GIGS IN SEPTEMBER 2009

Spike Hooper Memorial Gig

The Cookworthy, St.Austell (27th September)

It was a gathering of friends and family, a respectful reminder of days gone by. Ten years down the road and Spike Hooper can still draw a crowd. Anyone who was anyone in St.Austell came out on the afternoon and gathered at the Cookworthy to show their respect to the greatest Cornish musician that ever there was. He inspired so many other people to take up an instrument and play throughout his life that many owe their success to Mr.Hooper.

First up this afternoon were some jazz bands reflecting Spike`s love of that type of music, Gareth Menadue and Mark Bullen did a fine job with The Jumping Out Jazz Band, who included Pete Flaskett as a guest.

David Penhale and Jericho Road were a disappointment, but they were quickly followed by the loud Beaver and the rocking Templemonkey.

The highlight for me was going to be the return of the Buick Boys, but along strode the legendary Mr. Alan Ross to the stage. Ex-Flying Tiger, ex-Shades and ex-cellent performer. He took the audience on a professional journey with his stylish rock`n`roll singing, accompanied by Pete Berryman. Pulling faces and cracking jokes throughout, Alan Ross stole the show. Being the only survivor of Spike`s most successful bands to perform on the day, (although Mike Bunt was in attendence), it gave us all a taste of days gone by and what we were really missing.

I asked Liz, Spike`s sister, what she thought he would`ve made of this afternoon`s event and she replied with a huge grin, that he`d have both loved it and been amazed at the turnout.

The Buick Boys tore the place apart as expected, but after Mr.Ross` performance, everybody needed to up their game!

Best Sunday of the year!

GIGS IN DECEMBER 2008

THE HALL FOR CORNWALL, TRURO (3RD DECEMBER)

THE LEVELLERS

The Cornish crowd consisted of a cornucopia of crusties back from the beanfields, in search of fiddle-led folk music, and they were not disappointed by The Levellers performance.

Old tracks and crowd pleasers from their thirty year career mixed seamlessly with new material from their latest critically acclaimed album `Tales From The Underground`.

Harking back to the early Clash in politics and sentiment, if not style, the band`s new material lends itself well to the live situation and tonight proved the point to perfection.

There is of course, no show without Punch, and many a flailing arm was indeed seen in the audience as in unison they joined with the band in the anthemic `One Way of Life` choruses, without a trace of irony in their voices.

`Joyful abandon` are two words to describe the evening, as the world was put to rights by a bunch of alcohol fuelled, soap dodging herberts in Truro.

No change there then.

GIGS IN OCTOBER 2008

THE HALL FOR CORNWALL, (11TH OCTOBER)

WISHBONE ASH


The seventies are still alive in Cornwall, so bands like Wishbone Ash can always rustle up a crowd when they visit and tonight was no exception.

Like many of their fans, original members have fallen by the wayside over the years, but the spirit lives on in last surviving man standing, Andy Powell and his trusty Gibson Flying V guitar.

Surrounded by a younger band, Andy brought those damp student bedsit days back with note perfect versions of the classics, `Blowing Free` and `The King Will Come` to the delight of the hairy, and the not so hairy alike on this chilly autumnal evening.

Memories topped up, ancient tour shirts aired, and youth slightly recaptured, the crowd left happy in the knowledge that classic rock will endure as long as Wishbone Ash exist.

THE HALL FOR CORNWALL, TRURO (8TH OCTOBER)

ELBOW

Mercury prize not withstanding, Elbow has had a long journey that seems to have been well below the radar for many in the audience tonight as early material is given muted applause whilst recent chart friendly and Glasto anthems get the sing-a-long treatment of the relieved ticket buyer. For the sensitive souls in the house tonight, the big, beardy bloke called Garvey pulled at the heartstrings with his silky smooth vocals on tracks such as `One Day Like This` and `The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver`.

This is the band that clearly has Coldplay and Radiohead in their sights and so perfection is the keyword of this unusual underdog still waiting for it`s day. They have the songs, they have the staying power and they certainly create an uplifting live experience.

Thom and Christopher had better up their game, its dog eat dog out here.

BUNTERS BAR, TRURO (2ND OCTOBER)

EVEN NINE

Get your shiters round this:

What the hell is this shit? - By Adam Puckey of The Gay Horses.

