One Night Only, The Waterfront

Time is a major factor for One Night Only. It’s used in pretty much every song and it’s very much on their side. Selling out a whole tour and reaching number 10 with debut album ‘Started a Fire’ at their young age is an impressive feat, and they really are connecting with a wide audience by the looks of this crowd. Lyrically they are by no means perfect, ‘Start over/It’s all over’, it’s hardly poetic, but there’s time.

As a live band they have enough about them to keep going and work out these little nuisances. There is an enthusiasm you would expect from a young band who look like they could well be playing their school’s battle of the bands, keyboardist Jack Sails practically head butting a hole in his keyboard, guitarist Mark Hayton nodding emphatically along to himself and lead singer George Craig’s deep voice sounds straight from the record all in their Topman dress.

Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light

Johnny Foreigner’s debut effort is disappointingly your run of the mill and unambitious debut indie album. The ‘next big thing’ in the disposable music industry, the album is comparable to efforts over recent years from other shouty guitar bands such as Dartz! and Hot Club de Paris and an underproduced Los Campesinos! I’m a little surprised there isn’t an exclamation mark after their name.

‘Waited up ’til it was light’ is an almost bland concoction of boy/girl vocals shouted over unnecessarily complicated sounding guitar riffs (you know the sort I mean) and a generally overdone lo-fi sound; Johnny Foreigner will hardly be revolutionising music any time soon.

The Holloways, Waterfront

It was a night of chipped teeth and grabbed balls at the Waterfront as a surprisingly sparse crowd greeted the Holloways brand of dancey indie guitar pop. The support came from the impressive and confident local band The Interpreters and the passionate acoustic-punk of ex-Million Dead frontman Frank Turner and the crowd warmed to each as their respective sets went on.

The second Holloways album is due for release this year, and they showcased some of this new material along with old favourites such as ‘Generator’ ‘Dancefloor’ and ‘Fuck Ups’. The riff-strewn ‘Generator’, the biggest mainstream hit for the band, was greeted with a huge cheer and even requested again as an encore. Guitarist and vocalist Rob Skipper prances the stage with a violin on ‘Two Left Feet’, not many indie bands can say they can pull that off.

The Courteeners, Waterfront

When you actually see The Courteeners, you soon realise how much of an impact they are having, how much people have really connected with them. Every song can be related to, it isn’t quite Definitely Maybe, but it’s not a million miles away. Playing to an audience that was filled with more 30-somethings than you’d expect, less of the little indie kids, although the Wombats gig at the UEA could have had something to do with that. The Courteeners are the voice of this 30-something generation, they have lived what he’s singing, and love him for singing it.

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

I’ve heard the phrase “Arctic Monkeys with strings” banded about with reference to this band over the past couple of weeks, and it’s exactly the narrow-minded phrase I’ve come to expect from music fans and journalists alike nowadays.  While it is easy to write off ‘The Age of the Understatement’ as something Alex Turner is doing to pass the time between albums, it’s completely unfair.

I can see where this has come from and there are a couple of songs on the album which I’d just about forgive it for; but The Last Shadow Puppets are so much more than that.

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

There’s a definite formula to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. Justin Vernon’s dulcet layered tones sweep across his beautiful lo-fi nu-soul acoustica, in torn, raw, emotive fashion somewhere between Scott Matthews and Brett Dennen. The vocals really carry For Emma, Forever Ago as it was in serious danger of being just another singer-songwriter hitching a ride on the massive wave.

The Last of The Protesters?

‘I’m Not There’, the Bob Dylan biopic, could teach the bands of today a good lesson or two about song writing. When a young Bob Dylan, portrayed as young hobo kid going by the name of Woody Guthrie, talks of his songs about previous hardships, he receives the most valuable information ever uttered; Live your own time, child. Sing about your own time. What happened to the people singing about the tribulations of our own time in the form of contemporary protest music? Hip-Hop has taken over as the form of protest music but Hip-Hop seems to have a knack of stirring up more controversy than bringing about change, Rock Against Bush, rocks contribution, was actually inspired by Rock Against Reagan in the 80’s and the Woodstock of ’69. So not exactly original then.

The 60 Second Review

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular feature:  the 60 second music review.  The idea is a basic enough one; hit play, hit the stopwatch and get writing.  This is an experiment more than anything, as I’ll tinker with the time limit, the format and the subject to find a system that works.

I’ll be using the 60 seconds to compose my review, and then a few odd seconds afterwards to correct any misspelt words/punctuation that I may have overlooked my haste.  With these, I don’t really intend to give the usual ‘XXXX are a 4 piece acid funk band from Hartlepool,’ as I’ll be dwelling on the feeling and opinions I get based on the music.

Mumm-Ra Shock Split

Mumm-Ra, the energetic and at times beautifully atmospheric indie band has decided their ‘journey as a band has come to an end.’ The band had been an underground success, playing on tour with The Killers, The Kooks and the Kaiser Chiefs winning fans with their youthful exuberance and mature pop. Mumm-Ra’s 2007 debut ‘These Things Move In Threes’ was met with critical acclaim, with three singles released including the infectious ‘She’s Got You High’ but only merely touching the top 50. Mumm-Ra are just one of a number of bands that seem to be getting hit by the Myspace generation and are another indication that we are heading for a disposable music industry.

Wonky Pop Tour

The Wonky Pop Tour danced its way to Stoke’s Sugarmill with Alphabeat, currently sitting at number seven in the single chart, Leon Jean-Marie and Frankmusik. Leon Jean-Marie opened the night in spectacular style and had the whole, albeit very young, crowd moving to his soul, funk, reggae rock with a voice that was somewhere between John Legend and Bill Withers. L.J.M looked the part too, him and his band parading and controlling the stage looking just as smooth as they sounded. He’s certainly no one trick pony either, at times you hear the Specials, then Lenny Kravitz jagged soulful rock and then some Anthony Hamilton funk. If as you’d expect, the bands are to get better as the bill gets near the top, there’s definitely a hell of a night in store.