RON TRENT is a master of house whowas destined to make his mark on music.Tomorrow sees the DJ return toLondon, performing all night for UKpromoter Need2Soul at Brixton’s Plan B.Raised in Chicago, his father was a DJand record distributor.Trent created his first track, AlteredStates, when he was 14 and it went on tobecome a legendary title among thedance music community.While Chicago, with its emerging housescene, provided the musical inspiration, a

relocation to New York in 2007established him as a producer and DJ.Trent co-founded Prescription Recordswith fellow Chicago veteran Chez Damiermore than 20 years ago.The deep house genre for whichPrescription was known has been blownwide open and is a bone of contention forproducers such as Trent.He said: “Deep House was a term weused to describe a vibe, in particular onewe related to classics Frankie Knucklesand Ron Hardy would play. Now, others

have decided to take it upon themselvesto redefine the term and apply it to musicthat has no relation to the original ethos.”He added: “A new type of music popsup every week it seems. I study trendsbut I’m not into fads.”l Head to thesun.co.uk/clubz toread an extended Ron Trent featureand listen to exclusive mixes fromhim and Spektre, plus more fromJay Shepheard, Storm Queen,Toyboy & Robin and the LondonElectronic Arts Festival.

NEW MUSIC

ROCKSMITH 2014PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac. From£39.99

FOOTBALL MANAGERPC, £28

WHO: Jen Ewan (vocals/gui-tar), Lewis Scott Diamond(guitar), Martin Beer (bass),Stuart ‘Pockets’ Crout (drums/vocals)WHERE: EdinburghFOR FANS OF: Nina Nesbitt,Mumford & Sons, HaimJIM SAYS: I was along atEdinburgh’s Usher Hall yeste-day presenting Megan D withthe One To Watch Award atthe Radio Forth Awards.Although the young singer-

songwriter claimed the prize itwas a tricky call to make, withthe standard higher than ever.Lining up alongside Megan

were Georgia Gordon, TheFuture Capital, Mad Tangoand Jen and the Gents.The event was a reminder

that Edinburgh is fast comingout of Glasgow’s shadow as ahotbed for musical talent.Jen and the Gents in partic-

ular are a band I’ve beenkeeping an eye on for a while.With their mix of folk, pop

and rock, their debut albumPortobello is a cracker.After a low-key release last

year, it now comes out offi-cially on Wednesday with alaunch gig at The VoodooRooms in the capital.Though formed in Edin-

burgh, the band’s personnelhail from across Scotland.Led by Ayrshire singer-song-

writer Jen Ewan, they can reg-ularly be spotted busking,especially during The Fringe.And switching with ease

from acoustic to electric sets,they seem able to adapt toany set-up. Jen says: “Busk-ing tends to be more acoustic.But when we play electric it

becomes much rockier andenergetic.” The album gives aglimpse of the more acousticside, but the new demos I’veheard take the rockier route.I wasn’t sure about the new

direction at first, but the latestsongs have really grown onme. They give the bandanother option as they moveforward and should appearon an EP in the near future.So far they’ve had some

great exposure thanks to theBBC Potterrow stage at theEdinburgh Festival andthey’ve even had their musicfeatured on TV’s Hollyoaks.It’s hard to beat drummer

Pockets’ five million views(and counting) on YouTubethough. The multi-instrumen-talist uploaded a cover of rockclassic The Final Countdown.Playing a home-made

hybrid of a mini piano, ukuleleand kazoo, it even led to a Brit-ain’s Got Talent appearance.Pockets explained: “I

uploaded a video of the Kazoo-keylele and boom! Viral!“I was contacted by ITV and

asked to do a spot on BGT. Iwent on and had a laugh.”Judge Simon Cowell

responded “there’s a reasonthat instrument doesn’t exist”,while David Walliams called it“just not an act I can see hav-ing global success”.Perhaps with Jen and the

Gents, Pockets and his band-mates can achieve thatglobal success. They’ve cer-tainly got four yeses from me.MORE: jenandthegents.co.ukQ Jim will be playing Jen and theGents on In:Demand Uncut this Sun-day from 7pm on Clyde 1, ForthOne, Northsound 1, Radio Borders,Tay FM, West FM & West Sound FM.

