Friday 4 December - a special day for me, personally and musically. But enough with the mush and let's look at the music. This was date two of a very special trio of gigs for Josh & Co Limited and their support Parade. On 14 November they kicked off at Esquires, Bedford, tonight they were at The Duchess, York, and on 13 December they will be at The Robin 2, Bilston.
The prog-rock scene in York has slowly been coalescing into a musical collective, centered around Mostly Autumn, that is spawning a variety of high quality side projects. The support band, Parade, consisted of Chris Johnson (vocals, guitars, keys), Simon Snaize (guitar), Anne-Marie Helder (vocals, guitars, keys), Patrick "Paddy" Berry (bass), and Gavin Griffiths (drums). Chris, Simon and Paddy have played at various times, for Hazzard County, an alt-country covers band whose line-up was somewhat fluid. Simon and Chris have always sought to develop their song writing skills into original material, each appearing as solo artists in their own right. Chris has been in Mostly Autumn and Fish's band. Gavin is a fellow Fish bandmate and he and Anne-Marie also feature in both Panic Room and Mostly Autumn. Are you keeping up? Just to confuse the lay punter further, Bryan Josh also came on-stage to perform the guitar solos for Diamond, and Ending.
Parade have garnered enough material already to put out an album, The Fabric, which they are touring. The album is available at gigs and will be also available retail from January through a distribution deal with Voiceprint. As far as I could tell, and I hadn't heard any of the material before, they pretty much did most of the album. Highlights for me were Start Again, a very heavy The Dogs, the lyrically superb Feedline and dreamy Ending, although I enjoyed every single track, and had no hesitation in acquiring the album. Are they prog-rock? Well, some bits are, and some are a bit more melodic. They do LOUDquietLOUD, and quietLOUDquiet. Chris and Anne-Marie harmonise together like Buckingham and Nicks. If Buckingham-era Fleetwood Mac were a bar of Galaxy, Parade would be a Green & Black's Dark 85%, brooding, dark, and much healthier for you. In terms of musical variety, I would put them closer to alt-rockers Feeder, or Linoleum. All in all, an extremely strong performance and very highly recommended. Buy the album.
During the interval there was some re-tuning and shuffling of equipment, but ultimately, it was pretty much the same line-up for Josh & Co Limited, the solo project from Mostly Autumn guitarist Bryan Josh whose first album, Through These Eyes was released towards the end of 2008. Tonight we had Bryan Josh (vocals, guitar), Olivia "Livvy" Sparnenn (vocals, tambourine), Iain Jennings (keys), Chris Johnson (vocal, guitars, keys), Patrick "Paddy" Berry (bass), and Gavin Griffiths (drums). Livvy and Iain form the core of Breathing Space, and both are members of Mostly Autumn (there will be a quiz at the end of this blog, so pay attention).
I haven't got the album (call yourself a fan?) so, again, most of the material was new to me. That said, there were some very powerful tracks; We Graze, Through These Eyes, Into Your Arms, Going Home, and Old Friends. There was lots of foot stomping and singing along to The Appian Way, which was sung twice, once for the encore. We were also treated to a couple of covers; All Along The Watchtower (the Hendrix version of Dylan's song), and Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin). Another fantastic performance and very highly recommended.
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