More years ago than I care to remember, we had a burst pipe in the playground at primary school which, of course, was a magnet for us little'uns. I recall the dressing-down I got from the janitor while, soaked to the skin, I sat shivering next to the heater in his office. "I warned you. You'll catch your death..." I haven't felt that small in a long time.
"No-one cares about drummers. No-one loves us. We don't matter."
Alan was a couple of steps away from going down to the garden to eat worms after last night's show at The Tramshed. Thing is, like the jannie all those years ago, he was dead right; apart from a couple of oblique references, he and DS have been conspicuous by their absence from these musings. Due credit has not been paid.
Bad Tommy.
Hey, these reviews are written, primarily, to keep track of the good times I have. They're my diary; something to spark a happy memory in years to come. I'm no professional; I have no journalistic background or training; any "style" in my writing has been absorbed from years of reading Mick Wall, Dante Bonutto and Derek Oliver. I need the occasional bollocking to keep me focussed or I'll end up sounding like Gary bloody Bushell.
What, exactly, was Alan's gripe all about and why was it justified? Well, you'll have heard the TV and radio pundits talking about football referees and how they're considered to be at their best when you don't notice them. To those of us who don't actually know as much about music as we'd like to think, the same applies to drummers, bassists and keyboard players. Yes, they're there and we vaguely recognise them, but we only actually notice them when they balls it up.
Think about it; the famous members of every rock band are the guitarist(s) and singer(s). Bassists are anonymous (unless it's "their" band - Pete Way, Steve Harris - or they sing - Phil Lynott, Lemmy, our very own Dave R); drummers are interchangeable (unless they're "technicians" - Neil Peart, Ian Paice, erm...); keyboard players tend to be so shy they make bassists look like glory-hunting limelight hogs (unless they're Keith Emerson).
Not convinced? Here's a quick test. The following are/were the drummers, keyboard players or bassists in three bands the boys cover - who plays what and with whom?
Jonathan Cane, Alec John Such, Joey Kramer, Steve Smith, David Bryan, Tom Hamilton - you have 10 seconds, starting now...
Whaddaya mean you've never heard of them?
Long story short - this review is dedicated to the "referees" of the show; the guys we don't notice unless they have a bad game. Alan, Dave S and the guys on the desk, take a bow because your time is now.
Depending on who you ask, The Old Tramshed is either in Shipley, Saltaire or Bradford. It's a venue I'd heard a fair bit about so I was glad to finally take in a show. As you'd expect (the name's a bit of a giveaway) it's a big, airy building but it's been very nicely converted and the balcony offers a great view of the (perhaps rather small) stage.
Right from the opening bars of Higher Place, this was a great show. The sound was fabulous with the harmony balance approaching perfection and the vocals at just the right level in the overall mix. The big 80s drum sound in Faithfully was great and Jump featured DS's keys as they should sound. This was the kind of show that makes us keep coming back for more and it completely washed away any lingering bad taste from the Hogmanay mishaps. There you go, DB, The Oracle has spoken!
The songs slipped by, one by one; Blue Collar Man, Comfortably Numb, Separate Ways and Wayward Son all benefitting hugely from the well-balanced harmonies. Throw in the aforementioned Faithfully and Adagio and that's your highlights. Yes, the usual Bon Jovi, Guns'n'Roses and what have you too, but you knew that.
By the end of the night, voices, unexercised for nearly a month, were starting to tire but, after a performance like this, that's half expected. By way of a breather, we had a guest appearance from two guys - a vocalist and a drummer who must go uncredited as DB, in his inimitable way, completely failed to introduce them.
Bad DB.
Big Dave's usual pair to close out - a great start to the year.
Oh, afterthought - soundcheck was Is This Love, a song I've never mentioned in review so it must be a while since it was played in anger. Dust that and Hold the Line off and I'll be a happy camper...
Quiz answer :
Jonathan Cane - keys, Journey
Alec John Such - bass, Bon Jovi
Joey Kramer - drums, Aerosmith
Steve Smith - drums, Journey
David Bryan - keys, Bon Jovi
Tom Hamilton - bass, Aerosmith
Monday 21 January 2008
Tuesday 1 January 2008
Jagged Edge - Holmfirth - Hogmanay 2007
To an architecture geek like me, the Picturedrome is a great gig; the building itself is a classic Arts & Crafts theatre and its interior shows little flashes of all the fashions which theatres and cinemas went through in the last century.
It's easy, then, for me to ignore the scaffolding which holds the place together these days, but the guy who bounced into the upright halfway through Whole Lotta Rosie would probably take issue with me. I suspect he's currently wondering where the black eye came from and vowing never to go out in Holmfirth again.
It's harder to ignore bar staff lacking a fundamental grasp of arithmetic. God help them if they ever have to deal with prices which aren't rounded up to the nearest 10p.
Hogmanay 2007 and the mirror ball over the dancefloor gives a nice 1960s heyday feel to the old place (it spent most of the latter half of the century as a bingo hall, y'know - Picturedrome was actually the name of Holmfirth's other cinema... am I boring you yet?)
DJ's doing his best to wind me up, mind; Motown, Queen, Pulp and Abba grind against each other and leave me whistling the refrain from the old Smiths song, Panic; hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ...
