And this bird you cannot change/Lord knows, I can’t change

Friday 27 June – A trip to The Roman Bath tonight to watch a band that we’ve not seen before, Stealer, a classic rock covers band. They had just started by the time I arrived and were already into Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back In Town. The band played a solid set of covers in a workman-like manner. Bassist Andy Gooby, bass and lead guitar) sometimes swapping guitar duty with Mick (Sawyer, vocals, rhythm guitar and sometimes bass) to double up lead guitars with Nick (West, lead guitar). Meanwhile, in the background, excellent drumming from Tivvy who managed to resemble Mike Aston from Time Team, with his huge shock of wiry white hair.

The band also form the core of a Lynard Skynyrd tribute band, Ayn't Skynyrd, along with a face that I’ve not seen for a while, Rich Tull, ex-Hazzard County and currently playing with The Naked Flames. The Lynard connections were in evidence as their final two songs were Sweet Home Albama and Free Bird, the latter causing a spontaneous outbreak of dad-dancing in the audience. Well worth watching.

You wanna have peace, gotta love one another

Wednesday 25 June – Yes I know it’s a school night, but three of us are out at what is probably one of the biggest gigs I ever seen at Fibbers, Black Stone Cherry (and on MyFace). A first for me was actually having to queue up outside. Quite why they didn’t just let people in as they arrived I’m not sure. Anyway, it led to an evitable crush at the bar. Luckily the other guys were in front of me and had secured a prime position. Tonight was a capacity crowd and a real mixed bag of people. For once I wasn’t the oldest bloke there, there were some oldies, some middle-aged folk and few youngsters. The other major division was with hair. About half the audience had short or no hair, half had big barnets, and there was even a sprinkling of Mohawks. There were also a fair few woman in attendance, some with their chaps and some in groups.

Support came from the Sons Of Albion, a five piece from London consisting of Nuno Miguel (guitars) and Francisco De Sousa (drums) both from Portugal, Richard Fulgoni (bass, backing vocals), Barnaby Dick (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals), and Logan Plant (vocals). To be honest, the crowd were there for BSC and the Sons didn’t really stand much of a chance. Basically a hardcore rock band with a bit of electronica in the background, the vocals sounded a bit flat in the higher register and the lead guitar was mixed down and muddy sounding, so pretty indistinct.

We had a half hour interval whilst final checks for BSC were being carried out and as the time approached for them to take to the stage we supped up and headed further down into the crowd. BSC came on to stadium-sized roar from the crowd and immediately launched into Rain Wizard from their eponymous self-titled album. On the CD they sound like a cross between The Answer and Nickleback with a bit of Slash-style guitar soloing, live they have the energy and power of Rage Against The Machine or the heaviest of Black Sabbath, this was a real Southern-Fried Grunge Metal fest. There was some serious head-banging on stage with hair flailing in all directions. The band proceeded to play pretty much their entire first album: Backwoods Gold, Lonely Train, Maybe Someday, When The Weight Comes Down, Crosstown Woman, Hell And High Water, Violator Girl, Tired of the Rain, Drive and Rollin On. We were also treated to some tracks off their forthcoming Folklore and Superstition album: the first single to be taken from the album Blind Man, and apparently played live for the first time, Reverend Wrinkle. Drummer John Fred Young was constantly drumming whilst standing up and the band had a great time bantering with the audience. The sound, although grungy in nature, was mixed to perfection with crystal clear vocals and crisp, sharp guitar solos and bass lines.

The highlight of the evening for me was the final piece in a jigsaw started on the previous Friday when we had watched the awesome guitar talents of Chantel McGregor. One of her scheduled encore songs was to be Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, but she ran out of time. Tonight, BSC gave us their take on Voodoo Chile with the three guitarists playing with their axes behind their heads. Probably the best gig I’ve seen this year

Sweet Jesus I’m on fire. She has the sweetest darkest side.

Friday 20 June – and tonight we are taking a chance on going to watch a band at The Roman Bath that we’ve never seen before, the Chantel McGregor Band (and on MyFace). We figured that if they were no good we could always pop down the road to The Terrace and watch a covers band.

I was running a bit late and the other guys were already there. The Druid was standing with his mouth open as Chantel had just finished a sound check that had left him speechless. And that was pretty much how the evening unfolded, as we all stood agog at this diminutive slip of a lass from Bradford who proceeded to rattle through some of the amazing guitar work that I’ve ever heard.

