Hazzard County–Fulford Arms, 01/12/12

The problem with the Fulford Arms is that it’s the wrong side of town for me to get to. I don’t mind cycling in Summer but the five mile ride home doesn’t appeal to me in Winter. There’s no direct bus route so, if I want to see a gig there, it’s not as easy as heading into the city centre, especially if I want to sample some of the fine real ales. I guess that shows the pull of Hazzard County as I bought a ticket for tonight’s gig before thinking about how I was going to get there. Or, more accurately, how I was going to get home. Eventually, my plan was to get a lift to the pub, then leave just before 11PM, giving me enough time to walk back into town and get the last bus home.

The Hazzards used to perform pretty much every Friday night (for something like fourteen years – that’s some residency) at The White Swan and we often headed off their after other gigs to see them play. When the individual members started to get too busy, the band ceased to be a regular live act and now get together occasionally, usually for charity. Tonight it was to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support.

When we arrived there was a brief moment of panic as the landlady (I think) went inside to check that our tickets – in fact a hand-written receipt saying we had paid because, when Andy went to buy them, the girl behind the bar didn’t know where the actual tickets were being kept – were valid. Eventually we were allowed in and found the place packed and a familiar-looking support band already playing.

Stout Boots are a new band comprising of ex-Hazzards Chris Johnson (guitar and vocals), “country” Jon Benton (guitar and vocals) and Paddy Berry (double bass) along with ex-Mostly Autumn Angela Gordon (various wind instruments, accordion and vocals). There was an Irish feel to much of their set of covers, with Whisky In The Jar, The Belle Of Belfast City, Sally MacLennane, Irish Rover and a few jigs thrown in for good measure. In fact, from memory the only track without an Irish connection was the American Civil War song Johnny Comes Marching Home, for which they were joined on stage by Chris Farrell (The Yards) who played a tiny mandolin. As you can probably guess from the set-list, this was an energetic performance and it featured some very nice vocal harmonies. A nice warm-up for the main event.

As Hazzard County took to the stage, we found ourselves much closer to the front of the audience, where it was a little easier to breathe (and a little harder to get to the bar). There were a few familiar faces from the White Swan days dotted around the crowd and ticket money alone, without the various other money-raising ideas – pay for a song dedication, buy a drink for somebody not here, band-baked cakes, collection buckets, band-made chilli – must have made a good amount for the charity.

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Tonight was billed as the first time that all the various members of Hazzard County had been in the same room together. Unfortunately, Dave Keegan had come down with ‘flu, so was represented on stage by a balloon (which got popped at sometime during the evening, something I don’t remember ever happening to Dave). Nevertheless, being a relative newcomer to the band, there was a couple of members I didn’t recognise and one that even Andy didn’t know. (Andy tracked him down later to find that he was the original bass-player.)  Even Simon Snaize confused me for a while as he seems to have lost a bit of weight and, dare I say it, smartened up a bit tonight. Even with the larger-than-normal number of members (although not everybody played or was on stage at the same time until the last couple of songs) there was still room for a couple of guest spots from Chris Farrell as the evening went on. There was much instrument-swapping throughout the set as the band played a foot-tapping, sing-along bunch of old favourites – Cocaine, Crickle Creek, Rock Me Mama, Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness (the first song ever played by the band), Passionate Kisses, California Stars, Folsom Prison Blues, Rhinestone Cowboy and a whole host more (nearly thirty in total), including some that I didn’t recognise.

The Band has always been an influence on this band and Levon Helm’s death from cancer earlier this year gave added resonance to tonight’s event, as did the passing of one band member’s mother from the same cause. That’s not to say that this was a sombre affair, though. Far from it, I don’t think the Hazzards could do sombre if they tried. There always seem to be covers just out of the left field as well, whether it’s a countrified Sweet Child Of Mine without the iconic opening, a nifty segue into Just My Imagination or a Black Sabbath riff accompanying Take A Load Off Annie, you never quite know what’s going to happen. Sadly, there was no sign of the superb version of Dear Prudence that I have still only heard the once. You are pretty much guaranteed a fun evening, though. And dancing, there’s usually dancing of some sort. Hazzard County are three years off their twentieth anniversary and I hope that their plan of getting together like this on a yearly basis comes to fruition.

And my plan for getting home? Well, who was I kidding? It was well after midnight when the gig ended and I finally left the pub, having paid a near year-old debt to Simon. I did walk back into town, but it was a taxi that took me home, not a bus. 

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Karnataka–Fibbers, 29/11/12

Photos included in this posting were taken by Marc McGarraghy, who is on a year long project to generate donations for MacMillan Cancer Support from his live music photography. More details can be found on his fundraising community Facebook Page.

A couple of years ago, I bought Karnataka’s then new album - The Gathering Light – pretty much on spec. It impressed me so much that I placed it second in my top five albums of 2010. Shortly after buying it, still relatively new to the idea that fans could actually interact with bands (look, I grew up with the likes of Queen, Genesis, Dire Straits and, more importantly, no internet…) I emailed them to ask if they had ever considered playing in York. A brief email exchange followed, in which I gave founder member and bass player Ian Jones details of some of York’s venues and he said he would look into it. Then, to all intents and purposes, it seemed that the band imploded when, despite critical acclaim for The Gathering Light, three members announced that they were leaving.

However, Ian refused to let the band die and, along with guitarist Enrico Pinna, soon started to announce new members until, eventually, a new line-up was complete and, in early 2012, they started a fifteen date tour. Later in 2012, an even longer tour was gradually revealed and, slightly tongue-in-cheek, I commented on Facebook that there was still no York date (it wouldn’t surprise me to find that York isn’t exactly high on any band’s list of potential venues, especially those that are based in the South) only to get a message back from Ian telling me that they were still trying to work out a suitable date and that I should “watch this space”. A few days later tonight’s date was added to the tour schedule. I couldn’t have been happier. Or more worried… What if nobody else turned up?

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Ian Jones (bassist and founder member)

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I should have known. While Fibbers wasn’t full, there were a number of faces that I recognised from other Prog gigs dotted around the audience, as well as Marc McGarraghy (another York music fan who had been at a few of the same gigs as me but who I hadn’t actually met until tonight) and, I found out later, at least one couple who had brought forward their trip to York in order to see Karnataka on this tour again.

The current trend of there being no support act continued, with Karnataka taking to the stage at around eight-thirty. New vocalist Hayley Griffiths (much prettier in the flesh than in some of the publicity photos) has a classical background and has toured the world as lead singer in both Riverdance and Lord Of The Dance, as well as releasing two solo albums. Her vocals have a slight theatrical quality to them and, when she sings, she can often be seen either staring wistfully into space or with a particularly expressive face, as though she is performing in a stage musical, rather than a rock band. That’s not to take anything from her performance, though. The more the set went on, the more vocal range we got to hear and, if anything, she gives the impression that she is singing directly at you. The set was a mixture of tracks from band’s back catalogue, with specific emphasis on The Gathering Light, as well as new songs that have been written for a new album, which is due to be released in 2013.

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Hayley Griffiths (vocalist)

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Musically, the live performance varied from a traditional “light” prog sound to something quite a bit heavier and rockier, especially during the new songs. Even The Gathering Light, which ended the first half of the gig seemed to be have a heavier opening than the album version. The stand-out track of the first half was The Storm, title track of the band’s 2000 album, which with its opening salvo of Pinna’s guitar over Cagri Tozluoglu’s keyboards was incredibly atmospheric. Throughout the whole evening, Tozluoglu seemed to pour his heart and soul into his playing, often appearing to be lost in the music, especially during The Journey (another stand-out track, which also came from The Storm – which I wasn’t surprised to later find out was the all-time favourite album of one person I was chatting to) which was also featured some great drumming from touring member Matt McDonough.

Having only heard the songs from The Gathering Light prior to tonight, I was glad that the album featured so prominently, especially the stunning three-part The Forsaken, with glorious vocals from Hayley before she left the stage while the rest of the band performed a superb instrumental section which featured piano and a simple but highly effective guitar section before bursting into life. Hayley returned to the stage for the third part of The Forsaken and followed it with an even better vocal performance during new song Feels Like Home. The set ended in blockbuster style with Your World, during which the sexy dancing quotient was increased dramatically. After a brief on-stage discussion the band played Tide To Fall which ended the evening on an even better note.

After the gig had finished, all five band members came of stage to mingle and chat with the audience and sign merchandise. Karnataka may have had to survive at least two major line-up changes (four of the original members went off to form Panic Room in 2006) and multiple smaller changes during its lifetime but you have to admire both the hard-working attitude and willingness to engage personally with fans of the current line-up. Hopefully, with two tour’s under their collective belt in 2012 and the new album in 2013, this line-up will stay together for a while longer.

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Hayley Griffiths, Enrico Pinna (guitar), Ian Jones, Cagri Tozluoglu (keyboards)

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Aynsley Lister–The Duchess, 23/11/12

It was a bit of a tough choice tonight. Over at Fibbers, The (partly) new line-up of the Heather Findlay Band were playing and I had been planning in going along since the date had been announced. The rest of the gang, however, were leaning more towards seeing Aynsley Lister. It would have been at least slightly churlish to go against the flow, especially given that not only hadn’t we seen him before (and, therefore, we would be hearing some new music, as opposed to Heather’s gig which would consist totally of songs I knew * ) but it had also been quite some time since we had all been out to a gig together.

So it was that we met up, albeit briefly, at The Duchess. Let me explain – as usual, Andy and I planned to meet up before the gig to sample some proper beer at a nearby pub. I had phoned the venue earlier in the day to ask what the stage times were and had been told that the support act would be starting at eight o’clock, so that’s when we aimed to get there. As it turned out, there was no support act (this was the second time this week, that I know of that somebody had been wrongly told there was) and Lister wasn’t due to take the stage until eight thirty. Anyway, Andy and I decided to head back out for another pint, leaving Roj and Lynn to enjoy their Duchess soft drinks. So much for “haven’t seen each other for ages”… Anyway, we still managed to catch up a bit when we got back as the gig eventually started much closer to nine!

Aynsley is a Blues guitarist and while his opening number was immediately recognisable as Blues, the slower Early Morning Dew had more of a Country feel to it, showing that he incorporates other influences into his music. While he doesn’t sweat and strain over his playing like some guitarists, it couldn’t be said that he plays with the apparent ease of the likes of Chantel McGregor. His playful banter and vague likeness to Hugh Grant, however, seems to endear him to one audience demographic. As he introduced new song Inside Out there was a cry of, “I Love You” from one woman, closely followed by, “I love you more” from her husband. It turns out that they had, apparently, spent nine hours driving up from Bournemouth for tonight’s gig. A few more random shouts led me to suspect that I had arrived in York just as the pubs opened for the day – a suspicion that seemed borne out when the woman caused a slight problem for Aynlsey (not to mention those of us behind her in the queue) when he was trying to sell CDs after the gig.

Eric Clapton is one obvious influence on Aynsley’s guitar work – the piano opening  to What’s It All About soon gives way to something that instantly reminded me of Clapton’s theme to the 80’s drama Edge Of Darkness. Later in the gig, there was a similar trip down memory lane during Texture Of Your Skin. Variation came along in the shape of a re-working of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, which was interesting but, I’m afraid, did nothing for me and, as much as it pains me to say so, I actually preferred the original. A cover of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, however, bordered on sublime and featured a really nice piano solo, while a couple of originals, including Sensible Love with it’s alternating slow and fast section, showcased the music on offer.

Another influence became apparent during the set closer. Early Morning is a much more Rock and Roll track which, at least partly due to the guitar used by Aynsley, combined with the retro sound and intricate guitar work, couldn’t help but bring to mind images of Michael J. Fox playing during the Under The Sea Dance in Back To The Future.

Sadly the venue’s early curfew (see last post) meant that we only got one encore. It seems that the woman mentioned earlier had come all that way to hear Purple Rain in particular. I’m not sure whether it was planned as the encore all along but her request was granted. I’m also not sure how Aynsley feels about somebody requesting a cover, as opposed to one of his own tracks but it has to be said that it is, in fact, quite a good version.

Compared to others, this may not have been the best value local gig we have seen (£12 for about one hundred minutes of music isn’t bad, but why are support acts suddenly such a dying breed?) but it was a reasonably impressive performance that introduced me to yet another modern blues guitarist and one I wouldn’t be averse to seeing again.

* As I understand it, from reading other reviews, Heather’s band did play one new song tonight.

Martin Barre’s New Day–Duchess, 20/11/12

It might be a Tuesday night, but there’s a legend in town. Martin Barre has been the guitarist with Jethro Tull for forty-three years. Only Ian Anderson has been in the band longer and he formed it. With the band taking a break from touring for a while Barre, who won a Grammy for his playing on Crest Of A Knave, has put together a band to play classic Tull material, amongst other things. I don’t know, maybe these guitarists think their finger will seize up if they stop playing for a while… There are a few Jethro Tull albums in my collection but I’m not such a big fan that I would recognise many of their songs. Still, this was too good an opportunity to miss.

With no support, the set opened with Barre, Hilaire Rama (bass) and George Lindsay (drums) playing a bluesy instrumental, the guitar playing over a lazy rhythm section. Eventually, the rest of the band – Pat O’May (guitar), Dan Crisp (vocals and acoustic guitar) and Frank Mead (flute, sax and harmonica) – arrived on stage. Crisp’s vocals had the characteristic inflections of those of Ian Anderson, if not the familiar tones, giving the impression that this was not just the sort of tribute act who try to reproduce the sound of a band exactly. After playing To Cry You A Song, Barre introduced the band, quipping that they were going to play “the Tull songs that I like”. There was lots of banter between songs, most of which must have been in-jokes for Tull fans, of which there were many in the audience, judging by the number of band T-shirts. Much of it went over my head. It wasn’t just Tull, though. Barre also played Blues numbers, such as Watch Your Step, that influenced his career and that he played in the Birmingham clubs in the mid-sixties, as well as examples of his solo works, like After You After Me, from his 2003 instrumental album Stage Left, which showed some sumptuous twin guitar work.

White Innocence, a rare Tull track, was followed by another of Barre’s solo pieces, The Potion, with O’May taking over on vocals and featuring some impressive guitar work. Not as impressive, though, as the crazy time signatures of A Passion Play, Part II with it’s gorgeous sax opening. The Blues influence continued with Steal Your Heart Away, another song from the mid-sixties, this time played in the style of Joe Bonamassa. Barre introduced the next track as from an album that has been “quite popular this year” and even I got the reference, with 2012 being the fortieth anniversary of Thick As A Brick (and the year that Ian Anderson released its sequel). More blues followed as Mead came centre-stage to take the lead vocals and to give it his all on harmonica on Sugarbabe, originally recorded by Buster Brown in 1962.  Then it was back to Barre’s solo work with Mysere, which continued the blues feel, before he announced that the band would be taking a fifteen minute break.

It was a bit surprising, therefore, to see him and Crisp back on stage after just five minutes, performing Still Loving You Tonight (one of the tracks that I do have in my collection). Apparently Barre had only just been told about the venue’s ten-thirty curfew. It was nearly ten o’clock and the band weren’t even halfway through the set. There followed frequent annoyed (at the venue, not at the band) shouting from the audience as Barre tried to decide which songs to cut from the second part of the set, declaring the situation “a nightmare” and ten-thirty as a “ridiculous time to end a gig”. Things livened up with the playing of a jig, which eventually turned into Hymn 43 from Aqualung (another track in my collection), during which Barre and Crisp swapped guitars for mandolins (or the like). The tracks in this section were coming fast and furious, as Barre attempted to make up time, his dislike of the curfew becoming more and more evident (as was that of the crowd). Eventually, after Mead had once again taken the lead for Song For Geoffrey and O’May had performed another stunning, slightly heavier instrumental, which included a wild sax section, and with the clock moving inexorably towards ten-thirty, the band played Living In The Past, one of Tull’s best known songs. Amid shouts of “carry on!” Barre asked if anybody from the venue was around. Nobody came forward, so he decided to just carry on. and played another instrumental before finishing the set (at around ten to eleven, yay!) with A New Day Yesterday.

The calibre of musicians on stage meant that this was a high-standard show, even taking into account the rushed feeling of the second half. As a whole, it was a lot more blues-orientated than I expected. Having said that, Jethro Tull started out as a blues band and have reportedly denied the “prog” label that is often used for them. I can’t help feeling, though, that the Duchess isn’t doing itself any favours as a live venue by having such an early curfew, especially as they don’t seem to tell the artists in advance (at least in this case). I know that the nightclub which invariably follows a live gig brings in a lot of money and almost certainly helps keep the live music side of the business going, but does it really take that long to get ready for it? I also wonder whether Barre will want to return to the venue, given some of his comments from the stage.

The Albion Band–The Duchess, 11/11/12

I had got myself a little confused by days/dates a week ago and, therefore, missed out on seeing Fairport Convention for the first time. Tonight, however, saw me at The Duchess for a kind of spin-off from the purveyors of folk-rock. More on that later.

First to take the stage tonight were Stuart Giddens and Pip Jopling, a folk duo based here in York. Opening their set with Adieu Adieu, Pip’s simple guitar work and Stuart’s occasional melodeon interludes provided a backing to the latter’s folky yet, at times, powerful vocals. The guitar was then replaced by a fiddle for the rest of the set, starting with what was introduced as a sea-shanty. It seemed to me to be a bit slow to be a shanty, but I bow to those with greater expertise. Despite it also being billed as a sing-along, there was no audience participation – perhaps expecting some this early in the evening was a little ambitious. I think the first two tracks were traditionals, but The Sonnet was introduced as written by Pip and The Comedown as written by Stuart. The two were played without a break and either the former, which started out slowly, turned into a jaunty fiddle piece or the latter was a jaunty fiddle piece, I’m not sure where the join was. During gigs I make small notes to jog my memory about things. The one for the next song states that it was “about shagging” and that it was called Blow Me Jack “or another title”, bit I have no recollection what that means. I do remember it was introduced in a light-hearted way but have no other memory about it apart from a vague idea that it sounded more like what I expected a sea shanty to sound like. The last song was The Cuckoo and had a very traditional sound to it, both musically and vocally. Stuart and Pip got a good reception from the audience and, despite traditional folk not being high on my likes list, managed to keep my attention for their short, yet still entertaining set.

