“Classical Blues, Mellodeons and Miscellaneous Percussion”
FaB Club 15th October 2006 - Mark Reed Special
The White Hart opens its doors again to a healthy afternoon crowd, and its function room to the latest incarnation of the FaB Club, still settling down in its new surroundings (and to its new programme dates). With the demise of the Thursday night specials, the calendar on the Web is full of guests and dates all the way to the next Leigh Festival. This afternoon, the first half hour has been gifted to Mark Reed to launch his new CD – and although we start off a little sparse, by the end of his session the room is pretty much full once again.
Debbie is compering and marshals the assembled to get the show under way, announcing that we have a half hour special from Mark Reed as well as the usual array of floor spots. I suppose this makes Mark technically top of the bill which is a bit strange as he is starting the show, but away we go.
Mark Reed Special
Mark opens his part of the show with an apology and explanation, specifically that a 3 hour gig last night has exacerbated an existing sore throat so that his singing voice is almost non-existent.
He also manages to promote his new CD – “Summer Dreams, Haunted Themes and a Shaggy Dog’s Tail” – without playing a single track from it, but to find the reason for THAT you will need to read my review of the CD (soon to be published on FaB’s NFW sister site – or as soon as I email it in, anyway!)
Meanwhile, back on Sunday afternoon, he opens up with three ‘warm-ups’, each with their own character. Mark is armed with a 6 string nylon acoustic, and is sitting properly – guitarist’s foot rest and all
The first of three is Skip Time – played with a very fluid left hand, hammering on and swift flowing runs. The guitar produces clear tones (and Spanish overtones) in something halfway to a jig.
Second of three – EAD – so named because it modulates into 3 keys. This time a very Spanish and rippling effect develops from the right hand. The pattern of the piece is to nail a chord and then move the changes above it, ending in flurries of notes and a sharp chord or two
AM Echoes follows- full of open strings and harmonics – and I think a few major 7 and minor 6 chords crept in there when no-one was looking. Mark promptly deflates the admiration by claiming that they are only warm-ups – they also all came from the “Different Textures” album - and that the complex stuff is still to come!
Classical Blues came about as an entry for an Internet competition for blues instrumentals and came second – not too bad against significant international competition! It was intended to be something he could reproduce live – which he promptly does – and it turns out to be a walking blues in E in Spanish style which makes a lot of use - characteristically for Mark - of what we wannabe guitarists refer to as “the dusty end” – i.e. the bit above the octave where the neck joins the body..
Classical Jazz follows – a piece which is 15-20 years old and not performed very often, drawing strong dynamics and volume from a classical 6 string. It’s characterised by a number of grabbed hammer ons – miss one of those and it’ll trash your timing for sure, but all is safe for today. A flurry of notes and a muttered “that’ll do” and it’s time to turn very pastoral for
Sweet Georgia Brown. This is the sort of thing that until you hear it, you’re really not sure that it will work – but it does. A true jazz piece with a breakout and seamless improvisation along the way – which moves along smoothly and rhythmically. All of the covers (more to come) demonstrate a strong feel for the guitar’s dynamics and a firm and solid command of the whole range of the instrument.
All My Loving – Mark claims that he can’t remember doing this one live before, and it features a difficult classical tremolo maintaining the flow in the right hand, while the movement of the left hand shapes the melodic content.
In The Mood – an earlier piece, attempting to fit an entire 1940s American jazz band in 6 strings. I think I may have heard the one time he claims to have done this as I’m sure I remember the challenging variety in tone and attack which make it sound like he’s got the whole band in there
One more for the road – an original this time – and it’s called Tracking On. This time he’s aiming to evoke the sound, and mood, of the train and of the blues harmonica which features in similar pieces. It takes him out of his preferred 1st position into 5th (but doesn’t stay there). A hypnotic walking bass riff alternates with his OTHER favoured position at the 12th fret and ends on a powerful chromatic climb and an answering descending minor run which leaves the sound hanging on the air. It finishes off a set which has been well appreciated by the (growing) audience, showcasing Mark’s versatility and his ability to capture and incorporate a range of influences. An excellent ½ hour special to add to the archives.
Debbie – organises latecomers (where have they been?) to get their drinks in and book themselves a floor spot as we slip into
A Short Break
Floor Spot Sessions
Gordon
And the first act is me. This is all part of a subtle plan to get my contribution over and done with so that I can sit down and concentrate on the review process, of course. Of course (?!).
