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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Tonight was a chance to see a few bands that I hadn’t seen for a while. The headliners were Pennine Suite who I last saw in January 2022. Support was from Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands 2022 winners the Palava, I last saw them at the BOTB final in December 2022. The first act on stage was the White Roses, I last saw them in February of last year, they are not simply a rock band, they are a truly entertaining band. Each time I see them they get better and better. Vocally Eliie draws on Joan Jett’s rawness and Stevie Nicks’s completeness while Jack’s guitar is a highly original and essential part of the band’s sound. The voice harmonies evoke Fleetwood Mac. “This Town” is a great song, but the anthemic epic that closed the set was extraordinary indeed! They have a new EP due soon and on the strength of this set I reckon it will be a classy release!
The Palava have grown immensely in emotion, scope, skill, and ambition since I last saw them. Their songs have grown into more complex and wonderfully played mini-epics. There were some really great jazzy, punky, and funky licks with great use of some nicely incorporated major 7th chords in some of their tunes. They maintain an infusion of ’60s psychedelia and a pinch of 90s Indie.”Remedy” (which in its recorded version features Kitty VR) and “Lie To Me” were incredible highlights, but even those two Palava specials pale against the next single “Foreign Ground” which sounds like it will be the band’s best song to date. They looked like they were loving playing live, and that just enhanced their performance.
If I was a headliner I would not have fancied following the Palava onto the stage, but Pennine Suite raised their game and blew the fucking house down! They are a band on fire, but not just a little flame, I am talking super nova levels of heat! The set opener “Everything Begins” (what an appropriate song to start with) reminded me of the Cure. The depth of their sound grows with every gig. Louise’s keyboard licks, riffs, and motifs add huge breadth to the band. Her playing on “M.O.W.O” gives an eerie circus-like feel to the song. The new track “Manhattan” is thunderously good and needs to be a single, RIGHT NOW! Harry’s guitar was magnificent on this track and the power and drive from the mighty rhythm section of Moses and Louis is a close to perfect as you could get! The crowd was spontaneously chanting the band’s name four songs into the set. Clearly the crowd fucking love this lot and was in full voice from start to finish. There were plenty of highlights in their twelve-song set, the biggest for me was a pounding “Pass On You”. But even that was surpassed by beyond epic and truly awesome upcoming single “Tropical Fantasy”, when Pennine Suite rock out they do it like a huge bastard rock god. Frontman Nick has grown wonderfully confident over the years since I first saw him fronting the Receivers more than five years ago. He really commands his audience and the new songs are just so good. I am not sure where this thought popped up from but I would love to hear Pennine Suite do a funky cover of a Lou Reed song, maybe “Vicious” from ‘Transformer’. This was a stunning end to a brilliant night of live music.
As a footnote, I went on for a couple more drinks after the gig with Simon P from Northern Radar Promotions and Rusty and Pete from ace York band Lost Trends. Note to self, don’t do it again, and avoid a hangover from hell!
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I suppose this is a review of sorts, I mean I watched it “as live”, and that for me is the crux of the issue, not actually live, but “as live”. Maybe it should have been called ‘As Live At Worthy Farm’ On a positive note the lowering of some Covid restrictions meant that I was able to watch it with five mates round at my gaff 🙂 So thank you Simon, John, Paul, Pete and Rusty for helping to make it a great night! Maybe it was luck but we did not suffer any of the technical difficulties that thousands of other paying punters did. I am not sure who put the whole show together, but on paper the line up looked good and I love the way the sky got darker as the night went on.
