You're the girl with the iron mask/I'm the boy with the heart of glass

Friday 26 September - and tonight we were off to The Duchess to re-visit a band that we've seen and liked before, Lecorum (and on MyFace). Last time we saw them they were playing support to Royworld at Fibbers, tonight, second support to Longview. Are they going down in the world? Well no. It's just that the other bands were flippin' brilliant as well.

Lecorum are a Hull-based four piece consisting of: Chris Howard (vocals, guitar), Damien Johnson (piano), Fletch (bass), and Joe Nicholson (drums). Formed in late 2006 and playing their first gig in 2007 they've opened for some big names in music including; Orson, The Hoosiers, Alphabeat, Cherry Ghost, Tiny Dancers, The Sunshine Underground, Palladium, and The Automatic. Given their pedigree and the fact that I've seen them before, and they were great, I expected more people to have arrived early but there was probably only about twenty of us which was a big shame for everyone who wasn't there. The band didn't care though and put great effort and energy into their playing. The music? Well, they bill it as 'pumping, piano-led indie' but that's not a lot of help is it? Think MSP (old school), Longpigs, kinda quirky indie. Anyway, fantastic tunes, many of which you can listen to on MyFace or download from I-suck-Tunes; Cartoon, Anyone Who Seems To Care, Mix Tape, Sleep Walk, Going, Connected?, Hide Away, Down and Tired, Clockwork. I liked them so much that I bought their new EP Cartoon, and it takes a bit for me to part with cash at a gig! The sound was, I have to say, mixed a bit too loud. I don't direct this at Lecorum, but rather at the gig as a whole, as it was too loud for all the bands. This led to a lot of the extremely good vocals being lost in fuzzy guitar sounds and the bands were all asking for extra volume on their mics, which was not really the actual problem. [Steps down from soap-box.]

Band two were Domino State, a London-based quintet comprising; Tim Buckland (guitar), Matt Forder (vocals), James Machin (guitar), Wil Padley (bass), and Rich Simic (drums). At this stage I have to point out that the three bands on show tonight are cast very much from the same musical mould, and in this sense complement each other in the very best of ways. Domino State sound like an un-gloomy Puressence, maybe a bit like The Killers, or The Editors. Their songs veer from stadium anthems (What's The Question), to sonic soundscapes (Safe Now). Iron Mask built brooding epic guitar melodies from Tim and James, while Matt's haunting vocals fluttered over the top, optimism emerging from darkness with harmonica thrown in for good measure. Top stuff.

And so to the head-liners, Longview (and on MyFace), also from London (well from all over, but probably more spiritually from Manchester), who consist of: Rob McVey (guitar, vocals), Aidan Banks (bass), Doug Morch (guitar), and Ulrich Schnauss (keyboards). By this time the place had really filled up a lot more, although I was still only about four people away from the front of the stage. I'm still not sure I know how to describe their sound. It's a bit like early Four Day Hombre, plenty of keyboard leads, wailing vocals, softly whispered lyrics, interspersed with thunderous drums and grievous bodily harm to guitars, and some prawn behind you talking all the way through it. Yes it's really that good.

We have the anthemic Still bulging with beautiful harmonies, spine tingling ethereal guitars, but it's played hard and gritty, they really mean it. Coming Down, with chords and structure that implanted themselves in our brain forever. It really should be called Going Up as three quarters of the way through we got shredding guitars with McVey and Morch mooching about the stage in a frenzy of activity while Matts drums built to the shattering crescendo. The painfully beautiful In A Dream with ethereal guitar sounds from Morch and syrupy dripping vocals from McVey and Banks. Further, a song so big they had to release it thrice (well maybe it was due to contractual wranglings). I'm still looking for comparisons; anthemic Embrace, the ambience of Elbow? Oh, just get out there and listen to them.

Apres show we ambled across the road to The Terrace to check out a band called Seed. The place was deserted; about four punters at the bar, a few couples snogging in dark corners and someone on a gaming machine. Oh, and the band. I'm no idea where they're from but they played their own material which seemed to me to be a cross between the sing-along-chorus style of Oasis and the delicate story-telling of Del Amitri. Seed were just three blokes, electric lead, bass, and acoustic guitar and vocals. They were very good

Recollect me darling raise me to your lips/Two undernourished egos four rotating hips

Saturday 20 September - and York is heaving tonight, lots of small groups, couples, and marauding packs of hen parties in pink Stetsons. I ducked into The Roman Bath, glad to be out of the flow of human traffic. It was getting crowded already and rightly so as The Mojos were playing here tonight. I've reviewed these guys before so regular readers will be aware that this York 5-piece covers band are extremely professional and very, very good indeed. They play classic covers from the '50s right up to the present day. The band consist of: Dave (vocals and guitar), Andy (lead guitar and vocals), John (bass guitar and vocals), Mark (keyboards), and for one night only, Hannah (drums). I'm sure I heard Dave say that Hannah was only sixteen and played in her own band (Hannah and the Junk Funk). I tell, you that girl sure could play, amazing.