There's no support this year (last year's wonderful Cosmic Doris never played another show together after a good old-fashioned fall out within the band - rock'n'roll, baby!) so we get a bit more of the boys than usual.
Set one opens with the 2007 standard Journey/Jovi/Aerosmith combo and careers through Styx (Dann - almost twelve months into these reviews I've finally got the "official" spelling - is loaded with the cold, poor lamb, but you wouldn't know), Boston, Thunder and the like to Comfortably Numb. The lighting is excellent (apart from the dark stage corners) but the sound is slightly "odd"; the bass and snare drums are there but I'm not picking up the cymbals and the keyboards are just "lost" (thanks for putting the finger on that, Jason!)
Staff have a jar for "tips" on the bar by now. Here's two - learn to count and sort your prices out.
Honestly - £1.60 for half an orange-and-lemonade? You get away with London prices for pissed punters, but you can be reasonably sure that those of us on "softies" will notice.
Second set opens with It's My Life and DS's keyboards are suddenly very conspicuous in the mix; shall we just apply the old footballing cliche here? On occasions like this, the result (a seriously partying crowd) is more important than the performance.
A fair few rarities are aired - Final Countdown, Jump, Summer of '69 - but there's no Kansas and I was hoping for a bit of Sweet or Toto.
LingalongaJovi takes us up to the bells and Auld Lang Syne (hey DB - I can teach you the proper words before next year, if you like!).
No solo spot for Dann (somehow, I don't think the Holmfirth massive is ready for Yngwie) but he and his big brother bring the show to a great climax with the Rock'n'Roll/Rosie doublet.
Happy New Year.
Yeah, to all of you - the three Daves, Alan and Dann; Tracie, Val and Jodie; Phil and Jason; the familiar faces, the random liggers and, as they say in the best magazines, "all my readers" - hope you all have a fantastic 2008 and look forward to seeing you at a show or five.
May the best ye've ever seen be the worst ye'll ever see.
May a mouse ne'er leave your girnal wi' a teardrap in its e'e.
May your lumb keep blythely reekin' 'til your auld enough tae dee.
May ye aye be hale and hearty as I wish ye now tae be.
It's easy, then, for me to ignore the scaffolding which holds the place together these days, but the guy who bounced into the upright halfway through Whole Lotta Rosie would probably take issue with me. I suspect he's currently wondering where the black eye came from and vowing never to go out in Holmfirth again.
It's harder to ignore bar staff lacking a fundamental grasp of arithmetic. God help them if they ever have to deal with prices which aren't rounded up to the nearest 10p.
Hogmanay 2007 and the mirror ball over the dancefloor gives a nice 1960s heyday feel to the old place (it spent most of the latter half of the century as a bingo hall, y'know - Picturedrome was actually the name of Holmfirth's other cinema... am I boring you yet?)
DJ's doing his best to wind me up, mind; Motown, Queen, Pulp and Abba grind against each other and leave me whistling the refrain from the old Smiths song, Panic; hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ...
There's no support this year (last year's wonderful Cosmic Doris never played another show together after a good old-fashioned fall out within the band - rock'n'roll, baby!) so we get a bit more of the boys than usual.
Set one opens with the 2007 standard Journey/Jovi/Aerosmith combo and careers through Styx (Dann - almost twelve months into these reviews I've finally got the "official" spelling - is loaded with the cold, poor lamb, but you wouldn't know), Boston, Thunder and the like to Comfortably Numb. The lighting is excellent (apart from the dark stage corners) but the sound is slightly "odd"; the bass and snare drums are there but I'm not picking up the cymbals and the keyboards are just "lost" (thanks for putting the finger on that, Jason!)
Staff have a jar for "tips" on the bar by now. Here's two - learn to count and sort your prices out.
Honestly - £1.60 for half an orange-and-lemonade? You get away with London prices for pissed punters, but you can be reasonably sure that those of us on "softies" will notice.
Second set opens with It's My Life and DS's keyboards are suddenly very conspicuous in the mix; shall we just apply the old footballing cliche here? On occasions like this, the result (a seriously partying crowd) is more important than the performance.
A fair few rarities are aired - Final Countdown, Jump, Summer of '69 - but there's no Kansas and I was hoping for a bit of Sweet or Toto.
LingalongaJovi takes us up to the bells and Auld Lang Syne (hey DB - I can teach you the proper words before next year, if you like!).
No solo spot for Dann (somehow, I don't think the Holmfirth massive is ready for Yngwie) but he and his big brother bring the show to a great climax with the Rock'n'Roll/Rosie doublet.
Happy New Year.
Yeah, to all of you - the three Daves, Alan and Dann; Tracie, Val and Jodie; Phil and Jason; the familiar faces, the random liggers and, as they say in the best magazines, "all my readers" - hope you all have a fantastic 2008 and look forward to seeing you at a show or five.
May the best ye've ever seen be the worst ye'll ever see.
May a mouse ne'er leave your girnal wi' a teardrap in its e'e.
May your lumb keep blythely reekin' 'til your auld enough tae dee.
May ye aye be hale and hearty as I wish ye now tae be.
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