Four Stones Deeper–Fibbers, 28/03/13

When I first started venturing out to local gigs a few years ago, Friday nights with four local (or “smaller”) bands on the bill for a few quid ticket was one of the staples of our choices. As one of our then-party used to say, “you sometimes have to wade through the crap to get to the good stuff” but there was definitely some good stuff. Sadly those sorts of evenings, particularly on a weekend seem to be few and far between these days and that made tonight’s bill at Fibbers – three bands I hadn’t heard of and a headline act that I had previously seen only as opening support - all the more interesting and enticing for me and Andy.

Unfortunately, a slightly late train, a very busy pre-gig pub and bumping into a couple of people who we hadn’t seen for a while meant that the first band were already drawing their set to a close while we were handing our entry money over and being told by Tim that we would look “very old” in tonight’s audience. And that was a shame because, from the song-and-a-half that we did hear from Lost Hippy Time Traveller sounded interesting. Their unusual guitar sound, more mellow than rock, and nice vocals from frontwoman Aimée were enough to make us wish we had heard more from them.

It’s not often, if ever, that I try to give advice to musicians but I would definitely say that acting like The Kickstarts frontman did tonight is not necessarily big, clever or, indeed, the best thing to do if you are a small band in a small city with only a couple of “proper” venues for you to play in. The band looked almost ready to start playing when Johnny disappeared off the stage and ran outside, phone to ear, through the firedoors, coming back a minute later shouting, “Sorry ladies and gentlemen but the doorman’s being a d*ckhead and not letting my Dad in.” Much confusion, more insults and a half-hearted apology followed before the music started but I suspect that, by then, bridges had already been burnt. To be fair, the music was quite good – mainly fast punk-ish rock – and Johnny’s vocals were blessed with a voice that was more mature than he appears to be. Apart from their own songs, most of which came in two-to-two-and-a-half-minute bursts during which the music was better than the lyrics, the band covered The Misfits with We Are 138 and, I think, The Ramones with Do You Remember Rock And Roll Radio. Partway during the set, however, it became noticeable that the vocals were being “played with” and there was a very distracting squeaky sort of echo coming through. Retaliation for the earlier shenanigans? Who knows. It did appear that frontman Johnny was thrown out (or, perhaps, politely asked to leave) by Tim at the end of the band’s set.

Nocebo took to the stage next and opened with a more Indie sound and a much more complex song. Although they do play their own songs, most of tonight’s set seemed to be made up of covers with the likes of Amy Winehouse/The Zutons Valerie, The Fratellis Chelsea Dagger, and a rather weak version of James’ Sit Down – a song like that deservers power and an audience sing-along but, in this case, got neither. Thankfully, after this point things started to take a turn for the better. After an acted-out opening, Muse’s The Groove was given a particularly funky outing and The Vaccines If You Wanna saw the band upping the energy levels and segueing straight into a snatch of Bad Moon Rising before Twist And Shout both inspired some of the audience to slip on their dancing shoes and led into an impressive instrumental finale. After a fairly uninspiring start Nocebo showed that they could produce a decent set of slightly off-centre covers. Perhaps they might be more suited to a pub than the stage at Fibbers, but they would probably rock the pub. From where we were standing, frontman Sam Donley spend much of the set looking slightly startled and bass-player Harrison Puckering, appearing slightly older and a little less clean-cut than his band-mates, looked a little out of place. Definitely a band worth seeing, though, if you fancy some slightly different covers to those usually played.

A word about tonight’s audience – too many times recently have I seen Fibbers half full and thought that that was a reasonably good crowd. Tonight, however, we arrived to find one of the biggest crowds we have seen in the venue for a non-touring group for a long time. Both Andy and I commented at the end of the evening that the whole thing was reminiscent, in more ways than one, of the type of Friday evening gigs I mentioned above and it was great to see local bands pulling in such a big crowd. It did, however, mean than we spent most of the evening standing by the sound desk, just in front of the chatting bar-hoverers.

