With apologies to Be Bop Deluxe……

With apologies to Be Bop Deluxe……

The theme for this meeting was ‘The Future’ with most of us thinking along the lines of 50’s SciFi. There were 2 dollops of Hawkwind, in a heady mix of everything from the Rezillos to Kraftwerk via Nicolas Jarr and the Broken Family Band…….When Si played a song inspired by the ‘Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy’ Jez noted that that Futuristic piece of equipment (a small hand held device that could tell you anything about anything) was indeed with us already, as all the music was played on futuristic iPods or iPhones. Don’t Panic! Accommodation and fine cheeses were supplied by John M.

Destination Venus – The Rezillos (John M)

The Clangers – Oliver Postgate (Bob)

Star Trek Theme – Leonrd Nimoy (Bob)

2001 A Space Odyssey (Simon)

Dr Who – The Crystallites (Simon)

Moonbow – Duke Ellington (John F)

A H Pook The Destroyer – William S Burroughs (Jez)

7 Minutes To Midnight – Wah! Heat (John M)

Hard Facts From The Fiction Dept – Bill Nelson (Bob)

Space Invaders – The Pretenders (Simon)

Space Is Only Noise If You Can See It – Nicolas Jarr (John F)

Spirit Of The Age – Hawkwind (Jez)

Event To Come – Article 58 (John M)

Super Rocket Rumble – Man Or Astroman (Bob)

Song Against Robots – The Broken Family Band (Simon)

Do The Astral Plane – Flying Lotus (John F)

Backbeat – Art Of Noise (Jez)

Crimes Of The Future – William Orbit (John M)

Destiny – Dalek I Love You (Bob)

Barbarella – Bob Crew & Charlie Fox (Simon)

Cosmos 7 – The Fall (John F)

Last Train To Trancentral (1989 Original Pure Tranee Version) – The KLF (Jez)

Spacegirl – Drugstore (John M)

In The Future – David Byrne (Bob)

Future – Cut Copy (Simon)

Black Sun – Code 9 (John F)

Rusty Tongue – Sometimes Jasmine (Jez)

It’s the end of the world as we know it – Radiohead (John M)

Wealldie – Erland and the Carnival (John M)

Fortune Teller – Tony Jackson Group (Bob)

I Am Not A Robot (Starsmith 24 carat mix) – Marina and the Diamonds (Simon)

Don’t Take Me To Space (Man) – Brakes (John F)

Dentaku – Kraftwerk (Jez)

I Can See The Future – Belle And Sebastian (John M)

The Awakening/Lord Of Light – Hawkwind (Bob)

Lost In Space – The Realm (Simon)

Year 1, 1 UFO – M83 (John F)

Rockit – Herbie Hancock (Jez)

Spacehopper – Julian Cope (John M)

She Blinded Me With Science – Thomas Dolby (Bob)

So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish – Neil Hannon (Simon)

These Lights Are Meaningful – Adem (John F)

Kickback – Cabaret Voltaire (Jez)

 

Bob the Chiropodist

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In 1999 I was lucky enough to share a house with Martin and Carl. Martin was a friend of my brother Dave (he’d been at Uni with my sister in law Ruth) and had just bought a house on the Harehills/Roundhay border. He was looking for lodgers and Carl and I were looking for somewhere to live. The years we houseshared  there were fabulous with an extended group of friends – Mark, Kev, Davey, Morgan….who were always popping in and out. It was a love of music that gelled us together.

Carl worked with a guy called Simon who was in a band called Parva. Turns out that Mark and Kev knew band member Nick too (well no surprise in Kev’s case – he always seemed to know EVERYBODY in Leeds) so we followed them with interest.

One day, Carl brought home a 4-track Parva demo CD for us to listen to. It was quite good indie fair although I remember not being sure about the vocals “What’s he the lead singer for?”. We went to see them at Josephs Well and within 2 minutes of them coming on stage I said to myself “THAT’S why he’s the lead singer!!!” – Ricky jumped around like a mad thing with the energy of 10 men – a perfect front man……and well over a decade later, things are pretty much the same.

Parva had an album out in 2002, then lost their recording contract when the label folded, reinvented themselves with a bunch of new songs and became the Kaiser Chiefs. The rest as they say is history…..

In recent years, we’ve only been able to see them at festivals or big event gigs, but this years tour is of relatively small venues. When I heard that my cousin Si had a ticket for the Engine Shed in Lincoln, I asked Kaiser mum Teresa if she could possibly get me on the guest list……and she did.

