2011 – A Personal Preview

Friday 25th February: With no plans to attend a gig this weekend (never fear, though, I have one planned for Monday…), I thought I would treat my faithful reader(s) to a preview of which albums I’m looking forward to so far this year, along with one or two that I hope will see the light of day sometime in 2011.

So, in no particular order, here are my “must buys” so far…

First up is Out Of An Ancient World, by Marc Atkinson’s Riversea. I’ve seen Marc play live a couple of times and have both his solo, acoustic albums, but this has all the hallmark’s of a big project. Ex-York resident (and biggest Dr Who fan… ever!) Marc will, once again, be playing acoustic guitar and has been joined by Brendan Eyre on keyboards, along with a whole host of guest’s (from the York area and further afield) to provide the rest of the music and backing vocals. I’ve heard just the one track, played live back in December and haven’t taken advantage of any of the preview clips available on MySpace or dotted around Facebook but, with the project billed as acoustic/progressive/rock, as well as with the amount of talent to be found in the project, there’s something about this album which is calling out to me, helped in no small part by the stunning cover by Ed Unitsky. Out Of An Ancient World was due to be released around Easter time, but I think that may have slipped slightly recently.

Marc is also involved in Sangreal, the second release from the new, third version of Mandalaband. This album sounds very much a concept piece, as were the first three, and tells the story of the Holy Grail as seen in the Romano-Spanish version – the history of the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper (as opposed to the King Arthur version). Marc seems to have upped his contribution from the last album, providing lead vocals for five or six of the fourteen tracks and backing vocals for others. The album also includes the last song Woolly Wolstenholme (Barclay James Harvest) recorded before his death last year. The previous album, BC – Ancestors, was one of my favourites of recent times and the newly re-mastered re-releases of the original 70s albums may sound a little dated now compared to the prog rock being released today but that doesn’t matter to me (after all, I’ve only just discovered Camel and Caravan…)

I like to think that I’ve been a fan of Chantel McGregor from the beginning of her career but I know that, although I first saw her live while she was still playing The Roman Bath, with no entry charge, she had been performing for quite some time. On a personal note, she was the first artist to put a link to this blog on her website, an act that I was honoured by. The pocket prodigy plays guitar like nobody else I have seen and now, after completing her degree, she has had the time to concentrate on writing her own music and has recently been recording her debut album which is due for release in April. Some of the new songs have already made it into her live set and sat comfortably with the Hendrix, Cream, Trower, Fleetwood Mac, Bonamassa, etc. covers that she was known for performing. With details of the recording being blogged on a daily basis, we are promised the likes of a “13 minute epic”, a “swampy, bluesy thang” and “progging it up a bit”. The only downside is that we won’t get Chantel’s rambling monologues, usually about dresses, take-away food or equipment malfunctions, between songs. (Unless she goes down the Seasick Steve route, of course…)  If you are a fan of the blues, this is one album you must look out for.

The first and, so far, only time I saw Haze play live was back in 2003, in the Bay Horse (now Stereo) in York and they were, therefore, my initiation into the world of live prog-rock. A magazine review of a more recent gig jogged my memory and alerted me to the fact that they were still around, if only sporadically. I had a brief email conversation/trip down memory lane with bass-player and vocalist Chris McMahon before buying a copy of a double live CD from their 30th anniversary tour, only to find that some of the songs had been lodged in the back of my brain for all those intervening years. Now performing more regularly  as Treebeard, a more folky, “heavy wood” ensemble, Chris recently decided to write a new Haze album, their first studio album since 1987’s Stoat And Bottle, although an album named Haze was released in 1994 by World Turtle (Chris and his brother Paul) and contained material that would have been on Haze’s third album. A new album so soon after I get in touch? Coincidence? Almost certainly, but I’m still looking forward to it.

As the year goes on, there are bound to be other releases that I look forward to as eagerly as the ones above, they are just the ones I know that are on the horizon. I also know that Hope & Social have started work on their third album, but that’s as much detail as I have at the moment.

If I could have a wish list, however, it would probably include the following (some of which may be in the pipeline already):

A second album from Boss Caine – it’s hard to imagine a better album than last year’s The Ship That Sailed but if main man GT Turbo can put together another mix of old and new and manage to include some of my favourites from his live sets, it might just be possible.

