Friday 1 February – ‘tis the season of frosts and frozen noses. My head is twice its normal weight and my nose has set solid, as if I’ve been snorting wet concrete. My poor, occluded ears need some different sounds so we’re on a mission, four bands we’ve never heard of are playing at Fibbers, and it’s only £4 at the door. Got to be worth a punt.
Bugger, we missed the first band, Skylights. Sorry chaps. Still, next up are The City Dukes. I think these were the ’06 Battle of The Bands semi-finalists, but feel free to correct me by sending corrections on the back of a £20 note to the usual address. They consist of: Dubbsy on a guitar that is leading and vocals that are backing, Seb on drums and cymbaliture and things you can hit with a stick generally, Franky on bass and more vocals of the backing variety, and Russell on vocals that are leading and guitar. The bass player was very good, but the rest just seemed to make a big noise over the top of him. The songs didn’t seem to finish properly, and it was generally just a bit chaotic. Not a great start then.
Enter stage left, The Buccaneers. Advance information was sparse as their MyFace page had been removed. They are a 3-piece with a sound something akin to The Answer. The lead guitarist certainly knew his way around the fret board and they showed promise. I didn’t catch the name of most of the tracks but I liked Follow That Man, and another one that ended with the word …Blues. Sorry, sometimes I’m a bit rubbish. For one track they employed front man, Stuart Allan, from the next act, on electric mandolin. The time signature changes and lack of practice caused something of a faux pas and they were obliged to start again. To be honest, the mandolin wasn’t necessary. Still, that’s live music for you. Viva!
Finally, The Blueprints took to the stage. John Ackroyd on guitar, Stuart Allan on vocals, guitar and occasional mandolin, Jim Richardson on bass, and Russ Broadbent on drums, gadgets and website. The band were very tight, again I missed most of the titles of the tracks, but recall Spectrum vs Commodore. The band thoroughly enjoyed themselves with plenty of banter with the audience. At one stage Jim (bass) nudged Stuart from behind and almost sent him into the crowd. They employed a small Casio keyboard for one track, which they referred to as being the size of a king-sized Mars Bar. They finished by bringing The Buccaneers back on stage and performing a rousing cover of Cheap Trick’s I Want You To Want Me. The guitar solo was lost in the general noise, but it went down very well. I really enjoyed this band and have since discovered that they will be supporting Duels at The Junction on Tuesday 18 March, so that might be worth a mid-week outing.
The night wasn’t over though, we braved the perishing winds and made our way to the Roman Bath where The Blueflies were playing, Now, we’ve seen these before and they’re pretty damn good, a York-based three-piece specialising in Free/Cream/Hendrix covers. Miles Gilderdyke on guitar and vocal, Gavin Ewing on bass guitar, and Trevor “Fatha” King on drums and backing vocals. We caught the last remnants of their act which included covers by: Cream (Crossroads), Hendrix (Voodoo Chile), Led Zep (Whole Lotta Love), and the Kinks (You Really Got Me). Miles is an awesome guitar player and there was a lot of fret board onanism going on. Highly recommended.
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