I moved house today. I'm back in Truro. After sorting through MOST of my things (A bit of washing needs to be done - i.e all my clothes), I decided to head down to Bunters for a pint of Cider.

Cider is the grease of wheels. It is the river of my dreams. It is the very cloud that fuels the rain of my content. Imagine my dismay to see, as I zoned in on the stage, that the blandest rock band ever created were pumping out perfectly timed, graceless, passionless pseudo-american super-pap to a crowd of bemused (possibly hypnotised) nodding bystanders.

Imagine it.

I had my hat cradled under my arm and I texted Gemma, my lassie, to inform her that I may just go back home again. Forget the cider.

I'm sorry. I am 'technically' a musician, and to be honest, I'm not very committed, or very good. I never practice. I can't be assed to arrange practices, gigs, shows, interviews, or anything. But if you put me on stage for an hour and a half with no microphone, no lights, no instruments, no band and no crowd, I'd STILL entertain more people than Even Nine did tonight.

You know that feeling you get when you lock the keys in the house and you know your landlord is away in corfu spending the rent that you can barely afford to pay? That's how it feels when I realise even nine are on the bill.

I once left in the middle of their soundcheck it was so soul destroyingly devoid of energy They just hit the bass drum for half an hour. The lead singer (can't be assed to learn his name) just ignores the crowd most of the time, with his back to the audience. He keeps doing some sort of royal wave (one surmises that this is an attempt to get the rest of the band to jam) while he stoops to drink his water.

WATER!!! FOr FuCk'S SAKE!!!WATER?????!!!!!

Who the fuck drinks water?Only Jack Black gets to drink water right? He's PAID his fucking dues.

There is a bit of bouncing about. The guitarist looks like that bouncer that shagged nancy off hollyoaks and the bass player may as well be the bass-tron 220 for all the fire and charisma he injected into the proceedings. The drummer is good. In the same way a click track is good.They all look at each other with embarrassed expressions on their faces, and when they did a little showy off bit each, they took turns one after the other, like it was a cbeebies rock show.

Believe it or not, they ruined a FEEDER song. How can you ruin a feeder song? Feeder write songs for eight year olds to learn to play on a the keyboard. (This is no slur against feeder. Feeder are wicked.) My point is that even nine sucked the life out of a song that was written as a celebration of the vacuous nature of pop music.

I HATE the fact that they play.

AND now I need a piss.

It could only get worse if my elvis blackout came to my house, deleted all my music, bluetoothed their ep or whatever, onto my phone, and set 'dat's kapital' as all of my contact ringtones, my main ringtone, my text message alert, and all seven of my alarms.

Actually, It could be worse.

I've got two phones.

www.myspace.com/evenninemusic

THE 11TH CHAPTER IS OUT IN SEPTEMBER 2008!

AT ALL THE USUAL PLACES I EXPECT ...

BUNTERS IN TRURO, THE MUSIC SHOP IN ST.AUSTELL, SOMEWHERE IN CAMBORNE PROBABLY, PENZANCE EVEN... OH AND JAM IN FALMOUTH. MIGHT EVEN GET A FEW COPIES INTO NICALS AGAIN IN BODMIN, WHO KNOWS?

GIGS IN AUGUST 2008

THE PRINCESS PAVILIONS, FALMOUTH (15TH AUGUST)

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS

Heading tonight`s bill were the finest punk band of their era; Ireland`s own rebel-rousing Stiff Little Fingers! Much more in line with The Clash than The Pistols, SLF used punk music to voice their political opinions and frontman, Jake Burns hasn`t changed a bit - he berates the obvious George Bush to the delight of the crowd and yet has the wisdom of age to see the funny side of the band`s erratic career when he discusses the songs with the crowd.

Generally a middle-aged bloke`s audience with the odd `long suffering` thrown in, mixed with a healthy number of kids with good taste, the Pavilions was packed to the rafters and a sell out performance like this will hopefully bring the band back again, because I think this may have been the first time they`ve come this far down the country in their 4000 year existance.

