Tag Archives: music

Jan 13

There’ll Be Another One Along In 5 Minutes

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The other night I was discussing an impending album release from a local band: as is invariably the case with skint unsigned acts the CDs would be duplicated by the band themselves and sold at gigs. I was offered a sample CD to take home but with the caveat “but it’ll still change”. A bit of discussion ensued and we came to the conclusion that left unchecked their album would keep on changing, evolving, and effectively no two batches produced would the same: comments from listeners such as ‘oh the drums are a bit loud’ might result in a balance change, or ‘that cowbell doesn’t fit there’ could mean an arrangement alteration. Put simply: there would never be a ‘final version’, even after the album launch gig, and it would be a perpetual ‘demo’.

Now, I am a firm believer of a release being ‘a point in time’ for an act, a snapshot if you will. When you bite the bullet and submit your track to get an ISRC (basically a barcode) you need to submit the exact track you are releasing, and when you have physical media duplicated then that’s where you draw the line: a hundred copies are etched and that’s it, no going back, no ‘tweaks’. Effectively you as a band or act are forced to draw that big black line on the mix, warts and all – that’s what separates the demo from the release.

Yet with home manufacturing it’s all too easy for a band to change things after-the-event, and it does a great disservice to the people who have been to (say) your launch party and bought a copy. Many new performers and young acts are too impatient to release their new tracks, so version-upon-version is published to Soundcloud (or whatever music-site-du-jour) spoiling the impact. As a band/act you’ll never be completely happy with something because after all your tastes evolve and your hearing changes, but that’s no reason to rewrite history.

There are some wonderful examples of ‘slightly broken’ performances out there – off the top of my head Minnie Riperton, David Bowie, The Beatles, Barry Manilow and even Scott Joplin have recorded imperfect versions which have a charm to them. Many of those would have been lost had it been easy to ‘evolve’ a track and I think we’d have been worse off for it.

As an extreme case I can cite an artiste whose second album consisted 40% of slightly reworked/reproduced versions of tracks from her first album. Her third album was 50% reworked/revised tracks from her first and second albums. Goodness knows what the fourth contained but I’ve stopped buying her albums now – I might as well wait for the seventh or eighth so I can hear some new work.

Mind, I’ve not been exempt from this in continued adventures with Obvious Pseudonym: 18 months ago we released The Six Noises EP, then a week after I’d the master copies had been dispatched I tweaked it into a ‘Special Edition’ version correcting lots of little mistakes I’d noticed since the band listening-party. Thankfully the original run of CD production was cancelled so we didn’t have to deal with physical copies, but still the iTunes version was different from the CD version in small, subtle ways (I believe the CD version is superior but you may have a different opinion). Nowadays I sit on a mix for at least a month and will go back and listen to it with fresh ears some weeks after it’s been mixed or frequently longer, eg. I noticed a slight mis-timing in the piano track on Baby Baby just the other week… 16 months after I recorded it.

In short? Don’t rush a release, give it time, but draw a line and wave goodbye to a recording once it’s flown the nest – don’t keep picking at it. Your fans will – eventually – thank you.

Edit: As @mattbluefoot points out: ‘This could be paraphrased as “don’t be George Lucas”‘. :P

Jan 10

Put The Needle On The Record

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Remember record players? Records? It’s trendy to call it ‘vinyl’ nowadays, isn’t it? My mate John’s got a house full of it, we often joke a river of black tar would flow through Walton if his house burned down.

Last Saturday my brother and I went digging in our loft at home to find all the records which had been stashed there over the years – boxes of them which I’d been given, or acquired through Freecycle, or inherited from various relatives. Tim used to collect them and upon my father’s emigration his collection ended up shoved at one end of our loft so there was quite a bit for us to go through.

When we retrieved the boxes the musty smell was overpowering – even though cased the slight damp had pervaded the sleeves of some Freecycle-sourced discs, giving the illusion of being older than they actually were… smelling of 1940, released in 1985. Cross-legged, we started sifting through, ditching Music-For-Pleasure compilations of Perry Como hits and laughing at the tastes of someone-random-from-Freecycle who’d bought a copy of The Reynolds Girls one and only hit.

It only took a few minutes before I hauled the Technics record deck and preamp downstairs so we might listen to some of them – a bizarre Sex Pistols disc called Some Product featuring cut-up interviews and the unmistakable mark of Malcolm McLaren’s odder side, followed by unidentifiable death-metal which when played at 45rpm rather than 33rpm sounded like Daffy Duck singing Rammstein. “Swing Along With Martin Dale”, recorded live at Wakefield Theatre Club (latterly the Pussycat Club and now a bowling alley on Doncaster Road). Fun.

We almost came to blows over a first edition vinyl of Joy Division’s “Substance” album (FACT250 [sic]) but I let it go; there will be other opportunities. We listened to the first couple of tracks of an early-80s Deanna Durbin compilation, swaying almost subconsciously; the imperfections in the pressing giving it analogue character.

And that’s the rub really – I never understood the beauty of vinyl until now. Tim suggested were we to own these on CD or MP3 we probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought but the hypnosis of the spinning turntable and positioning the needle made it an event, the cover providing further visual stimulus as the tracks went on, sitting together and listening.

Tim took his share of the booty and I sincerely hope him and his missus enjoy it. The following morning was taken up listening to a Transvision Vamp LP while Ben watched, fascinated. Maybe he’s understood it too.