A debut from Stolen Earth – formed from the ashes of the recently disbanded Breathing Space and featuring the writers of the new songs we heard live during that band’s final gig back in December Stolen Earth are, arguably, the most exciting new band in York at the moment. I don’t know whether the band has enough output for an album yet, but they are trying to get on the bill for this Summer’s Cambridge Rock Festival and, I’m told, are aiming to put together some demo material to help promote the band.

A second album from Parade, or whatever they are going to call themselves to avoid confusion with the same-named pop band. New material is being written, but a release date (and new name) has yet to be announced.

A second release from blues-rockers 98Pages – they will almost certainly always be better to see live than listen to recorded but the new songs performed recently are part of a batch that have been written with an eye to either release a second album or a series of EPs. My vote goes to the album format.

There’s bound to be more. I’ve concentrated on smaller and, for the most part, local bands, most of whom I have seen perform and some of whom I have become friends with (if only through social networking). Bigger, more “established” bands that I like are bound to be working on new albums and, when they arrive, there is a very good chance that they will be added to my collection, but the ones I have listed are, in my opinion, bands that deserve supporting. I realise I’ve leaned somewhat in the direction of progressive rock but, given my tastes, that’s to be expected. I doubt that any of the albums will be inaccessible to general music fans, though. So, if you like music why not keep an eye out for one (or more) of the albums and try something a bit different?

Designs On Piracy

Friday 21st January: Three weeks into 2011 and tonight should have seen the whole gang making their way to Fibbers for our first gig of the year. Sadly Andy's engine decided to blow up, resulting in him missing a cracking night out. As is usual, I arrived first - except this time, it wasn't just first of the four of us. Apart from band members and staff, I was the first person through the doors and, therefore, could get a better impression of exactly how soulless an empty Fibbers actually is. Granted, it's not meant to be experienced in that way and, I guess, most people don't actually turn up to a gig on their own.

First to take to the stage, after a greeting and a brief chat, was GT Turbo (again under his Boss Caine guise - I suspect so as not to confuse anybody who might be tempted into buying one of his excellent CDs). Being on first is never easy and GT had to contend with the usual swell of noise as the crowd started to grow. Despite a concerted effort from some of the other acts, few people seemed interested in listening, standing instead at the back and catching up with people that they probably hadn't seen for an hour or so. LOUDLY! By now, you probably realise that I'm a big fan and tonight's set, with it's mixture of old - Dead Man's Suit, The Kind of Loving (I'm still guessing at the title of this one...) - and newer - Dean Street Devils, Murder On My Mind, Father Time - was one of the strongest I've seen him perform, even if he was struggling with the sound and general apathy. There was even a brand new song, which may have been called Down On Your Knees, which was introduced as something that he has "big plans" for, and another (which I didn't get the title of) but which was an epic booze and drug-filled "real life" love song. Highlight for me, though, was the first live performance I have heard of The Life In Your Years in what was, I think, a change to the original set-list. For non-regulars, this superb, heart-rending autobiographical song was my favourite of 2010 and I even got a shout-out from the stage when it was played.

I had been telling people that, of the four acts on tonight, I had only seen two before. However, I soon realised that I had, in fact, seen The Blueprints back at the beginning of December, at Stereo. Tonight's set was quite similar to that one, with the first song being performed without Tom Williams on keyboard, before he joined them for the rest of the set. Song-titles I picked up included Breaking Walls, Three Minutes (with its dark opening eventually turning into a more dancey number), Staring At The Sun, the superb City Skylines and Walk Away. As last time, there was a degree of cheekiness, epitomised by vocalist Stuart Allan's mischievous grin, in their playing and a lot of fun on stage and, for some reason, I found myself enjoying their music a lot more tonight that I did last time. If infectious indie pop is your thing, you could do a lot worse than to see these guys.

Last time I saw 98Pages I was a little disappointed - despite being the headliners that night, they performed a very short set which came across as a bit underwhelming. Tonight, however, they were on very top form, proving once again that, however good their debut album - Broken Homes And The Halfway House - is, they excel themselves with their energetic live performances. I'm afraid I have no idea what the first song they performed was, but it had a very definite Led Zeppelin feel, thanks to the riffs. Nor did I recognise the second song, while the third was the band's "anthem", Goodbye Jojo, from the album. I also recognised Only Let You Down, but I'm fairly certain that the rest of the set was new music. Extremely good new music, some of which will, hopefully, be released on a second album soon. (There was also talk of some EP releases, but I'm not a big fan of that format - no sooner have you put one on and sat down than you have to get up to change the CD...) As usual, there wasn't a great deal of interaction with the audience (hence the lack of titles above) as the band let the music do the talking. And a very interesting monologue it was.

