Saturday 22 November 2014

Jesus Was A Cockney?

After a mental week , which continues tomorrow, I had a ticket to see The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. I was expecting a punk band with goggles and hats, but that's not what me and the audience got.I was late getting in, but as I got to the top of the stairs the second act had just hit the stage.....

Jordan Reyne:



.. was alone on stage dressed in black, with a pair of horns , and then some eerie backing vocals and a gorgeous voice. She was doing this all with recording loops , effectively recording her own backing live. Although this is an age old process , the first time I say this was John Martyn playing Big Muff on Rock Goes To College in the seventies. You can see it here.

Jordon though just sounded amazing , with great stories and some industrial noise thrown in such as on "Factory Song". Her set was amazing, dark , but with a light Australian audience rapport. I really cant remember such a different sound, the songs are spellbinding and originally minimalist. While it's clever to play complicated stuff , it's even better to make minimalism sound interesting, and the elements of her music may be simple they are woven in to complex wonderful tapestries. Then next ...

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing 




I don't know what I was expecting , but this band are multi dimensional , thoroughly entertaining and consonantly surprising. Visually what you'd expect from a Steampunk band , the bassist reminded me of David Morrisey, but bassist , guitarist and singer were all great at singing and entertaining the crowd. At one point I was thinking Chas'n'Dave meet Anthrax as an analogy, but you have to throw in Music Hall , The Bonzos, Half Man Half Biscuit as pointers , with impeccable comic timing and excellent musicianship. Lot's of audience participation songs such as Charlie and Isembard Kingdom Brunel.There songs are fun but also educational. They even managed to include some of Judas Priest's "Breakin The Law"

Breakin The Law

And the audience loved it , dancing , singing , joining in. Also many of the crowd were dressed in steampunk regalia and the crowd and the band turned a gig into a memorable event.

A fantastic night was had by all , I ended up buying 5 CDs, and will definitely be sing all of these again , you should too.

Sunday 9 November 2014

The Chestwigs Wear The Fox Hat!


Last night I visited The Old Fox in Felling for the second time. There were a lot of posters for upcoming gigs , notably AKQ Stottin on the 29th of November, which I can't make because I'm on holiday. Last night was to see the brilliant Star Spangled Chestwigs , and was chatting with all the band before the gig and Adas told me that this was where they played their first gig around 1992/3. So tonight was the first gig they'd played since Maz and Shev rescued the place from being turned into flats. So actually a historical event really, my favourite live band on the North East circuit returning to where it all started.
Shev is an Abominable Showman

Anyway last night Shev eschewed his usual sparkly dress in favour of either a Gorilla suit , or he's come out about his bodily hair problem, but he was a consummate frontman leading a crowd in a rousing "SHITE" chant.

The layout of the Old Fox means that it's difficult to take photos or video when there's a decent crowd in , so I didn't get many pictures or take any video. Actually this is a good thing because in makeds you concentrate on what you're there for rather than trying to take pictures.

THe SHITE List
The sound was excellent and the crowd had a great time, I did take a photo of the "SHITE LIST" so I know all the songs that were played last night, and there were a lot. They show no mercy to Abba , The Sweet , Slade , Kenny Rogers and John Denver.

Also included was stool racing and a touching rendition of John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads".

Another brilliant night and was great talking to the band before hand , also an excellent crowd and don't think it will be too long before I get back down there, you should too , it's straight off Felling Metro!