The band kicked off with Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd), and they were just finishing as my friend arrived, shouldering his way through a now densely packed bar. Now here I'm going to cheat because Andy (lead guitar) provided me with the set list after their gig. This means that I don't have to rely on my brain cells surviving the onslaught of John Smith's in order to let you know what they played. So the rest of the first-half consisted of: Bohemian Like You (Dandy Warhols), Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry), I Want To Break Free (Queen), You Are All I Have (Snow Patrol), Another One Bites The Dust (Queen) with a segue into Superstition (Stevie Wonder), Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs), Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry), Power Of Love (Huey Lewis & The News).

During the break we were visited by Legs Elenavitch, the Russian Spy. She was dressed in a very alluring manner and it soon became clear why as she started pumping us for information about the siting of American missiles on Polish soil and the plight of the South Ossetians. As the band prepared for the second half of their act, Legs excused herself and headed off into the night. Up to no good I'll be bound!

The second half consisted of: Don't Sop Me Now (Queen), Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams), I Believe In A Thing Called Love (The Darkness), Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits), Hold The Line (Toto), Summer Of '69 (Bryan Adams), Gimme Some Lovin (Spencer Davis Group), Sweet Child o' Mine (Guns 'n' Roses), Jump (Van Halen), Livin' On A Prayer (Bon Jovi), Rockin' All Over The World (Status Quo). And in the midst of all this is a mega-medley consisting of (according to Dave) fourteen songs. I was too busy playing 'spot-the-riff', where John (lights at the The Duchess) proved how good he was, to count them, so I'll take his word for it.

The Mojos were, as expected, excellent, and I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who has seen them yet. By a strange coincidence, as I was walking home and listening to my p-pod, which was on shuffle, I was listening to Gimme Some Lovin' as covered by Thunder. Top track.

Friday 19 September - and all four of the Friday-Nighters are out to see one of our favourite local bands, Hope&Social, at The Duchess. We all arrived pretty early and I have to say that punters were very thin on the ground. Still, sipping my Theakstons XB, I didn't much care, more room for me as I settled in to watch the support bands.

First up were Blue Jupiters. These are a 3-piece outfit from Thirsk and Ripon currently being managed by Mike Heaton (drummer for Embrace). The line-up consists of: Ben H (guitar, keys, and vocals), Simon Goff (bass, strings and backing vocals), and Ben Middleton (drums and backing vocals). They started off, like so many indie bands do, with the machine-gun style of guitar playing where one song sounds the same as every other. Things improved after about four tracks when they were joined onstage by a chap who played keyboards and they slowed down to what I would describe as a normal tempo. Aall of a sudden they were really pretty good. If they can shake off the formula-indie sound, this band has great potential. Stand out songs for me: Never the End, Pipe Dreamer, Temporary Love, Bury You Alive, and Pawn And King.

Second on the bill were Leeds-based Dorien Starre. The band consist of: Leo Derevonko (lead vocals & rhythm guitar), Alex Derevonko (bass guitar & backing vocals), Ian Talton (lead guitar & backing vocals), Andrew Ackroyd (drums & woodblock). The Yang to the Blue Jupiter's Yin, these started off slow and then degenerated into the formulaic indie guitar shredding. Again, what a shame. I liked Bonnie, and Evergreen Girl, but in a league of it's own was Human Future. What a brilliant song.

