Spock's Beard @ the Mean Fiddler
Long entry, most of it is under the cut, so as not to clog up your friends pages ;) Because i am such a sweetheart aren't i? *smiles*
Ok basically, this is what i did at the weekend. If you don't know who spock's beard are, have a listen, they're amazing :P
"Sunday afternoon, John, Limpet, Dave and I went up to London to see Spock’s Beard. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned them on the blog before, but they are a progressive rock band, and a superb one at that. They are not crusty relics from the seventies, recycling old numbers. They have been going since 1992, and have just released their ninth studio album, and are currently touring Europe. Sure they are all in their forties (not so sure about the singer/drummer), but they still got it!
I discovered them about six-eight months ago, and have hardly listened to anything else in all that time! Their later stuff has become a little more mainstream (though still high quality) rock, but their earlier stuff is pure, unadulterated Prog. Not the overly pretentious, experimental stuff, but accessible, melodic prog, with the emphasis often placed firmly on the rock. I love ‘em. I usually hate to use superlatives for a band that I haven’t listened to for too long, as the novelty often wears off, but this band are currently up there as my favourite, and could very well stay there. If you like prog (or even if you don’t), give them a go.
So Dave picked us three up at about three o’clock, got to Richmond at about 5, and walked onto the wrong platform for the tube. Well, actually, it was the right platform, but the other one had a train going to Hammersmith (which is where we wanted to go) on it, and as soon as I discovered that we ran around to it, to miss it by about ten seconds. Me, Jonh & Limpet gave Dave a look as if to say “I thought you knew what you were doing?”…….. That was funny. XD
No problem, a tube turned up at the platform we were originally on about ten minutes later. We changed at Hammersmith for the Piccadilly line, at which time Limpet had a bit of an episode when he discovered the name of the northernmost station on this line:
Cockfosters.
Limpet was crying with laughter.
Juvenile!
Anyway, that was the main topic of conversation for the trip to Tottenham Court Road, which we got to at about 6 o’clock. Dave phoned Mark as soon as we got out of the station, and he was on the opposite corner of the crossroads at that precise moment, so we waved over to him and he came to us. Doors opened at 7 o’clock, so we went to a chicken place and grabbed a bite and then got in the queue.
The Mean Fiddler is a venue of a similar size to the Wedgewood Rooms, but with a balcony area surrounding the main floor. It is actually the basement of the Astoria Theatre (I think). It was quite full, but with space to move quite easily, so we got a drink, took up a space about halfway back on the right hand side, and waited. I had a quick peek round the other side, and came back to tell them that we could get closer to the stage on that side, so off we went. It was an exceptionally good call, as we managed to get up on the step, within spitting distance of the keyboards on the stage. I'm good :D
The tickets said “plus Special Guests” so we were expecting support, but at just after 20:00 they came on and immediately came over to the audience and started shaking hands with everybody, before jumping into the set with “On A Perfect Day” off their new album.
Holy shit! They were perfect!
It was an awesome gig. And I mean awesome in the true sense of the word - I stood for parts with my mouth open or my eyes closed, and at one point I feared I may pass out, so good was the music, so intense, so rich and complex. Alan Morse is a god on the guitar. Dave Meros just stood back and did his job without fuss, and there were some tasty bass parts in there for him. The tour drummer (Jimmy Keegan) was awesome, and he sang some mean backing vocals as well. Nick DiVirgilio sings lead vocals. And he plays backing guiitar. And backing keyboards. Oh yeah, and he’s the bands actual drummer. And he’s fucking brilliant at all four. He had his own kit that he jumped on during instumentals, and he and Jimmy had a drum battle for about five-ten minutes which was totally amazing. His vocals were perfect all night too - not one bum note. Ryo Okumoto (the keyboard player, who as I mentioned was within spitting distance of us) is not only a total genius on the keyboards, but he’s also a total loon to boot! He messed around all night, playing to the cameras that people had snuck in, shaking hands, kissing (the girls) and generally interacting with the crowd all night, and he got so stuck into his solos, I was surprised that the instruments survived the night! At several points he used his hands, knees, feet, virtually every part of his body to play the Hammond. They all joked around with each other all night too and really enjoyed themselves on stage.
It was a fantastic gig, and I do hereby swear to go and see them every time they come over to play in this country, as long as it is humanly possible to get tickets. They really were the dogs bollocks. Honestly, they were so good, even the fact that they didn’t play most of the songs I was hoping they would didn’t reduce my enjoyment one little bit - every note that they produced gave me goosebumps. I really cannot find words to do justice to how good they were!"
