Headhuntress's Southsea Music Review

So, one of the great things about the baby sleeping through the night now is that I finally have my social life back. I have been off the scene for a few years. Now that I am back on it, everything seems to be brighter and shinier than it was before.

Big Love Soul Live At The Golden Eagle, Southsea

There are some great things happening in Southsea at the moment with regards to art and music. I would like to give a nod and a mention to the beautiful people in Big Love Soul http://www.biglovesoul.com I have been to watch them play many times now and they sound superb. Miche's vocals are so sexy without her even intending them to be and she does that while playing the keyboard too. Steve is a legend on the drums, Lee will blow you away with his tight bass playing and Paul is just out of this world on the guitar, he's a technical genius with mighty fast fingers and his vocals are really cool too. Their Halloween gig was a huge success and their Bonfire Party went down a storm. Watch this space for more of their gigs coming up. They will be big, mark my words!

I also had the great pleasure of attending the first gig of The Retrospective Soundtrack Players



They performed a set based on the lead singer's favourite film "Cool Hand Look" starring Paul Newman and created a big fat country sound in The Edge of The Wedge, lil ole Albert Road on a balmy Autumn evening. My friend and I didn't quite know what to expect when the group came on wearing muddy white t-shirts.  It made a lot more sense once the double bass player, Ben Ottesen explained that it was based on the film afterwards.  Everyone else that attended that night has given me feedback saying htat, they were their favourite performance of the evening. They happen to have the added advantage of all being highly talented, swapping instruments from time to time.  You can hear how great they sound from the video recording made that night, which isn't easy to capture at a live gig.  The only cover they did was of the Plastic Jesus ditty taken from the film, but given an injection of their own sound.  The best version of that song I ever heard, by far and it's a truly great track.  Hell yeah.

So, next up were Bear Cavalry technical whizz kids with their little keyboards, electronic backing sound loops and guitars.  I'm a sucker for a loop.  They came with their own supporters who were mouthing along delightedly to every word.  I thought they sounded rather splendid even if they did make me feel more like Mutton Dressed As Spam than ever.  You'll love them if you like Bombay Bicycle Club (I'll probably get stampeded by one of the bears on the frontline for saying that) and The Beatles when they were going through their acid years.

Bear Cavalry

My favourite track was Will Smith Solves The Rubik's Cube which had lovely trumpets in it, (hmm, starting to sound like a music review written by your nan or what?!) which sounded spectacular live as they extended it and took the room on a beautiful little journey. 


Finally, the latest new (to me) band I have heard recently were The B Of The Bang



They've been around for a while now, but it's the first time I've heard them.  You can see from their video released in 2007 how sophisticated their sound and look is.  I was captured and enraptured by their stunning sound.  Their technical brilliance and confident presence shone through with a clever sound that was made to look easy.  The mark of true genius. They did some wicked stuff with some bouncy boingy resonance (sorry for the appalling use of adjectives chaps, I'm no musical scientist) which always blows my skirt right up and makes me feel as though I've having a musical hug, i love it so much.  Plus, they got their glockenspiel out.  I'm anyone's for a glockenspiel.

Listen to some of their latest tracks here:

• First Thought of the Morning by The B of the Bang (this was my favourite)
• Film Noir by The B of the Bang
• Reykjavik 101 by The B of the Bang

The B Of The Bang, Aaron Bennet Photography