Oh. (Russ L going to and fro in the Earth)

I’m wasn’t tired any longer and the tinnitus had more or less completely receded since I was given it by the first night, but distinct feelings of “I’m bored with this game now” were running through my mind as I set on out for this one.

The gig itself turned out to be fun, though. I didn’t really have anything in mind for this night, so when Her Mightyness Nizailz told me that The Courtesy Group were playing at The Sunflower I thought “That’ll do.”

I had no idea who else was on the bill, but the openers turned out to be The Fakulty. They entertained me, and you can’t fairly ask for a lot more than that. They play melodic rock with a vaguely 80s bent, for the most part sounding like those half-ballads that Aerosmith do but going in for a couple of AC/DC-ish rockers too. The songs were OK, and even though after a few of them I was left wondering how many more OK melodic rock bands I need in my life (and, worse, how many more OK melodic rock bands I need in my life this fortnight) I did warm to the sense of fun/having-a-laugh-ness about them. They amused me and made me smile. That’s enough, I suppose. It was also pretty evident that most of those in attendance were there to see them specifically – it looks like they might have quite the devoted little fanbase.

This became all the funnier when Mills And Boon played. Nonplussed expressions abounded from The Fakulty’s entourage. I find that sort of thing comical, anyway, dunno about you. Mills And Boon are one of those bands I’ve wanted to see for ages and never quite got around to it, so I was happy to find out that they’d been added to the bill here (on about two hours notice apparently, not that it showed). They feature not only Chinook and The Cribbler, which I knew, but also This Lad With A Beard from the previous night. Cor. Their churning groan ‘n’ jangle music and sprawling loosey-goosey song structures with added whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ over the top didn’t seem to do a lot for The Fakulty’s crew (although one girl did seem to get into it a bit, to be fair), but some in the audience appreciated it more. I thought their violent jazz-rock was ace, myself.

T’other lot had buggered off entirely by the time The Courtesy Group came on, which is probably a good job. I’m not sure what they would have made of them. They defy description, really – post-punk as a base, I suppose, but with a wired energy, generally an oddly insistent groove, poems read in between songs, a singer charging all around the place, a big swampy Sabbath/voodoo song, one with an industrial sort of feel, and a man wearing a really tall hat. The latter may just have been because it was so near to Halloween. I don’t know. Whichever way up, theirs was the best set in GDFAF 2006 so far by a good distance.

A great comic moment came when the vocalist wandered around the room and eventually behind the bar while singing. The barman approached him as though to move him on, hesitated, thought better of it, and slunk back to where he was originally standing. Like so may of the things I’ve mentioned about this night, you probably had to be there.

‘Playful lunacy’ – “that’ll do.”

~ Russ L, doing something a bit different next. Standard GDFAF service will recommence on Wednesday night, probably with Baroness at the Medicine Bar.

Hey, here’s one for all you crazy cool cats who perform on stage – when they give you a microphone, why not Tell The Audience What Your Name Is? A radical notion, I realise, but one that’ll work for the benefit of us all.

Off to The Sunflower Lounge (not as nice a place as the name suggests) for the Chicks Dig Jerks Promotions acoustic night. Held in the main part of The Sunflower Lounge (rather than the downstairs gig room), I think it’s the last Sunday of every month, and is definitely only a pound to get in. I’m not sure whether or not it’s early doors – I forgot it was supposed to open at five, remembered, dashed there and arrived at about half seven, but didn’t seem to have missed anything. I don’t think I did, anyway.

First we had some kid with a floppy indie haircut, playing guitar and singing to little effect. His soft mumbly voice made it impossible to decipher any lyrics, and the songs weren’t interestingly or memorably melodic. The fact that he didn’t say his name seems a lot less important.

After him we had some kid with a beard (who looked familiar. I know I’ve seen his face around at local gigs and things), playing and not singing to little effect. I’m sure it was very skilled and all of the rest of it, but I am not in the least bit interested in musicianship as an end in itself. I quite liked the way he seemed to smoothly elide from a folky to a bluesy air, but otherwise yawnsome.

Richard Burke was next, an artist I’d been relatively nonplussed by at the Moseley Folk Festival. I did enjoy him a bit more this time – it could be just have been relief (within the context of the evening) at getting to watch and listen to someone with a bit of something about him (and a name, too), but his lyrics seemed very sweet and the tuned seemed OK-ish. I’m not going to go mad or anything, but I got some enjoyment from his set.

