Minty And The Beeb Go Gigging

The Flaming Cortinas

2012-01-30T22:12:00.000Z

Gig: The Flaming Cortinas
Date: Saturday 21st January 2012
Venue: The White Hart Pub, High Street, Old Town, Hemel Hempstead
Cost: all free
Verdict: Flaming great

THE ZOMBIES

2011-12-29T18:32:00.005Z

GIG: The Zombies 50th Anniversary Tour
DATE: Sunday 27^th November 2011
VENUE: Alban Arena, St Albans, Herts
COST:
OUR VERDICT: The boys come home

PAUL MERTON

2011-12-29T18:32:00.004Z

GIG: Paul Merton - Work In Progress
DATE: Saturday 26^th November 2011
VENUE: Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead
COST: £10.00 and no booking fee
OUR VERDICT:

BARB JUNGR

2011-12-29T18:31:00.003Z

GIG: Barb Jungr sings Dylan
DATE: Saturday 12^th November 2011
VENUE: Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead, Herts
COST: £12.00 and no booking fee
OUR VERDICT:

ALICE COOPER

2011-10-30T18:21:00.000Z

GIG: Alice Cooper, Halloween Night of Fear with support from the New York Dolls
DATE: Saturday 29^th October 2011
VENUE: Alexandra Palace, London, NW2 7AY
COST: £34.50 plus extortionate service fee of £5.25/ticket PLUS the luxury of having to print our own tickets!!!!
OUR VERDICT: Ghouls gone wild

Links:
www.alicecooper.com

The Beeb is Ghouled!

The entrance to Alexandra Palace was adorned with monster paraphernalia, and ghouls and zombies awaited us as we filed in, each trying to spook the crowd.

Inside were more ghouls and zombies who were part of the show, alongside a mixture of normally dressed people and those who had really dressed for the occasion, in fancy dress, characters from Alice Cooper’s vast back catalogue and even some Alice lookalikes. First time we’ve been to a concert and felt under-dressed!

The gig was all standing and as the hall was so massive, two large screens were hoisted in the air right and left of the stage so if you couldn’t see through the throng of big heads and tall people, you could always see the live action on the screens!

Earl Slick

We had wandered through to the main hall not long after the New York Dolls started their set. The sound was very clear, and although they didn’t have a massive stage presence, the Dolls sounded really good. The Beeb was well impressed that long time David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick was part of the band.

Minty was not really familiar with this band, but they have a good rock sound, a bit of harmonica thrown in every now and then, and one of the guitarists had a lovely gold Gretsch! They did manage to play their whole set without breaking sweat. They’re built for more up close and intimate venues rather than arenas.

The New York Dolls

Their set ended and we had a 45 minute wait while, behind the Alice Cooper stage curtain, the gear was set up for the Halloween Night of Fear. We had worked our way through the masses of bodies by this point, and found a tiny bit of unoccupied space about twenty five metres from the stage.

The Stage Curtain

The heat from the bodies packed into the immediate area around us was overwhelming and about five minutes before Alice’s show began, right beside us one very tall gentleman had just taken his leather jacket off then passed out cold, giving everyone around him a bit of a fright as he just fell backwards and hit the floor hard! Within seconds he had recovered, thankfully. The first thing he did was asked where his jacket was. The Beeb told him he had it, then gave him it back saying the pockets were empty!

The Black Widow

So the lights went down and a Vincent Price voiceover introduced the show……. The curtain was dropped and Alice was there, dressed in black and orange, centre stage at the top of a set of steps so everyone, no matter how tall or small, how close or far, could see him, with sparklers in the palm of his hand while his did his first song “Black Widow”. What a start!

His set was a bit of a greatest hits show, with “Billion Dollar Babies”, “I’m Eighteen”, “No More Mr Nice Guy”, “Hey Stoopid” and “Poison” complimenting his visual artistry. Alice Cooper is definitely a true performer. “Only Women Bleed” was really fantastic, singing along to ‘Cold Ethel’ his toy doll.

When it was time for a change of costume, he left the stage, leaving the bass player and drummer to keep the beat going….. and they did! An extended drum solo and the crowd encouraged to reprise the “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey” from “Hey Stoopid” kept the pace up for about ten minutes before Alice came back on the stage this time dressed in black and white.

To introduce one of his new songs, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” he came on stage wearing a jacket that had “New Song” splayed across the back, just so we all knew it was exactly that!!

There were the expected shockers: early in the show he brought his friendly snake on stage, wrapped around his neck, and towards the end of the show, we saw Alice being beheaded and then the executioner drinking his blood and spitting it out into the crowd!

The last song of the main set was the cult classic, “School’s Out” which everyone in the crowd shouting along with and which morphed into a superb rendition of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.

Elected

There was an encore, “Elected” where Alice came back on stage in a ring master coat and Top Hat, carrying a huge Union Jack Flag and then a Halloween guest appearance from Arthur Brown, who gave an energetic performance of his classic hit “Fire,” complete with huge flames engulfing the head-dress he was wearing. We feel it got a bit hot under the collar for him and there was a spot of difficulty in removing the head-dress at the appointed time!!!

Arthur Brown & Alice share a laugh at the end of the show

It took a while to file out of the hall and by the time we joined the queue to pick up our pre-ordered copy of the 3-CD set recording of the show, it had extended way back to the end of the hall! The queue did move quickly though and before long were on our way, CD in hand and talking about how great the show had been.

It’s hard to believe that Mary Whitehouse and her ilk were up in arms when Alice first came on the scene here. What Alice cooper really is, is just the biggest and best and truly entertaining pantomime villain there has ever been. Oh, a pantomime villain with a great back catalogue of songs that is.

Alice certainly has his dedicated fans. There was a really wide age range in the audience, and you could tell different ages had their own particular favourite song eras. We can’t think any other gig where so many people came specially dressed for the occasion. Some of the costumes were amazing.

The Beeb has been waiting for forty years to see this man perform and he was on a high (or maybe just a bit lightheaded from the headshaking to the music!!!).

Two let downs of the night:

The company running the bars have dodgy practices. We bought 2 bottles of Pepsi and as we were not allowed to take bottles into the hall, the contents were poured into paper cups for us by the bar staff. Well, they poured about two thirds of each bottle into cups and then handed the cups over. When I pointed out we had paid for two bottles and I therefore I expected the FULL contents of those bottles to be in the cups, they were a bit incredulous!!!!

The representatives of the company selling the 3-CD recording of that night’s show told us that if we didn’t pre-order and waited instead until after the show to buy the CD, the chances are we would lose out and not get a copy. We were a bit miffed that as soon as we walked out, we could have purchased the said CD directly from the girls flogging them, instead of waiting in the extremely lengthy Q to get our pre-ordered copy. Also, you can order the CD directly on their website even if you never went to the show. Hmmm, questionable practices to secure your money upfront, especially as they would have known they were also making the CD available to buy on on line!

GLEN CAMPBELL

2011-10-23T02:03:00.000+01:00

GIG: Glen Campbell
DATE: Saturday 22^nd October 2011
VENUE: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London
COST: £42.50 (no fee as were members)
RATING: Thank You and Good Bye

Links:

www.glencampbellmusic.com

www.instantpeoplemusic.com

This show was a sell-out, and the RFH had even opened up the choir section behind the stage to cram more people in!

Instant People opened up the night’s proceedings – a 5 piece band, 3 of who (we were later to find out) were siblings and had the Campbell name…. they were Glen’s children. They were actually really good – the banjo playing keyboardist was Glen’s daughter Ashley, the Ovation guitar player was his son, as was the drummer (safely caged behind Perspex!). The main lead in the group was not a family member but he had a very fine strong voice. The bassist was a mite annoying with a chicken walk and he kept coming off his perch, and then got his lead tangled!

Their style of music can best be described as hypnotic groove and are not unlike the band ‘Grand Drive’ (which includes three brothers called Wilson!) with acoustics and some good harmony.

After a short interval, Instant People were back on stage, this time as Glen’s band. When he walked onto the stage the place erupted, he had a standing ovation and he hadn’t even uttered a single word! His opening number was “Gentle On My Mind” and by the second song, “Galveston”, The Beeb had reached for the hankies. This was going to be a very emotional evening.

Glen has not lost his sense of humour, striking a pose for the press photographers, imitating Elvis during “It’s Only Make Believe” and doing Donald duck impressions! Years of entertaining audiences became clear early on, and the way he moved around the stage showed incredible understanding of how to reach out to everyone there.

His daughter challenged him to a duel, and what we got was “Duelling Banjos.” with her on banjo and him on guitar and what we got was a few minutes of bluegrass delight! No wonder Glen was such a successful session musician – he has not lost any of his finger work on a guitar!!!

Glen left the stage while his kids introduced the band (The Beeb was quite taken with the drummer’s middle name being Caledonia!)… which included his long term keyboardist, T.J. Kuenster, who also seemed to be the musical director and then the band did a lovely cover of one of Glen’s songs, “Hey, Little One”.

Glen came back on stage and gave us “Ghost On The Canvas”, the title track from his new album, which sounded superb. The next set of songs included “Southern Nights” and then he said that if it wasn’t for Jimmy Webb he probably wouldn’t be here doing this right now…. and The Beeb just melted when the first chords of “Wichita Linesman” were played. Without a doubt, one of his top five songs of all time.

The final song was “Rhinestone Cowboy” which had the 4000 strong audience singing along, and Glen, understandably seemed to really love and appreciate this.

As he left the stage, the applause was thunderous and it wasn’t long before he was back in front of the microphone for two final songs, “In My Arms” and the incredibly moving “A Better Place” before he really did mean, “Thank you and goodbye”.

This was a particularly emotional night for The Beeb, because Glen Campbell has always been a particular favourite of his from way back in the sixties, but never got the chance to see him live. The Beeb has always appreciated a good voice.

So, a poignant evening, knowing that after this tour Glen will never hang up his guitar, and no matter what the future holds for him he’ll always have his music to help him on the rest of life’s journey.

JOHN COOPER CLARKE

2011-10-16T21:05:00.000+01:00

GIG: John Cooper Clarke
VENUE: Jazz Cafe, Camden, London
DATE: Saturday 8th October 2011
COST: £22.00 (+£16.50 towards the food bill) plus the usual extornionate fess of £11.75 for both tickets
OUR VERDICT: "Feeding Caviar to Swine"

We had high expectations with the Jazz Cafe...... an iconic London music venue which offered the show & dinner.
Dinner was very disappointing and as the first of the two support poets took to the stage, he was drowned out from the staff clattering with plates, trays, continuing to serve food and drinks throughout, and chattering amongst themselves AND a constant chatter from two tables nearby where the diners had no concept of talking quietly!! Also the view from the dining tables was extremely restricted - a thing not noted when making our booking!!!

After we had paid for our meal (we refused to pay the 10% automatically added to the bill after the constant interruptions and noise whilst the support acts were on stage) we headed downstairs and joined the "mosh pit" where the audience had a bit of respect for the performers.

Not long after 9pm, John Cooper Clarke took to the stage..... dressed all in black, with large Ray Ban sunglasses, carrying what looked like a G&T.

For the next hour and fifteen minutes he wowed us with his witty repartie and poetry. To our surprise, there were more jokes and humourous memories than poetry, but nonetheless it was a thoroughly enjoyable show.

JCC has a list of poems that fans of his know, in fact he had a whole book of them on stage. But the only one that he did that was known to us was his hilarious "Hire Car." The lack of poems wasn't a problem though, his humourous off-the-cuff stories, (which went off at all tangents!) and jokes more than made up for it.

He could have gone on all night we imagine, but the compere at the side of the stage finally had to hook him off to make way for the 80's disco that was due to start right then!!!

We'd definitely love to see The Bard Of Salford again, but certainly NOT in the Jazz Cafe, Camden.

BRIAN WILSON - LONDON (night 3)

2011-09-21T08:02:00.000+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson

Venue : Royal Festival Hall, London
Date : Sunday 18^th September 2011
Cost : £55 (no booking fee)
Our Verdict : It's Getting Better All The Time

www.brianwilson.com

Night number three… it was the last night in London and we hoped that Brian’s momentum would be maintained. Brian-land is a small world, and whilst having pizza for dinner before the show, who should sit at the table next to us, but two of the band Spygenius – a band we have seen a few times at the IPO’s in the UK. They too, were going to the show!

So, this was the last time we were going to hear ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ and we savoured every moment. The harmonies were great, and being in seats just to the left of centre, we had a good view of Probyn Gregory playing a slidey steel on “I Got A Crush On You”. Tonight Minty did the ‘close your eyes and just listen’ bit and The Beeb was right – it did sound lovely.

Time just flew past us, and before we knew it, the final “Our Prayer” type harmonies were fading and Brian was walking off the stage for the interval.

The second set kicked off in the usual style, with Brian Wilson walking on stage to the intro of “California Girls” and the hall erupted in a great cheer and hearty applause. Tonight “Salt Lake City” was back in the set and the band members spotlights were also still there, Darian Sahanaja with “Darlin’”, Scott Bennett with “Sail On Sailor”, Nicky Wonder leading the way with “Pet Sounds” and the drum-off between Mike D’Amico and Nelson Bragg was the best we have heard on the tour (the audience went wild). Also, the whole band stopped and just watched the pair beating it out and Nicky kissed his guitar at the end! The Beeb, being his usual shy self, hollered “Brilliant Nicky”.

Jeff Foskett did “Don’t Worry Baby”, his falsetto sounding sweet and we also had a bit of a nugget, with a new addition to the set “She Knows Me So Well” which went down a storm. Other newbies on this tour, tonight were “Girl Don’t Tell Me”, with both Jeff and Probyn playing 12 strings, and Brian sounding smooth, and “Marcella” which totally rocked, and Probyn went mad on guitar. The reaction from the audience on this song was awesome and Brian looked very happy with it.

“God Only Knows” was introduced by Brian as the “best song I’ve ever written” and as the first notes were heard from the French horn, played by Probyn, the crowd gave a loud cheer. We wouldn’t say tonight was the best version we have heard on the tour but it is such a great song, and the arrangements fantastic, that you can’t say anything negative about it.

The set ended with “Good Vibrations” and before it started, Brian so candidly told us that it was his last song of the set before he came back on for an encore!!! Everyone laughed!

Well we got the encore, and it was the usual fare, with “Johnny Be Good”, “Help Me Rhonda”, “Barbra Ann”, “Surfin’ USA” and “Fun, Fun, Fun” and then the second encore when we were sent on our way with a bit of “Love and Mercy”. Before leaving the stage for the final time, Brian did allude to coming back again…. and soon!

Farewell London!

Again, not many photos as the RFH police were on the ball tonight and stopping everyone they saw.

We were able to say goodbye to the band in the post-show party before they got on their tour bus and headed to the South coast to catch a ferry over to France for their next gig.

So, 6 concerts over 8 days. We thought it would be hard to write six times about what is essentially the same show, but each time we heard the Gershwin set we heard and saw new things, and with the second set being changed every night, we had some variety. Hope you have enjoyed the ride with us.

BRIAN WILSON - LONDON (night 2)

2011-09-19T22:18:00.000+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson
Venue : Royal Festival Hall, London
Date : Saturday 17^th September 2011
Cost : £55 (no booking fee)
Our Verdict : Rhapsody In London

www.brianwilson.com

After such a great start to the London 3 night residency yesterday, we hoped that Brian Wilson would keep the momentum going. We were not disappointed.

Tonight the big man was on fire. He really seemed to enjoy himself, and kept smiling throughout. Again, the night started with ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ all the way through. Once again, “”They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “I Got Rhythm” got the audience all fired up and got a real rapturous applause. The latters’ segue into the “Farmers Daughter" type harmony was spot on, and the band sounded fantastic.

Brian seemed to really like “I Loves You Porgy”, “’S Wonderful” and “It Aint Necessarily So” if his face was any barometer of how good he thought things were (we would agree). “I Got Plenty o' Nuttin’” is really growing on us, and tonight, from the side of the auditorium where our seats were, we had the chance to see Probyn’s banjo playing. Disappointingly, the Bass Harmonica on this one didn’t come through as strongly as other performances.

During “Someone to Watch Over Me”, The Beeb sat with his eyes shut and basked in the sweet sound that was Brian Wilson on this song. With nothing to detract from the sound, The Beeb thought this was wonderful.

The second half started with “California Girls”, which night after night has been a great kick off to the hits part of the show. “Dance, Dance, Dance” got Probyn Gregory grooving and swinging his guitar. Brian Wilson’s reaction at the end of “Surfer Girl” was a deep throated “alright” so we guess he thought it sounded as good as we did!

Once again, the set list was given a shake up and we got treated to a song we hadn’t heard for a long while.... “Drive In” which really sounded brilliant, and had an acapella, harmony ending which Minty loved. “Wendy” stayed in the set tonight (introduced by Brian as having a Four Seasons kind of lyric) as did “Add Some Music” which went down a storm with the audience judging by the enormous cheer it got. “Going Home” gave Darian Sahanaja another chance to play with his geeky moog and tonight “Little Girl I Once Knew” was back in the set. Why this wasn’t a big hit, we don’t know! “Surfer Moon” with great string accompaniment from the Stockholm Strings was played for the second night in a row (despite Brian announcing it was the first time they were playing it live!!!!) and again it sounded perfect.

“Don’t Worry Baby” with Jeff’s fine vocals got the cheers it richly deserved. Darian reprised his “Darlin’” and was humbled by the audience’s tremendous appreciation for him. Nicky Wonder led “Pet Sounds” and tonight the drum-off between Mike D’Amico and Nelson Bragg was the best so far. This song works so well live on stage, and long may it continue in the set list. Scott Bennett also did his soulful version of “Sail On Sailor”.

Darian Sahanaja

Paul Mertens and Jeff Foskett

The encore was the standard fare, but a little girl danced along on stage, to the left of Jeff Foskett. The Stockholm Strings provided the dance moves to “Surfin’ USA” and “Fun, Fun, Fun” and the whole of the RFH was on their feet.

So, night number two in London – to sum up, it was electric. The good vibe in the hall was there, and Brian looked so comfortable - he was relaxed and enjoying himself. We are going to be sad tomorrow when all this comes to an end........

Not many photos - there were too many people using flashes, and the staff were on the case asking people to stop taking pictures...indeed Paul Von Mertens jumped into the audience at one point to stop someone!

Our night did not end there, however. A bit of a party in the Camel & Artichoke pub afterwards went on until past 1am, with a couple of guitars, a tambourine or two and plenty of singing to Beach Boys songs with the decent crowd of fans who had gathered in the upstairs room. What a night!

BRIAN WILSON - LONDON (night 1)

2011-09-19T21:49:00.000+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson
Venue : Royal Festival Hall, London
Date : Friday 16^th September 2011
Cost : £55 (no booking fee)
Our Verdict : Add Some brilliant Music To Your Day

www.brianwilson.com

Brett, Nelson & Jeff

The Royal Festival Hall is an iconic venue for any Brian Wilson fan. It was here that he did “Pet Sounds” almost 10 years ago, premiered SMiLE in 2004 and the venue commissioned “That Lucky Old Sun”. Now, for the first time, London was going to hear “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin” in its entirety.

As with the other shows on this tour, the first set was the Gershwin album from start to finish. Brian seemed very relaxed and comfortable and this shone through in the performance tonight. He seemed to particularly like the performance of “It’s Wonderful” and as with all of the other shows, “You Can’t Take That Away From Me” delighted the audience and really made the whole auditorium come alive.

Tonight we really noticed Nelson Bragg’s percussion, especially on “Our Love Is Here To Stay” where the soft brushing on a drum skin was so audible. Probyn Gregory delivered a fabulous piece of guitar on “I’ve Got A Crush On You” and another real crowd pleaser was “I’ve Got Rhythm” which got such a great round of applause and cheering from the audience.

Again, all too quickly the first half ended, with the superb “Our Prayer” type harmonies on reprise of “Rhapsody In Blue” and us, the audience were left to discuss the highlights of this show.

Mike D'Amico

Nicky Wonder

The second half began with “California Girls”. Brian’s vocals were quite weak on “Dance, Dance, Dance” but he perked up again the for a new number added to the set, “Wendy”. We were really treated tonight with another new addition, “Surfer Moon” which was a little gem. The Stockholm Strings sounded fantastic on this one. Another new number was “Add Some Music” which Brian introduced with “It will blow your mind”. And it did – it sounded amazing, with the flute and drums really standing out. Sunflower is well up there in our top albums, and it was fantastic to hear this song back in the set list.

