INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - SATURDAY (DAY 5)

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Liverpool – Day 5 (Saturday)
DATE: Saturday 17th May 2013
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £2 entry after 2pm and £4 entry after 8pm at the club

This is blog is intended to be a way for us to capture our personal memories from all the gigs we go to see. The International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool hosts over 150 artists, across 3 stages, ranging from solo acts with an acoustic guitar to full on rock bands covering different music styles from folk, pop, rock and everything in between!!!! Whilst we can’t see every artist / band, we try to catch as many as we can. Some we like, some we love, some are pure nuggets and some are just not our cup of tea. This is just our personal opinion of the acts we see through the IPO festival, highlights and lowlights included. If there’s a band we are not fond of, do still check them out as tastes differ and you could have a different opinion from uhttp://www.spygenius.co.uk/s.


Bands seen today = 11
The Silver Factory (part), The Spontanas, The Fast Camels (twice), The Most, Spygenius, Stootsie, B-Side, The Wellgreen, The Springtime Anchorage, Kontiki Suite (part), Octubre

No of different bands seen so far = 52

CDs: The Wellgreen

Day 5 and the schedule is busy again, and today we need to fit in a break to pop along to Beach Boys Britain's annual hootanany in Liverpool.

Struggling to get up in time, we only caught the last couple of songs from The Silver Factory, doing their second slot on this year's schedule, the band on today in the Cavern Pub. Once again we really liked what we heard and will be keeping an eye out for any recordings and other gigs in the future. The stage is a bit smaller than the back stage they performed on last night, so the space for the lead singer to do his 60's soul moves was a bit more limited. For a lunchtime, the crowd in the pub was fairly reasonable.

Eric Spaan rocks

Over on the back stage when we had the chance to see The Spontanas from the Netherlands filling in at short notice and making their 3rd appearance at this year's festival, when Honeybug unfortunately had to drop out due to an injury. A merger of two bands, The Montanas who we have seen a number of times at the IPO and Buffalo Roam, they definitely get the award for the tallest band members, with vocalists Chris and Eric towering above everyone.

What we got was a set of great, punchy, power pop as it should be, with 3 members of the five piece doing the vocals, they had a really strong sound. Visually this band are also good - in particular, the bass player was really having a great time being on stage, rocking out. This is another band whose enjoyment on stage is transferred to the audience.

We were really glad we had the opportunity to catch them.

The Spontanas

Joe on drums

Next up (after a very brief interlude at Beach Boys Britain), were a band we have known for a few years now, The Fast Camels, from Glasgow. They had two appearances today, an afternoon slot in the Pub and then late night on the Back Stage.

There was already a decent sized drinking crowd in the pub when the set started and they loved the cover of "My Little Red Book". Loads of people took photos as the Camels played a really tight set of songs picked from their two albums. The guitars were at just the right volume, not drowning out the vocals.

This is a band which just epitomises Psychedelic, taking you on a musical journey through each song of different tempos. Ending with "Der Nazi Tea", they got such a thunderous applause we were delighted for them.

The Fast Camels play their Pub set

The drummer, Joe (Big Daddy Smythe) made the day of two special needs guys who had danced at the front of the stage all the way through the set, when he handed them both a pair of drumsticks each. They loved it. The simplest of gestures, but it meant so much. Then Joe had to go out and buy new ones. Top bloke!

The Fast Camels - Back Stage

Their next set, later on, was the final one of the day for us. The backstage, with its much fuller sound and more space is the perfect setting for the Fast Camels to play. Their second set was a bit different and included what is now a great favourite of Minty's "Penny Pinching Debt Collector" which really captures everything we like about this band - the harmony, the psychedelic jingly guitars, the smooth flow from full rock out to a slow psych and back to rock out. Although the lads were knackered by this point, this did not hinder their performance and we got another stellar show of fantastic psychedelic pop. This was despite Alan not being of keyboard duty in Liverpool.

The Fast Camels

We urge you, nay, we demand that you check them and their new album "Deadrooms and Butterfly Dreams" out right now!!!
www.thefastcamels.com

The Most

After the Fast Camels first slot in the Pub, the next band was The Most. This Swedish band were back for their second consecutive year and it was great to see them perform again. With a distinctive Beatleish black and white dress mode, they play short, sharp power pop mod type songs. One of their songs today had a "Be My Baby" drum intro which morphed into a great beat-type song. Very definitely Beatles influenced, but with their own style which the large pub audience really appreciated.


