If you check out MusicRiot regularly, you’ll know that our contributors have one thing in common; they’re all passionate about (maybe bordering on obsessed by) music.  All of the Riot Squad (John Preston, Louie Anderson and, most recently, Klare Stephens) love music of all styles and the reason we do this is because we want to share our passion and maybe get a few more people to listen to the music we love, whether it’s live or recorded.  Also, because music is such a personal thing we like to bring that element into our contributions; opinions are always subjective, but at least we’re upfront about it.  Often it can feel like shouting in the dark: then you have a weekend like the one I’ve just had.

Last week I published a review of the excellent album “Closer than you Know” by The Kennedys and I was invited to review their gig at Kings Place in London on Friday.  I also had a gig lined up for Sunday night, going to watch the Billy Walton Band in High Barnet with some good friends.  Both gigs were superb in very different ways; you can read The Kennedys review and previous Billy Walton Band reviews here on MusicRiot and work out for yourself that I’m impressed.

The live performances by these bands, however, are only part of the story.  All of the musicians at these two gigs (Pete and Maura Kennedy, Billy Walton, William Paris, Rich Taskowitz and John D’Angelo) are extremely gifted musicians who love what they do and love to interact with their audience personally and online. Both bands mix with the audience when they aren’t actually performing (and sometimes when they are; yeah that’s you Billy and Rich) and have a huge amount of respect for their fans, fellow musicians and songwriters.

Both gigs were superb in different ways; The Kennedys stripped down their songs to arrangements for two acoustic guitars and two voices while the Billy Walton Band played raucous r’n’r (and blues and soul and the rest) in the way that bands from New Jersey do.  Both bands were happy to play requests from the audience regardless of the setlist they had prepared.  Most importantly, both bands were obviously having a good time.  So far, so good, but excellence is pretty much what I expected from these two bands and this weekend was about much more than that.

I’ve been reviewing gigs in London and elsewhere for MusicRiot for six years now and sometimes it can be a bit depressing; you watch incredibly gifted bands and artists performing to audiences which just scrape into three figures and most of them are friends of the band.  I’ve been to blues gigs where the majority of the audience at least twice as old as the musicians.   It was great to see two very different gigs this weekend where the ages of the audience ranged widely and everyone was there to hear great live music and have a good time.  And that brings me on to the reason why we all contribute to MusicRiot.

We don’t ignore the established bands at MusicRiot; we had two reviews of the Daft Punk album last week and we’ve reviewed albums by Bruce Springsteen, Scissor Sisters, Lana del Rey and Saint Etienne in the last year or so.  We also love to discover a diverse range of bands and artists that you might not have heard of and tell you all about them so we’ll carry on telling you all about artists like The Kennedys, the Billy Walton Band, MS MR, Sally Shapiro, Tomorrow’s World, Lilygun, Stoneface Travellers, Dean Owens and many more.  We’ve even got some pretty good photos for you to look at.

If there’s one lesson that I’ve learned from six years at MusicRiot it’s this; whatever you hear on daytime radio, there’s always good music out there if you know where to look and that’s why the Riot Squad do what they do.  And thanks to Richie Taz for the title.

 

 

Oxford Street on a wet Tuesday night in January can be a really miserable place, but not if you’re on your way to see The Billy Walton Band and the Henrik

Freischlader Band at the 100 Club, which is exactly what I was doing last Tuesday.  Both bands did the Skegness Butlins Blues festival last weekend before setting off on their UK tours.  Henrik is touring in support of his latest album “House in the Woods” and Billy is touring because the band love playing here and they have a lot of fanatical supporters in the UK.  The Stuart James Band was also on the bill as openers, so, three bands for a tenner in central London; you can’t argue with that.

At this kind of gig, the headline/support distinction doesn’t really apply; each band has its own following and they generally respect the work of the other bands on the bill.  I’m not saying there’s no tribalism, but there is a huge amount of mutual respect between the bands which is reflected in the attitudes of their followers.  Everyone came to hear good music and they weren’t disappointed.