Next up was Esiotrot Waltz, comprising the floppy-fringed Sam Brigss and Charlie Tophill (I hope I’ve got those the right way round, both names could apply to either gender, but this was a male and female duo…). Both played guitar and they alternated vocals throughout the set. The first song saw Sam taking the lion’s share, both of vocals - which reminded me slightly of Boss Caine - and guitar, with Charlie playing a lighter guitar line and providing some nice vocal harmonies. Charlie’s vocals for the second song can only be described as lovely, obviously lighter than Sam’s. The first song to be introduced was called, I think, Sanity – it was more lively than the first two and, apparently, there is a dance sequence which goes with it but a practice session ended in a broken bed (!) so we didn’t get to see it tonight. The set continued in the livelier vein with the next song. Once again, I have to apologise for a lack of song titles – I did note down snatches of lyrics for songs that weren’t introduced, but this band are so new (formed in June this year and with, so far, just two likes on Facebook, one being me…) that I can’t find anything on-line. After Hours, however, was introduced and was another lovely song which painted a picture of a couple at the end of an evening together. I got the impression that all these songs were originals, but only the next one was specifically mentioned as being written by, and performed by, Charlie. The set ended with final Sam-sung (puns and everything in this post…) song and, overall, had a pleasant, more modern feel to it that Stuart and Pip’s set.

The Albion Band were formed in 1971 by Ashley Hutchings, who was also a founder member of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. One look at their promotional photos, however, showed that it was unlikely that many of the current line-up were even born in 1971. It turns out that this version, formed in 2011 after the original was suspended as a full band in 2002, was a sort of Albion Band: The Next Generation. For the first time in its history, Hutchings would not be a member, instead passing the baton on to his son, Blair Dunlop, who would be joined by current folk performers from diverse backgrounds, thus retaining the feel of earlier versions of the band. In short, this isn’t the Albion Band your father would remember. Not that my Dad would have a clue who the Albion Band were at all…

Opening with traditional sounding vocals over acoustic guitar and mandolin, A Quarter Hour Of Fame eventually saw the rest of the band joining in, causing the track to burst into electric life and it was followed by a lively and noisy instrumental, one of the “new jigs” for this tour. This was followed by the somewhat headier Ragged Heroes, opening track of the 1978 album Rise Up Like The Sun and a then rallying-call for English folk music, with it’s opening verse of "Songs of hope and tunes of glory / Half remembered Albion Hymns / Rise up Saint George and tell the story / This is where your song begins”. Powerful stuff, with the multi-vocal style adding real-depth to the song. After a track about “having and losing stuff” which, it was said, was something traditional jigged about with, Katriona Gilmore introduced her own Coalville as an attempt to produce a second popular song about a place she had never been to, first checking whether there was anybody in the audience from Leicestershire. (There was, but he didn’t announce himself until after the gig, using social media to confirm the town is indeed a grim place.) Between songs, instruments were often changed (and, this being a folk band, I couldn’t identify most of them, although there were things along the lines of mandolins) and there was some funny and deprecating (not necessarily of the “self” kind) banter, with perhaps a few such occasions showing why drummers shouldn’t be given microphones as Tom A. Wright often interrupted stories and sometimes mercilessly took the mickey out of other band members. Another jig was followed by How Many Miles To Babylon, a ghost story with nursery rhyme lyrics and some incredibly haunting music. It must have been a night for sea shanties, as One More Day was introduced as one and, again, was much livelier than the one performed earlier on. Katriona’s fiddle, playing over Blair’s introduction, drowned out the title of the next song, but it was a traditional English song which ended beautifully with just harmonised vocals over Tim Yates’ bass. Thieves Song brought folk sensibilities right up to date, using the poetry of Hark Hark The Dogs Do Bark in its lyrics to produce a song about hating politicians – Some in rags / Some in jags, do you get the reference? Another shout-out from Katriona showed that there were two Morris Dancers in the audience (at different sides of the stage not, she joked, standing together with nobody else around them…) then jig was followed by a nod to the original incarnation of the band with the playing of a song which was originally a seventeenth century poem set to music by Phil Beer. Then there was a bit of a country vibe to I Was A Young Man, with Benjamin Trott playing lead guitar in a bottle-neck style. The main set was completed by a couple more instrumentals, starting off slowly and gradually moving to something which certainly got the foot tapping. Throughout the set these instrumentals had reminded me of the type found on early albums from Mostly Autumn and I, for one, miss them.

After a short break the band returned to the stage for a much-demanded encore, only to find that Gavin Davenport’s microphone had packed up at the worst possible time, as he was to take lead vocals on what is known within the band as The Horse Song or, more properly Poor Old Horse, another sea shanty, which originally appeared on Rise Up Like The Sun. After taking over Blair’s microphone for the song, he returned to his to find that it had mysteriously started working again. The final song of the night was the final song on the new album Vice Of The People, from which many tracks had been taken tonight. Wake A Little Wiser once again, brings folk up to date and the set full circle as it decries the fifteen minutes of fame given to the heroes of today on shows like X-Factor. I waited until the last note had started to fade before clapping just the twice and practically running out of the door with no time to visit the merchandise desk as my bus home was imminent.

I have said before that traditional folk isn’t really my thing, but I enjoyed immensely the electric folk rock of the Albion Band. Hopefully they will be back soon and, if this performance was anything to go by, next time Fairport Convention play York, I will be making sure I don’t get my dates confused.

Dream Of Apollo–Recording, 11/11/12

Band photos included in this posting were taken on 10/11/12 by Marc McGarraghy, who is on a year long project to generate donations for MacMillan Cancer Support from his live music photography. More details can be found on his fundraising community Facebook Page.

Dream of Apollo, one of York’s best kept musical secrets, are currently recording an album – their first but, hopefully, not their last – and they invited me to go along to Melrose Yard Studios to sit in on one of the recording sessions. Debbie and Elizabeth were interested as well (the latter so much so that she took a book with her…) so the three of us, with a grand total of little or no idea of what to expect, went along.
Before today, I had only seen snippets of recording sessions on documentaries. Generally, they seemed to be in large rooms, with mixing desks that looked like something that could run a space shuttle. So, it was a bit of a surprise when we arrived at Melrose Yard and were ushered into a room which, while not exactly cramped when containing the three of us, two members of the band (drummer Jamie and singer/guitarist Vicki) and Iain the sound engineer, didn’t really want too many more people in it. The tools of Iain’s trade, for this afternoon at least, included a comfy chair with quality speakers pointed directly at it, a monitor that was smaller than most people’s T.V.s and a mixing desk that fitted neatly in front of it, being a fraction of the size of any I had seen before but still containing enough knobs, buttons and sliders that I would have been lost in a matter of seconds. Whether the smaller size was due to improvements in technology or just that the studios are a lot smaller than those you normally see on T.V., I don’t know but I’m certain it did as good a job as was required.

Anyway, with most of the cast introduced, where were the other two? It turns out that the rhythm section of the band had completed their allotted work the day before, getting drum and bass parts of four or five songs recorded. So, although Jamie was working hard, being on hand for moral support and witty banter, bass-player Rhys was having a bit of time off (although he did pop in later in the afternoon to see how things were going). And Winston? Well, when we arrived he was tucked away in the sound-proof room, recording his electric guitar parts over the drum and bass and some, let’s say, rough and ready vocals.
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Vicki McIlroy (vocals and acoustic guitar)

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As a music-lover, I found the whole thing fascinating, listening to the songs being built up layer by layer. Familiar songs that I had heard many times were, in effect, being created in front of me. In some cases I heard lyrics properly for the first time, for example finally having it confirmed that Leander is based upon the Greek myth of doomed lovers Hero and Leander (a fact that I have left out of my reviews of the band’s gigs because I was never certain). Having said that, it seems that Jamie didn’t know the story either and Vicki spent time relating it to him. The process also brought home to me exactly how non-musical I am myself – I could barely hear any slight “mistakes” made and definitely didn’t pick up that Winston’s guitar was going out of tune, whenever Iain asked him to check the tuning.
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      Winston Sanders (lead guitar and backing vocals)

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When Winston had finished his sections, he and Vicki swapped places and she recorded the acoustic guitar parts of the songs. One thing that was impressive to me was the fact that, even though tracks sometimes included repeated sections, it was rare for these to be copied for consistency. A couple of sections being marked down for copying. Occasionally, two run-throughs were spliced together, or a recording was started from just before a mistake rather than going back to the beginning (it would have been harsh on Vicki to ask her to play one track again when she had got to within seconds of the end before we heard, “oh, bugger” through the speakers…) but, for the most part, the tracks were played through in full, with two or three takes being recorded in order to give Iain a chance to pick the best. Effectively, despite technology making it easy to “cheat” most of what will eventually appear on the album was actually played live. That’s nice to know, in my opinion.
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Rhys Bevan (bass)

