Straight Shooters at The Grand Pavilion, Matlock Bath

Matlock, and its surrounding area, including Darley Dale and Matlock bath, in the heart of Derbyshire’s Peak District is somewhere dear to my heart and inextricably linked with both my Mum’s and Dad’s side of the family, all of them hailing from there. The Grand Pavilion, a Georgian building that stands imperiously by the river side deep in the gorge where Matlock Bath sits, has long been a focal point for entertainment. In the post-war years, my Dad well remembers attending concerts and watching Dance bands there. In the 1980’s, I performed there myself with my band Tubeless Hearts.

Matlock Bath Pavilion

So it really piqued my interest when my Dad mentioned that it had been at considerable risk of demolition in recent years, and was now in the hands of a trust committed to saving this historic building. I’d been canvassing around to fill out dates for my visit from Spain in June, when, with our new project Straight Shooters, we’ll be making a special appearance at the Quad in Derby, and also in Burton -on-Trent, but more about those shows in another post.

After connecting with Andie Brazewell at The Pavilion, we now have a date in place for Straight Shooters – Friday June 6th – we’re hoping everyone will come along and support the event – priced at just £5 a ticket, and help fund the restoration of this beautiful venue.

You’ll be in for a night of classic British 70’s rock, courtesy of the music of Free and Bad Company!

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS

THE GRAND PAVILION MATLOCK BATH

Kev Moore

Sunday in El Paniajo

The little dude’s not part of the band….

We thought we’d get out and about this weekend, and a took a trip over the Sierra de los Filabres mountains and down into the valley of a little village called El Marchal, enticed by the promise of Blues, and Chicken Satay!  “El Paniajo” is a lovely little bar by the riverbed in El Marchal, run by Jess and Anne-Marie, and a venue I played solo some years back. I’d visited again recently when showing my Dad around the area, and asked Jess to put me on her mailing list, thus discovering Sunday afternoon’s music and food combo.

The view from the mountain road back down to the coast..

It’s a lovely drive over the mountain, past the village of Bedar, the roadster loving the serpentine road that negotiates both the Southern and northern slopes, dropping down into the village on the other side. It was a sunny afternoon, and the band ( Colores Libres) set up on the huge patio in front of the bar, proceeding to play a number of blues and 60’s classics to a creditable standard. The female vocalist had a voice almost reminiscent of Cleo Lane, quite a low register for a girl. To be honest, if you have a competent band playing, sunshine, a few drinks and a nice meal, is there really any better way to spend an afternoon?

“I believe I can flyyyyyyy….”

La Cosa Nostra

These kind of gigs locally always bring out great characters, it’s one thing I love about the area!

As a musician, its always interesting to note the moments when a band moves from autopilot to flashes of inspiration. The unlikely addition of a passing friend guesting on blues harp for a couple of numbers pushed the guitarist into a series of back and forth exchanges that lifted the band, fleetingly, to another level. Great to see.

Cheers!

The food, was gorgeous! Chicken in a satay sauce served with wild rice, spinach and beautifully roasted red peppers, ensured we’ll be back again soon. If you’re down this way, check out El Paniajo, it’s worth the trip.

Kev Moore

Aghast in Wolgast! – Travels in Eastern Germany

“I get around” , sang some Beach Boy or other back in the day, and that’s something I can relate too. This weekend was…..interesting.  One of my bands, Bootleg Counterfeit Sweet (formerly BC Sweet) was back in Germany for the first time in a long while, and me and the guys were looking forward to it.
Our first clue that things might not run smoothly reared its head some weeks back, when we discovered the show was being advertised under our old name of BC Sweet, a moniker which, due to our refusal to line the pockets of any more lawyers is now put to bed. The new name reflects, if nothing else, some heavy irony….but that’s a whole other lawsuit….er, story.

Anyway, we got in touch with them expressing our dismay, and implied that we would pull the show if we weren’t advertised correctly. We specifically make clear in all contracts how we should be billed. There’s simply nothing more you can do in these situations.  Well, everything seemed to calm down, so come Friday, I dutifully arose at the crack of dawn, dawn in this particular instance going by the name of 7.30 am, and made the two and a half hour drive to Alicante to get my flight to Berlin.  I arrived in good time, strolling into the Airport at 11.30, my flight due to leave at 1pm.  I scanned the departure screens….to no avail. No flight was advertised for Berlin anywhere near the appointed time.  As luck would have it, the AirBerlin information desk was situated adjacent to this, your humble and now visibly palpitating writer. The lady manning the desk braced herself to receive the full force of “Kev in Panic Mode”, as I stammered something to the effect of “w-w-w-wwhere’s my flight? – it’s disappeared!”

Motioning for me to produce my booking reference, her fingers danced across the computer keyboard while mine drummed out paradiddles of pensiveness in concert with her on the counter. With a flourish, our performance drew to a close, she fixed me with a gaze of undeniable finality and delivered three announcements that might as well have been bullets:

“The Berlin flight was changed. You should have been informed. It left at 11 o’clock. “

I had barely time to ingest and process this triad of bombshells before she surged on, relentless:

“And not only that. Your return flight on Sunday has changed also.”