Well, what can I say? I lead off with Don’t Give Up The Day Job - a new song brought about because I always wanted a chorus song and the only way to get one was to write it – and the nice thing is that people sing along with it so mission accomplished! All of which is so positive that I feel compelled to chuck in a dark little song called When The Show Is Over just to balance things out – well, as Deb says, she’s had to put up with it all week so it’s time to spread the grief…
Anyway I get off the stage unharmed – reviewers are scarce these days – and retreat to my Diet Coke in time for…
Sonia
Sonia sings unaccompanied – well, in the case of Morning Has Broken, mainly because Simon claims not to know it. She provides a couple of Cat Stevensesque fill ins to make up for the missing instruments, the song pushing her clear but warm voice towards the top of her range – a memorable and faithful rendition.
In the case of “her” Pie Jesu, she has to sing in a few missing organ fills to match the original, despite her comment that “If I get it wrong you won’t know” – well as far as we can tell she doesn’t, it’s all pretty plain sailing and well received, but let’s face it would have been difficult to accommodate a full symphony orchestra in here anyway
Norman
Norman
There is a very sixties twang from the uke, and the chorus gets a lot of cover – meanwhile my eye is drawn by the curious device on the end of the ukulele. Is it a radar gun? A GPS receiver? No, sadly, I think it’s (more prosaically) a tuner. Never mind, it might have been. And while I’ve been diverted by that speculation, Norman
Even Debbie gets drawn into the ensuing discussion about various members of the audience shaking their fruit – and rattling their nuts - which we won’t go into at this stage.
Jo
We’re hoping that Jo will raise the tone – quick! – and for a little while she does just that. Bogie’s Bonny Belle is a lovely but sad love song because the man doesn’t fight for her – just gives up. Jo has a voice designed for the folk cadence and a style which is quite bewitching in letting the songs breathe. The audience is not only respectful – well they always are – but very attentive
Jo’s second song is, however, more in keeping with the decline in the afternoon’s moral tone, with “a man and his missus” going to Butlins – a very mild and innocuous introduction to a very dodgy song. The moral is to recognise your chalet if not the more intimate parts of your partner…
John (Jail)
Thinking back a session or six, it’s safe to say that we’ve had some strange acts here, on and off – including, as I remember, someone who brought in an amplifier and electric guitar (heresy!) and played instrumental music that emulated the sound of whales. Very unexpected on the day but it broke the ice and sometimes even our acoustic specialists bring in an amp for a little reinforcement, although this place doesn’t really reward it. Old gag: what do you throw to a drowning guitarist? Answer: his amplifier…
The relevance of this – you KNEW there was a point SOMEWHERE, didn’t you? Have faith, have faith - is that sometimes what is strange on the day leads into something else. And that’s the best introduction I can find to John “Jail”. John is probably the only person to play at FaB Club having announced himself to be a trade-mark – well, until Messrs Safeway, Sainsbury & Tesco decide to formalise their long-speculated Glee Club and Burlesque extravaganza anyway.
His first piece Circle Line is normally a band song and has Simon filling in on glass and scissors. Do you notice that Simon is very involved in all this? The man must have a contract! Anyway, it also brings on a full blooded attack of the rhythmic fruit orchestra (as well as the demolition of a music stand) and turns into a sort of interactive urban tribal dance event – which I have to say we’re unlikely to replicate in the near future! But it IS interactive and both his songs command attention.
Helmore Street
Tone Deaf Leopard (TDL)
And talking of unequalled performances, there is just no way to adequately describe the stage presence and the sheer extroversion of TDL. Today marks their return to the FaB Club fray – presumably they (or their mascot) have been off hunting something, but we can only wonder about that. I always associate them with all things jungle since their cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” but today is a display of yet another aspect of their talents. Their arrival has the effect of raising the tone – well, about a centimetre – and their first song is a soap opera driven piece called Salt of the Earth – well it was almost Coronation Oak Square!
What is the name of the Irish drum? I can never remember and whatever it is it’s getting hit. A sad tale of urban deprivation and assorted (associated?) misdemeanours. Sue is playing at right angles to the song, or at least the gentle background which Trevor is providing, but it’s part of their impact – like Rocking Bob (who I seem to have missed on his last couple of visits), it all works out and delivers that impact which is so characteristic and almost legendary..
Their second number is a Willie Nelson cover – and quite a surprise when they found it – called Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other
Written in 1981 and later covered by a band called Panzy Division in 1995 – you see what a burst of Googling will do for you. Nasty modern habit, that.
