PARODY AND MASH, ANYONE? 

October 1st sees a significant change in legislation here in the UK that will allow the parodying of copyright works. 

Prior to this, the copyright owner could take legal action against, for example, use of a musical or cinematic clip without permission. In practice, this rarely happened, but with the explosion of creativity and distribution that the internet has fuelled, parody has become a widespread activity that is difficult to police. Some musicians took parody to a very high level indeed - such as Weird Al Yankovic who has built his career out of it. Even he, though, has taken care with some of his works to ensure that they're not too close to the original. Others - comic and songwriter Neil Innes for example - have fallen foul of litigious copyright owners. Innes was a member of The Rutles, a Beatles parody band which had the blessing of band members themselves but not ATV Music, owner of many of the song publishing rights. Indeed, one song from the original 1978 TV special "All You Need Is Cash" was deemed to be too close to its inspiration and thus Get Up And Go ("Get Back") was omitted from the subsequent vinyl soundtrack release. 

You Tube Clip: The Rutles - Get Up And Go

Weird Al Yankovic
(Not Michael Jackson)

The Rutles - Get Up And Go

The new legislation - derived from the European Copyright Directive - will allow the use of parody material provided that "it is fair and does not compete with the original version". This will inevitably lead to the odd sight of the courts - and in particular, judges - deciding upon whether or not a song meets those requirements. In practical terms, this change should benefit the huge range of gifted amateurs who produce a myriad of parodies as well as those who turn their creativity to song "mash-ups". A mash-up is usually the splicing together of elements from two separate songs which then produces a "new" entity which retains the spirit of the originals, but also adds something new. TV shows and movies tend to be the principle inspirations for these works - just check out any cult TV series on You Tube and you'll see what I mean - but there are a handful of rather special practitioners. 

One such is Cassette Boy who has built up a huge on-line cult following for his TV-show and musical mash-ups. His careful editing and jump-cuts are almost a work of genius and yet even he has found major difficulties with posting the end-results on-line. He has complained that he has a minefield of legal issues to negotiate sometimes and told the BBC that sometimes it's like "being a painter in a country where paint is illegal".   

You Tube Clip: Cassette Boy Versus The News   

Perhaps the best known of recent musical parodies has been Bart Baker's "homage" to the 2013 Miley Cyrus song (and video) Wrecking Ball. If this had come to court in the UK under the new legislation, what would our judiciary have made of it? Perhaps you might think that they'd be more than familiar with such visual and aural content, although of course, I couldn't possibly comment.

You Tube Clip: Bart Baker - Wrecking Ball Parody

Radio 1's Greg James -
Wrecking Ball Parody

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

Over fifty-two million hits and counting - and that degree of traffic illustrates the impossibility of containing the parody genie in the legal bottle for much longer. It'll be a fascinating few months as creative types get to grips with the legislative change and with luck, we'll see further clever and witty mash-ups abound across our smart phones and iPads.

Alan Dorey

30th September 2014

      

ONE NIGHT WITH NICK CAVE

Nick Cave must be the most famous Australian living in Brighton: certainly the most famous antipodean musician and writer - and in a fascinating new documentary, 20,000 Days On Earth, both Cave and the Sussex city get plenty of air time.

In fact, the documentary probably isn't one in the strictest sense of the word, but it is an award-winning film made by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard that provides a tantalising look at the life and works of Nick Cave, front man of The Bad Seeds and much more besides. Released a couple of weeks ago, the directors candidly say that they hadn't intended creating this docu-drama. They'd worked with Cave previously on short video shoots and what started out as an invitation to film footage of his latest album project soon turned into a feature-length work. Whilst it's packed with some excellent set-ups which illuminate the creative process - from song-writing to laying down tracks in the studio - it also takes a refreshing approach to the character of the man himself. Several sequences are fictional, but they reveal elements of Nick Cave's motivations and there's no doubt that his erudite and thoughtful responses add much to the joy of the film.

Part of the viewing experience is being drawn into these fictional pieces. Thus an encounter with a psychiatrist - in reality an actor - draws out some fine dialogue and reveals Cave's thoughts on (for example) his childhood and relationship with his father. It's clear that Cave has added much to the writing of the film and a series of linking sequences allow him the chance to frame much of the narrative direction of the work. He's also made good use of The Bad Seeds themselves, particularly Warren Ellis who comes across as a combination of gracefully ageing hippy and the sort of cool teacher that you'd wish you'd had at school. Sequences shot at his cliff-top home where he and Cave exchange ideas - and Cave diplomatically refuses a stew made out of eels - give a good grounding to much of the rest of the work.

Directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

Cabbie Cave and Kylie

Some pieces work well.There's a clever device that's used to introduce people from Cave's past: Cave drives his car around the streets of Brighton, the gloomy, rainy city that he grumbles about but clearly loves, and acts as confessional cabbie to such as Ray Winstone and Kylie Minogue. Each unscripted sequence was simply a twenty minute straight shoot, the camera mounted on the dashboard showing Cave asking his passenger questions. In other hands, this could have been trite and artificial, but somehow, there's a touch of magic and they are delightful vignettes that add so much to the film. 

I'm not so sure of some of the early concert footage: I can understand why it's there, providing context and a sense of history, but although it's not overdone, it did take me away from the feel and conceit of the work. However, that is a minor issue - and all is more than redeemed by a wonderful and almost elegiac closing sequence, a shot of Cave standing on Brighton's shingle beach at night. The camera slowly pans back from Cave and out to sea, a single steady slow and aerial move that reveals the motionless Cave and the houses and hotels, lights winking in the windows, gradually coming into view. It is simply stunning.

Edith Bowman (left) interviewing Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Barry Adamson
at The Barbican, 17th September 2014

I was fortunate to see the film on the day of release and it was enhanced by a live feed from London's Barbican Centre where Nick Cave and several participants were interviewed on stage about the making of the film. BBC Radio's Edith Bowman acted as host and whilst her ability to handle the televisual aspects of the role aren't in doubt, she was an odd choice to interview Cave. Her questions and interjections were quite shallow, but fortunately, the set-up succeeded - and it gave Cave the chance to play a number of his piano ballads live on stage. 

And very wonderful they were too.

Nick Cave - Piano Ballads

And the title of the film? 

I did spend a few minutes just before the start working out how old Nick Cave was - and my mental arithmetic eventually came to an answer somewhere between 54 and 55. It was perhaps fitting that this semi-fictional work was released a week before he turned 57. 

Alan Dorey

18th September 2014

     

SQUEEZING OUT THE SALES 

Sometimes the stars are all aligned and new patterns emerge. And in musical terms, it's happened this week with several new announcements. 

The announcements - in their various ways - are all about selling albums, be they downloads or physical copies. We shouldn't be surprised at this time of year. The retail festive season starts earlier and earlier these days and record companies do all they can to take advantage of it. In years gone by, album releases might see a handful of Greatest Hits packages emerge and the occasional festive song. Today, that simply won't do - and big financial muscle is needed as complex marketing campaigns abound. Through a combination of viral marketing, clever product placement and lavish (and traditional) advertising campaigns, it's the big acts who will reap the benefits as the consumer, well, consumes. 

California - September 9th - Apple Launch the complete new U2
album to all 500m iTunes customers - for free.

And they probably don't come much bigger or more ambitious than U2's new album launch. The album "Songs Of Innocence" - their first in four years - was a massive secret and formed part of Apple's worldwide launch of its latest iPhones and new smart watch in California on September 9th. More than that, as Apple CEO Tim Cook made clear, it was going to be provided free of charge to all of Apple's iTunes account holders - some 500 million people. That's half a billion albums, one distributed directly into every iTunes account holder's library. Free. Without charge. Gratis. Zip. And I checked - and yes, there it was - including digital sleeve notes, all sitting in my purchased folder and ready for downloading. It's available to download for free until next month when the physical copies are made available: download for free - and you can keep it. 

U2 - Songs Of Innocence released in its digital format for free

The questions are big and many.

Radiohead
In Rainbows - Free download in 2007

Will anyone want to buy the physical copy? My guess, is yes, people will if previous history is anything to go by. There have been previous free releases of albums - Radiohead did it back in October 2007 when they released In Rainbows as a free download. Four months later, the CD and vinyl copies appeared and hey, guess what? They went to number one in both the UK and USA. A lesser known free download was from Manchester band The Charlatans. In the spring of 2008, they teamed up with radio station XFM to enable their new album - You Cross My Path - to be downloaded free via the XFM website. It too had a physical release a couple of months later and sold well.

