Four chords that made a million

Friday 20 February - Not a good week, this week. On Tuesday I could feel my throat furring up and I knew I was going down with something. On Wednesday I managed to get two hours in at work before declaring myself ill and sending myself home. Thursday I dosed myself with symptom relieving potions and slept most of the day. By Friday I was feeling a bit more chipper and went back to work, it appeared that my man-flu was in remission, just in time for the weekend. Four of us were hitting Fibbers to watch The Summits.

The evening didn't start well when I was giving my 12-string a bit of a strum and the g-string broke almost severing the top of my thumb. Then, as I was leaving the house, I was collared my a neighbour who insisted on regaling me with the latest operation on her leg, hence I arrived a little bit adrift. After my first pint of frighteningly cold Tetley's I could feel my glands rising and the mucous building in my sinuses. All of which is just to let you know that I wasn't exactly on top form in terms of memory recall and I hope I wasn't too much of a wet blanket for the rest of the girl/guys.

When I arrived there was a chap, Jonny Dobbs, doing his acoustic thing. He was quite good, the acceptable sound of James Blunt, but not quite what we were expecting. As soon as he finished I managed a peek at the line-up and it became clear that The Summits had pulled out, the rotten scoundrels.

Next up were Seven Heroes (SpaceFace), a four-piece from Hetton-le-Hole. The band comprised; Dan Gibson (Lead Singer/Guitarist), David Smith (Lead Guitarist/Vocals), Jez Dickey (Bass/Vocals), and Stu Gibson (Drums/Vocals). I really liked these guys. David had a box of tricks on the floor that made his guitar sound like keyboards and, with a lot of their songs having a strong dance beat, they sounded like The Killers, or a poppier version of My Vitriol. They've apparently finished work on an album so I'll be looking out for that when it's released.

The third band, moved up from second billing, was York-based Modern Day Chicane. The band members are; Ryan (vocal/guitar), Thom (bass/backing), Chris (guitar/backing), and Pete (drums). Now maybe my head-cold was really kicking in, or maybe it was because I liked 7H so much, but I just couldn't get into these guys. The vocals were a bit flat and the songs all sounded the same, four chords and a plodding beat.

The background music kicked in as soon as they'd finished so there was clearly no encore to be had. The disco lights came on and we hurriedly departed in the direction of The Roman Bath. We were in time to catch two thirds of set by Flashback, a three-piece from York comprising; Kev (bass/vocals), Pete (guitar/vocals), and Phil (drums/vocals). Flashback attempt to replicate the sounds of the early beat groups of Hamburg and Liverpool's Cavern Club. You have to admire their dedication; vintage guitars, Vox amplifications and retro mics. Definitely good for a sing along (for us old folk) and a bit of a dance. Even I can do The Twist!

This time it is not a game/Jason is the hangman's name

Friday 13 February - unlucky for some, not for us! For the paltry sum of four quid we were admitted into The Duchess to see three bands we'd never heard of before. Frankly I was amazed that there weren't more people about, probaly about fifty tops if you include the three bands, their mums and dads, Paul on the lights, and the bar staff! First on the bill were Dressed In Their Best (FaceSpace) A four piece from York they comprise; James, Danny, Shane, and Robbie on drums. I really liked these guys, they sounded like a raw version of Jimmy Eat World or The Ataris when they were young and playing in a mates garage. There was plenty of variety between the songs and the drumming was top class, it really had me tapping my feet.

Sadly, I can't say the same for the second band, I Call Shotgun (FaceSpace), is another four piece this time from Leeds/Preston/York comprising of students from the Leeds College of Music and Leeds University. ICS are; Joe De Luca (Lead Vocals & Frontman), Iain Bolton (Lead Guitar), Josh Weller (Synths), and Graham Robson (Beats). Their brand of '80s disco dance electro pop really wasn't my cup of cocoa at all and eventually we retired to the 'chill out' area were we sat like three old codgers (Tim's words, not mine) and debated the musical wilderness that was the '80s. The only song that raised a smile was when they sampled Supertamp's Breakfast in America, and that's as good as it got for me.

The evening was not done yet though. There had been some shuffling about with the line-up because of a recent upsurge of interest in our final band, the Brighton-based Telegraphs (FaceSpace). Five young folk this time; Darcy Harrison (Vocals / Guitar), Sam Bacon (Drums), Hattie Williams (Bass / Vocals), Darren LeWarne (Guitar), and Aung Yay (Guitar). Right from the first chord we could tell that this was band on the very brink of breakthrough with driving guitars, forceful drumming, and angst-ridden vocals. Hattie and Darcy are almost a double act, as he prowls at the back of the stage she strides up to the front adding her rich vocals and trashing away on her bass. She looks sassy, sexy, and confident. Like a well choreographed act Hattie slinks off to the side and Darcy takes center stage again. They sound like Biffy or Idlewild, Sam drums like Gorhl, but they're different, fresh and spiky. I know they've been kicking around since 2006 but for me they are the best 'new' band I've heard all year. Their set was short-lived, 'A' clocked them as 24 minutes, and there was no encore which was a bit of a disappointment.

