Whipping along with the speed of a seafront breeze, Southend's David Woodcock maintains the sort of sprightly, high-firing work rate you rarely find amongst contemporary singer/songwriters. One minty new tune gets posted on Soundcloud every week for free download. Aside from the weekly freebies, live-wise he's a consistent performer - slotting in solo shows, pitching up with his signature tinkles, tickles and vocals ad-hoc at local shindigs or as the keyboard component of Southend legends The Seasiders.
Yet, on top of this bookings-busting schedule David has still found time to write and release a new album Splinters – rendered and recorded in his bathroom and the local pub (The Railway). It's a self-assembled construction, built around a rolling repertory of duets, team-ups and co-writes, pulling in players and contributors from Southend's bubbling and buoyant music scene: Dave Dulake, Fi Jacobs and Kelly Buckley (supplying lead vocals on Gentlemen To Lech}
Splinters songbook of choppy time changes, melancholy sketches and uptempo tear-ups has the loose-limbed vibe of a late-hours lock in. Something like eavesdropping on an end of evening session (with pint mugs on the piano) - while Ronnie Lane, Jarvis Cocker and Graham Coxon go heads together on boozy, crowd rousing choruses of heartbreak and hometowns. All clicked and captured with a Ray Davies take on everyday detail - topped off with the production touch of a new wave knees up.
If you're in town this weekend - get yourself to Denmark St to catch Dave in action with The Seasiders at their first Blow Up show...
David Woodcock and The Splinters - Open Secret
David Woodcock and The Splinters - Gentlemen To Lech
Recommended reading
David Woodcock on Zinng, Myspace, Twitter and Facebook
The Seasiders on Myspace
6 comments:
I really hope you had all that already written matey, else you're the fastest quality blogger in town.
All ready to go yesterday except the title (which came to me on the train home). Still not in so I can't test the audio, and blogger typically embeds one audio for multiple tracks.
Any chance of checking the streams play the right tunes - and I'll tweak when I'm up the hill and in. No probs if you is busy with your own bloggings though...
Opps. Bit late. Er...sounds OK! *shuffles off*
Impressed with everything he's done to date. Particularly loved that debut album, still gets a regular airing does that. Kinks & Blur main, with a Chas n Dave side order! nice work!
Look forward to catching a local gig soon.
good stuff...
One track a week!!!! Hell I'll never write that quickly...
Put 22nd May in the Piley diary - The Seasiders are playing picnic in the park (Priory) - should be a goody.
We had a nip along to the Blow Up gig F/Ron - storming live - like Lazy Sunday era Small Faces. But faster.
Post a Comment