Out To Lanch!

‘Out to Lanch’ recently celebrated the opening night of a free exhibition looking at Coventry’s musical history.

The launch took place at 2-Tone Central located in the university’s SU where some of the world’s biggest names in music to this day once passed through the corridors during the days of the Lanchester Polytechnic.

As a part of the opening night, one-time wonders Jimmy Jimmy- the twosome who found their claim to fame after playing on the streets of Birmingham as buskers in the early 1980s, have not long reunited to play a set in the present-day Lanch.

Although almost impossible to envision now; artists such as Oasis, U2, The Who and Elton John have all graced the halls, rooms, and undoubtedly the toilets of a building which currently hosts the sitting of exams, the grabbing of mid-morning snacks, the calling into the uni’s radio or newspaper office (the Source), or perhaps even gown-fitting for graduation.

The exhibition goes to show how the building located near to the Cathedral on University Square hasn’t always been the bearer of such mundane activity. Pete Chambers, local music aficionado and the host of the evening, had this to say about the Lanch’s significance..

"There’s a fantastic history here and we wanted to remind and educate people- the ones that didn’t know- of what actually went on here and about some of the bands because it was quite iconic- particularly in the 70s because we had the Lanchester Arts Festivals."

The exhibition itself contains memorabilia of bands and artists involved in the former art’s festivals, original photographs courtesy of local documenter John Coles (one of the many familiar faces present for the launch), hats and suits once worn by icons such as Pauline Black, old lyric sheets and compositions, badges, and videoed interviews in and amongst the collection.

The venue has previously provided a great platform in particular for 2-tone Records’ artists (on the label that received it’s name from Specials’ keyboardist Jerry Dammers) with bands such as The Selecter and Bad Manners playing the Lanch as was alongside the Ghost Town dwellers themselves.

As Pete explains, "My Ding-a-ling, that number one by Chuck Berry which was recorded at Tiffany’s, the Lacarno at the time, but it was part of the Lanchester Arts Festival so we were able to bring it in to the actual exhibition. Chuck Berry was supported by Slade and later on at the concert there was Pink Floyd playing"- almost names that span so far across the globe that it generously taxes the mind to imagine that they ever played in a city also famed for the motor car industry, and ever endearing Big Brother star: Bex.

The exhibition also reminds us about the night Coventry had it’s own Free Trade Hall moment, when thanks to the Buzzcocks; the Pistols played in Manchester to a room of about 40, which just so happened to contain future mover-shakers Tony Wilson of Factory Records, members from Joy Division, The Smiths and the Happy Mondays, and also erm… Mick Hucknall.

Pete remarks that, "When the Pistols played here in Coventry the first time before they became tabloid fodder- in the crowd that night there were members to be of the Specials and that was the night that changed everything for Coventry."

It was practically history in the making. And now we can reflect upon or in fact learn the significance of the Lanch with a chequered monochrome room selling memorabilia, and a free exhibition. Both locatable in the Coventry University SU, officially open as 2-Tone Central.

DON'T MOVE!

DON'T MOVE! represent the ultimate in shaggy-haired, woolly-jumpered, accordion-playing, decently wholesome pop bands. They are fun-loving, colourful, catchy, and most importantly- an incredibly talented bunch of lads pouring their souls out into qualitative tunes.

Think Love. The Beatles. The Byrds. The 60s! So delightfully retro, without an ounce of contrived pretention. Matt, Joe, Mason, and Cedrick Confuegos simply are.

Having come from parents who played their sort of hippy-ish, folksy – to rocky, guitar driven music, the boys found their inspiration very early on... They just had to find each other.

“Part of being a teenager is you discover your little secrets and the things that make you feel better than everyone else. We each had our musical loves that did that for us, and we shared it together and wrote songs we were kind of influenced by” reveals Mason Le Long the band’s front man.

They came together through mutual friends on a night out, when a mate of Joe’s decided to ditch him in place for couples’ capers, and Joe was left stuck with Mason. The two, living in Leamington at the time, went back to Mason’s house for a joint and a jam- where it was that Joe decided “oh man, you play like Jimi Hendrix man”. And the seeds were officially sown for DON'T MOVE!’s potential. Matt Rheeston and Mr Confuegos were then poached earnestly along the way.