The whole thing was kicked off with a blistering set from what seemed like a really fired up and ready for it Wolf Alice. They appeared to give it their all in the stone circle, despite the lack of a roaring crowd. “Don’t Delete The Kisses” was an incredibly powerful way to open the whole show. Meanwhile “The Last Man On Earth” was truly epic and suggests that the new album will be ace. The incredibly talented Michael Kiwanuka followed and his set was funky, jazzy and majestically soulful. Particular highlights were set openers “You Ain’t The Problem” and “Rolling” from his incredibly classy third album ‘Kiwanuka’ from 2019. Next to enter the Glasto site was George Ezra in very stripped back way, just him and a guitar walking around playing and singing, like a mobile busker. He played a few songs next to a raging fire and we thought maybe he was going to be sacrificed in a Wicker Man style, but don’t worry Ezra fans, he wasn’t! IDLES were bombastic and frankly hotter then Ezra’s fire. One of the few acts on the night to attack this vile UK government, “Reigns” is a great protest song. “Kill Them With Kindness” was another highlight for me. Their incendiary set was like a mini best of from their three albums to date. As a footnote it looked like they were playing in a warehouse full of strange junk, in fact it was filmed at Joe Rush’s “Carhenge” workshop!
HAIM were next and another of my highlights, the three sisters rocked the hell out of the Stone Circle. “Summer Girl” and “I Know Alone” were particular favourites of mine. When I have seen them in the past I was always mesmerised by the gurning antics of Este Haim, which sadly were not really evident in this performance. The next band, for me, are a bit Marmite, in that people seem to either love them or hate them, yes I am talking about Coldplay. personally I thought their first couple of albums were good, but they seem to have become a bit identikit and boring musically. Although they have great Glasto credentials, having headlined four times so far. They were filmed in front of the iconic Pyramid Stage, or at least a skeleton of it, with a stunningly good light show. The old songs were the winners for me, “Clocks”, “The Scientist” and especially “Fix You”. Next was Damon Albarn, an artist I really like, however I felt this set was a little self indulgent, although a long way from terrible. The crowd at my house went moderately wild in a socially distanced stylee when he played a couple of Blur songs, “Out Of Time” and “This Is A Low”. His set was a little underwhelming, however the thing that captivated us was the new Barnet sported by Mr Albarn, he has a mullet! Yes, seriously, a mullet! Damon, sort yourself out!
Rate My Mullet!
Jorja Smith is only 23 and yet her music has a beautiful maturity, she is a supremely talented singer songwriter with a fantastic voice. I love her ‘Be Right Back’ EP which came out in May. Her first big UK hit was “Blue Lights” and she opened her set with a powerhouse version of it. The Smile were the special guests and if you have not heard about them yet you really do need to crawl out from under your rock and scrub the moss off. Smile is Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead aided and abetted by Nigel Godrich and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. Skinner’s jazz background perhaps carried the most influence on the music, which showcased that Radiohead can do pop, especially synth pop with a huge dollop of prog. I really hope the Smile record and release an album, it will be worth it for “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings” a synth pop banger that the likes of Depeche Mode would salivate over. But the most outstanding tune for me was “You Will Never Work In Television Again” which is full to the brim of great melodies and hooks. They even managed to fit in an unreleased Radiohead tune, “Skating on the Surface”. The Smile pretty much capped the evening for me, plus I had consumed a hell of a lot of wine by then. So I don’t recall too much about Kano’s set (humble apologies to Kane Brett Robinson a.k.a. Kano). I do remember marvelling at how fast this guy can rap, he spits his words at almost superhuman speed! The whole event was closed by a, so I am told, marvellous DJ set from DJ Honey Dijon featuring Róisín Murphy. Sadly the wine had really done for me by then! I should also give a shout out to all the artists and poets who provided spoken word interludes PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Kae Tempest, Kurupt FM, Little Amal and Mr Glastonbury himself, Michael Eavis.
Here we are with our eleventh singles round-up of 2020. This one features seven great tunes, which found their way into the world over the past few weeks. This roundup carries on the guest reviewer approach kicked off when Simon Pattinson, Head Honcho of Northern Radar joined me to review a batch of singles in the 10th Roundup. This time I was joined joined for another Zoom listening extravaganza by Rusty Green, singer and guitarist with Lost Trends, one of York’s finest bands. If the weather is good and COVID-19 infection rates are low I hope to see those Lost Trends boys playing live again on 30th August, in a socially distanced setting, obviously!
