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Posted by: neil on:04 Dec 2010 General » The Blockheads @ The Corn exchange |
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The Blockheads: A Lesson In Stage Craft
Fair play and kudos to the Corn Exchange in Hertford for booking bands of the quality of The Blockheads. It's great to have a local venue where we have top-notch acts virtually on our doorstep. I wish I could make it compulsory for all Musiclab students to attend a Blockheads gig. The level of professionalism and quality of musicianship on display is awesome and rarely do you get the opportunity to witness this up close. Most of our junior students are too young for the over-18 venue, but it was great to see a handful of Musiclab adult students take the hint and join the sell-out crowd on Friday evening.
I had been lucky enough to see The Blockheads back in April at The Square in Harlow and was really impressed. If I had to sum up their sound in a sentence it would be late 70's (pre-vocalist) Kool & The Gang instrumentals with Cockney poetry. This might be a bit too simplistic a description, but listen to 'NT' by Kool & The Gand and you'll hear what I mean.
Most of my focus on that evening back in April was on the fantastic rhythm section of bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Dylan Howe. These two are so tight you cannot fit a piece of paper between them. Both have dizzying ability on their chosen instruments, Watt-Roy has to be one of the all-time greats and I'm amazed that he has not received wider recognition, any bass player should check him out.This time out, I paid a bit more attention to the overall sound of the band and I was particularly impressed threefold.
Reasons to be cheerful...1...2...3....
1. Chas Jankel
One of my friends shook Chas by the hand after the gig and said "When we saw you in April, I didn't notice you, but I thought you were brilliant tonight!" He then had to follow that up to explain, that he didn't think he had been bad before, but as I have mentioned, you can get so mesmerised by the individual talent on show, that you can go the whole gig focusing on one or two things. The first time I saw the band, I didn't even listen to the lyrics. You can't fail to be impressed watching Chas switch between keyboards and guitar with ease during the set. Tasty guitar solos, razor-sharp rhythm playing, soulful keys and brilliant improvisation on both instruments. Add to this backing vocals full of personality and you have the consummate performer.
2. Call & Response
So much of The Blockheads music is based on call and response. Chas or John Turnbull play a lick on the guitar, Micky Gallagher responds with a Hammond organ lick or Gilad Atzmon come back with a sax lick. There was a brilliant sequence where Turnbull and Atzmon traded licks for 32 bars. If you tune in while listening, you can hear call and response and groove sequences happening within the rhythm section and you can get to the point where you can predict when a rhythym section lick is going to occur. Also highly impressive is the way Atzmon has the taste and restraint to weave his sax playing in and out of the framework of the songs.
3. Stagecraft
The Blockheads have been playing together for years. Most of the band are approaching 60 and none of them are under 40 and all of that combined experience is on show when you see them live. Seeing such musicians in a small venue, where you can stand right in front of them and watch, is a highly recommended experience. One thing you notice is that they never stop looking at each other - they are working together as a unit and this makes all the difference. For all the excellent musicianship and great tunes on Friday night, there was one moment of stage craft that would have gone un-noticed to the majority, but impressed me nonetheless. During the final number, Norman Watt-Roy came in to his mic for his backing vocal part. He stepped a bit too far and knocked the mic out of the stand. Because of the level of experience and stagecraft these guys have, it was second nature that John Turnbull playing guitar a few feet to the right had noticed and knew that Watt-Roy had another vocal part coming up. Smooth as silk, without a note dropped, he took a step to his right allowing space for Watt-Roy to step in to share his mic, thereby not missing a note of the backing vocal part. It's all in the detail!
2. Call & Response
So much of The Blockheads music is based on call and response. Chas or John Turnbull play a lick on the guitar, Micky Gallagher responds with a Hammond organ lick or Gilad Atzmon come back with a sax lick. There was a brilliant sequence where Turnbull and Atzmon traded licks for 32 bars. If you tune in while listening, you can hear call and response and groove sequences happening within the rhythm section and you can get to the point where you can predict when a rhythym section lick is going to occur. Also highly impressive is the way Atzmon has the taste and restraint to weave his sax playing in and out of the framework of the songs.
3. Stagecraft
The Blockheads have been playing together for years. Most of the band are approaching 60 and none of them are under 40 and all of that combined experience is on show when you see them live. Seeing such musicians in a small venue, where you can stand right in front of them and watch, is a highly recommended experience. One thing you notice is that they never stop looking at each other - they are working together as a unit and this makes all the difference. For all the excellent musicianship and great tunes on Friday night, there was one moment of stage craft that would have gone un-noticed to the majority, but impressed me nonetheless. During the final number, Norman Watt-Roy came in to his mic for his backing vocal part. He stepped a bit too far and knocked the mic out of the stand. Because of the level of experience and stagecraft these guys have, it was second nature that John Turnbull playing guitar a few feet to the right had noticed and knew that Watt-Roy had another vocal part coming up. Smooth as silk, without a note dropped, he took a step to his right allowing space for Watt-Roy to step in to share his mic, thereby not missing a note of the backing vocal part. It's all in the detail!
L-R: Mickey Gallagher, John Turnbull, Chaz Jankel, Derek The Draw,
Norman Watt-Roy, Gilad Atzmon, Dylan Howe. Photo Matt Kent