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. 

Stealing The Show

Saturday 17th September: When the support act took to the stage at the Post Office Social Club tonight, my first impression was that they seemed a little out of place opening for what we were expecting from the headliners. The two tank-top clad ladies, one with acoustic guitar and the other with (I think) some sort of Mandolin, practically screamed “Folk music!” at the audience who, practically to a man, would have been expecting something a bit louder later on.

Two are Helen Turner and Sharon Winfield, who have been writing and playing together since 2006 and have released two albums (One and Two). Tonight’s opener, Morecombe Bay (which, like most of tonight’s song, appears on neither of those albums – and may or may not have been about the cockle-pickers who were drowned there in 2004) sounded a little discordant to me, with a handful of out-of-place “twangs” seemingly intruding into the playing. As the song progressed it became much more flowing, with tight playing and nice harmonies. Grandfather’s Ghost started more softly, leading into a powerful chorus, while Spontaneous came across more as folk-pop than straight folk. One guitar was replaced by a concertina for Dunwich, a hauntingly beautiful song about the small town in Suffolk which has been falling prey to coastal erosion since the 13th century. Raven Mother was based on the German insult, Rabenmutter, for working mothers but I couldn’t hear the lyrics clearly enough to work out whether Helen and Sharon were angry about the term, whether they were being ironic or whether they were simply poking fun at it. The simple guitar work and powerful lyrics of Guns, written about the Columbine school shootings, but just as relevant to those that have happened since, didn’t get the attention they deserved as the swelling crowd also meant increasing background noise. With its lively tone, Shoulder upped the pace a bit, while Witch Song made good use of the girls’ vocals to represent the horror of a woman accused of being a witch during the 1645 trials. Sisterhood, telling the story of women’s rights campaigner Mary Wollstonecraft, ended the set.

Between the songs there was an entertaining line in sometimes self-deprecating humour – “When she was pregnant, we used to play the ‘guess which of us is pregnant’ game. I think I came off quite badly in that.” And the perfect timing of the very funny introduction to Sisterhood simply can’t be reproduced on the printed page. The various themes behind their lyrics may not always be uplifting, but the songs themselves are thought-provoking and, being contemporary in style if not always in content, were certainly more appealing to me than the traditional folk music I have come across. Two may have looked a strange choice of support act, but they certainly entertained my little group and seemed to go down well with a large portion of the whole audience, getting a good reception and seemingly shifting a number of CDs after their set, including a couple to yours truly.

At the beginning of the year, Breathing Space announced that they were splitting up and you could almost hear the sigh of disappointment from their fans. It didn’t take too long for four of the final line-up – Heidi Widdop, Paul Teasedale, Adam Dawson and Barry Cassells – to announce that they were to form a new band, recruiting John Sykes, a past band-mate of Barry, to play keyboards. And so Stolen Earth was born. The band’s first outing was a few weeks ago, at the Cambridge Rock Festival, but tonight is their York launch gig and unsurprisingly the quite large audience features a fair few familiar faces, many of them regular fans of the Mostly Autumn “family” of bands, to which Breathing Space belonged.

Stolen Earth are not, however, Breathing Space resuscitated. Guitar-driven, with Adam alternating between effortless noodling and brash strokes across the strings, rather than keyboard-led they have opted to move away from the proggy ambience of the previous band and towards a rockier sound, the sweeping songs belonging more to the A.O.R. genre, but without the pomp and bombast often associated with that style of music. The new sound is probably better suited to Heidi’s vocals, which are very different to Livvy’s (Breathing Space’s original vocalist). I know that there have been some comments about the sound quality and there were problems with feedback during some parts of the gig. Personally, I thought there was little wrong and was impressed that Heidi’s acoustic guitar could be clearly heard throughout the set. The only “complaint” our group had was that Heidi’s vocals were a little lost in the mix, something which I think was at least partly down to “new song syndrome” – it’s always easier to hear the vocals when the songs are familiar to you and your brain can fill in the gaps.

Tonight’s set, though, was almost totally unfamiliar. Opener I Live begins with a staccato drum beat before bursting into some fairly heavy guitar while Bitterness Fades features a more jangly style with a slightly 60’s feel. Mirror Mirror saw Adam taking over the vocals, appropriately enough seeing as it was one of the tracks on his Lazy Susan single, and had a fantastic sound, with all the instruments coming through. Tuscany Sun is a slower, ballad-like song which, with the help of a video posted on youtube, has already garnered the band airplay on European radio. Unnatural Disaster is, perhaps, the song most like those of Breathing Space (and had already been performed by that band), with its prominent keyboards, fast drum-line and nice guitar and bass solos. With Soul In A Jar, the band edged slightly into Mostly Autumn territory, if only because of the inclusion of some low whistle from Heidi, while Adam started off with an acoustic guitar before moving back to the electric for a rousing middle section leading into John’s lovely ending. My Lips Are Too Dry, which somehow reminded me of both Bon Jovi’s Cowboy and Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, featured some very strong vocals from Heidi, helped along with a healthy dose of reverb, while Adam came to the fore once again, playing bottleneck guitar during Into The Virgin Snow. A couple of covers followed. The first had us guessing for a while as Adam’s noodling intro seemed to morph around Pink Floyd and The Animals before finally settling into The Eagles’ Hotel California, then Paul switched four strings for twelve for a version of Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Adam took over the vocals again for a reworked version of his own superb and very emotive Silver Skies and the set ended with the epic Perfect Wave, perhaps the proggiest song on show tonight with a nice change of pace at the end and some superb screaming guitar. The obligatory encore was Clear, Paul’s own song from Breathing Space’s third album, showing that the past hasn’t been completely forgotten.

