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

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

Marc’ing Time

Friday 27th May: There was nothing in the way of original music to tempt us out tonight so, given that it was the first time in what seemed like ages that everybody was available, we decided to revert to a covers performance. I realise that sounds a bit denigrating. It’s not meant to. Every so often, at least in my opinion, it’s nice to head out somewhere where you know pretty much all the music, can enjoy a few decent beers and, to be honest, not worry too much about having a chat – after all, being in a busy pub (in this case, the Old White Swan) on a Friday night the performer can’t and, I assume, doesn’t expect everybody to be hanging on his every note.

Tonight’s performer, York ex-pat Marc Atkinson, is a very good singer/songwriter in his own right. He has already released two solo albums – one of his own material and a double CD of covers (one disc acoustic, the other electric) – and is involved in a number of, in my opinion, exciting projects. As well as lead vocals on a number of songs on this year’s forthcoming Mandalaband album, he is getting closer to finishing his own long-awaited Riversea project (of which he was kind enough to give me a copy of some of the work in progress) and is already working on a third solo album.

Tonight, though, it’s down to what he sees as his “day job” – entertaining the punters, getting them to stay a bit longer and, hopefully, spend more money in the pub. In a kind of reverse-karaoke scenario, Marc hands round a comprehensive and, in some cases, unusual list of songs he can perform and asks for requests from the audience, which seems to include a few regulars and fans, including one young, recently betrothed couple who had Marc sing at their wedding. If no requests are forthcoming, he simply picks something himself, varying the set nicely.

The guitar playing is kept relatively simple with few real flourishes, which isn’t an issue as it is Marc’s vocal talents which really cut through the ambient noise and, eventually, the crowd in the small room in which he is playing do seem to be taking more notice. In fact, this is a better behaved pub crowd than I would have expected, at least from previous experience. Maybe it helps that the music is effectively tucked away in a corner of what is quite a large pub, leaving more space for those who don’t want to listen to wander away into (unlike say The Roman Bath). In fact so good-natured was the crowd that, even the addition of some rather drunken Grandad-dancing, from a Dylan loving OAP who walked with a stick but discarded it to dance, only seemed to add to the entertainment (at least for a while…) A very entertaining and, it turned out, very late evening.

For the record, Marc’s set tonight comprised of: Yellow (Coldplay), Human (Killers), Tumble And Fall (Feeder), Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Many Of Horror (Biffy Clyro), Iris (The Goo Goo Dolls), Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House), Happy Birthday (the traditional one, not Altered Images, but sung in the voice of Donald Duck), Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen), Someone Like You (Adele), Stand By Me (Ben E. King), Stop and Stare (One Republic), Light Up (Snow Patrol), I’m Yours (Jason Mraz), Grenade (Bruno Mars), Angels (Robbie Williams), after which he stopped for a well-deserved break, before starting again with: Walking In Memphis (Mark Cohn), Lying Eyes (The Eagles), Wherever You Will Go (The Calling), Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.), Knocking On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Summer Of ‘69 (Bryan Adams), Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon), Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), Heaven (Bryan Adams), Valerie (Amy Winehouse), Still In Love With You (Thin Lizzy), Hotel California (The Eagles), a Beatles/Monkees medley, Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison), Don’t Stop Believing (Journey), Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd), Babylon (David Gray), I Don’t Want To Talk About It (Rod Stewart).

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?

A Breath of Fresh Air

Sunday 5th December: While it's not quite the mini Mostly-fest of last year, today sees Iain Jennings taking advantage of the fact that Mostly Autumn played York last night (and, possibly, that some of the crossover fans are still in York) to organise an afternoon gig for Breathing Space. So Debbie (who, for some reason, was under the impression that this was to be Livvy's farewell gig) and I find ourselves at Fibbers for a rare afternoon out together.

Support today was provided my Marc Atkinson who I've seen once before, who performed on one of my favourite albums of the last couple of years and who has one of the best biographies I have ever read. Having being involved in a number of projects over the years, it seems odd to me that Marc has weaved around the sort of "stardom" experienced by the likes of Bryan Josh without actually making it as big. Having said that, both his biography and his attitude when performing both seem to show that he is happy with his lot and it may just be that he prefers to more grounded and, for want of a better word, local than Mostly Autumn.

The last time I saw Marc he was performing acoustic covers in The Terrace. This afternoon, he mined his own material to give us a thoroughly enjoyable (still acoustic) set. Sadly, due to what seems to have been an incorrectly advertised start time, we missed the first song, but the second came from Gabriel, one of Marc's previous bands, while the next came from his much anticipated Riversea project (the album of which, he informed us, is due to be released at Easter next year, with many guest appearances). Other newer songs were the reminiscing of When We Were Five and Through A Mirror Darkly, while Clockwork Man dated back to 2006. For his final song, Marc reverted to a cover and produced a very good version of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb (perhaps a brave choice given the Worst Band Ever video which has been doing the rounds on the internet, but I'm happy to say that this afternoon's version was infinitely better than that one...) Despite some guitar problems - apparently you shouldn't re-string guitars on a cold day - which seemed to both frustrate and slightly embarrass Marc, this was a very varied and, as I say, enjoyable set. The vocals were very clear and the choice of songs complemented each other. The first time I've heard Marc's own material and it impressed me enough to buy both of his available albums.

