The Radio Interviews

There was tremendous media interest in the Highpoint concert. Here is a selection of the radio interviews.

Further band and booking information can be found on CA$HBACK’s website: johnnycashback.com

Now if only we could get Devendra Banhart, Adele or Lupen Crook at the 2008 Ely Folk Festival…

Tracklisting

1. Mud - Ivor Cutler
2. A Silver Boot For Sam - Lupen Crook
3. Son - Michaelangelo
4. Little Emma’s Smile - Viking Moses!
5. In Vain - Oliver
6. All I Ever Wanted - Meg Baird
7. Mama Wolf - Devendra Banhart
8. Daydreamer - Adele
9. Hard Times - Gob Iron
10. Snakes In A Hole - Accolade 2
11. Mouse Song - Faun Fables
12. Boulders On My Grave - Mellow Candle
13. Losing The Will To Survive - Findlay Brown
14. You Never Wanted Me - Sandy Denny
15. No Other Name - Peter, Paul & Mary
16. Same Old Man - Holy Modal Rounders
17. Tale From Black - Tunng
18. Our Pasts, Like Lighthouses - Rock Plaza Central
19. Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream - Pete Seeger
20. End Of A Holiday - Fairport Convention

The Podcast

You can listen to the mix streamed online by pressing the play button below, broadband is your friend for this. If you don’t see the player below then you don’t have the Flash Player installed, that can be remedied by going here.

If you enjoyed the mix some feedback would be welcome.

What Is Podcasting?

Think of podcasting as on-demand radio programming. Podcast content can be anything from homebrewed radio shows and music to public and commercial radio. Podcasting enables you to listen to the content of your choice when you want to on your computer or portable media player.

If you are familiar with Podcasting you can subscribe to the feed via your RSS Reader or Podcasting client like the wonderful and FREE iPodder. If you have an iPod you can use iPodder to download the mix to your iPod.

Just copy the link below into your client.

http://feeds.elyonline.co.uk/eo-podcast

Once subscribed any future mixes will be available through the RSS Reader or Podcasting client.

Each year the festival just gets better than the last, with an impressive guest list and programme of workshops, concerts, displays, ceilidhs and children’s entertainment. The musicians appearing at the Ely Folk Festival reflect the rich diversity of the modern music scene, with a mixture of established favourites and newer talent.

The organisers are especially proud that the festival remains a small and friendly festival where you can meet the artists ‘unplugged’. You can take part in workshops, dances, sessions or perform in the Club Tent.

With less than a month before the festivities begin, Ely Online has created a special podcast to highlight the diversity of artists that represent this year’s Ely Folk Festival (July 2007).

Many thanks for all the artists that kindly allowed permission to use their tracks in this podcast.

Tracklisting

1. Silver – Suntrap
2. August – Shooglenifty
3. Ordinary Man, Ordinary Woman – Eddy Morton
4. Coming Of Age – Nick Barraclough & The Burglars
5. Filipino Maid – Vin Garbutt
6. Burlington Street – Pavlov’s Cat
7. Driver Jack – Hedgepig
8. The Sauna Set – Mawkin
9. An Dros – Nuada
10. Will Of The People – Jez Lowe
11. Not The Way – Charlie Barker
12. The Sound Of Requiem – Tin Tin Lady
13. Quercy - Zoot Alors
14. Easy Piano - Anthony John Clarke
15. Devil’s Partiality – Andy Wall
16. Mary’s Dream Set – The Battlefield Band
17. Blue Smoke – Gareth Pearson
18. Thin Line – Ezio
19. Banks Of Green Willow - Jackie Oates
20. The Ceilidh In The Kitchen – Alistair Russell

The Podcast

You can listen to the mix streamed online by pressing the play button below, broadband is your friend for this. If you don’t see the player below then you don’t have the Flash Player installed, that can be remedied by going here.

If you enjoyed the mix some feedback would be welcome.

What Is Podcasting?

Think of podcasting as on-demand radio programming. Podcast content can be anything from homebrewed radio shows and music to public and commercial radio. Podcasting enables you to listen to the content of your choice when you want to on your computer or portable media player.

If you are familiar with Podcasting you can subscribe to the feed via your RSS Reader or Podcasting client like the wonderful and FREE iPodder. If you have an iPod you can use iPodder to download the mix to your iPod.

Just copy the link below into your client.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/elyonlinepodcast

Once subscribed any future mixes will be available through the RSS Reader or Podcasting client.

