Had to hold you in a headlock, had to force you into wedlock

Rock City!

Two decent gigs in as many days! Steady on…

Ignoring for the moment the fact that the Young Knives tour which called in at Gloucester on Thursday goes by the name of the “Off the Beaten Track” tour, I was able to imagine, for a few brief moments, that I live in some sort of Rock Mecca this week.

Actually, if I wasn’t so chuffed at seeing some great music, I could be ever so slightly offended by this “Off the Beaten Track thing (NME called it a tour of “the small towns and provinces not usually on the live circuit.” Come here and say that – we’re the Altamont of the West Country!)

Anyway, Mercury Award nominees, the Young Knives were at the Guildhall on Thursday, and Oxford’s jolly Family Machine were in on the Friday, too. Wow!

I’ll come back to the Family Machine, and may even say a few words about the feast of running rugby we were treated to at Castle Grim on Saturday. Ain’t it great to be alive eh?

The Young Knives

Support band for the Young Knives were a noisy and boisterous trio called Johnny Foreigner, from Birmingham. (That’ll be the best of local talent then, according to the ever helpful and not at all patronising NME). They were kind of OK, but hard to make out at times (Sorry. Old Guy…), and I can’t find any downloads for them. Their Myspace streams a few a tunes though…

The Young Knives came on stage looking not unlike Art Brut, the other week, in that both the Dartnell brothers ran on in their Sunday Best, as it were, looking... well… a little chubby. I can’t help thinking this decidedly anti-rock’n’roll style is a good thing, and makes us all feel a little better about ourselves. Unfortunately they hadn’t been shopping in Gloucester in the Eddie Argos style, but I guess you have to draw a line somewhere…

I’ve only really just caught onto the Knives’ thing and their terrific Voices of Animals and Men record, and indeed I’d probably have missed them all together if they hadn’t breezed into this particular province this week. Their set was great, mixing a load of tracks from that record with some from their new one, including rousing versions “Terra Firma” and “Up All Night”. There was even a fairly dodgy Adam & the Ants cover as part of the encore.

I made a few recordings of the evening, which are OK, and by a happy chance coincide with the release of the Knives’ new record “Super Abundance”, which’ll be out tomorrow.

I don’t just throw this together, you know.

Coastguard – live at the Guildhall

Dyed in the Wool – live at the Guildhall

Tremblings of Trails – live at the Guildhall

Lightswitch – live at the Guildhall

Stand and Deliver – live at the Guildhall

I’ve got other tracks too if people are interested….