ISLE OF WIGHT ROCK NEVER STOPS
Home Cooking
by Vic King
Last week I had a few days holiday, so it presented an opportunity to get out ot a few regular local gigs which, although they are close to home, I don't attend as often as I should. Here are a few observations about them:
JC Grimshaw and Paul Armfield, Wight Mouse, Chale 28/9/98
The other half of the regular Grimshaw duo, JCs sister, Angelina was unwell so Paul Armfield stepped in for this Monday night session.
What's great about Grimshaw gigs is the sheer value of music on offer. For instance, here they started at 8.40pm, did three sets and finished at about half past eleven, so it was about an extra hours music than you would get in a more regular Island pub.
There is inevitably always a mainland guest musician staying with the Grimshaws who wants to play, or one of their Island friends so what you end up with is not just a duo but almost a whole folk club of their own.
Early numbers from JC in the first set included his own composition SOS and Hesitation Blues before Armfield, starting on guitar was quickly into Tim Hardin mode on a cleverly written song called 'All Men Are Liars' in which he rhymed 'Rick Astley' with 'ghastly'.
JCs mandolin playing served to remind me that this week sees the 25th anniversary of the final night of that superb folk club on the Island at the Chequers in Rookley. With some of the guitar interplay between these two in the first set if you had closed your eyes you could almost have been back there.
In the second set Paul switched to a giant double bass and proceeded to break a string on it. A friend of JCs from Warwick, Dave, got up to perform that old Chequers 'anthem', Leadbelly's Midnight Special. Great to hear it again. Dave is in a band called Tanglefoot who are already lined up to play at next year's Folk Festival on the Island at Havenstreet (August 14th/15th).
With it being the 'end of the season' there were not to many tourists around, just a more regular crowd, so it presented the chance to perform material that JC's father John Grimshaw refers to as 'self penned' stuff. Also perhaps without Angelina on vocal duties, it gave JC a chance to perform more of the songs that will be on his solo CD.
We heard some in both the second and third sets. A lot of them are in the style of 'Blood Red Roses' and 'Elephants Graveyard', JC's contribution to the first Island Sessions CD. I'm sure one song about broken love affairs mentioned both Kerouac and Bukowski in the same line. They were long poetic pieces, very interesting. This was interspersed by a guy from Bonchurch called Steve who played some instrumentals on the bouzouki.
Last Orders, Spyglass Inn, Ventnor 30/9/98
Wednesday night and high tide at Ventnor, with waves crashing scarily on the gloomy beach as I mae my way to the Spyglass, which is located on the sea front. Later, on the way home, there were a couple of young guys racing along the seafront with their shirts off. It looked like a scene out of 'Quadrophenia'.
Back to the music. If I do have a complaint about the Spyglass it is that the level of conversation in the pub can sometimes drown the sound, but not tonight. Top Island Irish band, Last Orders have the volume of their PA well up. Chequers veteran John Newman is on guitar and mandolin, and as soon as Sue Mason's whistle kicks in I'm missing Galway again.
Newman takes on the Van Morrison mantle in a lovely version of 'Brown Eyed Girl'. We got slow airs from Donal O'Riain on fiddle, like Jay Ungar's 'Ashokan Farewell'.
Newman has to explain that the damp weather is affecting the instrument tunings, but he remains the Island's top Dylan interpreter evidenced by a bouncy 'You Ain't Going Nowhere' complete with Chequers-style ringing mandolin that was right out of those 'Wild Honeysuckle Sundays' that we used to spend in the summer of 1973. James Goode, switching from bodhran provides a sympathetic backing on harmonica. Next is 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' and there is a lot for the packed audience to absorb.
JC and Angelina, Spyglass Inn, Ventnor 1/10/98
Angelina is well again, and for the soundcheck she just sings one line 'I will walk alone by the black muddy river' into the mike. So, I've already got a Garcia solo going through my head and the gig hasn't even started yet.
It's an 8.40pm start once again, three sets, the first one kicked off with the instrumental 'Anniversary Waltz' featuring JC on mandolin. Angelina brings forward Bessie Smith's 'After You've Gone' from the twenties before we get back to the ragtime of 'Hesitation Blues' again. Our friend from Warwick, Dave is still here and he tells me about when he saw Michelle Shocked at the Galway Arts Festival a few years back, before he joins the Grimshaws to perform a wild version of the Pogues 'Fairytale of Old New York'.
Another Grimshaw friend, Steve, features in the second half playing his tea chest bass. "Such a pure sound," observes Rupert Brown who has wandered in, together with violin player Neil Black and his girlfriend Amber. I'm sure that Rupert got up before the finish and hit a cowbell, but I had to catch the bus.
So, three fine nights, and it could have been more. On Tuesday, the Armfield/O'Riain Gypsy band were at the Spyglass with the Chale Whalers at the Wight Mouse. Friday saw Pete Hogman's Blues Band due at the Spyglass while the Boogaloozers were set to assemble at the Arreton Barn.
Live music in the South Wight is in good hands.
Vic King