Honeyblood at The Georgian Theatre

Honeyblood

The Georgian Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees

4.5.2019

Honeyblood's No Drama Tour acts as a spearhead for the release of their third album, In Plain Sight, which is due out on 24 May.

Honeyblood were formerly a duo before being reduced to a solo - namely Stina Tweeddale but Anna and Debbie have recently been recruited on bass on drums respectively to ensure a big and impressive sound for the tour dates.

Support came in the form of Coventry's Feet, who were loud, energetic and quirky, with each member of the band sporting impressive and uncoordinated head wear and equally uncoordinated dance moves. It was an interesting set and an ideal warm up session.

It wasn't too long to wait before Honeyblood took to the stage. Their set was powerful and quite different to anything I had heard before.

The band was tight, they looked great and sounded even better as they ran through a fast-paced set of older songs and cuts from the new album.

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The Third Degree and Gibberish are early stand-outs from the new album, although there is clearly much to explore once In Plain Sight lands.

The sound was nicely heavy and, even though the crowd had to be promoted to come closer to the stage (assisted by a dramatic roll on the drums), once they were there the barriers between the players and the watchers fell for good.

Honeyblood have an original sound and an impressive repertoire of unusual songs. Yes, this was a fine night at The Georgian Theatre and I hope Honeyblood will return soon.

Find out more about Honeyblood over at their official website.

Project 30: Results Update

Here is an update on the results of the two ongoing Project 30 events.

KO Tournament

Semi-finals

Rayelynn Posadas v Sean Marsh

Matt Jackman 1-0 John Garnett

Each of the rounds will feature one game played at the normal time limit (36 moves in 90 minutes followed by an extra 15 minutes on each clock to play to a finish). Colours will be decided immediately before the games in the usual fashion.

Drawn games will require a replay with colours reversed, which can be played at any time limit agreed by both opponents. If both players cannot reach agreement then the aforementioned timings will be used.

Rapidplay Match Championship

The results of round two are now complete.

Rayelynn Posadas 3-0 Peter Harker (Game four not required)

Sean Marsh 4-0 Sean Cassidy

Mike Pointon 1-3 David Baillie 

Mike Creaney 0-4 Matt Jackman 

Semi-finals

David Baillie v Sean Marsh

Matt jackman v Rayelynn Posadas

The semi-final will feature six games with 30 minutes on each clock.

In the event of a 3-3 tie, the players will contest two five-minute games and keep on doing so if further scores of 1-1 are recorded.

The final will feature eight games, with all of these rounds following the same tiebreak method as the first round (if required).

The target date to complete all of the above is 31 May 2019.

More Memories of the Mighty Mish

How the years have flown by since my great friend Mike Closs unexpectedly left us.

It was on this day 2010 when the awful news came through about Mike. It was an event that changed my way of thinking in many aspects.

I have written many times here at Marsh Towers about my times with Mike, playing alongside him for the chess of both Guisborough and Elmwood, during the respective clubs' most successful tenures. It is another sign of the passage of time that those two former giants of Teesside chess no longer exist.

We had so much fun over so many years that I still hold many previously unshared memories. Such as...

• The times he berated me for being a fan of 'those dinosaurs' the Rolling Stones, which were negated when I went to his house one day and found 'Start Me Up' on his turntable.

• Playing pranks on anyone who dared to come to a tournament with us - especially when they shared the same hotel. The incident with the watch alarm, the affair of the fake Russian names, the shenanigans where we tricked a worse-for-wear colleague into ordering himself triple fish and chips late at night, all of which he ate...with explosive consequences the very next morning.

• The almost imperceptible looks we gave each other when we made eye contact during tough matches, conveying in an instant how we both thought we doing during the game. 'I'm winning; you make a draw and the match is ours!'

• Playing a tandem simultaneous display (alternating our moves) against 30+ juniors and meeting in the middle at one point to discuss why one of us kept blundering away our queens and other pieces - only to conclude the children had simply been removing our pieces, thinking we wouldn't notice.

• Hearing the fire alarm go off at 2.30 a.m. while we were away at the York Chess Congress. As I was still up, listening to music and reading, I left my room to help people evacuate the building. First of all I knocked on Mike's door but he said he couldn't be bothered to get up. I said, You might burn and he replied, 'Well, so what if I do?' (His standard reply when told the possible consequences of his inaction)

• Watching him trying to very quietly resign a game against an opponent he always used to beat very easily so he could slip away without experiencing the other's fanfare, only to have his plan foiled when his opponent shouted out to the whole club: 'I never thought I'd ever beat the great Clossy!' The impact was augmented by the fact that it was the pivotal game of the annual County Championship - and the defeat virtually handed me the title on a plate...

• ...and then me, trying to console him later. It's not so bad; just one bad game after another excellent season. 'Not so bad!? I've just lost to a ******* half wit!!'

How he would have enjoyed being a part of the new successes of The Buffs chess club this year. He would definitely played alongside me again.

He would also have laughed at my choice of Jeepster by T. Rex for his funeral. We used to sing along to that on the way to our chess matches; so excited, so full of fire and enthusiasm - and a very strong desire of not wanting to be the one having to explain away a defeat on the way home.

We are still reunited, all these years on, in my vivid dreams. We still play alongside each; we still exchange the virtually imperceptible glances.

Soon we will play the 10th Mike Closs Memorial tournament, a series of events like no other. The previous nine editions of the tournament have helped the event to develop a long and distinguished history, with many experimental formats and venues.

I don't believe in the afterlife - I don't believe in anything - but as long as I am still around I am determined to keep alive the memory of my great friend.

Evita 100

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Today marks 100 years since the birth of one of the most controversial people of the 20th Century.

Like a lot of people from my generation, my first introduction to Eva Peron came through the song Don't Cry For Me Argentina - specifically the version sung by Elaine Paige.

This iconic song, from the play Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, brought many questions to my mind at the time but it was only many years later when I was finally inspired to investigate the life of Eva Peron in great detail.

The pivotal moment came when I saw the play for the first time, at the Grand Opera House in York. Reading the programme notes gave me a mere glimpse of her remarkable story. By the time I had travelled home on the train I had already ordered myself a number of books on the subject, which sparked my deep desire to research Evita's life and work in great detail - a task that is still very much ongoing.

I have now seen the play 10 times and in five different cities (York, Leeds, London, Newcastle and Hull) featuring several different Evitas and am planning on going to see a brand new production in the summer.

Ironically, the play is by no means pro-Evita. The audience is fed a contrary stance by the character of Che (Guevara, of course - although the two never met in real life.) However, the magnificence of Evita shines through regardless.

The story of Eva Peron is remarkable from the cradle to the grave and, bizarrely, even beyond. An early death - aged just 33 - didn't prevent her from creating her own unforgettable legacy, despite the best efforts from some quarters.

I intend returning to the fascinating subject of Eva Peron in the very near future and to explain why I find her story so inspirational.

An Evening With Katherine Jenkins at The Sage, Gateshead

An Evening With Katherine Jenkins

The Sage, Gateshead

30.4.2019

Back to The Sage for the last gig of a busy April - and a sharp change of genre.

This tour is to support the release of the new Guiding Light album and features the London Concert Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Inglis.

Support came in the form of AJ Brown, who warmed up the audience with a pleasant set of piano-based songs. There was no interval between AJ leaving the stage and the large orchestra taking their places and they picked up the pace to build up to Katherine's own appearance. Entering stage left, with a extraordinary red dress trailing almost it's body length again, the entrance was impressive indeed as she launched into Homeward Bound - the opening song of Guiding Light.

The evening's repertoire covered the various aspects of Katherine's career, with operatic material sharing the limelight with further cuts from the new album, the best of which was probably Jealous of the Angels.

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Katherine Jenkins has a remarkably powerful, emotive voice and she looks sensational. The magnificent dresses were changed three times over the course of the evening (red-blue-pink-yellow).

There were a couple of curious aspects to the evening. The first half of Katherine's show lasted just a shade over half an hour and the second was an hour. The is fine, but for significant portions of both halves she left the stage to change and the orchestra carried the show without her. The orchestra was magnificent, of course, but to have the star of the show absent for so long in what was already going to be a relatively short show was a mistake.

The second half also brought a series of questions from the audience, which had been written down on cards during the interval. The problem with this is that it went on for far too long and detracted from the show. Frankly, there are only so many times we can applaud shout-outs for people's birthdays and the like.

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The show closed at 10.00 p.m. with a rousing sing-along encore of We Are the Champions.

What we got, was fantastic and moving - but we needed more.

The Bluejays at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium

The Bluejays

The Princess Alexandra Auditorium

Yarm School

28.4.2019

The Bluejays brought their high-powered evening of pure rock 'n' roll back to Yarm last weekend, in a follow-up to their triumphant show of one year ago.

During both parts of the pulsating show they like to narrate the story of the birth of rock 'n' roll. The usual suspects are all present and correct, both in spirit and in their music, so we encounter the likes of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly along the way - plus plenty of others.

The Bluejays are the real deal. They have great style, excellent musicianship and a killer repertoire. They have humour too, even mocking themselves for losing on TV quiz show Eggheads to...a music question.

There was singing, dancing and a Chuck Berry finale. In short, it was an evening of fabulous rock 'n' roll, ending with a promise to return to Yarm next year.

An Evening With Bananarama at Borderline

An Evening With Bananarama

Borderline, Soho

27.4.2019

Bananarama's career has taken many twists and turns, including the unexpected return of Siobhan Fahey for an extraordinary, first-time ever tour of the original line up.

Then it was announced in the run-up to last Summer's final tour dates that they were going to revert to being a duo once again - Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward - and that a new album was in the pipeline.

The album was released last week and was accompanied by a short launch tour, utilising only very intimate venues, to showcase the new material and to act as a counterbalance to the gigs played in more impersonal large venues.

This is how I went from seeing them first at The Barbican in York (capacity 1,500) and Edinburgh Castle (capacity 8,800) in the Summer of 2018 to the most recent encounter at Soho's Borderline club (capacity 300).

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The evening consisted of a cosy Q and A with Sara and Keren followed by a short break. Then they returned with their band to perform a set list of 17 songs, with the bulk of the material coming from the new album. A couple of crowd-pleasers were included for good measure and the rest were rarer songs, not played on the big tour.

People had written questions on cards prior to the show and Sara and Keren took turns drawing them from the strategically placed basket. There was no moderator and Sara and Keren took turns to answer the questions. This session was very humorous and they did well to respond to such a large range of eccentric questions.

To see them up close was always going to be a completely different experience to last year's tour dates. Borderline was absolutely packed and everyone was in a good mood, just ready to enjoy a great evening.

The chap next to me rescued the set list from the stage at the end of the evening and let me take  photograph.

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The new songs all sounded great and the performance was excellent. It was certainly hot down in the basement, with 300 people all squeezed close to the stage.

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The future looks bright for Bananarama and I hope the opportunity arises to see them again, whether up close and personal or in a larger venue. Yes, it was a quite a night in Soho!