Tid bits

Wednesday 30 April – Just a quick mid-week update, starting with some favourite watering holes. It appears that The Old White Swan is currently closed for refurbishment. There is a strange rumour regarding Tim Hornsby of Fibbers. A normally reliable source has informed me that Tim is buying up the snooker premises at The Stonebow with a view to turning it into a music venue. Is this a breakaway move for Tim, or is he planning on expanding Fibbers? I don’t know!

Meanwhile, I’m early waiting for The Duels second album – The Barbarians Move In. The physical release date has been moved back from 28 April to 5 May. Drat!

So what do you do with junk mail? I’m already on various lists that are supposed to stop junk mail and cold telephone callers, they might cut it down, but they don’t cut it out. I’ve started sending it back. If they provide an envelope, I use it. If not, I pop their rubbish in an unstamped envelope and send it off; they’ll have to pay the postage at their end. Of course, I always ensure that there is no reference to my name or address on the material that I send back. I don’t see why I should recycle their rubbish, they can do it themselves. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has a method to discourage junk mail.

It's cold outside/And the paint's peeling off of my walls

Friday 25 April – we spin a coin, and tonight it’s the Roman Bath... The band de nuit are After Dark a 5 piece covers band specialising in music from the ‘70s and ‘80s. The band members are: Stuart Senior (Guitar, Keyboards & Backing Vocals), Steve Holmes (Drums), Steve Wormald (Vocals), Neil McDonald (Guitar & Backing Vocals), Gavin Handley (Bass and Backing Vocals). Now they weren’t the best band we’ve ever seen from a technical point of view, the vocals were a bit muddy, and the backing vocals flat, but the thing that really stood out was the refreshingly different covers that they did. Here we go trawling in the depths of my memory, and these are the ones that I remember: Joe Jackson (Is She Really Going Out with Him?, It's Different for Girls), Tubeway Army (Are Friends Electric?), Tom Robinson (2-4-6-8 Motorway), Thin Lizzy (The Boys are Back in Town), Bob Dylan (Knocking on heavens door), Queen (Crazy little thing called love), The Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen in Love), The Sex Pistols (Pretty Vacant), David Bowie (Heroes), Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes), Dr Feelgood (Milk and Alcohol), Sweet (Ballroom Blitz, Blockbuster, Wig Wam Bam), Bay City Rollers (Shang-a-Lang), Status Quo (Sweet Caroline), Hawkwind (Silver Machine), Cheap Trick (I want you to want me), Cockney Rebel (Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)), Roxy Music (Virginia Plain), Rod Stewart (Hot Legs), The Jacksons (Crazy Horses), The Undertones (Teenage Kicks), The Vapours (Turning Japanese), The Cars (My Best Friend's Girl). See what I mean?

Saturday 26 April – and a slightly later start tonight, A was finishing off some work from home. It was a slight return to the Bath to watch The Blueflies. An excellent band, top notch in the technical department, and a completely different kettle of kittens to Friday’s band, these do Hendrix, Cream etc. You’ve read about they here previously so I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say that I highly recommend this band. Their website appears to have vanished so I’ve linked to a fotopic site.

The Shakespeare Secret

Monday 21 April - Bit of a blank weekend. My Dad is in hospital at the moment so I wasn’t out on Friday night. Saturday was shopping, and Sunday I was baking a wedding cake! So no music reviews, but I’ve just finished reading a book my dears...

The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell.

Jennifer Lee Carrell has a PhD in English and American literature from Harvard and has taught the History and Literature programme at the prestigious university - as well as directing Shakespeare for Harvard's Hyperion Theatre Company.

The plot - A woman is left to die as the rebuilt Globe theatre burns. Another woman is drowned in the manner of Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A professor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington's Capitol building. A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modelling his murders on Shakespeare's plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped?

This was a desperate 3 for 2 purchase at Waterstone’s as I had run out of reading matter. Having said that, it turned out to be a good buy.

