The Bordellos

If you're looking for some honest music you need look no further than the Debt Sounds album by St Helens band The Bordellos who have embraced the brutalist ideal with this latest release, gripping on to their non-conformist honesty with a vice-like grip.

The Bordellos could be described as the Howard Hughes of the music world with live performances like hens teeth, however I can announce with no small degree of delight that they will be performing for a second time in support of Musicians Against Homelessness.

At the humble behest of Ralph's Life on May 19th in the Ruskins Sports and Social Club, St Helens along with another 12 bands and artistes they take the stage with all monies raised going to homelessness charities.







Their idea behind the Debt Sounds album was to get back to basics, so Brian Shea informs us that he set down these ground rules: 

1. All recorded on old tape 4 track, using microphones and recording equipment bought from pound shops and cash convertors for under £5.

2. All tracks recorded on 4 tracks only no overdubs.
  
3. All vocal tracks would be first take only even if disaster struck whilst recording ,so a lot of these songs have only ever been sang once.  

4. All songs recorded would have been written that week . so the rest of the band would never have heard them before recording.

5. every song started would be completed that night so no going back. 






Brian further elucidated: "It was recorded over 10 consecutive Friday nights during that 10 weeks. There were two romantic break ups (the two ex girlfriends actually sang on some of the tracks to add to the spice), and only just before the start a marriage had also broken up. There was lots of alcohol consumed lots of madness. It is the sound of four people going out of their minds."

"Looking back, I wonder how Dan managed as he only turned 17 during the recording of this album, but his teenage angst mixed with our midlife crises made for a very dark work of art. 

This was supposed to be our third Brutarian Records release, but a label that boasted in its bumph as releasing noncommercial uncompromising music refused to release it as it was too uncompromising and noncommercial." 

"I have very fond memories of this LP; recording it was an experience that was only matched in madness when recording our Ronco Revival Sound LP."

TiTORS iNSiGNiA - Video Of The Week

Ralph's favourite video this week is From Dusk Til Dawn by St Helens rockers Titors Insignia.

They are one of the hardest working bands in the North West and proper rock 'n' rollers who never fail to disappoint live. 

Titors Insignia - From Dusk Til Dawn, Official Music Video

Filmed by Wasp Video

Track Available to Buy or Stream on:
itunes - Titors Insignia

Spotify - Titors Insignia

Refrain

It's always nice to experience something out of the ordinary in St Helens, and on this occasion it was quite extraordinary as I took to the streets to view a performance of Verity Standen's REFRAIN which had been brought to the town via the good offices of Heart Of Glass. 

It's also being performed at Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire and Newhaven, Sussex but as I watched it in the back streets of my home town it was all the more poignant.

Each of these sites has a unique history and a connection to the story of conscientious objection. During the First World War, scores of men who refused to fight were court-martialled, imprisoned and ostracised. 

More than 100 years later, this remains a sensitive subject, especially around the locations where these men were tried and incarcerated. All the more so in St Helens which was home to Ernest Everett, the first man to be sent to prison for refusing to fight in the war. 

There were nearly 16,000 British men on record as conscientious objectors (COs) to armed service during WW1. That does not include men who may have had anti-war sentiments but were either unfit, in reserved occupations, or had joined the forces anyway. 

The number of COs may appear small compared with the six million men who served, but the impact of these men on public opinion and on future governments was to be profound.

REFRAIN filled the back streets of St Helens with male voices, arranged by Verity into rich sound worlds for audiences to explore. 

The piece was be developed with, and performed by, a choir of male singers drawn from St Helens with. Eight performances taking place over three days, including a dawn performance.

The emotion expressed by the resonance of the men's voices was palpable, especially as you were able to get close to or walk through them as they sang. This emotion was all the more poignant as they entered the Friends Meeting House which was established in the town by The Quakers in 1679.

Broadly speaking there were four reasons why men objected to armed service during the First World War. The most common ground was a religious one. Pacifism was a time-honoured tenet of the Society of Friends (Quakers), although some Quaker men did enlist. Other individuals, including Christian fundamentalists, took the Bible at its word: ‘Thou shalt not kill’.





Verity Standen has created a piece that will forever hold a place in the hearts and minds of those who took part, whether it be performer or audience member. 

You could not help but feel a connection to the men of the past through the somber passion expressed by the voices of the men of today.

As we joined them on their journey through St Helens back alleys the experience was as profound as it was funereal. A feeling of reverence for those conscientious objectors whose belief was resolute.

"Ernest Everett is my name.

And I’m here because I am against this war. Against all war, actually. I’m not a Quaker by the way, but I am a Christian.

