Round-up of 2012

First of all, a Happy New Year to anyone who runs their eyes over this ramshackle collection of scribbling, and I’m truly sorry that I got some catching up to do to bring this blog up-to-date and that some reviews will get short shrift.

23 November 2012 – and we were at The Duchess to see Aynsley Lister. I’ve never seen him before but read good reviews of him in Classic Rock, hence our taking a bit of a punt. There was no support act, which was a bit disappointing. Aynsley played much self-penned material and a variety of blues covers; Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, and for his encore, a superb version of Prince's Purple Rain. A very impressive performance and definitely someone that I would like to see again. 

7 December 2012 – found us at Fibbers to see Hope&Social and, once more, a truly excellent performance. Basically, this was promoting their latest album, All Our Dancing Days, released on a pay-what-you-want basis. The new tunes instantly clicked and, inevitably, I ended up buying the album on the night. I cannot recommend seeing these boys too highly.

21 December 2012 – we ventured across the Pennines to the Manchester Academy to see one of my favourite bands, Thunder. There was no support but the set was in two halves, one acoustic and one electric, with a twenty minute comfort break in between.

Not having an album to promote allows the band to indulge themselves with the material they perform, both their own and covers. Pete Shoulder (of The Union) joined the band on-stage, The acoustic set comprised; Stand Up, The Moment of Truth, Does It Feel Like Love?, Weather With You (Crowded House), This Forgotten Town, Don't Wait Up, I'll Be Waiting, It's Another Day, Low Life In High Places, and Amy's on the Run.

The electric set had a few more covers; Backstreet Symphony, The Devil Made Me Do It, Until My Dying Day, Might Just Take Your Life (Deep Purple), Jet (Wings), Numb, Isn't It Time (The Babys), River Of Pain, On The Radio, Hammer To Fall (Queen), Love Walked In, and Dirty Love.

The band came back for an encore; Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen) and I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll. This was then followed by giant inflatables, fake snow raining down on us, and we all sang along to I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday (Wizzard). What a top night out and the price of the ticket included a CD of the Xmas Show, so I’m looking forward to that! 

2 January 2013 – and so to my personal roundup of the year. The number of live gigs was definitely down this year, my own fault, nothing to do with the quality of artists at local venues. My CD collection swelled by another 49 albums, 20 of which were released this year, 29 were older issues.
My top ten new albums for 2012 were:

1. Weather Systems, Anathema
2. Crown and Treaty, Sweet Billy Pilgrim
3. Map Of The Past, It Bites
4. Flying Colours, Flying Colours
5. Afterglow, Black Country Communion
6. Momentum, Neal Morse
7. Standing at the Sky's Edge, Richard Hawley
8. All The Wars, Pineapple Thief
9. All Our Dancing Days, Hope&Social
10. Not The Weapon But The Hand, Steve Hogarth & Richard Barbieri

I don’t think that I bought a duff album all year but some, obviously, didn’t get in my top ten. Here they are in no particular order:

• Concerto for group and orchestra, Jon Lord
• Rookery, Chris Helme
• Driving Towards the Daylight, Joe Bonamssa
• The 2nd Law, Muse
• Cotton Wool & Knotted Wood, Hope&;Social
• Underrated Silence, Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters
• Generation Freakshow, Feeder
• A Far Cry From Home, Stolen Earth
• Adventures in Neverland, The Reasoning
• Valtari, Sigur Ros

Of the older issues, it doesn’t seem fair to rank them as the reasons that I bought them vary so much, so I present them by artist alphabetically:

• Judgement, Anathema
• A Natural Disaster, Anathema
• Falling Deeper, Anathema
• A Fine Day to Exit, Anathema
• Black Country Communion, Black Country Communion
• Live Scenes from New York, Dream Theater
• Pour Me A Drink, Edwina Hayes
• Don't Explain, Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart
• Don't Stop Believin' - The best of, Journey
• Venus & The Sky Turns to Clay, Makana
• In Case You Didn't Know, Olly Murs
• The Middle of Nowhere, Orbital
• In Sides, Orbital
• Snivilisation, Orbital
• Orbital 2, Orbital
• Orbital, Orbital
• Out of An Ancient World, Riversea
• What Lies Beneath, Robin Trower
• The Playful Heart, Robin Trower
• Voyage of the Acolyte + 1, Steve Hackett
• Twice Born Men, Sweet Billy Pilgrim
• Revival, The Answer
• 10 Stories Down, The Pineapple Thief
• The Script, The Script
• Science & Faith, The Script
• Wintercoast, Touchstone
• The City Sleeps, Touchstone
• 1 Love, Various

Cotton Wool & Knotted Wood

Saturday 31 March - It's my birthday and Mrs Woman had got us tickets for one of my favourite bands Hope&Social who were playing at The Duchess. We went for an Indian meal beforehand at the superb Bombay Spice on Goodramgate where we ordered the set meal for two and spent two hours munching our way through a mountain of food. That's my idea of food heaven, apart from the mistaking-a-whole-chilli-for-a-runner-bean incident which caused some mirth. All of which meant that we arrived a bit later than anticipated at the venue and had practically missed the entire set of Joseph & David, sorry guys. What we did catch seemed pretty good, kind of English folk in the style of The Decemberists as far as I could make out. Their final song, the only one we heard intact, was performed off stage a capella with muted assistance from James Hamilton on trumpet and Simon Goff on violin.

The Duchess was laid out cafe style with eight or ten tables in front of the stage, around which the rest of us punters clustered in a gigantic horseshoe shape. Now this is the tour of Hope&Social's new album, Cotton Wool & Knotted Wood which is basically an acoustic re-working of some of the material from their previous albums, so I was half-expecting a cut-down band. Oh no. With H&S always expect the unexpected. I believe that a lot of this material was put together during the Big Red Button event at The Crypt in Leeds in February. Anyway, it would be interesting to hear which of their songs had been re-constructed. This was a full band turnout, sans brass section, but including James Hamilton who must surely be counted as a full-time member now.

OK, so all the band were here, but they were all playing instruments other than their usual. They launched into Family Man with Rich on glockenspiel and Ed and Simon on hand bells. Ramshackle? Yes, but that's part of H&S' charm. April, Pitching Far Too High and Cotton Wool saw everyone playing musical chairs / instruments, like a pack of cards constantly reshuffling itself. Rich on double bass, with tape to show him where to put his fingers, Gary hiding behind drums and playing guitar, violins, ukuleles, you can't make this stuff up.

