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Gigbeth and Drop Beats not Bombs – reviewed
Had a late night before the big day due to an unexpected call for a Gidea Park gig in Butlins, Bognor Regis – playing on a bill with Gerry and the Pacemakers to a good couple of thousand people in fancy dress. Good fun!
Managed to squeeze in a walk around Birmingham’s botanical gardens with Ali and Lyndall – very pleasurable and reminiscent of a special day with Lyndall in Botanic park Adelaide. There were some great bits of sculpture amongst all the fascinating plants and trees and Lyndall made friends with a parrot.
And so to the 4Talent stage in the Dragon Bar at the old Sanctuary (now the Barfly). Playing at the start of the bill I wasnt expecting a huge crowd and was pleased to see a reasonable number.
Pete Ashton kicked things off with his Thingamagoop a device not unlike the Project X buzzboxes – but using lights to control the sound as well as knobs. It makes a lot of different sounds (so used solo unlike the Buzzbox chorus) and must be very diifcult to control, but Pete did a fine job in his first public outing.
Lyndall had a go too.
The sound set up was excellent – and in my set I could feel the bass end of the piano really resonating. The crowd were very responsive too – you could tell they they there to listen to music (even the goth/rock fans of Anathema who had come up from downstairs seemed to get quite into it). One of the most satisfying sets Ive done so far. Love Fulfilled is still a bit of a struggle to play, but is getting there. The rest went pretty well – Completion always being a favourite – altho I used to find it hard to play, im quite comfortable with it now – which means I can let go into the performance that bit more.
Photo Pete Ashton
I was up first at Drop Beats Not Bombs in a room curated by good guys Mark Smallman of Custom Made and the Jon Harris Loafers Lounge. There were very few people in the room when I played so from that point of view a bit of an anti-climax after the earlier gig, but the guys had put a great bill of music together and Drop Beats is such a huge and well put together event, that its a real honour to have been a part of it.
I particularly enjoyed Manu Delago playing a set of Hangs quite brilliantly with the assistance of stand up bass and guitar as well as a impromptu collaboration with the excellent beat boxer MC Xander.
Later on I also caught Subsource – an awesome live dance band on a semi-outside stage who were their usual high-octane and super rhythmic selves before leaving a bit early in proceedings to catch up a while with some friends and then on Sunday working on our camper van with the very kind assistance of Rich “Beard”.
Xx
2 comments to “Gigbeth and Drop Beats not Bombs – reviewed”
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On November 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm, CatherineBray wrote:
That room full of spellbound metal fans who’d turned up to see Anathema and caught your set first is possibly one of my favorite memories of the night.
Thanks again for a fantastic set – agreed those really rumbling bass-y notes were sounding great; one of the Einstellung chaps I watched the set with thought so too.