4. ANATHEMA6 JAMIE WOON12 ARMY OF THE UNI-VERSE16 WESTLIFE24 OZ34 GIRUGAMESH44 MIYAVI54 YOU ME AT SIX60 ARCITE68 GLAMOUR OF THE KILL72 THE SWELLERS82 BECCY OWEN

ANATHEMAIAN S. RICHARDSON

Anathema @ Durham Live Lounge

Equal parts power and euphoria, Anathema descend on Durham’s Live Lounge with their expansive and melodic sound. A brooding and meas-ured build up begins proceedings as the band takes to the stage. ‘Sum-mer Night Horizon’ emerges from the disorder and sets the tone, atmos-pheric yet brutal in it’s dynamics, the execution, sublime. The same can be said of the majority of the first part of their set, made up mostly by tracks from Anathema’s recent album ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here’ given voice by a band that sound and look every inch like they’re here because they want to be here. Their sound is expansive in nature but resisting the urge to sound contrived, and tonight delivered with an as-sured certainty.

Lead vocalist Vincent Cavanagh performs with energy and expression, an energy that certainly lifted the impressive crowd on a bitterly cold February evening. Whilst the integral vocal harmonies set down by the band were utterly Mesmerizing - almost spine tingling at times, in fact, forget the ‘almost’! A short while later Vincent Cavanagh announces that it’s “time for some of the old songs” and tracks like ‘Deep’, ‘Piti-less’ and ‘A Natural Disaster’ are all delivered with suitable aplomb – proving that even with such a solid performance of their newest mate-rial, the classics aren’t neglected.

It’s a testament to the band that after a career that’s spanned 20 years or so, that their performance has not lost any vigour, if anything their shift in musical styles has only allowed the band to enhance their perform-ance.

Anathema were really on song tonight in Durham, tight harmonies, fine musicianship and an energy throughout made this one to remember - a real treat for the Live Lounge.

ISR

ANATHEMA

JAMIEWOON

WORDS NICK MURPHY

PHOTOS WWW.SHEPY.CO.UK

The Other rooms was heaving tonight, the size of the crowd more suitedto a larger venue, and no wonder. Jamie Woon has drawn more attentionsince this tour was announced, with MTV backing him as “one to watch”in 2011. Since 2005 a modest fanbase has been building and waiting forWoon to get some attention. And it looks like its finally here withthe release of his debut album Mirrorwriting, due in early April.

Support from Ghostpoet was an impressive opener to the proceedings,offering a funk-infused synth, loop and effects-drivenindie/dubstep/literally-too-many-genres-to-seperate mixup which reallywas a pleasure to witness.

Ninja-like, Jamie Woon appeared out of the audience and took to thestage. With a cheeky grin at everyone’s baffled surprise, he and hisband leapt right into their set. Woon’s use of vocal effects and loopsblends seamlessly with the live drums, creating completely faultlessfunk grooves that constantly changed and made it impossible to staystill. Dropping the singles “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Night air” earlyon in the set left a perfect gap to enjoy some new unknown (to me, atleast!) tracks, including the upcoming single “Lady Luck”. Woon keptthe fan favourite “Spirits” for his encore, blasting out a fantasticversion of the song before exiting, leaving his, quite frankly,phenomenal backing band to wrap up the end of the song, to the loudestcheers and hollers I’ve heard at this venue.

Jamie is on tour in the UK until 22nd March, but returns to the NorthEast to play Evolution Festival on Saturday 28th May.

Until then, check Jamie out at myspace.com/jamiewoon and download thefree track “Blue Truth” Now.

NOW!

Army Of The Universe – Lovedead EP Out now

Army of the Universe

Okay so lucky for me I got to have a video-call turned phone interview with Al-bert from the band Army of the Universe. I figured that since they were an up and coming band about to release their first album, I would try and find out the basics and general stuff that people would want to know about a band. Since they’d just been on a mini tour of Europe, I decided to start there.

InThePit: I know that you recently had tour dates across Europe, including a few in Italy and one in London. How did it go and was there a venue that you pre-ferred playing at?

Cool, it was interesting; the tour went really well, in Italy as well, which was re-aly weird because it (their music) doesn’t really fit with Italy’s music scene/main style of music. It was really good and we were really happy with it. London’s gig was weird because it was like it was more of a showcase than a gig, more for the music industry than the fans – which was still good because they need to hear it. We’re a new band with a new E.P and a new album. The venue didn’t do much promoting for us but it was still good.In regards to a preferred venue: Yeah, of course. The gig in Milan which is our home town was definitely the best one and we’re going to use some parts of the live video we did in Milan and we’re gonna use it for the next video, coming out with the album in May.

InThePit: Have you got a favourite song to play live?

To play live... to play live my favourite song is Goodnite. It’s the next single which is coming out with the album. It’s the most fun and I’m pretty sure my singer likes that too.InThePit: Is that from the upcoming debut album “Mother Ignorance”?Yep Goodnite is coming out with Mother Ignorance; it wasn’t on the E.P release.

InThePit: How did the band members meet? Did any of you know each other prior to starting the band?

No, not really. Myself and my singer, the band was originally just the two of us, and we met in Milan. We met in a gym actually. My singer goes to the gym every fucking day. He’s really... I mean if you look at pictures, this guy WORKS OUT. REALLY BAD. I was going to the gym just for lunch and that’s how we met. He’s a real rock singer and I’m a techno-trance DJ. We said maybe one day we could do something together and... We did.

InThePit: So I’m guessing that you’re not a fan of going to the gym then?No. Everyone goes to the gym in Milan. Not me. Creeps *haha*

InThePit: How did you come up with the band name?

Hmm. I don’t really know. I mean I was trying to find something ‘EPIC’ for the name. And ‘army’ of course is something... how would you say that... something

that scares you? (I think he meant it in an ‘intimidating’ type of scary).. And the uni-verse also because it’s such a big thing, and so I think I put together those two things. I don’t really remember. But the funny thing was it (the band’s creation)was exactly the same time as Depeche Mode were doing the tour called ‘Tour of the Universe’. But I’m TELLING YOU I thought about Army of the Universe likes months before they came out with that thing and then they did it and I was like “Shit now everyone is go-ing to use this ‘universe’ gossip”. I remember the moment when Army of the Universe came into my mind. I was in traffic in Milan and I remember the radio was on and they were speaking some crazy shit about aliens and that’s when it came into my mind.

InThePit: So there weren’t any other band names in mind at all?Not really.

InThePit: How does the band go about writing songs? Do you go into a studio or just go along with ideas?

Normally we do two different ways. Sometimes I just write some music and then I bring it to Lord my singer and then together we write the lyrics. Other times we have a concept in mind and we work off it. MOST of the time we go to the studio. Okay I have my own studio where I do all of the electronics and everything. Actually I do a lot on my laptop as well because I travel a lot, and then we go to the studio where we make the guitars and record the drums and the vocals. And I would say yeah 50% of the time we ... I do something and then I bring it to the guys and 50% we just work from a concept.

InThePit: So you’re the main lyricist?Yeah. And Lord and I sometimes write lyrics together and sometimes I write lyrics and some other times he writes lyrics for songs. We don’t have a rule.

InThePit: Are there any bands that Army of the Universe take inspiration from?

It is very difficult to say. I believe that subconsciously yes, but consciously, no.

InThePit: Is there anything exciting coming up for the band other than the release of “Mother Ignorance” in May?

