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).

May–A Round-up Part 1

Thursday 30th May: Quite frankly May has been a bit of a ridiculous month for gigs. I had been to seven in the first three and half weeks, decided not to go to one because I couldn’t really justify it and only missed another because I was working away.

I have already posted reviews of the first two but for a number of reasons haven’t had a chance to get round to the others. Now, with memories fading, nice weather meaning I’d rather be outside reading a good book and, in all honesty, a feeling of being a little “wiped out” in terms of putting together reviews (me with writers’ block… who’d have guessed) I find that I’m falling further and further behind. This blog was never intended to be as detailed as it has turned out and, while I’m grateful to the number of people who read it and, in some cases, like my work enough to share it, every so often there will be times that I can’t keep up. So, in order to fulfil its primary purpose as a record of my gig attendances, I’m simply going to round-up the rest of the month in a couple of smaller, less detailed posts. So, without further ado…

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Friday the 11th saw me at the Duchess for Morpheus Rising’s first gig since their triumphant tour to promote their debut album earlier in the year. It’s too soon after the album release for any new material to have been completed (if even started) so the set is still comprised completely of tracks from Let The Sleeper Awake. Changing around the running order serves to freshen up the performance in some ways, helped by the fact that the musicianship is superb and that the band clearly enjoy playing live. Even Andy Smith, who normally lurks at the back of the stage (both when playing with Morpheus Rising and with Mostly Autumn) seems happier coming forward and interacting with the rest of the band. Once again, we were treated to some entrancing and intricate guitar work but I think this was the first time we have also heard Damien provide vocals during the album’s title track.

Support came from Four Stones Deeper – a four-piece femme-fronted rock band with a slight difference in that the power guitar-playing seemed to come from vocalist Amy Humphrys. I can’t find much about them out there, but I believe that Amy’s brother Luke plays bass while Joe Garlick and Tom Reed complete the line-up. Tonight’s performance suffered slightly with the vocals which, despite being powerful enough to be heard above the music, were a little flat to start with, but the melodic/thrash mix was different enough to be interesting. The six song set included one cover, but I didn’t catch the title. Overall, the playing was tight, with Amy looking very relaxed and handling the changes of musical style with ease. Also bill was BastRad, who also supported Morpheus Rising at their last York gig. I was slightly more impressed this time around, although Tristan Fayers’ vocals are still a little strained in places. It was a slick performance, loud, energetic and powerful.

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Saturday the 12th and I’m “next door” at Fibbers for a band who I’ve only heard about, not heard anything by. When I arrived, the support – two ex-members of the headliners, whose names I never got – had already started. A broken microphone was making the vocals sound as if they were coming from a very dusty record and it was hastily replaced between songs, just in time for there to be no more vocals, just virtually indecipherable introductions to the tracks and a bit of between song banter between the performers, one of whom played a variety of hand drums and the other acoustic guitar and wind instruments that I didn’t recognise, accompanied sometimes by backing tracks. The music was, in the main, mellow and laid-back and occasionally had a kind of Eastern sound to it. 

Ozric Tentacles took to the stage with a plea from bass-player Brandi Wynne for somebody to “turn that dreadful music off”, referring to the background music that had been playing while the acts swapped over, before she engaged in an increasingly frustrating fight to liberate herself from her Fibbers VIP wristband. The Ozrics are a space-rock (think ambient rock with added ‘droid and space battle sound effects) or psychedelic instrumental rock band from Somerset who have been around, in one form or another, for nearly thirty years. I didn’t know what to expect from this gig, but ended up thoroughly enjoying it. With an animated backdrop which cycled through a mesmerising kaleidoscope of images and with the band occasionally disappearing behind a bank of smoke, onto and through which was projected the best light show I’ve seen at Fibbers (apart from the three banks of incredibly bright lights which seemed to have been strategically placed to blind as many of the audience as possible). The performance was tight, a set full of incredible instrumentals in which everything was played with a calm precision and no histrionics or posturing and no hint of any two tracks sounding similar. Towards the end of the performance, the band was joined by the guitar-player from the support, who played flute and seemed to also launch into some spoken vocals (poetry?) to the apparent wonder of Ms Wynne and possible confusion of anybody standing around me as I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying. Was the microphone even on?

Perhaps the strangest part of the gig, however, was the audience, which pretty much filled Fibbers. Parts of it looked as though they were auditioning for a low-budget zombie movie, with blocks of people simply swaying along to the music, while others could only be described as dancing their hearts out. All-in-all, it was like being at a hippy rave.

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Friday the 18th and I’m back at the Duchess. Opening proceedings tonight was Jon Amor Blues Group and I don’t think I’ve heard the volume cranked up so high at any previous Duchess gig. Frankly, in places it was too loud and, from where I was standing there appeared to be a fair amount of distortion in the sound. One song, Angel In A Black Dress, looked as if it contained a guitar solo, judging by the facial expressions and posturing coming from Mr Amor himself. Personally, I couldn’t make it out. A few of the songs sounded more like Rock ‘n’ Roll than Blues to me, but what do I know? Eventually, towards the end of the set, something seemed to click and during She Thought I Was An Eagle we finally got to hear some audibly clever guitar work. Unfortunately, by the last song the vocals were almost completely swamped by the music. Despite the sound problems, the band showed promise. Their debut album is gathering good reviews and I wouldn’t be averse to seeing them perform again, just with the volume turned down a few notches.

