Your local music magazine December 2015 //1
Contents Recommended listening
Page 6 music news
Page 8
introducing
Page 10 December 2015 //3
Contents Grassroots need you
Page 10 dreamer joe q&a
Page 10
reviews
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DECEMBER 2015
Contributors
Editors note
Jake Priddle Jay Jay Ian Vaughan Joe Hagan Hannah Stephenson Rob Douglas Charlie
Congratulations, you’ve almost made it to 2016 and over the past three months you’ve witnessed the beginnings of the Fret-Buzz Music Magazine. So far we’ve covered a bit of Southampton, Portsmouth, mostly the Isle of Wight and touched upon the music scene in London - provided interviews, news and reviews of the music we love - all between our day-jobs and so far voluntarily. So naturally we want to progress into 2016 offering bigger and better things - stay tuned for what we have in stall for you next year. The support we’ve had so far has been fantastic , so we’re more confident than ever that we’re onto something great.
See you next year! Jake Priddle - Editor editor@fret-buzz.net
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Flying Lotus - You’re Dead! FlyLo manages to halt everything that’s in the back of your mind and make you focus completely on the music. Then the ability to make you focus on everything around you in great clarity. His latest album masters this to perfection with some great collabs to boot. Trippy stuff - Ian Vaughan
Jamie T- Here’s Ya Getaway The album ‘Panic Prevention’ has been a staple to pretty much any car play-list I’ve made since sixth form - ‘Back in the Game’ is why I have an acoustic guitar - my bedroom has been inspired by the cover artwork since starting these mags and ‘Here’s Ya Getaway’ is my hands down, not from the album, favourite track released around that time - Jake Priddle
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Amy Winehouse - You Know I’m No Good It means so much to any girl who’s grown up listening to that song, it reminds me of being a teenager, discovering boys and being messed about. Recently listening to Amy reminds me of how sad it was to loose such a talent and a person - Charlie
A Dark Orbit - They Rode the Heart Until It Spit Venom It’s so heavy it literally broke my right headphone. Not a figure of speech. It’s broken - Joe Hagan
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news
bullybones release new album ‘honey dripper’ across bandcamp, itunes and spotify
Queen and ada as first headl wight f
Ok, this is sort of last months news but nevertheless, it’s something to shout about. This is their third album to date and was recorded at Studio Humbug. Go find BullyBones on Facebook, give them a big blue thumbs up, follow their links to Bandcamp and buy yourself a copy. You wont regret it.
Got news? Tell us about it via info@fret-buzz.net and we’ll do our best to include it in the ne Find us on Facebook by searching FretBuzzMusicReviews or Twitter throu
HIDDEN CHARMS release new single “Love You Cause You’re There” 20th November The track serves as the perfect follow-up to their hugely successful debut double AA side single Dreaming Of Another Girl/Long Way Down, produced by Shel Talmy (The Who/The Kinks)
news
am lambert named liner for the isle of festival 2016
The boss of British music industry body the BPI claims UK labels make less money from YouTube than from vinyl sales
ext magazine or share it over social media. ugh @Fret_Buzz_Rev
Stereophonics & Faithless to co-headline friday at IOW
painted lady by plastic mermaids released
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By Jay Jay David Stewart is an accomplished singer, songwriter and producer currently based in London. His passion for music started at the tender age of 12, playing piano and drums alongside his father, it is fair to say that David has grown to become a well established musician. The West Londoner’s experience since a young age has pushed him to pursue his dreams and to perform in front of crowds on big stages. At the age of 17 after he had completed his school years, Stewart was on the road with singer/rapper Example supporting him on his tour. His journey is inspirational for any up and coming artist, taking small stages in Brighton with crowds of eighty people, to performing at V Festival to eighty thousand on the main stage! This led him to co-produce and co-write with the British rapper, songwriter and friend Example on many of his albums. Stewart spent his young years listening to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, The Beatles and many more, therefore deepening his understanding and allowing him to fill his knowledge, with nothing other than greatness from the industries best. The young man released his 10 track mixtape titled ‘Late Night Viewing’ featuring some of the
best UK talent from co-writer Example, Wretch 32, Yasmin and Ed Sheeran. Stewart had a big contribution to the production of the mixtape. His track ‘Lay on the Bonnet’ received recognition of BBC Radio 1xtra’s Mistajam who crowned the song as Hot Record of the Week. To this date the mixtape has had great success with approximately 80,000 downloads! Stewart was quick to realise what he had on offer as an artist and didn’t hesitate to put together a 4 track EP, working with renowned Seattle producer Sango. The EP titled ‘Dark Side of Paradise’ had great success and his single ‘Silly Boy’ has 1.6 million views to date. Due to his major success as not just a singer, but the genius songwriter and producer that he has developed into, Stewart has started work on his Debut Album, working between London, Atlanta and LA, with some of the industries most sought after. The ‘Silly Boy’ singer has gone to sign a management deal to Ludacris’s management and label owners of Disturbing Tha Peace Records. He has clearly left a mark in the industry already and we can only expect greatness from him!
