The Soundman Killed The Sandman

Sunday 10th July: In my lost post, I made much of the fact that we, as a group, had seen the same band twice running for what I thought was the first time ever. If it wasn’t the first time, it was certainly a rarity. Tonight, we saw the same band for the third time and, because they are so good, not only had we recommended them to so many people that there was seven of us out (even without Roj and Lynn, who had tied the not the day before) but we had actually paid to get in.

We had decided to meet in the Black Swan for a couple of pint before venturing on to Fibbers so, unfortunately, we missed the beginning of the first act. Oliver Salisbury (I can’t find a link for him) is a man and guitar act but, unlike the majority of the ones that I have come across around York is less folk/Americana and more upbeat, slightly “poppy”. It was, to be honest, a little refreshing (not that there is anything wrong with the rest of them). Despite looking a little nervous and having to fill the opening - otherwise known as “try to sing above the talking” – slot, he showed that he had a good voice and a nice playing style. The set, which was at least six songs long (I’m not sure how many we missed) included Hey Mister, which was slower than the rest, In Your Soul, Fight The Good Fight and something I think was called Things That Remind Me Of You, which was my favourite.

The Robin Pierce Band hail from Manchester and a three piece comprising of Robin Pierce on vocals and acoustic guitar, Pete Lilley on keyboard and Rick Wilson on drums. It has to be said that the latter plays like a whirlwind, with so much energy and power that it is hard to take your eyes of him. On the negative side, the drums were mixed a little too high and for at least part of the set drowned out the keyboards. It was a little hard to pick out song titles as, between songs, Robin was a bit of a mumbler. His vocals were a lot more impressive, at least as the set went on. Going through the set, I think the first song was Where I Want To Be while the second, the title of which I didn’t get, ended up being my favourite. The third started slowly and quietly, with Rick playing just with his fingers, before speeding up and beginning to sound a little like Led Zeppelin, but that from the keys. Richard thinks it was Outkast’s Hey Ya, but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t recognise it. Coming Home featured the best vocals of the set, which ended with two strong songs that I couldn’t hear the titles of. Tonight’s headliners had played with this band in Manchester and had invited them to play tonight’s gig. They are certainly worth looking out for again. The songs were, for the most part, upbeat, cheerful and catchy. Very entertaining.

Paintings Of Ships are another band invited up by the headliners. Another three piece, this time from London, they are billed as Indie / Rock / Shoegaze, but were sounded, at least in places, a little more punk to us – references to The Skids and Magazine were made. Having said that their first song, also called Paintings Of Ships, had the guitar style of the Jam. It was Love Will Always Follow You… that garnered the Skids comparison, as the beginning reminded us of Into The Valley. The first two songs had a big sound, energetic without very much movement from the band, but Thoughts (I think that was what it was called) started out in a much more laid back manner. After We Only Talk About The End there was an impromptu drum and bass duet, while a string was replaced on the lead guitar and, because this took so long, the the band seemed to lose the audience a little (and, possibly, had a knock-on effect on the headliners’ set). Eventually, Fantasies In The Dark provided us with what was musically the most varied song of the set and was followed by two more songs, each of which topped the previous one, meaning a good end to the set. There’s no doubt that Paintings.. are good at what they do. Unfortunately, they are just a little too far removed from my musical tastes and I probably didn’t enjoy their set as much as the rest our group did. Sorry boys and girl.