Ian Brown of the Stone Roses once remarked, “It’s not where you’re from (that matters) it’s where you at.” Well, I think he was half right. With Crossland it may have been more a case of, “You can take the band out of Ely. But you can’t take Ely out of the band”. We got close. But close to what?

Pump it up!

Crossland were already established in Ely by the time I arrived from Cambridge in early 1989. Their formative EP releases, ‘In Your Hands’ and ‘In Shame’, had received a good local response so they were heading in the right direction even though they found themselves without a singer in the Spring of that year. They asked me to join and I thought, “Yeah, why not?”

In early 1989 there were a number of guitar bands (REM, the Pixies, House of Love, Wonderstuff) kicking out against a mainstream of advancing rave culture, depressing Stock Aitken Waterman pop pap and a quagmire of unmentionable bland brand names doing the stadium circuits. Plus ça change… So, on joining Crossland I thought, “Great, I’ve found a bona fide guitar band!” At last there was hope for the local music scene!

Already a veteran of the Cambridge scene at 22 I was impressed and revitalised by two things I found in Ely:

1) A voracious appetite for ‘real’ guitar music. I was delighted that Ely seemed to be living a few years in the past; a more innocent time when the songs of The Smiths, The Ramones, The Jam, The Undertones, The Hoodoo Gurus, early Elvis Costello and, yup, U2 still seemed to hold a real resonance for people. Not for Crossland the commercial cod-funk, string slapping bass players and other muso meanderings that had blighted the Cambridge music scene.
2) The loyalty and cameraderie that people showed each other. Even to the extent that they were almost suspicious of outsiders, ie me. But once you were in, boy, were you in. It was almost like entering a religious sect with the Minster Tavern as their ‘church’. And it wasn’t just the band members who stuck together but practically everyone else too: mates, drinking buddies, girlfriends, family, etc. Call them what you will but I’d never experienced such a great bond of friendship and affection before.

Never was this illustrated more eloquently than when a double decker coach load of Crossland fans and the band went up to Bradford on five separate occasions during 1990 to be involved in a Northern ‘Battle of The Bands’ competition. (We reached the final eleven out of two hundred entries.) On one occasion when we were unloading the gear almost every passenger on the coach took one piece of equipment with them (a cymbal case here, a guitar there) until all 50+ pieces of equipment had been carried to the side of the stage. Talk about loyal support. Onlookers probably thought it was a 50-piece band arriving!

Another time was when we took part in another competition called ‘Hit The Write Note’, promoted by Radio One and held at The Marquee club in London (we came second out of over 4,500 entries). The noise the people from home made on those nights brought a lump to my throat… FANTASTIC!

Lee Marshall – The anchor and the fulcrum of the band. And rock solid drummer.
Ritchie Taylor – Keyboards, singing and effervescence; a never-ending source of positive vibes.
Pat Hall – Guitar maestro who really held the key to our sound.
Psyche (aka Tony Watson) – Bass. The ‘mortar’ that held all the bricks together.
Clint Davis – Our stalwart, mediator and manager. Had all the right rock ‘n’ roll reference points.
And me, Chris ‘Crossland’. The crooner.

Ensconced in our cellar under the antiques shop opposite the Lamb Hotel (now Hunky Dory records) was a haven where we could hide from the rest of the world and hatch our ideas and plans to conquer… well, Ely. In fact, if you go down there now - in a quiet moment - you can still smell the odours and hear the plangent sounds of Crossland reverberating in the walls. We wrote good songs that worked well live making us stronger than the sum of our parts. Songs like Party Piece, Any Pretty Body, Life Goes On et al. Really Big Nothing was the album at the time.

Walking like we should

There wasn’t much of a ‘scene’ as such in Ely during 89/90; that came later. The Color Factory, however, were good friends doing their own thing. On their night they were the business: a mean lean power-pop machine. Crossland and The Color Factory sometimes shared stages and crossed paths when they appeared on the same local record label, Freefall records, releasing a string of excellent 7” vinyl singles. Walking like they should indeed!

However tenuous the connection between the bands, you could say one of the local scene highlights was the 1990 Cambridge Band Competition when This Replica (from Soham), The Color Factory and Crossland all ended up in the final six at the Corn Exchange with some top performances - especially from This Replica. They should have won on the night.

Where it’s at

There was certainly a dearth of venues in Ely at the time. However, for Crossland it was always more a question of trying to break out of Ely; even if it meant traipsing over to the Bristol Fleece & Firkin on a Monday night. Glasgow for the weekend? We’d do it, no problem. Getting gigs at London venues such as the Camden Falcon and the Bull & Gate in Harlesden was also a priority. The Ely pubs just didn’t seem to want to put on live music so it was left to us to make our own entertainment. And we did - with some pretty impressive sell-out shows at the Centre E, the Maltings (twice) and even the Paradise Centre during the 90/91 period.