So to the gig - it was a self confessed `greatest hits` package, due to the lack new stuff to flog us (to paraphrase Mr.Burns), but there`s nothing wrong with that as it gave us all an opportunity to sing as loudly as we could and not get any of the words wrong. So there was, `Strummerville`, `Tin Soldiers`, `Wasted Life`, `Nobody`s Heroes`, etc, each with introductions and stories surrounding them. There was `No Surrender` from the rarely heard `Flags and Emblems` album with the said message to "George W. Fuckwit", and amongst others The Specials` `It Doesn`t Make It Alright` and finishing with the obvious encore `Alternative Ulster`.

I could have listened to them play their whole back catalogue (including Tinderbox), and not been happier.

Stiff Little Fingers were and are still the best Irish punk band and I don`t think that you`ll find a more full-on, hard working band of the same pedigree anywhere in the world today. It was like the intervening years slipped away. What a night.

Punks not dead!

www.myspace.com/stifflittlefingers1977

http://www.slf.com/

THE SURGEONS

Pete Kliskey, Mike Kliskey and Jimmy Jewell, collectively `The Surgeons`, were first on tonight`s bill in what I think was an act of great kindness to another younger, (and less talented) local support band, but had no need to fear playing to the legendary `one man and a dog` audience as the place became filled almost the moment the first chord of opening number `Denabin Sun` rang out.

The last time I saw the band was also at The Pavilions a year ago supporting The Damned on The Surgeons second comeback gig and I`ve gotta say they`ve tightened up their performance until its a rigid (digit?) and taught experience. The audience sensed a worthy band and came streaming in to witness the local heroes pulling out the stops as they visibly swelled with pride before their own heroes backdrop and stage equipment.

Twelve anthems of punk heritage from as far back as 1977 were sprayed out at the crowd of revellers with such titles as `Cut The Cackle` and `Radio 1 Conspiracy`, "...written way back, when radio was really bad" (!)

It seemed a short set, but the band clearly wanted to see Stiff Little Fingers and so were keen to get the job done to join the crowd for the headliners appearance. The Surgeons have brought life back to their own career with performances like this and with these practitioners, you can be sure local punk rock is in safe hands.

Fuck BUPA - lets go public!

www.myspace.com/penzancesurgeons

GIGS IN JUNE 2008

THE BRIT INN, ST.AUSTELL (7TH JUNE)

THE MIGHTY OFFBEATS

(Reviewed by Billy Idle)

This new band built from the ashes of Ska`d For Life is making some pretty impressive gigs in the short time they`ve been around; live on the local radio, The William Cookworthy pub and now the Brit. Not the headliners this time, (but probably for the last time), The Mighty Offbeats stole the show from the official stars by means of their cunning ska-fest beats that rocketed around the marquee and drew in a capacity crowd to dance their cotton socks off!

A massive write up in the local paper, (who sponsered the event), failed to mention that the landlord literally forced the band to encore well over their allotted time and thus annoyed the hell out of the band that was unfortunately to follow them.

This is music that you can`t ignore. Yes they do covers mixed in with their original material, but the audience wanted to hear the familiar songs too and being such great musicians, this lot can adapt their sets at the turn of a pork-pie hat to suit the crowd.

You like ska? You like smiling? ...You like The Mighty Offbeats then!

GIGS IN MAY 2008

THE BRITISH LEGION, ST.AUSTELL (18TH MAY)



RAMBLIN` MINOR

Brett Damarell brought his Ramblin` Minor showcase to the Sunday afternoon punters at St.Austell`s British Legion Club last week to perform some cracking acoustic tunes, original and cover versions of unlikely songs mingled together in his own celtic-stylie. The Irish traditional tin whistle tunes came from Mick `de whistle` Cheyne and the whole set was peppered with witty asides as Brett tried to create a joyful celebration of all things folky.
Unfortunately the crowd, (except for a few souls), were mostly unresponsive and seemed intent on doing their best to ignore the celtic corner, which is a shame really when you consider how few venues there are for live music in St.Austell.
A few members of the club said they enjoyed it, but most of the old codgers sat around looked completely non-plussed about the whole affair. This probably accounts for the complete lack of publiciity about the event aswell.
Another missed opportunity for St.Austell.
Brett and his three man gang did their best against this tide of apathy, but it was all too Kanute in the end.