“Please Let me Wonder” remained in the set, and for the first time we heard the spoken “I Love You”, and again, we were delighted to hear “Your Imagination”.

Next up was another new ear tickler... “Goin’ Home” with Darian Sahanaja on the main vocals and also playing the Moog..... (he loves his geeky toys!) . Paul Von Mertens also did a mean harmonica solo on this one.

Brian sounded so beautifully soft on “God Only Knows” and he got the standing ovation and rapturous, continuous applause he has had for this song on every show we have been to.

The set still had the great band member shine throughs – Darian on “Darlin’”, Nicky Wonder leading “Pet Sounds”, Scott Bennett singing a really soulful “Sail On Sailor” and Jeff Foskett with his falsetto lead on “Don’t Worry Baby” & “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”.

The encore had the usual favourites and during “Help Me Rhonda”, Scott was all over the stage, banging a tambourine, sharing a mic with each band member and joined Probyn and Brett Simons in a bit of formation dancing.

Brian plays his bass guitar during the encore

The second encore was “Love & Mercy” and we left the RFH with a lovely warm glow.

The warm glow lasted through to the early hours of the morning, where a post show party for the fans had been organised, and 6 of the band turned up to mix and mingle...... it was past 2am before we saw our beds! Roll on night number 2.

Brian had the opportunity to talk guitars with Nicky Wonder

Minty managed to get Wondermints in the same place at the same time!

BRIAN WILSON - BIRMINGHAM

2011-09-16T11:04:00.002+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson

Venue : Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Date : Wednesday 14^th September 2011
Cost : £50 (plus extortionate £5.75 booking fee per ticket)
Our Verdict : The Black Country, Brightened

www.brianwilson.com

Our third show... and still we were filled with anticipation and excitement. Again, the show kicked off with the ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ album from start to finish. Brian, on introducing it, told the audience “If you don’t like it, just tell us and we won’t do it anymore”! No danger of that happening.

Tonight, our seats were on the left hand side of the auditorium so we were able to really appreciate the Q Strings and the interaction between the band members on this side of the stage. During the encore Probyn Gregory & Scott Bennett were line dancing and bassist Brett Simons was twirling, and on “Fun, Fun, Fun” Paul Von Mertens and Scott were moving in slow motion which was quite effective! It also gave us the opportunity to appreciate how many instruments Probyn Gregory plays... 12 string, electric guitar, banjo, trumpet, French horn, theramin.....

Multi Instrumentalist - Probyn Gregory

Brian was really with it, and appeared to be very comfortable tonight, especially through the Gershwin set. The sound was just brilliant, and highlights were “Summertime”, “The Like In I Love You”, “I Loves You Porgy” (even Brian said “Oh Man” at the end it was that good) and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” once again got a really rapturous applause. Being able to see the Q Strings we could see just how much they enjoyed playing. The girl at the front playing the cello was really amazing (especially during Heroes & Villains”), and she was even dancing in her seat and singing along to “I Got Rhythm”. In fact, she sang her way through the SET!

Paul Von Mertens

This has been the best performance of the Gershwin set so far.....

Jeff Foskett

The second half of the show started once again with California Girls – this is a real crowd pleaser and sets the tone for the whole of the Greatest Hits set. The set was pretty much the same as the one from Manchester, however “Breakaway” was dropped and “Please Let Me Wonder” was back. During “All Summer Long” Brian was multi-tasking, playing keyboard with one hand the clicking his fingers with the other. He was on fire tonight.

Scott Bennet "Sail On Sailor"

“Your Imagination” was once again the stand out song for us and we caught Brian smiling to himself, so he must have thought it hit the mark too. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” with Jeff Foskett taking the lead vocal worked very well tonight, and Brian even remarked “Wasn’t that a good one”?

“God Only Knows” got the same reaction as last night....... constant applause for minutes after the last chord had been played. This song is a real hit on the tour.

During the encore, Scott spotted a young girl in the audience dancing in the aisle and he jumped off the stage, danced with her in the aisle and then lifted her onto the stage for a boogie with him during “Surfin’ USA”! She looked so chuffed.

Scott Bennett & Darian Sahanaja

“Love & Mercy” was the final song before Brian and the band left the stage for the last time and the house lights came up. This has been the best show so far, soundwise. You could hear every little tinkle, plink, plonk, strum, beat of a drum..you name it. Sound man deserves an award.

Next stop...... London Town for three nights of Fun, Fun, Fun.

We were lucky enough to meet the big man before the show

BRIAN WILSON - MANCHESTER

2011-09-16T10:17:00.000+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson
Venue : Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Date : Tuesday 13th September 2011
Cost : £50 (no booking fee)
Our Verdict : Brilliant - They Can't Take It Away from Him!

www.brianwilson.com

Our second show of the Brian Wilson tour got underway in Manchester, with the ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ album performed in its entirety during the first half. The show really came alive during “You Can’t Take That Away From Me” which got thunderous applause. The seats we were in did not reflect the best sound in the auditorium – the big speakers hanging from the ceiling were in line with our row, so we never really got the benefit from them. At times we really could hear the drums and Jeff Foskett’s many guitars (we were in the firing line of Jeff’s amp) but less so, Darian and Scott on the keyboards on the other side of the stage.

The second half opened with “California Girls” which was a great crowd pleaser. Brian asked if we wanted to hear a bit of rock and roll, with Chuck Berry words.... and then launched into “Dance, Dance, Dance”!!!

The set list was slightly different to what we experienced in Glasgow –“ All Summer Long” was in the main set, not in the encore and new songs in tonight’s show were– “In My Room”, and early in the set was “Catch A Wave”. From Brian’s reaction he thought that it sounded good (it did!) and also included a nice guitar solo from Jeff Foskett. Later in the set we really got a treat, with “Your Imagination” a song that has not tickled our ears during a live show for a long, long time, and tonight it sounded superb. The drums really sounded great, Paul Von Mertens’ flute shone through and Brian sounded great. We hope this stays in the set. The final encore was “Love & Mercy” to send us on our way with a marshmallow comfort blanket wrapped around us all.

Brett Simons & Probyn Gregory

“Breakaway” stayed in the set, and tonight it sounded very fine. Not sure if the band did anything different from Glasgow, but Minty thought it sounded much better tonight.

“Pet Sounds” was once again a main highlight, where Nicky Wonder radiated in the limelight once again, and the drum off between Mike D’Amico on drums and Nelson Bragg on percussion was ace.

Darian Sahanaja delivered another great rendition of “Darlin’” and Scott Bennett sang another flawless “Sail On Sailor”.

Another big highlight was “God Only Knows” – not just because Brian sang it perfectly, but from the reaction from the audience......... there was continuous applause and Brian had to sit patiently and wait for it to end...... he was there for a while!!!

In summary of the show, at times Brian’s vocals were hardly audible, and he did look a bit fed up at times. However, he was playing the keyboards much more than we have ever seen him play them before. The crowd were appreciative, and got up and danced on the spot throughout the greatest hits.

So night two for us ended. It was good to hear a slightly different set, and also once again some of the firm favourites.

Next stop...... Birmingham.

BRIAN WILSON - GLASGOW

2011-09-16T10:04:00.001+01:00

GIG : Brian Wilson
Venue : Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Date : Sunday 11th September 2011
Cost : £45 plus the booking fee
Our Verdict : Blinding

www.brianwilson.com

The Pre-show meet up was in a music bar called The Bay in West Regent Street, and it was here that a few of the fans congregated ahead of the show, including some that had made the journey from Australia and Boston. We got there about an hour after it all kicked off, only to learn that Brian Wilson himself had popped hi s head around the door (with Jeff Foskett and Nelson Bragg). Natch, we had missed the great man. Nelson came back later and mingled with us all.

Once at the Royal Concert Hall, we had the chance to meet more of the fans, and then headed into the auditorium to take our seats. The show started with the complete “Brian Wilson Imagines Gershwin” album, from start to finish allowing only short breaks for appreciative applause. The harmonies were perfect from the very first note, but some of the songs really stood out, including, “Summertime”, “I Loves You Porgy”, which had a lovely sax solo from Paul Mertens. “You Can’t Take That Away From Me” was a really upbeat number, and the band seemed to like playing this one.” I Got Rhythm” had a great rolling drum beat from Mike D’Amico and after “Someone To Watch Over Me”, Brian looked really satisfied – the band had obviously nailed that one. The strings were provided by the Apollo Strings, from Glasgow, directed by Paul Mertens.

Paul Von Mertens

How the time flew..... as the last notes faded, Brian left the stage for the interval. Minty was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the 1^st half. Not being a big Gershwin fan, nor a big fan of the album, the live presentation of it was actually really awesome.

The second half kicked off with the songs we all know and love, beginning with “California Girls”, “Dance Dance Dance”, “Surfer Girl” and “Please Let Me Wonder” where Jeff Foskett played a rather nice Elvis Presley acoustic guitar. Brian did a bit of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and The Beeb made a sheep’s “baaaaaa” noise, which cracked Scott up on stage!!!

We heard “Salt Lake City” performed for the first time tonight and that sounded really tight. Scott got everyone up to dance to “Do You Wanna Dance” and after that no-one sat down for the next 60 minutes + ......... even when the tempo slowed down a bit. The set included “Little Girl I Once Knew” which is a song we haven’t heard in the live shows for a while and were delighted it was included tonight. “Breakaway” still needs a bit of work – Minty felt there was something missing from the mix tonight on that song. “God Only Knows” was dedicated to the 9/11 victims

Nicky Wonder plays "Pet Sounds"

The band really shone tonight. Jeff Foskett performed an absolutely lush “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, Nicky Wonder shone in the glory of “Pet Sounds” which included a drum off with Nelson Bragg and Mike D’Amico, Darian Sahanaja astounded us with “Darlin’”and Scott tinkled the ivories whilst singing “Sail On Sailor”. Brian looked quite sombre at times, but every now and then, there would be a bit of a sly smile when he realised just how good the show sounded. Yes, he fluffed a few lines here and there, but on the whole his vocals were good. He played his keyboard on a few occasions (more than we’ve seen him in the past) and for the encore had his SMiLE bass .

There were two encores, the final one beginning with Mike D’Amico beating the drum and then the band stepping on stage, one behind another (like the Madness walk) in time to the drum beat, and then after taking their positions behind their microphones and instruments, launched into “All Summer Long”.

And so our first Brian Wilson concert of 2011 came to an end. Reaction among the fans afterwards was really positive – Great Sound, fantastic harmonies, terrific, brilliant...... you get the drift.

After the show, a bit of a party had been arranged in a bar not far from the venue, with an invite for everyone..... that was a brilliant 3 and a half hours of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys tunes being spun and some live spontaneous acoustic sets from the many muso’s in the room, which included four of Brian’s band (Scott Bennett, Nelson Bragg, Probyn Gregory and Brett Simons), Pugwash, Duglas T. Stewart, Laurence Reid and The Beeb of course.

Post Show Party

Daniel McGeever started off proceedings, and would have given Darian a run for his money on “Darlin’” and The Beeb did his great harmonica piece on “Forever”. A few Beatles numbers were included, with Scott delivering some fine vocals. Pugwash did some original material which was good but the people in the bar wanted something more well known – it was Beatles and Beach Boys songs only. You feel if Bruce Springsteen had come in and started playing some of his songs he’d have been told to stop and play more Beatles,!!!!

Nelson & Probyn have a jam

Duglas & Jill

Cocktails flowed all night and it was just past 3am when we finally toddled off back to the hotel....... leaving Nelson & Probyn (aka The Duracell Bunny) still partying!

Night one over...... another five to go!

2011-07-05T23:19:00.002+01:00

GIG: Girl Talk – I Am Woman (Mari Wilson, Barb Jungr, Gwyneth Herbert)
DATE: Sunday 3rd July 2011
VENUE: The Alban Arena, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3LD
COST: £17.50 plus a transaction fee for the whole order
OUR VERDICT: Girls do more than talk

Links:

www.mariwilson.co.uk
www.barbjungr.co.uk
www.gwynethherbert.com

'Girl Talk – I Am Woman’ is the sum of a musical roller coaster ride of love, heart-ache and girl power. It’s a mix of great music and humorous chat from three luscious ladies, Mari Wilson, Barb Jungr and Gwyneth Herbert, with ivory tinkling in accompaniment from Adrian York (with a touch of backing vocal). The girls are all accomplished singers in their own right, and we were not sure what a mix of three would bring together so we strapped ourselves in and got set for what turned out to be a fine evening of music and fun.

The show has some great songs including (and by no means comprehensive), “Venus”, “Under My Thumb”, “Jolene”, “More Than A Woman”, “I’m Every Woman” and “Young Hearts Run Free” and Minty’s guilty pleasure, Charlene’s “I’ve Never Been to Me”. All three girls looked great on stage, in heels, slinky dresses with lashes curled and red lippy on.

A bit of chat (the Girl Talk) in between songs, gave us plenty to chuckle at, and at one point Gwyneth revealed a secret which we won’t spoil by revealing here! Enough to say it was amazing and worked really well in one of the songs!

There was a cover of the B52’s song, “Give Me Back My Man” which had a line about giving the other woman fish and candy in return for her man, which in turn led to a rather humorous bit of banter between the girls about why anyone would want to swap fish for a man!!!

Gwyneth had a solo spot in the first half, and sat perched on the edge of the stage while singing a mournful song about “the other woman” which was actually quite uplifting towards the end as the other woman always ends up lonely. She has a very dusky, evocative voice which we liked a lot.

In the second set, it was Mari and then Barb’s turn in the spotlight each singing their chosen songs, accompanied by Adrian on piano and sang with such passion, emotion wrapping its arms around the audience until the last note faded. We have seen Mari on many occasions and know her great vocal range and ability to make every song she sings sound fab and tonight we were not disappointed.

Until tonight we had never seen Barb perform and we were impressed with the power in her voice. She sounded great. Both had picked perfect songs for their voices.

It is amazing what sound Girl Talk can deliver, with just 3 vocalists (very fine vocalists at that) and a pianist. Even the acapella songs sounded very powerful, with not only vocals but a bit of the doowop style backing which gave an extra depth to the sounds resonating in our ears.

If Girl Talk comes to a town near you, get along and experience this fantastic show for yourself.

Brian with Adrian and the Girls

RINGO STARR

2011-07-01T23:47:00.000+01:00

GIG: Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band
DATE: Saturday 18th June 2011
VENUE: Liverpool Empire
COST: £60 plus an really outrageous, extortionate booking fee of £11.50
VERDICT: You can take the boy out of Liverpool....

When the tickets for Ringo went on sale, it was clear from the start that any Minty And The Beeb gig review was only gonna be written up by one half of Minty And The Beeb!

Not even a freebie ticket for a McCartney gig would temp Minty into the Beatle world. But for The Beeb it was a chance to see a real live Beatle. So with one ticket in hand we both headed up to Liverpool once again.

After booking into the hotel we headed out to meet up with friends. The Beeb with Janine, Phil and various other good people, while Minty went on a pub crawl with Dave W.

Ringo in his Teddy Boy jacket

Inside the Empire theatre The Beeb caught up with Janine at the opposite side of the hall for a quick chat. On the way back to his seat the great opening notes of “It Don’t Come Easy” opened the homecoming gig for Ringo. The band sounded great, and Ringo looked even better. He was in great shape and nattily dressed in a bit of a Teddy Boy look jacket.

First of the other members of the All Starr band to do his bit was Rick Derringer, who did his old McCoys hit “Hang On Sloopy.” This is an excellent live song that went down well with the audience. Rick then introduced Edgar Winter who did a blistering “Free Ride.”

Wally Palmer from The Romantics was an unknown artist to the Beeb, but Gary Wright’s “Dreamweaver” was spot on.

Probably the best singer of the night was Richard Page who did Mr Mister.s big hit “Kyrie.”

Rick Derringer (l) and Richard Page (r)

Ringo came back for the nostalgic “The Other Side Of Liverpool,” then got the crowd going silly with “Yellow Submarine.”

When Edgar Winter strapped his keyboard over his neck for “Frankenstein,” it was like watching the film of him from the Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70’s. His hair was as white then of course!

After another round of various members singing, Ringo finished off the proceedings with “Photograph,” “Act Naturally,” “A Little Help From My Friends” and “Give Peace A Chance.”

All the way through the gig, Ringo made references to how much he loved Liverpool. It became a bit of a running joke.

The gig was very enjoyable, but looking back at how much everyone else in the band contributed to the show makes you wonder how much the £70 price tag for the ticket was VFM. Still...it WAS a Beatle, even if he never used THAT word all night. A good night out, but it will be a while before the Beeb forks out £70 to see Wally Palmer and Mr Mister again.

Ringo on the drums

DONOVAN

2011-06-04T21:03:00.000+01:00

GIG: Donovan
DATE: Friday 3rd June 2011
VENUE: Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London
COST: £37.50 (plus 3.50 booking fee for the whole transaction)
RATING: Sunshine Superman

links
http://www.donovan.ie/
http://www.royalalberthall.com/

Getting into South Kensington on a Friday night with Sat Nav is not great....... St Johns Wood closed off for a major water pipe burst and major roadworks all around the Albert Hall, which meant we were mega late and then couldn't find a way into the carpark we had pre-booked (8 quid wasted).
Anyhow, parking in Hyde Park was free and literally just around the corner, so we dumped the car and got to the Albert Hall at 8.15pm.

We missed his support act - Newton Faulkner and Donovan was into his third somg when we arrived. At a suitable break, the usher let us into our box and we found that the other two people in the box had nicked our seats so they had to move!!! When we got accustomed to the dark we found out they had left the remnants of their picnic all over the floor. On the plus side, we got to hear "Universal Soldier."

As we settled down and Donovan sang "Sunny Goodge Street". Then he introduced the orchestra onto the stage. They took a while to file on and we couldn't keep clapping endlessly so the hall fell silent as the last half of the orchestra took their seats and started tuning up.

The orchestra and band comprised strings, horns, flutes, bongos, a harpsichord, piano, full drum set, glockenspiel, guitars and couple of backing vocalists. His musical collaborator, John Cameron, was the night's conductor. Long time Donovan co-hort Danny Thompson was on double bass.

"Jennifer Juniper" got a tremendous round of applause. Inbetween every two or three songs, a girl narrated Donovan's musical life story and at this time we were up to the part where he started to work with Mickie Most and then we heard "Hurdy Gurdy Man". At this point The Beeb told Minty to listen out for a great bit of guitar and then was promptly disappointed when the PRS had been turned down to "one" and hardly audible on the solo!!! Despite this, the song got a great reception from the audience.

We noticed that Donovan had a page turning Roadie - a guy who ran across the stage every now and then to turn the page of his manual autocue!

Next up was "There Is A Mountain," and then "Mellow Yellow". We thought that was the end of the first half, and given the terrific round of applause and cheers from the very appreciative audience, that would have been a real high to break on, but Donovan then went into "Lalena" which was quite down beat in comparison.

The interval was quite long compared to some other gigs we've been to, and both the loos and bar were not overcrowded so it was a really realxing break. That being said, the heart was sent racing at the cost of a glass of wine at £8.30 for a large glass of Pinot Grigio!!! (So Minty bought a bottle instead!)

Jimmy Page joins Donovan on stage

We took our seats for the second half, which was the complete "Sunshine Superman" album, and Donovan introduced to the stage, the young session from the original recording... non other than one of The Beeb's greatest guitar heroes, Jimmy Page.

The Beeb's reaction was adorable - one of total disbelief and admiration and he spent the next four minutes competely transfixed, and mouth wide open!

Jimmy Page and Donovan

"Berts Blues" was really good - the drummer was playing his drums like Bongos (and bongos were played too), and at times we heard snippets of Brian Wilson's "SMiLE" (funny that, as "Sunshine Superman" came out before SMiLE was born so just who influenced who?). "Season Of the Witch" prompted the Beeb to comment on another Led Zepplin connection - the fact that Robert Plant has been including this is his live repertoire for years.

Next up were some songs played whilst sitting on a raised, carpeted area on the left hand side of the stage, alongside a sitar player (Shawn Phillips), before which Donovan took his shoes off, so he sat playing his acoustic guitar, in socks.

