With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

The Mayhem Monthly Top 20 Artist Chart – January 23rd, 2022 February 24, 2022

Filed under: Mayhem Top 20 Chart — justwilliam1959 @ 1:14 pm
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Greetings dear readers how is 2022 shaping up for you. I am a little late with this post, so there will be a February top 20 on the way soon and some news as to how these Top 20 posts will change going forward. Many of you know that I am a keen user of a site called Obscurify. It claims to tell you how obscure your listening on Spotify is. Compared to the rest of the UK I still remain over 97% more obscure than other users in the UK. It also lists my most obscure artists, (the top two of which have been there since I began doing these posts) which currently are;

Woke Up Dead (One of the two bands that have been ever-present in my obscure list and an excellent band to boot!)

Promethium (This metal bunch continue to fly the flag for great British rock and like Woke Up Dead have been ever-present in this obscure team)

Penfriend – (Not Laura Kidd’s first time in this list and a welcome return)

Cabinet Of Millionaires – (the art of political protest is still strong!)

Folk The System – (folky protest and frankly great songs)

So who were the top artists for January 23rd? Check the full lists below, in a first for this chart there are more female artists than male artists for the first time (11 versus 9). In fact the Top 4 are all women, including a first number one for Gwen McCrae, what a voice! The Dame hangs in at number five. My reggae taste is represented by Dr. Alimantado (7), Dillinger (8) and Marcia Griffiths (17). My favourite 90s band Gene sit at number 18. There a a few classic artists (Kiki Dee, Kate Bush, Judie Tzuke and Joni Mitchell to name a few). This was before Joni removed her music from Spotify of course. Confession time, I really, really fancied Judie Tzuke when I was in my teens! There is a great showing for new artists too, some are more new to me, including The Anchoress, Helen Love, Bruno Skibbild and Yard Act. Look out for an upcoming Bruno Skibbild post soon. Give Obscurify a spin and let me know what your chart looks like and how obscure your tastes are 🙂

1 Gwen McCrae
2 Kate Bush
3 Tori Amos
4 Millie Jackson
5 David Bowie
6 Kiki Dee
7 Dr. Alimantado
8 Dillinger
9 The Anchoress
10 Joni Mitchell
11 Tavares
12 Helen Love
13 Beverly Craven
14 Yard Act
15 Shabazz Palaces
16 Norman Connors
17 Marcia Griffiths
18 Gene
19 Judie Tzuke
20 Bruno Skibbild

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Gregory Porter – Harrogate International Centre – Saturday 11th July 2015 July 11, 2015

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 11:45 pm
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The delectable Catwoman and I took ourselves off to see the supremely talented Gregory Porter in Harrogate on Saturday night. Without a doubt he is an incredibly talented singer. If you see him as ‘just’ a jazz singer then you need to think again, yes he is very much in the jazz field but this guy also oozes soul and he can sing gospel and blues. His band is incredible and could easily work as an instrumental band in their own right. But when you add Mr Porter’s voice to the magical sounds the band produce you have a perfect mix.

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Until tonight I had only really heard the songs from his ‘Liquid Spirit’ album. I hadn’t appreciated that this was his third album! Gregory is also a very talented songwriter. My particular favourites are “Liquid Spirit”, “Water Under Bridges”, “Hey Laura”, “Free” and “Wolfcry”. The pianist Chip Crawford is an incredible pianist and his playing reminded me at times of Mike Garson. In the extended intro to “Wolfcry” Chip slotted in a piece from ‘Peter And The Wolf’ and the ‘Star Wars Theme‘. Ithink my favourite song of the whole show was “1960 What?” from his first album ‘Water’

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Listening to Gregory and his band I was reminded of my days of being a soul boy and heavily into jazz funk in the late 70s. His vocals have a hint of Marvin Gaye about them and the overall sound of Mr Porter and his band was for me reminiscent of Roy Ayers, Norman Connors, the Blackbyrds and especially Gil Scott Heron. I will definitely see Gregory Porter again if the opportunity arises. On top of his immense talent he comes across as a very gracious and humble man. He clearly has great respect for his band; Chip Crawford (piano), Aaron James (double bass), Emanuel Harrold (drums) and Yosuke Sato (Sax). I think the feel-good-factor injected from this gig will stay with me for quite a while.

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As often happens I will end this post with a public service announcement. It is probably obvious, but none of the pictures or videos in this post were taken or filmed by me!