These seven tracks feature another great selection of bands and singers from Long Island, Delaware, Glasgow, Whittingham Asylum, Brighton, Los Angeles and North East UK. All of these acts are new to With Just A Hint Of Mayhem except Moodbay and I am sure that they will all feature again sometime in the future. Play them all now, that’s an order!
Bill – I love the jaunty funk and Billy Whizz guitar licks. Great harmonies and at times Nick Heywardesque. A really cool summer vibe.
Rusty – MGMT style vocals with classy harmonies reminiscent of Empire Of The Sun. Funky pop with a great funk bass line. A bright tune that contrasts with some very dark lyrics
Rusty – A very mature voice. Probably not my kind of area, but a catchy, synth driven, bright pop tune. It kept me interested, was that a vocoder in there?
Bill – A love song about shoes, surely there aren’t many of those around? It made me think that I need to buy me some of the Bowie Vans. This is a great song with an excellent hook. It is really all about lost love, not just shoes, and it made me smile. Simply a perfect pop tune.
Bill – Very clever lyrics that are stylistically reminiscent of the Arctic Monkeys for me. This is a great slice of masterful post punk pop that reeled me in immediately. At times it reminded me of Cast and the Zutons. Did that lyric couplet say “voyeuristic wank”? 🙂
Rusty – Vocally it sounds like the Courteeners, I am definitely a fan of the Pleasure Heads now. The distorted bass roughed it up a bit and made it much rockier. The pre chorus was really cool.
Rusty – Like a heavy White Stripes. A great vocal and I like the way they used the synth. That reminded me of the Horrors and Mr Bungle. The heavier synth notes suggested a bit of Nine Inch Nails. The whole tune showed some great variation of styles.
Bill – Heavy, deep and masterful riffage. I love the vocals. Apparently this is a part of a concept album about being in an asylum. I am really looking forward to the album after hearing this.
Bill – Very soundtrackesque, like something from the sad part/ death scene of a David Lynch film. But it is also very chilled with a classical element. No real vocal, but there is a great use of overdubbed voices as an instrument. It made me think of Mogwai while on a post speed come down. Also some rather eery and odd scratchy samples used.
Rusty – definitely my favourite so far, fantastically produced. I really love the chord change from major to minor. Personally I would love to create and record a soundtrack one day.
Rusty – The drop into the chorus was truly brilliant. It suggests classic Primal Scream or the Rolling Stones at the height of their powers.
Bill – Like the heavy side of Brit Pop and yet it strangely reminded me of Kula Shaker as a 60s garage band. I sense a real influence from the classic rock of the 60s and 70s. Great rock vocalist and a tight, talented band. I loved the feedback heavy ending.
Bill – Classic 80s style synth pop, but clearly with a 21st century sheen. Like some of the best of the Human League or Depeche Mode but with Oakey and Gahan replaced by a, Anna Stephens a supremely talented vocalist. Great hooks with a middle eight that sounded like the Pet Shop Boys at their best.
Rusty – Pop is not a dirty word and this really is great pop. Catchy and yet very dark at times. Gorgeous vocals and I like that they left the ‘click’ on for the chorus.