At the end of the album, Donovan thanked the audience but did an encore which comprised "Sunshine Superman" and another rendition of "Mellow Yellow". Jimmy Page was brought back onto the stage to play guitar and Donovan also introduced his daughter and son (half brother and sister). The daughter had been the girl providing the narrative between songs, and his son had joined him on stage for one song during the show. His wife was also introduced on stage as his "muse".

So ended Donovan's only planned show for his rendition of his aclaimed album, which is, incidently being re-released on Monday! Minty is not familiar with Donovan's records, but enjoyed the gig tremendously. The sound in the RAH was terrific, even if the PRS was turned down and drums were behind a plastic barrier and not terribly loud! Although the show was not a complete sell out, the only obviously empty parts of the hall were up in the Gods.

We hung around the stage door at the end and The Beeb got a kiss from Donovan's wife and his picture taken with Danny Thompson who gave him a friendly bear hug.

The Beeb with Danny Thompson

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW LONDON DAY 4

2011-06-01T22:53:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow
DATE: Monday 30th May 2011
VENUE: The Bull & Gate, 389 Kentish Town Road, London, NW5 2JT
COST: £8
OUR VERDICT: Another grooving mix

Links:
www.internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/International-Pop-Overthrow-Music-Festival/8753580978
www.bullandgate.co.uk

Evaney

The last day of the 1st Annual IPO in London began for us at act number two, Evaney (www.myspace.com/evaneymusic). We had seen this duo at the Liverpool IPO and had thought they were OK but not really our cup of tea. We may have done them a dis-service though. In the Bull and Gate, the sound engineer must have been much better as the standup bass was more audible, as were the bassist's backing vocals. The lead vocal didn't sound so harsh and Alana Morrisett-y and Evaney's set was really quite enjoyable.
Their first song, "Silhouette" was a great opener and another highlight for Minty was their "sad" song, "Drowning". Evette, the girl singer showed herself to be a bit of a raconteur too.

The next act, Spygenius (www.myspace.com/thespygenius) delayed the start of their set in order for a few more people to drfit in. Bank Holiday Monday is not the liveliest time in London and as the Bull and Gate don't get a passing crowd of tourists every now and then (as the Cavern in Liverpool does), the audience numbers were sparse. It was a shame that many of the band's friends who had promised to come along had not infact turned up, and when they finally started their set they dedicated each song to these "absent friends", by naming them individually!

Spygenius salute Absent Friends

The set was predominently new songs which will come out on their third album and they did sound great. For us, "Skeletons" and "Summertiime" (a song about the Isle of Wight) stood out. The drums on "surf" were REALLY surf drums and gave the whole song its authenticity along with the 12 string guitar twanging. We had thought that was their last song, and time allowed an extra song to be tagged on, so out came an electric ukelele for a short, humorous song about a hairy motor biker!

We took the opportunity to grab a bite to eat and missed the next two bands, returning to see Loser Token (www.myspace.com/losertoken). Although we had seen this band ay the Liverpool IPO, our memories were a bit fuzzy and it was not until they started their last song - a Stevie Wonder medley that we remembered them. To be honest, their set was not great - one singer and a quite punk-type sound, but the Stevie Wonder medley was as good as we remembered!

Longplayer

Longplayer, from Sweden (www.longplayer.se) had the stage next. This five piece from Stockholm played rock and roll pop, a trait of Swedish bands, and their experience in the business showed with their set being tight. A highlight was a song called "Cool Cat Walk".

Their guitarist looked a bit like Tony Blair, and he kept coming to the front of the stage in front of the monitors to play which we felt unnecessary. Their set ended with a great version of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and the guitarist was playing with the guitar behind his head.

London based Rinaldi Sings (www.myspace.com/rinaldisings) was up next. Steve Rinaldi would not be out of place on the soundtrack of the great London film (starring Jude law and Ray Winstone) Love, Honour & Obey, and he plays the trombone, keyboard and sometimes just sings.
His song "Goodbye Steve McQueen" was a real treat and we felt this was the catchiest song of the day and his set included "Lucky Day" which is one of Minty's favourites from him. His backing band today included Jim on drums and Bob on guitar, both from fellow London band, Kelly's Heels (who were playing later), and we felt Bob's vocals really added a great sound and really complimented Steve's lead.
We liked his set very much.

Rinaldi Sings

Up next was supposed to be Ben Jones, doing a solo stint without his Lovedays, but he was a no-show. Instead we were treated to a second appearance from Spygenius.

Spygenius

Unfortunately for their keyboardist who had left the venue after their earlier performance, he missed out on this "encore", and they played without him.
This did not have any negative impact on their set. They still sounded great, and did the same set of songs as previously (with the exception of the bonus ukelele song) and threw in a couple of anectdotes as well which made us laugh. There were more people in the audience than before and they appeared to really appreciate the band stepping in like the heroes they were.

Spygenius relax

Peppermint Apes

The young Peppermint Apes (www.myspace.com/thepeppermintapes) took to the stage next and stormed through a predominently rock set. Minty was pleased they included "Dance Floor Hero" which is a partcular favourite of hers from this band and it sounded good. All four memebrs of the band appeared to enjoy being on stage and their WAGs were at the front of the stage, enjoying being sung to and winked at by their repsective boyfriends!!!

The drummer somehow managed to break the chain on the bass drum pedal, and the lead singer quickly ad-libbed and did a short, impromptu acoustic number while the pedal got fixed. Good thinking on his feet we thought.

Whilst we thought their performance was good, we were a bit disappointed that none of the band stayed to watch any of the other bands (either before or after their set), especially as audience numbers were light.

Our final band of the night, and indeed of this IPO were Kelly's Heels (www.myspace.com/kellysheels) who gave us a fantastic set of great powerpop. This band is the guru of powerpop, and their vocals were spot on. Their set started with "Same Mistake", "She Doesn't Know It's Wrong" and then a new song called "Imperfect". Their set highlight was "Who's Been Cheating Who" which was just superb in our opinion (introduced as the Pink Panther one!).
Unfortunately Bob's guitar string broke and we felt they ended their set a little early as result - well we could easily have taken in much, much more of this band, guitar string or no guitar string!!!!

Kelly's Heels

It was getting late at this point and although there were two more bands to play, we left to head home. Thus ended our London IPO. Whilst the audience numbers must surely have been disappointing, we did feel that the quality of the bands, on the whole, was great and we do hope that the IPO returns for a second stint next year.

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW LONDON DAY 3

2011-06-01T22:32:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow - London Day 3
DATE: Sunday 29th May 2011
VENUE: Bull & Gate, 389 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2JT
COST: £8
OUR VERDICT: A Great Mix

Links:
www.internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/International-Pop-Overthrow-Music-Festival/8753580978
http://www.bullandgate.co.uk

Due to other commitments, we missed the first two days of the 1st annual IPO in London, but day 3, we were raring to go, and got to the Bull & Gate mid-afternoon and just in time to see The Soundcasters (www.myspace.com/thesoundcastersmusic & http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=32683261704) setting up. The Sunday afternoon audience was very sparse so we almost got our "up close and personal" gig, but hats off to the band, as they played their full set, with the same gusto we saw in Liverpool. Again, their James Brown (via The Moody Blues) cover was awesome.

The Soundcasters

4th Street Traffic

Despite not long arriving we took a small break to grab some food, and came back mid-way through the set from 4th Street Traffic (www.myspace.com/4thstreettraffic & http://www.4thstreettraffic.com), a four piece from Wales. What we heard, we liked. They played some decent rock tunes, and created a big sound. Vocally they were great with the bassist adding great backing vocals to the strong lead. This band certainly has great potential in our book, and have already supported The Stereophonics and were off to play a gig with The Charlatans in Cyprus next! Their songs sound like they were written for playing in stadiums. Oh, and their CD was given away free!

Black Sun

Next up for up was the SHINDIG Showcase, starting with Black Sun (www.blacksunuk.com) from Sunderland. They weren't on the programme of London bands, but had played the Liverpool IPO, so we imagine they were added at fairly short notice. The lead singer had an echo in his mic, and was extremely influenced by Liam Gallagher, not only in looks but sound also. Maybe a bit too much. Their set included a cover of "Come Up and See Me" which was a decent attempt, but fell short when there was not a bit of backing vocals added.

Dave Rave (www.myspace.com/daverave) , from Ontario Canada was next on the bill and he kicked off his party with "Let's Face It". A highlight for us was "Anne-Marie" which is such an infectious song, we love it loads and his set was topped off with "Rock The Party" and "Let's Shake", which are two trademark Dave Rave songs and great crowd pleasers, albeit still a relatively small crowd.

Dave Rave with Marc and Simon

Dave was backed by Marc and Simon from Plastic Heroes and encouraged people to dance along with him on stage. Our host, David Bash was not shy here and jumped up right away.

David Bash joins Dave Rave on stage

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson (www.myspace.com/chriswilsonflamingroovy) took to the stage next for an acoustic set, playing a 12 string. Chris has played with The Flamin' Groovies and also The Barracudas and he obviously has a following, as the audience was middle aged men, who knew the words to every song, even Chris' solo stuff, and there were rapturous cheers after each song.

Minty thought he sounded a bit like Uncle Bob Dylan, even when he sang an old Scottish traditional Robert Burns song. David Bash summed up his performance as "powerful and moving". The Beeb thought he was great, and had the opportunity to share a few Scottish anecdotes afterwards when they found out both of them grew up in Glasgow.

Next up, Mellowmen from Sweden (www.myspace.com/mellowmen). We have seen this band every year in Liverpool so we knew what to expect from their set - a fast paced, frenetic set delivered by a band who lap up being on stage like a sponge. All of the band have stage presence, and in particular the rhytmn guitarist, who was singing along, despite not having a microphone and the drummer. who had great facial expressions, really getting into the groove!.

Mellowmen

The main man with Mellowmen plays the keyboards and jumps around really enjoying himself, even coming out to play the maraccas in the audience.

Their song "Party at 11" really went down well (this was a highlight from their Liverpool set too). They had brought a few friends along, which swelled the audience numbers somewhat and gave a great atmosphere.

Next on the bill was the main attraction for Shindig, a band really endorsed by the magazine, Ulysses (www.myspace.com/ulyssesgb). Jon Mills from the magazine introduced them to the stage, as "the future sound of classic rock".
On myspace their music sounds great, but when on stage, their amps go beyond 11 and we found that much of the vocals were drowned by the buzz and shred of guitars which were just that little bit too loud for the size of the venue. One of their songs reminded us a bit of "Dancing In The Street" and although there were a fair number in the stage area, about the same number of people were outside in the bar and not taking in the music.

Last up tonight was The Kinbeats (www.myspace.com/thekinbeats) a band we had already seen in Liverpool, and although based in Kilburn, London are originally from Germany. In Liverpool we were struck by their harmonies, which did not come as a surprise due to the fact the band is made up of three brothers and a cousin.

The Kinbeats

By this time many people had left so it was a small audience that remained to enjoy the sounds from this band. Not only can they produce some great harmonies - their song "Falling Slowly" is an almost acapella song (just a small pluck on guitar strings as accompaniment), to some great rocky numbers. All four members of the band get a chance to sing lead, and the drummer's vocals really stood out.

"Long Way Home" particularly caught our attention, and "Sail Away" had a really catchy chorus. It's a shame there weren't more people in the venue to hear them.

And a bit about he venue itself.....
This was the first time we have been to The Bull and Gate and it is an OK venue... the music room is separated from the main bar and the venue is a very basic, stage and cleared floor area with benches and tables along the perimeter. The sound is very good, and tonight's engineer, Owen set up the bands quickly, and made sure things like redundant microphones and cables were out of the way.
The ladies loos were kept clean, but you had to be careful when entering otherwise you'd knock into anyone standing by the dryer for their hands! We'll say nothing about the gents..... other than disgusting.

IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 6

2011-05-23T21:07:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 6
DATE: Sunday 22nd May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £2 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: A great finish to our IPO

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Our last day started with Ross & The Wrongens (www.myspace.com/rossandthewrongens) on the front stage. Typically Sunday lunchtime is the graveyard shift of the IPO with very few people wandering into the Cavern (having partied until 6am the night before!), but there was actually a half decent number of people in the Club for this gig.

The lead singer played acoustic guitar, with duct tape over the sound hole for some reason. The set raced along rather like The Gaslight Anthem, and the other guitarist was having loads of fun on stage, constantly beaming a wide smile. This is quite a young band, and inexperience did show through, as they appeared a bit disorganised on the set list and kept talking over each other while introducing songs.

That aside, they sounded really enthusiastic and their last song was particularly good, starting off slow and built up to a crescendo of shredding guitars to round off! We bought their CD, and really like the packaging (still to listen to the disc!).

Ross And The Wrongens

Jeremy & his band

Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) was next up, having gained this extra slot due to a cancellation. Through the first part of the set, you could see he was itching to jump over the rope that formed the boundary to the stage and before long, he had unleashed one end, and with a clear passageway, he did jump off and played up close and personal to the delighted audience, starting with his surf guitar medley, progressing through a bit of Beatles and Rolling Stones, some US TV themes we can’t recall the name off, plus loads of other instros.

He included a couple of covers – “Gloria” telling us he knew the original as being by a Chicago band, The Shadows of Knight, and then “Wild Thing” starting at first in the Troggs style and then progressing to the famous Jimi Hendrix style. This man knows no boundrys and always does a great, great show.

Jeremy plays to the audience

Moving through to the back stage, London band Mini (www.myspace.com/soundofmini) were setting up and their set included the 4 songs on the EP they were giving away free. This is a really cool band, and the drummer, who does most of the singing does have a great voice. They did attempt a cover of a David Myher song but stopped mid-way as they felt they were not doing it justice. Then they proceeded to play the best cover we heard of the day – ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” complete with all of the falsetto harmonies. That sounded fab.

Mini

Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) followed that with another great harmonious set. David Bash introduced Ni as having vocals that would make George Michael blush! This time round we were there from the first key being played, and we heard the full version of “Night Shift”. Two songs that did stand out today were the one about the haunted house (or an Ex), with the “ba ba ba ba wow’s” which were quite reminiscent of the 40’s war time girl singers and “Lady Luck”. Ni was encouraging us all to sing along to the chorus. We had a vote for the last song – blues or pop:- Pop won!

Ni from Honeybug

On the front stage were The Mayflowers (www.myspace.com/mayflowersjp)
, all the way from Japan. They play a very fast paced set, mainly because they don’t speak English very well, so there is no banter with the audience in between songs! This year we felt they played more rock than pop, but they still sounded great. They did a great cover of the old Cookies song, "Chains" as recorded by The Beatles.

The Mayflowers

Our final band of the IPO was Blake Jones & The Trike Shop (www.myspace.com/trikeshop) – all the way from California. Luckily due to a cancellation, they had a slot which meant we could catch them before we headed home. Blake was suffering a bit from a lost voice, but he still managed to get through the set. He plays the Theramin on stage and it was just awesome. He did a cover of “Dear Prudence” which sounded heartfelt even through the hoarse, croaky voice. Finishing with “Here Comes The Bus”, we picked up one of his CD’s and that was our IPO for this year over.

Blakes Jones & The Trike Shop -
Blake on the Theramin

Thanks to all of the bands we saw for entertaining us over the last 6 days. Thanks also to David Bash & Rina Bardfield for their dedication to power pop which makes this event happen every year. A shout out to the sound engineers – not once did we get a bad sound from any of the stages.

For the many friends we make along the way... long may this continue.

Until next year......... (or London if you’re going to be there!)

Day 6 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 6 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 2 bands seen on a previous day
Best Original Song:
Best Cover: “Mr Blue Sky” - Mini
Highlight of the day: Mini and Honeybug

IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 5

2011-05-23T20:54:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 5
DATE: Saturday 21st May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £1 cover charge after 1pm and £3 after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Hot, hot, hot

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

We had a light IPO day today - It was Scottish Cup Final day today, so that took priority for The Beeb. However, The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) were playing an extra slot in the Pub and that could not be missed! It says a lot for The Beat Rats that the first half of Celtic playing in the Scottish Cup final was given up to see them live again!
Being Saturday afternoon the pub was really busy. Hen and Stag party victims made up a good percentage of the audience. It didn't take long for The BRs to win them over and clear any cobwebs from their ears.
Once again the band rose to the challenge and wowed the crowd, even if one dizzy girl asked if they could play any songs she know! Tony had the perfect retort.."We only play this shit we write!"

The rest of the IPO was put on hold for us until later that evening. Grudgingly paying our £3 we got to the Cavern Club at around 8.30pm and saw most of The New Untouchables set on the front stage. They were really excellent, having a real 70’s Shaft style guitar sound at times, and the lead vocals were shared between the keyboard player and one of the guitarists. The other guitarist looked a bit like Rodney Trotter!

At this point, the front stage was given over to The Cave Dwellers, a resident band at the Cavern and the IPO moved solely to the Back Stage. This meant that any band on the stage from that time onwards had a captive audience!

We caught the last 3 songs from The Beta Rays, who played some really great powerpop. The back room was already full (seemingly with many family and friends of The Beta Rays) and with the audience moving in from the front stage, it swelled even more and the temperature was almost unbearable.

Next up from London, were The Kinbeats (www.myspace.com/thekinbeats) who were an absolutely fantastic band. This is another band made up of brothers and a cousin and you could tell this from the fabulous harmonies that filled our ears. They reminded us a bit of the Jayhawks, and in some cases, The Eagles or Long Ryders. Even the drummer had a shot at singing, and one song was just vocals with a little bit of guitar which sounded awesome. This band was a particular highlight of The Beebs' IPO

The Kinbeats

We haven’t heard harmonies like that since The Avenues appeared at the IPO in 2008 and brought the house down. Their last song was a bit different to what we had heard from them so far, with a bit of a guitar shred at the end, which showed us they could really rock too! We learned they are also playing at the London IPO, so hope to catch them again.

Octubre

Octubre, a Spanish band, who had brought their own fan club along were up next. They were really quick to set up and did their complete set in Spanish. It was real pop, and the temperature in the room was such that the sweat was dripping from the lead singer relentlessly.

We felt the bass player was trying to steal the thunder of the lead singer a bit on the last song, whilst he was playing a good bit of guitar, as the bassist was standing at the front playing his bass, hiding the lead guitarist from view!

Next up, Ulysses, a band we had seen last year. This year we felt they played better than they had last year, but they didn’t really seem to enjoy being on stage. That may have been down to the intense heat, which the lead singer likened to playing in Malaysia! The drummer was very good (one of our friends likened him to animal and also the 118 118 guy in the TV adverts). They did sound good, but the amps were turned up so high our ears were really buzzing afterwards and they would probably be better on an open stage at a festival at that level. They do take themselves a bit seriously in our opinion though. Paul Weller and Lou Reed probably smile more on stage than these guys.

Mellowmen (www.myspace.com/mellowmen) from Sweden were next on stage, introduced by David Bash as being his favourite band at the IPO for the last 4 years running. The rhythm guitarist was quite laid back and seemed to be quite happy playing the chords in his own wee world, while the bass guitarist really adds some fantastic backing vocals to every song. Having a percussionist also adds to the tremendous vibe.

Mellowmen

The main man of Mellowmen is the keyboard player and he is a real character. At one point he picked up a pair of maracas and jumped off stage, sat beside someone in the audience and passed one of the maracas to him to play! The best song of the night was from this band – Party at 11 O’Clock – it was a bit past that hour, but there was certainly a party going on, on stage! It really is an EVENT when these guys play
After that performance, we called it a night and wandered back to the hotel for some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be our last day at the IPO.

Day 5 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 7 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 1 band seen on a previous day
Best Original Song: “Party At 11 O’Clock” - Mellowmen
Best Cover: we didn’t hear any covers
Highlight of the day: Discovering The Kinbeats

IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 4

2011-05-23T20:20:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 4
DATE: Friday 20th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £3 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Beat Rats are the best

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Day 4 started for us, gently in the Cavern Front Stage with Rachel Dunn, a local girl with an acoustic guitar and a guy on percussion (well, bongos and a didgeridoo!). With the didgeridoo, we felt they could have done more with the music. On the plus side, she didn’t belt her songs out, so the set was quite listenable.

Following this was the second outing for Fun of The Pier (www.myspace.com/funofthepier). 1pm in the Cavern is not the busiest of times, so the audience was sparse and any chattering does detract from listening to the music.

Fun Of The Pier

Sadly the audience were not as respectful as the slot in the Pub, and a group of three clowns (one wearing an AC/DC t.shirt so obviously he wasn’t going to enjoy an acoustic set!) spoke really loudly for the first few songs before leaving. What we did get treated to was some soft, breezy acoustic pop about fun at the pier and being happy, which was perfect for the Saturday morning.