Until recently the only thing I knew about It Bites was their mid-eighties hit, Calling All The Heroes. I didn’t even know they were still together (albeit with the inevitable line-up changes) until Prog magazine covered their latest release, the concept album, Map Of The Past. Of course, when any band covered by that magazine play York, I’m almost certainly going to go along. Coming onto a stage adorned with artefacts representing the album’s concept (an old clock, an oil-painting, a globe) to the sound of a radio being tuned in, the band eased gently into the set with Man In The Photograph, performed simply on accordion and with no small degree of audience participation. It seems that I was in a minority in not having heard the new album yet (something I have since put right). What followed was, more or less, a play-through of the album leaving me with no doubt that It Bites had indeed morphed into a prog / rock fusion band, with influences ranging from Genesis to Runrig. It also left me wondering where everybody in the audience was when perhaps better known prog bands play York. The band left the stage after just over an hour which, I originally thought, was a slightly disappointing set compared to other gigs. They soon returned, however, with new frontman John Mitchell asking, “Shall we do some old stuff?” much to the delight of the crowd. The back catalogue seemed a bit faster and lighter than the somewhat darkly toned new material and, I think, much of it was taken from the band’s previous album, The Tall Ships. The audience, me excluded, seemed to know all the songs that were played, including the one from the final encore. The “hit”, however, was nowhere to be heard.

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A Rising Return

Saturday 28th January: It’s the end of January and I’m on my fourth gig of the year already. If I can maintain this average, records could be broken. Tonight it’s a solo outing to the Duchess to see a homecoming gig from a favourite band.

“WE! ARE! LOST EFFECT!” barked Dave Wells from behind both his keyboard and an impressive amount of hair that, at times, turned him into a more than passable double of Cousin Itt from the Addams family. At first glance and first listen, Lost Effect appear to be heavily influenced by the Scandinavian Death Metal scene – Dave’s death growls bring to mind the heavier moments of Opeth, while the facial hair sported by Steve Wells (guitar) and Shaun Wainman (bass) give them a look of Norwegian fisherman (all that’s missing is a couple of cable-knit sweaters). But once you get past the near-brutal guitar and pounding drums (courtesy of Pete Rutherford), there is a whole lot more going on. Dave’s growling ends up being used sparingly while still being an integral part of the set, while his keyboard playing gives the songs a more symphonic, melodic and, in some places, progressive sound. Even better is the centre-piece of the band. Visually, vocalist Emily Burt could give a fair few of the current crop of femme leads a run for their money and, more importantly, vocally she plays the likes of Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish) or Amy Lee (Evanescence) at their own game. It’s a shame, then, that she looks so uncomfortable head-banging along with the rest of the front line – it might just be the lack of numbers watching them, but despite a stunning performance, she occasionally looked as though she wished she was anywhere else. Despite being in places a bit too extreme for my tastes, I found myself liking this set overall. I didn’t catch many of the song titles – Dave’s speaking voice is a heck of a lot quieter than his growling one – but I think that, among the set, we got Wolves, Archangel and something that might have been called Embrace The Silence, which ended the set with a superb assault on the ears. I’m not sure I would want to see Lost Effect as a headline act (yet, perhaps) but I certainly wouldn’t shy away from seeing than as a support act.

Bastrad were described by Simon Wright (and if you don’t know who he is, read on…) as possibly being the new Judas Priest. That didn’t help me much as, I have to admit, I don’t really remember the old Judas Priest. Looking about as far removed from a rock band as it is possible to – vocalist Tristan Fayers was sporting a pencil-tie… – they are another twin guitar band but one with a slightly lighter guitar sound than Morpheus Rising but with the same powerful and, during One Thousand Tears Of Pain, staccato drums. Fayers’ vocals seemed to struggle a bit during some of the quieter moments, during the more melodic Lost In Mind (again, I’m struggling to remember song titles) for example, but there was no denying his overall power. A much more lively band than tonight’s openers, their music at times came across as a little chaotic but always worked, especially during the fast and furious Drive, which was a great way to end a set.

It was at this point that I stopped taking notes. I’ve seen Morpheus Rising, tonight’s headliners, a fair few times now. Their debut album, Let The Sleeper Awake, was one of my top ten albums of 2011 and tonight saw them returning to York for the last gig of the tour promoting it. You only have to compare the backs of the two tour t-shirts they have produced to see how far this band have some since 2010. While that year’s tour saw them play ten dates spread out over more than a month (and including two in York and one at a forces festival), this year saw thirteen gigs in seventeen days, taking the band across the UK, with gigs in Wales and Scotland. I’m told that the tour was a great success and the band looked to be really enjoying themselves on stage tonight, with Pete and Daymo trading smiles during their guitar solos, Gibbo sending forth huge grins from behind the drum kit and even Andy cracking a rare smile or too when venturing forward from behind the speaker stack. Simon was in particularly manic mode, stalking across the stage between vocal sections, filming the audience and producing his distinctive laugh. Musically, they were as good as, if not better, than usual and now that we’ve had a chance to hear recorded versions of the songs, the live versions seem somehow more complete. You can’t beat live music but, in my opinion, it always helps you appreciate it when you have heard cleaner versions of the songs. There’s not much else I can say about Morpheus Rising – my regular reader will know that I think they are brilliant. Tonight’s set contained no surprises, concentrating on tracks from Let The Sleeper Awake and ending with the band’s anthem, Lord Of The North which now not only has a video but has also provided one of the two props used tonight – a huge Morpheus Rising flag which threatened to do some damage to the ceiling of the Duchess when Simon waved it during the encore. (The other was a horn which, apparently, had no special meaning but had been blown at least once during each gig of the tour. Drinks provided by the audience during the set don’t, in my opinion, count as props.) A superb live act, and now with a more than decent debut album under their belts, it seems that Morpheus Rising are hell-bent on getting better. 

Dreaming In Paradise

Friday 9th December: There was a bit of a theme running through the gigs I attended this week. Previous headliners, Amplifier and The Pineapple Thief are both bands that, until this week, I hadn’t heard anything by but that I had read about in Prog magazine. The same is true of tonight’s support act – Also Eden.