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Those cheeky Lost Trends chappies are back after a bit of a sabbatical. They were definitely missed, but oh boy are they back with a bang in the shape of their new EP “Time”. Click here to check it out on Spotify. It features four exciting slabs of dance infused rock; “Time”, “Everything”, “Things You Could Be” and “Stay The Same”. Back in those heady days of the late 80s and early 90s when Clubs were king and illegal raves were prolific these tracks would have been mammoth hits and probably each the subject of a 12 inch single with extended dance remixes by the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Underworld, the Chemical Brothers and Andrew Weatherall to name just a few! The title track is for me the finest tune from a great selection. It has a powerful funk vibe and uses uplifting jangly guitars to the max. I would challenge even the most sedentary of people not to dance to this, you will fail! In a parallel universe this would be hogging the airwaves and it should be in this universe too. Rusty’s vocals are on top form in “Everything” which makes me think of what Radiohead or Muse might sound like if they went full on disco. There is no let up on the wonderful sonic attack from a band totally on top of their game. “Things You Could Be” reminds me of the best U2 remixes with some guitar work that I believe the Edge would be proud of. “Stay The Same” rounds this EP off perfectly and these tracks showcase a band that I reckon are now fully equipped to take on a Festival set. Can we at least get them on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading/ Leeds? They have the ability to bring the house down. It is so good to have Lost Trends back!
A headline show in York from the mighty Lost Trends, I mean you have to get yourself along to that don’t you, and I did. But before I tell you about one of York’s finest bands let me say a few words about the support bands. First up were Jerry who are very definitely a British band in the long genealogical line of the best British bands. They have a great sound in which I can hear the influence of The Fall, later period Blur, Pavement, Lou Reed and on occasions even Frank Zappa. Will this band go on to bigger and better things? Well I believe that Jerry can! Sorry about the terrible pun, but while I am on it how come so many bands these days have names that are so difficult to find in Google? (Other search engines are available). Is it because all the good names have been used?
Jerry
Talking of easy to find names next on stage were the Asphodels and oh boy are this bunch different. Imagine some Prog Rock opuses as played by a 90s grunge band. The rhythm section performed like a fuzzed out, punked up, psychedelic version of John Paul Jones and John Bonham off of Led Zeppelin. There were times that I was reminded of the best creations of Paul Draper and Mansun. I should add that their drummer is top draw and for me keeps the band in perfect sonic and rhythmic shape. I am looking forward to hearing more from the Asphodels.
Asphodels
Finally it was time for tonight’s main attraction, Lost Trends, I had met Rusty and Pete from the band earlier in the bar and they were properly up for this. Jerry and the Asphodels are two tough bands to follow but Lost Trends are highly skilled at upping the ante and they did it yet again with a stunning set. I have seen countless bands that give 100% in every performance but not many who go beyond that. Lost Trends are very much a 110% band. I have seen this band only twice before and I know that I will see them many more times in years to come. They have a new drummer who, it is fair to say, is a great fit. They play and perform with incredibly high energy levels with everything turned up to 11. By the end of the night everyone one of us punters were up on our feet frugging and chugging to some of the best dance/ rock hybrid songs out there. These boys know how to engage an audience and do it with buckets of style. They entertain a crowd in a way that many of their contemporaries can’t match. Lost Trends are scholars at intertwining tight, funky dance sounds with phenomenal, soaring rock vocals and punk attitude. In a parallel universe Lost Trends are playing stadiums supported by U2. get out and see them the next chance that you have, you will not be disappointed.
Lost Trends
Also it was great to catch up with my good friend, the stubbornest little bitch on the planet! You know who you are, stay strong!
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing (or throwing questions at) Pete, John, Adam and Rusty of one of York’s finest rock bands Lost Trends. Pete and Rusty over a few pints at the Duke of York pub and John and Adam outside Fibbers after the boys played a storming set in support of Billy Bibby and the Wry Smiles. Click here for that review. If you have never heard Lost Trends or seen them play live yet then you really need to rectify that soon. But in the meantime find out a bit more about the band with questions about their musical influences, favourite chocolate bar, rejected band names and which of them reckon they could take Justin Bieber in a fight.
Rusty – A previous band had an Arctic Monkey’s style song called “Lost To The Trend”
Rusty & Pete – Mentioned that they had considered Swedish Jesus and the Dyslexics. But the latter would be spelt wrong!
What brought you together as a band?