Chinook was next and about 381 squillion times better than everything we’d already seen. This time we have good clever lyrics and interesting melodies, and a sound somewhat different to the standard ‘earnest young man with a guitar’ type of thing – words and stringstrumming/plucking combine to create an intricate, tricksy sort of ambience. Fantastic.

The Cribbler (apparently his real name is Jim) finished things off, with a mixed bag. About half a set worth of instrumental pluckin’ didn’t really lead anywhere in particular, but his singy ones were quite fun – he had a manic air about him, that helped to project a different sort of atmosphere. As an intro to one of his songs he tapped and knocked at the body of his guitar percussively, which made for a really interesting little diversion - it’s a shame he didn’t try to incorporate that a bit more into the actual songs.

I don’t know why, but I was expecting a lot more from this one beforehand. Ah well.

~ Russ L, probably the only person who has ever been to a metal gig and an acoustic gig within a few days of each other and only complained about not being able to make out the words at the acoustic one.

I was refreshed and ready (numerous years of life have thus far failed to teach my body that ‘the afternoon’ is not the most convenient time to sleep. I’m very happy when I get the chance to do so) to go to another slightly different sort of gig: The Photophonic Experiment (made up of individuals from Pram, Project Dark and Blissbody) at the Midland Arts Centre.

The MAC is a very cool place, and one I should visit more often. It comprises a couple of theatre spaces, gallery spaces, a bar, a café, and a cinema, and it backs onto a great big park. Short of a bouncy castle, what more do you want? Their programme of onstage events seems to have taken a bit of a backseat to emphasis the cinema/film-showings of late, but there are still plenty of interesting things a-happening there.

“To bring you this Most Marvellous Display we have employed bizarre Novelties which may Constitute a Hazard to Human Life. The Machines exhibited this evening are for Experimental Use. Spectators are kindly requested to Refrain from Approaching the stage AT ALL TIMES and to treat the Devices demonstrated with Utmost Caution.” - From the programme.

A double whammy of “Cor!” was necessary upon entering the Theatre. A fantastic Victorian-style programme (as above) was handed to you as you stepped through the threshold, and then you caught sight of the stage. I doubt I’ll be the first or last person to point out that it looked like a mad scientist’s laboratory, a crazy assemblage of pipes and jars and intricate godknowswhats.

These, of course, were instruments. The purpose of the collaboration was to demonstrate the sound (and often light/image) producing effects of all these interesting knick-knacks. It was divided into two acts, the first of which centred more around “Get a load of this, you’ll love what this thing can do” and the second more based in recognisably structured music, although there was plenty of both aspects in each one.

It wasn’t all fun and it wasn’t all interesting, but most bits were at least one or the other. Highlights would include the bit with flints being struck against some kind of amplified boards (“Primitive Properties of a Struck Flint”), producing ferocious noises and pretty showers of sparks (for this and other more visual bits, ushers had to hold covers over a couple of the illuminated ‘Fire Exit” signs to reduce the light in the room. Isn’t the moment when sparks are flying about the place the moment you need fire exit signs the most, though?); the bit where remote controls were held over a theremin (“Requiem for Remote Controls”), so that the infra-red beams affected the sound in addition to the physical presence; the part when a very skilled chap managed to make a theremin sound uncannily like a real violin (“Theremin Reprise”); and the really pretty rocking “Fugue for Flash Guns” (I’m not sure it was all that much of a fugue, though).

The main thing it left me thinking was that I’m really, really glad that there are people out there willing to just have a go at stuff like this, to just mess about with things out of context. God bless those brave boys and girls.

Pete Ashton’s take on this can be read here.

~ Russ L, back to more conventional gigging tonight.

In last year’s GDFAF, Pete mentioned at one point how strange it was for him to be going to gigs on his own. In my case, it’s actually more unusual to go with someone. Unusual is OK, though. We like unusual. Maxine said she was off to The Jug Of Ale to see her friend’s band, and I tagged along to make up the numbers.

My second night running at The Jug, then (and, incidentally, this may or may not prove to be a helpful resource if you don’t know the local venues). I like The Jug – the beer is fairly crappy, but the gig room has a bit of atmosphere to it. The promotional outfit most commonly associated with this venue is The Catapult Club, an entity you’ll almost always hear referred to in relation to Zoot Promotions – either “A lesser…” or “A better version of…” depending on who you’re talking to. Broadly speaking they run three gigs a week at The Jug and the odd one here and there elsewhere, with the regular ones usually consisting of three bands of an indie-ish persuasion (with all the vagueness that implies).

