The Police | Ad Pontes Staines

Superb Hard Rock – Live inStaines This Week

Land of Cain at Staines

Land of Cain

May 16 2009

Dog & Partridge

Staines

Land of Cain is a four piece rock/metal outfit from West London. Featuring superb guitar work, a pounding rhythm section, progressive strains and thought provoking lyrics the band are becoming
a force to be reckoned with in the UK hard rock scene.

The band started life as “One Bitter Pill” in 2004, with Grant Chambers and Aaron Waddingham in the original line-up, as well as Chris Jones (now of Voodoo Six).

With the departure of Chris in late 2007, Grant and Aaron decided to take the band in a darker and heavier direction, and with the additionof Spencer Dargue on Drums and Chris Jordan on Bass, the band began writing the new material which would later evolve into the songs for their first album
“Collapse the Control”.

The band began recording the album in early 2008 at The Lodge in
Northampton, and hope to be able to release it early in 2009.

Links:

www.myspace.com/landofcain

2. Saxy Lady – Jazz Live at Windsor

Yolanda Brown at Firestation Windsor

YolanDa Brown

May 16 2009

Firestation

Windsor

Think saxophones, and most of us will immediately start thinking
of jazz, specifically trad jazz. No bad thing, maybe, as there are few
instruments as stunning as the saxophone and few sounds as effortlessly
beautiful as jazz. YolanDa Brown is someone who has made the instrument
truly her own as a miraculously gifted saxophonist fluent in a whole
lot more than just one genre.

As her two EPs to date, July 2007’s ‘Finding My Voice’ and
August 2008’s ‘A Step Closer’ attest to an artist who takes jazz and introduces it to all sorts: to soul, to R&B and gospel, to loping reggae and soaring Latin. She can take a sound at first emotionally raw and incontestably infectious, and make it sound like nothing else on earth. For the past three years she has performed with some of the world’s most respected artists. Selling out venues like London’s Jazz Café at the drop of a
hat and the recipient of a prestigious MOBO Award, YolanDa is in demand
and it is a great privilege that she will be appearing with her band
here at The Firestation for this very special concert.

Upcoming show:

YolanDa Brown Live In Concert

16.05.2009 20.00 h

The Auditorium – Firestation Arts Centre
Windsor

£10(GA) £9(Conc) £8(Mem)

Links:

www.myspace.com/missyolandabrown

http://www.firestationartscentre.com

3. Powerful Indie Rock Covers – Windsor

The Riots at Old Ticket Hall Windsor

The Riots

May 16 2009

Old Ticket Hall

Windsor

THE RIOTS PLAY THEIR LAST GIG AT THE OLD TICKET HALL FOR 2009. We wish them the best in their musical career. The Riots are a
Berkshire based 4 piece band playing up to the minute indie rock covers
by popular names such as Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys and
Fratellis as well as a few standards by greats such as Oasis, The
Beatles and The Kinks.

Having built up a collection of toe tapping covers, the band started by
getting their first gig at The Old Ticket Hall in Windsor in 2007. They
have played many gigs since and are currently writing their own
material whilst learning up to the minute covers to keep your ears
smiling

+ DJ PLAYING 80’s &
90’s HITS

- BAR OPEN TILL 2AM

The
Old Ticket Hall Windsor & Eton Riverside Station

5/8/2009 8:00 PM at AXIS

Links:

www.myspace.com/wearetheriotsband

4. Classic Rock Hits – Live at Hampton

Cry Wolf at Royal Oak, Hampton

Cry Wolf

May 16 2009

Royal Oak

Hampton

Classic Rock Hits

Tom
Farmer (vocals, bass) David Farmer (drums, vocals) Gary Farmer (vocals,
guitar) Pars Evrenos (guitar)… make up the formidable local orginal
material / covers band CRY WOLF.

Described by our ADPONTES reviewer, Neil_Mach, as ” heavy, bluesy,
mature and very, very serious – thoroughly recommended” we
give them a five star rating !

