IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 6

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 6
DATE: Sunday 22nd May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £2 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: A great finish to our IPO


LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/


Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.



Our last day started with Ross & The Wrongens (www.myspace.com/rossandthewrongens) on the front stage. Typically Sunday lunchtime is the graveyard shift of the IPO with very few people wandering into the Cavern (having partied until 6am the night before!), but there was actually a half decent number of people in the Club for this gig.

The lead singer played acoustic guitar, with duct tape over the sound hole for some reason. The set raced along rather like The Gaslight Anthem, and the other guitarist was having loads of fun on stage, constantly beaming a wide smile. This is quite a young band, and inexperience did show through, as they appeared a bit disorganised on the set list and kept talking over each other while introducing songs.

That aside, they sounded really enthusiastic and their last song was particularly good, starting off slow and built up to a crescendo of shredding guitars to round off! We bought their CD, and really like the packaging (still to listen to the disc!).
Ross And The Wrongens
Jeremy & his band
Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) was next up, having gained this extra slot due to a cancellation. Through the first part of the set, you could see he was itching to jump over the rope that formed the boundary to the stage and before long, he had unleashed one end, and with a clear passageway, he did jump off and played up close and personal to the delighted audience, starting with his surf guitar medley, progressing through a bit of Beatles and Rolling Stones, some US TV themes we can’t recall the name off, plus loads of other instros.

He included a couple of covers – “Gloria” telling us he knew the original as being by a Chicago band, The Shadows of Knight, and then “Wild Thing” starting at first in the Troggs style and then progressing to the famous  Jimi Hendrix style. This man knows no boundrys and always does a great, great show.

Jeremy plays to the audience

Moving through to the back stage, London band Mini (www.myspace.com/soundofmini) were setting up and their set included the 4 songs on the EP they were giving away free. This is a really cool band, and the drummer, who does most of the singing does have a great voice. They did attempt a cover of a David Myher song but stopped mid-way as they felt they were not doing it justice. Then they proceeded to play the best cover we heard of the day – ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” complete with all of the falsetto harmonies. That sounded fab.
Mini


Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) followed that with another great harmonious set. David Bash introduced Ni as having vocals that would make George Michael blush! This time round we were there from the first key being played, and we heard the full version of “Night Shift”. Two songs that did stand out today were the one about the haunted house (or an Ex), with the “ba ba ba ba wow’s” which were quite reminiscent of the 40’s war time girl singers and “Lady Luck”. Ni was encouraging us all to sing along to the chorus. We had a vote for the last song – blues or pop:- Pop won!

Ni from Honeybug


On the front stage were The Mayflowers (www.myspace.com/mayflowersjp)
, all the way from Japan. They play a very fast paced set, mainly because they don’t speak English very well, so there is no banter with the audience in between songs! This year we felt they played more rock than pop, but they still sounded great. They did a great cover of the old Cookies song, "Chains" as recorded by The Beatles.
The Mayflowers


Our final band of the IPO was Blake Jones & The Trike Shop (www.myspace.com/trikeshop)  – all the way from California. Luckily due to a cancellation, they had a slot which meant we could catch them before we headed home. Blake was suffering a bit from a lost voice, but he still managed to get through the set. He plays the Theramin on stage and it was just awesome. He did a cover of “Dear Prudence” which sounded heartfelt even through the hoarse, croaky voice. Finishing with “Here Comes The Bus”, we picked up one of his CD’s and that was our IPO for this year over.

Blakes Jones & The Trike Shop -
Blake on the Theramin


Thanks to all of the bands we saw for entertaining us over the last 6 days. Thanks also to David Bash & Rina Bardfield for their dedication to power pop which makes this event happen every year. A shout out to the sound engineers – not once did we get a bad sound from any of the stages.

For the many friends we make along the way... long may this continue.


Until next year......... (or London if you’re going to be there!)

Day 6 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 6 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 2 bands seen on a previous day
Best Original Song:
Best Cover: “Mr Blue Sky” - Mini
Highlight of the day: Mini and Honeybug

IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 5

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 5
DATE: Saturday 21st May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £1 cover charge after 1pm and £3 after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Hot, hot, hot


LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

We had a light IPO day today - It was Scottish Cup Final day today, so that took priority for The Beeb. However, The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats)  were playing an extra slot in the Pub and that could not be missed! It says a lot for The Beat Rats that the first half of Celtic playing in the Scottish Cup final was given up to see them live again!
Being Saturday afternoon the pub was really busy. Hen and Stag party victims made up a good percentage of the audience. It didn't take long for The BRs to win them over and clear any cobwebs from their ears.
Once again the band rose to the challenge and wowed the crowd, even if one dizzy girl asked if they could play any songs she know! Tony had the perfect retort.."We only play this shit we write!"

