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PLAYING OUT LOUD!
REVIEWS
Gig Reviews -
CD Album Reviews - CD Single
Reviews
Gig Reviews
(top)
The Men They Couldn't Hang, Fareham &
Gosport Festival, 22nd March
 A
unique performance this, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Stefan Cush's
departure shortly beforehand due to a family bereavement meant that the Saturday
night audience at the Fareham & Gosport Festival witnessed a trimmed-down
version of the band, though lacking none of the usual energy of a band who have
once again become festival favourites since their reformation in 1996.
A slightly fragmented set list included numerous old favourites, notably The
Colours and Ironmasters, as well as a fair smattering of Swill solo acoustic
numbers, not least of which was a surprise cover of Bob Marley's Redemption
Song.
The Men They Couldn't Hang might have become a little less lithe and a tad more
weather-beaten since their days as punk-folk pioneers in the eighties, but even
as a 4-piece they showed they are still more than capable of sending even the
most hardened festival-goers away happy. Gig review by Martin Sirl
Roy Bailey, Fareham & Gosport Festival, 23rd March
 Roy
Bailey has been a mainstay of the British folk circuit for the last 50 years but
is only now beginning to receive mainstream recognition, mainly due to his
collaborations with Tony Benn and, more recently, Chumbawamba. But it is a
measure of his standing that he was able to comfortably fill the Ferneham Hall
on the Sunday afternoon of the Fareham and Gosport Festival.
Indeed, like other artists who have played the festival in the past Bailey cut a
strangely lonely figure in an auditorium somewhat larger than some of those he
might be used to playing. But the warmth of man is such that you quickly forget
the surroundings and are soon drawn into his very personal world of songs that
mix love and anger in equal doses, albeit the anger of someone old and wise
enough to know that the gentle touch is often the best.
Bailey charmed and amused the audience with songs such as The Poison Train and
the thought-provoking Palestine, all interspersed with often hilarious stories
from his musical career, showing that a life spent trying to change the world is
often about humour as much as it is about angst. But the fact that the man was
very much preaching to the converted was clear by the enthusiastic response to
the 'kids' section of the show, in which many who frankly are old enough to know
better were quick to join in gleefully on Skin and Kangaroos Like To Hop, from
the Why Does It Have to Be Me? album of children's' songs.
In keeping with the strength of the rapport between performer and audience
Bailey was persuaded to end his set with the gorgeous Beeswing (a number he had
not intended to perform) before returning to encore with the belligerent I Aint
Afraid, a song which sums up perfectly people's concerns over organised religion
and, in particular, the atrocities supposedly carried out in its name. Gig review by Martin Sirl
Chumbawamba, Tower Arts Centre,
Winchester, March 5, 2008
 A
good few years have flown by since I first saw Chumbawamba playing in a tent on
Southsea common. Since then they have had a huge hit single, drenched a
politician, released six albums and trimmed down to an acoustic 4-piece. And the
accordion player makes five. But while the whisky-swigging nun and Danbert
Nobacon’s cross-dressing amateur dramatics may have gone the anti-establishment
politics remain, albeit with the sense that here is a bunch of musicians who
these days are that little more at ease with life.
The small and polite audience at the Tower Arts Centre reflected the mellow mood
of a set based heavily around the band’s last two studio albums, A Singsong And
A Scrap and The Boy Bands Have Won, the latter so new that singer Boff surprised
even himself by remembering most of the lyrics. However, a few old favourites
still remain, Homophobia and The Day The Nazi Died demonstrating that the band
have lost none of their political outlook, while Days Of Old England (complete
with yet another new set of lyrics) is still a high-point. But the new songs on
show here suggest that Chumbawamba might just be at their most creative for some
time. The gorgeous Word Bomber, a song inspired by the 7/7 bombings is as good
as any folk song you will hear this year while Add Me (a neat observation on
MySpace culture) and I Wish That They’d Sack Me (a song about nothing more than
lying in bed when you really should be doing something more ‘useful’) reveal a
sense of humour often lacking in artists with a so-called moral conscience.
Charlie, a quirky sing-along about Charles Darwin of all people, provided
another highlight before the evening was rounded off with the gloriously
irreverent Her Majesty, an updated reworking of Paul McCartney’s Abbey Road
coda.
An appreciative audience, a fine venue (though sadly soon to be no more), and
free-flowing beer all made for a great evening, and the band showed their
appreciation by mingling with fans afterwards before heading off to Swansea on
the next leg of a tour that will see them back in the south for the Gosport and
Wickham festivals later in the year. So if you miss them then you only have
yourself to blame. Gig review by Martin Sirl
CD Album Reviews
(top)
The Last Flight Of Billy Balloon by
Marvin B Naylor
A difficult one this. Marvin B Naylor is a young singer-songwriter from
Winchester whose music is sometimes beautiful, sometimes mystifying and usually
quite surreal. Musically it’s quirky in a good way, the kind of way Divine
Comedy and The Flaming Lips are quirky, while lyrically Naylor’s songs owe more
to the comic-opera musings of a Scott Walker than to any contemporary wordsmith.