It transpired that I would land in Alicante a full three and a quarter hours earlier on the Sunday than I first thought, being routed via Palma instead of Dusseldorf. “Oh well, every cloud” I thought, temporarily oblivious to the fact that I had yet to find a way to leave Spain, never mind return.

My AirBerlin saviour’s fingers were already dancing again, however, and her face was a picture as it ran the gamut of expressions, through hope, expectancy, frustration, despair, and so on ad infinitum. She helpfully provided a running commentary to accompany her admittedly riveting gurning.

“Ah, so…ve can take you via Palma….ach nein! es ist voll….there is even no Air Berlin personnel we can remove for you…”

It suddenly dawned on me as she meandered through cyberspace looking for empty seats, that they didn’t actually have to do a damned thing. It was pretty clear that air berlin had almost certainly sent an email to the promoter informing him of the flight changes. They had clearly assumed it was just a confirmation of what they already knew. Except it wasn’t. Thirty odd years of international travel in bands has taught me that, if there is a possibility for something to cock up, then cock up it most assuredly will. And here was Miss Air Berlin, quite prepared to give her fellow workers the heave-ho off a flight in order to get me to me destination. “As long as it’s not the pilot, I suddenly thought, worriedly….”

Finally, and almost apologetically, she announced:

“Well, I can put you on a flight to Munich that leaves at 2.30 pm, but your connection to Berlin means you won’t arrive at your destination until 8pm.”

My original, and now patently useless itinerary had me setting foot on Berlin soil around 4pm, but fortuitously, I assured her, my colleagues in the band were arriving from England around 8pm also, and so that would be just dandy, vielen danke!   Well, her little face lit up and she went on to tell me that she had also arranged for my passage home via Palma on the Sunday.  So, Palma Sunday coming a little later than Easter for me this year. Not only that, I had the VIP lane option upon arriving in Munich, to smooth things along, so to speak.  Just for the record: Air Berlin rocks!

Now, prior to boarding anything, I made several calls. One to the carpark, so they knew to get me at 4 on Sunday and not 7, and one to Marc, our bandleader, to inform him of my rescheduling. He gave me my driver’s number, and I texted him to tell him of my new arrival time. So I landed in Berlin fully confident our problems were behind us……

‘My’ driver, Karsten, turned out to be ‘Our’ driver, as I quickly discovered,  following collecting me in what looked suspiciously like a builder’s van, as we made our way across Berlin from Tegel (my airport) to Schoenefeld (their airport).  Karsten informed me that we had ‘about 300 kilometers to drive to Wolgast.”  This of course set me thinking. What if I’d arrived at 4pm? It occurred to me that I would have been kicking my heels for 4 hours waiting for the others to arrive anyway.

Anyway, the lads were patiently waiting in the cafe, and we all piled back in the builder’s van and hit the Autobahn, driving into what used to be East Germany. By that I mean, it’s no longer East Germany, the country, but it exhibits many of its communist traits, such as no amenities. Some time into the journey, we asked Karsten if we might stop at a motorway services to grab a snack and a coffee.

“Why yes!” he said jovially, “In fact it is the ONLY service station between here and Wolgast, we are in the East now!”

Well, we all had a jolly good laugh about that, as I availed myself of a curiously Franco-Prussian snack that appeared to be a perfectly serviceable croissant that had been raped by a bratwurst.

It can only have been another 20 kilometers or so down the road when Teutonic mutterings started emanating from Karsten’s mouth, accompanied by the occasional worried glance at the fuel gauge.  After several unsuccessful attempts to engage him in conversation, and a further 20 or 30 kilometers, he finally volunteered some rather startling information. We were running out of fuel.

General weariness and a desire to get to bed prompted me to announce: “If we run out of fuel, you will be getting us a hotel or a taxi, whichever comes first. I’m not up for freezing our nuts off in subzero temperatures for the night waiting for some bloody farmer to turn up in the morning.” We exited the dark and empty motorway at the next available opportunity, which delivered us into some dark and empty farmland.  The one town we did find was pretty much empty. Karsten ventured that this was probably due to the gang fight there the previous evening which had resulted in multiple arrests. Evidently they must have arrested the proprietor of the local petrol station, because it was closed.

However, there was a group of  rather lost looking individuals gathered around under the ailing neon lights on the forecourt. God knows why. If this is what passes for a party around here, then they need to legalize drugs. Somehow Karsten managed to convince one of them to get into his car, and we followed him into the night, across some disused railway tracks, down a potholed lane into the middle of nowhere….and there, in exactly the middle of nowhere, was a single, solitary petrol pump with an automat.  Never let it be said that the Germans have no sense of humour.

Is it a Hotel? No, it’s Wolgast’s premier Rock venue!

When we finally reached Wolgast (it was now the following day) the need to tarmac the roads seemed to desert them, and our last 500 yards were so rough it would have been ruled out as a suitable site for a moon landing. Nevertheless, we had arrived at our hotel, and, apparently, our gig. For there in the compact and bijou bar area was a small stage with a backline that made a Sony walkman look impressive.  We were given schnitzels, lots of them, as the reality of the situation began to sink in..it wasn’t long before I decided I was better off in bed.

