The Masher
has had a nice week, thank you. It was
fantastic to get out of Rawmarsh for a couple of days and take in the sea air
and Charity Shops of Skegness.
Took in some
music too, a sixties throw back Festival thing.
It was
interesting to see some of the top teeny bopping bands of the early seventies
doing their stuff - they must have all
been knocking on the door seventy, but who’s counting. Edison Lighthouse bashing out “Love Goes
where My Rosemary Goes” for the millionth time, but not in psychedelic flower
shirts to my disappointment.
In fact Edison Lighthouse are now a top Cabaret
turn, specialising in songs from sixties and seventies dressed in white dinner
jackets. Great entertainers for a
certain age group, and given that they are probably the best known one hit
wonders, I suppose it’s little surprise that they have gone off and found their
niche on the Cruise circuit and sixties
/ seventies Festival scene.
I managed to
not be bottled by The Bee Gee’s Tribute Band or Slyde (Slade Tribute Band) both
having appeared at Live at The Trades to down beat audiences, and pay. The Bee Gees were again superb, slick and
professional, while Slyde again disappointed as they did at The Trades, by
first the lead singers attitude and secondly by throwing non Slade songs at the
wrong moment in the set, e.g. the end when all you wanted was a good stomping
Slade song to see them off. And surely –
they must be experienced enough to know that an audience in a Club type environment
are not going to wave arms, stand up, or
even dance at 8:30pm, not enough petrol will have been taken on board. (That’s why the lead singer was p***ed
off)
We should
have had Elvin Stardust to finish off on Saturday night, but his Zimmer frame
had tripped him up and he was in hospital recovering. Instead, and I think probably a far better
show were The Rubetts, white Masher hats
and famous for “Sugar Baby Love” although in the early seventies they had a run
of major and minor hits, while wowing the young girls in the Top Of The Pops
studio. Having only seen them mime,
first it was astonishing to see that they could produce the sound and the
fantastic harmonies that were a feature of their performances, LIVE. The hour long set had only three or four
cover songs in it, the rest was their material, some of it new (a dated sound
though) was all their own work. I have
to say that I was well impressed with their Show. They stayed true to their roots, performing
in their trade mark white suits and for Sugar Baby, the white peak caps. This Masher takes his hat off to them Really enjoyed it. (Thus demonstrating his often suspect musical
taste) lol Oh and yes – all the high notes were hit with
precision.
Yes it was a
throwback, but there are many lessons to be learnt from the original acts from
the sixties who are still bashing it out.
They are still performing for their sheer love of the music, (maybe a
bit of cash as well), why else would they be putting themselves through the
rigours of hour long sets. How
refreshing given the instant success being sold by X Factor that says nothing
about hard gigging and musical enjoyment.
How many of the X Factors acts when interviewed talk about their
enjoyment of singing or playing music?
Couldn’t stop
for Complete Madness (be good to see them in Rotherham again) and the Blondie Tribute, mores the pity. Oh and an honourable mention for Club Land
Band Fourmost who did their sixties and seventies tribute set, and that really
says it all.
We’re a step
closer to launching Foundation Records, although the Kickstarter Crowd Funding
exercise is a little flat. I’ve been
learning one or two things though, and I hope to sharpen things up in the
coming weeks. If you’ve not already
checked out the Foundation Record’s –page and to pledge go to the Kickstarter
page HERE
If you are a
young Band, or spoken word artist who would like to be involved in the
Foundation records project t please get in touch. Any genre of music will be considered. Also if you are interested in learning about
how to play with sliders on the recording equipment, or learn something about
recording production we would like to hear from you. Email HERE
We are
making progress on a number of other fronts, all of which need to be kept under
wraps for the moment.
We are
currently looking to finance a 6 Meter X 4 meter portable stage for use by all Arts Groups in
Rotherham. The likely cost with cover
will be approx. £8K. We will be thinking of the best way to
finance this in the short-term. Such an
addition to the facilities in Rotherham would in the mid-term save a
considerable amount of money.
Another
group though headed up by Graham Riches is the Rotherham Art Events
Photographic Group. This Group replaces
the Snappers which fell into disrepair. All RAE Photographic Group business will be
carried out on Flicker, as this is thought to be the best place to place
photographic work. The link to the new Flicker page is HERE
I was really
pleased to hear that ROMP Too which
has been running for near on a year continues to flourish. Big shout for Bob for founding the informal
and quieter version of ROMP. A great place to try new material out along
with the odd song, last week provided by Paul Pearson.