Opening tonight were Angels Exist, playing ballady alt-rock type of business. They were alright – they had a really big sound for a three-piece, and the singer really seemed to get into it towards the end. Thumbs up for dropping in a bit of “You Were Always On My Mind” when I was least expecting it, too. They were a band I may unintentionally be sounding dismissive about simply because I really can’t find a lot to say about them, but they were alright. I can imagine myself not liking exactly the same set on another day if I was in a different mood, but there we are – live music is just a moment in time, after all.

Stanley’s Choice stepped up second and were definitely the best band of the gig for me. Their first song was indicative of their set as a whole, moving from shimmering folk to smooth funk and back again (and it worked, more surprisingly). I found a fair few things to like about them – a nice mix of styles in the sound, a singer with an interesting voice, and even varying instrumentation (a trumpet and bongos came into play later on in the set, on top of the usual guitar/bass/drums business). Quite good.

Headlining were the The Matthew Bennett Band, playing slightly folksy melodic rock very much akin to David Gray. He had a strong voice, the songs were OK, and… I’m boring myself. Take the last two sentences of my paragraph about Angels Exist and add them here. I do apologise for the vanilla tone of this thus far, but unless I’m going to lie then this was what we had – two OK bands and a quite good one. It wouldn’t be fair to pretend they were all either brilliant or terrible just for the sake of getting to write something a bit juicier. Let’s see how I feel if an ‘OK’ gig like this happens later in the fortnight, when I’m fed up with this live music lark.

Is that it, then? No sir. I had another event to attend. A couple of weeks ago I was making a little trip out to the Asda near me and noticed some posters on the pillars of the motorway fly-over by it – Guru, Jehst, Blak Twang, Moorish Delta and others were playing at a hip-hop club night at Air in Digbeth on the 29th. There you go, ladies and gentleman – Asda is your hookup for grimy beats and lyrical science. Holla. I’m not normally a clubbing person at all, but with live performances from various artists I like made for enough of an incentive for me to do something a bit different. One of my concerns about this whole GDFAF palaver is that it won’t really be particularly ‘different’ to my normal pattern of going out, just a bit more frequent.

I was cowed by the times: 10pm till 6am. Briefly, I considered the fact that staying there for the duration would probably save me some money – the buses would be running again by that point and I wouldn’t have to pay for an expensive taxi. More lengthily, I considered the fact that this was just stupid-talk. Six in the morning? Lord o’ Mercy. I decided to just turn up after the gig at The Jug and stop for ‘some’ of it. Not knowing (and unable to guess) the running times, I was resigned to the fact that I was going to miss at least some (and possibly all) of the live sets. Not a problem, if you’re fully aware of the possibility and expecting it.

Onto Air, then (formerly known as Code). I instantly fell in love with the place. A fantastic sexy layout, lots of space for people to either sit or dance depending on preference, cool purple and blue dry-ice-assisted lighting, and a big balcony for Begbie styled glassings (yes, obviously I’m joking. Dullards). I really was massively impressed. I went to the bar and a lot of the happy initial impressions were undone – I was charged £3.80 for a bottle of Stella. That was not a typo. Three pounds and eighty pence. For a bottle.

Still, you live and learn. Don’t buy drinks in there and it’s an incredibly cool place.

A DJ was DJ-ing, and it seems to have been Mikee Lazy (I thought the MC said “Mike Amazing.” That almost certain that tells you a lot about me, I just don’t know precisely what). As already noted, I’m not a clubbing person, but I quite enjoyed this. Relax, nod your head to the music, make your beer last for fear of having to sell a kidney for another… I think I could get into hip-hop clubbing a lot more than dance or rock discos. I doubt I will, but I think I could.

Eventually, Moorish Delta 7 took to the stage. They didn’t make quite the same impact on me as they did when I saw them at that Gigbeth thingy in March, but were still enjoyable. Their beats are the main thing that stands out about them at first listen – varied and powerful sounding, not “PC with Cubase and general MIDI” business. Their delivery is strong, but samey – I have to admit I was beginning to get a bit fed up after a good while. Still good stuff, though, and I’m going to have to see about getting a copy of the album.