By the time we’ve been exposed to – metaphorically speaking – “Men with the feminine/ and women with deep manly voices” and registered lines like “And the ones who brag loudest/ are the ones who are most likely queer” there isn’t a dry eye (or a closed mouth) in the house. They carry on resolutely despite continuing ribaldry in the background, and this song, put across with the patented TDL swing, should now take its place as a definitive FaB classic.
Debbie declares another break with the clear intent that anyone not back in 10 minutes is going to miss the boat so we’re into
Another Short Break
Raffle
FaB Club raffles are an art unto themselves, and about as predictable as the average hurricane. There is a strange creature halfway between a dog and a bear which finds its home by a roundabout route and other prizes of the usual (which is to say unusual) variety and scope.
More Floor Spot Sessions
Trevor
Trevor opens the proverbial third half, and a very heavy box, revealing what I think is a Mellodeon (which scuppers the joke about accordion to whom). I missed some of the details of Prickly Bush – or at least it seemed he was having an argument with one – although I did pick up on the couplet about “Save your body from the cold cold ground/and my neck from the gallows tree”
(Incidentally, at this point in my original notes we’ve hit page 13 - or maybe it’s page 12a if you are even vaguely superstitious – all of which has nothing whatsoever to do with the artist. Just thought you’d like to know. No? Oh alright, we’ll move on then).
Trevor has an unusual sound for FaB (pacé any previous sessions I’ve missed) and an authentic folk voice, with enthusiastic support from the audience. It is with no condescension that I can visualise village greens and late night BBC4 documentaries – very evocative!
He then switches to a black machine with more harnesses to deliver one of those famous folk medleys of three interpolated instrumentals, namely Roxborough Castle/Click Go The Shears (I’m saying nothing!)/Trumpet Hornpipe. This last piece also refers back to the Black Pig – the flagship of one Captain Pugwash – although it’s worth mentioning (oh no, he’s Googling again) that all of the alleged innuendoes which attach to this programme are an urban myth. It was all a con trick, guys!
More to the point, there is a width of tone in the instrument, and the accuracy of his playing of it, which is very impressive. Added to which, he adds in the necessary race to the finish, speeding up all the way, which has the audience in complete disarray.
Mike Parrott
And while everyone is still catching what’s left of their breath, Mike has the unenviable task of following all of that. Looking at Mike’s repertoire over the life of FaB, he has usually delivered originals, but on this occasion he has tracked back into two of his rare covers, The Girls of Amsterdam (George Kajanes) and All I Want Is You (Steve Borowski) .
He enlists a 5th fret capo which adds to the ring but loses in resonance, but Girls is a dark song which benefits from the light touch; then on the back of jokes about capos and g strings (it really IS turning into one of those afternoons) and then we’ve changed songs, a stronger strum and a stronger voice suiting the bolder sentiments of All I Want. Mike is one of those performers who makes use of a music stand – there’s about half a dozen of us – because even if you do know your words, there is always half a chance of losing them in the heat of the moment. Either that or, as he has suggested before, it’s something to hide behind. But Mike is never less than confident, and the songs carry well.
This last exchange, however, thoroughly gives the lie to another old gag, which is how you silence a guitarist – give them a sheet of music.
Simon
Simon is strongly encouraged not to let the level fall again – and as it transpires, he doesn’t.
His first song is a mid tempo piece, 10,000 miles – delivered on a six string with a particular strumming technique which is stronger than some whole bands I’ve heard. There are some problems in saying new things about some of the regular and/or established people here – of whom Simon is one – and it’s worth checking back into the site’s history before the pressure on the storage space means some of them get filed away in cybernetic purgatory. Simon is good at this, has a personalised ‘sound’ and people buy into his songs very readily.
He changes to a 12 string for Peace in our Time – I’ve always liked this one because it sublimates a lot of anger and frustration into a narrative – and a lot of people know it too, so it becomes positively anthemic – even the bear (or WAS it a dog?) from the raffle appears to have joined the communal chorus – is this our version of community singing?
I wonder idly if that make it a B(flat)eagle? A fuzz Boxer? And that’s without approaching the one about a Chihuahua pedal…
(The management would like to apologise for that unforgivable outbreak of guitar related jokes. Get on with it!)
Ok will do.