Yeah! We;re planning to tour the states with the album release, so that’s really interest-ing, andthe album is going to be released by Metropolis Records in the U.S.A. And though AWOL is in Europe, but the physical distribution is going to be by metropolis. And we’ll be coming with a new video, which is the video for Goodnite, together with the album.

InThePit: Does the video for Goodnite have a theme?Goodnite is a special track. Especially for Lord my singer because he wrote the bulk of the lyrics on that one. It’s a very special track. I remember I came up with this piano riff and I gave it time and got involved with it. The track itself talks about... It’s a very intimate thing, it says a lot about his childhood I believe, and the way he missed some of his friends. It’s rather interesting.

InThePit: What can be expected from the Debut Album?

Okay compared to the EP – the album will have all of those tracks but there are going to be several mixed up. The album is going to be more different from the EP, more alternative. I’m not saying it’s not industrial on such a level, but there are tracks that are very different, but still with the same kind of concept. There’s a nice cover of “Army of Me” by Björk. And there are a couple of things from album charts. There are some melodic ones as well, like ballads, so it’s more like an album – like a serious one.

InThePit: What type of music do you personally prefer playing?

Right now I’m very into industrial. I also like, I mean I’ve always been Techno even more than trance even if I was supposed to be a trance DJ. But I’ve never liked that euphoric kinda shit. And I’m still buying lots of techno stuff, and vi-nyls. But today I’m really into industrial.

InThePit: Have you got a message for the fans?

A message for the fans... Yeah of course. I really hope that our fans are going to understand what we want to communicate through our music and album, which is called ‘Mother Ignorance’ and the meaning itself of mother ignorance – is what we want to communicate. Mother ignorance means that there is much ig-norance in this world and we want, together with our fans, to fight against igno-rance as well. I’m just telling our fans to follow us as much as they can.

WESTLIFE WORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

WESTLIFE WORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

Westlife [Gravity Tour 2011] @ Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

Well as most of you will probably have realised, the typical sort of gig we cover tends to lean more towards rock and metal. Even though I’m typically happy to attend any gig and do a review, I cringed a little when I saw this band’s name. You might just be thinking “She’s going to put her heart and soul into telling us how much she hated going to this gig and how she thought the band were terrible etc”. Well you’re in for a surprise. Westlife was possibly in my top 5 favourite gigs ever. Cringe worthy, I know, but it’s oh so true. We got fireworks and confetti, as well as miniature hot air balloons and the band sitting on a girder which got pulled along the ceiling until they were in the centre of an extremely excited floor crowd.

I went into the arena thinking of how I was going to hate every moment, considering I was front row of Block A (in front of the stage), and to be honest, as soon as I saw the flashy lights I rolled my eyes. What I didn’t expect was for the band members to be lowered from the ceiling in chairs, which cheered me up a fair bit (not because I was hoping they’d fall if that’s what anyone was thinking...).

The band started off their performance with a new song from the lat-est album called “No One’s Gonna Sleep Tonight”. I hadn’t heard this song but it was quite clear that just about everyone else had, with peo-ple screaming along and clapping to the music. I genuinely thought I was going to go deaf. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the audience ranged from fairly young children to pensioners, and that give or take, every one of them had a smile on their faces. The band used every inch of the stage whilst performing their dance routines for the first number, even standing on some of the equipment on the front of the stage.

Next up was one of their older tracks titled “When You’re Looking Like That”. This went down a treat with the audience who clearly loved the flash from the past. This song is possibly one of the band’s best known, and got the whole crowd on their feet, dancing around and chanting along. The arena had an absolutely fantastic atmosphere. No other gig that I’ve been to has had the same effect on the crowd.

We also got to hear “World of Our Own”, where we got to see a huge red and green apple on either side of the stage, as well as “What Makes a Man”. After performing these songs the band went on to ask if every-one had heard that they’d left Syco; Simon Cowell’s record label, to join with Sony. Nicky went on to say “It means that we get to release more music, but Simon Cowell has done a lot for us in the past and we’re all very grateful to him.”

The hot air balloons were ago when the band sang their hit Home, a song which was in the midst of controversy when both Westlife and Michael Bublé released it within one year of each other. A nice crowd sway and a good strong chant led this particular track to victory, making the band’s version a hell of a lot better than Bublé’s. Sorry Bublé fans!

We had a sensational group of 5 covers, starting with Viva la Vida, where the band did their first song in Mickey Mouse t-shirts with jeans, high-tops and colourful jackets. I preferred the Westlife version over the Coldplay version, it was far less serious, and they had a little dance to go with. Next up was Rihanna’s “Only Girl” - which was a bit weird to see per-formed by a guy group, but was funny and got a good mood going – not that there wasn’t already a fantastic mood! They modified the song a lit-tle bit so that it was aimed at the audience – particularly the female fans. There was lots of thrusting and dancing, but you couldn’t take them se-riously at this point. The other three covers they did were “Time of my Life” by Black Eyed Peas, which went side by side with a few techno dance moves, “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, which saw Westlife throw some Gaga-esq dance moves, and finally “I Predict a Riot” by the Kaiser Chiefs, which had some amazing pyrotechnics across the front of the stage, coming out in five prongs likes this _\|/_ “I don’t think we’ve seen this much excitement at any of our shows. It’s unbelievable.

It was Season’s in the Sun that grabbed the most attention at the gig. Wow factor doesn’t describe what Westlife did. The band did a recreation of the famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunch-ing on a Crossbeam) photograph by Charles C. Ebbets by wearing a similar type of clothing and all sitting on a girder, little did fans know that the band were planning on going up in the air on this girder and drifting into the centre of the audience. At that point I think that there were a few screaming girls wanting members Shane and Nicky to fall from the girder and into the crowd.The band’s last songs included “You Raise Me Up”, “I’m Already Here”, “I Will Reach You”, “Flying without Wings”, “What About Now”. All re-ceiving monstrous chants, as well as the more ballad-y ones having people holding up their lighters, phone lights and small pretend candles to sway along.All in all an awesome gig, as embarrassing as it was for us to go from hat-ers to lovers, we completely enjoyed ourselves. The stage show was fab, the band members were funny and did plenty of dancing and were charm-ing us the whole way through. I would most definitely go to see Westlife again, top noch gig with an amazing crowd.

Here’s a link to their website:http://www.westlife.comAnd a link to their MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/westlife

-OZ-WORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

Rather than us having a one to one interview with the members of Oz, it was organ-ized that the interviewing groups would go into a miniature press conference. Un-fortunately it meant that we didn’t get to ask all of our questions, but the interview went great anyhow. What does the music of OZ mean to you?Natsuki: The Music of OZ is like Beauty and Corruption. We play beautiful music and then the wild side of being on stage and with the fans we make this even more beautiful...We are beauty and corruption...this is what OZ is.

InThePit: You have a really hectic schedule? What do you do when you get time to relax?Natsuki: We don’t really have time to ourselves because our schedule is too tight (Tama & Zukki agreed with this).Aki: My relaxing time is when i have coffee, even if it’s just a quick cup of coffee in the morning, this is my relaxing time. Nao: I have the same as Aki, I brought miso soup and different foods over from Ja-pan and when I sit down to eat and drink this it is time for me to relax.Natsuki: I like to watch anime, I have been watching Yu Yu Hakusho *cheesy grin*.