I was getting tired by this point and left, abandoning Jehst etc. to fate. This lead to a little bit of my brain revolting about the fact that I’d paid £15 to see a local act and a bit of DJing. Actually (and this is only just occurring to me as I type), it was supposed to be £12.50 before twelve, and I got charged the full fifteen despite getting there at about quarter to-ten to. Hmmm. Combine that with the £3.80 for a bottle of lager and I get the strong feeling that someone somewhere owes me money.

Ah well. You can’t put a price on fun, I suppose.

~ Russ L, amazed at what has to be the first time he’s ever been out and had more fun when the DJ was on than he did when the bands were.

And so it began. Going Deaf For A Fortnight was… well, Go.

Having finished work at eight and made the bus journeys from Walsall to Birmingham town centre and thence to Moseley, I found myself at The Jug Of Ale for a Capsule event. This isn’t the first time on this blog that I’ve mentioned my respect for and appreciation of Capsule, and it most likely won’t be the last. They put on gigs that are always at the very least worth consideration (including the fantastic annual Supersonic festival/celebration of all that is good); they help and advise other local promoters and event organisers (I know they gave a lot of help to the Moseley Folk Festival, for example); they help to promote the interests of worthwhile artists abroad (amongst other things they work with the Sonar Festival in Barcelona and South By Southwest Festival in Austin); they’re all-round good ‘uns.

None of this is to say that every single act they ever put on is great (although they do have a very good strike rate), but I was on steady ground for this gig - three bands I’d seen before and liked. Opening the partizzle were Meshuggah-ite local instrumental thrashers Nog. I arrived to find that they’d just finished playing. This was not a good start to GDFAF 2006.

Sourvein sound southern (by which I mean southern American, not southern British. By which I mean the southern states of the USA, not Latin America). I’m not sure how, though: no obvious detail of their sound gives this impression, but it persists nonetheless. The other thing you’re left thinking straight away is their sometimes-sludgy sometimes-headbangy doom metal sounds h-to-the-eavy - particularly heavy even a field where they all sound particularly heavy. Adjectives such as ‘crushing,’ normally dispensed as a matter of course, actually apply here. They could be described roughly as a collision between Weedeater and Beaten Back To Pure (if that means anything to you), and although I’m sure they wouldn’t claim to be showmen in any way there was plenty of appeal in their performance – they look like proper metal band, to begin with, and the manic bassplayer added a lot.

Headliners Church Of Misery’s singer affects a “Japanese hippy crossed with Ozzy look”, and in his dreams he clearly is the rock god of your dreams. Doom again, but this time in more of a stonery way and with a bit of a seventies feel – imagine a mix of Sabbath, Zeppelin and Orange Goblin, perhaps. Given that, it probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that they’re not afraid to jam a bit. I definitely felt (and looking around at people it l appeared that I was more-or-less the only person to think this) they went on a bit in the middle of their set, but they recovered with a great uptempo one to finish (and an encore of what I think was a St. Vitus song). Loads ‘o fun, although the band of the night for me was unquestionably Sourvein.

So, that was the first one. This whole affair is going to take a bit more settling into, I think. Tiredness and tinnitus are already advancing.

~ Russ L, off out for round two in a bit.

It looks like a potentially busy month. I’m beginning to question the wisdom of doing GDFAF so close to Christmas, on top of this little lot. Disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. It’s just some stuff that looked interesting, OK?

Wednesday the 1st - Torche/Baronness/Haxan @ The Medicine Bar, Digbeth, Birmingham - The Capsule mark of quality comes into play yet again. I don’t know the top two bands but I’ve heard numerous folk say good things about Baronness, and one of Torche is wearing a lucha mask in the photo on the Capsule site so that’s… well, something. Haxan were quite good last time I saw them. I’m probably not selling this very well.

Wednesday the 1st – Seven Inch Cinema @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham - Amazingly, The Rainbow is not a gay pub. I know, I was as amazed as you. I’ve never been to a Seven Inch Cinema event (I don’t really like films all that much, to be honest, although the I can see myself finding the short ones that I imagine are shown at this sort of thing to be far preferable to feature-length ones) but this particular one has performances from the ZX Spectrum Orchestra and excellent krautrock sorts Einstellung.

Wednesday the 1st – Slayer/Children Of Bodom/a buncha generic metal bands @ the NEC, Birmingham - Well, Slayer are Slayer, aren’t they? You can’t go wrong there. The rest of it, shall we say, varies in quality.