Since then I’ve wandered into charity shops, looking for interesting records to take home. No dice yet, and sad that Headingley Oxfam charge so much for records in such poor condition. Still, there are plenty of other places to dig around in old boxes and maybe one day I’ll be able to rediscover that Tribe Called Quest 12″ I lost or even the copy of David Bellamy’s one and only novelty song “Brontosaurus Will You Wait For Me”… I’d love to know where that went to…

Sep 25

A Terrible Mix CD

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I went to the Rhubarb Bomb Issue 2.2 launch last night at Chantry Chapel in Wakefield. As well as drinking far too much Speckled Hen (it was a BYO gig) and talking drunkenly to a fisherman on the bank of the Calder, I participated in the Mix CD Exchange (I say ‘exchange’, I actually forgot to pick one up – you can blame the beer for that). Anyway, it’s meant to be anonymous and I don’t know who got mine but I can exclusively reveal that I haphazardly chucked it together 30 minutes before leaving the house, and it comprised:

  1. Modified Toy Orchestra – QWERTY
  2. Fonda 500 – I Love Stereo Stereo’s Good For Me
  3. Bis – Young Alien Types
  4. Chumbawamba – Doh!
  5. Fila Brazillia – Van Allen’s Belt
  6. John Cooper Clarke – I Don’t Want To Be Nice
  7. John Baker – Milky Way
  8. Moog Cookbook – Kelly Watch The Stars
  9. The B-52s – Juliet Of Spirits
  10. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Rage Hard (Young Persons Guide To The 12″)
  11. Pet Shop Boys – So Hard (Dub)
  12. Bjork – There’s More To Life Than This (Toilet Version)
  13. Tim Minchin – Pope Song
  14. Genesis – I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
  15. Tom Waits – The Piano Has Been Drinking Not Me (Live in Dublin)

A bizarre mix of course. Not quite sure it works (well, I’m pretty positive it doesn’t) – my brother is much better at this sort of thing!

Aug 21

Wharfside Music Festival 2011, Wakefield

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Right, so there’s this pub which isn’t exactly on the way to anywhere (unless you’re going to the Double Two factory shop). Used to be The Jolly Sailor in Thornes, but more recently became a bit of a restaurant-pub called The Wharfside. They’d put out a shout for bands to play at a one-day free music festival: Obvious Pseudonym put ourselves forward as did The Tracks. Time passed, we heard nothing, eventually with a fortnight to go Dorian and Faye (keys and bass players in The Tracks) headed down there to see what’s going on: they discovered from landlady Vicky there was no PA and no marquee and no lighting and… well, it could be disastrous. So we got involved…

Really it was all a bit ‘Challenge Anneka’: build a decent-sounding PA using kit I’d got in the garage, get the lighting rig down there, borrow a van, and work out how to use the digital desk with a full band. Dorian and Faye did the street-team thing with posters, and we put out calls for more acts to perform. In the end though it sounded and looked ace – definite proof to myself (if nobody else) that I can do it.

So came the day: I disappeared off at 8:30am to pick up the van, diverting via St Michaels to pick up Dorian and Mac (The Tracks’ drummer) who are both young lads with muscles. We loaded the van with every bit of kit under the sun (it just fit) and headed to Wharfside to find Graham and Harry of StagePro sitting outside waiting to unload the drum riser we’d hired. A bit of huffing and puffing later, we’d got all the tables out of the way and the riser was in place. Next up: the marquee.

Now, this damn marquee wasn’t in the best of nick – it had obviously been used a lot and the plastic poles were cracking from stresses unknown (presumably in the course of its life at Diamond Studios, who’d kindly lent it to us). Mix in the complication that it was so windy getting it erected was going to be a bit of a mad job! It took six of us to get it upright at which point it became evident something was wrong as the wind was whipping it up far too much (“it’s going to end up flying across the Calder!”) and no amount of of gaffer tape was going to fix it. Fearing a Pukkelpop moment, Vicky and I passed the buck between us on whether we’d have the marquee at all. Then…
     ”‘ang on, this isn’t right…” opined John J, who’d turned up mid-erection (fnar).
     I stared, trying to work out why the guyropes were on the inside. “Er. Oh. The roof’s on upside down, it’s meant to fasten up.”
     ”Right. Let’s flip it over, might work, and if not then we do without it!”
It was a bit more stable after that!

I built up the PA using amplifiers I’ve had kicking around for ages and various other bits of stuff, all lashed together to a programmable digital remote desk FOH where I could also control the lighting rig. I had the usual bits of EQ and had a discussion with a few folks to try and get the best mix. Consensus was that it sounded excellent, and we’d easily packed enough power for the event. Maybe if anything it was a bit mid-heavy at the sides of the venue but you can’t have everything can you.

So to recap, 3pm: marquee’s up, PA is in place (7KW of stuff with an exceptionally heavy amp cab and borrowed tops from OP’s bloke Pete), lighting rig is in one piece and working, we’re surviving the onslaught of quips from volunteer Chris and there have been no disasters yet. Hooray! We soundcheck with The Tracks, who are the first full band and due to hit the stage four hours later at 7pm.

First act was up: Dorian and Tom doing an acoustic set, 20 minutes of songs to get things going. I wasn’t expecting it to be busy at all until about 6pm although the beer garden started to fill up once the music began. Sound was good, a couple of tweaks on the EQ but nothing serious. Nicky arrived and started taking photos, so it was documented – excellent! At this point Chris grabbed me and pointed at the left sub speaker which was lying on the floor having been blown out from its cabinet by the sheer air pressure involved in moving a 1KW high-end Celestion 15″ driver. Oopsie, I guess building a new cab for those is on my job list this week!