As we'd finished early, we wandered through town to The Roman Bath to catch the second half of the set by Huddersfield rock covers band Storm. I've reviewed them before so I won't bore you with a set list (you can always type "storm" in the search box) but they did air some new material from the Kings of Leon and "Basket Case" by Green Day. Excellent stuff, they are always great fun and a great bunch of lads.

Saturday 14 February - Whilst in The Roman Bath on Friday, I noticed that the band for Saturday were Sundance a Hendrix tribute act, so two of us agreed to met up for some John Smith's and an earful of Jimi's music. Sundance are a four piece from Darlington whose members are; Simon Cassidy (Guitar), Lee Rippon (Vocals), Paul Bennett (Bass), and Martyn Bennett (Drums), and whilst they were in no way as technically accurate as say The Hamsters, they did convey the spirit of Jimi's songs and throughly enjoyed themselves along the way. We thought they were brilliant. I'm relying on their website, as opposed to my beer-fogged brain, to say that they played most of not all of; Highway Chile, Fire, Hey Joe, Manic Depression, Cross Town Traffic, Stone Free, Red House, All Along The Watchtower, Foxy Lady, Bold As Love, Angels, Changes, The Wind Cries Mary, Come On (Let The Good Times Roll), Castles Made Of Sand, 3rd Stone From the Sun, Hey Baby, Voodoo Chile, Purple Haze, Wild Thing, Spanish Castle Magic. Highly recommended.

Happiness aint at the end of the road/Happiness is the road

Sunday 8 February - This week my letterbox has been chock-a-block with a flurry of material from Play.com. Following the announcement at the end of January that Thunder are finally hanging up their gloves, I've invested in some of their earlier studio albums which I presume are going to start becoming scarce. I'm not a completist in the sense that I feel the need to have absolutely everything they've ever done, but there are some tracks on these albums that I don't have on their compilations, so it makes sense to beef up my collection now. Also, as a family we have decided to hold a 'Thunder day'; on 4 July where we will be celebrating all things Thunder; playing their studio albums in sequence, and watching DVDs of their live performances. How sad are we!

It's always a pleasant surprise when you pre-order something, forget about it, and then find it sitting on your door mat. A case in point being Happiness Is The Road, Marillion's 15th studio album which also arrived this week. I'm a terrible person. I only have one other Marillion album, and that is Script For A Jester's Tear, their very first album from 1983. The problem is that I like a lot of music but there is only so much I can listen to and/or afford to buy, so I have to spread my net wide, not deep. Well, I do go deep for my favourites, like Thunder! So what possessed me to order HitR?

Part of it comes from the fairly unique model that Marillion use to make their material available. The recording was financed by a pre-ordering scheme whereby fans ordered about a year in advance and in return received a special edition box-set with book-style special artwork containing both volumes. They used the same approach with previous albums Anoraknophobia and Marbles. On 19 September they made HitR available for free on peer-to-peer file sharing networks as 128 kbit/s WMA files. In return, Marillion asked down-loaders to provide their e-mail address so that they could be offered merchandise offers and also the option to download the tracks as 128 kbit/s MP3 files without DRM. For fans the album was also available as a 256 kbit/s high-quality download by purchasing "Front Row Club" credits from the band's website. From October 2008 HitR was available in a physical media format via mail order from the website, and on 2 February a retail version was released on CD throughout the EU. All of which, I think, is quite interesting. Now I know some Marillion fans and they reckon HitR is brilliant, and one who saw the recent tour was also blown away by the album material that they performed. Hence, I decided to dip my toes back into Oceania Marillion, but being an Ancient Mariner I waited for the CD version. Can't be doing with all that file downloading malarkey!

Conceptually, the album takes its cue from The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle, which basically expounds the philosophy that happiness can only be found in the now, rather than obsessing about the mistakes of the past or what might happen in the future. Hey, this is a prog-rock band, so why not?