Charge Of The Light Brigade (www.myspace.com/chargeband) , a band from Toronto were playing in the Pub so we popped across to catch their set. The IPO was treated only to Jason Eagan (from Clockwise) on bass and the lead singer, Luke Sneyd with his Les Paul – the rest of the band had not made the trip, so we got a stripped down set. With only a guitar and bass, it was hard to gauge what the full band would sound like, so we bought their CD!

Charge Of the Light Brigade

After that we took a break.... we had to find a place that sold a memory card for the HD camcorder, at a reasonable price, and also took the opportunity to update the blog and then find a place with free wifi that worked to post it!!!. After a bite to eat at the hotel, we headed back to Mathew Street early in the evening to see Houdini Dax (www.myspace.com/houdinidax) again.

Houdini Dax

This time they played on the back stage and kept the same set as yesterday, with the exception (we think) of 1 song but what a performance again. These guys really do know how to put together short, punchy power pop songs and the drums really give it the great vibe.

A quick dash to the Pub, and we joined the crowd gathered there, just after Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) had started their set (kicking off a tad early). Honeybug has been one of those bands we must see every time they play the IPO and until they come onto the stage you never know quite know what you going to be treated to!

Honeybug

This time, the line up was the same as last year – Ni on main vocals and keyboard with Erin and Laura providing superb backing vocals.

The weekend had started in Liverpool and the pub had its fair share of the drunks and bawdy people, but Honeybug stuck with it and gave us some lush harmony around some great songs written by Ni, including one about a haunted house (or an Ex!) and a bluesy number called “Storm Cloud” which went down, er, a storm!

Back in the Club, and Liverpool band, The Suns (www.myspace.com/thesunsbanduk)
were just about to start their set. They played some great rocky pop songs which the crowd packed into the front stage loved. David Lloyd, the main man with The Suns seemed to really enjoy this gig.

The Suns

The Breakdowns

Meanwhile, on the Back Stage, The Breakdowns (www.myspace.com/thebreakdownsband) were playing. Minty had this band in her Myspace friends from the time she first signed onto the site, and it was great to finally get the chance to see them play live.

They are very pop/rock and David Bash summed them up very nicely with the phrase, “Hooks, Harmony and Energy”. There was a big crowd gathered in the Back Room for this one, and a particular highlight was “Don’t Go” which had a bit of harmonica on it.

Nigel Thomas

Staying in the back room, we learned that The Foxes (www.myspace.com/thefoxesband) would not be appearing due to the drummer injuring his wrist, but what we did get was a fantastic solo performance from The Foxes front man, Nigel Thomas.

He did include one cover in his set – The Beatles “Things We Said Today” but the rest was stripped down Foxes songs and some of his own. “No Reply” had some mad jazz-like chords thrown in which impressed The Beeb and his final song of the night was really upbeat with crazy chord changes! He got a fantastic response from the audience, and he proves that with the right songs, you can do a great stripped down set.

Back to the Front Stage and we caught most of Elgazelle’s (www.myspace.com/elgazelle) performance, and what a performance this was. Northern Soul does seem to feature quite a bit at this year’s IPO and this six piece band sounded great. The lead singer must have eaten sandpaper for breakfast and his gravelly voice, reminicent of Eric Burdon, really suited the music and he played a few percussion bits too. Our chum Davey said that this is what a Dalek would sound like if they could sing! Elgazelle were the surprise of the day and we loved them.

Elgazelle

Next up was the band we could not miss – The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) had their second slot on the front stage. This time they were being recorded by a guy from Abbey Road and they had a fantastic, fuel injected set which totally rocked from the first chord right through to the last.

The Beat Rats

No matter how many times we see these guys, they hit all the right spots, time and time again. Their set included the Beat Rats Theme, Mine All Mine (especially for a couple who were visiting form America) and we also heard some new stuff, Nyah Nyah Nyah being a great instrumental. The audience absolutely loved this set, and the place was heaving. I don’t think they could have wished for a better gig. The Beat Rats go from strength to strength.

We spent the next half hour or so just milling around the merchandise table area, not really taking in any of the bands playing.

When we did wander into the Back room, a local band Major Major (www.myspace.com/majormajor) were on. They had a bit of a “wow” factor – the first power pop band to include rap and they were great. The front man was really confident and engaged with the audience brilliantly. They went down really well and Minty really enjoyed watching them.

Major Major

After that we called it a night. Day 4 over, Day 5 here we come.

Day 4 Summary:

No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: saw 3 bands we had seen on previous days
Best Original Song: All Beat Rats!
Best Cover: “Things We Said Today” – Nigel Thomas
Highlight of the day: The Beat Rats rocking the front stage and the audience reaction

IPO LIVERPOOL Day 3

2011-05-20T15:03:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 3
DATE: Thursday 19th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, LiverpoolCOST: £3 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Wales 12 points!

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

The BLOG this week sponsored by The Beatles Shop, Mathew Street, Liverpool
http://www.thebeatlesshop.co.uk/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

David Bash promotes the official
IPO T Shirt - designed
by Steve Stanley

Day 3 started for us at 4.15pm today in the Pub, with the acoustic duo, Helen & Mark from Nottingham, in the guise of Fun Of The Pier (www.myspace.com/funofthepier). Helen has been coming to the IPO’s as a “watcher” for as long as we have been attending so it was great to see someone we know pick up a guitar and entertain us. Richard Snow helped out on vocals for the first song and after that it was all Helen singing with Mark on an acoustic bass. Their set was gentle and what Minty liked in particular was that Helen wasn’t shouting into the mic, but was singing quite naturally. Reminiscent of Yani Martinelli from last year’s IPO, this does prove that you can be effective with a good voice and a guitar.

Fun Of The Pier

One of their songs, “Inconsiderate,” was about people chattering over singers trying to perform, and what was good about this performance was that the audience in the Pub was unusually quiet (except for a couple of clowns at the bar) and gave Fun From The Pier a lot of respect.

Minty disappeared then to freshen up for the rest of the evening and that left The Beeb to enjoy the King of Sunshiney Power Pop, Jeremy who had this slot due to a no-show.

Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) is always the consummate performer – he enjoys playing and has unlimited passion and energy that ripples through the audience too, before being a full blown tsunami well before he hangs up his guitar. Just a few highlights were “Hearts On Fire” which is the title track from his most recent release for the charity Sweet Relief, Big House and a few Beatles numbers. His bassist Todd, performed one of his own numbers too, which sounded great.

Jeremy asked for requests and The Beeb asked for “123 Red Light” and he obliged. A surf guitar medley helped to bring the best out of the crowd, and the energy drove Jeremy up onto the stage barrier, to do his high dive but hit his head on the PA system! Hope he doesn’t have too much of headache today!

Staying in the Pub, next up were Richard Snow & The In laws (www.myspace.com/richardsnow) another firm favourite of our IPO experience. His Rickenbacker really does add that jingle jangle to his terrific songs. A highlight for Minty was a track from his soon to be released third album, “Stop Your Crying” which had great backing harmonies from the guys on drums and bass. The set was slick and worked really well, the vocals (lead and backing) were spot on and you could tell the guys enjoyed the gig.

Richard Snow & The In Laws

Every year, there is at least one band who is a bit of a nugget – a band you think sounds OK on Myspace but when you see them at the IPO, they just blow you out of the water. Tonight we saw one of these bands – Houdini Dax (www.myspace.com/houdinidax), from Cardiff.

Houdini Dax

This young three piece kicked off with just vocal harmonies before jumping into quite a country style number.
The drummer used the snare drum predominantly, a bit like Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats and all three vocals were delivered effortlessly, and blended in really well, to deliver a fast paced, catchy set and all in just 20 minutes!!!

The bass guitarist had a Justin Beiber haircut (what is it with that guy??) and also looked a bit like the Monkee, Davey Jones.

Their last number could have been penned by IPO’s seasoned pro, Paul Bevoir with its catchy riffs. One thing we did notice about this band was the lack of set-up (not that they needed it as their performance was spot on) – they did a quick “one-two” into the microphones and off they went!

The next band were also from Wales, The Method (www.myspace.com/methodofficial) and these too were a fab band. We remember these guys from last year when they turned up to play, but were not ont he bill, but David let them have a slot. We thought they were goof then too!
Their drummer was a young Matt Smith look-a-like (Doctor Who for those who don’t know!), and they spilled out onto the floor in front of the stage to accommodate their instruments which included keyboard, tambourines and trumpet. They predominantly had a very Northern Soul sound that had a great vibe and in some of their numbers, we also heard bits of Fun Boy Three and The Doors, plus a bit of Pyche. Energy knew no bounds with these guys. They certainly loved doing their set and we loved it too.

The Method

At this point we wandered over to the Club – this avoided the 8pm curfew when the £3 door charge came in!

On the front stage David Bash was introducing a band from San Francisco, The Laughing Corners who were not in the programme but we later found out this was an alter ego for Agony Aunts! They were quite folky sounding, but we had The Targets on our list to catch and they were already mid-way through their set on the back stage.

The Targets (www.myspace.com/theuktargets) are a band who sound great on MySpace but didn’t deliver the same goodies for us on stage. We felt they got the audience all wrong, and tried to have us clap and sing along, which is a bit hard to do when the music is quite heavy rock with no chorus to speak of!!! They also did a cover of the Small Faces’ “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” which was unrecognisable to us!

Staying with the back stage, the next act was one we had eagerly anticipated – the welcome return to Liverpool of The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) who had just flown in from NYC that morning. Jet Lag doesn’t touch the Rats and they put on a stellar performance from the word go... well, “One, three, two, four” and their own “Beat Rats Theme”. They blasted through a fantastic set which included some of their new songs, alongside some old favourites of ours, “Thunderella”, included.

The Beat Rats rock The Back Stage

Beat Rat, Frank Max

The Beat Rats first CD, “A Cellar Full Of Rats,” has been played to death at home, and the new songs they played for us gave us something to look forward to when the next album comes out.

David Bash called it correctly when he described their music as ”Cavernesque” The Fab Four indeed! Modern day Merseybeat at its very best.

You cannot beat a bit of The Beat Rats – they are energetic, fast paced and just brilliant!

Next up, from Oxford, The Anydays (www.myspace.com/theanydays). This is a band we have seen a few times at the IPO, and they would not be out of place opening a gig for Paul Weller. They are very Mod Rock and they rock!

Moving across to the Front Stage, which was running about 30 minutes behind, we caught the second half of Sarah Lowes. On Myspace her music is very piano orientated but today she had a band with her which added to the sound. We think she left her set list in the back of her jeans, back in the dressing room, so what we got was an adlib set, and it seemed to work just fine.

Agony Aunts were up next – the same line up as Laughing Corners, but a bit rockier, while still keeping the melody going. The lead girl played an electric ukulele.

We stayed for Richard Snow & The In Laws’ second set of the night. Once again he did not disappoint and delivered a great set of songs which the audience really appreciated. A nice way to close our third night.

Richard Snow & The In Laws

Day 3 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 1
Best Original Song: Stop Your Crying – Richard Snow & The Inlaws or any of The Beat Rats songs.
Best Cover: Jeremy’s Surf Medley
Highlight of the day: The Beat Rats being back in town

IPO LIVERPOOL DAY 2

2011-05-19T16:08:00.007+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 2
DATE: Wednesday 18th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: All free
OUR VERDICT: A Grande experience

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

We joined the party quite late today, with the first band we say, Spygenius (www.myspace.com/thespygenius) on the back stage at 6.45pm. The first thing we noticed was the backdrop for the stage – which had changed from the Liverpool skyline we saw yesterday to the IPO logo. That looked extremely good.

The Backdrop for the Backstage

Anyhow, Spygenius are from Kent, with a lead singer that looks a bit like Phil Everly, who introduced their set as being Art, then Pop, then Art. He also joked that the first song was written for a movie that they never made, before easing us in gently with a lovely melodic, almost broody number. Regarding the movie comment – they are not far wrong. Their set was filled with quite a lot of numbers that would lend themselves very well to cinematic themes. They also played “A New Best Friend” which appears on the last IPO compilation CD.

Spygenius

Into the Pop part of the set, and a change to a 12 string which added a great jingle. A slight false start on “Surf” which was quickly recovered and then into the song that sounded great, especially with the 12 string. Being a Surf song, it would usually need a whammy bar, but the lead singer did a great job creating the required reverb sound with just him and the strings. David and Rina sat in on this set, which is a great accolade, as they usually have to hare about most of the time doing this, that and the other. We also got chatting to the band afterwards and intend to catch them at the London IPO where they play next week.

Next up, also on the back stage were The Herron brothers, Derby’s answer to The Proclaimers.

The Herron Brothers

A couple of brothers, Paul and Steven, with just their harmonies and acoustic guitars. They weren’t too bad either, with hints of The Finn Brothers and had a good rapport with the audience – if there were a lot of people, it was a good audience. That was their considered criteria!

We moved across to the Front Stage to see a band from Ireland – The Wags (www.myspace.com/thewagsireland). We had found out earlier in the evening, that their next record was being produced by Duncan Maitland who recently supported Nelson Bragg (from The Brian Wilson Band) and Anny Celsi on their European tour. The band also name-dropped this fact into the set and added that not only Nelson was going to be playing on their new record but also Scott Bennett.

The Wags

We really enjoyed The Wags – they had a great power pop sound, with punchy, foot tapping melodies and great harmonies to boot. “Don’t Be Shy” was a particular highlight, but their entire set was impressive. The lead guitar had a great surf sound to it. Their drummer is probably the most laid back drummer we have seen so far in this IPO – he hardly broke a sweat but still created a great rhythm. Their last song was really quite garagey, and not typical of the rest of the set but we had seen more than enough to snaffle up the last CD of theirs left at the merchandise table.

We caught the second half of Captain Wilberforce (www.myspace.com/captainwilberforce) on the back stage. This is a band from Leeds (although the lead singer sounded like he was from the US), a six-piece with keyboard and also a trumpet. Indeed the trumpeter was practising in the toilet after the gig!! There is a risk that a six piece and all of the instrumentation on stage could overpower the vocals, but this didn’t happen and the band had a great sound. Well worth checking out.

Next up – Evaney, a duo from near to our neck of the woods, hailing from Aylesbury. This was a girl / boy duo with an unusual quirk of playing a stand up double bass. The girl had a Kirsty MacColl look about her. The front stage was quite full, but mainly with people at tables chattering, so this is a challenge with just an act with one vocal.

Evaney

Although we stayed for the full set, and the guy was adding vocals here and there, this duo is not really our cup of tea and we felt the girl needed another vocal backing to blend a bit more. She had a strong voice in an Alanis Morrisette and Sheryl Crow kind of way which is hard for us to listen to for any length of time. Not a criticism, just our taste.

The Grande (www.myspace.com/thegrandeband) are a local band, and one we have seen at every Liverpool IPO we have been to. They are firm favourites with us, a fairly large band, with a steel guitar included in the line up. The Beeb was salivating big time, as a White Falcon was sitting on the stage just tempting him to grab it and make a bolt for the door. The guy who played it got a really great sound from it of course, and with space on the stage very limited, he had to be very careful not to scrap the roof and side walls with the neck. You could see The Beeb sweating every time it came close!!!

That White Falcon

This time around, they played a lot of material we haven’t heard before, which was a great thing. The co-lead vocalist was a bit put out when the sound engineer asked for a sound check from the “backing vocalist”, and rightly so, as she has a terrific voice, and sounds great on the lead on many of the songs.

The Grande

Minty disappeared to the Back Stage towards the end of the Grande’s set (by this time the Front stage was running about 15 mins late) in order to catch Echo Lips (www.myspace.com/echolips), a band from Denmark who were down to play last year but, at the last minute couldn’t make the trip over. Their songs on Myspace are very Phil Spector meets Glasvegas and on stage, they were no different, which we loved.

Echo Lips

The line up, a group of four, included both guitarists playing Fender Jaguars and the drummer was definitely influenced by Hal Blaine. Their whole set was slick and highlights for us were “Kangeroo Song” which had fantastic harmonies for the intro and “To Die For Love Is Not Suicide” which had real reverb on the guitars. Suicide was a theme, with the last song being “Suicide Stars” which had a particularly good drum beat. We certainly enjoyed this band, and got their EP. We hope to see them next year and hope the suicide thing doesn’t kick in. Just don’t let them near any Joy Division CD’s!!!

Echo Lips

Back to the Front Stage, and the second year in a row, an appearance by The Soundcasters (www.myspace.com/thesoundcastersmusic) . We loved them last year, but this year they were even more impressive. The lead guitarist is excellent, and continually bops around the stage to every song, playing a really well worn-looking guitar! The energy from this band is amazing, and their songs are terrific. They did one cover – from what we gather it was a James Brown song which the Moody Blues covered, we don’t know the name but it sounded superb.

The Soundcasters

This is such a remarkable band, and the audience really warmed to them. The lead singer has a distinctive voice, and is a good front man as well as being a good guitarist. They have no frills on stage – we think we saw just one guitar pedal so they keep things simple but they are really infectious and you can’t help but tap your foot and nod your head along to their songs. They dress in a quite 60’s Kinks style and their influences are certainly that era.

The Soundcasters

Last year the novelty thing about them for us was the fact that they were so young. A year later and you realise the youth thing has to be laid by the roadside, and what you’re left with is a band with a catalogue of great songs ready to compete in the music business. Job well done guys.

The night was starting to wind down now, and next up was a band from Glasgow, Penny & The Restless. Because we had seats around a table, we didn’t move and just about beared their 30 minute set. The only good thing about their set was the fact that “Penny” had lovely shoes on!

The programme described them as having a female Kurt Cobain on lead...... well she was singing in there somewhere but the guitars almost drowned her vocals and we had no idea what she was singing about for the first couple of songs. After that, once we did hear her, it was a bit tiresome after one song. She lacked the charisma you would hope to see from the lead in a band –she stood rooted to the spot and Minty felt she wasn’t comfortable in her choice of wardrobe – a white basque - as she kept having to hoik it up!! We didn’t feel this band were really IPO material - they were just that little bit too grungey and heavy to be in a power pop festival.

We wandered to the back stage next and saw the second half of the set from a band called Night Parade (www.myspace.com/nightparade). This was a four piece and the lead had a big acoustic guitar. Their songs were a mixture of soft acoustic starts building up to quite rocky numbers and great pop songs. We liked this band, and are hoping to catch them when they play again on Friday.

Night Parade

Our final band for the night, Black Sun, were already playing on the Front Stage when we joined them. This was another band with the lead playing an acoustic guitar. They had a quite a heavy sound, and only one vocal, so no harmonies. Hats off to the guy – he broke two stings and still kept going! Their set was unremarkable, and included two covers – “Make Me Smile” and “Paperback Writer”.

And so ended night number two. It was 1am and we wandered back to the hotel, stopping off for some chips along the way!!!
See you all tomorrow.

Day 2 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: none
Best Original Song: Don’t Be Shy – The Wags or any of The Soundcasters songs.
Best Cover: Soundcasters James Brown cover
Highlight of the day: The Soundcasters

IPO - LIVERPOOL - Day 1

2011-05-18T16:11:00.000+01:00

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 1
DATE: Tuesday 17th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: All free
OUR VERDICT: Made the nightmare drive worthwhile

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Our plans to reach Liverpool before 3pm were somewhat thwarted by a serious accident that closed the M6 motorway causing a long queue with a detour through Cannock and Staffordshire resulting in a 90 minute delay. Arriving in Liverpool, stressed and starving, we decided to grab a bite to eat before doing anything else, so it was not until almost 7pm that we began our IPO.

A quick hello to David and Rina, and we caught the last half of The Broken Alphas on the back stage. We had this band down to see, due to their Glaswegian roots. More rock than pop, they were good nonetheless, but the songs didn’t really stick in our minds. The lead singer looked a bit like Ewan McGregor did 20 years ago in Trainspotting and he did have a strong voice.

Next up were Hijinx, (www.myspace.com/hijinxpowerpop) a local outfit, and one of the many bands David Lloyd of The Suns plays with. They had a bit of a false start when they couldn’t hear what they needed through the monitors but once they got going, they really got going. We remember this band from last year, as the sound engineer at the time thought the drummer was like Animal from The Muppets! Some things never change.

HIJINX

Their repertoire has some really decent songs, which are so catchy that you find yourself able to sing along with them before they end, and each has a little guitar solo spot too. “Gonna Rock You” is particularly strong, and “Big Rock Show” sounded great. We caught about 95% of their slot, before disappearing across to the Pub for an 8 o’clock start for another band.

The Red Comets (http://www.theredcomets.co.nr/) are Junebug in disguise! Well, the four piece includes brothers Ralph and Guy from Junebug but unlike Junebug, includes a keyboard. The Red Comets are a bit more easy going, but still manage to have catchy pop numbers, particularly “Sliding Away”. Their set included a very much Brian Wilson/Beach Boys influenced number and their last song was very jazz influenced. We have always enjoyed Junebug’s sets at the IPO and The Red Comets certainly didn’t disappoint at all.

Ralph & Guy - The Red Comets

Staying in The Pub, next up were The Brights, a band originating from Chelmsford who lost marks for having Justin Beiber haircuts!! That aside, they played a great set, filled with quick foot tapping tunes. They slowed the pace down a little for a song that had a “Be My Baby” drum beat, a cool guitar lick played on a archtop Epiphone and a spot of harmonica – nicely done. The end of their set was a cover of Elvis’ “Burning Love” straight into one of their own numbers and got a great reaction from the audience.

The Brights

Back across to the Club and Loser Token were mid-way through their set. This is a young band of three, who were quite rocky. They did take a bit of time in between songs, suggesting unfamiliarity with their set but certainly show promise to be a good band. They wowed the audience with a Stevie Wonder medley to finish off their set, Superstition, Higher Ground, I Wish and Sir Duke where the guitarist did a great job covering the keyboard pieces on his guitar.

The highlight band of the night was coming up next, although we didn’t know it at the time!!

54321, from Wirral (www.myspace.com/54321band) are a band of 4 brothers and a cousin (don’t F*** with the formula!!) who sounded fantastic. The lead singer could be the new Jon Bon Jovi – good looking and a terrific voice to deliver their set which included rock numbers and ballads alike. Their set included a song called “Casino” which sounded great, a cover of David Bowie’s “Life On Mars” which was truly fantastic, followed by their own space song “Astronaut” which was also a great performance. This was definitely the best original song we heard today.

54321 on the Back Stage

We stayed with the back stage for a little longer, and saw a bit of the performance from New Vinyl. The lead singer reminded us of Serpico, the keyboard player a Brian Wilson circa 1977 (but without the heaps of weight) and both the guitarist and the bassist were left handed! This band didn’t stand out heads and shoulders above any other band, but they had a solid performance and some good harmonies on the backing vocals.

Back across at the Pub, SMASH Fashion (www.myspace.com/Smashfashion) played their second slot. These guys look like professional rock stars - they dress and have hair like rock stars anyhow – the bassist looked like Ronnie Wood!

SMASH Fashion

These guys are based in LA but only one of the band is originally from the US – the others hail from the UK, Finland and Holland. They are a tight band, who didn’t appear to need a set list, sounding very 70’s rock and doing a good job at it. The sound in the pub can be quite hit and miss and Minty felt the vocals were drowned a bit tonight. Nevertheless, it was a great set and The Beeb went off and bought their 2 albums!

SMASH Fashion

We ended our night in the Club – the front stage this time, and caught the latter part of Bjorn Pellbakke, from Norway. This was a 5 piece, including a keyboard with some quite delightful songs. “It’s Fabulous” was particularly catchy. Hats off to David Bash for pronouncing Bjorn’s name faultlessly.

The last band of the night was 54321, who we wanted to see again following their stellar performance earlier on. These guys are GREAT – if they do not hit the big time, then the world will be robbed of something special. Their second set was a bit of a treat as other than “Casino” we don’t think they played any of the songs they did earlier. They did play their new (free download) single, “Tiger Tiger” which sounded absolutely fantastic. The lead singer has such a great voice and with Barney( who plays keyboards) singing too, the mix is awesome.

The biggest treat was for the audience who had stayed through to the end :– 54321 did an unbelievable, wonderfully performed version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, using only three microphones!!

54321 on The Front Stage

The Beeb had seen Queen live a few times, but can’t remember them doing the whole of Bo Rap without resorting to tapes for the operatic bit in the middle. 54321 were awesome. Minty’s jaw was on the floor and looking at the audience they seemed to have the same reaction. Rapturous applause greeting the last bar of that performance.

And so closed our first IPO night...... we wonder if any band will top 54321’s performance.... it’s a high bar to reach.

Day 1 Summary:

No. of Bands seen : 8 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once :1
Best Original Song: 54321 - Astronaut
Best Cover: 54321 – Bohemian Rhapsody
Highlight of the day: 54321 - Bohemian Rhapsody

PIPELINE CONVENTION

2011-05-18T15:27:00.003+01:00

Easter Sunday April 24th

COMING SOON

IMELDA MAY

2011-05-18T15:27:00.000+01:00

At El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles Thursday April 7th

COMING SOON

ADAM MARSLAND

2011-05-18T15:26:00.001+01:00

50 songs in one night @ Brennans, Marina Del Rey Saturday April 2nd

COMING SOON......

MARI WILSON

2011-03-06T15:07:00.005Z

GIG: Mari Wilson
DATE: Saturday 5th March
VENUE: The Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead
COST: £14 (and that’s it, no booking fee, no postage charge.... (YES they post the tix out and cover the cost themselves!)
OUR VERDICT: Brill, glam, terrific
LINKS
http://www.mariwilson.co.uk/

The Old Town Hall is an intimate venue and is a great place to catch Mari Wilson up close and personal. She appeared on stage wearing a fab gold and black dress, long gloves and adorable open toed stillettos and kicked off with “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” recorded by Mari as the theme to the hit BBC comedy “Coupling”. Straight away we were captivated. Although we have seen Mari perform the songs in her set a few times, they never seem to age or get tired.

Tonight the 1st set repertoire also included a lovely “My Love” (which had a gentle guitar solo from Scott Firth), the fantastic cover of The Beach Boys’ “Disney Girls”, “Would You Dance with A Stranger” and Mari’s own compositions with her musical collaborator Adrian York, “Killing Time” & “Hits And Misses”, which is like an old classic you have known forever. Interspersed through the music were many whimsical tales from her time in the music business. She’s turning into Billy Connolly when he was in The Humblebums.... telling as many funny stories as singing songs!

The penultimate song of the first set was a great audience participation version of “Close To You,” before a knock-out “I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten”, her favourite song from when she starred as Dusty in the musical a few years ago.

The 2nd half (with a change of outfit, rounded off perfectly with a dazzling pair of high heeled mules), included a terrific rendition of “Be My Baby” with Adrian York tinkling the ivories, “Wild Horses” that worked really well with the piano and acoustic guitar and a cover of Peggy Lee’s “I Don’t Want To Play In your Yard” which had a lovely bit of a spanish guitar flair on it. We were also treated to another set of compositions by Mari and Adrian, “Forever Young”, “Right For You” and “Getting There” from her “Emotional Glamour” and “Dolled Up” albums.
The encore was “Cry Me River” with Mari sounding really strong and the the grand finale - the hit she will be remembered most for “Just What I Always Wanted”. There was no Taffeta dress tonight, but we got a great set of songs that really showed off Mari’s sensational voice.
It was a particularly good audience in the Old Town Hall tonight, and it didn’t take much encouragement to get everyone singing along when called to do so.

THE BMX BANDITS

2011-01-26T22:36:00.003Z

GIG: BMX Bandits (25th Anniversary)
DATE: Sunday 23rd January 2011
VENUE: Oran Mor, Byres Road, Glasgow
COST: £12.50 plus a £1.75 transaction fee for the whole order
RATING: Friends Re-United

We were a few minutes late for the start of the gig due to the distraction of a rather nice curry at The Wee Curry Shop in Ashton Lane.
The venue for the gig is an old church, wonderfully converted into a classy cultural centre with bars and a restaurant. The gig took place in the catacombs...Goth Heaven!

Randolph’s Leap (www.myspace.com/randolphsleap) was already on stage and part way through their first song by the time we got into the venue.

Randolph's Leap

We first saw Randolph’s Leap around the same time last year, again as support to The BMX Bandits. What a difference a year makes. Last year we thought they were good and we liked their songs and their sound – this year they were really tight, much more confident and sounded great. The Beeb quipped that they have come in Randolph leaps and bounds!

What really works with this band, besides the songs and music that is, is the violin and the cello. They are subtle, but really add to the band.

Nick Garrie was up next (www.myspace.com/nickgarrie) – just him, his acoustic guitar, his mate Johnny with his guitar and Sarah Beth Brown doing some vocals. Oh, and a guest appearance from Duglas Stewart for one song. Duglas is a BIG fan of Nick’s and has been extolling his virtues quite a bit recently. It’s understandable when you hear the quality of the songs performed tonight.

Nick Garrie

The third act was the headline band, The BMX Bandits (www.myspace.com/bmxbanditsgroup) who were appearing at this Celtic Connections gig, celebrating 25 years. Their set was amazing with many, many of our favourites.

The BMX Bandits

Highlights for us were “The Sailor’s Song” (we think Duglas sounds like Mike Love from The Beach Boys on this one,) an exquisite performance of “Doorways” (during which incidentally, the audience were truly hushed, which rarely happens at this standing only type of venue), “Disco Girl” with a bit of synchronised disco dancing, “I Wanna Fall In Love”, “E102” and the great finale of “Witchi Tai To” which has the most amazing drum groove.

Jim Gash on drums was just great all night. As was his Pearlfishers partner, David Scott on keyboards, occasional guitar and a bit of tambourine.

The whole band seemed to have the time of their lives playing here.

Duglas T. Stewart is a fantastic performer, and with his trademark apple on stage, he is the most charismatic front man of a Scots band since the days of Alex Harvey.

The Bandits have changed line up over the 25 years and some previous members of the line up joined the party on stage throughout the set.

Former Bandit and current Teenage Fanclub member Norman Blake was part of the fun, singing “Serious Drugs” and also glocking the glockenspiel in a Phoenix Nights kinda way on “Sing the Things”, a track from their recent-ish album Bee Stings, one that they had not played live before. Gordon Keen was introduced as the Action Man of the BMX Bandits, and Sean Dickson emerged for one song, having been away from the Bandits for 23 years!

Norman Blake

A special mention must be made about Rachel though. With her great voice, she adds so much to the whole BMX Bandits family. Some of our favourite Bandits tracks are ones she sings on (did we mention “Doorways”? Ah, yes we did!).

It may be an 800 mile round trip for us every time the BMX Bandits play in Glasgow, but it’s always been well worth the effort. We’ve never been less that delighted at being part of their audience.

Here’s to the next 25 years right enough!

Rachel

Oran Mor

JERRY SADOWITZ

2011-01-09T22:36:00.000Z

GIG: Jerry Sadowitz
DATE: Saturday 8th January 2011
VENUE: Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BX
COST: £24 plus booking fee
RATING: F@c*ing C#£t Ar#s@*le Funny.

It’s always good when we go into London for a night out. We got to Leicester Square only to find the whole square has been blocked of with a high fence to prepare something for the Olympics next year. The tourists must have felt cheated at that!

Anyway, after a bit of a queue delay, waiting on the Richard Herring audience emptying the Leicester Square Theatre, we took our seats for Jerry Sadowitz.

Jerry is now actually banned from TV. No one will have him on because he is such a loose canon with his material.

Live isn’t much different. He’s guaranteed to offend everyone at some point of the night. And he succeeded! He came on stage with the peyos curls hanging from underneath his top hat, wearing a kilt with a wee sheep for a sporran and a false beard that wouldn’t stick to his chin. He then introduced himself as the Scottish Jewish poet, Rabbi Burns.

He started firing off abuse at all and sundry at machine gun speed, then got even faster. He does have a real anger and chip on his shoulder for all the comedians who make a fortune these days from DVD sales and TV appearances. Michael McIntyre and Jerry Seinfeld came in for particular vilification. His bile is justified though when you think about it. He made you feel guilty for ever having laughing at Michael McIntyre.

It wouldn’t be right to write up his jokes and one liners in case you go to see him, but one that cracked us up was his wish for Heather McCartney and Abu Hamza to get together and produce a pirate!

Gays, Muslims, Madeline McCann..the list for abuse was endless. But the thing is... He WAS very funny. You should go and see him if you get the chance. Just as long as you know you WILL be offended at some point.

Jerry’s first love is actually doing magic tricks, and he did a couple for us tonight. Not sure if it was because he got off to a late start tonight, but a few more bits of magic would have been great, because he is amazing at it.

Flyer from the Leicester Square Theatre

ARGENT

2010-12-15T23:07:00.003Z

GIG: Argent (with support from Curved Air & Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash)
DATE: Monday 13th December 2010
VENUE: HMV Forum, Kentish Town, London
COST: £22.50 (plus 3.25 booking fee per ticket!)
RATING: I Do Believe In Miracles

http://www.rodargent.com/
http://www.wishboneash.co.uk/

Way back in 1972, a young freckle-faced 16 year old began his life-long love of watching live bands when he went with his mates to Greens Playhouse in Glasgow (later known rather more famously as the Apollo) to see Argent. And he was smitten!

Thousands of gigs, and 38 years later, that same boy, for it was The Beeb, was on his way to the HMV Forum in Kentish Town, London, to see Argent again. He wasn’t worried about the gig being a let down, because he’d seen Rod and Jim many times before with The Zombies and knew how good they were. A charity gig a couple of years ago where Russ Ballard was MD also proved the Shaded One still had “IT.”

We arrived at the venue just in time to hear the last couple of songs from Curved Air. The Beeb remembers having a poster of singer Sonja Kristina on his bedroom wall as a teenager. What we did hear sounded as if it wasn’t too bad. Sonja’s voice and hair still sounded and looked great though,

I thought seeing last weeks middle-aged Mods at the Paul Weller gig was an eye opener, but having a look around during the break here convinced me that old hippies never die...they just grey away! I can’t remember the last time I saw an ELP T-shirt and so much long hair. Still, you knew this was a crowd that liked good music too!

Martin Turner

Next up was Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash. Another favourite band from The Beeb’s youth. There have been a lot of personnel squabbling over the years between band members, and to be honest we don’t know the politics behind it all. But seeing as we’re both big Beach Boys fans, we know how these things can be. So we came with an open mind just to hear the music.

The band came on with Martin looking a bit rock starry in his leather trousers and long white Nudie type shirt. “Argus” is what the words “Classic Album” were put together for, and the band played four songs in a row from it to start the set. “The King Will Come,” “The Warrior,” “Throw Down The Sword” and, as Martin described it, the happier “Blowing Free.”

We also got another classic in “Jailbait.” The famed Wishbone Ash twin lead guitar was expertly shown when the two guitarists played each others guitars at the same time! It was nice how Martin slipped into the background to let the guitarists do their showmanship bit.

At the end during the band introductions, we got a bit of “Jingle Bells, “a short drum solo and guitarist Danny Wilson introducing Martin in a faux Spanish (Mexican?) accent for some reason. This was when we realised Danny played with Minty’s old favourites, Showaddywaddy when we saw them at The Stables. She cornered him afterwards for a chat and he was very gracious.

Having come with open minds, it has to be said Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash are a class act. Great song and great harmonies, plus entertaining to watch. Although the set was old classics, we think we’ll have to check out some of Martin’s newer stuff because he’s obviously a great songwriter.

The speed of the turn around of the bands actually caught us on the hop. While chatting to Danny and Martin the next thing we knew Argent had walked on to the stage.

Luckily we had great seats, three rows from the front and smack bang in the middle.

Russ Ballard

As The Beeb drooled at Russ’s Strat and Marshall stack, the first thing Minty said was “Oh, he looks fit!” It has to be said, Russ could easily pass for someone half his age. They opened up with the start of “The Coming Of Kohoutek,” the first track on the last Argent album Russ played on. Then we got “It’s Only Money” parts one and two before Rod went into “Keep On Rollin.”
Minty was particularly impressed by Bob drumming on “Dance Of Ages,” as well as Russ’s vocals on “Be Free.” There was some great bluesy guitar on “Sweet Mary,” before the crowd started a sing-a-long with Rod’s old Zombies hit, “She’s Not There.”

At this point Colin Blunstone was pointed out in the audience, before Russ took over the keyboards to perform a beautiful version of the song he wrote, and Colin had the big hit with, “I Don’t Believe In Miracles.” This is a personal favourite of The Beeb’s, and thought it was worth the near forty year wait for this one alone!

The HMV Forum really started to rock when, after Russ played an Irish jig, the band went into “Since You’ve Been Gone.” He even managed to somehow work the intro into the lead break during the song! The place was jumping by this time. And what better number to end with but, “Hold Your Head Up.” Always a favourite when Rod and Colin play together, this song is timeless.

Rod Argent

Of course there was an encore, and that was “God Gave Rock And Roll To You.” The perfect one to end on. There was another great crowd sing-a-long with this. By this time Russ had his famous old Fender with the holes in it, and he did his trick of throwing it up in the air and almost firing it out to the audience too.

Russ Ballard

This may have been a bit of a trip down memory lane for The Beeb, but without a doubt this was a band that seemed glad to be playing together today. Who knows, maybe they could get back together sometime in a studio. We can’t wait another 38 years for that to happen though.

That wasn’t the end of the excitement for us tonight though. It was nearly midnight, and on the way home we were pulled over by the police just as we reached the house. Blue lights flashing and everything. They were just checking the car wasn’t stolen. Amazingly they already had our details before stopping us, so we were OK. Thank god they didn’t check the boot!!!

The Beeb after the gig, clutching the Set List!

THE FLAMING CORTINAS

2010-12-14T20:13:00.005Z

GIG: The Flaming Cortinas
DATE: Saturday 11th December 2010
VENUE: British Legion, Croxley Green, Watford, Herts
COST: freebie
RATING: Flaming Groovy

This time it is Minty reviewing The Beeb, as he appears with The Flaming Cortinas for their 2nd ever gig with this line-up. The band are a four piece who do 60’s and 70’s covers.

Dressed all in black, with fluorescent ties, the 4 piece takes to their stage and kick off with “Old Time Rock and Roll”. Their 1st set takes you through a bit of Santana and “Black Magic Woman” (with a guest on vocals – I think he is a member of another local band), and amongst others, John Lennon’s “Ballad Of John and Yoko”, T-Rex, Free and The Beatles being “Back in The USSR”. Some people were still wandering into the hall when they did a fantastic rendition of Badfinger’s “No Matter What” and you could see them giving a second look and “strutting” to their tables, singing along. The 1st set was rounded off with a bit of the Big O singing about his “Pretty Woman”. All members of the band, (Mark, Clive, Steve and of course The Beeb) share lead vocals which gave a great mix of voices and fitted the songs in the set just fine.

When The Flaming Cortinas started playing, with the venue being a club, rather than a music venue, most of the audience, who had only just arrived and were seated towards the back, generated an awful lot of background noise as everyone caught up with everyone else’s business. That kind of background buzz can be quite annoying when you are trying to listen to a band play, and it brought back memories of the notices up at London’ Luminere club telling the audience to go outside if they want to talk!!! If only.....

Even the raffle and auction in the interval was hard going, as everyone seemed to ignore the proceedings and carry on with their chatter! It was a wonder that £1,000 was actually raised!

The 2nd set seemed to get more attention, and even had some people up dancing and jiving. Included in the this set, alongside a bit of Bowie’s “Man Who Sold The World” and The Rolling Stones “Jumping Jack Flash”, was a Rock and Roll mix of “Rock Around The Clock”, “Oh Boy”, “Hippy, Hippy Shake” and a rather tremendous version of “Twist and Shout”.

“Living Next Door To Alice” was a bit of a highlight. This is a song not normally found in a covers band’s set and I don’t think the drummer, Clive, heard the back of the room singing along with the alternate version because he gave up on the official version and sang the “naughty” bit instead!!!

The night ended with a medley of “Money” and “Mony, Mony” which went down very well and sounded good and rounded off with the “Hokey Cokey” complete with the dance that accompanies it!!!!

So for a 2nd gig, this was not bad at all. The lighting was not great, so the video I shot had loads of shadow, and considering there was just a basic PA system, they sounded rather good.

PAUL WELLER

2010-12-12T22:15:00.000Z

GIG: Paul Weller
DATE: Saturday 4th December 2010
VENUE: SECC, Glasgow
COST: a small fortune but well worth it!
RATING: That WAS Entertainment

(Just The Beeb reporting on this one)

The last time I saw Paul Weller was in 1977, when The Jam played their first ever gig in Glasgow. That was in a tiny little club where the band had to stop playing a few times because the P.A. system kept threatening to topple over because the crowd was so energetic and up-close. 33 years later, having followed and enjoyed his oeuvre, I got to see him for the first time since. Strangely enough, back in Glasgow again. This time it was in the rather larger venue of the 12,000 capacity SECC.

It was funny seeing all those people, many of whom I’d imagine would have been safety-pin faces teenagers the last time I saw him, strolling into the SECC looking so middle aged. I bet lots of them also went to see Michael Buble recently too!

The fact that the gig was actually ON in the first place was a bit of a relief, because the next night’s gig in Aberdeen had already been called off due to the worst weather in Scotland for 50 years.

Paul took to the stage looking his usual cool self and started off the set with the title track from his new album, “Wake Up The Nation.” Straight away we knew this was a band that were going to enjoy what they were going to play. This was the case as they proceeded to play the title track from the LAST album, “22 Dreams.”

His new songs are amongst the best he’s ever done, but the excitement level did rise when he then went into the old Jam classic, “Eton Rifles.” After a further mixture of Jam and solo songs, including “Strange Town” and “From The Floorboards Up,” we were treated to the real psychedelic experience of a five track suite from “22 Dreams.” This was just amazing. What a masterpiece this is, and to hear it being done live brought home how good Paul’s band are. Steve Craddock and Paul both work really well together on guitars, and I enjoyed being geeky and taking in all the guitar changes they both made.

After a nod to the very under-rated Style Council (Shout To The Top) a few more new songs then led into “Pretty Green” and “Start” from The Jam. “Echoes Round The Sun” finished the first set.

When the band came back they went into more psychedelic magic in the shape of “Andromeda.” I just LOVE this stuff! A couple more songs and then we had the second encore.

This was to take us right back to the very start of his career with a powerful version of “Art School,” and the very last song was an electric version of “That’s Entertainment.” I was quite pleased with the whole gig, but my daughter was up in arms because he didn’t do “A Town Called Malice.” I had to remind her he had hundreds of songs to choose from, and he had to leave a load of classics out.

On the way out I couldn’t believe crowds of people were singing “We are the Mods.” Well it made us laugh! A top gig from a top bloke live.

THE BEATLES EXPERIENCE / JAY MCGEE / IN HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT!

2010-12-02T01:22:00.016Z

GIG: The Beatles Experience, Jay McGee & Matt+Duncan+Christie

DATE: Friday 26th / Saturday 27th November 2010

VENUE: Hoburn Naish Holiday Park, New Milton

COST: shared cost of a Lodge, with the entertainment included
RATING: Not such a breakdown afterall

The annual Girls Weekend away (Minty only on this one) kicked off Friday afternoon, with a surprisingly quick drive down to the South Coast, to New Milton’s Hoburn Naish Holiday Park.

Venturing out of the Lodge in the snow flurry that evening, we dined in the “pub” area, and then headed into the entertainment lounge where we found a spare table in a corner and caught “Ticket To Ride”, the last song from the 1st set of “The Beatles Experience” – yep, you’ve guessed it, a Beatles tribute band.

The Beatles Experience

Their 2nd set was late 60’s Beatles material, kicking off with “Help!” and progressing through “Taxman”, “Nowhere Man”, “All You Need Is Love” and “We Can Work It Out” (which was apparently No1 on Mary’s birthday) to name just a few. Not sure if the guys were actually from Liverpool, or if their scouse accents were put on, but they sounded and looked like the Beatles.

Their final (planned) song was “Hey Jude”, a song I always associate with the Queens Golden Jubilee concert when this song went on forever as the TV cameras panned both the throngs of people in the Mall and the mass of artists on the stage at Buckingham Palace!!!

The band did an encore, although they never left the stage! They did get the crowd up and dancing and to be honest, they were not bad at all.

Jay McGee

Night 2 did not quite go according to plan. We were expecting Amen Corner to be on the bill, but as we entered the entertainment lounge the audience were being tickled by a comedian instead.... Jay McGee (from the Rockin Berries) was entertaining everyone as (we were told later), Amen Corner’s Tour Bus had broken down and so they were unable to make the gig. Jay was really quite amusing, with some seriously funny jokes (some quite close to the knuckle) and some great singing (really liked his version of Elvis' American trilogy).

He did meet his match with Mags who was more interested in getting our buckets of wine rather than bantering with him just after we had entered the room and she cut him short to tell him she needed alcohol and walked off to the bar!!!!

The 2nd half of the night’s entertainment was provided by the resident “entertainment managers”, Matt and Duncan, with a bit of help from Christie who had been called up from another holiday camp to help out.

What we got was an hour or so of fun, frolics and really good entertainment without it being the stereotypical holiday camp in-house type of thing, with the guys making a fantastic night out what could have been quite a disaster.

The guys were very funny, mixing jokes, ad-libbing and a bit of singing to keep our minds from the disappointment of Amen Corner’s no show! Christie was a really strong singer, and wore a lovely dress to boot as well.

Matt & Duncan

At the end of the night, we all agreed that we felt we enjoyed their impromptu show more than we would have enjoyed Amen Corner.

Again Mags showed her comedic form, when the guys said they were called “Symbolic” and Mags heckled, “Shambolic, you mean” which had the whole audience in hysterics!!!

A great weekend..... apparently the Rockin Berries are on the bill next year...

Duncan meets The Girls

http://www.jaymcgee.supanet.com/

http://www.hoburne.com/park-details/hoburne-naish

MARI WILSON - THE LOVE THING

2010-11-15T20:30:00.016Z

GIG: The Love Thing – Mari Wilson
DATE: Saturday 6th November 2010
VENUE: The Basement, Leicester Square Theatre, Leicester Place, London
COST: £15.00 plus small booking fee
RATING: An “Elle” of a show

Flyer from the show

The Basement of Leicester Square Theatre is an intimate setting, where Mari Wilson has been staging her “Love Thing” – a one woman show telling the story of Elle, one time backing singer with Duran Duran. Little over an hour is a short time to tell the story from Elle’s childhood through those heydays of the ‘80’s through to now but Mari does it well, picking each poignant event in Elle’s life, and interspersing the story-telling with some great songs, with her musical partner Adrian York providing the accompaniment on the piano.

It kicks off with the child Elle singing into her orange hairbrush, wearing her Mum’s sling-backs to give her a more “grown up” air, progressing to meeting her “Stage Door Lover” Sean, whilst appearing as backing singer for Duran Duran, then relating Elle’s life through from being “The IT Girl” to the breakdown of her singing career as she gives up opportunities to be with Sean, the birth of Daisy and then the subsequent breakdown of her marriage as she finds out Sean has cheated on her and “time passes slowly when someone is breaking your heart”, after which Adrian tinkles the ivories while Mari disappears back stage, emerging for the next part of the show in a glitzy top and then begins to tell us about the latter part of Elle’s life.

The 2nd half of the show begins with “The Love Thing”, Elle is on the dating game (rather disastrously) and realises she has begun the ageing process. Then after meeting a new man, it dawns on her that he is “Moving In” – but not for long. On her own once more, Elle has started to sing again and now has her own dressing room and then Mari sings the grand finale “I’m Getting There”, a very powerful song, sung with a lot of emotion. It had everyone on their feet at the end – a fab show, so well put together, with highs and lows, laughter and sadness.

The set is simple...... a table, a stool, the piano Adrian York plays and a few props – the orange hairbrush, and a range of phones, including the rather clunky old 80’s mobile phone that cleverly take us through the years as they change throughout the play.

The art of being a great songwriter is having the ability to make a connection with your song to an audience. Having an emotional spark that touches others. Mari does this so well with her songs. You don’t have to be a cheated woman to feel the optimism of a great song like “Getting There.”

We feel all kinds of emotions on this journey with Elle, immersed with songs that are happy, sad, funny, poignant and a lullaby that only a loving mother could have written.

This play/musical drama has a lot going for it. The possibilities are endless. Not only does it work live, but someone with sense and the know-how should make this a TV programme or a movie. It’s that good.

The gang meet Mari and Adrian after the show

NILS LOFGREN ACOUSTIC DUO

2010-10-17T15:12:00.000+01:00

GIG: Nils Lofgren Acoustic Duo
DATE: Saturday 16th October 2010
VENUE: The Stables, Stockwell Lane, Wavendon, Milton Keynes, MK17 8LU
COST: £28.50 plus small booking fee
RATING: Shined, not so silently

The Stables was full and just after 8pm, the lights went up on the stage to reveal Greg Varlotta on keyboards and Nils behind an electric harp. What we were treated to from that point on, for the next 2 hours and 20 minutes (no interval) was pure class.

Alongside us, in the 3rd row, were 3 brothers from Glasgow, one of which had seen the opening night to Nils’ tour, in Basingstoke and all 3 were heading up to Glasgow to see the same show the following week. It was so obvious they loved the man, and were true fans, singing along, giving standing ovations and making the most noise in the crowd! Having said that, the rest of the audience made an awful lot of noise too, especially following Nils’ terrific virtuoso guitar solos which also had the audience on their feet to show their appreciation of such a great performance.

In the 2 hours and 20 minutes, the guy was so cool he never broke a sweat, and treated us to his back catalogue, a new song in tribute to Ray Charles, and some Neil Young songs. Greg really is a multi-instrumentalist, stepping from the keyboards to play trumpet and also guitar at points during the show. Before they left the stage, our ears were really indulged with a fantastic rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Because the Night”.

It was hard to believe that such a full sound could emanate from just 2 men. Technology did help, with a looper to keep the guitar track going while Nils performed some incredible finger work (and while he had a sip of tea), the keyboards at one stage sounded like there was a choir humming along in the background, and during “Because the Night” we could hear a drum beat.

One of the biggest cheers of the night was when Greg tap danced a drum beat, while Nils played the guitar, and an even bigger cheer when during the encore, Nils joined him in a bit of a toe tapping session. He was really light on his feet and was a natural mover. The Beeb wondered at what point of rehearsals did the thought come to themselves “Oh, a bit of tap dancing would go down well here!!!”

After such a long show, Nils was very generous with his time and came out to meet the fans afterwards. He really did come across as a very humble man, grateful for all that he’s achieved in life.
We’ve been to the Stables many times before, but never to a performance that has not had an interval. Many in the audience found it hard to stay put for the full show... disappearing off for more beer, or a loo break (one lady went 4 times!!).

Minty hasn’t commented on the facilities for a while – the queues for the ladies were endless at the end of the night which also meant that the loos didn’t flush! They can’t cope with heavy turnover!!!

The Beeb and Nils, after the show

The Beeb and GregVarlotta after the show

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

2010-10-03T13:35:00.002+01:00

GIG: Little Shop Of Horrors
DATE: Saturday 2nd October 2010
VENUE: Winston Churchill Hall, Pinn Way, Ruislip
COST: £14 plus booking fee
RATING: We could have been watching a West End production

http://www.ruislipos.org/

Going to see Little Shop Of Horrors”, performed by the Ruislip Operatic Society, came about from a quick corridor conversation Minty had with a work colleague who was in the production (she was playing Chiffon).

The theatre for the Saturday matinee was about two thirds full, so a credible turn out. Right on time, the lights dimmed as the drum roll began and we were treated to a fantastic performance. Unfortunately we didn’t get a programme so we can’t name the individuals, but all of the cast were in fine voice, all had slick New York accents, dressed the part and the music (as performed by the guys in the “pit”) was great.

The actual set was very well put together. “AudreyII” the blood-thirsty “star” of the show looked great too. In fact when one of the actors was snapped up and eaten whole, some of the audience may have had to change their underwear!
It was hard to believe that these guys are enthusiasts who aren’t professional actors/performers, because if you saw the show on London’s West End with RADA actors, you would be hard pushed to find the differences!

A nice touch at the end, when the cast were taking their bows, was that the guy who was “the voice” of Audrey II, and the puppeteers had their chance to take their own bows, each wearing a t-shirt with the Little Shop of Horrors logo design, and their parts printed on them!

The downside was the fact that when you booked the tickets on-line you had no choice of where you sat. All you got was an email confirming your booking, and the tickets were just given to us on arrival at the Hall.

BLOCHESTRA

2010-08-28T11:09:00.003+01:00

GIG: Blochestra
DATE: Sunday 22nd August 2010
VENUE: Bloc Bar, 117 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 2SZ
COST: free
RATING: Beautifully Orchestrated

We were in Glasgow for a weekend with no plans regarding what we would do gig wise. After a browse through what was happening we had a choice between an Alex Harvey tribute band in The Scotia, four bands in the 13th Note bar or a conglomerate of musicians in Bloc bar.

Bloc bar won out. For the past X amount of weeks a group of musicians have got together to learn two songs a week with the intention of doing a gig in the bar. After a month they have 8 to 10 songs that they will do a gig with. The quirkier the instruments the better.

So we had a stand up bass, ukuleles, violins, glockenspiel, guitars, keyboards and various other instruments taking part in the proceedings.

We happened to nip in earlier in the day to find out tonight was the culmination of the past few weeks rehearsing.

The evening started when all the musicians came back from the various pubs they’d been to during the day and done an A cappella song outside the bar, that sounded great.

First song of the night on the official gig was a Surfjam Stevens song. We’re not well acquainted with the Jamster, but the passion and verve in this performance was enough to make us want to see what he was all about.
Then came Live And Let Die, introduced as a Guns and Roses number. Not sure if that was irony or an age thing. Didn’t they know it was a McCartney song?

The set was filled with gems like the Fleet Foxes “Mykonos,” Talking Heads “Road To Nowhere” and even Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”

The pub itself was jam packed, no doubt by a lot of friends of the musicians, but the thing was, it was a great gig. There was a lot of enthusiasm about the whole venture and it really was a great idea that worked brilliantly.

A notice went up on the wall for anyone who wants to take part in the next venture, and if it hadn’t been 400 miles from Hemel Hempstead The Beeb would have signed up on the spot!

ALDO CRUICKSHANK

2010-08-24T22:54:00.000+01:00

GIG: Aldo Cruickshank
DATE: Saturday 21st August 2010
VENUE: The Griffin, Bath Street, Glasgow
COST: £6
RATING: Listen To The Band (Please)

It’s been a good few years since The Beeb had a drink in The Griffin pub in Glasgow. So to help relive his youth we decided to pop in and see what was on offer gig wise this Saturday night.

The pub hasn’t changed much in the intervening years. It has a big horseshoe bar with a room in the back for the live music.

First up tonight was a guy called Kenny Macdonald, who, for some reason, calls himself “Les Johnson and Me.”

He has a very distinctive voice that lent itself well to his lost highway type of songs. His voice and demeanour was a mixture of Johnny Cash and Jake Thakery if you can imagine it. He had a Taylor guitar that added a bit of quality to the sound.

The sound though was having a constant battle against the background babbling that became really annoying. Why do people pay good money to hear a performer, and then gab all the way through the act? If it had been The Luminaire in London they’d have been booted out onto the street.
Despite that, he put on a well received set.

Next up was the turn advertised with the word “jangle” in the blurb. Aldo Cruickshank came on stage with his band which also included the woman who had actually been doing most of the annoying babbling earlier, and even thanked Les Johnson & Me for opening the night (a bit of a cheek we thought, considering they never sat quietly to listen to his set)!!

The same woman then managed to blot her copy book further before they even got started. Before anyone had said”Hello, good evening or welcome,” she burned Aldo’s ear with a mercenary “Tell them about the CD!” Now everyone has a duty to ply their wares, but not before a single silver string has been plucked!

With a line up of keyboard, a tabla drum and acoustic guitar it was difficult to find the previously advertised “jangly country pop” in the music. Despite that, and to our annoyance, the woman added to the harmonies with the two guys quite well at times. There was a song called “Beautiful” that had three falsettos that became just a bit too much though. There was no doubting their enjoyment of playing the set either.

Aldo came across as a bit like John Sebastian at times with some of the lines in his songs. An enjoyable enough set, despite his starting off as a bit like a hen-pecked husband!

LOS PACAMINOS

2010-06-27T22:18:00.000+01:00

GIG: Los Pacaminos
DATE: Sunday 27th June 2010
VENUE: St Albans Festival, St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts
COST: free
RATING: A bit of a scorcher
LINKS:
http://www.lospacaminos.com/
www.myspace.com/lospacaminos

The sun really was merciless as we experienced a bit of the Tex-Mexicana at the St Alban’s festival with Los Pacaminos, a 7-piece featuring Paul Young and many of members from his previous bands.
Their sound is pure Tex Mex, complete with lap steel guitar and accordion and a bit of formation dancing! Perfect for a scorching day for those who didn’t want to watch the football! Even though there was a big football match on as they were due to play, they did manage to pull in a sizable crowd for the occasion.

Pual Young (Top), Matt Backer (Bottom)

Kicking off with a song about a Highway Patrol Officer (complete with a screaming siren sound, (courtesy of the steel guitar), they blazed through an hour’s set which included classics like “Little Sister” and “Wooly Bully”, a song about Guacamole, another about Enchiladas and the odd bit of “Tequila”! The few songs of their own that they did sounded great too.

Although Paul Young is the most well-known member of the band, there are no egos here, with just about all of the guys taking the lead at some point, and band members wandering around finding any free mic to sing into. It was great to see six guys at the one time all singing along in harmony.

The band members are all seasoned session musicians, each of them with sizable and impressive CVs, but it was evident that they all really enjoy playing this music together. On guitar was Matt Backer, Mari Wilson’s guitarist who was standing in for the Pacaminos regular guitarist and he fitted in perfectly. Well he IS a genuine Southern gent after all.

A great set from a great band on a great day. What more could we ask for on the hottest day of the year?

NICK LOWE

2010-06-22T23:16:00.000+01:00

GIG: Nick Lowe
DATE: Monday 21st June 2010
VENUE: The Stables, Wavendon, Milton Keynes, Bucks
COST: £25
RATING: Definitely the Jesus of Cool

LINKS:
http://www.nicklowe.net/
http://www.myspace.com/geraintwatkins

(Sorry folks - no pics as sitting in the front row after the announcement "no photography" would have been plain stupid!)

In 1977, at the height of the punk wars, a strange record started to be heard floating through the airwaves. The Beeb liked “I Love The Sound Of Broken Glass” so much he went out and bought the album…Nick Lowe’s “Jesus Of Cool.”

“ILTSOBG” was so different from the rest of the album. “Broken Glass” was a bit of an oddity, the album was jam-packed with sparkling songs with great hooks and brilliant harmonies, all destined to be smash hits. Except they weren’t!

30 odd years later and Nick Lowe is still writing classic 3 minute pop songs. Big fan that the Beeb is, he’s never seen Nick do a show under his own name, and that is why we are at The Stables tonight.
First up was Geraint Watkins, Nick’s keyboard player for the band. He literally stumbled on stage, tripping over something as he wandered on to play. Then he sat at the keyboard for a minute or two thumbing his way through an old book. This could have been annoying, but it was actually quite funny. It set the tone for what was to be a wonderfully laid back performance by a master of his art.

When he played, he played in a great New Orleans Jazz/R&B style. When he sang, all the way through there was a low, guttural growl underlying what was really a lovely singing voice. Minty thought he looked like he could be the elder brother of Daniel Craig.

He was joined by Martin Winning on a smokey and sultry sax (which looked like it had never seen Brasso in its life!), and the two of them together built a picture of what it must have been like to sit ‘til the wee small hours in a Jazz club in the 40’s. Occasionally, Martin would swap the sax for a clarinet and tease some wonderful music from it. They finished off with a powerful Johnny B Goode. We’ll definitely be looking for his latest album now.

After a short break, Nick wandered onto the stage looking rather like a white haired Eric Morecambe. We were treated to three solo acoustic numbers, including “Heart” before the band joined him.

Nick explained that this show was a rehearsal for his upcoming Glastonbury gig before going on to wow us with a selection of songs from one of the best catalogues anyone in the UK has ever produced.

Highlights included, “I Trained Her To Love Me,” “Love Is A Battlefield” and “You Inspire Me.” When someone asked for “Breaking Glass,” Nick said he was doing us a favour NOT doing it because it was “a rubbish song, but a great record.”

The hits were there though. “Cruel To Be Kind,” proved itself to be a real crowd pleaser. “I Knew The Bride,” and a lovely version of “Peace, Love and Understanding” slowed right down, finished the set on a real high.

For the encore he said he didn’t know whether to do “All Men Are Liars” or “The Beast In Me.” He did them both of course.

Geraint’s light shone again when he did his own song, “Only A Rose,” before the final song, Rockpile’s “When I Write The Book.”

The sound was mixed really well, and we could hear every instrument, although the organ Geraint played could have been just a tad louder. Minty loved the fact that the band included a double bass, as some of the rockabilly styles tunes were really complemented with the slapping of said instrument!

It may have taken a while to see Nick on his own, but it was certainly well worth the wait. Oh, and “I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass” IS a great song!

STANDELLS

2010-06-20T12:07:00.003+01:00

GIG: Standells
DATE: Saturday 19th June 2010
VENUE: 229, 229 Great Portland Street, London
COST: £22.50 + the usual exorbitant booking fees!
RATING: The Good Guys wore black tonight!

LINKS:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Standells/66472034311?v=wall
www.myspace.com/kingsalamiandthecumberland3

The 229 venue is tucked away just behind Great Portland Tube Station and after finding somewhere to park without the threat of being towed or clamped or ticketed, we got into the venue not long after 8pm. The venue’s website says the doors open at 7pm, and the bands start at 8pm so we figured we would be arriving just as the first band was on stage – Thee Vicars. This was a band that interested The Beeb so imagine how disappointed he was to discover that the band just starting up was King Salami and The Cumberland 3 (the 2nd band on the bill) and the whole thing had actually kicked off at 7.30 so we had missed them.

King Salami and the Cumberland 3 are a pretty good live act, who played a real stonking rhythm & blues and sounded like they would have been right at home, recording in the Sun Studios in the 50’s. You’ll be hard pushed to find a stranger looking line-up. The lead singer, was a black French man who had a great stage personality and you could tell these guys were either a seasoned live act, (or had been practising hard), as they played a pretty fluid set. The guitarist was a tall, skinny Rodney Trotter look –a-like, dressed all in white to match his white guitar. The bass player was a Japanese bloke who jumped around quite a bit, and the drummer looked like he had a great sense of humour, looking like an Egyptian behind the drum kit, with a pair of one lensed sunglasses and a fez! They finished off with what they described as a genuine Bo Diddley effort conceived in Stoke Newington! On the whole we rather enjoyed their set. Check them out on Myspace, and you’ll see they have a fair number of gigs lined up.

For The Standells, the stage was shielded by a large screen, with the scene from the film “Riot on Sunset Strip” leading up to the band’s appearance in the movie being projected onto it. As the band’s playing started on screen, the stage screen began to rise, to reveal the Standells on stage, the video sound was cut and the Standells took over playing “Riot On Sunset Strip” live right on cue!

Early on there was a technical problem as the bass lost power but that was quickly resolved and the band played what can only be described as a blinder of a set which included “Dirty Water”, “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” , “Mr Nobody” and a great cover of “Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go.” The bass player’s microphone was either turned off or was turned down really low, which meant that the harmonica piece on “Dirty Water” wasn’t heard, and on occasions when the vocals switched between Larry Tamblyn on keyboard and Paul Downing on guitar, the mics weren’t at the right level for a lead vocal. But having said that, it was still a fantastic hour of music.

Paul plays guitar in that odd looking Dick Dale style...left-handed, but with the strings strung upside down!

The bass player, John Fleck was introduced to the audience as the only living member of Arthur Lee’s LOVE and they went into the fantastic “My Little Red Book” which had the crowd absolutely jumping. He also came in for a bit of stick from the others in the band when they described just how much drugs he still takes at the intro to “Medication.” We presumed they meant prescribed drugs these days!

The crowd whistled and roared after Scorch (Greg Burnham) on drums did a bit of a solo on one song, and all around us, people were dancing and really enjoying the whole show.

As they finished their set, they left the stage to calls for more, and then Gary Leeds (the Standells original drummer, and later of Walker Brothers fame) came on stage to bring the guys back for an encore. They did 2 more songs and despite more calls for another, when the roadies started to take down mics and dismantle the drum kit, we knew the show had indeed finished and we reluctantly headed for home.

The only original member of the band on stage tonight was Larry Tamblyn, (although John was in the “Riot” movie) but they did play a great set, the audience completely loved it and we were just as thrilled to see their first ever UK show. The timelessness of this music was shown by the age range of the audience. From young students to the band’s peers, and everyone getting off on it.

The guys are recording some interviews and then playing live for some BBC radio shows - they will be on Mark Riley’s BBC6 radio show on 21st June from 7pm (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c72y1).
The 229 venue is a bit of a London nugget. It’s a great venue, stairs leading underground to a series of rooms – one for lounging in, one for dancing to the DJ’s (after the live acts have finished) and then the huge stage area, with a high stage (so you don’t have to stand on tippy-toes and still only see the heads of the band!) which gives the audience a great view.
And as for the loos? Quite presentable, clean and (when Minty went anyway) no long queues!

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - LIVERPOOL DAY 6

2010-06-01T22:27:00.028+01:00

Jeremy

The Afternoons

Rio Callahan

Honeybug

Mini

Hijinx

Mayflowers

Mayflowers rocked!

Ulysses

The Modulators

The Lovedays

The Waistcoats

The Beat Rats

Hair in Motion! Paul from the Beat Rats

Ben's Diapers

Sound Engineer - Jim

IPO hosts - David and Rina

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 6
DATE: Sunday 30th May 2010
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: it’s supposed to be all free (although the Club charged from 8pm)
RATING: You dirty rats!

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Sunday lunchtime is not typically a busy period for Liverpool as most people are still sleeping off the effects from the night before! However a decent sized crowd had gathered in the Cavern Pub to see Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) play. Jeremy is the quintessential king of powerpop who appears at many, many IPOs and has been in Liverpool for as long as we’ve been attending. Unfortunately his flight to the UK was delayed so he missed his first slot from yesterday. Today would (schedule as it stood) be the only chance for us to see him this time around. Jeremy never disappoints any audience and today was no exception. His set did include some covers, such as “You Really Got Me” and “Instant Karma,” but he also had his own tunes going, such as “Pop Rules” which went straight into his surf medley complete with awesome guitar shredding which really grabbed the attention of one group of lads. The reaction of the crowd told us they loved every minute. It was a great set, a fantastic reaction from the crowd and Jeremy even sneaked in a couple of extra songs and extended his set by about 10 minutes (although the sound engineer didn’t pull the plug, so that it must have been OK!). Backing vocals for a couple of numbaers were provided by two of the Swedish contingent, Per and Stefan, both IPO stalwarts.

The next act, over in the Club, was a bit more sedate, Huw Jacob (www.myspace.com/huwjacob) a 3 piece band who we caught, only because there were no other bands we had marked down to see. We were pleasantly surprised with their set, which had quite a Crowded House feel to it. All 3 members of the band harmonised very well together and the sound engineer had an easy time of things, as no mixing was really involved. When they needed a bit more oomph, the electric guitarist took the lead, with some lovely guitar playing. Very pleasant tunes indeed. We may have to check them out further.

The next artist was a no show, which then gave the chance for everything to run back on time, after the late start in the Club earlier on, with The Afternoons (www.myspace.com/theafternoonsuk) setting up for their slot. We had caught this band a couple of years ago, after noticing the drummer was wearing a T Shirt with “Listen To The Beach Boys” printed on it! We felt they could have done with a bit more backing vocals to really compliment their sound, but on the whole they played a good set of very lazy Sunday afternoon sounding songs. They introduced a new song called (we think) “Wait Till You See Her” which was one of the strongest in their set, and their final number was introduced in Welsh and was really quite bouncy.

We then returned to the Pub where Rio Callahan (www.myspace.com/riocallahan) from Glasgow was in the middle of their set. They had a strange mixture of instruments, including a trombone and a trumpet and no drummer (apparently they were not the full band) and the singer really engaged with the audience. We have no idea what their full band sounds like live, but they sounded just fine to us with the line up they had with really strong vocals.

Next up was one of our favourite Scottish acts – Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug). We had already seen these guys in the live Lounge yesterday, and were up for seeing them again. With just keyboards and vocals, they were fighting somewhat against the general background chit chat of a pub with lager louts in it, but once again, they delivered on the lush harmonies which gave each of the stripped down songs such depth and the audience, which was quite large in size, seemed to enjoy it all too. Nice one guys – can’t wait to hear what you’ll treat us with next year!

Honeybug encouraged everyone to stick around for the next act, Mini (www.myspace.com/soundofmini) and they were most excellent. The drummer was the main singer, and he had a terrific voice, opening with a really catchy breezy number. The pub was absolutely packed and although Minty would have preferred for them to have done more of their own material, the second half of their set was all covers, ranging from a superb “Jet” with cracking drums on it to the Osmond’s “Crazy Horses” which also went down very well. The Ladybugs were invited on stage to accompany Mini in another couple of songs, “9 to 5” and “Love Shack” which sounded great. They also gave their EP out for free! This is a band we will definitely go and see when we next get the chance.

We took a break to grab something to eat and then spent the rest of the night in the Cavern Club. Only the front stage was hosting the IPO tonight and we saw Eskimo Blonde. They did a straight cover of an ACDC song, which about sums up their style which was not our style at all.

Hijinx (www.myspace.com/hijinxpowerpop) was a band we had wanted to see, even more so after we found out that David Lloyd from the Suns was in it. We figured their set would be a bit of a blinder, as during the set-up, the sound engineer told the drummer he would just call him “animal” from now on!!! In deed, the drummer could have a drum off with Bluto Mungo from The Beat Rats and it would be a very close competition! They met all of our expectations, although Minty did not expect the bass guitarist to throw his pick at her (he was actually aiming elsewhere so he won’t be asked to play Minty’s netball team!), and played a great set of foot tapping, head bopping catchy tunes which included some nice guitar hooks on the Gibson SG. One of their songs is about Frankenstein, and the crowd sang back the “Hello, Hello” part. One thing we did like was their song “Rock That Feeling” which was included in the set, and then also done as a reprise for the closing song – great closed loop for the audience, as they certainly did rock us.

All the way from Japan, the Mayflowers (www.myspace.com/mayflowersjp) were next up on stage. We had heard that during the week they were busking in Church Street, all plugged into 1 amp and were going down a storm! They actually started 10 minutes ahead of schedule which was quite good because it allowed David Bash to give them not one, but TWO encores. This band was fantastic. They didn’t just rock the Cavern, they sizzled it and almost brought it to meltdown with their electrifying set! Their command of the English language is not very good, and you do wonder how they can write such great songs and sing them in English. It also meant that they did not waste anytime between songs, introducing them, and didn’t just power through their set – they torpedoed through it in the style of the Ramones rocking through the punk days!. Their encores included the Beatles song “I Saw Her Standing There” and for this the 2 guitarists jumped off the stage and performed on the floor in front of the stage, with high kicks and jumps all round! The place was jam packed and everyone seemed to really enjoy this show – indeed it is the first band we have seen David Bash allow to play extra songs, and Rina spent the whole set sitting on the speaker at the front of the stage, loving every moment!

Ulysses (www.myspace.com/ulyssesgb) certainly had a very tough act to follow. Dressed like a rock band in a 70’s comedy film, they were very Thin Lizzy and Jimi Hendrix influenced. We were about to applaud the bass guitarist for wearing his shades on his head as opposed to strutting around in the dark, but then he pulled them down and lost credibility! Their last planned song involved the guitarists standing around a solo drum, madly hitting it along with all the percussion paraphernalia around it (tambourine/cowbell etc) making a sound that even monkeys in a zoo could do! The sound engineer obviously liked this band, as he said they could play one more song – and this was one that did actually sound OK and was a good finish to an otherwise mediocre set.

The Modulators (http://www.themodulators.com/) were up next and this was the 2nd time we had seen this reformed band from the 80’s New Jersey Powerpop scene. They went down a storm in the Club, and really rocked the place. Their song called “Lies” (we think) was really strong and they seemed to play with a tad more passion than they had yesterday. Minty particularly liked this band, especially as there was no nonsense – they got on stage and played without any gadgets or sound effects and kept things simple while still sounding terrific and knowing their set list so well, they didn’t have to discuss what was going to be sung next. Their songs are very much powerpop and once again, their finale “Spin Me Around” stayed in our heads. It would be nice to have their material from the 80’s re-released and put on CD. It was a joy to see the pride on the faces of the band's wives, as they watched their guys play The Cavern. The boys done good, girls!

Last year we caught the tail end of a band called The Lovedays (www.myspace.com/benjonesandthelovedays) and thought they sounded great so we made the effort to ensure we saw their full set at this year’s festival. And what a cracker it was too! Before they started, the lead singer (who was a cross between Rik Mayall and Jake Shears) gave a great quote, about the IPO “being all about the music, not commerce”, although we did notice they had the most expensive CD on the merch table! We don’t know how long this band has been together, but they knew their set inside out, with no stops or discussion about what was next. Some of their songs were quite bluesy, with a Link Wray hook and one song segued into “Live & Let Die” and then straight into another song immediately after. All were played and sung with tremendous power and passion, and the personality of the lead man really shone through constantly. The bass player was as barmy as ever, seemingly running a half marathon during every gig! They also had the opportunity to do “one more song” and did “John The Revelator”. The end to their set was received with rapturous applause. David Bash summed them up as having “passion that could light up the whole city of Liverpool”. A great band, and a great set. We did consider buying their CD afterwards but at a tenner it was a bit pricey, especially when we had bought so many CD’s by the other bands already!

Next up was a band from the Netherlands called The Waistcoats (www.myspace.com/thewaistcoats). They wore matching suits, which included, you’ve guessed it, waistcoats! They were another band who used a bit of Link Wray in one of their songs, and Rina certainly seemed to enjoy them as she was bopping at the front of the stage! This was another band that didn’t waste any time chit-chatting in between songs, going straight into each number. On the more bluesy numbers, the harmonies really stood out, and overall they were quite a good band. Their last number was a Beatles / Merseybeat influenced and sounded great.

Our night in the Cavern Club finished on a high, as we caught the fourth and final appearance of The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) who commanded the front stage. Still dressed in black leather, they blasted through their set once again treating us to their opener “The Beat Rats Theme” and then through a whole batch of short garage songs which had the club totally rocking. Where these guys get the energy from we don’t know, but we are thankful they had it! Make sure you read the earlier reviews of their gigs. The Beeb thinks this is a band on the edge of some truly great success. We feel privileged to have seen them in such an intimate setting. They have also had great praise for their album, "A Cellar Full Of Rats!" in SHINDIG, and various other hip music mags.

We had one more band to see, and the bouncers let us back into the Cavern Pub for Ben's Diapers (www.myspace.com/bensdiapers). There were not many people left in the pub at that time of night (well, Monday morning!) but the band still played with a lot of passion and sounded totally fantastic, especially on "Loneliness". This is a very experienced band who write fantastic songs, and sound terrific. After the frenetic pace in the Club, it was really lovely to end our night (and indeed our IPO) listening to this band from Finland.

The stats of our IPO week are: out of the 150 bands (or so) we saw 63 of them... a hit rate of 42%. Of the 63, we saw one band 4 times, one band 3 times and 8 bands twice which makes an overall gig fest of 76!!!

So a big shout out to David Bash and Rina Bardfield whose energy and dedication brings us a week of great music each year. You guys rock!

And in memory of our gentle giant friend, Wil Woodrowe. We think he would really have loved this year's IPO.

One final word about a bit of an unsung hero of the IPO, Jim the sound engineer, who was on the front stage for the entire week. He was able to get things set up in no time at all with his straight forward instructions to all the artists on stage. He was also the guy the other sound engineers came running to from the back stage when anything wasn't going according to plan. Big thanks for creating such a great sound (despite some of the bands!) on the front stage.

See you all next year!

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - LIVERPOOL DAY 5

2010-05-31T21:02:00.031+01:00

The Ace

The Cola Jet Set

Paul Bevoir & The Family Way

The Fast Camels

The Laynes

The Modulators

Honeybug (off stage)

The Beat Rats

The Heath Robinson Five

The Junipers

The Stay - Daniel Wylie

Mellowmen

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 5
DATE: Saturday 29th May 2010
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: it’s supposed to be all free (but The Club was charging after 8pm)
RATING: Drinking more than Fizzy pop!

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb and disclaimer…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Day 5 for us, started in the Cavern Live Lounge with Leeds trio The Ace (www.myspace.com/theaceuk). After a few technical difficulties the show started about 15 minutes late, and dressed in matching Paisley pattern psychedelic shirts, The Ace took to the stage. We enjoyed listening to this band – their sound ranged from Mod to Garage to Merseybeat to a bit of Surf with a bit of rolling drums and twangy guitar and a touch of bluesy guitar thrown in from time to time. In fact, the Beeb was very impressed with the creative sounds coaxed out of the guitar, especially for this only being a 3 piece outfit.

Next up was The Beta Rays who did not impress The Beeb very much. Every song seemed to centre around the guitarist's effect pedal and it got a tad monotonous after a few songs.

A quick dash across Mathew Street and we were in the Cavern Pub in time to catch the second half of The Cola Jet Set (www.myspace.com/colajetset). The pub was crammed to overflowing and the small stage could not hold the 8 members of the band, so the bass guitarist had to spill out onto the pub floor. Once again they delivered a great Euro Pop sound with great key changes, which was a good warm up for our mate Dave W who was disappearing off to a Eurovision Party later! Nevertheless, they went down a treat and the audience really, really enjoyed them.

Paul Bevoir (www.myspace.com/paulbevoirmusic) and his band The Family Way had a tough act following The Cola Jet Set, but his dreamy bubblegum pop made you forget all about the teaming rain just yards away and wrapped its fluffy self around your body giving you that cushioned candyfloss feeling. His set started with “I’m Alright Jack” and then breezed through some of Minty’s favourite songs, basically covering the set we had seen yesterday. A wee toddler was delighted to dance throughout, just showing that the right kind of music stirs the heart of everyone young and old alike.

A mad dash back to the Cavern Live Lounge meant that we managed to catch the 2nd appearance at the IPO for The Fast Camels (www.myspace.com/thefastcamels). The “technical” problems the sound engineer had been experiencing earlier that morning were still hanging around, and the band were really quite let down on the sound front. We could hardly hear the vocals, and they did a new song from their forthcoming album, where the bassist took the lead vocal but he might just as well have been miming for all we could hear. That aside, the guitars sounded terrific and the guys gave it their all!

The next band in the Live Lounge was The Laynes, another Scottish band. They too had sound issues, complaining of lack of monitors. The sound was very heavy on the lead vocalist and his guitar. The other guitarist had a Fender Jaguar which we could hardly hear and after a few songs we gave up and wandered back over to the pub. We can't imagine the band walking the streets of Glasgow in their Jolly Jack Tar garb though!

The act on in the Pub was a band from New Jersey, the Modulators (http://www.themodulaters.com/) who were on the powerpop scene back in the mid 80’s and after 27 years absent from performing, re-formed especially for the 2009 IPO held in New York. They apparently had so much fun, and went down so well, they were invited to the Liverpool IPO. We were really glad they accepted, as their set was a blinder. Their opener was “She’s So Cynical” and they closed with “Spin Me Around” the type of song that keeps running through your head long after the last chords have been struck and last notes sung. In between they delivered a fantastic set of vintage powerpop! Sometimes the old ones are the best – they had no need for any gadgets and technology. They just played: simple as that and it worked really, really well. After seeing this set, we had a quick re-think on our schedule for the following night to make sure we caught their 2nd appearance!

Another dash back across the street and Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) were on the stage in the Live Lounge. Each year, Honeybug play at the IPO in one form or another, ranging from a very simple set up to a full on band. This year, it was a stripped down Honeybug (Ni and 2 Ladybugs) that graced the stage. Their set had just started as we arrived, and after a few seconds for our eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness we realised that it was standing room only in the main area. We did finally find a seat tucked away to the left of the stage and then sat back and enjoyed the rest of the show. It was almost a chill out zone, as Honeybug’s songs, heavily influenced by the likes of Jellyfish, were stripped back to the bone and complimented with the lush harmonies of the Ladybugs. Singing some songs from his EP, “Storm Cloud” was particularly strong with a bit of blues and some shoo wop backing. The last song was a cover of Jellyfish’s “That Is Why” which sounded amazing when laid out so bare!.

