The Duchess and Neverland

Tuesday 16 October – We’ve not been out to a live gig in quite a while, so, sorry about that. Still we managed to get down to The Duchess for a bit of prog rockery this week. Support came from MarcAtkinson. I once knew a chap called Mark Atkins and we called him Kram Snikta, just thought I’d share that with you. Anyhoo, Marc was well underway by the time we arrived and we only managed to catch about four of his songs. He was playing them acoustically and one was introduced as coming from his time with the band Nine Stones Close, with the rest apparently from his album Out Of An Ancient World which was recorded with a full band under the name Riversea. We’ve seen Marc before, playing covers in various places around York, so it was refreshing to hear him playing original music and, indeed, I was so impressed that I bought a copy of OOAAW.

The main acts for tonight had been co-headlining on a European tour and I don’t know if this was an extension of that tour or something separate as The Reasoning seemed to be playing a support slot. Anyway, it makes little difference, the band are currently touring their latest album, Adventures in Neverland. Describing themselves as Cardiff-based, The Reasoning consist of Rachel Cohen (vocals & hand shakey percussion & virtual trampoline), Tony Turrell (keyboards & vocals), Keith Hawkins (guitars & backing vocals), Matthew Cohen (bass & backing vocals), and Jake Bradford-Sharp (drums & backing vocals). I already have a two of their albums and recognised a couple of the tracks, especially Dark Angel. They introduced a lot of new material, notable Omega Point, No Friend Of Mine and the outstandingly good title track Adventures in Neverland. The second half of the set was plagued by feedback gremlins which forced Rachel to remain fairly static when she really wanted to bounce around the stage a lot more. The vocals were a bit muddy and indistinct but at the time I put that down to my ancient ears and unfamiliar lyrics. However, I was very impressed with the new material and promptly forked out for copy of the new album from the merchandise table.

For the final act we managed to get within inches of the barrier and had a superb view of the stage and all the players on it. Touchstone I had seen before and was pretty familiar with the material from the latest two albums. Formed back in, I think 2003, by Rob Cottingham (keyboards & vocals), the current line-up also includes Adam Hodgson (guitars), Andre Moorghen (bass), Kim Seviour (lead vocals), and Henry Rogers (drums). I’m not sure what it is about their songs, but sometimes Kim seems quite awkward in her movements and singing, and at other times she really gets into it. Whilst this time there was little evidence of feedback, there was still muddiness in the vocals and Rob’s keyboards were definitely too low in the mix. Sound issues aside, they made a stonkingly good job of tracks like Wintercoast, When Shadows Fall, and Strange Days. The less than capacity crowd were enthusiastic in their applause which brought back both bands and Marc for the finale, a rousing sing-along of the classic Tears For Fears track Mad World.

Both bands play a form of theatrical prog-rock, with a touch of heaviness, which owes a lot to the influences of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes and a sprinkling of Dream Theater. A great night out, but from a sound point of view, keyboards and vocals are much better represented on their respective albums.

Cotton Wool & Knotted Wood

Saturday 31 March - It's my birthday and Mrs Woman had got us tickets for one of my favourite bands Hope&Social who were playing at The Duchess. We went for an Indian meal beforehand at the superb Bombay Spice on Goodramgate where we ordered the set meal for two and spent two hours munching our way through a mountain of food. That's my idea of food heaven, apart from the mistaking-a-whole-chilli-for-a-runner-bean incident which caused some mirth. All of which meant that we arrived a bit later than anticipated at the venue and had practically missed the entire set of Joseph & David, sorry guys. What we did catch seemed pretty good, kind of English folk in the style of The Decemberists as far as I could make out. Their final song, the only one we heard intact, was performed off stage a capella with muted assistance from James Hamilton on trumpet and Simon Goff on violin.

The Duchess was laid out cafe style with eight or ten tables in front of the stage, around which the rest of us punters clustered in a gigantic horseshoe shape. Now this is the tour of Hope&Social's new album, Cotton Wool & Knotted Wood which is basically an acoustic re-working of some of the material from their previous albums, so I was half-expecting a cut-down band. Oh no. With H&S always expect the unexpected. I believe that a lot of this material was put together during the Big Red Button event at The Crypt in Leeds in February. Anyway, it would be interesting to hear which of their songs had been re-constructed. This was a full band turnout, sans brass section, but including James Hamilton who must surely be counted as a full-time member now.

OK, so all the band were here, but they were all playing instruments other than their usual. They launched into Family Man with Rich on glockenspiel and Ed and Simon on hand bells. Ramshackle? Yes, but that's part of H&S' charm. April, Pitching Far Too High and Cotton Wool saw everyone playing musical chairs / instruments, like a pack of cards constantly reshuffling itself. Rich on double bass, with tape to show him where to put his fingers, Gary hiding behind drums and playing guitar, violins, ukuleles, you can't make this stuff up.

