Monday 4 March 2013

Psychedelic and Exciting Times



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

 RawmarshMashers        lol

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.

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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