Friday 7 December – the drizzle settles on York’s charcoal streets as, unobserved, the cosmonauts of rainbow consciousness roll into town. Light treads the step as one slips from the darkness of his own space/time, into the tallow-lit halls of the Roman Bath. Yep, it’s party time! And the band this week is, The Blueflies. A York-based three-piece specicalising in Free/Cream/Hendrix covers. The Blueflies consist of Miles Gilderdyke on guitar and vocal, Gavin Ewing on bass guitar, and Trevor “Fatha” King on drums and backing vocals. Miles cut his teeth in the ‘80s with Zoot and the Roots (which also featured Snake Davis of M people) and has worked with artists such as Ben E. King, Ron Wood, and Jools Holland. Gav started playing bass in a band with Miles 20 years ago when still at school. He also played in Zoot and the Roots. Trev was born in 1949 and got his first paid gig at 13 years old. He backed old stars such as Danny Williams, Tony Christie, Dorothy Squires, Max Wall, Freddy Starr, Faith Brown, Bill Maynard etc. He met Miles in the early 80s (he was his milkman!!), and has played on and off with him and Gav ever since. As Miles had decided that this was to be a Christmas show, each tune was suffixed by a cheesy Christmas Carol. Hmm, might have been better to wait until after the applause, or even better, just a quick five minute set of carols. Anyway, it was all done in the best of spirits and they are a jolly fantastic band to watch. Throughly recommended.
Saturday 8 December – the winds of Thor are blowing cold, but it’s nice and warm inside Fibbers as we get ready for tonight’s line-up. I’d not heard of any of the bands but the write up sounded pretty good and it was only £4 to get in. First up was Record Department, a four-piece from Leeds comprising Jonny (Guitar, Kaoss pad, vocals), Pinnell (Drums), Jon (Guitar), and Ryan (Bass). Uh, what’s a Kaoss pad? Well, it’s a small touchpad MIDI controller, sampler, and effects processor for audio and musical instruments made by Korg, as used by Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead), Matt Bellamy (of Muse who has one embedded in his guitar), Brian Eno, and many more. Jonny (of Record Department) has his mounted on a street bollard and he alternated between singing and playing his guitar and twiddling with the pad. He looked like a madman dashing about but the chaos (ha ha) worked and they make a brilliant sound. Even better than that, my dears, the band handed out free sampler CDs (I got one of course) with three of their excellent songs on: “Peace and Quiet”, “Great Expectations”, and “White Lies”. I liked this band. The trouble was, were the other two going to be better, or worse?
Ding, ding. Round 2 (not a very sly reference to a boxing match that never reached the second round on Saturday, and one where our man came second in the early hours of Sunday). It’s York band Apply the Brakes, and really, they should have. They played everything at about twice the speed it should have been, so everything sounded the same. The only respite was the final ditty which started slow, went a bit faster, and ended slow. The band consisted of: Tom Nightingale (Fast guitar/vocals), Danny Stacey (Fast lead guitar), and Freddie Cornes (Drummer boy). There was a poppet wandering around handing out CDs but I kept my hands in my pockets.
And finally, for your delight and delectation....Arcadian (cf Arcas, the son of Zeus and Callisto. Accidently killed his mother while she was a bear and Zeus put them in the sky as Ursa Major and Minor). Er, excuse me but there isn’t a link. No, that’s because there website is just a holding page and therefore neither use nor ornament. This band was first seen poking its heads over the parapet in the 2006 Battle of the Bands, Round 1 Heat 5 at Certificate 18. Singer Jim seemingly wanted to start a fight with the mic, staring it down every time he approached it and drummer Mike cheerily swung his head around in sheer pleasure of playing. But the only number that really worked was the bluesy final song. They were better than Apply the Brakes, but not as good as Record Department and I wasn’t hanging around to see if there were any CDs on offer. There’s more music on to be found tonight...
We quickly dashed (well, strolled) into the city centre and the roman Bath where Smart Move were playing. I was sure that I’d seen these before but there was a different drummer last time. Tonight they had Howard “the drummer” Sparnenn (he of Breathing Space and Flight fame) on skins. Smart Move bill themselves as a Rock/Funky covers band, but fortunately it was way more Rock than Funk, the closest was a bit of Average White Band. Smart Move normally consist of: Dave Smith (Vocals/Guitar), John Greenwood (Vocals/Bass), Andrew Bone (Vocals/Lead Guitar), and Steve Jackson (Vocals/Drums). Despite missing half their act we were treated to a good selection of covers and had a jolly good time. They are another band that I would highly recommend anyone to see.
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