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.