Well, last
week went at a bit of a blur. Visits to
medics at the start of the week and the RAE dual promotions at the end made for
a tiring time.
Friday
night, with Darkness playing The City Hall and with the Rotherham Beer Festival
in full flow, and a promotion requiring twelve pounds a ticket may it might not have been the best time for
Rotherham Art Events to promote it’s most ambitious event of the year so far, but in
blissful ignorance when we made the booking we ploughed ahead Live at The Trades. Result – weeks of worry, washed away by a fantastic night.
The World Premier
of The Psychedelic Warlords tour of their Tribute Show for the 40th
Anniversary celebration of Hawkwind’s album “The Space Ritual”. Quite a feather in Rotherham’s cap to attract
this Premier and despite the other distractions going on in The Town the good
Psychedelic Rockers of Rotherham turned out in forced.
And there
few complaints from the audience especially given the great support Bill in the form of local Bands Fallen Trees and Goat
Leaf set up the ‘Warlords nicely.
Given the cheering at the end of their set I didn’t
think that Fallen Trees would be allowed off the stage at the end of their truly
rocking set of original music, while Goat Leaf following on from their sell out
at the Trades in February had the audience jumping to highlights from their
newly released CD that has been doing fantastically well in the download charts
where they reached the heady heights of number seven. Well done to them.
The
Psychedelic Warlords once warmed up produced a super non-stop eighty minutes of music
taken from the Space Ritual Album. This
was their first live performance of the show which required considerable
technical expertise as well as some great musicianship and vocals. I listened to the original early in the week,
just so that I could make a comparison, and there was a large chunk that I was
not really looking forward to as it was highly repetitive, but Masher cap off
to the Warlords who did a clever bit of editing, taking that section out.
The
atmosphere during the performance was fantastic with dancers doing their thing
throughout, (perhaps egged on by the young lady dancing on stage as part of the
performance), quite remarkable really as the average age of the audience had to
be forty plus.
It really is
a pity we couldn’t pull in more youngsters, but my guess is the price may have
put people off dipping their toe in water.
The real
Hawkwind are appearing at the Prog Rock Festival at Manvers on 6 / 7
April. I’ve checked the promoters Web
Site HERE and they have sold out of the expensive weekend packages they do have
around 300 tickets for each day on sale.
I think the price is around £55 for each day. Hawkwind top the Bill on Saturday and Caravan
on Sunday.
On Saturday
Live At The Trades had the revenge of the Indie / Punk event with four local
Bands taking to the stage to support RAE funds for Slamfest.
A really
interesting line up of original rock from.
Mark Jackson’s Criminal Waist of Talent were in fine irreverent
form. It was the first time I had seen
them live and they did a marvellous job setting the evening off, not easy for
their poetry punk genre material, but they had both edge and passion in their
performance.
Young Band
Idiots in Stereo had a great time. It
took them a couple of songs to warm up, but once into their stride they were
into their element. The music was raw
and the lyrics reflecting contemporary issues.
I really enjoyed the set, as did
much of the audience, and they took three call backs, something as a support
Band they need to understand might not be the done thing…… lol perhaps youthful
exuberance explains this. For me, it was
great to see three young lads enjoying themselves on stage.
Cambodia
provided us with a fantastic short set.
They were typically manic as they played through some classic ska and
punk numbers, punctuated with a couple of original songs. The dance floor did not empty the entire
driving set.
Curry Quiche
provided the finale to the evening. Wow,
an education in musicianship on it’s own.
But there’s much more to this Band than simply being clever. The original songs were put together expertly
drawing the audience into glimpses of their World as they observe it. The audience were certainly drawn into
music. I’m sure that this is a Band that have a real
future and will go from strength to
strength beyond the local scene. Looking
forward to seeing them again.
And best of
all, I popped my head around the door at The Bridge where my old friends Black
Toad were playing, and that Gig also got a good audience. We’ve noticed that there is plenty of walking
between venues going on, and this has to be good for everyone.
Next Live At
The Trades are the East Street Band with
their amazing Bruce Springsteen Show, support is from Tom Killner Band + and the following week on 13th we
have Havana Rocks, with Diamond Velocity and for Pete Sake. Tickets etc
HERE
My bit on
the Beer Festival bookings last week ruffled a few feathers. Apologies – however, at the time of going to
print the week before last the list of acts appearing did not include many of
the local Bands going on, indeed amongst those who eventually played are Bands
that were complaining to us and whose views we were simply reflecting.
