Friday evening and in a slight departure from the usual we decided to pay a visit to Certificate 18 and check out The Scaramanga Six. We figured that we would be done in time to catch most of the second half of Hazzard County anyway.
Arriving at C18 I took a quick glance at the band list, no names that I recognised, not that that means much! I turned up as the first band were playing their penultimate song. They sounded pretty good. They were
Tractor Factory, a five piece from Goole. The vocalist, Mike Redford, looked a bit like a cross between Ian Dury and Robbie Williams and he had a strong voice. I wish I had arrived earlier because they were clearly a class act. The full line was: Mike Redford (vocals), Andy Robinson (guitar), Richard Wilson (guitar), Julian Read (bass), Martin Dobson (drums).
Next up were York band Stop! Motion. Oh dear, I think these boys have been listening to way too much Arctic Monkeys. It wasn’t an original sound and it wasn’t really well executed. There were a few occasions when the drummer and the guitars were slightly out of time. Nul points, sorry. The line up was: Chris Parsons (Lead Vocal/Rhythm Guitar/Occasional Synth), Thom Dann (Lead Guitar/Synth/Vocals), Mike Coleman (Bass Guitar), and Jonty Brown ( Drums).
Band three were the GST Cardinals, formed around 2005 in Hull and featuring: Dave Sinclair (Lead vocals), Matthew Edwards (Lead guitar), Alex (Rhythm guitar), Karl (Bass guitar), and Ollie Boyce (Drums). These were definitely an improvement; rock and roll with a splash of punk and Dave constantly jumping around in the audience making us all feel at home. It was a shame that the crowd were so thin. In fact it seemed as if the majority of the audience were actually the members of the other bands!
And finally, for your delectation, before your very eyes, Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Scaramanga Six! Yes really, they are that dramatic. Sort of, Rocky Horror Show collides with Beastie Boys on guitars. Lead vocals and bass are provided by Steven Morricone, looks like Emperor Ming/Derren Brown on a bad day. Extremely classy crooning and guitar work from twin brother Paul. Over there to the left is a lady, Julia Arnez, on a splangy blue guitar (I prefer my red spangly one, but hey) giving out the occasional vocal harmony. Maraca Gareth Champion (come on, that can’t be his real name) is on drums and hits them as though he’s trying to kill them. Last, but not least, Chris Catalyst (yea right) who picks up and plays whatever is closest to hand, mainly the second set of drums and the synth. He stares fixedly ahead like the mad one from Sparks. I understand that Steven and Paul hail from Weston-Super-Mare although the band in toto comes from Huddersfield. The songs are theatrical, pompous, rock at the very limit of its definition. I remember “Vesuvius” with eyes of magma, and “I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve” (didn’t Rory Gallagher do a track called that?) Deliciously sinister stuff, highly recommended.
On the way out I take the band list. Hey, I’ve had two pints and I might forget who they were, then there would be no blog! We trot down Gillygate and through Bootham Bar to the Old White Swan. As expected, Hazzard County have just started their second set so another round of beers and pin back the ears. It’s NZ Dave (acoustic/vocals), Country John (lead guitar), Tom (drums), and Paddy (bass) tonight.
Saturday. I’m not a well bunny. Something wrong with my ears... nah you don’t want to listen to me whingeing on. Anyway up, it was “Seven Ages of Rock” focussing this week on heavy metal. This is a genre that I started in and then came back to later in life. One of the first albums I ever owned was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, from there I progressed to Deep Purple. I managed to miss the worse of the Glam Metal brigade, Motley Crue, and the rubbishy American bands with their poddle hair. I only hooked upgain with heavy metal when Bruce Dickinson re-joined Iron Maiden. Sadly, this is a genre that spans four decades of music and there was no way that a single programme was going to be able to do justice to the entire range of music that HM has opened up. Perhaps we could have new series just for HM? A forlorn hope. Still the programme itself was extremely good and I’m looking forward to the next one. I bet there’s a DVD in the offing. I bet I buy it!
Sunday’s F1 race was the Canadian Grand Prix from Montreal. During qualifying, Hamilton managed to bag pole position, Nick Heidfeld had a brilliant bit of form that gave him P3 leaving Kimi back on P4. The Montreal circuit is pretty hairy at the best of times but the attrition rate was high and included a blood-curdling smash involving Robert Kubica. Fortunately it appears that he has escaped with just a broken leg. Alsonso slithered all over the place and ended up finishing seventh. Webber had a great race but faded towards the end. The final podium finishers were: Hamiltion first, Heidfeld second, and Wutz in third. What a brilliant and thrilling race.
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