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January 29, 2017

BREVIEW: The Hunna @ O2 Institute 23.01.17

Words by Damien Russell / Pics by Rob Hadley

You know you’re in for a good night when it’s door opening time and there are staff making sure the roads aren’t blocked. Monday night and a queue around the corner kind of good.

The 2,900-person capacity venue had enough room to get to the bar, just, and with crowd-surfing and moshing all through the evening these two young bands clearly instill excitement and enthusiasm in their fans.

High Tyde, a 4-piece like The Hunna, hit the stage with great energy and great reactions from the crowd. They kept the tempo high until the very end and only the introduction to ‘Dark Love’ showed a bit of a softer side we might see develop over time. As The Hunna said of them during their own set, High Tyde “smashed it”.

The Hunna came out to another great response from the crowd. A bit slow to start after their introduction music, but when they did kick in with ‘You & Me’ they kicked in hard. Singer/guitarist, Ryan Potter, sounded a little tired to begin with and I did wondered if the road was wearing them down. But The Hunna seem to be a band that feeds off the love from the crowd and kept building momentum up to the end of the night.

The Hunna have a real gift for writing a sing-a-long chorus and the crowd knew them all, every word. Ryan Potter let the crowd take the lead more than once or twice, basking in having his lyrics sung back to him.

But the highlight of the night was ‘We Could Be’, tucked into the last third of the set; a real powerhouse of a song, it’s clear why it’s one of The Hunna’s singles. Although somehow it felt like the end of the set and I half expected to see them to just walk off, but ‘Rock My Way’ and ‘Bonfire’ followed in quick succession. The actual ending (before the inevitable encore) was a proper rock show of feedback and noise; the roar of a crowd still hungry for hits.

The Hunna finished with a three song encore of ‘World is Ours’, ‘Brother’ and finally ‘Bad For You’ – all kicked off with another piece of musical Interlude. Again, the interlude and song didn’t quite flow smoothly; between this and some of Ryan Potter’s clichéd ‘Best Audience Ever’ style patter, I felt the edge was knocked off their performance. I’ve heard all the old rock lines used before and this gig brought no new ones to add to the list.

That said, throughout their set it was clear that The Hunna are totally into their music and love every note. Definitely a good night. And after the encore it was no less busy outside, but nobody seemed in a rush to go home and admit it was all over.

For more on The Hunna, visit www.facebook.com/thehunnaband

For more on High Tyde, visit www.wearehightyde.com

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For more from the O2 Institute, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.myticket.co.uk

January 28, 2017

BPREVIEW: RedFaces @ The Sunflower Lounge 29.01.17

Words by Damien Russell

January 29^th sees The Sunflower Lounge host an evening of all out guitar rock music from some real up and coming talent: RedFaces – supported by Summer Loving Torture Party, Autopilot and Spoort.

Doors open at 19:30 with a 23:00 curfew, with tickets at £5.00 plus any booking fees – as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

RedFaces come to The Sunflower Lounge for the sixth of a 17 date UK tour, spanning from their sold out home town show in Sheffield to Swansea, Glasgow, Plymouth and many towns in between.

RedFaces have already made a bit of an impression on the industry, and rightly so. Times have changed with self-publishing, Youtube and reality TV shows now the more standard road to stardom, but not so for these boys. Signed to the major record label RCA, RedFaces are walking the old path where talent is the main lead and the charts follow.

Straight out of doing their A-Levels, RedFaces are keen to make the move to being fully professional musicians, saying ‘music’s the only thing we can see ourselves doing at the minute and I can’t imagine doing anything else right now’. Join the queue gents, and it might be a long one.

But RedFaces are a blisteringly good new guitar group, one that remind me a little of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club but with even more attitude. Check out RedFace’s new single below:

‘Kerosene’ – RedFaces

Redfaces perform at The Sunflower Lounge on Sunday 29^th January, with support from Summer Loving Torture Perty, AutoPilot, Spoort – as presented Birmingham Promoters. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

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For more on RedFaces, visit www.redfacesmusic.com

For more on Summer Loving Torture Party, visit www.souncloud.com/sltp

For more on AutoPilot, visit www.facebook.com/autopilotmusicuk

For more on Spoort, visit www.souncloud.com/spoort

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For more from The Sunflower Lounge, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.thesunflowerlounge.com

For more from Birmingham Promoters, visit www.birminghampromoters.com

January 27, 2017

ALBUM: Go Get Gone – Worry Dolls

Words by Ed King

Certain genres are harder to give a fresh slant. Rock has been fist pumping since the 80’s, the blues can’t be too cruel or uplifting, and no self respecting gabba techno enthusiast is going to plumb for the ‘Vocal Mix’. But nesting in the even more unreachable branches of originality is country, a musical moniker that simply defines itself by itself – especially to an old colonial.

But Worry Dolls are braver than most, travelling across the pond to record their debut album, Go Get Gone, in Nashville – a ten track LP that is simple, melodic, unashamed and above all country. The inlay card has words like pedal steel, lap steel and dobro on it.