Amy Humphrys, singer and guitarist with Four Stones Deeper, tried to get those in the audience not already there to move closer to the stage. A few people moved. I last saw this band about a year ago, as first support for Morpheus Rising and was impressed if, perhaps, slightly critical of Amy’s vocals. Tonight the vocals seem to have the same issues but I think it’s because she is putting so much behind them to project beyond the music that they sometimes seem a little strained. Quieter sections during, for example, new song Let Go show that, when she relaxes the power slightly, her vocals are much better. Being honest, though, it doesn’t matter. Whatever the band were like last year, they have a much more professional demeanour tonight. It’s a polished performance, the set opening with a pumping drum and bass line, the guitars coming in slowly and the sound gradually increasing until the full power of the song is unleashed. By the second song the performance has become slightly punky and high energy. The band are clearly enjoying themselves on stage and there is no sign of nerves in front of an audience that a lot of local bands would kill to play to. A finger injury early on in the set saw Amy not only playing through the pain and sucking said finger frequently (we could see the blood from where we were at the back…) but delivering an impressive solo before hastily applying a plaster that had been delivered from the audience. Throughout the set the playing is tight with the whole band coping admirably with the various changes in speed. Most of the set is comprised of their own songs, but there is a couple of covers, including a switch to acoustic guitar for Paramore’s You Are The Only Exception. By this time we had moved closer to the stage, to find that both the sound in general and the vocals in particular were much better there. Bass player Luke (brother of Amy) provides backing vocals in places, his deeper voice providing a nice counterpoint and, from a local perspective, reminding me of Winston Sander’s backing vocals for Dream Of Apollo. Bright Lights continues the acoustic sound, with Joe Garlick’s drums providing a nice effect during the lyric “City never sleeping/Heart always beating”. This band write complex songs, full of changes of style and Amy’s cute-girl-next-door and butter-wouldn’t-melt looks belie her technical ability with the guitar, although it is apparent this time out that Tom Reed supplies a much greater portion than I previously gave him credit for. Amy ditches her guitar for an incredibly energetic rendition of Enter Shikari’s Sorry You’re Not A Winner, jumping around the stage and on and off the drum platform before declaring, “I’m knackered” ahead of Let Go. And still the set goes on. With so many bands on the bill and this being Four Stones Deeper first headline spot, we were expecting no more than forty minutes, but with Tell Me and the fast, slightly poppier Silent Generation, we are approaching an hour of a performance that has crackled with energy. Take It ends the set superbly with an audience sing-along, a mini-moshpit and a fantastic reaction from the audience. The only downside was that there was no encore.

Amplifier–The Duchess, 18/03/13

Photos included in this posting were taken by Marc McGarraghy, whose work can be found on Facebook or the Yellow Mustang website. Thanks, as always, go to him for allowing me to use them.

Somehow there was a strange feeling about tonight’s gig. A few days before, Amplifier had posted a mock-up Daily Mail cover announcing their “final” UK tour, along with a warning that unless enough people turned out to see them, they wouldn’t be able to afford to tour their home country again. Then it was announced that local band We Could Be Astronauts would be providing support (and, presumably, bringing along a few of their own fans). And then they weren’t and support would be provided by, I was told, an act who had “bought in” to the tour.

Anyway, as with the last time I saw Amplifier, when I arrived at The Duchess it was cold and the doors were late opening. Marc was already in the “queue” and, after saying “hello” I ended up right at the front with him, soon joined by Roj and Lynn. That probably shows how much of a draw Amplifier can be as this is the first time that they have been to a gig in months and it was a Monday to boot. As we chatted, a young guy was soundchecking on stage, standing behind a flight case which had a guitar case balanced on top and a few bits of tech perched on that. Then he disappeared…

…only to reappear without any sort of preamble or announcement a few minutes later, complete with acoustic guitar, singing in the middle of the audience. Charlie Barnes, I found out afterwards, describes his music as “big morbid death pop”. His first song featured sort of Spanish style guitar-playing with lots of stomping and crouching over and heartfelt vocals which eventually turned angry and shouty. Yeah, I guess his description kind of works. For the rest of the set, Charlie returned to the stage, back behind his technology, which seemed to include backing tracks and a loop machine. The next track included an ethereal backing track and softer vocals and loop effects. At times, Charlie seemed to be struggling to play the guitar and keep up with whatever he needed to do with the various pedals and switches – his hand flitting between instrument and tech – but, not being familiar with the music, I couldn’t tell whether he was having to miss anything out. Eventually the vocals were ramped up to something more raw and emotional than soft and that seemed to be de rigueur for a lot of his set. Between songs, he came across as amiable, with a gentle sense of humour, covering the slightly drawn out passages of retuning and tech-fiddling with light banter, such as telling us that his upcoming album was being produced by Amplifier’s own Steve Durose which, to say the least, was exciting him slightly. When he got going he was very good, his vocals never being overwhelmed by the music or the effects. My favourite track was the last of the set, which opened with Charlie producing his own percussion effects by tapping the microphone and clapping. These effects, along with a backing track were, I think, looped into the main section to give a lovely atmospheric track which was slightly spoiled (for me) by another, albeit small, shouting section towards the end. Roj was impressed enough to not only compare him to Martin Grech but to purchase a copy of Charlie’s first album – Geek. If I’m honest, I would have liked a copy, if only to see whether the recorded material came across as slightly slicker and whether the louder vocal sections weren’t quite as raw. Sadly, though, I was on a budget tonight. Maybe next time.

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Charlie Barnes

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As Charlie’s flight case was removed from the stage and we resumed chatting, I noticed a few more resonances of the last time Amplifier played York – the front of the stage was barren of monitors but filled with the impressive arrays of effects pedals that had been in evidence last time and various members of the crew and band were wandering around dressed completely in black and the same Octopus-bedecked ties as last time. At that point somebody decided to sound check the drum kit, hitting it with enough force that I thought one of my legs, which was right next to one of the side speakers, had been blown off… Tonight, it seemed, was going to be loud.

