All your eyes have ever seen, all you've ever heard/Is etched upon my memory, is spoken through my words

Friday 17 July - following last week's brilliant weekend of music, it's back down to earth with a bump. There is just one glimmer of sunshine though, The Blueflies playing at The Roman Bath.

We've seen them before, but no matter, they're a very competent covers band, and apparently very cheap. A York-based three-piece consisting of Miles Gilderdyke on guitar and vocal, Gavin Ewing on bass guitar, and Trevor "Fatha" King on drums and backing vocals, t'Flies are adept at classic rock covers by the likes of Free, Cream and Hendrix.

If they have a fault, its Miles constantly teasing Fatha, poor chap. Anyway, the John Smith's was excellent and we were treated to songs such as: Lieber/Stoller Riot In Cell Block Number Nine, The Kinks You Really Got Me, ZZ Top Gimme All Your Lovin', Hendrix Voodoo Chile and Foxy Lady, Chuck Berry Route 66, Al Green Take Me To The River, Joe Tex Show Me A Man, Free The Hunter, Led Zep Whole Lotta Love, plus many more. Highly recommended.

She's a model and she's looking good

Friday 9 May – and it’s a tale of two halves. We started the evening at The Roman Bath to watch Rubix Cube, a band that regularly plays at the Bath but we have never managed to catch them, so didn’t know what to expect. In fact they are a three-piece show band specialising in the synth-pop/new romantic hits of the ‘80s. Now I’m sorry but I consider the ‘80s as a bit of a musical desert, especially the synth-pop stuff. I quite liked Japan (not sure that you could call them ‘pop’), and small doses of Duran Duran and OMD, so I wasn’t hopefully about this gig. We managed to last through Are Friends Electric? (Gary Numan), Killer (Adamsky), The Model (Kraftwerk), West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys), and What Is Love? (Howard Jones), before we finally cracked and fled to The Terrace. I’m sure the band (Craig Hill - Frontman and Keyboard Ax, John Diver - Lead Synths, Backing Vox, Drum Programing, and Adam Hembrough - Bass Synths, Acoustic Sounds, Backing Vox, Lighting) were very entertaining and they definitely had an impressive array of hardware: Minimoog Voyager (both Anniversary and Performer Editions), Roland Juno 60, Korg Polysix, an OSCar, Yamaha MO6, Yamaha CS1X, Korg Prophecy, and Yamaha QY700 drum machine, but the music really wasn’t my cup of Yorkshire tea. On the other hand....

...at The Terrace, the strains of Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) could be heard half way down The Pavement, what a nice welcoming sound! Inside a rather small crowd (with a pleasing current of young ladies popping in and out) were being entertained by the exceptionally talented Blueflies. We’ve seen The Blueflies on many occasions (search this blog for more details), and apart from their strange inability to end songs properly (they remind me of a rock band I saw many moons ago called The Jed Thomas Band, they spent more time finishing songs then any band I know), the Blueflies are incredibly talented and play true rock classics, Hendrix/Cream/Free/Lep Zepplin et al. Fantastic.

Looking back on the evening I still feel bad about not watching more of Rubix Cube, but it really is a genre of music that leaves me cold, so to salve my conscience here are their next dates at the Bath:

• Sat 21 June - Roman Baths, York
• Sat 23 August - Roman Baths, York
• Fri 26 September - Roman Baths, York

It's cold outside/And the paint's peeling off of my walls

Friday 25 April – we spin a coin, and tonight it’s the Roman Bath... The band de nuit are After Dark a 5 piece covers band specialising in music from the ‘70s and ‘80s. The band members are: Stuart Senior (Guitar, Keyboards & Backing Vocals), Steve Holmes (Drums), Steve Wormald (Vocals), Neil McDonald (Guitar & Backing Vocals), Gavin Handley (Bass and Backing Vocals). Now they weren’t the best band we’ve ever seen from a technical point of view, the vocals were a bit muddy, and the backing vocals flat, but the thing that really stood out was the refreshingly different covers that they did. Here we go trawling in the depths of my memory, and these are the ones that I remember: Joe Jackson (Is She Really Going Out with Him?, It's Different for Girls), Tubeway Army (Are Friends Electric?), Tom Robinson (2-4-6-8 Motorway), Thin Lizzy (The Boys are Back in Town), Bob Dylan (Knocking on heavens door), Queen (Crazy little thing called love), The Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen in Love), The Sex Pistols (Pretty Vacant), David Bowie (Heroes), Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes), Dr Feelgood (Milk and Alcohol), Sweet (Ballroom Blitz, Blockbuster, Wig Wam Bam), Bay City Rollers (Shang-a-Lang), Status Quo (Sweet Caroline), Hawkwind (Silver Machine), Cheap Trick (I want you to want me), Cockney Rebel (Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)), Roxy Music (Virginia Plain), Rod Stewart (Hot Legs), The Jacksons (Crazy Horses), The Undertones (Teenage Kicks), The Vapours (Turning Japanese), The Cars (My Best Friend's Girl). See what I mean?