The rest of the IPO was put on hold for us until later that evening. Grudgingly paying our £3 we got to the Cavern Club at around 8.30pm and saw most of The New Untouchables set on the front stage. They were really excellent, having a real 70’s Shaft style guitar sound at times, and the lead vocals were shared between the keyboard player and one of the guitarists. The other guitarist looked a bit like Rodney Trotter!

At this point, the front stage was given over to The Cave Dwellers, a resident band at the Cavern and the IPO moved solely to the Back Stage. This meant that any band on the stage from that time onwards had a captive audience!

We caught the last 3 songs from The Beta Rays, who played some really great powerpop. The back room was already full (seemingly with many family and friends of The Beta Rays) and with the audience moving in from the front stage, it swelled even more and the temperature was almost unbearable.

Next up from London, were The Kinbeats (www.myspace.com/thekinbeats) who were an absolutely fantastic band. This is another band made up of brothers and a cousin and you could tell this from the fabulous harmonies that filled our ears. They reminded us a bit of the Jayhawks, and in some cases, The Eagles or Long Ryders. Even the drummer had a shot at singing, and one song was just vocals with a little bit of guitar which sounded awesome. This band was a particular highlight of The Beebs' IPO
The Kinbeats
We haven’t heard harmonies like that since The Avenues appeared at the IPO in 2008 and brought the house down. Their last song was a bit different to what we had heard from them so far, with a bit of a guitar shred at the end, which showed us they could really rock too! We learned they are also playing at the London IPO, so hope to catch them again.
Octubre
Octubre, a Spanish band, who had brought their own fan club along were up next. They were really quick to set up and did their complete set in Spanish. It was real pop, and the temperature in the room was such that the sweat was dripping from the lead singer relentlessly.

We felt the bass player was trying to steal the thunder of the lead singer a bit on the last song, whilst he was playing a good bit of guitar, as the bassist was standing at the front playing his bass, hiding the lead guitarist from view!

Next up, Ulysses, a band we had seen last year. This year we felt they played better than they had last year, but they didn’t really seem to enjoy being on stage. That may have been down to the intense heat, which the lead singer likened to playing in Malaysia! The drummer was very good (one of our friends likened him to animal and also the 118 118 guy in the TV adverts). They did sound good, but the amps were turned up so high our ears were really buzzing afterwards and they would probably be better on an open stage at a festival at that level. They do take themselves a bit seriously in our opinion though. Paul Weller and Lou Reed probably smile more on stage than these guys.

Mellowmen (www.myspace.com/mellowmen) from Sweden were next on stage, introduced by David Bash as being his favourite band at the IPO for the last 4 years running. The rhythm guitarist was quite laid back and seemed to be quite happy playing the chords in his own wee world, while the bass guitarist really adds some fantastic backing vocals to every song. Having a percussionist also adds to the tremendous vibe.
Mellowmen
The main man of Mellowmen is the keyboard player and he is a real character. At one point he picked up a pair of maracas and jumped off stage, sat beside someone in the audience and passed one of the maracas to him to play! The best song of the night was from this band – Party at 11 O’Clock – it was a bit past that hour, but there was certainly a party going on, on stage! It really is an EVENT when these guys play
After that performance, we called it a night and wandered back to the hotel for some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be our last day at the IPO.


Day 5 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 7 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 1 band seen on a previous day
Best Original Song: “Party At 11 O’Clock” - Mellowmen
Best Cover: we didn’t hear any covers
Highlight of the day: Discovering The Kinbeats

IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 4

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 4
DATE: Friday 20th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £3 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Beat Rats are the best

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/


Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.


Day 4 started for us, gently in the Cavern Front Stage with Rachel Dunn, a local girl with an acoustic guitar and a guy on percussion (well, bongos and a didgeridoo!). With the didgeridoo, we felt they could have done more with the music. On the plus side, she didn’t belt her songs out, so the set was quite listenable.