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That’s some serious pedal rigs

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One thing that was different this time round was the line-up. Last time, Amplifier had been a three-piece, with Steve Durose performing only on the tour. Now they are a four-piece (although Neil Mahoney has been replaced on bass by Alexander Redhead) but they have a fifth member on stage – Charlie Barnes was not only the support but also adding to the band’s live sound by playing keyboards, guitar and extra drums, as well as providing extra vocals. You can tell that a band play prog when they have announced a two hour set but the set list only lists twelve songs (and there isn’t much in the way of between song banter). Tonight’s set opened with Mary Rose, from new album Echo Street, which opens with a nice bass line before the rest of the band come in with power from the guitars and drums making the track explode into life in what could be said to be Amplifier’s signature style. Sel Balamir had already asked, “Why does the singer get the worst mic stand?” and the offending article was hastily replaced after the first track, leading to even more shenanigans when, due to it standing on, rather than between, the multitude of cables, it wouldn’t quite sit how he wanted it to. To be honest, with its proximity to the edge of the stage and the amount of readjustments being made, I’m surprised the thing managed to stay upright for the whole set. With Echo Street only having been released a few days before the gig, the set was peppered with songs from the band’s back catalogue. The Wave and Interglacial Spell, both from the previous release Octopus, followed with the raw power, three guitar wall of sound of the former giving way to the frantic and very impressive drumming of the latter. Asking the audience whether anybody had heard the new album prompted such responses as, “I’ve heard half of track two,” which was appropriate as that track – The Wheel – was next up. With a slightly less powerful sound, its nice twitchy guitar line was almost hypnotic and combined well with sections of soaring keyboards. Extra Vehicular, also from Echo Street, had another different sound, an almost country-rock guitar sound and ballad-like vocals interspersed with bursts of incredible power, with guitarists and bass-player alike almost dancing across their vast arrays of pedals. Sel’s use of the Wah-wah was particularly nice. Going right back to their debut album, Motorhead saw the band change to all-black guitars, a move which was ultimately short lived as Interstellar, a track that was was quietly dedicated to a deceased friend, saw Sel break a string and have to go back to his original white guitar mid-song. Interstellar itself starts off with a musical box opening before, once again, bursting with incredible power. Gentle, quite sections are few and far between when Amplifier are playing but UFOs, another from the debut album is one. By now the stage was more often than not enveloped with dry ice, giving the lighting a spectral look. The power was back with Fall Of The Empire and, with Charlie making more and more frequent excursions away from his enclave of instruments, the four guitarists could be seen squaring up as though battle-lines had been drawn across the stage. The set ended with a combination of the old, Panzer, and the new, Where The River Goes. The latter consists of repetitive lyrics over atmospheric guitars and pounding bass and, while you suspect it is eventually going to explode it actually builds more slowly than you expect, using speed over gradually increasing power to fantastic effect.

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Amplifier

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Returning to the stage to acknowledge the shouts for more, Sel explains that this has been the “worst gig” in his twenty years of gigging because the band basically “can’t hear anything.” Funny, I was led to believe that in-ear monitors were better than stage ones. With Alexander Redhead quipping that he didn’t know before tonight that he could “play bass entirely using his sense of smell” it was up to the audience to convince them that the performance had been better than the band seemed to think. With curfew time approaching, one of the two encore tracks was dropped, leaving oldie Airborne, the most atmospheric track of the evening as the sole extra. Appropriately the band gave it everything, with Sel and Charlie literally, as well as musically, bouncing off each other. Encore complete, Sel took the time to jump off stage and acknowledge everybody in the front row, either with a hand-clasp or embrace, a gesture that made nearly getting ear-bleeds from standing too close to the speakers almost worth it.

The audience wasn’t bad for a gig at The Duchess, well into three figures (just like last time) and the merchandise table seemed to be doing a brisk trade. Hopefully that means that, as well as this not ending up being Amplifier’s last UK tour, they will return to York on future tours.

Morpheus Rising–The Duchess, 15/03/13

Photos included in this posting were taken by Marc McGarraghy, whose work can be found on Facebook or the Yellow Mustang website. Thanks, as always, go to him for allowing me to use them.

When I first heard about tonight’s gig, at the back end of last year, it was my first “must see” gig of 2013. Morpheus Rising and Also Eden had previously shared the bill in York at Fibbers for the late-2011 release of the former’s debut album – Let The Sleeper Awake – which, unsurprisingly, made my top ten of that year. That night, I also picked up also Also Eden’s full back catalogue and, while their 2011 release – Think Of The Children – didn’t quite make my top ten, it wasn’t far outside it.

Not long before the gig, however, it was announced that Also Eden had had to pull out due to circumstances beyond their control (presumably the collapse of the Y-Prog weekend in Sheffield, which the band were due to play on the Saturday). My heart sank a little more when it was announced that Bastrad had been recruited as a replacement on the night. I had seen them twice before, both times supporting Morpheus Rising and, while past reviews showed that I was warming to them, they didn’t exactly fill me with as much excitement for the evening as Also Eden.