Saturday 26 April – and a slightly later start tonight, A was finishing off some work from home. It was a slight return to the Bath to watch The Blueflies. An excellent band, top notch in the technical department, and a completely different kettle of kittens to Friday’s band, these do Hendrix, Cream etc. You’ve read about they here previously so I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say that I highly recommend this band. Their website appears to have vanished so I’ve linked to a fotopic site.

Feelin’ all alone without a friend, you know you feel like dyin’/Oh, didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I see you cryin’?

Friday 1 February – ‘tis the season of frosts and frozen noses. My head is twice its normal weight and my nose has set solid, as if I’ve been snorting wet concrete. My poor, occluded ears need some different sounds so we’re on a mission, four bands we’ve never heard of are playing at Fibbers, and it’s only £4 at the door. Got to be worth a punt.

Bugger, we missed the first band, Skylights. Sorry chaps. Still, next up are The City Dukes. I think these were the ’06 Battle of The Bands semi-finalists, but feel free to correct me by sending corrections on the back of a £20 note to the usual address. They consist of: Dubbsy on a guitar that is leading and vocals that are backing, Seb on drums and cymbaliture and things you can hit with a stick generally, Franky on bass and more vocals of the backing variety, and Russell on vocals that are leading and guitar. The bass player was very good, but the rest just seemed to make a big noise over the top of him. The songs didn’t seem to finish properly, and it was generally just a bit chaotic. Not a great start then.

Enter stage left, The Buccaneers. Advance information was sparse as their MyFace page had been removed. They are a 3-piece with a sound something akin to The Answer. The lead guitarist certainly knew his way around the fret board and they showed promise. I didn’t catch the name of most of the tracks but I liked Follow That Man, and another one that ended with the word …Blues. Sorry, sometimes I’m a bit rubbish. For one track they employed front man, Stuart Allan, from the next act, on electric mandolin. The time signature changes and lack of practice caused something of a faux pas and they were obliged to start again. To be honest, the mandolin wasn’t necessary. Still, that’s live music for you. Viva!

Finally, The Blueprints took to the stage. John Ackroyd on guitar, Stuart Allan on vocals, guitar and occasional mandolin, Jim Richardson on bass, and Russ Broadbent on drums, gadgets and website. The band were very tight, again I missed most of the titles of the tracks, but recall Spectrum vs Commodore. The band thoroughly enjoyed themselves with plenty of banter with the audience. At one stage Jim (bass) nudged Stuart from behind and almost sent him into the crowd. They employed a small Casio keyboard for one track, which they referred to as being the size of a king-sized Mars Bar. They finished by bringing The Buccaneers back on stage and performing a rousing cover of Cheap Trick’s I Want You To Want Me. The guitar solo was lost in the general noise, but it went down very well. I really enjoyed this band and have since discovered that they will be supporting Duels at The Junction on Tuesday 18 March, so that might be worth a mid-week outing.

The night wasn’t over though, we braved the perishing winds and made our way to the Roman Bath where The Blueflies were playing, Now, we’ve seen these before and they’re pretty damn good, a York-based three-piece specialising in Free/Cream/Hendrix covers. Miles Gilderdyke on guitar and vocal, Gavin Ewing on bass guitar, and Trevor “Fatha” King on drums and backing vocals. We caught the last remnants of their act which included covers by: Cream (Crossroads), Hendrix (Voodoo Chile), Led Zep (Whole Lotta Love), and the Kinks (You Really Got Me). Miles is an awesome guitar player and there was a lot of fret board onanism going on. Highly recommended.

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.