Say your prayers little one/Don’t forget, my son/To include everyone

Friday 12 June - we couldn’t decide on a single venue this week, so The Druid ended up at The Duchess to watch Ezio and Aimee J Ryan, (see The Druid’s Thoughts for a review) whilst A (plus newbie L) and I headed for Fibbers to see three bands. It was almost a replay of last week’s gig as the audience, and the bands, were very young, probably 15/16 years of age. This meant that there was a lot of youngsters running around squealing and hugging each other.

Anyway, as the first band took to the stage, we settled in to see what would unfold. Thrive are a four piece from York. According to their FaceSpace entries their names are; William George Cunningham Blackstock (vocals, bass), Robert Henry Anderson (guitar), Jamie Alexander David Wade (guitar), and Jack William Joseph Leaf (drums). I have to say that songs such as; Marmite Memories, Going Nowhere, and Potential to Succeed, certainly proved winners for me, the drumming was superb, at points nearly tribal, the bass was brilliant, and the vocals had good dynamic range often lacking in younger people. So, a great start to the evening.

Sadly, I wasn’t as impressed with second band, Littlemores. I’m guessing that they are from York. The band consists of Conor Hirons, Kai West, and Jack Williams. Now I don’t mind a bit of ska/punk, but a whole set delivered with monotonal vocals really doesn’t do it for me. Here is a band that needs to develop some variety in their songs.

Was this going to be a gig that starts good then goes downhill, or could the last band salvage our approval? Nothing so black and white. Headliners The Standbys have at least their bass player from York, and I suspect the rest are as well. They consist of; James Barton (vocals, guitars), Helgi Clayton McClure (vocals, bass), Matt Ashby (guitar), and Joel Batty (drums). Billed as Alt Garage/Rock they produced interesting songs, significantly better then the Littlemores but never reaching the heights of Thrive. Still, great value for a fiver!

As we had an early finish, and hoping to catch up with The Druid to see how his gig went, we headed for The Roman Bath to catch the second half of DSQ a very popular covers band. So popular indeed that we had to queue up outside until a few people exited, The Bath was packed to capacity. DSQ is basically a band formed by workmates at Castle BMW in York, the name an abbreviation of Dave Stanley Quartet (except there's six of them!) I’m not sure about their current lineup, certainly they have Mickey Adamson (vocals), and Dave Stanley (guitar). Mickey we recognised as being the vocalist from 80's band Flight. In 2006 they had Rob (guitar), Rainey (bass), Nick (keyboard), and Shaun (drums), but we semi-recognised the keyboard player, quite a young chap, as possibly playing in Free Spirit (thanks Ian). We got a good sprinkling of well-played covers; Van Halen Jump, Snow Patrol Chasing Cars, The Beatles Standing There, Def Leppard Animal, Van Morrison Brown-Eyed Girl, Steppenwolf Born To Be Wild, Bee Gees Staying Alive, Wild Cherry Play That Funky Music, and a highlight for me, Tom Jones Delilah. The last song was played in the style of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who covered Delilah in 1975 (when it reached 7 in the UK Top Ten) and was memorable for me for Zal Cleminson’s evil “ha ha ha” bit, fantastic!

No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space.

Friday 5 June - we've seen a lot of covers bands recently so tonight we dipped our toes in the younger local scene with four bands at The Duchess. We missed the first band, The Strides, sorry guys. More disturbing was the average age of the audience which left us more mature folk looking like mums and dads at a school disco.

Anyway, band number two took to the stage to the delight of the screaming children who insisted on hugging each other and jumping up and down in delight. Dressed In Their Best come, I think from York, a four piece consisting of James Shaw (vocals/rhythm guitar), Danny Petrie (lead), Robbie Johnson (drums), and Shane Hunter (bass). They sounded like a very young, raw Jimmy Eat World but with a more fractured way of playing their songs. The sound was a bit muddy, this seemed to apply to all three bands tonight, but there were definitely a couple of reasonable tunes in there and the drumming was particularly good.

Next up were The Gilligans a band we've missed on previous occasions. Five cheeky chaps from York; James, Mike, Ben, Andy (the drummer I think), and Rince (Tyler?). It was difficult to concentrate on the music given the games of British Bulldog and sliding across the floor on your knees that the males in the audience were indulging in. That doesn't scan very well but I think you get what I mean. There was a good tune in there somewhere but I might have missed it.

Finally we heard The Station Club, a four piece, rock/indie/new wave band from York. The band are: Mikey Wilson (vocals/guitar), Tommy Martin (bass), Jimmy Martin (synths), and Dan (drums). These were much better than their predecessors, especially towards the end. They started, I think, with Streetlights a new song, and somewhere along the line they played Let's Start Again, Stars, and Only We Know. They rounded off with what was, for me, their best track, Brand New Day.