By early 91, with most of Crossland in their mid twenties, things had changed a bit. By now the Ely Standard was actually running a local Rock Scene column and a local music rag called ‘Sonic Cathedral’ was throwing up some younger bands. We were probably deemed part of the ‘old guard’ by the new arrivals. It felt like some of them were like little terriers, nibbling at our ankles. We weren’t in any mood to mix with them and I guess it was a sign that the scene was outgrowing itself already and forming subgenres. Either that or we really were past it!

The summer of ’91…oh-oh yeah!

Crossland reached a ‘peak’ of sorts in the summer of 1991 when, following our London exploits, we joined up with the Radio One road show on the southcoast. No sleep ‘til Torquay then… Rubbing shoulders with the likes of DJs Richard Skinner, Bruno Brookes, Liz Kershaw and acts such as The Barron Knights and Voice of The Beehive was unlike anything we’d done before. We recorded at Matrix Studios in London where previous clients The Smiths and Adam & The Ants had been before us. We had national as well as local airplay and had been interviewed on the nation’s ‘number one’ station… Yeah, in a funny kind of way we did think we were touching the coat tails of celebrity.

But with the end of the summer came the end of the fun. The record deal never materialised and it was John Gammon (at the time manager of indie wannabes Kingmaker) who commented with admirable honesty and prescience: “If you don’t make it on the back of all that attention you never will.” It was a bitter pill to swallow. So we spat it out and dusted ourselves down for a re-launch on the back of what would have been our second album (Rinky Dink). But it wasn’t to be. Apart from a memorable headline gig at The Junction in the summer of 1992 to promote our new single ‘Seven Figure Silks’, internal differences had fatally nibbled at our ‘Crossland’ core.

And in the end…

Maybe it was partly a case of us being too close to home to want to fly the nest. I think where you’re from will always have a bearing on where you’re at. Sorry Ian. So in the end I guess we were close… to Ely. But faraway from the magic, the madness and the broken promises of the music industry. And, anyway, there was other fish to fry. But that’s another story…

Crossland Video

There are quite a few amateur videos and audio recordings of Crossland, most were recorded by Karl Bedingfield at local gigs and some audio recorded at Crossland’s practice room, ‘the cellar’.
Little Downham’s Mick and Lee Gillett also recorded 2 video demos for the songs ‘Party Piece’ and ‘Any Pretty Body’ at studios in Little Downham in 1991 for their video production company ‘The Demonstration Company’.

Party Piece promotional video filmed by Mick & Lee Gillett (1991)

Crossland come second in ‘Hit The Write Note’ competition (1991)

Crossland Audio

1. Crossland at the Radio One roadshow: Ely Online discovered an old cassette tape of Crossland performing on the Radio One roadshow. It was taken from the mixing desk and gives a little insight into the pre-show before Radio One’s Bruno Brookes went on air with his roadshow.

2. Protect Me: This is a live version of ‘Protect Me’ that was recorded in their practice room, ‘The Cellar’ in Lynn Road, Ely.

3. All Swing Together: from their unreleased 1992 CD ‘Rinky Dink’.

4. Trick Of The Light: also from their unreleased ‘Rinky Dink CD’.

5. Ephemeral: also from their unreleased ‘Rinky Dink CD’.

Crossland Images

Crossland Slideshow

If you click the image below a pop-up slideshow will start of all photos Ely Online currently has uploaded on out Flickr account.

Enjoy and get ready for Ely’s biggest festival of 2006! For full details you can read our Ely Folk Festival event listing or go to the official Ely Folk Festival website.

See you next weekend. John will have a Dragon Slayer and I a diet coke! **cough**, sorry I mean’t a ‘kilt lifter’!!

You can listen to the mix streamed online by pressing the play button below, broadband is your friend for this. If you don’t see the player below then you don’t have the Flash Player installed, that can be remedied by going here.

Tracklisting

1. Intro by Carol Batton
2. Young Hearts Run Free - Nancy Wallace
3. My Aunt Edna - Bonnie Koloc
4. Bones For Doctor Swah - Wooden Wand
5. Don’t Be Upset - Jeffrey & Jack Lewis
6. Help Me Find Myself - Tudor Lodge
7. Graveyard - Forrest
8. Diamond Day - Vashti Bunyan

If you enjoyed the mix some feedback would be welcome. Thanks.

