And we kissed, as though nothing could fall/Nothing could fall

Sunday 3 May - It was a busy weekend. Yesterday we had a suit fitting for my youngest daughter's wedding, an opportunity for me to strut my stuff in jeans and an Edwardian frock coat. Very fetching. Then we took lunch at The Happy Valley Chinese café, the best Chinese food in York, and ended up at mine to watch "School of Rock" as we frittered the remainder of the day away. Sunday was bookended with bacon and eggs for breakfast and a Sunday roast for nine people for dinner (that's tea if you're not as posh what I am). Then I kicked everyone else out of the house, because tonight we had a full turn out down at The Duchess for "A Night For Heroes" a charity event in aid of Angela's Gift in memory of Howard Sparnenn who died aged 55 at 2pm on Sunday 4 May 2008 of a brain tumour.

Six bands, all of which Howard had been involved with, had come together in a celebration of his life, and there were a fair few faces in the crowd that were familiar as well. The event kicked off with Smart Move, a band set up by vocalist and guitarist Dave Smith and Howard shortly before he fell ill. In fact SM seem to consist of mostly Mojos, with John Greenwood on bass, and Andrew Bone on vocals and lead guitar. Non-Mojo Steve Jackson was on drums and I think another Mojo, Mark, was on Keyboards. They turned out a short set of classic covers such as: Genesis Turn It On, Dire Straits Sultans of Swing, Queen Tie Your Mother Down, Whitesnake Here I Go Again....

Next up were a band that we'd seen on a couple of occasions, initially when Howard was drumming for them, Freeway. These played a heavier set, stuff like: Thin Lizzy Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town, Black Sabbath Paranoid, UFO Doctor Doctor, Judas Priest Breaking The Law, and a Deep Purple medley of Hush, Strange Kind Of Woman, Black Night, and Woman From Tokyo.

Apparently Howard's favourite band were Free, I thought he raised his daughters on a diet of Thunder but hay hoe. Anyway, another band that Howard was involved with was Free Spirit who consist of Garry Barrett (vocals and guitar), John Simpson (lead guitar), Gavin Paradiso (bass), John Halder (drums), and Simon Waggot (keyboards). These played covers by Free Wishing Well and Stealer, Bad Company Running With The Pack, Seagull, Bad Company, and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, and Frankie Miller Jealousy. There were others but the pints of Landlord were beginning to rot my brain cells.

Back in the 70s, when Howard first met his wife-to-be, Jeanette, he was drumming for a band that he co-founded called Flight. The original line-up then consisted of Mick Adamson (vocals), Pete Martin (guitar), Kevin Nickson (bass), and Howard (drums). After two singles they changed their name to Bulldog Breed and Howard was supplanted by Steve Roberts. So for our fourth band of the evening Flight had re-formed, for one night only, and played some of their original material, including the 1974 singles What Am I To Do With You and It's Only Money, plus some of the Bulldog Breed material.

As a drummer Howard contributed to a number of bands including Flight, Rocket 3, Freeway, Inivitro, The Occasional Band, Free Spirit, and sometimes Breathing Space whose lead singer is his daughter, Livvy. BS were fielding a few substitutes in their line-up tonight; Livvy and the brothers Jennings were joined by Andy and Bryan from Mostly Autumn, and Gary "Harry" James from the legendary Thunder on drums. They were also joined by Anne-Marie Helder on flute for The Gap Is Too Wide. My daughters insisted that I got a picture of Harry (Thunder is our favourite band) but for all my efforts all I managed was a shot of him wiping his face with a towel. Such is life.

The headline act was Mostly Autumn who interrupted their current tour (2 May Holmfirth, 8 May Lincoln) to be here tonight and provided a full hour from their current tour set. They gave an impressive and powerful performance ending with Heroes Never Die. By this time my legs were aching from having been standing for over six hours. There was no encore but the audience were asked to move back a bit and a screen was put into position. The evening was concluded with a clip of film from the 80s showing Howard performing a drum solo lasting over 5 minutes. A great end to a great evening.

Walking side by side with death/The devil mocks their every step

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.