Given the youthfulness of the audience, it's not surprising that the gig ended fairly early in the evening so 'A' and I made our way to The Roman Bath where we were expecting to see Angerbart but when we got there the Bath it was bare so we dashed down Parliament Street to The Terrace instead. Tonight singer/acoustic guitarist Marc Atkinson was playing. Marc provides a list of songs he knows and lets the audience select their favourites from the list, so you get to listen to exactly what you want. He plays a good mixture of Crowded House, James Blunt, Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Bon Jovi, Seal, Don Mclean... There wasn't a lot of people in The Terrace, the silenced TVs showed some boxing and highlights from the Twenty20 England match against the Netherlands (oh dear). The beer was good and Marc's playing provided the perfect backdrop to a chilled out end to the evening.

Lay where you're laying, don't make a sound/I know they're watching, they're watching

Friday 29 May - I'm starting with a couple of observations. Firstly, going back to the MPs expenses scandal; I wonder who it was in the House of Commons Fees Office that actually signed off such outrageous expenses as a duck island or moat cleaning? Maybe that person should be investigated and/or sacked. Also, I'm beginning to think that it's time to break up the three party system full of career politicians, and vote in loads of Independents.

Second observation. Despite managing to miss most of the kerfuffle about Britain's Got Talent, as one of my daughters was at my house at the time, I was forced to endure the final of on Saturday. Fortunately, the only act that showed the slightly iota of talent did win. But, it beggars belief that the rest of rubbish (a) should be considered to have any talent at all (b) is the best that Britain has to offer.

On Friday 'A' and I indulged in a double-header of local, actual talent. We started in The Terrace to watch Flashback, (and on SpaceFace) a three-piece from York comprising; Kev (bass/vocals), Pete (guitar/vocals), and Phil (drums/vocals). The band attempt to replicate the sounds of the early beat groups of Hamburg and Liverpool's Cavern Club. It was different from most of the covers band that we see, we heard such tunes as; Dave Clark Five Glad All Over, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas Do You Want To Know A Secret?, The Beatles I Saw Her Standing There, and The Rolling Stones All Over Now. They played very competently but I find '60s music lacking in variety so after our first pint we decamped to The Roman Bath where Stealer were *not* playing, instead it was our old friends The Mojos.

Always an excellent set of covers, played very well indeed. We were treated to at least the following and probably more: Genesis Turn It On Again, Dire Straits Sultans of Swing, Whitesnake Here I Go Again, Bryan Adams Summer Of '69, The Darkness I Believe In A Thing Called Love, Guns n' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine, Bon Jovi Livin' On A Prayer, The Proclaimers 500 Miles, U2 Vertigo, Queen Don't Sop Me Now, Robbie Williams Let Me Entertain You, Spencer Davis Group Gimme Some Lovin, Kings of Leon Sex on Fire, Status Quo Rockin' All Over The World. Jackie Wilson Lifting Me Higher, The Jam Town Called Malice, The Feeling Love It When You Call, Simple Minds Don't You Forget About Me, Jamiroquai Cosmic Girl, plus their usual big medley of about 10/12 songs. Highly recommended.

Oh God said to Abraham kill me a son/Abe said man you must be puttin me on

Friday 22 May - and we are at a different venue tonight, The Grand Opera House in York to see one of my all-time guitar heroes, Johnny Winter. The problem I have with the GOH is the fact that it's an all-seated venue so this is starting a bit strange and I realise that I'll probably be in for a 'numb-bum' by the send of the session. Still, we are in the Dress Circle so should get a good view. Support was from Ian Siegal a British blues singer/guitarist very much on the roots side of the genre. He has a voice like Tom Waits and writes lyrics with a strong sense of humour. Currently touring with Andy Graham (bass) and Nikolaj Bjerre (drums) I think everything he played/sang were his own compositions as I didn't recognise a single song. The lyrics were a bit indistinct, possibly due to the acoustics of the GOH, I've not sat in the Circle before, but I certainly enjoyed the Mortal Coil Shuffle off his 2007 album, Swagger.

During the interval The Druid and I caught up on recent music purchases while 'A' wandered around the building admiring the architecture. Then it was on to the headline act, John Dawson Winter III, the cross-eyed albino Texas blues legend. We kicked off with an instrumental by Johnny's band; Paul Nelson (guitar), Scott Spray (bass), and Tony Beard (drums) which was very well executed. Then Johnny himself came on stage and I have to say that my heart went out to him. He looked every day of his 65 years, barely able to shuffle onstage unaided. Apparently he suffered an injury to his hip back in October 2000 following a fall. The damage was severe enough that he had to undergo surgery to correct the problem, but he seems to be suffering the effects of that injury to this day. He performed the entire set whilst sitting on a chair and using a vintage dew drop-shaped 'headless' Steinberger guitar switching to a 1963 Gibson Firebird V for the encore. For me, the Firebird has a much nicer tone, the Steinberger sounded very shrill.

