The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Sunday 23rd July 2017
This is a past event.
Headline Act: Dull Knife
Dull Knife is named after a Native American renegade. Jack and I aren’t Native American, nor are we renegades. We did nonetheless need a name for our “alt country band.” Genres, to us, are pretty purposeless, but the fateful question is impossible to avoid. “What kind of music do you play?” One of us musters up a mumbled and addled response. “It’s like heavy electric country grunge…” Whatever that is.
We met through one of our favourite bands. The Pretty Things began to disperse in 2006 and was in need of a rhythm section, long story short, Jack started drumming for our number one 60s psych band at age 16. The year after I filled Wally’s shoes on bass and we have toured extensively ever since. The PT’s, their management and label didn’t want session players and so it was a cocktail of luck, skill and I guess the fact that they all liked us, that landed us the gig. It still leaves us rambling onto stage thinking “How the hell did we manage this?”.
Seeing as it’s easier to get two people together to rehearse or write songs, rather than say four or five members with jobs, girls, boys, drinks and various other distractions, we kept it between us.
Higgs & The Bosons
Having lived through every era of rock from folk, blues and glam, to prog, punk and indie, Higgs and the Bosons mine a very broad seam of influences. Their hard-nosed, pub-rock songs are anthems to the bewildering realities of the world we all struggle to understand. They say age brings wisdom, but, as their songs show, the only thing we really learn is how little we know. So with bold riffs and acerbic lyrics, Higgs and the Bosons attempt to grab life by the throat and demand answers to the questions not covered by FAQs. With influences as broad as The Small Faces, Nirvana and The Black Keys, don’t expect to sit quietly through their set; your foot-tap reflex won’t allow it.
Peter Taylor
Recently to be found playing in and around T. Wells as frontman with The Harveys, this is Peter’s first ever solo venture.
His previous bands include SW3, Sweetheart, Transformer, Citron, The Red Guitars and The Flagmen.
The solo show will draw from all these previous bands as well as new unheard material.
With genre influences from folk, country, punk and pop the song is always key.
Peter is currently putting a new band together to back this project.
Alex Van
Alex van is an indie singer/songwriter with a passion for writing honest and melodic pop tunes.
Growing up in Australia, at the age of 18 his first band ‘Noogie’ signed to Los Angeles based label Trauma Records, who had made their mark with ‘Tragic Kingdom’ by ‘No Doubt’ a few years earlier. Noogie toured and released albums in the USA and Australia, supporting acts including: Midnight Oil, Pink, Goo Goo Dolls, The Tea Party, and Garbage.
Van has continued writing and performing on and off during his 10+ years in the UK. He called Leeds home for 8 years, before moving south in 2013, and after a period of writing songs never heard outside of his bedroom studio, he’s keen to get out and feel the buzz of playing live again.
Taking influence from a wide range of music, but being particularly inspired by artists such as: Elliott Smith; Crowded House; John Frusciante; Eels; Nirvana; Green Day; You Am I; The Vines; and Josh Rouse - Van’s aim is to, ‘connect with people, and inspire them the way music inspires me.’
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