Thursday 16th July 2009
I’ll be in lovely Porthmadog by the time you’re reading this, hopefully not in a rain sodden tent but basking in the Gulf Stream channelled sunshine. Either way, it’s good to get away and all that. Anyway, let’s get to it.
Tomorrow night it’s the launch of Danny Gruff’s debut release, his EP ‘The Last of the Big Time Small Town Lads’ on the Leeds based label Broken Heart Underground. The word on the street is that the gig is nearly sold out at the Bradley Cricket Club and that’s no doubt thanks to Danny’s gaggle of dedicated lady followers. Supporting Danny will be The Witherdon’s, Sam Jones (formerly of Ashbey) and Lightnin’ Hopkins, visit www.myspace.com/dannygruff for more details.
This Sunday is the massive ‘School Out For Summer’ all dayer at Central Station. Every year the organisers, Chaos Theory Promotions, conjure up a monster line-up to celebrate the ending of the school year and the start of the summer holidays. This year is bigger than ever with 2 stages and 13 bands including local and touring bands; We Are The Ocean, Paige, Tonight is Goodbye, Spunge, Fei Comodo, My Turn To Kill, Slightly Generic, Smile Like Texas and some more. It’s an all-dayer, so it opens at 1pm and tickets are £12 which are available from Yales Café Bar, seetickets.com or the bands.
They should be getting used to playing overseas by now and it’s today that Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle will be jetting over to the south of Spain to play the Benicassim FIB Festival alongside Oasis, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers and they’ll be on the same stage as Kings of Leon and Paul Weller. Polly and the boys won the chance to play on the main stage at the festival when they won a national competition between 1700 bands last month. Every credit.
Possibly crashing back down to reality for them, they have a headline show at Central Station next Wednesday. Also on the bill are Mechanical Owl who narrowly missed the chance last Sunday of gaining a slot at the Greenman Festival in August.
The mighty Gallops played Wakestock last weekend. For the past few years, the Abersoch based fest has been marred with bad weather i.e. rain and this year was no exception. As always though the 15,000 strong punters proved relentless and by all accounts the Gallops performance went down a storm.
Tomorrow night Chester’s Out From Animals are playing Telfords Warehouse. They played the SXSW Festival in Texas in March and since been travelling up and down this great isle of ours playing every town they come across. Tomorrow though they are back in their native Chester to captivate the locals with their electro-pop-rock sound. It’s free before 9pm and £4 thereafter.
On Saturday night at Telfords they have The Undercover Hippy playing. AKA Billy Salisbury, the hippy hails from Hereford and spent 7 years as an MC for the ‘Guerrilla Collective’, a Singapore based drum and bass group who are signed to Goldie’s Metalheadz label. In 2002 Billy stuffed his mic and turntables in the attic and bought a guitar to start writing songs. In 2008 he recruited a drummer and bass player to form his current line-up who have been gigging relentlessly ever since. Get there before 10pm for free entry or pay £4 thereafter.
Last summer Central Station had live cover bands on Saturday nights to entertain the drunken masses downstairs at the venue. Well, now the dog days have come around again the live music has started. This week they have a relatively new function band ‘The Rhythm Train’ playing. Featuring Gemma McHale on vocals/keys, Alex Hall on guitars, Ben Trow on bass and Steff Owens on drums, they play the whole spectrum of classics – funk, soul, motown, classic pop etc. Get down from 9pm to bear witness.
As I mentioned last week, on Monday night the Drever, McCusker and Woomble trio are playing the Llangollen Town Hall as part of the Fringe Festival. Woomble being Roddy of Idlewild fame of course. Tickets are £15, available from www.llangollenfringe.co.uk and doors are 7pm.
Well, that’s another week over, it’ll soon be Christmas. I’ll be here same time next week, if I don’t drown in the night or get washed up on the Irish coast. Don’t forget to email me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk or tweet me at @bendaviswxm with your news and opinions. Take care.