Go Get Gone is an endearing debut. A short and accessible LP, brimming with the ingredients that any self respecting heart needs to break and recover. Opening songs, ‘Endless Road’ and ‘Trains Leaving’, tell tales of empowerment on the open road, whilst the heart of the album is about the heart – ranging from the acoustic lament of ‘Don’t Waste Your Heart On Me’ to the punchy, almost Alannah Mylesesque adventure of ‘Bless Your Heart’. There’s even a piano ballad in there – which my brain placed somewhere between Aimee Mann and Cat Stevens… of all references. But listen to ‘She Don’t Live Here Anymore’ and let me know what you’re cerebral cortex comes up with.

And ‘Miss You Already’ sounds so much like a country standard I spent nearly an hour trying to find where Worry Dolls had borrowed it from. It’s all theirs. It’s not a Faron Young song or a British rom com. Thanks Google.

Vocally, Worry Dolls are strong – with one set of lungs taking a more confident lead across the album. The melodies on Go Get Gone are all as simple and superb as a good song should be, with a reassuring benchmark that’s often over shone. The downside in this album comes, sadly, from one of its foundation blocks. Production. It’s too obviously country.

Go Get Gone sounds like two eager, talented musicians with a vision stepped off a plane thousands of miles away and into a studio – only to be handheld by the defacto sound of one word. Country album 101; someone get me a slide guitar and call a fiddle player (the fiddle does sound good though). It’s frustrating because Worry Dolls have much more to offer than production-by-numbers; several songs on Go Get Gone show this too clearly to ignore.

But it does exactly what it set out to do, and one man’s critique shouldn’t tarnish the ‘lost friends and lovers and days and hours’ that Worry Dolls endured to breathe life into their debut. Go Get Gone is a good debut album and country was always going to be some tough silver to polish.

Plus (and I’m putting my future neck on the line a bit here) I believe live performances are where this body of work will really take shape. And with Worry Dolls kicking off the dust balls with a 25 date UK tour from 28^th January to 30^th April – coming to Birmingham’s Kitchen Garden Café on 22^nd February, there are many chances to see if this will all pan out.

God knows, I’m not brave enough to travel half way around the world to find out.

‘Break Your Heart’ / Worry Dolls

Go Get Gone by Worry Dolls is out from 27^th January, released through Bread & Butter Records. For more on Worry Dolls, including online purchase points, visit www.worrydollsmusic.com

Worry Dolls will be performing at the Kitchen Garden Café on 22^nd February. For direct gig info and online ticket sales, click here.

For more from the Kitchen Garden Café, including a full events programme and menus, visit www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk

For more from Bread & Butter Music, visit www.breadandbuttermusic.com

January 26, 2017January 26, 2017

BPREVIEW: Black Sabbath – The End Tour @ Genting Arena 02&04.02

Words by Ed King

On the 2^nd and 4^th of February, Black Sabbath will be performing at the Genting Arena – playing the last two dates of The End Tour in Birmingham. Black Sabbath’s support band throughout The End Tour are Rival Sons, the Long Beach born blues rockers who will also appear at the Genting Arena.

Tickets for Black Sabbath The End Tour are priced at £73.92 + booking fee – as presented by Live Nation UK. For direct gig info and online ticket sales, click here.

There’s something inherently sad about writing this. Epochs, eras, fads and fashions… Black Sabbath are coming back to Birmingham (minus Bill Ward) to play their last gigs, with two dates in the biggest venue their hometown has to offer.

The near 50 year foot stamp of Black Sabbath’s authority is coming to The End, as the children turned fathers of Heavy Metal (being the band that coined then defined the genre) are no longer coming out to play. It is a difficult time. It’s a sad time. It is a time to remember and to celebrate. It’s also a time to mug the nearest pensioner for your ticket money, as you’ll get little change left over from a couple of Matthew Boultons.

This is Birmingham Review, so I shouldn’t need to do this, but… Black Sabbath were born when a handful of Brummie blues rockers decided the name Earth was just a little too pants and wanted to play some serious rock. Black Sabbath was born and through a series of creative evolution became tougher, darker, more politicised and iron clad than… well, a blues rock band called Earth.

Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album was recorded and mixed in two days, got slammed by the rock music press and charted instantaneously. Four months later and they were recording their sophomore LP – the legendary, pivotal, game changing Paranoid (nee War Pigs). Buy the time Black Sabbath’s third album, Master of Reality, was leaving blank spaces on shelves both in the UK and across the pond, the homespun four piece from north Birmingham were global stars and music had a new genre. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Black Sabbath’s subsequent years saw a myriad of line-up changes, public bust ups, accidental animal dismembering, award show reconciliations, world tours and a total of 19 studio albums – the last with nearly all of the original line up being 13, released in 2012. Black Sabbath’s final recorded release, an eight track EP called The End, has been made only available at the final shows.