The duo that is Mason and Joe, are akin to American disco band Chic. “The song writing duo of Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards were at the core of the band Chic” reveals Joe. “Mason is really into Nile Rogers’ guitar playing, I’m really into the bass playing and we both like their songs and their band- so they’re like our heroes I suppose”. Lyrics are then often crafted out of bitterness and resentment, capitalized on by the band’s first album The New Pop Sound Of. Mason jokes blithely how the “first record is pretty much a bitterness concept album”.

And with such breezy sweet acrimony officially on sale at Tin Angel Records, surprisingly it takes a fair while to construct these potent emotions to the stage of completion. “I come up with a bass line, and three years later it might be a song” Joe adds with whimsical finesse.

“We spent about two years writing songs and practising them, and just sitting on our little secret. Getting stoned together and writing and not even playing our first gig until a year and a half after we started” comments Mason.

The Tin Angel is not only Coventry’s coolest cafe bar, record shop and label; but it’s also a sanctuary for DON'T MOVE! “I don’t think we’d still be around, or even alive if it weren’t for the Tin”, Mason discloses. The band came over from Leamington one night to do an open mic, and found themselves immediately ‘discovered’ by their manager Rich Guy.

“A couple years later we were working here, four years later we were living here, now we just use this place to practise and work as well” Joe muses of his home-from-home, come feeding ground. Mason too shudders at an existence independent from the Tin.

Up next for the band, is a single released early next year featuring jazz angel of the Tin Devon Sproule- with arrangements and production courtesy of fellow label-resident Mantler. But to immerse yourself in the blissfully melodic DON'T MOVE! for the meantime; the boys are doing a small UK tour in December, and their current album is available online and at Tin Angel Records. Wise investment.

Charles Dexter Ward and the Imagineers

Tales chattered through shattered teeth of witchcraft and necrophilia from the depths of Arkham Asylum- depicted for the first time from the last breaths of singer Aaron Malin.


On a murky murderous moor passed a poor forsaken band called Living With the Bear, crossing the haunted forest under a full moon to make their midnight appointment at the practise rooms. Determined, yet untalented they strived to learn their instruments as best they could in the hopes of only, if possible making an impression amongst their peers within the crypts of Coventry City.


Whilst crossing the forest, lain there before their pokey dilated eyes appeared a rusted tin dappled with silver fingerprints, and they opened it. In the swift flurry and a frosted haze appeared the ghost of Charles Dexter Ward himself! He consumed the members where they stood (regurgitating a fresh new member entirely), wrote all of their songs and taught them how to use their instruments so to strike discords of orchestrated brilliance into the hearts of the masses.


"I’m fed up of all these songs about being in a dole queue, eating a bag of chips bla bla bla. And all that telling you how it is on the street, I don’t want to know about that. So I started writing gothic songs, and I wrote one about the witch-hunt" explains singer Az Malin.


Charles Dexter Ward and the Imagineers have undeniable identity, and surely enough a following to go with it. The name comes from a dark story by H.P Lovecraft- a certified influence imprinted on the band’s facebook page. Their sound is decidedly blues rock psychedelia with twinges of Victoriana suave- in their music and their dress. Embellished dapperly in waistcoats, pocket watches and top hats; Az, Leigh, Chris and Ben spur furies of psychedelic memorials from the amps like possessed banshees. The likes of Tom Waits, John Lee Hooker, Kings of Leon and Kyuss drip from their sleeves as they shake rattle and groan through the microphone.


"That’s why I like recording, because the way I’m singing them no one knows what the fuck I’m saying" comments Aaron. "Image is massively important. We made up this mad story and everyone’s taken to it!"


Laughs aside, the band take themselves as seriously as any other group of musicians securing a local stance and trying to push their appeal as far as it‘ll go. But it’s about having fun with it too. Aaron admits that creation lies in "something that’s got a tune, and that’s got a groove. That’s the way we want to write songs. There’s an art in writing a good song, and having all the influences in there, but mostly having the basis of a good song".


In regards to getting signed, Az is often annoyed at people’s surprise to hear that they’re not a signed band. He laughingly demands to know just "how do you do it?!", though reassuringly admits: "we’re just trying to do something different on our own terms". Yet his tone turns understandingly a little resentful over the fact that "there are no rock bands at the minute, listen to the radio- it’s all pro tools synthetic shit. Even the rock music."


