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.

Touched By Genius

Friday 30th March: …and rarely have I been looking forward so much to a gig by a band that I have heard just two tracks from.

According to the Duchess website, tonight’s support comes from the Heather Findlay Duo. I’m not sure how Chris Johnson, the other half of the duo, is meant to take that, especially given that he write half the songs played during tonight’s set (and two of those originally had no connection to Heather) but I guess somebody maybe has to be in the ascendancy. Most of the songs played tonight came from the Live At The Cafe 68 album that the duo, billed as Heather Findlay & Chris Johnson on the cover, officially release in the next few days, but which has been available for purchase since shortly after that gig. It was my favourite live album of last year and I’m pleased to say that, despite tonight’s being a shorter set, a lot of my favourite tracks are still featured. It’s a nice mix of songs from Heather’s Phoenix Suite EP (Phoenix and Running Man) and Odin Dragonfly album (Magpie), Chris’s bands The Evernauts (Out Of Season) and Parade/Halo Blind (The Dogs) and Mostly Autumn (Yellow Time, Blue Light and Silver Glass) all of which are simply accompanied by Chris on guitar and Heather on a variety of shakers and, for Silver Glass, a handheld xylophone. Heather’s voice is crystal-clear and there is an easy camaraderie between the two of them. Best song of the set is The Dogs, which retains it’s evilness even as a stripped-down acoustic track, but the whole set is entertainingly pleasant, if not with quite the intimacy that comes across from the live album.

As an aside, there were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd which wasn’t quite as large as I expected it to be tonight. While it’s nice to see a core group of prog-rock fans who seem, like me, to try to attend all York prog gig, I can’t help but think that some of these bands deserve bigger attendances. Tonight’s gig was, for the headliners, just one of three that they are playing in the near future and was billed by Classic Rock magazine as the gig of the week. (There was even at least one of the magazine’s staff in attendance, which might help deflect recent criticism that gig reviews in sister magazine, Prog, are too London-focussed.) Even so, I wonder if it would have received that acclaim and how many of those who travelled would have done so if Heather hadn’t been supporting.

The headliners were, in fact, Touchstone a five-piece “Progressive(ish) Rock” band from Hertfordshire and this was their first visit to York. They had already released two studio and one live albums, as well as an EP before signing to Steamhammer / SPV for last year’s The City Sleeps (and reissues of all but the live album released just this week). Despite that reasonably large back catalogue, the only exposure I had had to the band was a couple of track released on CDs issued free with Prog magazine. Still, I know what there’s a good chance I’ll like and so had no hesitation in attending tonight’s gig.

Initial impressions were that the music was quite a bit heavier than I expected but without the darkness that can sometimes encroach into heavy-prog. It also seemed that Kim Seviour’s vocals and Rob Cottingham’s backing vocals were being swamped by the music, but that was almost certainly due to my unfamiliarity of the material, especially given that the vocals during Joker In The Pack (one of the two tracks that I had heard) sounded lot clearer. Having said that, the much quieter introduction to the first song of the encore also allowed the vocals to come through a lot more. However, live music isn’t always about the vocals and I was really enjoying the music. Few songs were granted introductions, although there was still a bit of chat between songs, and I doubt my memory is good enough to work out which they were by listening to the full back catalogue I bought on the night (which, even as a bundle package, broke my record for amount spent on CDs at a gig..) so you will have to forgive my vagueness. One of the things that struck me was how drummer Henry Rogers managed to convey power without being overpowering but, at the same, time, seemed to be playing with inordinate ease and working with Moo (bass) to provide much more than just a rhythm backing to the set. The band’s progressive leanings became more than evident during the third song which started with an incredibly heavy introduction which was counterpointed by Kim’s lighter vocals. It was short, sharp and punchy and, if I’m honest, I have no idea whether it continued or segued into a new song after a solo keyboard section. Whatever happened, it was very effective and gave us a song (or songs) which was powerful enough to end the set of a lesser band. But by now, we were only half an hour in and the band had really seemed to warm up and Kim was owning the stage, wandering about and interacting with the musicians as well, as dancing and posing around the stage. More progressiveness followed with another heavy start leading into a sublimely light and stunning instrumental section, with Kim leaving the stage for a short while. Guitarist Adam Hodgson apparently brings the heavy influence to Touchstone, having previously being in hard-rock bands, but When Shadows Fall, one of the few songs to be introduced, reminded me a lot of Rush, especially in the guitar work. “This song is about people who aren’t very nice and what I’d like to say to them,” said Kim, with a kind of feisty innocence, peering out  from beneath her striking red fringe. The set ended with the epic The City Sleeps before the band returned for a two song encore, which included the previously mentioned quieter track before ending the evening with the anthemic rock of Look Me In The Eyes.

