport’s microphone had packed up at the worst possible time, as he was to take lead vocals on what is known within the band as The Horse Song or, more properly Poor Old Horse, another sea shanty, which originally appeared on Rise Up Like The Sun. After taking over Blair’s microphone for the song, he returned to his to find that it had mysteriously started working again. The final song of the night was the final song on the new album Vice Of The People, from which many tracks had been taken tonight. Wake A Little Wiser once again, brings folk up to date and the set full circle as it decries the fifteen minutes of fame given to the heroes of today on shows like X-Factor. I waited until the last note had started to fade before clapping just the twice and practically running out of the door with no time to visit the merchandise desk as my bus home was imminent.

I have said before that traditional folk isn’t really my thing, but I enjoyed immensely the electric folk rock of the Albion Band. Hopefully they will be back soon and, if this performance was anything to go by, next time Fairport Convention play York, I will be making sure I don’t get my dates confused.

Dream Of Apollo–Recording, 11/11/12

Band photos included in this posting were taken on 10/11/12 by Marc McGarraghy, who is on a year long project to generate donations for MacMillan Cancer Support from his live music photography. More details can be found on his fundraising community Facebook Page.

Dream of Apollo, one of York’s best kept musical secrets, are currently recording an album – their first but, hopefully, not their last – and they invited me to go along to Melrose Yard Studios to sit in on one of the recording sessions. Debbie and Elizabeth were interested as well (the latter so much so that she took a book with her…) so the three of us, with a grand total of little or no idea of what to expect, went along.
Before today, I had only seen snippets of recording sessions on documentaries. Generally, they seemed to be in large rooms, with mixing desks that looked like something that could run a space shuttle. So, it was a bit of a surprise when we arrived at Melrose Yard and were ushered into a room which, while not exactly cramped when containing the three of us, two members of the band (drummer Jamie and singer/guitarist Vicki) and Iain the sound engineer, didn’t really want too many more people in it. The tools of Iain’s trade, for this afternoon at least, included a comfy chair with quality speakers pointed directly at it, a monitor that was smaller than most people’s T.V.s and a mixing desk that fitted neatly in front of it, being a fraction of the size of any I had seen before but still containing enough knobs, buttons and sliders that I would have been lost in a matter of seconds. Whether the smaller size was due to improvements in technology or just that the studios are a lot smaller than those you normally see on T.V., I don’t know but I’m certain it did as good a job as was required.

Anyway, with most of the cast introduced, where were the other two? It turns out that the rhythm section of the band had completed their allotted work the day before, getting drum and bass parts of four or five songs recorded. So, although Jamie was working hard, being on hand for moral support and witty banter, bass-player Rhys was having a bit of time off (although he did pop in later in the afternoon to see how things were going). And Winston? Well, when we arrived he was tucked away in the sound-proof room, recording his electric guitar parts over the drum and bass and some, let’s say, rough and ready vocals.
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Vicki McIlroy (vocals and acoustic guitar)

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As a music-lover, I found the whole thing fascinating, listening to the songs being built up layer by layer. Familiar songs that I had heard many times were, in effect, being created in front of me. In some cases I heard lyrics properly for the first time, for example finally having it confirmed that Leander is based upon the Greek myth of doomed lovers Hero and Leander (a fact that I have left out of my reviews of the band’s gigs because I was never certain). Having said that, it seems that Jamie didn’t know the story either and Vicki spent time relating it to him. The process also brought home to me exactly how non-musical I am myself – I could barely hear any slight “mistakes” made and definitely didn’t pick up that Winston’s guitar was going out of tune, whenever Iain asked him to check the tuning.
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      Winston Sanders (lead guitar and backing vocals)

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When Winston had finished his sections, he and Vicki swapped places and she recorded the acoustic guitar parts of the songs. One thing that was impressive to me was the fact that, even though tracks sometimes included repeated sections, it was rare for these to be copied for consistency. A couple of sections being marked down for copying. Occasionally, two run-throughs were spliced together, or a recording was started from just before a mistake rather than going back to the beginning (it would have been harsh on Vicki to ask her to play one track again when she had got to within seconds of the end before we heard, “oh, bugger” through the speakers…) but, for the most part, the tracks were played through in full, with two or three takes being recorded in order to give Iain a chance to pick the best. Effectively, despite technology making it easy to “cheat” most of what will eventually appear on the album was actually played live. That’s nice to know, in my opinion.
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Rhys Bevan (bass)