The Billy Walton Band played a much, much shorter set than they would play as headliners and focussed on the latest album, “Crank it Up!”.  They packed in all of the highlights of a headline set into 45 minutes which featured Billy’s wonderful playing and showmanship and the improvisational interplay between Billy’s guitar and Richie Taz’s sax over the rock-solid rhythm section of William Paris and John D’Angelo.  If you’re looking for highlights, I’d go with “Deal with the Devil”, “The Deal went Down” and “Hot Blues” from the album and the inevitable show-stopping “Cannonball”.  I may be biased, but you really should make the effort to see these guys.

If you want a bit of background on the Henrik Freischlader Band, there’s a review of “House in the Woods” here.  Like the Billy Walton setup, this is a classic 70s power trio with an added twist.  In this case it’s the smoky Hammond sound of Moritz Fuhrhop which fills out the sound while Henrik plays his riffs and fills and solos. Again, the rhythm section of Bjorn Kruger (drums) and Theofilos Fotiadis provided a solid foundation for the creativity of the 2 lead players.  Henrik, like his hero Gary Moore, is equally impressive playing heavy riff-based songs and the slower ballads but he still has another weapon in the locker; he has a powerful, lived-in and careworn, voice which delivers both the rockers and the slower songs perfectly.  The band is tight and convincing in both styles and also sounds great with funkier and reggae-tinged material.

The set was dominated, unsurprisingly, by material from the new album (which is very, very good) and “Nowhere to Go”, “1999”, “House in the Woods” and “Breaking my Heart Again” all

sound stunning live; we even had a cover of “Come Together” thrown in for good measure.  There was a minor glitch with the bass sound during Henrik’s set, but it didn’t detract from a powerful live performance from two dynamic bands.

If Henrik and the band are wondering why the audience were leaving halfway through their set, it puzzled me as well.  Transport out of central London isn’t great late at night, but I really don’t understand an audience leaving at 10:30 when a headline band is absolutely on fire.  Anyway, I was there with Plus One until the end and it was a great night; two superb bands with incredible guitarists and great songs.  It doesn’t get a lot better than that.

 

If you haven’t managed to see Riot favourites the Billy Walton Band yet, you can see them across the UK in November of this year.  I know I keep saying this, but you really should make the effort to go and see them.  Full details available at www.billywaltonband.com .

 

November 2, 2012 7:00 pm

The Regal Cinema Evesham, Port Street

Evesham, WR11 3LD

 

November 3, 2012 (Time TBA)

The Flower Pot, 25 King Street

Derby DE1 3DZ

 

November 4, 2012 4:00 pm

Grimsby Yardbirds Club, Church Street

Grimsby, DN32 7DD

 

November 7, 2012, 7:00 pm

The Caves, 8-12 Niddry Street South

Edinburgh EH1 1NS

 

November 8, 2012 (Time TBA)

Backstage at the Green Hotel, 2 The Muirs

Kinross, Perthshire, Scotland KY13 8AS

Billy Walton Band & WT Feaster Band

 

November 9, 2012 (Time TBA)

The Cluny, 36 Lime St, Ouseburn

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 2PQ

 

November 10, 2012 (Time TBA)

Cameron’s Club, Hartlepool

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 11, 2012 (Time TBA)

True Blues Club at Earlestown Conservative Club,

17-19 Earle Street, Newton-le-Willows, WA12 9LW

 

November 12, 2012, 8:00 pm

The Greystones, Greystones Road.

Sheffield, S11 7BS

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 13, 2012 (Time TBA)

The Cellars, 56 Cromwell Road,

Eastney, PO4 9PN

 

November 14, 2012 (Time TBA)

The Robin 2, 20-28 Mount Pleasant

Wolverhampton, WV14 7LJ

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 15, 2012 (Time TBA)

Crawdaddy’s, Basildon

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 16, 2012 (Time TBA)

Boom Boom Club/Sutton United Football Club

Gander Green Lane, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 2EY

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 17, 2012 (Time TBA)

Halling Community Center, High Street

Halling, Rochester, ME2 1BS

Double Bill w/ WT Feaster

 

November 18, 2012 (Time TBA)

The Pavilion, Harbour Street,

Broadstairs, CT10 1EU

 

 

It’s a foggy night in London town (Whetstone actually) and I’m sitting backstage at the All Saints Arts Centre, which is a rebranded church hall where The Who (in their High Numbers era) played in 1964.  I’m chatting to the ever-approachable Billy Walton under the eagle eye of Plus One, who’s trying to make sure that I don’t morph into Lynn Barber mid-interview; as if.  This is roughly how  the conversation went.

