Holme Vally Review (March 2013)

Open Mic #2

Walking through Holmfirth with a bag of chips on the night of my second open mic was like being transported back in time.  UFO were playing at Picturedrome and the fans had arrived in their droves, wearing denim jackets with the band name on the back, blue jeans and boots.  It could have been the long haired 1970’s, except most of the fans had lost their flowing locks to the ravages of time. 

The aging biking community had also come out to play, leaving polished Norton and Triumph bikes to be admired like works of art all around the town centre.  It would be easy to forget how massive UFO once were, something akin to Kings of Leon, and having them playing here in Holmfirth was quite something.  In fact, if we leave it thirty years, we may even get Kings of Leon rocking up at the Picturedrome.

To think that my open mic was competing with the likes of UFO was kinda funny.  The voices of music past, present and the future would be ringing out in the valley tonight.  I had a packed schedule of sixteen musicians to get through this evening and as a result had to limit the songs to two per artist.

Two thirds of Old Man Pie kicked off the proceedings with renditions of The Poisoning of Captain Floyd and Beer Monster.  In what was typical bad timing I’d come down with a crap cold the day before and my voice was starting to ebb away.  But I reckoned that Jack Daniels was the perfect remedy for temporarily restoring the old vocal chords and that seemed to do the trick. 

Jacob Fullalove followed the pie guys with a couple of covers, Paul Weller and David Bowie songs.  Jacob is 14 years young and has just been selected to play for the prestigious National Youth Guitar Ensemble.  Afterwards he confessed to me that he’d been nervous about playing, but you wouldn’t have known it from his performance.

Tim Taylor played some of his own instrumental pieces on guitar, and Paul + Paul played some enjoyable songs, one of which had us singing along to something we heard on the grapevine.  Phil added his own original tunes into the mix supporting one of my aims of the night to promote new song writing and creativity.

I was so pleased that local legend Jimmy No Pants Dare (left) also turned up to play us a couple of songs.  I knew that he ‘couldn’t be arsed’ (his words) to go come out that night but had been persuaded by top mate Harry to contribute some music.  It’s always a pleasure to listen to Jimmy play and the audience certainly appreciated him being there.

We took some time out from the music to hear more about the charity skate4isaac from Paul Atkinson.  The aim was to raise the necessary funds to extend the skateboard park in memory of Isaac Atkinson, as it was a place he had loved to hang out with his friends.  A variety of events were taking place in Holmfirth to contribute to this important cause and you can find out more by following the link below.

The marvellous Darius Kanani joined us from Leeds and he’s a busy guy at the moment gigging all over Yorkshire and beyond.  Leo Brazil (top) brought his own songs on electric guitar and he is a fine musician.  And though I’m more than happy to listen to acoustic guitars, it’s also good to add some electrification into the proceedings.  Things got noisier after Leo had played, and a whole lot more lively.

The Graham Browning Trio provided upright bass, clarinet and guitar in a jazz tinged series of songs which, as Graham himself admitted, were about depressing things, but were delivered in an uplifting fashion.  The band were tight and Graham’s vocals were dark.  I’ve always enjoyed Graham’s song writing and his intense and sometimes self conscious delivery.

During the Trio set, Nig Richards and the Primates (right) arrived from Manchester having spent some time trying to find our hidden valley.  It was great to see them and they seemed relieved to have made it over the moors.  To celebrate we downed a round of Jack Daniels and from then on I found that the music sounded intensely wonderful and the place was full of incredibly attractive and talented people.   

Dan Gallo set the night on fire with some raucous stomp box and electric guitar.  He was shit hot this night and again, electrification took us to some new musical highs.  Nig Richards and the Primates – technically it was Nig Richards and the Primate, as only half the band were able to make it – played a scorching set with Nig himself using a one stringed instrument that he’d made from a broom handle and another guitar he’d fashioned from a toilet seat.  It was a rocking good set and I wanted to hear more, so I booked them for the Holmfirth Festival of Folk (they will be playing Cellar 88 on 10 May).

Decca, a true professional, ended the night with his anecdotes and a couple of covers, the last of which had me waving my pint in the air to The Fog on the Tyne.  It had been a night filled with surprises and a marvellous mix of all kinds of music.  The generous audience had raised over £200 for skate4isaac and hopefully had some fun along the way.  My only criticism, we would have have liked some female musicians and performers to join the entertainment.  The next event on 28 March will address this imbalance and is already shaping up to be another fabulous night with the brilliant Ottersgear (not to be missed) playing a full set and all in aid of the Holmfirth Festival of Folk.  Be there or be square – live music is back in town.

Watch out for more events in aid of skate4isaac right here:

www.skate4isaac.com

The Farmers Arms, Holmfirth

I spent an enjoyable evening at the Farmers Arms in Holmfirth last night courtesy of the open mic.  There was a friendly and relaxed atmosphere and a good crowd of musicians, many of whom I’d never heard play before.   They ranged from a young folk band with fiddle and some excellent tunes, to singer song writers, and a spot on cover of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold.  And I always like it on a night like this when something unexpected pops up as it usually does, this time in the form of some  solo saxophony.