Following this was the second outing for Fun of The Pier  (www.myspace.com/funofthepier). 1pm in the Cavern is not the busiest of times, so the audience was sparse and any chattering does detract from listening to the music.
Fun Of The Pier
 Sadly the audience were not as respectful as the slot in the Pub, and a group of three clowns (one wearing an AC/DC t.shirt so obviously he wasn’t going to enjoy an acoustic set!) spoke really loudly for the first few songs before leaving. What we did get treated to was some soft, breezy acoustic pop about fun at the pier and being happy, which was perfect for the Saturday morning.




Charge Of The Light Brigade (www.myspace.com/chargeband) , a band from Toronto were playing in the Pub so we popped across to catch their set. The IPO was treated only to Jason Eagan (from Clockwise) on bass and the lead singer, Luke Sneyd with his Les Paul – the rest of the band had not made the trip, so we got a stripped down set. With only a guitar and bass, it was hard to gauge what the full band would sound like, so we bought their CD!
Charge Of the Light Brigade

After that we took a break.... we had to find a place that sold a memory card for the HD camcorder, at a reasonable price, and also took the opportunity to update the blog and then find a place with free wifi that worked to post it!!!. After a bite to eat at the hotel, we headed back to Mathew Street early in the evening to see Houdini Dax (www.myspace.com/houdinidax)  again.

Houdini Dax
This time they played on the back stage and kept the same set as yesterday, with the exception (we think) of 1 song but what a performance again. These guys really do know how to put together short, punchy power pop songs and the drums really give it the great vibe.

A quick dash to the Pub, and we joined the crowd gathered there, just after Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) had started their set (kicking off a tad early). Honeybug has been one of those bands we must see every time they play the IPO and until they come onto the stage you never know quite know what you going to be treated to!

Honeybug

This time, the line up was the same as last year – Ni on main vocals and keyboard with Erin and Laura providing superb backing vocals.

The weekend had started in Liverpool and the pub had its fair share of the drunks and bawdy people, but Honeybug stuck with it and gave us some lush harmony around some great songs written by Ni, including one about a haunted house (or an Ex!) and a bluesy number called “Storm Cloud” which went down, er, a storm!

Back in the Club, and Liverpool band, The Suns (www.myspace.com/thesunsbanduk)
 were just about to start their set. They played some great rocky pop songs which the crowd packed into the front stage loved. David Lloyd, the main man with The Suns seemed to really enjoy this gig.
The Suns

The Breakdowns
Meanwhile, on the Back Stage, The Breakdowns (www.myspace.com/thebreakdownsband)  were playing. Minty had this band in her Myspace friends from the time she first signed onto the site, and it was great to finally get the chance to see them play live.

They are very pop/rock and David Bash summed them up very nicely with the phrase, “Hooks, Harmony and Energy”. There was a big crowd gathered in the Back Room for this one, and a particular highlight was “Don’t Go” which had a bit of harmonica on it.

Nigel Thomas
Staying in the back room, we learned that The Foxes (www.myspace.com/thefoxesband) would not be appearing due to the drummer injuring his wrist, but what we did get was a fantastic solo performance from The Foxes front man, Nigel Thomas.

He did include one cover in his set – The Beatles “Things We Said Today” but the rest was stripped down Foxes songs and some of his own. “No Reply” had some mad jazz-like chords thrown in which impressed The Beeb and his final song of the night was really upbeat with crazy chord changes! He got a fantastic response from the audience, and he proves that with the right songs, you can do a great stripped down set.


Back to the Front Stage and we caught most of Elgazelle’s (www.myspace.com/elgazelle) performance, and what a performance this was. Northern Soul does seem to feature quite a bit at this year’s IPO and this six piece band sounded great. The lead singer must have eaten sandpaper for breakfast and his gravelly voice, reminicent of Eric Burdon, really suited the music and he played a few percussion bits too. Our chum Davey said that this is what a Dalek would sound like if they could sing! Elgazelle were the surprise of the day and we loved them.
Elgazelle
Next up was the band we could not miss – The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) had their second slot on the front stage. This time they were being recorded by a guy from Abbey Road and they had a fantastic, fuel injected set which totally rocked from the first chord right through to the last.

The Beat Rats
The Beat Rats
No matter how many times we see these guys, they hit all the right spots, time and time again. Their set included the Beat Rats Theme, Mine All Mine (especially for a couple who were visiting form America) and we also heard some new stuff, Nyah Nyah Nyah being a great instrumental. The audience absolutely loved this set, and the place was heaving. I don’t think they could have wished for a better gig. The Beat Rats go from strength to strength.

