Where Worlds Collide

I hadn’t originally intended to write a review of this gig, having already reviewed two earlier gigs on this tour. But in the end the gig was such a blinder I just couldn’t let it go without mentioning it.

Support was Matt Stevens, the “one man wall of sound”. I’ve known him through Twitter (he’s a friend of former Panic Room bassist Alun Vaughan) and seen him before, supporting the John Lees Barclay James Harvest last November. He plays looped guitar, playing acoustic guitar through loops to build up a bigger sound; he’ll typically play a chord progression, loop it, then solo over the top. It’s remarkably effective, and far more interesting as a support than the often mediocre singer-songwriters who are all-too-common as supports for gigs at this sort of level.

Panic Room were good at York, but tonight they were just at another level, and the band simply blew the roof off. Everything I’ve said about their gigs two weeks ago is still true, only more so. Without a strict curfew there was time for a couple of extra songs, so we got to hear the bonkers “I Am A Cat”, and “Go!”, neither of which were in the set for earlier gigs. The two new songs, “Song for Tomorrow” and “Promises” are already starting to lodge themselves in the brain, and the former has all the makings of a Panic Room classic.

Good crowd too; the place was at least three-quarters full, and everyone was really enthusiastic for the music. None of the loud talkers or oblivious drunks who marred the last London gig at the O2 Academy 2. And, as Anne-Marie herself said from the stage, it’s great to be in a proper rock venue, not some place that turns into a nightclub seconds after the band finish.

Including some brief sound clips from a song which I believe is called “Mirror Mirror”. Whether there is some association with prog band Spock’s Beard, I have no idea. Adam Dawson’s guitar certainly sounds very Floydy on this one.

Here’s Breathing Space premièring the song “Lips Are Too Dry” at the 2010 Cambridge Rock Festival. It’s a song written by bassist Paul Teasdale, which I hope will become part of the Stolen Earth songbook

This blog has been around for the best part of a decade now. When I started it, blogging was in infancy, and it started out, like many blogs, as a personal journal. In the early days I used to post ranty political posts, memes and funnies, much like other bloggers. Over time it focused on three subjects, music, roleplaying games, and trains, and more recently the focus has been almost exclusively on music.

Given that I’m now quite active on social networking sites (especially Twitter), I’ve decided to take stock and decide exactly what this blog is for. I’ve come to the conclusion that some topics, especially rants on politics or religion are actually a distraction from some of the other specialist content on here.

So from now on, this blog will be first and foremost a music blog, with an emphasis on contemporary British progressive rock. I’ll leave the archives in situ, since I’m not the type to go and rewrite history.

As for the other stuff, I’ve created a brand new Roleplaying Blog at http://www.kalyr.com/rpg. Railway-related posts will be found on another brand-new blog on RMweb. For anything I used to post on that doesn’t fall into any of those categories, you can find me on Twitter and Facebook (although I will only accept friend requests on the latter from people I actually know)

The 2011 Cambridge Rock Festival is looking like another good one! Return appearances by Panic Room and Chantel McGregor following their great sets last year; hopefully both will be higher up the bill. Mostly Autumn are on the bill yet again for the fourth year running.

And perhaps most significant of all, Heather Findlay will be playing with her new band, featuring Chris Johnson, Dave Kilminster, Steve Vantsis and Alex Cromarty, for what will be one of her first appearances as a solo artist. I remember some rather heated arguments on her forum over whether she ought to start off her solo career with high profile headline sets or to play some supports to build up an audience; it didn’t occur to anyone that she’s launch her career as a solo artist by playing some of the summer festivals. But it does make a lot of sense given that she won’t have a full album’s worth of material to promote.

Love to see both Stolen Earth and whatever Chris Johnson’s Parade (or whatever they’re renamed to now some “ciphers of budget rave-tinged Auto-Tuned dance muzak” backed by a lot of hype have stolen their name) on the bill. Stolen Earth are certainly up for it, and most of Parade will be there anyway.

Update: Not on the CRF website yet, but Stolen Earth are apparently now on the bill! Gets even better.

There was an announcement on Facebook a couple of days ago about a new band, “Stolen Earth”, with the following lineup:

• Heidi Widdop - Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Low whistle
• Adam Dawson - Lead guitar, vocals
• Paul Teasdale - Bass Guitar, vocals
• Barry Cassells - Drums
• John Sykes - Keyboards

Regular readers of this blog (all four of you) will probably notice that four out of the five members of the band were in the final incarnation of Breathing Space.

While many fans were saddened that Breathing Space had decided to call it a day a month ago, there was always the expectation that at least some members of the band would continue to work together on new projects. Indeed, it soon became apparent to anyone with the ability to read between the lines that most of that final incarnation of the band were likely to continue as a band with a new name. Stolen Earth are that band.

Breathing Space’s final few gigs with new members Heidi and Adam showed us a very different band from the one fronted by Olivia Sparnenn, and it feels like the much of spirit of that final lineup will be continuing as Stolen Earth. Obviously with a different keyboard player and a new songwriting team Stolen Earth will have a changed sound and a new trajectory. Certainly I hope that the new songs premièred at the Cambridge Rock Festival, work of Adam and Paul, become part of the new band’s songbook. They’re too good to fall through the gap between bands.

It will be very interesting to see how they develop. Can’t wait to see them live.

Their new website will be up and running soon, they assure me. In the meantime, go and “Like” the Stolen Earth Facebook page.

So the two gig-free months come to an end, and the gigging season begins again. Yet again, I’ve been putting in serious amounts of rail miles to see two gigs by Panic Room, the first at Fibbers in York, the second the following night at The Factory in Manchester. Are they really worth spending so many hours on board Arriva Cross-Country Voyagers to see? I think so, or I wouldn’t keep doing it.

Friday night was was the second time I’ve been to the recently refurbished Fibbers. It’s now more of a nightclub than a rock club, no draft beers any more, and decor that seems to lack character, and focuses on the dancefloor rather than the stage. Still, unlike in December where what turned out to have been Breathing Space’s final gig was spoiled by very poor sound, this time the venue seems to have got it’s act together in that respect, and the sound was excellent, good separation with every instrument clear.

The Factory in Manchester the following night didn’t have quite as good sound as the night before, a little bit too loud. But we did have one of the most enthusiastic audiences I’ve seen at a Panic Room gig to date. The Magnum-style arm-waving during “Satellite” was a new one on me. There was one downside, though, which I’ll come to later.

A few words on the support acts. Friday’s support was a solo acoustic singer-songwriter who’s name I forget. I find these sorts of performers rather hit-and-miss. Marc Atkinson, Chris Johnson, or for that matter Anne-Marie herself, can win over audiences with strong performances and good songs. But this guy wasn’t really in the same league. To give him some credit, he did write his own songs rather than take the easy route and play covers, but his act really needs a bit more work. Saturday’s support was David R Black, fronting an indie/metal trio who brought along a lot of their own fans and helped sell tickets for the gig. They didn’t do an awful lot for me, I’m afraid. They were musically competent, and pretty tight too, but their songs rather generic to my ears. But they weren’t really my kind of music, so I might not be the best person to judge.

As for Panic Room themselves, they more or less picked up where they left off last year. As I know I’ve said before, Yatim Halimi’s arrival as their new bass player seems to be the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle that has turned them from being a good live band to having all the makings of a great one. They’re now got the magical combination of tightness and onstage energy, all five members giving it absolutely everything and making an equally important contribution. Gavin and Yatim make a powerful rhythm section, Jon and Paul on keys and guitar perfect foils for each other, especially with a set that alternates between guitar-led and keyboard-led numbers. And of course Anne-Marie demonstrating just why she was voted Female Vocalist of the Year by readers of Classic Rock Presents Prog. And while their music has plenty of depth and complexity to satisfy progressive rock audiences, many of their songs are direct enough to give them crossover appeal.

Much as on their tour last autumn, the bulk of the set came from “Satellite”, with just two or three songs from their debut album. They’re still playing their as-yet unreleased swamp-blues cover of ELP’s “Bitches Crystal”, which I find far superior to the original. Since several songs from “Satellite” had become live favourites long before the band went into the studio to record them, there was the feeling that it was about time some new material started appearing in the set. And we got two brand-new songs, of which one, a twin-guitar prog-metal epic with a working title of “Song for Tomorrow” has all the makings of a future classic. My only regret is they’ve retired the lengthy epics from the first album. I’m not suggesting they exhume “The Dreaming”, which never really worked that well live, but “Endgame” used to be a live highlight, and it’s a song that means a lot to me personally.

One annoying thing about both venues was the way they turned into nightclubs after the gig, and the DJs started up at a volume at least twice as loud as the band had been the second the band finished playing. In this respect The Factory was far worse than Fibbers in that they started letting clubbers into the venue while the band were still on stage, which meant fans had to fight their way through the crowd to reach the exit at the end. And this was after a truncated set due to of a very strict curfew. I’ve since been told they started letting them in a good half-hour before the band finished, and their chatter was drowning out the band for those towards the back. Some were even making juvenile attempts to take the piss out of band and audience. The atmosphere as I was leaving the venue was felt vaguely threatening; it certainly wasn’t the sort of place I wanted to hang around for any time. I would recommend that Panic Room, and other bands in the same scene, give venues like this a wide berth in future. No band should be playing in a venue where their own fans do not feel safe.

Panic Room have one more gig on this leg of the tour, at The Peel in Kingston on Saturday 26th. I know the place is a bit of dive, but at least it won’t be full of lagered-up yoof at the end. Be there and see a band who I believe are now on the edge of something bigger.

Liam Davison is best known as guitarist for Mostly Autumn. When he left the band at the end of 2006 he stated that he was to work on a solo album. In the end it would be three years after he rejoined the band before the album was to see the light of day.

Liam is something of an enigmatic figure on stage with Mostly Autumn. He prefers to shun the spotlight and lurk at the back of the stage; but his playing is not that of a typical rhythm guitarist, playing melodic fills and lead runs rather than merely strumming chords. His name has only appeared a couple of times in MA’s songwriting credits to date, both for folk-flavoured numbers. But he’s also been playing a live improvisation on tour with echoes of Robert Fripp. Which made it difficult to predict the direction his solo album might take.

The music varies from the indie-flavoured opening hard rocker “Ride the Seventh Wave”, the electronica loops on “Into the Setting Sun”, and the acoustic ballad “One in the Lifetime”. But throughout there’s a strong emphasis on atmospheric progressive rock with a very strong Pink Floyd flavour. Standouts for me are “Eternally Yours”, ending with that epic slide solo featured in the album’s promo video, and “Heading Home”, with it’s wonderful interplay between Liam’s soaring lead guitar, Iain Jennings’ swirling Hammond organ and Paul Teasdale’s propulsive bass riff. It’s a big, rich, cinematic sound, superbly engineered and mixed by John Spence.

Liam shares vocals with Heather Findlay and Anne-Marie Helder, and the three distinctively different voices complement each other well. While Liam sings much of the lead vocals, several songs are duets between Liam and either Anne-Marie or Heather with some great use of harmony. One exception is “Once in a Lifetime”, sung solely by Heather, who also contributed the lyrics. Heather and Anne-Marie give excellent performances, but neither of them steal the show, this is still very much Liam’s album, showcasing his songwriting, and above all his superb lead guitar. If you like it when the solos can last for two or three minutes, and are still good enough not to outstay their welcome, you will love this album.

While much has been made of Heather’s and Anne-Marie’s contributions, on an album like this the instrumental supporting cast are just as important. In particular, Liam’s Mostly Autumn colleague Iain Jennings excels himself on keys. It’s the sort of all-enveloping cinematic sound we heard on early Mostly Autumn albums, and as such provides the perfect instrumental foil for Liam’s own playing.

This is a superb album, and while it’s only February, it’s a potential candidate for album of the year. Like many independent releases, it’s got a general retail release in March, but is available online now

A long-awaited announcement from Heather Findlay today:

The time has come to announce the imminent release of my debut solo recording ‘The Phoenix Suite’.

It is the first 5 track EP in a series of 4.

Alongside myself and guitarist Chris Johnson, The Phoenix Suite features performances from Dave Kilminster on guitars, Steve Vantsis on bass and Alex Cromarty on drums and will be available to order very soon!

Thank you all for your patience and enthusiasm!

More details very, VERY soon…

Love Heather xxx

I’m very much looking forward to this release. Heather always had a distinctively melodic songwriting style within Mostly Autumn, and in the past we’d heard the sort of songs that have fitted comfortably within Mostly Autumn’s sound. While she’s recorded the excellent acoustic album “Offerings” with Angela Gordon as Odin Dragonfly, it will be very interesting to hear her stretch her musical wings with a full electric band. No real idea quite what it’s going to sound like, and Heather’s deliberately been giving us very few clues, but given the nature of the musicians involved I’m expecting it to be quite rocky. And I do have to say naming it a “suite” is a more than a bit Prog as a concept.

Interesting to see that Heather’s mapped out a further three EPs, which (depending on the song length of course) will amount to a double-album’s worth of material.