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Fingers in other pies: post of the week · shaggy blog stories · village community blog Friday, December 14, 2007
"Troubled Diva and Friends": Podcast 2 of 2.
As promised, here's the second batch of clips from this year's interviews - and, to these ears, they're better than the first batch. The total playing time is 59 minutes. Hope you enjoy 'em...
Download the podcast here.
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Hard-Fi / The Rumble Strips -- Nottingham Arena, Thursday December 13.
Hailing from Tavistock in Devon, The Rumble Strips scored their big break in May, as the top-billed act on the NME/Topman package tour. Their music owed a clear debt to Dexys Midnight Runners, particularly on the numbers where two band members doubled up as a brass section. Last March's nearly-hit Alarm Clock stood out from the pack, with its punchy, drum-heavy arrangement. Unfortunately, the song which followed it opened almost identically -- as did the next one. By the end of their sprightly, genial, but ultimately undemanding half-hour set, you sensed that they had used up their still limited box of tricks.
For anyone who had endured The Verve's atrocious sound mix two nights earlier, it was a relief to hear Hard-Fi sounding comparatively crisp and clear, at least once some early technical problems had been resolved. ("Kai's bass has been taken out the back and shot", muttered singer Richard Archer.) They had obviously worked hard to prepare for their biggest tour to date, applying careful thought to the lighting and visuals. Opening number Middle Eastern Holiday was accompanied by some particularly inventive video backdrops, mixing vintage arcade games, military footage and pop-art imagery to compelling effect. In the course of their eighteen song, ninety minute set, the Staines boys performed most of their debut album Stars of CCTV, and all but one song from its follow-up, Once Upon A Time In The West (the heavily orchestrated Watch Me Fall Apart being an understandable omission). The more rousing newer numbers fared best of all, with Can't Get Along (Without You) coming as an early highlight. A mariachi-style trumpet appeared for the intro of forthcoming single I Shall Overcome, and Archer whipped out his trusty melodica for older tracks such as Better Do Better. Hard-Fi's essentially down-to-earth nature forms a central part of their appeal. These are no untouchable superstars, but regular blokes from the suburbs who articulate the everyday concerns of their audience. However, in order to transfer their act from sweaty rock venues to 10,000 capacity arenas, they still need to raise their game, own the stage, and reach out to everyone in the hall, not just the heaving moshers down the front. To his credit, Archer tried his best to connect. Nevertheless, as the singer's calls for mass participation grew more frequent and pleading, you sensed that he was trying a little too hard. Although an energetic and industrious front man, he lacked natural authority. "I've been reading my Idiot's Guide to Arena Rock", he quipped, cheerfully poking fun at his shortcomings, but also drawing attention to a hurdle that has yet to be overcome. The band hit their stride with a wonderfully smooth, controlled Tonight, following it with the swaggering, anthemic Suburban Knights. At this point, they almost had the night in their pockets. Sadly, a woefully scrappy Hard To Beat threw away these gains in an instant, closing the main set on an awkward downer. Compared to their confident start -- and especially compared to their superb 2005 show at Rock City -- the encore came as something of an anti-climax. Set List: Middle Eastern Holiday I Close My Eyes Tied Up Too Tight Can't Get Along Television Better Do Better I Shall Overcome Help Me Please Little Angel Cash Machine We Need Love You And Me Tonight Suburban Knights Hard To Beat Encore: The King Stars Of CCTV Living For The Weekend See also: my interview with Hard-Fi's Ross Philips. Labels: eveningpost, gigs, popmusic
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Verve - Nottingham Arena, Tuesday December 12th