Kyle x
p.s most of this entry was copied from Dave's blog (http://www.chapmanzone.co.uk) cos i couldn't be bothered to type it all out, but it almost fits what i would've said anyway. ;)
Ok basically, this is what i did at the weekend. If you don't know who spock's beard are, have a listen, they're amazing :P
"Sunday afternoon, John, Limpet, Dave and I went up to London to see Spock’s Beard. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned them on the blog before, but they are a progressive rock band, and a superb one at that. They are not crusty relics from the seventies, recycling old numbers. They have been going since 1992, and have just released their ninth studio album, and are currently touring Europe. Sure they are all in their forties (not so sure about the singer/drummer), but they still got it!
I discovered them about six-eight months ago, and have hardly listened to anything else in all that time! Their later stuff has become a little more mainstream (though still high quality) rock, but their earlier stuff is pure, unadulterated Prog. Not the overly pretentious, experimental stuff, but accessible, melodic prog, with the emphasis often placed firmly on the rock. I love ‘em. I usually hate to use superlatives for a band that I haven’t listened to for too long, as the novelty often wears off, but this band are currently up there as my favourite, and could very well stay there. If you like prog (or even if you don’t), give them a go.
So Dave picked us three up at about three o’clock, got to Richmond at about 5, and walked onto the wrong platform for the tube. Well, actually, it was the right platform, but the other one had a train going to Hammersmith (which is where we wanted to go) on it, and as soon as I discovered that we ran around to it, to miss it by about ten seconds. Me, Jonh & Limpet gave Dave a look as if to say “I thought you knew what you were doing?”…….. That was funny. XD
No problem, a tube turned up at the platform we were originally on about ten minutes later. We changed at Hammersmith for the Piccadilly line, at which time Limpet had a bit of an episode when he discovered the name of the northernmost station on this line:
Cockfosters.
Limpet was crying with laughter.
Juvenile!
Anyway, that was the main topic of conversation for the trip to Tottenham Court Road, which we got to at about 6 o’clock. Dave phoned Mark as soon as we got out of the station, and he was on the opposite corner of the crossroads at that precise moment, so we waved over to him and he came to us. Doors opened at 7 o’clock, so we went to a chicken place and grabbed a bite and then got in the queue.
The Mean Fiddler is a venue of a similar size to the Wedgewood Rooms, but with a balcony area surrounding the main floor. It is actually the basement of the Astoria Theatre (I think). It was quite full, but with space to move quite easily, so we got a drink, took up a space about halfway back on the right hand side, and waited. I had a quick peek round the other side, and came back to tell them that we could get closer to the stage on that side, so off we went. It was an exceptionally good call, as we managed to get up on the step, within spitting distance of the keyboards on the stage. I'm good :D
The tickets said “plus Special Guests” so we were expecting support, but at just after 20:00 they came on and immediately came over to the audience and started shaking hands with everybody, before jumping into the set with “On A Perfect Day” off their new album.
Holy shit! They were perfect!
It was an awesome gig. And I mean awesome in the true sense of the word - I stood for parts with my mouth open or my eyes closed, and at one point I feared I may pass out, so good was the music, so intense, so rich and complex. Alan Morse is a god on the guitar. Dave Meros just stood back and did his job without fuss, and there were some tasty bass parts in there for him. The tour drummer (Jimmy Keegan) was awesome, and he sang some mean backing vocals as well. Nick DiVirgilio sings lead vocals. And he plays backing guiitar. And backing keyboards. Oh yeah, and he’s the bands actual drummer. And he’s fucking brilliant at all four. He had his own kit that he jumped on during instumentals, and he and Jimmy had a drum battle for about five-ten minutes which was totally amazing. His vocals were perfect all night too - not one bum note. Ryo Okumoto (the keyboard player, who as I mentioned was within spitting distance of us) is not only a total genius on the keyboards, but he’s also a total loon to boot! He messed around all night, playing to the cameras that people had snuck in, shaking hands, kissing (the girls) and generally interacting with the crowd all night, and he got so stuck into his solos, I was surprised that the instruments survived the night! At several points he used his hands, knees, feet, virtually every part of his body to play the Hammond. They all joked around with each other all night too and really enjoyed themselves on stage.
It was a fantastic gig, and I do hereby swear to go and see them every time they come over to play in this country, as long as it is humanly possible to get tickets. They really were the dogs bollocks. Honestly, they were so good, even the fact that they didn’t play most of the songs I was hoping they would didn’t reduce my enjoyment one little bit - every note that they produced gave me goosebumps. I really cannot find words to do justice to how good they were!"
Kyle x
p.s most of this entry was copied from Dave's blog (http://www.chapmanzone.co.uk) cos i couldn't be bothered to type it all out, but it almost fits what i would've said anyway. ;)