There was a point about half-way through when Simon came down among the tables just his voice and guitar for Looking For Answers, to which the whole audience joined in. It gives me a fantastic sense of 'belonging' to be part of a collective raising up of voices like that. Maybe I should have joined a choir, hey ho, it was brilliant.

Rolling Sideways had Gary on a tuba or euphonium, I'm not an expert on things brass, and the song segued into various covers. We had Living A Lie, Red Red Rose and a Lighter Side Of Life which Simon reckons to be their only love song. I'm not sure that's actually true but he's a plausible chap.

The encore featured a cover of Vince Clarke's Only You and a new song, Knotted Wood. This had a sing-along chorus for the audience "I will sail, my father's boat" which I was singing along to in a Geordie accent. Don't ask why, it just worked for me. The evening was brought to a close with Eurospin with most of the band disappearing then re-appearing off-stage playing brass instruments as they walked around and through the audience. Fantastic stuff. Yes, you get the unexpected but you also, always, get great entertainment and a great time. I cannot recommend this band highly enough, and all their music is available on a pay-what-you-want basis. How can you not give them a try?

Entangle me in verses of poetry, Avert my gaze from the darkest of darkest days

Friday 16 October – If there’s one thing that you can expect at a Hope&Social gig, it’s the unexpected! And so here we are at Fibbers, slightly wetting ourselves with anticipation of a great night out.

The first support band are Rosie from Pateley Bridge, consisting of; Doug Wallace (vocals and rhythm guitar), Tommy Leatherbarrow (drums and backing vocals), and Louis Leatherbarrow (keyboards). It’s hard to describe their style of music so I can do no better than quote someone else who said “bouncy electro-powered party punk”. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Despite the fact that I don’t really go for electronica as a musical genre they certainly had me tapping my toes, and dare I say it, swaying slightly to the music. They also seem to have a small entourage of crazy dancers, one dressed as a banana, who fling themselves about a bit in the audience. It was all very good fun and quite entertaining.

The second support band was people: inairports who we had seen before in November 2010, and not been much impressed with on that occasion. Formed by ex-Shed Seven bassist Tom Gladwin, they also comprise singer/songwriter and guitarist Paul Downes along with Jimmy Greenall (guitar & backing vocals), and Ken Sayers (drums). Sadly they sounded pretty much as they did nearly a year ago, a tired string of Jam-esque indie pub-rock songs. To be honest, I would much rather have an extended H&S set.

With three albums under their collective belts, Leeds-based Hope&Social have a wide range of material to call upon. Please don’t expect me to reel off a complete track listing of all the songs that they delighted us with, because their act is so much more than just the songs. There was the running on the spot, the bearded Gary Stewart a-likes, the banter with the audience, the maniacal pounding of keyboards and super-heavy guitar riffs, barber-shop style harmonies, brass section, sing-alongs… you name it, it probably happened. If you’ve never seen this band before, do it. If you want to listen to them, you can do it online, for free. And , if you want to buy their music, you can, and you only have to pay what you want. Crazy? Only if you never get around to seeing/hearing them. But, I do not like green eggs and ham. Try it, try it, you will see...

Phosphor-coated smile

Monday 16 May - I know it might seem like a cop-out but The Druid has done such a good job of detailing the gig at Fibbers with Hope&Social, Pelico, and Nick Tudor, that it's not worth me bothering. So nip over to his blog and instead.

A Dales Diary

Monday 28 March - I've been on holiday in The Dales and figured that you might like to know what I've been up to. Then again, maybe you couldn't care less, but I'll tell you anyway.

We had been down in Bournemouth and arrived back home late on Thursday. We rose early on Friday and repacked our bags for the Dales. Then we did a quick food shop as the cottage was self-catering. It was just over an hour's drive away, at a place called Fleetham Holme near Reeth, and we arrived just in time for lunch. There was a "welcome" pack waiting for us with breakfast cereals, milk, eggs, cheese, butter, orange juice and a bottle of wine. That was very thoughtful. We packed away our own groceries and had some lunch, then set off to explore a little. The cottage is one of three at the bottom of a 25% incline from a single track road, perched on the side of the south side of Swaledale. We decided to walk further up the road to see what we could see. After about half a mile we left the road and struck off left along a bridleway through a succession of stonewall enclosed fields. We eventually reached a field that bordered moorland near the top and we could see an artificial turret-like building high above us. The back wall of the field had tumbled down so we went through it and headed up through the heather to investigate. When we finally got to the top there was other track and we were no wiser as to what the ruined building had been. We later found out that it was an old lead mine working, so presumably the track was for hauling away the material from the mine. We then descended back to the cottage just in time for tea. The cottage had a wood-burning stove in the front room so while Lynn was preparing the meal; I went out to the woodshed and chopped some logs up for fuel. Not being used to wielding an axe I managed to send a log spinning and bashed my knee, I've a lovely bruise I could show you. In lighting the fire I managed to set off the CO detector which I then had to disable. After tea I re-enabled the detector and we cosied up on the sofa to watch some TV.

The cottage, although originally built in 1694, was fully equipped; it had an electric oven and halogen hob, all the pots, pans and implements you could think off. There was a shower room, living room and kitchen downstairs. The kitchen still had stone storage shelves. The upper story had a lounge area, which we called the solar as the sun beamed straight into this room, and a huge bedroom. Of course, when it was built people were a bit shorter than today and whilst Lynn managed okay I was constantly banging my head on the stone lintels over the doors and the wooden beams in the ceilings. In the end I walked around the cottage in a permanent stoop. Lynn was in fits of laughter. Water from the cold tap was like the melt from a glacier!

The curtains in the cottage were lined and very thick, and with no light pollution from outside, the bedroom was pitch-black, you couldn't tell if your eyes were open or not! Anyway, at 06:20 on Saturday morning we were awakened by an "a-lamb" clock; it was bleating in the field alongside the cottage. We scoffed a cooked breakfast and then planned our day out. At this stage the weather was a bit iffy but promising to be better the following day so we decided to check out the nearest village, Reeth, and then we drove out to Richmond just to explore the town and its castle a bit. The Swale also passes through the centre of Richmond and tumbles over rocks there which made for some nice pictures. There was a market in full swing and, after a tasting session, we bought some raspberry & redcurrant jam and lemon curd. It turned out that they were made in Elvington near York, duh! We had fish 'n' chips for lunch on a bench in a churchyard, and the cod was particularly tasty. I was on the lookout for a pair of slippers as I was finding the stone flags in the cottage very cold underfoot, so we bought some from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop and Lynn bought a new fleece. When we got back to the cottage I noticed that the slippers were a tad snug and I then discovered that I had held them upside down and bought a pair of sixes, not nines. Double duh!