Ely Online’s editor likes to mix and a few months ago completed yet another mix mix tape. He was was quite happy with the finished product and decided to make it available to the masses.

Karl had planned to release the mix last Christmas but just didn’t have the time, so once again presents you with my ‘Another Late Night Mix (Second Helpings) another mix that fits in nicely with the current staying-in-is-the-new-going-out trend in music. A trend that fits perfectly with Karl’s life as he seldom never goes clubbing these days and is more than happy to create a mix from the comfort of his home.

The mix has all Karl’s usual suspects; downtempo remixes, romantic pop, TV tunes, Motown, 60s gems and a little newness thrown in for good measure.

You can listen to the mix streamed online by pressing the play button below, broadband is your friend for this. If you don’t see the player below then you don’t have the Flash Player installed, that can be remedied by going here.

Tracklisting

1. The Tomorrow People - Dudley Simpson (1973)
   As a kid in 1973 I remember rushing home from primary school to watch ‘The Tomorrow People’, a sci-fi show that was a replacement for the wonderful ‘Ace Of Wands’ and a rival to ‘Dr. Who’. I always loved the theme even though the similarity to the Dr Who theme is quite striking. So what better way to open!
2. A Pain That I Am Used to (Goldfrapp Remix) - Depeche Mode (2005)
   One of the standout tracks from DM’s new CD blissfully remixed by Goldfrapp.
3. Hair - Zen (1968)
   This is one of my battered old 7″ singles that was big for me towards the end of my mod days (1979-1984). Don’t know much about this late 60s nuggett.
4. Tomorrow’s Seeds - Go Home Productions (2005)
   I got hooked on underground ‘bastard pop’ scene several years ago and Mark Vidler was (and still is) one of the pioneers of this scene, so its good to see him finally getting some exposure. This track features the Beatles and the Seeds. Just Brilliant!
5. Love Buzz - Shocking Blue (1969)
   Nirvana covered this song on their first album. This is the far superior original! They are better known for their huge hit ‘Venus’.
6. East Of The River Nile - Augustus Pablo (1977)
   I only came across dub reggae artist Augustus Pablo this year but his steady stream of ethereal, free-flowing instrumentals has me hooked. This track from 1977 with its melodica lead is, to quote Robert Christgau, ‘a simplistic mood-music masterwork-calming, childish, and inexplicable’.
7. Lovely Head - Goldfrapp (2000)
   This track, from their CD ‘Felt Mountain’ just ooze class with the aplomb of a high calibre movie theme. Just wait until the keybord solo hits you.
8. Water No Get Enemy - Fela Kuti (1975)
   This is one of my favourite Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti’s tracks. One review says that ‘Water get no ememy’ is ‘postulating the motion of water as a metaphor for human interaction and the rhythms of society’. Heavy! I say just enjoy the groove!
9. Geppetto - Optiganally Yours (2000)
   Another recent discovery for me. All the music is created on a optigan keyboard (hence the name of the band). Its a great track and you can cha-cha all day! Enjoy!
10. So Is The Sun - World Column (Mid 60s)
    As I mentioned, from 1979 - 1984 I was wrapped up in the mod revial. A big part of that scene was the music and the well informed mods soon adopted the Northern Soul Scene’s music, that was really anything (and I mean anything) with a mid 60s/early 70s Motown feel. This track was massive at Wigan Casino and was totally lifted by Weller for the Jam’s track, ‘Trans Global Unity Express’ from their final album, ‘The Gift’.
11. This Is What You Are - Wasa Bee featuring Mario Bondi (2004)
    I got hooked on this 12″ last year after hearing it on Norman Jay’s radio show. All I know is that the band are Italian and thus far their only release. Think Frank Sinatra with a retro Nu Jazz feel. A dance floor friendly anthem!
12. La Ritournelle (Mr Dan’s Magic Wand Mix) - Sebastien Tellier (2005)
    The full album version of this blissed-out track was a summer anthem for me. Mr. Dan’s remix retains all the love of the original in a tight 3 minute epic. One reviewer wrote, ‘This song will make your whole body weep and fall in love with everything again… and again… and again…’ Just beautiful!
13. The Family - Mr. Brooks (1974)
    This 45 was released towards the end of the underground acid-folk scene and was a theme tune to the 1974 BBC documentary ‘The Family‘ which may have been the first fly-on-the-wall’ documentary in Britain. The song itself is another dreamy instrumental that reminds me of younger days.
14. Spinning Wheel - Blood, Sweat & Tears (1969)
    In 1969 BS&T’s own brand of brassy jazz-rock made their self-titled album, ‘Album Of The Year’ spawning three major hit singles that included ”Spinning Wheel’ - an all time favourite of mine.
15. “T” Plays It Cool - Marvin Gaye (1972)
