Hooligan Choir/The Blues Machine

Chaplin’s Cellar Bar, Boscombe

Tonight The Cellar Bar plays host to an exceptional amount of local young talent in the form of two quite different bands; who both have been impressing audiences for a while now, putting some of their older peers to shame.

The 1st of these is The Blues Machine, a band from Christchurch who are part way through their European tour which sees them take to the road to include gigs in Holland. The band play a set of mainly covers of artists that trio are all far too young to remember. Guitarist Ashley Gannicott covers every inch of the fret board of his well used Stratocaster guitar, impressing all with skills well beyond comprehension. Lead vocalist/bassist Daniel Bradshaw takes on vocal duties with confidence, while drummer Connor Fox keeps impeccable time as part of the rock solid rhythm section. The band takes on a difficult Jimi Hendrix number “Hey Joe” and seemingly reproduces it with ease, getting lots of generous applause from impressed onlookers.

The Blues Machine 1

The highlight of the set was a reworked version of “Who Do You Love” which contained some excellently delivered blues harmonica from man of the moment Rob Gun’s Bovin, who also seems to be playing in a host of local bands including Asp, Fish Out Of Water and Fearne. Their time on stage came to an end with some more material by Jimi Hendrix put together in a clever medley which rounded off proceedings perfectly. As good as the covers were it was slightly disappointing that we did not get to see some of the bands own creations and I’m sure that these guys can put some decent original material together with the obvious skills that they have.

Hooligan Choir are a three piece too but that is where the similarities end. Their sound takes it’s roots from britpop and baggy with also large amounts of influence from the world of “mod”. I’m sure a certain Mr Weller and Mr Daltery would have been pin ups on the walls in their bedrooms when they were growing up. The band over the last year or so have been finding their feet performing lots of gigs to get their name out there. The confidence has finally arrived and lead singer Elijah has developed his own Liam Gallagher style swagger with insincerity and sarcastic comments a plenty. The songs arrive in the form of the Neil Young influenced “Born To Be Mild”, newer song “Bad Candy” and a decent cover of Black Rebel Motorcycle club’s “Spread your Love” with some great pounding bass lines. A couple of brand new songs are performed, “Fooled” where Elijah apparently makes up the words as he goes along and “Tax Evader” which sounded a little bit “Happy Mondays”. Drummer Karl (who is recovering from a bad fall off a ladder, thankfully with no after effects) and bassist Laur follow Elijah’s lead and faithfully adapt to any unpredictable changes that he makes from the set.

Hooligan Choir 1–2–3

The Cellar bar crowd are not always easy to please but seem to be really enjoying this bunch who really impress with their short time on stage. They get an encore and an ad hoc ramshackle version of “My Generation” is performed, much to the delight of those bouncing around on the dance floor. With regular trips to London and a notable few changes in the pipeline you would not go far wrong by keeping an eye on these guys.

Setlist
Hooligan Choir
Leaving You
Bad Candy
Born To Be Mild
Fooled
Spread Your Love (BRMC Cover)
Tax Evader
Hooligan Blues
She’s Calling
Quien Canta
My Generation (The Who)

Video’s
The Blues Machine