What do you hope to achieve by the end of the tour?Natsuki: We can stay alive and healthy and get back home safely! But we will try to play the best we can before we go home.What is the biggest challenge you have had as a band? And how did you overcome it?Natsuki: The European tour has been our biggest challenge, this is our first time out of Japan and there are so many different places, so we get confused with names and places...and because we don’t have much time to ourselves this is all very difficult to understand.

InThePit: How has the tour been so far? Do you have any funny memories?Nao: We have enjoyed the tour so much. Even with a tight schedule it is very excit-ing and we very get curious about the cities and countries we visit, so we go and buy coffee ourselves just so we can use the money.Natsuki: I went to KFC yesterday in Paris; I wanted to eat chicken...One piece of chicken. I said this to the man and he didn’t understand me...I said “I want one chicken and one hot coffee” and instead I got six pieces of chicken, hot coffee and potatoes! Oh no! They didn’t understand me...Aki: Yesterday night, Nao took a shower and wanted to dry his hair...he didn’t think and plugged in the hair dryer, but there wasn’t a power converter in there, so the hair dryer just went crazy and moved around everywhere..Natsuki: Like it was dancing... Aki: and now when we try to use it, it’s just empty and dies...Nao: It was Natsuki’s hair dryer...so now he can’t use it.

Do you think there is a big difference between Japanese and European fans?Aki: European fans are much louder...They are also more excited about waiting for a long time, they show their emotions and just scream a lot more than Japanese fans do.Natsuki: The crowd is so powerful and wild! I did some stage diving at the last gig which I would never do in Japan! But they are so strong and carry me around then they bring me back when I asked them, I never normally would ever do this but they were so emotional I just jumped and let it happen!

What advice would you give to other bands that are just starting out?Nao: If people like the same kind of music and into the same things, then they can re-ally get along and make really good music out of it...and they have to get along with each other, and need to have the same passion. Zukki: They have to respect each other, we do not make decisions on our own, and if we have an idea we will ask around and compromise on the best idea.

Do you feel as though it is harder to make a connection with European fans because of the language barrier?Natsuki: We have a lot of trouble with the language when playing a show, but we always try to scan everyone in atleast the first two rows. We see how they are reacting to our music through their smiles and emotion, then use this to how we shall be play-ing to them and how to deal with the language problems.

What is your ultimate goal as a band?Tama: We want to be at the point where we can’t walk the streets anymore. We want to be stopped and surrounded, followed by people who know us because we are so famous.

InThePit: What is your favourite song to perform live?Aki: Sky highNao: Seventh Tier Natsuki: Butterfly Tama: FILMY Zukki: DETOX

Do you ever argue amongst yourselves? Or do you all tend to just get along?Aki: We have known each other like forever...since school except for Zukki, so we know all the good sides and bad sides of each other, of course there is always some-thing we don’t like at one point but we already know this and dont complain and they do not complain, so it doesn’t get us to the point of arguing. Zukki hasn’t been in the band as long but he has already got to terms with the atmosphere of the band and is really good at knowing us all already. Also since he is younger than us he creates a nice ‘younger’ atmosphere into our ‘older’ atmosphere...So we really all get along with each other.

Oz: Thank you and enjoy the show!

-Oz- [A Fact of Life Tour ~ Europe Tour 2011~] @ O2 Academy Islington, London London’s Islington Academy; infamous for hosting gigs of the many talented bands that come over to the UK from all over the world, has yet again been able to host a gig that rocks the world of the many j-rock fans of Europe. I say Europe because I know for a fact that people WILL travel for bands that are as accom-plished and as able as –Oz-. Having met the band in the small press conference before the gig, I had a feeling that this would be a memorable show. The band made the decision to embark upon their first European tour this year, and luckily it was decided that the UK would be one of the lucky countries that got to be an audience to their amazing live. They started off in Germany, on January 16th, and will finish the European tour on January 29th, in Russia. The band formed in 2004, and is made up of Natsuki; who is the vocalist, Aoi and Tama; the guitarists, Nao; the bassist and finally Zukki, the drummer. The band released their first album entitled VERSUS in September 2009, and it was released in Japan under Loop Ash Records, the band’s Japanese label, and in Europe un-der the record label CLJ Records, who they signed with that year. The band’s second studio album, Rouge, was released in Novem-ber of 2010, closely followed by their BEST2006-2010 album, which was released just 1 month later.SO! The set started off with Birthday, which was pretty quick song; so quick that I hadn’t actually realised it was a song, but in fact thought it was simply their intro for them coming onto stage. The band swiftly moved onto Rotate, which pretty much activated the crowd into a screaming fit. As well as singing of course, these fans sure have passion for their bands! The fans on the barrier were probably the first to become super active, bring-ing about a full crowd clap during the chorus. Next up we had the popular songs Shangrila and Bitter&Sweet, which kept the audience active and induced many sing-a-long choruses.

The band played a fair share of both old and new songs, which seemed to please all of the fans. I think it’s im-portant to do that because i know that sometimes when a band only plays a set geared toward newer fans, or just because they’re touring their new album, people can get a bit huffy. The band were fantastic, even when there was a little sound problem; which made the microphone screech for over a minute, the band were fantastic, Natsuki started singing Trouble by Shampoo and managed to get a full crowd chant and applause. To memory, the setlist was as follows:Birthday (Intro) Rotate Shangrila Bitter&Sweet BLAZE Zenith PLANT Pressed flower FLOOD BEAD Strings Seventh Tier FILMY Nerve[less] Protect:code Enmity, LEAD ENCORE:ATHENA Butterfly DETOX

GIRUGAMESHWORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

Girugämesh [Here We Go! World Tour 2011] @ O2 Academy Islington, London, UKWell luckily for fans of Japanese artists, we had two spectaculars touring this March, and both of them included London in their list of tour dates. The first of the two gigs was Girugämesh, a metal group who formed in 2003. The band is regarded as having music which is alternative, industrial, metalcore, metal, visual kei and rock, which is variety in its best form for someone like me. The band have been to London before and even commented that they were “We are glad to be back in London.” So here’s how the gig went!The doors opened an hour later than what they were supposed to, so a few fans were getting agitated when they couldn’t get answers as to why the doors weren’t open on time. Other than that getting into the venue went smoothly, nobody was in a panic stricken state or pushing to get in. Calmest gig I’ve been to for lack of pushing, which was a COMPLETE surprise. The band came on stage to what felt like a sold-out venue, there wasn’t much space at all, and I’m sure the photographers will have struggled to get out of the pit after the 3rd song because people just would not lose their spot. The crowd did their usual band name chant and rounds of clapping until the band came on, and when they eventually did, the people near the front were going absolutely wild. I don’t think that anyone within the first 10 rows was actually quiet. The set started off with “NOW” which is the title track and intro track to their 2009 album. As soon as the crowd started dancing and head banging, I knew that this gig was go-ing to be one of the most energetic I’d ever been to.

Next up was bit crash, which got an even bigger response from the fans. I noticed through this song that everyone between 3rd and last row was dancing insanely. Who would have thought that a metal band had fans that DANCED along? I sure didn’t. The fans were non-stop waving along to this track. There were plenty of strobes flashing which made the whole thing feel a bit like a rave. 3rd track was NO MUSIC NO REASON, and it opened with Satoshi shouting for the fans to “jump jump jump” and without fail they did as he asked. When the song finished the band got a flood of applause. Other songs we got to hear included Endless wing, Vision, BEAST, and driving time; which was fairly slow in comparison to the rest, and all of these came be-fore we heard Suiren, a track which went down the best up until that point, with a full barrier of people headbanging and the dancers toward the back STILL doing their thing. DIRTY STORY came straight after that, and somehow the crowd just didn’t lose their energy; they must have been running on pure adrenaline by now, because that room was hot! The infinite amounts of energy were keeping the rave like atmosphere going.