Thursday the 26th of October to Saturday the 18th – ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ @ The Rep, Birmingham - I can see a stage version of this being very interesting, in the right hands. It stars that chap who played Stan in ‘Dinnerladies,’ too, who I think is ace. It’ll be interesting to see him in a serious role. Although wasn’t he in a soap beforehand? I forget.

Thursday the 2nd – Gogol Bordello/Bedouin Soundclash/Danko Jones/Disco Ensemble @ The Academy, Birmingham - The ‘Eastpack Antidote Tour.’ Antidote to what? Not having your corporate sponsors quite so proudly displayed? I suppose we can rationalise it on the grounds that greater transparency is probably a good thing. I’ve seen Bedouin Soundclash twice before and like their Police-ish pop-reggae a lot (as uncool as it may be to admit it), but I’m most excited to see self-styled ‘gypsy punks’ Gogol Bordello at this one. Danko Jones are (is?) an OK garage-rock type band (artist?) going by the one song I heard ages and ages ago, and I’ll be very upset if Disco Ensemble aren’t actually a disco ensemble.

Thursday the 2nd – Tiny Ninja Theatre present ‘Hamlet’ @ The Theatre in The MAC, Edgbaston, Birmingham - Hamlet done with little puppets. And why not?

Friday the 3rd – Enablers @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham - Enablers are an absolutely fantastic American band who play post-rock-ish (-ish) stuff with spoken word poetry intoned over the top. The Hare & Hounds is a pub that sells tins of Carlsberg Export for a quid each from the bar in the gig room. The supporting acts are Last Of The Real Hardmen and the fandabedozie The Arm. There is no reason not to go to this gig.

Sunday the 5th – The Klopeks @ The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham - Apparently The Klopeks are doing a fireworks night gig, although as you can see from that link they prefer to lead a shadowy existence and not tell anyone anything about it.

Sunday the 5th – Entombed @ J.B.’s, Dudley - Yeah, I was surprised (but happy) to learn that they were still going too! This is part of the terrifyingly named ‘Masters Of Death’ tour, also featuring Dismember, Grave, Unleashed, and Exterminator.

Tuesday the 7th – Rancid @ The Academy, Birmingham - Ranceeeeeed!

Thursday the 9th – Motorhead / Clutch @ The Academy, Birmingham - It’s the annual autumntime tour for the legends, made even more appealing by the fact that The Best Rock Band Currently Operating are in support. Clutch rule my little world, they really do.

Tuesday the 14th – Manatees @ Scruffy Murphy’s, Birmingham - I’ve no idea about the band, I’m just mentioning this one to give me an excuse to link this. I would also like to unearth the photoshop that Maxine did of the hardcore manatee ages ago, but I can’t find it. The thought is there.

Tuesday the 14th to Saturday the 18th – Slava’s Snowshow @ The Hippodrome, Birmingham - I am very excited about Christmas a-coming.

Wednesday the 15th – Amy Winehouse @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Let’s play spot the difference:

Juventud Guerrera
Recent pics of Amy Winehouse

I joke, I joke. I’m in love with her really.

Friday the 17th – Black Cobra/Blutch/Mothertrucker @ The Jug Of Ale, Moseley, Birmingham - I’m having a listen to the songs on Black Cobra’s MySchmekel as I write, and they sound like they punch quite hard and would be bosting live. I’ve already written about Mothertrucker far too many times for anyone to possibly still be interested. I refuse to listen to Blutch beforehand in case they spoil my hope that they just play Clutch B-sides. I’d lose the will to live.

Saturday the 18th – Upcdowncleftcrightcabcandstart/ Mothertrucker/Una Corda/Haxan @ Chapter Eleven, Birmingham - An absolutely bosting line-up, headed by Upcdownc who had me nigh-on speaking in tongues with pure rapture last time I saw them. It’s the same night as Neurosis play in London, though. Decisions, decisions.

Thursday the 23rd – Beverly Knight @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton - The nation’s favourite Black Country soulstress comes back home again. Our Bev.

Friday the 24th – Conflict / Subhumans @ The Academy, Birmingham - Yes, that’s Conflict and the Subhumans playing at the Carling Academy. I can’t off the top of my head imagine anything more bizarre. I doubt it’ll actually happen, to be honest.

Sunday the 26th – Capdown / King Blues @ The Barfly, Birmingham - Do Capdown play emo or ska-core? You decide.