trol combined with his unique tone created the perfect blend and kept the audience on edge (in a good way), both the ladies and the dudes were digging his sound and singing along! One of my favourite acoustic performances to date! Moving forward, Stewart plans to prove himself to be a refreshing and versatile artist by creating concept albums. The aim is to keep his fans engaged in whatever genre he decides to indulge in; whether it is his previous R&B soulful vibe or his current pop music range. While his sound will change, David Stewart’s relentless quest to experiment and entertain won’t, which makes him the great artist he is. I believe that he will leave a print in the industry and that is the reason I chose him as my artist to introduce. I cannot recommend him more! Make sure to check his music out and follow him on twitter to stay updated with the latest news. OH and subscribe to his YouTube channel to be the first to see his videos!
After seeing him perform in London a few weeks ago, I cannot recommend him enough to everyone, his charisma and con-
YouTube: DavidStewartOfficial
Instagram: @dstewartmusic
introducing
David Stewart
! U O Y D E E N S T O O R S S A R E IN DECLINE G
R A E V O L D N A W O N K E W S E U R N E O V Y E A M TH T H IG N A W O H D N A Y H W S N O S A E R W E F A HERE’S COULD HELP
In London alone, we’ve seen a 35% decline in grassroots music venues between 2007 and 2015. That’ a huge drop in venues from 136 to 88 remaining venues in just 8 years. Iconic names such as The 12 Bar Club have just vanished and were key players in the London music scene history. The UK has a £3.8 Billion music industry and for high profile grassroots venues to be dropping like flies, something must be wrong. Grassroots music venues play a vital role in the development of talent providing a platform for local musicians to launch their careers. Venues like Southampton Joiners and Wedge-wood Rooms
make up the ‘toilet circuit’ producing a constant stream of new musical talent which without we’d be left with the same acts headlining festivals until they drop dead. It would just be a perpet-
ual circle of the Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and Calvin Harris headlining the same festivals again and again. Let me introduce - The Music Venue Trust. The Music Venue Trust was created in January 2014 to protect the UK live music network and has a clear 5 year plan to ensure those venues continue to play their vital role in supporting the British music success story. Nice. In line with this and the diminishing numbers of grassroots venues in London, the Mayor of London’s Music Venues Task-force produced this report in October highlighting the causes, problems and solutions to try and regenerate the local music industry. Here’s a condensed version of the report as an overview of the causes for, possible solutions and a breakdown of how a grassroots venue is classified.
Why are venues closing? Market Failure Within the Music Industry Okay, so the report hints at ‘market failures’ offering a contrast between admission prices for larger venues and smaller venues. Bigger venues such as the O2 arenas obviously charge a higher ticket price than your local smaller venue. £20+ vs £6. That’s obvious why right? Even if the bigger venues get the same bands, they sort of have to charge more, it’s a larger space, better lighting, better sound, more infrastructure and logistics to pay for. Is that really a cause for concern? I don’t think so really. What about the relationship between band and promoters? Audience relations, population, listening and engagement trends? Maybe that’s in part two of the report.
Growing Population and Property Prices Higher population leads to increased demand for places to live, property prices rise around venues as more housing is developed, venues can’t afford rent and close.
Business Rates Broadly speaking, when the rental value of a property rises, the business rates also go up. With such a high cost for keeping a place open means these venues are economically un-viable unless they have financial support.