On Sunday the weather was looking very nice indeed. We had a couple of walks that we wanted to do and we thought it best to start with a gentle four and a half mile circular stroll going up and around the north side of the dale. We parked at Reeth and set off following the directions on our crumpled bit of paper, only half trusting it, but secure in the knowledge that we had a proper map just in case. We crossed the Swale by a small suspension bridge and then swung left entering the village of Grinton and then back out into open countryside. We passed through High Fremlington and then the gradient started taking us up. About two hours into the walk we lost faith in our directions thinking we had walked too far along a footpath, so we backtracked and climbed back up a slope called Cuckoo Hill so that we could see the lie of the land, consult our map, and eat lunch. It turned out that the directions were sound; we just needed to go a little further along the path before turning back along the river. We set off again and found the turning with no problem. Once back in Reeth we pottered around the village for a while and then set off back to the cottage. At no point in our travels so far had we got the faintest glimmer of a signal from our mobile 'phones so I just turned mine off completely. I was getting the hang of the fire by now and didn't set off the alarm this time.

On Monday it was brilliant sunshine again so we decided to try the second walk. This was a five and a half mile circular but we decided to extend this by walking from the cottage along a footpath that ran outside our back gate, this would add an extra two miles. We set off after another big breakfast and joined the walk proper at Scabba Wath Bridge. A farmer was coming over the bridge on a 'moon-buggy' loaded with sheep feed so we stopped and watched him drive into a nearby field. The sheep and lambs immediately charged from the adjoining fields towards the farmer, all except for one sheep that had a limp and was plaintively bleating as it desperately hobbled towards him. I'd never make a farmer, I just wanted to pick the poor thing up and carry it to the food. Anyway, we crossed the bridge and bore left towards Fleetham then right onto a footpath that doubled back and took us high up through the fields again. We passed over Barney Beck Bridge and into the tiny village of Healaugh, then gently descended into Reeth again. We stopped off at the King's Arms for a drink and then sat on a bench at the top of a rise in the centre of the village to eat our lunch. Then it was back down to the river and, following its course to the right, gradually rising up until we reached a road that led to Askrigg up and across open moorland. The road then dipped down to Scabba Wath Bridge again and we continued onwards to the cottage. By this time I was sunburnt so as we sat out reading our Kindles in the late afternoon sun I had to wear a hat to stop me from burning any more.

Tuesday was our last full day so we decided to visit the Wensleydale creamery at Hawes. This entailed a rather hairy drive over the top of Swaledale and down into Wensleydale via Askrigg and Bainbridge. The route was hairy because part of the way was very winding and we were enclosed by high drystone walls, so going faster than 20mph was likely to propel us into the front of another vehicle, or the back of a tractor. Where there were no walls, the right hand side of the road fell away like those roads you see in the Italian Alps. Scary stuff. Anyway, the creamery itself was fairly interesting; we watched a film on cheese making, went through a little museum of dairy farm in the Dales, and watched the actual process from a viewing gallery. As it was approaching lunchtime we visited the café area and had some sandwiches and a drink. Then we went around the cheese shop where you can sample all the different types, and buy some, obviously. I went for a blue cheese and an oak smoked Wesleydale, Lynn had one with stem ginger in it and another containing Mexican spices. We browsed the gift shop for a while and then heading into Hawes itself for a wander around the town which was very picturesque. Finally, we headed back to the creamery, jumped in the car and drove back over the top of the Dale back to the cottage.

We were a bit sad to leave on Wednesday as we quite liked the idea of being on our own and just doing what we wanted to do, but we packed our bags and waved goodbye to the cottage. Then we drove towards Arkengarththwaitedale (I may have exaggerated the name for comic effect) where we intended to take lunch at The Charles Bathurst Inn, a popular 'foodie' pub in the area. We arrived before the pub was open so set off across the road and down a footpath that took us about halfway up the side of the dale. There we found a rocky outcrop and sat down to admire the view. The road below us wound its way up the opposite side of the dale, heading over the top and on towards Barnard's Castle. We saw that the pub was opening and so descended for lunch. We had had another large cooked breakfast and weren't terribly hungry, so we just had a mushroom, tomato and mozzarella baguette with side of salad and chips; very tasty indeed. After that we made our way home, which seemed like a foreign country really with even the rural areas looking very built up compared to where we had been staying.

It was back to work, back to reality on Thursday and Friday. We were out at The Basement in York on Friday evening to see our favourite band, Hope&Social. They didn't disappoint and we had a brilliant night out. Ed 'Hombre' had trouble with his amp and it was making dolphin noises. During one song Si forgot that it was his turn to play which led to an hilarious "do I do this bit then?" moment. There was plenty of singing along and even a Mexican wave in the audience with a Zumba Zumba at one end and Ooo Ooo at the other. I'm not going through the set-list for you but there were songs from both albums; Architect Of This Church and April. Both are available as PWYW but better still go watch this band live, you won't regret it.

Top five albums of 2010

Having mulled over my 2010 album purchases, I think I'm ready to declare my top five, except that I'm going to be awkward and have six and a special mention. Hey, they're my rules OK?

The special mention goes out to We're Here Because We're Here, the eighth studio album from Anathema which was released in 2010 but I didn't get it until 4 January. It's an extraordinarily beautiful album with multi-layered vocals and weird time signatures that just ticked every box for me on the very first listening. If I'd bought it in 2010 it would be in my top six, but I didn't.

So here are my top six album purchases of 2010:

In at six; the eponymous debut album from Yorkshire soundscapers Lost From Atlas. Instrumental math rock is alive and thriving in the hands of this late teen trio who how show a maturity transcending many of their peers who might have settled for a comfortable life of repetitive monotony. It's fantastic to see new blood producing such high quality material.

At five; The Minerva Suite the second offering from Mexicolas. Hot on the heels of their outstanding debut, X, comes this not quite so outstanding but nevertheless fantastically good bit of alt.indie from Jamie Evans.

