SftBH News Archive Oct 2004 - Dec 2004
Steamboat, Ipswich, 22/12/04
Words by Helen: -
Aha - we made it! With the twins seeming more than happy to stay where they are for the time being, James and I were chuffed to bits to be able to attend the Steamboat Xmas House party (bands: Songs from the Blue House and the Picturehouse Big Band - geddit?) and celebrate the fortieth birthday of our good, good friend and occasional Blue House drummer Paul Read in the best way we know - with plentiful amounts of beer, banter and songs.
SftBH kicked off the evening and stuck to the set list for, ooh, about four songs until Shane moved into improvisational mode and kept both band and audience riding the wave by calling forth a succession of stompers and stormers. It was extremely odd to be missing the bow work of Fiddly, who was taking a rare leave of absence, but we did benefit from the addition of Tony Winn on Superbanjo, 'cos he's broken up for the holidays at the moment. It was a good set, I thought, (and, rather bizarrely, considering the last minute nature of the line-up, somewhat less ramshackle than our usual Steamboat appearances) and there was a full complement of fine individual performances from those present. We even risked the first ever live performance of our Special Secret Cover Version (as yet unreleased), thanks to a hopeful request and, if you don't count the tricky middle bit (which really *does* need a baby grand piano and a fiddle - James wiggling his hands about and saying "spooooooooky...." very close to the microphone was a brave attempt at filling the gap, but didn't *quite* do the trick, sadly), it was actually not too bad.
Eventually SftBH left the stage, which was then filled by various other fine bands of this parish; giving the birthday boy a chance to wander down memory lane, brandishing his drumsticks all the way. A handful of Beatles covers performed by the Star Club (they retired while they were still at the top of their game, y'know) finished the evening in suitably mellow and hug-thy-neighbour fashion. I still had a grin on my face from the loveliness of the whole event the following morning - and I'm convinced that Eenie and Meenie appreciated it, too (they certainly got into the spirit of "Twist and Shout", bless their pointy little elbows and knees).
It was a great party and a fitting way to round off a great year for the Blue House crew. Here's to 2005 - hope to see y'all somewhere!
A Small Hiatus 08/12/04
Words by James: -
Sometime between now and January 15th 2005, Helen and I will hopefully be in possession of new twins, so things will be quiet for a while in the land of SftBH. This doesn't mean we won't play anywhere, but there may be some rather odd versions of the combo wandering about for a bit...do not be alarmed, 'normal' service will be resumed later.
"A five goal thrashing at......erm........Portman Road....sorry." - Norwich Arts Centre 10/11/04
Words by James: -
Norwich gave us an excellent welcome, with Brewers Gold on sale, a crowd that stayed for the set, thereby beating the 'support band' hoodoo that can occur on these occasions, being as how people were only there to see headliners 'The Czars'.
But watch and enjoy they did, and even allowed us to escape alive after making it clear in the introduction to 'Not That Kind Of Girl' that our football allegiances lay somewhat further south.
This late booking came about after a friend dropped a CD into the Arts Centre and suddenly we were booked! Such happy happenstance was made even more jolly by the hospitality extended to us, great beer, an excellent sound (onstage and out front) and an appreciative audience. We were, and remain, delighted, and would love to go back and do it again.
More from Shane: -
With a torch in my pocket, and the wind at my heels….
A near best-ever by the redoubtable Blue House crew as the kind of nice audience that arts centres seem to attract gave a warm welcome to our efforts at keeping the customer satisfied in Norwich.
We took the opportunity again to circulate the set, opening with the sparse and moody ‘Leaves’ before taking things gradually up through the gears, resulting in a frantic ‘Fragments’ leading into the closing ‘Not That Kind of Girl’ / ‘Big Dipper’ set-closing stompathon.
Fiddly was at his mournful and atmospheric best, demonstrating again his unerring sense of when not to play – sometimes the trickiest skill of all – and we were pleased to have third dan banjo master Tony Winn along again on day release from Luvvie School for the evening, which is always a treat. Top marks for the expressive, soulful and clear-as-a-bell vocal stylings of Helen Mulley, putting in a show-stopping performance which had people throughout the building reaching for their thesauruses, desperately looking up new words for ‘magnificent’.
Great sound, gallons of BG (“mind if we spank our rider a bit more…? Lovely, another four pints please and, er, what are you lot having….”). Great to get some folks coming up, browsing CDs and offering congratulations, and always nice to be brought down to earth after a particularly fulsome response of “Thanks very much – thanks for coming” to hear the response “Well steady on, I didn’t come to see you actually, I came to see The Czars…” (who were a grand turn by the way). Us? Just a couple of pilgrims, praying for rust…
First Night Nerves Every One Night Stand - High Barn 28/10/04
Words by Shane: -
The SftBH Small Band made one of its sporadic appearances as James and Shane were summoned from their fag breaks to stand in for an AWOL Geoff Lawrence at the monthly Great Bardfield High Barn acoustic night.
A hastily assembled thunder, lightning and power cut-defying set kicked off with The Artist Formerly Known as This Much Talent's "Start One of Your Own" (there are still some CDs left, punters!) accompanied by James' sporadic guitar breaks. His Partridgeness then retired to sort out his wiring while the fragrant and charming Helen Mulley was summoned from ringside for an impromptu "Love Hurts", the opening hurts/scars/wounds/mars verse's solemnity in no way at all compromised by the heavily-pregnant La Mullster and Skirk's infantile giggling at the lyrical implications involved.
