Friday 2nd July: Hello, all - it's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't been away. Quite the opposite, in fact. The World Cup has kept me more or less glued to the settee and a lack of interesting (to me, anyway) gigs in York hasn't provided me with much incentive to get off my backside and get out. Nor have I had much chance to listen properly to any recent CD purchases. So, not a lot of point in blogging, unless I was to join in the general condemnation of the eleven or so over-paid English footballers who seemed to believe that the trophy would jump into their hands if they simply turned up to the games. Better luck next time lads. What? This was the last chance for some of you? What a shame! Maybe whoever is in charge next time should look to use some Championship players - at least they'd wear the shirt with pride and, probably, put a lot more effort in. Rant over...
...as is the World Cup itself. In a strange, Doctor Who-like temporal phenomenon I'm writing this over a week after the above date and music can, once again, become a big part of my life. As I type, I'm listening to Prognosis 9 - one of a series of CDs that come free with the Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine and serves as both a sampler for a variety bands, only a small fraction of which I've heard of, and an incredible piece of subliminal advertising. I swear I can hear, "buy the album this comes from," in the background of a lot of the tracks. It's probably time to lock the credit card away for a while.
But I digress (twice already, I think). I did forgo one football match for a trip into the city for much musical goodness. In order to give Debbie a night of from what must have seemed to her to be "endless bloody football", I met up with the gang at the Roman Bath to see the ever-excellent Mojos. The reasons were many - I'd almost forgotten what the rest of the guys (and gal) looked like; I needed some fresh air; Debbie wanted to plump up the settee cushions; I always enjoy the Mojos and, more importantly, we had tickets for upcoming gigs to swap around. The latter has now been completed with the indispensable help of a stamp, an envelope and a postman...
We've seen the Mojos a few times now and they never fail to put on a varied and entertaining show. Tonight was no exception. The Bath was incredibly warm and the band had all opted for shorts, proving that talent and sartorial elegance don't have to go hand in hand. (Guys - if you are reading this, and I know you have in the past, I'm joking...) We had positioned ourselves close to the door, which gave us access to the slight cooling breeze and a good view along the stage area but, perhaps, not the best sound as we were behind most of the speakers and next to another. Tonight's set was comprised of old favourites from the likes of Dire Straits (Money For Nothing and the superb Sultans Of Swing), Kings of Leon (Sex on Fire), Whitesnake (Here I Go Again), and Toto (Hold The Line), alongside some that don't really float my boat such as The Kaiser Chiefs (I Predict A Riot) and some that I'd not heard them cover before including a more than passable attempt at Muse's Uprising.
Sadly, there was an inordinate amount of funk in the form of Jamiroqui and Queen (not that I'm averse to Queen, but One Vision is the funkiest rock song I can think of...) and disco/soul, with Chic and Jackie Wilson. Although the latter's Higher And Higher did get me and Andy a mention from lead singer John when he spotted our backing singer style dancing (damn that alcohol stuff), which was strange given the rather more attractive sight that was more or less directly in front of the band all evening. Overall, though, there was more for me to like than not and it was another very entertaining evening from one of York's best covers bands.
Showing posts with label The Mojos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mojos. Show all posts
Monday, 12 July 2010
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Bleu'ring The Edges
Friday 3rd July: ...and our current inability to match social calendars continues, as just me and Roj attend the Duchess.
John Mayall - a name that resonates through the historical corridors of British Blues. Back in the 60's, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers launched (or helped to launch) the careers of many a top artist. Eric Clapton, Andy Fraser (Free), Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones), John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (all Fleetwood Mac) all served terms under Mayall's "incredibly great school for musicians". After moving to America in the 70's, he played with many notable US performers and backed Blues greats as they toured the UK. The Bluesbreakers, under various guises, have been around for most of his career, finally disbanding in 2008 after extensive touring took a physical toll on Mayall. However, he then decided to put together a new band (Rocky Athas on guitar, Greg Rzab on bass, Jay Davenport on drums and Tom Canning on Keyboards), with a more limited touring schedule.
Of course, being the music guru that I am, I knew barely any of that until I started researching for this entry. I did know Mayall's name, though, and when I saw it on the what's on listing, it was an easy decision which gig to go to this week.