And I’m a teacher in St Helens, or at least I was.

I’m 32 years old and I’d say I’ve been following politics since the Old Queen died. I’ve seen them banging the drum for years, demanding to put everyone in uniform."

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Olly, a singer in St Helens: 

“It was quite surreal but very cool. Sometimes you’d be walking through town on the day to day and you’d see the streets. Then to actually be involved in a performance amongst these streets is really nice.”



Refrain is produced by Situations with Verity Standen Projects, in partnership with English Heritage, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts and Heart of Glass, St. Helens. It is generously supported by Arts Council England, the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, The Space and Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Bordellos

With Ralph's Get On The Wall event for Musicians Against Homelessness in Zoo Bar St Helens coming up on September 17th it seems only sensible to check out some of the bands and artists playing at the all-day celebration of local music to raise funds and awareness for the homelessness charity Crisis UK.

Timeously in that respect then that The Bordellos have released; via Small Bear Records, their latest EP Gary Glitter. It kicks off in fine dystopian, post-punk style with the almost uncomfortable title track, Gary Glitter. Musically it slots in between The Fall's Mr Pharmacist and Joy Division's Transmission and I'm certain Uncle John Peel would have approved.





Top track for me is Attack Of The Killer B-Sides which thrashes it's way into the inner depths of your brain and stays there pounding away. That's followed by the much lighter Free Download Generation taking a Dylanesque (Bob that is not Thomas) satirical look at the travails of today's unsigned musical scene. Final track Disco Pants is just plain strange, but that's no bad thing.

So if you're in St Helens on September 17th grab a ticket for Ralph's All-Dayer for Musicians Against Homelessness and join The Bordellos along with a stellar line-up of bands over 12 hours.

TICKET LINK

Drunk Wolf

Now as Ralph has been wont to say, it's not just about the music. That being said, when invited to the opening of the Drunk Wolf Exhibition which is on show in World Of Glass, St Helens there was live music as well as an abundance of art on show. 

Drunk Wolf is a local spray paint and digital artist whose clever and often humerous work is becoming more widely known despite his Banksy-esque ability to keep his identity a closely guarded secret. That being said, Ralph did manage to catch up with him just after his opening night for a quick chat.



Drunk Wolf is highly talented and yet extremely unassuming person who seems slightly bemused by the attention and acclaim his work received at World Of Glass. he was also very grateful to local band Weekend Wars who performed a short but very tight live set for the entertainment of the large crowd who'd showed up for the launch night.




Much of the Drunk Wolf work focuses on St Helens and the denizens therein and none more so than his homage to local character Johnny Welly using Star Wars dolls. You can see more of his work on the drunkwolf.co.uk website.


But there was much more on show, including a montage of St Helens celebrities; including Johnny Vegas, in the form of a Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club album cover stylee. The exhibition runs until June 3rd so go check it out.

Tony Steele and The Massacre

Needless to say, it's nice to be on the guest-list for a Cast gig however, Ralph's primary mission was to check out the support act on the evening Tony Steele and The Massacre whose new single was previewed on the blog late last year. let's face it, Cast are hardly going to be struggling for reviews.

They are currently embarking on a 20th-anniversary tour and this evening they were taking The Citadel Theatre in St Helens by storm. Not too difficult a task that being said as the audience was mainly made up of gentlemen of a certain age who were long time fans (some probably from John Power's Las' days) and had spent most of the evening previously in the bar. 



To their detriment as it happens, as Tony Steele and The Massacre played an immaculate set of well-crafted songs, some Americana-esque some just plain rockin' it out. Whilst the pre-Cast crowd was relatively small they quickly warmed to the band and Tony in particular, as he put every ounce of his energy into the set.

Kicking off with the slightly psychedelic Americana-style Feel Love they showed that they'd formed a well drilled, tight unit. Tony's rough-edged vocal bringing the song to life. It was quickly followed by a slightly countrified track called A Ballad Of Dead Love which bounced into a skiffle vibe that Lonnie Donnegan would have been proud of.

With thanks to @BazzaMills for the photograph

I'm Back Home was reminiscent of early Faces tracks around the time of the classic Long Player album and again Tony's vocal carried it to a higher level and that was carried through into the more upbeat, crowd-pleasing One More Chance with its folky, rebel song vibe.

Next up, Along The Right Track had a feel of The Animals to it before turning into a real foot-stomper and the band proving they were committed to their craft with solid musicality throughout. 





Penultimate track Fake Love had a cross-over Americana feel again, with shades of The Eagles brought up to date by being infused with Daughtry-like guitar and drums.

