OFF: Judge Trev on Cosmic Puffin bill

[trev]

What, you mean my stance and body are a bit like Muhammad Ali...the great 
boxer?
Yes, I have to agree with you there Christian

Trev

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Christian Mumford" <royalistradio at HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 4:04 AM
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Subject: Re: OFF: Judge Trev on Cosmic Puffin bill

> thats some funny shit trev.... i think you stand out nicely and fit in 
> with the "Ali" period rather well.
>
>> Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 03:53:47 +0100
>> From: judge48 at HOTMAIL.COM
>> Subject: Re: OFF: Judge Trev on Cosmic Puffin bill
>> To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
>>
>> There, I've added all the stuff you left out (in brackets) and a pic of 
>> me with the starfighters
>> trev
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Jonathan Jarrett" <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 9:02 PM
>> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
>> Subject: Re: OFF: Judge Trev on Cosmic Puffin bill
>>
>> > On Mon, Apr 06, 2009 at 09:32:41PM +0100, trev typed out:
>> >> Judge Trev, the legendary Inner City Unit guitarist, has now been 
>> >> added to
>> >> the bill of the Cosmic Puffin festival, Essex, this week-end.
>> >>
>> >> http://www.cosmicpuffin.co.uk
>> >>
>> >> He will be playing with his acoustic duo Trev and Kev, opening 
>> >> Sunday's
>> >> events.
>> >
>> > That would be the perfect cue for a review, really, wouldn't it? After 
>> > all if I don't do one, Trev will set Mike on me for
>> > using second-hand vinyl mailers...
>> >
>> > Mersea Island is a lovely little place, about three miles of flat land 
>> > linked only by a tidal causeway to the rest of Essex.
>> > However, my companion and I didn't really see this till Saturday 
>> > morning of a festival that started Friday night, because a twenty-
>> > minute delay at the point of departure turned into an hour's delay at 
>> > the station turned into a two-hour one at the mercy of First
>> > buses and, to cut a long story short, we arrived in the dark, on foot, 
>> > much to the surprise of the organisers who seemed (odd for
>> > hippies) to expect everyone to come in by car. Or at least by van. 
>> > Anyway, there we were, having followed the sound of music down the
>> > unlit road, and once we had the tent out and being set up I recognised 
>> > `Ejection'. It turned out to be The Starfighters 
>> > http://www.realfestivalmusic.co.uk/jt.html
>> (with judge trev) doing it, and
>> > although I never actually *saw* them I think they won the title of best 
>> > Hawkwind covers band playing the festival, and there was
>> > actually a lot of competition for this. I would not see Xenon Codex or 
>> > Assassins of Silence again, in fact I avoided them this time
>> > too, but The Starfighters sound like a tight band having fun with songs 
>> > they love, and would be worth a look if you're feeling short
>> > of Hawkness and they're down your way.
>> >
>> > By the time we actually got to the place where the bands were however 
>> > the Starfighters had disappeared, and a very lively
>> > groove was being kicked up. I ran into Kozmik Ken outside the tent and 
>> > after some catching-up he let slip that the band in question
>> > was House of Thandoy, Mike Howlett's current outfit, so I dashed in to 
>> > see, and they were being very good indeed. Basil Brooks on
>> > synth added more to the look than the sound a lot of the time, but 
>> > Mike's bass never stopped its stuttery Primus-like urgency, and the
>> > guitarist several times locked in step with him in really quite complex 
>> > patterns while the drummer was just enjoying everything. As I
>> > was just saying about Zone Six elsewhere, this is a jamband that can 
>> > recover when something runs out of speed, and I was very glad to
>> > have caught them even for only part of a set.
>> >
>> > The pattern of things was that there was a hall inside the place, which 
>> > was notionally sound-proofed, and there the organisers
>> > had a late music license and they played till two or so; outside there 
>> > was a much larger marquee where they had an eleven o'clock
>> > curfew. The site was busy enough but all weekend I never saw that 
>> > marquee full, and the PA had trouble making it sound nice when there
>> > weren't people to fill the room. It must have echoed something awful as 
>> > well. The quiet acts had a better time of it than the loud
>> > ones, but the loud ones all sounded a bit compressed, as if only the 
>> > mid-range was really delivering any punch. Sound inside the hall
>> > was fine but sadly the bands in there weren't usually the ones I wanted 
>> > to see. In the marquee, also, except with the very quietest
>> > acts the soundman had to turn up the vocals with every single band. It 
>> > would usually take him a song and a half to make them audible,
>> > and some people might have realised this was a problem with the rig and 
>> > compensated. As it was no band really got a strong start
>> > because of this dozy response to the acoustics. I'm sure it's not easy 
>> > but it annoys me to see bands I care about doing their best and
>> > not being able to reach anyone because someone else messed up.
>> >
>> > Now I've realised in trying to put this together that I can no longer 
>> > remember what bands played in what order, and there was