It was time for Hope&Social (on MyFace) and I was disappointed for the band at the lack of people that had turned up. From a purely selfish perspective it was great. I ended up two feet from the stage and there was little or no talking going on. For the uninitiated, Hope&Social are a Leeds 5-piece formerly known as Four Day Hombre with a small clutch of quality CDs to their name. The band consist of: Simon Wainwright (vocals/guitars/piano), Rich Huxley (guitars/vocals/piano/rhodes), Ed Waring (keyboards), J (bass), on drums, I think his name was Mike, not the usual chap anyway, ooh and there was a trumpet players as well called James. This gig was part of a tour to promote their first offering under the new moniker, a 5 track ep. The band played the new material plus old 4DH tracks from the albums Experiments In Living and One Footer Louder - Acoustic In Harlem. It was a fantastic gig especially when Simon got the audience to press closer to the stage and he and Rich sang/played without microphones to us, and winding up with the audience singing along on backing vocals. Brilliant. Of the new material I especially liked These Walls, Heaven Falls, and Buzzer Goes. I'm looking forward to the album with baited credit card.

The night was relatively young, so on leaving The Duchess we headed across to our usual watering hole, The Roman Bath, where a covers band called Go Commando were playing. The only lasting impression I have of the band is when they played Don't Leave Me This Way as part of a medley I believe. I used to like the song when it charted for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and later for Thelma Houston, but it was sullied by The Communards version. Ah, that's what two pints of XB and one of John Smiths does to my brain

To pull my ribs aparts/and let the sun inside

Saturday 13 September - Woah, what's this? Going out on a Saturday? Is that allowed? Well it is if I'm off to see a 'loud' band, hah, hah. A solo outing to The Duchess to see Heaven's Basement supported by Tidal Fury and Undergrass. Why? Well, Thunder are touring the UK from 21 November until 30 November with support from Heaven's Basement and GetVegas, so they must be pretty good to start with. Secondly, HB have been to York before in 2005 as Hurricane Party (with The Glitterati and The Black Velvets), and again in 2006 when I saw them at Fibbers in their guise of Roadstar (with The Answer and Rose Hill Drive). That was some gig!

I arrived towards the end of set of the first band, Undergrass. Undergrass are a four piece band from York consisting of: Phil Goodrick (lead vocal), Rob Lumby (lead guitar), Danny Lee (bass), and Dave Chitty (drums/backing vocals). Forged in late 2006 when Lumby and Lee were attending the Access to Music College in York, they found vocalist Phil Goodrick busking in the streets of York and brought in drummer Dave Chitty to complete the line up. I only caught the last two songs but they are very much in the 70's rock style of The Answer or a Black Stone Cherry-lite. Apparently they are taking part in the next set of Orange Unsigned Act, so one to look out for in the future and on the brief performance that I witnessed, a band that will be getting bigger very soon.

The second support act was Tidal Fury (and on MyFace), another York four-piece consisting of: Graham (vocals/rhythm guitar), Fin (bass), Mick Moran (lead guitar), and Steve (drums). In 2007 they supported acts such as The Towers Of London, Switches, Hydrogen and Dirty Rig. Sometimes I hang my head in shame when I think of all this talent in York that I've never heard before, and I go to gigs practically every week! These are great, with a poddle-haired, stadium sized, classic rock sound and superb widdly guitar solos, but with a modern, Indie twist. Stand out songs for me were: Crazy Child, Lay Down And Take It, Dirty Girl, Velvet Star, Dance Like You Mean It, LiveIt Up, Stay With Me 'Til Summer, and the eponymous Tidal Fury. Brilliant, but the evening wasn't over yet.

After they split from their previous management in early 2007 Roadstar reformed as Heavens Basement (as in mainman Richie Havenz';s 'basement', geddit?) in early 2008, but this is a different band from Roadstar. HB are a full-on sleaze-rock band in the style of Aerosmith or Alice In Chains. The band consist of: Richie Hevanz (vocals), Sid Glover (lead guitar), Jonny Rocker (rhythm guitar), Chris Rivers (drums), and Rob Randell (bass)

Unfamiliar as the songs were to me it didn't matter one bit because Graduation, Mirrors, Never Write A Love Song, Sacrifice, Saint Routine and Executioners' Day (that's the ones I can remember the names of) are all going to be song titles that people will be talking about in the future. They play with a demon-stoked energy reminiscent of a young Def Leppard, but with way more attitude. Most of the crowd had obviously seen/heard the band before as they seemed to know most of the words and were singing along. I felt a bit like a gate-crasher at a private party, but it was a throughly fantastic night and I look forward to seeing these guys again.

See the marionettes makin' puppet plans/See, he's pulling the strings, see the puppet dance

Friday 12 September - When I get a new CD I like to load it up onto my Zen Stone Plus so that I can listen to it on the move. The Zen software uses Gracenote to get album and track metadata for the MP3 files. Imagine my delight when I discovered that my two latest acquisitions are so obscure that Gracenote can’t identify them. Result! So what were they then? Well, bit of a cheat as they are both from the same band Curved Air.

