From jjarrett at coriolis.greenend.org.uk Sat Mar 9 07:02:15 2019 From: jjarrett at coriolis.greenend.org.uk (Jonathan Jarrett) Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2019 12:02:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [boc-l] BOC: O2 Academy, Leeds, 25 February 2019 Message-ID: Dear all, I went to see the band, and I thought I should tell someone. So assuming anyone's still here, here you are... I had told myself I'd seen BOC for the last time after being very disappointed back in something like 2011, but since then Allen died, a friend of mine saw them at a festival and said they were good, my partner had never seen them and they were in the city where I work, and too many musicians I love have died in recent years to pass up a chance to see the ones who are left, so we went. And it was pretty good! The O2 Academy is an all right venue, with bars and entryways laid out in a sensible fashion, and before anything started I made sure I got a tour shirt, because there were some! That and the number of roadies working the stage made it clear that there was a bit more money behind this tour than some I've seen them on, and everything ran very nicely. The support band were called The Temperance Movement, a would-be Americana hard-rock/blues outfit fronted by a Scotsman with much of the Shane McGowna or Ron Tree about him, though an excellent voice; just a very strange spasmodic stage presence. The lead guitarist clearly thought he was better than the rest of the band and I wouldn't argue with him. My partner and I agreed, however, that when they'd finished, they'd reminded us of several excellent songs by other people but we couldn't imagine wanting to put on a Temperance Movement record instead of the things they were homaging, sometimes in deliberate lyrical fashion. They were, however, an excellent support act: they made the Big Noise and got people moving. BOC nearly lost that momentum when they came on. I don't know what it was but everybody but Richie Castellano seemed to be starting from cold. Eric's voice has acquired still more limits; he can still manage a decent yell but at low volumes he cracks and his top range is now quite low. Buck's voice is also beginning to close in from the top, so neither frontman was really in shape for it, but they were noticeably better after doing a song each, as if they hadn't warmed up before they came on stage. Buck also took a song or two to wear into his guitar, Danny Miranda (bass) and Jules Rondino (drums) took a long time to get properly in synch with the rest of the band (Jules maybe half the set)... Richie, however, was at full show-off power immediately he sprang out of his box. Also, I'm not sure the soundman turned Eric's guitar up to where it could be heard until `Reaper'. So there were definitely problems, but to be honest, they worked them out, and by the end it was clear again that this was a really good band, even if one might have argued a little bit about whether it still *is*. Setlist, with comments: 1. Dr Music (all the problems mentioned plus the essential ones of it being a disco song delivered by four men in black and leather; I don't know why they open with this one) 2. Before the Kiss, a Redcap (this shook the creaks out of Buck's voice and guitar, but they were still there when he started and it was very short) 3. The Golden Age of Leather (for me this was where it started to get good. I guess the effort of all singing together acapella at the beginning started to focus them on what the others were doing a bit more) 4. Burnin' For You (I've seen this better, because Buck just seemed tired, but he delivered it with his usual panache; I think he could do this song in his sleep by now and it must be hard to keep it exciting but he did a good job) 5. This Ain't the Summer of Love (maybe shortest version ever! But noticeably tighther now) At this point Eric polled the audience for the next track, giving them a choice between `Harvest Moon' and `Shooting Shark'. I cheered for `Harvest Moon', but the cheers for `Shooting Shark' were louder, so that's what we got. This was the first sign I got that they genuinely were shaking up the setlist a bit, compared to the template performance I've come to expect, and was one of several things that made me admit my expectations had been a bit mean. So: 6. Shooting Shark (this is also a pop song, isn't it,. but I did enjoy it) 7. The Vigil (I love this song so much I doubt they could do what I thought was a bad version, and this one creaked a bit in places, but they made it suitably dramatic even if they mostly didn't do the top notes) 8. E.T.I. (unexpected, and by now we were singing along, they had the crowd at last) 9. Buck's Boogie (predictably, perhaps, this was where Buck got properly in gear, and I think anyone who hadn't seen him before would now have realised that they were watching one of the really great guitarists. He remains musical throughout the stunts and knows where spaces can fall between the notes in a way that only the long-term players can. I was properly back in the fanbase now) 10. (Then Came the) Last Days of May (this was excellent. Richie has fully taken over Allen's role, and gave the solos his all; he plays scales a lot and his guitar is clearly *very important to him* but he