Black ‘n’ Stack

Sunday 6th May: Due to a couple of pre-gig pints Andy, Yvonne and I were a little late arriving at tonight’s gig and, consequently, missed the beginning of the support act’s set. I’m not sure how long they had been on stage when we arrived, but there was something vaguely familiar about them. A glance over to the merchandise table revealed a publicity poster that, even from a distance, jogged my memory into remembering them as Blackheart, an acoustic duo who I’ve heard of only because they occasionally play what amounts to the local village hall. When they finished playing whatever song we had walked in on, Andy leaned over and suggested I might want to take advantage of the more intimate venue next time they played there. Not that they were lost in the Duchess, simply that they were so good.

Rick Pilkington plays guitar, occasionally with what sounded to me like added loop effects - I have since been told by the duo that they don't use loops, which makes Rick's playing even more impressive and shows what I know... - while the stunning (in looks and voice) Chrissy Mostyn provides the vocals and, for a couple of songs, plays the omnichord (an electronic instrument manufactured by Suzuki – I had to look it up…). Introducing one downbeat song, Chrissy describes the duo as a “miserable band” but that’s not something that permeates the set. The third song we get to hear is much faster than the previous ones, played in a finger-picking style and with vocals that reminded me of Vanessa Carlton. Towards the end of the set, the duo are joined on stage by Clare Lindley (touring member of Stackridge) whose violin playing adds a little extra to the performance, although Chrissy seems a little surprised and pleased that she stays for the final song, current single Wednesday Afternoon, which is as far removed from miserable as you can get and provides a nice, foot-tapping end to an entertaining set.

There has been a few bands who found fame in the 70’s playing in York recently but Stackridge are the first that I’ve seen who I’ve never even heard of before. However, a friend who is a big fan (and whose visit York from the States missed the gig by just two days) had told me that I would probably like them. So, in for a penny…

Formed in 1970 and both opening and closing the inaugural Glastonbury festival of that year, by 1974 Stackridge appeared to be on the verge of greatness. However, line-up changes eventually led to the band splitting up in 1976. The individual members continued to make music and, in 2007, Stackridge is reborn. The current line-up includes original members Andy Cresswell-Davis (lead guitar, vocals and keyboards), James Warren (guitar and vocals) and Jim Walter (bass) with touring members Glenn Tommey (keyboards and vocals), Eddie John (drums) and Clare Lindley (violin and vocals) completing the band we see tonight.

Not knowing any of their material, I was completely at the mercy of songs being introduced in a coherent way, but it wasn’t until three songs in that 1973’s The Road To Venezuala was the first to be announced. Even before that, though, Andy’s description of the band as “whimsical” seemed to be accurate and the lyrics were edging towards the quirky side. Whatever it was that came next, the brushed drums and clipped vocals gave it the feel of a Noel Coward song while the next included some lovely harmonised vocals. Clare changed from violin to acoustic guitar while Andy moved up to electric (and somehow managed to look less comfortable playing it, at least until later in the set) for Long Dark River (from the latest album, A Victory For Common Sense), which was a much rockier number which built to a stunning ending. What followed sounded familiar and I originally thought it was a cover. However, Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime was originally recorded by The Korgis, a spin-off from Stackridge (although it has also been covered by a number of artists). Then it was back to 1972 for Lummy Days before both Clare and Andy took up ukuleles amidst jokes about how all aging rockers eventually have to play them, how Clare isn’t that old and that, eventually, Jim (who, throughout the evening reminded me somehow of a children’s TV presenter of the Johnny Ball ilk) was the only member of the band not playing one – yes, even the drummer and keyboard-player could be seen strumming away. It was definitely back to the quirky and whimsical side of things, especially when Eddie also wandered to the front of stage to provide a bit of whistling. A superb instrumental piece was followed by Something About The Beatles, another Korgis song, which acknowledges John Lennon’s influence on the band’s music. Then it was back to the latest release for Lost And Found and final song Boots And Shoes, before the band returned for an instrumental encore which had a distinctly Scottish influence, starting with just Clare on violin and Eddie on what looked to me like a bodhrán drum before ending with the full band. The above makes it sound as though we were short-changed on the length of set, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Over the course of about ninety minutes we were treated to something like sixteen, mostly extended songs.