In case you haven’t worked it out yet, tonight’s headliners were the incredibly good Dream Of Apollo. This was the final gig of a ten day, twelve gig tour of England and Holland, which included an impromptu gig on the ferry. The set was familiar, if slightly tweaked to work with the shortened length. There was no solo start from Vicki and the band launched straight into Regrets Of The Devil which, as usual, segued into Children Of The City. Hold Me, Leander, Someday, Anatole, the cover of Depeche Mode’s In A Manner Of Speaking, Too Lost Too Late, Free and Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues all followed. I’m not sure whether it was the perennial problem of Fibber’s sound system or whether the tour had resulted in a bit of fatigue, but it took a while for the vocals to sound as good as we knew they could be – the best vocals probably came during In A Manner Of Speaking. The playing, however, was as superb and tight as usual and it was nice to finally see Jamie taking advantage of a proper venue and playing with drum sticks rather than brushes. There’s not a lot more I can add to what I’ve said in previous entries – Dream Of Apollo are quite simply one of the best local bands around at the moment. Unfortunately, tonight the set came to a slightly embarrassing (for the band) end. After leaving the stage for a few minutes, they returned for what should have been an encore of the brilliant Sandman. However, the sound engineer had already turned off the feeds to their instruments and microphones, depriving us of what is a superb song. I think the band’s next gig is the Summer Sanctuary Festival - an all day charity festival raising money for Ryedale Special Families and the Alzhiemers Society, taking place at the Judge’s Lodgings on August the 20th. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it, but if you are in York on that day, look in on it and, perhaps, donate to the cause.

CD Review: Esther O’Connor

Tuesday 12th July: A few years ago my first dalliance with social networking involved me signing up for a MySpace account. I didn’t do too much with it (except check out bands to see whether they were worth going to see and print off flyers to get in cheaply). For quite a while “Tom” was my only friend and it wasn’t too long before a colleague told me that I was too old for that site and that I should, in fact, be using Facebook. Eventually, though, a rather attractive red-head got in touch.

It’s probably not what you think (although I still have the account and I do occasionally get those type of messages as well…) This was Esther O’Connor, getting in touch, as some musicians are wont to do, with people who might like her music, to tout her albums and get people to sign up to her mailing list. I’m fairly certain I responded (although I can find no evidence of having done so) and, having listened to some samples, told her that I had added the albums to my “to buy” list. Then, rather rudely, I completely forgot about them. In my defence, there are rather a lot of albums on that list and I only maintain it mentally. A few days ago another message came through – with a third album in the offing – this one to be released under the name of Ashton Lane -  Esther was offering the previous two at just £5 each. Well, I’m rarely one to turn down a bargain, especially when comparisons are being made with Stevie Nicks.

The Place Where We Are was self-released in 2003, after an EMI deal fell through and my copy is by-lined simply “Esther” and vocals are attributed to Esther Duffin. (Esther is the daughter of Wet, Wet, Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin and most of the songs on both albums are co-written with him and producer Sandy Jones). I’m afraid that I don’t get the Stevie Nicks comparisons – there’s none of the trademark warble in Esther’s voice. I can hear, in some songs, the quirkiness that I associate with Tori Amos (what little I know of her) and there’s a hint of Meredith Brooks in the likes of Bring It On, Move On and Nirvana Man. What you do get, though, is a richly emotive voice which is used to great effect in a variety of styles. The beautiful simplicity of the title track melds superbly with the slightly more complex and no less entrancing Piano Girl, while Fragile State shows that you can do rock without necessarily needing power and Driftwood And Dreams shows that you can do powerful without resorting to rock. For the most part, this is a chilled out album – quiet and almost introspective with mostly acoustic guitar or piano-led songs, the best of which is Beautiful. Tracks such as What’s A Girl To Do and Clear And Blue raise the tempo slightly, but even the electric guitars of the latter are somehow subdued, allowing the vocals to shine. In Too Deep and I’ll Be Yours veer away from the sweetness and light by incorporating a kind of discordance that somehow still works, while Sailing Solar Wind ends the album on a lovely relaxed note. I have to admit that, now that I’ve listened to it a few times, this album is growing on me. Even Remote Life, my least favourite track on the album, makes the geek in me smile with its reference to The Matrix.

