Friday 25 September - kicked off a weekend with potentially fatal consequences for my liver; two nights of beer and music, and a stag 'do'. We started at The Roman Bath where I met up with A and two of our American cousins. We were there to watch Full Tilt, a heavier-than-yer-average-covers-band, a four-piece from Bradford comprising: Derek Moulson (Lead vocals & guitar), Jim Croisdale (Lead guitar), Andy Bucaltizn (Bass guitar), and Darren O'Grady (Drums). Relying on my dodgy memory I can recall; AC/DC (Whole Lotta Rosie, Highway To Hell), Deep Purple (Black Night), Puddle of Mudd (She Hates Me), Kinks (Really Got Me Going), Guns 'n' Roses (Knocking' on Heaven's Door), Whitesnake (Fool For Your Loving), Cameo (Word Up), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way), Ozzy Osbourne (Crazy Train), Metallica (Enter The Sandman ), Blur (Song 2), and Judas Priest (Breaking The Law). There were more, but after three pints of John Smith's the memories slip away like cobwebs in a breeze. For an encore they did Rage Against The Machine's Killing in the Name, not for the faint-hearted but certainly a crowd-pleaser. Highly recommended.
Sunday 27 September - Saturday slipped by in an alcoholic fug of fine ales, fish and chips, and crowded bars full of posers (that'll be Kennedy's and the Slag and Luggage then.) And, so to Sunday where I rehabilitated my body by gently soaking it in Theakston's XB and listening to more music at The Duchess. The first band were already playing as we entered. The Troubadors (On SpaceBook) are an electro-acoustic due from West Yorkshire, comprising "Big" Steve Chapman Smith and "Lil'" Andy Healey. The sound was mixed superbly, and we were treated to a set of folky sort of protest songs, in a style reminiscent of Lindisfarne or The Strawbs. I remember one song called Lost Faith, about the loss of faith in our politicians, another, Broken Bridge about mine workers in Pontefract (Ponte Fractus means broken bridge in Latin and Old French, but Smart Alecs might want to read this article as well.) Anyway, they finished with a cover of The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want, with Steve on an electric mandolin. Top stuff.
For round two, we had a completely different outfit, The Dark Roads. They sounded like Johnny Cash sung by an Indie band. Fantastic songs; Let Go Love, Redwood Hill, Lazy Eye, Santa Fe, and something possibly called Speedball Blues. Highly recommended.
Finally, the headline act, Band Of Heathens. Now it was a bit of a shame really, because these five guys had travelled all the way from Austin, Texas, to play for about fifty of us. In the words of the band, "it would really suck if there were, like, twenty less of you." However, the small crowd made up for numbers by being particularly vocal. BOH consist of: Ed Jurdi (Guitar, Keys, Harmonica, Vocals), Gordy Quist (Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals), Colin Brooks (Guitar, Dobro, Lapsteel, Vocals), Seth Whitney (Bass, Vocals), and John Chapman (Drums, Percussion). They started the set with a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' Sin City. After that I started getting a bit paranoid, I was seeing signs of Christian Fundamentalism everywhere. The band's monitors covered a sign "the duchess" so it read "he de..uss" (He is God?) and there was a song with Hallelujah in the chorus, and another about letting the light shine it. There was a bloke in front of us who writhed about as though possessed. It was OK for A, with his mop of white hair he looked like an angel; me, I was wearing a t-shirt adorned with a glow-in-the-dark grim reaper. I could have been swinging from a gibbet by the end of the evening, especially when they sang Hangin' Tree and lead vocalist Gordy fixed me with a steely glare! Things settled down about half-way through the set and I relaxed into the music; Cornbread, Jackson Station, and more. Again, a thoroughly brilliant band and one I would heartily recommend. In fact I would have been quite happy to part with a tenner to watch any one of the three bands that played. What an excellent night.
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