My main criticism in the past seems to have been that the vocals were a bit strained. This time out, there had been a change in the line-up, with guitarist Martin Drury taking over vocal duties and Steve Bull replacing previous vocal Tristan Fayers on bass. There is a youthful exuberance to Bastrad’s performance and it sort of straddles the line between fun (which, let’s face it, is the raison d’etre for most local bands – of any that think they are going to make lots of money and fill arenas, most are sadly deluded) and something bordering on immaturity. The first couple of songs were heavier than I remembered, mostly noise with a lot of running around stage and posturing. By the third song, however, I was becoming a bit more interested. This one opened with a bass line before continuing with pounding drums and some nice guitar work which made it slightly more atmospheric while somehow a little darker. The noisier, heavier sound soon returned, but with occasional glimpses of more interesting, melodic guitar work poking through. Also unusual was a lively drum solo courtesy of Martin Durrant, which led into a short instrumental section – I can’t think of many (if any) other local bands who have attempted, let alone made work, as long and impressive a drum solo as this one. Supernatural High was the first song title I made out (why do so many bands struggle to speak clearly between songs?) and the song itself had another nice bass line and some great fast vocals which, even if a little repetitive, proved that Bastrad have moved on since the last time I saw them. Another instrumental followed, this time a solo guitar was eventually joined by drums. Personally, I enjoyed it but the audience seemed to be becoming more ambivalent and a bit restless. The high energy Drive, a song I remembered from last time out, increased the tempo on stage again before the appropriately named Adios ended the set.

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Bastrad

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Honestly, I enjoyed Bastrad’s set more than I expected to. Overall, they are possibly too far towards the heavier side of heavy metal, but this line-up seems to have overcome the vocal problems and tonight’s performance was, if not exceptional, at least entertaining. The band have an album (well, mini-album, according to the event details) launch coming up at Fibbers at the end of May and, you know what, I’m quite tempted.

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Damien Sweeting and Pete Harwood from Morpheus Rising

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Tonight is the eleventh time I have seen Morpheus Rising and I freely admit that they are one of my favourite York bands (even if that is an ever-growing number). There is a kind of nostalgic appeal – I have mentioned before that some of their obvious influences, the likes of Iron Maiden and Saxon, are the sort of bands that first got me into music. Tonight’s line-up saw Andy Gooby (“Spare Andy” or “Stand-in Andy”) taking Andy Smith’s place on bass, presumably on a temporary basis. He has done so in the past and, whatever the reason, it doesn’t seem to upset the balance or camaraderie of the band – there is always a feeling of them playing with such ease and enjoying being on stage together. Pete, tonight sporting one of the new Morpheus Rising hats and, therefore, looking slightly comical and (it has to be said) gnome-like, plays guitar with a cheeky abandon while Daymo always appears more intense and contemplative. The two of them effortlessly trade guitar sections but it is when they play together and alongside each other that you can see just how tight they are, with fingers flying across the frets and across the strings in near-perfect union. Gibbo’s drumming is, as usual immense, but having the dual role of master of technology which, to say the least, isn’t behaving as well as it could do tonight, seems to be perturbing him just a little. Whatever gadget the band uses for their backing tracks (it looked like an i-Pod from where I was standing) seemed to crash, leading to tonight’s version of Fighting Man being performed without strings before help from off-stage was called to fix the problem. Simon’s vocals still seem to be growing and tonight, he had completely ditched the slightly nervous laughs which have punctuated his between song banter in the past, and I hadn’t noticed how off-putting they were until they had gone.

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Pete Harwood, Simon Wright and Damien Sweeting

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But the best news? Peppered throughout a set of favourite tracks from Let The Sleeper Awake were the first new songs I have heard. Say Something had to be restarted due to mistakes in the first attempt but when it eventually got going it featured some nice wah-wah effects from Pete. It’s not radically different from anything on the first album, but just different enough to show progression. In some ways, especially from the snatches of lyrics that I heard clearly, Nameless sounds even more like Iron Maiden than any of the band’s other tracks while Bending Light has a bit more of an experimental sound. It includes an unusual guitar riff that I can only think to describe as “tinny”, although that makes it sound unpleasant and it’s far from that, as well as a section which Pete played by running some sort of gadget across the strings. I have no idea what it was or what it does (or even how to Google it) but it sounded nice. Mix these in with “classics” like Daylight, Quench Your Thirst, Fear Of Nothing, Gypsy King (with the usual exquisite guitar from Daymo), In The End, Save The Day, Shades Of Grey and the wonderfully grinding Lord Of The North and you have a great set. There’s no grandstanding or over-the-top posturing, just a nice, clean performance with occasional nods to the fans – Pete flings used plectrums into the audience (sadly my catching skills let me down and, despite the one thrown in my direction ending up at my feet, I didn’t react quickly enough to pick it up first) while Gibbo hands over his drumsticks (and flicks sweat into the crowd!) at the end of the set. Technical issues and mistakes notwithstanding, Morpheus Rising just keep getting better. Hopefully new tracks mean a new album is one the way. In the meantime, you can catch them live in York supporting prog band Panic Room on June 29th or Austrian rock band Cornerstone on August 9th, both at The Duchess (or at other venues across the country – see the website for details).