    For me, the golden age of Motown ended in 1972. Motown moved from Detroit to Los Angeles and thus ended probably one of the most succeseful hit factories of all time. When they moved they left all the musicians (The Funk Brothers) behind (quite literally - a notice was posted on the doors to ‘Studio A’ saying their services were no longer required). Of course all the major artists moved but the ‘Motown Sound’ died.
16. Kel’s Vintage Thought - Magnétophone (2005)
    Magnétophone’s biography claim, as boys they would often be found under water, weighed down by bricks and playing Stylophones, they named this ritual the “Alpha Beti Bon-Tempi Underwater Electro-Hydro Sound-Fusion”. ‘Kel’s Vintage Thought’ is a gnarled upbeat rock track with an electronic underlay that shouldn’t work but does wonderfully, the album as a whole seems to have more affinities with rock music than with most contemporary electronica.
17. Lament 1 “Birds Lament” - Moondog (1969)
    Born in 1916, Moondog wrote all his music in braille having lost his sight at 17, he would entertain crowds playing his compositions on home-made drums and some portable keyboards and reciting his own poetry. His eccentricity was furthered by the fact that sporting a long beard and a spear, he wore home made clothes consisting of a robe, a Vikings helmet. ‘Lament 1′ is probably his best known work over here, you will have most likely heard this on many adverts in remixed form by ‘Bent’ who titled his track ‘Get A Move On’.
18. The Visit (She Was Here) - The Cyrkle (1967)
    American band, The Cyrkle (name suggested by John Lennon), produced some of the most beautiful three-part harmonies and intricate arrangements that ‘60s pop music had to offer. The Cyrkle were managed by ‘The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, and opened for the ‘fab four’ during the summer of 1966 to audiences of 70,000. The exposure sent their debut single, “Red Rubber Ball” to #2 on the charts. I have always loved this mellow summer accoustic track, reminds me of lazy summer days that don’t really exist in real life!
19. Over The Bridge - The Superimposers (2005)
    Like ‘Dungen’, listed below, The Superimposers would easily fit in with any late ’60s artistes, as one reviwer writes, ‘Possibly the result of a bizarre 60s experiment between the harmonic glory of The Beach Boys and the easy listening arrangements of Jimmy Webb’
20. Om Du Vore En Nattfjäril - Dungen (2002)
    Sweden’s psych-pop band ‘Dungen‘ came to prominence last year with the classic ‘Ta Det Lungt’, an album that to the unwitting listener could easily have been mistaken as some late ’60s European psych-rock rarity. The track I chose here is another blissful instumental from 2 years earlier. It was the b-side of their debut single ‘Solen stiger upp’. Wonderfull!
21. Do Not As I Do - Hanne Hukkelberg (2005)
    Hanne Hukkelberg is another performer I discovered via BBC Radio One’s wonderfully chilled out Blue Room show and ‘Do Not As I Do’ is, essentially, a classic.
    One review exclaims: ‘Funky, jazzy, lively, gorgeous-voiced music. Torchy and playful both, there are moments when she’s channeling Billie Holiday, I swear, but a Billie Holiday very much of this time, and yes I hear the Stina Nordenstam/Björk/Joanne Newsom there, too. And a little Anja Garbarek and Regina Spektor in the mix, too, in the playful jazziness. Björk again in the playfulness and willingness to experiment with instruments and sound.’
22. Hocus Pocus - Focus (1972)
    This was a favourite of mine when growing up. Dad had the track on a K-tel greatest hits LP from the early 70s. The song was just plain mad, it was a commercial prog-rock style instumental that consisted of a striking rock-guitar chord sequence used as the recurring theme, and surprisingly varied episodes in between that included accordion playing, alto flute riffs, guitar improvisation, drum solos, whistling, nonsense vocals, falsetto singing, and yodeling.
23. Jig-A-Jig - East Of Eden (1970)
    This is another rock track in the novelty vain of Hocus Pocus. East Of Eden were a progressive band formed in Brighton in 1968 by violinist and multi-instrumentalist Dave Arbus. The instrumental ‘Jig A Jig’ was completely untypical of their usual musical style, progressive rock with lots of hard rock guitar and Dave Arbus’ wild violin work.
24. All I Do Is Think About You - Tammi Terrell (1966)
    I am a big Motown fan and have visited the studios in Detroit a number of time. This is the original version of a track that Stevie Wonder released in the early 80s entitled ‘All I Do’. Tammi’s original lay unreleased until recently.
    Tammi was best known for her duets with Marvin Gaye (ain’t no mountain high enough, You’re all I need to get by etc.) and collasped in his arms on stage in 1967, she was diagnosed as having a brain tumour and died tragically in 1970 at the age of 24.
25. Traces - Classics IV Featuring Dennis Yost (1969)
    I just love the lyrics of this late 60s classic. Do you have any memories of love lost?

    Faded photograph
    Covered now with lines and creases
    Tickets torn in half
    Memories in bits and pieces
    Traces of love long ago
    That didn’t work out right
    Traces of love

    Ribbons from her hair
    Souvenirs of days together
    The ring he used to wear
    Pages from an old love letter
    Traces of love long ago
    That didn’t work out right
    Traces of love
    With me tonight

    I close my eyes and say a prayer
    That in her heart
    she’ll find
    A trace of love still there
    Somewhere, ooooh, oh

    Traces of hope in the night
    that she’ll come back and dry
    These traces of tears
    From my eyes

26. Time Will Pass You By - Tobi Legend
    A great Northern Soul end-of-night tune that I never tire of.
27. Breakfast With Me - Unknown Artist
    What better way to end the mix. Great song but I have no idea who released this!

If you are interested in a CD version of the mix (with individual tracks and a colour sleeve) for a small fee then please get in touch.

If you enjoyed the mix some feedback would be welcome. Thanks.

What Is Podcasting?

Think of podcasting as on-demand radio programming. Podcast content can be anything from homebrewed radio shows and music to public and commercial radio. Podcasting enables you to listen to the content of your choice when you want to on your computer or portable media player.

If you are familiar with Podcasting you can subscribe to the feed via your RSS Reader or Podcasting client like the wonderful and FREE iPodder. If you have an iPod you can use iPodder to download the mix to your iPod.

Just copy the link below into your client.

http://www.elyonline.co.uk/archives/category/podcast/feed/

Once subscribed any future mixes will be available through the RSS Reader or Podcasting client.

If you like gutsy vocals, graveyard guitar licks and hard, railroad drumming in your music, then you’d better listen to HIGHER BREED’S new demo, the unusually titled ‘Chunk, Moth And The Fat Controller’. It’s spilling over with all three. Rhythm Town meets the band and digs the new breed!

Of Ely’s new breed of guitar grinding rock bands, Higher Breed appear to be among the leading contenders. Raw and gutsy, they have been winning new fans from all over the Cathedral City. Formed in February 1990 by brothers Christian and Lindsey Blicken and bass player “Squadge”. At this stage none of the band could play their instruments, an attitude harking back to the “I can do that” stance of punk. The spirit of ‘76, indeed!

Their first gig in August 1990 was at Little Downham Village Hall, as support to those other local boys, Threehead. Since then the Higher Breed have notched up around 30 live shows, acquiring drummer Phil Smith along the way (he joined in March of this year). Through persistent graft on the local live circuit they have developed their own particularly distinctive style, which, as Christian modestly explains, is “just the wah-wah pedal, really”.

Things were beginning to go well until, unexpectedly, bassist “Squadge” left the band shortly before a gig in Harlow. Thankfully a temporary replacement was found in Ali Loker, singer of The Color Factory. Having only four rehearsals to learn the set, the band has nothing but praise for Loker, “He’s a very musical bloke. He picked it up in a week and we were as tight as we were before. He’s not a bass player by trade but he did a very good job.”

Eventually Christian Fromont, formerly of recently disbanded local favourites Excitable PJ Maybe, was chosen to take over permanent bass duties, hopefully ushering in a fresh new era for the band - that’s if they can get the right kind of gigs, though. For a band who love to play live, the lack of suitable venues is frustrating. “At the moment there’s not an awful lot happening,” says manager David truthfully. “It’s not so much down to our problems finding a bass player, it’s the fact that there’s not much happening in the area. You’ve got The Man On The Moon, The Boat Race, and when you get a bit better - there’s The Alma!”

Although the band have their own distinctive sound, it is the result of a strange and diverse mixture of influences. Christian cites Hothouse Flowers, Faith No More, and above all Stevie Ray Vaughn, while Lindsey is a self confessed U2 freak. Phil is one of the legion of Smiths fans who still mourn the premature demise of the infamous Morrissey/Marr partnership.

