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Martin Harley Band - Tower Arts Centre, Winchester - Friday January 19 .
One of the hits of this year’s Larmer Tree Festival, the Martin Harley Band are appearing at the Tower Arts Centre in Winchester on Friday January 19.

Martin Harley is a singer/songwriter whose music draws on influences from old time blues and folk to world music to make a sound that feels so familiar you think youve grown up with it. Songs about living in cars, worn out shoes, love lost and found and meandering around the world are constant themes in Martin’s music. Add a suitably gravelly blues voice and you have a performer who recalls the spirit of old-time blues.
His approach to playing slide guitar across his lap and his skillful finger style playing are the cornerstone of the band’s music along with his whiskey soaked vocals. Tight harmonies and snaking rhythms on the worlds smallest drum kit and obscure instrumentation from Peter Swatton weave their way around Martin’s guitar playing. The line up is completed by double bass and balalaika bass sometimes bowed sometimes beaten by Graeme Ross. An obvious love of music and a telepathic level of communication between this unusual three piece make for a dynamic live performance.

For the past couple of years the band have been touring constantly and recording in remote cottages during storms, in caravans and at the kitchen table on equipment begged, borrowed, stolen and sometimes hauled from the bounteous skips of Surrey. They have played numerous festivals in the UK and Europe, appeared on Channel Four, Sky One and on compilations alongside with J.J. Cale, P.J. Harvey and Eric Clapton.

The band are planning to record their first studio album this winter for release next summer, which will be supported by a full tour of the UK and Ireland alongside a full summer of festival appearances. The 11 original track album 'Money Don,t Matter' was released by Transistor Records last October and is available at all good high street and on-line retailers.

Hellogoodbye - Pyramids Centre, Portsmouth - Tuesday January 23.
Powerpop/synthpop band Hellogoodbye from sunny California make a winter appearance at Portsmouth Pyramids Centre on Tuesday January 23.

The band Hellogoodbye was initiated in 2001 as a recording project by Huntington Beach High School student Forrest Kline. With the aid of fellow student Jesse Kurvink, Kline started recording synthesized power pop songs on his computer, which originally only served the purpose of entertaining their friends. However, the band’s fanbase grew steadily, as more and more of their songs appeared on MP3.com — a total of eleven which spread on fan-assembled CD-Rs labeled The Parachute EP and served as demos for both their following EP and full-length. Originally The Parachute EP was planned to be officially released containing four songs, however, only a handful of copies were burnt by Kline himself. According to Kline, the band name was inspired by the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye", as well as a line from the TV series Saved by the Bell.

In 2002, hellogoodbye began playing local concerts in front of crowds of hundreds without even having a release out. For live shows, vocalist/guitarist Kline and keyboardist Kurvink were accompanied on drums by either Parker Case, who would later form the now defunct JamisonParker and is currently a member of Say Anything, or Aaron Flora, formerly of the band Throwdown. Flora and bassist Marcus Cole soon joined them permanently, completing the band's line-up.

Though California indie label Drive-Thru Records signed hellogoodbye in January 2004, everything the band does is still entirely done by themselves, ranging from recordings and album artwork to posters and merchandise designs. Shortly after their signing, Kline and Kurvink recorded the band's debut EP, Hellogoodbye. In March 2004, drummer Flora left the band and was replaced by then 16-year-old high school dropout Chris Profeta (formerly of A Cutthroat Kiss).

The EP was finally released on August 17, 2004, which was supported by various U.S. tours.

While participating in 2005's South by Southwest, a music festival for mainly unsigned artists in Austin, Texas, the band appeared on several episodes of MTV's The Real World: Austin. The cast of the TV series produced a video documentary about three bands on the festival's line-up (the other two being Halifax and Enon), including interviews and live footage.

On November 22, 2005, Hellogoodbye released a home DVD titled OMG HGB DVD ROTFL. It featured two hours of concert and touring footage, as well as music videos to the five songs off their debut EP. In December 2005, the band won MTV2's Dew Circuit Breakout, competing as Los Angeles' representative against New York City and Chicago finalists Pete Miser and Tub Ring. The prize included $10,000 cash, a brand new set of Gibson equipment and an opening slot on an upcoming major US tour. The prize tour is believed to have been the Xbox 360 tour, which featured The Academy Is..., Panic! At The Disco, and Acceptance.

In 2006, Hellogoodbye appeared on the Vans Warped Tour. On August 8, 2006, Drive-Thru Records released hellogoodbye's first full-length CD Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!. The album contains mostly re-recorded versions of previously released songs, five of which were scheduled to be on hellogoodbye's never-released 2002 debut album ("All Time Lows", "I Saw It on Your Keyboard", "Two Weeks in Hawaii", "Figures A and B", and "Touchdown Turnaround").

