Events
Gary Stewart Band Seize the Day - Brought to you by Gazz Wood -
When there's live music being performed, often times one will just talk louder. Personally I've elevated my speaking volume during Guns 'N' Roses, Metallica, Green Day and The Foo Fighters. However during the set of the Gary Stewart Band tonight I scarcely said a word, which is fairly out of character for me to begin with, because I was too busy listening. In between songs I would lean over to Nathan and simply state 'Or This One', regarding which song we would most like to make a music video for. As it turns out, I said 'Or This One' after every single song.
The Gary Stewart band remind me of different musical talents. Gary himself [a diminutive hairy Scot] has shades of Don McClean [American Pie, the song not the stupid movie] and his guitar playing puts me in the area of Paul Simon. His voice is soft, lilting almost, with a hint of his Scottish accent peeking through the melody.
They describe themselves as sort of Folksy, which is fair enough considering they have a fiddle player [the lovely India Patel], but there's also blues in them there hills, in part from the guitar but augmented by Jordan Senior's harmonica. The trouble arises when trying to put the Gary Stewart Band into a genre, as if pigeonholing them would ruin it somewhat. They are folk, they are blues, they are a little bit country and the drums [Ruth Viqueria] and bass [Becky Wade] suggest a jazz leaning.
In Carpe Diem, which is a fair sized pub [underground, like Cheers] I gathered together with some friends [our very own Nathan, Katie, James and Lally, plus Lally's mate Paul] and not one among us had ever heard of the bands music. We all have fairly different tastes in music, obviously there are bound to be one or two common denominators, but I imagine they're few and far between. When the band took to the state and played 'Tripping Holes' by way of sound checking, we all stopped our conversations, turned [to peek over the back of the booth in some cases] and listened intently to the band playing the first track on their self titled EP [which you can buy from them after the show for a scant £4... we all bought one] and it wasn't just us. I don't recall hearing anyone talk during that song, or in fact most of their songs. When the set began in earnest I took a quick scan around the room, between songs mind, and the place was fairly well populated with all kinds of people, sitting, standing, working, all facing the exact same direction. Eyes forward, on the stage.
Eventually we managed to argue it down to 'Tripping Holes' or 'See Saw', via 'Angel Dust' and 'Blues for Musos', for our music video. I thought 'Tripping Holes' as did Katie, but Paul thought 'Blues for Musos' and Nathan liked them all and couldn't commit to anything. Fact is we're seeing them play again at the Royal Park Cellars in two days, as well as listening to the EP every chance we get. I've got it on right now. I've put the songs [Tripping Holes, The Seductive Ghoul and Blues for Musos] on my laptop and my MP3 player.
See this band. You can find out their dates on their website [www.myspace.com/garystewartband] and I suggest you do that right away, because if you're in Leeds and you have any sort of interest in new music [or just good music] then you're missing right out if you don't go.
After the gig Nathan and Katie went home, I went home too, but James, Lally and Paul hit the town running and went to God knows where. I'm sure they don't remember and I'm buggered if I'm gonna interrogate it out of them. What I do know is that they came back [with a few other people] at about half 3 in the morning, ate at Zulfi's takeaway some time after that, and along the time they were out Lally got a love bite on her neck, which she is right now lamenting in her room because 'only 14 year olds get love bites'.