There was a point about half-way through when Simon came down among the tables just his voice and guitar for Looking For Answers, to which the whole audience joined in. It gives me a fantastic sense of 'belonging' to be part of a collective raising up of voices like that. Maybe I should have joined a choir, hey ho, it was brilliant.

Rolling Sideways had Gary on a tuba or euphonium, I'm not an expert on things brass, and the song segued into various covers. We had Living A Lie, Red Red Rose and a Lighter Side Of Life which Simon reckons to be their only love song. I'm not sure that's actually true but he's a plausible chap.

The encore featured a cover of Vince Clarke's Only You and a new song, Knotted Wood. This had a sing-along chorus for the audience "I will sail, my father's boat" which I was singing along to in a Geordie accent. Don't ask why, it just worked for me. The evening was brought to a close with Eurospin with most of the band disappearing then re-appearing off-stage playing brass instruments as they walked around and through the audience. Fantastic stuff. Yes, you get the unexpected but you also, always, get great entertainment and a great time. I cannot recommend this band highly enough, and all their music is available on a pay-what-you-want basis. How can you not give them a try?

Touchstone

Friday 30 March - to quote a friend "Good gigs are like buses, you wait for ages and then two come along together." Sadly, he missed both. Life sucks sometimes. Anyhow, tonight we pitched up at The Duchess for the first of said gigs, Touchstone. I've heard the name of the band on the periphery of my senses; the odd track on a Classic Rock compilation CD, a mention in magazines, winners of the Classic Rock Society Best New Band 2007, and they fall into the "prog" genre. I have none of their albums so really tonight was going to be a bit of a stab in the dark.

Not so the support band, The Heather Findlay Duo, which comprises local talent Heather Findlay (Mostly Autumn, Odin's Dragonfly, and now a solo artist) and Chris Johnson (Hazzard County, Evernauts, Mostly Autumn, Fish, Parade ...). Their set consisted of a range of material from their various projects, quite a lot taken from their own Live At The Cafe 68 album. Heather's voice was in fine form and Chris' acoustic guitar playing was up to it's usual very high standard, but somehow they managed to disappoint me as I was expecting / wanting something a bit more rock to set me up for the headliners. The one highlight was The Dogs from Parade's album The Fabric which segued into Iggy Pop's I Wanna Be Your Dog.

As previously mentioned, I had no real idea what to expect from Touchstone, but was immediately captivated by the first track, really quite heavy. The set comprised about a dozen songs, of which I think I managed to work out The City Sleeps, Joker In The Pack, Wintercoast, When Shadows Fall, Strange Days, and The Witness Pt2. They play a melodic prog rock style, sometimes quite heavy, with lyrics that are obviously full of grand stories. The bass lines are fantastic with Paul Moorghen swapping seamlessly between two Thumb NT 5-string instruments, almost identical except that one was fretless, a sound that I just love. Which is not to denigrate the excellence of the other band members; Kim Seviour has a voice both poised and brittle, that breathes life into their lyrics. Rob Cottingham is superb on keyboards with a style that does more than nod in the direction of early Genesis and Yes. Adam Hodgson is effortless on guitar, pulling his influences from Pink Floyd, Yes, and Joe Satriani. Top marks also go to Henry Rogers on drums evincing a Mike Portnoy feel to proceedings.

I hadn't intended to, but I purchased their Wintercoast album at the gig and, for my birthday, I got their latest, The City Sleeps. Two highly recommended albums and a band that I would definitely see again.

Zombie re-animated

Friday 10 February - It seemed as if it would be such an innocuous evening; popping down to The Duchess to watch Colin Blunstone, who I had vaguely heard of, and Stolen Earth, a local band who we hadn't yet managed to catch. We had a full turn out with six people in our little group, although two of them arrived too late to see the support.

SE are part of the tangled web of York musicians that orbit Mostly Autumn. The band comprises; Heidi Widdop on lead vocals, Adam Dawson on lead guitar, Paul Teasdale on bass, John Sykes on keyboards, and Barry Cassells on drums. They play atmospheric rock with a prog-feel, think early Genesis and Pink Floyd. But while they wear their roots on their sleeves, they are by no means derivative, producing interesting and original songs. They only had a short set list, four tracks in all, and all new to me. The final two were absolute stunners; Into The Virgin Snow (I think), and Perfect Wave. The band release their debut album shortly, it can be pre-ordered from the Stolen Earth website.

Onto the main event, Colin Blunstone who is an English pop singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the pop group The Zombies, and for his participation on various albums with The Alan Parsons Project. Colin's current band consists of; guitarist Tom Toomey (also a member of The Zombies), keyboard player Pete Billington, drummer Pat Illingworth, and, first surprise of the evening, bassist Chris Childs of Thunder and currently also playing with The Union.