Planning and Development Planning and development of new and existing buildings around venues seriously needs to be looked at. In 2013 the Government introduced a temporary Permitted Development Right meaning that office buildings can be converted into homes without full planning permission. Venues who are happily coinciding next to office buildings are increasingly having to deal with residents now moving in which leads to noise complaints due to a lax in environmental noise assessments. That of course leads onto problems like the Wight Rock Bar in Ryde had and is still a victim of. Estate agents and solicitors are not obligated to inform residents about nearby venues creating
noise at night. If you’re moving somewhere you’d do your own research through right? You’d want to know if you’re about to move above a music venue wouldn’t you? If that’s not bleak enough for you, here’s a list of other possible causes for decline:
Noise complaints Licensing Health and safety costs Being forced to relocate Fall in student attendance Gentrification Competition from non-music sectors Lack of investment No succession planning Cuts to touring budgets Rising service costs Police costs Professional fees Legal compliance costs Fire regulations Instant stardom culture
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possible solutions The rescue plan only touches on venues in London, but of course most of these recommendations could and should apply to other regions in the UK. Here’s what the report has to say about London.
Planning Venues will hopefully be recognised within planning policies as places of economic, cultural and social value. This will hopefully make it harder for new developments to encroach on venues and protect current venues.
Developers Recommended ways in which
developers can produce new high quality grassroots venues and establish ‘music zones’ for grassroots music activities. Pretty vague but that sounds sweet right?
Business rates A quick glance at this looks like they’re intending grassroots venues to get urgent business rates relief and a lower rate from here on.
Borough licensing, environmental health and police policy Local authorities and Police will endeavour to cut excessive licensing policies, increase venue capacity allowances and simplify the relationship between authorities and the venues. Also the way noise complaints are dealt with will become a more balanced process. Often the one making the complaint has priority over the venue overlooking the impact on the business and it’s licensing requirements.
Supporting music in London To help implement these recommendations a Music Development Board will be created. This is great news as grassroots venues will now have a body to protect, fight for and help develop them. A ‘Night Mayor’ will also be created. That sounds awesome, like some night-time vigilante looking out for the music scene. The role of this position will be to support the night-time economy, bring all the night-time businesses together and build a better relationship between venues and the authorities. This Music Development Board will also set out the new ‘Music Zones’ in and around London making little ecosystems out of areas of venues.
Championing music in London Tourism agencies, the music industry and London Government should invest in a campaign to promote London’s grassroots music venues and their heritage.
What defines a grassrots venue? The Music Venue Trust defines the cultural and social importance of a grassroots music venue by testing its reputation, role and activity against six criteria:
1. The elephant test (Musicians and audiences in the town/borough/city think that is the grassroots music venue)
taking is the ignition system of 3. Employs or otherwise utilisthe engine that is the UK music es at least two of the following industry (they may be the same person): Sound engineer, booker, 5. A beacon of music and key promoter, cashier, stage mangenerator of night-time eco- ager, security personnel. nomic activity 6. Plays nicely with others These venues also have to hit certain infrastructure and amenities criteria such as:
1. Has a fixed or temporary stage, or as a minimum an area defined as a stage, and exhibits at least one other structural hallmark conducive to live music.
2. Possess a mixing desk, PA 2. Focus on cultural activity as system, and at least one other its main purpose and its outpiece of equipment to facilitate comes live music.
4. Applies a cover charge to some live music performances and incorporates promotion within its activities.
So there you go, a short overview of the decline in grassroots venues along with some posible solutions for the problems in the London circuit. Take a look at the report for yourselves for more information and learn a bit more about The Music Venue Trust by visiting www.musicvenuetrust. com What can you personally do to support your local venues and bands? Attend local gigs, buy local music, share it, tell everyone about it! Hashtag Support Local Music and that.
3. It is a music business, run by music experts 4. It takes risks with its cultural programme, and that risk December 2015 //15
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Q&A with
dream
mer joe
What have you Highlight(s) of 2015 Your new EP is out guys been up to re- as a band? next month, tell us cently? about it. We’ve been a bit quiet recently because of work commitments but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been writing new material for the last gigs of the year, we’ve just not really been as frequent on the gigging side of things. A lot of the last month has been planning the EP release and just organising everything that it entails, but all of the work should produce a great launch party!
The obvious highlight would be playing the Isle of Wight Festival, and not just the main stage but also the two other slots we had on the Platform One Stage since the atmosphere in there was amazing. Another highlight was working with Hungry Hound Productions to record our EP, where we couldn’t have been happier with what was produced from the six days we spent with Stuart. The realisation of all the great experiences we’ve had so far from day one is a highlight in itself.
The EP is four tracks and they were all recorded, mixed and mastered by Hungry Hound Productions. There will be some songs on there that people know and others which are a bit newer. We also have a music video in the making for ‘My Hand and The Fingers’ which some people may have heard on Isle of Wight Radio and we’ve had a lot of fun making that too. The launch party details will also be coming soon but we’ve tried to make it a bit different to just playing
Where and when was your first ever What’s the plan for gig together? Dreamer Joe in 2016? a standard venue so hopefully people are as excited as we are.
