Qwarks/JJ Lovegrove/Chris Ilett

Qwarks/JJ Lovegrove/Chris Ilett

Duffys 27th September 2025

Sunday night, last Sunday of the month, meant this month's "Up the Duffy's" and once again Chris arranged a cracking bill and delivered a great night.

First up as ever was Chris Ilett with a fine set... as ever powerful songs with heaps of passion and commitment accompanied by intense powerful guitar... ok Chris's voice may have shown some strains of a recent bug, but it still sounded fine... as always a great start to the evening.

After Chris, the uniquely wonderful JJ Lovegrove who as always mesmerised and enthralled with her music creating beautiful layers of texture, despite the failure mid set of a sustain pedal... no matter.. it was still enthralling and a top class performance

Following JJ, a band totally new to me, and I had no idea what to expect... but THE QWARKS were totally awesome... hard to define but somewhere between rock and punk with a great sense of fun... the songs were brisk and rocking and got the audience moving from the off... the playing of all three members of the band was absolutely glorious and the three were clearly totally in tune with each other delivering a powerhouse rocking performance... absolutely awesome performance by a terrific band

Sadly for various reasons I was unable to stay for Nine O'Clock Nasty... but hope to catch up with them again before long.

The first three acts got the audience high, and what i've seen of the band they would have wound it up even more...

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local bands and venues

Leicester Common Folk Festival

LEICESTER COMMON FOLK FESTIVAL

Quaker Meeting Room 27th September 2025

Thoroughly enjoyed Saturday afternoon at the LEICESTER COMMON FOLK FESTIVAL in the Friends Meeting House... sadly other commitments meant i could only be there for most of the afternoon session, and it was a feast of lovely music... pure music, unamplified acoustic folk music... took me back to younger less complicated times!!

As we arrived the UNRULY CREW were getting into full swing with a set of rousing shanties which were close to lifting the roof... with the audience joining in in style. Shanties are normally accompanied by some hard work, rather than singing along!!... Great spirit, great singing, great entertainment and great fun.

Stepping in at the last moment to cover an absentee was JOHN McRAE, from the Unruly Crew with a short set of traditional songs accompanying himself on acoustic guitar... great to hear these songs delivered acoustically and with real style... sadly short set, would have loved to hear more.

Next up was a real treat, a unique band.. ACROSS THE STRINGS AND VOICES, the only traditional chinese folk group in the midlands, and they proved to be a real delight... the music bright, cheery and beautiful, the singers wonderful... you didnt need to understand what they were singing to be enthralled. The music conjured up images of flowers and trickling water... a totally delightful set... if i have one criticism I would have liked more of the instrumental pieces

Next up was Bob Gilmour-Evans, I have seen Bob many times with his band, Looma, and know him as a great songwriter and performer, but this was the first time I had seen him solo... and he was excellent... singing and playing beautifully, delivering mainly his own songs and his own spin on "House of the Rising Sun" which I totally loved... for his last song Bob invited a friend to join him in singing his beautiful and almost legendary "Praying for Rain"... loved his set.

To close the session, @JOHN BENTANGLE & Helen Butterfield... John specialises in the music of Bert Jansch and aims to keep his music alive (keep up the good work on that John!) and the duo delivered a set of songs from the era, covering Jackson C Frank, Annie Briggs, Nick Drake and Bert Jansch... John has a soft melodic voice singing beautifully and playing great guitar, while Helen, as ever, played exquisite and empathetic fiddle and singing along on one song. The duo blend together so well, playing wonderful evocative songs, John singing and playing beautifully and Helen delivering superb fiddle.

Thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon... it was a real treat... lets hope that there can be another such event... not only was the afternoon, and I am sure the whole day, a great success but it was also raising funds for another excellent worth charity... "One Roof Leicester"... be lovely if everyone supported them

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues and artists

Pete Morton/Pete Kenny

PETE MORTON/PETE KENNY

Quorn Village Hall 26th September 2025

 Had a wonderful evening in the lovely Quorn Village Hall on Friday, a one off performance, supporting Papyrus, by Pete Morton and Pete Kenney.

Before the show there was already a warm feeling of love and anticipation in the room which grew as the evening progressed.

Pete Kenny was up first and delivered a lovely set of his own songs... The songs were excellent and delivered with assurance and style, his voice perfectly matching the quality of the songs... The one exception to the self-composed was a beautiful cover of Tom Waits' masterpiece, "Tom Trauberts Blues"... anyone who delivers a great performance of that song is top man in my eyes!!...

Lovely opening set

Next up was the phenomenal Pete Morton performing his "The Ghost of a Sailor Talking Blues" show... If you hadn't seen this show before and were expecting a normal set of Pete's great songs you may have had a surprise... this show is an absolute masterpiece of song and comedy hooking the audience in in the first seconds and keeping everyone singing and laughing to the end, some couple of hours later...

Pete plays the role of Ghost of a Sailor, shipwrecked in the 17th Century and enduring as a friendly ghost in a pub, meeting people, learning songs and stories all the way... and delivers the whole show non stop as a talking blues referring to historical figures and contemporary satirical issues, throwing in classic hits from the 17th century onwards... some obscure, most well known which have the audience singing from the first note of the song... it is impossible to list the songs, but the include such as. "Drunken Sailor" "My old Man said Follow the Van" "The Hokey Cokey" "Amazing Grace" "Sweet Caroline" and even "Nessun Dorma" a la Pavarotti... the final song, as the encore, was simply mind boggling... "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the voice and style of George Formby.

This show is just unbelievably fabulous... hugely uplifting, inspiring and a total joy... if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour, and see it when you can...

