The Blues talents of Bradford born Chantel Macgregor are no secret in Britain, in mainland Europe she is likely to be making a name soon too with a new CD.
Until she announces some dates here this taster will have to suffice – until you buy the CD of course!
photo courtesy of RUF Records
ETOBICOKE’S WOODFORD PARK TO BE RENAMED AFTER MUSIC ICON JEFF HEALEY
The late and great Jeff Healey has been honoured in his native Canada recently as the info below shows.
Great that places aren’t just named after politicians!
When Hollywood producer Ian Gurvitz was looking for a theme tune for his 2006 film ‘LA Blues’ he didn’t find it in Chicago or the Mississippi Delta, he found it in Germany – in Osnabruck to be precise. It doesn’t take more than a couple of songs from the crowded Harmonie to understand why. Imagine someone with the calm simplicity of BB King, the feel for melodious solos of Peter Green and the voice and commercial savvy of Eric Clapton and I’ll give him a name for you – ‘Toscho’ Todorovic. On this particular evening Todorovic is introducing the new CD for his 1976 founded band Blues Company to a crowded and enthuastic crowd of varied ages but of common appreciation for the Blues.
Todorovic hails from Osnabruck but there is a fire in his belly when he talks of conflict that reveals his family roots. Both parents fled from Yugoslavia (Bosnia & Macedonia) at the close of World War 2, but he follows the news there still and feels the growing pains of the Region. Most notable for this is the song ‘Red Blood’. In one of his frequent monologues of the evening (I did say he reminded me of BB King) he spoke of 1991 as a year with a World seemingly without peace. Civil War in Yugoslavia that was portrayed in the media like Hollywood films. Seeing people die onscreen and the need to remember that somewhere there are parents, children and loved ones who will mourn them.
Saturday (April 16) was ‘Record Store Day’ internationally, so it seems like a good time to reminisce about the good old days of searching out those rare (and often scratched) black vinyl gemstones in grubby old shops that really seemed as dirty and dark as a real mine.
My first record purchase was actually made as a birthday pressie from my parents. It was ‘Bits & Pieces’ – a pop masterpiece from the oft under-rated Dave Clark Five. (Up there with Freddie & the Dreamers for forgotten heroes of my musical youth). The shop, indeed every house that stood around it, has now been replaced – ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy like – by a main road (and there isn’t even a restaurant at the end for consolation). By the time I was old enough to actually enter such shops on my own, which had less to do with age but rather more to do with having enough pocket money to actually buy anything, there were two shops in the same road selling records. Imagine that today people, two shops selling more than the top twenty in the same Street never mind the same city. Add the Top Twenty’ specialists like Woolworths and Weston Harts (who?) and the likelihood of spending all your candy money on black plastic was high – a healthy alternative to all that sugar, records should have been subsidized by the National Health Service.
A search for ‘Toaster’ on YouTube turns up the band playing Queens ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘Wheels’ by the Foo Fighters.
A play of the CD ‘Fried Air’ turns up the band playing very much in the style of those two very bands – Queen in their ‘The Game’ phase at any rate. Rock n Roll songs that sound like they’ve been thought about and worked on a lot rather than jotted down in five minutes on the back of a paper napkin. Very likely that’s the case too. When I spoke to Ronald Jonker recently he told me that with his other commitments (touring the World as bassist with Ana Popovic!) the CD has taken a couple of years to go from idea to actual plastic.
3SONGSBONN managed to grab a few words from rising German Blues star Henrik Freischlader before his concert recently at the Harmonie in Bonn.
A lots happened since I saw you play here last year. Most of it good but some of it bad. I’m referring of course to Gary Moore’s tragic death. What are your thoughts on that.
Yes of course. I’m deeply sad because he was my first guitar hero. He brought me into blues music and on the path of music generally. I picked up the guitar when I was fourteen after hearing Gary play the song ‘Cold Day In Hell’ from ‘After Hours’ and that was my initiation into Blues and into guitar music. It’s very sad because he was almost like a family member to me.
Did you meet him?
I met him in Germany in fact, in a small town called Mosbach (July 2009). We played support and after the show I had a chance to meet him backstage. We talked for about one and a half hours and it was like all my dreams had come true.
Many bands take a break between records but LA Band Little Caesar must actually be record breakers. It’s taken 17 years between releases. Mr Music in Bonn brought them back to Germany for a show at the Harmonie on Tuesday and they wasted no time in showing why they were once touted as the next big thing on Geffen Records.
