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?

Touchstone

Friday 30 March - to quote a friend "Good gigs are like buses, you wait for ages and then two come along together." Sadly, he missed both. Life sucks sometimes. Anyhow, tonight we pitched up at The Duchess for the first of said gigs, Touchstone. I've heard the name of the band on the periphery of my senses; the odd track on a Classic Rock compilation CD, a mention in magazines, winners of the Classic Rock Society Best New Band 2007, and they fall into the "prog" genre. I have none of their albums so really tonight was going to be a bit of a stab in the dark.

Not so the support band, The Heather Findlay Duo, which comprises local talent Heather Findlay (Mostly Autumn, Odin's Dragonfly, and now a solo artist) and Chris Johnson (Hazzard County, Evernauts, Mostly Autumn, Fish, Parade ...). Their set consisted of a range of material from their various projects, quite a lot taken from their own Live At The Cafe 68 album. Heather's voice was in fine form and Chris' acoustic guitar playing was up to it's usual very high standard, but somehow they managed to disappoint me as I was expecting / wanting something a bit more rock to set me up for the headliners. The one highlight was The Dogs from Parade's album The Fabric which segued into Iggy Pop's I Wanna Be Your Dog.

As previously mentioned, I had no real idea what to expect from Touchstone, but was immediately captivated by the first track, really quite heavy. The set comprised about a dozen songs, of which I think I managed to work out The City Sleeps, Joker In The Pack, Wintercoast, When Shadows Fall, Strange Days, and The Witness Pt2. They play a melodic prog rock style, sometimes quite heavy, with lyrics that are obviously full of grand stories. The bass lines are fantastic with Paul Moorghen swapping seamlessly between two Thumb NT 5-string instruments, almost identical except that one was fretless, a sound that I just love. Which is not to denigrate the excellence of the other band members; Kim Seviour has a voice both poised and brittle, that breathes life into their lyrics. Rob Cottingham is superb on keyboards with a style that does more than nod in the direction of early Genesis and Yes. Adam Hodgson is effortless on guitar, pulling his influences from Pink Floyd, Yes, and Joe Satriani. Top marks also go to Henry Rogers on drums evincing a Mike Portnoy feel to proceedings.

I hadn't intended to, but I purchased their Wintercoast album at the gig and, for my birthday, I got their latest, The City Sleeps. Two highly recommended albums and a band that I would definitely see again.

Zombie re-animated

Friday 10 February - It seemed as if it would be such an innocuous evening; popping down to The Duchess to watch Colin Blunstone, who I had vaguely heard of, and Stolen Earth, a local band who we hadn't yet managed to catch. We had a full turn out with six people in our little group, although two of them arrived too late to see the support.

SE are part of the tangled web of York musicians that orbit Mostly Autumn. The band comprises; Heidi Widdop on lead vocals, Adam Dawson on lead guitar, Paul Teasdale on bass, John Sykes on keyboards, and Barry Cassells on drums. They play atmospheric rock with a prog-feel, think early Genesis and Pink Floyd. But while they wear their roots on their sleeves, they are by no means derivative, producing interesting and original songs. They only had a short set list, four tracks in all, and all new to me. The final two were absolute stunners; Into The Virgin Snow (I think), and Perfect Wave. The band release their debut album shortly, it can be pre-ordered from the Stolen Earth website.

Onto the main event, Colin Blunstone who is an English pop singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the pop group The Zombies, and for his participation on various albums with The Alan Parsons Project. Colin's current band consists of; guitarist Tom Toomey (also a member of The Zombies), keyboard player Pete Billington, drummer Pat Illingworth, and, first surprise of the evening, bassist Chris Childs of Thunder and currently also playing with The Union.

Colin's set was broken into two halves, not surprising really given the overall length of his set. Of the songs themselves; we got The Zombies' single She's Not There, his solo effort (written by Denny Laine), and I Don't Believe In Miracles (penned by Russ Ballard). There were some covers; Track Of My Tears (Smokey Robinson) and What Becomes of the Brokenhearted (Jimmy Ruffin) I didn't realise but Colin contributed on Dave Stewart's 1980 cover of this one. Misty Roses, Time Of The Season, and Caroline Goodbye about Blunstone's break-up with the model and actress Caroline Munro, which he preceded with a warning to budding song-writers not to use people's real names! Old And Wise the hit single taken from the album Eye in the Sky by The Alan Parsons Project. We had ballads, and something bordering on jazz, rock/jazz fusion, and even a bit of prog rock. His output is prodigious and spans a huge variety of genres.