On November 7, 2006, hellogoodbye released an internet only remix EP called Remixes!.

The band lines up with Forrest Kline on vocals and guitar,Jesse Kurvink on keyboards, Marcus Cole on bass and Chris Profeta on drums.

Jamie Moses - The Brook, Southampton - Thursday January 18.
Big Brook favourite Jamie Moses returns to The Brook in Southampton this month in yet another band. A regular visitor with Los Pacaminos and The SAS Band, guitarist and singer Jamie turns up on Thursday January 18 with Spike Edney and friends in the rock covers band Redsox.

Jamie was born in the UK to an English mother and an American father. His father was in the USAF, so he was brought up in the US bases in US and Japan. He followed his family to England when his father retired from the USAF.
After he finished the school, Jamie started his career with the band called Merlin in 1971, who recorded an album on the CBS label and toured supporting David Essex. At the time, in the early 70s Melody Maker profiled the two new bands, Queen and Merlin, comparing one against the other.
Jamie married Deborah who was a sister of Merlin keyboard player Robert Webb in 1980. His first baby, Katy was born in 1981 and his second baby, Benjamin was born in 1988. He divorced in 2002.
After Merlin broke up in 1976, Jamie became a much coveted session guitarist. He worked with Pete Townsend on the West End production of "Tommy".

He is also a talented vocalist and a songwriter. He worked with Bob Geldof on his 1992 CD, "The Happy Club" played "Too Late God" with Bob Geldof at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. And he also co-wrote "In a Dream Gone By", from Paul Young's 1997 CD of the same name.

Late in 1992, when Brian May lost support vocalist Chris Thompson, and rhythm guitarist Mike Casswell, Spike Edney recommended Jamie for both jobs. Since then he has worked as Brian's right-hand man and toured all over the world with him.

Jamie has been a member of The SAS Band since 1994 playing at The Brook in Southampton at least once a year since then. The band has released their debut album in 1998, and you can hear Jamie's work "Once More" or his vocal in this album.

Jamie has been a crucial member of Los Pacaminos, Paul Young’s London-based Tex-Mex band, for many years. Veru popular with female audiences wherever he plays, Jamie is also rightly acknowledged as one of the most versatile guitarists in the country.

The Wailin’ Jennys - Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham’s - Tuesday January 23.
Canadian folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys kick off their UK tour with a gig at Fareham’s Ashcroft Arts Centre on Tuesday January 23.

The Wailin' Jennys started off as a one-off grouping of three singer/songwriters, but musical chemistry and audience response turned it into an ongoing band. Alto Cara Luft, the daughter of professional folksingers, had played with the Lilith Fair tour in Calgary and released her own album; mezzo-soprano Nicky Mehta also had her own disc, “Weather Vane” and soprano Ruth Moody, the lead singer for the roots band Scruj MacDuhk, had issued “Blue Muse. “ But when they played together at a guitar shop in Winnipeg, the results led to more bookings. In 2001, they released an EP, “Wailin' Jennys.” American independent folk label Red House Records licensed their full-length debut CD, “40 Days” and issued it in the USA in August 2004. That same year, Luft left the band to pursue her solo career, but the Jennys soon found her replacement in Montreal-based Annabelle Chvostek, who added her own alto to the group's sophomore album, “Firecracker.”
Ruth Moody, former lead singer of the Juno-nominated roots act Scruj MacDuhk, is well known for her pure voice and impressive multi-instrumentalism. A classically trained vocalist and pianist known first as an accomplished, versatile singer of traditional and Celtic music, her own writing shines in its diversity and maturity. She is known equally for her moving and haunting ballads as her down-home, upbeat numbers and her first recording "Blue Muse" as well as her writing for the Jennys, reveals an exciting new talent.

Nicky Mehta has been called a poet and songwriter of exceptional depth and maturity whose ability to "walk with sorrow" has made her music vital and hopeful; Mehta's songs reflect a wisdom sometimes hard-won but never uncelebrated. Her first album "Weather Vane" was nominated for a 2002 Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Roots Recording, and she has recently been counted among the most promising up and coming singer-songwriters in North America by the venerable Sing Out! publication.

Annabelle Chvostek is an innovative singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who performed her first gig at the age of seven with the Canadian Opera Company. She broke on the Montreal cabaret scene in early 1997 with her soulful acoustic jazz-pop and quickly became a major presence in Montreal's music scene. There, she shared the stage with Dar Williams, Veda Hille, Kinnie Starr, Martha Wainwright, Tegan and Sara, and Penny Lang. Her distinct multidisciplinary bent has also led her to undertake numerous collaborative projects in video, dance and music and she has toured extensively through Canada and Europe.

