YOUNG Hedge End band Uncle Herb take the first step towards the big time with a prestigious gig at The Brook in Southampton on Thursday February 13.  As a reward to their increasing fan base a free 3-track CD comes with each £5 ticket.
  The nucleus of Uncle Herb are school chums Stuart Goodeve and Chris Villiers who are both aged eighteen.  They met at Eastleigh College two years ago and formed the band from the remnants of a band called Dune.  Guitarist and songwriter Stuart and drummer Chris recruited Michael Dellar on bass, but he soon left to concentrate on his studies.  Eventually a replacement was found in Robin Stacey who also recommended a friend from his Wildern School days, Dan Baker, as lead vocalist.  With the recruitment of the two seventeen-year olds, Uncle Herb was up and running.
  Uncle Herb have developed into a melodic rock band mixing increasingly strong original material written by Stuart with covers by the likes of The Smiths and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  Since Barry Baker stepped in to manage them seven months ago the band have secured regular high quality bookings and an increasing fanbase.  Another notable booking comes up at the end of March when Uncle Herb play the Rock Garden at Covent Garden, London.
  Supporting Uncle Herb at The Brook will be the Emma Wilson Band.  Emma is a professional backing singer who has worked with artists like Ruby Turner and Martyn Joseph.  A soulful Geordie singer described as “a blonde Aretha Franklin with lashings of Aerosmith”, Emma is a regular performer at the London’s River Bar Cafe near Tower Bridge, where she got Uncle Herb their first London booking.  A big fan of the band she had no hesitation in accepting the invitation to support them at The Brook.  For ticket details ring 02380 555366. (©Peter Ashton 2002)

        FOLK-ROCK lives at the Theatre Royal in Winchester on Tuesday February 18 when Fairport Convention play a concert. Members of the band have come and gone over the years sometimes in tragic circumstances, but the originators of the folk-rock genre remain faithful to the group’s initial concept led by founder member Simon Nicol.
  Formed in 1967 the band chose the name Fairport Convention  as they convened at Simon’s house “Fairport” in London’s Muswell Hill area to rehearse.  Early members were Judy Dyble, Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings, Martin Lamble and Iain Matthews.  Judy was soon replaced by vocalist Sandy Denny who brought a more traditional sound to the band.  Their second album featuring Sandy, “What We Did On Our Holidays”, released in 1968 contained some of the band’s finest work and received huge critical acclaim.
   Tragedy followed in August 1969 when guitarist Martin Lamble was killed in a road accident.   Fairport’s third album “Unhalfbricking” on which Martin had played was released soon after, featuring guest  violinist Dave Swarbrick who became a full-time member.  After two more albums Ashley Hutchings left to form  Steeleye Span with Sandy Denny defecting to form Fotheringay. Dave Pegg was recruited on bass and Swarbrick became a fiddle-playing frontman and vocalist . 
  Several albums later, poor sales led to a disillusioned  Simon Nicol and Ashley Hutchings leaving to form The Albion Band.  Sandy Denny rejoined, as did Dave Mattacks but Fairport Convention finally split up with a swansong  at Cropredy in Oxfordshire in 1979. Since then, an annual reunion has taken place and Cropredy Festival is now a major event on the folk calendar.
After Dave Swarbrick was replaced by Ric Sanders and another violinist, Chris Leslie, joined the band alongside Simon, Dave and drummer Gerry Conway, the “swansong” appeared rather a sham, as the band started touring and recording again in 1985. In fact the current line-up is the most settled in the band’s history, releasing another half dozen successful albums.  Now the though of a folk music scene without  regular appearances and albums by Fairport Convention would be unthinkable. Tickets are £12.50 to £ £16.50 via the box office on 01962 840440. (©Peter Ashton 2002)

        THE sound of Mbira music from Zimbabwe comes to Southampton’s Talking Heads venue on Thursday February 27 in the shape of Stella Rambisai Chiweshe.
  Mbira music  is the basic element of the Bantu Shona culture. The mbira dza vadzimu is a sacred instrument used by the Shona people of Zimbabwe to call on the spirit of their ancestors in ceremonies called "bira." In these cermonies the repetitive, chiming melodies and rhythms of the mbira combine with the hosho (gourd rattles), singing, and sometimes drumming (on the ngoma), to inspire the ancestors to offer advice and guidance through a spirit medium.
  Stella Rambisai Chiweshe is one of the few women playing the male-dominated mbira-based music of the Shona people. Now in her fifties,  Stella grew up in Zimbabwe's forest region of Mhondoro.  She began learning to play the mbira in 1964.  As it was frowned on for a girl to play the instrument at that time she had to face the dissaproval of her community, where woman performers were often treated as "loose women." She perservered to become perhaps the best known player of the instrument outside Zimbabwe.
Stella began making records during the 1970s, enjoying a succession of successful singles in her own country.  During the 1980s she joined the National Dance Company  and began to travel to other countries to perform. These days Stella maintains a home in both Zimbabwe and Germany and tours extensively throughout Europe and the Eastern United States. For more details on the Talking Heads gig ring on 02380 678446. (©Peter Ashton 2002)

        BASINGSTOKE’S Anvil venue have sneaked  an extra date into their already packed Spring programme - a concert  by rising female Canadian country trio The Be Good Tanyas on Wednesday March 5.
  The Vancouver-based Be Good Tanyas are Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton and Trish Klein.  They return to the UK following two previous sell-out tours and festival-stealing performances at  Cambridge and Glastonbury last year.   This time they will be introducing a brand new album “Chinatown.”
Their music has been variously described as beguiling, haunting, rustic, ambient, hobo-erotica, and goth-folk, but basically  is an intoxicating unpretentious mix of old-time country and blues, folk, bluegrass, and gospel.  Frazey and Samantha first met at decade ago in the Kootenay Mountains outside of British Columbia, where they lived a vagabond lifestyle making a rudimentary living as tree planters. The pair later went on their separate travels, hooking up with Trish Klein in Nelson BC in the spring of 1999.  The girls began to share songs and stories collected and created from various experiences on their travels and The Be Good Tanyas was born.
  Their first album, “Blue Horse”, recorded in a small shack following a tour of America in 2000 reached No 5 on the UK country charts.  The new album “Chinatown” was self-produced in various studios around Vancouver. Trish Klein who wrote four of the songs on the album is pleased with the results:   "We have a much clearer grasp of our ideas when we're working in the studio, exactly what to do and how to get it done. Before, we were very green. We didn't have the technically savvy that we do now. I wouldn't say we're totally slick studio cats now, but we know what we need to do."
  Tickets for the concert are available through 01256 844244. (©Peter Ashton 2002)