Fairport Convention 1st May 2009

Fairport Convention
Mick Jagger Centre
Friday 1st May 2009

I had never seen Fairport before and as I have never even remotely considered buying any of their albums this isn’t going to be list of all the songs they did as I only recognised one! That said I was looking forward to the gig to fill in a quite serious gap in the music had seen over the years. Mercifully the Bank Holiday weekend traffic was light and I took a cunning route to avoid some potentially nasty stuff on the way to the A2.

We got there in plenty of time for a drink, to order the interval drinks (I suspected a rush from the folkies to the bar) and check out the audience. Teresa reckoned that generally the aging folk crowd were hairier than the aging blues and rocker mob. We had decent seats about halfway back in the centre and after an intro from Nicola, one of the MJC officials the band trooped on having asked to be known as the Frock Rockers from Oxford (or something similar).

This confused me as not having seen them before I had no idea if this was a support band. The audience seemed very happy to see them and it took me a couple of songs before I was confident that I was seeing the main band! Wikipedia has a very useful grid of who had played in the band and when that’s worth looking at. From the word go it was obvious that this band knew what they were doing and were very comfortable doing it.

As we looked at the stage from the left we had Ric Sanders the fiddler, Simon Nicol on guitar, Gerry Conway percussion, Dave Pegg bass and Chris Leslie mandolin, fiddle and bouzouki. Ric Sanders is one of those folk fiddle players who plays and plays and plays seemingly without pause or interruption. I don’t know how they do it. Either they have a phenomenal memory for tunes and a great capacity for improvisation or there are only a few standard tunes that have variations on them. He came under the heading of a funny little man and is the only bloke I have seen on stage wearing Crocs.

He wore a sort of peakless black baseball cap with his long pony tail poking out of the back. He could have been Griff Rhys Jones’s younger brother and somewhat disconcertingly sounded like him as well. As I said his playing was continuous, inventive and well amplified. Having been in the band over 20 years he weaved his magic through every song and was a delight to listen to.

Simon Nicol on guitar could be counted as the leader but being folkies he would probably say that it’s all a band effort. He played a very good rhythm guitar on a Martin jumbo (or similar) and I thought he was a bit underused. He sang a lot and his rhythm chops reminded me of a good jazz 2nd guitarist. He did get the odd solo but t was never very loud with the mandolin and fiddle seemingly getting priority. He was the main chat man and like all the bands that have been together for years each song had a story. He was very trim with his neat white beard and nearly white slightly floppy hair and everything was said with a joke or humorous comment in mind. He looked like the granddad you’d like to have, full of fun and good stories.

Gerry Conway had about the most minimal drum kit I had ever seen on stage. Al he had was a snare drum, a bass drum pedal but no bass drum and a device that Simon Nicol told us was called a Handsonic. This was a circular sort of electronic drum made by Roland that he played in conjunction with the snare. I think we were told that he was fairly new to the device as sometimes he got it wrong or the bands amusement.

Dave Pegg on bass has been around for a long time and is the longest continually serving member of the band having joined in 1969. He played electric, nice and simple and did his fair share of the vocals. Chris Leslie, very neat & trim looked like he worked in local government and whose idea of excitement was to be allowed to wear a pair of M & S jeans on a Sunday. That appearance was deceptive as looking at all the pictures on various websites of him he had very long hair. He was equally at home on mandolin, bouzouki, fiddle (he kept up with Ric Sanders easily) and when they did their novelty number on ukulele as well. All 4 string players played ukuleles on it and it went down a storm.

The vocals were handled by Simon Nicol, Chris Leslie and Dave Pegg with the confidence you’d expect from experienced folkies and all the songs were greeted with murmurs of recognition from part of the crowd (except from me of course who knew none of them). All of the tales they told were very good and unlike some bands they were pertinent and usually very funny. We had an interval followed by more of the same and they played for a good two hours plus and it was a sign of how enjoyable it was that I had no idea that it was that long.