Throw in a few instrumental passages that hint at early Genesis and the result
is a very odd brew indeed.
However, there are frustrations inherent in Naylor’s work that show themselves
early on here. Little Piece Of Magic is a stunning way to open any album; a
track that plays almost like a potted history of everything that’s good from
popular music in the last 40 years. But while one is still reeling from the
shock track 2, the rather bland ballad Out Of My Mind passes by almost
unnoticed. And so it goes on. Dulcibella Play! and Little Creatures are Naylor
at his best: songs with a childlike quality not a million miles away from the
kind of thing Brian Wilson managed during his Smile period. Portrait Of A Woman
is haunting love song of much intensity, a true stand-out track here, but Belle-Amie
and Alice And Marianne are little more than cute singalongs, albeit singalongs
that suggest this guy is possibly at his most lyrically astute when writing
about those good old-fashioned topics of love and beauty.
So when it’s good this stuff is great, but it’s not all good. White Lady is far
too long and confuses the listener with so many changes of style and tempo you
begin to wonder if your CD player is on the blink, while Beautiful Balloon,
Naylor’s stuttering attempt at a tragi-comic mini-epic is over-ambitious and,
quite frankly, just a bit too weird.
The Last Flight Of Billy Balloon is still the most interesting album I’ve heard
for some time and hints at a great talent. But much of this smacks of work in
progress and I suspect it’s what Naylor does on his next album that will reveal
whether the man is driven by brilliance or sheer daftness.
Album review by Martin Sirl
CD Single Reviews
(top)
BY MARTIN SIRL
Burn The Witch by Stone Gods
Debut EP from former members of The Darkness plus Richie Edwards (no,
not that one) on vocals. As the title might suggest Burn The Witch is the kind
of dark, moody heavy metal that fans of Justin Hawkins flowery rock anthems
might find a little too meaty, though just as many might think this is a is a
damn sight more interesting. Sadly the rest of this 4-track CD is less striking.
You Brought A Knife To A Gunfight has a title that’s a hundred times more
memorable than the song itself, while Breakdown and Heartburn just sound like
Bryan Adams on a budget.
The Alternative by IAMX
Another interesting offering from former Sneaker Pimp Chris Corner’s latest
band. I’m not quite sure what the song it all about, but this is modern music
with an unmistakable eighties feel to it, with multiple synths jockeying for
position over a throbbing bass line and the whole thing capped off beautifully
by Corner’s distinctive high-pitched vocals. Those of us ancient enough to
remember the wonderful Talk Talk might just have a tear in their eye upon
hearing this.
Do You Think It’s Right? by Look See Proof
A trio of mod-ish numbers from Bedford’s indie poppers. This is all cheeky-chappy,
sub-Small Faces nonsense (not that there’s much wrong with that) and is
perfectly likeable without ever quite grabbing one’s attention big-time.
Worryingly, the best track here is probably the remix of the last single
Casualty, which suggests that Look See Proof might actually be moving backwards
in terms of their musical development, or at best merely treading water, and no,
that can’t be right.
The Bears Are Coming by Late Of The Pier
Slightly screwy pop from Castle Donnington 4-piece with touches of Mika, Art Of
Noise, Zappa and even, at times, Plastic Ono-era Lennon. With its numerous
changes in tempo this is almost like three songs in one, each of them completely
silly but, at the same time, catchy as a hairball and quite charming. The Bears
Are Coming is one of those releases that leaves you wondering whether this is
sheer brilliance or just the result of a bunch of guys acting foolishly. But
I’ll stick my neck out and suggest that Late Of The Pier are a band that will
bear (sorry..) many more hearings.
Mr Regulator by Slaves To Gravity
Neat but unspectacular offering from a band with an upcoming appearance at The
Joiners scheduled for 9th April. As moody, grunge-flavoured rock goes it’s
perfectly OK, better than OK even, but one fears there are simply too many bands
producing this kind of stuff for Mr Regulator to be considered anything other
than pretty standard fare. Good luck to them, but on this occasion there seems
little more to say.
Found by Claire Toomey
This acoustic EP by young Londoner Toomey frequently shows a good deal of
promise without ever quite setting one’s ears alight. It’s well played and
slickly produced (technically flawless in fact) yet strangely lacking in soul (a
la Joni Mitchell) and without the humour of an Alanis Morrissette. Track 2, an
acoustic version of Somewhere To Hide, is comfortably the best track here and
hints at much better things to come. But for now Toomey is surely a young lady
honing her craft in preparation for better days to come.
Strange Part Of The Country by Conil
Imagine Oasis with Jack Johnson filling in on lead vocals and the result is a
really interesting take on British indie-pop. Competently performed and
demonstrating a good ear for a tune Conil look odds on to make a name for
themselves in the very near future. The title track and the closing Years
Between are atmospheric and anthemic pop songs of the kind Noel Gallagher
claimed as his own personal property around the time of Don’t Look Back In
Anger, while the more understated Dog Meat Stew is quirky enough to suggest that
this up and coming bunch of Londoners have a few more strings to their bows yet.
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