B.O.T.B. FINAL. 2006.
The Corn Exchange Bedford. Tuesday 11th July 2006.
Part of the young enterprise award Had
To Be There put on the grand final of their BOTB gig in addition to their
other services to the unsigned music scene.
Not part of the competition itself, were a few other acts, one of which being
MASH from Last Man Standing who had won their heat to go through, before
national service beckoned one of their band members causing a no show for the
ska punk boppers, leaving their guitarist to fill a brightly lit spot on stage.
Looking very much like Zoot
from T.V.'s 'The Tribe' and his guitar especially re strung to accommodate his
left hand play and a few L.M.S. songs interestingly given the acoustic
treatment. Maybe if this was an entrant and had won, he may have been able to
afford a jacket 'with more than one sleeve'. Hey nice one Mash!
A very summer name and a very summer look for SUMMERFALL
whose melodic start and bursts of action underline this most origional of bands
(unless you include 39 crazy fists and other less famous bands). They have an
amazing mix of vocals, while their muscle clad lead singer, not sure which hand
to hold the mic. passing it from one to the other, bends over backwards with
barking goblin vocals, all emotionally sung by this barbershop quartet of all
four players, with their old man at the beech look, in breached trousers, vests,
bare feet etc. They included their new song recorded the day before, which they
mentioned along with their predicted obligatory wait for it - 'My Space' ad.
In fact all their crowd interaction seemed to be an ad break in one form or
another. There was some slight crowd movements but nothing explosive and the
girls being the liveliest in the audience.
I love the guitarists backing vocals and drummers backing growling, which ads a
dimension. The absolute power and emotion comes from when they all sing together
in parts of the songs. I think they could add another guitar to the sound, drop
the softer songs. Their heavier stuff is seen to induce a more livelier,
involved crowd and mosh pit bursts. Fantastic songs but not quite taking over
the live stage.
Much more movement on stage from NUDGING FRANKIE
with Mick Jagger ish movements from their perhaps over confident front man,
able to get the audience clapping in an instant, there were some amazing vocal
bursts accentuated by rolling on the floor Oasis style ('You Got A Roll With
It') and other damn sexy movements, interacting with his band face up to face,
mic. in one hand, water bottle in the other and at one point catching his foot
in a wire etc. There was a crowd invasion at one point and was there an actual
point to this? Yes - they lifted their tops to reveal the initial letters to
"Nudging Frankie" which was quite inventive. Some of their songs were
a bit staid, but was good that the singer stood back at times to let his
instrumentalists shine, sitting back and issuing some most awesome vocal chants
to his singing, shouting on some songs and still makes them sound atmospheric
and melodic. When he is not singing its good to see him lolloping around the
stage and not looking bored. He even gets off stage in to the crowd for a while
and looks so damn relaxed. There are some good drum rhythm structures to their
music, even the singer (a drummer him self in 'None Is The Number') gets a go
drumming and produces a totally stunning drum section, while disappointingly the
replacement singer is a bit of a let down in comparison.
With less crowd interest than I had thought at first HEKZ
soon hailed in to their stride, allowing the crowd to carry on with the
singing on some of the memorable lines to their songs equally bonded with bloody
good guitar work and tunes. The young guitarist leaps off the drum stage and a
good crowd reaction wowed to the great visual presence on stage of this band. It
would only take one guitarist to look behind at his amp with his back to the
audience and it would ruin the visual symmetry they create. They received better
clapping responses with out even being induced by the band during their
interestingly well written songs that are both well played and performed. (If
you like shoe gazing indy bands HeKz must be a heart stoppingly nightmare of a
visually energetic band to watch!). Performing back to back, guitar between
another band members legs, all three in a row, and vocalist windmilling his hair
round during 'Exodus' adding to the spectacle. The vocals were totally top notch
(and screamingly operatic) with lines in one of their own songs like "I am
the man that walks alone" being a nod to Maiden and to their end song!, a
bit too quick while speaking to the crowd I thought, but at least better than
dragging on and not getting on with it. (Ad for their new recorded C.D. coming
out soon, being mentioned) Their two guitarists share a footing on the raised
drum stage at one point. One of which runs about more and is more inventive than
the other in finding ingenious and diverting ways to perform; swirling round and
throwing shapes and the other, in deep concentration, throwing the odd smile to
the audience. Their flaming orange Hawaiian shirt with a drummer inside, plays a
lot while looking down - as if his cues are written down on the floor, he put in
a great performance, especially when lifting sticks high between beats and
producing sounds you wouldn't think possible at the start of some tracks.
"Come on Danny" calls their singer and his following (practiced, not
improvised) guitar solo is well received while finding it impossible to cat walk
from one part of the stage to the other with out jumping and throwing a leg in
to the air 'Go Danny'. They excel on their long song, with its technical and
progressive solos; in fact my only complaint would be that the mean looking six
string bass looked as if it could do with a clean.
Lets face it we accept HeKz love Iron Maiden, it's a fact - at least they are
influenced by the masters of metal and 'Fear Of The Dark' ends their set to a
buzz of atmosphere, melodic start, bursts of awesomeness and an explosive crowd
complimented by a vocalists 'scream for me' operatic singing.
KOOPA ends the night with a tight set from an instantly appreciable band, their
well practiced sound grabs the attention straight away not needing you to decide
how likeably good they are for any time. The Drummer with chopstick
protuberances of punk style hair played well to this pop punk styled outfit. A
raffle was held upon which one of the prizes would be an opportunity to be a
fourth judge (Well done Chris).
Well done and all the best to Had To Be There for the event and the high quality
of all the bands. The scores were:-
Summerfall received a 1,1,3,3 = 8.
Nudging Frankie received
1,1,2,2 + 6.
And the winners were HeKz with 2,2,3,3 =
10.
Keith. www.bedfordmetal.co.uk
