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PLAYING OUT LOUD!
ARTICLES
Dr Feelgood. Preview by Peter Ashton.
 There
may be no original members left, but Dr Feelgood are still the best old-style
R&B outfit around. The band who came roaring out of Canvey Island in Essex back
in 1971 tour abroad most of the year, but they are back in the South for two dates this month, at
Mr Kyps in Poole on Saturday December 4, and
The Wedgewood
Rooms in Southsea on Sunday December 12.
The seminal Dr Feelgood line-up took shape in 1972 when Wilko Johnson, John B
Sparkes, Lee Brilleaux and John Martin, aka The Big Figure distilled their
interest in blues, rock and R&B into a riffy guitar/harmonica brew which became
a hugely popular live act locally. By the next year Dr Feelgood had hit the
London pub-rock circuit, hitting their peak a few years later with the hit
single Milk & Alcohol and the live album Stupidity which topped the album charts
in 1976. Meanwhile they enjoyed success across Europe with tracks live Down At
The Doctors, Back In The Night, Roxette and She’s a Wind Up. This line-up sold a
lot of records, but their main attraction was as a live act with Lee Brilleaux
sweating his heart out on lead vocals and the mercurial Wilko prowling the stage
as he played his highly individual guitar licks.
But shortly after reaching their peak commercially, Dr Feelgood were rocked by
the departure of Wilko Johnson following an argument over a track for their new
studio album. Wilko was not happy about the track, Lucky Seven, and this was the
catalyst for his walk-out or sacking, depending on who you wanted to believe at
the time. But it was really a matter of internal divisions within the band and
the fact that “we just couldn’t stand each other by then,” as Wilko admitted
later.
Wilko was replaced by Gypie Mayo, who in turn was replaced by Johnny Guitar;
from then on it was a case of continual line-up changes right up to Lee
Brilleaux death from cancer in 1994. The intervening years had seen a decline in
the commercial record success of the band, but they were one of the hardest
working and hardest drinking outfits on the road, and still a dynamic live act
who sold out venues wherever they appeared. The last album to feature Lee
Brilleaux, Down at the Doctors, was recorded live on Canvey Island at the band's
own music bar just two months before he died. The band were mortified by the
loss of Lee, but it was his final wish was for the band to carry on. So it was
decided to continue with the then line-up of drummer Kevin Morris, Steve Walwyn
on lead guitar, Phil Mitchell on bass and new vocalist Pete Gage.
Ten years later the line-up is the same with the exception of latest lead
vocalist Robert Kane, formerly of The Animals II, and Dr Feelgood are still
touring continually in Europe and have recently returned to Japan where they are
hugely popular. They are still recording too with the UK release on EMI Records
of Chess Masters in 2000. Grand Records operated by manager Chris Fenwick in
Canvey Island, have also released Finely Tuned , a collection featuring the
guitarists of Dr Feelgood, Speeding Thru Europe, an exciting live set recorded
at various shows between September 2002 and January 2003, and Wolfman Calling,
an album celebrating some of Lee Brilleaux’ finest blues recordings.
Ticket details: Mr Kyps, 8a Parr St, Ashley Cross, Lower Parkstone (01202
748945) Wedgewood Rooms, Albert Road, Southsea (02392 293301).
Roy Wood's Army. Preview by Peter
Ashton.
 The
revamped Brook music venue in Southampton welcomes none other than Ulysses
Adrian Wood on Thursday December 9. You might know him better as Roy Wood, a
musician who has had such a huge influence on British rock as a solo artist and
a member of The Move, Wizzard and Electric Light Orchestra. Now he’s leading
Roy
Wood’s Army, a 12-piece band, so it’s fortunate that The Brook stage has been
enlarged.
It’s 40 years since Roy formed The Move, and I have to admit that I saw their
first Southampton appearance at the Adam and Eve Disco in 1964! The original
line-up was Roy, the late Carl Wood, Trevor Burton, Chris ‘Ace’ Kefford and Bev
Bevan. It was obvious then that they were going to be big, but it was not until
1967 that they hit the No 2 spot with Night of Fear. Eight more hit singles
followed including I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Fire Brigade and Blackberry Way.
By the time Roy and The Move struck with California Man in 1972, the band was
falling apart. Jeff Lynne had replaced Carl Wayne; Ace Kefford and Trevor Burton
had already left. The Move, by now a trio, gradually morphed into The Electric
Light Orchestra, a concept which Roy had been tinkering with for some time. But
the ever-restless Roy left ELO after just one hit single and album to form
Wizzard.
Wizzard produced half a dozen hit singles between 1972-74 including the great
See My Baby Jive and Angel Fingers, and the awful I Wish It Could Be Christmas
Every Day. Eventually Roy lost interest in the band and pursued a solo career
before briefly reforming Wizzard in the guise of The Roy Wood Wizzo Band in
1977. During this decade he also worked in America with Brian Wilson, where he
also made his third solo album. He also produced The Darts’ hit album Dart
Attack.