Number four in the chart; Black Rock by Joe Bonamassa, the tenth solo album release from the 32 year old blues man. A finely crafted melange of originals and covers of songs from Leonard Cohen Jeff Beck, Otis Rush and Willie Nelson. Each track is magically transmuted into Bonamassa's unique style and polished to a high gloss.

Into the top three; Someone Here Is Missing, the eighth studio album by The Pineapple Thief and sporting cover art by Storm Thorgerson. Nine tracks of their trademark bittersweet progressive indie rock. Each song is tightly constructed and exquisitely recorded as Bruce Soord pours his heart all over his sleeve and into our ears. It's not all about the lyrics either, in between the words the rest of the band flexes quiet and loud like a musical muscle. Set the volume to 11 and stick your ears between those speakers.

Just missing the top slot, so that'll be number two then; April from Leeds fan-friendly band Hope&Social. Released on a pay-what-you-want basis this is another great album from the artists formerly known as Four Day Hombre. There's cheery great lashings of verve and energy, sing-a-long choruses, just a smidge of melancholia, then more dollops of Northern pep and wide-eyed musical wonders. But, don't just listen to the music, go and see the band live, they're even better and so much fun. Truly a joy to listen to.

And so to the number one; another eponymous debut, this time from The Union. The Union are a new band formed by Luke Morley, formerly the guitarist for legendary UK rock band Thunder, and ex-Winterville vocalist/guitarist Peter Shoulder. The album consists of twelve Americana-influenced songs with, as you might expect, superb vocals and outstanding guitar work. But don't be thinking that the tracks sound the same, oh no, each is a mini-masterpiece from the all out rock of Step up to the Plate, to the blues slide of Come Rain Come Shine, and the more stripped down acoustic tracks such as Lilies. They picked up The Classic Rock Award for Best New Band and ChildLine Rocks chose This Time Next Year as their first official charity single. Definitely the best album of 2010 and definitely the best live gig that I've seen in a long time.

Sing it loud, sing it sweet / With hellfire fury, stomping your feet

Yep, I've been a bit remiss with postings of late, but in fairness I have been a busy bunny. As this blog was originally set up to be simply a log of gigs we'd seen that's more or less what I'm going to revert back to to get through the backlog.

Wednesday 15 September - and we were at Stereo in York for four acts, two of whom were new to us, or were they? We kicked off with Marbled (and on MyFace ) or should that be Marble D? All a bit strange, but basically a man and guitar which he played with nifty finger-picking. None of the songs actually stuck in my consciousness at the time but in attempting to track down some details about him I noticed a few York connections in the shape of Dave (NZ) Keegan and Sam Forrest (Nine Black Alps, Boss Caine) working with him on his EPs.

The second performance came from Gary Stewart with a more folksy style of playing. Gary was joined on-stage for his third song by Rich Huxley of Hope&Social and then the penny dropped, Gary is the current drummer with H&S. Apparently most of the songs were from his debut album, Boy Cries Wolf.

Act three was the ubiquitous GT Turbo aka Boss Caine aka Dan Lucas (on MyFace). It's hard not to like GT's style of music or maybe I'm just getting familiar with it. Tonight there seemed to be some new tunes and GT was joined on stage by first Tim Fox, and then Vinny North, both wielding harmonicas and both last seen in Hijack Oscar and the Fox-North Coalition (the band, not the government formed by Charles James Fox and Lord North in Great Britain that held office during 1783).

Finally, we moved forward for the highlight of the evening, Hope&Social who blessed us with tunes from both of their albums; Architect Of This Church and April. I did bring my kazoo but it wasn't required. I did take some photographs though. Despite seeing them fairly recently, tonight they were even better than ever and flinging themselves around the stage like crazy. It was a wonder nothing got broken. The highlight, as ever, was the acoustic sing-a-long to Looking For Answers. What a brilliant evening out.

Thursday 16 September - and the first outing to the newly refurbished Fibbers to see Shed Seven on the first of their 20th anniversary home-coming gigs. This was a big bash for us and my daughters and their partners had come along as well. The venue was much bigger inside than previously and the sound quality was quite good. I knew it was a sell-out gig but it was extremely crowed inside and I strongly doubt that everyone would have been able to get out in an emergency. The air conditioning was next to useless and dribbling a constant stream of water onto people's heads. Not a good start. The support act was Chris Helme (ex-Seahorses, ex-Yards, now a solo artist) and he had plenty of local support. Two of us were down at the front and I was singing along to most of his songs. After Chris had finished the front section filled up with what seemed to be a contingent of football louts, chanting and jostling each other. We moved out to the sides but it was very claustrophobic and one of our party, being pregnant, wasn't enjoying herself. They were good, very good indeed, but when they went in at half-time we all decided that we'd had enough and left, which was disappointing because the music was great but the venue let it down. For the first half they played; Dirty Soul, Speakeasy, Long Time Dead, Mark/Around Your House, Stars In Your Eyes, Sensitive, Dolphin, Ocean Pie, and On An Island With You. The second half, which we did not see, apparently consisted of; Disco Down, Bully Boy, Where Have You Been Tonight, High Hopes, She Left Me On Friday, On Standby, Going For Gold, and Getting Better. For the encore they played Missing Out and Chasing Rainbows.

Tuesday 21 September - was our second attempt to dip our toes in Fibbers. We were hoping that it would be less crowded this time as we were off to see Manchester band Oceansize. Sadly, it was an unmitigated disaster. We set off but half way into town I got a 'phone call to say that it had been cancelled. We met up with a couple of chaps in the Blue Bell on Walmgate where we found out that the sound requirements of the band were beyond the resources of Fibbers. In an effort to get around the problems they had wheeled out the old mixing desk but it blew a fuse every time their equipment was plugged in. I also understand that there was a lack of mains sockets at the stage end of the venue. In the end the band called it off and returned, very disgruntled, to Manchester. Fibbers had to print an apology in The Press and are, apparently, working to address the problems. Not good.