BORDER was up next. Lots of arms were waving throughout, and as well as most of the front fans head banging, the dancers were still a go. The atmosphere was ab-solutely amazing; it’s not every day that you go to a gig where absolutely everyone is moving. I’ve been to many gigs with flat audiences, with no excitement radiating from them. “Dance Rock Night” was another popular track. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a few people had of fainted because the heat was pretty intense and on top of that they were non-stop moving.

Then we had a song which was relatively slower than the rest, called “I think I can fly”. Lots of swaying of the crowd and plenty of arms were waving to this hit, which was followed by Shuu saying “I love UK”, which was really cute and got a round of applause, and that led into “Okay. Are you okay? Are you ready? Are you CRAZY? Are you… stupid? Okay we’re a VERY stupid team!” If you read each individual question you can just imagine the crowd’s reaction. Tonnes of screaming and a lot of yes replies, I’m sure the band will have been deaf by the end of the gig, inability to hear due to fans being so loving! Lots of stage activity in the next track which was “shining” with the whole band using the whole of the stage (bar the drummer of course!). There was a huge amount of singing to this particular track, I would say more so than pretty much most of the other songs played.

The crowd were back to their jumpy dancing selves again after a brief pause in hy-peractivity ready for “destiny” and “MISSION CODE”. During the latter of the two mentioned the drummer actually stood up and did a little dance, which was pretty amusing. “Never ending story was definitely the one of the faster tracks of the night, and by this point I was convinced that most of the crowd were go-go dancers because they just weren’t giving up.

For the encore we were treated with “Break Down”, “evolution” and “INOCHI NO KI”. Break Down is a personal favourite so I was super happy when I heard it, and so were the crowd. Bassist Shuu put on some flashing glasses which looked awesome. I’m sure the fans would have happily bought some at the merch stand if there were any…

After “Break Down”, vocalist Satoshi made a little speech. “Please help our people and our land. We need your strength and love”, which was in regards to donating towards the Japanese tsunami and earthquake victims. “evolution” was a fairly slow song, and got hardly any movement from the crowd. There was plenty or swaying along and waving of arms though.

“Arigato. I promise we will be back! See you next time!” were the finishing words, said by Satoshi to end the gig.

Fantastic gig. The amount of energy the fans had is just immense. I hope that the next few gigs I go to are just as good because this gig is at the top along with a few others.

Okay so for those of you who would like to know, and don’t want to reread the whole review, the full setlist was as follows:

1. NOW 2. bit crash 3. NO MUSIC NO REASON 4. Endless wing 5. Vision 6. BEAST 7. driving time 8. Suiren 9. DIRTY STORY 10. BORDER 11. Dance Rock Night 12. I think I can fly 13. shining 14. destiny 15. MISSION CODE 16. Never ending story Encore:Break Down evolution INOCHI NO KI

Here’s a link to the band’s personal website, the English version and their MySpace link just below!:www.girugamesh.jpwww.girugamesh.jp/englishwww.myspace.com/girugamesh

MIYAVIWORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

MIYAVIWORDS CHANTELLE JADE BURNSPHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

-MIYAVI- [What’s My Name World Tour 2011] @ HMV Forum, Kentish Town, London, UKApproximately 1 year, 5 months, 1 week and 5 days. That’s how long Miyavi fans have had to wait to see him live since he was here on his Neo Tokyo Samurai Black tour in 2009. You can tell that the fans were eager; the fan at the front of the queue, Charlotte, actually waited from 4:00am. You have to hand it to these fans; they’re su-per dedicated to their beloved artists. I met two fans who came all the way from Israel just to see this talented artist. After his career of being guitarist in the band Dué le Quartz, Miyavi became one of the most success-ful solo artists in Japan, as well as joining fellow artists Yoshiki, Gakct and Sugizo to form the band S.K.I.N. I would say that Miyavi’s music styling cannot be categorized because of how diverse he is. He plays pop, rock, hip-hop and blues. I’m sure he will have covered other music genres but I won’t give too much away, I’m hoping that those of you who don’t know him can check him out, and discover the awesomeness that is Miyavi. I think a lot of people would ‘love at first listen’. Doors opened at 7:00pm and the fans pushed and shoved to get through the door in order to get their favoured spots in the venue. Unfortunately for those who were at the front of the regular queue and had waited for a fair few hours to get a good spot, the people who had bought V.I.P tickets were granted early entry, so most of them were 2/3 rows away from the barrier. Miyavi didn’t actually come on stage until 9:00, so fans were getting a little agitated when they were doing chants and not getting a response. Miyavi came on before his drummer Bobo, and the response he got from ascending the stage was the whole venue to screaming and clapping. He didn’t waste any time and got straight into the opening song, which was “What’s My Name”, the title track from his latest album and the title of his tour (if you didn’t read that in the title of the review of course). The crowd were going wild for this song, there were some crazy dancers toward the back; kudos to them, pretty brave throwing the moves that they were, and just about the whole crowd sang along with this catchy track. I love it when a crowd has a positive atmosphere! Next up we had “Universe” which is another track from Miyavi’s latest album, but this song I hadn’t heard prior to the gig, so I was happy to get a listen. Of course, yet again crowd were pretty energetic and going into gig mode – lots of jumping, clap-ping and screaming. It didn’t seem to go down as well as the opening song but maybe that was just because it wasn’t as upbeat and easy to dance along to. After that we had “Survive”, which was followed by 2 brand new songs, so new that the Live CD from the night didn’t actually have the tracks listed with names, they were just put under “Untitled 1#” and “Untitled 2#”. I later found out that these songs are called “Hell No” and “Chase”. Both were performed really well and were easy for the crowd to move to, particularly the latter of the two. This was probably my favourite track of the night, just because it sounded quite different to the older stuff that Miyavi produced. Although “Chase” was a new song, people were still able to catch onto how it went and head bang along.

‘Even though we are recording tonight, unfortunately my voice is dead, so I want you guys to sing along with me to this one okay.’ -Miyavi

I think that the song that got the best response was the song that was 12th in the set, and it was ‘We Love you ~Sekai wa kimi wo aishiteru~”. Before playing the song, Miyavi said:

“Even though we are recording tonight, unfortunately my voice is dead, so I want you guys to sing along with me to this one okay. I’m not sure you guys know the lyr-ics though.” This of course got the crowd going. As soon as he started the song the whole crowd was clapping and screaming, and all the way through he got clapping. All of the way through you can hear people singing, especially in the chorus. I love the passion you see when at a Miyavi gig. The fans show a huge amount of adoration towards him and they respect him as an artist.

Two of the tracks I was happy to hear played were “Are You Ready to Rock” and “Subarashikikana, kono sekai - What A Wonderful World”. If you aren’t familiar with Miyavi, these are probably some of the first songs you’ll find. You can best hear his ‘slapping’ technique which is usually used on bass in Are You Ready to Rock. The two tracks are super in my opinion, and they got a phenomenal reception from the fans at the gig.

The gig itself; Miyavi is always fantastic on stage, and we all absolutely love his lit-tle English speeches. He always performs well, and as those of you who were there will have noticed, even with a bad throat, he can still perform his music to a fine standard. I would recommend that anyone who can get tickets, should, because it’s not worth missing out on.

