19th July 07 - Stripped 2nd Birthday At Wellington Inn (2/2) By Perry Farrell Photographs By Michelle Dee

(1/2), (2/2),

Photograph Gallery   The Producers Gallery ,   Fudgey Gallery ,   Twisted Phobia Gallery ,   Joe Hakim Gallery,   The Landaus Gallery,   People Gallery.

Anyway, talking of friends - Fudgey is a friend of mine. At least in Myspace, which means I've never actually met her, of course. And I still haven't. Problem is, I took great pride in constructing a personal Myspace site recently, filling it with all manner of information, slideshows and video clips that would let the world know - in no uncertain terms - that here is a uniquely entertaining, confident, gregarious (naturally) and slightly wacky dude who you should make a point of bumping into some time. Especially if you're a lady. Only thing is, when I look at it now I just think it makes me look a bit of a prick, but I can't be arsed to change it.

Instead, I have disowned it. Which means all those Myspace Friends I so cheerfully added to my list will never actually become my real friends now, including Fudgey.

Never mind; as I said earlier, I've already got more than I can handle. (By the way, The Landaus - thanks for the "Thanks for the Add!" circular - you certainly know how to make a guy feel special. You're never too cool or successful to type your own original stuff, y'know). Fudgey was good. She has sweet, bouncy vocals that sit somewhere between the country lilt of Americana and a plaintive English folk voice. Coupled with some energetic and upbeat strumming, it made for a nice little set. A cute touch was the small handbag she kept producing in order to refer to her set-list, and from which she pulled her cappo when it was needed. I'd love to think it was a natural cutesy thing to do, rather than just for effect... Anyway, she seems to be gigging regularly around Hull and I'd recommend you catch her at some point.

Twisted Phobia was next. I'd heard and seen the name quite a lot of late, and had envisaged some kind of Norse-influenced death metal ensemble, complete with .... well, you know how they look. So I was taken aback to discover that Twisted Phobia is actually one small young lady from Cleethorpes. She also employed an energetic strumming style, albeit not as bright and breezy as Fudgey's; this was fairly intense stuff, and aurally very powerful at times. If there was a down side to her set, it was that the lyrics didn't come across as well as they might have done and it could have used a slight injection of something a little more upbeat; there was definitely something of the depressed sixth-former about it at times.

Maybe Twisted Phobia was a depressed sixth former; it would certainly go a long way to explaining the name. To her credit she finished off with Parisienne, a nice little dig at materialistic people, which featured some astonishing howling from such a slip of a thing and had a spooky, tortured quality to it which worked very well. I should report that Twisted Phobia appears to keep neither set-list nor cappo in a handbag, although this in no way detracts from her cuteness. New EP available at gigs

Then came Joe Hakim. I remember a few years ago, poetry was being talked of as the new rock 'n' roll. Yeah, whatever. Poetry is poetry; it didn't (and still doesn't) need to be the new anything. Still, there's a price to pay when you live in one of the worlds most vibrant, sophisticated and genuinely cultured societies (seriously - as long as the USA exists, we will always be able to make that claim). And that price is having to tolerate such up-your-own-arse, New Labour, middle-class bollocks-speak in the Arts and Culture pages of The Grauniad or Daily Torygraph.

Anyway, Joe came on, strutting around like some pissed-off little rapper, with his mike pointing upwards at 45 degrees, shaking the occasional fist or finger, dismissive or emphasising hand gestures and movement and body language that got the point across without being overbearing. (Rap would be so much better if they just dropped the crap tunes and stupid moves that get in the way of what is undoubtedly great poetry.... Cue my imminent drive-by shooting somewhere down Prinny Ave now?). Anyway, Joe was a pissed-off little poet and he didn't need to dance.

I loved the piece about the tensions that arise when the accessibility of pornography is played off against the guilt that its consumption can give rise to. It's a dilemma that can affect good men and bad. Not that I would know, of course; I'm always too busy socialising with my many interesting and gregarious friends to waste time browsing the likes of, say, www.dirtyteendykes.com . Check out DJ Supercharge and the remix of the track Special Brew www.myspace.com/djsupercharge

Topping the bill were The Landaus . I can forgive the megastar pretensions of their standard "Thanks for the add!" Myspace response, because they play such good tunes, and I always think they sound better done in this acoustic format. Plugged in, there's always the risk of them coming across as just another skinny, trendy band playing guitar-driven power pop, or whatever music journos are calling it this week. But stripped back, the songs can breathe and show their character more freely. That's my opinion anyway. Which is exactly why I'm writing this, I guess.

So, The Landaus played the sort of set that they've built their hard-earned reputation on: high-energy, high tempo stuff, with great harmonies and performed like they still love doing it. Well done lads, although I suspect the tempo was partly due to the fact that they were gagging to get themselves to a nightclub with their watching mates. A gregarious bunch, they were, too. A bit like my many friends.

www.thewellington-hull.co.uk www.myspace.com/hullstripped www.myspace.com/landausrock www.myspace.com/joehakimrecordings www.myspace.com/twistedphobia www.myspace.com/acousticfudge www.myspace.com/theproducersmattolly

Photographs courtesy and Copyright ©  Michelle Dee 2007

Photograph Gallery   The Producers Gallery ,   Fudgey Gallery ,   Twisted Phobia Gallery ,   Joe Hakim Gallery,   The Landaus Gallery,   People Gallery.

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