Vive Le Rock - Q's Next and The Payoll Union...

Buckle up rockers and rollers - Issue 27 of the UK's boomiest music mag Vive Le Rock  has just hist the shelves. Featuring, The Who at 50, Brian James on his new band and life after The Damned, gig, new music and reissue reviews - including a a critical ear from me on Suzi Quatro's Greatest Hits...

One review that didn't make ish 27, is The Payroll Union's new album.. but nothing goes  to waste so dig in and taste test below...

Paris in America - The Payroll Union 

Philadelphia freedom. Virtue, liberty and independence - from South Yorkshire! 

From ‘Sgt. Pepper’ to SHAM’s ‘That’s Life’ to Beck’s Grammy winning ‘Morning Phase’ – the appeal of the concept album is format that’s never faded – certainly not for frowny-browed song-scribblers . Although Payroll Union take an unusual spin on the medium of story-arcs-expressed-through-music, aligning themselves more with Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’ than your usual long-form haul.

An album produced in collaboration with University of Sheffield, where folk ‘n’ roll meets battle re-enactment. ‘Paris in America’ takes as its source – ‘a narrative of Philadelphia in the 1840s and '50s, based on the antebellum with its tales of violence and conflict’, for an authentically academic take covering a specific time-slice of American history (with annotated sleeve notes), which could act as a metaphor for today’s current political climate.

Sonically it’s a Philadelphia experiment shifting between shades of Handsome Family meet Fleet foxes and Divine Comedy communing with Arcade Fire

Autumn interlude... part 3: Gazing through the fog to the other side

The third serving in this seasonal selection comes from Blitzen Trapper - 'Blitzen who?'they chorused...

Geographically the Blitzen call Portland, Oregon home. Musically the Trappers are parked midway between Wilco and Teenage Fanclub - pitching out albums of country, power pop and almost bubbleglam on the glitzier bits of the back catalogue..

But today's BT taster comes from 2008's Furr - a country-noir tale of grim business and murderous jailbirds


 
Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer from Luke Norby on Vimeo.

 And from the latest album VII

 

What The Folk - Micheal Chapman returns to Southend tonight

From postcards from Pellicci's to postcards from Southend and Scarborough

Rewind backawhiles, to January 2010... and you'll find me getting into a wide eyed (boy from freecloud) froth over Michael Chapman and the proto Bowie-tone colouring the sound of his 1970 album Fully Qualified Survivor - a tone brought to the FQS sessions by the recording debut of Mick Ronson..

The result of some stealthy info-digging since first hearing FQS - reveals an entire web threading the Chapman-first/Bowie-later connection together, with a repertory of Chapman's accomplices and session men being absorbed into Bowie's orbit.  From 69 and Jon Kane covering Chapman's Soulful Lady (produced by Tony Visconti)  to Gus Dudgeon of Rainmaker and FQS (later of Space Oddity, MWSTW, Ziggy), Paul Buckmaster of Rainmaker and FQS ( also Space Oddity, unreleased Man Who Fell to Earth OST) to Chapman's drummer Richie Dharma later appearing on Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side - and of  course - Mick Ronson's The Rats (from Hull), becoming Bowie's Spiders (from Mars).

So what's the point of this see-saw style, name-spotting? Well, Chapman returns to Southend for an appearance as part of the 2013 Leigh Folk Festival, which I believe, is his first live outing in this area since playing two local gigs with Bowie in 1970...

The tickets are booked, the bikes have been readied for a cycle to the venue - and who knows I may even try and grab a quick natter with Pal Chapman to get his take on the push-me—pull-you tale.

If you haven't backtracked to the original Chappers/Ronson post - lend a quizical ear below

Click here for this year's full-folk breakdown

Folky Friday - Moonshine and Mudflats.

Staying with this week's rhythm of celebrations, shindigs and leg-shakings, the Leigh Folk Festival reaches it's peak this weekend, with a bulging menu of music and events.