The band itself consists of: Martin Rushworth (drums), Jonathan Clapham (bass), and Chantel McGregor (vocals and guitar). Chantel herself is just twenty-one and already qualified at grade eight and the holder of the prize for outstanding musicianship at the Leeds College of Music for 2006/2007. I simply don’t posses the vocabulary to express the talents of this pint-sized prodigy, you’ll just have to go and hear her for yourself. However, I did get the set list from the gig which I reproduce here to show the type of music that the band play so brilliantly. One Of These Days Ten Years After (in the style of Joe Bonamassa), White Room Cream, Up In The Sky Joe Satriani, Stormy Monday T-Bone Walker (in the style of Eric Calpton), Help Me Joni Mitchell, Daydream Robin Trower, All Along The Watchtower Bob Dylan (in the style of Hendrix), Gold Dust Woman Fleetwood Mac, Had To Cry Today Blind Faith, Tea For 1 Led Zepplin (in the style of Joe Bonamassa), Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix, Red House Jimi Hendrix, For The Love Of God Steve Vai, New Day Yesterday Jethro Tull (in the style of Joe Bonamassa), and Mountain Time Joe Bonamassa.

Check out her website for forthcoming gigs. She’s back in The Roman Bath at York on 6 September 2008 and so will I.

Oh my god what have I done. It’s silent without you

Thursday 19 June – What’s on my CD Player, player, player...

I’m drowning in new music at the moment, 2008 is proving to be a rich vein of musical talent and that is no bad thing at all. My latest two purchases share the distinction of being very well crafted packages from established bands that showcases the amount of love and commitment that each band has made to their creations. These are not just products, they are, the M&S of products. Enough of the waffle already…

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

First up is Elbow’s new album, their fourth to date, The Seldom Seen Kid. The great thing about Elbow is that you know that on the first listen, all the tracks will sound the same. It’s only as you play the album over and over, that the swarms of unrelated sounds gradually coalesce into recognizable melodies, vocals, etc. The lyrics are personal, meaningful and compact. Phrases are only repeated to build tension and release, and there isn’t much that you could actually call a chorus or a verse. This is more like poetry set to a sonic background. The package itself has a wonderful booklet containing the lyrics alongside artwork by rail enthusiast Oliver East. For the first time the band have done everything themselves, recording, mixing and producing. The album is mastered using a dynamic system that makes it sound too quiet, in fact you are advised to TurnMeUp to experience the fullness of the sound (I turn everything up to 11 anyway).

1. Starlings starts The Seldom Seen Kid with a clockwork, gentle wash of background noise, somewhat similar to Genesis’ Carpetcrawlers before being punctuated by, seemly random, bursts of short-lived orchestral chords. Great waves of sound surround Guy Garvey as he begins to sing “so yes I guess I’m asking you / to back a horse that’s good for glue / if nothing else”.

2. The Bones Of You is one of the emotional high-points of the album, with a soaring, infectious chorus “five years ago and three-thousand miles away”. We are borne along on waves of flamenco riffs. As the track fades, you can faintly make out the strains of Gershwin’s Summertime, and pedestrians can be heard walking passed the studio.

3. There are gorgeous touches of piano through Mirrorball that gradually transform into lush stringed sections.

4. If you’re after monstrous guitar riff and bass runs, check out the middle of Grounds for Divorce. Done with a kind of country-style, with plenty of big whoa, whoa, whoas, pedal steel guitars, and handclaps.

5. I found An Audience With The Pope slightly plodding but with an interesting, Chinese sounding intro.

6. If I had to pick perfection from perfection it would have to be Weather To Fly. Starting with high-pitched vocals over piano, it drifts into beautiful lyrics, touched with Sigur Ros styled horns, the melody looping round and around, with Peter Gabriel-esque vocals.

7. The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver (I kid you not) has drum-beats striding in huge boots all over it. In the middle is a quiet section before the whole thing builds up into a gigantic industrial rhythm.

8. Elbow are nothing if not different, but The Fix is different even for them. Co-written by and featuring on guitar and vocals the Sheffield troubadour Richard Hawley, this track tells the story of a horse race fix. The sordid tale is unfurled along a furtive bass line and some sneaky brushing on snare drums.