During the interval between his two sets I spotted a familar looking figure hovering at the merchandise stand, but couldn't really believe my eyes. Was that really American concert promoter David Gest? Indeed, it turned out, it was as two of our party approached him and shook his hand. As far as I can make out, he is currently staying at the Cedar Court Hotel in York and is looking to buy property in the area. He admitted to being a huge fan of Colin Blunstone, hence the reason he was at the gig. Surreal or what?

Time for a catch-up

Thursday 9 February – I haven't posted anything for a while. Actually, due to a combination of holidays, personal stuff, and a strange lack of much happening, musically, in York, I haven't been to a live gig yet this year. So what's this all about then? Well, my retrospective for 2011 was written before Christmas and I received a fair numbers of CDs over the festive period that ought, by rights, to be included in my 2011 round-up. So here goes:

First up is a real blast from the past, Voyage of the Acolyte + 1 by Steve Hackett. The original was released in 1975 as Steve's debut solo effort and I used to own this on vinyl. Sadly my vinyl collection is no more and so I invested in this, the 2005 re-mastered version of the album, which contains a couple of bonus tracks; a live version of Ace of Wands, and the extended playout version of Shadow of the Hierophant at a shade over 17 minutes long! Other contributors to the album include band mates Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, Sally Oldfield (sister of Mike), and Steve's brother, John. The album artwork, by Kim Poor, won Album Cover of the Year 1976. No prizes for guessing that I really like this album and was very pleased to have a copy back in my collection.

I received another non-2011 album, the eponymous offering from Black Country Communion which was released in 2010. I've come about this band from the wrong direction, starting from their second album, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this another brilliant product from Joe 'Bones' Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, and Derek Sherinian. Whilst the whole album shines, the standout track has to be One Last Soul which I saw they perform live at the High Voltage festival. Awesome.

Now on to the 2011 material, and Mr Bonamassa and Beth Hart first worked together when Beth provided vocals for the track No Love On The Street on Joe's 2011 album Dust Bowl. Later that year they got together to create an album of blues covers called Don't Explain. No one could complain about 10 gorgeously sung tracks from the likes of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Billy Holiday et al. This album is a simply a joy to listen to.

Sticking with blues guitarists, I received Robin Trower's new album, The Playful Heart. Basically this guy does what Hendrix would do if he was alive today as demonstrated by the track Dressed in Gold. Incredible guitar solos combined with thought-provoking lyrics deliver a powerful package. Trower shares the vocal duties on this album with Davey Pattison.

I've got the first two studio albums by The Answer. I thought the second was a slightly iffy so I was a bit dubious about getting the third, Revival, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is as good as their debut with strong songs, fantastic solos and catchy tunes. As an added bonus it came with a second CD containing some demo tracks and acoustic versions of album tracks. Not a duff track in sight and a total of 23 tracks over 2 CDs, what a brilliant bargain.

The next album from 2011 is in a completely different vein, Falling Deeper by Anathema. This is a reworking of the band's early 'doom' output. It's mostly lush, orchestral arrangements on which Sleep In Sanity and Sunset Of Age, in particular, benefit from the treatment. For those tracks with vocals, two feature Anneke Van Giersbergen on the reworked arrangements of Everwake and ...Alone, while Daniel Cavanagh and Lee Douglas share duties on the remainder of the tracks, all three showing remarkable vocal talents. Superb.

Finally, a sort of 2011 release, 10 Stories Down by The Pineapple Thief. This was the band's fourth album and was originally released in 2005 on the Cyclops label. This 2011 Kscope edition is presented in the same way as the originally limited double album release with the 8 Days Later album (which was never released separately) on CD2. This is one of my favourite bands at the moment and the album doesn't disappoint. With rather melancholic lyrics and slightly pop, but mostly prog instrumentation, each track features layers of sounds and melodies. Whilst both albums do benefit from repeated listening in order to captures the musical nuances involved, it's definitely well worth the effort as this is an outstanding product.

2011 Retrospective

Tuesday 20 December – It’s been a great year in music for me. I attended 19 live gigs, 1 rock festival, and bought 40 albums of which 12 were actually released this year.