The next morning, I headed downstairs to check it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t. There were the tiny amps, staring at me balefully, as if daring me to defile them with a power chord.  I defiled the cornflakes instead, along with a few other comestibles as we had the slightly surreal experience of eating our breakfast in front of the stage we were to be performing on later that evening. I thought it wise to eat all the bread rolls, in case anyone wanted to start throwing them later.

Looking around the vestibule, I noticed a small poster advertising the show which looked familiar to me, but for a strange reason. It featured a piece of artwork by my partner Miki, of our band. (See top of article) Now, we don’t use this piece of art in our publicity, and it’s not supposed to be reproduced by anyone without permission, (she wasn’t even credited on the poster!) but that didn’t seem to bother our mate the promoter, who’d also used the old BC Sweet logo against our express wishes. (I’ve changed it on here) To compound matters, I saw at least one more poster about the size of a small bus on the outskirts of town too. So, clearly some fell on stoney ground then….

That afternoon, Mike, Marc, Pete and myself convened in the gig/breakfast room to run through a couple of songs and see if we could get some kind of sound out of the equipment. After an hour or so we had a passable sound, given the limitations, and we declared ourselves able to gig.

“Compact and bijou….”

Cut to 8pm, and a room full of eager German punters, as the strains of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” theme fade and Pete counts us into ‘Action’. The mics aren’t working. At all.  The first verse grinds to a halt and instead of greeting the audience, at only a minute into the show, I’m apologizing to them.  Marc disappears offstage to consult with whoever is looking at the mixer like it’s an alien, and Mike, Pete and myself entertain the crowd with an impromptu 3 piece blues jam that lasts 5 minutes but feels like a lifetime.

We start again. And an entertaining game of ‘musical mics’ begins as, during a second attempt at ‘Action’, Marc, Mike and I juggle the mics around between us to see if any actually work. They don’t, and a smell of burning wiring signals the end of this particular attempt to entertain the Germans. The mixer has exploded. Detleff, the guy who brought us over in the first place, is looking seriously harried, as well he might.  Trying to get away with using ‘My mum’s PA system’ for a grown-up rock band is always going to leave you in a heap of scheisse.

Nevertheless, against all the odds, he disappeared into the night and returned with a replacement. I have no idea where he got it, or how. There’s probably a dead sound engineer lying in a ditch somewhere near the Polish border. Take three, and off we go! It’s still bloody awful, but the crowd, sensing we’re really up against it, seem to take to these four idiotic blokes who don’t know when they’re beaten. At one point, I moved away from the mic, and screamed the vocal at the audience, complete with expletives, just to get it out of my system. They loved it. They like a good shout, the Germans. Against all the odds, the evening was success. The meal we were expecting following the gig, less so.  It took us half an hour to locate it. Apparently it had been waiting on a kitchen table in a hidden room somewhere and consisted on schnitzel, in a bun.  It seems that, around these parts, the answer is schnitzel, regardless of the question.

The town of Wolgast. Huge Concert P.A. system not shown…..

Now, I was the only one who could remotely string a German sentence together, so I was charged with the task of making sure the promoter knew that I had to be on the road at 7am in the morning, other wise I would miss my rescheduled flight.  This proved confusing, when another guy called George, who I’d never seen before, and who was pissed, insisted he was driving me to Berlin in the morning. Thankfully, before I retired to my room for a bit of kip, it was established that, for reasons best known to himself, this was a lie.

“…You didn’t let the dog in free, did ya?”

The next morning, as the clock struck 7 am exactly, Detleff and I were sat in the drive thru lane at the local McDonalds waiting for the shutters to open. He treated me to an Egg McMuffin, and we hit the road. how the other half live, eh?

Kev Moore

All that Jazz – The After Thought in Little Rock, Arkansas

Before the show at The After Thought

Despite a long drive from Texarkana, Miki and I were ready to venture into the town of Little Rock on Monday night in search of music. We found it at The After Thought, a modern, yet inviting bar on the outskirts, serving great value draft beer and boasting a house quartet well-versed in modern jazz.

I’d decided to wear my New Orleans Saints shirt that night, so you can imagine my delight when we discovered that the backdrop to the stage was a giant mural depicting Bourbon Street in our favourite city!  Now, Modern Jazz is not normally my music of choice, but I nevertheless welcomed the chance to hear it played live, and well – and with the band hosting a handful of impromptu appearances from other local musicians, it was a treat.  A local music professor got up and gave a great rendition of Ramsey Lewis’ classic The In Crowd.

Kev giving it large.....

Resisting my “busman’s holiday” trait no longer, I opted to sing Someone to watch over me, a classic performed by artists as diverse as Tony Bennet, Ella Fitzgerald and Elton John, and accompanied expertly by their pianist I delivered it as best I could!

The audience seemed to receive it well, and I sat down to enjoy some virtuoso (to my untrained jazz ears, at least!)  solo trombone from another musical member of the audience. All in all, it was a nice, easy intro to the Little Rock music scene, and set us up nicely for the coming week.

Lettin' it slide.....

                                                                   Kev Moore