Thursday 30 October - and with some trepidation we headed for Fibbers again, this time to see The Union. Once we were inside, things weren't too bad. The air conditioning appeared to have been fixed, the second bar area was curtained off, it wasn't so crowded and certainly not as hot. Bar prices were through the roof though at £4.80 for a bottle of Peroni and a small coke. Support came from GT Turbo but he was more or less finished by the time we got there. Now, technically speaking this was a double headline as Ricky Warwick had the show booked but The Union piggybacked on it at his request. Because he was playing solo he went on first. Ricky is probably best known for being in The Almighty and is the newly appointed lead singer of Thin Lizzy. Most of his songs appeared to be from his latest album, Belfast Confetti plus his latest single The Whiskey Song. Although he played acoustic, he played with vigour and energy. He's gonna make a hell of a front-man for t'Lizzy. Brilliant. And so to the main event and we were right down at the front but there was no jostling down here. No giants with big hair to stand in front of us. Altogether a much more enjoyable and appreciative crowd.

The Union consist of Luke Morley (ex-Thunder) on lead guitar and Pete Shoulder (ex-Winterville) on second lead and vocals. For the tour they were joined by ex-Thunder bassist Chris Childs and a drummer whose name I believe to be Dave McCluskey. Apologies if I'm wrong. They came on to Part Of The Union (The Strawbs) and immediately belted out most of their eponymous album bar except that they excluded Amazon and played a new track, Rollin', instead. The final song of the encore was a cover of Proud Mary (written by John Fogerty and first recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival). The middle eight turned into a highly entertaining 'guitar war' between Morley and Shoulder. Most of the audience seemed to be fans already and there was plenty of clapping and singing along. Luke's guitar playing was sublime and Pete has a truely fantastic voice. This was quite possibly my gig of the year. Highly recommended.

A little bit of addiction, It never hurt me, it won't hurt you.

Friday 24 April – and tonight we visited one of our less well-used haunts, Stereo, the pub/venue formerly known as Speakeasy or Certificate 18 or The Bay Horse, depending on when you last dropped in. Three of us turned out to see one of our favourite bands headlining, but first we supped warm ale and watched the warm-up acts.

First to tread the boards was Robert Loxley Hughes, the front man from Idle Jack And The Big Sleep. I have it on the best possible authority that IJATBS are currently in hiatus with Mr Hughes doing his own thing and the rest of the band resurrecting side-projects such as Ishtar. So for tonight RLH performed whilst sitting on a chair, just him and an acoustic guitar (actually borrowed from GT Turbo). Now I'm not a huge fan of RLH the person, having had a run-in with him a glass of red wine and one of my white t-shirts, however, he sings with a heart-felt passion and the songs are well-crafted, ranging from lullaby soft to outright shredding metal. Believe me, I felt for those poor guitar strings.

Talking of guitar abuse brings me nicely onto the second act of the evening, Dave Woodcock And The Dead Comedians. Now we've seen these before, but only two of them on that occasion, so it was interesting to see and hear the full band. Too be honest, I wasn't much more impressed, although I did recognise a few of the songs which means that they must have been good enough to hook into my brain first time around, lots of cigarettes, and alcohol, and lost love. At one point Dave attempted to dance with a female member of the audience and finally ended up singing whilst lying on his back. As the final chord rang out, Dave chucked his guitar to the floor of the stage, an act that caused me to wince in despair.

The third act was Dan "GT Turbo" Lucas, head hombre of Boss Caine and (I think) the organiser of tonight's event. By this time the crowd was beginning to thicken up somewhat and the noise level of the general chit-chat was starting to rise. Why is it that some folk pay an entrance fee just to chat loudly to their mates and ignore the performer? How rude is that? It was clear that Dan had encountered this kind of ignorance before as his t-shirt was emblazoned with "Shut the f*@ck up, the band is playing." Not that the noise-niks took any notice so we edged ever near the stage. I'm beginning to familiarise myself with Dan's work, Smoking In My Back Yard, Leaving Victoria, and the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I will have to get the album.

And so to the headline act, Hope&Social, who are touring their second album (not counting releases as Four Day Hombre), April. Once more they are selling their album on a pay-what-you-like basis both for a physical CD and downloads. I ordered a physical copy and was pleasantly surprised to get a download copy as well, to listen to whilst awaiting the actual CD to arrive in the post. How thoughtful was that? Anyway, I burned the download and had been playing it on heavy rotation in my car, so I was up to speed with all the new material before tonight's gig. In fact I was intrigued as the album features the Garforth Brass Band and I couldn't see how they were all going to fit on the stage. In fact H&S managed to get three into their "brass" section; James Hamilton on trumpet, Katie Hawcutt on sax (actually a woodwind instrument), and a girl on trombone who’s name eludes me. The core members of H&S; Simon Wainwright (vocals/guitars/piano), Rich Huxley (guitars/vocals/piano/rhodes), and Ed Waring (keyboards), were joined tonight by new comers on drums and bass.

The band played tracks from both the new album, April, and their previous offering, Architect Of This Church. Highlights for me included; Sunlight Hold Me with its huge crescendo of noise, Do What You Want, Red Red Rose, Pitching It Far Too High, Marching On Through, and Ripples Rock My Boat. But, besides the superb music, there's also a fantastic engagement with the audience with opportunities to sing along in the choruses and play along with tiny, plastic kazoos. There was also a completely unplugged, acoustic version of Looking For Answers with audience backing. Incredible, and quite possibly the best performance I've ever seen from the band. Please, please see them, buy an album, whatever. But don't miss them 'cos they're brilliant.

Hey, You're not the first, You're not the last, To hold me back

Monday 26 October - It's a school night but when there is a very good band in town, you just have to make the effort. On my way to The Duchess I walked passed Fibbers where I was surprised to find a couple of policeman lurking near the concrete steps around the back of the Stonebow. Puzzlingly, there was another PC hanging around at the St Saviourgate end of the passage where the front entrance to The Duchess is. I later found out that a Barnsley man had climbed up onto the scaffolding and was threatening to jump off. We never realised he was there, and tragically, he did finally jump to his death at 13:50 on Tuesday.

Back to the gig, and the first support band was Ghosts On The Intercom, a York-based three-piece consisting of; Tom Robinson (Guitar and vocals), Alex Woolgar (drums), and Rich Morley (bass). Tom is from the school of guitar players who likes to wear his instrument like a necklace, affording him the opportunity to spider up the frets with his right hand, performing hammer-ons, pull-offs, and still picking out notes from the chord. It looks flashier than it really is, as evidenced by the fact that he did it for almost every guitar solo he played. That said he was actually a competent player. The vocals were way too shouty for me. Lyrics were completely wasted, something about "feed me a stray cat"? The whole set was very jangly on the ears, with one song sounding pretty much like another. Andy liked them though.

