Last Week In London: Champagne & Chansons
- Posted on September 17, 2007 10:01 AM
- 0 comments
By Peter Coulston
Here we are, at the beginning of another week with lots of good stuff to look forward to. Hopefully, this week will be tube strike free; but the way Gordon Brown is going, everybody will be on the picket line before long. So let’s avoid politics, as it usually manages to avoid us, and look to music for our solace.
I chose to start the week in Kingston upon Thames (the tubes don’t go there) at the Grey Horse on Richmond Road just behind Kingston Railway Station. It is a well established rock venue which also houses the local RamJam jazz and blues club and various other gigs. The music is in a back room kitted out rock club style and very suitable for the occasion. The evening featured four bands specialising in various forms of loud rock supported by lots of Les Pauls and Strats testing the limits of the Marshall Amps and our eardrums. Saved by Zero opened and were plagued with technical problems from the outset. They also had a new drummer who didn’t know any of the songs, but you wouldn’t have known it if he hadn’t confessed. Well done that man. The guitars were very good but the vocals were weak. Good potential though. Jets To Cadence moved things up a notch with fine songs well sung by James W. Adrian and Greg on Guitars, Stu on bass and James P on drums knew their stuff and the overall performance was impressive. Check out their myspace.
Feral Sun are a London based band, originally from South Africa who really know what they are doing. Strong vocals from Mick, with excellent support from Chris, Ed and Jay on guitar, bass and drums respectively. This band is gritty and tight with a great stage presence and the ability to be up there with the best. I am going to be watching these guys, and so should you. Their best songs are on myspace. I thought that this band would be a hard act to follow, but Kakuzi pulled it off. Less basic than Feral Sun, these guys pulled out all the stops with their very energetic and musically sound set. Again, good stage presence from Lucas O’Neil on lead vocals and guitar, Sam Yoneda on lead guitar, Ali Lawson on guitar, keys and vocals, AJ on bass and Dave Medlicott on Drums. They cover a few styles and should be careful not to overstretch themselves and lose direction. Overall, a very sound band, with potential and a myspace well worth visiting.
Wednesday found me in very different territory, as I was representing this website at the launch of Blake, a four man group who combine opera and pop in a similar vein to Il Divo. It was a very sumptuous affair hosted by Universal Records at the Mayfair Hotel on Berkeley Street, where the champagne and wine was limitless and many of the guests were probably legless by the end of the evening. The music and entertainment industry was well represented and at one point I was in the company of Cilla Black and Patti Boyd. One wag suggested offering my services as a toyboy for one or other of them but I really don’t have the time, what with covering so many gigs. There you go, that’s rock ‘n roll. As for Blake, they are Stephen Bowman, Jules Knight, Dominic Tighe and Oliver Baines; and very fine singers they are too. They met through Facebook and the rest is history. Their set was very short and covered such diverse material as “In Paradisum (Gladiator)”, “God Only Knows” and “Moon River” as well as some some Italian opera and “Hallelujah”. More geared to pop than opera, there is a big market for this kind of group. Their album comes out on 5 November.
On Thursday, I was invited to a gig at the Green Note, an acoustic music outlet/vegetarian restaurant in Camden. This outlet is small, very friendly, and always a pleasure to visit. On this occasion, Ed Laurie opened with his band and performed a set of songs that had a sort of East European/romany feel to them as well as hints of French chanson. Some of the songs were more folky in the accepted sense, for example “Now Then”, and “I See No End”, which you can hear on his myspace. “Small Boat, Big Sea” was good and you can get his album “Meanwhile In The Park” on itunes. Interesting stuff that is worth a listen. The second and final act, Ad Vanderveen, was far easier to pin down musically; pure Americana. With his musical roots in Canada, this artist has a beautiful repertoire of songs that he sings well and a guitar style that is happy either flatpicking or finger style (clawhammer). The wonderful songs just kept flowing and you can hear “Life’s A River” and “Who’s Blues” on his myspace. “This Fleeting Life”, First Feeling” and “If My Eyes Were Blind” are just a few of the excellent entries in this man’s songbook. Ably accompanied by Kersten Deligny on backing vocals and Jim Morrison on violin, this was a truly enjoyable experience. So, another good week on the music front, with lots more to come no doubt over the coming seven days. I shall be back next week and I hope you will.
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