Hate-Fi and Liverpool Music Week 11/12/2007

Blimey. I’m knackered.

It’s been a rather busy week in camp Sentric these past 7 days; a whole load of gigs and late nights thanks to Liverpool Music Week and one especially late night thanks to Ricky Hatton but I’ll come on to that in a bit…

Lord. Are you there? It’s me sP. I was just wondering when you were going to sort yourself out and finally ‘deal’ with Hard Fi? I know people question you a lot for some of the things you let happen; famine, war, hate crimes etc, but when you let the drummer (who I didn’t think were allowed to speak to the press as a rule) from one of the most dull, unimaginative, boring and frankly awful bands this country has produced since the dawn of time, slag off LED F*****G ZEPPELIN without any repercussion: that’s when I know why I’m an atheist.

Yes for those who don’t know; Steven Kemp, the said drummer from Hard Fi said to the press:

“Paying over £100 for a ticket is a joke. Why should you pay so much money for it? These rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs are coming out for one last pay cheque. I don’t know what they are going to do on stage that’s so special.”

Oh my word. I hate this band so much.

Yes, £100 a ticket is expensive Steven, well done for ‘remembering your roots’, but also let us not forget that this concert is for charity (The Ahmet Ertegun Education fund).

I mentioned in last weeks blog that artists regularly slag one another off in the press and it usually works in getting them decent exposure. Take the current feud between The Enemy and Alex Zane: They slagged each other off and as a result Zane’s radio show saw a boost in listeners and The Enemy saw an increase in sales when the story hit the press. I would suggest here that The Enemy and Alex Zane have rather sensibly ‘picked their battles’ quite well and the mutual vituperation has left them mutually benefited.

Led Zeppelin however are heavyweights compared to Hard Fi who in this metaphor are the group of 6 year old girls with flowers in their hair and lollypops in their mouths. Whilst stroking kittens.

I reckon if Jimmy Page ‘gave the word’ there would probably be a queue the length of Staines who would happily shoot them in the ear.

It’s a beautiful example for unsigned/independent musicians on how not to gain press in a meretricious manner. There IS such a thing as bad publicity and I would be incredibly surprised if anyone will agree with Kemp’s comments. The reason he’s done this is because Hard Fi’s ego’s got a good old fashioned kick square in balls this week thanks, once again, to Liverpool Music Week. They were booked to play the Aintree Pavilion; a lovely little venue that holds 4,500 at full capacity and they rather majestically managed to sell… well, bugger all really (much to the amusement of everyone in the Sentric Music office) and they had their gig relocated to the Liverpool Students Union where they still didn’t sell out.

The lesson to be learned here? Know your limits gents.

So, they’ve received far too much of my word count already so I’m going to move on and let you all know about some top act’s I’ve seen this week:

Sunday night: Queens of the Stone Age @ The Apollo in Manchester

Absolutely top gig. Only seen the Queens once before when they supported the Foo Fighters last year but that was outside and also a support slot (so therefore doesn’t count to ‘real’ QOTSA fans apparently). A hit fuelled set was arguably tainted by the obvious exclusion of ‘Noone Knows’ but Josh Homme is so bloody massive I personally wasn’t going to have a go at him. Anyway, I was treated to a rather different version of the classic song when I carried on my gig-going shenanigans on Tuesday…

Tuesday Night: The Aeroplanes and John Smith @ Alma De Cuba

I’ve sang John Smiths praises before on this blog and Tuesday night reminded me why. The guy is bloody brilliant and it genuinely is when you see him live that you realise why (check out this video for ‘Winter’). His cover of ‘Noone Knows’ was both unexpected and if I’m honest, unnecessary. It wasn’t awful; it just didn’t fit in with his style and for those who may have not seen him before I can imagine it to confuse them somewhat.
Headliners The Aeroplanes entertained the home crowd with another tight set. Keep an ear out for these guys in the new year as after the success of their iTunes debut in 2006 (label problems have hindered them releasing anything since) where they shifted 22,000 copies of their single in a week, they’re finally ready to release the track ‘Slipping Away’ which you can hear on their myspace.

