Dorset Music Awards 1st Semi Final
March 17, 2012Mr Kyps, Poole
Featuring: The General Public/Paint It Blue/Peace Love & Gloves/Yellowgroove/Know One
And so we are here for the first Semi Final of this years Dorset Music Awards. First on are local funkers The General Public, a confident 4 piece. The sound is clean, clear, and crisp while singer reminds me of John Power in his vocal delivery and mannerisms. They open with a song titled “Boring” which is anything but, however the overriding sound they create is one of funk. I for one would have to challenge them on their influences though, there’s nothing Indie about them and certainly no Nirvana! Musicianship however is not in doubt. The bass is funky and the drums proficient but I just feel the singer is trying that little bit too hard. Despite the first band on stigma they receive decent applause throughout their set and I’m sure make some new friends and fans tonight.
Second on are Blues/Rockers Paint it Blue. They have a few fans with them who start the first wave of dance floor action tonight. For me its a struggle to get excited about Paint it Blue-yes they have talent in abundance but when most of the songs sound the same it all becomes a little formulaic (to me). I could have virtually predicted when the big middle-8 was going to kick in on most of the songs! Hannah has a good vocal and an accent I cant quite place while Ed’s harmonica work gives a nice added dimension but as with the General Public I’m just not getting excited. “Give In To Me” is probably their standout track and I wish them well but tonight’s competition is very strong and I for one would be amazed to see them reach the final. They also leave to generous applause.
Third on are Peace,Love & Gloves. If ever there was a band determined to make a statement of intent then Peace, Love & Gloves on tonight’s performance do it in spades. First, get the bar-staff all wearing your T-shirts. Secondly, get all your fans in similar attire and make sure they’re heard loudly. Finally, nail it with a set of killer tunes. They open with (for me) their best tune “Bang Bang Bang”. The crowd go wild singing along in unison. Between each song their rabble-rousing fans shout the now well rehearsed chant of “Goujon, Goujon”!! Its more like being at a football match than a gig, but its a killer tactic. Mark’s vocals and between song banter are confident all night while Rikki (guitar) is grinning like he’s just won the cup! Bradley’s bass is unfussy throughout, almost shoegazy while Jason’s drumming is also confident. Two songs in rapper Jordan joins them onstage for 2 numbers, this only seems to up the fervour for this band. Throw out a few more free T-shirts and end your set with a monster of a tune, called “Monster” ironically! These guys to me are “nailed on” for the final and would be an A&R mans dream, but I’m not part of the judging panel so we shall wait and see.
Fourth on are Rockers Yellowgroove. How on earth they are going to follow Peace, Love & Glove’s set it anyones guess. Things don’t start too well when Simon (vox) has a reverb problem with his guitar. Ben (bass) and Mark (guitars) are left with no option but to jam. Once Simon is ready they open with a tune called ‘Son Of a Working Man’ which (to this reviewer) has a spaghetti western musical feel to it. Simons vocal ‘howls’ are a sight to behold but they grow with confidence throughout. Caught somewhere in a mash-up of styles they deliver Rock/Western/Garage/Tribal,its impossible to pigeonhole them. What they don’t lack is talent and energy. ‘Manimal’ sees more howling while ‘Lovin Man’ is their standout tune. They also have an exuberant side and use the stage well-no shoegazing amongst this band! Yellowgroove have a strong fan base on tonight’s showing and they win me over with good confident performing. They end with ‘Blood’ which is what they needed to sweat to follow PLG. Yellowgroove are a niche band and unlike anything I have witnessed on the local scene,so I expect to see more of them in future. They leave to good applause.
Its now 11pm and Know One take to the stage. Being last on could be a ‘poisoned chalice’,but for these local skankers its probably perfect. As with PLG they have a large energetic following and its not long before they all start moving. Having witnessed this band in the quarter finals I hoped they’d be afforded a stage big enough to both perform and ‘skank’ on. They don’t waste that space! Dean (vox) takes an early opportunity to applaud the previous bands-good tactic. He is in fine fettle tonight and on set highlight ‘Breakdown’ the whole place is jumping. At the end one fan emulates PLG’s fans with a chorus of “Know One Know One”-this crowd needs no encouragement and promptly joins in. Callum and Andy (trumpets) continue the skanking but this band as a whole are on the money. ‘I Am Invisible’ is another standout track and by now the whole room is moving. As I said recently if awards are given for endeavour then these guys are a shoe-in. One can only hope these guys also make the final as a larger stage is where they belong. They end the night to rapturous applause,fully deserved.