Links:

http://www.crywolfrocks.co.uk/

http://www.blackfootsue.com/

5. Local Favourite Rock Party band - Live in Staines

Foulplay- Sticky Fungus Staines

Foulplay

May 15 2009

Sticky Fungus

Staines

w/ Four Wheel Drive – Classic Rock

Foulplay are one of our favourite bands here in STAINES band mixing old-time rock and roll and skiffle, through to classics from the glam-rock seventies, big numbers from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and even into modern indie rock territory

May 15, 2009 at 8pm to May 16, 2009 at 2am

Location: Sticky Fungus Music Venue

Street: Elmsleigh Road

City/Town: Staines

Doors open at 8pm. £5 entry. Over 18′s only (ID required)

Links:

www.myspace.com/foulplayuk

www.myspace.com/4wdtheband

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AdPontes-Staines Regularly for Staines Arts-

Hobgoblin – Staines – 1st March

So we are here at The Siegfried Sassoon (named after the Great War poet) “single release party” at The Hob Staines. But the Chertsey boys haven’t got their singles with them (a mix up with the post-production). Hmmm. And the crowd in Staines is forgiving. Probably more forgiving than they ought to be. In fact, the party is still going ahead (with or without the single) and the audience is fizzing like a sherbet fountain dropped into a glass of fanta. I saw a black and white chuckle-vision dalmatian in the crowd- it may have been Cadpig or Lucky – but I didn’t see Perdita. Perhaps the significance of all this is that the Sassoon sound is fun fun fun. The diversions come as ice-cream van chimes, merry-go-round organs or squelchy stylaphone tones. Sassoon music is not eagerly flamboyant, majestic or epic like the nu-prog royalty i.e. Dream Theatre, Beardfish or The Mars Volta. Theirs is capricious and frothy stuff.

Stylistically the sound is closer to the ‘Roine Stolt’ vehicle ‘The Flower Kings’ than many contemporary bands but there are slices of ‘Dartz’ type guitarwork garnishing the cocktail of sounds and, I think, a ‘Vines’ type vibe with grown-up ‘Craig Nicholls’ sounding vocals. The Siegfried Sassoon seem to populate the vacuum left by 70′s prog-rock masters, especially ‘Gentle Giant’ (which, like Sassoon, are sophisticated enough to have their own literary muse in their form of François Rabelais.) Unexpected compositional twists, altering subtly in each repeat, and intelligent management of the transitions, mean that Sassoon could easily be placed into the Jazz-Fusion bargain-bucket alongside their (local) buddies Cats & cats & cats but this also means that they are forever to be placed into that difficult ‘unhummable’ slot that is reserved for the clever muso-headed brain-box crowd… so the chavs in Staines aren’t as fick as you might fink!

I instantly liked the (missing) single ‘Muscle Beach’ and that clever start with a supermarket check-out sounding beep-beep ( a little like the “Tricky” Stewart of ‘ella ‘ella fame new Beyonce track ‘Single Ladies’.) This song envelopes a rich and fairly complex affair with a graceful conclusion very reminiscent of work by ‘The Flaming Lips’. Satisfyingly zingy elasticated chords from Adam Easton were stretched far beyond their tolerance and the frequent guitar highlights from Simon Gould reminded the crowd that they were listening to one of the few properly focussed Experimental / Psychedelic / Rock bands out there right now. It’s a shame that the B side could not be played live with a female lead singer though.

The track ‘I Galactico’ sees Chris Pratt (keyboards and lead vocals) take the band into magical territory. With Jim Carroll playing nimble bass guitar and Nick Owsianka playing steadily supporting percussion augmented by drum patterns by Chris. The smug faced crowds grunted and wriggled to that one! It was a jiggly ball of fun.

The whole Sassoon effect is spacey and neo-psychedelic with multi layered experimentations (including electro-acoustics) being the norm. The show was not (in any way) slick and could have been better managed. The performances were adequate but you get the feeling this lot prefer the studios and the rehearsal rooms to a live stage. This band has a superior musical quality but they do seem to need some better leadership and / or management if they want to get up to the next level. Chris mentioned that the band had T shirts and other merch with them (but, even though I had a handful of cash in my greasy mitts I couldn’t get hold of any stuff) and he told the crowd “If you want a motorhead T shirt go to Top Man – if you want our stuff – hang around”. Yeah, I get it. You have to hang around and work for Sassoon. It is ‘thinking man’s’ music and doesn’t easily fall off the shelf and into your lap. Got it. Give ‘em a whirl.

March 2009

staines
live music
rock music
gigs