Margaret
Margaret comes on to anticipatory applause with a brace of songs to justify her local title of Lady Formby - Has Anybody Seen My Gal (delivered with her usual panache) and Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock. The former does raise an odd suggestion in my mind, which is whether “Five Foot Two” (the opening line) is a more successful sequel to the previously unrecorded “Five Foot One” (which did not even get a video release)? This particular question goes unanswered as Trevor produces a ukulele to join in on the second song, its tones smoother than the piercing jangle of her banjo uke. Like the eponymous rock, the quality goes right through…
Mike Wilmore
Mike produces an accordion, explaining that he usually plays a guitar but has bullied himself into a temporary change of instrument. He plays it with great conviction and facility and The Water Is Wide is a very traditional piece with more than an overtone of a spiritual, which glides past in a stately manner. It’s maybe stretching a metaphor but these accordions and melodeons do let the songs breath a bit.
Mike then reverts to guitar for The Wild Rover which he imbues with infectious rhythm and a confident reading which pulls up comfortably short of the frenetic version popularised by the Pogues. It’s a difficult song to bring off with conviction and not deliver by rote, but he does what needs to be done and comes up with a performance of character.
Nice one. Or two in this case.
Claudine
Heads up, it’s the boss.
Claudine opens up with a Richard Thompson cover Keep Your Distance with a clear vocal backed up by the sharp steel edge of the guitar. It’s an odd cover because the timbre of her voice is so different but she carries it off well, and it’s a real audience-grabber .
Start A Fight also goes well, but otherwise is very different – a dark original song which gets a sympathetic rendition with which much of the audience already seems familiar.
It’s the first time I’ve heard anyone put the word computer into a song – a very 20th/21st century piece, with gentle finger picking and a brooding lyric about a relationship which disintegrated a while ago and which seems to be beyond saving. Another one for the memory banks, this one.
John Connor
Essex is allegedly struggling for virgins but FaB seems to manage one a week – John is new to these doors with attention-grabbing songs and a compulsive line in on stage patter. I won’t spoil the novelty for anyone who hears him again, except that I got quite lost between an audible and orderly cue (or queue). He has a background in Education and a foreground in guitar playing.
The Rooster Got In Our Yard – a comic chorus narrative explaining in some detail how there is no limit to what this rooster can do – pretty much plays to the tone of the afternoon and augurs well for another visit (we hope). After a quick plug for the Bromsgrove Festival next year, he changes course into
Copper and Clay, Arsenic and Tin (“which grow in your blood/ and get under your skin”)( ed note: Cousin Jack- Steve Knightley), which is a modern take on a good old folk tradition – the traumas suffered by people in essential (but unglamorous) trades. In this case, working in the Cornish mines – a song with a strong and driving rhythm strummed with hammer on and the odd embroidered line.
A nice combination shot through with dry with and great confidence.
Alan
Another FaB Virgin – 2 in a day? It’s no wonder all the Satanists have decamped for Norfolk…
Anyway, Alan and Claudine meet at the Jive Club, we are told, and two dances duly ensue. Alan is not just a foil to permit Claudine’s increasingly speedy and well executed spins but also a few natty steps of his own in there. Starting with a heavy French folk piece with a club overdub. The second track is a Belgian Eurovision entry but none the worse for that
How do they do this? Speaking as someone who can’t keep the whole of my body going in one direction coherently, I can only admire – there are some talented people swanning around here…even though the whole thing is somewhat limited by the available space. On balance it couldn’t have been significantly better if had been rehearsed – and finishes on a series of interlocking and overlapping twirls and a tango catch. Wow…
…and that’s about it. It’s 5:40 p.m., or thereabouts, as Claudine shuts down the stereo and Debbie closes out the proceedings for another week.
A final bizarre reflection, since I’m not quite reached the end of a page, is that another of FaBs virtues is, other than the semi pros, it does draw out a lot of people who might otherwise just have played at home. It is good to get out and involved with others – it creates bands, which can’t be bad, but also avoids the dreaded musical masturbation i.e. playing with oneself. Or I suppose, in this context, mellodeonanism. (And I REALLY can’t tell these instruments apart – they all look like sideways pianos to me and they all make an amazing range of sounds). Never mind, get it right I’d spoil the gag…
Enough! It has been an unusual week, even by FaB’s standards, with several different instruments breaking the usual guitar monopoly, the range of music taking us from urban dance and French clubbing beats through to sea shanties and Irish reels, and more than enough raucous backchat to last till the next session. Well, that’s FaB for you.
This session was as usual overseen by Claudine, many people took part, Debbie compered it, and then came back and edited the review too.
Credits over, run the closing music – we’re away till next time.
Gordon Shears
October 2006