The first thing to mention is the man himself. Now 75 years old, he looks and sounds a hell of a lot younger. No sitting through the set, no being helped on stage by "minders". Mayall is active throughout the set and his voice as he introduces the songs is clear on strong. For most of the nearly two hours he alternated between keyboard and various harmonicas, at times playing both at the same time. For one song he played a twelve string guitar. For another, the first of the evening (no support band tonight) he played completely solo.
This is a band that obviously enjoy playing together. Big smiles and acknowledgements of each others performances abounded as each member took their time in the spotlight for a series of dazzling solos including the longest and probably best bass solo I have ever seen, with barely a hint of funk.
I can't remember many of the track names but the set spanned Mayall's career from 1965 up to a track from a new album due out later this year. Nor can I remember how many tracks were played but I don't think we got far into double figures. Each track was more of an instrumental showcase than a lyrical masterpiece and some were in the region of ten or more minutes long. Most were easily identifiable, keyboard-led Blues (the second track of the evening was a lot more jazzy than the rest) but there was, for me, a hint of a prog-rock/Blues fusion, especially in Dream About The Blues - the standout track for me.
I'm beginning to appreciate just how many styles of Blues music there is and this was the first time I've really encountered the lighter side of the genre. Blues that brings a smile to the face, rather than some of the more dour and depressing stuff. There was even dancing!!
So far this year, the Duchess has hosted some top-notch older acts and this was yet another superb show.
Afterwards we headed of to the Roman Bath to catch the second half of the always excellent Mojos. As usual, we were treated to a selection of classic covers including (but, as usual, not limited to...) Robbie Williams (Let Me Entertain You), Dire Straits (Sultans of Swing - a superb version), Guns 'n' Roses (Sweet Child of Mine), Bon Jovi (Livin' On A Prayer), and Kings of Leon. Good music, well played. I even found myself singing and dancing along. I must have checked some of my inhibitions at the door. Maybe it's the Daisy effect... :-)
John Mayall - a name that resonates through the historical corridors of British Blues. Back in the 60's, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers launched (or helped to launch) the careers of many a top artist. Eric Clapton, Andy Fraser (Free), Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones), John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (all Fleetwood Mac) all served terms under Mayall's "incredibly great school for musicians". After moving to America in the 70's, he played with many notable US performers and backed Blues greats as they toured the UK. The Bluesbreakers, under various guises, have been around for most of his career, finally disbanding in 2008 after extensive touring took a physical toll on Mayall. However, he then decided to put together a new band (Rocky Athas on guitar, Greg Rzab on bass, Jay Davenport on drums and Tom Canning on Keyboards), with a more limited touring schedule.
Of course, being the music guru that I am, I knew barely any of that until I started researching for this entry. I did know Mayall's name, though, and when I saw it on the what's on listing, it was an easy decision which gig to go to this week.
The first thing to mention is the man himself. Now 75 years old, he looks and sounds a hell of a lot younger. No sitting through the set, no being helped on stage by "minders". Mayall is active throughout the set and his voice as he introduces the songs is clear on strong. For most of the nearly two hours he alternated between keyboard and various harmonicas, at times playing both at the same time. For one song he played a twelve string guitar. For another, the first of the evening (no support band tonight) he played completely solo.
This is a band that obviously enjoy playing together. Big smiles and acknowledgements of each others performances abounded as each member took their time in the spotlight for a series of dazzling solos including the longest and probably best bass solo I have ever seen, with barely a hint of funk.
I can't remember many of the track names but the set spanned Mayall's career from 1965 up to a track from a new album due out later this year. Nor can I remember how many tracks were played but I don't think we got far into double figures. Each track was more of an instrumental showcase than a lyrical masterpiece and some were in the region of ten or more minutes long. Most were easily identifiable, keyboard-led Blues (the second track of the evening was a lot more jazzy than the rest) but there was, for me, a hint of a prog-rock/Blues fusion, especially in Dream About The Blues - the standout track for me.
I'm beginning to appreciate just how many styles of Blues music there is and this was the first time I've really encountered the lighter side of the genre. Blues that brings a smile to the face, rather than some of the more dour and depressing stuff. There was even dancing!!
So far this year, the Duchess has hosted some top-notch older acts and this was yet another superb show.