The main plan of action is going on tour for the EP in the spring which will be with Eight 28 so we’re all very excited to be driving about and sleeping rough! We’ll be releasing those dates in the early months of next year hopefully but an exact date hasn’t been decided on.
Our first gig was January 9th at Coburgs in Ryde. We had a really good crowd and a great reaction which really helped motivate us to get all of the things done that we did this year.
Favourite venue and why? At the moment, probably the Railway in Winchester. We’ve played there a couple times and
the sound is both incredible and incredibly loud. We’ve met some cool bands there with really genuine people in them so that always provides a good atmosphere the night of a gig.
What would your dream concert lineup be - dead or alive? Well as we couldn’t decide as a band on one line-up we made a list of acts that we want combined: Queens of The Stone Age, Mini Mansions, Drenge, Foals, DJ Hazard, Macky Gee, Brontide, Jeff Buckley, GoGo Penguin, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers (90’s), Lonely Island and Weez-
er. If someone could make this happen we’d happily organise it somewhere on the island.
Who’s your favourite artist at the moment? Collectively speaking its got to be Brontide. If you haven’t checked them out yet you defintely should!
Favourite supermarket Sainsbury’s has pretty good customer services when it comes to photography but the bakery in Lidl has the bargains.
Upcoming gig dates December 4th - Marine Bar December 11th - Crispin December 17th - Rock the Cowes Bar December 22nd - Blacksheep Bar January 9th - Railway January 14th - Coburgs January 30th - Anchor
MUSIC REVIEWS boston manor - Saudae the highwayman - any road Honey Dripper - bullybones Painted lady - plastic mermaids
Gigs Any road / Bullybones - Blacksheep Bar R3bellion - coburgs
Photos Starbucks acoustic night
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boston manor saudade Yet another Pop-Punk record to add to 2015’s list of top class releases in the genre. Though the Blackpool quintet’s new release is less pop and more take a deep breath and contemplate life... punk. What I’m trying to say is this EP has a cohesive theme, quite deliberately crafted lyrics, and is musically layered with subtleties that go beyond the typical ‘4/4 power chords about summer and feeling good’. Mixing those raw British vocals, with a little angsty shouting from time to time. It’s very refreshing, and the closest band I can compare them to are Trash Boat (who’s most recent EP also came out this
year...) who they are also currently touring with - so that would be perfect, if there was a Southampton date. Anyway, at just over 12minutes long there isn’t an awful lot to talk about (which is my biggest criticism, but that can never be taken with too much offence really, especially for a relatively new band) but the four tracks included on the album are fantastic. With varied pacing and sporadic, real emotion pouring out on every track it’s a great offering. Every song on the EP has those ‘instant singalong’ moments, even half way through the first listen you find yourself joining in with choruses and hooks. Production levels are definitely worth mentioning as everything has it’s own sonic space - which gives each instrument a chance to shine through (and shine they
do) to culminate in a musical backdrop that perfect illustrates the lyrics of longing; for something, someone, sometime? Longing. If only there was a word for that*. The songs themselves are very similar in theme and sound, but different enough to not feel like you’re listening to the same song four times - it’s definitely a piece of music and not four songs written at different times slapped together and shipped out. I won’t go into the tracks themselves too much more, but carve out 30mins yourself to give it a thorough listening in one sitting (twice) and I assure you it’ll be worth the £2.49.
*”Saudade: a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia”
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bullybones any road The highwayman honey dripper As far as debut albums go for fresh faced bands, this is a pretty decent effort. Echoes of classic and heavier rock, yowling vocals and guitars galore - for just a thrash of local rock in your ears this is great. However it sounds like they’re going for gold way too early. It’s crammed full of rock stereotype phrases and the vocals seem way too forced. It’ll be nice to see what they can do if they lay off the rock heroes attempt and produce something with real heart and unique ideas.
Every bit as mad as their live performance. It’s like a mix between skate/surf punk music like FIDLAR and good old Rock n Roll. The whole sound reminds me of ‘She Made My Blood Run Cold’ by Ike Turner, alot.
Other than that - it’s a blast and I highly recommend giving it a go to envisage their true potential.
This has been a firm favourite for car journeys - great to blast out and drive furiously to. The only downside to the album is that long period of silence at the end of ‘Eight Years’. What’s that about?