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With Vicki’s acoustic sections complete, a break was called for. Iain needed food and, with Winston heading off home to complete some urgent marking (he’s a primary school teacher in real life), Vicki, Jamie and I (Debbie and Elizabeth had already gone home) headed off to the pub, to be joined shortly by Rhys. This isn’t the first time I’ve spoken to the band, but previous occasions have been at the end of gigs, when they have been packing away their kit and when friends, family and other punters have been vying for their attention as well. It’s easy to say that somebody is “one of the nicest musicians you know” but, in this case, it is totally genuine. There was never any sense that I was intruding, either during the recording session or when socialising. Dream Of Apollo aren’t a band that are trying to “make it” in the music industry. Music almost seems to be a hobby to them. They are funding this album from their own money. Indeed, hearing some of their stories, you can’t help but marvel that they haven’t at least thought about throwing in the towel. There’s nothing as drastic as tour bus crashes, member fall-outs, or the like, but they have played a gig, in Holland, to exactly no people, with even another band booked at the venue leaving while they played (and it’s nothing to do with quality, I can assure you). There’s also a sense of distrust towards York biggest venues, especially after one night when, after headlining a gig, they had to pay their specially invited support bands out of their own pockets due to a misunderstanding (or miscommunication or even, perhaps, a dash of youthful naivety) with the venue. The band now choose to play smaller venues, usually pubs, which can pay a small amount and often play for charity. It’s not all hardship, though. There’s also a lighter side – whether it’s the camaraderie which comes across when they perform (and, indeed, which was also evident throughout the course of of this afternoon) or the humorous story of the song, one of my favourites, which didn’t quite go down as expected when played at a party the night before. Buy me a drink next time you see me and I’ll explain. Better still, buy one of the band a drink and let them tell you…
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Jamie Bradley (drums and percussion)

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After a couple of pints, we headed back to the studio. My time was drawing short – the band were booked in until 9 o’clock that evening but, even though there was no sign of anybody kicking me out, I had a ticket for a gig that night. Luckily for me I was about to hear Vicki record some vocals. Before that, though, the band asked Iain to play me a track that he had already completed. I have heard Too Lost, Too Late played live many times but at the end of the recorded version, my only reaction was, “Wow!” If I’m honest, when it first started I was a little surprised as it sounds quite different to the live version – Iain’s production has given it a slight electronic dance vibe and he has added effects to Vicki’s vocals which gives them a fuller and somehow more mature sound. Eventually, though, Winston’s guitar comes through and it regains its rockier feel. Frankly, it’s amazing and if the rest of the tracks are treated with such care and creativity I have, if anything, higher hopes for the album than I had before. Even more importantly, the band themselves are happy with it.

There was just time for one more treat and one more surprise. Home is another song that I’ve heard before but, like many others played live, haven’t heard all the lyrics before. Hearing Vicki sing it clearly brought home just what a different sort of love song it is. It’s gorgeous, it’s sensual and it’s the only song I can think of that puts into words what feelings the touch of a lover can give to somebody. Even more impressive to me (non-musical, remember) was that, after recording the main vocals, Vicki recorded full harmonies, basically singing the song again but differently, while listening to the main vocals through headphones. How difficult must that be?

Shortly afterwards, I had to take my leave. It had been a fascinating, engrossing and thoroughly entertaining afternoon and I would like to take the opportunity to thank the band (and Iain) for allowing us to sit in and to wish them every success with the album.

Vega–Fibbers, 02/11/12

There seemed to be a long wait between three members of Skin & Bone taking to the stage, the famous “do you feel lucky?” speech from Dirty Harry coming through the speakers and, finally, frontman Johnny Trowbridge appearing, much to the apparent delight of a vocal group of fans I can only assume had made the journey from South Yorkshire along with the band. Skin & Bone are influenced by 80s hard rock, as well as more modern, edgier bands. There was definitely a degree of Iron Maiden in their sound, which still managed to sound fresh and individual. As a frontman, Trowbridge is a little showy, in the sense that his stage presence seemed tailored to a bigger stage than that of Fibbers, but that didn’t detract from the fact that he is also very good. For a rock band, they are, musically, almost subdued. There is no over-reliance on guitar histrionics, with the first screaming solo only appearing three tracks into the set. In fact Richie Beardsley’s guitar work was, in places, simple but effective and what solos he did play ended up tantalising rather than outstaying their welcome. For me, the most interesting song was Walking Shoes which, through a couple of pace-changes, built up from a slow-burning start to a mush faster and livelier ending. Personally, I thought it would have been better to end the set with it, rather than a Chickenfoot cover – not that the latter was a bad song, but when you have one as interesting as Walking Shoes, use it to go out on a high.

Second support came from Stockholm’s Degreed, who were supporting Vega throughout the tour and, tonight, playing their first ever UK gig. There was a lot of effort put into making sure a huge banner, advertising their debut album Life Love Loss, was hung straight, with as much attention being given to it as would normally be lavished on the instruments. Eventually, with the help of some Fibbers-supplied tape, the band seemed satisfied with it and drummer Mats Ericsson promptly sat down, obscuring most of the advert… As with Skin & Bone before them (and what seems to be an increasing number of bands) Degreed came on stage to a backing track, but the twin guitars of Jesper Adefelt and Daniel Johansson gave this band a heavier sound. The vocals from Robin Ericsson, who also played bass, were very clear and Micke Jansson’s keyboards, despite sometimes being lost in the background gave the music a more melodic feel when they did filter through. Most of tonight’s tracks – including Color Me, Human Being? and Just Imagine - came from the debut album but Degreed are about to release a second and the first track they played from it tonight seemed to bring them luck of the wrong sort, as the stage lights went out halfway through Black Cat. The band played on, finishing that track before Ericsson near-pleaded for light so that he could see to play. Bravely, they attempted the next track, B.O.D. and the lights returned just after the introduction, much to the band’s almost palpable relief. Track followed track in rapid succession as the band ploughed through their set with scant pause between songs, except when Ericsson gave away a handful of free copies of Life Love Loss and a T-shirt to eager punters. Nice touch – I was too far away to get a copy and would have bought one at the end of the evening, except that I couldn’t find the band. The set ended with Arms Of Misery, which was the most melodic song the band played, slightly reminiscent of Toto. This was a thoroughly entertaining performance, despite the lighting issue and little were we to know that it had just knocked spots off the headliners. Just two pieces of advice – maybe hang the banner during (or just after) the sound-check, even if you fold it up so it can’t be seen and, if you want to sell merchandise, hang around until the end of the gig. After all, not everybody has pockets big enough to put CDs in…

I saw Vega just over a year ago and, looking back on my review of that night, I enjoyed the gig. I really like their 2010 debut Kiss Of Life. They are a lot like Bon Jovi, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. With a new album imminent, there was little chance I was going to skip this gig. Strangely, though, tonight didn’t hold a candle to that first time. Extra lights had been brought along and, perched on top of the speaker stacks, they seemed to give the stage a washed-out hue. The band themselves, once again a six-piece when playing live (there’s only four “official” members) looked nervous, with “new blood” Marcus (I was sure I remembered him from last year) on lead guitar being the only one apart from vocalist Nick Workman, to have any stage presence. Nick’s vocals were heavily tampered with, giving them a feeling of fakeness and each song seemed to have a “Whoa, whoa” for the crowd to sing along to or a “Hey! hey!” for them to shout. I’m not against a bit of audience participation but you can go too far. That said, the songs were performed well. Tracks from Kiss Of Life, which I hadn’t played for quite a while, were instantly recognisable the addition of tracks from new album meant that the set was longer than last time. New songs such as Bless My Soul, title track What The Hell, current single White Knuckle Ride and both album and set closer Hands In The Air, bode well for the new album, showing progression without losing sight of the melodic stadium rock sound that made Kiss Of Life such a pleasing debut. Tonight’s crowd was noticeably smaller than that of last year and it seemed to thin out a bit at the front as the set went on, so it’s possible I wasn’t the only one a slightly disappointed with the performance, especially given how good Degreed had been. I also had to question the timing of the tour – I had come out tonight expecting the new album to be available and fully intending to buy a copy, but it’s not actually released until January and the only merchandise available was a rather uninspiring T-shirt. Overall, a bit of a disappointment. Not that that will put me off seeing Vega if/when they play York again. Given the strength of Kiss Of Life and the sound of the new songs I still think there’s a great band somewhere in there, just waiting to be let loose.

Hawklords–Fibbers, 25/10/12

Every so often a band comes to York that I know I want to see, but I don’t really know why. Case in point – Hawklords… They must be something to do with Hawkwind, right? Spin-off? Tribute? No idea. What I know about Hawkwind can be written on the back of a postage stamp with space left over - Dave Brock, Space Rock, Stacia and I once had a 7” picture-disc copy of Silver Machine. But they sound like a band that I should like and probably would like if I took the time to listen to some of their stuff. Anyway, Hawklords – I bought a ticket, then did a bit of research.

Turns out the band was a spin-off, back in 1978 (when Hawkwind disbanded for a bit) and have now sort of reformed, with two original members and a few other ex-Hawkwind members. Don’t you just love bands with simple histories…?

“What time is the support on?” asked Andy as we handed our tickets over. “There isn’t one. Hawklords are doing a two-hour set,” came the reply. So we headed off to a local hostelry for a quick pint and wondered whether that was the reason that Stolen Earth had announced a few days earlier that they would no longer be supporting. Nice to hear their Soul In A Jar played as part of the background music before the gig actually started, though.