The departure of Livvy Sparnenn from Breathing Space (and, indeed, Bryan Josh from the live shows) had necessitated the second line-up change of the weekend. Replacing Bryan is Adam Dawson (who regular readers will know that we have already checked out), while Heidi Widdop is now the lead vocalist. Again, I have seen Heidi before, opening for Mostly Autumn last year as part of The Secrets. It had already been said that Heidi's voice was completely different to Livvy's and that this was leading to a new sound for the band, but I hadn't realised how much of a change it would be.

The band opened with Run From Yourself, my favourite track from Beneath The Radar, but the track sounded more rocky than normal, something that was to be reiterated with the new material that was to be peppered throughout the set. Before that, though, we took a trip back to the original Breathing Space album for a version of No Promises which featured some wonderfully atmospheric guitar work from Adam. Heidi then took up an acoustic guitar for the new song Unnatural Disaster, before Adam stepped up to perform vocals on Silver Skies, one of his own songs which has been revamped as a full band version, and an excellent version it is. Next up was Searching For My Shadow, proving that all the previous albums were fair game for the new line-up (and surprising me as I thought this track might have left the band with Livvy). Again, it sounded as though the track had been reworked slightly to provide for Heidi's stronger voice. The title track from Beneath The Radar was followed by When I Hold On To You, from Coming Up For Air and then another new track (the title of which I didn't hear). Finally, we got the second rendition of the weekend of Questioning Eyes and hearing the two so closely together showed just how different Heidi and Livvy's voices are - both superb versions, but very different. After a brief respite, the band returned to the stage for an encore and, in my opinion, a very welcome return of The Gap Is Too Wide - lovely to hear it live again.

This wasn't a perfect set. Heidi was struggling slightly with her voice and the sound was a little dodgy. At first I thought that the latter was due to my standing right next to one of Fibbers' main speakers (which, I can confirm, can give you the impression that it is driving a spike through your eardrum) but somebody who was standing at the bar has also criticised the sound. It seemed fine for Marc's set but didn't seem to cope too well with the increased volume of Breathing Space. Despite that, it was a really good performance and, despite the band being off the radar, let alone below it, for a few months now (at least locally) with very little news or updates being released, it bodes well for the future. The new, rockier sound is brilliant, Heidi's voice will be even stronger once her chest is better and Adam's playing was good enough to give any of the previous guitarists a run for their money. Given the number of new tracks played, a fourth album can't be far away and I, for one, can't wait.

The Day The Music Died (or, at least, faded into the background...)

Friday 28th March: ...and, together with two of the next generation of music-lovers, we head down to the Roman Bath only to find that the advertised band have been replaced by Prime Example, a "popular covers band".

The Bath was about as full as I've seen it since it became one of our regular venues, but most of the punters seemed to have come along with the band, rather than wandering in off the street, as each song ended with generous (perhaps over-generous) applause and cheering. The set started with three songs from the "book of generic rock covers" - Whitesnake's Here I Go Again (complete with twiddly keyboard bits which made it seem more like a pop version), Hold The Line from ToTo and Rainbow's Since You've Been Gone. If it wasn't for the slightly wishy-washy sound of the band and the poor backing vocals, I would have been enjoying things so far. However, rock was then dispensed with, to be replaced with Danny Wilson (Mary's Prayer) and Maroon 5 - good songs but not to the rest of the gang's tastes (except for one of the younger generation who was, apparently, enjoying herself). Following a bit of Thin Lizzy (Dancing in the Moonlight), things went from bad to worse for me when the band started playing The Kaiser Chiefs Ruby - not my favourite band and certainly not their best song. It was at this point that we decided to move venues and try out The Terrace.

On the walk across town, I was told (based on the gang's previous visit) that The Terrace would be full of youngsters and that we wouldn't be able to see the band. Those statements couldn't have been much more wrong.

The pub was virtually empty and, if there had been a band, it would have been in full view. As it was , we got Marc Atkinson. According to Marc's MySpace page, he is an acoustic singer/songwriter but, for tonight at least, he was doing covers - U2, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Muse and Maroon 5, among others - and taking requests (most of which he responded to with, "I can't do that one.") Given that he does, apparently, have his own material I would have liked him to drop at least a couple of his own songs into the mix.

To be fair to him, he was pretty good and it must take quite a lots of guts to sit on your own in a pub, with just a guitar and perform for an audience that isn't really listening very closely. His guitar-playing was impressive and his vocals clear and, as far as I could tell, in tune.

However, this was where the music faded into the background a bit. This was the first time that we, as a group, decided to sit during the performance and while we were still listening to the music (and, indeed, the father and daughter in the gang were trying to beat each other playing Name That Tune) there was a lot more chat than normal so it can't be said that we were paying that much attention, at least up until the point where I left to get the bus home.

So, a pleasant evening out, but no musical highlight this week.