Who? Curved Air were a pioneering British prog- rock group formed in 1969 from the remnants of a band called Sisyphus (Monkman and Pilkington-Miksa). The founding musicians came from quite different artistic backgrounds, classic, folk, and electronic sound, which resulted in a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements. They were one of the first rock bands to feature a violin. The band released seven albums in as many years before calling it a day. They still kept bubbling under though, and an album of studio work from 1973 surfaced in 1990 and the group performed together briefly releasing a live album of this concert, Alive 1990, which was released in 2000. A Live At The BBC was released in 1995. They have recently reformed and are touring with a sort of greatest hits with, Reborn. Since leaving the band Monkman, a member of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, has played with John Williams in a group called Sky. The reformed band has three of the original line up; Sonja Kristina Linwood, Darryl Way, and Florian Pilkington-Miksa. Whilst the core of the band remained intact, they did have a number of notable musicians pass through their line-up; Ian Eyre (bass), Mike Wedgwood (bass, later in Caravan), Eddie Jobson (keyboards and violin, later in Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull and UK), John G. Perry (bass, ex-Caravan), Stewart Copeland (drums, later of The Police), and Tony Reeves (bass, ex-Greenslade, Colosseum, John Mayall). All of which brings me to my latest CDs which are the first two albums by the band.

Their debut album, Airconditioning, was released in November 1970 and reached number 8 in the UK albums chart in December 1970. It’s notable for a rock interpretation of a Vivaldi piece by Darryl Way (think of Darryl as a fore-runner of Nigel Kennedy) and the fact that it was also released as the first vinyl picture disc in a limited edition of 20,000. Sadly the sound quality of the picture disc was somewhat impaired by the early technology. I understand that the CD version hasn’t been re-mastered and to be honest the first track has some vocal wobbles that I can’t believe are down to Sonja.

The line-up for this album consisted of; Sonja Kristina Linwood (vocals), Darryl Way (violin), Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums), Andy Christie (guitar), and Chris Harris (bass). For me the stand out tracks on this album are the lengthier pieces; It Happened Today with Sonja’s double-tracked vocals, Stretch a sort of modern/classical piece with disjointed time signatures and heavy use of violin, Screw sounding like early Genesis reminds me somewhat of the Beatle’s Eleanor Rigby, the chugging beat of Blind Man, and Hide and Seek. Vivaldi is of course excellent, but a bit of an anachronism within the context of the rest of the album. The most commercial tracks were released as a single, It Happened Today / Vivaldi / What Happens When You Blow Yourself Up, and was released in 1971.

In my opinion this was Curved Air not really knowing where they were going, just sitting down and making music that they liked. There is no development. But that said, still a fine album.

Their second album is called Second Album. It reached number 11 in the UK Charts on 9 October 1971, and the single Back Street Luv / Everdance became a UK number 4 chart hit on 7 August 1971. The line-up for this album consisted of: Ian Eyre (bass), Sonja Kristina (vocals), Francis Monkman (guitars, keyboards, VCS3 synthesizer), Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums), and Darryl Way (violin, piano, vocals)

With the introduction of a VCS3 synthesizer this album seems much more focussed, yet also has a greater variety of styles. To me it’s a much stronger offering, more personal and mature than their first. The album opener is Young Mother with its echoes of Pink Floyd’s On The Run or early Genesis, particularly in the jazz-styled synth work. This is followed by the outstanding single Back Street Luv, really the only piece of their work that I actually recognised before buying these albums. Dark and brooding verses are interspersed with boppy choruses. Jumbo is almost like a song from the musicals with Sonja singing in the style of Elaine Paige. Not literally, but that kind of singing where each note of the tune matches a word in the lyric. It’s a beautiful ballad reminiscent of Renaissance (the band not the era). Track 4 is You Know, great guitar work but possibly the weakest track on the album. The final track on side one is Puppets, a beautiful yet menacing tune with a clockwork beat.