Many years ago, when I was young(er) and (even more) musically naive, I dismissed Marillion as Genesis wannabes. I suspect that, if Also Eden had been around then, I may have dismissed them as Marillion wannabes. Thankfully, my tastes have matured since then and I can appreciate both bands for what they are. Also Eden play a more eighties orientated style of prog, but with enough modern influence to allow them to to pick a somewhat rocky but still atmospheric set for tonight’s gig, to fit in a bit more with the headliners. Rich Harding, still on crutches off-stage and barely mobile on-stage after what I believe was a near-fatal motorbike accident, has more than a passing vocal resemblance to Fish and the band, as a whole, have a more traditional line-up (guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocalist) than the others mentioned above. From what I remember, most of the set came from this year’s superb (I can say that now that I’ve had a chance to listen to it) release – Think Of The Children – with the title track providing an excellent opener with powerful lyrics. Oversight contains some great guitar work and showed that, in some ways, prog can defined as “heavy metal with added keyboards while 1949 used those keyboards to eerie effect. Distortion Field, released as a free download and with vocals recorded by Rich whilst sitting on a bed on in his living room (recovering from the crash, presumably) showed influences from another of my favourite bands, Rush. The set ended with the epic, three-part Reality Cheque, taken from the Differences As Light E.P. The track started out a lot slower, but no less powerfully, than the rest of the set before building to a stunning climax and convincing me (not a fan of the format at all) to add the E.P. to my purchases that night. I have liked all the prog bands I have seen this week, but I have to say that Also Eden, based on this performance are my favourite of the three.

Also Eden were in York in a reverse line-up of their album launch gigs, which saw them supported by Morpheus Rising. I have been a fan of the Morphs (as Also Eden referred to them) since I first saw them two and a half years ago and they have gone from strength to strength since then, even overcoming the departure of original vocalist Graeme Tennick earlier this year. His replacement is, in some opinions (even, apparently, Graeme’s), even better and he seems to be growing in the role with each performance. I have made no secret of the fact that I have been looking forward to tonight’s gig for some time, as it is the launch of the band’s long-awaited debut album – Let The Sleeper Awake. What can I say about tonight’s performance that I haven’t said about previous ones? Not much, being honest, as I’ve gushed about them a lot in the past. The truth is that their brand of heavy metal is what I originally started listening to when I first properly got into music back in my teens. My one Thin Lizzy and handful of Iron Maiden CDs may not be played as much as some from my collection and the likes of Saxon may not be represented at all but Morpheus Rising could well have single-handedly rekindled my interest in that particular style of music. If anything, tonight’s performance was the most relaxed I have seen them play, almost as if a weight had been lifted from them. One fellow member of the audience commented that it was the best he had seen from them. The only complaint I would have is that the songs, as good as they are, are getting a bit familiar now. Time to start work on some new material, maybe? Having said that, I (obviously) bought the album and I have barely stopped playing it since. Familiar, perhaps, but still very, very good.

York Guitar Weekend

Saturday 16th October: This weekend saw the first of what is hopefully going to be an annual event. Sponsored by MOR Music and raising money for half a dozen local charities, the weekend saw a number of free gigs at venues around the city, all with free entry, showcasing locals bands. A few bands that I like or had members that I knew were due to play so, in order to break the monotony of decorating, I decided to take the family out to sample some live music.

First off we headed to The Red Lion in Merchantgate, where a convenient raised area in the beer garden had been rigged up as an outdoor stage. Thankfully, the day was blessed with some unexpected and quite warm sunshine, so the idea of a beer garden was quite pleasant. Events seemed to be running a little behind schedule as we aimed to get there in time to see a colleague’s band but, in fact, arrived just as All The Spies who entertained us with a set of covers (they are, apparently working on their own material) including Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Stuck In The Middle With You (Stealer’s Wheel), Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon), Hearts On Fire (Bryan Adams) and Here I Go Again (Whitesnake), along with a few others that sounded familiar but that I couldn’t put a name to. The band played well and entertained between songs as well. Vocals were shared between bassist Trev and drummer Adam (and were better when they sang together) while Si concentrated on the guitar work. A pretty good start to the afternoon. 

Next up were L&P Blues (“Leon and Paul. It’s easy!”). Leon plays various guitars while Paul sings and plays various harmonicas and, between them, they gave us an hour of classic blues tracks including Big Boss Man, Baby What You Want Me To Do, Pride and Joy, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out, Police Dog Blues, Talk To Me Baby and many more. Artists covered included Stevie Ray Vaughan, B B King, Elmo James and Ray Charles. We even got one original – Ultra Smooth, written by Leon. This was the duo’s first official gig and they were very entertaining. Keep an eye out for them.

Holly Taymar took to the stage next. Lovely voice but she wasn’t really getting the attention she deserved from the audience and it was a little difficult to pick out her songs. I did hear her introduce one as being called Toes. Almost certainly worth checking her out another time but, unfortunately, we had to be moving on.

With the sun setting, we were heading off to Fibbers where I seemed to have arranged special dispensation for 9-year-old Elizabeth to be allowed into the usually 14-and-over venue in order for her to see where her Dad spends quite a few of his evenings. On arrival we kitted her out with a pair of (glow in the dark) earplugs and, after a brief chat with members of Morpheus Rising, settled down to listen to the music. Sadly Fibbers was pretty much empty, a sad indictment of the local live scene with people seemingly unwilling to venture out for something new even when the gig is free.

I had deliberately picked a time when a couple of acts I knew and liked were performing and so we started off with Boss Caine who, despite an early broken string gave us half an hour of some of his best songs, including Ghosts And Drunks, Dead Man’s Suit, A Kind Of Loving and Everybody Loves You More When You’re Down On Your Knees. The album The Ship That Sailed is one of Elizabeth’s favourites and she was keen to say hello to Dan when he had finished and even happier when he remembered her from when I introduced her to him a few weeks ago.

Our final act for the day was Morpheus Rising. Again it was a shortened, just thirty minute set but they guys gave their all, despite the small crowd (it had grown slightly but mainly by the arrival of the next couple of bands.) Performing Lord Of The North and Fighting Man amongst others, the band gained a new fan in Debbie who said that she would consider going to see a full gig.