Finishing with a bit of a rock 'n' rolla Tony's strong, individual vocalising brought Bound to Collide to life and left me wondering how long it will be before Tony Steele and The Massacre take their rightful place as the headline act on a bigger stage.

Vukovar

Ralph's ideally placed to find out what's happening musically in St Helens and a quick trip to Kaleidescope Records on Westfield Street proved to be worthwhile as local band Vukovar have produced a gem in the shape of their recently released album Emperor on Small Bear Records.

I may have invented the phrase Bleak Pop just for Emperor as it lays it's foundations in all that's good from the likes of Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground to The Fall and Joy Division. Similaries with Ian Curtis abound in muso musings just out and that's no bad thing as Vukovar explore the depths of socio-politicality in this album.





Vukovar have created an aural joy in Emperor and their track The New World Order could become a bit of an Indie classic. If uncle John Peel were still with us he'd embrace it and play it relentlessly as will I on Radio KC.

The album is disjointed (in a good way - have a listen to The Staircase with it's narrative overlaid with a deliciously jangled soundscape), industrial, lo-fi, dystopian and addictive. 

There's no division in my joy (see what I did there) on listening to it.

The Grumbling Gargoyle

It's not often you get an invitation to go and listen to a gargoyle grumble as well as listen to live music, so Ralph sent out his roving reporter to cover the Lynn Gerrard (aka The Grumbling Gargoyle) live book launch in The Citadel St Helens recently. 

To celebrate signing a four book deal with Wallace Publishing to produce her poetry she took over her local theatre for an evening of music, comedy and spoken word.

First on the bill was local singer Amber Heyes who had won the St Helens Got Talent competition the previous year at the tender age of just 16 and this year was a Teen Star UK Finalist. 

She performed a short but stunning set of covers that had the audience shouting for more. Over the summer she's performing at more local venues and the Rainhill Festival.





It was Lynn Gerrard's night though and she took to the stage unassumingly, almost apologetically approaching the microphone before taking the audience by surprise with tales of her Mother's chest stubble and nasal hair, her Gran's affection for Custard Creams and crematoriums plus her own children's effect on her ability to breast feed only under the influence of alcohol and view them through tinted glass incubators.

Despite her protestations otherwise, with the use of humour and poignancy alike, Lynn Gerrard is the consummate storyteller and is as at ease with a comedy routine as she is in availing the listener with her spoken word poetry which ranges from the introspective and thoughtful to hilarious and scary! 

Her rendition of The Lovers was funny and insightful as it took a sideswipe at  Asda 'chav life' with it's 'hero' Martin getting his comeuppance for 'dissing' his girlfriend Alice with Chantal - Alice "Drop-kicked him right up his thick posterior - He landed with the words 'Unwanted Item in bagging area'."










Other poems were surprisingly poignant, none more so than Removal and Dark Skies which both kept the audience in respectful silence. The ability of Lynn Gerrard to make me laugh before tearing at my heart-strings and making me cry then making me laugh again is a tribute to her writing as much as it is to the care with which she tells her tales.

Leaving to thunderous applause, she was reluctantly dragged back onstage (she even forgot to plug her book) to take another bow. 

She's performing at Greater Manchester Fringe on July 24th and by invitation in Central Library in St Helens on October 15th for World Poetry Day.

Lee Wylding and Adele Halsall from Runcorn band The Fireflys took to the stage next to perform an all too short acoustic set from their 'Storyteller' Show (which was sold out and two nights hence in The Brindley Theatre) to celebrate the release of their Branches album. 


 


Their intimate, soul searching brand of Americana was perfectly suited to the evening and it was only the time constraints of the show that prevented them from complying with the audiences request for more! If you get a chance go and see them live as Lee's honest vocals are ably backed by Adele and with the full band in attendance they're not to be missed.



Another musical gem presented itself next in the form of London singer/songwriter Officer who had graciously offered to travel up to St Helens just to perform at Lynn's launch night. 

He's as magnetic in his stage performance as his music is to listen to. Playing a selection of numbers from his upcoming Myriad album, he held the audience spellbound. 

His rendition of My Darling Defibrillator (his latest single release) meant he had the audience (especially the ladies) in the palm of his hand and he kept them there with some excellent crowd participation prior to closing the show to rapturous applause.







Do take the chance to catch Lynn Gerrard live as she expands on her Darkness and Decadence show for Manchester Fringe and Central Library, St Helens in March as I'm certain the tickets for her inevitable Edinburgh Fringe Show will set you back a bit - although it will most definitely be worth it!

Top news is the new book Musings & Mischief was launched on March 3rd 2016 for World Book Day in St Helens Central Library, where Lynn performed her poetry to a sold-out audience.