The side two (like a CD has sides!) only has three tracks and opens with Everdance which featured on the B-side of their second single. A driving violin led tune played in a ‘gypsy’ style. This is followed by another anachronistic offering, the rather odd Bright Summer’s Day. Musically it sounds a bit like Cockney Rebel and would actually have fitted better on the first album. The last track, at almost thirteen minutes long, is the epic Piece Of Mind. This starts with tribal drumming, synth-brass, violin and a heavy piano. The tempo changes and we are drawn up into a crescendo, then quiet. There is a beautiful piano and strings section as we set off again getting more and more frantic, then quiet. Some subdued drumming and piano work underpins Sonja reading a passage from TS Eliot’s The Wasteland. The music starts again and we’re off to Arabia for a bit in the style of Emerson Lake and Palmer before reverting back to the sea-like drumming and piano which gradually fades into the distance.

I paid less than a tenner for these two albums, definitely a bargain. For punters wanting a greatest hits I guess that their latest, Reborn is probably the best bet. It does lack Piece Of Mind but then all their compilations do, which is a shame.

Well there's a red house over yonder/That's where my baby stays

Saturday 6 September – Come hell or high water, and the Ouse was pretty high in York today, nothing was going to stop us from being at The Roman Bath tonight. It was one of those rare occasions when we had a full turn out. Tonight, the Chantel McGregor Band!

I've enthused about Chantel before on this blog so I don't have to tell you what an amazing guitar virtuoso she is. Where Hendrix sweated and agonised over his solos, Chantel reproduces them with an air of nonchalance as if it's as natural to her as sipping tea and eating a kebab. She is stunning, awesome, gorgeous, a prodigy, and the sweetest, most self-effacing guitar-goddess on the planet. Ta.

Her fingers darted over the frets like spiders legs weaving a web on a speeded-up film and the four of us were reduced to watching, spellbound, incapable of doing anything other than dribble beer down our throats in silence. I didn't know some of the songs they played, but luckily the lady provided me with her set list. By way of a change I have provided some links to YouTube videos of some of her performances. They don't do her justice. It isn't possible. You just have to see her live. I urge you, you really have to see her live.

Had To Cry Today (Blind Faith), Badge (Cream), Lie No. 1 (Joe Bonamassa), Stormy Monday (T Bone Walker in the style of Clapton), Up in The Sky (Joe Satriana), Miss You Hate You (Joe Bonamassa), All Along The Watchtower (Dylan in the style of Hendrix), Landslide (Fleetwood Mac), I Can’t Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt), One Of These Days (Ten Years After in the style of Bonamassa), Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac), For The Love Of God (Steve Vai), Purple Haze (Hendrix), Red House (Hendrix), Daydream (Robin Trower), Voodoo Chile (Hendrix), New Day Yesterday (Jethro Tull in the style of Bonamass).

Other stuff by Chantel that’s on YouTube, and video links from Chantel's website.

You can light the fire inside your head

Friday 5 September – OK, it’s going to be a busy weekend, so let’s get right on with it. Friday night is a bit of a punt, we’re off to The Duchess for what looks like an interesting line-up. First on the bill is York-band Airheads, actually five guys from Huntington in York the band consists of; James Rodgers, Harry Owen, Tristan Kirkpatrick, Ash Lovelace, and James Blackburn. They’ve supported bands such as Look See Proof, Glasvegas, Team Waterpolo, Disarm and PARKA, but for tonight are self-confessed “Duchess virgins”. I arrived about half way through their gig. Shame on me, because they sounded really good. Two things stood out. 1 they had a stonking great synth in the middle of the stage. 2 one of the guitarist was wearing no shoes, just stripy socks. In that way he reminded me of the rhythm guitarist from Scary. Whatever happened to them? Anyway, Airheads produced great sounding synth/pop/rock with catchy, melodic riffs underwritten by the synth line, reverberating guitars, solid bass lines, and precision drumming. Top notch. I will definitely be looking for these guys again. Their next gig is at Fibbers on 19 October when they support Team Waterpolo and Defend Moscow.

So, the evening was off to a good start and the Theakstons XB was sliding down beautifully. The second act was Euros Child the former vocalist and keyboard player from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. He was being assisted by some chap who played guitar and drums, but I’m afraid I’ve no idea who he was. Sorry. I’m assuming that most of the material played was off his latest solo album The Miracle Inn, as it sounded to be in English and his previous two albums had featured vocals in Welsh. The set kicked off with three or four guitar-based songs that gave an impression of Simon & Garfunkle at their height. Pretty damn good I thought. Unfortunately Euros then switched to keyboards and the wheels starting coming off. It was like listening to the Pet Shop Boys but without the catchy choruses. The songs started, drifted about a bit, and then ended. They just didn’t go anywhere. I wanted to like him. He has a fantastic voice. But it really didn’t float my boat.