Callum Macintyre next: one mic, one guitar. He was excellent, no disasters, place is filling up nicely. I looked across to see Rob Dee (Philophobia music boss) had arrived with Mike Ainsley and Harry Rhodes ready for their slot, plenty of friends milling around and other luminaries from the Wakefield music scene. We were running to time – maybe slightly ahead of it, good. I rigged and line-checked for a duo called ReaderMeetAuthor who announced this was their first gig and they’d only formed as a band three hours ago: cue epic muddling through some covers, but it sounded OK (Mathieu’s other band The Ran Tan Waltz is a lot more polished and I recommend a listen). Nice to see Jon Pinder and John Jowett photographing lots.

Almost 6pm: level-check for The Cullens and they’re on. I see Danny Cullen in town quite a bit (especially at Open Mic Monday) but I don’t think I’ve actually concentrated on their sound before which was wonderfully polished, and by this point we’d got some folks dancing. The beer-garden was full, and looking across towards the river there were people lying on the verges in what Summer sun was shining, having a beer and enjoying the afternoon. Taxis arrived ferrying new listeners, still no disasters and still no rain despite it being forecast for around 5pm. As we were a little ahead of time, the Cullens got a couple of extra songs: sound-man’s privilege ;)

Mike Ainsley was up next, together with Tim and Harry from St Gregory Orange. They insisted on sitting down and we couldn’t find any chairs or stools so we pulled up a few unused guitar amps – very rustic. No major adjustments on the desk, maybe a little bit of EQ on Harry’s guitar. A really rather splendid set from Mike (another act I’d been remiss in not listening to previously) and that was our acoustic acts done! I spotted various OP followers in the audience including Jayne and Bez, and felt a little buzz of pride that they’d come down to the out-of-town venue to see it all.

The Tracks were on at 7:15pm and I was all-on to get the sound right so didn’t stray far from the FOH post. They’ve got lots of dynamics in each song with thrashy crashy guitars followed by quiet thoughtful passages, full drum kit mike-up and all 12 XLR channels on the sound desk which lit up like a Christmas tree. Lots of dancing, two scruffy old blokes have shinned the fence and are trying to get people to buy them beer, and some nutter in the audience has got hold of a tambourine. Tom’s face is a picture. Good reception and an encore was demanded: the band did not disappoint their fans!

All of Obvious Pseudonym were present and accounted for by now, so while The Tracks got their stuff offstage we loaded ours in and tarped it at the side. Still no rain although there were a couple of reports of it spitting a little. Nothing blew up: always the important thing. Meantime the next act (“I R Hero”) set up with a little bit of a problem in that the drummer only had one working arm and needed an extra snare mic for his kick-snare. No problems I guess, especially since they’d initially asked for a 10-mic setup on the drums – er, no chance boys…!

I R Hero launched into their rock-pop-punk set, but no sign of the snare kick on the sound-desk… I sent Dorian up to investigate but we ended up replacing the mic. It was still a bit touch-and-go with the monitor mix not being brilliant, but again the sound out front was ace. I left to find a pint of Guinness, and came back just as the drummer resigned from the band. A bloke in the crowd stepped up and drummed on their last song… the drummer wasn’t seen again.

9pm, we were running to time, nothing destroyed, no disasters, no rain; I bravely ventured an opinion that the whole thing seemed to be going OK. Vicky glared at me: don’t jinx it sunshine. We plonked Obvious Pseudonym’s stuff on stage and I set up the keys on the drum riser so I had a little stage of my own, woo! Dorian familiarised himself with the desk to do our sound. I admitted to myself I was nervous, this was the first time I’d trusted someone at the controls who wasn’t a professional sound engineer or music technician: be strong, lad!

We went on at 9:20pm, five minutes late, bouncing into Westgate Run and doing the Summer set we’d mostly done for the past four weeks on our International Tour Of Wakefield with one notable exception: Eclipsed had been replaced by the new song Dad Dancing. People danced, genuinely and ironically. It sounded good from where I was, and we got some excellent comments: one couple even came across from the flats over the Calder to see us after hearing what we were like. New fans!

We came off around 10pm and by midnight everything was back in the van. Nicky and Jayne were dispatched to find curry and I sat in the bar with a (fresh) pint of Guinness (after not getting around to drinking the last one). Still no disasters, still no rain, and we’d managed to put on our first full festival; thoughts of next year pervaded through the exhaustion as Dorian, Jim, Faye and I came down off the ceiling. Pretty damn good for amateurs and the sound was ace, I just hope the desk recording is as good: I’ll find out later. Uberthanks to the people who helped by lugging, lifting, erecting, removing and all that stuff including Chris, John, Jim, Nicky, Ben, Carl, Tom, Rob and Mac. You guys were ace and made the job so much easier; I’m exceptionally proud of what we achieved.

…now, I’m off to unload the van and collect the drum riser!

Aug 01

Clarence Festival 2011

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Another year, another Clarence: Wakefield Music Collective’s almost-annual jaunt down to Clarence Park Bandstand for fun, japery and a big pile of bands, all cemented together by a crowd sat in the sun on The Hill lubricated by alcohol.

Whereas in previous years I’ve been on the periphery, this year I was a little more involved. I say ‘a little more’ as the Collective organisational meetings take place on Wednesdays which is notorious for being booked up with other stuff (mostly for Nicky which means I need to source a babysitter). However I did get tasked with putting together the poster, programme and branding which considering I’m not a designer didn’t come out half bad: you can get a PDF of it by clicking here, brought up to date with the stand-in bands.