The encore was the one song that I did vaguely recognise and that was Meet on the Ledge, a Richard Thompson song and he left he band in 1971. It was a very good evening and I’d certainly see them again. They plugged their Cropredy festival a lot. It’s in August and has a very good line up including Steve Winwood, Richard Thompson and Ralph McTell.

http://www.fairportconvention.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairport_Convention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Leslie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Nicol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Pegg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Conway_(musician)
http://www.roland.co.uk/drum_room_catdet.asp?ID=HPD15

Stan Webb Boom Boom 20 March 2009

Stan Webb and Chicken Shack
Boom Boom- Sutton Friday 20th March 2009

This was a bit of a bonus gig. I'm not over fond of trekking to Sutton but Teresa was out for the night and Pete fancied it. We got down there about 8 and after a sophisticated meal of fish and chips while we walked back to the club where we were assaulted by the support band.
Sometimes you can dislike something more or less instantaneously and that was the case with the support act. With as couple of pints of Bombardier as sustenance we settled against a wall to decide why we disliked the band. It wasn’t balanced to start with. There was the main man on electric guitar and vocals, a second guitarist playing an acoustic, the bass player played an electric upright bass, the drummer also sang and there was an absurd harp player.

He looked like Hugh Griffith, was wearing a silly big floppy hat and had a bandolier style harp holder for all the harps in different keys. At first they sounded like a jug band. They did all covers and even songs that I knew I couldn't recognise. The bass player had to stare at his instrument to make sure his fingers were going in the right place and the 2nd guitarist had such a hard time keeping up with the volume that at one point he put his foot on the PA to try and get some more purchase on the strumming.

In case you haven't got the message I didn’t like them. They actually gloried in the name of Obviously 5 Believers (http://www.o5b.co.uk/ tells you how great they were at the Boom Boom). When we got in there were some of the sparse crowd at the front at the tables and all the rest were at the back near the bar. This gave it an odd feel as there was nothing in the middle. The band mercifully finished and while the band were packing up we just strolled to the front and sat at one of the tables in front so we had a grandstand view. Stan's bass and guitar player acted as roadies to get the stage ready and with Pete Feenstra absent for the evening there was no intro and the band just strolled onto the stage and started the usual Chicken Shack opening number.

What made this gig different was that a sax player had been added to the line-up. Jim Rudge on Bass and Gary Davies on rhythm guitar were standard but Mick Jones had been replaced on drums and there was the sax player. He was middle aged, a bit chunky and quite florid. He as obviously not totally au fait with the band as he didn't really know where to stand. He was very good though and went at it from the word go. He had a good line in a shaky right leg thumping out the tempo when he had a solo and quite quickly settled into his role.

Gary Davies was a metronomic as ever and Jim Rudge played with his usual competence. As usual halfway through the intro number Stan strolled on stage to good applause and quickly got into his work. It was nice being so close (about 6 feet away) to see his great Les Paul showing just a bit of wear and tear but we were on the right and got a good earful of the rhythm guitar.

Stan was in a very unchatty mood for a change. We normally get a fairly constant stream of comments on the world and some bad taste jokes in between songs but he said very little apart from naming the songs. But he does sort of make his own entertainment as he goes along. At one point he reached over his head and his hand hit the lowered ceiling (it's not a high place and the 2 foot high stage makes it a bit dangerous for tall players. He then realised that the ceiling tiles lifted up if you pushed them and he had some fun playing to the crowd by lifting them up occasionally.

We didn't get anything radically new from his set but he was as grateful as ever for the audience turning out for him. The sax did give another dimension and he got his fair share of the action but I'm not really sure why he has been added to the band. Stan told us he couldn't be bothered with all the end of the set, go off, come back with the applause malarkey so he just went into the encore of I'd Rather Go Blind. He did his usual trick of handing the Les Paul to the roadie, take the mike of its stand and go for walkabout in an attempt to embarrass as many women in the audience as possible. In this he succeeded.

Then came the biggest laugh of the night. When he put the mike back in its holder it loosened it and the mike kept drooping. He tried bending down to sing into it and Jim on bass nipped over and tightened it up. It didn't work which was a bit of a surprise as I actually saw the bass player set it up and he did tighten it up well. Having tried once or twice Jim Rudge gave up and left it. Then a teenage girl came up and had a go. Unfortunately she was very girly and kept loosening it before working out which way to tighten it. Even when she seemed to have it sorted it slowly drooped.

Stan played along with it as he seems to quite like something going wrong to give him an excuse to ham it up. It didn't really affect the music but it did give the band a really good laugh and it's always good see the good humour between band members. Stan was sufficiently moved to boogie over to Gary Davies on rhythm s few times and synchronise movements with him. That isn't really very difficult as Gary hardly moves a muscle during the set.

Sitting where we were we got a full blast all night and it was great to be so close and see the workings of a band at work. The merchandising for Stan was hopeless and they seemed to be just pushing his last double CD. It was all very good though and the only thing missing was a load of nonsense from Pete Feenstra. He really does add to the occasion with his silliness. At 11 at night the drive back was nice and easy but seeing the young women of Sutton on their way out in the cold with incredibly short skirts reminded me of up North.