Afterwards we headed of to the Roman Bath to catch the second half of the always excellent Mojos. As usual, we were treated to a selection of classic covers including (but, as usual, not limited to...) Robbie Williams (Let Me Entertain You), Dire Straits (Sultans of Swing - a superb version), Guns 'n' Roses (Sweet Child of Mine), Bon Jovi (Livin' On A Prayer), and Kings of Leon. Good music, well played. I even found myself singing and dancing along. I must have checked some of my inhibitions at the door. Maybe it's the Daisy effect... :-)
Monday, 13 October 2008
Mojos and Minors
Monday 13th October: Musically, last week was a funny sort of week...
It started with a bit of a disappointment. We had planned (and, indeed, had tickets) to see Curved Air at the Duchess on Thursday. But, on Monday, we discovered that the promoters had cancelled all gigs outside of the South-East of England. Had the credit-crunch hit the band's travel budget? Maybe hardly any tickets had been sold? We don't know and I doubt we ever will. I'll admit that I knew hardly anything by this re-formed 70's prog-rock band - I have one track Back Street Luv on a compilation CD - but I was looking forward to seeing them live. I think that, if I ever had to chose to listen to just one style of music it would be prog-rock and we don't get that many opportunities to hear it live in York. (Up-coming gigs by Breathing Space, Mostly Autumn and the original Asia notwithstanding...)
Anyway, that meant that I had to meet up with the guys on Friday night instead - Roj had something to pass on to me before Sunday (more on that later...) There wasn't a great deal that took our fancy, so we planned to go to the Roman Bath to see The Penetrators, allegedly a 70's to noughties rock covers band. I say "allegedly" because, when we arrived, The Penetrators were nowhere to be seen. (Maybe they were holed up with Curved Air in the South East.) Instead, The Mojos were gracing the stage area. Now, up until Friday I was a Mojos virgin. The other guys, however, had seen them a number of times and had told me that they were pretty good.
The first thing I noticed, however, was the, errrm, let's say disparate ages of some of the band. Well, let's be honest, it was, being perfectly frank, the apparent age of Dave, who could have been the father of any of the other members. If I hadn't heard of them from the guys, I would have had the vague thought that this could have ended up being embarrassing. A bit like finding out that your Grandad played in a rock band. However, the past reviews were right. These guys are really good. Their selection of covers is slightly different to the usual fare and they play them extremely well. Tonight's set was spoiled slightly by a couple of electrical problems - one ending Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall somewhat abruptly (all we need is just another 50p in the metre??), the other making The Mojos' version of The Kaiser Chiefs' Ruby better than the original. A packed set was graced, for me, with many favourite songs by many favourite bands, including Robbie Williams, Bryan Adams, Guns 'n' Roses, Whitesnake, To-to and Queen. Being honest, I'm off the opinion that nobody should ever cover Queen, but that's by-the-by - they didn't do too bad a job at all. The set was rounded off with a fantastic medley containing songs that I can't remember the titles of. (Must start carrying around pen and paper.)
The only thing that remains to be said is that the bass guitar that John was playing is possibly the ugliest guitar I have ever seen. That didn't stop him playing it well, though. A good gig by a top covers band. One I hope to catch again sometime.
And, as the evening drew to a close (or, at least, as we were kicked out of the Bath to commence our usual chit-chat/insult-trading on the streets of York) Roj handed me my ticket for Sunday night's gig at the Duchess, featuring York band Elliot Minor.
Regular readers (I like to kid myself that I have some) will remember that I reviewed their debut album a few months back and that I liked it enough to rate it my album of the year at that point. Sunday night's gig was set up at short notice, was for charity and, given the almost boy-band status of Elliot Minor, I didn't think I'd manage to get a ticket. Thanks go to Roj, who braved the humiliation to pick one up for me.
It's a bit of a complicated story but I arrived at the Duchess at seven o'clock on Sunday evening, thought I'd missed the first band, who were due to finish at seven and couldn't work out what had happened to the second one, The Hot Melts, as they seemed to have morphed from a Liverpudlian foursome into a York-based female threesome who I had seen before. It urns out that The Hot Melts had cancelled at short notice (there's somewhat of a them developing here...) and the girls were the first band starting late. (It was good of them to wait for me, don't you think?)
Anyway, they were Third Conduct (and networking socially) and I had originally seen them at Fibbers over a year ago. Billed as "pop punk", you can imagine their style from the two covers that they performed - Green Day's She and, errrm, The Monkees' I'm a Believer (albeit the slightly rockier version from Shrek). However, they primarily play their own stuff and very good it is too. Kate's pounding drums belie her tender age, Hannah's guitar-playing is electric while Sarah's vocals, despite a slight nasal quality, have improved vastly since the last time I saw them. This was a much more assured performance overall and was thoroughly enjoyable. I'm not normally a big fan of either punk or punk-lite, but these girls are good enough for me to consider getting hold of a copy of their 8-track EP. Unfortunately, I didn't see them after their set finished so didn't get to pick one up on the night.