The full setlist was as follows: 1. WHAT’S MY NAME? 2. UNIVERSE 3. SURVIVE 4. Hell No 5. CHASE6. CHILLIN’ CHILLIN’ MONEY BLUE$ 7. I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, AND I HATE YOU. 8. GRAVITY 9. JUSTICE 10. SHELTER 11. MOON 12. We Love You ~Sekai wa kimi wo aishiteru~ 13. TORTURE 14. S.M.F.B. 15. R U READY TO ROCK? 16. FUTIRISTIC LOVE Encore:17. Subarashiki kana, kono sekai -WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD- 18. SURVIVE

Here’s a link to his website: www.myv382tokyo.com

YouMeAtSixWORDS LENNY RIMSPOKE

PHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

YouMeAtSixWORDS LENNY RIMSPOKE

PHOTOS CHRISTEENY.COM

You Me At Six are one of those bands that have exploded onto the scene in a short space of time, but have this uncanny knack of keeping their notoriety. Their latest offering Hold Me Down, has had them touring extensively in the UK far and wide, on the Vans Warped Tour and even Australia. Tonight, we were treat to their final gig in this tour, before they start work on the next album.

The first thing that was clearly noticeable, one the curtain had dropped, was the tremendous stage set. A 6 foot high drum riser with side plat-forms was impressive, and the light show was to die for.

Opening with ‘The Consequence’ the tried and true ‘Save it for the Bed-room’, the Surrey group had their fans where they wanted them from the get go. The place was absolutely bouncing (and with the notoriously flexible floors at the Academy, literally!). The band had a great powerful sound, throwing shapes and churning out the delightful choppy grooves, with frontman Josh (looking like Alex Zane crossed with a lumberjack) enticing the fans to cause as much mayhem as possible. His voice was on top form too. His dry, lightly raspy and comforting tone cut through the barrage of sound from the whole band nicely.

One thing about this band is clear, the songs are what carries the band, isn’t that’s what it’s supposed to be like? Fave songs of the night include Safer to Hate Her, Hard to Swallow, Liquid Confidence, Underdog and the uplifting yet haunting ‘Stay With Me’ (Yet was ruined a little by in-viting the frontman from supporting band Canterbury to sing additional vocals, yeuk!).

We cannot wait for their next release and tour, if they improve from to-night’s gig, they will be pushing aside the longer serving UK pop-rock bands. And they sure are going to give pop-rock veterans Blink -182 a run for their money when they support them on their UK leg of their upcoming tour.

“I’ve got real big plans and such bad thoughts” LRObse vivirideor atum re consime inu estiu veniricidem hos Maris, man-duc re ium in num ment.Vast ad sente te, nos, vestrum ercerceriti, tiliam firmihilis esessi iamq-uam perisquem rebuntiam elus, simaiorum sillerem dius vidi sendet ave, noccit; nondam pere convero tem rebus audenatui factum re re foractus; idina, condit, quonsunum se con ta L. M. Halesim aximod fur locrei pe-rum sideps, caverit, demus bonsulegin sena auctum teres

ARCITE

ARCITE WORDS NICK MURPHY

PHOTOS JAY DAWSON

Nick: How’s it going?

John: pretty good! Stoked for tonight, should be good!

Nick: Have you noticed anything interesting going on in [headliners] GOTK’s dressing room? Anything good on their rider?

John: We’ve hardly seen them, they haven’t really been talking to anyone, they’re being rock stars, keeping themselves to themselves.

Matthew: We asked for some ladyboys, but we got told we weren’t allowed.

Nick: I had a little look on your website, how did you guys meet?

Martin: We all played in different bands in the same kinda circuit round Newcastle. James and Matthew used to be in a band together.

Jonathan: Carl’s just recently joined us from Convolution.

Nick: So how long have to been together as a band?

James: two and a half years, the first year or so was basically us meeting up, writing music, it wasn’t until about a year later we started gigging. Getting everything down and tight.

Nick: What would you say was the favourite band you’ve supported as Ar-cite?

Matthew: in terms of the music they play or their craic?

Nick: umm, probably for the craic?

Jonathan: I’d say probably Terrathorn and Circle of rage, on tour, the craic there was immense! But when it comes down to music I enjoyed supporting Viatrophy, that was really cool. I was gutted when they split up. It was good that we had a chance to play with them before they parted ways.

Martin: Crowbar were sick as well...

James: And Eradication, they’ve just signed to Siege Of Amida Records, they’re awesome.

Nick: How’s it going?

John: pretty good! Stoked for tonight, should be good!

Nick: Have you noticed anything interesting going on in [headliners] GOTK’s dressing room? Anything good on their rider?

John: We’ve hardly seen them, they haven’t really been talking to anyone, they’re being rock stars, keeping themselves to themselves.

Matthew: We asked for some ladyboys, but we got told we weren’t allowed.

Nick: I had a little look on your website, how did you guys meet?

Martin: We all played in different bands in the same kinda circuit round Newcastle. James and Matthew used to be in a band together.

Jonathan: Carl’s just recently joined us from Convolution.

Nick: So how long have to been together as a band?

James: two and a half years, the first year or so was basically us meeting up, writing music, it wasn’t until about a year later we started gigging. Getting everything down and tight.

Nick: What would you say was the favourite band you’ve supported as Ar-cite?

Matthew: in terms of the music they play or their craic?

Nick: umm, probably for the craic?

Jonathan: I’d say probably Terrathorn and Circle of rage, on tour, the craic there was immense! But when it comes down to music I enjoyed supporting Viatrophy, that was really cool. I was gutted when they split up. It was good that we had a chance to play with them before they parted ways.

Martin: Crowbar were sick as well...

James: And Eradication, they’ve just signed to Siege Of Amida Records, they’re awesome.

Nick: If you could tour with any band who would you want-

Matthew: Machinehead!

Nick: job done!

Jonathon: um, Britney Spears and Rebecca Black

Matthew: Taylor Swift, as long as I could share a tour bus with her!

Nick: What would you say was the worst gigging experience?

Matthew: Definitely The White Rooms in Sunderland!

Whole band: OH GOD!!!

Matthew: we got drafted into playing this bank holiday all-dayer. The place was canny full so we thought “oh this’ll be alright” then we saw the drumkit. It was like a drumkit from the 1920s.

Jonathon: Held together with selotape

Matthew: there were no legs on the kick drum so it was just a rolling barrel.

Martin: The snare stand was held together with gaffer tape or something.

Matthew: There was one band who had the snare wiggling around, holding it between his knees. One of the bands supplying one of the cabs fucked off... how did we sort that out?

James: We ended up having to use this tiny little combo thing it was about 15 watts, with a distortion button on it. When it cut to just my guitar parts, the vol-ume just dropped. It was all over the place.

Martin: The bassist had to put his foot on the kick drum the whole time to stop it from rolling away. We ended up playing to five middle-aged piss-heads who were just happy that the pub was open on a bank holiday.

James: One random chick, she totally digged us, she was about 40, she loved us.

Jonathon: she was fuckin’ mortal, though!

Nick: What is the biggest animal you could knack in a fight?

Martin: The biggest? A dragon. We knacked them all. That’s why they’re con-sidered mythical. We killed all of the dragons.

Jonathon: I’d say a mammoth, probably

Carl: A green tiger. They’re very rare.

Martin: is that not just the time you broke into London Zoo with a pot of green paint?