Saturday is nicely polite, Think: Pimm's, picnic blankets and hampers in the Library Gardens. A micro-festival with side-stalls selling real vinyl records and second hand book bargains, a finger-licking veggie barbecue and live bands folking about in the background - all this and a sea view through the trees. Perhaps this year, I'll try Piley's tip and stick to the Festival Strength Cider to avoid a replay of last festival's alcoholic wobbles and cycling home sideways.

Kelli Ali plays the Library Gardens last year

Sunday it's all going on down Old Leigh way, and a the perfect day to wander around the wharfs, pubs and cockle sheds for more music from new bands and old hands. But, if you can't make the Folk-Fest, why not pick up one of the three official Leigh Folk Festival Cd's for a taste test of the event.

If you are coming to town, don't forget - Canvey is literally skimming distance from Leigh, if you fancy some Oil City sight seeing

Today's titbits are taken from the Island Folk Box - a triple CD set that seems to suit the mood of any season. If you only listen to ANY two tracks from this ol' blog - starring the athletic banjo of Bryn Haworth and Bronco's slow-shifting arpeggios.

Bryn Haworth - Darlin' Cory



Bronco - Time Slips Away

Funky Friday - Folking About On The River

So the Annual Leigh Folk Festival rolls round again this weekend, and really, who needs Glastonbury - when last year's LFF (my first visit) was such a joy and a gem. Please leave any ideas of fuzzy folkies a'wailing and a'wauling about shipwrecks, smugglers and sweethearts long gone, at the gatepost please - this free, two day event of live musical doings is coloured with all shades and styles from solo strummers to ska bands and young folkies to old rockers..

Saturday sees fun for all the family in the Library Gardens with live bands on rotation, perhaps circus skills for the kiddies and dusty ol' vinyl stalls for the dusty ol' dads. Why not bring some plonk and perhaps bagels (from the Leigh Bagel Bar). While Sunday is bands amongst the boats down Old Leigh way with it's wharfs, seafood stalls and those fishermen's pubs...

So, if you're at a loose end this weekend, why not take the C2C to Leigh On Sea, where you may hear funky folk along the lines of..

John & Beverley Martyn - Sorry to Be So Long



Kathy Smith - It's Taking So Long



Heather Jones - Penrhyn Gwyn
If any continental viewers are wondering what's the crazy talk on this track - It's Welsh! Claimed to be Britain's oldest language and still spoken by over half a million people in Wales..



I won't be posting anything on Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett, I'll leave it to others who'll do them more justice than I ever could - but will spin this up in memory ...

Funky Friday - Folksie Blokes

From Folk Hobbit........

The Leigh Folk Festival is taking place, just round the corner from me this weekend. Criminally, considering it's only a twenty minute hoof - this year will be the first time I've actually wandered along. I'm not entirely sure to what to expect, but yelling, yodelling and some polite humored a hootin' and a howlin' are sure to feature on the fixtures list - let's hope some of it's as groovy as these green fingered funky folkies....

Donovan - 'Barabajagal(Love Is Hot)'



Donovan was discovered in Westcliff (about two miles, or two train stops ) down the line from the Leigh Folk Festival by Tin Pan Alley legend Peter Eden who until fairly recently ran an excellent second hand record and book shop in Leigh - 'Barabajagal' features The Jeff Beck Group doing the backing duties - you can smell the Zep' in this track.

John Martyn - 'Dreams By The Sea'



I've always felt there's a touch of 'The Sweeney' style stake out texture about JM's snake hips shake down.

Led Zeppelin - 'The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair'



Like Bowie, Bolan and Rod Stewart - Robert Plant followed the same hop, skip and jump from Mod to Folk to Hippie before joining the rock aristocracy - you've got to love Zep for tempering their testosterock with both funk and folk.

If you do end up taking a trip to the Leigh Folk Festival( perhaps via the Fenchurch flyer) - keep an eye out for someone in a straw pork pie hat (yes, really!) sitting and sipping down by The 'Billet.

......To Rock God