And so to the main act. I have a vague feeling that if you were to take Elliot Minor's album and rework it slightly (take away the string arrangements, tone down the slightly plummy vocals, crank up the volume a bit) you would have a slightly better than average rock album, rather than the excellent, sophisticated pop-rock album that it was released as. Add in some youthful exuberance, some excellent musicianship and a crowd composed partially of screaming girls and crank up the volume even more and you have what turned out to be an extremely good rock concert.
There can be no doubt that the boys of Elliot Minor have a great deal of talent (and, it has to be said, the looks to make you wish you were part of the same gene-pool). Being labelled as a boy-band doesn't do them justice. Their live set, containing most songs from the album and at least one new track, isn't just a re-hash of those songs but almost completely different versions. Yes, the lyrics are the same but the music is a lot rockier, verging on heavy and the vocals are a lot more raw, losing some of the "posh" tones which were my main criticism of the album, but retaining the variety of having multiple vocalists. They even showed a variety of talent by playing Silently totally acoustically, without drums.
A word about the audience. I expected to be completely composed almost exclusively of screaming girls and fully expected to be the oldest person there. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while a good deal of the audience was student-aged, there was a fair number of older music fans present as well. Even some who admitted to owning the album. There was even a handful of people older than me and some of them didn't appear to be related to the band.
Whether Elliot Minor turn out to be a flash in the pan or whether they can sustain and build upon the momentum created by their first release remains to be seen. Personally, though, I'm glad that I took the opportunity to see them live relatively early in their career. The only downside to the performance was the somewhat mixed message coming from the band about under-aged drinking - while bass-player Ed was advising people not to do it or they would be kicked out, lead guitarist Alex responded with "f*** the bouncers, let's all have fun tonight." It may be rock and roll but, given the hoops that had to be jumped through to get The Duchess open in the first place, it's probably not what Tim and Michelle wanted to hear.
The proceeds of this gig are going to York Against Cancer and it raised over £3,100. Somehow it feels good to enjoy yourself while doing some good.
It started with a bit of a disappointment. We had planned (and, indeed, had tickets) to see Curved Air at the Duchess on Thursday. But, on Monday, we discovered that the promoters had cancelled all gigs outside of the South-East of England. Had the credit-crunch hit the band's travel budget? Maybe hardly any tickets had been sold? We don't know and I doubt we ever will. I'll admit that I knew hardly anything by this re-formed 70's prog-rock band - I have one track Back Street Luv on a compilation CD - but I was looking forward to seeing them live. I think that, if I ever had to chose to listen to just one style of music it would be prog-rock and we don't get that many opportunities to hear it live in York. (Up-coming gigs by Breathing Space, Mostly Autumn and the original Asia notwithstanding...)
Anyway, that meant that I had to meet up with the guys on Friday night instead - Roj had something to pass on to me before Sunday (more on that later...) There wasn't a great deal that took our fancy, so we planned to go to the Roman Bath to see The Penetrators, allegedly a 70's to noughties rock covers band. I say "allegedly" because, when we arrived, The Penetrators were nowhere to be seen. (Maybe they were holed up with Curved Air in the South East.) Instead, The Mojos were gracing the stage area. Now, up until Friday I was a Mojos virgin. The other guys, however, had seen them a number of times and had told me that they were pretty good.
The first thing I noticed, however, was the, errrm, let's say disparate ages of some of the band. Well, let's be honest, it was, being perfectly frank, the apparent age of Dave, who could have been the father of any of the other members. If I hadn't heard of them from the guys, I would have had the vague thought that this could have ended up being embarrassing. A bit like finding out that your Grandad played in a rock band. However, the past reviews were right. These guys are really good. Their selection of covers is slightly different to the usual fare and they play them extremely well. Tonight's set was spoiled slightly by a couple of electrical problems - one ending Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall somewhat abruptly (all we need is just another 50p in the metre??), the other making The Mojos' version of The Kaiser Chiefs' Ruby better than the original. A packed set was graced, for me, with many favourite songs by many favourite bands, including Robbie Williams, Bryan Adams, Guns 'n' Roses, Whitesnake, To-to and Queen. Being honest, I'm off the opinion that nobody should ever cover Queen, but that's by-the-by - they didn't do too bad a job at all. The set was rounded off with a fantastic medley containing songs that I can't remember the titles of. (Must start carrying around pen and paper.)