Whimsical it might have been, but you couldn’t question the quality of musicianship on show. A mix of folk and progressive rock, Stackridge’s music left me with a smile on my face. Most of the band may be in their sixties (in fact, I’m beginning to think that, if I were to add up the ages of the band members I’ve seen this year I would get something slightly older than Methuselah) but they can still play and entertain brilliantly and clearly enjoy playing. Hopefully this line-up will endure for a bit longer so that we get a chance to see them again.

CD Review: Best Of York

Thursday 3rd May: “Best of”… Perhaps the most subjective phrase that can ever be used on an album title. I remember, many years ago when I was first getting into music, pointing out to an established music fan just a couple of years older than me, that I had seen a “Best of…” album (the band escapes me) being advertised. His response was along the lines of, “You’d be better off putting a tape together of your own favourite songs from the band.” In most cases, “Best of…” translates to “most well known” or, perhaps, “most commercial”, usually with a couple of new tracks thrown in to entice the completist into making a purchase. (Although, in these days of individual track downloads, the latter is probably becoming less effective.)

To put together an album to represent, musically, the “Best of…” an entire city, even one just the size of York, is a brave thing to do. But it’s exactly what Connor Devine did as part of his BA music production course, setting out to raise a bit of money for charity as well. I first saw an advert, on Facebook, asking for interested acts to get in touch with Connor last year and I’m not sure how widely the call went out. The album itself has a nice variety of artists, covering a few genres, but is, perhaps, more representative of the smaller and, in most cases, more mainstream bands of the local music scene. By that, I mean that long-established, even if not known to the wider public, acts are conspicuous by their absence. There’s no Mostly Autumn, Shed Seven, One Night Only, or Elliot Minor and the extreme metal of the likes of RSJ probably wouldn’t sit too well alongside most of the tracks.

What you do get are is a sample of some of the younger, less established bands who, for the most part, play the support-slot, pub and festival circuits, along with a few who are beginning to move towards local headline slots and maybe one or two who have gone just a little bit further.

If I’m honest, some of the bands on the CD aren’t quite as well served by their tracks than others. Echo Dynamo’s Blame, a catchy indie-pop song, suffers a little from vocals swamped by the music but In Spades’ energetic Ghost In The Mirror sounds very poor (a shame since, while freely admitting that music is just a hobby and that he has no desire to try to “make it big”, frontman Stewart King works hard to get people to attend his gigs and, I suspect, saw this CD as a platform to get a bit more exposure, as a lot of the bands will have). Katie And The Questions are represented by Perfect Life, a song which evokes 60’s pop while including a grinding guitar riff and atmospheric keyboards but the vocals are nowhere near as good as when it was performed live at the launch gig. Despite that it’s still the most effective “earworm” on the album. Even Vicki Mack, usually superb vocally when performing live, seems to struggle in a few places during Dream Of Apollo’s Regrets Of The Devil which, with it’s steely guitar, moody bass and complex structure is one of that band’s most impressive songs. I have no insight into the recording process, so it might simply be that a lack of time meant that these tracks are a little less polished than the others but, despite their faults, they are excellent representations of the bands in question.

Of the other bands that I am already familiar with, the folk pop of Pelico’s is a pleasant surprise – when we saw them support Hope & Social a while back, hardly anybody was listening and the band seemed to fade into the background. At the time, I commented that they would probably be more suited to a smaller, more intimate venue and, if anything, Who You Are, with its jangly guitar, jaunty drum-line and clear vocals shows that they deserved more attention. There’s more folk, of a slightly more traditional flavour, in Until The Dawn, from Suzy Bradley And The Morning After. Along with Suzy’s lovely voice, the unique make-up of this band has provided a nice sound when I’ve seen them live. Unfortunately, I think the choice of song for the album is slightly suspect, if only for the fact that David Martin’s electric guitar is hard to pick out. Boss Caine (Dan Lucas/GT Turbo) opens the album with Ghosts And Drunks, another interesting choice as (I believe) it is the only song from his repertoire that was written by somebody else, in this case Scarborough’s Joe Solo. What that say’s about Dan’s confidence in his own output can only be speculation but it is a cracking song in it’s own right and is still very representative of the Boss Caine sound. I hadn’t heard of What The Cat Dragged in before this album was put together but I’ve said elsewhere how much they impressed me during the launch gig. They sound like a mix of The Cure and an archetypal 1920’s cabaret and their act is a mixture of darkness and burlesque (in the word’s true sense rather than the theatrical) and Emily Lies, a distinctly unstructured song with lots of style changes, is another good representation.

With the exception of In Spades, the second half of the album comprises the bands that I don’t know and, so, serves it’s purpose as a sampler. Club Smith appear to be the (arguably) biggest name on the album. I have a feeling that we saw them live a couple of times back in 2008, in a previous guise of The Hair. If anything their track, Causing Doubt – sounding exactly as you would expect from a band who have supported the likes of The Pigeon Detectives – has the best sound on the album (and is the only track not to have its recording details listed). Testtone3 are one of the more “different” sounds – Free Ride Home starts off slightly atmospheric before launching into a high-energy rock/electronica style. Stress Fracture, from Verona Fault Line, is as close to the album gets to having a “heavy” track and impresses with its distinctive drum-line and taut vocals, while Rocketsmith’s The Missing is another song recorded outside of the project itself and, again, seems to have a cleaner sound. The song tells of the effects of somebody going missing on those around him and, if anything, its energetic indie sound is almost (only almost, mind) too light for the subject. The album ends with Riff Clichards, more high-energy from Chaos In Verse, with a somewhat familiar sounding, yet elusive, opening riff.

Of the thirteen bands on the album, I have already seen seven play live (and two of them I already class as favourite acts, with a third potentially heading that way). Of the remaining six, there aren’t any that I would avoid, even if I wouldn’t necessarily buy albums from all of them. This album does have a few faults but, overall, I think it is a great (and cheap) way to sample some of York’s musical talent. Connor Devine should be applauded for his efforts

The Best Of York album is available from iTunes, www.bestofyorkalbum.com or from Rebound Records (Gillygate, York). All proceeds go to MacMillan’s Cancer Support.

Best Of York

Wednesday 25th April: A few weeks ago I was chatting to Rhys Bevan (bass-player with Dream Of Apollo) and, without any hard evidence to back up my statement, I put forth the argument that the music scene in York wasn’t in a particularly healthy state. By that I meant that the small local bands seemed to be few and far between, certainly on evening when I was being tempted out to gigs. Not that long ago Friday nights saw three or four locals playing Fibbers for a few quid on the door. We might not have heard of most of them (or heard again of half of them) but there were many gems and few that were bad enough that we wouldn’t consider seeing them again. Recently, at the two “major” live venues at least, local bands seem to have been replaced by larger touring ones (which I’m not complaining about) and locals seem to have been relegated to occasional supports slots. Again, I stress that the above is a general feeling on my part, with no researched evidence to back it up.

Tonight, my faith in the local talent was reinforced.

Last year, Connor Devine put out a call for artists who would be interested in appearing on an album that he was putting together as part of his music production course at York St John University. Not only would the album be a showcase for local musicians but would also raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support. The album – Best Of York - was launched tonight with a gig at the Basement Bar featuring four of the bands from the album.

My regular reader will, by now, have realised that I am a big fan of Boss Caine, who opened proceedings battling against a cold and the usual problem of gig-going talkers. (As an aside, I will probably never understand why people spend money to attend a gig, then talk all the way through it. It’s annoying. To actually stand directly in front of the person playing, right in their eye-line and to talk constantly throughout their set, isn’t just annoying. It’s both rude and disrespectful. One day I’ll be brave enough to say something, for now I’ll just hope that the idiots read this and somehow realise I’m talking about them…) Ahem, anyway… tonight Dan filled his too-short set with songs from his forthcoming second album, including three that I hadn’t heard before. Opening with the jaunty Kind Of Loving before being joined on stage by Vin North for the much more sombre Ghosts and Drunks (his track on Best Of York) and then the first new one which was about his friend and fellow song-writer, Mark Wynn and, I think, was called Song For Wynn. Dan is quick to acknowledge the talents of others and this song is just another way of him doing so. The next song was also new and if it was announced by title, I missed it. This one was in the more morose style that sometimes gets Dan labelled as “miserablist”, whereas the next – Left Hand Luke And Eleanor Louise – was more upbeat and showed that Dan can find lyrical inspiration in the strangest of places, in this case somebody who dropped into the regular open-mic night he hosts at York’s Dusk bar (Eleanor Louise was the guy’s guitar). The set finished in upbeat, if slightly morbid, style with Dead Man’s Suit. As I said, I’m a big fan and Dan never fails to entertain. Tonight was hardly going to be an exception.

It’s only a few weeks ago that I saw Suzy Bradley and the Morning After for the first time. The unique blend of Suzy on vocals and acoustic guitar, David Martin on electric guitar and Lucy Blakeson on cello was a breath of fresh air then and, if anything, their set tonight was even more entertaining. Starting with Stop Bothering Me, a Suzy-solo which showed what a quintessentially English-folk voice she has the set moved on with a second song in similar style but with the cello and some very Shadows-like guitar adding extra body and giving a much fuller sound. Until The Dawn, their track from the album, was followed by the rockier I Don’t Know Why, in which a small section of cello-string plucking provided a touch of near-funk. The set was building nicely and Bare was followed by Stay With Me which is more folk-rock and, itself, builds to a superb climax. Striving For Perfection was much slower and quieter while the second Suzy-solo, Something Blue, returned the set to it’s more traditional folk style before Suzy performed the final song, It Doesn’t Matter To Me, not only solo but a cappella and in a much deeper voice than used for the rest of the set. As with the last gig, Suzy’s pleasure at performing shone through in her expressions and the songs played tonight allowed each of the trio to show their worth to the whole.

Katie And The Questions are usually Claire and Katie with a backing band. Tonight, however, there was only one female singer and I don’t know which it was (although, I’m going to assume it was Katie). Even the band makeup was, from memory, different to that listed on the Facebook page – that line-up includes one keyboard-player and a bass-player, but I’m fairly certain that there were two sets of keyboards and no bass tonight. Although they list influences from the sixties to the noughties, tonight’s performance seemed to me to be heavily influenced by the former. Everything from the retro-pop sound to Katie’s look and understated performance seemed, to me, to come from the decade of my birth and wasn’t something I thought I’d enjoy that much. I was wrong – from You’re Not Here, through the slightly rockier but still pop-edged Elizabeth Jones and Don’t Talk, with its increased use of keyboards, I found my feet tapping along to the music. The slightly darker Strangers Dub Remix (currently available as a free download from their Soundcloud site) was followed by something which I think was called The Picture Remains The Same, then Katie’s favourite track, a more disco-like track whose title wasn’t announced. The set finished with Perfect Life, the band’s song from the album, which is so new that Katie had to refer to the lyrics throughout. This was a new band to me and I enjoyed them more than I thought I would. Overall the songs were bright and catchy and even guitarist Alex’s occasional slight dalliances into something more akin to rock solos seemed to enhance the pop sound rather than detract from it.

What The Cat Dragged In are another new band to me and little did I know how impressed I was going to be by them. Few of their songs were introduced by title, even though there was no small amount of between-song talking amongst the band, the confusion of which somehow ended up being more endearing than annoying. The opener was atmospheric while Emily Lies, this band’s album song, had a quirkiness that couldn’t help but bring The Cure to mind. The third, much faster song, saw lead singer Emily and backing singer Alice (sisters. I think) almost sparring against each other in a vocal sense. By now Emily had pointed out that tonight’s drummer was a stand-in who normally played guitar (presumably not for this band) – he did a superb job, throwing rhythmic curveballs throughout the set (I’m sure they were deliberate). Next up was a new song, with much merriment before it as Alice remembered what Emily had told her it was about. Shame they didn’t share the explanation with us, apart from “it’s the most political song I’ve written”. In this case, “written” meant wrapping her own words through the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme, ending with “Here comes the candle to light you to bed; Here comes the statement, it's written in red; Here comes the taxman to collect your debt; Here comes the hangman to chop off your head”. Not only political but deliciously dark and twisted and the whole thing sung in a delightfully angry style. It was back to the quirky, clipped vocals for the next song while Emily left the stage area and weaved seductively through the audience while singing the next and then the set ended, all too soon, with one of those songs which, rather than a recognisable tune, is comprised of slightly chaotic noise (think the end of Springsteen’s Thunder Road). In my experience almost totally original, fresh, exciting and entertaining, What The Cat Dragged In impressed me in much the same way that Dream Of Apollo did a couple of years ago, with a very assured an unexpectedly good performance. I’m hoping to catch them again soon.

Overall, this was an extremely good gig and one I would have been happy to attend even if it hadn’t been the album launch, or for charity. And it certainly went a long way to proving that York still does have talented musicians. You might just have to look a little bit harder to find them. But what was it with (or without) shoes tonight? Of the four lead singers, only Dan kept his on. But Suzy and Katie performed barefoot, while Emily performed in stocking feet. Must be a girl thing…

As to the Best Of York album itself… I’m hoping to find time to review that soon.