A New Beginning

Sunday 31st July: It had been a bit of a worrying weekend (for reasons that I won’t go into here) but I was looking forward to a solo outing to Fibbers to see an amended version of one of my favourite bands. Before I set off, I took the opportunity to do a little bit of research about the support band and slightly spoiled my anticipation by letting my preconceptions take over.

According to their Facebook page, Mörderstein are primarily a Rammstein covers band and according to their Wikipedia entry, Rammstein are a German industrial metal band. An ex-colleague of mine is a fan of the genre and, having described it to me, had somewhat put me off (although I freely admit that I hadn’t heard any of the bands he recommended). So, if I’m honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to hearing Mörderstein. This was their first gig and they had, handily, already published their set-list as Intro (a sort of choral and bells opening), Ich Tu Dir Weh, Feuer Frie!, Keine Lust, Links 2, 3, 4, Du Hast and Sonne. Of course, I have no idea whether they stuck to this. Being a six-piece band and, tonight, using their own drum-kit, which had been placed in front of the headliners’ own kit, they appeared a bit cramped on stage. So much so that newly appointed keyboard player (John Diver, also of Rubix Cube) was hidden behind one of the large speakers. The music was pretty much as I expected it – huge guitar sounds and crashing drums making the floor and walls vibrate, with more subtle sounds from both guitar and synthesizer occasionally coming through. Being in German, the lyrics sounded barked and harsh but, unusually for the venue, were very clear. To me, the synthesizer sometimes sounded a little out of place but at other times added a nice extra layer of sound. This may have been the band’s first gig but it was a very assured and entertaining performance. By the time the set came to a rather abrupt end (if the last song was announced, I missed it) I had changed my opinion slightly – I had thought that the genre would consist of very similar songs of mostly noise. Rammstein and, by extension, Mörderstein can obviously be slightly more melodic than I expected and songs such as the faster-paced Feuer Frie! show that it’s not the near-plod that I was expecting. See what I mean about preconceptions? There’s probably still very little chance that I’ll add any Rammstein (or similar) albums to my collection, but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Mörderstein perform again. Oh yeah, and at least one band member seems to be a Leeds United fan. Good man!

While clearly not their first gig, tonight was the first for Morpheus Rising with new vocalist Simon Wright (Graeme Tennick having departed for work-pastures new and currently working on new music under the name Scaedunengan). This was a warm-up for their appearance at the Cambridge Rock Festival next weekend and, by tonight’s showing, they could well be gaining a whole new set of fans down there. Opening with a different, heavier piece of music to the usual Carmina Burana, before launching into Save The Day and Brave New World, the band gave us a familiar but slightly different set. The vocals on the first two songs sounded incredibly clear and I initially put this down to a mix of Simon’s talent and a good soundman. However, as the set went on, I realised that it was also, at least in part, my growing familiarity of the songs as during newer ones I couldn’t make out the lyrics as easily. As with any band, however, the lyrics are only part of the live experience. In the case of Morpheus Rising, the guitar solos (and duets) are equally important (and as ubiquitous as three-word song titles). Tonight both Pete and Daymo were, pretty much as usual, on fire and as tight as can be when playing together. Daymo seemed particularly proud of what I think was a new toy – an illuminated guitar. With Gibbo and Andy performing thumping rhythms, the audience got the usual high-standard of heavy metal. There seemed to be some slightly amended arrangements to some of the songs tonight. Those Who Watch opened with a keyboard-like sound that I don’t remember from previous gigs and Gypsy King (another song that I struggled to hear the lyrics for) contained a superb guitar solo that I didn’t recognise, but that could just have been my memory.

In terms of performance and stage presence, Simon is very similar to Graeme. He doesn’t quite conduct the band in the same way, his vocals are slightly lighter in tone while still retaining the required power and there’s no small amount of humour in the banter with the audience – song titles were mangled during the introductions so Those Who Watch became Those Who Wash and Quench Your Thirst became Clench something else. Whether he will become as much as an ambassador for the band as Graeme was remains to be seen (by me, anyway – I couldn’t hang around to chat after the gig, as I suspect many did.) So, if the question is whether Morpheus Rising have suffered from the loss of one of their founding members I would say not. Conversely, have they been enhanced by the recruitment of Simon – that’s something we’ll probably never know. From Graeme’s perspective, it may have been a bad time to leave the band, with their biggest gig to date on the horizon and work still continuing on the debut album and, again, conversely, it may be a good time for Simon to join. But we will never know what might have been and, let’s face it, plenty of bands survive line-up changes and plenty of frontmen have enjoyed solo careers.

Graeme’s Last Blast

Monday 31st May: I know, it’s a Bank Holiday, time to be with family sitting in front of the T.V. watching the increasingly dire output. But tonight is a special night for one of my favourite York bands so there was nothing else for it – I just had to drag myself to Fibbers.

I hadn’t known in advance what time the first band was going to be on stage tonight so, after realising that I had nearly an hour between me handing in my ticket and the show starting, I headed back up the road to the Black Swan for a swift(ish) pint of the good stuff before re-entering Fibbers to find it already reasonably full, including a fair few people attired, like myself, in t-shirts proclaiming the name of the headliners. It’s not often you see that outside of big gigs these days and, perhaps, shows how far the band have come in building up a loyal fan base.