And what a gig. Slightly reminiscent of the Ozric Tentacles earlier in the year, with a similar, perhaps slightly less mesmerising film show going on at the back of the stage. As well as light patterns that drew the eyes in, this one seemed to include clips from Soviet science fiction films from the 1950s as well as what looked to be a NASA promotional clip. It was hard to look away but, at the same time, it in no way detracted from the music. Unlike the Ozrics, who played instrumental space rock, Hawklords play songs. Ron Tree’s vocals are slightly punky in style, at times the delivery reminded me of Anarchy In The UK, at others Teenage Kicks but, despite my dislike of punk music, it didn’t put me off at all. Some of the lyrics hard a slightly hard edge to them, others seemed like they had been inspired by the writings of Erich Von Daniken or any number of “proper” science-fiction authors. Tree’s performance also had an edge to it – he punctuated songs with hand gestures, at times dancing as though he was coming down off a high (or perhaps still on one), his makeup running as the set went on, giving him a more and more macabre look. For one mind-bending song about robots he donned a blank-eyed mask and performed another from underneath some sort of space helmet.

Between songs, Tree and guitarist Jerry Richards regaled us with renditions of some sort of cosmic poetry. Richard’s microphone may just have had a little too much reverb on it for him to be understood (at the end of the night, I only just made out him saying that they had enjoyed playing Fibbers and wanted us to encourage the venue to have them back) but the cadence and alternating/overlapping vocals meant that the delivery was powerful and almost hypnotic. The electronics sound effects only added to the other-worldly feel.

The music itself was loud, bone-shakingly so at times. Yet tonight saw one of the best sound mixes I have experienced at Fibbers. No matter how heavy or chaotic the music got, you could hear everything – vocals and instruments all came through. Apparently, there should have been a second set of keyboards/synthesizer (Steve Swindells was not touring due to health reasons) – I’m not sure whether they would have been necessary. Harvey Bainbridge, looking like the rest of the band’s eccentric uncle, performed brilliantly on the one set, as well as providing vocals for one track. A large portion of the two hour set was comprised of songs from the band’s new album - including the title track We Are One, Digital Age, Time Split Vision and The Ancient Ones – hardly any of which were introduced but which were performed so clearly and cleanly that I recognised them when playing the album the next day. I’m told that a number of Hawkwind classics were also played, not that I recognised anything (but tonight probably added weight to the theory that I would probably like Hawkwind’s output). IF anything the set seemed to end too quickly, before the venue’s curfew – which led to what seemed to be an impromptu jam-session which provided the most mellow section of the evening. Of course, it could just have been another pre-rehearsed piece, so fluidly did the band perform it.

Some of the crowd were obviously hard-core fans. Most of the people in front of us danced for most of the set – apparently dancing to space-rock means flailing around like a demented astronaut in zero-gee and one particularly energetic woman seemed, at one point, to be trying to batter me to death. She apologised, I moved back a couple of steps…

This was probably the most intense gig I have ever been to. It may also have been one of the loudest – as usual, I didn’t bother with ear-plugs and my ears were still ringing the following lunchtime. Despite all that, it was one of the stand-out gigs of the year so far. I’m not sure whether psychedelic hippy-punk is an actual music genre. If it isn’t, it should be. And Hawklords could be the best proponents of it.

Touchstone and The Reasoning–The Duchess, 16/10/12

Sadly, it’s less easy these days for our group to get together as frequently as we used to. The days when we would head off to a pub to see a covers band if nothing else took our fancy are now behind us and that’s where tonight’s support act, Marc Atkinson, is found on a regular basis. But that’s just one string to his bow – as well as having released a small handful of solo albums, with another on the way, Marc is also involved with a number of “side” projects, including Nine Stones Close, Manadalaband and, with Brendan Eyre, the long-gestating Riversea which (finally) saw a stunningly beautiful album released earlier this year. Tonight, instead of his “usual” covers, we were treated to a mixture of tracks from some of these projects, with particular emphasis on his solo and Riversea material. Marc’s lyrics reflect the various aspects of life – childhood, growing up, the effects of religion – and seem to be heavily influenced by his family. His vocals are rich and full of emotion and, despite the fact that it is just him and an acoustic guitar on stage, playing stripped down versions of some of the songs, he soon has a large proportion of the crowd taking notice and applauding each song. in the past, it has been obvious that Marc is adept at entertaining a pub crowd in a party atmosphere. It’s nice to see that his own material is capable of entertaining a normal gig crowd to the same level. Hopefully, there will be more chances in the future to see him perform his own stuff. (There has even been a slight hint, not from Marc, that there may be a chance of seeing a full band version of Riversea perform live, although I’m not sure how serious that was…)
A couple of years ago, The Reasoning featured in my gig of the year. A few months ago, Touchstone played York for the first time and blew me and Roj away. Tonight saw both band’s playing York, thankfully as part of their Adventures In The City co-headlining tour, meaning that we didn’t have to choose between them.
I believe that the bands alternated which would be on stage first throughout the tour. Tonight, it was The Reasoning who played first, coming on stage to a cinematic backing track. The current line-up is quite a bit different from the last time I saw them perform – slimmed down to a five-piece and now with just one guitarist due in part to the sad disappearance of Owain Roberts and, if you believe what you read in some places, the less-than-harmonious departure of Dylan Thompson. Whatever the reasons, though, the band have, on stage at least, put these troubles behind them (or, perhaps more accurately, can ignore them for an hour or so). The single guitar sound allows Tony Turrell’s keyboards to feature a bit more in the mix and it is also Tony who now provides the majority of second/backing vocals. Unfortunately, from where we were standing, Rachel Cohen’s vocals were a little indistinct, meaning that even some of the songs I was familiar with, albeit with slightly different musical arrangements, with took a while to register. That said, there was an energy to her performance which more than made up for the muddiness and some of the crowd obviously recognised the tracks more quickly than I did - Matt Cohen’s somewhat nervously stoic face cracked into a wide grin at the reception that second song Dark Angel received. The set comprised of tracks from the full, four album history of the band, with particular emphasis on the latest album – Adventures In Neverland. Awakening, introduced by a superb keyboard solo which somehow seamlessly included the Benny Hill theme and The Thirteen Hour rubbed shoulders with No Friend Of Mine, Forest Of Hands And Teeth, with its moody opening and a mid-section which gives it a somewhat noirish feel, Adventures In Neverland, whose stunning instrumental section would have convinced me to buy the album if I wasn’t already going to (and did on the night) and Omega Point, which saw the band encroaching on Muse territory with a song about the end of the universe. Audience participation came in the form of Aching Hunger, which also saw Touchstone’s Moo Bass join the band on stage. Between songs, Rachel interacted playfully with the crowd, many of whom it appeared had been to other gigs on the tour, knowing what was coming when the new album and merchandise was being touted. Despite the vocal “issues” this was another brilliant performance by the band.
Touchstone took to the stage with slightly less flamboyance that The Reasoning and, as last time, it seemed to me that vocalist Kim Seviour took a little while to shrug off an apparent nervous air. Initially, she looked slightly wide-eyed and a little stilted in her dancing. She soon got over it, though, and by Shadow her “booty shaking” was a lot more natural. We had moved slightly closer to the stage by now and Kim’s vocals were a lot clearer than Rachel’s. With no new album to promote, this was more of a “best of” set and, again, featured songs from the band’s full back catalogue. If anything, despite being a shorter set, tonight was even better than when we saw them earlier in the year. I’m less familiar with Touchstone’s output than I am with The Reasoning’s and there are were at least two tracks played tonight that I couldn’t identify, but each song played, from Shadow to its sequel Shadows Fall, from Blacktide to Zinomorph and especially the brilliant Wintercoast comes across as an epic, containing a riot of drumming from Henry Rogers, which somehow manages never to overpower the music. Adam Hodgson’s guitar still gives the songs a slightly-more-heavy-than-prog feel while Rob Cottingham’s keyboards manage to help maintain the true prog sound. But, in all honesty, once she has got over her apparent initial nervousness it is Kim, with her banter with the band, introductions to the songs – “I don’t like nasty people, so I write songs about them and sing them passive aggressively..” – her dancing during the instrumentals or the way she peers out from behind her fringe and dark eye makeup, oozing a kind of coy sophistication despite being dressed more for a night on the town than as a rock-chick, with the only concession to the expected image being a single leather wristband, who is queen of the performance.
Finally, both bands and Marc Atkinson returned to the stage for an ensemble encore of Tears For Fears’ Mad World – perhaps the best encore ever.
At a time when femme-fronted prog bands seem to be making a bigger impact than ever, with both these bands, along with Panic Room, having recently signed deals with record labels, it’s nice to see two having such an obvious good time while touring. Hopefully, we will see more of them in the future, either together or on separate tours.

Trail Of Dead–Fibbers, 14/10/12

“Tonight’s show will be loud. Earplugs are available at the bar,” was the gist of the sign on the door to Fibbers. It wasn’t long into the support set that Andy wandered back to said bar to get some. I decided to tough it out.

Maybeshewill are a five piece, instrumental band from Leicester who have been around since 2005 and have released three albums. They came on stage to a piano backing track, and played atmospheric, moody rock, inevitably bringing forth thoughts of Engineers or York’s own Lost From Atlas and Tears Of Ishtar, the latter especially given that two tracks also featured voiceovers, which were a feature of Ishtar the first time I saw them (if not any longer). However, their performance was much more energetic and less shoe-gazing than any of those bands. Imagine something halfway between the hippy space-rock of Ozric Tentacles and grunge. Keyboards featured heavily, especially during the third track which featured a lovely interval before the music swelled back to its previous, pseudo-orchestral heights. Even behind two guitars the keyboards were never swamped and were allowed to both breathe and accentuate the tracks even through the heaviest sections. The only track that was introduced by name was To The Skies, From A Hillside – a somewhat appropriate title, given that it was this evening that Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from a balloon twenty-three miles up. The band paid tribute to him, pointing out that it was like falling all the way from York to Leeds and that he had done, “pretty well. He’s not dead…” I’m reliably informed that the band’s musical style is not original – Andy compared them to Godspeed You! Black Emperor – but, compared to similar bands that I have come across, they are are one of the best at what they do. If this hadn’t been a busy period of gigs for me, with CD purchases already planned, I would definitely have taken the plunge at the merchandise table. As it is three more albums have made it to my wish-list.

