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.