Velvet Star were tonight’s support and vocalist Danny Jones started off by asking everybody to move forward (most people were still further back than my usual, fairly conservative position. Like most people, I stayed where I was, which proved to be a good move as we were then treated to an ear-splitting scream (I pity anybody who had moved closer to the speakers) from Danny before he launched into the first song, Revolver. The performance was fast, furious and loud. The sort of rock that has a little too much punk in it for my tastes. Indeed the set finished with Danny taking a “noise vote” on whether the band covered a Sex Pistols song or one from Iggy and the Stooges. There was a nice variation in tone, with a song sounding like Run To The Hills era Iron Maiden being followed by one a lot slower with a nice melodic riff – I think this one was It Ain’t Over – while Fifteen Minutes More was one of the punkier songs. One song, the title of which I didn’t catch, even seemed to contain elements of all their influences, starting slowly before a huge change of pace towards the end. Danny is a great frontman, taking the show to the audience and riding over any audience ambivalence. Guitarist Adrian Lamming gave us some screeching, neck-in-the-air solos, while Corey Jones (bass) and Ginna Rhodes (ex-vocalist of $lash Vega$, now on drums) provided pounding rhythms. I doubt that their album will find its way into my CD collection, but Velvet Star are a very good live act and were a superb warm-up for tonight’s show.

I think I’ve seen Morpheus Rising every time they have played in York (except the first gig, which I seem to remember was acoustic and on a Boxing Day a couple of years ago). Tonight see’s the end of a relatively short era for the band is it is vocalist Graeme Tennick’s last performance with them. He’s been offered a job which is just too good to turn down and the added commute time precludes him staying with the band. Kenya is just too far away…

Taking to the stage to their usual intro music and this time adding a few pyrotechnics, the band launched into a set which contained much of the usual material, a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before and, eventually, a version of one of their songs that was just a little bit unusual. Save The Day was followed by Brave New World then Fighting Man, with Graeme milking his last performance for all it was worth – bouncing around the stage, climbing the barrier, conducting (and, in some respects, mimicking) the rest of the band. Each song was given a short introduction, in some cases explaining the inspiration behind it – like Quench Your Thirst, which I had always known was about vampires, but not that it was inspired by the film 30 Days Of Night. Fear Of Nothing was the first of tonight’s songs I didn’t recognise and Graeme himself had to revert to reading the lyric sheet. Pete and Daymo, sharing guitar duties, showed two different characters – Pete has an almost cheeky demeanour, peppering his performance with face splitting grins, while Daymo’s smoulderingly intense concentration is only rarely broken with a quick smile. Both provide some stunning sounds, whether it’s the crunching riff of Those Who Watch or the more elegant harmonics of Gypsy King. Shades Of Grey, with the vocal highlights of the set, followed In The End and then we reached the end of the set with Hold On and the band left the stage. There followed a few rather muted shouts for more before Graeme and Pete returned to the stage for an acoustic version of An Ordinary Man, which made up for what it lacked in raw power compared to the rest of the set by the emotional punch that it packed. Finally the rest of the band returned for These Four Walls.

It had been an emotional performance, you could see and feel that from off stage. But the band hadn’t let the occasion bring them down, choosing instead to treat tonight as a celebration (of Graeme’s tenure rather than the fact that he was leaving) and turned out what was, in my opinion, the best performance I have seen from them. They may not have raised the roof at Fibbers but I’m sure I saw a few cracks in the ceiling. My only regret is that the band didn’t get a chance to complete their debut album before Graeme left. Not only would it have been a worthy addition to my CD collection, but I’m fairly certain it would have been a very good legacy from his time in the band. It has already been announced that Simon Wright (Burnwylde) will be replacing Graeme on vocals and will make his debut when Morpheus Rising rise again at the Cambridge Rock Festival in August. I suspect that the band will pick up more than a few new fans from that performance. 

Reasoning With The Dream-weaver

Thursday 22nd April: I sometimes feel that I'm running out of things to say about the bands I see. Especially bands that I see (or have seen) reasonably regularly. If I like them, I'm unlikely to change my opinion. (And, let's face it, if I don't like them, I'm unlikely to see them regularly.) Also, regular acts aren't going to change their line-ups, or even their set lists too dramatically, so there isn't really going to be that much new that I can say. The likes of, "xxx were superb" or "another cracking performance" will begin to sound repetitive and, perhaps, gushy and aren't going to win me any awards for creative writing. There are times, however, when I don't care.

Tonight, I thought that I'd struggle to come up with anything new to say about Morpheus Rising. They are certainly one of my favourite local bands (I think I've said that before) and that would be the fourth time I've seen them perform in just over a year. The relatively short sets (on all but one occasion, I have seen them as support acts) mean that they have managed to stay reasonably fresh by mixing the sets up slightly. While I was expecting to enjoy the performance tonight, I didn't realise by how much.

I don't know what it was - maybe I found a rare sweet spot for sound in Fibbers, maybe it was my proximity to the stage which gave me a clearer view of the ease and sheer enjoyment with which the band play. It might even have been a growing familiarity with the songs, which meant I could relax a bit more while listening. Whatever it was, tonight was easily the best performance I have seen from them. Graeme's vocals were as clear as I've ever heard them, Pete and Daymo's guitar-playing was simply fantastic with some previously (to me, anyway) hidden harmonies becoming apparent, and Andy and Gibbo's rhythms pounded me across the chest.

Even better was the fact that the much-anticipated new material finally put in an appearance. Just two songs, In The End and set-ender Hold On (possibly a brave move ending on a new song, but it worked) but they were very welcome and just as good as the more familiar material. The new songs and the fact that my personal favourite, Those Who Watch, made it back into the set after being missing last time around, gave tonight's performance an added "Wow!" factor. Given that most of the audience would have been here for the headline act, I suspect Morpheus Rising picked up some new fans tonight, and deservedly so. Sadly, I think this will be the last time I see the band this year and there is, that I know of, no word on the proposed album. Still, it gives me something to look forward to...

At the back end of last year, when I first heard that Morpheus Rising were to be supporting The Reasoning tonight, I had heard of the headliners, but that was about it. I knew that they were part of the loose "family" of bands surrounding Mostly Autumn and that they had supported Fish in York in 2008 but that was it. I hadn't heard any of their output but I knew that there was a good chance that I'd like it and definitely wanted to take the opportunity to see them live. Then they had a website sale and I managed to pick up both their albums very cheaply. Once they hand arrived and I'd had a chance to listen to them, there was no doubt that I would be attending tonight's gig.