Of the live gigs I managed to pack in; 98Pages, Boss Caine (twice), The Blueprints, The Buccaneers, Sombre, Missing Kids, The ABC Club, Glass, Dorien Starre, The Bitter Image, Panic Room, Marbled, The Pepperhearts, The Mothers, These City Walls, Dinosaur Pile-Up, The Xcerts, Japanese Voyeurs, Blind Pilot, The Decemberists, Hope&Social (3 times), Andy Gaines, Jeniferever, Panic Procedure, The Tiny Eyes, Marcus Bonfanti, Sandi Thom, Nick Tudor, Pelico, Marc Atkinson, Dream of Apollo (twice), David R Black, Panic Room, Chantel McGregor, Patrick McCallion, people:in airports, Rosie, The Union, The Pineapple Thief, and Playing The Pilot.

In the summer were we down in London for the Sunday of the High Voltage Festival and got to see; Black Country Communion, Dream Theater, Heaven’s Basement, Love Fungus, Michael Schenker, Saint Jude, and my all-time favourites Thunder. It really doesn’t get much better than that!

The non-2011 releases that I purchased reflects, I guess, my eclectic taste in music. For easy listening there’s; Sandi Thom, Florence and The Machine, Billy Joel, and Rihanna. Some good old rock; Guns ‘n’ Roses, Clapton and Winwood, Chickenfoot, Linkin Park, Joe Satriani, Alterbridge, and Black Country Communion. I also bolstered my collection of Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree as well as dipping my toe in the more esoteric waters of; Anathema, I Like Trains, Orpeth, Jeniferever, Amplifier, and a second helping of The Pineapple Thief.

All of which brings me to the albums of 2011 that I, personally, decided to part money for, and I guess I ought to bring some kind of ranking into play here.

Outside of the top 10 are a couple of albums which, although I wouldn’t call them duff, they don’t get played as much as the others; Into The Wild by Uriah Heep and A Grounding In Numbers by Van de Graf Generator. Neither of these lived up to my expectations. Heep’s offering was no where near as good as Wake The Sleeper, and VdG were a name from my past that didn’t live up to the hype of the music press. The actual top ten albums I would recommend to anyone, so let’s press on:

10 Crystal Sounds by Thirteen Senses. This is pretty much more of the same from the Cornishmen, which is not a bad thing because I really like them, so I’ll describe it as ‘workmanlike’.

9 Wasting Light by Foo Fighters. I’m left slightly confused by this album because it is good, very good indeed, but there isn’t a single track that has hooked into my brain. How does that work?

8 The King Is Dead by The Decemberists. More quirky alt-Americana from a band that delivers and entertains in equal measure.

7 Grace for Drowning by Steve Wilson. Great prog-ness from the master himself. The music press can’t get enough of the man but he didn’t make number one for me. Pah! I spit in the face of popularity.

6 A Dramatic Turn of Events by Dream Theater. Awesome album and we got to watch them live at High Voltage which was basically musically nirvana for me.

5 Siren's Song by The Union. I just love this band; Luke Morley’s superb guitar and Pete Shoulder’s incredible voice, what a combination.

4 Like No Other by Chantel McGregor. Brilliant debut album from the pocket-sized lass from Bradford who is finally getting the recognition that she deserves.

3 Dust Bowl by Joe Bonamassa. I’ve pretty much got most of his recent albums in my collection. I’m constantly staggered by the number of ways that blues can be played and still sound fresh and different. Top stuff.

2 Black Country Communion 2 by Black Country Communion. More Bonamassa-ness, this time in the form of top-notch super-group BCC which also includes Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, and Derek Sherinian. But, top of this year’s Xmas tree, parp de-de-parp (trumpet blast)...

1 The Octopus by Amplifier. Ye gods this is great stuff. More prog than you can shake a mellotron at and a bargain as it’s a double CD worth of soundscape-y, pretentious (in a good way), gorgeous music.

Have a very Happy Xmas and a great New Year.

Hail to the Thief

Wednesday 7 December – I’m going down with man-flu. I could feel it in my bones. My whole body ached. I’ve lost my appetite and trust me, that meant something’s seriously wrong. But nothing, no nothing, was going to stop me from getting out tonight.

We arrived a little after eight o’clock at Fibbers, just in time for the start of the support act, Playing The Pilot. PLP are a York-based group defining themselves as Indie/Alt-rock. Their line up consists of Kat McHugh (lead vocals), Felix Manders-Wilde (guitar/vocals), Ryan Noble: (lead guitar), Matt Davies (bass), and Jack Fisher (drums). When she sang, Kat had a pretty good voice. The real problem for me was that their songs usually ended up with her doing a white girl rap in the style of Lilly Allen, which really didn’t do justice to her voice. The guitarists pretty much seemed to do their own things pumping out tinkly math-rock style riffs, while Jack and Matt propelled the songs along with strong drum lines and workman-like bass. The most memorable track for me was Your Face In The Mirror.