Jonathon: and a packet of six condoms.

Carl: It was a good night, like.

Nick: So I read that you’re going to be recording the new EP soon?

James: Beginning of May, yeah.

Nick: Are you going to be video blogging it again?

James: yeah hopefully.

Jonathan: with the last one we didn’t get most of the footage out be-cause someone lost the footage, not pointing any fingers...

Martin: IT WAS MEE!

James: It was a malfunction with the laptop.

Matthew: “oh no, my laptop just erased everything...these things hap-pen!”

Nick: So once the Eps all recorded, what’s on the cards for you guys?

James: Just promote the hell out of it, get back on the road. Just travel as far as we can get. Bigger shows hopefully. Bigger everything.

-NM

After the fizzy pop punk of openers Ink, a far more burly band strode onto the stage in the form of Local metalcore monsters Arcite. Armed with new bassist, Convolution’s Carl Dunn, Arcite tore into their set with riff-heavy nuggets of brutal metal like the pounding In Taylor’s Eyes and relentless Your Killer Smile. Never once stepping back and taking a breather, the Arcite boys know how to blast out a tune and im-pressed a young crowd probably more used to the tamer side of mod-ern metal. Catch Arcite again at Trillians with Dead Lay Waiting, 20th April. -NM

GOTKWORDS NICK MURPHYPHOTOS JAY DAWSON

Glamour Of The Kill

Headliners Glamour Of The Kill clearly know a thing or two about youthful anthemic metal. The tattooed rockers charged the audience into a frenzy, prompting a Wall Of Death and a real, genuine circle pit, not the take-turns-swingy-arms dancing that kids today seem to love. We're talking spinny runny bashy pit action! With the naysaying hecklers put in their place by perfectly timed put-downs. GOTK got on with handing Academy 2's collective asses to them

THE SWELLERSIMAGES/INTERVIEW/REVIEW - KASSY HARRIS

Interview with Jonathan Diener and Anto Boros from The Swellers.Northumbria University 7th April 2011

Kassy - Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Jonathan - No problem

Anto - Our pleasure!

Kassy - So, how is your tour going so far?

Jonathan - It’s been really good. It’s actually funny thinking about the last tour we did, with Young Guns because we missed the first show due to airline trou-bles, they cancelled four shows, and it was just like a blizzard everyday, y’know, terrible weather. And this time it’s been perfect, literally everything on this tour has been perfect, all the bands are super nice we’re having a great time and all the shows are sold out.

Anto - And there’s no snow, when we were in Edinburgh we couldn’t enjoy it cause we were so angry, well not angry, bummed out, cause there was so much slush and our jeans were getting soaked, and then when we were there yesterday we were like “holy shit, this place is beautiful, like I don’t think we’ve ever been here” and then Kirk’s like ‘oh yeah we were definitely here’...

Kassy - Do you have a set play list or does is change every place you go?

Jonathan - We just use the same set, make sure everything’s solid. It is fun ‘cause everything is 45 minutes an hour away from each other, some kids tend to come to several shows and other people think that’s completely insane for some reason but in the states every show is like 5-10 hours away so you could do the whole set everyday for like a year and no one would notice.

Kassy - Where’s been your favourite place to tour so far (in general)?

Anto - I dunno, like, Europe and the UK is always awesome, considering we’re from North America, we’ve done the run of North America intensively for years now so coming overseas has been really cool.

Jonathan - And it’s weird how frequently we’ve been coming, this is our 4th time overseas, this year. In 2006 it was just Nick and I and the band, and we went to Japan and that was our all time favourite place. But it was one of those things like where it was too much too early, I always tell people the story that I went to Tokyo before I went to New York City. That was such a crazy experience, and this year we’re going to Australia which is gonna be awesome.we just enjoy so many places we kinda just wanna do the whole world now, thats the next part.

Kassy - What about any bands you’ve managed to tour with that you’ve really wanted to?

Anto - It was crazy touring with Less Than Jake. Same kinda deal, grew up lis-tening to them and being like “all right this is the coolest” we actually did a... how long was that tour? like a month?

Jonathan - Yeah

Anto - Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Jonathan - Motion City Soundtrack was the coolest.

Anto - Yeah

Jonathan - It was actually funny cause I always liked some of their songs y’know fairly familiar with them. During that tour I became a huge fan of them they’re probably in like my top 20 favourite bands of all time. I think the best thing about not only liking a band as you’re growing up, but when you meet them and they’re actually awesome that just makes them twice as good.

Kassy - Are there any other bands you’d like to tour with?

Jonathan - ah, I think my life goal would be touring with the Foo Fighters I think that would be the craziest thing ever, just cause I saw them when I was like 11 or 12 years old it was like them and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in this huge arena in Michigan.

Anto - I want to tour with Blink.

Jonathan - Yeah, Blink 182, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World the bands we all grew up with. Out of the bands we grew up with, those are the bands we idolise most.

Kassy - What is the background of the name choice ‘The Swellers’?

Jonathan - Uh... literally it was just, I think... well, almost 9 years ago now, Nick, my brother, me and our friend Nate, we started this band and we were just sitting in our kitchen together and we’re like ‘we gotta think of something really cool’ Nick’s thinking ‘I dunno, The Swellers’ and I said ‘is that another band name?’ ‘no’ - ‘OK cool’ and that was literally it, no meaning, no nothing. and uh... we didn’t think we’d be together for 9 years kinda just stuck at our fan base group and yeah so now we have a really weird meaningless band name. but that’s why our music is cool because that’s the part people should talk about.

Kassy - The photo on the album Ups and Down sizing is pretty incredible, where is that?

Jonathan - it’s in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. There’s this amusement park called Lincoln Park and it closed down a long time ago and we had all these weird connec-tions with ups and downs and well, there’s even a part of the song about rollarcoast-ers and we were like ‘ok how about we kinda combined it all’ and we sent one of our friends down to take pictures of the place, and i guess that week, one of the rollar-coasters completely collapsed, which is crazy timing, but we found people online who actually had pictures from before, of the amusement park, and we sent it to the people on our label and they edited it together and it made like one consistent theme, it was really cool.

Kassy - I’ve only managed to find one album online to listen to, Ups and Down sizing, on spotify, in your opinion how much do you think your music has changed from your first album to this one?

Jonathan - It’s changed a lot when we started we were... what’s the word i’m looking for... we had sporadic musical tastes, we loved bands that were on like Drive Thru Records we also liked bands like Screeching Weasel so we liked all this different kinds of punk rock music so every song was completely different and didn’t really make sense and then over the years we started to become more consistent in our songs, better for live settings and recording.And now I think we have, even more so than Ups and Down sizing, the new record we just recorded that’s coming out this summer, it’s very, very... whack orientated as opposed to fast punk rock or things like that, so we’re trying to just make things, we’re focusing on melody and being catchy and that’s the no. 1 thing for us right now.

Kassy - What album, or songs, are you most proud of?

Anto - The one that we just did. You haven’t heard any of that yet, no one has.

Jonathan - It’s a secret

Anto - I’m very incredibly proud of that record and can’t wait to release it and give all the details. I think that will be my little baby, right Johnathon?

