Both guys are such great and original improvisors, and worked really well with the theremin craziness coming from Pamelia, who veered from violin territory to clarinet tones to the sound of a pizzicato double bass. The second half was wonderful – lots of mad squeaky gate improv stuff with Seb on drums and Liam on piano. After that it was still good, it’s just tricky to sustain that level of interest without varying the arrangement ideas (would love to hear what she’d do with a Looperlative instead of the DL4s). The first half of the gig was a solo looped Theremin set – Pamelia was using two DL4s and an EH Bass Microsynth – and the first 20 minutes of it was captivating. When I saw that her two collaborators on the gig were Seb Rochford and ALiam Noble, it was a sure thing – had to see that. Yup, that was the first half of the gig I saw last night – Pamelia Kurstin’s gig at The Vortex was one I happened upon while looking at their website for something else entirely last week. In fact, that week is a great bass week in london – cos on Monday 4th John Lester has his ‘So Many Reasons’ album launch at the 606 in Chelsea, and I’ll be sitting in on that gig (which will also have John on bass, and Andy Hamill on bass!), and then on Thursday 7th, I’m playing at The Enterprise in Chalk Farm, opening for BJ Cole and Emily Burridge, and will no doubt do some playing with them as well! So, set aside that as bass week, and go to all three! There’ll be more details on the bass centre site soon, I hope, and there’s a thread about it over at .uk. It’s not wanky bass nonsense, it’s great singer/songwriter material that happens to involve some seriously great bass playing. But for the rest of you, click on his name there and head over and have a listen – he’s an electric bass playing singer/songwriter, of extraordinary talent. OK, a few of you will have already had me bending your ear about how you HAVE to go and see Seth Horan at the Bass Centre. So, now go and get John’s CD, from his website, or at least have a listen to some tracks on his myspace page.įinally, a blog post that doesn’t feature a video from the 80s… hang on, gimme a minute here, I’ll find one for you… He’s a great performer and great songwriter, and last night he had the cream of London’s musicians playing with him – Andy’s one of my favourite bassists in the world, Theo’s, well Theo, i don’t think he’s ever played a bit of music I didn’t think was outstanding, and Roy’s the perfect sensitive groovy player to be in that band. Since then – with no help from me at all! – he’s been touring and playing bass for Gretchen Peters, where he plays in her band and opens the show, blowing away audiences night after night, and winning himself so many new fans along the way. He sold a shedload of CDs, won himself an army of new fans, and it helped to establish him in some way in London.
And John is probably the best example of that, even though it was through a tour with Michael Manring that the push came about (and I always pull much bigger crowds when I tour with Michael, for some inexplicable reason… o) – anyway, John came out and opened for Michael and I on a bunch of gigs, and was quite frankly awesome. It’s what I want people to do for me, and in the spirit of ‘do unto others as you’d have them do unto you’ (what wise-ass came up with that? pretty simple formula for changing the world, huh?) I have always wanted to use whatever meagre platform I have to give other musicians a boost. I played on Union Street (which is one of my favourite songs of John’s – no mean feat in a set packed with favourite songs of mine) and Good Intentions, another great song off the new album.Įver since I started playing solo I’ve wanted to be in a position to give other people a leg up. No looping, no Ebow, no fretless, no big delays… just my 6 string fretted and some rather fun jazz guitar parts. And then, in the second set, me for two tunes. His band was him, Theo Travis on sax, flutes and marvellousness, Andy Hamill on bass and magicalness and Roy Dodds on drums, percussion and groove-based tremendousness. Fine gig last night – John Lester was launching his new album, So Many Reasons, last night at the 606 in Chelsea.
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