Regular readers will have seen me write often about Avalanche Party. Well here’s a bit more while this talented band are strutting their stuff and pumping out their rocking tunes all across Europe at the moment. Very successfully too by all accounts! One song that they will be playing at a gig near you soon will be “I’m So Wet”. It is a mighty powerful slab of soft to loud noise with a total psych crescendo as it heads to it’s end. It has melody, it has great lyrics it has a band that know their stuff and it will grab you by the short and curlies until it is over. Jordan’s vocal is immaculate and Kane’s drumming evokes the spirit of John Bonham.
You will be physically and mentally drained by the time the song has finished, but in a really good way. Personally I reckon that it is their greatest song to date and it deserves your attention. Download it, stream it on Spotify (other streaming services are available), click here to check it out on Soundcloud, but whatever you do listen to it. I will be very, very disappointed if you don’t
This was to be the sixth time I have seen the majestic girl power ambassadors and socialist pop punk stars the Tuts. What were they like? Well you’ll have to read on for a bit because there were also some rather excellent support acts on the bill too. First up was Simon Widdop a rather excellent and intelligent poet from Wakefield. Sadly thanks to heavy traffic I missed much of his set but what I did hear was clever, emotional reminiscent of another great northern poet John Cooper Clarke. I especially loved Simon’s tribute to the late, great Amy Winehouse.
Simon was followed by Leeds three-piece Autobodies. If you like the Velvet Underground or Bis then there is no way you won’t like this tight little band. Not only do they write great songs they look as if they are having amazing fun on the Brudenell Games Room stage. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this lot and I urge you to do the same.
Third on stage were a stunning band from Nottingham, Babe Punch, incidentally that is a bloody good name too. They are grungey, punky, alternative with what seems like a great understanding of what makes great pop music. Testament to this was their very different cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game“. The lead singer has a look of Grace Slick about her, but not only the look she has a voice that could match Grace at her finest too. Babe Punch are a highly talented band and I hope they venture north again because I for one will definitely try to see them again.
OK so now it was time for the main event, the Tuts. I was lucky enough to meet each of them during the support acts and they seemed well up for this gig. This show was a part of their Something Worth Voting For Tour of the UK. In a wonderful twist of fate Cruella de May announced a General Election after the Tuts announced their tour. I am guessing that there were no potential Tory voters at the Brudenell in the Tuts crowd that night. Their set was as we Tuts fans have come to expect; loud, punchy, fun, political, punky and powerful. Tut classic after Tut classic were blasted out and totally lapped up by the adoring crowd, believe me if you see this band once then you will be a fan for life. “Let Go Of The Past”, “Worry Warrior”, “Tut Tut Tut” and “Dump Your Boyfriend” had everyone in the crowd singing along. Perhaps the highlight given the forthcoming election was a stunningly angry version of “Give Us Something Worth Voting For”. Nadia and Hat Tut made a couple of crowd invasions which were greeted with rapturous applause. The girls even gave us a wall of death opportunity, which was quite a violent departure for this old bloke! Do you like the Spice Girls “Wannabe”? Go on even if you see it as a guilty pleasure you cannot deny that it is a great song and one that is made even better by the Tuts. The encore ended with the wonderful “Back Up”. At the end of the gig Nad, Bev and Hat spent as much time as they could with their fans. What we also learnt tonight is that legendary producer Mike Chapman is interested in producing them, I really hope that works out. As for the woman who gave the Tuts a poor review in Southampton, were we watching the same band?
Finally I want to add a postscript in that I wrote this review before the horrific events in Manchester on Monday 22nd May at the Ariana Grande show. I have being going to gigs for nearly 45 years and a tragedy like that evil bomb attack on innocent people, many of them kids attending perhaps their first concert, makes me think how much music means to me. Music is life affirming, do not let the acts of some fanatics take that away from you. My heart and thoughts are with the victims and their friends and families. So many young people lost their lives. But we must not let evil people beat us. From everything that I have heard and read since the attack one thing is very clear. The human spirit is alive and strong, so many people reaching out to help others. We need to focus on that to carry on. Take care everyone, be vigilant, be safe, show compassion and love. We are all earthlings and we share one planet regardless of race and ideology.