Jonathan - Yeah, it’ll be your little baby. Yeah, um.. I think as for other songs, some songs that really stand out for me are... a song called Feet First, which is about dealing with suicide and Nick and I watched a Movie, or Documentary, called The Bridge and it’s about, 29 people have committed suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco in California and there’s actually stock footage from the security cameras of them jumping off and in the Documentary it talked about their life grow-ing up and it lead to the point where they jumped off, and they kinda explored why people do that and, y’know, what their reasoning is. One of the people landed feet first and they survived, so that’s what the song is about. There are some songs that have this really... y’know... this message that’s so much bigger than our band is, but so many people can relate to it.

Kassy - As you were growing up, or as a band, what bands inspired you along the way?

Jonathan - It’s actually be a wide array of bands, some bands from Fat Wreck Chords, Epitaph, punk rock from like California, y’know like the fast punk rock that a lot of people grew up with. Bands like Decendants and then kinda mixed up with other influences we had like Weezer is one of our all time favourite bands. Bands like Get up Kids, Save the Day, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters and yeah, just all over the place.

Kassy - Have you ever collaborated, with other people writing songs and stuff?

Jonathan - It’s just always been us. We’re the only ones on our records, we’re the only ones who write our songs, and that’s how we want it to stay. We want our music to just speak for it’s self.

Kassy - Who mainly writes the songs?

Jonathan - Nick and I. It’s been weird cause over the years Nick used to write everything and then I chipped in with the lyrics I dabble on guitar now so i can play really simple stuff, and I show it to him and he does like Eddie Van Halen stuff over that and I’m like ‘Alright that’s cool’.

Kassy - What do you normally do when you aren’t playing music or touring?

Anto - I work. I’m an Electrician back home, and I hang out with my family and my friends.

Jonathan - And we don’t work. It’s weird we had like 3 months off and we were like “oh man this is gonna be a breeze” and then...

Kassy - Bet you didn’t know what to do.

Jonathan - Well we had to write the new record. At first we thought like once a week we’ll have band practice and then all the stress started coming in and pressure. And on top of that I was like “oh yeah, I have to pay rent, this sucks”. My hobby was like selling old bad t-shirts we had in the basement to make money for the band obviously and finding old junk parts I had lying round the house so thats cool, super exciting.

Kassy - When you’s were little what did you want to be, job wise?

Jonathan - I wanted to be a Dolphin Trainer and then I started swimming a lot and kinda got turned off by that. Then I wanted to be a Battletoad like from the video games. Then I took a picture of me wearing sunglasses and flexing and my dad showed it to me and I started to crying cause I didn’t look like the Battletoad i wanted to, and I lost my imagination that day.

Anto - I wanted to be a gas station attendant were you pump gas cause I loved the smell of gaso-line, then I wanted to become a wrestler and then I wanted to become a musician so I’m doing the musician thing now. I’m gonna pretty much do what Chris Jericho did, in reverse. He became a wrestler then a rock star, i’m gonna be a band guy then turn into a wrestler.

Kassy - are you creative in any other ways?

Jonathan - No

Anto - I can drawJonathan - yeah Anto can draw really well. He’s also a good electrician.Anto - I editJonathan - He can Edit movies. My thing is when it come to album art work, I wont say I’m the creative side, cause I’m not. I come up with really weird ideas for stuff and write it down and be like yeah thats cool, and have people go ‘no it’s not’. I try to just think of themes for things or kinda the visual side of things and I’m into the whole music industry with all that stuff going on, so a lot of my friends.. we just talk about how music sucks now.Kassy - Thank you for your time.

The Swellers were performing on 7th April at Northumbria University in Newcastle.Standing in the queue, waiting for the doors to open, i was wondering what that night was going to be like. The doors were late in opening by half an hour, which upped the anticipation. I’d never been to a punk rock gig before so i wasn’t sure what to expect from the bands as well as the audience. The Swellers were preceded by Hydro Da Hero, which to my surprise were a rap group with a dash of traditional rock instruments. This was a very entertaining opener getting the audience ready for the main acts. I really enjoyed Hydro Da Hero, having never actually seen a Rap gig live. The crowed was hyped and warmed up, ready for The Swellers, up second at around 9pm, to take the stage to then open for The Black-out.The stage was set up with The Blackout’s ‘Hope’ banner hung up at the back. The lighting was good but no particular special effects. Just standard red blue green and white lighting. The crowd went wild as The Swellers opened with the song Do You Feel Better Yet? which is track 6 on their 2009 album Ups and Downsizing.There wasn’t too much stage banter, it was more about the music, although, they would introduce the songs. For most of the Set they continued to play songs from the Ups and Downsizing album, however, three quarters of the way through they played Bot-tles from their 2007 album My Everest and The Best I Ever Had from their new album Good For Me, soon to be released on June 14th 2011, which got a great reaction from their long time fans and the rest of the crowd. The band gave a great show, really en-joying performing. everyone was energetic during the performance and really enjoyed themselves, umping around and just having so much funUpon closing, the band finished off with, the opening track from Ups and Downsizing, 2009.It’s great to see fans coming together and sharing a hall with their favourite band. it’s a really special experience to share that with them. I’d never really heard of them before, but i had made sure i listened to at least a couple of songs before i was to interview and review them. It’s always really strange going to see a band you’re not very familiar with as you’re never sure what to expect and you don’t know if you’ll even like them, so it was great that i actually quite enjoyed them they were quite fun and good performers. The sound was great, nice and clear, so the music was just brilliant.I think it was a very successful show It wasn’t the best show i’d ever seen but i did really enjoy it. I don’t think i could think of anything that would’ve improved the gig, The Swellers gave a great performance, they played some good songs, two of which i hadn’t heard before. It had a brilliant turn out there was loads of people, the venue was packed as the show was sold out. It was a pretty good venue, not as big as a lot of the venue’s around Newcastle but it’s not tiny and cramped.

All in all, it was a pretty good gig and a really great night.

Set list:Do You Feel Better Yet?Welcome Back RidersSleepersFeet FirstBottlesThe Best I Ever HadFire Away2009

BECCY OWENIMAGES/INTERVIEW/REVIEW - KASSY HARRIS

BECCY OWENIMAGES/INTERVIEW/REVIEW - KASSY HARRIS

Interview with Beccy Owen - 16th April 2011 Star and Shadow Cinema Gig.

So how are you? Excited for tonight’s gig?

Beccy - Yeah, i’m alright... i’m good. Had a quite busy week so will be nice to play and sing. Are there any new songs in the making?

Beccy - Yeah, there’s a few. I’m playing some new stuff tonight, fairly new stuff. I’ve been writing a lot of poetry, so haven’t written many new songs lately and I’m in the mid-dle of moving house so I haven’t had the chance. But I’m gonna be getting a new, real, piano soon which I haven’t had for... God.. 10 years. Yeah, I’ve been feeling quite bereft not having one. It’ll be nice to be able to touch real piano keys instead of plastic ones. so I can feel there’s a more creative time approaching.

Are you creative in any other ways?

beccy, Yeah, I think so. I’ve always been more into making things than doing anything else re-ally. I’m one of those people where if I’m not engaged in making something I start to feel quite anxious. It helps me keep some sense of mental stability. But yeah, I think everyone’s creative really. I think i’m quite lucky cause I get the time and space to do that without having too serious a job, and I haven’t got any kids so I think that helps. I’ve been making cartoons lately, I’ve been drawing little cartoons for my boyfriend. But I’d like to get better at drawing... Cooking... I’m cooking a lot at the moment... Yeah, I’m creative. I make soup.

What do you usually do when you aren’t writing songs and music, and being creative in general?

Beccy - Oh, I watch a lot of crap telly, watch films, listen to a lot of music, go for walks, con-template completely different lives that I could be living.