For the rest of the evening we were based in the Cavern Club back stage, and our evening's entertainment started with another band we are particularly fond of, Spygenius. With  a great jingly jangly sound, augmented with an organ/keyboard, this four piece give you great songs with clever lyrics. Their first song started fairly quietly and built to a great crescendo that crashed over the audience. From then on, it was a fast paced set, including three new songs which were superb.

For the last song, Ruth, handed her bass to Matt (on keyboards) and took to the microphone and gave us her "angry song" - a 70's inspired punk ditty about a work colleague she didn't like. After that performance we have sworn to never smile at Ruth again!!! It was totally off kilter with their usual sound, but it was brilliant! Loved the whole set. Check them out yourselves on http://www.spygenius.co.uk

Spygenius

Stoosie

Stootsie from Austria was up next. A member of the powerpop group SeeSaw, he was flying solo tonight. His set was a mixture of SeeSaw songs and material from pre-SeeSaw days. We are not familiar with SeeSaw, but you could tell that the songs would have sounded good with a full band behind them. Stootsie himself gave a pretty confident performance that a few other solo acts could have learned from.




B-Side is Sean McCreavey's latest, and very new project, essentially a morph of last year's Surf's Up band. The size of the band and number of instruments meant it took a while to set up but once they got going, they got going. Their single, a summery (very) Beach Boys influenced number (such that Brian Wilson has been given a writing credit!!) went down a  storm and received a great response from the audience.

They ended on a Genesis cover which should have had a backing tape which (thankfully) the sound engineer couldn't get to play (we are not fans of backing tapes)  and in between we got a mismash of different styles of songs as members of the band essentially performed their own material using the rest of the band as backing. Nice enough, with melody and harmony but a bit disjointed in terms of the differing styles of music.  We are sure, as the band develops in time things will fall into place..... it was their first live performance anyhows.

B-Side

The next band were, according to many people, THE band of the IPO. The Wellgreen from Scotland were performing tonight as a four piece. Previously we have always seen them as a two piece but with the introduction of a bass player and another guitarist/vocalist just added so much to their already great sound.

They have all of the ingredients for success - the harmony was pitch perfect, there was a great (and very sizeable) crowd, and the overall sound was just superb. The vocals were beautiful and one song in particular just wowed us and the rest of the audience. "The Greatest" started off with an accapella from Dan which hushed the audience and enraptured them all before the rest of the band joined in. The whole vocal performance on that song was just incredible. The sooner this gets recorded (with strings PLEASE) the better.

Another highlight was Stu the drummer singing lead on "Grin or Bear It" which had a really catchy hook of "whoo hoo"'s from the others. Brilliant set, brilliant sound and the audience absolutely loved every minute. https://www.facebook.com/TheWellgreen

The Wellgreen

The Springtime Anchorage

How do you follow that? The Springtime Anchorage had a tough job. The irony is that this local Liverpool band got this gig on the endorsement of The Wellgreen!!! They are a country rock band, with a bass player whose fingers dance all over the fret board and a really good harmony sound. The lead guitarist was very good but stared down at the floor for most of the gig. The main harmonies came from the lead vocalist and the drummer and their second song of the night really stood out for us, with all four band members adding some terrific vocals.

The Beeb had signed up for a stint as a Cave Dweller on the front stage (the regular Saturday Cavern entertainment) so we took a small break to make sure he didn't miss his call up. When he was called, he had complete command of the Front Stage and the audience and did a terrific version of "20 Flight Rock", with the house band backing him. Did it sound good? It sounded terrific!!!!

The Beeb does "20 Flight Rock" on stage at the Cavern

Kontiki Suite

Back to the IPO entertainment, we caught the last couple of songs from Kontiki Suite. We had seen them last year and bought their CD. From what we heard, they played a tight set, had a great reaction from the audience and had some lush songs that led into guitar crescendos. Maybe a bit too Doors influenced, but good nonetheless. Still looking forward to the second album.


Next up were Spain's Octubre. They played a good set with a sun-shiney Power pop beat, complete with a Rickenbacker to give that jingly jangly sound. It didn't matter that their songs were all in Spanish - it was the melody sound that hit the spot and infected us all and proves that music has not barriers. They did have a saxophone player for some songs, who sounded a bit more like Sweep from the kid's TV show but that just added another dimension.