By JIM GELLATLY

THIS year’s WWE circus comes to town withpublishers 2K Games taking over from THQ – sosome fans may have been expecting some majorchanges to the gameplay.Nope. Not this year.The in-ring action is tweaked – the matches flow

better – while the main attraction of WWE 13,Attitude Era, is replaced by an excellent celebra-tion of Wrestlemania (the superbowl of Wrestling).For any fans of this gloriously ludicrous sports

entertainment – it’s a treat and a half. You can takepart in key matches from all Manias and, as ever,the customisation and creation options aremassive and satisfying.So here’s hoping the annoying commentary

and dodgy collision detection when more thanfour grapplers do battle are on 2K’s to-do list fornext year. MS

HAD Rocksmith 2014 beenaround when I was a teen-ager – can’t see it workingon an Eighties Atari VCS,mind – I would be onehell of a guitarist now upthere with Slash.But then so would everybody.Exaggeration? Well, maybe butbelieve me — Rocksmith 2014 isone the of the greatest things tohappen to budding axe godssince the Marshall stack. This is

no mere game — it certainlydoesn’t belong with the late-lamented Guitar Hero or RockBand fad.Plug a real guitar into yourXbox and you’re away, jammingalong to an amazing selection oftracks, from Alice Cooper andArctic Monkeys to White Zombie.You’ll start off just playing acouple of notes of the song andRocksmith will play close atten-

tion — adding more when itjudges you ready until ultimatelyyou play the full guitar tune. Itworks. I’m, at best, intermediateand already feeling the benefits.My beginner brother came tostay and went away armed withseveral chord changes, riffs andlicks in his armoury.And it doesn’t stop there.Riff Repeater allows you topick a small section of asong, slow it down andgradually get up to speed.Session mode lets youjam with a virtual band

and the Guitarcade’s minigamesare an excellent way of learningand brushing up skills. Add someuseful video tutorials and youhave an outstanding package foranyone learning guitar or bass.The first Rocksmith wasingenious but flawed. Now it hasdropped any pretence at being a

game, ironically becominga lot more fun in theprocess.If only all guitarteachers were this enter-taining — and affordable. MATT SILK

WWE 2K14Xbox/PS3, £35

4

4ANOTHER year, another iteration of the all-conquering Football Manager series.And it is probably the biggest leap in the series’

history since the introduction of the 3D match engine.Management feels more streamlined, transfer

negotiations are brought to life with an almost real-time back-and-forth with the other club and the matchengine has taken another step forward.There are flaws – training feels too simple, the new

tactical “shouts” likewise – but this is much better thanjust updating the squads.Football Manager was already great and it’s hard to

