A Conceptual Rug

Friday 2nd March: After last week’s gig, over a quick pint before heading off home, Andy and I were bemoaning the apparent lack of the “four bands for a few quid” gigs that were so prevalent a few years ago, back when I first started taking an interest in the local music scene. So, it was with a modicum of relief that I realised that tonight gave us the opportunity to attend just such a gig, even if Andy was slightly put off to read that the bands involved were all some ort of heavy metal. I prefer gigs where the bands share at least some musical attributes – for one thing it means that the audience are more likely to stick round for the full gig rather than turn up for the band they may know and leave when the next band takes to the stage.

First up tonight were Rugosa, hailing from Halifax and comprising of Nicola Rainford (vocals), Jonathan Burr (keyboards), Stuart Moxon (bass, vocals), Thomas Riley (guitar) and Jamie Abbott (drums). Their short but impressive set included four original songs and two covers – Iron Maiden’s Trooper and Manowar’s Thor. For once we saw a band who didn’t allow the drums to overpower the music. In fact they were at times quite understated for a rock band. The first song, which I don’t remember being introduced, contained some nice guitar work but didn’t bode well for Nicola as her vocals were a little drowned out and strained. That was to change during the much heavier From The Shadows which included a well-balanced mixture of Nicola’s much clearer vocals and death growls courtesy of Stuart. The latter led to a post set discussion on the merits of the vocal style after which Andy, who is very much not a fan, admitted that they worked well in this song. Shadows also included more prominent keyboards, giving a more prog-metal sound reminiscent of Dream Theatre. Revolution had a pounding bass-line and very slick keyboards to guitar switch in it’s mid-section but the band really seemed to hit their stride with Within, with Nicola enthusiastically trying to get the crowd involved. Trooper had appeared in the middle of the set and Thor ended it, with the song’s challenging vocals providing us with Nicola’s best performance of the set. It’s a shame it had to end there, as the band seemed to be just warming up. Hopefully, we’ll see them back in York (and higher up the bill) soon.

As Dimension took to the stage, I realised that I had seen them before. (So much for research – I had thought all tonight’s bands were new to me.) When I saw them at the end of 2011, I noted that the band members seemed to be forever wandering about the stage tuning each others instruments. Tonight saw a much slicker performance but, sadly, one still lacking a bit of individuality between songs and, because of that, suffering a bit in comparison to tonight’s openers. As with last time, I struggled to hear some of the song introductions (and, it has to be said, vocals) but the hint of promise that was apparent then is starting to bloom a bit more. I vaguely recognised some of the songs from last time, although the second song of tonight’s set, which saw an abrupt change in style in the middle, was introduced as a new one. One Last Chance includes a nice guitar riff and Take Me Away, with its much slower opening, hints at the individuality I would like to see. It’s not that the songs aren’t different, as evidenced by the more “indie” sound of Miles Away, it’s just that they take a “wall of sound” approach throughout, with short (if any) solos not really breaking them up. The band ended their set with their best song which included a number of time changes and multi-vocals and further evidencing that the band are capable of much more than the rest of the set promises. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like Dimension, or think that they are (ahem) one dimensional. It’s more that I think they could be better.

When Andy and I were having the aforementioned discussion about death growls, we had no idea what was to be in store from Terra Omnia. A York-based band, they started their set with four members on the stage – Carl Barker (guitar), Shaun Wainman (guitar), David Walmsley (drums) and Imogen Galloway (bass) producing a wonderfully dark, doom-laden and melodic piece of music. Uniformly dressed in black the band had a well-defined image and things looked promising for the first few minutes. Then Fran Klempner arrived to take up the microphone and any hopes of me being able to produce an objective review went out of the window. I’m afraid that, despite the music, the vocals meant that there was no chance I was going to like this performance. We’ve all heard of “screamo” but a more accurate term for this band would be “grunto” or, perhaps, “cougho” as despite a few instances of a lighter touch, including when Fran was speaking between songs, most of the vocals just sounded like guttural grunts, prompting Andy to, at one point, comment that it was like listening to something from Jurassic Park. There was a lot of metal posturing from the musicians but Fran seemed to have worked herself up for tonight’s performance by perfecting the art of looking either as though she wanted to be somewhere else – anybody that is old enough to remember Kevin Turvey would have recognised her surly look - or that she had a headache (as opposed to giving me one). Despite my opinion, Terra Omnia garnered the biggest crowd of tonight’s four bands, so they must have their fans. Unfortunately, though, the whole isn’t anywhere near my particular choice of hot drink. Sorry.

