Bedford Alternative Music Present: The Bluebook Project, Cosmic Blaze, Tibia, Basilisk, Ben Kelly Acoustic.

Holy Molys Lev 1 Esquires Bedford. Saturday 15th November 2014.

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For the second successive Saturday evening, Bedford Alternative Music (BAM) presented a night of live music. This time it is held in the bar and is a showcase with four bands on view. There is also an interesting concept, as acoustic wordsmith BEN KELLY works his lyrical magic around the heavier sounds. He is not shy in coming forward as he opens with the witty ditty "Little things that piss me off". For those folks who are aware of his work, this is the one about the "shower curtain"!

Four piece BASILISK are making their Esquires debut and what a good impression they made.
Visually they look confident and assured. Noticeably, their drummer has sort of Simon Cowell-esque hair. His head nods fast at times, but the hair just sways gently. The bass player has an unusual perspex bass and the vocalist is constantly sparring with the mic stand. They perform a lot of their own songs which will eventually be released on an EP. These include "Judge, jury, executioner" and "Perfect world". A cover of Royal Blood's "Little monster" proves that if a four piece rock band had written this song then few people would have cared, let alone crawled right up the arses of the Brighton duo! "Recovery" was the first song that Basilisk wrote and it wrapped up a most enjoyable set. I knew nothing about this band prior to this evening, but it is heartening to see that this quartet have put a lot of hours into their band practices.

BEN KELLY then returned with his "Sportsdirect.com" composition. It is rather apt as Labour leader Ed Milliband has recently criticised the firm with it's alarming emphasis on zero hour contracts. Ben reiterates that you would rather be on the game than work for Mike Ashley's company!

TIBIA are new to me, but they seem to get the crowd moving with their lively pop punk sounds. An unusual cover of "Summer of 69" gets the set under way. They say very little, except for "wicked" a few times. Another annoyance was their failure to mention their band name - not everyone knows who you are. Thankfully the bass player wears a Tibia t-shirt to state the fact. This trio are covers driven and fill their slot with obvious references to Blink 182 and Green Day. A curious and interesting cover was "Another girl, another planet" by The Only Ones.

BEN KELLY reappears with his topical range of material. This amusing lad puts more thought and bite into his acoustic repertoire than practically anyone that I know locally. As he says, some of the events "actually happened".

I felt that COSMIC BLAZE really do not need showcasing. They are a very standard and formulated pub rock band. Tonight they appeal to the many parents (perhaps grandparents?) in attendance. In fact, prior to a sixties Yardbirds cover, they look at the audience and announce "About half of you will know this one" before looking at the younger element and adding "not you". A tad ageist I feel. Anyone who has seen Cosmic Blaze before will know what covers this trio trundled out. They strove to bridge the generation gap. Man Of The Match musician award goes to their guitarist for his excellent playing.

Our acoustic fella popped up once more at the mic. BEN wears a t-shirt proclaiming to 'Keep calm and kill zombies'. He strums "the four chord monster".

I always enjoy savouring the tasty musical delights of THE BLUEBOOK PROJECT. This is a perfect showcase evening for these genial fellas as it opens up their indie rock delights to a whole new audience. Disappointingly, I felt that the sound was rather patchy in the bar tonight. It is very loud and a touch distorted. The vocals for the whole of Bluebook's set are quiet and tinny. Instead of the band's lyrics booming out, they are drowned out by the rest of of the crew. However, the band seem energised by the positive vibes of a crowd that have stuck around till the end, which is always nice to report. The Bluebook Project are proud to announce that they have their debut EP coming out at the start of December. This is a band that thrive on driving guitar riffs, especially on compositions such as "Isolator" and "Take me away". Their set list is strong and contains many memorable melodies. It is gritty and edgy, while at the same time fusing tunes and noise into their addictive crashing pop songs. Their garage rock formula may or may not hint at the seedier side of life, but to me it exudes that whiff of tabloid tales. They bring us a new one tonight entitled "Until tomorrow". This nestles in nicely with their well worn collection of skewed pop gems. It does contain a sudden ending which seems to catch most people out! The always hummable "Hurricane blues" ends a varied and most enjoyable BAM showcase event.

That seemed to be the end of the musical entertainment and most folks made their way home. However, those that stuck around a little longer were rewarded with a final late appearance from Ben 'I've started so I will finish' Kelly. He finished the gig with a cover of Jasper Carrot's "Day trip to Blackpool". He also played his most recent composition, only completed some four days ago, "The congregation wasn't impressed". This one certainly was!

Basilisk 1 Vid