The last time I saw Imelda May play live was at the height of her ‘Rockabilly Queen’ years at this very venue, York‘s Barbican back in November 2011. She was a powerful presence and explosive performer back then and frankly she still is, only now she has extra added diva power and so much soul. Her new album ‘Life Love Flesh Blood’ showcases just how great a vocalist she truly is. The fifties style dresses and skirts of Imelda’s past are replaced by a more sophisticated black number and that trademark pulled back, white streaked hair is now a gorgeous black straight style with bangs.
She recently reached a significant age that I passed many, many years ago and on top of that she is coming out of the break up of an eighteen year relationship. Has this played a part in how she pours her heart and soul into her new songs? Very likely I think. She opens the set with a delicate and sparsely backed “Call Me”. That and every track from her new album got an airing tonight which proves that she is not one to rest on her laurels. She obviously didn’t disappoint the longer term fans and delved into her back catalogue for rousing versions of “Mayhem” and “Johnny Got A Boom Boom” towards the end of the show.
As for the new songs it would be really difficult to find a dud, so I won’t even try. “Levitate” was stunning in this live environment and “Black Tears” I am sure brought tears to many an eye in the Barbican. Other highlights from the new record were, for me “Love And Fear”, “The Longing”, “Should’ve Been Me” and “How Bad Can A Good Girl Be”. I love “Human” and it is one of my favourite tracks from the album, but live it transcends its recorded version by a mile, a stupendous song.
The encore featured a fragile and beautiful acoustic version of “Girl I Used To Be” followed by a magnificent cover of the Shangri-Las “Remember (Walking In The Sand)”. Just when we thought the night had ended on a high the band powered into another new song, “Game Changer” and pretty much everyone was up and bopping to that. I hope that I don’t have to wait more than five years for my next Imelda May gig, because this lady gets better and better.
Just a brief word about the talented support act Irish singer songwriter Jack Lukeman. It didn’t take him long to have pretty much the whole audience participating in some great singalongs, a very brave move for a support act, but one that paid off incredibly well. His cover of Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam” is one of the best that I have ever heard of that classic song. And finally a brief shout out to the sound in the Barbican, sometimes I have felt let down by the sound quality at this venue, but tonight I would give it an eleven out of ten.
Public Service Announcement – all the pictures were found via Google searches and the videos are all on YouTube. I took no pictures or video myself, because why would I miss such a stunning gig by hiding behind my phone?
OK I would love to say that I was really disappointed to miss the Eurovision Song Contest, but I would be lying. I was at a thoroughly enjoyable Murder Mystery Night at a friends house in aid of MacMillan Cancer Care. I can confirm that I was not the murderer. Anyway I hear that this years UK entrant Lucie Jones, a former X Factor contestant, did very well. Fifteenth place with 111 votes for a UK entry is truly exceptional. In fact it is the best points haul since Blue in 2011. Well done Lucie. Incidentally Portugal won the contest with a somewhat dirgy ballad called “Amar Pelos Dois” by Salvador Sadal.
Given that us Brits treat the whole Eurovision thing with a healthy dose of irony and sarcasm I thought that it was worth pointing out that we, well our nation’s voting panels, are not very smart. Back in 1974 when Abba won the contest in Brighton with perhaps one of Eurovision’s finest winners, “Waterloo” the UK jury at the time gave them nul points. Yes although we took the Swedish pop maestros to our hearts afterwards, we never voted for them at the time. So maybe we are not as smart as we think we are! What do you think?
Procol Harum were allegedly named after their drug dealer’s Burmese cat. So where did the cat get it’s name from then? Well I understand that Procol is the breeder’s prefix. If you know more than that or different then feel free to comment!
How can you go wrong with a ticket price of £5 (£7 on the door) for four bands? Well you can’t really can you? At Fibbers too. This was another gig recommended to me by the talented Mr Simon Pattinson, pity our poor communication meant he didn’t make it though because it was a proper pedal to the metal, balls to the wall rock night.
Violet Contours
Up first were Violet Contours with their jangly indie pop that carries a great northern edge. At times they channel Kings Of Leon and Orange Juice. “Electric Bodies” is a phenomenal début release. It is rich, vibrant and hangs around in your brain much longer than lesser songs.
Naked 6
Now Naked 6 is a band that I first saw a few months ago at the Crescent in York and I thought they were darned good then. I bought my ticket from the band’s bass player extraordinaire Caleb tonight. What a top bloke! Do you like your rock hard? Do you like some funk in your rock? Do you love a band that knows how to rock out and I mean really rock out? Well look no further than the mighty, magnificent music machine that is Naked 6. This is the 21st century Led Zep. How the fuck do three people make so much noise? They made my ears bleed, but in the best possible way. To top it all off I swear that their very metal version of “I Wanna Be Like You” is like nothing that you have ever heard before.
The Howl and the Hum
I must confess that I have never come across the Howl and the Hum before. What are they like? Think Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, the Doors without Manzarek and maybe the Villagers then you are part way to understanding this complex band with simple songs that sound like stunning and sharp icicles of left-field rock. They know how to build a song from a soft, laid back start into a pile driving crescendo. I reckon this lot could be the house band in David Lynch‘s ‘Twin Peaks‘.
The Strawberries
Now for the main attraction, how on earth could the Strawberries follow such a powerful line up? With aplomb, power, guts, swagger and some pretty tasty tunes. They are clearly one of the finest bands from Leeds at the moment. I’m gutted that I missed them on the Jack Rocks stage at the Leeds Festival last year, let’s hope they will be there again this year. They draw on the most psychedelic aspects of Primal Scream and they take the audience by the scruff of their dirty necks and slap them into submission with some amazing tunes. “Caramel Eyes” was a particular favourite of mine. This is the band that Oasis might have become had they not blown it after the first two albums. I bought the Strawberries EP with its individually hand crafted cover and it is a super charged 15 minutes from a band with a great future.
You really need to get out and catch any of these four bands playing live. You will not be disappointed whichever one you choose!
A public service announcement – all the pictures are from my nifty little Chinese phone and the videos are all courtesy of YouTube.
Click here to read my review of the delightful new album from Tei Shi and a big thank you to those busy folk over at subba cultcha for letting me review it!
The Voyager space probe has a golden disc which features sounds of the earth from nature, speech and music to enable an alien race somewhere else in the universe to find out a little about us if they come across the probe. There is classical music from Mozart, traditional Bulgarian music from Valya Balkanska, Blues from Blind Willie Johnson and on top of all that there is the late, great Chuck Berry with “Johnny B Goode“. Apparently Chuck was included after EMI refused permission for the Beatles “Here Comes The Sun” to be a part of Voyager. Seriously EMI why would you do that? Amazingly Voyager 1 is now more than ten billion miles from earth, I wonder what our alien friends will make of Mr Berry?
Click here to read my review of Coco Hames’ first solo album. I hope you like the album, I did! Also a big thank you to those busy bees at subba cultcha for giving me the opportunity to hear it.
It is with great sadness that I report the death of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry, he was 90 years old so that certainly is a life lived. Sure Chuck had issues and he paid his debt for those. But he was truly a pioneer, would rock ‘n’ roll have been the same without Chuck Berry? Somehow I doubt it. Given his legacy it’s a shame that his biggest hit was “My Ding-A -Ling” in 1972 which went to number one in the US, the UK and Canada. he did have a few US R & B number ones though. But you know what we need to consider whether the Beatles and the Stones would have existed without Charles Edward Anderson Berry, as his parents knew him. My thoughts are with his friends, family and all his fans across the world.
Procol Harum were allegedly named after their drug dealer’s Burmese cat. So where did the cat get it’s name from then? Well I understand that Procol is the breeder’s prefix. If you know more than that or different then feel free to comment!