Thankfully things vastly improved again with tonight’s headliners. Faraday Concept are from York and Driffield and the line-up is Rich Weston (drums), Alan Oakden (bass), Ollie Brant (guitar) and Samantha Cox (vocals). Cox has a great voice, a slightly enigmatic aura and a dress-style that brings to mind what Stevie Nick could have looked like in a heavier band. Great use of lighting gave her a washed out, mysterious look while emphasising her lipstick to give her a vampirish look, while the rest of the band almost seem to disappear into the background. Opening with a heavy drum and bass line before adding guitar and, finally, vocals, the band had me hooked from the start while the second song contained echoing guitars and more strong, if slightly indistinct (the bane of a lot of bands) vocals. Again song introductions were hard to hear, one particularly being drowned out by the Alan’s bass, but those that I did pick out were Seasons Of.. something and Game Of Fools, with its doom-laded instrumental leading into crashing guitars. Despite Samantha’s excellent vocals throughout, it was only the last song of the set, with it’s lovely change of pitch, that finally showed, if briefly, exactly what a femme-fronted band are capable of. Overall, this was a return to the individuality, inventiveness and slight progginess that had been lacking since Rugosa left the stage. Recommended.

A Five-sided Gig

Thursday 23rd February: “You won’t like them,” I was warned by a colleague when I told him that I was going to see tonight’s headliners. “Their music is really complex.” To be fair to him, he did then say that “complex” wasn’t really what he meant (perhaps correctly, given my love of the beyond-simple genre of prog-rock) but that he couldn’t really decide what he actually did mean. Anyway, time would tell. But before that…

A few years ago, Suzy Bradley worked in the same building as me and I knew that she was a musician but, until tonight, I hadn’t managed to see her perform either solo or with her band. Suzy Bradley and the Morning After are comprised of Suzy herself on vocals and acoustic guitar, David Martin on electric guitar and Lucy Blakeson on cello – an unusual combination of instruments to say the least. Together, however, they worked and from them we got a nicely varied set. Starting with Neverland and then Sleeping Beauty, with the two guitars working together to give a nicely mellow sound before they were reined back to allow the cello through towards the end, there initially seemed to be a fairy-tale vibe going on, but I Don’t Know Why was a much livelier drinking song which was enhanced by some great vocal and facial expressions from Suzy. Vocally, Dust To Dust was archetypically folk while Dark Days (which was originally performed while Suzy was with a previous band) was a slightly rockier number with the electric guitar used sparingly but to eerie effect in places before bursting into life for the body of the song. The set ended with Suzy performing Blue as a solo and, again, it was very folky but showed that she has a very good, powerful yet subtle voice. (There was one other track, but I forget what it was called.) Overall, this was an extremely entertaining performance of modern folk and it was very well received by an audience who sat in rapt attention throughout – something you don’t often see for a support act.

The softly-spoken David Hughes seems, from comments on his website, to be a regular fixture on tours with tonight’s headliners and is, perhaps a slightly more traditional singer than the previous act but one that combines a degree of wit and humour into his set. Preceding every song with a story about its origins, he proceeded to entertain us with Two-stroke (written when he discovered that Bert Jansch’s Blackwater wasn’t about David’s local river but a much smaller one in Ireland), The Ballad of Jazzie B (from a musical he is working on that tells the story of hip-hop’s real beginnings in early twentieth century Essex), Thoughts And Prayers (a folk song about Facebook) and You And I Both Know It Had to End (his tribute to a certain type of 60’s songwriter and the genre of songs about the women they met on the road, which ended with the marvellous lyric “by the time you get to Tesco, I’ll be gone”). I didn’t catch the title of his final, much livelier song, which he performed with a soon-to-be-familiar backing group, but there still seemed to be a humorous tone to it. It almost seems an unfair comparison, but the person that sprang to my mind while watching David’s set was Mike Harding but, it has to be said, the humour was nowhere near as blatant and the songs not of the same style. This was a much gentler performance of songs which, along with the stories behind them, painted whimsical pictures and brought forth wry smiles.