There were a few hints of nervousness during the set – Adam getting “guitar not turned on” and “guitar not plugged in” mixed up and Heidi dropping her guitar while adjusting a mike stand – along with a slight sense of amazement that so many people had turned up to see them, but overall this was a very assured performance by some top class musicians. The demise of Breathing Space may mean that one branch of the Mostly Autumn rock family tree has been trimmed but, from tonight’s showing, it’s obvious that a seed has broken free and is growing into a strong sapling just outside the shadow of the “parent” band.

Another camera in my face / Another hand around my waist

Friday 9th September: It’s been a while since the whole gang have been out together but tonight we managed to synchronise diaries and turn up at Fibbers for a band whose output we all know (to varying degrees) and like. One of my favourites – the superb Welsh proggers, Panic Room.

On their latest and, so far, longest tour, Panic Room are being supported on a number of dates by David R Black, a self-financed and self-managed rock trio who seem determined to live the rock ‘n’ roll dream. Hailing from Manchester and comprising of David R (guitar and vocals), Sarit Black (bass and backing vocals) and Pai (drums), the band has just released its second album, Secret City, and tonight we were treated to songs both from it and full-length debut Hearts And Stars, as well as from earlier EPs. Opening with the bass-heavy Dark Side Of Her they showed us a style of uncompromising, yet uncomplicated rock. Empire Building gave us strong vocals building to a crescendo, while Secret City had a middle section of pounding drums, with the melodic guitar just about pushing its way through them. Crawl was written by Black who, throughout the set, seemed to be doing her best to play the dark and mysterious, determinedly keeping her eye-line above the (rather small) crowd and avoiding looking at any cameras pointed her way. No Code was followed by Trinity, which featured my favourite guitar work of the set and included a nice change of pace at the end. Signals, with its slow, atmospheric start leading into a lively performance with a guitar sound reminiscent of The Who was, for me, the best song overall. I didn’t catch the title of the next song but the final one, new single Ezra, was helped by another lively performance along with the best lights and backing vocals of the set. I described the set as uncomplicated, by which I mean no slight. It was a set of short, punchy songs for the most part, with no screaming guitar solos or musical histrionics. A good, solid performance and, in hindsight, I wish I had picked up one a CD or two.

Tonight is the fifth time I’ve seen Panic Room – I think that is every time they have played York – and the second time this year. It’s also by far the smallest crowd I have seen them play to, with one or two regulars missing from view. It’s a shame as I doubt it can be sustainable playing to such a small number of people and I can’t help but worry that, even with the band’s tenuous ties to York (two members also play in York’s own Mostly Autumn and Halo Blind) that, eventually, they won’t play here as often. There’s no new album to promote this time around (their third isn’t due until next year) tonight’s set was a slightly re-jigged version of the one I saw back in February. Opening with the monumental Song For Tomorrow, which will feature on the next album and is almost a definitive prog track, with individual sections allowing each musician to shine briefly. Next came Freedom To Breathe and I still can’t help wondering what Anne-Marie is thinking as she sings about the perils of celebrity while having multiple cameras pointed in her direction. This was followed by (I think) 5th Amendment from the Little Satellite bonus disk, Picking Up Knives, The Fall, which somehow seems to exude and air of improvisation, and Reborn – a nice mix of songs from the first two albums. Fans seem a bit divided on I Am The Cat. Personally, I think it’s a nice piece of fun which can be used to break up a set of sometimes quite serious songs. So, when Anne-Marie announced a bit of “pussy action”, I couldn’t hide a wry smile. A return to seriousness with the destruction of the rainforests and Yasumi was followed by a song I haven’t heard played live before. Exodus originally appeared on Contact, Anne-Marie’s solo EP, has been beefed up from a piano-led piece to a full band rocker and is very entertaining. There was mention that it might be recorded in this format some time. The second newly-written song, Promises – another one with obvious brief individual sections – was followed by the brilliant cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Bitches Crystal, which has finally seen the light of day on an EP available for sale only on this tour (also including an instrumental version of Dark Star, a very nice animated video for Satellite and two songs already available on the albums – the latter, perhaps, making it less of a bargain than it should have been) and produced an incredibly sultry performance from Anne-Marie. The set ended with the powerful Dark Star and Satellite before the band returned to give us Sandstorms, with the most prominent use of Jonathan Edwards’ keyboards in the set, as an encore.

And it is perhaps those last few words that show my only downside of seeing Panic Room at Fibbers. There always seems to be something wrong with the sound-mix. As ever, Anne-Marie’s vocals were top-notch (it’s not for nothing that she was voted best female vocalist of 2010 by readers of Classic Rock’s Prog spin-off magazine), Yatim’s bass-playing is always clear (and entertaining – tonight he was quite literally climbing the speakers) and drummers always seem well-catered for in the sound department. But, while Paul’s guitar-playing is brilliant (and, from his facial expressions, he sometimes seems to enjoy playing a little too much…) it never quite seems loud enough and I always struggle to pick out Jonathan’s keyboards, unless it’s during a solo spell.

But that’s a small niggle in an otherwise excellent set. The band obviously enjoy playing together and there is a noticeable chemistry between them on stage, with Anne-Marie and Paul trading looks and smiles that seem to imply they are sharing a secret joke. Definitely one of the best live bands around and I hope they continue to grace York with their presence for some time to come.