King King–Fibbers, 14/03/13

It must be hard being a support band at times. When I arrived at Fibbers Hobo Joe and the Dead Cats had already started their set and were playing I Shot The Sheriff to a more or less empty room. Not that there was nobody there, but most of the attendees were standing between the sound desk and the bar and there was nobody in the front of stage area. The set was mostly comprised of Blues covers - Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Pride And Joy and a lovely swampy-sounding version of Red House from Hendrix were two that I recognised – but finished with a rendition of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Frontman Richard Tull would be recognisable by any fans of Hazzard County as “Rocking Richard” (or is that just a nickname that we used?) and, if anything, he produced even more rocking stances and little touches than during the few times I remember seeing him play with the Hazzards. Paul Winn shares vocals duties with Tull and also blows a mean harmonica or, more accurately, a number of harmonicas as he dipped into his little case for different ones between and during songs. The rhythm section of, I think, Ben Darwin and Tony Bachelor provided a solid backing, even though Bachelor at one point managed to accidentally fling one of his sticks away, narrowly missing Winn with it. A short set, certainly shorter than they like playing, but an entertaining one and one that the crowd seemed to warm to, even if nobody moved any further forward. Fans of Blues could do worse than check this band out – they will be supporting Dr Feelgood at Fibbers in October, but play full sets at other venues around York.

King King, fronted by Glaswegian Alan Nimmo – a man who looks as though he could play prop-forward for his national team but who has one of the deftest and gentlest touches on a guitar that I have ever come across – play incredible Blues.

That could be the most accurate, and shortest, review I have ever written. But, of course, I’m not going to leave it at that…

When such a large Scotsman asks, “what are you all doing back there?” you don’t answer (even if he is wearing a kilt, especially if he’s wearing boots big enough to make it look impossible for him to hit the right effects pedals on his rig…), you just move forward, closer to the stage, and pay attention. Unusually, for Blues bands that I have seen (admittedly not that many) King King are a foursome, led by Nimmo on guitar and vocals but with keyboards from Bennett Holland weaving in and out of the guitar lines and, occasionally, soaring with their unique Blues sound during solo spots. You get an indication that you are in for something special when you think that the second song of the set could easily have been a finale for the majority of other bands, with stunning guitar-playing that started out just above minimal and built to a crescendo. Little did I know there was better to come. The band are about to release their second album, Standing In The Shadows, and tonight’s audience were treated to a number of tracks from it, starting with the lovely, slower, almost mainstream, A Long History Of Love which included a keys-led section and a mesmerising extended guitar section that you could lose yourself in and that you could have heard a pin drop during. And that doesn’t happen often at Fibbers. Nimmo’s vocals were incredibly clear, even when he was standing quite a way behind the microphone. One More Time Around ramped up the tempo with its harder, rockier, noisier sound while Jealousy, originally written and performed by Nimmo’s childhood hero Frankie Miller (prompting Nimmo to wonder, “what the f*** am I doing?” when he first decided to cover it) was darker, with a great drum line from Wayne Proctor and very powerful vocals. One song with what I would describe as a more traditional Blues-rock sound featured a segue, into a much harder sounding one, which jarred slightly but somehow still worked. By now the crowd was well and truly warmed up and one group, dancing off to one side, were invited to move more front and centre but they declined. Continuing with the mix of styles the final song of the set, dedicated to Nimmo’s older brother Stevie, started out with a sound reminiscent of Eric Clapton before unfolding into some quite exquisite and sublime guitar work which, at one point, was beautifully quiet. Heart-wrenching, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I had never heard anything like it before and yet, just when you thought that the sound couldn’t get any quieter and gentler, it did. Nimmo’s plectrum must have been barely brushing the strings. This was quite possibly the most spellbinding piece of music I have had the pleasure to see performed live and, while you knew it was eventually going to build, it seemed that the audience were collectively holding there breath until it did. A ten-song set doesn’t sound like very many, but most of the tracks included stunning extended instrumental sections, meaning that those ten songs came in at over an hour and a half of music. The inevitable encore followed, but Mr Highway Man, as good as it was, couldn’t put a dent in the memory of that last piece of music.

Psychedelic Warlords–Fibbers, 02/03/13

When I saw Hawklords last year, I pointed out that Hawkwind were a band I knew very little about but would probably like (a lot). Now it seems that I have a new hobby – that of seeing ex-members of the band play live in various spin-off bands.