AM         I’ve been following the tour on Facebook this time and it seems like it’s been a bit of a blast.

BW         It’s been great; the turnouts have been wonderful and the shows have been going fantastic and it’s nothing but happiness all round.

AM         The UK’s interesting because it’s always been a good territory for bands like yours hasn’t it?

BW         Yeah, guitar rock’s still alive and rock ‘n’ roll’s still breathing.

AM         It’s been nearly 2 years since we last met up, what’s been happening in that time?

BW         Actually, with my band we’ve been playing gigs and we’ve just recorded a new album called “Crank It Up!” and we’re very excited about it and we’re doing this tour pushing that.  Myself, I’ve been playing with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. I didn’t do the UK tour this time because I was doing my tour and finishing the album and I fly back next Thursday and play with The Jukes again up in Rhode Island, so it’s been a very busy summer, it’s been wonderful.

AM         You mentioned the album, I’ll come back to that in just a minute but I’ve noticed that you’ve become really popular with the Jukes fans as well.

BW         It’s been great, Jukes fans are music lovers and the Jukes are a unique band where nothing’s polished and you never know what’s going to happen and that’s what’s great and the fans dig into that because it’s happening in real time; even we don’t know what’s going to happen next.

AM         As a guitar player in The Jukes, there are some big shoes to fill there when you look at who’s been there in the past.

BW         Yeah Little Steven (van Zandt) and Bobby Bandiera who’s a great, great player but we’re the next evolution of The Jukes, so it’s a cool thing and to hear Southside sing every night is a pleasure.

AM         And Southside seems to be pushing outwards again with The Poor Fools.

BW         He’s always on the go, which we all are.  We all want to do different projects, do different things and evolve musically still, no matter what.

AM         So, tell me about the new album then.

BW         The new album; I’m very proud of it.  It’s a little bit more laid back than “Neon City”; the songwriting is a step up.  I’ve been doing some writing with this guy Randy Friel from Scullville Studios; he’s a good friend of mine, a great piano player and we’ve been hitting it off and writing, we just come with ideas and magic happens.

AM         With the kind of touring schedule that you’ve got with The Jukes and the Billy Walton Band, how do you actually manage to fit in the writing and the recording?

BW         I’m still trying to figure that out.  We did it and after we got the project done, you realise you can’t believe you made the time to do that.  It’s just constantly working and then we’re going to be on to the next album and on to the next Jukes show and the next Billy Walton Band tour, constantly moving, constantly evolving and trying just to get out there and play guitar.

AM         So, have you got a home studio that you use where you put ideas together?

BW         No, I don’t personally because I like being a guitar player and a songwriter instead of an engineer; I know a little bit about it and I have done it in the past to put ideas down but when you’re in a creative mode, you want to capture the creative mode instead of trying to get this take.  You want to stay in that creative mindframe, for me anyway.

AM         You and William (Paris) have obviously been together for a while now and I’ve seen that on stage it’s almost telepathic sometimes, so do you come along with an idea for a song and you work on it together?

BW         Yeah, constantly.  He has ideas he throws at me and I throw them back and they evolve.  We do some jamming in the middle of songs and sometimes that sparks something; every song comes in a different way.  It’s not like it’s cut and dried; okay, next song.

AM         It’s a bit like that that Keith Richards quote that you don’t write songs, they’re just in the air and you have to pick them out.

BW         Well, he had a few.  We were talking earlier about Randy Friel, where the magic was happening.  If you like somebody and you surround yourself with good people, have a good time, pop open a beer, have some fun, do some writing and just let it go then you’re creating instead of just champing at the bit trying to put a song down to get it out there.  That’s what’s different about this album.  Not running out of time, just doing it.

AM         So is most of the material on the new album your own songs?

BW         Yes, it all is; no covers.

