Saturday 20 September - and York is heaving tonight, lots of small groups, couples, and marauding packs of hen parties in pink Stetsons. I ducked into The Roman Bath, glad to be out of the flow of human traffic. It was getting crowded already and rightly so as The Mojos were playing here tonight. I've reviewed these guys before so regular readers will be aware that this York 5-piece covers band are extremely professional and very, very good indeed. They play classic covers from the '50s right up to the present day. The band consist of: Dave (vocals and guitar), Andy (lead guitar and vocals), John (bass guitar and vocals), Mark (keyboards), and for one night only, Hannah (drums). I'm sure I heard Dave say that Hannah was only sixteen and played in her own band (Hannah and the Junk Funk). I tell, you that girl sure could play, amazing.
The band kicked off with Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd), and they were just finishing as my friend arrived, shouldering his way through a now densely packed bar. Now here I'm going to cheat because Andy (lead guitar) provided me with the set list after their gig. This means that I don't have to rely on my brain cells surviving the onslaught of John Smith's in order to let you know what they played. So the rest of the first-half consisted of: Bohemian Like You (Dandy Warhols), Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry), I Want To Break Free (Queen), You Are All I Have (Snow Patrol), Another One Bites The Dust (Queen) with a segue into Superstition (Stevie Wonder), Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs), Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry), Power Of Love (Huey Lewis & The News).
During the break we were visited by Legs Elenavitch, the Russian Spy. She was dressed in a very alluring manner and it soon became clear why as she started pumping us for information about the siting of American missiles on Polish soil and the plight of the South Ossetians. As the band prepared for the second half of their act, Legs excused herself and headed off into the night. Up to no good I'll be bound!
The second half consisted of: Don't Sop Me Now (Queen), Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams), I Believe In A Thing Called Love (The Darkness), Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits), Hold The Line (Toto), Summer Of '69 (Bryan Adams), Gimme Some Lovin (Spencer Davis Group), Sweet Child o' Mine (Guns 'n' Roses), Jump (Van Halen), Livin' On A Prayer (Bon Jovi), Rockin' All Over The World (Status Quo). And in the midst of all this is a mega-medley consisting of (according to Dave) fourteen songs. I was too busy playing 'spot-the-riff', where John (lights at the The Duchess) proved how good he was, to count them, so I'll take his word for it.
The Mojos were, as expected, excellent, and I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who has seen them yet. By a strange coincidence, as I was walking home and listening to my p-pod, which was on shuffle, I was listening to Gimme Some Lovin' as covered by Thunder. Top track.
Friday 19 September - and all four of the Friday-Nighters are out to see one of our favourite local bands, Hope&Social, at The Duchess. We all arrived pretty early and I have to say that punters were very thin on the ground. Still, sipping my Theakstons XB, I didn't much care, more room for me as I settled in to watch the support bands.
First up were Blue Jupiters. These are a 3-piece outfit from Thirsk and Ripon currently being managed by Mike Heaton (drummer for Embrace). The line-up consists of: Ben H (guitar, keys, and vocals), Simon Goff (bass, strings and backing vocals), and Ben Middleton (drums and backing vocals). They started off, like so many indie bands do, with the machine-gun style of guitar playing where one song sounds the same as every other. Things improved after about four tracks when they were joined onstage by a chap who played keyboards and they slowed down to what I would describe as a normal tempo. Aall of a sudden they were really pretty good. If they can shake off the formula-indie sound, this band has great potential. Stand out songs for me: Never the End, Pipe Dreamer, Temporary Love, Bury You Alive, and Pawn And King.
Second on the bill were Leeds-based Dorien Starre. The band consist of: Leo Derevonko (lead vocals & rhythm guitar), Alex Derevonko (bass guitar & backing vocals), Ian Talton (lead guitar & backing vocals), Andrew Ackroyd (drums & woodblock). The Yang to the Blue Jupiter's Yin, these started off slow and then degenerated into the formulaic indie guitar shredding. Again, what a shame. I liked Bonnie, and Evergreen Girl, but in a league of it's own was Human Future. What a brilliant song.
It was time for Hope&Social (on MyFace) and I was disappointed for the band at the lack of people that had turned up. From a purely selfish perspective it was great. I ended up two feet from the stage and there was little or no talking going on. For the uninitiated, Hope&Social are a Leeds 5-piece formerly known as Four Day Hombre with a small clutch of quality CDs to their name. The band consist of: Simon Wainwright (vocals/guitars/piano), Rich Huxley (guitars/vocals/piano/rhodes), Ed Waring (keyboards), J (bass), on drums, I think his name was Mike, not the usual chap anyway, ooh and there was a trumpet players as well called James. This gig was part of a tour to promote their first offering under the new moniker, a 5 track ep. The band played the new material plus old 4DH tracks from the albums Experiments In Living and One Footer Louder - Acoustic In Harlem. It was a fantastic gig especially when Simon got the audience to press closer to the stage and he and Rich sang/played without microphones to us, and winding up with the audience singing along on backing vocals. Brilliant. Of the new material I especially liked These Walls, Heaven Falls, and Buzzer Goes. I'm looking forward to the album with baited credit card.
The night was relatively young, so on leaving The Duchess we headed across to our usual watering hole, The Roman Bath, where a covers band called Go Commando were playing. The only lasting impression I have of the band is when they played Don't Leave Me This Way as part of a medley I believe. I used to like the song when it charted for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and later for Thelma Houston, but it was sullied by The Communards version. Ah, that's what two pints of XB and one of John Smiths does to my brain
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