Opening proceedings tonight were York-based Hawkwind tribute act, Do Not Panic. Not that I knew they were either of those things before the gig, as there seems to be a paucity of information about them on-line and their Facebook biography reads like a science-fiction short story. It was only through recognising a handful of lyrics that the fact they were a tribute band registered with me. One fact I did know about Hawkwind was that, in the early seventies, the live band included Stacia, a dancer who frequently appeared topless and wearing body paint. Do Not Panic, have their own version and she’s a brave girl. Walking out in front of the stage, hiding behind lengths of iridescent and voluminous fabric and dancing throughout the entire set, she didn’t perform topless but her choice of top did, in the dim light of Fibbers, give a slight impression that she was. With six musicians and an array of equipment, the stage area looked crowded. Visually, the band’s bass player could almost pass for Lemmy while lead vocalist Tom had more of a Roger Daltrey look about him. Without any reference point, I can’t say how accurate their renditions of Angels Of Death, Spirit Of The Age or Psi Power (and those are just the songs that I at least vaguely recognised) were but, as a live act, the band seemed more than competent. I certainly wouldn’t be averse to seeing them again.

Psychedelic Warlords have been put together by former Hawkwind bassist Alan “Boomer” Davey – the first bass player I’ve noticed playing bass in the style of a lead guitar - to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Space Ritual, widely regarded as one of the best live albums ever. Their Facebook biography states that the full album will be played live at these gigs – again, I can neither confirm or deny whether that happened. The line-up on the page also lists former Hawk Nik Turner as “always welcome”. Sadly he didn’t appear at tonight’s gig. The band did, however, have their own Stacia stand-in in the form of Demolitia, who also performed in front of the stage for the first song before retreating to the stage itself where she frequently disappeared into the dressing room between songs to change her costume and bring out various props (fans, rope, swords, a whip…) to use in her dances. Breaking up the music was Julian Slawinski who, bedecked in flying helmet, white scarf and gold flecked jacket, appeared on stage to recite science-fiction inspired poetry in the manner of Robert Calvert or, perhaps, Michael Moorcock (who, Andy knowingly advised me, was really known as an SF author…) These poetic breaks not only gave Demolitia the opportunities to change her costume but, at one point, saw her running off to the sound desk to pass on a message that Davey had been frantically trying to get across from the stage. This might not have been the same scale as the full audio-visual experience of the original Space Ritual shows but, between the music, Demolitia’s dancing – which, it has to be said, seemed a little strained at times, as though she was struggling to fit the moves into the small stage area – and Slawinski’s bouts on stage, which sometimes saw him just wandering around, glaring at the audience, there was enough to watch and hear to elevate it above the average live performance. The music, while echoed in the space-rock of Hawklords (whose set, I believe, included at least one song from Space Ritual), didn’t have the relentless intensity of the latter band’s gig and certainly wasn’t as ear-hammeringly loud which made this gig a slightly more pleasant one (even though the Hawklords gig was one of my highlights of last year). Having said that, the vocals weren’t always as clear as those of Ron Tree.

The inevitable encore saw Davey asking the audience, which seemed largely comprised of leather-clad, bandana-wearing bikers smelling faintly of patchouli oil, whether they wanted a “long one or a short one”. Stupid question, really, and whatever it was they ended up playing could only be described as brilliant, powerful and (in the case of this track) relentless, with the whole band giving it their all, including Demolitia who, by now, seemed to have worked so hard that her tattoos were in danger of running.

There is still no Hawkwind represented in my CD collection but, after tonight’s gig, the time is getting closer.