He has an exquisite voice but the lyrics were once more lost in the acoustics of the GOH. To be brutally honest he didn't really seem to hit his stride until about half-way through the set when he played Hendrix's Red House. After that things definitely improved with his own Mojo Boogie, Derringer's Rock 'n' Roll, Hoochie Koo, Ray Charles's Blackjack, Larry William's Bony Moronie, The Rolling Stones' It's All Over Now, and finally Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. As was pointed out to me later "so we've just heard an old bloke play a bunch of covers?" and I guess that's about the size of it, but it's the manner of his playing that makes it special, It's All Over Now was practically unrecognisable.

It almost seems like sacrilege but we left the GOH and immediately headed across town to the Roman Bath where Storm were playing and just kicking off the second half of their set. Storm are a 4-piece rock covers band from Huddersfield whom we've seen before. They played; Van Halen (Jump), The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Darkness (I Believe In A Thing Called Love), Prince (Purple Rain), Bryan Adams (Summer of '69), Wilson Pickett/The Commitments (Mustang Sally), Madness (Baggy Trousers), Whitesnake (Here I Go Again), Lenny Kravitz (Are you Gonna go my way), Green Day (Basket Case), and Alvin and the Chipmunks (Let's Do The Time Warp Again). The last being their nadir, a song where they insist on a female in the audience naming a rude body part for us to "put your hands on...". I really wish they would drop this from what is otherwise a pretty decent act.

She's quite the mediator/A smoother operator you will never see

Friday 15 May - Sorry, I'm starting with a rant (skip rant). Just what is it with MP's expenses? I travel to work, at my own expense. I feed myself, at my own expense. I don't expect my employer to shell out for either, or to subsidise a second home nearer my place of work. OK, MPs effectively have two jobs, one in their constituency and one at the Houses of Parliament, and for some MPs these are a significant distance apart. But if I was going to another part of the country on company business, I would get travel and a hotel paid for. It's not rocket science. Parliament should designate a boundary within which the MPs constituency and the Houses of Parliament are considered 'local' i.e. no expenses are paid at all. Outside of that boundary 'remote' MPs get travel expenses between their constituency and London only. Parliament already has a canteen, so there's no need for meal allowances. There should be an apartment block (run like a hotel so they book in) for remote MPs to stay in. For those MPs who want a meal or a drink (at their own expense of course) the apartment block could be equipped with restaurants and bars and the profits from these could be used to offset the cost of the apartments. These guys and gals are clever enough to be running the country; they should be able to sort this out. Rant over.

So, Friday night at the Roman Bath and it's heaving with the detritus of the York racing crowd, blokes in their suits and women in their big hats and bigger heels, all blathered and falling over. We, on the other hand, are here to see Scandal, a covers band but one that we really like. The band are: Ian Mann (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ady Ingleby (bass), Alan Hopwood (drums), Jamie Reynolds (lead guitar), and not to forget Paul Hopwood working the lights. Scandal are, IMHO, one of the very best covers bands I've ever seen and I throughly recommend them to anyone who gets the opportunity to see them.

Dedging through my memories on Saturday morning I managed to note down the following list of tunes I heard (at least in my head): Dr. Feelgood (I Can Tell), ZZ Top (Gimme All Your Lovin', La Grange, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Sharp Dressed Man, Tush, Pincushion), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama), Cream (Badge, White Room), Hendrix (Hey Joe, Voodoo Chile, Purple Haze, Red House), Bob Dylan (All Along the Watchtower), Willie Dixon (Hoochie Koochie Man), Stevie Ray Vaughan (Look At Little Sister), BBM (Can't Fool The Blues), Gary Moore (Cold Day in Hell), Bob Seger (Rosalie), and Thin Lizzy (Cowboy Song, The Boys Are Back in Town). The Bob Seger one was a surprise to me as I always thought that it was a Lizzy song, but I live and learn.

Keep your eyes on the road/Your hands upon the wheel

Friday 8 May - and in a slight change to the norm, we are off tonight for White Beer and Stealer down at The Terrace. Bit of a cock-up on the beer front, White Beer no longer available, have to settle for the John Smith's Cask, suits me anyway. Actually, bit of a cock-up on the Stealer front because I only recognised Tivvy, the drummer that looks like Mick Aston from Time Team, from the line-up we'd seen before.

Nil desperandum, they look the biz and indeed sounded the biz as they churned out a bevvy of heavier-than-usual rock covers. I have to confess that when they stopped at half-time for 10 minute break, we legged it to The Roman Bath to check out The Players, who we hadn't heard before. Imagine our surprise to see a bloke on some decks and a bunch of 'ladies' doing The Conga. Needless to say we didn't get more than three paces inside the door before turning tail and dashing back to The Terrace.