Birmingham Review didn’t get to see Black Sabbath at the O2 Academy in 2012 or at the then LG Arena the following year. But we did get to see Ozzy when he was touring his last solo album, Scream, in 2010. My interview with The Prince of Darkness was the first we ran on the website – read it here. If you’re on the Birmingham Review Facebook Page you might recognise one of the pics too (with thanks to Paul Ward).

Ozzy was quite something to watch, storming through a set to a packed out Town Hall, and along with Tonni Iommi and Geezer Butler is still one of the city’s proud badges of musical honour. Black Sabbath are rock stars, in the absolute sense of the sobriquet.

Like ‘em, loathe ‘em, listen to ‘em or not, Black Sabbath are a corner stone of Birmingham’s modern culture – in centuries to come the robotic spawn of Carl Chinn will be giving a lecture somewhere about “…a fully humanoid gestalt entity that changed the world of music.”

And The End is nigh… Your LAST CHANCE EVER to see Black Sabbath, with all the original members bar the publicly capricious Bill Ward (seriously dude…), is now a ticking clock reality. Let a city mourn and rejoice. Here’s our Graham with a quick reminder:

‘War Pigs’ – Black Sabbath (Paranoid Tour – live in Paris 1970)

Black Sabbath bring The End Tour to the Genting Arena, playing their final live dates on Thursday 2^nd and Saturday 4^th February, as presented by Live Nation UK. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

For more on Black Sabbath, (just stick your head out a Birmingham window, or…) www.blacksabbath.com

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For more from the Genting Arena, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.gentingarena.co.uk

For more from Live Nation UK, visit www.livenation.co.uk

January 25, 2017January 24, 2017

BPREVIEW: Emulsion Festival V @ mac 27.01.17

Words by Ed King / Pic by Dannie Price

On Friday 27^th January, Emulsion Festival comes to Birmingham – hosting its fifth event at mac, taking over the art centre’s Theatre and various public spaces.

Events start at 4:30pm with a free to attend panel discussion in mac’s Arena Bar. Emulsion Festival V will further present a series of live music and ensemble shows, some free and some ticketed, with the last performance from the Emulsion Sinfonietta held in the mac Theatre between 9-10pm.

A full festival pass will cost £15 (with concessions available) and can be bought via the mac booking office. For direct venue information and online ticket sales, click here.

Representing more than just an annual event, Emulsion was formed by saxophonist, Trish Clowes, back in 2012. A place to celebrate musicians from both the contemporary Jazz and contemporary Classical genres, this new creative nest aimed to nurture ideas, support projects, explore platforms for performance and bring ‘together different audiences’ to ‘challenge one’s expectations’ and show them first hand ‘how exploring and listening to new music is exciting not daunting.’

Holding its first ‘mini festival’ in May 2012, at London’s listening Vortex Jazz Club, Emulsion I premiered four new compositions from Iain Ballamy (The Man Who Knew Just Enough), Luke Styles (Chasing the Nose), Rory Simmons (Charcoal Fingers and Rusty Tongues) and founder, Trish Clowes (A moment).

In the subsequent years Emulsion would evolve into wider showcases, workshops and even a four day residency at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2015. New commissions have also been ‘central to Emulsion projects’, with the organisation seeing a series of new compositions become a reality across its five year tenure. For a wider list on new commissions from Emulsion, click here.

Now in 2017, Emulsion hosts its first festival event in Birmingham – bringing a day long showcase to mac, with free pop up performances from Birmingham Conservatoire students alongside ticketed events from some of today’s well respected musicians and composers.

Recipient of the 2016 BASCA British Composer Award for Contemporary Jazz Composition, Joe Cutler, will be showcasing his winning composition – Karembeu’s Guide to the Complete Defensive Midfielder. Whilst two nominees for the 2017 Arts Foundation Award for Jazz Composition appear heavily on the bill, Percy Pursglove and Chris Montague, as well as new work from renowned UK composer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian – the inaugural composer-in-residence for the National Trust/London Symphony Orchestra’s Khadambi’s House initiative.

There will be further new work premiered from two celebrated Birmingham Conservatoire graduates, Anna Maria Olsson and Bobbie Gardener – both performed with the Emulsion Sinfonietta. Emulsion founder, Trish Clowes, will also be performing the Birmingham debut of her new album, My Iris, as part of the event.

Emulsion Festival V will be hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Fiona Talkington, to be nationally broadcast on the station’s Hear & Now and Jazz Now programmes.

Emulsion Sinonietta – extracts

https://soundcloud.com/trishclowes/sets/emulsion-sinfonietta-extracts

Emulsion Festival V comes to mac on Friday 27^th January – running from 4:30 to 10pm. For direct event info and online tickets sales, click here.

For more on Emulsion Festival, visit www.emulsionmusic.org

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For more from Trish Clowes, visit www.trishclowes.com

For more from Tom Harrison, visit www.tomharrisonsax.com

For more from mac, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk