The H
Band
John Mitchell
Mean Fiddler
London
January 3rd 2002
It's always good to get the
first gig of the year under your well stuffed belt, so I leapt at the
chance of a free ticket for this gig. Support came from the unredoubtedly
erstwhile John Mitchell (The Urbane, Arena) who, due to space
restrictions, performed an acoustic solo set.
I'd not seen him play alone before so it was super to see him play his way through songs from his first album (Neon) and some new stuff from his second album (Glitter, due sometime early this year).
The songs he played were "Weed", "Fading Out", Peter Gabriels "In Your Eyes", "Beautiful Son", "Mary Jane", "It's Always You" and Cyndi Laupers "Time After Time" to finish it all off. He went down well.
Now, Steve Hogarth needs no introduction…we all
know how well he sings. He has put together an intelligent ensemble, a
ethnical mixed bag of musicians ranging from members from Porcupine
Tree, XTC, to The Stone Roses. This band is great and why they are great is
because they have spontaneity, and the ability to let each person flourish
musically at just the right time.
His set list contained a range of tracks from the excellent cd ‘Ice Cream Genius’ various cover versions (Life on Mars by David Bowie and Jethro Tull’s Life’s a Long Song). He threw in a few Marillion tracks (80 Days, Estonia) and the highlight for me is the “extraordinary piece of music” Aziz’s ‘Zen and Now’ which is a cross between a Led Zepplin epic and a Turkish orchestral extravaganza.
This band are about as good as a band can get, and
at all times you are captured by the fact that you don’t know what will
come next…and neither do the band! I wish more bands could be a little
less planned like these boys…and girl!
H - Vocals etc.
Andy Gangadeen - Drums
Dalbir Singh - Tabla
Jingles - Bass
Richard Barbieri - Synthesizers
Stephanie Sobey-Jones - Cello
Dave Gregory - Guitar
Aziz Ibrahim – Guitar
Reviewed by Ronald Atkinson