The Charlatans - You Cross My Path
Downloadable for free via XFM Radio

What's the cost? In distribution terms, it's minimal - whether it goes out to one iTunes customer or the whole lot, there isn't much extra effort involved. In production costs, it's minimal - and it does act as a free ad, albeit one that runs to eleven complete tracks. There will be costs in terms of customer feedback - indeed, whilst many people have welcomed the initiative (and of course, new music for free), there have been a wide range of criticisms across social media. Some iTunes users resent having their library "invaded" by something they didn't request (there is a delete button), others are a little sniffy about the band themselves - whilst a few have complained that the songs are a bit, well, old hat. 

Will other artists follow suit? Undoubtedly - this blog has explored several times the changing financial dynamics of the music business and in many cases, producing and selling albums is rarely a way to earn a fortune in the 21st century. But if a tie-up could be arranged with an appropriate label or distributor or high-tech business, then the *free* music would act as an enticement for tours, merchandise, de-luxe physical copies and so forth. And if it's a big enough band, the rewards could be huge. Touring is no more just a case of pitching up in some arena and bashing out the new songs. Tickets bring in large sums, especially if they bring in "exclusive" benefits such as a band meet-and-greets, limited edition merchandise, pick-of-the-venue seating, VIP treatment throughout the gig and so on.

David Bowie - "Nothing Has Changed" - Deluxe Greatest
Hits package - including brand new song

The other big announcement - big if you're a David Bowie fan - was the imminent release of a new album, albeit a Greatest Hits package called Nothing Has Changed. In itself, that's nothing too exciting - there have been several Bowie Best Ofs in the past - but this one promises to be a genuine career-spanning 50 year trawl through the entire back catalogue. It starts with his very first single in 1964 (Liza Jane as by Davie Jones and The King Bees) and runs right through to 2014 with a brand new song, the 8-minute long epic "Sue (Or A Season In Crime)" recorded recently with long-time producer, Tony Visconti. It may only be one new song - but Bowie's "worth" is still on a high from his surprise release in January last year of The Next Day, his first new studio album in ten years. That song - and indeed another new number which will only appear on the B-side of a special vinyl 10" release - was enough to get the blogosphere, twittersphere and all the other spheres a-buzz with positive vibes. 

Bowie Greatest Hits 2014?

And, it exemplified the current approach to artists compilations: cover their whole career (easier today as most record labels have been swallowed up into the Big Three global companies and rights are easier to acquire), provide enticing new content, and ensure that it comes in a bewildering array of collectible packages. Oh - and always appeal to the monied collector as much as the enthusiastic fan. Ordinary Greatest Hits (or Best Ofs if a more album-orientated band) are pretty passe these days - the time when Queen could release three volumes of Greatest Hits and sell millions are probably long gone as fans can pick and choose what they want on-line.

Queen - The triple-CD edition bringing together all
three Greatest Hits volumes. Sold zillions. 

   

And whilst all this was going on, another 1970s behemoth, Led Zeppelin, released the latest brace of their "expanded" editions of their classic albums. With input from Jimmy Page, the two albums - Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy - have been remastered direct from the original tapes, there are several out-takes and unheard "alternative versions" of songs - and the whole shebang comes in an upmarket, deluxe set of packaging to appeal to collectors and those who may be wishing to buy them as an investment. This approach certainly brings the sales in - and often to fans who already have at least two versions of each album (vinyl and CD) as they seek to acquire all those extra songs. Me? I've heard a few of the alternative versions - and yes, they are interesting, but much as I respect Led Zeppelin, I can't imagine myself listening to them that much. I know the originals too well - and that's what is familiar and comfortable to me.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy
All manner of packing variants and formats in 2014 re-issue programme

However, I have been known to crack on occasion. Deluxe packages and in-depth box sets have a certain cachet to them. A huge variety of music is safely available in one place. There are sleeve notes, mini-essays, rare songs, unheard songs, photo-albums and all manner of enticements - and if you really do love an artist, then the pennies have to be spent in order to underpin that love. And that's how I ended up in 2010 with the 19-CD Sandy Denny Box Set which covers every publicly available song she's performed on - and a wealth of other bits and pieces too. Even though much of it, I already have in other fragmented formats. It sold out too. 