Load of acts playing (including us, but I’ll come to that in a mo) and those I was really impressed with included acoustic lass Hannah Atkins who looped together herself playing guitar, keyboard and violin to build up entire accompaniments live; I’ve coveted a loopstation of some sort for a while but I don’t think I have the talent to bring it off (at least not multitimbral talent!) and I’m always impressed when I see someone using one competently. I also quite liked Diamond Dac’s Delta blues guitar and dobro work, very relaxing for Sunday. The real highlight of my weekend though was Lorenza Woods, a female-fronted rock group which borrowed bits of Rage Against The Machine, Cannibal Corpse and other similar genres to build up some really angry screamy rock interspersed with quiet sweet sections; they’re a Wakefield band so I think I’ll try and catch them again sometime.

We played, sans Dan on guitar cos he was on holiday. This wasn’t planned at all – we were asked to play only a few days before and thankfully we’ve got a pile of gigs coming up so have a playable set (without Dad Dancing, you’ll have to wait for that one): it went well really, a lot better than I expected especially when the backing/drum machine crashed off the table towards the end of Sex Noises and left us without percussion. Oops. We carried on as if nothing had happened and ended with an acoustic take on it – a definite tribute to Pete keeping the rhythm going on the bass! I’m not sure many people noticed. Jon Pinder has some photos here (et seq.). I am also extremely proud to announce that Obvious Pseudonym were the first act this year to knock a tile off the bandstand roof with the sound; this is becoming an annual challenge, and were it not for the netting in place the tile would have ended up embedded in John J’s head. Again, oops. Oh and we were the first act where the sub-bass rattled the hill: according to Marci you could feel it through the ground – yay!

One thing I was really impressed with was sound engineers Middi and Tom using the iPad to remote-engineer from halfway up the hill; I spent ten minutes watching Middi twiddling EQ and all sorts of things during The Greeting Committee’s set, remote-controlling the desk on-stage where Tom was keeping an eye. It’s a great way of keeping the budgets down and negates the use of a front-of-house tower. Still, it’d be nice to have a delay tower next year ;)

So, yeah, it went well. Clarence is a lot easier these days with the absence of the second big stage and the addition of the security stuff at the bandstand – it means that at the end of Saturday it can all be securely stowed and we don’t need to have a large security presence on-site. That said we did have some security issues still overnight, but mostly due to pissed-up kids coming back from town and seeing if there was anything left in the beer tent. There wasn’t, of course… but it’s still a pain in the arse. Lots of people came to watch, and I think that it’s still a success despite being a shadow of its former (Council-funded) self. Damn you, austerity measures.

(ps. I wasn’t going to mention it but I got stung by a wasp, and it bloody hurt. Ended up pulling the sting out with my leatherman. Ouchie. I may or may not have mentioned it over the weekend.)

Jun 24

My Long Division 2011

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Recently I blogged about Long Division Festival 2011, which took place a couple of weekends ago.

In short, it was utterly mindblowing and Wakefield did us proud (for the most part but we’ll get to that later). Six venues were involved on Saturday: Mustang Sally’s, The Hop, The Graziers, Wakefield Cathedral, Wakefield Town Hall and Henry Boon’s; you needed a wristband to get into each one, which involved forking out the pithy sum of £12 to see 40 acts throughout the day and evening. A phenomenal bargain when you consider some of the acts playing – hell, The Wedding Present would charge that for a single gig. It was all the brainchild of local fanzine editor Dean Freeman and local promoter Chris Morse (aka Morsey), both familiar faces on the scene and both of whom I enjoy a pint with occasionally.

For my initial involvement I’d volunteered to do photography together with a small team of friends – John J, Nicky and Laurie Cooper-Murray (of StageZero photography). Morsey knew I’d lit the Cathedral for the Dr Feelgood gig last year and asked if I’d do the same again for the acts there – no problem, but a few days before the festival started he also asked if I’d got a rig for the Town Hall too. Um, OK, in for a penny and all that :P

So Saturday came: the first job was rigging up the Town Hall. I got there with Ellie at about 9:30am to find nobody around and the stage in bits… turns out everyone was already running a little bit late! Middy, Harry and the StagePro chaps (who were doing sound for all the venues) showed up presently and I lent a hand lugging stuff around before I had to disappear to deliver Ellie to orchestra practice. Home for a quick shower and change of shirt and I’m off in with the camera kit to get started, calling at The Hop to pick up a press pass and my yellow Long Division t-shirt (photo courtesy of John J).

First band I saw was Blood Oranges, catchy indie-pop up at the Town Hall. Nice guys, very enjoyable and I was pleasantly surprised how many people were there from the start – the Kingswood Suite was almost full already and some foot-tapping going on. Good one. This also gave me a chance to get the lighting right and take the first photos of the day in a non-stressful atmosphere. Earplugs in and off we go!

I figured I should get used to the headline venue, Mustang Sally’s, so strolled down there to catch The Finnlys – again, jangly guitar indie but I find it hard to take a band seriously when the lead singer looks like Roy out of The IT Crowd. The red saturation in the venue was horrendous (quite probably the worst conditions in which I’ve found myself shooting) and we’d already had a stipulation of ‘no flash’ – I did try a couple early on to see what it’d be like but really it was absolutely awful.