Wednesday Night: Multi Purpose Chemical @ Barfly, Eugene McGuinness @ Alma De Cuba, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and Ezra Bang and The Hot Machine @ The Bumper

Although heavy metal isn’t at the top of my list of favourite genres, I do like a good pogo once and a while and the lads gave me sufficient reason to do so. A brilliantly charismatic front man makes MPC quite accessible for those who wouldn’t usually attend such raucous and rampant events so these lot are well worth checking out (by the way, if they play ‘Hop, Skip, Turn Around’, brace yourself).
It was the first year Alma De Cuba acted as a host venue for Liverpool Music Week (LMW) and too much success might I add. A converted church with an alter and stained glass windows still part of the bars deco, Alma creates a rather bewitched atmosphere that borders somewhere between sacrilegious and, well, rather cool. A perfect little venue then for the charming Eugene McGuinness to tread the boards with his unique take on the rather saturated singer/songwriter gene. His recently released debut mini-album received mixed reviews from fans and critics alike but you’ll struggle to find someone who doesn’t enjoy this fella live. Unfortunately his myspace isn’t currently sporting his 2 best songs (in my humble opinion); ‘Tell Me No’, and ‘Bird On A Wire’ but I’m sure if you drop him a message he’ll send you a copy over.
Surprise of the week came in the shape of Ezra Bang and the Hot Machine. If you’re reading this in Austria (and I’m sure there are many of you) you’ll be well aware of this gentleman already as his track ‘Another Fine Lesson In The Art Of Cool’ was recently used on a T Mobile advert over there. For you non-Austrians (and I’m sure there are many of you) just imagine a Cameo look-a-like, minus trademark red cod piece, running around stage topless whilst rapping over a beat leaking out of a laptop. It was top banana.
Then followed one of my highlights of the week; Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius pip. I’ve been constantly listening to ‘The Beat That My Heart Skips’ for about a fortnight now and it appeared the rest of the crowd had been too as they rapped/sang/spoke along with Mr Pip whose delivery and lyrical content was superb. My favourite part of the set though was the encore when said Mr Pip came back on stage to deliver a poem regarding his feelings over some of the worlds more powerful leaders. This is when I discovered I was stood amongst potentially some of the most well-read scousers Liverpool has to offer as when Scroobius noted ethical dilemmas regarding trade boundries and certain multinational conglomerate brands, the Liverpudlians cheered and whooped in agreement (or maybe it was because the ethical dilemmas were delivered with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down from Scroobius? Nah, I’m sure they’re all Guardian readers).
Thursday Night: Clipe Sexo Amador, The Tigerpicks, The Delta Fiasco and Friendly Fires @ The Bumper

I don’t want to throw too many superlatives about regarding Clipe Sexo Amador’s set due to the fact I manage him and it would seem a bit biased, but with that fact aside it was a quality set. A new look performance with the inclusion of a couple of extra bodies on stage made the set bigger, bolder and much more entertaining to watch. Keep an eye out in the new year for CSA; he’s going to be huge (I bloody hope so anyway because somethings going to have to pay the rent).
I haven’t got much to say about The Tigerpicks apart from I think I’m in love with one of the lead singers.
The Delta Fiasco are a bit of an enigma to me; since I moved to Liverpool a few years ago they’ve always been one of the top artists on the local scene and their set cemented that fact. But why have they never received more exposure? They’ve got the songs, the look and a live show good enough to pull it off but they seem to struggle to make a noise anywhere other then the North West, tis a pity really…
Buzz band of the moment Friendly Fires have major labels falling all over them currently, begging them to take their cash in order to get their Klaxons-esq music out to the masses and I’m not too sure why if I’m honest. They’re good, don’t get me wrong and misquote me like the NME, but I cant see that style of music shifting the amount of records a major label would expect them too. Top use of a cow bell though.

Saturday: Hatton’s mishap

As this is a music blog I won’t write about the boxing, I just wanted a medium to tell the world about the middle aged bold moron who attempted to headbutt me for asking if I could get by him to go to the toilet before the fight started. Cheers mate.

Sunday: Chemical Brothers

Although not a massive dance fan, my recent discovery of Justice meant I accepted a free ticket to go see the old school ravers at the Aintree Pavillion (take note Hard Fi). After 6 nights of too much drinking and not enough sleep I made the executive decision to say sober which placed me in the vast minority of the crowd who were taking substances not meant to be taken on a Sunday evening. The visuals at this gig were superb and completely made the experience more enjoyable then tolerable for a self confessed rocker as I. Without the lasers and other aesthetically pleasing elements however I think the set would have seemed rather dull, but then again, I was dangerously sober.

Righty-o then. Anyone else at any of the events mentioned above? Anyone have any thoughts on Hard Fi? Anyone lucky enough to see Led Zep?

What I’m listening to this week: Peter Sarstedt (The Darjeeling Ltd is my melpomene for the revival of this classic track) and Clipe Sexo Amador (can’t blame me can you?)

What I’m reading this week: Guns, Cash and Rock n Roll

Stay tuned

sP

~ by sentric on December 11, 2007.