The 80s saw Roy producing ten singles and the album Starting Up, while the early
90s were spent mainly in his own studio writing and recording. Roy could not
stay away from the live scene for long and soon launched the Roy Wood Big Band
which evolved into the current line-up of Roy Wood's Army. In May 2001, Roy was
honoured with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection and in March
2002 he took his Army for four historic nights at the Village Underground in New
York.
Tickets for The Brook gig on December 9 are £20 through 02380 555366 or you can
order tickets through the website
www.the-brook.com .
Human League. Preview by Peter Ashton
 Pioneers
of electronic music, the Human League are the visitors at
Southampton Guildhall
on Sunday December 12. Probably best remembered for their 1981 chart-topper
Don’t You Want Me, the band come in a vastly different line-up than the original
crew, whose melodic mix of synthesizers and electronic rhythms led to countless
imitators jumping on the synth-rock bandwagon.
The band was formed in Sheffield in 1977 by synth players Martyn Ware and Ian
Marsh, who started out as a duo, Dead Daughters, changed their name to The
Future, then rechristened themselves The Human League after recruiting vocalist
Philip Oakey. Successful live appearance led to a recording contract with Fast
in 1978 and their first single, Being Boiled, followed by a support slot on a
Siouxsie & the Banshees tour. After a 1979 EP, The Dignity of Labour, the group
released its first album Reproduction heavily influenced by Kraftwerk.
Travelogue followed the next year before internal divisions led to Ware and
Marsh quitting the band in late 1980. This led to visual director AdrianWright
having to learn the synthesizer. Philip Oakey recruited bass player Ian Burden
as well as young backing vocalists Susanne Sulley and Joanne Catherall.
The revamped Human League produced a couple of singles in 1981 which did
reasonably well, before Love Action reached No 3, but it was Don't You Want Me
which really put the band on the map, hitting the No 1 spot in the UK and
scoring in the USA leading to a tour there. The band were slow to follow up
their hit, with the album Hysteria not appearing until mid-1984 and failing to
repeat the success of Dare! which had spawned their No 1 hit. A period of
inactivity followed with Oakey scoring a solo hit with Electric Dreams before
the Human League reappeared in 1986 with Crash, and the single Human which
topped the US charts, but again the group failed to capitalize on its success,
with no further chart singles for the remainder of the 80s.
By the time The Human League finally returned in 1990 with Romantic? they were a
trio consisting of Oakey, Sulley, and Catherall. They later signed for EastWest
for 1995's Octopus, which failed to score. A resurgence of interest in synth pop
during the early 2000s led to the 2001 album Secrets and the single All I Ever
Wanted which both failed to rouse interest, despite considerable press coverage.
But the League did embark on a successful UK tour later that year and followed
up in 2002 with a big UK tour with Kim Wilde, Altered Images and Visage.
2003 was a busy year for the League with gigs at Midtfyns Festival in Denmark,
Amsterdam Paradiso, Ascot Races and at the Ocean in Hackney plus an 18-date tour
of the USA. A new "Very Best Of" compilation CD and DVD was released in October
2003 and later that year the Human League played five dates in Australia and a
15-date UK tour to finish off the year in December.
For ticket details on the Southampton Guildhall gig ring 02380 632601.
Wildcards. Preview by Peter Ashton
 Twyford
Village Hall
near Winchester is the setting for a gig by one of the hottest acts
on the blues and roots circuit on Saturday December 11 -
The Wildcards, who
consist of two members from the legendary Nightporters and two members from
Vince Lee & The Big Combo.
When The Nightporters split up in 2002, two former members - guitarist Martin
Vowles and drummer Kevin Crowe - set about putting together a band that would
capture the excitement and intensity of the legendary Nightporters performances
and elevate the music to a new higher level. A chance meeting in a late night
venue in the South West of England, saw Kevin and Martin blown away watching two
guys in the band Vince Lee & The Big Combo: bandleader Vince Lee, a geat
guitarist and singer and Al Wallis, a bass player with bags of groove and
ability. It was immediately obvious to the pair that these guys had everything
it takes and more, and after some discussions The Wildcards were born.
The Wildcards arrive in Hampshire with their brand new debut CD On Fire! which
was recorded earlier this year in Plymouth. It captures the band in fantastic
form - as one review put it “deep blues, swing, New Orleans backbone-wobblers,
savage rock-a-billy…it’s all there, I really can’t recommend The Wildcards
highly enough”. As The Wildcards’ Martin Vowles says: “We love this music - it’s
in our blood - and we knew that we owed it to ourselves and our fans to come
back with a really high class band and that’s just what we’ve achieved with The
Wildcards. Vince and Al are exceptional - from the first time the four of us
played together we knew we had something very special going on. This is a band
capable of pretty much anything musically, It’s a big powerful sound: blues,
swing, boogie, retro madness... it’s all in there, plenty of original and
unusual numbers; you can dance or just listen to the musical chemistry. We’re
having a great deal of fun with this and have worked really hard on the
material".