Actually, the more I listen to this, the more I can get behind it, give this album the time it deserves.
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The album takes no prisoners. Straight off the mark with ‘Vuka Vuka’ your attention is grabbed and not let go until the very last track where the tempo lowers down to a Doors style track ‘Strange’
plastic mermaids painted lady Every bit as ambitious and unique as their previous releases, Plastic Mermaids give us yet another track of epic proportions. There’s so much going, every listen offers a new detail you missed the previous time round. Beautifully composed from the disjointed vocals down to, well, everything else you hear along the way. This track is a hint at what we can expect from their new EP set to be released in 2016 so keep an eye/ear out for that.
Serious Bass-Face
Any Road Blacksheep Bar Ryde
The bands who played previous to Any Road at tonight’s gig were Two Pint Shot Glass (an older band playing original punk and punk-ified covers, pretty nice) and BullyBones (outstand-
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ing) so that’s a tough act to follow. Any Road needed to pull something out of the bag for this performance. Musically wise, they sounded pretty good - tons of guitar solos, crazy shouting vocals, decent bass and a drummer who’s more than proved himself in many other bands. Technically a great sounding band. That’s kind of where the enjoyment ends and enters the realms of rock clichés. After the first song there we’re
just yells of ‘Fuck Yeah!’ from the band members with mics, in fact between most songs. They sound the part, sort of look the part, but don’t really act the part. Another thing that bugged me about the set was the way too long patter between songs. Yes I know it takes a while to change tunings between songs (although the amount of tuning changes was mental) but those intervals seemed to last for ages with the weird rock n roll banter between band members that
The award for most underwhelming guitar dual goes to....
Pineapple Juice?
didn’t fit the character of the band. Overall great sound, if you like classic rock (everyone does right?) go listen to these guys they have heaps of dates coming up. An interesting act to see too, I just hope they tone down the faux rockers thing and concentrate on an honest performance.
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Bullybones Blacksheep Bar- Ryde - IOW When you go and see BullyBones play live, you can be sure of three things - great music, heaps of energy, and pelvic thrusts. Guaranteed. For those who don’t know, BullyBones are a loud, in your face garage/rock n roll outfit from the south consisting of Charlie Pullinger- Vocals/Guitar, Aaron Lee- Guitar, Illy Webster- Bass Guitar and Elliot Little- Drums. What a gig! Playing a mix of old and new tracks, BullyBones killed it. So much energy and stage presence with Keith Richards style dancing, Libertines style mic sharing and occasionally crashing to the floor for a writhe about and bashing microphones against Charlies own head. A real spectacle to watch. And the sound these guys make too! So loud and like nothing else around at the moment. Rock n Roll meets Blues meets Surf Punk meets Mud Honey We’ve seen BullyBones play a heap of times before and every single time they’re spectacular. Great sound, great act and performance.
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Red Herring/ seb clark/ Twitchy B Coburgs- Ryde - IOW
Normally we avoid cover band nights as we’re all for the original music, but I’m so glad we decided to come to this gig. Well, to be honest, I didn’t realise this was a covers night, but hey. First up was Twitchy B. The last time we saw him, he played a fantastic set with a loop pedal and guitar, but this time he opted for just the guitar and vocals. After the show I heard someone say that he had a new set planned but was nervous about playing it - I say he should have nothing to be afraid of, he’s a pretty good performer who’s competent playing a crowd and I’d love to see what his talent has to offer. Tonight he played extremely well serving up a short but sweet set of well known covers with his own style of playing. Next was Seb Clark. Maybe he commandeered Twitchy B’s loop pedal, I don’t know, but Seb stole the limelight by playing us some uniquely re-imagined covers. Loops of beats made by hitting his guitar body
over layers of chords and riffs topped off with a powerful voice. All played on a knackered guitar that couldn’t hold it’s tuning. Really great work. Red Herring played last tonight. I think we’ve seen them a couple of times before they’re predominantly a covers band hence the name. Before when we’ve seen them they were very good. A lively bunch of lads playing pretty accurate covers of songs that you wouldn’t normally hear people cover, but songs you wish people would cover more. Seriously cool. But this time round they were lacking something. It did just seem like they were going through the motions and didn’t want to be there. Kind of disappointing as they showed promise and great showmanship before. Also, they missed out the good bits of songs like the full bass-line for ‘The Importance of Being Idle’ and bits of ‘Chelsea Dagger’... Maybe they were having a bad day?
Twitchy B
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red herring
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