So to the only band on tonight's bill that I hadn't see before, The Buccaneers. Perhaps best described as rhythm and blues for the indie generation, they provided the longest set of the evening, with their eleven, mostly fast-paced, songs including Out Of Sight, Singing The Blues (with its rather abrupt ending), Take My Soul, Ride with it's superb solo and slightly more rock 'n' roll sound, the very repetitive Don't Break Down, a nice cover of blues standard Baby Please Don't Go and, best song of the set, The Pistol's Warm (it's your groove that's killing me) - the video for which can be seen on YouTube - with it's metallic sounding guitars and slightly chaotic ending.

I might have switched the bill around slightly but, overall, this was a very enjoyable evening with four very strong acts. In terms of live music, a great start to the year.

Rock In Stereo

Friday 6th August: It's only my second ever trip to Stereo, so I think I can be forgiven for not realising that the music being played in the front bar wasn't the same as that being played in the performance area.

So it wasn't until Andy stuck his head round the door that we realised that tonight's gig had actually started and that Oli Stevens-Vallecillo, of heavy metal band Mantra, was on stage for an acoustic set, accompanied by a second guitarist (Cat, I think he introduced her as). The first song we heard sounded, musically, uncannily like Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive but was, as far as I could tell, an original. Oli has a powerful, rumbling voice, which made whatever he sang very clear and he plays guitar with a mixture of intricacy and effects. Apparently he teaches guitar around York and it has to be said that his students are lucky to have such a clever player as their tutor. Adding a second guitar resulted in some lovely harmonies and Cat also provided a bit of extra vocals on a couple of songs. All the songs seemed to be originals, apart from a very nice cover of Man In The Mirror, which took away the pop trappings of the original and resulted in a much more interesting version. Thoroughly enjoyable, I could have listened to Oli all day.

I last saw rock band Raw Deal supporting The Tygers of Pan Tang at Fibbers in May and enjoyed their set. Tonight, they were joined by new bassist Michaela (whether that's permanent is unclear - both MySpace and Facebook still list the bass position as TBC), who looked naggingly familiar to me, but I can't remember or work out from where. Tonight, the whole band seemed to be more assured and confident, with guitarists Dan and Phil certainly living the rock and roll dream, both with their looks and antics on stage. Steph is a charismatic front-woman and, while her vocals are still sometimes drowned out by the music, has a fantastic voice. Jake on drums is good without being intrusive and, together with Michaela's bass, provided a nice background to the music. The only criticism I would have is that Michaela sometimes looked a little lost on stage and tended to fade into the background when Dan and Phil moved together into their rock stances. To her credit, she did seem to realise this towards the end of the set and started moving out of their shadows. I can't say that I recognised any of the songs from the previous time, but tonight's performance sounded, to me, an order of magnitude better than at Fibbers. I'm afraid I only caught two song titles, but they were both from very good songs - Stalker Song and Breakdown.

Right, cards on the table time... I can usually find something I like in a band's performance and there are very few bands that I definitely wouldn't see a second time. However...

Hailing from Nottingham Baby Godzilla, a four-piece (although with only three on show tonight) psycho-blues/post punk band, just aren't my thing. Displaying an almost total lack of subtlety, an over-reliance on feedback and a too showy performance the band mixed a fast and furious musical performance with screaming, unintelligible vocals to produce a head splitting noise. When they started their set, the place had emptied and, two songs in, I wondered whether everybody else already knew what was just dawning on me. However, word soon seemed to spread and the room started filling up again and everybody but me seemed to be enjoying the performance. Me, though, I like to at least have a chance of hearing the music and understanding the lyrics, not watching the drummer do a headstand over his drum kit or wander among the audience playing the cymbal until the stand falls apart. Sorry, but not for me.

98Pages, on the other hand, I do like. This is the third time I've seen them and, it has to be said, they are a superb live act, performing no-nonsense rock and roll in short, sharp and rhythmic songs. Tonight's (very short) set comprised of a lot of new or, at least, unfamiliar songs, with Goodbye JoJo being the only one that I recognised from before. There's very little speaking between songs as the boys let their music do the talking. A very polished performance and, hopefully, the new material means that a second album is in the offing.

A Very E.....ic Evening

Friday 3rd April: Circumstances have kept me away from the York music scene for the last couple of weekends. I even managed to miss the launch of Imperial Measures, the second album from the Yards. Luckily, Roy picked me up a copy and I can happily report that it is a superb album. Gone is the raw, fast-paced, almost-heavy music of the eponymously-titled first album, to be replaced by a much more sophisticated, melodic and thoughtful collection of tunes. Some of the songs are familiar from more recent live gigs, others are brand new. All are good, some are bordering on excellent and the whole thing makes the wait between albums well worth it.

Tonight, however, we've managed to convince Andy to attend The Duchess, despite the headline act not being one of his favourites (to say the least...)

I arrived slightly later than usual due to the bus breaking down. Well, I say "breaking down", it actually wouldn't move for a few minutes after letting some passengers off at one of the stops. The driver turned off the engine (and all the lights) and restarted it (I wonder if he ever worked on an IT Helpdesk...), but still nothing happened when he pressed the accelerator, so he radioed back to base. I couldn't hear the full conversation but did, at one point, hear the female voice on the radio say, "So, the engine's running and in gear, but the bus isn't moving, is that right?" "Yes," replied the driver. There was a mumbled response and then the bus moved away from the spot. "Yes, it was that," reported the driver.

I really hope the lady hadn't asked him whether the handbrake was still on...

Anyway, I digress. As I entered the Duchess York-based foursome Undergrass were about halfway into their set. I wandered over to order a beer, thinking to myself that lead singer Phil Goodrick's voice was going to annoy me and that I wasn't going to enjoy this band. How wrong could I have been??? Very soon, Roj arrived and, after supplying him with alcohol, we moved away from the unusually crowded bar area, into the centre of the venue. A new song was being played and, at the end of it, we looked at each other and, pretty simultaneously, proclaimed, "we like these!" Blues-inspired rock, somewhat akin to Whitesnake but with Lemmy-like vocals, is the genre and well played it is. Guitarist Rob Lumby was excellent and included a really nice solo in one song, as well as country-fying the last song slightly with his use of a slide guitar. Bassist Danny Lee and drummer Dave Chitty provided a solid base to the songs and the vocals got better as the set went on. Apparently there is/has been an EP available and a second one is being worked on, but there didn't seem to be any recorded material available to purchase tonight. Shame really. Definitely a band to look out for.

Second up were 98Pages, a threesome that we only saw a few weeks back, for the launch of their debut album, Broken Homes and the Halfway House, another very good album but, frankly, not a patch on their live performances. Obviously, not being the headline act, this set was a bit shorter than the last one but they were still excellent. This is a band with a very good stage presence, a relaxed almost self-deprecating style of playing (despite the type of music being played) and some excellent songs about drinking and the dangers of "playing away from home". They seem to have a dedicated following - I noticed a few faces in the crowd - and I am more than happy to include myself in that. It appears, from comments made during the set, that they are already working on a second album. Another one for me to look out for.

Finally, it was Hijak Oscar, a vudu-blues band from York who received national acclaim after appearing on Channel 4's Mobileact Unsigned programme. I've managed to completely avoid them as this is the band that Andy isn't normally too keen on seeing perform. How to describe them?? "Esoteric" would cover the performance - I'm not sure how reading prayers out added to the music, especially since we could barely hear them, and the music wasn't exactly mainstream. "Eclectic" and "exotic" would cover the band - there isn't a single, uniform style in evidence on the stage and barely anybody in the band would be recognised as a musician while walking down the street. Keyboards and guitarist Carl Hetherington is all curls, teeth and sharp angles; vocalist Gaby Milner mixes 60's chic with rock chick (rock chic or 60's chick, anybody?); Mark Meilack on bass, bowler-hatted and bespectacled, could be mistaken for a city banker, if it wasn't for the long hair, bare chest and tattoos. I could go on - this is a very mixed bag of styles, but it seems to work.

As to the music, I suspect that, for some reason, we didn't get the best in the way of performances tonight. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the set, just that I have a sneaky feeling that they could be a whole lot better than they were tonight. There's obviously another hard-core fanbase out there. Some people seemed to anticipate parts of the act (although, I guess, if somebody holds up a book of prayers it isn't that difficult to work out that he's going to read out a prayer) and know most of the songs. This was another album launch, with second release BlackSheepMoneyBox being available tonight. I wasn't tempted enough to spend any cash this time but I would definitely be interested in seeing the band live again.

I even saw Andy dancing and clapping a couple of times.

A Rocking Album Launch

Friday 13th March: ...and the start of a busy weekend for me, music-wise.

Tonight, I've managed to get my pass signed to allow me to attend the launch of 98Pages' debut album, Broken Homes And The Halfway House, at the Duchess despite already planning to go out tomorrow night for the very welcome and much-anticipated return of a current favourite.

First up at the Duchess was Astrae, a six-piece from York. I'm afraid that they didn't do a lot for me. It may be a deliberate plan but this appeared, to me, to be a band in desperate need of a cohesive identity. By that I mean that, rather than looking like a band, they looked like six individuals who happened to be sharing a stage. With a mixture of visual styles which encompassed big hair and eye makeup (James A Hutchinson, lead-singer/guitarist), unruly samurai top-knot (Jack Beavers, guitarist) and clean-cut (pretty much everybody else) and a musical style that mixed the vocals of The Cure with the heavier aspects of the likes of Metallica, the end result struck me as more than a little discordant. Stunning violinist (yes, there was a violin) Jo Wherry seemed to be aiming for dark and broody but succeeded in sultry, while Hutchinson leaped about stage like a jack-rabbit, narrowly avoiding the rest of the band and only just missing having his eye taken out by Wherry's bow - antics for a bigger stage, perhaps. In hindsight, it might simply have been the vocals that put me off this performance but, at the time, the music wasn't doing anything to float my boat either. It may be that the band suffered from the rather high volume being employed at the Duchess tonight but, I'm sorry to say, I don't think I'll be going out of my way to see them again. Sorry, lads and lass.

Next on stage were Bolton-based foursome To The Bones and, initially at least, they seemed to be more my cup of tea - a hard, heavy, industrial sound of clashing guitars and drums with a much more mainstream vocal style reminiscent of the heaviest of heavy metal. Unfortunately, after a few songs it became apparent that there wasn't a great deal of variation and that heavy was, at least tonight, the limit of their repertoire. Don't get me wrong, I can quite happily listen to the likes of Motorhead, but only in small doses and I prefer bands who mix it up a bit style-wise. To The Bones debut album Duke Type A has, apparently, garnered some pretty good reviews and during this set I was tempted to make a purchase. Eventually, though, I decided that I probably wouldn't actually play it enough to justify buying it. Definitely better than the first band and I'm glad I have experienced them live but, again, I doubt I'll see them again soon.

Finally, the band we had come to see. 98Pages are a York-based trio who I've not managed to catch before, although Roj and Andy have seen them at least once and have recommended them. Not that we always agree... Anyway, this was the launch gig for their album, and that generally means I'll take a gamble and see what a band are all about. Being honest, I like telling people at work that I'm attending an album launch - it evokes thoughts of canapes, free drink, mixing with stars, etc. Whereas, in reality, it generally means a small merchandising table from which you can buy the album the day it becomes available. You still have to buy your drinks and the closest you get to canapes are bags of Walkers Ready Salted, although you can often have a bit of a chat with the band, if you so desire.

Anyway, 98Pages are a more traditional rock outfit than the other two bands on tonight. Live, they evoked in me memories of both The Mexicolas and Black Stone Cherry, although the former may only have been because there were three of them on stage and the latter because bass-player Jason Brooks looked a little like BSC's lead singer... Lead Guitarist Martyn Fillingham broke a string during the very first song and played most of the rest of the set semi-acoustically. I have no idea whether this changed the sound much from what was planned but it certainly didn't make it any less enjoyable. The songs were catchy, blues-based and, at times, with a hint of Southern Rock and there wasn't a duff one in the whole set. Another impressive live performance that reinforced my enjoyment of heavy rock, something which had, until fairly recently been dwindling a little.

At the end of the set, we wandered over to the merchandise table and were pleasantly surprised to find that the eleven track album was on sale for a mere £5. Bargain! Obviously, a bought a copy, although I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. Once I have, I'll try to post a review here.

As usual, we headed to the Roman Bath after leaving the Duchess. Tonight's Bath-band was Copowt, a self-proclaimed party-band from Copmanthorpe. Given that I was also going out on Saturday, I decided to leave early, after just two songs, so can't really comment on them.