It’s evenings like this that make me realise how out of touch I am with music. Not the “popular” stuff (I quite like being out of touch with that…) but with what, apparently is truly popular with, apparently, the student-aged audience. I only stumbled across …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead when their 2011 album Tao Of The Dead was reviewed in Prog magazine, a review which piqued my interest by mentioning that the album was going to be accompanied by a comic (comics being another interest of mine). Eventually, I picked up an on-offer copy of the album, sans comic, and it ended up being one of my favourites of last year. Given that the band hail from Austin, Texas, I never thought I would have an opportunity to see them play live. After all, how many people in the UK, let alone in the York area, would have heard of them? Well, it turns out that quite a few had and Fibbers was about as full as I have seen it since it was re-opened a couple of years ago. Most of the audience was (you guessed it) of student age, with a surprising number of groups of females, making me not only feel old, but also slightly less smug about having come across the band.

Trail Of Dead have already released seven albums with an eighth being released imminently and, while I didn’t recognise any of the tracks played tonight, the rest of the audience seemed to know a fair few of them. Although covered by Prog magazine, there is more than a hint of punk in their music, which is often complex but rarely subtle, with the bass-line delivered by Autry Fulbright II (looking like a more sinister version of Kid Creole) occasionally managing to vibrate your skull. I particularly liked his somewhat original style of playing during towards the end of the set, when he alternated between helping out the drummer and playing bass by hitting the strings with a drum-stick. The note on the door was right – but it wasn’t just that the music was loud and the vocals unintelligible, even though rarely below shouting level (except for one quieter song during which they were slightly more audible). The band were energetic, ploughing through songs with barely a breath taken to introduce the next one. Guitarist Jason Reece and drummer Jamie Miller swapped roles a number of times and the band swigged “medicinal” Jack Daniels from the bottle before, just prior to the last song, handing it into the crowd where it eventually made its way to the girl standing right in front of me. Sadly, she seemed not to grasp the concept and didn’t really know what to do with it… If all this reads as though I didn’t enjoy the gig, it’s not meant to – OK, I didn’t know the songs, couldn’t begin to piece together a set-list and, for the most part, couldn’t understand the lyrics, but I had to admire the overall performance. And it seems that the rest of the audience did as well – this is the first time I’ve seen a proper mosh-pit at Fibbers.

…and, at the end of the night, I was slightly surprised that my ears weren't bleeding…

Chantel McGregor–Fibbers, 12/10/12

After commenting on a recent post that I always try to arrive on time to gigs, in order to support the support bands, I was a little disappointed that a combination of fixing an amplifier problem at home (the DVD that the rest of the family were watching had no sound) and an earlier than usual stage time meant that I missed the start of Barcode Zebra’s set.

I didn’t recognise front-woman (and Joan Armatrading look-a-like) Jess Gardham, who supported Chantel back in February 2010 and I’m not sure whether this is a new version of the Jess Gardham Band as the line-up is three quarters the same, with the energetic Ruth Wilde replacing Michaela Winship on bass. The line-up is completed with Charlie Daykin on keyboard (I eventually remembered that I had recently seen him playing with Plumhall) and Emma Whitehead effortlessly playing drums. As I arrived, the band were starting the title track from their new EP. Into The Night has a slightly reggae feel to it, with Jess eschewing her guitar and simply providing vocals over Charlie’s keys and the rhythm section. The next track song started with a drum intro which, surprisingly, reminded me of Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills before changing into a very bass-heavy upbeat, but slightly funky number. Devil On The Shoulder continued the upbeat mood but there set contained a nicely mixed bag of sounds – one song had Charlie’s keyboards more in evidence while another allowed Jess’s guitar to come through more. It might have been “support band syndrome” but I thought the vocals were a little thing, until the last, slightly slower song, when a little echo gave them a fuller sound. Barcode Zebra’s brand of “soul-tinged pop funk” may not be my cup of tea, but the playing was tight and the performance good, with the band clearly enjoying themselves. Definitely worth a look if you like that sort of music.

Chantel McGregor, on the other hand, definitely plays music that is my cup of tea and it’s a shame that we don’t get the chance to see her as often as we used to do, even it that is because she is enjoying more and more success, recently scooping Female Vocalist of the Year at the British Blues awards. Thankfully, that success doesn’t seem to be going to her head – before tonight’s gig she could be found sitting at the merchandise table, chatting to fans (and, it seems, being showered with gifts) and she still maintains her slight “dizziness” on stage, beguiling us with random thoughts between songs and, every so often, throwing in one of her trademark Yorkshire “Ta”’s.

The set tonight was the now usual mix of covers and songs from debut album Like No Other. The likes of Voodoo Chile and Up In The Sky mixed well with the album’s title track and the more “pop” sounding Fabulous. Her rendition of Red House, after the story of how she had gone through “amp hell” this week meant that she was thinking of taking up the triangle (I wonder if the British Blues Awards would include a Best British triangle player next year…), brought forth a comment along the lines of, “She’s just showing off now” from somewhere to my left while fan favourite Daydream, which featured not just stunning guitar work but some astounding and varied drumming, held the audience spellbound for fifteen minutes. The now usual mid-set solo section featured Chantel’s own I’m No Good For You, with its dirty Blues guitar sound counterpointed by soft and sweet vocals, before she switched to an acoustic guitar for covers of Gold Dust Woman and Bonnie Raitt’s beautiful Can’t Make You Love Me and her own Not Here With Me – the latter two being delivered with heart-rending vocals. In fact, it seems that Chantel’s vocals are getting better and better. The louder, more rocky songs may have drowned out the vocals tonight, but the quieter ones showed just how good she has become.

There was, tonight, some insights into what had prompted some of her own songs – I’m No Good For You was inspired by the True Blood T.V. show while Caught Out was written in response to some nasty comments on a forum. (Checks back to make sure that I haven’t written anything nasty…)

Once again, another brilliant performance from a still-rising star. Nearly two hours of quality music which, even without any new material from the lady herself, managed to remain fresh by the inclusion of different covers that hadn’t been heard for a while, whilst still showcasing her own songs and retaining the fan favourites. I know that at least three people had come to see her for the first time tonight (one on my recommendation). I doubt they went away disappointed.

The Zombies–The Duchess, 06/10/12

I had forgotten that Heather Findlay and Chris Johnson were tonight’s support act, so it was a pleasant surprise when I walked into The Duchess and spotted Heather’s small merchandise table. (Not least because I had been intending to pick up the Heather Findlay Band’s latest release – Songs From The Old Kitchen – at the earliest opportunity, which I thought was still over a month away.)

Heather and Chris might initially seem a strange choice to support an iconic sixties band but, somehow, at least some of their songs are reminiscent of that decade’s music. As usual when they perform as a duo, this was an acoustic set, with Chris playing guitar and vocals being shared between them, with some lovely warm harmonies in evidence during most of the songs. The set was relatively short, just six songs and none of them new – most taken from the pair’s Live At The Cafe 68 album, via their previous solo and/or band projects. And that’s the “problem” – while the songs are mostly reworked versions of the originals, there’s no completely new material for fans to hear. It was a nice set, played and sung well – particular highlights are Chris’s Out Of Season and The Dogs – but it’s getting a bit familiar now. I suspect that the duo picked up a few new fans, but longer term ones are beginning to yearn for new material.

Earlier this year, I was at The Duchess to see Colin Blunstone and, in writing about that gig, I mentioned the fact that I’m not a big fan of 60s pop music. So, why was I back there tonight to see The Zombies, the band that Blunstone has fronted in every incarnation since 1961? Two reasons, really – the first being that I actually quite enjoyed the earlier gig and the second because, while that solo performance included a fair few Zombies songs, this time the also-legendary Rod Argent would also be on stage.

There can’t be many bands celebrating their 51st anniversary, still with two-and-a-half original members (the current bass player, Jim Rodford, drove the band to their first gig, but wasn’t in the line-up due to being in a different “successful local band”) who perform for nearly two hours. As with Blunstone’s gig, the material came from a number of sources – after all, even though they have been together, in one form or another for over twenty years, The Zombies have only released five studio albums. As well as the classics from the debut album (She’s Not There, Summertime, I Love You) the set was peppered with tracks from 2011’s Breathe Out, Breathe In, (the title track, Show Me The Way, Any Other Way and A Moment In Time) a well received album which, on the basis of the live tracks, brings 60’s pop into the 21st century. There was also a mini-set of songs from 1968’s Odessey And Oracle (A Rose For Emily, Care Of Cell 44, This Will Be Our Year and I Want Her, She Wants Me), an album cited as either a favourite or influential by such diverse sources as The Vaccines and Dave Grohl. In fact, “name-dropping” was to be a feature of the set, with Argent also mentioning Rod Stewart and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot, among others, as part of his between-song stories, which not only gave a potted history of the band itself, but also gave the impression that you could spend hours listening to him speak and not get bored.

