Friday 24 April – and tonight we visited one of our less well-used haunts, Stereo, the pub/venue formerly known as Speakeasy or Certificate 18 or The Bay Horse, depending on when you last dropped in. Three of us turned out to see one of our favourite bands headlining, but first we supped warm ale and watched the warm-up acts.
First to tread the boards was Robert Loxley Hughes, the front man from Idle Jack And The Big Sleep. I have it on the best possible authority that IJATBS are currently in hiatus with Mr Hughes doing his own thing and the rest of the band resurrecting side-projects such as Ishtar. So for tonight RLH performed whilst sitting on a chair, just him and an acoustic guitar (actually borrowed from GT Turbo). Now I'm not a huge fan of RLH the person, having had a run-in with him a glass of red wine and one of my white t-shirts, however, he sings with a heart-felt passion and the songs are well-crafted, ranging from lullaby soft to outright shredding metal. Believe me, I felt for those poor guitar strings.
Talking of guitar abuse brings me nicely onto the second act of the evening, Dave Woodcock And The Dead Comedians. Now we've seen these before, but only two of them on that occasion, so it was interesting to see and hear the full band. Too be honest, I wasn't much more impressed, although I did recognise a few of the songs which means that they must have been good enough to hook into my brain first time around, lots of cigarettes, and alcohol, and lost love. At one point Dave attempted to dance with a female member of the audience and finally ended up singing whilst lying on his back. As the final chord rang out, Dave chucked his guitar to the floor of the stage, an act that caused me to wince in despair.
The third act was Dan "GT Turbo" Lucas, head hombre of Boss Caine and (I think) the organiser of tonight's event. By this time the crowd was beginning to thicken up somewhat and the noise level of the general chit-chat was starting to rise. Why is it that some folk pay an entrance fee just to chat loudly to their mates and ignore the performer? How rude is that? It was clear that Dan had encountered this kind of ignorance before as his t-shirt was emblazoned with "Shut the f*@ck up, the band is playing." Not that the noise-niks took any notice so we edged ever near the stage. I'm beginning to familiarise myself with Dan's work, Smoking In My Back Yard, Leaving Victoria, and the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I will have to get the album.
And so to the headline act, Hope&Social, who are touring their second album (not counting releases as Four Day Hombre), April. Once more they are selling their album on a pay-what-you-like basis both for a physical CD and downloads. I ordered a physical copy and was pleasantly surprised to get a download copy as well, to listen to whilst awaiting the actual CD to arrive in the post. How thoughtful was that? Anyway, I burned the download and had been playing it on heavy rotation in my car, so I was up to speed with all the new material before tonight's gig. In fact I was intrigued as the album features the Garforth Brass Band and I couldn't see how they were all going to fit on the stage. In fact H&S managed to get three into their "brass" section; James Hamilton on trumpet, Katie Hawcutt on sax (actually a woodwind instrument), and a girl on trombone who’s name eludes me. The core members of H&S; Simon Wainwright (vocals/guitars/piano), Rich Huxley (guitars/vocals/piano/rhodes), and Ed Waring (keyboards), were joined tonight by new comers on drums and bass.
The band played tracks from both the new album, April, and their previous offering, Architect Of This Church. Highlights for me included; Sunlight Hold Me with its huge crescendo of noise, Do What You Want, Red Red Rose, Pitching It Far Too High, Marching On Through, and Ripples Rock My Boat. But, besides the superb music, there's also a fantastic engagement with the audience with opportunities to sing along in the choruses and play along with tiny, plastic kazoos. There was also a completely unplugged, acoustic version of Looking For Answers with audience backing. Incredible, and quite possibly the best performance I've ever seen from the band. Please, please see them, buy an album, whatever. But don't miss them 'cos they're brilliant.