We spent the next half hour or so just milling around the merchandise table area, not really taking in any of the bands playing.

When we did wander into the Back room, a local band Major Major (www.myspace.com/majormajor) were on. They had a bit of a “wow” factor – the first power pop band to include rap and they were great. The front man was really confident and engaged with the audience brilliantly. They went down really well and Minty really enjoyed watching them.

Major Major

After that we called it a night. Day 4 over, Day 5 here we come.

Day 4 Summary:

No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: saw 3 bands we had seen on previous days
Best Original Song: All Beat Rats!
Best Cover: “Things We Said Today” – Nigel Thomas
Highlight of the day: The Beat Rats rocking the front stage and the audience reaction




IPO LIVERPOOL Day 3

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 3
DATE: Thursday 19th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, LiverpoolCOST: £3 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: Wales 12 points!

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

The BLOG this week sponsored by The Beatles Shop, Mathew Street, Liverpool
http://www.thebeatlesshop.co.uk/


Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

David Bash promotes the official
IPO T Shirt - designed
by Steve Stanley

Day 3 started for us at 4.15pm today in the Pub, with the acoustic duo, Helen & Mark from Nottingham, in the guise of Fun Of The Pier (www.myspace.com/funofthepier). Helen has been coming to the IPO’s as a “watcher” for as long as we have been attending so it was great to see someone we know pick up a guitar and entertain us. Richard Snow helped out on vocals for the first song and after that it was all Helen singing with Mark on an acoustic bass. Their set was gentle and what Minty liked in particular was that Helen wasn’t shouting into the mic, but was singing quite naturally. Reminiscent of Yani Martinelli from last year’s IPO, this does prove that you can be effective with a good voice and a guitar.

Fun Of The Pier

One of their songs, “Inconsiderate,” was about people chattering over singers trying to perform, and what was good about this performance was that the audience in the Pub was unusually quiet (except for a couple of clowns at the bar) and gave Fun From The Pier a lot of respect.


Minty disappeared then to freshen up for the rest of the evening and that left The Beeb to enjoy the King of Sunshiney Power Pop, Jeremy who had this slot due to a no-show.


Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) is always the consummate performer – he enjoys playing and has unlimited passion and energy that ripples through the audience too, before being a full blown tsunami well before he hangs up his guitar. Just a few highlights were “Hearts On Fire” which is the title track from his most recent release for the charity Sweet Relief, Big House and a few Beatles numbers. His bassist Todd, performed one of his own numbers too, which sounded great.

Jeremy asked for requests and The Beeb asked for “123 Red Light” and he obliged. A surf guitar medley helped to bring the best out of the crowd, and the energy drove Jeremy up onto the stage barrier, to do his high dive but hit his head on the PA system! Hope he doesn’t have too much of headache today!

Staying in the Pub, next up were Richard Snow & The In laws (www.myspace.com/richardsnow) another firm favourite of our IPO experience. His Rickenbacker really does add that jingle jangle to his terrific songs. A highlight for Minty was a track from his soon to be released third album, “Stop Your Crying” which had great backing harmonies from the guys on drums and bass. The set was slick and worked really well, the vocals (lead and backing) were spot on and you could tell the guys enjoyed the gig.


Richard Snow & The In Laws

Every year, there is at least one band who is a bit of a nugget – a band you think sounds OK on Myspace but when you see them at the IPO, they just blow you out of the water. Tonight we saw one of these bands – Houdini Dax (www.myspace.com/houdinidax), from Cardiff.


Houdini Dax
This young three piece kicked off with just vocal harmonies before jumping into quite a country style number.
The drummer used the snare drum predominantly, a bit like Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats and all three vocals were delivered effortlessly, and blended in really well, to deliver a fast paced, catchy set and all in just 20 minutes!!!

The bass guitarist had a Justin Beiber haircut (what is it with that guy??) and also looked a bit like the Monkee, Davey Jones.

Their last number could have been penned by IPO’s seasoned pro, Paul Bevoir with its catchy riffs. One thing we did notice about this band was the lack of set-up (not that they needed it as their performance was spot on) – they did a quick “one-two” into the microphones and off they went!