Peanut was very obliging, phoning to make sure we’d got in and giving us passes to the after show gathering. He had to run off soon after the gig finished to do a phone interview with an Australian radio show but hung around to shake our hands and make sure we’d had a good time– a thoroughly nice chap!

We got to the gig just before ‘All the young’ took to the stage. The lead singer is a dead ringer for Bill Nelson and they sounded a bit like the Bunnymen. They gave out some fliers to download a live album…..which had the wrong URL on them…. Not a great start!

The Chiefs took to the stage with the traditional opening of “Everyday I love you less and less” and stormed through a greatest hits set covering all four of their LPs. The new stuff (‘Little shocks’ ‘Kinda girl you are’) is just as strong as the old with my personal fave being ‘Starts With Nothing’.

The audience was a bit older than I’d expected and could potentially have been subdued – but Ricky isn’t happy unless the crowd are interacting. He insists on audience participation, which is a delight to see. Enthusiastic isn’t a big enough word – leaping in the air, getting everyone clapping and echoing his calls in a Freddie Mercury stylee. At one point he disappears from the stage to emerge standing on top of the T-shirt stand at the back of the hall. The ultimate showman – yes, that’s definitely why he’s the lead singer.

Thanks to Theresa and Nick for the Freebie

Bob the Chiropodist

 

The venue that used to host “The Good Old Days” (and still does) is a fitting home for this fine piece of old style music hall comedy “The Big Society”. Red Ladder are a local theatre group who have teamed up with Leeds very own anarcho-folkie-superstars Chumbawamba and ex 6Music breakfast jock, QI regular and all round good egg Phil Jupitus.

The show strings together a load of catchy, music hall style songs on a “one rule for the rich and another for the poor” type theme. Was it just preaching to the converted? I don’t think so. There was a huge range of ages present and I doubt many of the retired attendees will be at the front of the next Chumbas gig. Getting these ideas in ‘under the wire’ is so much more effective than ranting about politics – theDave/Nick ventriloquist show, the surreal wardrobe world, the lamenting copper….. it all just worked!

Hats off to Lisa Howard who stole the show for me – what an actress!

“We’re all in this together, all you little people sing along. We’re all in this together, put your shoulder to the wheel and push along. We’re all in this together, as equals we will brave the stormy sea. I shall be the captain and you can work the oars – in our Big Society…..”

Encore!!!

– Bob the Chiropodist

PS Great Blog about putting it on by Chumba Boff here

PPS If you’re not so sure about the worth of Political songs (I too saw what ‘Red Wedge’ didn’t do for Labour) then have a read of this

 

Great night at the Brudenell with our favourite flute player, Laura J Martin, treating us to crazy loops and a whole lot of beautiful tunes that had the social club in raptures. Both support acts were quiet guitar players who will soon be off to play in Sudan….. wonder what they’ll make of them over there? First up was The Gentle Good aka Gareth Bonello who admitted that this was his first time in Leeds – but hopefully not his last. He won the crowd over with some good banter. Next up was Richard James who’s from Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (who’s Euros Childs duets on Laura’s new LP). They both reappeared later as part of Laura’s backing band.

Tonight’s show was also the launch of Laura J Matin‘s new CD ‘The Hangman Tree’ which I bought and have been listening to in the car all day – you should do the same. She opened her set with some blistering flute playing (who’d’ve thought flute playing could be blistering!) that left her quite breathless. There’s lots of looping of bits of flute, mandolin and voice which blend together to make something a bit special.

Shoeless, she often stamps out her songs with a passion that’s great to see. When she sang “stand up straight, shoulders back…” I found myself doing just that (from ‘Tom’ – my favourite track on the LP). The only glitch to the evening was when Richard forgot the words to a song he’d written for her…..he was suitably embarrassed but was easily forgiven. She’s a talented lass ploughing her own field which isn’t quite like any you’ve heard before – Good Stuff!

Bob the Chiropodist

Quims regular John, when he was knee high to a grasshopper, used to do a fanzine called ‘Nag Nag Nag’. Lovingly typed and photocopied it sold for 10p to skinny indie kids the length and breadth of his street. Some fabulous stuff here – my personal favourite being the gig review of ‘Rock on the Tyne‘ – 7 bands including U2, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury & the Blockheads for £7.00…..and he still thought it was a rip off!……..Enjoy        –      Bob

As John put it…….”£7 was a lot of money to a 17 year old in 1981. I mostly remember seeing Bonio talking to someone a few feet away and noticing he was wearing high heels/platform shoes. They were neither punk rock nor ironic. It fuelled my thirty year Bongo prejudice which is still going strong…”

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