I’ve seen a lot of the prog-bands that have visited York in recent years, including most of the bigger femme-fronted ones, but I have to say that tonight has jumped straight into the top five of all gigs I have seen in our fair city. To put that into context, I see somewhere between thirty and forty gigs a year and have done for somewhere in the region of five years. That’s somewhere near one hundred and seventy-five gigs. Admittedly, touring bands are a bit more prevalent in my gig-going than local bands are at the moment but it is rare that a new discovery has the intensity and complexity of music that grabs me as much as Touchstone did tonight. I was expecting to like them, I wasn’t expecting to be totally blown away. I can only hope that the band return soon.

A Phoenix Rising

Friday 18th November: I had been looking forward to tonight’s visit to Fibbers for a while, mainly because of the headline act but also because of the pedigree of the support.

Shadow of the Sun are a relatively new band, put together shortly after guitarist Dylan Thompson had left The Reasoning. As well as Thompson, the band consists of Matthew Alexander Powell (guitar and vocals according to the website, vocals only tonight as far as I remember), Lee Woodmass (bass) and Rhys Jones (drums) and together they list influences from Pink Floyd to Motorhead by way of Tool, Alice Cooper, Muse and the delightfully named Snot, as well as a fair few bands that haven’t registered on my radar. Which might explain why I found it difficult to classify their music – not quite heavy enough to be metal and not quite light enough to be the sort of prog that I’m usually drawn to. Musically, the songs were intricate so I am leaning towards prog, but with a darker tone than what I’m used to. Powell’s vocals started off raw but very clear and he seemed a little nervous. By the end of the set, however, he’d shown a good range and seemed a lot more relaxed, even if his banter between songs sounded like little more than mumbling from where I was standing. Highlights for me were the set opener, which contained some very intricate time changes and Crimson Flags, which started with a rat-a-tat drum beat before Dylan cut loose on the guitar and built the song to a crescendo. Never Enough was heavier, faster (and, vocally less clear) and imbued with a dense bass line. I’m not sure whether it segued into the next song or whether it was itself a very complex number. This was followed by a much more mellow duet with Dylan taking an increased vocal role, although not coming across as powerfully as he did when he sang with The Reasoning. The rest of the set contained a mixture of rockier numbers and one song which was very understated musically, but had great vocals. (I wish I’d managed to get a set list, then I wouldn’t have to be so vague…) In all, it was an excellent set, well received by the crowd with enough content for what must be the inevitable album release.

Apart from an acoustic, limited ticket performance alongside Chris Johnson a few weeks ago and a couple of gigs at Kennedys, it’s been a while since Heather Findlay performed in York. I don’t think she’s played a gig here since she left Mostly Autumn back in early 2010 (and her last local performance with that band would have been in 2009). She still has her fans, though and Fibbers was very well attended tonight, with lots of familiar faces, including former band mates, in the crowd. This was just the second night of Heather’s tour with her new band – Dave Kilminster of Roger Waters’ band on guitar, Steve Vantis formerly of KT Tunstall’s band on bass, Alex Cromarty on drums and longtime friend and collaborator Chris Johnson on guitar, keyboard and vocals – although they did play a few of the Summer festivals.

With just one solo E.P. – The Phoenix Suite - released so far, tonight’s set relied heavily on re-workings of Mostly Autumn songs alongside a couple of songs from Odin Dragonfly, Heather’s collaboration with Angela Gordon. At least three songs from the E.P. – Seven, Mona Lisa and Cellophane -  were peppered throughout the set and, while I admit I was more than a little underwhelmed by the release when first listening to it, the live versions are much better and the CD has been growing on me since I started playing it to get familiar with the tracks again. From the Odin Dragonfly release, we were treated to Yellow Time, a rocked up version of Magpie and This Game, which featured one of the few times you will see a drummer take to the front of a stage. But it was the Mostly Autumn songs that seemed to be getting the biggest response from the audience. Although I recognised all of the songs, I’m not enough of an aficionado to know all the titles. I do know that we got Caught In A Fold from Passengers, Half A World and Blue Light from Heart Full Of Sky, Black Rain from Storms Over Still Water and Unoriginal Sin and Paper Angels (as part of the encore) from Glass Shadows. Throughout the set Heather showed near boundless energy, seeming to thrive off the responses she was getting from the audience, whether it was the enthusiastic cheering and applause that came after every song (and before some) or the banter being directed her way from friends in the crowd. The band were quite simply superb, as you would expect from such accomplished musicians and there was a relaxed atmosphere on stage, with jokes aplenty about Fibbers’ variable temperature. Special mention must go to Kilminster’s brilliant guitar playing and to Chris Johnson who worked incredibly hard as the line-up’s own one-man-band. But this was Heather’s show and she was, all the way through, stunning vocally. Highlights were her performance of Blue Light, which retained it’s peculiarly distinctive vocal sound and the final song of the encore. Shrinking Violet has long been a favourite of mine (as well, I think, of many others) and hearing it always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Tonight it was performed with such emotional power that it nearly brought a tear to my eye. There aren’t many performers that can do that.