Another dash across Mathew street, back to the pub where new York's The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) had an extra slot in the schedule. This band just gets better and better. The drummer, the magnificently named Bluto Mongo, is terrific, (he could have taught Animal!) and has amazing facial expressions as he pounds the skins. They play short, punchy garage tunes which really make you tap your foot and dance on the spot - well, the spot was all the space you had, as the pub was packed. All black leather and hair, you would think The Beat Rats have bad attitiude, but you couldn't meet a nicer bunch of guys! This was the 3rd time we had seen them play now, and their songs were really starting to make their mark with us, especially their theme song and also "Thunderella".

From that point, we took up a space in the Live Lounge for the rest of the night. We had a gap in our schedule and we caught The Heath Robinson Five who were not actually on our list of bands to see. This 5-piece told the audience that they are a new band and that this was only their second gig, which is why we assume their performance had 2 covers in it, rather than a full set of original material. Having said that, the 2 covers that they did were actually quite good, "Hey Bulldog" and Joe Jackson's "Different For Girls". They certainly had some melody in their own music, but didn't really differentiate themselves from most of the other young bands we had seen.

Next up were The Junipers (www.myspace.com/thejunipers) a 5 piece who blend lazy afternoon pop with West Coast harmony. Unfortunately, the sound engineer seemed to be covering both stages, and the band were left to themselves to set up, which meant they started a lot later than planned and they experienced sound problems during their set. We bought their CD as we felt that they would come across really well on record and that tonight was just a one-off in terms of bad sound. Having listened to their CD, our assumption was right!

The next band Stay, were from Spain and we had heard that the ex Cosmic Rough Rider, Daniel Wylie would be appearing with them. Their set-up was tortuous as the technical difficulties continued, this time with the keyboard effects unit. At the same time, a huge video camera was being set up in the middle of the room and apparently the band's film crew were shooting a professional promo video. Not sure if the film makers knew of the UK law, but at no time were we informed we were being filmed for this purpose, and we doubt they got permission from the Cavern Club either! Minty was quite angry that they essentially hi-jacked the IPO for thier own professional gain. They were not a great band either - 5 band members and only one of them sang (occassional backing from the keyboardist). And, Daniel Wylie was with them, and he got up on stage to perform 2 numbers, one of which was "Revolution In the Summertime".

The June on the other hand had not problems setting up, and within a couple of minutes were good to go! This was a band on our list of must see's but were were quite disappointed with their performance, and they were just another average band.

The back room in the Cavern Club really suits Mellowmen (www.myspace.com/mellowmen) who put on an impressive, almost theatrical stage show. The lead man could be the son of Benny from ABBA, and really rocked his keyboard!. This year, we felt they were a bit more leaned towards rock than pshychedelic but they played a terrific set which went down a storm with the audience. The one downer for The Beeb was the smashing of a guitar at the end of the set. Even if it was a cheap one done for effect, the betting is someone who couldn't afford one in the first place may have been sitting there wishing they could have had it.

The last band we saw tonight was The Temponauts but our attention was really diverted from their set to be honest as we met up with friends from Glasgow we had not expected to see! So our night drew to a close, with us having seen 15 out of the 31 bands, so almost 50% hit rate! Not bad.

And here is a Youtube clip of Honeybug - courtesy of Stephen Bailey (thanks).

And one of The Cola Jet Set (again, cheers Stephen)

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - LIVERPOOL DAY 4

2010-05-31T19:20:00.015+01:00

Kelly's Heels

The Beat Rats (in the Cavern Pub)

The Beat Rats (in the Cavern Live Lounge)

Paul Bevoir

The Cola Jet Set

The Method

The Hype

The Twilight Birds

The Fast Camels

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 4
DATE: Friday 28th May 2010
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: it’s supposed to be all free but the Club was charging after 8pm)
RATING: Psyched out again (thanks to The Fast Camels)

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb and disclaimer…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Day 4 started in the Cavern Club with Kelly’s Heels (www.myspace.com/kellysheels). The lunchtime crowd was not immense, but the band powered through a fab set of great pop. Kelly’s Heels have performed at many IPO’s, and being so established you know what to expect from them and they never fail to deliver – we swear they get better every time we see them. All 3 band members vocalise together so well, and they play such fantastic power pop tunes. Their set was paced just right and their final song ended with a crescendo of guitar and drums, it was amazing.

We took a bit of a break after this gig, and caught up with The Beat Rats a few hours later, in the Pub. The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) are from New York and are a true, genuine garage band. They kicked off with “The Beat Rats Theme”, which would be perfectly at home as the theme to a B Movie from the 60’s, and then totally blasted through a fantastic set. We debated on whether the lead singer was Frank Serpico or a good likeness to Charlie Manson but in the end, it was the music which won. This band was hot. They played at such a pace you didn’t have time to stop and catch your breath and the crowd that filled the Pub seemed to really enjoy it all. We were really pleased to hear that they had been asked to cover a vacant slot later that afternoon, so we had the chance to see them do it all again. In this 2nd slot, they were in the Cavern Live Lounge which gave them so much more room to jump around and the sound was so much better. We bought their CD which seems to have their whole set on it…12 songs in less then 30 mins!

We then went into the front stage to see Paul Bevoir (www.myspace.com/paulbevoirmusic) who breezed through a sunshiney pop set that captured the sun in the depths of the Cavern. He and his band (The Family Way) had a great audience and highlights for us were “Too Late Now” and his new song “The Living Kind”. With Paul’s music, you cannot help but start to tap your feet and bop on the spot and the great thing about this gig was that the drum beat (good though it was) did not drown out any of the vocals or other instruments. His final song was an old Jet Set one, which received a great round of applause. Minty was really thrilled with this performance. The the other good thing about Paul’s songs is that they all have that “Jim’ll Fix It” theme feel good vibe about the. You can’t help sing along with them.

Next up on the front stage were The Cola Jet Set (www.myspace.com/colajetset) who are Spain’s versions of the Shangri-las and The Cookies rolled into one. We did feel they had landed in the wrong country, as with it being Eurovision week, had these girls been in the competition, Spain would have won hands down, especially with all the key changes!. They were bubbly, did loads of hand claps, and smiled constantly while they sang (all in Spanish apart from one song). In fact they could have been singing about horror and murder and we would have been none the wiser! They filled the front stage and not just in terms of audience size, but also in terms of band size, being that there was 8 in all, including the guys paying guitars, drums and keyboards. They had a great girl group sound and the audience loved them.

We ventured into the Live Lounge and saw another Spanish band, The Corderoys. We wished we hadn’t! They took the mick a bit at the end of their set by saying “this is our last song” and as they ended that song, with David Bash ready to wrap up, they promptly started another song, saying that was in fact their last number!! There were quite a few other bands we’d rather have seen get an extra song in.

We stayed in the Live Lounge to see The Anydays, a mod band from Oxford. We were not overly impressed, especially when during the set up the lead singer, wearing dark sunglasses, had to lift them up to actually see what he was doing! There seems to be a recurrent theme here about bands and dark sunglasses…. It’s not cool guys. Not when it’s already dark! If you have to try and look cool…then you’re not.

We went off for something to eat, and returned to the Club about an hour later to find a band playing in the live lounge which did not seem to tally with the schedule. We found out later that the band were not actually on the bill and had basically gate crashed as they believed they were down to play!!!! That aside, they were actually quite good – The Method, form Cardiff, who had a very full band sound and included a trumpeter and a good front man who not only sang but who also played guitar and keyboard. They had a real tribal beat to their music and it sounded great.

Next up for us, was The Hype, a 5 piece from the Netherlands (www.myspace.com/thehypehaarlem) who included “The Mighty Quinn” in their set. They seemed to have their own media team and fan base, but it really was not needed as their set drew a really big crowd. They had great tunes and fab harmonies but sometimes took a bit too long in between songs to decide what was next!

In a bid to escape the next band up, Pearl, we retreated back to the Live Lounge and saw a band from Sweden, The Twilight Birds (www.myspace.com/twilightbirdssweden). This band was very experienced and they played a well put together set which went down a storm. They had more of an Americana thing about them rather than pop, and were not the usual Swedish offering we are accustomed to at the IPO.

We gave Karl Morgan & The Click a second chance, having seen them last year and not been overly impressed. They play some nice catchy numbers but the vocals are still just a wee but high. Indeed, one of our friends was asking if the lead was a girl or Bart Simpson!

We meandered through to the front stage after this and caught another Swedish band, called The Fuzzy Halo but they did not impress us at all, and we were just killing time until the next band hit the stage.

Our final band for the night was The Fast Camels (www.myspace.com/thefastcamels). This is a band we have seen many times before and never grow tired of. Their set is played at such a frenetic pace, it must be like running 2 marathons in succession! Tonight, despite the late hour, they played a blinder which included a couple of new tracks which captured their trademark psychedelic guitar playing and interwoven psychedelic sounds. Both front men, Drew and Mark, work brilliantly together. Mark does most of the lead and sometimes looks as if he’s not far from passing out he puts so much into it. The new songs sound like another classic album is on the way.

So, day 4 finished in the early hours, with us catching just 12 out of the 34 bands that were on stage. Roll on Day 5.

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - LIVERPOOL DAY 3

2010-05-28T14:56:00.017+01:00

THE PEPPERMINT APES

BRUISE

YANI MARTINELLI

LAURIE BIAGINI

THE SOUNDCASTERS

JUNEBUG

RICHARD SNOW AND THE IN LAWS

RALPH

MIKE BADGER

DAVE RAVE

RALPH WITH THE REAL LIVE ANNE-MARIE

DAVE RAVE WITH THE REAL LIVE ANNE-MARIE

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 3
DATE: Thursday 27th May 2010
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: it’s supposed to be all free
RATING: Bongo Beat ruled the Cavern again

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb and disclaimer…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

Our day started in the Cavern Pub, with Cardinal Jack kicking things off. This was a young and inexperienced band that appeared to think a band should yell into the mic and be totally inaudible. Certainly not our cup of tea, and we imagine this would be the sort of music that is played to the residents of Guantanamo Bay! We felt they wanted to be Nirvana, but Nirvana had the great hooks and tunes.

The next band was about the same age as Cardinal Jack and they could not have been much more different. The Peppermint Apes (www.myspace.com/thepeppermintapes) were really polished with great tunes, an excellent lead singer. These are a band to keep your eye on. They are already getting airplay on Janice Long’s Radio 2 show and made a TV appearance in New York! Their songs had a blend of harmony, foot tapping beats and an overall feel good factor and they looked like a pop group too!

Anthony Rivers is an experienced performer but everything seemed to conspire against him appearing at the IPO this year. He made the most out of a not so perfect situation, as his band was stuck abroad and he had to perform an acoustic set with 2 friends of his dad drafted in to help out, and a music machine. It was a struggle and they did not appear comfortable with the situation.

Bruise (www.myspace.com/bruiseuk) is really quite atmospheric and alternative, using a looping pedal to create all manner of sounds from the guitar. They played at a frenetic pace throughout their set, and their songs were deep and heavy but have grown on us the more times we have seen them played live. Isobel definitely goes into her own zone when playing these songs. It is kind of hard to believe that this is the same line up as Kelly’s Heels whose music is really quite different.

After the pace of Bruise, things were slowed down with an acoustic set from Spain’s Yani Martinelli (www.myspace.com/yanimartinelli). Yani fronted the band Navy Blue at last year’s IPO and this year she returned for a solo slot. She has a very Beach Boys influenced feel to her music, being light and summery. She also tackled the complex chords of “Busy Doin’ Nothing” – a song that has more chord changes than most bands have in their entire set!! She has a lovely voice and her guitar playing was very good. We look forward to listening to her album once we are back home.

As mentioned in the intro, bands come from far and wide to appear in Liverpool, and tonight, Laurie Biagini (www.myspace.com/lauriebiaginimusic) had travelled from Vancouver, Canada to perform two sets, one in the pub and later on in the night, in the Cavern Club front stage. She brought with her a bit of sun-shiny west-coast style pop and Richard Snow and the In Laws did a fine job being her “house band” for the evening. She certainly drew in a good crowd and went down very well.

Every year at the IPO, we find a bit of a nugget, a band that we had overlooked whilst doing our “research” on myspace, that turn out to be really rather great. We found this year’s nugget tonight, on the front stage of the Cavern club in the form of The Soundcasters (www.myspace.com/thesoundcastersmusic). This is a young band from Kent (with a drummer who looks like a young Rod Stewart) who are really vibrant, playing jumpy catchy tunes and had a large crowd watching them. One of the things that set them apart from many of the other young bands, was their professionalism, especially when the lead broke a guitar string and rather than stop playing, he continued with an off the cuff number whilst a replacement guitar (a rather nice pale blue Gretsch by the way!) was brought to the stage. They showed that their parents must have an excellent record collection as they included a cover of The Band’s “The Wait” complete with glorious Crosby Stills and Nash type harmonies. David Bash summed up at the end of their set, saying “what an impressive band” and we totally agree. We hope that we will have the opportunity to see them again some time. It may be a bit of a novelty that the band is so young, but at the end of the day, their songs really stand up and set them apart from many of the other young bands appearing at this festival. Speaking with some of our IPO friends after the gig, they all agreed this is a great band.

A firm favourite of Minty is Junebug (www.myspace.com/junebugtheband), a band that has appeared at all of the IPOs we have been to. We have come to expect them to play great powerpop tunes and we were not disappointed tonight.

The front stage was actually running ahead of time, which meant that Richard Snow and the In Laws (www.myspace.com/richardsnow) were already well into their set when we got there! Still, as expected, they played really well, and Richard's Rickenbacker sounded fantastic. They went down really well with an appreciative audience.

The finale of the night was the Bongo Beat Party, (www.myspace.com/bongobeatrecords), which has in the past been a highlight of the IPO for us. This year, they had control of the stage in the live lounge and it was hard to find a spot to sit, given the throng of people that filled the back room. Ralph, who started the party, is the epitome of what a cool jazz/beat poet is all about, the Chet Baker of the poetry world. He was on top form tonight, and during his set, recounted his recent trip to Italy, performed his great song “Billy Fury, Billy Fury” and finished up with a rip roaring “Louie, Louie”. It was great to see Simon from the Plastic Heroes playing bass.

Mike Badger looks like he has had a make-over! He seemed to be quite at home in the live lounge, with a guitar that looks like he has had for years. His last song was “Adios Los Amigos” which got a rapturous applause.

Then the non-stop energy ball that is Dave Rave (www.myspace.com/daverave) took to the stage for a totally awesome, high octane, power fuelled set. You cannot restrain this guy! He is totally infectious and gets the crowd going without fail. His “Rock The Party” and “When Patti Rocked” were particular highlights, as was his song "Anne-Marie" which was written with the real Anne-Marie in mind. The Beeb was invited up to help out on backing vocals for a cover of Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy” and he was back up on stage again, (along with half of the audience) for “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” which ended the party in true Bongo Beat style. We captured more fantastic memories that will stay with us for years, so thanks guys.

So Day 3 came to a close. Tonight we saw 12 out of the 25 bands on stage (with one seen twice), so almost back to a 50% hit rate!

We had changed our schedule tonight, and moved the Cavern Club a bit earlier than expected, due a sudden change in the Cavern's policy which was noted on the boards outside the club, that they would be charging a cover charge on everyone after 8pm. That's not really in the spirit of the Liverpool IPO. However, it appears that they did not enforce the charge as our mate got back into the club after 8pm with no financial loss!

See you tomorrow.

And here, courtesy of Stephen Bailey is some Youtube footage of The Bongo Beat party.

And RALPH in the Live Lounge (again, thanks Stephen)

And Dave Rave rocks the party (thanks Stephen)

And what is such a fantastic song "Hey Anne-Marie" - again thanks a lot Stephen for letting us use your Youtube clips.

INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - LIVERPOOL DAY 2

2010-05-27T12:20:00.009+01:00

SPYGENIUS

THE MONTANAS

JACKIE O'S FARM

POSTCARDS FROM PLACES THAT DON'T EXIST

CLOCKWISE

BAD LOVE EXPERIENCE

THE GRANDE

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 2
DATE: Wednesday 26th May 2010
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: it’s all free
RATING: Clocking off on a high

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

We were once again running a bit late today, and missed the kick off to day 2. We wandered into the Cavern Live Lounge at 6 o’clock just in time for Spygenius (www.myspace.com/thespygenius). This was obviously an experienced band and the main man had a bit of personality about him, getting a bit of banter going, including recounting the tale of his first argument with his wife (the bass player) whilst on the Magical Mystery Tour. The second half of their set was the strongest, with “Pineapple Drive” a fun, summery type of pop song and a switch from a 6 string Rickenbacker to a 12 string Rickenbacker. Their last song was called “Surf” which had a pounding drum beat, with which you could imagine the surf building. We did however feel that the keyboards drowned out quite a bit of the Rickenbacker so we didn’t get to hear the full jingle jangle sound.

Next up were Clockwise, filling in with an extra set due to another bands’ absence. This band is what powerpop is all about, and we found out that their song “Boom Town” had been played on BBC Radio Liverpool earlier in the afternoon. The highlights of this set were “Everday” and “No Matter What” and the band attracted a decent size crowd towards the back of the room.

We stayed in the Live Lounge and caught a band from Norway, The Quay Porters. This was not a band on our list of “must see’s” and they really were not to our taste at all. There was only one vocalist and he seemed to lack depth, tone and emotion and the other guitarist was either new to the band or was filling in as he had to refer to sheet music throughout. Both guitarists seemed to play the same chords all of the time so there was no variety to their music. The size of the audience at the IPO can be unpredictable and some great bands have played to an almost empty room but we suspect the lack of audience here was down to the music. However, many people like Joy Division, so who are we to judge!

We popped across the street to the pub and took the opportunity to see a few numbers from the Montanas (www.myspace.com/themontanasrock), a band we had seen last night and liked a lot. They had attracted a really big crowd who really seemed to appreciate their music and we were certainly pleased to hear “Josie” again.

Back across in the Live Lounge, a band from Italy, The Jackie O’s Farm (www.myspace.com/thejackieosfarm) had complete control of the stage as they powered through a fantastic set. They had some very punchy numbers including their single in Italy which made them quite famous – Mrs Kali. There was some nice Gretsch guitar playing and the keyboardist, who had taken up the maracas for the rendition of their single, along with the lead singer, really looked like they loved being on the stage and performing their music.

The Live Lounge was becoming our second home for the night, as we stayed to watch Postcards from Places That Don’t Exist (www.myspace.com/placesthatdontexist). We found out later that this was only their fourth appearance live, and they did a pretty good job. This was another band where the lead singer was just the lead singer and didn’t play any instruments, and he was a bit like Mike Love of The Beach Boys, even down to the beard and cap! Their songs had all of the right ingredients to make a good powerpop mix – they were short, punchy and quite catchy, although some did end quite abruptly! We think that this band would benefit from some backing vocals to add that extra layer of harmony to the great songs they have in their set. And one word about the bass player….. walking about in the dark with sunglasses on isn’t really that cool!
Then was our highlight of the night – Clockwise (www.myspace.com/clockwisecanada) took to the Live Lounge stage again for the third and final time. This set, slightly different to their previous appearances was totally powered up and absolutely rocked and there was quite a large gathering of people who came to listen, albeit they were a bit shy and huddled towards the back of the room! Even David Bash was taking photos of the band! They finished up on “Peace Love and Understanding” which really resonated throughout the room. Nice one guys – we really, really enjoyed hearing you play.

The Italians were out in force today, and on the front stage, we saw The Bad Love Experience (www.myspace.com/badloveexperience) a young band from Livorno, Italy. Indeed the lead singer let us know that today was his 18th birthday, and the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to him! The guitarist had a blonde Epiphone, John Lennon re-issue which had The Beeb all a quiver! This band had a very raw energy which was quite infectious and they really did stand out from the crowd.

Our last band for the night was the same as last night - The Grande (www.myspace.com/thegrandeband). Tonight, the lapsteel had a prominent place in centre stage and we could hear it much clearer. They opened with “Don’t Let Me Down” which sounded very strong and there was no let up in quality as they went through their set, ending on a really crowd pleasing number which had some people line dancing, and others swinging balloons around! We get the feeling that this band enjoys their music, and love a good crowd as well.

So day 2 over…. Out of the 22 bands that played today, we caught 8 (only 8??) and one band we saw twice so our hit rate was not so good. On to tomorrow………..