Octubre

Our last band was the second set for the Fast Camels which we have covered earlier. It was way past mid-night by the time they finished, Bed time for us. See you tomorrow for our last day.

The Beeb with The Fast Camels and Jeroen after their gig

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - FRIDAY (DAY 4)

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Liverpool – Day 4 (Friday)
DATE: Friday 16th May 2013
VENUE: Cavern Pub & Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £4 entry after 8pm at the club

This is blog is intended to be a way for us to capture our personal memories from all the gigs we go to see. The International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool hosts over 150 artists, across 3 stages, ranging from solo acts with an acoustic guitar to full on rock bands covering different music styles from folk, pop, rock and everything in between!!!! Whilst we can’t see every artist / band, we try to catch as many as we can. Some we like, some we love, some are pure nuggets and some are just not our cup of tea. This is just our personal opinion of the acts we see through the IPO festival, highlights and lowlights included. If there’s a band we are not fond of, do still check them out as tastes differ and you could have a different opinion from us.


Bands seen today = 15
Fun of The Pier, The Synchymes, Random Sound (part), The Temponauts, The Marvelous Beauhunks, Match Factory, Jeremy, Tony Hazard (twice), Cocktail Slippers (twice), The 286 (part), Robert Vincent, The Silver Factory, Jimmy & The Revolvers, The Maureens, The Sorrows (part)
No of different bands seen so far = 42
CDs: Cocktail Slippers – both albums, Jeremy

Day 4 and the schedule starts to get very busy, with the bands kicking off from mid-day. Our first band was Nottingham-based husband and wife duo, Fun of The Pier. In the pub, with acoustic guitar and semi acoustic bass, this pair brighten your afternoon with their sunshiney, breezy folk/pop. Friday lunchtime in the Pub means a transient, chattery crowd which can be very annoying when you are trying to listen to an acoustic set, but the pair gamely battled on. This year, alongside their own material, the pair did a Frank Turner cover which went down well. An example of how you can be effective with a good voice and a guitar.

Fun of the Pier

The Sunchymes

Another acoustic act was on the Pub stage next. The Sunchymes, the brain child of Aaron Hemmington, is really a studio band so it was always going to be a challenge for Aaron to reproduce his summery pop sounds with just an acoustic guitar and his vocals. The songs themselves are very good, but with the noisy pub crowd, his confidence seemed to shrink a bit and it was hard for him to engage the audience and bring them into his sunshine world. He'd do well to say more than just the names of the song if he wants to win the crowd.

Across, on the Club’s backstage, Random Sound were just getting started. They had done a lot of promoting the night before, with flyers etc, so we thought we would give them a go. We were not impressed at all. They had a good look, but sounded more like an X-Factor type pop act so we didn’t stay for their whole set.

Heading back to the Pub, we caught a band we’ve seen a few times at the IPO over the years, The Temponauts from Italy. They are a really jingly jangly band, with a real authentic, solid, powerpop/rock sound. No Rickenbackers this year, but still highly enjoyable. Slimmed down to a four piece now, this was the best they've been.

The Temponauts

The Marvellous Beauhunks

Following this, a band all the way from Canada, The Marvellous Beauhunks. These five guys played a good set of feet tapping tunes, with a decent beat behind them. They seemed to be a tight group, knowing their music well and appeared to have been playing together for a while (we found out later they have been together for three years).

There was quite a good Friday afternoon crowd in the Pub who really appreciated their sound and gave the band a great reception. It's not very often you see a guitarist rocking out in a shirt and tie and a cardy! The WAGS took loads of pictures (one with the camera equivalent of the Hubble Telescope :-)) and videoed their set. They were very good with the audience too.

On the back stage, a young band from London, Match Factory, had already started their set but thankfully we only missed their first song. They had a fresh sound with a bit of a reggae beat from the bass player who also used a wah wah pedal. The lead vocalist was a strong front man, who also had a good sense of humour asking the audience to come up and say hello after the gig and that “feedback is good. Just don’t make us cry as we have another gig later!”. Certainly worth catching – we liked this band. Great songs.

Match Factory

Todd Borsch

Next on the bill was The Jeremy Band, all the way from the US. Performing at every IPO we have been to in Liverpool, record label boss Jeremy Morris is one of the strongest exponents of power pop you will find. He is a terrific performer and loves sharing his music with everyone. The Jeremy Band is made up of Jeremy, his son Peter, bassist Todd Borsch and drummer Dave.


The set today started off relatively gently, but for the second song, “Rainbow Bridge” which is on his new album “All Over The World”, the amp was turned up and, accommodating the guitar solo perfectly, and the party really started!

Jeremy

Jeremy was on top form, and this was one of the best gigs we’ve seen from him over the last few years. Also included in this year’s set, “I Want To Be With You”  had a bit of Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else” in the guitar riff which sounded superb, and was typically Jeremy with a bit of jangle and a guitar solo that would make Slash crawl away in shame!

The Jeremy Band

Jeremy breaks free from the stage

Their version of “Little Help From My Friends” was awesome and had their mark stamped all over it, including some new lyrics and guitar solo. He over-ran the 30 minute slot, but we didn’t care…… his finale was his signature tune “IPO” followed by his surf set, with Misserlou and Pipeline and at this point we knew the Perspex shield at the front of the stage was not going to confine him to the stage. And there he was almost dancing on the tables amongst the audience. Fantastic set.

The Beeb was heckled by Todd for not heckling! Made us laugh.


On the front stage, Tony Hazzard who has written tons of hits for many 60’s artists such as Lulu, Manfred Mann and Andy Williams, was plugged into his own wee amp, and this softly spoken gentleman made his first IPO appearance.

Tony Hazzard

A mixture of songs and tales, with a guitar and a ukulele,  Tony was entertaining. As with many of the solo or acoustic performances in the Cavern, there was a lot of background noise from the early evening drinking throng who had come in only for  a drink and were not watching the performances which we feel may have put Tony off a bit, as he must have had trouble hearing himself. Having said that, those who were watching and listening to him, enraptured (and there was a good number of these) really enjoyed his show and were very appreciative.

We also caught his second slot later in the evening, on the Back Stage. This later set was different from his first, and included a few naughty phrases in “70 Not Out” inspired by a trip to Honolulu with his aunt that never happened. He is a good songwriter and had a few more tales to tell, including one when he just packed all his documents in a briefcase, put his guitar on the back seat and drove around the country for three months. We all helped him sing “Hangover Blues” after that tale.

After Tony’s first set, we saw an absolutely brilliant band from Norway, The Cocktail Slippers. We absolutely LOVED this band and judging by the reaction of the audience, the crowd watching them on the front stage felt the same. These girls are produced by Little Steven from the E Street Band, so you know there is something good here, and not only did they have the fab 60’s girl group look with a black and white theme, they had a “Go-Go’s meets the 60’s” sound too.

The Cocktail Slippers - the splits

With a beautiful, engaging, main singer who was so athletic she did the splits, the other members of the band were real musicians who all looked lovely and could sing too, adding some terrific girl group harmony sound. They nailed it. Most of their set was punchy, punky tunes with harmonies and a particular highlight for Minty was a slightly slower number, “Castle In The Sand” which was sung with such emotion and feeling it was incredible.

The Cocktail Slippers

This was another band where we caught both sets. Later on, in the back stage, there was a sizeable dose of male testosterone in the air as the girls sparkled once again. The only thing missing from this second set was the splits!  They really enjoyed their stint in the Cavern and gained quite a few fans. Both of their albums were purchased!
Check this band out : www.cocktailslippers.com

The Cocktail Slippers wow the back stage

The 286

We saw the last number from The 286 on the back stage and what a great number it was. It has whetted our appetite for their London IPO performance next week. The 286 are a mixture of pop and classical, described in the programme as “clashing rock n’ roll riffs with cellos and violins” and that is exactly what they did – it sounded superb.


Robert Vincent has a country feel about him, with a feel good factor added. This year on the back stage he had a full band, including keyboard player and with three of the band adding backing vocals, his music had a real depth and sounded lovely. His vibe is quite Jayhawks / Grand Drive.  There was a lot of support for this guy so the back room made some noise after each song, and rightly so.

Robert Vincent

The Silver Factory

Next on the back stage was Leicester based, The Silver Factory. We had seen this band at the London IPO last year and liked their look and their sound. In the Cavern, they sounded great. A mid-60's mod look, but jingly jangly psychedelia is their sound and record label owner, Jeremy appeared to be really impressed with them.