Keeping Music Live

This afternoon Amplifier posted on Facebook a mock-up front page of the Daily Mail which seemed to announce their final UK tour. This was a piece of hyperbole, meant to illustrate the question they were asking in the post. Presumably advance ticket sales for an imminent tour aren’t quite what they expected and they were asking why it seems that UK audiences seem more reticent to travel to gigs than fans on mainland Europe.
To be honest, while I am going to see Amplifier on Monday, I am probably one of the biggest culprits. I haven’t travelled to see a gig in about five years, but I do go to somewhere in the region of forty gigs a year in York. I am making the effort to go to Sheffield for one gig this year, but it is for a farewell tour and I am going with my wife and daughter.
Anyway, Amplifier’s post prompted me to think about the situation and, as is my wont, to put finger to keyboard.
Firstly, Amplifier are a prog-rock band. It’s my understanding that prog has a much wider audience on mainland Europe than it does here. Conversely, there are a lot of well-known prog bands who come from the UK. This might explain why audiences seem to travel more when such bands tour in Europe. I have no figures to back this up, it is just speculation, but it seems logical.
Among my friends (and by that I mean people that I know outside of Facebook – many of the people I have “met” through that site I have done through a shared love of music, including prog), few are interested in the genre. Those that are tend to have not heard of the more modern bands and still think prog consists of Genesis, Pink Floyd, ELP and Yes. Sadly, those people seem very hard to educate. I also know few people who go to local gigs.
York itself suffers from its size – being a relatively small city, even if it can maintain the same proportion of residents that, for example, Leeds or Birmingham has that attend gigs, the numbers are small. It also has a fair few venues, possibly more than its size can support, It’s my experience that audience numbers in York are small. There have been two occasions when I have been the only member of the audience that wasn’t in or related to one of the bands on the bill. While people do travel to York to gigs, it seems to be for bands they REALLY want to see.
My own reasons for not travelling are, just that… my own. I don’t pretend to speak for anybody else. Firstly, while I have a very understanding family who are generally quite happy to allow me to go to whatever gigs I want to (as I type, I plan to attend three in the next five days), adding travelling time beyond the ten to twenty minutes it takes me to get to local gigs is, in my opinion asking a bit much. Also, travelling doesn’t always fit in with childcare responsibilities – I was recently offered a lift to see one of my favourite bands but, even if I wanted to, wouldn’t have been able to go as the departure time didn’t fit in with getting my daughter to her swimming lesson.
Limiting myself to local gigs does mean that I sometimes have to miss out. One favourite band recently dropped York as a venue in favour of another North East location that they hadn’t played before. Their aim was to widen their fan base, presumably hoping that people in the area who didn’t/couldn’t travel to York would go to a more local venue. I was disappointed and said so, but I didn’t moan and wished the band well with the gig. However, staying local does mean that I get to see more bands than some people who follow their favourite bands across the country. I saw Amplifier for the first time when they played York in 2011, based solely on the fact that I saw an advert for the gig in Prog Magazine. Up until then, I hadn’t even heard of the band. If there are no touring bands playing, I might venture out to see a local band or artiste – sometimes discovering a new band that I really like and occasionally seeing somebody I hope never to cross paths with again. Doing that I feel that I’m not only supporting local talent, but also the local venues. Without the venues, live music dies.
There’s also the cost of travelling. Most of us only have a finite amount of money. Travelling to gigs means having less money to spend on gigs (and CDs, of which I buy more than most people I know). Buying tickets in advance can add to the ticket price – I try to buy in advance at the venue, usually buying a ticket for my next planned gig when I’m attending a gig, rather than through a website or agent, because it’s the cheapest way of doing it. This can mean that I have a ticket two weeks in advance or, in some cases, just one day. A few people responding to Amplifier’s post are saying they are going to pay on the door. Obviously bands, promoters and venues have to somehow take these sales into account when looking at ticket sales.
My own personal gripe is people who say they love live music but only go to big-ticket gigs. If everyone who spend tens of pounds on a ticket and potentially hours of travel time to see a well-known arena band would also buy a much-cheaper ticket for a gig at a local venue the state of club-level live music would, in my opinion, be a lot healthier. These people might also discover a new band (or two, or three) that they liked rather than limiting themselves to the past.

Siblings–The Duchess, 28/02/13

After a couple of recent gigs featuring bands that are being touted, by one source or another, as “the next big thing”, tonight we see some smaller (in exposure if not necessarily in talent) bands.

Apparently Jake Robinson, who seems not to have an actual music page that I can link to, was a late replacement as opening act. At least in physical terms, he can’t be described as small – standing at well over six feet tall – but he is another York-based solo artiste, this time playing electric guitar, that I haven’t come across before. His set had started when we arrived and first impressions were that his vocals were a bit “off”. That might just have been nerves, though, as by the second song they had improved a lot. Tuning issues, for which he apologised, notwithstanding the use of electric guitar was interesting, giving a bigger sound than the more usual acoustic and Jake utilised a number of playing styles, sometimes in the same song. With friends appearing in the audience, he seemed to relax even more and he started some understated banter between songs, with As We Die being dedicated one audience member who also got an apology for having such a depressing track dedicated to her. Depressing it might have been but, even so, Jake still managed to make it sound light. A quick check with the sound desk as to whether he had time for one more revealed that there were actually ten minutes of his set left. The first half of this was filled by the only cover of the set – Neil Young’s Old Man (Andy thought he recognised it, I confirmed with Jake himself) – with the final song, With Me, another of his own. A promising start to the evening.

A couple of posts back, while reviewing Pine For Cedars debut EP, I wrote that I thought that the band needed “to be seen live to get the full effect” of their music. Tonight was my first opportunity to confirm that. Drummer Jamie told me that if he’d known I was coming down he would have put me on the guest list – a nice sentiment but, given the cheap ticket price (£4 for three bands – why don’t more people take a punt on local live music at prices like that?) I don’t really see how any of tonight’s bands, let alone the venue, could make any money out of this gig. The band played an eight song set, including the instantly recognisable four from the EP and at least one new track, which I think was called Believe. Their structure-defying math rock sound is definitely reminiscent of Lost From Atlas (who have now, apparently, split up), with added vocals, the layers of which are produced by having Mike Fong sing backing vocals to Rob Lettice’s lead. I’ll Wait, with its atmospheric opening and bursts of power is even more haunting played live, while Taking Over retains its pop hints but has a bigger sound than on the EP. It’s easy to see that Jamie’s drum lines are more complex and challenging than anything I saw him perform with Dream Of Apollo. As he put it, the latter used “time changes but not time signature changes”. One day I’ll understand comments like that, at the moment I know it has something to do with counting. Anyway, I was right – the EP is good, live the band is even better. One to watch out for and definitely one I hope to see again.