“None of us associated ourselves with the hairspray thing” is a quote from Little Caesar singer Ron Young in the magazine ‘Classic Rock’. It’s certainly hard to imagine the band standing in front of me this evening as a contender for the Glam Rock crown and looking like Alice Cooper meets The Sweet. Time can be a hard Master of course, but factor in the fact that David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick was in the band at one point and you get an idea of how things could have gone famewise. Fame was never the bands aim though and singer Ron Young immediately dispels the ‘Rockstar’ bubble when he walks onstage. “It’s an honour to be here” he says, and follows it up with “for us I mean, not for you!” At shows end he again reiterates how honoured the band is that we’ve come out to see them. “Because we’re not rockstars” he says apologetically. We’re just some guys who love playing Rock n Roll”
'Rock & Roll' Paniagua & Young
Humility or humbug? Well the smiles and the energy looked genuine to me. True they’re no ‘Spring chickens’ but the effort onstage would put many a band half their ages (and talent) to shame. Aside from new guitarist Joey Brasler this is the same band that made a name on Sunset Strip in the early 80’s and 90’s. A lot of the old songs are still with them too ‘Rum & Coke’ and ‘Ballad of Johnny’ from 1992’s Influence album for example and their Rockified version of ‘Chain of Fools’ made a dent in Billboards Hot 100 when it first came out for them.
Songs from their new CD were of the same high calibre for getting the audience shuffling their feet as the earlier foot tappers. Sleazy riffs and meaty rythm rule, as on ‘Sick & Tired’ or the Status Quo boogie riff of ‘Real Rock Child’. This is how live RnB/Rock music should be! Like Britains Dr Feelgood the music transcends age. Guitarist Loren Molinare shakes his body like he’s plugged into the mains in place of his guitar at times – reminiscent of Wilko Johnson in his manic movements. Bassist Fidel Paniagua, ZZ Top sunglasses and beard, looks cool and Ron Young has the sort of Rock voice that would give him a gig with any Rock band in the world. From the first note of ‘opener ‘Rock n Roll’ to the closing one on finisher ‘Down to the Wire’ this was a powerhouse of a show.
A word of praise too for the light show. There’s always a bit more colour when Rockpalast is in town and this was no exception. The Harmonie really does know how to literally put on a show and once again WDR had a feast for it’s cameras.
Shakin all over - Loren Molinare
The music is what counts of course though and it’s difficult not to like a band that enjoys playing as much as Little Caesar so clearly do. The Harmonie becomes their Living room and the audience is friends who are passing through. It’s only Rock n Roll. Or is it? Young makes reference to the power of music. Do AC/DC really sing such poetic lyrics as “She was like the Venus di Milo with arms”? Is Young serious, or taking the p*ss? Who knows? Who cares? this is Rock n Roll. “Life is short so enjoy yourself” as Molinare points out. To which I might add that there is no better place to enjoy yourself than at a Little Caesar concert.
Sometimes the old ones really are the best!
Canadian Jimmy Bowskill during last years Museumsplatz Season
Today saw a press conference to introduce the coming Concert season at Bonns Museumsplatz.
No Elton John, or Liza Minnelli this year, but whoever thought that the financial restraints after those heady (and expensive) years gone by would mean a boring season of has beens and never will be’s has been proved decidedly wrong. There are some ‘Big Hitters’ still set to play.
Martin Nötzel from ‘Kult Event’ promised a very varied calendar this year: Buena Vista, Brazilian with Sergio Mendez, traditional German with Bläck Fööss, Italian Rock with Gianna Nannini, Folk with Hannes Wader, Jazz with Til Brönner, for the Irish there’s the marvelous ‘Pogues’ . You want a musical? how about the British production of ‘Hair’? or comedy? there’s TV comic personality Kaya Yanar. Oh, and if you want Blues and Rock you are definitely living in the right Bundesstadt this year: BB King with Ana Popovic, Joe Bonamassa with ‘Black Country Communion’ and, on 10 July Greg Allmann with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi (what a week for Blues Lovers that promises to be!
My recommendations are certainly The Pogues with the irrepressible Shane Mcgowan – man of many words and few teeth. ‘Rum, Sodomy & the Lash’ is still an all time favourite disc of mine. Gregg Allman has made an excellent new CD ‘Low Country Blues’ and with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi alongside has two of America’s most influential and popular modern Blues stars.
Of course there would be no modern Blues Stars without the original Blues Stars and they don’t come any better than Mr BB King. Now well into his eighties; BB won’t be doing a two hour set but a dozen songs from the King are worth a hundred from just about any other musician in the genre. Not that anyone will have grounds to complain about the music on that evening as Promoter E.L. Hartz promised that unlike BB’s last appearance here there would be only one special guest so we can look forward to a full set from Ana Popovic and her great band (of whom I need say no more – you all know I’m a fan!).
A ‘Geheimtipp’ for the Season from Martin Nötzel is French Jazz/Pop singerIsabelle Geoffrey. The lady better known as Zaz, has had an album at nr 1 in France for 9 weeks and her career is gaining momentum by the day. The “Piaf of the Blues” says Rolling Stone Magazine.
Yes, I can safely say that from July to September Summer will most definitely be here in Bonn!