The next band on my list was Dinosaur Pile Up. Last time these guys were on at The Hop, John had photographed them and said they were loud – bizarrely this time round they were quieter! This was a distinction which didn’t carry through the rest of the bands upstairs at The Hop: despite sound engineer Tom’s efforts the new PA rig is just a bit too loud for that small room I think. Some work needed.

Once I’d got enough shots there I wandered down to the Graziers (stopping in at the Bull & Fairhouse en-route for a sneaky half-pint with Lisa the landlady). I’ve not photographed down there before and was surprised to find a full stage although there was no lighting which reduced me to the sole gig where I had to resort to flashgun. On-stage was Standaloft, a young rapper beatboxing various comedic songs (and some not so comedic) along to a backing on an iPod. I was pretty impressed actually, not usually my cup of tea but songs which wouldn’t be out-of-place in Joel Veitch‘s repertoire.

A stroll back down to catch my only act at Henry Boon’s: a lass called Clemence Freschard backed by various members of David Tattersall’s band The Wave Pictures. It was packed in there and very little air circulation but I stayed long enough to grab some shots and listen to her singing. Very pleasant stuff, made even more pleasant by the French accent (via Berlin, apparently) – I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. Both Laurie and I didn’t last in there cramped in a corner and disappeared off to the bar to find a quiet half-pint – how the heck Nicky managed to do the whole set of The Wave Pictures themselves I don’t know.

The Wind-Up Birds weren’t on the Long Division band page so I was largely in the dark regarding their style when they hit the stage up at Mustang’s. Not too shabby, quite similar in style to the Cardiacs (the lead singer bore more than a passing resemblance to Cardiacs frontman Tim Smith) and they played an extended set as the subsequent act had pulled out.

I left in time to get up to the Town Hall for one of the bands I definitely didn’t want to miss: Fonda 500. Both John and I had been seriously impressed with this lot when they visited The Hop earlier in the year and we expected a treat. Unfortunately, although the band went through the motions I don’t think the lead singer really wanted to be there and seemed out of sorts consistently stating that ‘this might be our last song’ after the first couple. Boo. Don’t let this minor aberration stop you from seeing them in the future though!

It was at this point I’d got it noted down to go to the Cathedral and set the lighting up for Emmy The Great. Lots of folks told me to try and catch her, and I was fortunate to find the band were soundchecking when I arrived. As I cabled the lights around them I got my own little show which was lovely and I resolved to go back later on and catch at least some of her set. A wander back up Westgate via Subway for a hurried tea, getting goosed by Rachel of Chat Noir who was on a hunt for cheap vodka.

The next ‘must-see’ was Darwin Deez. Pete Fabs (he of Obvious Pseudonym) told me of their stage antics, and they really did not disappoint: choreographed dance moves between toe-tapping bittersweet songs, and the venue was packed out for it. Photogenic guy, I stopped for the entire set and bought the album on my way out: not the first Amazon 1-click iPhone order of the day, certainly not the last.

Back to the Town Hall for I Like Trains. I was still a bit worried about the lighting rig falling over as it was wobbling a bit, but this particular band were somewhat gentler. There wasn’t much illumination to the front of the stage by now owing to closed curtains and some fading light but a few fisheye shots were squeezed out and then dashed back to Mustangs to catch Piskie Sits.

Well that was the plan anyway. I got there to see Harry and co soundchecking but was distracted by Morsey waving frantically from the other end of the stage to check my phone which read “urgent sarah needs photos at hop quick”. I made a swift exit and dashed across Westgate narrowly avoiding the Saturday traffic where landlord Ian Fisher was waiting for me, “the sponsor for upstairs needs photos, it’s a condition of the sponsorship, it’s rammed up there though…” – hardly surprising since the next act was Los Campesinos! and even I’ve heard of them.

The thought process went something like this: “250 people, I reckon, all squished into a room which wasn’t designed for 250 people. Hardly any aircon, windows wide open. I look across the venue to where I need to stand, co-photographer Jon Pinder has chosen the easy corner near the door and I need to get to the other side. Urgh. Right. Excuse me please mate, can I just get thr… what the f…” I felt myself being bodily lifted up, camera kit and all, raised aloft on a sea of wristbanded hands. It’s years since I last crowdsurfed and at the age of 37 I wasn’t really prepared to do it again. Too bad, the only thing going through my mind was “Er, crap, there’s a wide open window coming towards me, and we’re on the first floor!” – so I nosedived, landed head-first on the aluminium crowdbarrier and almost hoofed the poor teenager behind me in her mush with my boot. But there I was – I grabbed the required crowd photos plus some of Los Campesinos! themselves and reversed the process to get to the door (which was, mercifully, a lot easier).

At that point I’d guess it was around 8:30pm. The Piskies were still on at Mustangs but I had a stinker of a headache by that point, almost a migraine. I wandered outside The Hop and bumped into Dean (Freeman) who commented I didn’t look too well, but I needed to man up and get the Piskies on their largest stage gig. Back at Mustangs the lighting hadn’t improved but there were quite a few folks watching the band, mostly stragglers from the Darwins set or who had arrived early for The Wedding Present. Long-standing drinking buddy Bez had arrived by then and bought me a beer which did nothing to improve the migraine situation but rehydrated me enough to get the shots I needed in the final two songs of their set.

A wander back to the Cathedral to listen to some of Emmy The Great with Laurie. Both Nicky and John were already there: I’d missed a lot of the set plus this migraine was really kicking in by now. Laurie had suggested I chug a can of full-fat Coke and some ibuprofen which seemed to do the trick at least temporarily: I soaked in the beautiful sounds in the Cathedral while dumping off some photos onto the netbook hard disk as I’d run out of CF (or at least the non-Kingston CF, and remember the last time I used those). Some quiet long-lens photos of Emmy, some relaxation, and then I was raring to go again.