My aforementioned colleague might have been slightly surprised by the line-up of Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle. The original version (simply Pentangle) that he remembered consisted of vocals, drums, double bass and both John Renbourn and the late Bert Jansch on guitar, both of whom I suspect he was slightly in awe of at the time. The current line-up, however, eschews guitars completely and consists of Jacqui McShee (vocals), Spencer Cozens (keyboards and vocals), Alan Thomson (bass) and Gary Foote (saxophones and flute). Usually Gerry Conway plays drums but was not behind the kit tonight for some reason. All of the band have played alongside some of the most famous musicians on the planet. I was expecting some sort of folk rock but, perhaps due to the lack of guitars, the set was more a sort of folk jazz fusion, with the beanpole figure of Foote especially looking as though he had just stepped out of a Parisian jazz club. On that note, the Duchess had once again been set out with tables, chairs and candles, giving the venue a laid-back club-like demeanour tonight. Without guitars Thomson’s bass took on a more prominent role, with the keyboards and saxophones becoming the lead instruments, providing a lighter backing to the vocals than most other acts I have seen. The opening song sounded familiar to both me and Andy but, while he couldn’t remember what it was the only thing that sprang (incorrectly) to my mind was the opening Simple Minds’ Belfast Child. Jabalpur was written, before the advent of Google Earth, about an apparently mysterious Indian city which the shrinking world has removed some of the mystery from. Once I Had A Sweetheart was a modern arrangement of a traditional English song and really showcased near-septuagenarian McShee’s still incredibly strong and emotive vocals, while another song whose title I didn’t hear showed just what a lovely language French is when sung. Shock And Awe was possibly the most jazzy song of the set while whatever it was that opened the second half of the set contained an extended instrumental which allowed each individual instrument (and musician) its time in the spotlight. During the remainder of the set we got, amongst others, one song with Cozens on vocals, a very traditional folk song and one with Scottish origins, the latter being a song in which it was entirely possible to lose yourself in the music. There was also a two-song encore, the first of which Andy recognised and the second which reminded me more of lounge music than either folk or jazz. Overall, this might not have been my usual choice of gig but it was one that I ended up enjoying a lot, thanks in no small part to McShee’s ageless voice and some wonderfully timeless music.

Afterwards, I visited the merchandise stand and, after purchasing a few CDs, got the latest release signed by McShee. I told her what my colleague had said, which both made her laugh and seemed to shock her slightly as she told me that was insulting to me and that he didn’t know what he had missed. You can be certain that I passed that on. 

 

Zombie Invasion

Friday 10th February: I can’t think of many gigs I’ve been to in York where there has been a “Hollywood celebrity” in the audience…

Stolen Earth are seemingly on an ever-steeper upward curve. After a handful of gigs in 2011, a debut album is due in June, with a launch party planned at The Duchess on the 16th and a further few promotional dates, including a second appearance at the Cambridge Rock Festival, already announced. Before all that, though, they seem to be warming up by providing support for a number of bands/artistes who have their roots in the late 60s and early 70s, having already appeared with Roger Chapman (Family, Streetwalkers) and with upcoming gigs with Curved Air and Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash. Tonight saw them play a short but enthralling set of just four songs. This was the first time they have performed at The Duchess but the sound was superb, which bodes well for the album launch. Heidi’s vocals, still soulful, were somehow more silky and were showcased brilliantly during Tuscany Sun, while John’s keyboards were more prominent than I remember them from the previous two gigs but never swamped the overall sound. Given the wintery weather outside Into The Virgin Snow seemed a very appropriate choice of song and Perfect Wave appeared to be just that, with the song seemingly rolling out from the stage in, well, waves before Adam once again launched into his quite simply stunning guitar solo.

I freely admit that I’m not a big fab of 60’s pop music – too much of it sounds very similar to me (although, I have been chastised for saying so…) – and when Andy started getting a little excited that Colin Blunstone was going to be playing York, my first reaction was, “Who?”. I don’t think I would even have been able to come up with The Zombies if I had been asked to list bands from that era, but I did know She’s Not There, perhaps their most famous song. During tonight’s two-part set (with, it seemed, a rather long break) we were treated to songs from throughout Colin’s near fifty year career, included with the aforementioned She’s Not There were solo efforts I Don’t Believe In Miracles, Caroline Goodbye, Misty Roses and Time Of The Season. There was also Old And Wise, which he recorded with The Alan Parson Project and covers What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, Tracks Of My Tears and On The Air Tonight. The sheer range of his career meant that I was entertained, rather than bored as I could have been if it was just sixties pop. Colin’s voice is still near crystal clear, especially between songs when he fired off entertaining and insightful snippets about most of the songs he performed and made light of his age and forgetfulness. While not exactly lively on stage (he is, after all, in his mid sixties, perhaps not quite as young as some of his publicity shots imply) he remains a strong vocal performer and is surrounded by a talented band – Pete Billington (whose varied keyboards were a highlight for me), Pat Illingworth (drums), Chris Childs (bass, also of The Union) and Tom Toomey (guitar, also a Zombie). This might not have been high on my list of gigs to attend this year, but it ended up being more entertaining than I expected.

…and the “Hollywood celebrity”? A certain David Gest was spotted. Apparently you can’t open a door in York without bumping into him at the moment.