Christina Maria

I went down to Montreux Jazz 2011 and filmed Christina Maria a couple of weeks ago. I’m fairly pleased with the results. My filming’s not the best, I find it a little too shakey and also the stage was a high one so there’s not much height change on the footage. I also feel I could have used my 100mm this time to get that bit closer and play with the focus. But, I love the sound on the vids. I managed to get the desk sound and mixed it up with my external recorder.
Anyway, enjoy this one taken with a 28mm:-

Sinner’s Ensemble

I was back in Scotland last month and luckily my old band were playing a gig. Well, it’s two members of my old band Gizzard and Dave. But as Giz is the front man and still writes the songs, it’s very like the old band, although I thought a lot tighter than we were. We were young in those days, and generally VERY wasted. But that is youth for you. Now they go by the name of Sinner’s Ensemble. Imagine Jim Morrison grew up in Fife and shaved is head. He’d play in a band like this. I don’t say that lightly, Gizzard has all the presence a front man needs. It’s good rocky and raw stuff and I hope they get some big gigs to play soon. Here’s a wee video I took.

Guillermo Sohrya – LightSOULdier

Guillermo is wonderfully warm funny guy. He also has a very nice rich voice. He inhabits the soul genre perfectly. He often turns up at Brandy’s but doesn’t always give the audience the pleasure of a song or two. Fortunately last week he did. I confess that I really don’t understand soul music. Maybe that has something to do with being brought up in a small Scottish town, I don’t know. But I can see when someone has lot of talent. Guillermo is playing quite a few concerts these days, so keep an eye on his myspace: myspace.com/lightSOULdier . And what do you know, I stole his performance with my camera. He’s backed by Roman Hosek on guitar and Brandy Butler on vocals.

Nives Onori

Nives was at Brandy’s open Mic last Sunday. I hadn’t seen or heard her before. She’s not yet 20. I like the purity and uniqueness of her act. If it doesn’t come from her soul I’m a fish supper. Her style has a certain pacific island feel to it, so excuse my oceanic reference. I think she has a bright future, I really do. She has no website. If I hear of one I’ll add it here.

I took a little video. There’s a bit of chatter at first but people soon get drawn in. Very nice. Excuse my titles, she is called “Nives Onori”, not “Onon'”.

Igor Podladtchikov

I know Igor through Ms Brandy’s open mic. He’s a very funny guy with a great on stage charisma when he plays. As if that wasn’t enough he’s quite the lyricist. He can do outrageous funny, rock out and get sad too. What I like about his stuff is that it seems to come from his own heart. There are a lot of copies out there, and Igor’s not one of them. Just don’t let him pull the flyer trick on you. It’s a con!! 🙂

I just heard his CD for the second time. It’s a very nice piece of work. Just him and a guitar, and never boring. The song rules supreme. And a good song with an engaging artist needs very little treatment. Kudos Igor.

Check him out on his myspace – myspace.com/tomatospin. You’ll get links to his excellent CD, “Loaded”, from there.
And, sure I took a wee video.

Valeska Steiner

Valeska Steiner is something of a rising star on the local singer songwriter scene in Zürich. She just won the m4m demo clinic, (with something that really didn’t sound much like a demo at all, *cough*….) . I caught her at Ms Brandy’s Open Mic. It was a good set she played. She has a nice voice and decent songs which very much follow the current trend of quirky female singer songwriter. I thought her bass player was really good. She played cello too, and really kept the whole music side solidly together. You can check Valeska’s myspace out: http://www.myspace.com/valeskasteiner. Plus here’s a wee video I took.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Video, Live in Edinburgh

Saturday 20th December 2008

I’m a huge Alex Harvey fan. So much so that I’m in a tribute band (www.nsahb.com).

Back in the 90s I missed the chance to see The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Of course without Alex Harvey as he died back in 1982. They played the Venue in Edinburgh back then. I got a bit too wasted and wound up missing the gig. The stupidity of youth!

But anyway… my second chance came along last December. Conveniently they were playing a show in The Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh and it coincided with roughly the time I was going back to Scotland for Christmas. So, armed with tickets we turned up at the Liquid Rooms and were totally shocked to discover it had burned down the night before. Was I destined never to see these guys live. Fortunately and apparently by the skin of their teeth they had managed to escape unharmed and even book another venue. Directed by a kindly Edinburgh poliswoman, we found our way to Studio 24 where the gig was.

I can’t remember who the support were, but I think they were OK. I should look it up, but heck what a job… playing support to SAHB and with a totally partisan crowd who were by and large Harvey fanatics. Think a room mainly full of 45 to 60 something men complete with stripey t-shirts. It’s not often I get to feel a bit young these days, but, being a post-humous Harvey fan this was one such occasion! It was basically a big party for SAHB fans.

The band took the stage and they played all the old numbers. I must confess to feeling a bit sceptical about Mad Max the new singer, but he really does the job admirably. He’s not much of a singer to be honest but his madcap personality and balls make up for it. I’m sure Alex would have approved. Julian Saxby filled Zal’s shoes pretty well. Who quit in typical Zal Diva style. Actually I liked the softer edge to the guitars (Zal gets pretty heavy metal these days) which took the music much more towards the way the original numbers were. It was a good night, and the guys really still have it when it comes to belting out the numbers.

I managed to rattle off some videos, with not the best picture but decent sound (I had my Yamaha Pocktrax with me 🙂 ). I hope you like them.

Next:

 

Delilah:

Vambo: (hang on for the power cut – somehow it made for a great moment)