We also agreed to differ on the second band, Sucioperro, another 3-piece, but this time from Ayr in Scotland. The band are; JP Reid (vocals and guitar), Fergus Munro (vocals and drums), and Stewart Chown (bass). They produced an almighty bass sound that made my clothes vibrate. I like it when my clothes vibrate. These were very heavy, and yet surprisingly tuneful, a bit like York's own With One Last Breath. I did manage to make out the titles of a couple of tracks; Dissident Code, and You Can't Lose (What You Don't Have). I think Andy found their black arm-bands with red crosses on them, slightly unnerving.

And so to the head-liners, ManchesterNine Black Alps, who consist of Sam Forrest (vocals, guitar), David Jones (guitar), Martin Cohen (bass), and James Galley (drums). We've seen them twice at The Duchess and they perform superbly to what appears to me to be a loyal York fan-base. Certainly Sam originally came from York, and the band have strong ties to the city. When we saw them last they were touring material from a forthcoming album, Locked Out From The Inside, which they have just released. By tonight this material was fully integrated into their set, which still draws fairly heavily from their debut, Everything Is. NBA are an English Nirvana. Sam growls Cobain-like, while James drums with vast energy. The guitar-work of David and Martin is enough to wake the dead, yet melodic, sometimes as soft as down, yet a volume never dipping below eleven. Bass and lead guitarists even swap for the final two tracks, just because they can. The band came on-stage to the strains of the theme from Antiques Roadshow. Outstanding tracks for me were; the superb Heavier Than Water, Salt Water, and Burn Faster, grunge-stomp Vampire In The Sun, trouser-shaking Every Photograph Steals My Soul, and spaced-out Cold Star. Hell, I liked them all. This was a first-class gig and I dug into my pockets for a copy of their latest album to add to my collection. Very highly recommended.

Tuesday 27 October - Continuing on my much extended weekend, we are out again on yet another school night, this time at The Basement Bar. The evening kicked off with two-fifths of Sheffield band David Woodcock and The Dead Comedians, specifically; Dave (former frontman of punksters Taste Of Shotgun) on guitars and vocals, supported by Chris Saunders on guitar. Most of the songs they played revolved around cigarettes and alcohol, or love lost. Dave sang with a Waits-style growl and invoked images of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. I missed most of the song titles, except for the outstanding City Lights.

Not a bad start to the evening that had been organised by the second act, Boss Caine, aka GT Turbo, aka Dan Lucas. A York musician, Dan writes and plays music in the Americana style. He has vocals like Neil Diamond, very bass, very smooth. Again, I missed the titles but the songs went somewhere along the lines of; Smoking In My Back Yard, something about Lady Macbeth, Kinda Loving, Anyone Here Seen Hank?, and the highlight for me, Sweet Sorrow Surrender.

The Basement Bar is a very intimate (small) venue, so there were probably only about fifty people tops. But tonight they were hosting a big act, Hope&Social. H&S come from Leeds and regular readers will know they consist of; Simon Wainwright (vocals, guitar, piano), Rich Huxley (guitar, vocals, piano), Jason Miller (bass), and Ed Waring (keyboards). They are currently joined on drums by Mark Ashwell. Sadly, this was Jason's penultimate gig with the band. After a final gig in Leeds on Thursday, he will be hanging up his bass in favour of his family.

Tonight they played most of their album, Architect of this Church. They kicked off with the super hand-clapping Living A Lie. After this they revealed that most of the band were suffering, in varying degrees, with colds. Ed even confessed to a "runny bottom." Sweet. Moving swiftly along, they polished off Stuck Like Glue, Sunlight Hold Me, Drink The Drink, and Red Red Rose. Then they exhorted the crowd to invoke the spirit of Rod Stewart for Stay With Me. It doesn't sound like a huge set-list, but each song was elongated to its maximum and the set was extended with tuneful links between the tracks. Nonetheless, it was all over way too quickly. Rich and Simon came back for an encore sans a PA system. Looking For Answers is a great track that allows for lots of audience participation, and how we participated! It was a great show and at the end Jas came around the audience selling copies of the album, using their pay-what-you-want model of distribution. Please, go and see H&S, or buy their album, for how ever much you want, or download it, or just go and see another band, but just get out there a support live music!

Doing the p-Pod shuffle

Tuesday 15 September - Yep, I didn't make it out at the weekend so you'll have to put up with my rambling musings instead. Porcupine Tree's The Incident has just plopped through my letter-box, and Muse's The Resistance is on its way as well, so you can expect reviews shortly. In the meantime, I have recently acquired Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I didn't have any Atomic Rooster material previously, but while trawling through some random recordings I stumbled across them playing at Prog At The BBC, playing Tomorrow Night and was so impressed that I acquired their second, and most successful album. Utterly fantastic. Whilst the guitar playing and soloing was superb, what really stood out for me was the keyboards. I could hear shades of Keith Emerson and Jon Lord in there. Not surprising really, as poking about on Pikiwedia I discovered that they toured with Deep Purple, and Carl Palmer drummed with them on their first album, so founder and keyboardist Vincent Crane clearly wore his influences on his sleeve. The great thing about this album is that despite being released in September 1970, it still sounds fresh and relevant today.

In stark contrast, The Inner Mounting Flame proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Whilst I can acknowledge the technical performances of the band members, I found this form of jazz fusion to be difficult to access. Each track sounded the same, they lacked a 'hook', which may sound shallow, but that's the way it is. I suspect that it'll take a few listens for this album to grow on me. I'll persevere.

So, on to the p-Pod shuffle, which is to say, I set my Zen Mosaic to random to see what played, and here it is:

1. 98 Pages - Help Yourself. Just one of the top tracks from the outstanding debut album, Broken House And The Halfway House, from these York-based rockers.


2. Seahorses - I Want You To Know. Back to the halcyon days of 1997's Brit-pop. This was the opening track to their only album, Do It Yourself and, of course, there is a York connection via vocalist/guitarist Chris Helme.


3. Gene - New Amusements. Taken from another 1997 album Drawn To The Deep End, I just love Martin Rossiter's voice. Bizarrely, as I'm writing this, I'm playing Take Off Your Colours by Surrey-band youmeatsix and Josh Franceschi's vocals are very Gene-esque. My world is full of weird coincidences.


