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| Support wins the day |
REVIEW - THE INSIDE + BAZOOKAS
London School of Economics
GUESS where I am. The back of my hand is stamped with a smudge
of red ink that looks like it will need bleach to remove.
Raggedy-haired boys in Jimi Hendrix T-shirts are stumbling over
half-fit girls with split ends. A plastic cup of beer costs £1.50
and nobody seems to have work tomorrow.
You got it – I’ve been smuggled into studentsville. It’s
the dancefloor at the London School of Economics union in Aldwych.
The top attraction is supposed to be The Bazookas, a noisy skate-guitar
group who do that cringing Busted thing of synchronising their leaps
in the air. But put simply – they sound rubbish. The real big
score is support act The Inside, who might have wondered whether
they had come to the right place after hearing the annoying wails
of the other entertainment.
It’s been 12 months since Grooves caught up with the band.
Back then they were making people smile at the Bull and Gate in
Kentish Town with some decent pub rock.
Their music has advanced to something a little more moody and an
album in the pipeline promises bigger things. While bassist Pork
Chop (his real name is Andy Hicks) is going through a waistcoat
and sunglasses phase, frontman Nathan Tasker wears a straight jacket
top and has started to experiment with eye make-up.
Don’t tell him that it makes his eyes look swollen like Gareth
from The Office, he’s a showman and he’s giving it a go.
Behind the ghoulish slap, Tasker seems to be taking the band in
the right direction and their half-hour show is well worth catching.
It’s a mixture of epic guitar riffs and bubbling-hot bass with
the occasional surprise thrown in. A building set, a slow start
in which Tasker screams at the students to come closer to the stage
warps into a full scale rude-word rock out.
Final song You Know seemed to go on for ages, using what sounds
like a blurry ska rhythm to up the stakes.
The students seemed won over and the finale was engaging to the
last drum beat. Job done.
The curly-haired student DJ then, as if itching to ruin the mood
of the evening, reached over and put on the Jackson 5’s I Want
You Back and the gig was over.
Ideal namedropper fodder
PREVIEW - ABERFELDY
Islington Bar Academy
IF you are at one of those grown-up dinner party things and feel
the need to namedrop your latest find, you could do worse than shoving
the name of Aberfeldy to win a few cool points.
It certainly seems not enough people have tapped into these amiable
Belle and Sebastian soundalikes despite the simple delight of their
chirpy album Young Forever, a super blend of acoustic pop. Look
out for their live show on Monday night.
Demo of the week – Johnny and the
Gillettes
NOT much room for a ramble this week but even a tightly-packed
Grooves deserves a Demo of the Week.
And it would be a shame to ignore the promo sent in by Johnny and
the Gilettes.
Their sunny four-tracker is a world apart from the steady stream
of punk drivel that hits the DotW mat. The beauty in this music
is the unusual mix of jolly banjo and slippery harmonica. The sound-a-like
game throws up The Coral and maybe Van Morrison but the Gilettes
will grumble at that and, in fairness, they do their best to stamp
their mark on this solid sing-a-long fare. Best songs here are Walking
Along and Sisters.
• Send promos to Demo of the Week, 40 Camden Road, NW1 9DR.
CLICK HERE FOR LISTINGS
Quartet reveal lost chambers
FESTIVAL REVIEW - ENGLISH STRING QUARTET
Emmanuel Church, NW6
WE are now in the 11th season of the London Festival of Chamber
Music, the English String Quartet’s (ESQ) enterprising series
of concerts.
For this season, the quartet have chosen to perform French chamber
music from 1890 to 1920.
The second programme featured no fewer than three piano quintets.
In Boccherini’s famous quintet variations La Ritirata Notturna
di Madrid we heard a military band approaching and then disappearing
into the summer night of Madrid, as a rather tired night patrol
does its rounds.
Tired or not, it still managed to flourish its Spanish idiom, in
the somewhat less than sultry October air of the Emmanuel Church
in West Hampstead.
This was followed by Dvorak’s most popular Piano Trio, the
E minor ‘Dumky’ trio. This later work of his is formed
of a series of alternating fast and slow movements using a folk
idiom whose charm was brought out by Diana Cummings and Nick Holland,
from the quartet, and Martin Jones, one of Britain’s outstanding
chamber music pianists.
In the second half of the concert, Jones accompanied the quartet
in the piano quintet version of Milhaud’s suite, La Création
du Monde. The original ballet score had been heavily influenced
by the composer’s fascination for jazz, which he had first
discovered on a visit to the Hammersmith Palais de Dance in 1920.
Fortunately for the performers, he interpreted jazz much as Shostakovich
was later to do, as an idiom in basically classical structures,
such as the fugue of the second movement or the scherzo of the third.
With written-out parts, the ESQ could avoid having to improvise,
as they might have had to do if playing authentic jazz. This could
have made playing the work four four nights something of a trial
for them.
The concert rounded off with Fauré’s second piano quintet,
dating from 1923. The densely-written melodies were carried forward
by some beautiful and original harmonies.
But anyone familiar with this composer’s more transparent piano
quartets can readily hear why these quintets are less popular. It
is to the credit of the ESQ that they continue to bring to audiences
less familiar works. The ESQ also have, in association with the
festival, a programme that takes chamber music around London schools.
Now that really is music in the community.
The festival runs until October 22.
Russian master
PREVIEW - FREDDY KEMPF
LSO, St Luke’s
THERE is something about music by Chopin that makes it utterly
recognisable the moment the first notes are played. So often works
begin with a peaceful arpeggioed left hand, a simple melody emerges
in the right and as the music progresses both hands steadily increase
their variations, full of trills and acciaccaturas.
And on Thursday celebrated young Russian pianist Freddy Kempf will
perform Chopin’s Ballade No 1 in G minor, his Sonata No 3 in
B Minor and Apres Une lecture de Dante, by Liszt at Jerwood Hall,
LSO St Luke’s, London. Kempf is one of the most talented pianists
around – he sprang to fame after an outcry when he didn’t
win the Moscow Piano Competition – and has extensive experience
of Chopin, Liszt and Beethoven. This concert is to be broadcast
on Radio Three.
The Weimar Cantatas
SINCE their foundation in 1983, the Purcell Quartet has grown into
one of the most respected chamber ensembles and this week they are
appearing at Wigmore Hall to perform a selection of Bach’s
Weimar Cantatas. They will be joined by soloists including soprano
Emma Kirkby, countertenor Michael Chance, tenor Charles Daniels
and bass Peter Harvey. The cantatas were written by Bach during
his time as Konzertmeister at the Court of Weimar between 1708 and
1717. It features cantatas BMW 61, 161, 18 and 12.
CLICK HERE FOR LISTINGS |
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