Oli Brown _ Beaverwood 19 March 2009

The Oli Brown Band
Chislehurst
Thursday March 19th 2009

We would have preferred just to pootle down the road to the Half Moon at Herney Hill to see Oli but we are away in April when they play there. Chislehurst was not a bad alternative though and far easier to get to than the Boom Boom at Sutton. Pete Feenstra’s website said that doors opened at a rather unfriendly 7.30 so we went down to get there about a quarter to eight.

Once in and with stamps on the backs of our hands we grabbed a couple of chairs to sit just behind the two or three round tables at the front. With no regimented rows it wouldn’t be a problem to see round anyone sitting in front of you. The set up was not the silly stage in the centre position that Feenstra often favours but up the end in front of the back bar that had a back cloth to hide it.

With an early opening we rather assumed a support band and dreaded the worst. Having said that the first time we saw Oli Brown he was playing support. It turned out that there was only Oli’s mon on display so we had a bit of a wait before there was any action. Luckily Pete Feenstra was on pretty good form with odd (very odd) announcements from the stage.

As usual he thanked us for coming out and then told us that the PA had blown up. But we were not to worry as by Herculean efforts they had got another one. It was obviously a bit last minute as there was still some testing going on and that included some quite painful sonic booms. Feenstra explained that the lack of PA meant that the grand intro for the band couldn’t happen (we had no idea what this was supposed to be) but soon enough the band would be on.

It was a touch ramshackle as the band actually walked through the crowd to get onto the stage. The lack of PA turned to the band’s advantage as there were a lot of jokes flying around and it helped relax the atmosphere. They started up and were the same pretty hard driving blues band (with a hint of jazz all the time) that we had seen before. Oli was looking thinner than usual but was still in his trademark pinstripe suit. The drummer, Simon Jones looked the same but Fred Hollis the bass player looked different.

Teresa agreed and he looked like a young brother of the old one. As time went on his obvious prowess (and he is good) made us think that he might be the same bloke but he didn’t look the same. Maybe he had lost weight and done something different with his hair but something was amiss. I clobbered Feenstra on the way to the toilet and he agreed that there was something strange and said he’d check up at half time. As I would see him the next night I thought I’d wait till then to find out.

The band certainly doesn’t lack confidence and Oli continues with his master plan of conquering the blues world. He really is very good and his ‘Vanquish Oli Brown "Signature": Solid’ guitar performed admirably. His amp though was a different matter. Along with the blown PA it was giving problems but once again his chatty, up front & amiable personality did him proud and he got all the audience on his side about it. The amp did make a few odd noises but luckily no great thumps or squeals. He did explain that it had been playing up but they hadn’t had time to fix it.

He does a good mix of old & new with some B B King, Freddie King (Big Legged Woman – Oli said he was a fan of them but he looked too frail to handle one) and some ones he had written himself. He had his little fan club in the front seats. There were 2 guys who were Dumb and Dumber and 2 women who Teresa ungraciously dubbed Godzilla and the Swamp Monster. One of then had a delightful mole or wart behind her ear and had her hair tied back to give it a good airing.

As intimated earlier there was an interval cum gear repair break and a second half of more hard driving blues. He is such a confident (some would say cocky) young man that he actually moved to the centre of the stage to sin away from the mike. One song – Psycho – was about a woman who followed him from a gig and he woke up to find her staring at him through the window while he was in bed. It was a very good show and at the end we had an encore and Black Benny Bam A Lam thrown in at the end for good measure.

The audience loved it and so they should as it was very entertaining. Well done The Oli Brown Band. The next night we have the other end of the blues age spectrum with Stan Webb so that should be an interesting contrast.

http://www.oliselectricblues.co.uk/index.html

Gerry & The Pacemakers MJC 26th April 2009

Gerry & the Pacemakers
Mick Jagger Centre 26th April 2009

The first ever pop concert I went to was to see Gerry & the Pacemakers at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End in about 1963 or 4 I think. It seemed a bit of a hoot to see him 45 years or so later so off we trotted to the Mick Jagger on a nice traffic free Sunday evening. As opposed to Friday’s rush to get there in the nick of time we made it in time to get a drink in the foyer with a much more sedate crowd that the blues fans of two nights previously.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect as it was billed as Gerry Across The Mersey so I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a support band and Gerry Marsden came on strumming an acoustic later on. Fortunately there was a new incarnation of The Pacemakers and on they came all nicely dressed in matching black shirts. They started off with the old Cliff Bennett hit (one of 2!) Got To Get You Into My life which was a bit weird as Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers were on the bill in 1963 or 4. As a real nerd point in the Rebel Rousers at the time were Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock who became Chas’n’Dave. Gercha!