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With Vicki’s acoustic sections complete, a break was called for. Iain needed food and, with Winston heading off home to complete some urgent marking (he’s a primary school teacher in real life), Vicki, Jamie and I (Debbie and Elizabeth had already gone home) headed off to the pub, to be joined shortly by Rhys. This isn’t the first time I’ve spoken to the band, but previous occasions have been at the end of gigs, when they have been packing away their kit and when friends, family and other punters have been vying for their attention as well. It’s easy to say that somebody is “one of the nicest musicians you know” but, in this case, it is totally genuine. There was never any sense that I was intruding, either during the recording session or when socialising. Dream Of Apollo aren’t a band that are trying to “make it” in the music industry. Music almost seems to be a hobby to them. They are funding this album from their own money. Indeed, hearing some of their stories, you can’t help but marvel that they haven’t at least thought about throwing in the towel. There’s nothing as drastic as tour bus crashes, member fall-outs, or the like, but they have played a gig, in Holland, to exactly no people, with even another band booked at the venue leaving while they played (and it’s nothing to do with quality, I can assure you). There’s also a sense of distrust towards York biggest venues, especially after one night when, after headlining a gig, they had to pay their specially invited support bands out of their own pockets due to a misunderstanding (or miscommunication or even, perhaps, a dash of youthful naivety) with the venue. The band now choose to play smaller venues, usually pubs, which can pay a small amount and often play for charity. It’s not all hardship, though. There’s also a lighter side – whether it’s the camaraderie which comes across when they perform (and, indeed, which was also evident throughout the course of of this afternoon) or the humorous story of the song, one of my favourites, which didn’t quite go down as expected when played at a party the night before. Buy me a drink next time you see me and I’ll explain. Better still, buy one of the band a drink and let them tell you…
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Jamie Bradley (drums and percussion)

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After a couple of pints, we headed back to the studio. My time was drawing short – the band were booked in until 9 o’clock that evening but, even though there was no sign of anybody kicking me out, I had a ticket for a gig that night. Luckily for me I was about to hear Vicki record some vocals. Before that, though, the band asked Iain to play me a track that he had already completed. I have heard Too Lost, Too Late played live many times but at the end of the recorded version, my only reaction was, “Wow!” If I’m honest, when it first started I was a little surprised as it sounds quite different to the live version – Iain’s production has given it a slight electronic dance vibe and he has added effects to Vicki’s vocals which gives them a fuller and somehow more mature sound. Eventually, though, Winston’s guitar comes through and it regains its rockier feel. Frankly, it’s amazing and if the rest of the tracks are treated with such care and creativity I have, if anything, higher hopes for the album than I had before. Even more importantly, the band themselves are happy with it.

There was just time for one more treat and one more surprise. Home is another song that I’ve heard before but, like many others played live, haven’t heard all the lyrics before. Hearing Vicki sing it clearly brought home just what a different sort of love song it is. It’s gorgeous, it’s sensual and it’s the only song I can think of that puts into words what feelings the touch of a lover can give to somebody. Even more impressive to me (non-musical, remember) was that, after recording the main vocals, Vicki recorded full harmonies, basically singing the song again but differently, while listening to the main vocals through headphones. How difficult must that be?

Shortly afterwards, I had to take my leave. It had been a fascinating, engrossing and thoroughly entertaining afternoon and I would like to take the opportunity to thank the band (and Iain) for allowing us to sit in and to wish them every success with the album.

Vega–Fibbers, 02/11/12

There seemed to be a long wait between three members of Skin & Bone taking to the stage, the famous “do you feel lucky?” speech from Dirty Harry coming through the speakers and, finally, frontman Johnny Trowbridge appearing, much to the apparent delight of a vocal group of fans I can only assume had made the journey from South Yorkshire along with the band. Skin & Bone are influenced by 80s hard rock, as well as more modern, edgier bands. There was definitely a degree of Iron Maiden in their sound, which still managed to sound fresh and individual. As a frontman, Trowbridge is a little showy, in the sense that his stage presence seemed tailored to a bigger stage than that of Fibbers, but that didn’t detract from the fact that he is also very good. For a rock band, they are, musically, almost subdued. There is no over-reliance on guitar histrionics, with the first screaming solo only appearing three tracks into the set. In fact Richie Beardsley’s guitar work was, in places, simple but effective and what solos he did play ended up tantalising rather than outstaying their welcome. For me, the most interesting song was Walking Shoes which, through a couple of pace-changes, built up from a slow-burning start to a mush faster and livelier ending. Personally, I thought it would have been better to end the set with it, rather than a Chickenfoot cover – not that the latter was a bad song, but when you have one as interesting as Walking Shoes, use it to go out on a high.