The next band were also from Wales, The Method (www.myspace.com/methodofficial)  and these too were a fab band. We remember these guys from last year when they turned up to play, but were not ont he bill, but David let them have a slot. We thought they were goof then too!
Their drummer was a young Matt Smith look-a-like (Doctor Who for those who don’t know!), and they spilled out onto the floor in front of the stage to accommodate their instruments which included keyboard, tambourines and trumpet. They predominantly had a very Northern Soul sound that had a great vibe and in some of their numbers, we also heard bits of Fun Boy Three and The Doors, plus a bit of Pyche. Energy knew no bounds with these guys. They certainly loved doing their set and we loved it too.


The Method

At this point we wandered over to the Club – this avoided the 8pm curfew when the £3 door charge came in!

On the front stage David Bash was introducing a band from San Francisco, The Laughing Corners who were not in the programme but we later found out this was an alter ego for Agony Aunts! They were quite folky sounding, but we had The Targets on our list to catch and they were already mid-way through their set on the back stage.

The Targets (www.myspace.com/theuktargets) are a band who sound great on MySpace but didn’t deliver the same goodies for us on stage. We felt they got the audience all wrong, and tried to have us clap and sing along, which is a bit hard to do when the music is quite heavy rock with no chorus to speak of!!! They also did a cover of the Small Faces’ “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” which was unrecognisable to us!

Staying with the back stage, the next act was one we had eagerly anticipated – the welcome return to Liverpool of The Beat Rats (www.myspace.com/beatrats) who had just flown in from NYC that morning. Jet Lag doesn’t touch the Rats and they put on a stellar performance from the word go... well, “One, three, two, four” and their own “Beat Rats Theme”. They blasted through a fantastic set which included some of their new songs, alongside some old favourites of ours, “Thunderella”, included.


The Beat Rats rock The Back Stage

Beat Rat, Frank Max

The Beat Rats first CD, “A Cellar Full Of Rats,” has been played to death at home, and the new songs they played for us gave us something to look forward to when the next album comes out.

David Bash called it correctly when he described their music as ”Cavernesque” The Fab Four indeed! Modern day Merseybeat at its very best.

You cannot beat a bit of The Beat Rats – they are energetic, fast paced and just brilliant!


Next up, from Oxford, The Anydays (www.myspace.com/theanydays). This is a band we have seen a few times at the IPO, and they would not be out of place opening a gig for Paul Weller. They are very Mod Rock and they rock!

Moving across to the Front Stage, which was running about 30 minutes behind, we caught the second half of Sarah Lowes. On Myspace her music is very piano orientated but today she had a band with her which added to the sound. We think she left her set list in the back of her jeans, back in the dressing room, so what we got was an adlib set, and it seemed to work just fine.

Agony Aunts were up next – the same line up as Laughing Corners, but a bit rockier, while still keeping the melody going. The lead girl played an electric ukulele.

We stayed for Richard Snow & The In Laws’ second set of the night. Once again he did not disappoint and delivered a great set of songs which the audience really appreciated. A nice way to close our third night.

Richard Snow & The In Laws


Day 3 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 1
Best Original Song: Stop Your Crying – Richard Snow & The Inlaws or any of The Beat Rats songs.
Best Cover: Jeremy’s Surf Medley
Highlight of the day: The Beat Rats being back in town

IPO LIVERPOOL DAY 2

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 2
DATE: Wednesday 18th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: All free
OUR VERDICT: A Grande experience

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.

We joined the party quite late today, with the first band we say, Spygenius (www.myspace.com/thespygenius) on the back stage at 6.45pm. The first thing we noticed was the backdrop for the stage – which had changed from the Liverpool skyline we saw yesterday to the IPO logo. That looked extremely good.


The Backdrop for the Backstage

Anyhow, Spygenius are from Kent, with a lead singer that looks a bit like Phil Everly, who introduced their set as being Art, then Pop, then Art. He also joked that the first song was written for a movie that they never made, before easing us in gently with a lovely melodic, almost broody number. Regarding the movie comment – they are not far wrong. Their set was filled with quite a lot of numbers that would lend themselves very well to cinematic themes. They also played “A New Best Friend” which appears on the last IPO compilation CD.