It was clear from the outset that they were a very good tight band. They operate in their own right as Soul Journey and are a 5-piece. There is a guitarist (nice two tone Strat white going into black), a bass player, a drummer and somewhat oddly two keyboard players. One keyboard player plays all the brass and organ parts on two identical Roland XP30s and the other electric piano on a Yamaha. There’s a load of blurb on them further down.

Then Gerry Marsden came on to good applause and for a 67 year old he still had a very good voice and didn’t stint on anything. His 2 tone wine red Strat looked really good and he was no slouch on it either. He explained that the first half would be all the songs that influenced him and after a break it would be the hits. That seemed a very sensible way of doing things and he launched into Lonnie Donegan’s Puttin’ on the Style. The audience were encouraged to join in and we had the panto stop the song and complain that we aren’t singing loud enough routine on a few occasions.

What followed was a very good show full of enthusiasm that years of the working men’s clubs and the cabaret circuit had honed. I don’t mean that it was particularly slick or insincere but that he knew what he was doing in and did it well. The rest of the first half was one good old song after another. I will risk boring you by listing the songs. The Wonder of You, All Shook Up, Sweet Dream Baby (inc the story of Roy Orbison’s dark glasses), Blueberry Hill, I Saw Her Standing There (The Pacemakers only as Gerry went off, maybe he has a problem down below is he did the same in the second half), Lucille, Bette Midler’s The Rose, Great Balls of Fire and Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe.

That was a pretty good selection and to show what a sedate, aging audience we were in when we went out at the break there was no rush for the bar at all (for Snowy White on Friday it was a scrum) and the barmaid remembered what we had been drinking for the same again. We had a look at the rather weak merchandising stall that was being run by one of the MJC staff and I got a t-shirt as an annoying gift for someone and a very cheaply produced CD. I also got a poster of the band to find out who they were & when I put it in the car I saw the most awful Fiat Panda in the car park. It was orange & white. I took a pic of it (available on request!) to show work that there were worse cars than mine out there.

Back for the second half the band were now in new shirts, different colours this time and they sort of looked symmetrical on stage. They started off with Barefootin’ on their own again for Gerry to come back halfway through with new clobber on as well. He obviously likes an entrance. Gerry did like a bit of interaction with the audience and we found out that a woman had come over from Florida especially for the show. Also he singled out a young woman in a wheelchair who he seemed to be familiar with. It turned out she was paralysed from a botched operation and he told her to sue and promised her the name of his solicitor. He even made a point of walking round the stage to her and giving her a kiss.

Back to the plot the hits came thick and fast with another break for the band to do their thing while he went off. We had, It’s Gonna Be Alright, Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying, I’m the One, The Way You Looked Tonight, Slow Down, I Heard It Through The Grapevine (the band solo number), Walk Hand In Hand With Me, Jambalaya and then came the biggest laugh of the night when he went to introduce the band.

He turned round waving at The Pacemakers (all bar the bass player were young enough to be his children – easily) and a woman’s voice called out from the audience ‘Are they the originals?’! The audience and band creased up, Gerry wanted to know where on earth she was from (Old Kent Road) and the balding organ keyboard player said indignantly ‘I’m only 36!’

Then we had Ferry Cross The Mersey, I Like It and of all things a Little Feat song - On Your Way Down. The last song they did was of course You’ll Never Walk Alone which meant a lot of standing up and arm waving. Cunningly he went off waving while the band still played and then came back on for another couple of choruses before departing for good leaving the band to finish off. It told us quite nicely that that was that.

