HANDMADE FESTIVAL - Leicester, 24th-26th May ‘13

 

(Disclaimer: due to very badly timed exams we were unable to attend any of the Friday events, and had to leave early on the Sunday night, as such none of that stuff will be in this review).

City based festivals are the best of both worlds; a huge variety of music/events within easy reach for the simple price of a wristband, and a solid excuse to drink in the early afternoon but without any of the camping or mud. Leicester is a funny city, a huge percentage of it is beautiful, well maintained green spaces, but there’s also some really ugly concrete buildings, sitting right next to ye olde architecture and cosy narrow streets filled with boutiques and pubs. It feels deceptively small and suburban, but has a thriving music scene, thanks in no small part to the efforts of venue Firebug.


Saturday:

We start off the weekend by heading to Bishop Street Methodist Church to see Katie Malco. Her gentle but powerful vocals and charming between-song-chat are the perfect companion to the late afternoon sun that sneaks in through the church’s high windows. It’s an extremely engaging and impressive performance, she mentions that the next song she’ll play is a cover of a friend’s song that “he sometimes lets me play”. The song turns out to be a cover of the solo efforts of a member of Tellison. The high quality musical company she keeps is obviously doing no harm to her wonderful blend of laid-back yet highly emotive sound.

After a short break we head over to Firebug (only a wander away, there’s definitely something to be said for how easy to find and close the venues are). Upstairs the cheery sound of My First Tooth booms out, they’re slick and charming and a joy to watch. Then it’s another short walk to the People’s Photographic Studio to see We Were Promised Jetpacks. They’ve gathered quite a crowd and their gloomy yet commanding and distinctive sound is a nice contrast to the light-hearted efforts of the previous bands.

Johnny Foreigner are the final band of the night, we leave We Were Promised Jetpacks slightly early to ensure we’ll get into Firebug as the upstairs is not a big space. The Birmingham quartet are (as usual) huge fun. They begin the show by wandering in and out of the crowd singing ‘Johnny Foreigner VS You’ entirely a capella, a trick they used last time they played here but it’s such a touching and wonderful technique there’s no reason for them not to repeat it. The next forty minutes or so fly by and there’s a lovely moment of calm between the angstier tracks when Riff Glitchard  echoes out. It’s perhaps not the tightest song of the evening, but it’s so beautiful on record that doesn’t matter, and Johnny Foreigner’s charm has always come somewhat from their occasionally shambolic, but always enthusiastic and enjoyable performances.

Sunday:

Due to total exhaustion from a busy day yesterday we don’t make it to any of the venues until Sky Larkin at Firebug, which means we’ve missed The Handmade Cinema as well as a few other bands. Sky Larkin are fun to watch, they make good music and admittedly it’s perhaps a little samey live, but they’re all extremely talented and seem to throw out each track with utter nonchalance belying the complexity, and it might just be the way they refuse to pause (even for applause) between each track that makes everything feel a bit blurred together.

It’s unfortunate that we’ve not had much opportunity to see new bands, something that’s always an exciting prospect at festival (entirely my own fault, there’s plenty on here) but we make it over to The Guildhall in time to catch most of We Three and the Death Rattle. It’s obvious almost immediately that this is something special, the lead singer’s powerful stage presence is almost impossible to tear your eyes away from and the aggressive and rhythmic yet melodic sound echoes around the slightly incongruous setting (The Guildhall is a listed building and looks like this inside). They’ve got the swagger of Sleigh Bells and an unusual habit of playing the Theremin, which as a friend of mine remarks “is interesting, but never sounds nice”.
Back over to Firebug for the wonderful Tall Ships who are on their usual top form. We sneak out just as they finish what is possibly their most popular song ‘Ode To Ancestors’, in what is such excellent timing it might well have been planned.

The reason for our early exit is to catch another group representing the fantastic Scottish music scene, The Twilight Sad. Playing in The Guildhall seems the most natural thing in the world for them, it’s wonderfully creepy and the atmosphere is something no one in that room is likely to forget any time soon.