Spygenius
Into the Pop part of the set, and a change to a 12 string which added a great jingle. A slight false start on “Surf” which was quickly recovered and then into the song that sounded great, especially with the 12 string. Being a Surf song, it would usually need a whammy bar, but the lead singer did a great job creating the required reverb sound with just him and the strings. David and Rina sat in on this set, which is a great accolade, as they usually have to hare about most of the time doing this, that and the other. We also got chatting to the band afterwards and intend to catch them at the London IPO where they play next week.



Next up, also on the back stage were The Herron brothers, Derby’s answer to The Proclaimers.


The Herron Brothers
 A couple of brothers, Paul and Steven, with just their harmonies and acoustic guitars. They weren’t too bad either, with hints of The Finn Brothers and had a good rapport with the audience – if there were a lot of people, it was a good audience. That was their considered criteria!


We moved across to the Front Stage to see a band from Ireland – The Wags (www.myspace.com/thewagsireland). We had found out earlier in the evening, that their next record was being produced by Duncan Maitland who recently supported Nelson Bragg (from The Brian Wilson Band) and Anny Celsi on their European tour. The band also name-dropped this fact into the set and added that not only Nelson was going to be playing on their new record but also Scott Bennett.


The Wags

We really enjoyed The Wags – they had a great power pop sound, with punchy, foot tapping melodies and great harmonies to boot. “Don’t Be Shy” was a particular highlight, but their entire set was impressive. The lead guitar had a great surf sound to it. Their drummer is probably the most laid back drummer we have seen so far in this IPO – he hardly broke a sweat but still created a great rhythm. Their last song was really quite garagey, and not typical of the rest of the set but we had seen more than enough to snaffle up the last CD of theirs left at the merchandise table.

We caught the second half of Captain Wilberforce (www.myspace.com/captainwilberforce) on the back stage. This is a band from Leeds (although the lead singer sounded like he was from the US), a six-piece with keyboard and also a trumpet. Indeed the trumpeter was practising in the toilet after the gig!! There is a risk that a six piece and all of the instrumentation on stage could overpower the vocals, but this didn’t happen and the band had a great sound. Well worth checking out.

Next up – Evaney, a duo from near to our neck of the woods, hailing from Aylesbury. This was a girl / boy duo with an unusual quirk of playing a stand up double bass. The girl had a Kirsty MacColl look about her. The front stage was quite full, but mainly with people at tables chattering, so this is a challenge with just an act with one vocal.


Evaney
Although we stayed for the full set, and the guy was adding vocals here and there, this duo is not really our cup of tea and we felt the girl needed another vocal backing to blend a bit more. She had a strong voice in an Alanis Morrisette and Sheryl Crow kind of way which is hard for us to listen to for any length of time. Not a criticism, just our taste.


The Grande (www.myspace.com/thegrandeband) are a local band, and one we have seen at every Liverpool IPO we have been to. They are firm favourites with us, a fairly large band, with a steel guitar included in the line up. The Beeb was salivating big time, as a White Falcon was sitting on the stage just tempting him to grab it and make a bolt for the door. The guy who played it got a really great sound from it of course, and with space on the stage very limited, he had to be very careful not to scrap the roof and side walls with the neck. You could see The Beeb sweating every time it came close!!!

That White Falcon

This time around, they played a lot of material we haven’t heard before, which was a great thing. The co-lead vocalist was a bit put out when the sound engineer asked for a sound check from the “backing vocalist”, and rightly so, as she has a terrific voice, and sounds great on the lead on many of the songs.


The Grande
Minty disappeared to the Back Stage towards the end of the Grande’s set (by this time the Front stage was running about 15 mins late) in order to catch Echo Lips (www.myspace.com/echolips), a band from Denmark who were down to play last year but, at the last minute couldn’t make the trip over. Their songs on Myspace are very Phil Spector meets Glasvegas and on stage, they were no different, which we loved.


Echo Lips
The line up, a group of four, included both guitarists playing Fender Jaguars and the drummer was definitely influenced by Hal Blaine. Their whole set was slick and highlights for us were “Kangeroo Song” which had fantastic harmonies for the intro and “To Die For Love Is Not Suicide” which had real reverb on the guitars. Suicide was a theme, with the last song being “Suicide Stars” which had a particularly good drum beat. We certainly enjoyed this band, and got their EP. We hope to see them next year and hope the suicide thing doesn’t kick in. Just don’t let them near any Joy Division CD’s!!!