It was a very enjoyable show and despite us having the giggles at some of the audience and the possibility that it may be awful Gerry Marsden proved to be a consummate entertainer still with a very good voice and a good sense of how to play an audience. He did tend to go a bit Les Dawson at times and his referring to those folk pertaining to the pink as Humpty Dumpties (why?) was a throwback to the working men’s clubs when we all know that correct terms are either whoopsies or wooly woofters. Would I see him again? Definitely as the band were very tight and good (most of them did the backing vocals as well) and there was a lot of joking and chatting between themselves and Gerry Marsden which indicated they were having a good time too. I think the car outside with the number plate GER 1E may have been his as well.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Marsden
http://www.gerrymarsden.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_&_The_Pacemakers
http://www.myspace.com/souljourneyband

Soul Journey Gerry Marsden's band, The Pacemakers.Now can be booked as Soul Journey.With or without Brass section.
Garth Watt-RoyGarth started playing guitar in 1961 and formed several bands playing locally along with his brother Norman (I taught him everything he knows) Watt-Roy, (BLOCKHEADS) In 1967 Garth and Norman formed 'The Greatest Show On Earth', an 8-piece soul band and turned professional signing with E.M.I. Harvest label. With this they enjoyed record success and touring all over Europe and the U.K. In 1972 Garth joined 'East of Eden'; then moving on in '76 joined 60's band 'Marmalade' Tours with Barbara Dickson and Bonnie Tyler followed then the '70's was rounded off with a tour with B.A.Robertson. The '80's saw Garth joining the 'Q.Tips' (Featuring Paul Young).This gave Garth the opportunity to go back to his soul roots on guitar. After the break up of the Q.Tip's. Garth started touring with 60's artistes. (Heinz, Mike Berry, Jess Conrad, Jet Harris, Tommy Bruce etc In 1990 Garth was approached to join the Barron Knights for their forthcoming Australian tour. This time he was on bass guitar. This ended up an association that lasted for 12 years. On leaving the Knights, Garth went on to be a backing musician for the 'Reeling and Rockin' Show' backing artistes such as Gerry Marsden, Dave Dee, Mike D'Abo Wayne Fontana etc. Along with fronting the SJ's, Garth is currently bass player and backing singer for Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Tony Young After winning "Battle of the Bands" in the early eighties with white reggae band "The Second". Tony thought that it could be a good career move to quit a secure job and a place at Trent Polytechnic. Mmm. I think the phrase that springs to mind rhymes with 'what a mosser'. Anyway the damage had been done and with Steve Thompson went on to form the "Sincere Americans". Whilst taking on the job of lead vocals with this soul, funk, rock outfit, Tony and the band became management bedfellows with Curiosity Killed the Cat and Tapau for sometime until the inevitable split emerged in 1988. There comes a time when the mortgage has to be paid so Tony became a backing musician for such celebrated artistes such as Billy .J. Kramer, Brian Poole and PJ Proby. For ten years now, Tony has played piano for Gerry and the Pacemakers enjoying many tours overseas including the States and Australia. In his spare time he has done a number of BBC sessions for hit duo "Alicia's Attic" and the odd jingle. So after meeting Garth Watt-Roy in a bar on the east coast and introducing him to Stella, (A cruel mistress), project number 876 was about to be hatched. (The SJ's). With working commitments (see date sheet attached) it's taken time to get off the ground but in hindsight it's been well worth the wait.
Steve ThompsonSteve was offered the opportunity to play on the British sixties circuit, where he is to this day. Many world tours later he is still enjoying life on the road & as had the pleasure of working with lots of British recording artists like: Brian Poole, Mike Pender, Billy J Kramer, P.J.Proby & of course Gerry Marsden (too many to mention) Along the way, he as met lots of fantastic musicians & singers & consider himself to be very lucky to be involved with the current S,Js line up, Mitch, Andy, Tony & of course the great talent of Garth. Still a very keen song writer, He hopes that together with the band they will soon be writing their own brand of soul music…….. So, bring on Soul Journey…….part two.
Andy WildAndy joined the Liverpudlian beat combo 'Gerry And The Pacemakers', in February 2004 touring regularly to locations such as America, Canada, Australia and China. Since then he has worked as a backing musician for other sixties artists such as PJ Proby and Wayne Fontana. He currently plays Keyboards and Hammond organ in the SJs.
Mitch OldhamMitch has been performing and teaching percussion professionally for nearly 15 years. He is a specialist in Brazilian percussion as well as having great experience in Jazz, Cuban, African and South American percussion. He writes and performs with his own band ‘Battuta’ at festivals nationwide including support slots for the likes of Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, Bob Geldof and performances including the Notting Hill Carnival and Edinburgh Festival. Mitch is regularly called upon to tour from a variety of artists including many World, European and U.K. tours. He has been in many successful, original, underground bands gaining much acclamation for his collaborations. As a freelance percussionist Mitch coaches and performs in and for schools, colleges, universities and businesses locally and internationally to both students and teachers working for many Arts organisations across the country including the Arts Council of England. He is the founder member of the ‘Watermelon Music Club’ and has toured and recorded with bands and productions as varied as Folk music to vocal harmony, Orchestras to Big bands. This diversity has brought him together with bands such as European Heavy Metalists ‘Skyclad’, 60’s artists Gerry and the Pacemakers, P.J.Proby, Wayne Fontana and Brian Poole and Folk-Rockers ‘Seven Little Sisters’.