There have been line-up changes since the second album, Dark Angel, was released and the latest, Adverse Camber (which they are currently touring) was recorded and the latter is as different from the former as that one was from the debut, Awakening. Not radically different, but enough to show a progression. The Reasoning have a darker edge than some of the "related" bands and can be a little heavier musically, which is counterpointed nicely by Rachel Cohen's lovely voice.

Tonight's set was made up of songs from all three albums. Indeed, it opened with Awakening - first track from the first album - a track which shows the difference between Rachel's almost delicate vocals and Dylan's incredibly powerful voice. There was a couple of times when the sound wavered slightly but, for the most part, this was another incredible performance. Very tight playing which produced an almost solid wall of music. Unfortunately, Fibbers' smallish stage looked a little crowded and new keyboard player Tony Turrell was relegated to a satanic brooding presence at the back, while I could barely see Jake on the drums at all (although you could certainly hear him and what a star he was!) The other new member, the red-haired firecracker Maria Owen, seemed to own the stage from the middle, dancing as though her life depended on it, playing acoustic guitar (which, being honest, I could barely make out) and producing some incredibly powerful and clear backing vocals.

The set wasn't all dark and heavy. Two acoustic songs - (from memory, but I might be wrong) Chasing Rainbows and Dark Angel - showed a nice variety and provided a welcome lull from the more energetic numbers. Rachel is a near-perfect front-woman, engaging well with the audience (a lot of whom seemed to be regulars) and the whole band seemed to enjoy performing (which, I assume is half the battle...)

With a set weighing in at around an hour and a half, and an encore which started with Owain Roberts playing Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here before morphing into another track from Adverse Camber, this was as good a performance as I expected it to be, if not better.

Tonight's two acts bands might, on paper, not immediately fit together - one heavy metal, one prog rock. Indeed with many of the other current crop of prog bands it might not have worked as well as it did, but with The Reasoning's darker side, it was a better fit than you might have expected. The combination and the performances meant that this is easily my favourite gig of the year so far and it's going to take something very special to beat it.

Screaming In The Arena

Friday 19th March: First up tonight was a quick dash into taown after work to see my daughter and her schoolmates, along with children from three other schools, sing in York Minster. I have to say I was very impressed. The children, all aged around seven and eight, performed something in the region of fifteen songs (each school had one song to themselves and the rest were joint efforts) the vast majority of which were in foreign languages. It went some way to explain why Elizabeth had been walking around the house singing gibberish for the last few months. The whole thing seemed to go off without a hitch and everybody involved deserves masses of plaudits for the amount of effort that went into the event.

Then, after a quick tea with Elizabeth and Debbie, normal musical service was resumed with a trip to the Duchess for something a littlebit louder.

First up tonight was Scream Arena, a full on heavy metal band from the York area. I've not come across these before and lead singer Andy announced that this was their first gig of 2010, after a somewhat radical change in line-up. Everything about this band is big - big lads, with (for the most part) big hair and a very big sound. The fact that they were laying in front of tonight's lead act's equipment made them look like they were filling the Duchess's stage. Unfortunately we had, for some reason, decided to stand at the back and this made the vocals and, indeed, the music a bit indistinct which, possibly, gave me the impression that this band were more style than substance. The fact that some of the members seemed to have gone out of their way to dress like some of the more fanciful characters from metal was also a bit distracting from the act itself. The only song that stood out for me at the time was set ender House Of Pain, with incredible druming from Stix. Nothing else in the set really grabbed me and they are, perhaps, just the wrong side of too heavy for my tastes. (That said, I'm typing this while listening to the tracks available on MySpace and quite enjoying what I'm hearing - it's a lot more melodic than I remember tonight's set being.) I don't think I'd be first in line to see Scream Arena headline a gig but, on the flip-side, their being a support act wouldn't put me off. Scream Arena are currently recording their debut album and an E.P. is already available. It's entirely possible that more familiarity with their output could change my mind about their live act.

I have to admit that I was feeling a bit nervous as Morpheus Rising took to the stage. This would be the third time I had seen them perform (which surprised me - I thought it was more) but the first time that Roj had managed to catch them. I was afraid that I'd done too much of a job of bigging them up and that Roj, who I would say has similar musical tastes to me but much wider appreciation and knowledge, would be disappointed. We had moved slightly further forward for this set and familiarity of the music certainly helped in this case - I recognised most of the songs from previous outings gigs, although I did have to check whether the last two were new as they didn't ring any bells with me. It turns out they weren't and that it was possibly just the better sound in the Duchess made them sound different. (Alternatively, my memory is finally failing me...) There was a moment of slight panic when I realised that Andy Smith wasn't playing bass - given some of the recent musical news around York, I was hoping that another band weren't going through a line-up change. However, it turned out that Andy was at Cheltenham for the races and Stealer's Andy Gooby was just filling in. Not that I noticed any difference, you understand. The full, although too short, set was made up of Save The Day, Brave New World, the soon-to-be-classic Fighting Man, Lord Of The North, Gypsy King and, my favourite of the night, Hold On. It's getting harder to find things to say about this band (particularly as I know that at least one member reads this blog regularly) but suffice to say that, as usual, the music was superb and the vocals were a lot better than the last gig down the road. An excellent set from an excellent band who I hope will be around for some time to come.

(Did Roj like them? Suffice to say, he was checking his pockets to see whether he could afford an album. Unfortunately, the debut has yet to be recorded. Come on guys - get a shift on...)