Although the band are making huge advances musically, they are cautious when the subject of record company’s is bought up. When asked if they had sent their demos to any labels, Christian’s reply was typically restrained, “No,” he says, “we haven’t sent any yet. It’s not of a quality I would expect a record company to say “Oh, that’s brilliant!”, but it shows a certain direction. It’s very tight and we’re all good at what we do. I think a record company could see that. I’d expect the fourth demo we do would be more likely to get sent off. When we feel we’re at a level that we’re happy with, then we’ll really push it”.

Their distaste for the type of bands charting nowadays is obvious. “I watched ‘Top Of The Pops’ for two weeks in a row,” says Lindsey, “and I just thought how sad it was”. Their demo, ‘Chunk, Moth, And The Fat Controller’, shows a much more commercial appeal than they’ve achieved before, making it a far more accessible product than predecessor, ‘Elsibev’. “The difference between the tapes is quite a lot,” explains Christian. “When we first went into the studio we were all very serious, with songs such as ‘Angel’ and ‘Free’. The new tape is much more relaxed. By the sixth demo we’ll have it sounding how we want it.”

The looser sound is explained more cosmically by manager David Darlington, “We’ve tried to change things a bit because we’re all coming to the end of our teens and we’re ageing hippies trying to relax everything. It’s all Stonehenge really”.

With Phil now working and with Lindsey and Christian at college, Higher Breed intend to stay defiantly local, pushing the band towards more frequent gigging and recording. “At some point in the future,” Lindsey adds, “we might even do a couple of slow songs!”

Would that be with or without Wah-Wah? Now, that would be progression indeed

Podcast: Higher Breed’s Music

Our featured track by Higher Breed is called ‘Free’ and was from their 1991 cassette E.P. called ‘Elsibev’.

The complete tracklisting for ‘Elsibev’ was: Angel, Free, SX and 4-beat. All material was written by the band and recodred at Flight Path Studios.

With no real news of any importance (parking debate & Mereham on hold here for a while) and January being the depressing post Christmas month it is; Ely Online decided to bring a little cheer to January 2006 by delving into the audio archives of Karl Bedingfield.

Ely Online came across the mixtapes of a charity disco Lee Gillett and myself (Karl Bedingfield) done on May 15th 1999 at Ely Rugby Club (an old haunt of ours from the early 80s). I was the Selector & Lee the MC, the disco was to help raise funds for a friend’s child who had autism.

The night was an absolute sell-out, Selector & MC were unstoppable, the dance floor was packed, the alcohol flowed freely and to raise additional funds raffle tickets were sold and the raffle draw was held at 10pm. Bad move. ‘F**k the raffle, we want to dance!’ - cue heckling and a very funny raffle draw courtesy of Lee Gillett.

What Is Podcasting?

Think of podcasting as on-demand radio programming. Podcast content can be anything from homebrewed radio shows and music to public and commercial radio. Podcasting enables you to listen to the content of your choice when you want to on your computer or portable media player.

If you are familiar with Podcasting you can subscribe to the feed via your RSS Reader or Podcasting client like the wonderful and FREE iPodder. If you have an iPod you can use iPodder to download the mix to your iPod.

Just copy the link below into your client.

http://www.elyonline.co.uk/archives/category/podcast/feed/

Once subscribed any future mixes will be available through the RSS Reader or Podcasting client.

To start off I decided to highlight my own little foray into 80s elctronica with a project called ‘This Property Is Condemned’. The project stems from the mid-80s and was a collaboration with John Glover.

I still recall the day I re-discovered early 80s electronic music, sure I had been aware of it since ‘79 but being so heavily involved in the Mod revival from 1979-1984 I dismissed any other music that didn’t conform to my version of mod and that included just about everything! Personally I blame Paul Haig for my departure from the mod way of life - one Friday evening while watching a long forgotten Channel 4 show called ‘The Switch’ I saw Paul Haig performing ‘Blue For You’, this guy had the most amazing haircut, he looked cool and the music was amazing! Soon after this life changing encounter I brought a Roland SH101 and a Boss DR-110 Dr. Rhythm Graphic drum machine (buying the drum machine and synth actually led me to joining another Ely band called Fearful Wedding but thats another story) and borrowed a Fostex X-15 multitrack recorder. I convinced John to put down a couple of vocals and what resulted was a few tracks that bacame a tape demo called ‘The Guff’ which got the attention of Ely Standard’s Lee Smith who wrote the following feature…

Smith On Stylus from Ely Standard, July 11th, 1985

‘We just want to be taken seriously’ is the message from Karl Bedingfield and John Glover.