Snowy White MJC 24 April 2009

The Snowy White Blues Project
Mick Jagger Centre 24th April 2009

This was a bit of a stab in the dark but the fact that he was a name and the words blues and project indicated a good evening. After an irritatingly awful drive to Dartford in very heavy Friday evening traffic we got there with about a minute to spare before the scheduled 8 p.m. starting time. I assumed there would be either a support band or they would start a fashionably bit late but I was wrong on both accounts.

I was sure we had seats but hadn’t bothered to check whereabouts we were sitting so it was a bit of a surprise when the guy at the door said that it was to be standing but now it was sitting and you could sit where you liked. If I had known that we would have left a bit earlier to get a better position. We didn’t have time even to get a drink before we were ushered in. We did manage fairly decent seats though about halfway up and just to the left of the aisle.

The band came on and it turned out to be a classic 4 piece with 2 guitars, bass and drums. Snowy, looking like a Kwik Fit mechanic positioned himself to the left of the stage and had a simple Les Paul plus AC30 set up. Matt Taylor the other guitarist went for the much more noticeable white t-shirt and jeans ensemble and suffered a little from constantly changing guitars syndrome. Ruud Weber jr was on bass and the flamboyantly named Juan Van Emmerloot was on drums.

All three of the front men did vocals and Snowy seemed quite happy to let the other two have their fair share of the fun. I did wonder if what with Snowy’s Thin Lizzy connection whether we would get a bit of hard rock but I didn’t need to worry. We got a totally blues dominated set from the word go and very good it was too. They had a CD out at the end of last year and they played quite a few songs from it ranging from some Freddie King to an acoustic I’m So Glad to a lot of tunes they had written themselves.

Apart from the acoustic songs Snowy kept to his Les Paul in standard tuning including the slide work as well. The very proficient Matt Taylor changed from either a white Strat to a black Strat to a lovely sunburst Tele after every song and had a handy guitar tech to sort them all out for him. The Tele was used for his slide work and it is no surprise that he has his own band. Check him out on You Tube.

I think they wanted to play straight through as Snowy said they were told to take a break and would be back in 20 minutes. They aren’t going to sell any beer if the band don’t take a break are they? It did us a favour we hadn’t had a chance to get one earlier and the very efficient barmaid sorted us out with a pint of London Pride and a JD & coke pretty quickly considering the number of those clamouring for a drink. When the band came back on we had more of the same and then the couple of acoustic numbers. For this Snowy and Matt had jumbos similar to a Martin D28 (I was too far away to check the make) and the drummer came out from behind the drums to sit on and play a flamenco cajon box. Juan Van Emmerloot on drums was very good. He played a simple kit and made the most of it. I’m not usually very keen on the drum side of things and prefer them to be unobtrusive but Juan was impressive.

The second acoustic song was the Skip James I’m So Glad. They played close to the original rather than the Cream version and with Snowy doing slide it was very well done. Then we had more electric to the end. Then Snowy stayed on stage while the others left and he explained that rather than go off and hope there was enough applause to come back he’d stay there and play a solo electric number until the band came back on for a final song.

They played longer than I thought which goes to show that the set didn’t drag at all (we got into the car at 10.25) so must have played the best part of 2 hours. It was very good and very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend the band if you get the chance to see them. I even bought the CD (a lot of others did as well) and it’s pretty good. In today’s marvellous way there is even a clip of the band making the album on the You Tube clip below. If you fancy a bit of sheer blues class also check out the Clapton clip below for a blistering version of Freddie King’s Someday After A While that the band might have played but I’m not sure!

http://www.snowywhite.com/?location=/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7rnNs-4cos
www.myspace.com/matttaylorband
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caj%C3%B3n for the cajon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3wX1wn-0go&feature=related Eric clip

Skinny Molly Herney Hill Nov 15th 2008

This band were advertised as Southern Rock with an ex-Lynryd Skynryd player in it so we thought we’d give them a go. They had been doing the Feenstra circuit for a while and seemed regular visitors to these shores. We were at the pub quite early in order to get a table and were in the second row with virtually an unrestricted view to the stage only feet away.

There was a support act and as usual Pete Feenstra gave them a big introduction. They were Four Wheel Drive, all youngsters and unfortunately they had chosen a name that comes up about 10 million Google hits so I can’t give much detail about them.

As I said they were young and it looked like they had got a diploma in rock bandsmanship. Apart from the invisible drummer there were twin lead guitarists who competed in gyrations and hair tossing. The curly fair haired one played a black Les Paul and the curly brown haired one had a Strat.

They both played very loud and looked like they were having a whale (wail?) of a time. The bassist lacked the curly hair and facial hair so he made up for it with quite a bit of grimacing and posing at the front of the stage with one foot on a monitor. He also handled the lead vocals with the other 2 chiming in.
We had a set of loud fairly self indulgent heavy metal type rock that did grate after a while, OK after about 30 seconds then.

Teresa quickly went from being amused at their youth to how much longer are they going on for quite quickly? As she said – when all else fails play loud and take your shirt off. The Strat player did just that.

They got a good reception from the easy to please crowd and Pete Feenstra thanked them profusely (they probably played for nothing). After a short interval on came Skinny Molly with the ex-Lynryd Skynryd Mike Estes resplendent in a Tom Petty style top hat. That only lasted for one song and we had a set of good American blues rock.

I’m not very familiar with either their repertoire or that of Lynryd Skynryd apart from the couple of big hits so can’t comment on the individual songs but they were very proficient and quite relentless. Mike Estes played his lovely old 1959 Les Paul Junior double cutaway all through and looked like he seriously knew what he was doing.

The other guitarist, Chris Walker is actually English although he fitted into the band perfectly and with his long hair (frequently tossed of course) and shades and looked the part. He played a Strat with a foray into a Gretsch and another Strat (both the Strats had the middle control knob removed for some reason). On bass was Luke Bradshaw and Kurt Pietro handled the drumming. They were good and tight and Four Wheel Drive could certainly learn something about doing a good set from them.

We had some obvious Lynryd Skynryd songs and of course Free Bird was the encore. I thought that despite their obvious proficiency there was just a touch of been there before about them. I don’t know what their tour schedule is but maybe they were coming to the end of it and were slightly going through the motions. The audience loved them and I can’t say that I was at all disappointed.

Teresa was not totally happy with Free Bird as it went on for quite a time and ended up a bit of a messy jam. I think she prefers her classics not to be messed around with. The set finished well after 11 and in seconds the bassist was out from behind the stage with the CDs for sale. I thought them worthy of a bit of extra cash so bought the CD and a shot glass as well. For some reason I only got 3 of the band to sign the CD cover. Maybe the drummer couldn’t write! Very enjoyable.


http://www.skinnymollyrocks.com/
There are good band biogs on the site & some links to myspace pages for some of them.

Stephen Stills - Brighton October 10th 2008

We had a choice for this one – either drive to Brighton on a Friday for a sit down gig or hike to Shepherd’s Bush the next night for a stand up. The sit down option won and I booked fairly reasonable seats in row H. After agonising over whether to stay the night and rave in Brighton or just drive home the prices of a one night stay forced my hand into driving back. That and the fact that the venue told me that it was a 7.45 start with no support for a 9.40 finish. We’d be back before midnight if I drove so that was that.

The drive down there was as you’d expect for a rush hour crawl through Croydon to the M23 but we had plenty of time. We parked in an NCP type place close to the venue which is on the front facing the sea and went in. The merchandising was rather desultory with half a dozen t-shirts and some signed old CD’s on offer. There was nothing there to tempt us.

We went up to the busy bar and had time for a quiet drink before going in about 7.30. Things didn’t bode too well is The Brighton Centre isn’t a theatre but more a big empty all purpose arena. The stalls are totally flat but the stage was quite high so you had a chance of a decent view even if it may come with a stiff neck if you were right at the front. Round 3 sides were banked seats and unfortunately it was only about ¾ full for a genuine legend.

As with most sports hall type places it was high and there was a distinct lack of atmosphere. In the winter I suspect it would be pretty cold as well. I can well imagine the place doing a Holiday on Ice spectacular in a month or two.

More or less on time the lights dimmed to near blackness for the audience and on trooped the band to great applause. As if to confirm my fears of cold Steve Stills wore quite a big coat that only came off after the first song of the second half. He went straight into Helplessly Hoping playing a gorgeous Gretsch White Falcon. The sound, aided by a couple of banks of curved PA speakers high up was absolutely superb. I was pleasantly surprised by that. You could have expected quite a bit of echo but someone had done their homework well.