AM         That’s great, I’ll look forward to hearing it.  I understand there was some original financing on the project as well.

BW         We did the Kickstarter programme, which is a great, great programme not only for music but for all the arts; for people who want to put movies out or artists.  You’re preselling your album and offering alternatives and people really dig in to it and it’s great for the artist because they don’t always have the money upfront and it gives you the ability to create more instead of being held back financially.

AM         That’s great, thanks for your time Billy.

BW         Thank you.

And that should have been the end of it; get a few photos, have a couple of Buds and enjoy the bands for the rest of the night.  I’ve done a live review of the band already and I’ve seen them a couple of times so there’s no reason to do another review.  Okay, I was wrong; I’ve seen the Billy Walton Band twice doing support sets and tonight they’re headlining which is a whole new ball game.

The support band is The Stone Electric who play a steady opening set which brings to mind early 70s British bands like Free and Stone the Crows or, more currently, The Black Crowes and they feature the powerful voice of Noni Crow.  They get a fairly good response, and the audience are pretty nicely warmed up for the headliners.

The nucleus of BWB is Billy Walton and bass player and co-writer William Paris joined on this tour by drummer Simon Dring and tenor sax player Richie Taz and from the moment they take the stage it’s a bit like being hit by a hurricane.  We’re only halfway through the first song when Plus One makes the observation that Billy’s an incredible guitar player, which is an understatement if anything but I’ll come back to that later.

Billy and William have played together for several years now and could add any other competent musicians to the mix and it would work out pretty well.  This time, however, Simon Dring and particularly Richie Taz (who plays on Billy’s new album), add many different options to the usual BWB power trio set, including the opportunity to throw in a couple of Springsteen covers, “Badlands” and “Rosalita”.  For most bands these would be brave choices but the quality of the playing, particularly the interplay between guitar and tenor sax, is so good that the band produce stunning versions of these songs which have all the power of the E Street Band originals.

The set lasts for a couple of hours and is a mix of material from the new album, older Billy Walton originals and a few covers thrown in.  Although Billy Walton is a great rock player, he’s capable of a lot more besides;  the set tonight includes the live favourite “Soul Song”, the country blues of “Deal with the Devil” and the early Springsteen feel of “The Deal Went Down” (both from the new album) and the band sound tremendous in all of these styles.

What makes BWB so special live isn’t just the outstanding technical ability; the band know how to entertain and to sell the songs as well.  They play with a huge sense of enjoyment and aren’t afraid to inject a bit of humour into the show.  The solos and jams can lead anywhere; how about breaking into the Surfaris’ hit “Wipeout” or the “Peter Gunn” theme during a solo or throwing in a verse from The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” in the middle of “Badlands”?  The band knows how to pace the set, picking the moments for the slower-paced material before building up a head of steam for a barnstorming finish and then it’s all over, leaving the band and the audience completely drained.

Do yourselves a favour and go out and see the Billy Walton Band next time they’re in the UK; I’ll even let you know when it is.  Any band that can make such a glorious noise with an audience of about 150 in a church hall in Whetstone deserves to reach a bigger audience.

The Billy Walton Band are touring the UK between November 3rd and 16th in support of their latest album.  You can see them in all these places:

Beaverwood Music Club, Chiselhurst                                                               Thursday, November 3

Halling Community Centre, Rochester                                                             Friday, November 4

Boom Boom Club/Sutton United Football Club, Sutton, Surrey                 Saturday, November 5

Glasson Club, Maryport                                                                                        Sunday, November 6

Trojan Rooms, Whitley Bay                                                                                 Monday, November 7

The Greyhound, Beeston                                                                                      Wednesday, November 9

Yardbirds, Grimsby                                                                                               Thursday, November 10

Touchline, Hockley                                                                                                Friday, November 11

The All Saints Art Centre, Whetstone                                                                Saturday, November 12

The Brown Jug, Cheltenham                                                                               Sunday, November 13

Famous Monday Blues at The Bullingdon, Oxford                                         Monday, November 14

The Brook, Southampton                                                                                      Wednesday, November 16

You can get full details here http://www.billywaltonband.com/home.html.

Watch out for an interview with Billy in the next few weeks.