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.