9. Some Riot comes in with a Pink Floyd-ian start over Craig Potter’s keyboards. There are no drums at all. Guy Garvey is almost reciting the lyrics. Ethereal.

10. A passionate celebration comes with One day Like This. Lots of strings. A soaring chorus. A choir sings “so throw those curtains wide”. This is a happy clappy anthem in the style of Sgt Pepper. “Holy cow I love your eyes.”

11. The final track proper is Friend Of Ours, written, I suspect, in memory of “Bryan” who died two years ago and to whom the entire album is dedicated. Starting with acoustic guitar, the track gradually eases in a plaintiff piano and the lightest of brushing on the snares. Guy’s vocals are gentle, cracking with emotion. Later we get the string and brass and even electric guitar, but this is terribly subdued stuff. Heart-rending music.

12. And finally, the bonus track, We’re Away. A crooner’s song, I can imagine Guy on stage, in a suit, singing into a bulbous microphone like some high pitched Frank Sinatra.

Very highly recommended.

Feeder – Silent cry

Offering number two is Feeder’s sixth studio album, Silent Cry, gorgeously presented in a stylish black slip box with gold lettering, and artwork by award winning designer / typographer Nils Leonard. Coming two years after a “Best of” and three years after the last original material, fans have waiting a long time for this. I for one was not disappointed. The current line up has been together for six out of the band’s sixteen year life-time, and they have honed their own distinctive sound as well as pushing out fresh ideas on this album. Like Guy (of Elbow) Grant Nicholas has also kicked the big name producers into touch and taken over most of the recording for himself. Now, I’m not sure if it’s just me but on some of these tracks Grant’s vocals have a vibrato that puts me in mind of Martin Rossiter (singer with Gene back in the ‘90s), now that is one beautiful voice. If you’re a Feeder fan, you know what they sound like so here are just the icings on the cake. If you’re not a fan, shame on you, buy this album at once!

1. The album kicks off with their single, We Are The People, standard Feeder-fare in the style of Comfort In Sound, except a good bit heavier, as indeed the whole album is.

2. Itsumo kicks bottom with some serious Placebo inspired guitar and drumming work.

3. Miss You would, in the hands of any other band, be a hardcore wall of noise, but Feeder give it the clarity of a rock anthem with a catchy hectic riff,

4. Tracing Lines starts life as a Strokes’ track before unveiling an Oasis-like chorus, some serious indie-rock playing and a tidy guitar solo.

5. The title track, Silent Cry, was the first track on which I noticed the “Rossiter effect”. The song itself starts dark and emotive and develops into a rampant rock-beast by the second chorus.

6. Fires, I love this track. I can just imagine the crowd, lighters aloft singing along to the hypnotic, lines "she lights the fire, she lights the fire."

7. Heads Held High, starts like an acoustic Foo Fighters track, then explodes into glorious anthemic choruses.

8. A fuzzy ‘kazoo’ sound (keyboards I guess) kicks off 8:18, which alternates wildly: Quiet – Loud – Quiet – Loud - Middle 8 – Quiet – Loud.

9. On Who’s The Enemy I can hear that Rossiter vibrato again in Grant’s vocals. There is a fantastic, pompous Muse-like guitar/string section in the middle, "Running away, losing our way, we're fighting with ourselves but who's the enemy?"

10. Space, is just a little musical interlude before…

11. Into The Blue, takes us off to stylish, sexy, garage rock.

12. Guided By A Voice, features lots of ooh, ooh, oohs over white noise.

13. Sonorous, has that Muse thing going again, sort of Black Holes And Revelations. The sound is a bit Richard Ashcroft and a bit Rossiter. This track is another of the album highlights.

14. Yeah Yeah, the first bonus track, pretty standard Feeder stuff

15. Every Minute, This reminds me of a Kings Of Leon track, but I can’t quite put my finger on which one.

The tears of the world keep falling/Until we stand together

Friday 13 June – no live music this weekend, so you’ll have to put up with me drivelling on about something else instead.

So, Uriah Heep, that’ll be some crusty old band from the seventies then. New album produced by Mike Paxman, the man that guided Judie Tzuke’s career? Hardly a credible advert for a British prog band. But let’s not judge a book by its cover. Wake the Sleeper is the Heep’s 21st studio album and for me, symbolically, is the key of the door to the prog-rock mansion.