Sunday the 26th – Showport Promotions’ “Muay Thai Superfights” @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton - A chance to fulfil your urge to shout “Knees! Knees! KNEES!” in public without anyone thinking you’re strange. I know it’s an urge that plagues me. I don’t have much idea of the card, but here’s a very blurry flyer.

Sunday the 26th – Christina Aguilera @ The NIA, Birmingham - I saw Slaggy Aggy about three years ago and she seemed to be in the midst of a breakdown of some sort. Her long-rambles-between-songs were particularly nonsensical even by the standards of the rubbish people generally tend to speak when you put them on a stage with a microphone, and a few days after the concert we saw the rest of her European tour was cancelled due to ‘exhaustion.’ I honestly can’t decide whether I want her to be more or less sane this time around.

~ Russ L, hoping this might prove helpful to someone out there.

The first of what could well turn out to be a pretty nifty new series (although I do have some reservations) has been put up over at The Art Of Noise.

“In The Dock” will tackle various popular music-related topics, and in each instance see two pundits put forward cases for the prosecution and defence while those choosing to leave comments act as the jury. Getting stuck straight into the big stuff, the first one concerns The Beatles. This, incidentally, reminds me of a long-forgotten mini-project for this blog. I may come back to that after about a fortnight (and then some recovery time) has elapsed.

~ Russ L, apologising to those who read the title and thought this might be something about The Magistrate’s Blog.

The original plan for the evening of Sunday the 22nd was to go and see Tunng (one of the best bands going in this country at the moment, sez I) at The Glee Club. I’d never been there before but knew roughly whereabouts it was and thought “I’ll find it.” Well… I didn’t find it.

When faced with the choice of either further wandering in the cold or implementing Plan B, I am all about the alternative course of action. I went to the Rolo Tomassi gig at Scruffy Murphy’s instead.

“Young ‘uns - and lots of ‘em!” was my initial thought upon arriving. Ah well. Would they indulge in the typical assortment of annoying behaviour? Yes, of course they bloody would. Bah. I wasn’t the only one that thought so, either.

I couldn’t recall who else was supposed to be on the bill, and it turned out that I’d missed the first band and that Bee Stung Lips (featuring members and ex-members of practically every other local band who has ever existed) were up next. They were wild. Screamy, shredding rock ‘n’ roll, (very) distantly Jesus Lizard-ish (I know there’s an obvious reference point for them but I can’t quite put my finger on who), overflowing with energy. Definitely a band to see again.

Taking the ‘Crap Band Name Of The Year So Far’ award in a walk despite some stiff competition, next we had Fuck Buttons. They were good in spite of that, though. Roughly speaking it was a game of two halves – noise feedbacky frequency bits, which were moderately effective but more-or-less just what all the others of this type do, but also some rhythmic, percussive, tribal-ish bits. These were where the wonder walked. The part where it all dropped out apart from a beat coming from the electronics, the one lad playing the drum (singular) and the other dancing, stamping his feet and vocalising in a high-pitched fashion that recalled a Moomin trying to jazz-scat while in agonising pain was hypnotic and absorbing, with a ritualistic sort of feel about it. Really, really amazing to see and hear.

I Was A Cub Scout were next and a surprise, even given the relative variation across the bill - they were a slightly noisier than average indie-pop band. Ok-ish songs for the most part, with one epic baggy-ish number (starting with a cool swirly keyboard bit) sounding excellent and far above the rest. Probably the least of the four bands I saw but there were still things to like about them. Especially that one song.

Rolo Tomassi were amazing, even better than the last time I saw them. Their music could so easily step over a line into wacky kerrazy crapola, but… it doesn’t. They wield a thousand different disparate elements into songs, controlling and directing the chaos to spectacular effect. Their wipe-‘em-out grind bits are as equally effective as their grooving bits and ethereal bits, too, which seems to be quite rare of late. Go and see ‘em (they also have a CD out on Holy Roar that’s definitely worth you buying).

It all got more comical still when the young ‘uns burst out into moshing during Rolo T’s set. The soundman (apparently also the manager) didn’t like this, and (in between throwing people out) stomped onto the stage and seized the microphone to issue a stern warning. Although I have mixed feelings about this all (this was probably the least annoying expression of youthful exuberance that took place all evening), it was incredibly amusing to see him stand at the end of the bar surveying the crowd with a furrowed brow, watching for the precise moment where ‘dancing’ became ‘moshing’. That lad just ruffled that other one’s hair – is that an unacceptable degree of physical contact? It was like some kind of alternative universe version of a teacher chaperoning a school disco.