Handmade Festival is only in its first year but it’s the most organised and relaxed festival I’ve ever been to, the atmosphere is also the most friendly of any gig or festival I’ve seen in a while. It’s clear that the people putting this on are doing it out of love for these bands and this city,I can only hope that there will be many more years of this to come. It makes Leicester feel a very exciting place to be.

Johnny Foreigner @ Firebug Leicester - 10th Oct '12

Firebug is a cosy pub/bar with an upstairs venue area, with what is probably the greatest feature of a small venue I’ve seen yet – sofas! It’s not a big room either so there doesn’t feel anything impolite about sitting comfortably in a sofa/armchair to watch the supports. First up are Falcon who launch into some Tall Ships-esque math rock, but with lovely melismatic female vocals (although she’s a bit quiet – but that could be down to the down the sound person, or her cold). Playlounge wander on stage next with little ceremony, shaking the wooden floor with their furious noise-pop. There’s quite a bit of buzz around these guys at the moment, and they certainly deliver live.

Johnny Foreigner begin their set with Alexei and Kelly standing in the crowd to deliver ‘Johnny Foreigner Vs You’ entirely acapella (except for the piano melody playing quietly in the background). It’s a nice chance to see just how good Alexei’s voice is, it easily fills the room and Kelly’s slightly huskier answering phrases contrast well with his clear, emotive vocals. The softer atmosphere is soon shattered as they leap on stage to thrash out ‘Feels Like Summer. The set list is well chosen and they’re on top form tonight (despite some initial technical difficulties). There are a couple of new songs in the mix as well, from an album due out at the end of this month (“called NAMES…because names are important”). It’s difficult to judge new material on the basis of one listen at a gig, but it seems like Johnny Foreigner are set to continue with the gorgeous success that is ‘Vs Everything’. Both tracks are that blend of catchy beautiful melodies, and angry violent guitars, that Johnny Foreigner weave together so well.

They opt to leave out the usual ploy of leaving the stage only to return for an encore, instead explaining the situation and then diving straight into an old favourite ‘Sofacore’ (which at one point meanders into Star Trek and then back to ‘Sofacore’ again). The sublime ‘New Street, You Can Take It’ sees the whole crowd singing along for the final few lines, followed by ‘Absolute Balance’ – another old favourite, which closes things perfectly.

It’s the first gig Lobandwidth has reviewed in its/my new home of Leicester, and it’s a fittingly special one. Johnny Foreigner are perhaps not the most consistent live band in terms of sound - if you’re unlucky they can be a little ramshackle (but in a very endearing way). Either way you’re guaranteed a good show and an enjoyable evening regardless - and if you do catch them at their best, like tonight, they’re very very good indeed.

words by Mel Reeve
@melreeve

Yr Friends Have Already Left

Alexei Berrow of Johnny Foreigner is almost disgustingly productive, not six months have passed since the last EP from his solo project Yr Friends - and in that time Johnny Foreigner released their brilliant third album 'Vs Everything'. Such prolificacy would be annoying, except anyone who finds more music from Berrow/Jo-Fo to be a bad thing is clearly not listening properly, if at all.  This EP is in much the same vein as his previous release, 'Yr Friends Have Been Lying To You', which we described as "wrapping you up in gentle guitar melodies... addictive and affecting".

This time Berrow sighs his accounts of bills, exhaustion, late nights and hope over soft electronic humming and warm harmonies, rather than the gently plucked guitar of the previous EP. It gives you a fleeting glimpse, on a misty night, in to Berrow's world - he promises to "sing from the heart" and he does. The stories he weaves are given all the more weight for the authenticity they communicate. But it's not all beautifully worded realism, on the fourth track things get a bit more morbid "I wanna sea burial, I won't leave a mark". Tackling money woes, relationships and death in less than 17 minutes, it's a real gem and we can only hope there's yet still more to come.

Buy it for only £4

Yr Friends Have Been Lying To You

Johnny Foreigner have always had a talent for soft, delicate ballads of heartbreak and this EP from lead singer Alexei Berrow feels almost like a collection of their finest, quiet tracks. It wraps you up in gentle guitar melodies and Berrows’ trademark; quotable, repeated choruses will swirl around your head long after you stop listening.

His talent for narrating a story in an engaging but deeply personal way is concentrated on this short release, thanks in part to the beautifully sparse arrangement. Over a sea-shanty like rocking guitar he murmurs, “I think he’d be good for you, I think you’d be good for each other “. One of the best things about Johnny Foreigner is their ability to be widely relatable to - without becoming clichéd and while I’m being careful to try and view this out of the context of Johnny Foreigner, this still comes across
.
There’s something addictive and affecting in the simple guitar melodies and Berrows’ despondent tone, perhaps why this EP feels like it’s for escaping in to on a lonely journey on a misty evening. Maybe even thinking about how (as the first song is titled) ‘the walk home was not as dramatic as you’d hoped for’. Again, their brilliant descriptions of tiny scences of teenage love, heartbreak and day-to-day life are partly what make Johnny Foreigner such a great band and this EP just shows what a talented song-writer Berrow is. Well worth £3.

The ‘Best Of…’ lists always rear their ugly heads at this time of year, many people loathe them, some people like them and others don’t really care. Here at LoBandWidth we aren’t going to pretend we’re above all of the end of year list making - in fact, we’re going to join in, because there’s nothing we like more than trying to please people. Honest. It’s also partly because I (Mel), had to do a top ten for Drunkenwerewolf, and it was a heartwrenching process cutting down this list to ten. So here we are, in a very vague order, my top 21 albums of the last year:

  1) Johnny Foreigner - Vs Everything

Choosing number one for this list was a bit strange, because there isn’t really a clear winner for me from this year. In the end I went for what I would consider the most ‘deserving’ album. Vs everything feels like the culmination of a hell of a lot of hard work and love, Johnny Foreigner are one of those bands who seem to enjoy making their music as much as we do listening to it and it gets away beautifully with being really rather long. I can tell I’ll be returning to and enjoying it for many

years to come.

Standout track: ‘New Street You Can Take It’

2) Copy Haho - Copy Haho 

An album I’ve been waiting for since SWN Festival in 2009, this is a cohesive debut with pleasantly surprising lyrical depth and one of the best opening tracks I’ve heard in a long time. (Full review on Goldflakepaint.co. uk)  

Standout tracks: ‘Factory Floor’ and ‘When It Gets Dark’ 

3) Slow Club - Paradise

Turning away from their slightly too sweet debut album, this is darker and more mature. With their gorgeous voices entwining over poignant and sassy lyrics, backed by a thumping drumbeat, it’s an immediate, brilliant work. (Full review 

here).

Standout tracks: ‘Where I’m Waking’ and ‘You, Earth Or Ash’.

4) Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

I gave this my first ever 10/10 (full review on Goldflakepaint.co.uk), and whilst I think that was perhaps a little generous, as it is by no means perfect, it’s still a great listen and of the high standard we’ve all come to expect from LC!.

 Standout tracks: ‘Every Defeat A Divorce’ and ‘To Tundra’.

5) Danananaykroyd - There Is A Way

It was a sad year for fight-pop as Dananananaykroyd went on their final tour ever, leaving us all in a state of shock as  we realised there’d be no more from them. It’s perhaps not as consistent as ‘Hey Everyone’ but at several points you’ll find yourself wondering how exactly they manage to sound that happy, angry and addictive all in one go.  

Standout track: ‘Apostrophe’

6) Beyonce - 4 (standout track: ’ I Was Here’.)  

7) Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells - Everything’s Getting Older (standout track: ‘Let’s Stop Here’)

8) Summer Camp - Welcome To Condale (Standout track: ‘Losing My Mind’ 

9) Zola Jesus - Conatus (standout track: ‘Shivers’)  

10) Benjamin Shaw - There’s Always Hope, There’s Always Cabernet (standout track: ‘HULK’)  

 11) Destroyer - Kaputt (standout track: ‘Poor In Love’)

12) Felt Drawings - Body (download here for free)

 

13) EMA - Past Life Martyred saints (standout track: ‘Milkman’)

14) We Were Promised Jetpacks - In The Pit Of The Stomach (standout track: ‘Pear Tree’) 

 15) Dear Reader - Idealistic Animals (standout track: ‘Mole’)

16) Katie Malco - Katie Malce and the Slow Parade (standout track: ‘Sad Eyes’)

 17)  Drake - Take Care (standout tracks: ‘Over My Dead Body’ and ‘Take Care’)

18) The Beautiful South - Live At The BBC (it’s actually physically impossible for me to choose a ‘standout track’. Sorry)

19) Fight Like Apes - The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner (standout track: ‘Thank God You Weren’t Thirsty (Lightbulb). Read about why this one’s on the list here)

20) Tellison - The Wages Of Fear (standout tracks: ‘Get On’, ‘Freud Links the Teeth and the Heart’ and ‘My Wife’s Grave Is In Paris’.) 

21) Nicola Roberts - Cinderella’s Eyes (if you don’t love this album, here’s why you should).

Johnny Foreigner and Stagecoach split EP - Tru Punx/ Not Even Giles Would Say We'll Be Ok 7" Love In

The EP opens with a new Johnny Foreigner track, “Tru Punx” and it returns to the dirtier aspect of their sound, combining it successfully with their talent for melody. Guitars and shouty vocals declare, “I’ve been thinking about killing myself”, not the most likely hook to get crowds shouting but then Johnny Foreigner never have done things conventionally.

The second track, ‘Not Even Giles Would Say We’ll Be Ok’ starts off with a rather nice melodic vocal harmony, and for a second you might be expecting some kind of soppy Americanised love song, which is fair enough for about ten seconds (the lyrics “I’ll be carving out two names on the oak tree, one’s yours, one’s mine” helps with this misconception)…until the drums and guitar kick in and the distinctive funky/rock sound of Stagecoach becomes a little less ambiguous. The EP is a fair split between the two bands and after a new song each, they go about covering each other.

Johnny Foreigner go first with ‘Good Luck With Yr 45’. They always have been a very flexible sounding band, dodging between the typical guitar/vocals/drum sound (having said that though, Johnny Foreigner manage to make even that sound very un-typical and attention grabbing) and the gentler side of their capabilities – such as on this track, and plaintive love songs are something they do very well. Using their voices in a way that is unusual even for them, they layer up the sound into a heart breaking electro barbershop, the “baa umm baa umm” backing fades in and out, swelling with the emotive vocals.

Stagecoach cover ‘Salt, Pepper & Spinderella” one of Johnny Foreigner’s darker, more electronic based tracks and they contrast their two different vocal styles effectively. The sparser arrangement pushes the lyrics to the front, Johnny Foreigner’s words are often hidden behind guitars, accents or harmony but like this they can be heard in full honesty and elegance, the line ‘we like to watch the fights break out and end in grief from these cheap plastic seats’ seems more of a confession, rather than a proud assertion, as it did in the original.

Both bands are currently in the process of touring the UK, and if this EP is anything to go by those gigs are going to be a real event.

Artist Of The Month - Johnny Foreigner

April

My next artist of the month is the wonderful Johnny Foreigner:




Originally from Birmingham (something which is almost immediately apparent from their accents) they are Alexei on guitar and vocals, Kelly on bass and vocals and Junior on the drums.
They have released two albums and as many EPs…plus several of their songs for free.

Many bands try to achieve the depth of emotion and energy that Johnny Foreigner achieve, without it being something truly relevant to them, therefore ending up sounding try-hard or just plain rubbish. With Johnny Foreigner...from reading their blog and listening to their music, you know they make their music because it, and the things they write about, matter to them. Meaning they are consistently great and continue to have numerable releases.

Their latest album ‘Grace And The Bigger Picture is fifteen songs long, each one under three minutes (apart from the final song ‘The Coast Was Always Clear’ which is in a slight contrast, eleven minutes long, but that’s because of a hidden track) The album has an interesting symmetry with titles like, “More Heart Less Tongue and “More Tongue Less Heart” exploring lyrical ideas further, yet keeping to their direct nature.


Apologies that it is now almost the end of April, and I've only just posted, but from next month I will hopefully be updating this feature regularly in the first week or two of every month.

Tune into my radio show from Thursday 29th at 8 until 9pm (no show this week) to hear Johnny Foreigner and more excellent music.