And so to the headline act, The Dodos, a duo from San Francisco consisting of; Meric Long (vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboards), and Logan Kroeber (backing vocals and percussion). They are joined on this tour by Joe Haener who filled in the gaps with glockenspiel, a half-pint piano/keyboard affair, and a dustbin for a bit of extra oomph in the drum department. I kid you not. The band created beautifully orchestrated pieces of music, ranging from soft chanting and wistful lyrics, to escalating primal screams and frantic strumming. The drumming was driving and frantic and the sound was enhanced by Kroeber having a tambourine strapped to his foot! The music? Well it’s psychedelic/folk. Think of Fleet Foxes, White Denim, Bon Iver, The Hold Steady, or Athlete on speed. It’s folk and anti-folk, guitars played hard and fast but remaining acoustic. The set kicked off with some traditionally formatted songs, among them Walking and the single Red and Purple with its tribal drumming (think West African Ewe drumming and gamelan). The set then veered off into much longer tunes, exploring sonic landscapes, so difficult to describe as mere songs in a conventional sense. A particular highlight for me was Fools, a track from their new album Visiter, with feedback drenched slide guitar and ramshackle drums bashing away in the background. The band was in its best prog-mode on Joe's Waltz. The first four minutes devoted to a sombre, down-tempo ballad that gave way to a three-minute, near-punk thrasher where Long was insisting to the song's subject that they "need help." Long used agile, feverish strumming on his guitar and had a sweetly awkward voice. Kroeber drummed with a fury forged from his prog-metal background. Absolutely first-rate and thoroughly recommended.

Despite The Dodos playing an hour long gig it was still reasonably early when we left The Duchess so we headed into the heart of York to round off the evening at The Roman Bath. The band playing here was Dufflegoat, a York three-piece consisting of; Roger Newton (guitar, backing vocals), Tony Gilpin (Bass, lead vocals), and Paul Marshall (drums).

Obviously we only caught about a quarter of their set but the band managed to rattle off an impressive array of covers from; Led Zep, Voodoo Chile, Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix), Won’t get fooled again (The Who), Warpigs (Black Sabbath), and apparently only the second time of playing it, The Green Manalishi With the Two Pronged Crown (Fleetwood Mac). Pretty blooming good and well worth checking out properly when they next play in York, Thursday 20 November at The Stone Roses, or Sunday 7 December at The Roman Bath.

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore/Same as my daddy and his daddy before

Friday 29 August – Well we considered dropping into The Duchess to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band but the gig had sold out already so we settled for an evening of covers at The Roman Bath. According to my sources, The Mojos were playing tonight, however, I checked The Mojo's website and that had them playing on Saturday, so it was anyone's guess who might be playing. It turned out to be Travelin Band, a group we’ve seen before albeit only half their set previously.

The band apparently started life in 2004 as The Outlaws but there has been a few comings and goings and the current line-up is now billed as; Tony (Oscar) Smith - Vocal and Rhythm guitar, Steve (Crazy Horse) McLeod - Lead guitar and Backing vocal, John (The Russian) Mitchell - Bass guitar, and Paul (Big foot - Almost ) Drums. I have to say that the drummer looked different from when we saw them last, so this information may not be entirely accurate.

I think a couple of them play in, or have played in, a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. Steve has the band’s name etched into the frets of his guitar so you can guess where their main influences come from! Tony is also a big fan of John Fogerty, he of Creedance Clearwater Revival and various solo efforts.

The range of covers they performed was similar to other covers bands we’ve seen but they also pulled out a few tracks that I only vaguely recognised, and some that left me baffled. I'm usually quite good at playing 'spot the tune'. The drumming did seem to be mixed a little too loud, and the lead guitar not loud enough, but hey, they’re playing in a pub, not the Albert Hall. I also found the vocals a bit flat on some of the songs. But I’m not really complaining, just trying to tell it like it was.

I can’t remember all of the covers they played (I had three lip-smacking points of John Smith’s and my brain cells were dying like lemmings) but here is a selection of the ones I did remember, in no particular order:

Bad moon rising, Travelin' Band, Up Around The Bend, Rocking All Over The World (John Fogerty), Rocking in the free world (Neil Young), Gimme three steps, Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Johnny B Goode, Roll over Beethoven (Chuck Berry), Old time rock and roll (Bob Seger), Copperhead Road (Steve Earle), Crossroads (Eric Clapton), Battleship chains (The Georgia Satellites).