The set also included solo efforts and past collaborations from Blunstone (I Don’t Believe In Miracles, What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, with Dave Stewart, and Old And Wise, from The Alan Parsons Project), who seemed a bit more animated than during his solo gig even while leaving most of the talking to Argent and sharing the vocals. As well as great vocals from both singers, there was also some superb guitar playing from Tom Toomey and Argent himself added a certain flair on the Hammond organ, especially during what was to be one of my highlights. In 1969, after The Zombies first split up, Rod Argent formed Argent and tonight the band performed what are probably their two most famous songs – Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock And Roll To Us (perhaps better known as a cover version released by Kiss). It was during the former that Blunstone left the stage for a while while Argent played and extravagant solo which, I am told, included a sample from Bach as well as a few other sections that I recognised but couldn’t name. Both Argent songs provided a chance for the audience to sing along and being more rock than pop were more my type of music.

Having said that, I enjoyed the whole evening (again), proving perhaps, once again, that live music done well has an added dimension to recorded stuff. I don’t know whether a Zombies album will ever make it into my CD collection, but I wouldn’t hesitate to see them live again.

Anneke Van Giersbergen–Fibbers, 21/09/12

As we walked into Fibbers tonight, slightly late due to the two “quick” pints of proper beer at a nearby pub, the first support had just started and, from what I initially heard, I feared that we might have been better staying for a couple more. (I’m joking, I always try to get to gigs on time to see the support – there can’t be much worse for them than seeing a venue fill up shortly after they have finished playing to a near empty room.)

Death Letters are a duo from The Netherlands – Duende on guitar and vocals and Victor on drums – who opened their set with a very heavy sound which all but drowned out the vocals before slowing down to a much quieter section which showed just how good a voice Duende has, then reverted back to something much louder where even his near screamed (I assume) vocals were swamped by the music. The set continued with occasional moments of quite contemplation and atmosphere being broken up by swathes of huge sound and frantic and enthralling drumming. Coming across as a smaller, heavier version of Tears of Ishtar, Death Letters recorded output may never find its way into my CD collection but they are one of the most exciting support acts I have seen for a long time.

I last saw Mojo Fury supporting Amplifier down the road at The Duchess and sort of enjoyed their set, despite the mix not doing them any favours. Tonight, they seemed to be playing to a completely non-responsive audience. Theirs is a mix of shoe-gazing rock, indie guitars and, at times, white rap vocals which reminded me of The Beastie Boys. (Last time, I compared the vocals to Talking Heads based on the one song in which the vocals came through…) Sadly, the 80’s reminiscent electronic backing track still features in their set and still does very little for me. The set started to get more interesting with a track which was introduced as being from their new album – I didn’t catch the title but it was the best so far, energetic with some nice interplay between guitar and drums. Something bordering on funkiness followed before that backing track put in an appearance for the last song of the set. Still not quite gelling for me, this was a better performance than the previous time I saw them and tonight’s set did get better (and the audience more enthusiastic) as it went on.

I freely admit that the only reason I was at tonight’s gig was because it was first brought to my notice by a Facebook post from Prog magazine. I had never heard of Anneke Van Giersbergen or The Gathering, the Dutch prog-rock band she fronted until 2007. But the fact that she had been in a prog band was enough to pique my interest. As, it seemed, it was for a portion of the audience – which was much bigger than I was expecting. T-shirts featuring the names European prog (Ayreon) and symphonic metal (Within Temptation, as well as the UK’s own Winter In Eden) bands were very much in evidence and the audience was heavily made up of long-haired males. So, it was quite a surprise when a large portion of the set was more pop than prog orientated, while still retaining rock roots. A look at the set-list here (which looks accurate, although I don’t remember her dancing amongst the audience) shows that it featured songs from The Gathering, a Devin Townsend cover and a Eurythmics cover, as well as her solo project Agua de Annique and the latest album – Everything Is Changing - which was released under her own name. Throughout the set Anneke’s gorgeous vocals, slightly accented and occasionally warbling, were only matched by her great smile and perhaps the prettiest guitar I have ever seen, personalised for Anneke herself and only used for one song, the much slower and achingly lovely Beautiful One. With the pop leanings, it was no surprise to see Anneke giving it all on stage, dancing throughout the set while, amusingly, the audience were much more restrained, with some vague head nodding being as much as some members were willing to partake in. Equally at home with quieter, more melodic songs such as Circles, which opened with just vocals and guitar, giving the rhythm section a breather and eventually utilising a strings backing track, as she was with the more powerful songs such as Saturnine, Anneke’s performance was only hampered by something completely out of her control – early on I mentioned to Andy that the sound seemed to be fading between the two banks of speakers and, eventually, the vocals at least were only coming from one set, giving the gig a slightly one-sided feel. (I have since been told that the pre-amp had gone on one set of speakers.) It’s a shame as this marred the gig a bit, making it a good one, rather than the excellent one I think it could have been if the sound had been right.

Kudos to Anneke, however, she not only battled one – perhaps not actually realising what was happening but definitely seeing the sound engineers frantically working away behind the speakers trying to fix the problem – but she also came straight off stage to “man” her own merchandise desk after the gig. There was no hint of precociousness as she made her way through the crowd (without a “minder” unlike at least one female artist I can think off) and happily chatted to each person as they got to the the table. I just have one slight complaint… £15 for a CD, when it’s less than a tenner on Play.com??? Of course, I still bought one. And got it signed.

DeeExpus and Manning–The Duchess, 08/09/12

What’s my favourite type of music? That’s easy – prog-rock. OK, but what is prog-rock? Well, it’s…. errrm.

The thing is, it’s probably easier to say that a piece of music isn’t prog-rock than to is to say that one is. According to the BBC’s three part documentary on the genre, prog died in the 80’s, it’s endless noodling, strange sensibilities and twenty-minute songs about Hobbits killed off by the three-minute madness, pogoing and spitting of the punk revolution. Except that it didn’t disappear and is now enjoying a revitalised wave of popularity exemplified by both chart success (album chart, obviously), magazine coverage and, recently, an inaugural awards ceremony. The concept albums are still around, although these days they are less concerned with fantasy tropes, but prog, while still revelling in its roots, is as it’s full name suggests still moving with (or past) the times and there are many varieties. Take tonight’s double-header gig, which featured two Northern-based bands that, although I had heard of, I hadn’t previously heard anything by.

DeeExpus are from the North-East and have been around since 2007, originally as a duo of Tony Wright and Andy Ditchfield and now as a full band, although Tony has had to take a leave of absence from the band. Coming on stage to an unintelligible voice-over, the band immediately burst into song which had a very heavy opening but which, in true prog style, included multiple changes of style and a keyboard-drenched instrumental section. This was followed by King Of Number 33, which started off quietly with acoustic guitar and keyboard before introducing a grinding electric riff and almost growled vocals and then leading into a second enthralling instrumental section. I didn’t realise at the time, but this was at least part of the half-hour long title (and concept) track of the band’s second album, proving at least one of my points above. The variation continued with the next track. A short instrumental introduced as a bedtime story, it once again opened in heavy fashion but with a jangly sound which evoked images of nursery rhymes in the background. After a false start with an unplugged guitar Greed featured keyboards which were slightly reminiscent of Genesis while Memo was introduced by Ditchfield as “I was going to sing this on the album but Nik Kershaw wanted to, so I let him…” I thought it was some kind of joke until I checked the album credits and found that the 80’s alternative to Duran Duran had indeed provided vocals for the slightly folky track. After another false start, due to what seemed to be a malfunctioning backing track, which nearly saw Maybe September being ditched from the set, we were treated to a different version of the song that Ditchfield introduced as “the most beautiful thing Tony has written” which open with just vocals and keys but, once again, led into a much heavier section which included “parping” keyboards. DeeExpus have a very modern-styled prog sound and it became obvious why with the final song of the set. PTtee is Ditchfield’s homage to his favourite band, written after he saw them live for the first time. And there are definite comparison’s to Porcupine Tree in DeeExpus’ output, although it has to be said that the recorded versions (yes, this was another gig where I bought a band’s full back catalogue – thankfully, this time, just two albums) aren’t quite as heavy as the live ones. A really enjoyable hour-long set, even with the slight problems.