Colin's set was broken into two halves, not surprising really given the overall length of his set. Of the songs themselves; we got The Zombies' single She's Not There, his solo effort (written by Denny Laine), and I Don't Believe In Miracles (penned by Russ Ballard). There were some covers; Track Of My Tears (Smokey Robinson) and What Becomes of the Brokenhearted (Jimmy Ruffin) I didn't realise but Colin contributed on Dave Stewart's 1980 cover of this one. Misty Roses, Time Of The Season, and Caroline Goodbye about Blunstone's break-up with the model and actress Caroline Munro, which he preceded with a warning to budding song-writers not to use people's real names! Old And Wise the hit single taken from the album Eye in the Sky by The Alan Parsons Project. We had ballads, and something bordering on jazz, rock/jazz fusion, and even a bit of prog rock. His output is prodigious and spans a huge variety of genres.

During the interval between his two sets I spotted a familar looking figure hovering at the merchandise stand, but couldn't really believe my eyes. Was that really American concert promoter David Gest? Indeed, it turned out, it was as two of our party approached him and shook his hand. As far as I can make out, he is currently staying at the Cedar Court Hotel in York and is looking to buy property in the area. He admitted to being a huge fan of Colin Blunstone, hence the reason he was at the gig. Surreal or what?

Time for a catch-up

Thursday 9 February – I haven't posted anything for a while. Actually, due to a combination of holidays, personal stuff, and a strange lack of much happening, musically, in York, I haven't been to a live gig yet this year. So what's this all about then? Well, my retrospective for 2011 was written before Christmas and I received a fair numbers of CDs over the festive period that ought, by rights, to be included in my 2011 round-up. So here goes:

First up is a real blast from the past, Voyage of the Acolyte + 1 by Steve Hackett. The original was released in 1975 as Steve's debut solo effort and I used to own this on vinyl. Sadly my vinyl collection is no more and so I invested in this, the 2005 re-mastered version of the album, which contains a couple of bonus tracks; a live version of Ace of Wands, and the extended playout version of Shadow of the Hierophant at a shade over 17 minutes long! Other contributors to the album include band mates Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, Sally Oldfield (sister of Mike), and Steve's brother, John. The album artwork, by Kim Poor, won Album Cover of the Year 1976. No prizes for guessing that I really like this album and was very pleased to have a copy back in my collection.

I received another non-2011 album, the eponymous offering from Black Country Communion which was released in 2010. I've come about this band from the wrong direction, starting from their second album, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this another brilliant product from Joe 'Bones' Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, and Derek Sherinian. Whilst the whole album shines, the standout track has to be One Last Soul which I saw they perform live at the High Voltage festival. Awesome.

Now on to the 2011 material, and Mr Bonamassa and Beth Hart first worked together when Beth provided vocals for the track No Love On The Street on Joe's 2011 album Dust Bowl. Later that year they got together to create an album of blues covers called Don't Explain. No one could complain about 10 gorgeously sung tracks from the likes of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Billy Holiday et al. This album is a simply a joy to listen to.

Sticking with blues guitarists, I received Robin Trower's new album, The Playful Heart. Basically this guy does what Hendrix would do if he was alive today as demonstrated by the track Dressed in Gold. Incredible guitar solos combined with thought-provoking lyrics deliver a powerful package. Trower shares the vocal duties on this album with Davey Pattison.

I've got the first two studio albums by The Answer. I thought the second was a slightly iffy so I was a bit dubious about getting the third, Revival, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is as good as their debut with strong songs, fantastic solos and catchy tunes. As an added bonus it came with a second CD containing some demo tracks and acoustic versions of album tracks. Not a duff track in sight and a total of 23 tracks over 2 CDs, what a brilliant bargain.

The next album from 2011 is in a completely different vein, Falling Deeper by Anathema. This is a reworking of the band's early 'doom' output. It's mostly lush, orchestral arrangements on which Sleep In Sanity and Sunset Of Age, in particular, benefit from the treatment. For those tracks with vocals, two feature Anneke Van Giersbergen on the reworked arrangements of Everwake and ...Alone, while Daniel Cavanagh and Lee Douglas share duties on the remainder of the tracks, all three showing remarkable vocal talents. Superb.

Finally, a sort of 2011 release, 10 Stories Down by The Pineapple Thief. This was the band's fourth album and was originally released in 2005 on the Cyclops label. This 2011 Kscope edition is presented in the same way as the originally limited double album release with the 8 Days Later album (which was never released separately) on CD2. This is one of my favourite bands at the moment and the album doesn't disappoint. With rather melancholic lyrics and slightly pop, but mostly prog instrumentation, each track features layers of sounds and melodies. Whilst both albums do benefit from repeated listening in order to captures the musical nuances involved, it's definitely well worth the effort as this is an outstanding product.