say this is worthy of 5/5 on its own – but it’s close. LP

By CHRIS SWEENEY

ROCKER JustinCurrie shame-lessly admits he’scoming back withDel Amitri to boosthis bank balance.The Glasgow group had15 Top 40 hits in the 80sand 90s — includingsmashes like Always TheLast To Know, NothingEver Happens and DrivingWith The Brakes On.The Dels are joining the come-back heroes club alongside TheStone Roses, Blur and Pulp bydoing a UK tour in January.But frontman Justin isn’t pre-tending it’s about any romanticnotions.He said: “We’re doing the gigsbecause the money is sufficientto do them and pay everyonewell. We wouldn’t be doingthem if we couldn’t.“We are not doing these gigsbecause we have to earn money.“But I won’t lie. If the moneywasn’t sufficient I wouldn’t dothem. I’m not being romanticabout this, it’s about our owninterests.“If you are offered a goodjob, you need to think very care-fully before you turn it down.”Outspoken Justin is also notafraid to admit no one’s beencalling the band for the lastdecade. They recorded their lastalbum Can You Do Me Good?in 2002.Since then he’s been a soloperformer and made three criti-cally acclaimed albums.However, Justin, 48, said: “Ifeel there’s unfinished businessfor me with Del Amitri.“I naturally got sidetrackedinto my solo stuff as the bandweren’t receiving offers.“The promoters assumed we’dbroken up, but we hadn’t. Wejust weren’t pursuing work asthe phone wasn’t ringing.”Del Amitri made a fortune asthey struck success in the musicindustry boom time.Now things are much leanerand Justin admits he feels sorryfor today’s bands.He said: “Making money nowis so hard. No one is offeringthem deals.“We signed two big recordingcontracts before we were in ourmid-20s. The money was there,you could quit your job andthat is rare now.

‘We’re carefulwith money’

“If you’re not a big, big popact now it’s very hard.”Del Amitri aren’t one of thegroups who blew all their cash.They aren’t struggling.Justin explained: “Some bandswould do that daft thing ofsigning a record deal and eachbuy a sportscar.“We never understood that.We were careful with money aswe’d been through the experi-ence in the 80s of having to goback and get jobs twice.“So we always had money tokeep going if we hit hard times.“Bands tend to think they arebigger than they are.“They’ll play Glastonbury andbecause everyone is cheeringthey think they’re the biggestband in the world.“But our manager never let usthink that.“If you do start getting car-ried away, you’ll buy a bighouse in the country and endup bankrupt.”One thing that has hacked offJustin is YouTube. He reckons

they take advantage by earningadvertising money — and notpaying the people who createthe content.He ranted: “The fact themusic is now free is odd.“YouTube is open access towhat we would have calledbootlegged material.“I do use it but it is odd.Something that was perceivedas being highly illegal is nowlegitimate.“The quality of some of thevideos are very good.“I don’t mind people filmingme, it’s more ways for peopleto access my songs.“What does bother me isthese monopolies YouTube haveover video content and they aremaking all the money.“The people shooting the vid-eos aren’t and the peoplemaking the songs aren’t.

‘We did wearbad outfits’

“I don’t mind the fansdoing that and I know whythey are doing it.“I am more than grateful that

they are disseminating mymusic.“I would just like YouTube tof***ing pay me.“I tried to explain this busi-ness model to my mum who’sin her mid-70s — she couldn’tbelieve it.”For now, Justin has to turnhis attention to LEARNING theDel Amitri songs again.As it’s been 12 years since heplayed them.He said: “I’m having torelearn how to play the f***ingbass. I am really quite worried.“I’m going to put the oldrecords on and play along —and see how much I remember.“The difficulty is getting goodat it again, not that I ever wasvery good.“Last time I picked up a bass,I couldn’t play the damn thing.”Justin is looking forward torevisiting old territory.He said: “There’s nothingabout what we did that I’mmassively ashamed of.“We did wear some bad out-fits on Top of the Pops occa-sionally.“But I don’t think any of thesongs are truly awful, some ofthem are very good.

“I am quite looking for-ward to playingsome rockmusic — theidea of yell-ing out andplaying bassagain is veryappealing. Wehave got a lotof material inthe vaults.“We haven’t

considered rel-easing it, rec-ord companiesaren’t phoningus up.“So we might

just stick it upon the internet.“But we’re going to do thetour and see if there’s validityin making new music.“It’s nice to go and do a tourand not have to do promowork.“We should be more relaxed,as where you’re promotingyou’re half working for therecord company.“Doing TV and radio on theroad is hard — you end upknackered.“We had great success in the90s doing all that, but we’reglad all we’ve got to do are thegigs now.”Q Del Amitri play The Hydro in Glas-gow on January 24. For tickets, go to:www.delamitri.org

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