Leeds-based Manning, on the other hand, are more reminiscent of the older style of prog. I usually find it difficult to make comparisons between bands – my musical knowledge simply doesn’t stretch that far – but the first thing that struck me about this set was how, physically anyway, it reminded me of Focus, with Guy Manning lording it over the band even while sitting behind a keyboard, stage left. This is a big band – two guitars, and three sets of keyboards, as well as the usual rhythm section and Domicile was delivered in a wall-of-sound style. The introduction of a flute for the second song inevitably invoked comparisons with Jethro Tull and Guy Manning’s vocals also had more than a hint of Ian Anderson in their delivery. I wasn’t to know it but Charlestown was about to blow me away (and, ultimately, decide one of the Manning albums I would purchase tonight). Another twenty-minute epic, delivered after a somewhat lengthy delay during which an acoustic guitar string was nearly replaced, it featured vocals suited to reciting a fantasy-story (or, indeed, on of the aforementioned concept albums) as it told a story inspired by the eighteenth century tall-ship voyages from Cornwall to Liverpool and back. The band were promoting their latest release, Akoustik – a kind of acoustic Best Of… – so a number or tracks were being played in acoustic style, if slightly rocked-up for the live set. This gave some of them a more folky sound, especially the likes of Margaret Montgomery, the story of a Scottish Witch, and its thematic sequel Revelation Road, which also managed to incorporate a more funky sound, while Lost In Play was a superb mixed bag of somehow medieval sound, hard rock and bottle-neck guitar-playing. Like a growing number of bands, Manning don’t perform encores but ended their set (“that was our last song and here’s another…”) with another brilliant track about finding love in the strangest of places. If I’d had more cash on me, I would almost certainly have bought whichever album that was from as well… This tour is the last time that the current line-up will be seen together, as guitarists Chris Catling and Kevin Currie are leaving the band (to be replaced by former member David Million). There was a remarkable camaraderie on stage, with both departing members joking with the audience and the rest of the band during breaks in playing. Strangely, most of the tonight’s audience seemed to be there to just see DeeExpus and the crowd (if it could be called that in the first place) felt a lot smaller while Manning were on stage. That was a shame because, of the two, I slightly preferred Manning. But then, I’ve been a prog fan for a very long time…

Charlotte Church–Fibbers, 28/07/12

I’m going to start this post with a caveat – due to a) being at a beer festival during the afternoon before this gig and b) forgetting to write it up until over six weeks afterwards (I blame the onset of the Olympics, during which I barely moved from in front of the TV, immediately followed by a two week holiday) my memories of the event aren’t quite as sharp as when I normally do these reviews. However, as this blog is primarily a personal record of who I have seen perform rather than any serious attempt at music journalism, I’m going to give it a go anyway.

Despite York being a relatively small city, with small music venues, every so often an advertised act will catch my eye in an “I can’t believe he/she/they are playing York” way. Even more rarely, said acts will also stir an “I’ve got to be there” feeling. Tonight was one such and, despite the fact that I knew I was probably opening myself up to more than a fair amount of abuse and mickey-taking, there was little chance of me missing this gig.

Support tonight came from Nico Cara who plays acoustic guitar and sings in a somewhat strange style – staccato, with every few syllables highly pitched. He seemed more than a little nervous, mumbling through the introductions to his four songs and the set came to an abrupt end just when I noted that he appeared to be growing in confidence. I picked up that one song was about suffering from writer’s block but that’s about all. His guitar playing varied from minimal to something much deeper but I’m afraid that, on this performance, the young lad didn’t do too much for me.

Maybe things would improve with Pony And Trap, a post-punk/alternative duo consisting of guitarist Tom Meyer and singer/percussionist Sally Rafferty, resplendent tonight in sparkly top and blue-dyed hair. The vocals are described as distinctive. I would say more “quirky” and the first song, John Green I think, seemed to consist less of lyrics than just the title repeated over and over with a few other words thrown in every so often. Tom switched between acoustic and electric guitars and at least one song had percussion added by a backing track. Unfortunately, like the first act, they did nothing for me. This time, however, it was more due to the fact that I just don’t get on with this type of music. Too quirky for my tastes, I’m afraid.

Jonathan Powell was an impromptu third support act, playing just three songs because the evening was running fast (maybe due to Nico’s rather short, abrupt set?) Charlotte Church’s guitarist, musical partner and, perhaps, boyfriend played acoustic guitar and his vocals seemed a lot more natural that the previous acts, although his first song was difficult to hear above the sound of the crowd who were, perhaps, getting a bit impatient by now. Upping the power slightly on the remaining songs he showed how good support acts can be and provided a pleasant, unbilled surprise.

After a short break Powell and the rest of the band took to the stage. As did Charlotte Church, with a wide smile and without any hint of showboating, shaggy-cut blonde hair giving the impression that she is slowly morphing into Debbie Harry. Playing a tour of small venues to promote her latest musical reinvention, brought immediately to the fore by the big drum and indie-guitar sound of the opening song, the former “voice of an angel” and tabloid-hounded teenage “hell raiser” (although, out of the spotlight, are many teenagers that different?) seemed genuinely pleased to be performing in front of a small but definitely appreciative audience. Indulging in medicinal honey between songs Charlotte and band performed a ten song set, none of which I remember hearing before (although, admittedly, I only have the pop of 2005’s Tissues and Issues in my CD collection) and many of which have been written as a result of recent events -  including her battles with the press and subsequent testimony at the Leveson Enquiry – and her apparent dislike of the mainstream as she hinted that the “suits in the music industry have shit for ears”. Sadly, although I know that I enjoyed her performance on the night, nothing has remained stuck with me musically (except for the opening of one song which I found memorable more for the annoying use of a loop to repeat an almost-shouted “Eh, eh, eh” than anything else). There wasn’t anything wrong with the performance and, it has to be said, Charlotte gave a nicely varied vocal performance and the songs themselves ranged from indie rock to disco. On the night I noted that Come To Me was the best song of the set, but I can’t remember any of it now. If there had been an album available on the night I would almost certainly have bought it but the only mention of a new release was the EP One. Although I wouldn’t have liked to miss this gig, I find that it has faded all to quickly from my mind, in a musical sense anyway. After all, that genuine smile and the fact that Charlotte doesn’t do encores because she “feels like a twat” (imagine it being said in a Welsh accent…) are going to be hard to forget.

Dream Of Apollo–Victoria Vaults, 17/07/12

I arrived at the Victoria Vaults a bit later than planned and found the place nearly empty and Lee Parry, the invited support act, just starting. Apparently it had been his graduation day, which begs the question of why he wasn’t out getting drunk and celebrating. Another of York’s seeming endless supply of acoustic guitar acts, Lee managed to rise above some of the others by combining a self-effacing (“I always feel that I’m imposing on people if I play too many of my own songs”), bordering on shy, demeanour with an audience-charming smile and a great voice to give an engaging performance. With barely a glance at the audience he played a short set of just seven songs, two of which were covers – John Martyn’s May You Never, which he learned after seeing it performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test (I’m assuming on a repeat – he didn’t look old enough to have seen the original) and an unusually heartfelt and emotional version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine. His own songs were steeped in real life experiences, with No Holy Man being inspired by a Swedish friend who “found religion and a girlfriend” and She Wants To Get Away being about a girl who wants to leave Birmingham. The latter featured guitar work that was a bit too “plinky” for me. Most of the other songs were based around some beautifully simplistic guitar, with one that I didn’t catch the title of being a bit more complex and Let Me Know being, apparently, the only one of his own songs in which he employs a finger-picking style. Overall, it was a nice mixture of styles and I have to agree with the person who said something along the lines of, “But they’re good” to the comment about him imposing on the audience with his own songs.

It’s just over a year since we stumbled across Dream Of Apollo and I have kind of formed that opinion that they are one of York’s best kept musical secrets. All but one of the times I’ve seen them perform has been in various pubs (although they have played at “proper” venues and, indeed, completed a mini European tour as well) with most of the attentive audiences seemingly people they know. Which is a shame as this genre-defying band are superb and it has been a genuine joy both seeing them perform and, in a small way, getting to know the various members. It was a bit of s shock, therefore, that a few days before tonight’s gig was due to take place the Facebook event was changed to reflect it being a “farewell” gig, although it wasn’t clear whether it was farewell to the band or to vocalist and songwriter Vicki who is taking a career move to London.

It wasn’t a surprise, however, that the gig turned out to be slightly more emotional than other times they have performed. Moments of light-heartedness, with Vicki mistaking Winston’s, “Count me in” for him asking if she needed counselling (“I’m a bit sad, but I’m OK…”) and near hilarity when Winston realised exactly what was making his guitar sound “wrong” served to brighten the mood but didn’t detract from the sadness that was evident in both Vicki’s performance, during which at times the emotions seemed to be coming from her in waves, and while we were chatting during the break. It might have just been my perception but it seemed as though the rest of the band were giving her a bit more space, making her a bit more prominent in some of the songs, while still maintaining the full band sound. Not that the rest took a complete back seat – Jamie seemed particularly playful on drums tonight and Winston certainly rocked up the introduction to Children Of The City more than usual (at least as far as I remember…) There was a lovely beguiling jam opening to the second half of the set, serving both to show how good the musicianship is and giving people time to finish their conversations before the band eventually launched into the relatively new All For You but it was the lyrics to Someday, a song I’ve heard many times, that suddenly took on a new meaning tonight – “You came into my life and took my breath away” being an almost perfect description of how we felt the first time we saw the band perform and, “Like a dream you fade away”, expressing what was, potentially, happening to the band from a fan’s point of view. If only Vicki’s almost plaintive, “Don’t let me go” meant that the band and fans had a choice.

Hopefully, this isn’t the end of the Dream. The band are hoping to carry on, with Vicki trying to get them some gigs in London and the potential that she may get a job at least partly based in York. Work on their album is also set to continue, which should help venues get an idea of their sound, which really isn’t easy to pin down. From my own point of view, I hope that they manage to, at very least, get together once in a while, in York, just so that I can see them again. I’m selfish that way. It would be even better if their plans came to fruition and, wherever they play, they get the bigger audiences that they undoubtedly deserve.