Second support came from Stockholm’s Degreed, who were supporting Vega throughout the tour and, tonight, playing their first ever UK gig. There was a lot of effort put into making sure a huge banner, advertising their debut album Life Love Loss, was hung straight, with as much attention being given to it as would normally be lavished on the instruments. Eventually, with the help of some Fibbers-supplied tape, the band seemed satisfied with it and drummer Mats Ericsson promptly sat down, obscuring most of the advert… As with Skin & Bone before them (and what seems to be an increasing number of bands) Degreed came on stage to a backing track, but the twin guitars of Jesper Adefelt and Daniel Johansson gave this band a heavier sound. The vocals from Robin Ericsson, who also played bass, were very clear and Micke Jansson’s keyboards, despite sometimes being lost in the background gave the music a more melodic feel when they did filter through. Most of tonight’s tracks – including Color Me, Human Being? and Just Imagine - came from the debut album but Degreed are about to release a second and the first track they played from it tonight seemed to bring them luck of the wrong sort, as the stage lights went out halfway through Black Cat. The band played on, finishing that track before Ericsson near-pleaded for light so that he could see to play. Bravely, they attempted the next track, B.O.D. and the lights returned just after the introduction, much to the band’s almost palpable relief. Track followed track in rapid succession as the band ploughed through their set with scant pause between songs, except when Ericsson gave away a handful of free copies of Life Love Loss and a T-shirt to eager punters. Nice touch – I was too far away to get a copy and would have bought one at the end of the evening, except that I couldn’t find the band. The set ended with Arms Of Misery, which was the most melodic song the band played, slightly reminiscent of Toto. This was a thoroughly entertaining performance, despite the lighting issue and little were we to know that it had just knocked spots off the headliners. Just two pieces of advice – maybe hang the banner during (or just after) the sound-check, even if you fold it up so it can’t be seen and, if you want to sell merchandise, hang around until the end of the gig. After all, not everybody has pockets big enough to put CDs in…

I saw Vega just over a year ago and, looking back on my review of that night, I enjoyed the gig. I really like their 2010 debut Kiss Of Life. They are a lot like Bon Jovi, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. With a new album imminent, there was little chance I was going to skip this gig. Strangely, though, tonight didn’t hold a candle to that first time. Extra lights had been brought along and, perched on top of the speaker stacks, they seemed to give the stage a washed-out hue. The band themselves, once again a six-piece when playing live (there’s only four “official” members) looked nervous, with “new blood” Marcus (I was sure I remembered him from last year) on lead guitar being the only one apart from vocalist Nick Workman, to have any stage presence. Nick’s vocals were heavily tampered with, giving them a feeling of fakeness and each song seemed to have a “Whoa, whoa” for the crowd to sing along to or a “Hey! hey!” for them to shout. I’m not against a bit of audience participation but you can go too far. That said, the songs were performed well. Tracks from Kiss Of Life, which I hadn’t played for quite a while, were instantly recognisable the addition of tracks from new album meant that the set was longer than last time. New songs such as Bless My Soul, title track What The Hell, current single White Knuckle Ride and both album and set closer Hands In The Air, bode well for the new album, showing progression without losing sight of the melodic stadium rock sound that made Kiss Of Life such a pleasing debut. Tonight’s crowd was noticeably smaller than that of last year and it seemed to thin out a bit at the front as the set went on, so it’s possible I wasn’t the only one a slightly disappointed with the performance, especially given how good Degreed had been. I also had to question the timing of the tour – I had come out tonight expecting the new album to be available and fully intending to buy a copy, but it’s not actually released until January and the only merchandise available was a rather uninspiring T-shirt. Overall, a bit of a disappointment. Not that that will put me off seeing Vega if/when they play York again. Given the strength of Kiss Of Life and the sound of the new songs I still think there’s a great band somewhere in there, just waiting to be let loose.