>> > never anything as helpful as a running order on the web (my gods the 
>> > website's useless. Colourful, but useless) so I will just have to
>> > give you highlights as they occur to me. Given that, I may as well make 
>> > Trev happy for a minute by remembering that either on the
>> > Saturday or the Sunday, after almost no or only some sleep 
>> > respectfully, I still made it out of bed to go and see Trev and Kev 
>> > (fat bastard)first
>> > thing. Trev had warned me to expect `comedy', but aside from the 
>> > essential comedy involved in trying to play punk songs on an
>> > acoustic--well, I say `trying' but that implies he didn't manage, 
>> > whereas he did and it was good--the main comedy dynamic here appears
>> > to be that Trev tries to play some songs, and Kev (fat bastard) tries 
>> > to stop him by insulting him. Insults are returned, Trev starts playing 
>> > and
>> > then Kev (fat bastard)decides he may as well join in either on backing 
>> > vocals, harmonica or noise-box. There was also a genuine synth player 
>> > very
>> > quietly contributing to some numbers but he seemed to get fed up with 
>> > Kev (fat bastard) and give up halfway through. Kev (fat bastard) also 
>> > seemed to give up
>> > halfway through, and by the end was trying to do all his accompaniment 
>> > using one key. "All Trev's songs sound the same," he said,
>> > "I bet this note'll fit right in." It actually did, as well... Anyway, 
>> > though it may not sound it, it was fun, and once you've woken
>> > up to the sounds of `Watching the Grass Grow' on an acoustic, you're 
>> > probably well prepared for some light-hearted backchat and
>> > musical irreverence. Other songs that got the treatment were `Folsom 
>> > Prison Blues', `Ghost Riders in the Sky', and a version of
>> > 'Master of the Universe' mashed up with a Madonna song whose name I've 
>> > already forgotten (beautiful stranger). Trust me, it needed doing. 
>> > There were lots
>> > more but being forced to recall Kev's (fat bastards) beard has thrown 
>> > me off the track. It all only holds up because Trev can (a) play most 
>> > songs at
>> > the drop of a hat and (b) is used to playing with people who can't play 
>> > the ones they know however many hats you drop, but given those
>> > two facts, it was a good way to start the day.
>> >
>> > I'm sure Nukli weren't next, but they weren't far off it, and they were 
>> > certainly notable. I remember Nukli from the days of
>> > Delerium Records as one of the legendary festi bands Richard Allen 
>> > basically pursued around the country until they agreed to give him
>> > an album. He must have found this easier with Nukli than with Omnia 
>> > Opera because Nukli don't seem to have stopped for very long,
>> > ever, and of the bands I saw I reckon Nukli would have to be the best 
>> > in terms of what they were able to play and how much they seemed
>> > to enjoy doing so. The only one I knew, `Inner Days' from the Delerium 
>> > sampler, sounded a bit odd without the sound effects, but I'd
>> > never really thought before that actually it's a fairly complex piece 
>> > of music with lots of different parts and they just played it
>> > through as if it was easy and obvious good fun to jump around like 
>> > that. Playing as a three-piece, with a drummer (trading under the
>> > name of Peter Out) who would have won any 
>> > guess-the-oldest-geezer-on-the-site competition but played like it was 
>> > all in an afternoon's
>> > workout, 
>> > guitarist/keyboardist/flautist-and-I'm-pretty-sure-he-played-other-things-too 
>> > singing (and he would have won the *hairiest*
>> > geezer competition), and a bassist, all just having a good time playing 
>> > very proggy space-rock at a fair old lick. In sum, I
>> > would say they are worth catching. If they'd been in a dark club with 
>> > lights and a full-time synthist they'd be a spectacle and a
>> > half, but as it was they came over like jazz-prog workmen who loved 
>> > their job. If you don't know their stuff think, a lighter jazzier
>> > Nektar with more aliens and hippy cliches. Another thing I'd say in 
>> > their favour is that whereas most other bands came and went on the
>> > day they were playing or else sprawled around smoking and chie-iking 
>> > the two Nukli stringsmen were in every audience I formed part of
>> > over the festival, anxious to see what everyone else was up to and 
>> > dancing where appropriate. They did feel like the festival's
>> > resident band by the end.
>> >
>> > Nukli mainly made it through the lame sound OK though I suspect they'd 
>> > usually have a bit more meat to their riffs. Bruise
>> > on the other hand suffered somewhat. I became a Bruise convert the 
>> > first time I saw them about this time last year, and since then
>> > I've seen them a few times and know they can have better gigs than they 
>> > got this time. In part this was because what is sometimes a
>> > two-piece of singer-guitarist and drummer this time had their bassist 
>> > along, thinking I guess to fill more outdoor space but actually
>> > only slowing themselves down and making what should have been an 
>> > electric performance slightly flat of batteries. Isobel's voice
>> > wasn't quite there even once it was at full volume, just the edges 
>> > bleeding off into the tinny PA, her guitar couldn't fill the
>> > whole tent with what it was playing through, and the rhythm section 
>> > seemed to have both slowed down for each other. My companion liked