Rusty & Pete – They were at York College and become mates after a friend of a friend introduced them. John’s brother was the original drummer and they found Adam via GumTree
Adam – Was looking for a band on Gum Tree (so it worked then!)
John – He took his brother’s place in the band
Are there any Lost Trends side projects?
A resounding NO from both Pete and Rusty
John – A cryptic who knows!
Adam – Maybe some acoustic stuff one day
Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?
Rusty – Radiohead’s “Let Down” but perhaps the greatest impact is from Lindisfarne’s 70s classic “Lady Eleanor”
Pete – Thought about this for a while before deciding on a song that always makes him happy and upbeat, another 70s classic “September” from Earth, Wind & Fire. At a recent wedding they made sure the DJ played it.
Adam – Chose “Stay The Same” by a band that you may know, they are called Lost Trends. He is very proud of his bass on that track. He is also really keen on some good bass sounds in a Motown, Soul environment.
John – His choice would depend on his level of intoxication
What would be your first big purchase when music makes you rich and famous?
Rusty – A recording studio
Pete – A Ferrari
John – Loads of kick pedals – he has a habit of losing them
Adam – A barrel of coconut rum
Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?
Pete – Kurt Cobain
Rusty – Was lucky enough to walk past David Bowie at Glastonbury in 2000, he didn’t know what to do (Rusty not Bowie that is) so he nodded hello and got a nod in return
Adam – Don Broco, he would love to tour with them
John – Jimi Hendrix
Which instruments do you play?
Pete – Guitar, piano and backing vocals
Rusty – Guitar, piano, drums and vocals obviously!
Adam – Power chords on a guitar
John – Didgeridoo
When and why did you start playing?
Pete – Grandad was in a York band called the Modernaires. They were once played on Radio 2 after being introduced by no less than Patrick Moore. It was his Grandad who bought Pete his first guitar.
Rusty – His Dad was obsessed with music and he had a Beatles book with chords for every one of their songs. Rusty learnt to play by borrowing his Dad’s guitar and the book.
John – Started playing at school
Adam – Started playing bass at High School as there were no other bass players there
John – Can’t remember but probably something simple
What are the best and worst things about the music industry today?
Both Pete and Rusty agreed that they really don’t like pay to play.
Pete – He said that nowadays reality TV has made the industry very hard to get into. There is more of a need to win a competition or to have a back story, particularly one that would tug the audience’s heart strings
Rusty doesn’t like the favouritism that many promoters and industry people show. Also the apparent lack of daring, no one wants to take a chance any more.
Adam – Worst thing is dodgy promoters who insist that you sell 30 tickets or more
John – A good thing is that there are often more opportunities at the moment
(Incidentally one thing that at least two of the band mentioned is that Simon Pattison of York is an excellent promoter!)
What tunes are you currently grooving to?
Rusty – Anderson Paak and the Free Laterals – “Come Down”. He also loves the new Jamiroquai album ‘’Automaton’, and is a big fan of the creative genius of Jay Kay.
Pete – A big fan of the new Bonobo album
John – Chase and Status
Adam – Sofi Tukker – “Drinkee”
Best Saturday night record?
Rusty – King Curtis – “Memphis Soul Stew” or “Milk and Black Spiders” – Foals
Pete – “Move On Up” – Curtis Mayfield
John – “Upside Down” – Diana Ross
Adam – “This Girl” by the Kungs
Best Sunday morning record?
Rusty – “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers. This was a particular favourite with an old housemate and would often get them properly woken up on a Sunday. Rusty is also partial to a little Ralph McTell on a Sunday morning.
Rusty – What is the difference between a large blue whale and a small white whale? Size and colour. J
Adam – An English man, an Irish man and a Scots man walk into a bar. The barman says is this some kind of joke?
John – (You need to read this one out loud) An English cat called One two Three and a French cat called Une Deux Trois decide to have a swimming race across the English Channel. One Two Three won because Une Deux Trois Quatre Cinq …. Cat sank……geddit?
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 