Videos
The General Pubic
Paint It Blue
Peace Love & Gloves
Yellowgroove
Links
http://www.dorsetmusicawards.co.uk
http://www.yellowgroove.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/Peace.Love.and.Gloves
http://www.myspace.com/paintitblueuk
http://www.myspace.com/knowoneuk
http://www.reverbnation.com/thegeneralpublic
Review by Ross Ferrone
Pictures and funky dance moves by Alex Freeman.
Well, first of all- wow. You obviously aren’t a musician! Can I just say how disappointed I am in the fact that you thought people shouting ‘goujon’ and wearing t shirts benefitted the 3rd band – it’s dorset ‘music’ awards. Surely the most talented band should win not the ones with the most audience members? The third band’s songs sounded so ridiculously similar, as did the fifth band. In fact, I left half way through the fifth band’s set because i’d heard it all in the first two songs so when the third song started playing, it was like a track was on repeat. Not to mention the saxophone player stopped blowing and the sound continued. Strange don’t you think?
For the third band, i’m sire you though track one was their best one because all of the other one’s that followed were really not any different.
Paint it Blue had hardly any ‘Middle 8’ sections, if any at all – don’t use the terminology if you don’t understand it- just so people think you know what you’re talking about.
Paint it Blue songs all sound completely different and it baffles me that you can say they aren’t when they were the only band who dared do a slow number and the only band you could actually hear what was being sung – unlike band three!! They were so unclear all I could hear was the word ‘goujon’!
All I can say is, you obviously have no clue what you’re on about because if you did, how come Paint it Blue are in or have won so many competitions and have such a large following. If you are going to be a music reviewer, you should learn to respect all types of music, not just favour the genre’s you prefer. If you did do that, you’d know that Paint it Blue are at the top of their genre and are a well respected band because of their technical and awesome musicianship.
Thank you so much for your feed back, we appreciate you taking the time to write your feelings down. There is a varied amount of us here and we all have with different opinions, we all though have a passion for music as I am sure you can see from the website. You are right in the fact that most of us are not musicians, the comments made about ‘Paint It Blue’ are taken from one individuals feelings on the night. If you look elesewhere on the website you will see that we have reviewed them several times before with different opinions.
I do agree with Heather here: the qualities I’d like to think are important in choosing the Dorset Music Awards finalists should be song-writing and musicianship, not the ability to squeeze in the most gimmicky audience participation nods between numbers. Full caveat: I wasn’t at the DMA semi finals, so I’m certainly in no position to comment on any performance of any particular band, but I have heard Paint It Blue live several times at a number of different venues (including the DMA quarter finals, of which the same reviewer on your site was similarly dismissive!).
I do appreciate that we all have different tastes, but surely phrases like “I for one would be amazed to see them reach the final” are unnecessarily negative and mean-spirited. I’m sure none of us want to see Bournemouth’s live music scene dwindle further, and sniping at bands with this kind of terminology surely isn’t helping the cause.
Hi, I was unable to attend this particular night, so like CB I cannot directly comment any one performance. But for any band to reach this far they have to be talented, it is a given.
Myself, I have a seen Paint It Blue a couple of times and personally feel that they deserve to get at least this far in the proceedings. I have no idea how far they will get, but we wish all the bands the very best.
I believe that part of the criteria for judging the bands is crowd reaction, and numbers (happy to be corrected on this!). In short the atmosphere generated by the crowd. This is not necessarily a direct correlation to capability, but, again, for any band to get this far they has to have a certain something.
Again, this review is one persons opinion and with 10 bands competing for the finals it will be a close fought thing. On the whole I thought that the review was fairly positive, commenting on their talent, and that “Hannah has a good vocal and an accent I cant quite place while Ed’s harmonica work gives a nice added dimension”. We will not be ignoring this feedback, and certainly being “mean spirited” is not our intention, and no offence was meant.