>> > them but I wished they'd had a better chance at it.
>> >
>> > Who else? On the Saturday, playing inside, were a band of whom I knew 
>> > nothing called Grooveweird whom I would cheerfully see
>> > again, heavy dubby trance type rhythms fronted by a girl who played a 
>> > variety of wind instruments without much effect or imagination
>> > but who thankfully couldn't spoil her fearsomely tight band who were 
>> > the most danceable thing I heard all weekend. Show-off guitarist
>> > and mad synths an added bonus. I only caught the end of their set and 
>> > wished it had been more. They were followed by a band whose name
>> > I now forget,  (Dream Machine) but who had John Egan from the Ozrics on 
>> > wind instruments. Jon's biggest features with the Ozrics were never 
>> > being close
>> > enough to the mike to be heard, dancing like a whirling dervish and 
>> > seeing things in the rafters, and wearing the most egregious
>> > colourful kaftans known to man. Unfortunately for this band he'd only 
>> > retained the first of these skills, and so he didn't add much to
>> > a rather underinspired trance-dub sort of outfit who just didn't have 
>> > the muscle of the band they'd followed. On the Sunday evening
>> > the inside also played host to a band called Surfquake, including a 
>> > keyboardist whom they insisted was called Hannah Lulu, and they
>> > were a complete misfit with the rest of the festival but in a great, 
>> > coordinated-wavy-shirt, trad surf kind of way. They were second
>> > most danceable and no mistake. And late on the Saturday night, after 
>> > retiring shattered to the tent, there were two successive bands
>> > who made me nearly get up again to go and dance, one more of the 
>> > "banging choonz" persuasion and one proper festi with psych guitar
>> > over the beat, but I was too tired to actually get up, and there is no 
>> > running order on the website, so I'm afraid I don't know who
>> > they were. Trev, did anyone give *you* a running order you could check 
>> > against?
>> >
>> > I'm sure I'm doing some bands a terrible injustice by not remembering 
>> > them, but this is long enough already and the only other
>> > one I can recall straight away is Litmus. Litmus (boy band) arrived and 
>> > I found them in the middle of being accused of being uniformly addicted
>> > to Sudafed by a certain Judge Trev character. Given that Martin was 
>> > ill, and not for the first time in their performing career either,
>> > I could understand it as a precaution but it seems unlikely... So when 
>> > they played it was with one vocalist, because Martin could
>> > stand, play bass and croak greetings but he certainly couldn't sing. 
>> > That might have worked if Simon had been able to cover some of
>> > his vocal parts, or Marek had picked up some extra, but they only sang 
>> > their own lines which left a number of the songs basically only
>> > three-quarters there. Given that a lot of Litmus's (boy band's)style is 
>> > in shouted chorals, having the strongest vocalist unable to sing, 
>> > combined
>> > with a band too polyphonic and loud for the ratty PA to cope with, made 
>> > them sound much too much as if they had no ideas and were just
>> > going to do sterile jamming all night. And to be fair, they did play 
>> > for, what, forty-five minutes to an hour and did six songs or
>> > maybe seven, one of which was only three minutes long (but by far the 
>> > best). That's a lot of space to fill and it's hard for some of
>> > it not to be, well, filler. I'm growing fonder of the new material and 
>> > thought it came over as well as the old, but that may have been
>> > partly because, down at the front throwing myself around to the 
>> > still-undeniable punch of the rhythm section, I was shouting words
>> > that fitted the missing vocals so loud I couldn't necessarily tell what 
>> > wasn't there. If they'd done `Right Stuff' I seriously would
>> > have asked to be let sing it. But they didn't, so everybody was saved. 
>> > (N. B. never actually let me do this, anyone. I can never
>> > remember how many times `My nerves are made of steel...' goes round.) 
>> > Nonetheless, this was not a good day for Litmus (boy band); the poor 
>> > sound
>> > and the ill co-frontman sapped them of definition and variation and 
>> > without the vocal volume there wasn't really enough attack to
>> > survive. Rotten luck for them but I wonder if more and shorter songs 
>> > would have worked better than hoping to get by on jamming, even
>> > here. This audience didn't really get to see what the band can do. 
>> > However, I will observe that the new keyboardist is still a top
>> > choice, and managing to lever himself into the occasional exclusion 
>> > triangle that arises in the breaks between drums-guitar-bass with
>> > interesting and *musical* extra parts; he is able to join in the jams, 
>> > in fact, but here the sound rather damped the effect of that.
>> > Oh well. Better luck next week I hope!
>> >
>> > If I've missed anyone that Trev thinks desrves a write-up too, or a 
>> > different one, well, he can write too dammit, I've seen
>> > it. Over to you yer 'Onner, yours,
>> >    Jon
>> >
>> > ObCD: Comets on Fire - _Avatar_
>> > -- 
>> > "When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
>> >     (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
>> > Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
>> >
>
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