So, onto the exciting bit where I exercise my drink-fuelled memory and try to dredge up a list of the cover tracks Stealer played, in-complete naturally: The Kinks You Really Got Me, Robert Palmer Bad Case Of Loving You, Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama, The Who Won't Get Fooled Again, AC/DC High Voltage Rock And Roll and Whole Lotta Rosie, Neil Young Rocking In The Free World, UFO Too Hot to Handle, The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter, RainbowAll Night Long, and The Doors Roadhouse Blues. For the last one I have to apologise to 'A' as he was sure The Doors did it but I brow-beat him into believing it was Status Quo. In fact The Doors wrote and released it as a single from their 1970 album Morrison Hotel. Status Quo covered it on their 1972 Piledriver album. Oh well, I learn something new every day.

And we kissed, as though nothing could fall/Nothing could fall

Sunday 3 May - It was a busy weekend. Yesterday we had a suit fitting for my youngest daughter's wedding, an opportunity for me to strut my stuff in jeans and an Edwardian frock coat. Very fetching. Then we took lunch at The Happy Valley Chinese café, the best Chinese food in York, and ended up at mine to watch "School of Rock" as we frittered the remainder of the day away. Sunday was bookended with bacon and eggs for breakfast and a Sunday roast for nine people for dinner (that's tea if you're not as posh what I am). Then I kicked everyone else out of the house, because tonight we had a full turn out down at The Duchess for "A Night For Heroes" a charity event in aid of Angela's Gift in memory of Howard Sparnenn who died aged 55 at 2pm on Sunday 4 May 2008 of a brain tumour.

Six bands, all of which Howard had been involved with, had come together in a celebration of his life, and there were a fair few faces in the crowd that were familiar as well. The event kicked off with Smart Move, a band set up by vocalist and guitarist Dave Smith and Howard shortly before he fell ill. In fact SM seem to consist of mostly Mojos, with John Greenwood on bass, and Andrew Bone on vocals and lead guitar. Non-Mojo Steve Jackson was on drums and I think another Mojo, Mark, was on Keyboards. They turned out a short set of classic covers such as: Genesis Turn It On, Dire Straits Sultans of Swing, Queen Tie Your Mother Down, Whitesnake Here I Go Again....

Next up were a band that we'd seen on a couple of occasions, initially when Howard was drumming for them, Freeway. These played a heavier set, stuff like: Thin Lizzy Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town, Black Sabbath Paranoid, UFO Doctor Doctor, Judas Priest Breaking The Law, and a Deep Purple medley of Hush, Strange Kind Of Woman, Black Night, and Woman From Tokyo.

Apparently Howard's favourite band were Free, I thought he raised his daughters on a diet of Thunder but hay hoe. Anyway, another band that Howard was involved with was Free Spirit who consist of Garry Barrett (vocals and guitar), John Simpson (lead guitar), Gavin Paradiso (bass), John Halder (drums), and Simon Waggot (keyboards). These played covers by Free Wishing Well and Stealer, Bad Company Running With The Pack, Seagull, Bad Company, and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, and Frankie Miller Jealousy. There were others but the pints of Landlord were beginning to rot my brain cells.

Back in the 70s, when Howard first met his wife-to-be, Jeanette, he was drumming for a band that he co-founded called Flight. The original line-up then consisted of Mick Adamson (vocals), Pete Martin (guitar), Kevin Nickson (bass), and Howard (drums). After two singles they changed their name to Bulldog Breed and Howard was supplanted by Steve Roberts. So for our fourth band of the evening Flight had re-formed, for one night only, and played some of their original material, including the 1974 singles What Am I To Do With You and It's Only Money, plus some of the Bulldog Breed material.

As a drummer Howard contributed to a number of bands including Flight, Rocket 3, Freeway, Inivitro, The Occasional Band, Free Spirit, and sometimes Breathing Space whose lead singer is his daughter, Livvy. BS were fielding a few substitutes in their line-up tonight; Livvy and the brothers Jennings were joined by Andy and Bryan from Mostly Autumn, and Gary "Harry" James from the legendary Thunder on drums. They were also joined by Anne-Marie Helder on flute for The Gap Is Too Wide. My daughters insisted that I got a picture of Harry (Thunder is our favourite band) but for all my efforts all I managed was a shot of him wiping his face with a towel. Such is life.

The headline act was Mostly Autumn who interrupted their current tour (2 May Holmfirth, 8 May Lincoln) to be here tonight and provided a full hour from their current tour set. They gave an impressive and powerful performance ending with Heroes Never Die. By this time my legs were aching from having been standing for over six hours. There was no encore but the audience were asked to move back a bit and a screen was put into position. The evening was concluded with a clip of film from the 80s showing Howard performing a drum solo lasting over 5 minutes. A great end to a great evening.