Drum Blondes - Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton - Sunday January 21.
An interesting concert which should appeal to all the family takes place at 3pm on Sunday January 21 when the Drum Blondes appear at Turner Sims Concert Hall on the Southampton University Campus.

The Drum Blondes are a dynamic female percussion duo who play on a vast array of musical instruments from marimbas to dustbins! Claire and Emily are equally adventurous in their choice of music, covering everything from Bach and Handel to Ravel and Steve Reich.

Emily graduated with honours from the Royal College of Music where she studied timpani and percussion. While at the RCM Emily was involved in the pioneering outreach groups, Prince Consort Percussion and the Elastic Band with whom she gained experience in workshop leadership. This led to work with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra's Stepping Stones project in Bedfordshire, and the Britten Sinfonia's family music days. Emily has led workshops at the Wigmore Hall and Wallace Collection, and has been involved in a series of projects for the Royal Albert Hall, Orchestra of St John's and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra education departments. She also has a cross-curricular music duo called Beats Learning who regularly do workshops in schools and prisons, and she is involved in community music through the charity, Escape Artists.

Emily teaches at the Dragon School in Oxford and the Sutton High School for Girls, as well as freelancing with orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Royal Opera Covent Garden.

Claire read her degree in Music at King's College London, studying percussion at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduating, Claire completed an advanced postgraduate in orchestral performance at the Royal College of Music (RCM). During her time at the RCM, Claire became heavily involved in education and outreach work. She was a member of the RCM based Prince Consort Percussion ensemble and Elastic Band. With these groups Claire took part in tours and played at Buckingham Palace for the launch of the Prince of Wales charity "Kids & Arts," and also in Berkeley Square as part of the String of Pearls concerts for the Golden Jubilee. Claire has also been involved in numerous education projects outside of the RCM, inlcuding leading workshops for the Britten Sinfonia, as part of their Family Music Day in Norwich. As well as being a Drum Blonde, Claire has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia and has appeared on BBC Radio 3 with the BBC Singers. Claire also teaches percussion at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, and at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music on Saturdays

Guy Barker & Various Artists - Concorde Club, Eastleigh - Wednesday January 17.
Always a venue to present jazz artists of the highest quality, the Concorde Club in Eastleigh, Hampshire, have a truly stellar set of musicians there on Wednesday January 17. The Dave Newton/Clark Tracey All Star Band are the guests that night, and as well as pianist Dave and drummer Clark jazz fans can

Appreciate the talents of Mark Nightingale on trombone, Brandon Allen and Don Weller on reeds, Andy Cleynderf on bass, and the best British jazz trumpeter, Guy Barker.

No room here to give you the CVs of the entire band, so we’re producing a brief resume of the career of Guy Barker. Guy has been described as ‘a versatile and dynamic performer’ and ‘one of the UK's best jazz trumpeters.’ A highly experienced and respected musician, Guy was the first British signing to Verve in the 1990s, and has worked with the likes of Gil Evans, Clark Terry, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, Hermeto Pascoal, Quincy Jones, Paul Weller, Blur, Elvis Costello, George Michael, Van Morrison, Robbie Williams, Frank Sinatra. Pretty impressive, as I am sure you will agree!
He has toured his own bands through such major cities as Los Angeles, New York, Saudi Arabia, Chicago, Berlin, Paris and Rome. Guy arranged six jazz standards and performed in Anthony Minghella’s critically acclaimed film The Talented Mister Ripley (where he duetted with Matt Damon). Barker is also a long-time member of Sting’s band and performs with the Colin Towns Mask Orchestra and Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

He released his first album for Provocateur in April 2002 titled “Soundtrack” and had secured himself his second Mercury Music Prize nomination by September that year, the first nomination being in 1995 for the album “Into the Blue.” “Underdogs,” the opening track was inspired by the book of the same name by author Rob Ryan and the final track “Sounds in Black and White” is an epic 24 music suite programmed around an imaginary film which has been declared a masterpiece by the UK press. A unique 2 part event at the Barbican in the Only Connect series took place March 2003. In the first half, the septet explored the music inspired by the novel Underdogs, with the author Rob Ryan narrating the piece. The second half introduced by Antony Minghella featured a special performance of Sounds in Black & White with the septet plus the 60-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra.

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Martin Harley Band Tower Arts Centre, Winchester
Friday January 19


Hellogoodbye Pyramids Centre, Portsmouth
Tuesday January 23


Jamie Moses
The Brook, Southampton Thursday January 18


The Wailin’ Jennys Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham
Tuesday January 23


Drum Blondes
Turner Sims, Southampton
Sunday January 21


Guy Barker
& Various Artists
Concorde Club, Eastleigh
Wednesday Jan 17