Headlining tonight were Gun, appearing in York for the second time in nine months and promoting their new mini-album (EP by any other name?) Popkiller and with a new drummer, Paul McManus. I saw them at the previous gig and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite not knowing any of their output. To this day I can't say for certain whether I remember them performing Word Up or the original version by Cameo. If Morpheus Rising weren't quite as heavy as Scream Arena, Gun continue the trend downwards - more rock than heavy. They are masters at what they do, though and have the audience (which seemed to mainly consist of hardened fans who knew all the back catalogue) fully engaged in the bands performances - arms were waving, hands clapping and lyrics being sung back at the band with gusto. Again, not too many of the songs rang bells with me but the new stuff sounded good - I particularly liked Seraphina and Let Your Hair Down (something I can no longer do, sadly...). Toby Jepson's vocals were clear enough that you could hear the lyrics even if you didn't already know them and the songs are catchy enough to dance (bounce?) along to. It may not be metal, but Gun certainly rocked the Duchess tonight.

Won't Get Fooled Again... and Again...

Friday 29th January: As with last year, it seems to be taking a while for both live music in York to get started and the Friday Nighters to synchronise their calendars. I haven't seen Roj since we all went out for a meal before Christmas and tonight he had a prior engagement with Berwick Kaler's latest pantomime, Humpty Dumpty. (I saw it before Christmas and laughed until I cried.)So, it's just myself and Andy attending Fibbers for a bit of metal.

First to take the stage are Stealer. I failed to blog a review when we saw them at our last get-together of 2009 so they are obviously giving me a second chance fairly quickly. (There's very few other reasons why we would pay to see a covers band.) I've said before that I can take or leave Stealer. It's not that they aren't very good, just that there is too much in their set that I don't like. I'm not a big fan of the AC/DC style of heavy metal (all power and no style in my opinion) and in their usual two-hour set, there is too much of that for me. However, tonight, with cut down set, there was more to keep me interested, although the rendition of Whole Lot Of Rosie, with accompanying stage act, still did nothing for me. Stealer also manage to confound me by playing songs which I suspect I should know (and certainly like) but can't work out who sang them originally.

There seemed to me to be a slight emphasis towards Southern Blues-Rock in tonight's set, which is not surprise considering the links with Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute Aynt Skynyrd and there was a fair few songs that I didn't recognise sprinkled in amongst the likes of Rocking In The Free World (Neil Young), Black Knight (Deep Purple) and personal favourite Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who). It may have been the shorter set or, possibly, the fact that the venue allowed the band to open up a bit more but I enjoyed tonight's performance more than any other time that I've seen the band.

An increased venue size is something that tonight's headline band could do with, as well. In a similar way that Stealer sounded better (to me) after stepping up from pub to dedicated music venue, Morpheus Rising deserve to be playing bigger venues than we have in York in the near future. Their brand of original Heavy Metal reminds me of the days when I travelled over to Queen's Hall in Leeds to see the likes of Ozzy, Whitesnake and Dio. This was the first time I have managed to see the band's full set and it only confirms my suspicion that they could end up being one of my favourite local live acts.

Pete Harwood and Damien Sweeting's twin guitar-playing is nothing short of superb, although it struck me tonight that it is Sweeting's "extra" little harmonies (noticeable on the Original Demos EP but not picked up by me until tonight) that make some of the music that little bit special. Andy Smith's bass-lines are strong enough to effectively punch through the soaring guitars and, while I couldn't see him clearly, I'd be surprised if Paul Gibbons didn't wear out a few drumsticks during the set.

Sadly, tonight, Graeme Tennick's vocals didn't seem to be mixed correctly and both Andy and I struggled to hear them. This may have been the old chestnut of not being overly familiar with the lyrics so failing to "hear" them but unless my memory fails me (and it sometimes does) they were a lot clearer at The Duchess last year. What Graeme did excel at tonight, however, was commanding the stage. Whether wielding the microphone, air-guitaring alongside Pete and Damien or conducting the rest of the band, his performance was immense. For some reason, tonight's audience seemed a little reticent to move up to the stage - I was probably standing no further forward than I usually do at Fibbers but was pretty much at the front of the crowd (except for the Morphettes dancing at the very front). Obviously aware of this fact (the distance to the crowd, not that I was at the front) Graeme took it upon himself to bring his performance to the audience. Not that he left the stage (well, actually, he did vault the barrier at the start of Fighting Man) but he did spend a lot of time at the very periphery.

Vocals apart, this was a superb performance. Songs I had heard before, such as Lord Of The North, Brave New World, Save The Day, Fighting Man and (personal favourite) Those Who Watch mixed with lesser-known ones such as Quench Your Thirst (and with that my memory does indeed fail me...) I couldn't help but raise a wry smile when, at the beginning of Fighting Man, Damien struck the same pose as he does on the song's video - I wonder whether that will be seen as an iconic Morpheus Rising pose.

(Hmm, just had another thought... Given that we started the evening with a covers band, I wonder whether one day there will be bands performing cover versions of Morpheus Rising songs...?)

I'm told an album is soon to be in the works - soon after that I can guarantee it will be in my collection.

As tonight's acts finished, Andy and I wandered over to the Roman Bath to see whether anybody was playing there. The doorman and another punter told us that we would really enjoy Northern Glory. Well, that sold it to us so we went in. As we did so, these four young lads from Halifax were belting out The Lovin' Spoonful's Hot Town Summer In The City, which they followed with a set comprising of covers including This Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon) and Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who, again) and what seemed to be their own material. At least one song, No Smoke Without Fire, was introduced as being written by them, the rest could have been covers of Indie tracks that I didn't know (my knowledge of Indie really is very poor). This was a pretty good performance by a very young band and something different to the normal Bath fare. Dave Tracey on bass appeared to be a bit shy from where we were standing but lead singer Chris Owl used every inch of space available to him and sang with gusto. Northern Glory are definitely worth keeping an eye out for.

The Rising Word

Saturday 2th June: We seem unable to manage to get all together for one gig at the moment. This weekend work and family commitments mean that Roj was at the Duchess on Friday (reviews usually appear sometime on Monday) while I was there on Saturday. The only constant was Andy. I'm fairly certain that I got the best night.