Headliners The Wedding Present were trumpeted, not least because it was their first visit to Wakefield in 20 years. I arrived at Mustangs after the set had started and annoyingly I’d already missed my favourite Weddos song ‘Kennedy’. The sound wasn’t fantastic but quite literally the joint was jumping – too much in fact and the bouncers kicked off at the poor punters. While bearing in mind that the bouncers are usually used to a raucous Saturday night Wakefield crowd they were completely out of order – any exuberant pogoing and you got ejected out the back door with a few well-aimed punches from the door-staff at the same time. Very very sad and put a damper on what was otherwise a fantastic day. For my part I was right above where the bouncers were kicking off and managed to get a couple of photos of the ruckus but nothing useful. The gig was stopped while the bouncers were ejected from the premises – I mean, it must be bad for the security staff to get thrown out of the gig they’re meant to be policing!

After all of that, Gedge and co went back on, I took lots more photos, it was pretty good, and once they’d finished I went back outside to find Saturday-night Westgate in its typical unsurprising state of pissed-up perma-tan tarts and Ben Sherman meatheads. A bit of a scene-change. John, Laurie, Jon P, Nicky and I decided it was time for a hard-earned pint and repaired to The Jam Inn (the new chillout bit of The Hop) for a jar of Yorkshire Blonde and a chinwag. Hardcore to the last, Laurie caught Middleman (as they’re “his” band) but I was just too knackered and I’ve seen them before a few times anyway.

So that was my Saturday. We gigged on the Sunday but that was about it – I’d planned some more photos from the Fringe but was just too shattered and I’d got over 20,000 photos to sort through. There’s some good reviews of it all including this one at Sweeping The Nation and Dean’s account of the day from an organiser’s perspective (just in case you think I nicked his idea for this blog, I actually started writing it the day after the festival… best laid plans though, I’ve had a lot of photos to sort and I forgot to take the following Monday off work!).

A selection of photos from the day are being uploaded to my Long Division set on Flickr and there’s some pics from other photographers in the Long Division Flickr Group. Full sets of bands are gradually going up to photos.jml.net as I’m sorting through them. Should be finished in the next few days hopefully.

(A postscript: Monday morning came and a delivery van showed up with a large box of CDs. The moral? Multi-venue festivals and iPhone Amazon 1-click don’t mix. Ouch.)

Jun 06

Long Division: Wakefield’s Multi-Venue Music Festival

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This weekend it’s Long Division, a multi-venue festival in Wakefield run by the folks behind The Rhubarb Bomb magazine.

Bands include The Wedding Present, Darwin Deez, Emmy The Great, Fonda 500, China Shop Bull, Piskie Sits, and lots of others. Venues stretch from Mustang Sally’s all the way to Wakefield Cathedral.

I’m off photographing it all – three days of argh-do-I-have-enough-CF and watching the Macbook creak under the sheer weight of Lightroom adjustments. Also, Obvious Pseudonym are playing on Sunday upstairs at The Hop (Facebook event here). We’re on at 4pm and it’s a 14+ gig I think; you can bring your pet teenager so they can stare sullenly at their feet while we rock our thang.

Some official links for you:

There’s a plethora of Facebook events too:

Although Friday and Sunday are free gigs in all venues, tickets for Saturday wristbands are still available – over the bar at The Hop is probably easiest for Wakefield-based people, but if you want to order online or you’re elsewhere there’s a list of outlets on the official website.

May 15

Joel & Nicky’s Eurovision Party 2011

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So the flags have come down, the decorations are off the walls and the smallest disco in the world is back to being a dumping ground for music kit and clothes waiting to be ironed. The dishwasher is creaking at the seams and we are alone in the house once more – but the past two days have been insane: it’s been our annual Eurovision Song Contest party of course – the biggest and most lavish party of our year, a party infamous for being a bloody good laugh where lots of our friends old and new meet up. Even those who hate the contest seem to enjoy it and hide in the kitchen drinking all sorts of bizarre alcoholic drinks, and the aficionados score the contest and provide amateur punditry. This year was our ninth Eurovision party (!) and arguably one of the best including an eclectic mix of friends and relatives from almost all parts of our lives including some folks we’d not seen since our wedding.

The Contest itself was full of surprises – I thought the UK entry ‘I Can’ by Blue was a bit of a flub, apparently ‘our boys’ performed well in the arena but didn’t come over very well on screen (Jon Jacob put it much more descriptively in his Thoroughly Good blog); despite the performance we were awarded a steady stream of ‘not bad’ points in the 1-5 range but nothing major. For me the big surprise was Azerbaijan winning although it wasn’t by a good head and the voting could easily have swayed Italy into first place not to mention that there were better songs. Cue astounded yells of “what??!” and frantic attempts to work out where Azerbaijan is, followed by decisions to not go there next year and instead stop at home for party #10. Ho hum. I hoped either Sweden or Serbia would win (or, er, Ireland) but never mind. Jedward have, however, persuaded me to acquire a glitter cannon for an OP gig. No doubt ESCtoday.com will have a voting analysis and various ‘what-if’ scenarios removing the juries, block voting, etc.