On the other hand, 2006’s Right Here bursts into life from the first note of the title track. The addition of flute and violin gives some tracks slightly more of a Celtic feel and the increased use of electric guitar makes the album seem a bit more pop-rock and a lot more up-beat. Hold On feels particularly folky with, I believe, the first use of a cajongo (I had to look it up) in my CD collection. There’s something really familiar about Saturday Man - I can’t put my finger on exactly what – and the Meredith Brooks comparisons resurface during the rockier All Right, Right Now, which contains some very nice guitar work from husband Tim, who also plays on four other tracks. Things quieten down as Honesty almost sees a return to the quiet style of most of the debut album, but still manages to give the impression of a fuller sound, before Yesterday’s Too Late and Out On The Water explode the album back into a catchy pop-rock style, The latter is one of my favourite tracks on the album, with its vocal harmonies reminding me a little of (Canadian trio) Shaye while showcasing Graeme McGeoch’s lovely violin playing. Chasing Rainbows contains a nice guitar riff among its melange of styles and is this album’s “discordant-but-works” track. Hope returns to the folky feel, with more cajongo and lots of violin providing a suitable backing to Esther’s gorgeous vocals while Tomorrow’s City, my favourite track, has a fascinating atmospheric sound thanks to both keyboards and the vocal mix. Like the previous album, Right Here is rounded off in a relaxed tone, this time with the all-too-brief You.

Overall, two very nice additions to my collection. It’s probably obvious from the above that I prefer the second album, which has a fuller sound overall. If the increase in quality continues, the third album will definitely be worth looking out for.

A Recurring Dream

Friday 24th June: I don’t think I had quite realised how much Dream Of Apollo had impressed our little clutch of music lovers when we saw them just three weeks ago. Andy and I had both taken time to chat to band members at the end of that gig, with both of us saying we would be seeing them again, and Roj had definitely liked them according to his blog post, but it’s not often (if ever) that we have seen the same band on consecutive group nights out. (Admittedly, I had been on a solo trip to see Nils Lofgren two weeks ago.) Tonight, however, it was a unanimous and, it has to be said, quite eager, vote to head down to The Golden Lion to see if the magic could be recreated.

It was fairly obvious that the venue wasn’t going to do the band any favours – it’s a bigger, more central and, therefore, more popular pub than The Yorkshire Hussar and, while there were a few familiar faces ensconced in front of the stage area, there was also a large number of people who were there for the beer rather than, it seemed, for the music. It also turned out that the acoustics aren’t that great – we started the night at the front of the pub, as far away from the stage as you can get, gradually moving forward as seats became available and it was only when we finally made it to a table directly in front of the stage (or, in Andy and Yvonne’s case, standing even further forward) that we got the full effect and that Vicki’s vocals started to sound as clear as we remembered them.

Tonight’s set was slightly different from last time. Vicki started with just three solo songs – her own Mine, Tracy Chapman’s For My Lover and the still nice Boats And Birds (Gregory And The Hawk) – before calling the rest of the band to the stage for the full set. Unfortunately, we were still at the front of the room at this point and couldn’t hear them too clearly.

I’m still not sure how you classify a band who do covers of songs by Dolly Parton (Jolene), Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues, which saw Winston really cut loose) and Depeche Mode (In A Manner Of Speaking) but one thing I do know is that they are not a “rock covers” band as advertised on the various posters dotted around the pub. As last time, those were the only covers they performed with the rest of the set being taken up with their own songs, with only the bluesy Jimmy missing from last time out. There isn’t a bad song in the, style-wise, very varied set but if I had to pick highlights they would be the dreamy Someday, the harder-hitting Anatole, the three-minute pop of Hold Me and the vibrant, atmospheric rock of Regrets Of The Devil, along with everybody’s favourite Sandman and the simply stunning near-prog of Free with its incredibly tightly executed time changes and tonight moved to the end of the first half of the set. (If I were egotistical, I would wonder whether that was because of what I wrote last time – but that would imply that I know what I’m talking about…) Such variation from a lesser band might indicate a lack of clear musical direction – with Dream Of Apollo, it just seems to work somehow.

Again, this was a totally assured performance with the whole band looking as though they were enjoying themselves, despite the more difficult conditions (at the end of Home, a huge cheer went up from the crowd and the band looked slightly surprised, until somebody pointed out that the T.V. screens had just showed Andy Murray winning his third round match at Wimbledon. “We liked the song as well, though,” shouted one voice from the bar) and, by the end of the evening, there seemed to be a lot more people taking notice of the music than there had been at the start. Despite the strange acoustics of the venue, this proved that we weren’t wrong last time and Dream Of Apollo are one of the best local bands around at the moment. They are about to embark on an eight gig tour, including appearances in the North East, The Netherlands and London, before returning to York to headline Fibbers on the 10th of July. We are already making plans to be there.