An enjoyable mixture of fact and fiction, the tale revolves around the possibility of the existence of a lost play by Shakespeare inspired by Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote, and the heroine, Kate Stanley’s quest to follow a trail of clues to locate the item before the dastardly serial killer. The book is written in the first person and is structured in five acts, much like a Shakespeare play would be, divided by an interlude which takes place in the 1600's, clever device. The character development is a bit thin on the ground probably as attention has been lavished mainly on the historical background and the development of the storyline.

JL’s narrative mixes fact and fiction in such a tight Gordian Knot that it’s difficult to extract one or the other, but I guess that’s what she set out to achieve. Do you have to be a Shakespeare buff to enjoy this book? Nah, just let the historical bits wash over you, it can sometimes get a bit heavy trying to sort out the Earl of This and the Countess of That. I was a bit perturbed that someone with a literary background should misquote “all that glisters is not gold” as “all that glitters...” (The Merchant of Venice, 1596 edition. Also, "All is not golde that glistereth." Thomas Becon The relikes of Rome, 1553), it certainly jarred with me.

The book ends with a section entitled "Author's Notes" in which JL gives an outline of what is real in the book i.e. the majority of historical characters, the lost play Cardenio and many of the places featured, but then she also admits the parts which were figments of her imagination i.e. a couple of characters, parts of the hidden book we don't know about, etc. So I guess, if you’re interested enough, you could explore the historical facts a little further. Overall, I’d recommend this book; it’s a fast-paced thriller and a jolly interesting read.

The horseman you have brought deserve me/Somehow they’ve made it through the floor

Friday 11 April – Back to a regular slot, and I’ll start by going slightly off piste. I’m currently part of a group helping out with a study into Second Life, particularly with regard to age-related experiences within an immersive virtual world. Whilst I haven’t reached ‘silver surfer’ status yet, I’m definitely in the grey-and-heading-that-way stage, hence my involvement. The first session was an introduction followed by setting up an avatar that was supposed to resemble our own physical images (or what we thought we looked like). Due to slight technical difficulties I was unable to create an avatar at the initial session so I took over one that the lecturer had already created, which was female (i.e. not like me at all!) I tweaked the appearance to give her a bald head and a lovely ponytail of white hair, played with the face a bit, and then dressed her in white high-heels and denim shorts. What was I thinking! After a few minutes, along came an avatar resembling a fox, but walking upright. I was exploring the gesture interface at the time and accidentally selected ‘blow kiss’. The next thing I knew our avatars were somehow entwined and I was feeling distinctly uncomfortable. I said ‘bye’ and exited. You’ll be pleased to know that I later managed to set up my own avatar that did actually look a bit like me.

Anyway, back to the main event of the day, or rather, evening, and this particular evening we were spoilt for choice. Marc Atkinson at O’Neills, DSQ at The Roman Bath, Foreplay at The Terrace, and Lights and Sounds + Lecorum at Fibbers. Now we’ve seen most of these before, so settled on a band new to us, Foreplay (named presumably because there is four of them playing or maybe because they always play support). As per usual the beer was excellent, John Smith’s cask for me, The Rook and C drinking Landlord, and A on some ‘Beir Blanc’ that looked like a glass of wee. The crowd was quite sparse and got thinner as the evening went on. I’ve no idea why. It certainly wasn’t anything to do with the band who were brilliant, knocking out covers such as: The Who (Won’t get Caught Again), The Clash (I Fought The Law) wasn’t that a cover a The Stooges number?, Thin Lizzy (Whisky In The Jar O), Steppenwolf (Born To Be Wild), Bryan Adams (Summer of ’69), Rolling Stones (Honky Tonk Woman), Guns ‘n’ Roses (Paradise City), Dylan (Knocking On Heaven’s Door), Kaiser Chiefs (I Predict A Riot), Foo Fighters (Times Like These), UFO (Doctor, Doctor), Robert Palmer (Bad Case Of Loving You), Procol Harem (White A Shade Of Pale), Moody Blues (Nights In White Satin), Tina Turner (River Deep, Mountain High), Free (All Right Now). I’d definitely watch this lot again.