Hawklords–Fibbers, 25/10/12

Every so often a band comes to York that I know I want to see, but I don’t really know why. Case in point – Hawklords… They must be something to do with Hawkwind, right? Spin-off? Tribute? No idea. What I know about Hawkwind can be written on the back of a postage stamp with space left over - Dave Brock, Space Rock, Stacia and I once had a 7” picture-disc copy of Silver Machine. But they sound like a band that I should like and probably would like if I took the time to listen to some of their stuff. Anyway, Hawklords – I bought a ticket, then did a bit of research.

Turns out the band was a spin-off, back in 1978 (when Hawkwind disbanded for a bit) and have now sort of reformed, with two original members and a few other ex-Hawkwind members. Don’t you just love bands with simple histories…?

“What time is the support on?” asked Andy as we handed our tickets over. “There isn’t one. Hawklords are doing a two-hour set,” came the reply. So we headed off to a local hostelry for a quick pint and wondered whether that was the reason that Stolen Earth had announced a few days earlier that they would no longer be supporting. Nice to hear their Soul In A Jar played as part of the background music before the gig actually started, though.

And what a gig. Slightly reminiscent of the Ozric Tentacles earlier in the year, with a similar, perhaps slightly less mesmerising film show going on at the back of the stage. As well as light patterns that drew the eyes in, this one seemed to include clips from Soviet science fiction films from the 1950s as well as what looked to be a NASA promotional clip. It was hard to look away but, at the same time, it in no way detracted from the music. Unlike the Ozrics, who played instrumental space rock, Hawklords play songs. Ron Tree’s vocals are slightly punky in style, at times the delivery reminded me of Anarchy In The UK, at others Teenage Kicks but, despite my dislike of punk music, it didn’t put me off at all. Some of the lyrics hard a slightly hard edge to them, others seemed like they had been inspired by the writings of Erich Von Daniken or any number of “proper” science-fiction authors. Tree’s performance also had an edge to it – he punctuated songs with hand gestures, at times dancing as though he was coming down off a high (or perhaps still on one), his makeup running as the set went on, giving him a more and more macabre look. For one mind-bending song about robots he donned a blank-eyed mask and performed another from underneath some sort of space helmet.

Between songs, Tree and guitarist Jerry Richards regaled us with renditions of some sort of cosmic poetry. Richard’s microphone may just have had a little too much reverb on it for him to be understood (at the end of the night, I only just made out him saying that they had enjoyed playing Fibbers and wanted us to encourage the venue to have them back) but the cadence and alternating/overlapping vocals meant that the delivery was powerful and almost hypnotic. The electronics sound effects only added to the other-worldly feel.

The music itself was loud, bone-shakingly so at times. Yet tonight saw one of the best sound mixes I have experienced at Fibbers. No matter how heavy or chaotic the music got, you could hear everything – vocals and instruments all came through. Apparently, there should have been a second set of keyboards/synthesizer (Steve Swindells was not touring due to health reasons) – I’m not sure whether they would have been necessary. Harvey Bainbridge, looking like the rest of the band’s eccentric uncle, performed brilliantly on the one set, as well as providing vocals for one track. A large portion of the two hour set was comprised of songs from the band’s new album - including the title track We Are One, Digital Age, Time Split Vision and The Ancient Ones – hardly any of which were introduced but which were performed so clearly and cleanly that I recognised them when playing the album the next day. I’m told that a number of Hawkwind classics were also played, not that I recognised anything (but tonight probably added weight to the theory that I would probably like Hawkwind’s output). IF anything the set seemed to end too quickly, before the venue’s curfew – which led to what seemed to be an impromptu jam-session which provided the most mellow section of the evening. Of course, it could just have been another pre-rehearsed piece, so fluidly did the band perform it.

Some of the crowd were obviously hard-core fans. Most of the people in front of us danced for most of the set – apparently dancing to space-rock means flailing around like a demented astronaut in zero-gee and one particularly energetic woman seemed, at one point, to be trying to batter me to death. She apologised, I moved back a couple of steps…

This was probably the most intense gig I have ever been to. It may also have been one of the loudest – as usual, I didn’t bother with ear-plugs and my ears were still ringing the following lunchtime. Despite all that, it was one of the stand-out gigs of the year so far. I’m not sure whether psychedelic hippy-punk is an actual music genre. If it isn’t, it should be. And Hawklords could be the best proponents of it.