~ Russ L, reflecting on the fact that if we choose to see this as a warm-up for Goodfaff then my tiredness the following day does not bode well.

To Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall on Sunday the 15th, for my second fightcard in two days – Showsport’s “First Step Road To Tokyo” (a valiant attempt at an Engrish style name, but it just misses somehow. I can’t put my finger on exactly how or why), with mostly K1 but also Muay Thai and MMA bouts. It was great – not a bad fight all night.

The results can be found in this messageboard thread (25th post). The centrepiece of the card was an eight man K1 elimination tournament (I like K1 rules kickboxing a hell of a lot more than I like ‘sport karate’ style kickboxing), eventually won in impressive fashion by John Love. The star of the evening, though, was one Steve Hamilton from Weymouth. He bravely opted to go toe-to-toe with the visibly much heavier ‘Nasty’ Nassa Mohammed (trained by Kash ‘The Flash’ Gill, who once nearly beat up a friend of mine. True story.) in the first fight, winning a decision and providing great stuff for us spectators but taking a lot of punishment in the process. In the second fight he stopped Alex Gould with an absolutely spectacular spinning back fist, but in the final all the stick he’d taken caught up with him and the ref called it in the second. Another really exciting one was Birmingham’s Chris Cooper against Alex Gould – Cooper seems to have a chin of granite, although keeping your hands down still probably isn’t the best idea.

The two MMA fights were quick, with Paul Taylor proving himself to be an absolute beast at welterweight (not that he wasn’t already an absolute beast). One of the interesting things about these mixed-style cards is the way that folk who are fans of only one sport react to the others. Some people near me who responded to Terry Etim’s armbar with a “What, is that it? Over already?” were significantly more impressed with Paul Taylor’s G’n’P. It’s not just groundfighting that baffles people though – there was an undercurrent of disapproval towards the clinch work in the Thai fight.

A fantastic card overall, anyway, lots and lots of fun to watch.

~ Russ L, who didn’t miss the last bus either.

‘Twas Angrrr Management’s “Grrround & Pound” MMA card at Kidderminster’s Glades Leisure Centre on Saturday the 14th of October. Having arrived a bit early, after buying a ticket I decided to step out for a quick drinkie. The first pub I encountered was The Taphouse just around the corner, where (for the first time in I really don’t know how long) I was asked for ID by a barman who looked about twelve himself. No matter; they sell one less pint and I am comforted by the thought that perhaps I don’t look like the desiccated old wreck I feel. I wandered a little further and had to wait forever and a day to get served in a practically empty Yates’. From this I conclude that pubs in Kidderminster are crap. I will continue to believe this until I find evidence to the contrary.

The event itself, anyway. I’ve been to two Angrrr Management bashes now and not only were they good cards, I also found there to be a really nice atmosphere at both. You can see the results for this one here, although note that the bottom two there were actually semi-pro fights. The highlight, without a doubt, was the hyper-technical ground war between Kyotaro Nakao and Danny Batten, decreed a draw by the judges. No-one could argue with the closeness of the fight (I’d got the first round to Nakao and the second two drawn, in my armchair way), and it was tense exciting stuff all the way through. Tony Bentley was nowhere as big as last time he fought, but still conquered in the name of Tipton with his Clinch Knees Of Black Country Justice. Jake Blyth vs Alan Watson was a bit slow with a fair bit of hanging on from Watson on the ground, but I still wouldn’t say boring (and since that was about the worst of the night everyone’s a winner), whereas Jazbutis vs Dummer proceeded in a similar fashion but in a much more exciting way, both men constantly working for position. Ross The Boss was absolutely dominant, and once again showed how great the welterweights are at the moment.

I had to leave after the first round of Tengiz vs Costello (the latter already looked a bit of a mess by this point, so it wasn’t like the outcome was in doubt. It was more of a methodical demolition than the wild Tengizing we usually see, but no less scary for it), and despite running half of the way back to the train station I got there just in time to see it pulling away – about five minutes early. ‘Grrr’ indeed.

(There’s an account of this here. The same geezer has also written something about it on the Angrrr Management homepage, but he recycles a few paragraphs from that one and I assume it’ll disappear eventually anyway).

~ Russ L, giving a big thumbs up to Angrrr Management even if other things went badly.