Chris Bilton, editor of the Word Pit
will soon be putting out his claws to capture the very best of the Christmas
verse from local poets for our Christmas issue – watch out for his “shout out”. You can Email Chris HERE with your entries.
A mention
for some of local writers. Music Social
Historian Tony Beesley’s new book “Sawdust Caesars. Original d Voices” can now be found on the
bookshelves. A great read for people who are from the era,
and those who enjoy the music and would like to discover more. It
can be found HERE Tony’s
book “Away From the Numbers” featuring a
lot of people on the Rotherham music scene is for a limited time available at
Half Price for a limited time. HERE Tony has been prolific writer about music
and has a fantastic back catalogue all of which are still available.
Another
writer / performer who has been working hard recently at Festivals around the
North and making a name for herself is Carol Robson. Her book, ”Words
of Darkness and Light” which has been under constant revision is available on
Amazon HERE The book will also be published by Thynks
Publications Ltd sometime this year.
A slim
volume from one of Rotherham’s much loved song writers / clairvoyant / and
sings Mike O’Brian. It’s called “The Great British Poets: Vol XVIII:” It’s hilarious in places and sad plus
insightful in others; a real treasure to
add to one’s poetry collection. It’s
available from Amazon
HERE costing only £3.99
Singing from
the Floor: A History of British Folk Clubs - With JP Bean and John Tams is exactly
what it says on the cover, with plenty of references to Sheffield base Folk
Clubs during the “folk revival” period.
It’s another important Social History of music book to get your hands
on. The book is available from Amazon HERE On
Wednesday 15th JP Bean will talking as part of the Off The Shelf
Festival. DETAILS HERE
Want to be
part of the Slamfest Team? We certainly
need you as work starts to put together the 2015 Festival. The more volunteers the more ambitious we can
be in the staging of the event and the number of venues we might cover. Email HERE If you are a Band or artist and would like to be considered to play
for the Festival then you need to contact our Booking God Mick HERE for rock and electronic or Dickie HERE if you’re an acoustic or folk
act.
We’ve
also started the fund raising for 2015,
even though one major sponsor has not yet paid for 2014!!! If you are a business and would like to be
part of Slamfest 2015 then please get in contact with us for a chat. We are pleased to say that Chantry Brewery
will again be significant sponsors in 2015, we are so grateful, as without
their amazing support in 2014 the show would quite simply not have got off the
ground. For all our Commercial Partners check out the
slide show on the RAE Home Page and the Slamfest Home Page.
Off the
Shelf Festival continues on the other side of the M1, until the 1st
November, keep an eye on their page HERE
for the highlights. There are some
really interesting events coming up so it’s worth staying in tune.
On Thursday CHOL
open their new Office in the Imperial Building in Rotherham dedicated to their new project 'The
Mix/It Can't Happen Here'. The significance
of this project for Children given recent events cannot be under
estimated. The Office launch is between
5:00pm and 7:00pm if you would like to find out more about the project. More
information about CHOL can be found HERE
It’s
Musicport weekend at Whitby from Friday evening, for all the details follow the
link on the Listings page. HERE
And it’s a
top night in Rotherham on Saturday. Live
At The Trades bring you Livewire, widely tipped as the number one AC/DC tribute
Band in the UK. Tickets have been flying
out, both from the ticket Agents (The Trades, Mezmerize, The Cutlers) and our
online agents. To be sure of a seat get
in early and buy your ticket now. During
the evening Kinkids (see previous Blog) will be making a collection to raise
money for the Children’s Christmas Party.
Please show your support for this amazing support Group.
At The
Cutlers, Crimson Moon who did a fantastic spot at The Trades for us will be in
full cry. Who’s on at The Bridge?
At the
Orient Express there is a Girl’s Night for Gazza, organised by British Muslim
Youth. I’m sure everyone will be made
welcome.
Keep checking
out the Listings page HERE as I’m sure there will be late additions in the days to
come.
Please take
note that Lovehunter and Dirty Dylan tickets are now available at all the usual
ticket Agents. Both are already selling
quite fast so best pick yours up while you can. Live At The Trades Tickets from HERE
So whatever
you are doing this week have a great time, support the local music scene and
KEEP IT LIVE.
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