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.

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.

The Fireflys

It's not often Ralph gets a chance to get out the kennel and do a live review, but he made an exception on Saturday for North West band The Fireflys. 

Two nights previously Lee and Adele from the band had graciously performed an outstanding acoustic set at the Lynn Gerrard book launch in The Citadel Theatre, St Helens which promted the crowd to call for an encore but time constraints sadly didn't allow. 





However The Fireflys were headlining Runcorn's Brindley Theatre to a sold out crowd supported by The Spase and Chasing Infinity on the Saturday, so it was time to investigate further.

The 'Storyteller' gig gave an insight into both The Fireflys extensive back catalogue and the new tracks including the recently released single 'Branches' as Lee Wylding availed the audience of the thinking behind each track prior to them being performed, more of which later.

The night kicked of with a set by local band The Spase who are currently performing as a stripped back two piece, which suits their poetic and insightful songs perfectly. The idiosyncratically named Wax and P took us on a melodic journey of well crafted lyrics and musicality with this lo-fi performance.

The Spase were never going to blow our ears of, but that was the joy of their short but exquisite set. Strong songwriting brought to us by solid and heartfealt vocals. Having just released an album called 'On A Cloud' recently, I'll be investigating further and of course playing a track on the Radio KC Indie Show soon.









Liverpool band Chasing Infinity upped the tempo with a bouncy alt pop rock vibe with an up to date Fleetwood Mac feel, a kind of low-cal Garbage if you will. They breezed through a highly entertaining set with Adele Halsall's vocals a delight. She's backed by the extremely proficient Paul McCormick on guitar, Mark Rice on drums and quirky bassist Rob Saunders.

Chasing Infinity were cheerful but never cheap as they effervesced through a selection of eminently listenable folk tinged pop songs that would happily grace any radio station. Their infectious fervour carried over to the audience who (with a noteable and noisy exception) listened intently and showed their appreciation enthusiastically.








Which brings us to the 'Storytellers' of the evening, headliners and Runcorn's finest, The Fireflys. 

They've made several transitions as a band over the years but finally seem to have found a very comfortable Americana-esque niche with the current expanded line-up.  

Their recently released single 'Branches' has featured in the Top 20 of the itunes Chart this week.

The cornerstone of the band, Lee Wylding (guitar/vocals), Andrea Packer (drums) and Stephen Roberts (bass/ukulele) has been augmented by the skills of Chris Tann (keyboards), David Packer (guitar) with the aforementioned Adele Halsall (vocals) bringing another subtler layer to The Fireflys sound.

Courtesy of Ian Parry Photography ©

The theatre now packed to capacity with friends, family and fans, they assuredly played their way through a selection of past, present and soon to be future favourites. 

Obviously enjoying the evening The Fireflys transferred this vibe to the crowd who reacted with increasing fervour as each track bouyed their enthusiasm, resulting in a sing song, followed by a standing ovation at the end of the show.






There's obviously a lot of hard work and heartache gone into Lee's songwriting and it shows as he earnestly leads the band into each track with no small amount of humility and humour, explaining to us the thought process behind the songs. 

As he intimated, they're a collection of introverted, sometimes despondant lyrics conveyed via Lee's still gritty, rock vocal overlaid on happy sounding tunes, each pointing the listener to the conclusion that life and love is hard, but there's always a happy ending!