Their first studio album for almost ten years, this is a true return to the form of 1982’s Abominog. The replacement of Lee ‘The Bear’ Kerslake by masterclass stick wielder Russell Gilbrook makes a pleasing enhancement to the Heep’s bottom end sound, while Trevor Bolder (he of The Spiders From Mars) takes over on bass.

This is exceptionally good music played by exceptionally good musicians, exemplified by the Bolder-penned Angels Walk With You with it’s incredible mid-riff crisis between the guitar of Box and the keyboards of Lanzon. Even now I have the chorus of Overload zipping around in my head. There isn’t a duff track on this album and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Ya boo sucks. I’ve got tickets to see Black Stone Cherry at Fibbers on Wednesday 25 June. So I thought that I’d better get someone to buy me their album. Thank you Father’s Day. I knew they would be good, but their eponymous studio album is absolutely top notch. A bit like The Answer or Lynyrd Skynyrd, with Slash-style middle-eight riffs thrown in for good measure. BSC have the knack of making individual and original tracks that somehow retain the band’s essential sound. Outstanding tracks are: Rain Wizard, Lonely Train, Hell and High Water, and their cover of The Yardbird’s Shapes of Things. BSC are currently touring with Def Leppard and Whitesnake and are due to release a new album, Folklore and Superstition, in August this year so I’m guessing that they will be showcasing new material. As you might have guessed, I’m really looking forward to this gig.

We're so much older now/We need a new home town

Friday 6 June – and we are down at Fibbers to see Hope&Social (the band formerly known as Four Day Hombre). We arrived in time to catch the last ten minutes of Dan Torres and his merry men. Well, actually, his merry man as there was no sign of bass player, Ricardo Rodriguez, so it was just Dan and Ryan Vaughn (drums, percussion, basically anything you can hit or shake). Dan hails from New York and has a terrific voice. He played a lot of material from the 2006 album Where I Stand as well as some new stuff which presumably will be on his forthcoming new album. He was so good that one of our party, The Druid, actually paid real money for a copy of the album. We saw Dan during the interval and congratulated him on his performance and he signed The Druid’s album for him. What a good egg.

Next up were York/Leeds band, The Hair. Now, ‘A’ reckoned that we had seen these before, and certainly Disco/Retro sounded familiar, but it must have been pre-blog ‘cos I couldn’t find them on here. Anyway, they kicked off the set with said catchy electro disco number Disco/Retro (the video of which was shown on the Main Stage at last year's Leeds Festival). Now, I don’t like disco and I’m not a big fan of electronica generally, but these guys actually made it all sound great. The Hair's brand of electro indie rock is inventive, energetic and upbeat. Apparently they have a debut album, Indecisions, but I can’t find hide nor hair of it (groan). 1982 offered a touch of Kaisers-esque Oh Oh Oh's in the chorus, and Left Foot Right Foot is a song you only have to hear once for it to stick in your head, with its cowbell intro and the brothers Lee and Neil Clark swapping instrumental duties. It also liked Half Cut. They ended with new single Blood, due out very soon. The Hair are: Lee Clark (Bass/Guitars/Vocals), Neil Clark – (Keys/Samples/Vocals), Sam Robson (Vocals/Guitar/Inappropriate man dancing), and Vijay Mistry (Drums/Percussion). They will be playing at the Copmanthorpe Carnival on 5 July, so check them out.

Before Hope&Social started I was looking around Fibbers and noting how bare it is looking now. A number of pumps have been removed from the bar, notably the Timothy Taylors and Black Sheep. Bit of a shame that. The bar staff were acting like zombies as well. Anyway, back to the gig and Hope&Social came on to rapturous applause as they are always firm favourites among the non-talking section of the York music crowd. I’m not going to play “remember the play list” but they eschewed a lot of their older material for newer stuff. The most recent offerings find the band sounding increasing like Feeder. Obviously, that’s not a bad thing, but I do rather miss the high pitched 4DH vocals that were, for me, their trademark sound. Overall, fantastic quality and a really bargain to see three good acts for a fiver.