So, to the album itself which is actually two album-length CDs respectively entitled Essence and The Hard Shoulder, and having a total playing time of 110 minutes, a bit more if you count the not-very-well-hidden track of 6 minutes. On first listening I caught elements of Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, David Bowie, Runrig, Japan, and yes, a tiny bit of Genesis. Now the strange thing about Volume 1, Essence, is that that it's not so much a collection of tracks as a soundscape, one track segueing almost seamlessly into the next, and as such it's actually quite dull, but if you listen to each track separately from its neighbours they are self-contained little gems. The album opener is Dreamy Street, a piano-led piece, just a gentle intro that ends with an ultrasound of the heartbeat of Steve's son, Emil Handryziak Hogarth. After the briefest of pauses we are immersed in This Train Is My Life with its Heathen-era Bowie guitar work and hard rock edge. Next comes Essence itself, the first real prog-rock track with energy and variety between the sections, constantly building, yet ultimately going nowhere. Wrapped Up In Time starts with clock-like effects and chimes, there's a wind blowing in the background, then we're into dreamy keyboards before launching into a Runrig type of tune. Track five is Liquidity, a sort of instrumental interlude, and then we're into Nothing Fills The Hole a woozy, soulful tune overlaid with Hogarth's broken-hearted vocals, excellent guitar and drumming. Woke Up feature strong guitar work and literally causes the listener to sit up and notice. Hogarth's vocals attain a degree of theatre that has been missing so far. Reminds me of Peter Gabriel. There's a sort of Who riff but played on keys instead of guitar. Then an eastern styled outro leads straight into... Trap The Spark which starts with strong piano work before petering out into pleasantness. A State Of Mind which put me in mind of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock when it starts off, then it heads into Then There Were Three territory. Exceptional drumming and a great guitar solo. The penultimate track is the title track, Happiness Is The Road, a gorgeous 10 minute epic. It starts with gentle keyboards then really kicks in after about three minutes with a jazzy section, then a menacing Floyd finale. Lastly, we get the 'hidden' track, Half Full Jam, originally entitled Half Empty Jam on the download version, it reflects its own lyrics "I used to be half empty, but now I'm half full." A track that build into a Doors like climax.

Volume 2, The Hard Shoulder is the Yin to volume 1's Yang. A collections of stronger tracks with much greater variety that don't work as a soundscape. The whole work is akin to Tubular Bells, with the conceit expounded in one long track which is then followed by a clutch of tracks that wouldn't sit easy within the greater work. Anyway, we kick off with Thunder Fly a throw back to the 60s vibe of The Beatle's Paperback Writer with some Peter Tork (The Monkees) style synthesizer sounds. Next we have a duo of very strong tracks. The Man From The Planet Marzipan starts with a nod to Japan (the band) before settling into a Bowie-esque mid-section, then resolving into rising keyboards a la Nursery Cryme. Asylum Satellite #1 is full on prog-rock starting with Porcupine Tree-like guitar work, before ending in an extended Space Oddity sequence. At this point I apologise for referencing other bands. I don't mean to disrespect Marillion's music or call it derivative, but I don't have other Marillion reference points apart from SFAJT, which doesn't quite seem to be in the same league anymore. Back to the album and we lay back a bit with the more genteel Older Than Me featuring a bit of Glockenspiel. Three minutes of tinkling, so a reflection perhaps of Liquidity before diving into the surprisingly poppy Throw Me Out with its ticking clock/metronomic beat and Eleanor Rigby strings. We're on a roll now, and next up is Half The World, an Oasis-like series of chord progressions but overlaid with a structure that reminds me, somehow, of Red Shoes-era Kate Bush. Superb drumming from Mosley, and great vocals from Hogarth. Whatever Is Wrong With You was released as a single in 2008 and is a very strong track, a contemporary pop song, moody, and with a sing-along chorus. The music takes a step back for Especially True when the limelight falls on the lyrics and Hogarth's broken-hearted vocals. The last track on this volume is Real Tears For Sale, a folksy, prog-rocker, and a down-beat ending to a fine album.

This is not an album for the faint-hearted. This is almost two hours of music that demands to be listened to very carefully. This is the M&S of music. I'm a new Marillion fan.

As a parting shot, I have to say that I'm not an advocate of Tolle's philosophy for the transformation of consciousness. It's all a bit vague and repetitive, simply a repackaging of existing spiritual values. Being an old hippy I found myself more moved by Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on a day to day basis, and Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah for when I'm feeling more spiritual. But hey, the rest of you are only a product of my imagination so I don't care if you agree with me or not.

The day the music had a relapse

Picture courtesy of Dave Musson (Sheffield City Hall, 3 December 2007)

Wednesday 28 January - music suffered a hideous setback on 4 May 2000 when Thunder played their 'final' gig at Camden Dingwalls in London. It was the end of a chapter in rock history that started way back in 1989 and encompassed five studio albums (two that went gold) and seven albums of compilation and live performances. We thought it was all over...

Then the band were tempted back from retirement with a slot on the touring Monsters of Rock UK arena shows in late 2002. To the delight of their faithful fan base they returned in 2003 with a new album, Shooting At The Sun, released on their own label The patient was fully recovered and banged out a further four studio albums, probably their finest material ever, and another four albums of compilations and live stuff. Add to that 22 singles and five EPs and you get an idea of their output.

Sadly, on Wednesday 28 January the band final hung up their gloves citing increasing outside interests as the reason to put the band back on the shelf. They will be concluding the tour of their current album, Bang!, in Germany, Switzerland and Japan, and then embarking on a final farewell UK tour in July with the possibility of a few goodbye festival dates.

It's a real black arm-band time in my family where three generations of Thunder fans are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their favourite band. We tried to get tickets, but failed miserably. My youngest daughter was nearly in tears with frustration. We've decided to have our own memorial by declaring 4 July 'Thunder Day' when we will be listening to all their studio albums in sequence, watching DVDs of live performances, and having a right old sing-a-long. It's the end of an era.