Please let us know if you want to write for us, or have any further commentaries. We are always willing to take on new reviewers who feel passionate about music.
Again, we wish Paint It Blue, and the other contenders all the best.
Jon.
Firstly Heather you are correct I am not a musician,I am a reviewer. As for your observations on PL&G’s songs sounding the same, this is frankly laughable! Its as if you think I’m making it personal – far from it. I review with honesty, and don’t allow preference to get in the way. You may well be at the top of your game and have reached the upper echelons of competitions in the past but I attend the DMA’s purely as a reviewer. If you reach the final you can say I/We told you so. And CB, I really take issue with the accusation of mean-spiritedness. We at Rock Regeneration have made great strides in “promoting” the local scene, and I for one feel we have made more of a contribution than most in little over a year. While I accept criticism for my views positive, or negative, I will continue to review in a constructive and honest manner. If you’re going to “critique” the critic then you also need to stick to the facts. However,as was said above, if you reach the final then good luck. Ross.
Heather, if you also were a musician, im sure you have heard of something called ‘delay’ which maybe explains Know Ones sax playing when he stopped blowing.. There is also a trumpet which echoes the sax.
peace x
Thanks Ross for taking the time to reply. I’m sorry if you take issue with my accusation of mean-spiritness, and it’s reassuring to hear this wasn’t your intention. However, no matter how I try to parse your review, there does appear to be a big tonal shift during Paint It Blue’s write-up (who are, just to clarify the “if you reach the final” confusion, not a band I play in!). If nothing else, they seem to be held to a much higher standard than the other performers: I wasn’t there to witness the gig, but have heard them before, and I would struggle to level an accusation of “most of the songs sound the same” at them; certainly no more than any other band. The world would be a much duller place if we all had the same tastes, and so of course you’re absolutely entitled to like or not like bands as you see fit, but I would suggest perhaps pulling your punches a little, or being evenly critical across the board. As it reads, they appear more or less singled out for criticism, whilst three of the other bands boasted perfectly flawless performances. Do you honestly feel this really reflects the gig?
Compare this to Tim Heywood’s post covering the same evening (which can be read here http://bournemouthmusic.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/17-mar-dorset-music-awards-semi-final-1/ ), which to me scans a much fairer review of the night: very even-handed, and overwhelmingly positive about all the bands involved. Be critical, by all means, but if you are going to critique, critique all the performers, rather than just one or two.
Thanks for that CB. Clearly my writing/reviewing of this particular gig has proved emotive to some. If Paint it Blue would prefer me to come to their gigs,tell them how amazing they are & blow smoke up their arses then fine-but I’m not that kind of reviewer! As I’ve pointed out I have no beef with their musicianship,just that performance. If Heather is so knowledgable about ‘musical terms’ that I clearly dont understand, & with her undoubted passion, she should write for us. We are always looking for new writers to add to the team. I dont write to make friends & if I take criticism once in a while I’ll live with it. As CB says ‘the world would be a duller place if we all had the same tastes’. Good luck to all the bands that make the final,& if Paint it Blue make it & win I would be only too pleased to congratulate them. Ross.
I must say that i see where the critisism of the review comes from. It feels like it is unfair to certain bands. I like all of the bands still in the comp, bar one, which i won’t mention. But some of them clearly got through on votes, and wouldn’t still be in if they were judged on their musical merits. I love the PLG and Know One guys and think they’re both very good at getting the crowds going (they both deserve to be in the final) but if that’s how you judge it then Pachango are still top. But, yeah, don’t let the music get in the way of moaning at each other. And finally, if you play an instrument then your a musician, however bad you are. Same goes with reviewers. But don’t say you’ll live with criticism of your reviews, because writing reviews isn’t what you love. Music is. So it’s not the same as you judging people who are doing what they love. You can say what you like and i’ll listen once you prove why your view counts. And i’m gonna just ignore the smoke up the ass comment becuase you have no right to comment on other reviewers who have done so much more for local music than you, me and RR put together.
Ouch!