They have a great front man, and Minty has never seen anyone play the tambourine and look so sexy (sorry Beeb) and the rhythm guitarist added some terrific backing vocals. As a group these guys are vibrant, and with the room filling up, the audience seemed to like them a lot. We certainly did. Hopefully it won't be too long before they lay down a few more tracks and release their music. In the meantime, check out their facebook page and listen to some of their tunes.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Silver-Factory/89178293796

The Silver Factory

Imagine Brian Setzer meets Johnny Cash and you have the sound of local band, Johnny And The Revolvers. Here was a band that were thrilled to be on stage, and had lots of support. A hen party in tonight, rock n’ roll chicks dressed in 50’s style polka dot circle skirts with net petticoats boogied to the tunes throughout the set. The drummer particularly stood out for us and the front man, constantly smiling endeared himself to the large audience and the cheers and whistles got louder and louder as the set went on. One number had a great doo wop style start and their last song included a bit of a drum off between the drummer and the lead singer who played the bongos. A brilliant set and a great addition to the IPO.

Johnny and The Revolvers

The Maureens

The Netherlands always sends us some great pop acts who have some fantastic harmonies. Last year we got Surf School Drop Outs and  this year, we had Beach Boys’ influenced The Maureens. Close your eyes and you could imagine being in Jeff Foskett’s front room, or mixing with the Explorers Club. The harmonies just washed over us, wave after wave, tingling our ears. Magic.



We caught the final three songs from last minute addition to the IPO bill, The Sorrows, a band that actually formed back in 1963. Dressed in their own branded black T.Shirts, this group spanned a few decades, with a mix of some original members, and some youngsters and what we heard was pretty darned good. A mix of 60’s blues rock with vintage stars, the last song was a really terrific version of “Lucille” after which the audience went wild. We wish we had had the chance to have seen more from this band.

The Sorrows

Our last act of the night was the second set from Cocktail Slippers (see above) and then we headed back to the hotel. What a terrific night of music.

And here is The Beeb having a fab night..........

with The Cocktail Slippers

and meeting Tony Hazzard

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - THURSDAY (DAY 3)

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Liverpool – Day 3 (Thursday)
DATE: Thursday 15th May 2013
VENUE: Cavern Pub & Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £4 entry after 8pm at the club

This is blog is intended to be a way for us to capture our personal memories from all the gigs we go to see. The International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool hosts over 150 artists, across 3 stages, ranging from solo acts with an acoustic guitar to full on rock bands covering different music styles from folk, pop, rock and everything in between!!!! Whilst we can’t see every artist / band, we try to catch as many as we can. Some we like, some we love, some are pure nuggets and some are just not our cup of tea. This is just our personal opinion of the acts we see through the IPO festival, highlights and lowlights included. If there’s a band we are not fond of, do still check them out as tastes differ and you could have a different opinion from us.

Bands seen today = 8
The Last fakers (twice), Two Weeks Running, Sons of Jet (twice), Dave Lloyd, Midland Railway, Second Symphony (twice), Echo Lips (part), The Sympathy
No of different bands seen so far = 27
CDs: none

Day 3 started a bit later than normal for us and it was act no.4 on the bill, The Last Fakers which were our first band of the day, playing in the Pub. Our interest was piqued immediately when we saw a harmonica player in the band, all geared up with a guitar pedal board and his own microphone. Unfortunately we couldn’t hear the harmonica for the first two songs, but once the mix got sorted, it came through loud and clear. This is a band from the North East of England who really stood out for us. The lead vocals, shared between both guitarists were really good, and were well complimented with backing vocals, and they gave an authentic bluesy/rock kinda vibe. Their set in the pub ended with a cover of  “Time For Action” which was a great choice and really suited their style. A mention in particular has to go to their drummer - he was just superb and had boundless energy.

The Last Fakers during their second set

We caught part of their second slot later on when they played the Back stage in the Cavern Club and they did a slightly different set, this time including a keyboard. This was even better than the pub because of the sound from the back stage is much deeper. Unfortunately the gremlins affected the harmonica again, but once sorted sounded brilliant. Their last song was a cover of the Small Faces “What’cha Gonna Do About It” that had everyone singing the chorus. This was a band that really impressed us. Check them out on  www.thelastfakers.co.uk

Two Weeks Running

Two Weeks Running were a young band who do the Shouty-Brothers thing. Quite a heavy guitar sound, but once again, another band that seemed to rely on volume to get their songs across, rather than trust the quality of the songs to do the business for them. Unfortunately this is a regular occurrance in the pub where the band has control of the amp volumes and for some reason they feel the need to turn the volumes up to 11!!  We were told that their second set on the front stage sounded much better. A good enough band in their own genre, but not really our favourite listening material.

