Copy and paste from an audience member at the last Kindred Spirit gig there. I think he was largely referring to our barnstorming set-closing cover of ‘The Chain’. I don’t have audio or video of that particular rabble-rousing (yet … ), but there’s this:
https://youtu.be/xCQbfHUfYys
And we have a busy gig diary, so catch us for the next version!
However much work I may do freelance, as a one-off hired hand rather than (or rather as well as) playing with an established group, I’m essentially an ensemble player not a solo artist. That partly, maybe, goes with the instrument(s), certainly with my personal tastes (I don’t like playing unaccompanied much and like using backing tracks less; just as importantly, I love group interplay and like to play a balance of accompanying and leading rather than being out the front all the time), and a certain amount with chance of development of my career.
But I’ve tended to have mostly solo ‘shop window’ material, partly because it’s the assumption when putting together showreels or demos and partly because it’s not fair to just appropriate my bands’ recordings or videos to my own website, but not that straightforward on most platforms to gather other people’s content together under my name without divorcing it from the creators.
Except, of course, you can do just that with a Youtube playlist. So have a watch below for really a much more accurate sample of what I do a lot of the time, with some of the key people I do it with at present.
This five-minute track includes at least four different beats (some of them might be the same tempo, but with different rhythm), three distinct instrumental sections, some of them repeated, a verse with a built-in gradual slowing down, and nods in the directions of pre-Roman Druidism, British traditional reels, improvised rock solos and the neo-pagan revival. If that ain’t prog, tell me what is.
Best bit is, it had more of the crowd dancing than anything else in the first half of Kindred Spirit‘s set …
Want more? We’re out and about as a five-piece again this weekend, live at the Three Kings in Twickenham on Saturday 23 April. See you down the front where my lead lets me dance …
Some musical briefs carry with them certain implications to anyone with experience.
Say you’re playing in a bar (rather than a function room or venue), free entry. You’re asked for two 45-minute sets. The venue is supplying a PA but you have a suspicion it might have been borrowed for the occasion, and you’re topping it up with some bits of your own.
All of this tends to imply that the normal booking is crowd-pleasing covers, pub rock, maybe even tribute acts. Which, if you’re the Filthy Spectacula, playing all-originals sets of off-centre gypsy-pirate-steampunk-goth-cabaret rock-n-roll, might cause you to seriously question your trust in the person that recommended you to the venue or vice versa. Nothing wrong with those gigs, they’re good and bread and butter and I play a lot of them with other groups, but, well, we’re not a covers act to keep the maximum number of people happy at the cost of being unremarkable …
That was us in the Music Mill, Plumstead, about half seven on Saturday. And as we set up and got our set started, there was a visible mixed initial reaction (ignoring the less than a dozen people we brought with us!) – some guys down the front getting right into the lairy bantering energy of a Filthy gig from the off, quite a few more clearly wondering: ‘Who are these guys with the weird black clothes and shouty stage manner? Do I want to stay for this?’
Uniform testimony is we won them over. Most of the near half of the bar seemed to be dancing by the end of the first set, and I think we sold more merch in the interval than we do in the whole of most gigs. Once we’d recovered the crowd’s attention after the break, this was heading into being another high-energy, no-holds-barred extended gig, with me out in front of the speakers dancing, the place almost too hot to breathe and the calls for more so loud and extended we ended up repeating two songs rather than disappoint. When we finally had finished, I think the booker was as happy to suggest we should come back as we were to agree. And it took me as long to disentangle myself from all the fervent compliments, thanks and handshakes as it did to actually pack up, before I could leave!
In the words of Chuck Berry, ‘folks it goes to show you never can tell’.
Here’s to two more unknown quantities for the Filth in the next fortnight: a new-to-us festival, Landed, in mid Wales, and on the east side Rochester Sweeps. See you at one or the other for more mayhem!
(another quote from Neil Mach’s review of FourPlay)
During Kindred Spirit‘s soundcheck at this event, one of the tech crew tried to tuck the majority of my long green jack lead under my mike stand so it was out of the way. I politely explained that I would be wanting to move around pretty as much as far as the wire would let me while performing, and loosened it again.
Here’s our first encore:
https://youtu.be/xCQbfHUfYys
After the set, the same bloke came up to me and said: ‘When you said you roam around playing I did not playing take you seriously enough! After one song I was like, “this fiddle player can play”. After three songs I was like, “this fiddle player dances!”.’
Mischief, as the Potter fans would say, managed. I solemnly swear that I will continue to be up to no good …
Tomorrow with the very no-good Filthy Spectacula in south London.
Next weekend with Kindred Spirit again, at the Three Kings in Twickenham on Saturday 23rd.
See you and your inflatable guitars there!
At your service.
The full quote from Neil Mach, reviewing Saturday night’s FourPlay Prog Rock Festival, runs:
We were entertained by the high-spirited mischief from prog-god in-the-making Martin Ash on violin. (His first appearance with the band.) Drummer Chris Goode was also on top form. And we loved Catherine Dimmock’s cheerful vocals and soothing flute. Elaine’s lead vocals were, as usual, nectar-sweet and filled with personality.
To find out what else he thought about Kindred Spirit’s set, and the other three bands on the bill, read the full review.
https://youtu.be/4u6Buro9pV0
Then come and hear us and the rest of the Kindred Spirit prog-folk-rock army do a full headline originals set, including this number, on Saturday:
http://www.thefestivalcalendar.co.uk/festivals/Fourplay_Prog_Rock_Festival_2016
On Sunday, I was at Resident Studios in north London with Tai and Becky Azeez, working on the video for their drum&bass track ‘Lead Me’.
You might be questioning why an electronic track would have a video with acoustic string quartet and grand piano … Tai (just visible at the piano above) is (of course, since he hired me … :-p) a more than usually discerning electronic producer, and refuses to compromise on using actual live string playing (and, as it turns out, acoustic piano) on his tracks, rather than building them out of patch banks and MIDI triggers.
The quartet – Vaiva Tamosiunaite and Virag Zsoldos violins, me on viola, Amber Heard cello – had in fact recorded the string loops (and, in Vaiva’s case, various violin lead licks, fills and solos) for this track a little while back, so it was rather a satisfying bookend to be able to come back and input into the visual representation too, after a lot of editing and production!
Watch this space for a release date …
I played a lovely little pub gig in the duo form of Kindred Spirit on Saturday, at the Hope in Richmond. Lots of people said they would see us again, so that bodes well for future flow of gigs!
(By the way, I can’t resist sharing that the three-minute walk from Richmond station to the Hope takes you past the physical footprint (or offices anyway) of Not on the High Street.com. They are undeniably on the corner of the high street.)
That done though, it’s full steam ahead for the band and me personally to Saturday’s FourPlay Prog Rock mini-festival. Kindred Spirit are headlining with an hour-long originals set and there are three other full sets building up to us. Acts vary from the steampunky (Spriggan Mist), to the protest-prog (Quiet Wish), to the unashamedly Floydian (The Far Meadow) to the prog-folk-rock (us), but for my feminist friends (of which there are many), this is the first time I’ve seen a bill entirely of female-fronted acts that didn’t try to trade on the fact as a major piece of niche-appeal marketing. OK, until now. I spoilt it. #sorrynotsorry …
The venue, Bracknell’s Acoustic Couch, is a car-park basement dungeon decorated with oil barrels and cable drums, that lets you order in your own pizza. Be honest guys, it doesn’t get much more rock-n-roll than that.
Rumour has it national prog promoters have got wind of this one on the grapevine and are coming down to check it out. So buy your tickets and see us now before we’re the next King Crimson and you have to remortgage your holiday home to get into our gigs!