Stamps Bar

8 til 8 spooky film fest.  Stamps cinema club card holders see Craig. Plus live music from Lizzie Nunnery. Just found out Lizzie cant play she has lost her voice.  Look out for her playing here soon.

4p.m.  The band with balls is back `Gonads` entertain you

7.30p.m. Joe Keelan lines up a seriously good acoustic ensemble !!!

These are AMAZING !!!

Mmmmm!

Be early to get a seat.

Monday night at Stamps heralded the long awaited return of Irish singer/songwriter Andy White.With the help of Sefton Arts, Stamps were able to put this gig on for free.

Andy White has a very impressive cv, having worked with Peter Gabriel,Sinead O\’Connor and Tim Finn, supported Van Morrison on tour and even won Ireland\’s Hot Press Songwriter of the Year beating Bono and Christy Moore to the title.

Given all of the above it was somewhat surprising to find the bar distictly less than rammed. I know it was Monday, but the gig was free,Andy White was touring to promote his new cd garageband, and yet a lot of people obviously felt Eastenders was a better bet. Sad really.

Andy White has been around for a long time and has released 9 solo albums aswell as a couple of compilations and a book of poetry.

He kicked off tonights show with Looking for James Joyces grave from his 1992 album Out There.Stripped right back with just his mandolin as accompaniment, the tone was set for an intimate evening.

Well almost, for the second song we were introduced to Radoslav Lorkovic.They had first met when he had picked up Andy\’s band at Milan airport in 1997.He played with them that night on tour as is still there nine years later.Rad supplies the piano and accordian, is a classically trained musician and hails from Austen Texas via Iowa and Croatia. Quite what he made of the Stamps piano I\’m not sure, though Mr White has proclaimed it the best on the tour - in a foot stomping,bar thumping manner.No matter really, when you are a virtuoso everything glitters.

The set contained songs taken from his first ever album Rave On in the form of Vision of You and followed it with Message to You from his latest. Message to You had Rad mesmerising the audience with some wonderful blues piano before completely changing the mood with some haunting and ethereal piano on Speechless. No wonder he is still with Andy and \”can be heard all over the new album\”

The favourite Italian Girls on Mopeds from his last album Boy40 had Rad serenading the crowd and tables with his wonderful accordian playing.

For the encore we were treated to A Million Miles Away, an end to a great night where top notch musicianship and songwriting were available for free. A million miles away from Eastenders that\’s for sure.

Andy is here tonight as part of his British tour.  He is one of the nicest and talented guys you could wish to meet.He played here last year and we couldn\’t wait for him to come back.  (personal message to Andy from Jackie (in Scotland this week unfortunately) I am still looking for something to make a man out of !!!   Everyone enjoy this gig…….for further details see The Acoustic Engine on the Stamps site menu guide.

Where else can you hope to see such a diversity of bands. Taking it to the extreme this Sunday, Stamps kicked off the afternoon music extravaganza with The Rioters a supremely classy trad jazz band.

The second band  Forgotten Angels were at the opposite end of the spectrum.Think Hannibal Lechter meets Bambi.

This was seriously heavy rock at a volume that would make Motorhead proud.

I had asked John (guitar & vocals, and some very impressive guitar at that) whether they would compare themselves with anyone. His answer \”don\’t worry you wouldn\’t have heard of them anyway\” - pretty much on the mark!

For the record influences cited include InMe, 3 days Grace, Trivium and Fightstar. A special mention goes to Simon their  drummer for citing Phil Collins. Never mind that, I have never heard Phil Collins driving a band with the same urgency as Simon.

The same can be said for Paul (bass & vocals). Continually the two of them formed the driving backdrop on to which the lead of John be it guitar or vocals was interwoven.

At times glimpses of Van Halen were seen in the guitar work on Remember. Tears to the Ocean had a touch of Radiohead before crashing headlong into something much harder and darker.

For those afficionados of skate and snowboard videos you can quite happily replace the soundtrack with a Forgotten Angels set. Their genre is perfect for them.

These guys have been together for 6 months. I have seen far too many bands who have been together for years and not played with the same aggression, drive and dynamic that Forgotten Angels possess.

Check them out at myspace.com/forgottenangelsonline for upcoming dates and downloads.

Go see them, thay are loud heavy rock and the best I\’ve seen for a long time

Great night with lots of great music including a guest spot from The Farm\’s Carl Hunter!

Thanks to Lizzie Nunnery, Steve Roberts & The Bank of England, Joe Keelan, Dan Sumner, Diesel Fitters and Endbut Lane for playing and to everyone for turning up. We raised just over £116. Thanks a lot.

4.30 ish A first at Stamps……. Trad/Jazz  from The Rioters.