Regular IPO performer James Styring has appeared under various monikers over the years. Whether it’s Postcards From Places That Don’t Exist, The Popdogs or the new band Sons Of Jet, the one thing you’re guaranteed is quality songs and a great performance. James is an excellent communicator with his audience, and has a good thing going for him by having a very distinctive singing voice. What he touches musically is pure gold. Today, we saw both of their IPO performances, first in the Pub and later, on the Cavern’s front stage. where they gave out free copies of their CD single.

Sons of Jet in the Cavern Pub

Sons of Jet's James Styring

The new songs are just great – really catchy, which you can’t help but tap your foot and bounce your head to. Their rockabilly song “Brother” had people up dancing, and the waltz-like “We Cut Our Hair,” inspired by Stuart Sutcliffe’s paintings is a classic already.

The Beeb was invited up to perform The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved” helping out with harmonica duties. Obviously he didn’t turn that invitation down.

The Beeb adds Harmonica for "When Will I Be Loved"

Both sets sounded great, but as you would expect, the mix on the front stage was a bit richer. Both venues had a good crowd which really seemed to enjoy the guys playing. You can listen to their CD single here http://www.reverbnation.com/sonsofjet

David Lloyd

On the front stage of the club we caught another favourite of ours, David Lloyd. On his own this time, without his band The Suns, he switched from acoustic to electric guitar during his set, to give us a demonstration of what good song-writing is.

On his own with just an acoustic guitar, you can really appreciate the strength in his vocals and with some of Minty’s favourites in the set such as “Demons” and  ”Soul Desert” it was a fantastic half hour. Unfortunately though, the background noise of the general chit-chat from the migratory club audience did interfere a little.

Over to the Back stage, and Midland Railway were ready to start. With feather boas draped around the microphone stands, you knew that was going to be a flamboyant band. Their set of quirky songs, such as being posh and not apologising for it, was something different and set them apart from many of the bands that play the IPO.

Midland Railway

David Novan from Midland Railway

A couple of technical issues hampered the set a little, but on the whole we enjoyed it. The blend of three vocals gave a strong mix and the quirky songs worked. Like this band on facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/themidlandrailway



We found another nugget at the IPO tonight, a band from Glasgow called Second Symphony. Their first set was on the Back Stage and we enjoyed them so much we caught their second appearance in the pub later on. This five piece (that includes two brothers) had a really great buzz about them, with some nice guitar licks and the audience seemed to really love this band. They have a great sound and moved from rock to blues/country funk to a rock ballad easily. It takes a lot to get a ballad across at the IPO but this band hushed the crowd with theirs – the lead vocal being particularly strong. Indeed we noticed that with just a lead vocal and occasional backing vocals from the other guitarist, this is a testament to the vocal quality, as not many other bands can make this work well.

Second Symphony

Second Symphony in the Pub

They were up against a decent sized midnight pub crowd for their second slot so the ballad maybe didn't get the attention from the audience that it deserved, and (through no fault of the sound engineers) the sound in the pub is not the best, but the crowd did really seem to genuinely like this band. We certainly did.
Have a listen to their music:  http://www.reverbnation.com/secondsymphonymusic

Echo Lips

Echo Lips were making their appearance at this year’s IPO on the front stage. Due to clashes with other bands we wanted to see, we only caught the last two songs of their set. With quite a generic powerpop sound, we did like what we heard.

The Sympathy

First time IPO-er’s and the first time they have played outside their native Sweden, The Sympathy debuted on the Front Stage and gave us some Scandinavian rock.

The lead singer with this band is totally mad, and the front stage was not big enough to contain his energy and when he took the rope off from the front of the stage that acts as a barrier between the artists and the audience, we knew what was coming next, and sure enough he mingled with the crowd that were gathered to watch them. Fantastic stage presence. The drums sounded great and this was another band with a harmonica player, the harp being used for their final two songs.

After that, we popped across to the Pub for the last set from Second Sympathy (see above) and then headed back to our hotel. The IPO was definitely hotting up and tomorrow is a full day.

The Beeb has a pint with Sons of Jet, James Styring after the gig