I was a bit late arriving at the Duchess and the first band, $lash Vega$, was already on stage. Indeed, I could hear them outside the venue. First impressions weren't good (the lead singer's covered in tattoos, has spiky hair and is that eye-liner he's wearing??? Yes, folks, I'm turning into my Mum...) but once I got a pint and started listening, I realised that you really shouldn't judge a band by what the lead singer's covered in. Hailing from Selby and Leeds and billed as Rock / Alternative / Metal, their output was a little too slash metal (the clue's in the name, I guess) for me to consider purchasing their album but, as a live act, they were a good opener. Ginna's vocals were strong but if I had to pick a stand-out musician it would be the guitarist in the hat (Robbie G or Oz, I don't know which) whose solos bordered on the incredible. This was the band's last gig with current drummer, Holmes, who is leaving after two and a half years and they are still without a replacement.

Next up were even more local lads - York based Morpheus Rising - and the band on tonight's bill that I knew most about. Their vocalist, Graeme Tennick, is a follower of this blog and one of my Facebook friends. We've even been to at least two gigs together. Well, I say "together" but I actually mean we've been at the same gigs. Aaaah, the wonders of social networking. Anyway, that begs the question of what I would write if I didn't like their set.

Thankfully, we'll never know. The guys produced a top-drawer performance that far-exceeded my expectations. Mind you, there's a bit of pedigree within the band - the bassist Andy Smith (yes, that Andy Smith, from Mostly Autumn) and we've seen Pete Harwood (guitars and guitar tech for Marillion) and Gibbo (drums) play with Freeway. Grae has been a member of several bands and I can't find any information about Daymo Sweeting (guitarist) - so it should be no surprise that this was a polished performance. Nor should it have been a surprise, given the band's influences, that I was immediately and powerfully reminded of listening to the likes of Saxon and Iron Maiden all those years back.

Grae has an incredibly raw voice which, the first few times I heard it (listening to their tracks on last.fm) didn't do a great deal for me. After I while, though, I realised that his voice fitted the style of music perfectly and live he seems to put his whole body behind it, producing an incredibly powerful sound. Again, though, it was the guitars that ruled the set. MR may be Pete's brainchild but, from where I was standing, it looked as though Daymo took the lion's share of the intricate solos (correct me if I'm wrong, guys), even if his playing was lost for most of one song. Anyway, whoever it was, they were superb. It has to be said that, for their biggest gig so far, the whole band played well. It was a very solid, very entertaining performance. Stand-out tracks were Fighting Man and Lord of the North. After their set, I bought a copy of their CD, introduced myself to my "friend" Graeme and had a quick chat with Pete. The band hope to get some proper recording done later in the year and that's another CD I'm going to have to look out for.

...and so to tonight's headline act, the newly reformed Scottish rockers Gun, with ex-Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson joining new drummer Gordon McNeil, original guitarist Giuliano Gizzi and nearly founder member Dante Gizzi on bass. I'm going to have to stop thinking that I know a fair amount about rock because it seems that everybody that I mentioned this gig to remembered Gun or, at least their cover version of Word Up and Wikipedia says about Little Angels "They were arguably one of the most successful and popular British bands of their time" (in the entry for Toby Jepson). I had never heard of Little Angels and couldn't remember Gun, although I do now remember Word Up.

Anyway, as with last year's Uriah Heap gig, this one was to take me completely by surprise. Full-on quality rock (which, I have to admit, sounded a little familiar) with great playing and superb vocals. It sometimes amazes me that a band with one guitar can produce such a good sound, but Joolz manages it. His brother is definitely not one of the inanimate school of bass players and new guy Gordon's drumming provided a good solid backing to the songs. As far as I can tell, all the tracks played were from the band's back catalogue, except one new one (Let Your Hair Down) which saw Jepson also take up a guitar. That was one of the best tracks of the set. With their vast experience, Gun are a band who know how to build a set to a close and this set definitely reached a crescendo with the second encore song, the aforementioned Word Up. I have to admit that both Andy and I noticed that the sound was a bit muddy during this set, but it was only when the band tried to quieten it down a bit.

Every so often, the Duchess excels itself. All three of tonight's bands, although performing slightly different versions rock/metal, complemented each other and combined to create a near-perfect gig. Best of the year so far.

Classic Covers and New Material

Saturday 18th October: Being honest, I wasn't planning on going out this weekend. My original plan for this year was to try to average a gig every other week and, given that I'd been to two gigs last week, I thought I'd better stay home with Debbie for a change.

However, Freeway were playing the Roman Bath so we settled for a compromise. Our Daughter was dropped off at the grandparents and Debbie and I went out together, starting the evening with a nice Chinese at Happy Valley in Goodramgate and then heading to the Bath for some musical entertainment.

Freeway, you may remember, are a heavy metal covers band who perform songs by the likes of Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Gary Moore and the like. This was the first time I'd had a chance to see them since the sad and untimely death of drummer Howard Sparnenn and, while members of his family were present in the audience, this time there was no guest vocal spot by daughter Livvy.

The music was good - the usual mix of tracks, played excellently - and a good time was had by all.

Howard had been replaced on drums by Paul Gibbons who, as well as handing over a pair of splintered drumsticks to a female fan at the end of the gig, is also the drummer with Morpheus Rising which, in turn, is the long-time project of Pete Harwood, Freeway's guitarist. Also, featuring Andy Smith (Mostly Autumn), with Grae Tennick on vocals and newly announced guitarist Damien Sweeting, Morpheus Rising promises to echo the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. They list their influences as the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden, The Cult, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and more. With a pedigree like that, they sound as though they are worth looking out for.

They have a single - An Ordinary Man - available for download from their site from the 27th of October and all proceeds will be going to Help for Heroes, a charity supporting injured forces personnel. According to their website, the band are currently fine-tuning their music before unleashing it on the world. I'll be looking out for them playing live around York.