Unfortunately
most of what has come back as far as the musicians experience is concerned has been negative
with a couple of notable exceptions. I’m
afraid that there is an issue with the freezing cold temperature that the
musicians had to play in and the quality of the sound.
Not having
been there myself I’ll make no further comment other than something I spotted
on Facebook posted by a performer playing a Theatre venue where the heating had
not been turned on, reflecting my experience of “cold” venues, namely for the
artist it can be a complete distraction trying to keep warm oneself while also
worrying about the comfort of the audience;
that’s beside the technical stuff like getting the fingers to move over
the strings and frets.
We must also
apologise as Mick and I were going to pop across to see some Bands, especially
the Youth Stage on Saturday afternoon. I’m
going to be honest – being old buggers we were simply too knackered to get over
to Magna. We will spend a year at the
gym, and taking our Vit C and Cod liver Oil to make sure our energy levels come
up to take in more Gigs around our own Promotions.
RAE have
picked up the keys to 25 Wellgate, and very soon we’ll be cleaning it up and
importing furniture, and the Drop In Centre will come to life. We’ve got it on a four weekly basis, but it
does give us an opportunity to Test our ideas and not get too canned
financially. More details will be with
you soon.
All the Web
Sites will be going through the beginning of month make over, so check in regularly
over the next week or so.
We’re asking
our friends to go to the relevant Facebook page and make sure
you’ve liked it. That way you can keep
up to date with whole range of activities in and around Rotherham.
Go on then
And so to
the week ahead.
Tuesday it’s
The Butchers Arms Monthly Folk Club at The Butchers Arms in Braithwell. The spies tell me that it’s lively little
singers Club with plenty of good stuff happening, much as The Red Lion Club was
until the Pubs closure.
Inspire Rotherham have a number of
events going off over the next couple of weeks out of the Pop Up Story Shop on Corporation Street in Rotherham. Monday (that’s tonight) Ray Hearne was
leading a Workshop to produce an Anthem for Rotherham. Check
out the programme HERE
Isn’t it
exciting that Land Lords seem to be supporting the push to get the vacant
properties in the Town Centre used, providing Arts based organisations like
RAE, Inspire Rotherham, Open Minds Theatre, Point Blank Theatre etc, to provide
a shop front to their activities.
Good news
out of ROMPs Meeting last Friday, the serious bit before the poetry. ROMP are putting in some structure that
should allow for slicker Communications with other Arts Groups. I had a quick word with Gav on Friday night
and all is well.
But back to
what’s a happening –
Friday and The Rock has Beggars Banquet at the
Welfare Club in Maltby, while in Rotherham at The Bridge, the Hangman will be
checking his knots ready for the Hangman’s
Corner, who have Leg of Lamb and
Mug Shots of Criminals and opening proceedings
will be Mr Bob Humphries providing the musical entertainment. I’ve searched high and low to be able to
tell you something about these Bands to no avail – so I’ll be as interested as
you as to whom makes up these two Bands.
We all know about Bob (he’s got some brilliant new songs in his gander
bag)
On Saturday
there is a FREE Workshop for writers with Mike Garry at The Bridge in Rotherham
at 5:45pm, which will be followed immediately by a special Saturday ROMP at
around 7:30pm. I’m guessing that this
will be upstairs in the pub.
You can find
all the listings we have for the week HERE
Looking
ahead to Saturday 16th at The Bridge. There appears to be another clash of genres, with
RHV Promotions putting on a “Real Underground Showcase” upstairs while Djin
will be playing on with classic rock covers down stairs. Last month a similar clash occurred, but the
RHV event failed, so Papa Legba’s and BOT Theatre gave a sigh of relief.
That’s it
for this week guys, oh dusters at the ready – if you’ve got a spare hour or so
on Thursday 7th there will be a cleaning squad at 25 Wellgate from
around 11:00am Bring own duster and
spray stuff.
And also on Thursday - there's a new Acoustic Night meeting weekly at the Imperial in Mexborough. It's already building a reputation for itself so if you're stuck for somewhere to play here's another option.
And also on Thursday - there's a new Acoustic Night meeting weekly at the Imperial in Mexborough. It's already building a reputation for itself so if you're stuck for somewhere to play here's another option.
We hope to
move furniture in end of week or early next week and to start skeleton
activities soon after. An Official
launch – well we have to have one eh! Will be later in the month, Holy Week
probably, when all the heavy drinkers will be on holiday. Watch this space.
Whatever you’re
doing this week have great fun, support
your local artists and venues and KEEP IT LIVE
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