PLPs act was slightly marred by an issue with feedback into the singer’s microphone, either from the bass or drums, and I’m afraid that the soundman hadn’t fixed this problem by the time the headline act took to the stage. Why were The Pineapple Thief playing York? Well, it turned out that, although they are a Somerset band, bass player Jon Sykes is actually a local lad. TPT consist of Bruce Soord (guitar/vocals), Jon Sykes (bass/vocals), Steve Kitch (keyboards), and Keith Harrison (drums). They play prog-rock in the soft/loud/soft style with carefully constructed time signatures that sweep you from one passage of music to the next.

The set consisted of a mixture of tracks from their latest album, Someone Here Is Missing, and a lot of new material. From their current album I certainly recognised; Nothing At Best, Wake Up The Dead, The State We’re In, and Preparation For Breakdown. The majority of the new songs were presented with a lead acoustic guitar which is at odds with their current album but in line with their earlier work Tightly Unwound. Whether the tracks are utilmately ‘beefed up’ for the new album or remain as they are, they still sounded fantasic on a first listen.

For many of the songs the transition from soft to furious loud meant that it was difficult not to shuffle your feet (dancing I think they call it) or head-bang along to the heavy rhythmic sections. Think of a mad collision of Radiohead, Procupine Tree and Pendulum.

Their encore consisted of a current track, a very old one and a very new one, possibly being called Burning Pieces, and likely to be the opening track to new album. A superb gig and I sincerely hope that they will be bringing their new album on tour to York in the not too distant future.

Re-Union

Wednesday 19 October - yes, I know I’m being a bit tardy with this one, but we’ve been very, very busy recently what with our boiler finally given up the ghost and stuff. Right now, regular readers (if I have any left) will recall that mid-October we had a rash of gigs starting on Friday 14 and ending with this one, so expectations were naturally high. In a change from the usual, we were at The Duchess, a venue that I’ve always had a soft spot for.

We arrived fashionably three songs before the end of the first support band, Mad Dog (and on FaceBore, and MyFace), possibly an allusion to the album by John Entwistle. Anyhow, I very much liked the cut of their jib, a bit like York's own 98Pages. Hailing from London, they consisted of ; Tommy Smith (guitar/vocals), Matt Johnson (bass guitar), and Brendan Lleak (drums). This was a very impressive start to the evening.

It would have been an act of kindness to have swapped the support bands around, something that Paul Blue of Fighting Wolves alluded to himself. It seemed that most of the audience agreed with him. Personally, I would have liked to have caught more of Mad Dog's act. Not that Fighting Wolves were bad, it’s just that their brand of nu-rock didn’t somehow fit in with the hard rock feel of the other bands. I quite like heavy, I quite like a bit of screaming, but it was all too much and my ears quickly tuned out. Sorry guys. Fighting Wolves come from London and consist of; Mark Easton (drums), Paul Blue (vocals/guitar), Micky D (vocals/guitar), and Dougie (vocals/bass). See how I put the drummer first? I don’t think it’s fair that they are always billed last in a list.

And so to the main event of the evening, the return to York after almost exactly a year (they were last here on 30 October 2010), The Union. OK, maybe, as a Thunder fan, I’m a bit biased, but last year they toured a superb debut album (The Union), and this year they were touring another brilliant offering (Siren's Song). Being fans anyway, we had pre-ordered the album and already had a few weeks of listening under our belts before this gig. Notwithstanding, the band blew our socks off with a powerful and energetic set comprising the best of songs from both albums. I always find it amazing how much better good bands sound live.

For the uninitiated, The Union consist of Pete Shoulder (ex-Winterville) on vocals and guitar, Luke Morley on vocals and guitar and Chris Childs on backing vocals and bass (both ex-Thunder), and Dave McCluskey on drums and pretty bloomin’ awesome!

Time to flex my memory muscles and see how much of the set list I can remember… The band came on to Part of The Union (The Strawbs) then immediately went into Watch The River Flow. This was followed by two songs off the new album; the incredible and slightly heavy, Burning Daylight, and the lyrically superb Black Gold. Back to the debut again for Saviour and Easy Street, before another new one; Blame It On Tupelo. We then had; Lillies, Obsession, The Remedy, Cut The Line, and Black Monday. Then they played the title track from the new album; Siren's Song. For their encore we got two more songs from the first album; the ballad-y Come Rain, Come Shine and their single Step Up To The Plate.

For me this was definitely 'gig of the year'. I would highly recommend both albums and jump at the chance to see them again live. Superb!