The More You Live, The More You Love

The bill looked nice, although the Belgium bands were a mystery to me. So as a result we decided to enter the festival around half past three just before the start of Amy MacDonald. So we already missed The Scabs and 't Hof van Commerce. Amy MacDonald just released her third album this year, and the setlist was a cross section of all three albums. She has a strong voice, and most of the time the songs sounds like the studio versions. It is hard to get her out of her comfort zone, so the hour was filled with an Amy hidden behind guitar and microphone. She even played an acoutic version of the Bruce Springsteen classic Born To Run. Next on the bill was Kaiser Chiefs. They played an hour of mainly hits, and most of the tracks are from their recently released album Souvenir. Not bad music, a mixture of rock, ska and punk with some references to the Beatles. But it gets boring when their singer has the need to keep yelling "We are the Kaiser Chiefs" between ...

Sean Filkins War And Piece & Other Short Stories (Festival Music 201103) The debut of the former frontman of Big Big Train is one you shouldn't have missed in the past year. Over sixty minutes of pure progressive rock references to a very gala of predecessor, with a most striking reference to the second instrumental part Sirens Song of Epitath Of A Mariner, which sounds very familiar to the eighties work of Tangerine Dream. Sean Filkins was a member of Big Big TRain at the time of the albums Gathering Speed and The Difference Machine. Precisely during the period when the band decided to broaden their musical horizon. This can clearly be heard on his debut. Filkins is a storyteller, who performs his stories like Nick Barrett, although vocally he is much stronger and sounds like a crossover of early Phil Collins and Alan Reed, while ex- Galahad bassplayer Lee Abraham, responsible for the instrumental support, covers the production, assisted by Karl Groom and Filkins him...

(AVALON RECORDS GHCD10) Empires Never Last dates back five years ago and finally here is the sequel: Battle Scars. An album which marks the parting of bassist Neil Pepper, who at 44 years old, died of cancer last year. Pepper, despite the discomforts of the disease, still managed to play all bass parts for both Battle Scars and Beyond The Realm Of Euphoria, with a planned release for later this year. Out of respect, the remaining band members decided to continue as a foursome and Pepper is mentioned on three tracks as the composer / writer. Mark Spencer (Twelfth Night) will take his place as bassist during the upcoming concerts. On Battle Scars the techno, ambient and dance influences, introduced since the recruitment of keyboardist Dean Baker, are strongly extended. The result contains a potpourri of styles and lifts Galahad, in terms of musical presentation, to the 21st century, while the progressive roots through Hammond and Mellotron samples are not forgotten. From th...