Have you ever travelled out of the UK to play a gig?

Beccy - No, not much. I’ve done a gig in Spain, a charity gig. Done a gig in New York... That was it really they were both good experiences... Good people. good times..

Are there any places you’d like to go to do a gig?

Beccy - Yeah, I think my band are playing Canada at the end of the year and I’ve always wanted to play Canada. We’ve been invited to play North by North East, we’re just trying to et some funding to do that.I’d like to do a proper European train tour. Need to work out how to invent a piano you can carry on a train, and then I’m there!

What’s the weirdest source of inspiration you’ve had for writing a song ?

Beccy - Erm... Two things spring to mind. One is, I kept my dog’s baby teeth in a jar, from a dog I’ve lost actually. And I started thinking about the things we keep, like hair people keep locket’s of hair. And in some ways if you’re still alive in the world, the pair of you, if you

give someone something and they do something with it like put it in a locket or keep it in a jar, that’s quite important to the giver, like a part of them that’s been given away. I wrote a song called Tiger Lily about someone who’s been usurped by another person in a relationship, and there’s a line in it that goes “he gave my baby teeth away and replaced them in the jar with her hair” and that’s quite weird and every time that like comes up in the song I’m like “what?” but I think I know what it’s about now it’s taken me a while. And the other one was watching a programme about a village tribe in Peru who ritualistical-ly kill goats and watching this goat being sacrificed I wrote a song off the back of that, not because I was enjoying it, it was just cause it was such an open way of living and they were just so clear about what they believed.

What was that song?

Beccy - I wrote Flower off the back of that. No idea why. There were lots of children in the film and it was the children who were taking the goat and doing the deed. It just made me think of childhood really. Children can be very cruel but not always in a way they can be judged for.

When you were little, what sort of jobs did you want to do or what did you want to be when you grew up?

Beccy - When I was about 7 I used to tell people I wanted to be and Orthodontist, because I’d learnt that word, and I liked that word and I liked to show off that I knew it.and then I’ve never really known to be honest, I wanted to be everything. When I went to uni I studied 5 or 6 different subjects in combined studies cause I couldn’t make up my mind. Still a bit like that now

Who are your favourite bands or solo artists?

Beccy - I’m into a lot of music that is new to me at the moment. I’ve just moved to Leeds with a guy who,s really into music and knows lots of bands I don’t know. At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Battles, I just think they’re ace. Nina Simone I’m still listening to loads of. Oh the new Bright Eyes album I’m really enjoying, Animal Collective, The Joy Formidable are my favour-ite band at the moment... Kind of like the Cocteau Twins but a bit more Shoegazey. And I’ve just started getting into Sufjan Stevens.

Are you lucky enough to have a job related to music?

Beccy - Yeah, I think my job is music really. I do more education and community work than I do gigs or recording work. Yeah, I do a lot of community music, lot of schools work. I do a lot of working with teachers and a lot of other professionals in music over the past few years. So yeah I am lucky enough to have a job related to music at the moment, that might change.

Do you often collaborate with other people and if so who?

Beccy - I work with my band, Sharks Took The Rest. I’ve worked with Richard Dawson in the past, I used to write with John Egdall who’s playing tonight. Nev Clay and I worked together Mark Oliver and I have played. Everyone at this gig I’ve worked with. I have collaborated with lots and lots of people in the past loads and loads, dozens and dozens,

hundreds of people probably and not always on my stuff, various projects. I like working with other people.

What’s been your favourite venue to gig at?

Beccy - Favourite venue to gig at? Hmmm that’s really hard.

Maybe one you go to all the time or...?

beccy - The Cumberland Arms is lovely, I’ve had some amazing gigs at the Cum-berland I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve played so many different places now. There was a venue on the Bellowhead tour, I’m trying to think, that was really nice... What was it...? It was in Cambridge... No can’t remember... I’m looking forward to playing here, I’ve never played at the Star And Shadow before.

How has your music evolved since you first started playing?

Beccy - I have absolutely no idea how to answer that. If I tried to answer that I’d be bullshitting and saying things I thought were true but won’t have a clue if they are or not.

Do you have a set play list?

Beccy - No, not at all. I’m totally driven by emotion, generally, in my life, so I go with what I feel like. and also what I feel like I’m gonna be able to play and real-ly feel and it feels true today. That sounds like quite a pretentious answer. I have had set play lists in the past but to be completely honest there’s quite a few songs I’m really bored of now.

Beccy Owen is a solo artist and in a band. You can check out her pages here:www.beccyowenmusic.comwww.sharkstooktherest.com

Beccy Owen is a singer/song writer who performs both solo and with her band, Sharks Took The Rest. She has been based in Newcastle upon tyne for a long time now but is currently in the process of moving to Leeds. I first became aware of Beccy in 2008 when a friend told me about her. As soon as I was able to get online, I found her Myspace page and started listening to what music she had up. ‘Flower’ was the first song I listened to and instantly fell in love with it. After that song I looked to see if she was gigging anywhere local, and it just so hap-pened that later that month she had an album launch in Newcastle.It was during her Down With Gravity album launch in October 2008, at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, that I truly fell in love with her music, being completely sur-rounded by the sound of such wonderful vocals and melodic piano music. From then on she became one of the most influential musicians in my life, being one of the most played artists in my music collection, healing sad times, brightening dark days, and just generally cheering up.There are two albums by Beccy, one of her earlier work The Singer Kicks and Down With Gravity.Down with gravity, I feel is a bit darker, in comparison to The Singer Kicks, with more darker sounding music, and a bit of a folky and nautical theme to it. The Singer Kicks has a more Summery light feel to it but with lyrics of a personal nature.Beccy has a range of songs that are all different, no two songs sound the same. I like pretty much all of the songs on each album. Yeah, there are a couple of songs that i don’t like as much as others. I don’t really have one favourite song of Beccy’s, I have several. Beccy’s songs are truly beautiful, and i never tire of hearing them. Although Beccy Owen’s Albums are wonderful, they do her no justice to her live per-formances. When Beccy sings live, she sings with her heart and soul. She sings songs based on how she’s feeling that particular night. She doesn’t have a set playlist, so it’s always great to get to as many live gigs as you can as she plays different songs at dif-ferent gigs.Not only is she a brilliant singer and talented musician, she has a lovely nature too and is really nice to talk to. When performing her live work, both solo and in her band, she always interacts with her audience and has a good chat between songs, however, during her solo gigs the atmosphere is much more intimate making sure eve-ryone is alright and making some little comments that always get people chuckleing .Beccy is well worth listening to and attending a gig of hers, she has a wonderful talent that not many artists these days could even come close to, what she sings is true and meaningful and carry messages and experiences and feeling that most people can re-late to, not only that but she has some pretty quirky lyrics to that when she sings live, always get a chuckle.There are a few places to check out her work. For Sharks Took The Rest you can fol-low these links -http://www.sharkstooktherest.com/http://sharkstooktherest.bandcamp.com/http://www.myspace.com/sharkstooktheresthttp://www.facebook.com/sharkstooktherestThey have just added their recently released album to spotifyhttp://open.spotify.com/album/2cPYeYzPecxs2RsUkseTgUFor more info and music from Beccy as a Solo artist - http://www.myspace.com/beccyowenhttp://www.beccyowenmusic.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/beccy-owen/31564107347

And for her song blog - http://www.facebook.com/pages/beccy-owen/31564107347