Stamps Bar

Woof Woof, the band that bites yer butt….!!

Monday night at Stamps had all the ingredients for another top quality night.Recent weeks have seen Tom Hingley of the Inspiral Carpets and Andy White.Tom has been responsible for over 20 top 40 hits.Andy White voted Irelands Hot Press Songwriter of the year.

The question is how to top that. The answer is you have your very own Mercury Music Prize nominee Steve Roberts with his new band Captain Pop, kicking off their mini tour showcasing their new album Shut Up and Sing.

But before all that we had Lizzie Nunnery as the support act.Lizzie is also very talented,frighteningly so. An accomplished singer, songwriter and guitarist, she cut her teeth at the Acoustic Engine songwriter nights. As if this was not enough she is also a talented playwright with commissions from the National Theatre and the Liverpool Everyman. Not bad for someone 24 years old.

Here tonight we were treated to a number of songs from her recently released EP Monkeys and Devils.

Opening with Moving with the Moon, a beautiful yet simple song with a soaring chorus, Lizzies voice described elsewhere as angelic, powerful and wonderful shines throughout. Following up with Monkey Song, a song that at its heart is uplifting escapism. The mellotron provided the unusual backing, and as Julian Cope once said it should be the mellifluos mellotron.

This is a theme that ran through the whole set. In describing the songs you keep thinking of beautiful, simple heavenly and ethereal.

My ramblings do not do her set or EP  justice. So I will keep it simple.

Go buy the EP and go and see her live.

And so to the main event, Captain Pop showcasing their new album Shut Up and Sing.

They describe themselves as a

…a co-operative crew of musicians and singers in love with Pop music. Pop is the only genre that matters says the Captain, to us it doesn’t just mean popular, though of course there are many popular pop songs, it means songs with a melody and a zest for life. It’s the power of pop that we look for in a pop song.

Fine sentiments indeed

Child in your Eyes opened their set and has been described as foot stomping, finger snapping, Northern Soul energy. Falling Apart followed and is as tender a song as you will ever hear.

Your Papers Please is a rant against ID cards and a clever little video is available at their myspace site.

Insanely catchy is the only way to describe Waiting for the Storm.

Shut Up and Sing they describe as toe tappers,ballads and the slightly esoteric all dressed up in a colourful Pop overcoat.

How right they are.

Yes you’ve guessed it Poptastic

Monday night at Stamps produced yet another top quality act with an illustrious track record.

Tom Hingley, formerly lead singer with The Inspiral Carpets and one of the prime movers along with The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays of the early nineties Madchester scene graced the stage for a solo acoustic performance.Tom had notched up more than twenty top 40 hits with The Inspiral Carpets before they broke up in 1995.

Tonight could not be more different - not the Top of the Pops studio- but the intimate surroundings of Stamps Bar and a select and appreciative audience.

Something I had not quite realised before was just how good a voice he has, as well as a massive range.This was truly borne out as the evening progressed.

Kicking off proceedings with his trusty banjo it was clear that tonight would be stripped bare and raw. Don,t let them see (?) introduced us to a slow and haunting vocal so reminiscent of the early blues. Following up with Taste of You and Everyday the blues took hold and the voice dominated.

Saturn Five and This is how it Feels were a throwback to his Inspiral Carpets days but performed in a bluesy manner they sounded very different.

Sandwiched between them was a blistering version of the Janis Joplin classic Mercedes Benz. With only the handclaps of the crowd as accompaniment Tom brought the house down with his rendition.

A couple of blues standards followed along with a great cover of Ain,t No Sunshine and a dedication to Courtney Love that  segued into the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams and the night was over.

Great Voice, Great Blues and a Great Night.

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.

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

\”In prosperity prepare for change,in adversity hope for one\” James Burgh 1714-1775

In recent weeks Newborn have had to prepare for change,with a Scottish band claiming the name.Not to mention a number of other bands on myspace.Currently they are listed just above another Newborn - described as Christian rap / hip-hop. Give praise to the Lord these guys are in a different league.

Forced to play their first ever acoustic set courtesy of Adam their drummer who managed to injure his arm Tom (bass/vocals) and David (guitar/vocals) set about convincing the crowd they were more than upto the task.

Pared down from their usual electrified set, their songs took on a much more intimate feel reminiscent of MTV unplugged.Kicking off with Another Day they charmed the crowd and a wonderful chorus that starts Life\’s a bitch had everyone in total agreement.Following up with Sweet Sixteen their momentum built, though the version on myspace with drummer Adam wins out for me over the acoustic version.

Miss you so and Bleed tonight were also included in the set  and again are available on the website but amped up.

Closing with As One left the crowd happy and looking forward to their next appearance hopefully with a fully recovered Adam.

Check them out for yourselves at the Barfly Oct 18 ,The Cavern Oct 26 or myspace.com/newbornuk

As for Newborn they are now Newborn Heroes and well worth looking up.

Sentinel7 were in town on Sunday and determined to rock Stamps to the ground. Somewhat hard to pigeonhole a band when they cite influences as diverse as Zappa,Prokofiev and Gun\’s & Roses.

Take Me Away kicked off the set showing a harder edge in the style of the Chillis or Metallica. In Paradesium followed and showed the broader range to the band, which they describe as sudden crescendoes of thrash, grunge and deep contemplating melodies.

So near yet so far and Lies again showed the heavier to their set.

Closing with Which way do I turn, again showed the talents of the band switching between prog rock and heavy rock in the manner of Focus or Queen.

They will be playing at Stamps2 on Oct 17th at 8pm or you can check them out on myspace.com

Sunday 24th September

Sunday night at stamps remains the place to see original live music. Tonight Face for Radio graced the stage and did not leave people wanting.

Described as \\\”your new favourite rock band\\\” (albeit by themselves) at times you felt it could be true. They kicked off with Lay the Blame, a rocking bluesy number with a touch of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Luanching into their second number technical problems hit and the bass drum packed in. Whilst the sound engineer frantically tried to sort out the problem the crowd were treated to an impromtu jam and showcasing of some seriously impressive guitar work by Glenn. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Drum problem sorted a storming All Good Things highlighted just what a tight outfit they are. Touches of Pearl jam and the Chillis were discernable in The Race and Underground. Having said that so was Hendrix and Led Zep and that is a very very good thing.

Their newest song Sheena followed in the same fashion before closing the set in a riot of guitar hero worship on Take Me. Another unexpected joy followed with a semi acoustic set with Gaz and Glenn. Having been rocked to the foundations it was time to slow things down and a selection of class covers followed and showed a different side to the band.

Bonus number 4 came at the end of the gig, a free cd of their gig at the Zanzibar. Nice touch.

Your new favourite band?

You never know!

Ben