Black Tree

Paul Middleton's Angst Band at Blues Bar, Harrogate

Went to see Paul Middleton and his Angst Band at Blues Bar in Harrogate last night and boy are they good. I think most of us take it for granted what a pleasure it is to see and hear them, since they play every Wednesday at Blues. Their residency makes it less of an event to promote and surround with the interest of a single show. So there’s no fuss, just a great band playing away to 40 or 50 people every Wednesday. Part of me feels its criminal that there’s not 100 people or more each week but the idealist in me loves the fact that Paul’s the gnarled journeyman, existing on music (and one or two other substances) alone, under-appreciated by most, a slave to the music, the very essence of rock and roll.

Despite the fact he’s been around for forever and a day, when he sing, shouts and rants it feels like he’s singing those words for the first time in his life. The passion and feeling is tangible and its the same each of the four or five times I’ve seen him. I don’t really know how his voice copes with it. Perhaps a healthy appetite for illicit substances helps?

The band are a lovely motley crew consisting of Paul on vocals and acoustic guitar (he’s all the Angst!), a friendly and very tight youngish drummer, his dad sat tucked away at the back, resembling a American southern drifter, baseball cap pulled down, long white hair and beard on electric guitar and mostly playing one of those country and western style sit down slide guitars. Then there’s a great young base player and a truly amazing lead guitarist with hair that could easily be topped with that trademark black top hat of two famous guitarists. Great licks, great solos and great guitar hero style gurning!

Their music is rock and blues but not just that same rock and blues played in a million pubs up and down the county. There’s something slightly different that makes their music unique and their own. Quite obviously this appears to me to be down to their songs, style and the collective sum of their parts. They don’t just churn out the same old covers, they play their own songs which are clearly Paul’s songs. The band are more just an accompaniment to Paul’s poetic rants and protests. His songs are like old American civil rights protest songs but delivered by a gnarly old Yorkshireman about issues here and issue with modern life. He does have the power to hold your ear with his words and there are sparks of genius. Subsequently let down with his ‘fucked up miserable old Yorkshireman’ off mic ramblings. Last night and another time I’ve seen him he was joined on stage by a fiddle player who is clearly very talented indeed. He adds a even lovelier dimension to the motley crew being well dressed and perhaps Jewish in looks, they just look an incredible sight of different people bought together to make great music. Oh and the fiddle adds a additional layer of feeling and quality to the tunes. I hope he comes back to play with them again.

I spoke briefly to the drummer in the interval who was a nice bloke and said they only get together to play this gig really, never practice and don’t really have a great deal in common. This is obviously a recipe for sometimes intelligent, sometimes ridiculous but always great rock music.

If you’ve never been to Blues or never seen Paul Middleton and the Angst Band, or even if you’ve not been for a while, I definitely recommend it. Have some beer, get tipsy and get down and dirty in Blues on a Wednesday with some great shouty rock poetry. I’ll be the one singing to the ‘Predudice’ song,  swaying a little with a Sagres in hand.

Saw Control the Movie the other night … amazing

Here’s some quality footage of the myth that is Ian Curtis and Joy Division.

John Power ... not in Harrogate

Last night, I went to see John Power (ex Cast, the LA’s) with a couple of friends at a bar called Rehab in Harrogate. Despite the music being great, the whole thing just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with an overriding feeling of embarrassment.

We paid £13 each for the tickets which for a start is £5-6 too expensive for going to a gig in a cafe bar. There was about 50-60 people there and it’s not a small place so it wasn’t rammed. It’s an odd place and over the years has been loads of bars and hasn’t quite worked. I can tell they’re really trying to make it work but so far it lacks a bit of a soul.

The support was from Micky P Kerr who I reckon is one to look out for over the next 12 months. He started off bravely with some spoken word pieces. Really liked it as it’s not the usual kind of thing you get in Harrogate and his words beautifully towed the line between cheeky Northern humour and serious heart felt issues. Credit Crunch Christmas is his proper Christmas single, funny, clever with observance beyond the obvious.

He then picked up his guitar and played some soulful and catchy pop folk tunes, with most of them accompanied with a just beautiful cello. The music was great but Micky was been out voiced by about 10-15 knob heads who seemed like they’d walked out of a recruitment consultancy Christmas party and wanted to drink, shout and dance like Liam Gallagher wannabies. They weren’t the least bit interested and should have pissed off to Wetherspoons to their brethren.

Micky made a few unnoticed snide comments about them and continued with some hilarious Northern indie rap tunes. He really is quite the wordsmith, with a wholly unpretentious, mildly offensive Northern manner. Just the funny side of arrogance and tunes that would be equally great backed by hip hop beats or jangly indie guitars.

John Power came on and you instantly knew he felt uncomfortable. It seemed his own, the venue’s and much of the crowd’s preconception of the gig were poles apart. He was coming to do an intimate acoustic gig on his own ideally to a set of open minded people, playing bluesy folk tunes from his new album. For some reason therefore, Rehab had put him on a stage with disco lights pulsing all over him and the same bunch of chavs were constantly just shouting at him to play ‘Sandstorm’ and the rest. He was so awkward and said he wasn’t playing that stuff. I felt so embarrassed for him, mainly cos he’ll probably just have thought how much of a 2 bit hick town Harrogate is and what a shit gig and bunch of knobs.

The truth is, most people at the gig enjoyed it for what it was, great music. Great music stripped down to just beautiful, old fashioned folk and blues stories with some bloody nice guitar licks to boot. Just spoiled a bit and John raced through his set without barely a breath between tunes.

Harrogate is a great place and the more gigs and other decent art and cultural stuff we attract the better. If only the gig had been down the road at the fantastic Blues Bar, it would have worked a dream. Perhaps Rehab just need a bit more time and aren’t used to holding these gigs, perhaps I’m being a bit harsh and it was just me that felt pissed off with these people.

Either way I doubt John will come back in a hurry. I’d love to know what he thought himself.