Back to the party: Phil and I had taken the decision some weeks back to attempt a joint outfit and go to the party as Jedward. This involved glittering red jackets and silly hair neither of which were easy to find so I ended up in front of the sewing machine for a couple of days to make these two sequined blazers… therein also lay the source of the stress as I didn’t complete my own jacket until about 7:15pm on the night of the party after running out of fabric on Saturday lunchtime and breaking five sewing-machine needles (the outfits worked well though!). Honourable fancy-dress mentions this year to Rhiannon who was a wonderful union jack, Marios who was blue, and my gorgeous missus who was a swinging 60s backing singer from Serbia – the third time she’s been Serbia too! Photos are in the usual place.

The ‘do’ went on into the small hours. Phil and I were caught dancing in the garden in a Jedward stylee (arms, legs everywhere). A large light which Phil had brought was erected in the back garden, giving daylight at 2am. More drinks culminating in an enjoyable Cognac in the kitchen around 4am with Ron. Plenty of guests retreating to bed in a steady stream from about midnight and Ellie’s first attempt at DJing (she’s got a damn good talent for it I think!). Lots of Blue Bols based cocktails and even a Union Jack ice-cream I’d managed to concoct.

Predictably, headaches the following day and Sunday lunch for 12 people. Lots of great memories, plenty of flashbacks, and looking forward to next year: you gotta admit, we throw an awesome Eurovision party. Next year’s our tenth one, we’ll have to make sure it’s bigger and better… :)

May 12

Eurovision 2011 Semi-Final #2

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Here we are again – the second semi final. Sara Cox sounds a bit more enthusiastic (has she had some nose-candy?) and we’re back on the sofa. Lots of party planning, prep and stuff so we’re having a little welcome oasis in the middle while waiting for Chinese food.

Sound balance is good from the word go and we’re off:

  1. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Clapping in the audience already, wow, that’s pretty impressive. They also seem to have Vincent Price singing, and a really bad piano mimer.
  2. Austria: Tuning not bad, she’s a bit Jade-Ewen-y or maybe Mystic Meg. She’s got a little army of singers too – I quite like this one.
  3. Netherlands: Crap unmemorable pop-rock from a singer who can’t sing (although is making a good fist of the Brian Adams impression – or do I mean Brian Ferry? I can’t decide). Anyway, yeah, unmemorable. Bored now by the second minute.
  4. Belgium: It’s the beatboxing Manhattan Transfer tribute act – competent, completely acapella, really cool actually. I hope this lot get through, it’s not often you’ll see this sort of talent. Pity they look like the cast of Saved By The Bell aged 40.
  5. Slovakia: Ooh pretty. Tuning a bit crap, actually no by 1:15 the tuning is a lot crap. The one in white can sing, none of the rest of them can though. Dull song. Fail.
  6. Ukraine: The girl can sing, the sand art is interesting, but the song is a bit dull. However I can see this one going through purely on the basis of the sand art which was fascinating. The arrangement lacks meat though!
  7. Moldova: The chant gets wearing, the unicycle girl with the trumpet is unnecessary. Novelty act, can’t see it getting through. If a garden gnome circus act did Gogol Bordello that’d be… well, yes.
  8. Sweden: CLASSIC Eurodisco – this is excellent, really like it. I wasn’t keen on it in the prelisten but this is ace. And I’m in a cage, a M*THERF**IN’ CAGE! I reckon if there is any justice this song has it all sewn up this year.
  9. Cyprus: I’m bored by 30 seconds in. Top leaning act. It’s possible to sing Rhianna’s “Umbrella” to the first slow bits. Can’t see this making it through. What the shit is the hammer throwing about?
  10. Bulgaria: Roxette innit, or Pink. Good use of catwalk and staging – dull song but good theatrics and execution. I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t go through.
  11. FYR Macedonia: if Ricky Gervais and Julian Clary had babies, they’d look like him. They’re using national dress too which is usually an epic fail. Dull song. Good dancers, but crap song and crap execution. And a megaphone.
  12. Israel: Much as I love Dana International, this is weak. Good use of catwalk, playing to crowd, all that – but it’s still a weak song unsuited to her voice. Unfortunate. N thinks she might go through because of who she is.
  13. Slovenia: Nice outfit, song is a bit too slow for my liking but sung well (except for the end when she’s tossed it off). Slovenian Girls Aloud. My friend David reckoned if The Grid (Tron Legacy) had a Pride event, it’d look like this.
  14. Romania: Hotel FM were a big tip early on, but I wasn’t too impressed – bit of a Take That tribute act (or at least Mark Owen). I quite like it on stage though, it’s classic bop-pop Eurovision is this one.
  15. Estonia: The problem with delay is that when you’re out of tune it’s very very obvious. She’s a bit Sally-Bowles-In-Cabaret-Does-Europop. It’s a good song, executed badly, but by a pretty girl with good staging. Lukewarm response from the audience. Why is the London Eye in the background?
  16. Belarus: Songs with the country name in the title rarely do well, and I’m expecting this to be no exception. The tinkly mandolin thing is a bit early-90s Levellers innit.
  17. Latvia: Hmm, again, crap tuning and an unmemorable song.
  18. Denmark: Another one I liked on a prelisten, but the pronunciation is irking me about 10s in, plus they’ve nicked Jedward’s hair. It’s not bad, good optimistic song. It’s a song I’d expect Gary Barlow to knock out when he was bored.
  19. Ireland: Jedward were a big hype, even now on Twitter it’s gone mental. The boys are good, the backing singers are spoiling what energy they have. I really like the song but the execution isn’t as good as it should have been and the rest of Europe are probably thinking ‘FUCK, ESCAPED LEPRECHAUNS, THEY’LL KILL US ALL!’. Good luck tho.