Please note that tickets for this gig are only available from Oliver Gray on
01962 714520. The gig is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief and there will be a
support band.
Scarlet Soho. Preview by
Peter Ashton
 Electro-pop
duo Scarlet Soho who play at
Winchester’s Railway Inn on
Sunday December 19 are a band who have been
waiting to happen for the last couple of years. Hailed as the new millennium’s
Depeche Mode, the band have just released their debut album Divisions Of Decency
which looks like accelerating their career.
Scarlet Soho are Jim Knights on vocals, guitars, synths and programming with
Scarlet on bass, synths and programming. In October 2002 Scarlet Soho released
their low-key debut single Disconnected and toured the UK extensively. After
enjoying success playing alongside The Faint, Lolita Storm and The Delays they
built up a devoted fanbase and looked set to go far. But just when they had
begun planning demo sessions for their debut album, they were hit by the loss of
their guitarist Lee Kinrade.
Despite this setback, Jim and Scarlet re-grouped to begin work with Delays
producer Justin Callaway in Southampton.
The outcome, Divisions Of Decency, sways between the upbeat, theatrical, electro
rock of Magazine and the starker pop sensibilities of their contemporaries
Interpol and The Sneaker Pimps. It’s a heady mix of clinical synth lines and
sprawling guitars. Lyrically, the band have maintained a cryptic edge, allowing
the listener to interpret individual meanings and definitions for each track.
Unlike their peers, Scarlet Soho are successfully combining lyrical originality,
a sleek style and a futuristic take on electronic music. Here’s what the music
press are saying about Scarlet Soho:
"Isolation is a blast from that futuristic past, and hints that it might be the
future again ...
expectations are uncommonly high" - Logo
"Exceedingly danceable electro-pop. There’s a one-listen-and-you’re-hooked
immediacy to it" - Drowned in Sound
"The Killers are the new Duran Duran and Scarlet Soho are the new Depeche Mode!"
-
Vive Le Rock
"Scarlet Soho could soon be sparking off a whole horde of copy cats, so remember
who was doing this first!" - The Mag
"The twisted alter-ego of Duran Duran, the modern day equivalent of Depeche Mode
(but better) and the band Mansun wish they could have been" - Southscene
High praise indeed! You can see if Scarlet Soho
live up to the above by going along to the Railway Inn
on St Pauls Hill in Winchester on
December 19 - ring 01962 867795 for more
details.
Jon Amor. Report by Peter Ashton
 Bad
news on the blues-rock front - singer and guitarist Jon Amor has just announced
that his band Amor are to split up. We
reproduce below an email he has sent to his fans:
“Hi Folks,
I have to announce with some sadness that the three gigs that remain in 2004
will be the last for me and the band in its current form. As some of you are
already aware, we parted company with Manhaton Records over the autumn, and it
had been our intention to make the next album under our own steam, using
independent funding. However,
that funding hit complications a number of weeks ago, which we've been unable to
resolve, forcing us to cancel our plans to record during December.
Obviously, this has knocked the wind out of us all somewhat, and we all feel the
time is right to dissolve the band to allow us to pursue our own individual
interests. I am still hoping to record and release an album in 2005, but it may
take a little longer than was previously planned. Apart from a few solo shows, I
will be dropping off the live circuit for a while. The website will obviously
remain online, and it will be updated with news as and when it arises, as well
as more downloads and pictures and reports from the last few gigs.
So, make the most of our last three shows together! December 23rd at The
Bullfrog Blues Club, South Parade Pier, Southsea will not be the last ever Jon
Amor gig, but it will mark the end of an era, and it will be the last time that
Mat, Mark, Aled and I take the stage together for the foreseeable future.
I should stress that relations between us all remain very amicable, and I'm
confident we shall all remain friends forever. Watch this space for future
developments!
Jon”
So fans of the ex-Hoax lead guitarist and his band have got one last chance to
see Amor in a stunning live set at
The Bullfrog Blues Club at
Southsea Pier on the 23rd - for ticket details
ring 02392 43626.
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Featured artists:
see POL Articles
Dr Feelgood
Mr Kyps Poole December 4
The Wedgewood Rooms
Southsea December 12
Roy Wood
The Brook, Southampton December 9
Human League Southampton Guildhall
December 12
Wildcards
Twyford Village Hall December 11
Scarlet Soho Railway Inn, Winchester December 19
Jon Amor
The Bullfrog Blues Club, Southsea Pier December 23 |
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