For over five years both 21-year-olds have been involved in the local music scene with different bands. As a sideline they have branched out to experiment in their own field of electro rock, far removed from their earlier anti-society punk days with The Sokkets. They first got together when they were at Littteport village college, and since then have been involved in a succession of bands each time varying their musical tastes.

Karl has been the main inspiration behind the latest trend, borrowing a porta studio and using his keyboards synth and drum machine to come up with a sound that crosses between New Order and Bronski Beat.

Once the sound was sorted but Karl contacted John to add vocals to it.

First on the production line was, in my opinion their best track, The Death of Taste, based on a poem written by John sometime ago.

Backing this up is a heavy synth beat number Smitten By You and an instrumental Industrial Vandelism.

Both have contacts with Ely bands Fearful Wedding and The Approachable Pigeons, but insist that this is only a sideline.

All the mixing and recording was done in Karls bedroom, at 40 Ely Road, Little Downham and Johns flat in Broad Street, Ely. So how did they manage to achieve what, for a first time attempt, was a professional sound? ‘Our first go was not really what we wanted’, Karl commented, ‘but we felt that we had something there and improved on what we had.’

The first tape was in fact completed in only an hour and a half.” In a studio even this would have cost a small fortune.

I was immediately struck by the way electro sound and the lyrics blended together. John admitted that he got most of his inspiration from the likes of Elvis Costello and felt that their earlier anti-establishment tone was still very much in evidence.

More than succeeding in the studio the two hope get things moving on the live side but need to find keyboard player to help out.

In the wake of Paul Hardcastle’s success with 19, Karl had a mix with a speech by Rex Harrison, from the film My Fair Lady, adding echo and similar modernisations. A different experiment, but one that has paid off.

John felt that being well known in the city was hindrance. Many people had seen them in various guises at the Rugby Club, but were not prepared to think them seriously as musicians.

But now the boys are back with a more commercial sound that is sure to attract many new followers. Lee Smith

Footnote

We had fun with the project but this was the only time John & myself collaborated on a project. John continued with ‘The Approachable Pigeons’ and I stayed with ‘Fearful Wedding’ which later name-changed to ‘Refugee’. After I and David Badcock left they became ‘Crossland’, but thats another story.

Podcast: This Property Is Condemned’s Music

Our featured track by This Property Is Condemned is called ‘Death Of Taste’. We are not 100% sure if this was the finished track or a rough mix as this is the only cassette we can find. Anyway have a listen.

The complete tracklisting for ‘The Guff’ was:

1. Death Of Taste
2. Smitten By You
3. Messages From The Assylam
4. Industrial Vandlism
5. Smitten By You (original version by Karl)
6. Call It Somthing Nice
7. Death Of Tast (Beatless)

The Xmas spirit hasn’t really grabbed Ely Online this year, something to do with the major chains ramming Christmas down our throats in late October (Tesco, Woolworths, Waitrose are you listening?). Ely Online decided to inflict further misery on you in the form of a hastily arranged 12 minute mini-mix conveniently titled ‘The Ely Online Christmas 2005 Mini-Mix’.

You can listen to the mix streamed online by pressing the play button below, broadband is your friend for this. If you don’t see the player below then you don’t have the Flash Player installed, that can be remedied by going here.

You can also download the complete mix at 192kbps (16mb).
This download is now offline, you can still stream above.

Tracklisting

1. Intro by Bruce Willis
2. Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Sufjan Stevens
3. Silent Night - Nathan Fake
4. Winter Wonderland (Bent Remix) - Bing Crosby
5. Snow Story (KB Moonlighting Remix) - Opiate
6. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
7. Outro by Bruce Willis & Cybill Shepherd

If you enjoyed the mix some feedback would be welcome. Thanks.

As one newspaper put it recentely, ‘Christmas; a hateful faux-Christian festival primarily used to generate sales in the High Street’. Anyway, to all a very merry Christmas!

In January 2006 there will be a new ‘Back To Mine’ mixtape featuring some of my favourite tunes - new and old classics. Stay tuned

What Is Podcasting?

Think of podcasting as on-demand radio programming. Podcast content can be anything from homebrewed radio shows and music to public and commercial radio. Podcasting enables you to listen to the content of your choice when you want to on your computer or portable media player.

If you are familiar with Podcasting you can subscribe to the feed via your RSS Reader or Podcasting client like the wonderful and FREE iPodder. If you have an iPod you can use iPodder to download the mix to your iPod.

Just copy the link below into your client.

http://www.elyonline.co.uk/archives/category/podcast/feed/

Once subscribed any future mixes will be available through the RSS Reader or Podcasting client.