Friday 18th January: A bout of the 'flu laid me low last weekend, so tonight was just the second musical Friday of the year so far. With nothing much appealing at Fibbers, it was off to the Roman Bath again to see the mysterious Generator.
I say mysterious because, despite two of us scouring the internet, we could find no details of who they are. The only thing I can tell you is that I had seen the drummer before - performing with The Travelling Band last year. Other than him, Generator consisted of guitarist, bass, keyboard and female vocalist. There was a rumour doing the round that this was their first gig.
A little more mainframe than our usual fare, they performed an eclectic mix of covers, including (but not limited to) Madonna (Ray of Light), U2 (Vertigo), Maroon 5, The New Radicals (You Get What You Give), Tears for Fears (Everybody Wants to Rule the World), Joss Stone (Super Duper Love), Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Tasmin Archer (Sleeping Satellite).
The set started out workmanlike but gradually, through the evening, it became apparent that the lead singer was relaxing and beginning to enjoy herself and, as time went on the overall performance got better and better, with just one or two blips (they should never have attempted to cover Joss Stone...)
In the end, a quite pleasant evening out.
Bizarre happening of the evening/following morning was the fact that none of us could remember the name of the singer, or his band, currently being immortalised on film after his suicide years ago. We knew his first name - Ian - but couldn't remember any more details. This morning, while reading a British Science Fiction Association magazine, specifically an article about the soundtrack to the movie The Crow, I found a reference to Ian Curtis of Joy Division - the very person we were trying to remember.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Time To Pogo-oh-oh-oh
Friday 4th January: A cold, wet, windy Friday evening in York. Time for the first visit of the year to Fibbers.
Being honest, the first band on did nothing for me. Girls Can't Dance are from Leeds and billed as "Indie/New Wave/Post Punk". The vocals reminded me, for some reason I've yet to fathom, of the 80s. Perhaps more cruelly, they could also be described as a cross between somebody shouting and a stuck typewriter, as fully half the lyrics seemed to consist of repeated vowel sounds. Oh, oh, ooooh.
Next up were The Layfields. A four-piece from York with two vocalists taking alternate songs. Better than the first band but a bit samey throughout their set, until the last song which was almost completely different in style and excellent. One song, however, does not a set make. The Layfields also had a habit of using repeated vowel sounds, but with less shouting.
Finally, the band we had turned up and paid our £3 to see - The Sneakypeeks. Now, this band sound a lot like Cohesion, the first headline act I saw at Fibbers over a year ago. This would be because they are, in effect, Cohesion reborn as a three-piece, with a name-change to reflect the more fun-filled style of their music. (Apparently, Cohesion does not give the right impression.) Name-change or not, they were brilliant. The set was thrown into a little bit of chaos when drummer Rich was forced into an impromptu solo after lead-guitarist Paul broke two strings during the first song, but the band carried the whole set, which included at least one Cohesion song, off superbly.
One noticeable difference between the Sneakypeaks and the other bands was that the former actually look very professional on stage. Apparently an album is due this year. I'll be keeping my eyes out for it.
As Fibbers turned itself into a dance club, we wandered round to the Roman Bath to see what we happening there. The Spunksters - a punk covers band from Yorkshire - was what was going on. Punk isn't my thing. I never got it. The other guys seemed to be enjoying it, though, with one of them treating us to a bit of a pogo dancing. I drank my pint and headed off for the last bus home.
Being honest, the first band on did nothing for me. Girls Can't Dance are from Leeds and billed as "Indie/New Wave/Post Punk". The vocals reminded me, for some reason I've yet to fathom, of the 80s. Perhaps more cruelly, they could also be described as a cross between somebody shouting and a stuck typewriter, as fully half the lyrics seemed to consist of repeated vowel sounds. Oh, oh, ooooh.
Next up were The Layfields. A four-piece from York with two vocalists taking alternate songs. Better than the first band but a bit samey throughout their set, until the last song which was almost completely different in style and excellent. One song, however, does not a set make. The Layfields also had a habit of using repeated vowel sounds, but with less shouting.
Finally, the band we had turned up and paid our £3 to see - The Sneakypeeks. Now, this band sound a lot like Cohesion, the first headline act I saw at Fibbers over a year ago. This would be because they are, in effect, Cohesion reborn as a three-piece, with a name-change to reflect the more fun-filled style of their music. (Apparently, Cohesion does not give the right impression.) Name-change or not, they were brilliant. The set was thrown into a little bit of chaos when drummer Rich was forced into an impromptu solo after lead-guitarist Paul broke two strings during the first song, but the band carried the whole set, which included at least one Cohesion song, off superbly.
One noticeable difference between the Sneakypeaks and the other bands was that the former actually look very professional on stage. Apparently an album is due this year. I'll be keeping my eyes out for it.
As Fibbers turned itself into a dance club, we wandered round to the Roman Bath to see what we happening there. The Spunksters - a punk covers band from Yorkshire - was what was going on. Punk isn't my thing. I never got it. The other guys seemed to be enjoying it, though, with one of them treating us to a bit of a pogo dancing. I drank my pint and headed off for the last bus home.
Oh My God I Can't Believe It
Tuesday 1st January: So, a funny thing happened to me on New Year's Day...
At about 1 o'clock in the morning, Debbie and I were watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny show on BBC2. The Kaiser Chiefs were performing and I mentioned to Debbie that I didn't think they would be at that day's Leeds United game. Some of them sit just four rows in front of me and I doubted that they would be able to get back from London in time, assuming that, when the show finished, there would be some sort of party for the many celebrity guests.
However, that afternoon, at the match, one of the band - bass player Simon Rix - was in his usual seat. After a dire performance, at the end of which a much under par Leeds side had been beaten 3:1 by Oldham, I found myself standing close to Mr Rix and decided to try a little light banter. Something along the lines of:
Me - "You got back quick."
Rix (slightly quizzically) - "Yeah."
Me - "Was there not a big p*ss-up after the show?"
Rix - "Yeah, but we decided to come back because we thought the football would be good."
Me - "Oh well. Never mind..."
Recounting the tale the next day at work, one of my colleagues advised me that he had been told that the Hootenanny show is actually recorded in early December. So, either Mr Rix was humouring me (Wikipedia states that the pretence of the show being live is strictly maintained) or he was assuming that we had both been at some New Year's do. I'll probably never know.
At about 1 o'clock in the morning, Debbie and I were watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny show on BBC2. The Kaiser Chiefs were performing and I mentioned to Debbie that I didn't think they would be at that day's Leeds United game. Some of them sit just four rows in front of me and I doubted that they would be able to get back from London in time, assuming that, when the show finished, there would be some sort of party for the many celebrity guests.
However, that afternoon, at the match, one of the band - bass player Simon Rix - was in his usual seat. After a dire performance, at the end of which a much under par Leeds side had been beaten 3:1 by Oldham, I found myself standing close to Mr Rix and decided to try a little light banter. Something along the lines of:
Me - "You got back quick."
Rix (slightly quizzically) - "Yeah."
Me - "Was there not a big p*ss-up after the show?"
Rix - "Yeah, but we decided to come back because we thought the football would be good."
Me - "Oh well. Never mind..."
Recounting the tale the next day at work, one of my colleagues advised me that he had been told that the Hootenanny show is actually recorded in early December. So, either Mr Rix was humouring me (Wikipedia states that the pretence of the show being live is strictly maintained) or he was assuming that we had both been at some New Year's do. I'll probably never know.
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