So here we go for votes…

  • Nicky’s picks: Belgium, Slovenia, Ireland
  • Joel’s picks: Sweden, Belgium, Ireland
  • Joel’s predictions: Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Estonia
  • Winners were: Estonia, Romania, Moldova, Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Denmark, Austria, Ukraine, Slovenia, Sweden

A big shock for Dana International not getting through but it would have been on past reputation rather than the current song. The must-have accessory this year seems to be the fake trumpet ‘played’ by a random member of your band.

I won’t be tweeting or blogging on Saturday as we’ve got our annual Eurovision party (a huge sigh of relief from the remaining followers who I have on Twitter!), so if I don’t talk to you before then, enjoy yourselves :P

May 10

Eurovision 2011 Semi-Final #1

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Alright then, that time of year where me and the missus sit on the sofa, drink gin, and take the piss out of this year’s batch of entries:

  1. Poland: weak song, poor singing, the backing track seems to low and not sure they can hear it well? Are we starting with a Gemini? 10/10 tho for looking like an Abba tribute.
  2. Norway: Hubba hubba? It’s a bunch of redcoats escaped from Butlins! Again, poor singing, the backing mix seems a bit rubbish again? Looks like Scary Spice has escaped. Apparently the first time Swahili has been used at Eurovision – remember that fact kids!
  3. Albania: I really like this one – the singer can actually sing, the song is catchy, and the staging is pretty cool too. No negative points from me, which is really really unusual! Nicky reckons song’s too low for her range though.
  4. Armenia: This is quite catchy too but she’s horribly off key. Are the monitors broken or something? It really is awful as a result on an otherwise good song!
  5. Turkey: Musical competence, pop-rock, and as Chris Addison put it ‘the new opening sequence of Panorama’ (aka a contorting girl in a globe).
  6. Serbia: I really like this retro-60s staging. Yeah baby, Austin-Powers-tastic! It’s a good song, and they seem to have sorted the mix out a bit.
  7. Russia: They’ve pinched the bastard child of Vanilla Ice and Shane Ritchie! Don’t think that should go through.
  8. Switzerland: I quite like this but it’s been ripped off from Jack Johnson – Nicky’s suggested she should be disqualified because she can actually sing. Have we had a ukelele on-stage before? Have we had a Jessica Rabbit lookalike?
  9. Georgia: Intro reminds me of Robert Miles’ song “Children”. The rap totally destroys it, sounds like it should have been played on Atlantic-252 in the early 90s. Too Skunk Anansie for my liking and they’ve got a Keith-From-Prodigy impersonator.
  10. Finland: Peter sounds like a nutter. Pleasant song. Bit too much Peter, Paul & Mary (or Rod, Jane & Freddy). And he looks like the Hitler Youth guy singing ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’ in Cabaret.
  11. Malta: I like this in the pre-listen, but now I’ve seen the mirror-universe Sheila’s Wheels women and THOSE EYEBROWS, OH GOD THOSE EYEBROWS… umm, nah.
  12. San Marino: That’s a nice dress, but we’re back to being out of tune. Not so keen on the song itself, she’s trying to be Beverley Knight and failing.
  13. Croatia: They have a DJ, that’s never a good sign, and it appears to be Slash. Two costume changes though during a 3 minute song, the force is strong in this one (just not musically).
  14. Iceland: It’s “Tinker’s Rucksack” or maybe a young version of “The Grumbleweeds”! N reckons it’s got a charm of its own but I’m not convinced, and the odd cheeky wink-to-camera puts me off. Plus they have James Corden singing. Musically very competent tho. I’m ashamed to say that by the end I like it.
  15. Hungary: Beverley Callard lookalike. Bloke doing backflips. She’s not actually moved by 1:30 into it, wondering if gravity alone is keeping the dress on. Good use of lighting on costumes.
  16. Portugal: Right, I am now utterly convinced this lot are the Portugese Village People. They’ve got Ron Burgundy, the VP pole-climbing engineer, Mimi from Allo Allo, Fidel Castro, and all sorts. Impressive. Very very impressive. Song’s shit tho. This is apparently a proper protest anthem in Portugal now…
  17. Lithuania: Ah yeah this is the song that’s ripped off Jade Ewen from a few years ago. It’s a bit, er, 1970s variety isn’t it? Sign-language too, we haven’t had that on Eurovision for a while. Nice dress. Good tits.
  18. Azerbaijan: Another Abba-costumed song. Girl can’t pronounce English. Boring song. Yawn. Like the fiery rain pyrotechnics but not keen on anything else in this one.
  19. Greece: I’m very very surprised with the painful dancing the singers didn’t get hoofed in the head. Is this Michael Buble? The song is dull, slow, operatic and reasonably executed but not really catchy. Maybe Hurts type stuff.

And the results from Wrenthorpe are…

  • Voted for: Portugal, Switzerland, Iceland.
  • Deserve to go through: Serbia, Switzerland, Iceland, Portugal.
  • Actual results: Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Iceland

So that’s half way through then!

Our main comment on the coversage: please please please BBC Eurovision Team get rid of Sara Cox! She was utterly unenthusiastic, and although Scott Mills overegged the sarcasm (and was quite witty in places) Cox was unbearable. If you want someone female and good, get Lauren Laverne.

Finally, people who overuse tilt-shift lenses as much as the host country this year in the little ‘country vignette’ video need to be shot.

See you on Thursday for semi #2 ;)