Echo Lips

Back to the Front Stage, and the second year in a row, an appearance by The Soundcasters (www.myspace.com/thesoundcastersmusic) . We loved them last year, but this year they were even more impressive. The lead guitarist is excellent, and continually bops around the stage to every song, playing a really well worn-looking guitar! The energy from this band is amazing, and their songs are terrific. They did one cover – from what we gather it was a James Brown song which the Moody Blues covered, we don’t know the name but it sounded superb.
The Soundcasters

This is such a remarkable band, and the audience really warmed to them. The lead singer has a distinctive voice, and is a good front man as well as being a good guitarist. They have no frills on stage – we think we saw just one guitar pedal so they keep things simple but they are really infectious and you can’t help but tap your foot and nod your head along to their songs. They dress in a quite 60’s Kinks style and their influences are certainly that era.


The Soundcasters

Last year the novelty thing about them for us was the fact that they were so young. A year later and you realise the youth thing has to be laid by the roadside, and what you’re left with is a band with a catalogue of great songs ready to compete in the music business. Job well done guys.

The night was starting to wind down now, and next up was a band from Glasgow, Penny & The Restless. Because we had seats around a table, we didn’t move and just about beared their 30 minute set. The only good thing about their set was the fact that “Penny” had lovely shoes on!

The programme described them as having a female Kurt Cobain on lead...... well she was singing in there somewhere but the guitars almost drowned her vocals and we had no idea what she was singing about for the first couple of songs. After that, once we did hear her, it was a bit tiresome after one song. She lacked the charisma you would hope to see from the lead in a band –she stood rooted to the spot and Minty felt she wasn’t comfortable in her choice of wardrobe – a white basque - as she kept having to hoik it up!! We didn’t feel this band were really IPO material - they were just that little bit too grungey and heavy to be in a power pop festival.


We wandered to the back stage next and saw the second half of the set from a band called Night Parade (www.myspace.com/nightparade). This was a four piece and the lead had a big acoustic guitar. Their songs were a mixture of soft acoustic starts building up to quite rocky numbers and great pop songs. We liked this band, and are hoping to catch them when they play again on Friday.

Night Parade

Our final band for the night, Black Sun, were already playing on the Front Stage when we joined them. This was another band with the lead playing an acoustic guitar. They had a quite a heavy sound, and only one vocal, so no harmonies. Hats off to the guy – he broke two stings and still kept going! Their set was unremarkable, and included two covers – “Make Me Smile” and “Paperback Writer”.

And so ended night number two. It was 1am and we wandered back to the hotel, stopping off for some chips along the way!!!
See you all tomorrow.

Day 2 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 11 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: none
Best Original Song: Don’t Be Shy – The Wags or any of The Soundcasters songs.
Best Cover: Soundcasters James Brown cover
Highlight of the day: The Soundcasters

IPO - LIVERPOOL - Day 1

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 1
DATE: Tuesday 17th May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: All free
OUR VERDICT: Made the nightmare drive worthwhile

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/

First the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.


Our plans to reach Liverpool before 3pm were somewhat thwarted by a serious accident that closed the M6 motorway causing a long queue with a detour through Cannock and Staffordshire resulting in a 90 minute delay. Arriving in Liverpool, stressed and starving, we decided to grab a bite to eat before doing anything else, so it was not until almost 7pm that we began our IPO.

A quick hello to David and Rina, and we caught the last half of The Broken Alphas on the back stage. We had this band down to see, due to their Glaswegian roots. More rock than pop, they were good nonetheless, but the songs didn’t really stick in our minds. The lead singer looked a bit like Ewan McGregor did 20 years ago in Trainspotting and he did have a strong voice.

Next up were Hijinx, (www.myspace.com/hijinxpowerpop) a local outfit, and one of the many bands David Lloyd of The Suns plays with. They had a bit of a false start when they couldn’t hear what they needed through the monitors but once they got going, they really got going. We remember this band from last year, as the sound engineer at the time thought the drummer was like Animal from The Muppets! Some things never change.

HIJINX

Their repertoire has some really decent songs, which are so catchy that you find yourself able to sing along with them before they end, and each has a little guitar solo spot too. “Gonna Rock You” is particularly strong, and “Big Rock Show” sounded great. We caught about 95% of their slot, before disappearing across to the Pub for an 8 o’clock start for another band.


