Skip to main content

There are some great local bands out there - do they all have to go global?

Just a thought. You can't venture far in the UK without chancing upon some great musicians (and some admittedly less so) doing what they love in a boozer in front of a handful of punters.

A freezing night in Poole last night, and there were at least two pubs with live music. These are guys who will never make it to Simon Cowell's iPod. Probably a very good thing, too. They will probably never make it onto mine, but they are doing what they love and often making a pretty good job of it. Covers or originals, there is some creativity going on.

So what if they never make it 'big' and spend their days pushing paper, tapping keyboards or installing taps? It doesn't make their creativity any less valuable or worthy.

As we struggle through one of the gloomiest winters and spring most of us can remember, with snow hitting many of us as we head towards Easter, there will be bands everywhere heading out to entertain us tonight. Most of them will never make as much money as they spend on their guitars and PAs, but they'll have a lot of fun and spread some good stuff around.

I'm often dismissive of covers bands, but who's to criticise them? Not everyone is a song-writer. My songs sit languishing in notebooks and one rubbish demo tapes - probably never to see the light of day. Love playing other people's stuff, though. Nd definitely love listening to all those bands don't around the country who are keeping it live.


Posted via my iPad

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...

Playtime: 'Morse Code Through The Lights'

Every once in a while, an album drops into your inbox and isn't going anywhere. Morse Code Through The Lights is just such an album. Incontrovertibly controversial, this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but this one has absolutely, instantly, made it onto my list of top albums of 2024. Drummer Tom Bancroft and his band Playtime, which began in Edinburgh as Adventures in New Music ten years ago as a weekly session, have produced something delightfully experimental and brilliantly creative. Four of Scotland's most-established jazz musicians - Martin Kershaw (sax), Graeme Stephen (guitar), Mario Caribe (bass) and Tom Bancroft (drums) - tried out new music and new ideas together. Once lockdown struck in 2020, they decided to explore the possibilities of improvising music together online, partly for something to do, and partly because it was something they could do for their audience. Most of us discovered - or thought we had - that improvising online was difficult or impossi...

Remembering season 20 of Harmonious World

In June 2020, I released the first episode of my podcast -   Harmonious World  - and I had no idea how much delight it would bring me to share conversations with musicians from around the world. Whether you're a guest, a listener or one of the collaborators who have helped me find my guests, thank you! I now have listeners in 2, 475 cities across 129 countries, so wherever you are, welcome to our collective musical attempts to make the world more harmonious. Season 20 guests were: Chris Gall Sultan Stevenson Fotina Naumenko Quinn Sternberg Tara Minton for International Jazz Day Nicole Zuraitis Dave Keech Ute Lemper Vonn Vanier Iain Farrington Cecilie Strange Becca Wilkins Dave Handler