Sandy Denny - The self-titled 19 CD Box Set release in 2010

So, although the stars may well be aligned this week, the portents are a bit mixed, I'd say. These musical announcements don't change the way we do things in themselves, but they do get people thinking. Ideas emerge and paradigm shifts occur. What I can say - as I have several times in recent months - is that it does suggest, once again, that the concept of a traditional album is living on borrowed time. Apple's digital gift of a whole U2 album is a bold move, but in some ways, it also devalues the idea of a collection of songs. We're already so used to free singles and preview songs - will we now expect bands - certainly the larger, established acts - to give us their latest album masterpiece for free?

Let's wait and see.

Alan Dorey

10th September 2014

            

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Money is one of those things that brings out the cliche counter in all of us.

"That was on the money"

"A complete waste of money"

"Money for nothing"

"He knows the cost of everything - and the value of nothing" 

But of course, if it didn't exist, we'd find life remarkably difficult - even if some form of barter or exchange system eventually emerged. We need money to live: we go out to work - or work at home - to earn those notes and coins so we can have shelter, warmth, food - and some of the creature comforts of life. We expect to earn a decent sum for our labours and although we accept that taxes have to be paid, we do rather like to have as much as possible left following the extraction process. Some of us enjoy spending our money, some save it - and others find that the week is always longer than the supply of cash available. And yet, love it or hate it - we have a daily relationship with it.

Which makes the whole issue of technological change and the rise of *free* movies, TV shows, books and music all the more difficult to grapple with. Free to the user perhaps - either legally (and perhaps irritating ads and promos dropped in to monetise the transaction) or not so legally in that on-line grey market. But open access and  free music has a cost - and this blog has covered many aspects of this before. Some of the changes have been positive (it's easier, quicker and often cheaper for artists to get their music recorded and out there for people to hear) - but the downside is that it's getting tougher and tougher to make a living in the world of music. And in case I'm accused of singling music out, let's be realistic and say that most creative activities are suffering a similar difficulty. I'm a writer - and boy do I know it. 

A couple of instances this past few days have brought that home to me.

Pandora - Controversial approach to paying royalties

Firstly I must thank my Portsmouth chum Jeff for noting the latest issue relating to how musicians are being taken for a ride. This relates to Pandora, a US-based music streaming service and how it is gradually killing the hand that feeds it. It's taking a draconian view as to how to *pay* for the music it streams. For an ostensibly simplistic and convenient legal reason, it refuses to pay royalties on music released prior to 1972. It isn't a co-incidence that it was only in that year that "master recording for copyright" was created on a federal basis (ie: at a national rather than an individual state level), a loophole which Pandora is exploiting - and a number of record labels, publishers and artists are vigorously challenging. The conclusion is that older artists and bands aren't getting paid for their work - and some see this as the start of a slippery slope.   

Secondly though - and more parochially - comes further anecdotal evidence of how small music venues are continuing to under-value the worth of bands and artists they contract to perform on their premises. I know it's been a tough few years for pubs and clubs - just as tough in some ways as it has been for musicians. However, by encouraging too many open mics (a free drink and a slice of pizza - rather than a fee), a culture is growing whereby musicians are no longer guaranteed to be paid properly for their time and creativity. To some extent, it's always been thus - but at a suburban Dorset pub in a large catchment area just this past week, the current position was nicely illustrated. The landlord seemed to be music-friendly, he wanted to run weekly open mic nights and complement those with a weekly band night too. Publicity and promotion didn't seem to get much of a look in - "If they play...the punters will come"  - seemed to be the view - and that perhaps explained the somewhat sanguine opinion as to what artists could expect as a fee. It's unfair to quote some rates out of context, but let's just say that a fee for a four-piece band seemed to be about half of what might have been expected some 10 to 15 years ago. Split the fee between the members and their costs are barely covered, let alone the need to earn an income. Solo artists would be paid a lower fee - but ironically, the fee was substantially more than an individual band member would receive.

The Ropemakers in Bridport - Good Music Venue

It's difficult to square the circle. The propensity of punters to go and see live music has changed in recent years. Some argue that it's the smoking ban, others that there are too many competing activities vying for time - or even that pubs and clubs are nowadays more concerned about dining than dancing. There's an element of truth in that - but let's just note that there has always been a climate of change going right back to the immediate post-war years. People will always want to make music - and others will  always want to enjoy that music. And a vital way of bringing the two together is a live gig. Established acts can command some element of realistic fees. More well-known bands can trade on their  back catalogue. But the days of bands starting out in back-street boozers and then working their way through the venue hierarchy seems to have gone. And it's by working in a live environment - pubs to clubs to colleges to regional  venues - that bands learn their craft and build their base. Today, social media is a double-edged sword - it can add that publicity thing, that promotion which is so vital - but it also encourages instant gratification, instant results - and equally as instant failure.