The only thing that remains to be said is that the bass guitar that John was playing is possibly the ugliest guitar I have ever seen. That didn't stop him playing it well, though. A good gig by a top covers band. One I hope to catch again sometime.
And, as the evening drew to a close (or, at least, as we were kicked out of the Bath to commence our usual chit-chat/insult-trading on the streets of York) Roj handed me my ticket for Sunday night's gig at the Duchess, featuring York band Elliot Minor.
Regular readers (I like to kid myself that I have some) will remember that I reviewed their debut album a few months back and that I liked it enough to rate it my album of the year at that point. Sunday night's gig was set up at short notice, was for charity and, given the almost boy-band status of Elliot Minor, I didn't think I'd manage to get a ticket. Thanks go to Roj, who braved the humiliation to pick one up for me.
It's a bit of a complicated story but I arrived at the Duchess at seven o'clock on Sunday evening, thought I'd missed the first band, who were due to finish at seven and couldn't work out what had happened to the second one, The Hot Melts, as they seemed to have morphed from a Liverpudlian foursome into a York-based female threesome who I had seen before. It urns out that The Hot Melts had cancelled at short notice (there's somewhat of a them developing here...) and the girls were the first band starting late. (It was good of them to wait for me, don't you think?)
Anyway, they were Third Conduct (and networking socially) and I had originally seen them at Fibbers over a year ago. Billed as "pop punk", you can imagine their style from the two covers that they performed - Green Day's She and, errrm, The Monkees' I'm a Believer (albeit the slightly rockier version from Shrek). However, they primarily play their own stuff and very good it is too. Kate's pounding drums belie her tender age, Hannah's guitar-playing is electric while Sarah's vocals, despite a slight nasal quality, have improved vastly since the last time I saw them. This was a much more assured performance overall and was thoroughly enjoyable. I'm not normally a big fan of either punk or punk-lite, but these girls are good enough for me to consider getting hold of a copy of their 8-track EP. Unfortunately, I didn't see them after their set finished so didn't get to pick one up on the night.
And so to the main act. I have a vague feeling that if you were to take Elliot Minor's album and rework it slightly (take away the string arrangements, tone down the slightly plummy vocals, crank up the volume a bit) you would have a slightly better than average rock album, rather than the excellent, sophisticated pop-rock album that it was released as. Add in some youthful exuberance, some excellent musicianship and a crowd composed partially of screaming girls and crank up the volume even more and you have what turned out to be an extremely good rock concert.
There can be no doubt that the boys of Elliot Minor have a great deal of talent (and, it has to be said, the looks to make you wish you were part of the same gene-pool). Being labelled as a boy-band doesn't do them justice. Their live set, containing most songs from the album and at least one new track, isn't just a re-hash of those songs but almost completely different versions. Yes, the lyrics are the same but the music is a lot rockier, verging on heavy and the vocals are a lot more raw, losing some of the "posh" tones which were my main criticism of the album, but retaining the variety of having multiple vocalists. They even showed a variety of talent by playing Silently totally acoustically, without drums.
A word about the audience. I expected to be completely composed almost exclusively of screaming girls and fully expected to be the oldest person there. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while a good deal of the audience was student-aged, there was a fair number of older music fans present as well. Even some who admitted to owning the album. There was even a handful of people older than me and some of them didn't appear to be related to the band.
Whether Elliot Minor turn out to be a flash in the pan or whether they can sustain and build upon the momentum created by their first release remains to be seen. Personally, though, I'm glad that I took the opportunity to see them live relatively early in their career. The only downside to the performance was the somewhat mixed message coming from the band about under-aged drinking - while bass-player Ed was advising people not to do it or they would be kicked out, lead guitarist Alex responded with "f*** the bouncers, let's all have fun tonight." It may be rock and roll but, given the hoops that had to be jumped through to get The Duchess open in the first place, it's probably not what Tim and Michelle wanted to hear.
The proceeds of this gig are going to York Against Cancer and it raised over £3,100. Somehow it feels good to enjoy yourself while doing some good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)