(Photo of The Verve at Nottingham Arena taken by Simon Collinson) Following considerable press hype and a couple of hits, seven–piece Sheffield band Reverend and the Makers stepped up to the demands of an arena gig as if it were their natural habitat. Mentored by the veteran Mancunian punk poet John Cooper Clarke, and with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys as a close friend and kindred spirit, lanky frontman Jon McClure, aka The Reverend, won over the initially cautious crowd with his acerbic portraits of modern city life. His band drew inspiration from anthemic 1990s indie of the Stone Roses/Oasis variety, mixing it up with funky electronics in an agreeable and promising fashion. Eight years after splitting, The Verve returned to the live stage in early November, with an ecstatically received run of dates in medium-sized venues. Encouraged by the universally positive reaction, they swiftly arranged a full-blown arena tour, of which last night’s show was the first. With his outsized shades and newly bleached crop, Richard Ashcroft had the look of 1973-era Lou Reed about him, but everything else about his performance style – aloof, arrogant and intense, with more than a touch of the messianic – remained unchanged. Although Verve material had continued to feature in his solo shows, guitarist Nick McCabe’s absence had always been keenly felt, and so expectations were understandably high.  Although a handful of new songs were premiered on the November tour, none of them surfaced during last night’s show – but instead of seizing the opportunity to whip up a storm, the band held back, losing themselves in ponderous sludge and unfocussed guitar jams. Sure, a few arms-aloft diehards down the front were clearly having the time of their lives, but most of the arena merely looked on with polite half-smiles, waiting for things to catch fire. Ashcroft’s vocals first faltered during a lacklustre On Your Own, revealing an awkward off-key croakiness. Although he mostly managed to pull them back, problems recurred during History, which even drew an apology. (“I messed it up a bit folks, but that’s live music.”) When The Drugs Don’t Work was greeted by a sea of phone screens rather than the rapt attention that might have been expected, it was a sign of how badly things had sagged. Well, you’ve got to make your own entertainment somehow. Closing the main set, Come On displayed the raucous energy and attack which we had been missing, but it was too little, too late. Only the final encore of Bittersweet Symphony brought the arena’s seated sections to their feet, as they raised cheers for what was essentially an extended tape loop accompanied by drums and whooshy effects pedals. Perhaps wisely, Ashcroft turned his mike towards the crowd for the final verse. The Verve promised transcendence, but they delivered mediocrity. A disappointing night.  This Is Music Sonnet Life’s An Ocean Space And Time Weeping Willow On Your Own Already There The Rolling People Velvet Morning Let The Damage Begin The Drugs Don’t Work Come On Encore: History Lucky Man Bittersweet Symphony See also: The rather lively comments box attached to this article on the Nottingham Evening Post's site. Labels: eveningpost, gigs, popmusic
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Monday, December 10, 2007
"Troubled Diva and Friends": Podcast 1 of 2.
Now that all 28 of this year's artist interviews have been done and dusted, I thought it would be fun to bung some edited highlights together onto a couple of podcasts. Here's Part One, which covers the first 14 interviews in chronological order.
The sound quality inevitably varies a bit, but once I get the hang of positioning the speaker phone as near to the computer mike as possible, things do noticeably improve... and hopefully the same thing goes for my interview technique! The first two or three still make me cringe a bit, but once I start getting into my stride, the whole experience does become a lot more bearable. I call this "learning on the job". Most clips are around three minutes long, and are linked by short blasts of "reasonable use" music and brief introductions. Total playing time is 52 minutes. I'm not posting a list of artists, as this one's for regular readers rather than passing Google-trade, but a quick glimpse over at the sidebar should give you an idea of what to expect. Part Two will be along in a few days' time. Download the podcast here. (But be quick, as I'm only making it available for a VERY limited period.)
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Interview: Ross Philips of Hard-Fi.
(This interview originally appeared in the Nottingham Evening Post.)