It was still early when we turned out of Fibs, so we ambled in the direction of The Terrace, however, the strains of Sylvia’s Mother (Dr Hook) seem to somehow deflect us away from the entrance and into The Roman Bath where Travellin’ Band were just starting the second half of their set. These are a fairly pedestrian rock band covering the likes of: Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roll Over Beethoven Chuck Berry, Old Time Rock and Roll Bob Segar, you get the idea. We’ve definitely seen these before and the star of the band is Steve (Crazy Horse) McLeod on lead guitar. I have to say that the vocals seemed a bit flat this time, not how I remember them from previously.

The latest news on the The Duchess front is that the opening has been delayed until 3 July. This is a huge blow as Black Stone Cherry won’t now be playing. I understand that Barfly and York council are making things as difficult as they can for Tim. Well I’m sorry but that’s not the way to win friends and I suspect that this will only garner further support for Tim and The Duchess.

What’s On My p-Pod? – Well, this week I’ve mostly been listening to...

Four Day Hombre – debut album and still outstanding, Experiments In Living. That said, every track is way better for being performed live.

Four Day Hombre – One.Foot.Louder the acoustic session recorded in Harlem, even more tinkley and soulful.

Duels - The Barbarians Move In, their second album and one of my best buys of the year. This is quirky stuff, a bit like Elbow crossed with Athlete but a bit rockier. The Furies has a thumping drumbeat, scratchy, jangly guitars and cries of Ay! Ay! with a howling middle eight. Regeneration has child-like vocals in the chorus, then it fades to a whisper, before smashing you over the head. The Wild Hunt, is muffled vocals over an eerie soundscape. Is there such a genre as prog-lo-fi? I think Duels may have invented it with The First Time/The Last Time. Buy this album.

Ash – 1977. I forget just how great this album was. I remember them playing in the Radio 1 Session tent at Leeds’ Festival (2002 I think). The tent was jammed full and we had to sit outside but they were so loud, it was like being inside the tent anyway, Angel Interceptor, Girl From Mars, Kung Fu, Shining Light, Oh Yeah...

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Don't You Fake It, recommended by someone a lot more youthful than me, but what a cracking album. Really great lyrics sung by, obviously young Americans (RJA formed in 2003 in Jacksonville, Florida). Musically similar to Linkin Park, but without the rapping and wicha wicha scratching garnished with dollops of The Ataris and Jimmy Eat World. Quite how Ronnie Winter (lead vocalist) manages to scream that much without doing his throat a mischief is beyond me. Well recommended.

You began a search I know many have tried/Not a blind man among you for years let fate decide

Friday 30 May – not wishing to become cover band junkies, we toddled along to Fibbers to apply our ears to Sons and Daughters, a Scottish band femme-fronted by Adele Bethel, she of Arab Strap. The four piece also includes David Gow (Drums, Percussion, also played in Arab Strap), Ailidh Lennon (Bass, mandolin, piano, married to Roddy Woomble of Idlewild), and Scott Paterson (Vocals, guitar). Support came (I think) from York band the Young Believers (If it was them, we’ve seen them before at the Junction). I only managed to catch the last couple of songs and they were a bit to folky for me. Anyway, on with the Sons and Daughters. I liked the first 2 or 3 tunes, but then they started to sound a bit samey, not bad, but just not enough variety. About half way through the set they pulled a rabbit out of the hat, something completely different and totally psychedelic, absolutely blinding.Sadly, I’ve no idea what it was called. Then there was a spate of fairly interesting tracks before we slipped back into the mediocre stuff. Finally they ended with Johnny Cash their 2004 single from the Love The Cup album, which was, of course, really good.

As the evening was still young, and it was a Race Day in York we knew there would be plenty of drunk blokes in suits and ladies in unfeasible footwear to laugh at, so we popped across the road to The Terrace, except that it seemed very quiet from the outside and everyone was sitting down inside. We detoured to The Roman Bath to catch the second half performance of The Mojos. These are a splendid covers band and really had the audience singing along and dancing. There was a bit of funk, the odd AWB tune for the ladies, but they finished on Status Quo which can’t be bad.

As I glance at my list of forth coming gigs this month, I’m mightyly please to see that Tim Hornsby’s new venture, The Duchess York, is due to open on Tuesday 17 June, hurrah! Actually, it really is hurrah, follow the link and check out the acts Tim has lined up. Fibbers are going to have to pull their fingers out to compete.

On Friday a bunch of us are off to see Four Day Hombre at Fibbers, but hey, they’ve just changed their name and are now Hope&Social (the band formerly known as 4DH)