Big venues - not everyone makes it

Turning back to the Pandora issue, I'm looking at the legal action with a curious interest. Pandora are doing what all large companies do - minimise costs, maximise profits. And in some ways,  the principle isn't as bad as it sounds. But, it's how it's done, it's the process and understanding of the music and it's creation that's so important. If money doesn't filter through to young new bands an artists, where will the new acts, the new money-making entities come from? Does Pandora behave strategically - and build a future of mutual support and co-operation - or does it act purely tactically, moving from month to month to improve the bottom line, whatever the social or cultural cost?  

Drenge - Made good use of
The Music Export Growth Scheme

There is a hint elsewhere that the market is recognising the need to support and nurture musicians. The UK government - not always known for its wide-ranging championing of new music  - has recently launched something called The Music Export Growth Scheme. Even with such a dry, market-driven title, it has been well received so far. Artists can apply for funding and subsidies to help them create and promote their music. This helps the government as even they recognise the wealth that British music brings into the nation from sales around the world. To use that cliched phrase - "we punch above our weight". And the scheme isn't just aimed at the big acts - several small, promising bands have benefited such as Catfish & The Bottlemen who we featured on The Musical Box just last month. It only scratches the surface, it's only £250,000 a year at the moment, but it's a welcome move and might presage interest from other bodies too. Indeed, the BBC - well known for their BBC Introducing programme this past few years - seems poised to push harder in this direction. It has always supported music, but has seen that in the run-in to its charter renewal in a year's time that it won't do any harm to be actively growing the nation's interest in new music and performances.

Lesser known bands (except to Musical Box listeners) also
made use of The Music Export Growth Scheme - 
Catfish & The Bottlemen

But as the Beatles sang all those years ago "let me tell you how it will be - one for you nineteen for me - 'cos I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman", money is always going to be a tricky issue in the world of music. It was ever thus - and it doesn't look as if the bottom line will change in the near future.

Alan Dorey

2nd September 2014 

RESURRECTION SHUFFLE  

There's a long and noble musical habit of taking old songs and breathing new life into them. Indeed, many acts today thrive on sprinkling covers into their live sets and audiences appear to love them too.

But what about songs that never made it beyond the printed page? Or songs that were merely scraps of lyrics written by an artist and then either discarded or lost in the mists of time? A new album puts this type of song revival firmly in the spotlight. Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons) and Jim James (My Morning Jacket) have teamed up with legendary producer T Bone Burnett to produce an album full of Bob Dylan songs that never saw the light of day. In the hands of lesser artists, this might simply end up being a barrel-scraping exercise, but I must admit that I am almost convinced of its worthiness.

The New Basement Tapes - Elvis Costello (Centre) and producer
T Bone Burnett (hands in air)

The songs - or rather, the lyrics - were amongst the horde of material that Dylan put together back in 1967 whilst he was working and living with The Band in various upstate New York locations. The quality and range of the creative output was astounding, although it wasn't until 1975 that a number of the finished songs saw the light of day on an official release, The Basement Tapes. A few had been subject to bootleg attention, but what seems now to be the case is that there were a good number of songs that didn't progress beyond the draft-lyric stage. It is these scraps of paper that have been given fresh life with new music and production by Burnett, Costello and company. The album - Lost On the River: The New Basement Tapes - features twenty tracks, many with typically idiosyncratic Dylan titles:

• 'Down on the Bottom'
• 'Married to My Hack'
• 'Kansas City'
• 'Spanish Mary'
• 'Liberty Street'
• 'Nothing to It'
• 'Golden Tom – Silver Judas'
• 'When I Get My Hands on You'
• 'Duncan and Jimmy'
• 'Florida Key'
• 'Hidee Hidee Ho #11'
• 'Lost On The River #12'
• 'Stranger'
• 'Card Shark'
• 'Quick Like A Flash'
• 'Hidee Hidee Ho #16'
• 'Diamond Ring'
• 'The Whistle Is Blowing'
• 'Six Months in Kansas City (Liberty Street)'
• 'Lost on the River #20'

The whole project has taken some years to come together and such has been the cachet attached to the work that Johnny Depp and documentary film-maker Sam Jones have also got involved. A short "making of film" accompanies the album and the whole package is set for release in November no doubt in anticipation of the lucrative festive market. 

