London Viola Player, Violinist & Arranger For Hire

Martin Ash LTCL

Land the catch and Sweep the stakes

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filth sweeps 2016

Busy weekend’s Filthy spectaculation over the bank holiday.

First up was a trip out into Wales (well, for those of us that don’t live there or nearly there) for Landed, a generous-pocket sized affair that had us on mid-evening Saturday, between 7 teenagers from Merthyr Tydfil I’d roughly categorise as soul-inflected indie and a proper political ska band. After coming from Twickenham to nearly Llandrindod Wells in the back of a car, I was having difficulty tearing myself away from a beer tent full of mismatched sofas and very strong vanilla stout … but once they got over the initial fear (a common starting reaction) the crowd loved it and so did we.

Onwards the next day to Rochester, for their ‘Sweeps’ May Day festival. My advance fear had been not getting an audience at our afternoon slot in a pub – it turned out lack of people was the last of our worries. Getting through the crowds with a PA and a drum kit, now that was an issue. Breathing. Getting into a loo. If you’ve never been to Sweeps: don’t turn up before about 7pm if you’re at all claustrophobic or sociophobic.

Even by 5 we found some respectable upstanding local wives in a merry enough state to apply some very interesting dance moves (and a selfie stick) to our set, and as you can see above I just managed to squeeze out between Mr E’s … er … strumming elbow *that was close* and my mike stand to join them and the band widows, fast becoming my signature gimmick with all bands. I’ve realised if you’re doing a blazing fiddle solo at the same time, no one seems to really notice how terrible your dancing is (and I think they let you off with a lot more sloppy fingerwork on the violin too). Quids in all round really …

Things had quietened rather by our second full-length set, in a different venue over the road at 9. However, we did get to serenade the main booker for the event, so here’s to bigger (and less crowded! and with artist parking and house PA!) things next year!

And in the meantime, to going over to Bristol tomorrow night (yes, Thursday!) to support goth royalty Aurelio Voltaire and dark cabaret crazies Cauda Pavoris at the Fleece. If you’re coming, email [email protected] to get on the £5 off on the door list and show up by 7:30 to see our set! There for a Filthy time not a long time …

‘the Lindsey Buckingham of Violins’

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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!

The boxed set

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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.

A progressive agenda

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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 …

Expect the unexpected

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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!

‘High-spirited mischief’

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(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!

‘prog-god in-the-making’

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kindred spirit fourplay

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.

kindred spirit fourplay 2

Shoot me up

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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 …

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