CDWATI would like nothing more than to yield depraved lunacy over the sound waves from the wrenches of their guts- and just how many bands can you name that sing about debauched gothic horror and Eskimo Escape? For instance "The Ballad of the Necrophiliac is about an ex-lover" Az explains, "and the point of the story is she’s dead and I’m going to dig her up and have my wicked way with her". And Witch Hunt is an equally delightful tale about spooning the eyes out of villagers suspected of witchcraft. Nothing you wouldn’t read about in Mary Shelley really.

Now the band plan to drag their shackles and chains through the forest of Charles Dexter Ward and onto pastures old, grey and quite possibly dilapidated- perhaps Dickensian London. "We’re waiting for the winter to come again. It’s been too sunny, and we’re not a summer band" states our host of scriptures. He leaves with one last statement to chew on; "Now with Halloween coming, we’re ready to emerge again".


Ensure to embrace the wrath of Charles Dexter Ward.

Black Carrot, For a Change

The king of obscure instruments Olly Betts, reveals the near-miss themes that the Carrot don’t quite have along with the rest of all that jazz…

The alternative art rockers are somewhat like a refresher course, whimsically feeding anyone who dares gamble a taste on the Carrot. Using a variety of unheard instruments including fender rhodes, a basshum recorder and a rhino sax- Black Carrot have become part of the jazz fusion genre, paying homage to Impulse! Records legends like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. They’re different, to say the least.

Different yes, but not so obscure that the only appeal is a pretentious cry for help, heard only by the upper class art school elite above extended silences in some jazz impromptu playing on their European sound system, as they saunter in their Italian loafers.

Not quite a blow-off-your-head-if-you-stand-to-near-to-the-speakers band, it is in fact the sound, or the mood that is most prominent about the Carrot. Stewart Brackley’s vocals are a gibbering warble woven through an avant-garde tapestry- never quite coherent, yet always an impression. And in terms of theme, it’s fair to summate that preconceived notions are never really an important constituent for the band. "They’re not particularly about anything, there’s a bit of a war theme going on. We’ve got a single out in October, and that’s got a bit of a theme about it. But no, they’re not really about anything in particular" Olly Betts, Carrot mastermind assures me.

The first misconception about Black Carrot, is that they have Eastern European roots. Olly justly announces, "People were saying "you sound like Faust or Neu! or like all these German things of which I’ve never owned a record, before we started doing it".

In actual fact they’re signed to Coventry-based label Tin Angel Records, and have gained a mostly bohemian following within the city and across Midlands; despite dwelling mostly in home town Market Harborough. The UK may have been the feeding ground for Black Carrot- and a tour around the country is not unlikely- but they have previously stepped outside of the UK to measure the acceptance in Eastern Europe. Two trips to Poland can be sighted on their résumé- if not purely to see how a jazz fusion band might go down in the country famed for ‘disco polo’.

"We’ve got a mate over there, who organised this little thing- a tour sounds a bit grand- we just played down his local. It sounds a lot grander than it was… It was fun. The first night we played we had cleared the place, bar from one, which is quite an achievement", states Olly unassumingly. He continues on to say "The second time we toured there, we took our storyteller with us, and we even more bad press".

The fact is that the band don’t really care if you like them of not. They're respectfully of a more mature set these days, never needing to actively seek approval. They are instead applying themselves to an experiment, of a kind. Now after working away for round about 10 years, the general temperament can be summarised by; "We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing. No one’s going to get us anyway, so it doesn’t really matter!"

Rousing words from the Carrot’s musical ‘let’s pick it up and see what happens’ frontrunner, who reveals no ostentatious background in sight when it comes to instrumental competence. "I’ve played woodwinds forever really, and I think keys is just something I fell in to. We haven’t been trained, Stew knows what he’s doing musically, but the rest of us- we don’t- we just sort of find it and play it". He continues to disclose that "We started off trying to be a bit of a, not a jazz band, but an out-there Sun Ra sort of jazz thing. And it gelled into what we’re doing now".

So when there is a theme? Well so far they have composed a soundtrack to works on Edgar Allan Poe, and Franz Kafka amidst others, which they recorded with temporal bard Nigel Parkin. But that’s old news, and presently fans can look forward to a new record on the horizon... "They’ll be a new album next year, possibly" Olly just barely prophesises. "Hopefully be a double one- out in the Tin Angel, at some point. We’re sort of just thinking about it at the moment".