This night takes place every second Tuesday, unless it snows badly, which it did in January but is hopefully unlikely to do so for the rest of the year – famous last words and all that.  I’ll certainly be bobbing along to the next one for a few beers and songs.  Hope to see you there.

-

Just as an aside, I took a picture of the ladies toilet - to be clear, of the ladies toilet door, on which a passing punter had randomly drawn this fun picture:

   

Open Mic Poster

Guitar n Verse (Manchester)

Played a couple of pieces over in Manchester last week courtesy of Jeff and Andy at Guitar n Verse.  Obviously, it being a night for guitars (not electronics) I had to ditch the kaossilator in favour of some strumming and picking (mostly strumming).  There was some first class poetry and song-writing on offer upstairs at Gullivers. 

I turned to Old Man Pie for comfort and played (1) Vague Plague (2) The Poisoning of Captain Floyd.  Jeff took some photos of my busta blood vessel red face and plastered them all over facebook.  Here's one of the least worst!  I won't make a habit of that solo guitar thing but it was fun as a one off.

Open Mic #1

At the end of the first ever open mic I'd organised, I staggered happily home along Huddersfield Road with a great sense of satisfaction and achievement.  James from Old Man Pie had offered me a lift, but I’d refused, wanting to take in the night and what had been achieved.  First and foremost we’d raised over £230 for the Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team and the new HQ they are working towards.  The audience had been so generous and although you can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, I reckon most of them had enjoyed a good night of live music and talented performers.

I also felt my quest for original music had worked out, providing a mix of entertainment and creativity.  We had Robert Sharp and the Black Hill (pictured right), a band that included a Cajon, bass, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals and keyboards.  The limited PA may have struggled with the combination, but you could still hear the quality of Robert’s song writing coming through.  There was also comedy from ‘itsmoida’ with Ken's Folky Karaoke, and quirky nonsense from Jim Murdoch’s upbeat take on life, dreams and being chased.  The band Fishing for Compliments, a duo from Golcar, caught quite a few at the end of their set and Steph Stephenson, as always, a God send to the night, playing her own songs to an attentive audience.

Chris Martin, from Batley, jokingly told us he’d never needed the help of Mountain Rescue because he’d always just followed the person up ahead.  That was all very well, remarked one of the Mountain Rescue guys, as long as the person up ahead knew where they were going.  Chris played some wicked slide guitar and sneaked in a few covers, also observing the differences between Holmfirth and Batley, including the price of a pint.

Old Man Pie topped and tailed the night, and Dan Gallo (left) provided some superb dobro guitar.  I first saw Dan playing outside the local market in sweeping wind and rain as part of the Holmfirth Arts Festival a few years back.  There was hardly anyone around and the flimsy canopy under which he was standing looked like it was going to take off, leaving his Marshall amp exposed to the elements, but I could hear the quality of Dan’s playing even on that winter’s day.  In fact it wasn’t winter it was summer, but it felt like winter.

I believe the space we'd created allowed people to listen to the music, but also have a chat with friends and enjoy a night out.  It was less formal that way and that’s exactly how I wanted this event to be.  People work hard and need some down time; the live music was there to be enjoyed among the company of friends and in a good atmosphere.  At times there was hushed attention, at other times it got noisy, some things went wrong and some things went right, but at the end of the night the most important thing was we had raised money for an essential local cause and had a lot of fun in the process.

The next open mic is on 28th February at Cellar 88 in Holmfirth and if you fancy playing please get in touch.  All forms of music welcome and anything goes (I'm still hoping for some shrieking metal guitar solos as it happens) and THE most important thing is that this one will be for the local project skate4issac - find out more here:

http://skate4isaac.co.uk/

If we only play covers ..

where will the new music come from?

As a musician, and a music lover, I think its wonderful when you come across a new piece of music, or a song or performance, that you grow to love, and you want to hear it again.  It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it gives you something different to hang onto and enjoy.  I deeply value the fact that other musicians and song writers are creating their own music, and this is what brings me to the awkward subject of covers.

Many of the open mics I have been to up and down this land are mainly nights of guitarists strumming cover songs and on a personal level I find this disappointing.  Because, if we only play covers where will the new music come from?

Now don't get me wrong here, I've got nothing against covers and I've played many a cover down through the years.  Sometimes you have to, or you won't get out of the venue alive!  But it seems to me that the balance has swung too far in favour of covers.  In some small way I hope that my open mic will buck against this trend, encouraging and welcoming those who move out of the comfort blanket of familiar and copied tunes.

I have also been to a few nights where the sign above the door reads 'strictly no covers' and this seems a tad draconian.  Because there are times when covers could be interesting as well:

(1) Genre bending - where a song is crossed over from one musical style to another (e.g. I saw a great rendition of a Chemical Brothers tune on a ukelele a few years ago)
(2) Instrument bending - where an unusual combination of instruments (e.g. stylophone and kazoo) play out a familiar tune or a home made instrument is included in the mix
(3) Circuit bending - where a toy or musical instrument is altered to make a traditional tune run backwards
(4) Pie bending - where you cover an Old Man Pie song!
(5) Classical bending - where you play a piece of classical music (this should not be considered a cover and is to be encouraged)

So like many things in life there is no black and white answer to the question of covers.  All I can say is I have personal preference for no covers, and that since this is my night I should make this point of view heard.