Siblings hail from Ashbourne in Derbyshire (and I can’t work out whether they are. Siblings, that is…) Watching the stage being set up for them was interesting. I had assumed that, as with a lot of support bands, Pine For Cedars had borrowed at least some of the headliner’s drum kit. However, Jamie’s was removed completely and that of Siblings was scattered across the front of the stage. When the band appeared, they played in one line across the stage, with bass-player JD also playing the bass drum and vocalist Nathan doubling-up on snare drum. I’m told that Steele, who tonight played mandolin, is the only “proper” drummer in the band. Strange stage-positioning and instrument-sharing apart, the band’s first song didn’t really do anything for for me – it seemed to build up, but never actually went anywhere. Something about the second song, though, immediately brought to mind Hope & Social, perhaps more in the vocal harmonies and lightness of sound than the actual song itself. That lightness of sound gives the band’s output a kind of Summertime feel – something about it evokes an overall image of bright days and an impression of being outdoors in the sunshine – and the band would probably seem more at home on an outdoor festival stage than in a gloomy club. One much gentler sounding song is even called Summer’s End. The performance, in terms of music and  vocals, was very tight and polished and the sound was mostly playful and light. Currently with only an EP released, if Siblings ever release an album it could be the soundtrack to bright, sunny days (assuming we ever see any of those again…)

The Virginmarys–The Duchess, 26/02/13

It was a last-minute decision to go to tonight’s gig. The first I heard of The Virginmarys was a few weeks ago when Toby Jepson mentioned, during his gig, that he was producing their debut album. Toby’s audience had made generally approving noises, enough so that I was at least tempted to turn out when I saw that they were playing York just a a few weeks later. A quick listen to some of the tracks available on-line made my mind up for me.

I hadn’t heard of either of tonight’s support acts either. (It always surprises me just how many local bands there are out there.) There doesn’t seem to be much information about The Dead White Doves available and, to start with, I didn’t think I was going to like them. Their first track was loud and shouty, one of those musical styles that doesn’t do too much for me. Thankfully, they soon moved more towards rock than punk and, eventually, dovetailed into a much more blues-based rock style. Still loud, but musically and vocally much more pleasing to my ear. Mixing the blues with riff-driven rock, including one song that had a distinctive Quo-style riff, the threesome played a tight set with some very nice guitar work from Ben Rowe and lead vocals from bass-player Mike Dunn which, by the end of the set, were almost clear (something that a lot of support bands seem to struggle with in The Duchess). Special mention goes to Chris Mayes on drums – I always like watching drummers but there was something about his style as he played energetically but with such obvious enjoyment that I could have watched him for hours. There was definitely a lot for me to like in this opening set of the evening…

…and that, unfortunately, is more than I can say for the next act. And The Hangnails bill themselves as a Punk/Blues duo and, I was told by one audience member who knows him, that the guitarist (I’m not sure whether that is Martyn Fillingham or Steven Reid) can play the Blues “like a demon”. Sadly, tonight’s set was more Punk than Blues and definitely too close to the former for my tastes. The songs were a mixture of chaos and a lack of subtlety, with scream/shout vocals, and the occasional between song howl into the microphone, that evoked images of 70s underground punk clubs. Or, at least, how I imagine such clubs looked as, clearly, I have no experience of them. Despite all that, it was obvious that the duo were proficient at what they do. It’s just that what they do isn’t the sort of thing I like. They did redeem themselves slightly with Meet Me By The River, which was by far their best song, but even that was spoiled by some unnecessary histrionics at the end. Sorry, guys, but not for me.

The Virginmarys hail from Macclesfield and have been around since 2006, releasing a series of EPs and “mini-albums” before the full debut album, King Of Conflict, that they are currently touring to promote. The aforementioned Mr Jepson thinks they are going to be big, but also commented that it looks like they might break the States before their home country. They took to the stage to the indistinct sound of a voice-over and immediately launched into a kind of heavy rock with slight hint of an “indie sound”, with frontman Ally Dickaty constantly scanning the large audience with his intense gaze. As befits a band that have been together for so long, the performance was tight and seemingly effortless, despite the huge sound being generated. Effortless, that is, apart from Danny Dolan on drums, who frequently started songs standing up, slamming the sticks down from above his head with powerful abandon. This was a no-nonsense set – the songs came fast and furious, with little in the way of chat between them – and it wasn’t until half a dozen songs in that the light-show kicked in, banishing the gloom that had pervaded the stage for most of the evening. Most of the tracks were big, epic (at least one had a touch of Muse about it), although one or two were slightly more restrained. A couple were performed just by Dickaty, presumably in much the same way that the bonus CD included in the special edition of the album is made up of him playing acoustic versions of the band’s songs. The audience were lapping it up, with requests for Bang Bang Bang being shouted out and a mini dance area being formed off to one side. At the same time, however, the crowd seemed to be thinning a bit and, by the encore, which consisted of another quieter solo and ended with the much-requested Bang Bang Bang, there seemed to be a lot less people watching. Overall, I enjoyed the set enough to buy the album but whereas I normally complain that sets are too short, in this case, at fourteen songs plus the encore, it was just a bit too long. Maybe it was my unfamiliarity with the music but there seemed to be just slightly too little variance in the set.