The Good Ship, Kilburn, has a very curious set-up for a live venue. The band/musician isn’t centre-stage, but down a pit.
So you have two options to watch the performer, either get down in the pit with them – where there is enough space for a dozen or so people – or you stand around the edges of the pit. The rest of the space is much more a standard bar set-up.
So the attention isn’t always on the acts, as there is such a little space to see them that the audience tends to drift into the bar area.
This was generally true for most of this night, a charity night of 7 acts. That was until Jake Morley took to the stage. Read more
Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi’s guitarist has been arrested in Laguna Beach, California on suspicion of drink driving. Sambora, 48, was arrested after a police officer noticed his black Hummer weaving in traffic lanes on Tuesday.
He has been ordered to appear in court on 7 May on one count of driving under the influence, police said. Though he could also face further charges of child endangerment as he had two children in his car at the time of the arrest
The chances are you weren’t at this gig – I can be quite be certain about that as the place was really quite empty. Which is a pity as you missed a good night.
What would probably be quite a good venue when packed, was echoing with about 30 people in attendance to see three bands play. Of those three bands it would seem that they had either done none or very little publicity, or in Cassette Electrik’s case been asked at the last minute to perform.
Cassette Electrik who we were there to see didn’t let the lack of an audience affect them much, though it was obvious on occasion that singer Lucy Bugiel needed a bit more of a crowd to bring out her best performance. Read more
Where do I start?
Although collectively this band from San Diego plays ok on the track, lyrically it’s shallow with minimal direction and purpose to the song. As musicians there is promise, however currently they are a standard American guitar driven garage band.
The question they need to answer is how they develop into something more distinguishable from the hundreds of other bands producing a similar sound, whether they have the ability to do so remains for them to prove. The band has a history of turbulence in its line up; they need to address this to develop a definitive and recognisable sound.
There has been something of a buzz regarding this new soul singer heralding from the valleys of Wales.
Duffy has been tipped to be the hottest new act to emerge in 2008 and judging by the latest singles and album charts, it just might be true.
Debut album ‘Rockferry’ sits proud at the top of the album chart and single ‘Mercy’ has been in the same position for the last four weeks.
The Duffy sound is basically retro soul and a comparison can easily be made to Dusty Springfield and current contemporary Amy Whinehouse. Read more
Our favourite electro band Cassette Electrik have some exciting news – for you lucky MusicRiot readers.
They are playing a gig tonight (11th March 2008) in central London, and for all of you that get along and mention MusicRiot, you can claim your FREE CD Single of “The Smartest Bomb”!
Yep, you read right, a free CD! Just get along, mention us and you’ll walk away a CD heavier and having heard some of the band’s fantastic new material. Hope to see you there!
Mark Oliver Everett is better known as E, the lead singer of rock band The Eels. And if you are aware of the Eels discography then you are likely to be vaguely aware of many of the stories that are told in this book.
That’s because E is, by and large, an extremely auto-biographical songwriter, putting his experiences and feelings directly into his lyrics. And boy does he have some experiences!
He’s experienced more losses of family and friends so far in his life than some might see in their lifetimes. His genius father died of a heart attack, his sister committed suicide saying she was going to be with their dad “in a parallel universe”, a few years later his mum died of cancer. This left him the final member of his family.
It’s no wonder that he believes that music saved his life – all this death pushed him into numerous depressions, but he cleared his head, realised that he was still living and that he was going to make the most of it.
Everett writes touchingly about his life, his family, his music and his feelings about all three. This isn’t your usual Rock Star Biog – this is, as the back-cover states, the “beautiful world of a man on a mission”
As MusicRiot reported in October last year, legendary UK band, The Charlatans, have released their new album through the website of radio station, XFM.
“You Cross My Path” is the latest album from the band. Lead singer Tim Burgess is reported as saying: “When we were recording the album, we already knew we were going to release it for free over the internet, and that’s when we realised we had to make it a brilliant album – you can’t cheat free.”
Burgess explains: “We want ‘the people’ to own the music and we want the artist i.e. us, to own the copyright. Why let a record company get in the way of the people getting the music?”