The band was pretty stripped down with just Steve Stills on guitar, with 3 others on bass, keyboards and drums. The bass guitarist was tiny and had on Mexican trousers – you know ones with metal bits down the side which led you to believe that he was in fact Mexican but when introduced at the end he had an Italian name. On drums was Joe Vitale and he did some back up vocals as did the other two.

After the first song the band trooped off and on came the Martin D28. Once again the sound was very good but I think he must hold the record now for the number of guitar changes in a set. They were changed after every song and sometimes in the middle of songs as well. Fortunately it didn’t interrupt the flow. What followed was about 45 minutes of magic.

We had Treetop Flyer, Change Partners, 4 + 20, Blind Fiddler, Girl From The North Country, Johnny’s Garden, Cross of Freedom and to end the set Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (the band came on half way through this one as well). His voice although a touch croaky at first got better and better and he didn’t hold back at all. He did say that he wouldn’t be doing the castrato parts on a CSN & Y song but he managed them all with no disappointment.

We got a decent bit of chat with explanations of Johnny’s Garden (he inherited the gardener from buying a house from Ringo who bought it from Peter Sellers & the gardener came with it) and also the info that the gardener had given him the trousers he was wearing! He was also pretty chuffed with losing some weight. He was on the ELF diet he told us – eat less food! He definitely seemed to be enjoying himself which I like to see.

After the first set they trooped off probably to give his guitar tech a break as he hadn’t stopped at all. During the interval I was given a couple of chances to show off and I grasped them with both hands. First off as we stood to stretch our legs the guy who had been sitting next to me said he’d like to know how the Martin was tuned for Judy Blue Eyes so I told him straightaway – E E E E B & E. That was how I was going to tune my Aria acoustic as soon as I got home.

We decided to try the bar to find then both heaving with not enough staff of course. Teresa had suggested I take my sweatshirt off to show my loud Hard Rock Nashville guitar shirt so in deference to her wishes I obeyed as usual. I took it off in the toilet and had the weird sensation of actually being stared at as I walked back along the bar. Then when I reached Teresa at the bar she happened to be standing next to a bloke who was wearing a guitar shirt as well. Only it was rather a weak one and he went from being rather proud of it to blabbering his appreciation of my much superior effort. Poor man probably thought he looked rather cool until he saw mine.

We just had time to get another drink before going back in for the second half. This was all electric and as I mentioned earlier after the first song the coat came off and it was all rock’n’roll. Teresa was nowhere near as keen on the second half as it was like a series of electric jams. The couple to my right obviously had wind of what was coming up as they departed after the acoustic set. I liked the electric stuff but according to the Stephen Stills forum there were those who didn’t.

I wasn’t too familiar with the electric stuff but looking at the forum (you have to sign up to read it) we probably had Buffalo Springfield 's Rock ' n Roll woman, Bluebird, Tom Petty / Mudcrutch's "The wrong thing to do" ("a song about my life", he said)! The encore was Love The One You’re With and that was it. Looking at the forum he has varied the set list and I would have loved to have heard Dark Star or Woodstock which he played on some of the European dates.

The finish was as stated and although it was early he isn’t that young anymore and has had prostate cancer recently so he’s doing pretty well and we were overjoyed to have heard some great songs live at last. Teresa was a touch disappointed that Graham Nash didn’t come on and do Marrakech Express though! We were back home by 11.40 so Brighton was denied our presence for the night. Maybe next time.
http://stephenstills.com/index-v10.html - not the best web site in the world.

Here is something from the forum:

http://rockerparis.blogspot.com/2008/10/stephen-stills-olympia-paris-oct-5th.html good review of the Paris gig & good pics as well.

I have just seen SS at Brighton UK. His solo acoustic set was fantastic, he was in great voice and his playing was spot on. Several gags about his weight and the amount he has lost. He certainly looks a lot fitter. That's the good news. The electric set was a shambles - the numbers were all over amplified and instead of his trademark light inventive electric guitar licks we got heavyish blues playing of the standard that I can hear from pub bands any weekend of the year. He played the riff on Rock and Roll Woman with too much distortion which masked the melody, and put an overlong blues solo in the middle of Bluebird. I appreciate that he may want to update the sound, but sheer volume and overlong solos is not the way, in my opinion. I suggest SS revisits the tracks and plays them in a lighter style where the quality of the song and the playing shine through. SS needs to look at his audience and appreciate they bought the original records and are looking to hear something similar, or am I a lone voice.