Listen: The New Basement Tapes - Nothing To It

Mermaid Avenue - New music to old
lyrics by Woody Guthrie

But, such  work is far from unknown and two other notable projects include a loose connection to Bob Dylan. Firstly, back in 1998, Billy Bragg teamed up with US indie band Wilco to breathe life into some unheard lyrics written by Woody Guthrie prior to his death in 1967. Guthrie - of course - was a huge influence on Bob Dylan and such was the interest in the Bragg/Wilco album (Mermaid Avenue) that a second set of songs was released a couple of years later. No less a publication than American Songwriter magazine said at the time "The Mermaid Avenue project is essential for showing that Woody Guthrie could illuminate what was going on inside of him as well as he could detail the plight of his fellow man."

Woody Guthrie - 1950s

Listen: Mermaid Avenue - California Stars

Thea Gilmore: New music to unheard
Sandy Denny lyrics

The second - and very interesting work was produced as recently as 2011 by singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore. She had been a great fan of the much-missed Sandy Denny, a wonderful artist who with Fairport Convention and later as a solo performer brought something distinctive and unique to the craft of songwriting. She died at just 31 back in 1978 and in recent years, her estate discovered a sheaf of hand-written song-lyrics. They believed they were deserving of a wider audience and made contract with Gilmore to provide music to match the lyrics. Gilmore even wrote one of her own songs in the style of the rest and it stands up very well indeed. The resultant album - Don't Stop Singing - proved to be both critically well received and popular. An extensive tour followed and there was much TV and radio coverage - including a televised live concert. And the Dylan connection? Sandy Denny was an adept performer of many of his songs - and particularly a couple which appeared on the original Basement Tapes release in 1975.

Sandy Denny (1947-1978)
Influential singer-songwriter - only in recent years truly getting
the recognition that she deserves.

Listen: Don't Stop Singing - Georgia

So, there is a "life after death" for unheard songs and I'd recommend these three releases as being worthy of your attention.

Alan Dorey

20th August 2014

THE GRASS ROOTS OF LIVE MUSIC

Despite the decline in the number of music venues across the country (see an earlier blog right here: Last Call For Live Music), I remain impressed by the number of bands and artists out there who work hard at keeping the scene going.

I'm not talking about cabaret bands or wannabee TV stars, but the keen and enthusiastic range of acts determined to be both creative and entertaining. These are acts who mix their own songs with a wise selection of covers, acts for whom musicianship and skill is as important as the performance - and, let's be honest, acts who are often more accomplished and honest than many who have somehow achieved chart success.  

Portsmouth band Bemis playing live at The Mayford Arms, Woking, Surrey.
Front man Gareth Howells in full flow, Dan Ogus watching

Often gigging at a moment's notice in some back-street dive - or bundling instruments and gear into a van to head off to some distant part of the county - the economics of survival is a precarious one. Hard working bands who deliver the goods - and have members who can make time to get to gigs, attend rehearsals and deal with all the other peripheral stuff - are rare indeed. And it's no wonder that line-ups change, people fall out through "musical differences" ("we were musical - he was *different*") and the impetus may stutter from time to time. But, through all of this - and throw in venues with indifferent crowds who prefer to talk loudly rather than pay attention -  it's pleasing to see a goodly number of stalwart acts who plough onwards and, in their own way, achieve a level of consistency and success. I've mentioned the always excellent Lizzards down in Bournemouth previously (and in times gone by, I could have added Ringwood's Black Bart and many others) - but quite by coincidence a band I first saw in 2009 happened to be playing the other night at a pub venue less than a mile from where I was visiting family over in Surrey. As our American friends have said so often, it was a no-brainer and thus it was off down to The Mayford Arms in Woking, an edge-of-town venue that I'd first been to over twenty years back. Run by a music-savvy landlord, it was clear that the focus would be on the band rather than the need to push people through the restaurant or to cater for the darts team or those wanting to play pool. Music was the purpose of the evening - and the band? Bemis, a Portsmouth based outfit fronted by Gareth Howells.