4. Hope&Social - Drink The Drink. Track four is actually track four from Architect Of This Church, H&S's first album under their new moniker. I just love everything these guys do.


5. Ash - Innocent Smile. I think my Zen is a time-loop. From the 1996 album 1977. This was before Charlotte Hatherley joined the band. Charlotte is playing at The Duchess this Saturday (19 September 2009).


6. Lit - The Best Is Yet To Come Undone. Now this is why I love shuffle. I haven't heard this track for ages. This track is from their 1999 platinum selling album, A Place In The Sun.


7. Scheer - Demon. Irish alt-rock from 1996 album Infliction. This track was released as a single on 8 April 1997. Audrey Gallagher's vocals get me every time. Shame that their second album, ...and finally, got tangled in contractual difficulties with their label, 4AD, and didn't see the light of day until mid-2000 on the band's own Schism Records label. By that time the band had ceased to exist. I wonder where they are now?

Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses.

Saturday 21 March- The RBS Six Nations finished on a high with wins from England and a cracking, albeit sometimes brutal, game between Ireland and Wales. Top stuff. In the evening it was off to The Duchess for the second album launch from The Yards and an acoustic set from Hope&Social.

Things started quite slowly which provided an opportunity to enjoy a foaming pint of Theakston's XB before four hombres from Hope&Social took to the stage resplendent in their 'blue coats'. This wasn't exactly acoustic because they were all wired up, but certainly Simon Wainwright and Rich Huxley were playing battered acoustic guitars, whilst Jason Miller and Ed Waring sat further back, Jason with his bass guitar and Ed with keyboards balanced on his lap. Percussion was provided by vigorous foot-stamping. With the set weighing in at just five tunes, I felt a little short-changed, but they did explain that they had just travelled 100 miles up the M1, lost Rich's luggage out the back door of the truck, had a blow-out on the motorway (2 recovery vehicles required!), and Simon was losing his voice, so they weren't having their best day. As is usual at an H&S gig they were dogged by undercurrent of persistent talking from the audience. For god's sake, if you've paid money to listen to a band, just have the common courtesy to shut up while they're playing!

We retired to that bar to re-charge our glasses (well plastic cups) and were deep in conversation when we noticed that the crowd had started to swell at an alarming rate. The Yards were about to take to the stage. We managed to feed in from the side of the ruck (just as well the ref was unsighted) and although the three of us got split up, we were no more than three for four people from the front, so that wasn't too bad.

For those who aren't aware, and shame on you, The Yards are a five-piece from York comprising: Chris Helme (Vocals and guitars) ex-Seahorses, Stuart 'Stu' Fletcher (Bass guitar) ex-Seahorses and currently also Rick Witter & The Dukes John Miller (Drums), Jon Hargreaves (Keyboards) and Chris Farrell (Guitar).

The band were joined on stage by two vocalists (one was Hayley Hutchinson I think) and a string section at the back. I thought it was three violins and a cello, but one of the violins might have been a viola which is similar in size, though pitched a perfect fifth below the violin and gives a rich, dark-toned sonority that is more full-bodied than the violin's. Chris did introduce the string section, all girls, but I missed their names. About half way through the set he decided that they should be called The Yardbirds, which caused amusement among the younger listeners and good-natured groans from us older ones.

The reason for the extra bodies on stage was presumable in order to more closely reflect the production sound of the material from their new album Imperial Measure, for which this was the launch night. I'm very pleased to be able to report that this was certainly a full-bodied and really tight performance, something that Chris has failed to achieve in the past. They played most of the tracks from the new album with a sprinkling of stuff from their old one. The set consisted of: Cars, Last High, Turn & Run, Centre Of Gravity, California, Pure, Minus A Million, Small Fires, Broken, Let It Go, Cold Shoulder, The Devil Is Alive And Well in DC, and See The Lights.

I bought an album during the evening, and I'm really looking forward to listening to. On the strength of tonight's performance The Yards Are Alive And Well In York. The songs on this album are an order of magnitude better than their first efforts, so hats off to The Yards.

Friday 20 March- the weekend started with a trip out to our favourite watering hole, The Roman Bath, where covers band Full Tilt were blasting punters ears off. Full Tilt are a four-piece from Bradford comprising: Derek Moulson (Lead vocals & guitar), Jim Croisdale (Lead guitar), Andy Bucaltizn (Bass guitar), and Darren O'Grady (Drums).

Compared to a lot of covers bands we've seen recently, these are much heavier than then normal and, for me, that's a good thing. I tried to blag a set-list but Derek assured me that they didn't have one so I've had to rely on my dodgy memory to supply you with a list of some of the songs they played: Thin Lizzy (Rosalie), AC/DC (Whole Lotta Rosie, Highway To Hell), Bad Co. (Can't get Enough of Your Love), Deep Purple (Black Night), Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit), Puddle of Mudd (She Hates Me), Kinks (Really Got Me Going), Guns ‘n' Roses (Knocking' on Heavens Door), Whitesnake (Fool For Your Loving), Cameo (Word Up), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way), The Police (Message In A Bottle), Ozzy Osbourne (Crazy Train), Metallica (Enter The Sandman), Blur (Song 2), Judas Priest (Breaking The Law). For an encore they did Rage Against The Machine's Killing in the Name, which resulted in a lot of headbanging and audience sing-along. Not for the easily offended!

We've seen Full Tilt twice before this and on each occasion been very impressed both with their technical playing and choice of material. They didn't disappoint tonight and I heartily recommend them.

Recollect me darling raise me to your lips/Two undernourished egos four rotating hips

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

We're so much older now/We need a new home town

Friday 6 June – and we are down at Fibbers to see Hope&Social (the band formerly known as Four Day Hombre). We arrived in time to catch the last ten minutes of Dan Torres and his merry men. Well, actually, his merry man as there was no sign of bass player, Ricardo Rodriguez, so it was just Dan and Ryan Vaughn (drums, percussion, basically anything you can hit or shake). Dan hails from New York and has a terrific voice. He played a lot of material from the 2006 album Where I Stand as well as some new stuff which presumably will be on his forthcoming new album. He was so good that one of our party, The Druid, actually paid real money for a copy of the album. We saw Dan during the interval and congratulated him on his performance and he signed The Druid’s album for him. What a good egg.