Having said this, Pete is maybe the best singer song-writer we have and one of the very finest performers, whether delivering this show or his regular songs...

keep music live... keep music real... support your local artists and venues

But beyond that... remember that this was also a fund raiser for PAPYRUS... A charity seeking to prevent suicide in young people and supporting the bereaved... a hugely important and worthy charity... please look them up and support them where you can...

Who's Next

WHO'S NEXT

Duffys 20th September 2025

Another epic saturday night at Duffy's Bar thanks to Paul Collins

/ Wake up promotions bringing Who's Next - Europe's #1 Tribute to The Who to the venue.

Back in the day the Who were probably the greatest rock'n'roll band around, though for me they never made an album that matched their live performances (Who's Next came close)

Tonight the band came on and with minimal fuss crashed into three solid gold Who classics - "Cant Explain", "Substitute" and "Pictures of Lily" which seriously turned up the temperature in the room and left me thinking this band are really on the money here... tremendous start...

From there a tour through more classics and a couple of deeper cuts but ending the half with a quartet of pieces from "Quadrophenia"... concluding with a climactic "Love Reign O'er Me"... you can see how good this was as i thought they'd been on for about 10 minutes rather than the 45/50 minutes in this half...

So a break to settle down a bit and anticipate another half of Who classics...

The second half started with that familiar synth riff heralding one of my 3 favourite Who tracks... "Baba O'Riley"... , with the audience singing out the "Teenage Wasteland" refrain. When a band covers one of you favourite tracks there is a risk of feeling disappointment as it isn't the original... mind you that applies to virtually the whole Who catalogue... no hint of that here though... the band delivered a storming superb version turning up the heat even more... a couple more songs and we are in to the "Tommy" medley which was short but magnificent... climaxing with "Pinball Wizard". During the instrumental passage the singer was attacking tambourines in a rather robust way (reminiscent of Family's Roger Chapman)... This was followed by a powerful "Young Man Blues" before turning the tempo and volume down for a lovely "Behind Blue Eyes"

From here the band announced the final sequence... and what a powerhouse it was... starting with "Join Together". After this the synth riff to another of my very favourites, no need to say really... "Wont Get Fooled Again"... where (political comment alert...) events of the last year or so proved the wisdom of Pete's words "Here come the new boss - Just like the old boss".. this was another superb performance, and segued into "My Generation" .. the band appeared to turn the energy and power up to 11 during these three numbers, and the singer was joyfully thrashing tambourines as the front row ducked flying bits of debris from them... they ended with a great version of "Naked Eye" and it was over... a good couple of hours of really high class singing and playing covering one of rock's greatest songbooks... an absolutely red hot exciting performance.. .authentic sounds of the Who in full flight... and totally exhilarating .

One very small quibble.. .i would have preferred "Naked Eye" to have come a couple of songs earlier as "Fooled" and "Generation" are a perfect and i think more appropriate climax.

That one point aside... this gig was an absolute triumph... an absolute joy... a really great band delivering a superb couple of hours of music

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues

Gypsy Pistoleros/Spitting Feathers

GYPSY PISTOLEROS/SPITTING FEATHERS

Church of the Pistoleros/Duffys 13th September 2025

Saturday night saw us back in Duffy's to worship at the Church of the Pistoleros, and it proved to be a glorious heady night indeed...

Before the show there was a buzz in the room... many devotees clad in Pistoleros capes, hoodies and t-shirts as members of the band wandered around chatting to the devotees... but first things first...

First up tonight were SPITTING FEATHERS... new band to me and had no idea what to expect... but definitely didn't expect what we got!!.. This unlikely cast of characters took the stage and crashed into a rip-roaring version of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"... a heady mix of glam, punk, rock which rocked like crazy... and set the tone for this fabulous set... and followed it with a set of unlikely covers, including "These Boots are Made for Walking" "Daddy Cool" and "White Rabbit"

They had an unexpected break mid set when amps and fuses blew and had to be replaced/restored, but it didnt dampen the spirits or atmosphere. This band really rock... a bunch of really fine musicians who played with real quality, energy and a real sense of fun...

I was really taken by the bass... a 2025 model Rickenbacker which the bassist played brilliantly and produced a wonderful tone... and typically of a rock bassist didnt seem to move a muscle apart from his hands... while at the back the drummer was terrific forming a powerful rhythm section, The guitar player was also outstanding.. playing some terrific hard hitting guitar.

Up front the singer has a great rock voice and belted out the lyrics with power and joy...

A terrific band playing with passion, energy and a great sense of fun... absolutely great stuff!

After this... up stepped the wonderful Gypsy Pistoleros.... hard to describe or classify but to quote their biog, they are Renegade Glam Punk Rock enigmas are preposterous, epic and overblown..... cant argue with that!!

The band have a style of their own, unique and dazzling... superb musicians all... and in Gypsy Lee Pistolero have one of the best frontmen/singers you will see... to his right guitar man Shane plays superb guitar while to his left Kerry plays driving great bass while bouncing, hopping around and grinning incessantly. At the back the drummer (my apologies, i don't recall his name) played ferociously yet beautifully throughout... at one point Lee got the audience to chant "please stay" (with the band) for him...

The set flows through a range of Pistolero classics including "Living La Vide Loca"

The Pistoleros are a simply mesmerizing band... visually terrific and musically absolutely sensational... they blitzed through their set with a glorious mix of glam, punk, rock and great vibes and had the room rocking right through ending with their classic take on "Come on Eileen"...

The Gypsy Pistoleros are one of the greatest live bands anywhere, rapidly becoming my favourite band... full of energy, commitment and purely Pistolero music... magnificent performance... absolutely terrific.. .loved every second

If you haven't seen this band you are missing out big-time... go see them when you can.. .

keep music live... keep music real... support your venues and artists...