I’m In A Rock ‘N Roll Band

…well no, I’m not, I’ve just been watching a programme of that name on iPlayer.

The show’s website asks for suggestions for who would be in your fantasy band, so I offered my opinion.

If they were all around at the same time, I would’ve loved to have seen what these guys might’ve done together:

Freddie Mercury on lead vocals

Jimi Hendrix on guitar

Flea on bass

John Bonham on drums

Matt Bellamy on keys and backing vocals

Jamaica?

I heard this for the first time the other day:

Led Zeppelin > Sean Kingston, as illustrated here:

and just for fun, here’s Lady Gaga’s version too:

Port Erin

I’ve just got back from Port Erin‘s launch party for their debut album ‘I’ll Be On The Common’.

I’ll be brief. They were pretty good.

I’d seen videos on youtube before I went and wasn’t that impressed. It was much better watching in person.

It was a little bit weird having been at the same church as Reuben and Jacob as kids.

To sum up how I perceived their music:

Jacob (Bass) & Cerys (Drums) were great, I reckon Chad & Flea would’ve enjoyed them.

Reuben’s guitar was also really good, but for me personally, I wasn’t sure the vocals quite fitted perfectly with everything else. His voice kind of reminds me of Jimi Goodwin from Doves. Not that the vocals are the same style as Doves, just a similar sort of voice. You can listen here to decide for yourself, it’s easier than me trying to describe it and you probably won’t agree with me anyway. Overall, although they’re not my new favourite band just yet, I look forward to hearing more.

(side note: People who had seen them live before suggested they’re a bit like Muse. I didn’t hear that at all.)

Supporting them were The Blood Choir. These guys were also pretty good, bit noisy in places (does that make me sound like a grumpy old man? I don’t mean they were too loud, I mean just noise), but they reminded me of Led Zeppelin (mainly the acoustic sort of stuff, No. 3 is my favourite Led Zep album).

The opening act was She Tells Lies, I really liked her. It was just her and her guitar. If I had to describe her to you I would suggest she sounds kinda like a female Ray Lamontagne, but you can listen to her for yourself here.

All in all, a good night, despite the guy sat next to me getting ridiculously drunk, and the feeling that I didn’t seem to get that many songs for my money, or maybe the time just went really quickly.

The bald tattooed bloke wearing sunglasses and repeatedly shouting “ROCK ON!” and other such phrases also deserves a mention.

June 8th can’t come soon enough

If you like Jeff Buckley, John Martyn, Led Zeppelin, and Red Hot Chili Peppers jams, you have to hear Blackbud.

Bradford-on-Avon’s finest released their first album, From The Sky, in 2006. The follow up, called Blackbud, is to be released 8th June 2009, I can’t wait.

I’ve collected the videos on youtube into a playlist, I don’t know what will actually end up on the album (probably not the covers, and apparently Travelling Home will probably end up as a B-side) but it’s looking awesome, some more rocky stuff than From The Sky.

Annoyingly WordPress doesn’t seem to like embedding playlists, so this post has all gone a bit Pete Tong, I’m not going to embed all 11 videos individually, so if you want to watch the rest, click here.

Here’s a song called Love Come So Easy:

Covers at the end of the playlist:
Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do by Captain Beefheart
Hear My Train A Comin’ by Jimi Hendrix
Brother John by The Neville Brothers
She Took Off My Romeos by David Lindley

(Hear My Train A Comin’ and She Took Off My Romeos only feature Joe Taylor from Blackbud)