She was some kind of priestess/With a black dress on

Thursday 10 April – Yes, I know it’s a school night, and it was only by chance that we found out, but tonight there’s a whole posse of us heading for the Post Office Club in Marygate to see The Yards, plus supports (more about them later). On the way in I happened to pass Certificate 18 which is now under new management and is due to open on Friday 11 April with a launch party, re-named as The Speakeasy. Back to the PO Club…

The bill poster at the entrance stated that we were to be entertained by The Yards, The Runaway Sons, and Jim Gipson, but it didn’t quite work out that way. The first act was Mike Newsham. A multi-instrumentalist, Mike has played in bands since he was fifteen, playing guitar in Harrogate/York-based 'Brace' for a few years, then later playing drums for Harrogate based 'Slater'. He then did a stint as bass player for the now disbanded ‘Colour of Fire’ and has played drums or mandolin for ‘Boss Caine’, and doing local support duties for the likes of The Yards, Martin Grech, (that was an awesome gig), Keane, Four Day Hombre, Cardboard Radio, and John Power. He has recently been a member of ‘The Runaway Sons’, but is currently doing solo work. He plays in a Dylanesque alt country/rock style, with an easy expertise on the guitar and a strong, clear voice. I didn’t recognise any of the material, but it was probably his own. Nonetheless it certainly had my foot tapping.

So, what happened to the solo Jim Gipson and why is Mike not in ‘The Runaway Sons’, I hear you thinking? Now concentrate ‘cause it’s about to get complicated. TRS (as found on MyFace) aren’t playing together in this form anymore (and haven’t been for a few months) due to members being too busy doing other things. But, core band members Andy Gaines (guitars) and Benn ‘Chord’ Cordrey (bass guitar) have been spending the last couple of months rehearsing with Jim Gipson and Claude (drums) and putting together a full band for Jim's solo stuff. Tonight was the first gig for the new band who are working under the moniker ‘Jim Gipson and The Runaway Sons’. Andy and Chord spent their formative years as the driving force behind rock ‘n’ roll blues upstarts 'Cardboard Radio'. In the winter of 2006 they left then they chanced across a 19 year old, precociously talented blues guitarist by the name of Mark Wynn. Mike Newsham arrived on the scene at a New Year’s eve party on the 31st Dec 2006and by the summer of 2007 TRS were born. Andy also runs the The Little Num Num Club with Mr. Helme, as well as The Revolutionary Freaked Out Fuzz Club (at City Screen and Dusk) with Team Fuzz. Jim Gipson was formerly the lead singer with ‘Black Night Crash’ (I really liked them) but after the band split in 2006 he moved to London with a guitar in his hand and a bag over his shoulder. He spent a few months in the Capital shedding some baggage and writing and defining his sound before emerging from the woodwork in early 2007. He has been gigging around the country, including supports to Richard Hawley, Boy Kill Boy, Nick Harper and Bert Jansch.

Enough of the background already. Despite being a new line-up JG&TRS are an extremely tight and accomplished set of musicians. Jim appears incredibly young and fragile, sort of a young Mike Scott but his songs have a powerful raw beauty and his powerful voice evokes shades of both Buckleys and also Martin Gretch in the soaring falsetto moments. But it’s not all about Jim. The band are given plenty of opportunity to let rip in frenzied bass riffs, howling guitar solos, and thumping, measured drumming. It’s a live performance that raises the hair on the back of my neck (or it would if I had any) and I can just feel in my bones that I’m probably listening to ‘the next big thing’. Please, let there be an album soon!

To be honest, I was emotional wrung out after JG&TRS and would happily have gone home at that point feeling that I had more than justified the five quid I paid for tonight’s ticket.

No confusion with regard to The Yards. Chris (Helme) is bemused to realise that this is the first Yards gig since December 2007. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the band plough confidently and smoothly through a set list that is pretty much honed to perfection: Cars, On The Inside, Devil, Minus A Million, Small Fires, T.I.T.S, Last High, Get Off My Back, See The Lights, California, and Fireflies. There is a brief excursion off-stage then, for an encore, Chris is back for a solo acoustic number before being joined by the rest of the band for a stonking version of Pure. I’m staggered to find that they’ve played for over an hour, excellent stuff.

Chris is due to release his first solo album, Ashes, on Saturday 10 May at the Little Num Num Club (City Screen Basement) with support from Hayley Gaftarnick, Karl Culley and Jonny Dobbs (with Andy Gaines as DJ).

Thanks go to Cool Cat and Andy Gaines for helping me to get my facts straight before making this posting. Cheers guys

Sucker love is heaven sent/You pucker up, our passion's spent.

Friday 4 April – A rather cosmopolitan feel to our Friday this week. There’s me and A of course, Yorkshire passports all stamped and in order. H is across from Holland, and we were also joined by South Afrikaan G, plus the mad Russian Legs Elanavic and her Norwegian trawlerman friend. I arrived at The Terrace just as York covers band $kint were about to fire up.

Skint (I’ll spell them the normal way now) consist of Rich Graves (Lead Vocals), Stewart King (Lead/Rhythm Guitars), Ian Moore (Drums/Percussion), Gav Cator (Rhythm/Lead Guitars), and Paul Teasdale (Bass/Vocals). They did covers including: Snow Patrol (Chasing Cars), Placebo (Every You Every Me), The Hives (Hate to Say I Told You So), Oasis (Supersonic), Arctic Monkeys (I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor), Electric Six (Gay Bar), Kings of Leon (Molly Chambers), Kaiser Chiefs (I Predict a Riot), Green Day (Boulevard of Broken Dreams), The Automatic (Monster), The Strokes (Last Night), The Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)), and more...

They were stonkingly good as evidenced by the abundance of crazy dancing people. Crazy John, your tips for the Grand National were rubbish. Crazy Jackie, say hello to Janie. Crazy Fran, hope you get your Masters in HR (clever lady).

I was looking forward to a sports filled remainder of the weekend but was sadly disappointed with the WBA v Pompey match. Even though Pompey is my birthplace, it was a poor showing by the Premier side and the single goal they scored was a blatant handball. The Barnsley v Cardiff match didn’t sound much better. An early goal from Cardiff putting the kybosh on Barnsley’s cup hopes and pretty much stifling the rest of match. Please, let’s not talk about the F1. Hamilton was slow off the start and quickly dropped back down the field. On lap 1 he seemed to make contact with the rear of Alonso, possibly compromising the handling of the car, to the extent that on lap 2 he mistimed a turn and ripped the front wing off when his car climbed over the back of Alonso’s. Nil points for Hamilton then. Meanwhile, up the front, Kubica had started from pole position, but the Ferrari brothers managed to drag him back down to third place by the finish of the race. Still, Doctor Who came back on our screens so all was not lost.

Hello/Is there anybody in there?/Just nod if you can hear me/Is there anyone home?

Saturday 29 March – How often do you hear a cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb? Once in a blue moon I would have thought. But this weekend I’ve heard it twice, on consecutive nights. How bizarre. Anyway, Saturday night at The Roman Bath and we are here to listen to Mojo, a four piece Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll band from Leeds whose members are: Sam Hirst (lead guitar & vocals), Mark Barron (rhythm guitar & vocals), Col Challinor (bass & vocals), and Chris Allen (drums).The band were very tight, musically excellent, and the vocals were clear and strong. We throughly enjoyed this band and would heartly recommend them as a live act. I remembered some of the songs (I was drinking don’t forget): Muddy Waters (Got My Mojo Working, Hoochie Coochie Man), Larry Williams (Bony Moronie), Cream (Crossroads), Bobby Troup ((Get Your Kicks on) Route 66), Pink Floyd (Comfortably Numb), plus tracks by Rory Gallagher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc that I’m ashamed to say I recognised, but couldn’t name. Not to be confused with a band called The Mojos.