Psychedelic Man - Gareth Howells (right) and
Dan Ogus (left)

When I first saw Bemis, they were a pretty good harmony duo - all folk and folk-rock with a bit of a feel of Simon & Garfunkel about them, albeit, unafraid to throw in edgier and more raucous material when the moment presented itself. Today, they're a five-piece indie rock band - and Gareth is the only member of the original line-up still with them. But as he's the front man, lyricist, lead singer and a fine rhythm guitarist, it's not hard to see that he's the driving force to keeping the show on the road.But even the best laid plans come adrift in the world of gigging and playing and tonight, they were sans drummer (Nathan Shervill) who was apparently "lost" somewhere in Europe. And this is the stuff  you never see on TV shows, in talent fests  and all the rest, the day-to-day trials and challenges of keeping everything going. So on this Saturday night, four members - all playing guitars - lead, rhythm, bass and in Dan Ogus, a multi-instrumentalist who was playing acoustic guitar.

The band were fresh from having played at Guilfest, one of the larger regional festivals, and the following day they were off to Southsea for another event, underlining again the need to travel, be flexible and grab opportunities whenever they present themselves. A few hardened fans made it up from Portsmouth and environs, others drifted in from the local area and a decent audience was in the offing. This isn't a review of  Bemis themselves - although there will be elements of that - but more a look at this sort of musical microcosm that's repeated across the country. Bemis have done this quite a few times, although this line-up has only been in place since January and it was interesting to see the careful and studied glances they gave each other at certain points during the first set. They'd had precious little time to set-up and get the sound-mix right, they'd have to cope without a drummer and the odd L-shape of the main bar made it difficult  for most punters to get a clear view. Oh, and the toilets were located either side of the make-shift stage which meant fans and non-fans alike had to criss-cross the sight-lines on a regular basis.

Dan Ogus in full flight

That first set , a mix of covers and several fine originals, took a while to take off. Individually,  members were doing their thing, but it didn't  always gel as a tight band. Gareth's in between songs banter was a bit lost in a fairly muddy sounding PA - but, there was no lacking of desire, no lacking of enthusiasm and skill and, slowly, it all, started coming right. Covers were often treated to different arrangements and treatment (which is always good) and in Mark Finn, they have a highly talented and effective lead guitarist. He did have an awkward spot at the back corner of the stage and his unassuming nature led him to almost hide his skills away behind the others. But his studied playing - unassuming and subtle at times, driving and forceful at others - provided an excellent focus to several numbers, including a good work out on Neil Young's Rockin' In The Free World. 

Bassist Mike Rogers
On acoustic guitar
- and vocals too

Bassist Mike Rogers was also an intriguing player, full of contrasts. His playing was simple and effective, no fripperies or awkward runs - and he also sang lead on a couple of numbers. Indeed, with three effective vocalist on display, there was a fine display of harmonies, variety in tone and and intensity. Dan Ogus - mainly on acoustic guitar - in particular looked the part and added some welcome vocal diversions.

After the break, the sound somehow seemed to have resolved itself, the band sounded tighter and more together and the choice of songs upped the tempo. More covers than originals - although they more than held their own in the mix - and some definite crowd-pleasers which got vocal additions from some and lively dancing from others. That great Band number The Weight went down really well - as did Werewolves of London, the encore piece and fascinatingly seeing some clever additions to Warren Zevon's original lyrics. Gareth didn't only list Lon Chaney Junior as someone who had played a werewolf in a Hollywood movie - but also, other actors who had done likewise. And it was both noticed and appreciated.

So, if this isn't a review, what is it?

Bemis - Mark Finn, Dan Ogus, Gareth Howells, Mike Rogers

As I noted earlier, it's a microcosm of gigs repeated up and down the land. Good musicians delivering the goods in a small venue, winning the audience over and providing fine entertainment with an eclectic and careful choice of material. It's how bands start out, how some make a living, others using it as stepping stone to bigger things - and importantly, the sort of thing that punters and pubs should actively support if we want quality live music to survive into the future. There isn't anything quite like being up close to the action, being part of an event rather than a mere participant miles away from a distant stage. There's an immediacy, a cohesive feel that rocks around the venue, a chance to admire and enjoy as much as laugh along with humour and honest errors too. It's not perfect, it's not antiseptic and precise, but it is lively and hot, varied and exciting - and in the case of this gig, seemingly over far too quickly.

The true grass roots of music - and something to be admired and promoted whenever the chance arises.

Alan Dorey

5th August 2014

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