Tag Archives: guildford live music

Weyward Chile – at the ‘Wey Will Rock You’ event – The Star Guildford

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Weyward Chile possesses that kind of cock-rock insolence and sweaty strutting charm that actually swoops the gals off of their feet and sets the men a-jigging. And that’s exactly what occurred at The Star Inn, Guildford on 9th Sept at the boys’ regularly hosted rock night ‘Wey Will Rock You’ (planned for the last weekend of every month.) The guys and girls were dancing and grinding  – and hollering along to the best, biggest and most bruisingingly boisterous bad ass blues rock this side of the Smokies.

Frontman lead vocalist Karl looks very much like ‘Donovan’ but he possesses the seriousness and the rustle of Robert Plant. He is as bold as he is beautiful. On the sweet lead guitar we have chancer and chief mojo-maker Korush, on the smouldering rhythm guitar we have Jack and on the power-house percussion we have Alex showing off a tantalizing new kit, with James on finger-lickinginly good bass.

Starting with an onslaught of power and strength that shakes the roof tiles off the mossy ole ‘Star, the band smash into a blistering set that can only be described as ruthless classic rock. Delivered in dollops so big, you will need an excavator and a pile-driver to make sense of the chords and chops. With songs like “Whole Lotta Love” and Jimi’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” you know what you’re going to get.  Yes, exuberant classic rock and blues.

But their own songs are also full of promise and contagious, good time, rock-ability. From their gas-bottle necking grassband country twanging, feverish ‘Go Go’  to ‘Clouds Start To Rain’ which has an elegant chord structure and a tuneful verse together with nagging guitar ripples from Korush- lightly feathering the pattering rhythms. I can’t wait for their studio album.

There was a lot of low-down, yard-dog, dice rolling type numbers, like ‘Mike’s Song’ created with roostering roistering buoyancy. And ‘I Went Down’ which is their truest ‘Bad Company’ number. It’s like running down the strip with a desolation angel on your arm, trying to get to the liquor store & grab yourself a bottle of Gentleman Jack before the big game. It’s like sluice-juiced rock-daddy headymen Aerosmith before their big-hair dandy days. When they played true honest-to-goodness rock, blues and metal.

Huge sound and energy is created by Karl as he prances the boards and teases the audience with his wild shirtless holier-than- f * ck arrogant swagger. Yes, Weyward Chile are now truly ready for stadium stardom. I can imagine these boys making a success of a West-coast tour anytime now.

Hard place dominant rock and blues for the wise and the ready…

© Neil_Mach
September 2011

Links:
http://www.weywardchile.com
http://www.myspace.com/weywardchile
http://www.youtube.com/user/WeywardChile

Haydon’s Place – The Hobgoblin, Staines APR 01

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Absurdly good looking Surrey band Haydon’s Place (named after a charming street in Guildford) brings to mind those influential Canadians “The Band” or even the sixties legends “The Byrds”. Their top-notch quality folk-rock sounds seem to be driven by those old style “collegiate folk” melodies and harmonies.  So easy to slip into. Like a big duvet full of sensual sound. Restful and relaxing.

The skillful combination of rhythm and blues fused with American folk melodies and soulful harmonic style country-rock is evoked by Christian on keyboards and vocals, Antonio on joyful lead guitar, Steve on percussion and Terry on bass.

Christian is tall and lanky, curly mopped and smiling – and brings to mind a more serious ‘Mika’. But his voice sounds very much like Welsh rock band ‘Budgie’ lead singer Burke Shelley (check out the Budgie classic “Parents” to see what I mean.)  Or even Rush’s Geddy Lee, if that kinda thing floats your boat. Christian’s distinctive honey sweet eagle soaring voice complements and adds soulful relish to each masterful song.

Antonio plays in an unhurried and confident style, his licks gracefully arching and falling like an exalted crane. No technical wizardry but sweet, quiet and lovely instrumentation.  Bass and percussion are played superbly, with great feeling. But even if there are no obvious fireworks or whooshing rockets of sound, this is not mediocrity – it is fulfilled and controlled musicality full of passion and creativity.