Next up were York/Leeds band, The Hair. Now, ‘A’ reckoned that we had seen these before, and certainly Disco/Retro sounded familiar, but it must have been pre-blog ‘cos I couldn’t find them on here. Anyway, they kicked off the set with said catchy electro disco number Disco/Retro (the video of which was shown on the Main Stage at last year's Leeds Festival). Now, I don’t like disco and I’m not a big fan of electronica generally, but these guys actually made it all sound great. The Hair's brand of electro indie rock is inventive, energetic and upbeat. Apparently they have a debut album, Indecisions, but I can’t find hide nor hair of it (groan). 1982 offered a touch of Kaisers-esque Oh Oh Oh's in the chorus, and Left Foot Right Foot is a song you only have to hear once for it to stick in your head, with its cowbell intro and the brothers Lee and Neil Clark swapping instrumental duties. It also liked Half Cut. They ended with new single Blood, due out very soon. The Hair are: Lee Clark (Bass/Guitars/Vocals), Neil Clark – (Keys/Samples/Vocals), Sam Robson (Vocals/Guitar/Inappropriate man dancing), and Vijay Mistry (Drums/Percussion). They will be playing at the Copmanthorpe Carnival on 5 July, so check them out.

Before Hope&Social started I was looking around Fibbers and noting how bare it is looking now. A number of pumps have been removed from the bar, notably the Timothy Taylors and Black Sheep. Bit of a shame that. The bar staff were acting like zombies as well. Anyway, back to the gig and Hope&Social came on to rapturous applause as they are always firm favourites among the non-talking section of the York music crowd. I’m not going to play “remember the play list” but they eschewed a lot of their older material for newer stuff. The most recent offerings find the band sounding increasing like Feeder. Obviously, that’s not a bad thing, but I do rather miss the high pitched 4DH vocals that were, for me, their trademark sound. Overall, fantastic quality and a really bargain to see three good acts for a fiver.

It was still early when we turned out of Fibs, so we ambled in the direction of The Terrace, however, the strains of Sylvia’s Mother (Dr Hook) seem to somehow deflect us away from the entrance and into The Roman Bath where Travellin’ Band were just starting the second half of their set. These are a fairly pedestrian rock band covering the likes of: Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roll Over Beethoven Chuck Berry, Old Time Rock and Roll Bob Segar, you get the idea. We’ve definitely seen these before and the star of the band is Steve (Crazy Horse) McLeod on lead guitar. I have to say that the vocals seemed a bit flat this time, not how I remember them from previously.

The latest news on the The Duchess front is that the opening has been delayed until 3 July. This is a huge blow as Black Stone Cherry won’t now be playing. I understand that Barfly and York council are making things as difficult as they can for Tim. Well I’m sorry but that’s not the way to win friends and I suspect that this will only garner further support for Tim and The Duchess.

What’s On My p-Pod? – Well, this week I’ve mostly been listening to...

Four Day Hombre – debut album and still outstanding, Experiments In Living. That said, every track is way better for being performed live.

Four Day Hombre – One.Foot.Louder the acoustic session recorded in Harlem, even more tinkley and soulful.

Duels - The Barbarians Move In, their second album and one of my best buys of the year. This is quirky stuff, a bit like Elbow crossed with Athlete but a bit rockier. The Furies has a thumping drumbeat, scratchy, jangly guitars and cries of Ay! Ay! with a howling middle eight. Regeneration has child-like vocals in the chorus, then it fades to a whisper, before smashing you over the head. The Wild Hunt, is muffled vocals over an eerie soundscape. Is there such a genre as prog-lo-fi? I think Duels may have invented it with The First Time/The Last Time. Buy this album.

Ash – 1977. I forget just how great this album was. I remember them playing in the Radio 1 Session tent at Leeds’ Festival (2002 I think). The tent was jammed full and we had to sit outside but they were so loud, it was like being inside the tent anyway, Angel Interceptor, Girl From Mars, Kung Fu, Shining Light, Oh Yeah...

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Don't You Fake It, recommended by someone a lot more youthful than me, but what a cracking album. Really great lyrics sung by, obviously young Americans (RJA formed in 2003 in Jacksonville, Florida). Musically similar to Linkin Park, but without the rapping and wicha wicha scratching garnished with dollops of The Ataris and Jimmy Eat World. Quite how Ronnie Winter (lead vocalist) manages to scream that much without doing his throat a mischief is beyond me. Well recommended.

You began a search I know many have tried/Not a blind man among you for years let fate decide

Friday 30 May – not wishing to become cover band junkies, we toddled along to Fibbers to apply our ears to Sons and Daughters, a Scottish band femme-fronted by Adele Bethel, she of Arab Strap. The four piece also includes David Gow (Drums, Percussion, also played in Arab Strap), Ailidh Lennon (Bass, mandolin, piano, married to Roddy Woomble of Idlewild), and Scott Paterson (Vocals, guitar). Support came (I think) from York band the Young Believers (If it was them, we’ve seen them before at the Junction). I only managed to catch the last couple of songs and they were a bit to folky for me. Anyway, on with the Sons and Daughters. I liked the first 2 or 3 tunes, but then they started to sound a bit samey, not bad, but just not enough variety. About half way through the set they pulled a rabbit out of the hat, something completely different and totally psychedelic, absolutely blinding.Sadly, I’ve no idea what it was called. Then there was a spate of fairly interesting tracks before we slipped back into the mediocre stuff. Finally they ended with Johnny Cash their 2004 single from the Love The Cup album, which was, of course, really good.

As the evening was still young, and it was a Race Day in York we knew there would be plenty of drunk blokes in suits and ladies in unfeasible footwear to laugh at, so we popped across the road to The Terrace, except that it seemed very quiet from the outside and everyone was sitting down inside. We detoured to The Roman Bath to catch the second half performance of The Mojos. These are a splendid covers band and really had the audience singing along and dancing. There was a bit of funk, the odd AWB tune for the ladies, but they finished on Status Quo which can’t be bad.

As I glance at my list of forth coming gigs this month, I’m mightyly please to see that Tim Hornsby’s new venture, The Duchess York, is due to open on Tuesday 17 June, hurrah! Actually, it really is hurrah, follow the link and check out the acts Tim has lined up. Fibbers are going to have to pull their fingers out to compete.

On Friday a bunch of us are off to see Four Day Hombre at Fibbers, but hey, they’ve just changed their name and are now Hope&Social (the band formerly known as 4DH)