Expectant father James having been restored to the front line there was then an exclusive third-time-ever-played airing for a new country-folk-blues song, tentatively titled "Song IV", which proved to be the highlight of the short set. The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" put in an appearance by way of tribute for the late, great, John Peel before Partridge, by now on his third guitar/mic/lead combo of the evening closed with perennial SftBH stomper "The Big Dipper".
Horrified participants spied video equipment in use during the duration of the set, so we'll try and get hold of that before anyone leaks it to the gutter press. Or CD:UK. The evening's entertainment progressed in its usual exemplary fashion, with some fine roots Americana courtesy of some of Maldon's finest, and climaxed with the extraordinarily clever, talented, good looking and moving acoustic fineness of AloneMe - definitively one of those "I remember seeing them back when they were playing 200 seaters" moments to be savoured in years to come.
Helen adds: -
It was indeed a jammin’ sort of a night. James and Shane performed a last-minute set, which made up in joie de vivre for whatever it may have lacked in preparation and the audience, as ever at the High Barn, were more than ready to enjoy everything that was thrown at them. And laugh at my enormous tummy. Aloneme simply oozed talent and the only criticism I can find to throw at the astounding vocal performance and hypnotic stage presence of vocalist Sarah was that I found it hard to take my eyes off her for long enough to focus on the equally gifted and impressive David…
Top marks to the audience for polishing off the Brewers Gold by 9.30pm, by the way. A new High Barn record.
Related links - www.aloneme.com
The High Barn, Great Bardfield, Essex 08/10/04
Words by James: -
James, Shane & Gib (on piano), in the esteemed company of Tony James Shevlin (vocals and guitar)and Steven (Kilbey) Mears (bass and vocals), performed a short five-song set at last night's High Barn Beatles Acoustic special. The idea to have some of the High Barn's regular 'Unplugged' performers playing only Beatles songs was frankly a stroke of genius, which clearly caught the imagination of the audience who promptly bought all of the tickets.
Two of the lads from Moses (www.mosesband.com) opened the night on piano and guitar, followed by cheeky sprite Amy Fry, who as well as writing and singing does a bit of live sound work at The High Barn as well as working at Soundmagic Studios, where she engineered quite a bit of SftBH's 'Too' sessions. Both sounded superb and the mood was set for us very nicely. Luckily we had rehearsed. Twice.
We had decided to be fairly faithful to the Fabs' tunes, but messed about with 'Nowhere Man' a bit by extending the guitar solo and adding a low 'country' harmony beneath Tony's best Lennon-esque lead vocal.. My live banjo debut (well there was one other but it is rarely spoken of) was next for 'I've Just Seen A Face', which lends itself quite nicely to a bit of hicking up. I enjoyed singing that a lot, although some of the words just wouldn't come! The banjo stayed with me for 'Norwegian Wood', and was employed as a sitar for the duration of the song...which, again, seemed to work. We're not quite sure what went wrong with 'It Won't Be Long' which had been the easiest one in rehearsal, but it was "a bit odd", we're told. For the finale, Gibb had completely rearranged 'Please Please Me' so that it sounded like the sad song it apparently originally was. Played at half-pace and with new bass notes and riffs I was free to muck around with the vocals to my heart's content, and Tony provided simple and occasional backing vocals rather than the usual Beatles fare. It's almost a new song after Gibb's handiwork, and I wouldn't be surprised if there will be further opportunities to hear it at SftBH gigs in the future.
The lovely Louise (not sure about the surname) and her two chaps came on after us and boy can she sing! What a belter! Nice 12-string work on 'Here Come The Sun' too from one of her sidekicks...name unknown.
After a brief huddle in the dressing room, a combination of most of the people that had played on the night squeezed onto the stage. Tony Shevlin had been drafted in at the last minute to lead the singing and did so with authority and aplomb. I even popped up there to do some really quite difficult high bits on 'Don't Let Me Down' and get a crafty cuddle with Louise, with whom I shared a microphone, before giving up and sitting on the piano stool with Colin out of Moses and trying to put him off by singing out of tune and laughing at a couple of his bum notes. Sorry Colin. A rousing 'Hey Jude' finished off the night appropriately with some enthusiastic community singing from a packed Barn. Certainly a night to remember, although the latter stages are a tadge hazy for me personally.
I sincerely hope that the High Barn honchos decide to repeat the evening, perhaps with a guarantee of different songs on the bill. It would be fantastic to be present at another of these nights, whether as a performer or onlooker. Rumours of an Abba night may also yet come true...you can be sure we'll try and get in on that as well!
5/10/04 - Shed, fags, beer, sofa, dogs - if it's Tuesday, it must be The Blue House
The SftBH hit machine trundles inexorably on as curators Partridge and Kirk convene again over acoustic guitars and gird their capos ready for another assault on the nation's consciousness with the down home folky brand of emo-soul they're already calling 'Country and Eastern'. Three new songs in the bag (or live to one-track, pedantry fans) to go with James' previously demo'ed "When Mama Sings" and a perky little instrumental number of Shane's that Helen has written down real, actual notes for. Five new songs - that's nearly an armful!