(Photo of Ross and Rich from Hard-Fi taken by THEfunkyman, Paris, October 19th 2007) Before the release of your current album Once Upon A Time In The West, you disappeared from public view for quite a while, and there was a 16 month gap between singles. What were you getting up to? Oh right, now you’re asking! We were in the studio for around five months, maybe even six. We extended and converted our old studio, so there was a month of building work, and then five months of recording. So you wanted to focus on recording the album as a complete piece, rather than putting out a single or two in the meantime, just to remind people you were there? Yeah, I think that’s the best way to do it. The studio you were renovating was back in your home town of Staines. This was the former mini-cab office, right? Yes, it was. We looked round at other places, and the record company was on at us to go into a big studio like Abbey Road with a big name producer – but we didn’t really want to do that, because we’d come out sounding the same as everyone else. There was an idea of renting a massive house and then all moving in, but we couldn’t find anywhere suitable. So we were down the pub one night, we’d had a few beers, and thought, well, why not? The guttering company had moved out from next door, so we thought we may as well knock through and see how that went. The plans were basically done on the back of a beer mat, and it’s just turned out great. Since you were recording your second album in more or less the same place as your first, that must given you a feeling of being at home. Yeah, totally. It’s our place. We moved all of our old stuff in there, so it just feels comfortable down there. We do like to do things our own way. We do everything the way we want to do it. I guess that also gives you a kind of continuity. Listening to the album, it’s very clearly stamped with your particular sound and your particular pre-occupations – but it has also moved on in certain areas. Did you have a pre-conceived idea of what changes you wanted to make, or did it all just come out naturally? We had the songs already written, but we didn’t really know the kind of sound that the album would have. So we just got in there and started getting stuff down, and it all came together. There are three key tracks, which give a sound to the album: I Shall Overcome, Suburban Knights, and Tonight. They’re the backbone, if you like. That comes across. They’re the opening three tracks, and it does feel as if you’re defining yourselves with them. Yes, I think so. We don’t like to limit ourselves. Whatever we do, we try everything out, so there’s strings, there’s brass, there’s everything. Why limit yourself? We wanted to make a big album; we wanted it to sound huge – and if the record company are stupid enough to give us the money, we’ll f***ing spend it! The orchestral sounds blend in well with the sound of the band. So did you have to ship the orchestra out to Staines? No, I don’t think they would come out that far. We spent a day in Olympic Studios, and we worked with a guy called Will Malone, who worked with Massive Attack and Portishead, and arranged the strings on The Verve’s Urban Hymns. Quite a few of the tracks contain the sort of singalong chants that are made to be chanted back at you at gigs. There are a lot of hey-ey-eys, woh-oh-ohs and ah-ah-ahs… Yeah yeah, we love all of that. At our live shows, it’s like a kind of party. We get the crowd involved, and it’s great to have people singing that stuff back to you. With the first album, it felt as you belonged to a tradition stretching back to Suede, The Jam and The Kinks: coming from the suburbs and observing big city life with mixed emotions. What’s interesting is that for the second album, you’ve kept that suburban identity. There are songs about feeling conflicted by them, and wanting to escape them. And almost celebrating them, as well. There are more personal tracks on there, and a lot of deeper ones for Rich [Archer, singer and principal songwriter]. In the last couple of years, he’s had everything he’s ever wanted in terms of success with the band, but a lot of horrible things have also happened to him. But we all still live in Staines, and I still go down the pub with all my mates, so I see what’s going on. That’s where we’re from! I’m trying not to say “keeping it real” here. [laughter] But that’s interesting, because a lot of bands from out in the suburbs would have taken the first opportunity to head for the city, whereas you’ve done the opposite. It’s good in theory, but my family and friends live there, so if you moved into London you’d just be sitting on your own in a flat somewhere. You’d have to get the train back to Staines every day to go and have a pint. And then your second album would have been full of the songs that everyone puts on second albums, about the agonies of being successful. That’s kind of been done! [laughter] You also got some mixed press for the album cover, which The Guardian named as one of the worst of all time, before it had even been released. We were looking round at all the others, and it’s just like, f***ing black and white photos with everyone on the front, all trying to look cool. The record company’s idea was to do exactly that. They were saying: that’s what the record shops want, that’s what sells records. But we didn’t want to play that game. We always like to do things differently. So we thought, right, f*** it, let’s go the complete opposite way. With album covers, most people buy the CD, bung it on their iTunes and then put it in a box and never get it out again – so it’s a tiny little square on a screen, that you hardly even see. We like getting up people’s noses anyway, so we’re really pleased with the reaction it’s got! Labels: eveningpost, interviews, popmusic
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It's all © Mike, thank you very much. I don't mind if you nick the odd paragraph; credit me and link back, and we can still be friends. But no funny business, OK? I know lots of people, and we'll all laugh and point at you, and then you'll feel, ooh, that high. Snarl. Please note that all spam comments will be deleted, even the ones that pretend to be nice.
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