The dirtied up pure folk-rock sound provides ample opportunities for some swaying, cuddling-up and gentle pecking. Their warm-hearted songs- sung with grace and satisfying clarity-  often vividly embody luminescent peaks of sound  and gentle choruses, to warm those hard-up cockles. The crowd at The Hob Staines, just lapped it all up like Cheshire cats on the cream.

A jubilant audience found themselves swaying and dancing in the aisles. And the queue (at the end of the performance) for the band T’s and CD’s twisted round the Staines venue like a python ravels itself around an exotic dancers thigh.  This band is gonna be big.  Mark my words.

Haydon’s Place is all jangly, sure-footed, run-out-and-buy stuff – this music is played with a sweet heart  and an enthusiasm for highborn Americana – crafted with love and genuine emotional attachment.  My only negative criticism is that the lads new single  ‘Distance ‘  is a tad too obvious and far too cheesy for my taste … in fact all I wanna do is  “runaway runway”  each time  I  hear  it  . . .

Joyful pop for a new beat generation.

© Neil_Mach
April 2010

Next live at:

Apr 30 2010     8:00PM  Plantation     Guildford

Link:

http://www.myspace.com/haydonsplace

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Imperial Leisure at The Boiler Room

. gig guide, Guildford, live dates, live music, Live Review, ska, sunbury, Two Tone .

It’s hard to take your eyes off of Denis Smith, the singer and Imperial Leisure frontman, as he flails around the stage like an out-of-control gyro-copter with his Sideshow Bob hair twisting in the spotlight. This band is just about the most exciting
thing to hit the leafy Guildford streets in weeks – nay months!   Imperial Leisure are wrecking our home and things ain’t gonna be the same no more!

The band is justly famous for their energetic live performances.  I even heard rumors that they play the ‘big uns’ with two bass guitars, three horns, two MCs and a cast of ten other musicians. When I recently saw ‘em playing live in Camden there was a squad of eleven up there on stage. But here in Surrey (The Boiler Room) we have the stripped down lite version of this excessive party band – just six gang members -  but wow they could brighten your day without even trying.  It was like setting a swarm of hot hornets free in a  candy shop. Enough energy, buzz and electricity in the air to keep your hands high and your tippy toes moving with a uniquely gnawing anticipation.

Imperial Leisure recreate all those best loved vintage sounds with their style, attitude and finesse but their music is also casually shaken up with large shots of hardcore rap and rock  to create a subtle beast whose flavours and aromas may be largely poppy 2-tone sounds like Madness, but almost always laced with the sour punch of something new wave – like Rage Against the Machine. Some of their more recent works sounds like the band is making (an unwelcome) foray into indie post-punk sound too – but the greater proportion of their output is still as two-tone ska as ever.

This skalextric sextet pumped out some of their old-time sounds like ‘The Art of Saying Nothing’ with unifying offbeat tempos and those skacore attributes or the crowd favourite ‘The Beast’ with its ridiculous intro and juicy walking bass lines. AJ on guitar is white-lightning fast and devilishly clever, Scott on drums is rapid-city and that bone has  treble-the-grunt  of any other I have  heard,  and adds grind and churn to each Imperial Leisure tune.

Itchy feet skedaddled and slam dunked around that wickedly small stage as the crowd scoobied to the beat in unison … Den implored the happy sweating crowd to hop, bound and jump.  And move they did. Because this music is designed to lift you up and keep your tinkle toes twinkling in the air. Superb songs like ‘The Landlord’s Daughter’ and ‘Man On The Street’ were decorated with notes of yearning might-  blast-notes from the achingly gurnish bug-eyed maestro on trombone and layers of velvety smooth chords were pumped and sifted through by Stu on keyboards.

The gig was as fast and as furious as a ferret on the run from Susan Boyles underwear draw … and was over all too quickly for the crowd who moaned and wailed as we sailed to the end.  Highlights were ‘Alperton’ and ‘The Landlord’s Daughter’ with those smooth interludes showered with invigorating bucketfuls of skantastic sounds.

Six pints of juice and pure energy, a curious cure for apathy. Man, you gotta have some of this!

© Neil_Mach
March 2010

Link:

http://www.myspace.com/imperialleisure

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