The Red Comets (http://www.theredcomets.co.nr/) are Junebug in disguise! Well, the four piece includes brothers Ralph and Guy from Junebug but unlike Junebug, includes a keyboard. The Red Comets are a bit more easy going, but still manage to have catchy pop numbers, particularly “Sliding Away”. Their set included a very much Brian Wilson/Beach Boys influenced number and their last song was very jazz influenced. We have always enjoyed Junebug’s sets at the IPO and The Red Comets certainly didn’t disappoint at all.


Ralph & Guy - The Red Comets
 Staying in The Pub, next up were The Brights, a band originating from Chelmsford who lost marks for having Justin Beiber haircuts!! That aside, they played a great set, filled with quick foot tapping tunes. They slowed the pace down a little for a song that had a “Be My Baby” drum beat, a cool guitar lick played on a archtop Epiphone and a spot of harmonica – nicely done. The end of their set was a cover of Elvis’ “Burning Love” straight into one of their own numbers and got a great reaction from the audience.

The Brights

Back across to the Club and Loser Token  were mid-way through their set. This is a young band of three, who were quite rocky. They did take a bit of time in between songs, suggesting unfamiliarity with their set but certainly show promise to be a good band. They wowed the audience with a Stevie Wonder medley to finish off their set, Superstition, Higher Ground, I Wish and Sir Duke where the guitarist did a great job covering the keyboard pieces on his guitar.

The highlight band of the night was coming up next, although we didn’t know it at the time!!

54321, from Wirral (www.myspace.com/54321band) are a band of 4 brothers and a cousin (don’t F*** with the formula!!) who sounded fantastic. The lead singer could be the new Jon Bon Jovi – good looking and a terrific voice to deliver their set which included rock numbers and ballads alike. Their set included a song called “Casino” which sounded great, a cover of David Bowie’s “Life On Mars” which was truly fantastic, followed by their own space song “Astronaut” which was also a great performance. This was definitely the best original song we heard today.


54321 on the Back Stage

We stayed with the back stage for a little longer, and saw a bit of the performance from New Vinyl. The lead singer reminded us of Serpico, the keyboard player a Brian Wilson circa 1977 (but without the heaps of weight) and both the guitarist and the bassist were left handed! This band didn’t stand out heads and shoulders above any other band, but they had a solid performance and some good harmonies on the backing vocals.

Back across at the Pub, SMASH Fashion (www.myspace.com/Smashfashion) played their second slot. These guys look like professional rock stars - they dress and have hair like rock stars anyhow – the bassist looked like Ronnie Wood!

SMASH Fashion
These guys are based in LA but only one of the band is originally from the US – the others hail from the UK, Finland and Holland. They are a tight band, who didn’t appear to need a set list, sounding very 70’s rock and doing a good job at it. The sound in the pub can be quite hit and miss and Minty felt the vocals were drowned a bit tonight. Nevertheless, it was a great set and The Beeb went off and bought their 2 albums!

SMASH Fashion
We ended our night in the Club – the front stage this time, and caught the latter part of Bjorn Pellbakke, from Norway. This was a 5 piece, including a keyboard with some quite delightful songs. “It’s Fabulous” was particularly catchy. Hats off to David Bash for pronouncing Bjorn’s name faultlessly.

The last band of the night was 54321, who we wanted to see again following their stellar performance earlier on. These guys are GREAT – if they do not hit the big time, then the world will be robbed of something special. Their second set was a bit of a treat as other than “Casino” we don’t think they played any of the songs they did earlier. They did play their new (free download) single, “Tiger Tiger” which sounded absolutely fantastic. The lead singer has such a great voice and with Barney( who plays keyboards) singing too, the mix is awesome.

The biggest treat was for the audience who had stayed through to the end :– 54321 did an unbelievable, wonderfully performed version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, using only three microphones!!

54321 on The Front Stage

The Beeb had seen Queen live a few times, but can’t remember them doing the whole of Bo Rap without resorting to tapes for the operatic bit in the middle. 54321 were awesome. Minty’s jaw was on the floor and looking at the audience they seemed to have the same reaction. Rapturous applause greeting the last bar of that performance.


And so closed our first IPO night...... we wonder if any band will top 54321’s performance.... it’s a high bar to reach.




Day 1 Summary:

No. of Bands seen : 8 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once :1
Best Original Song: 54321 - Astronaut
Best Cover: 54321 – Bohemian Rhapsody
Highlight of the day: 54321 - Bohemian Rhapsody