Those lovely folks at the Modern Record asked me to review Matt Goss when he came to York last month. Having not been a huge fan of Bros I was intrigued but not excited. How did Mr. Goss do? Click here to read my review on the Modern Record site, while you are their check out some of the other fabulous stuff that they post!
Photo by John Hayhurst (Snapagig)
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The Craven Brew Co is a cask led brewery with a delightful taproom and award winning brewers. In April they celebrated their third birthday with a music driven mini festival which featured an array of talented covers bands; Hazjak, 1960 Four and Superconductors. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see all the bands. I was there for Superconductors to see my mate Andy play drums. This was only their second or third gig, but it seemed like they were far more of a seasoned band than that. To say that Superconductors are versatile would be an understatement. They play punk, pop, rock and glide effortlessly from one genre style to another. Their seventeen song set was vibrant and included songs from the 60s right through to the 21st Century. While some people danced, everyone else sang or tapped their feet.
“Rosalie”, the Bob Seger song that was a hit for Thin Lizzy kicked off proceedings and it set the tone for a set that never stopped rocking. There were plenty of highlights including “I Fought The Law”, “Basket Case” and “London Calling”. They even played a version of Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know”. Who knew that a song like that would work so well when played by a bunch of middle aged blokes? Covering the Barenaked Ladies classic “One Week” was a challenging and brave move which the band, particularly the singer pulled off perfectly. Apparently it took him three months of dog walks to learn the lyrics. A magnificent set was closed with a rousing romp through Leeds favourites the Kaiser Chiefs “I Predict A Riot”. My lasting memory was an authentic take on the Ruts smash from 1979, “Babylon’s Burning”.
The playing was pretty immaculate throughout, I was very impressed with the guitarist who moved effortlessly from one style to another. In my opinion a covers band has to have talent, passion, a sense of fun and skill in selecting the right tunes. Superconductors scored top marks in every one of those categories. I have seen many covers bands over the years and not many were as good as Superconductors. The band take their name from a Rush song but I also took a look at the definition of the word. A superconductor is a type of material that, when cooled to a critical temperature, can conduct electricity with no resistance or energy loss. The band are cool, hit a critical temperature from the start, were electrifying, no one resisted their entertaining show and they did not appear to lose any of their abundant energy despite playing for an hour. If you are looking for a covers band in the Leeds area or Yorkshire then look no further than Superconductors!
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I have been lucky enough to see young York music funsters the Unnamed Band a couple of times and each time they showed a lot of promise. Their delivery of some great classic rock cover versions were ace and their self penned songs were good but needed a bit of polish. Well they have had the polish out and “Don’t You Know” is so well buffed that it screams to be heard! If you love a hard driving funky rock song then look no further. If the Unnamed Band ever need a name, on the strength of this release, I would name them the Fucking Good Band!
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One of York’s finest bands, Lost Trends, don’t release new stuff very often. But when they do it is always fucking good! New single “Takedown” is no exception it explodes into action from the first note. At times it sounds like the Killer’s with a harder edge. Rusty’s voice is better than it has ever been weaving from Brandon Flowers to David Byrne via John Lydon. Pete’s guitar screams like a banshee newly released from its chains. Drum and bass rumble like the after shock of an atom bomb. You need to play “Takedown” loud on repeat until you convince the neighbours to play it too.
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Apollo Junction seem to have an ability to up the ante with every release and there new single takes their talents up yet another notch. “Settle Down” is dripping with humongous hooks and pumped with pop passion. The AP lads are joined on this song by Briana Corrigan, formerly of the Beautiful South and a wonderfully talented solo artist. The band are extremely proud that Briana chose to sing on the song. The track has a slightly gentler feel than some of their more recent releases and is the vanguard of their next album which is due out this summer. In my view the song ponders a nostalgic reminiscence of a sunny sky blue past we remember but will never get back. For me this is accentuated with lyrics like “Here’s a thought are we ever gonna get away. In this town faces never change. We were born to streets that already knew our name“. That last line really resonates with my memories of my own early life. You need this track in your life!
Jamie, the band’s lead singer had this to say about the tune “This song means so much to us as a band and we feel it really shows a brand new side to what we can do, having Briana’s voice on it was something that we suggested very early on, but never imaged that we would make that happen! She sounds incredible on it and we are very very grateful to her for choosing to sing with us“. Briana also had something to say about the new release ““Settle Down” is a song that I just had to sing on, I travelled from Ireland over to the band’s studio in Yorkshire and we spent a wonderful day together recording and hanging out. I am a big fan and firmly believe that this song and the album they (Apollo Junction) are making is something very special. I am sure that my fanbase and theirs will really love what we have done together“. This has certainly raised excitement levels for the new album for me, how about you?
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There is so much ignorance and apathy regarding climate change and environmental collapse. We should be thankful that some people are speaking up about it rather loudly. Industry Standard‘s new single “BLAIR!” highlights lead singer Gaby’s stress, worry, fear and concern about our planet. It is a powerful call to arms as Gaby repeats the songs mantra “Is She Gonna Make It“. The song is an absolute fucking cracker, and I am not talking about a cheap firecracker. I am talking of a cracker so explosive it would have sent Katy Perry and her Blue Origin pals beyond the known universe. Now that is a good thing right? Especially for the environment!
The band are the aforementioned lead singer Gaby (Gabriella Gonzalez) and three punk powerhouse musical henchmen: Phillip Stakem who knows a great riff, Oliver Jackson whose bass playing could start an earthquake and Tim Sketchley who plays his drums so hard I hear that Elvis heard them in his secret base on the moon! I reckon if you love Scene Queen and Casseyette you will adore Industry Standard. The video, directed by Ben Garnet, is a dark Barbie bad bimbo apocalyptic cartoon horror film and it is so very good in the way it communicates a serious message and entertains in parallel. The song actually appeared a few months ago, but you lot mostly ignored it. To mangle the great Liam Neeson’s line from ‘Taken’ (2008), “If you don’t ignore it this time and play it loads that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you do ignore it again, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kick your sorry ass” You have been warned!
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On 17th April 1971 all four Beatles had solo singles in the UK charts, Paul McCartney with “Another Day” (no. 11), John Lennon “Power To The People” (no. 10), George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” (no. 25) and Ringo Starr “It Don’t Come Easy” (no. 29). The most successful of the four was George Harrison as earlier in the year “My Sweet Lord” sat at the top of the chart and made him the first of the Fab Four to have a solo number one. McCartney just missed out as “Another Day” stopped at number 2. Lennon’s song peaked at number 7 and Ringo’s at number 4. Would all of these have been Beatles songs had they stayed together as a band? Who knows. Incidentally George played on Ringo’s song and Ringo returned the favour by playing on “My Sweet Lord”. Klaus Voormann played on three out of the four tracks, the only one he didn’t appear on was McCartney’s.
Are they actually dancing to the same song?
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Here is the Mayhem chart for March 2025. Regular readers know the chart is based on my streaming listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. My taste in music remains 99% more obscure than the rest of the UK! The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, last month’s top three “Legacy” artists were David Bowie, Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for March and they are Liz Davinci, Abraskadabra and Kindelan.
Winnetka Bowling League are the top artist for March and their single “This Is Life” hits number 4 in the song chart . Only one artist in the artist chart remains from last month and that is Antony Szmierek. Two of my all time favourite artists are in the artist chart Frank Turner at number two and Millie Manders and the Shutup at number three. The incredible Erotic Secrets Of Pompeii hit the top of the song chart with the stunning track “Speak Medieval”. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five! Nearly eighteen minutes of great music!
Mayhem Artist Chart March 2025
1 Winnetka Bowling League 2 Frank Turner 3 Millie Manders and the Shutup 4 Abraskadabra 5 Manic Street Preachers 6 Wardruna 7 Lady Gaga 8 Jo Quail 9 SEX-O-RAMA 10 Antony Szmierek
Mayhem Song Chart March 2025
1 Speak Medieval – Erotic Secrets Of Pompeii 2 Wednesday – Pick The Flowers 3 Hand In Hand – Drop Dead McPhee 4 This Is Life – Winnetka Bowling League 5 Clickbait Reissued – Sally Pepper
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It was an absolute pleasure to interview uber talented soulful, sultry singer songwriter Abs recently. We spoke about her music roots and what is next for her. She also gave us a couple of exclusives! Take a listen. It was a really enjoyable chat. I hope that you like it too.
Just a quick note. This is a Zoom recording and it has recorded my voice at a slightly higher volume than Abs’. I didn’t shout! Honest! There are also occasional gremlins on the Zoom line too. Maybe I need to start a crowd-funder to build a professional studio in my house 🙂
It was a delight and an honour to interview of historian, author, music fanatic and actress Elizabeth Sharkey recently. We spoke mainly about her excellent book, ‘Why Britain Rocked‘ which I reviewed recently. You can find my review of that book by clicking here. It was a really enjoyable chat. I hope that you like it too.