So if you maybe, sort of, might quite like to give Black Carrot a listen, then previous albums are available at the Tin Angel or on the band’s website.

Primeline Artist to Launch EP

Up-and-coming dubstep star on first release…

Primeline: Coventry’s non-profit youth organization currently promoting hip hop, dubstep, and grime in the community. It is a record label with Coventry roots, looking to help unrepresented young artists from all walks of life.

Amec: not an American share-holding company as perhaps you first thought, but rather the next artist eagerly awaiting his launch date. But given his plan, there may be a day when you can actually invest shares in the enterprise that becomes Amec.

Within the next couple of months Amec releases his debut EP- a few tracks which represent the time and training he has received through Primeline. The artist learnt his trade at a youth centre known as the ‘Venny’, in the Henley Green area of Coventry. From this base, the organization focus their energy honing the talents of unrepresented youths looking to express themselves.

Amec began on the dubstep path out of a social inclination. He explains "I used to go out to my mate’s car and listen to drum and bass in the back". After that it wasn’t long before the team at the Venny got him into recording.

"Really it was just trial and error- just stick me on it, tell me what would break it so I know then what not to do. I got advice from my mentors there, listened to different types of music and just found my own sound from that".

Amec’s sound itself is not strictly dubstep and he ensures to involve a variety of genres into his work. "I’ll always try different things. My love will always be dubstep, drum and bass but I’ll always try to make other stuff." He adds that "I do like the Arabic sound, I like the whole snake charmer thing", and he so far he has an existing track which make use of Chinese Zen sounds.

Dubstep really emerged as a genre within the last decade but has mostly been treated as a trend on the outside of mainstream awareness. Amec recognizes that it gains most recognition in the Midlands, Shropshire, Bristol, and London music scenes, and believes strongly that "it needs to be more commercial. If they give it a chance on radio, then a lot more people will buzz in to it".

The genre becomes increasingly attractive as we plunge further into the electronic age. Traditionally music takes timely and costly means to produce to a commercial standard, yet dubstep is the bass-heavy alternative reflecting the work of good computer skills.

On his tracks, Amec says that theoretically he "can get one done in two or three hours", although he admits that "another time it can take two or three months. It’s just translating what’s in your head, to what’s on the computer".

So with all the right tools and enthusiasm provided by the producers at the Venny- who strongly emphasize passion and a love of music over the money-making machines of industry; Amec prepares to make his impression and take his art as far as he can.

"I’d love to make it some sort of full-time career, whether it’s engineering, or making music for other artists under an assumed name. Kind of like Timberland, I‘d love to be doing something like that".

Listen out for his name in the coming months.

Primeline Built on Passion

Coventry youth organization determined to succeed against all odds.

Primeline Music is a is a newly founded recorded label helping young artists to follow a passion, removed from the reins often seized by the wider music industry.

It is comprised of a team of people willing to help promote local talent- without the funding that major labels can so readily supply. The label is instead run on the belief and passion of it’s contributors, leaving monetary ambition far from priority.

Based in a youth centre known as ‘The Venny’ in the Henley Green area of Coventry, the non-profit organization boosts the productivity of youths who may not have otherwise had the chance. Removing the capital from the project leaves an enterprise solely focussed on talent, music, and education.

Carl Farquharson Primeline Coordinator, feels that "Primeline is a record label that’s about putting out great music that is new and edgy from talented young artists that would not normally get the chance to showcase their music".

Though not only focussed on helping young musicians, the label also provides the scope and voluntary employment opportunity for young up-and-coming journalists, PAs, promoters, technicians and many other roles required to produce the music and put it out onto the market.

The project is not strictly local either, and Michael Bailey (Primeline Director) can reveal that "Primeline works with talented people from all walks of life including inner city communities, some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country to develop and create new opportunities for young people to harness their music and enterprise skills".

They are currently promoting acts focussed on grime, hip hop and dubstep; but are looking for, and would encourage artists of all genres. Think of them as a local unfunded version of Island Records- bearing the same unbiased agenda as their enterprising foregoer.

The current tracks can be considered a product of technology, and Primeline provide the tools and the guidance for the youths involved to use to become competent artists.

From this point in time, Primeline look forward to nothing more than to recruit the artists that stand-out and make people react- whatever style of music that may encompass.