would have been very impressive had he not been sharing a stage with Buck; still, I feel like he made Buck up his game, and it all showed that Richie is a full contributor to the band and not just a session-man) Now, again, Eric said that they were going to do something unusual, for the people who were seeing every show on the tour--apparently there were some, as they shouted when called upon--and so we got something I've never seen them do: 11. Screams -> She's as Beautiful as a Foot (this song is still beautifully surreal, and they didn't give it much time, basically just as it is on the record, but as if to anchor the point of his full participation, Richie sang 'Screams') 12. Godzilla (this was surprisingly short, and there were no drum and bass solos. That was almost a pity, as Danny's huge overdriven bass sound had been on the edge of swamping the mid-range for much of the gig and getting any actual definition of what he was doing through the general wash of low-end was quite hard. I might have taken away his overdrive pedal just to get closer to the classic sound, to be honest) 13. (a solo instrumental by Buck whose name I didn't know, only short, largely done on delay pedals as if they were loop-stations; cool, but odd here. It was, however, essentially functioning as intro to: 14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper (and this of course was excellent, as it always is; it was also noticeable how everybody knew it, from young to old, but then I guess if they didn't know this song they wouldn't be in the gig; I hope they went home with new songs to love. Eric's guitar was finally audible by now, and just as well as the song wouldn't climax properly without it) And then the short pause and shouting, and then encore! 15. Dancing in the Ruins (I wasn't expecting this, and enjoyed it a lot; again, a pop song, but Buck has written some good pop songs) 16. Hot Rails to Hell (sung by Richie, but with the full three-way guitar interplay we'd hope for cut back because Eric was again inaudible; Richie and Buck were both barnstorming though) So, it was good. Eric is finally getting old, Buck is beginning to, Richie has enough spare energy for both but can't *be* either of them, Danny could maybe tone down the monster bass noise, and Jules Rondino in his spectacles and shirt-sleeves cuts an odd figure among the rest of the black-clad badged and beleathered crew, but once they were all in gear this was still probably the best band playing in the UK that night. I had thought I wouldn't see them again and now I will make sure I do. Postscript: checking Hot Rails to Hell, I now understand that Eric was ill for this performance, so what I say above about his voice might hopefully mostly be temporary! Yours all, Jon ObCD: Mot?rhead - _Rock and Roll_ -- "So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." (Benjamin Franklin) Jonathan Jarrett, Leeds, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk From cea at carlaz.com Thu Mar 14 15:11:50 2019 From: cea at carlaz.com (Carl Edlund Anderson) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 14:11:50 -0500 Subject: [boc-l] BOC: O2 Academy, Leeds, 25 February 2019 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6E8CFB4F-E760-4E8C-8EC5-4CB36E7E1DCF@carlaz.com> I?m still here! :D Richie is pretty cool ? if you follow his various online presences/activities, he always seems to be doing something. No, he?s not got the auras of Eric or Buck ? but who does? ? and he?s clearly a big shot in the arm for the band. So, all right then, good on ?im. Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson https://soundcloud.com/carledlundanderson/ https://carledlundanderson.bandcamp.com/ http://www.carlaz.com/music.html > On 09 Mar 2019, at 07:02, Jonathan Jarrett via boc-l wrote: > > Richie has enough spare energy for both but can't *be* either of them -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From royalistradio at hotmail.com Sun Mar 17 10:53:57 2019 From: royalistradio at hotmail.com (Christian Eric Mumford) Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2019 14:53:57 +0000 Subject: [boc-l] ME262 by The Meatmen with HW Ejection intro Message-ID: https://open.spotify.com/track/3dRUis6XcjK25KRDbj1QYb?si=NQglfKf3RDqFjiy-0a3F_A they Also cover Motorhead and pink fairies on That CD. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From royalistradio at hotmail.com Wed Mar 20 12:33:17 2019 From: royalistradio at hotmail.com (Christian Eric Mumford) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:33:17 +0000 Subject: [boc-l] ME262 by The Meatmen with HW Ejection intro In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The Meatmen also do Hot Rails to Hell on their 1995 CD "Pope on a Rope". The Motorhead track is Vibrator, and The Snake by Pink Fairies on this covers album from 2010. ________________________________ From: boc-l on behalf of Christian Eric Mumford via boc-l Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2019 3:53:57 PM To: BOC / Hawkwind Discussion List Cc: Christian Eric Mumford Subject: [boc-l] ME262 by The Meatmen with HW Ejection intro https://open.spotify.com/track/3dRUis6XcjK25KRDbj1QYb?si=NQglfKf3RDqFjiy-0a3F_A they Also cover Motorhead and pink fairies on That CD. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: