A word from the Editor

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The Gloucestershire Music Scene

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Cheltenham’s MND

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Gemma Dunstan

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Lawrie Donohoe

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Live Music Listings

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Funeral For a Friend Interview

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Keziah Kurg’s Krafts

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Fabio Thomas

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Hello!

It’s our first print issue of 2012 and we’ve packed it full of great features to celebrate.

We’re loving our new look courtesy of our new cover artist Jordan Bonner and she’s done a great job re-styling MAG for the new year.

As you may be aware it is the month of love with Valentine’s day on the 14th. In case you get stuck on what to buy your loved one Keziah from ByLocal has very kindly provided us all with some fantastic ideas on what to buy.

Emma Perry continues her Funeral For A Friend experience with an interview with the boys when they played at The Gloucester Guildhall. Lawrie reviews lo-cal boy Rufio Summer’s new EP ‘Over it’ and we have new columnist Fabio Thomas profiling another local band Young Kato.

As well as all of that we have the regular monthly listings from across the county where you are sure to find lots to do to keep you entertained throughout Febuary.

There is lots going on throughout February and you want to review anything for the next issue of MAG then email me ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

Amelia x

A word from the editor

MAG Needs You!

We are always looking for news and reviews for MAG from lovely people like you! Being a non-profit initiative we don’t pay but can get you into gigs and publish your work. Please contact Amelia if you want to contribute any-thing to this fanzine: ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

The Gloucestershire Music Scene

February is the month of love and what better way to celebrate that with some fantastic live music! Ok that was a very tenuous link but never the less the county has got some great music going on this month.

Cheltenham sees the return of the fantastic Folk Fes-tival which is in its 16th year. The festival is held at the Town Hall and has over 20 performers over the three days including headliners Dervish, Albion Band and Brass Monkey. You may not think Folk Music is your bag, but go along to the festival and I guarantee you’ll find something you’ll enjoy!

Over in Gloucester this month the Guildhall is hold-ing a Valentine’s prom on the 9th packed full of local bands including Young Kato (profiled in MAG this month), Funky Horse Milk, Callum and the Prophy-lactics, Subtle Voodoo Elephants, and more. Carrying on the festivals for the county, the Guildhall holds The Big Bang Festival on the 25th showcasing the best music that Gloucestershire has to offer. While Cafe Rene hosts to Harker and Cheltenham boys Stillbust on the 24th.

The Sub Rooms in Stroud are brightening up this dreary month with a reggae night from Black Roots on the 3rd and Britain’s longest running Madness tribute on the 11th.

Elsewhere in the county there is lots of live music go-ing on and don’t forget the ever increasing number of Open Mic Nights which are great to hear some up and coming local artists for free!

If you are a pub, club, promoter or artist and want your gig or event listed in MAG then give us an email at ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk and we’ll get them in the magazine for you.

Cheltenham’s Music Network

Developer

Hello February!

Lovely to see you and what I’ll assume will be gently increasing temperatures into springtime... Not that winter has been so cold so far - no dou-ble snow like last year, just cold without white – meteorologically pointless in this writer’s opinion.

Enough about weather – January was quiet, but still rumbled on with open mics around the county with musicians and promoters tiding over local pubs and venues until people start coming out of hibernation. Other than these I didn’t get much chance to go out to any other shows, which was a shame. That said, I’ve been indulging myself with listening to a wealth of local artists in prepa-ration for booking up the acoustic stage at Wych-wood Festival and there are some great new artists coming out of the county that the old guard better watch their backs...

Well – this month we’ll see Cheltenham Folk Fes-tival and Big Bang Festival at Gloucester Guild-hall so plenty to pop in your diaries. Me? I’ve been listening mostly to the excellent Kitten and Bear as well as Gloucester’s Funky Horse Milk.

A

BBC Gloucestershire Introducing… is the show for your new music. Every Saturday from 5:30pm on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, you can hear the tastiest new cuts of unsigned music from across the county. We might have only been on-air since the beginning of October, but the response has been fantastic with shed loads of you uploading your tracks at bbc.co.uk/introducing – keep em comin’!

Catch Paul Moss and Gemma Dunstan presenting BBC Gloucestershire Introducing... every Satur-day from 5:30pm to hear the tastiest cuts from the county’s up and coming artists. The 30 minute show also includes interviews with the people behind the music and a gig guide for who to see play live, and where.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire 104.7, 95, 95.8 FM, 1413 AM and on the BBC iPlayer

BBC Gloucestershire Introducing presenter Gemma DunstaNHello!

I’m so excited for all the fantastic things that Gloucestershire has to offer this year. One event I am particularly excited about is the BBC Introducing Musicians Master Class. The Master Class will be held at Abbey Road and Maida Vale. The day will made up of creative classes allowing musicians to work with some of the biggest names in the industry. I will be there reporting for BBC Radio Gloucestershire and can’t wait to tell you how it goes in next months copy of M@G. You can find videos and information at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/advice/masterclass/2012/schedule/

I’ve been speaking to a few local musicians to find out what they are excited about for 2012:

“I’m looking forward to Stressechoes’ first album! It will be available very soon” - Alex Petrie, of Stressechoes

“For 2012 it’s all about HOPE for Funky Horse Milk, we’ve just recently came in the top 50 for a McFly Competition! We are hoping we get picked for this as it would be an amazing opportunity. We have also entered Live and Unsigned and Surface Festival!” - Cory Gaffney, of Funky Horse Milk

“In 2012 I’m looking forward to seeing Gloucester stand out on the map, my albums release and seeing new artists come up and let their voices be heard” - JaDee

“I’m looking forward to releasing my second solo album, as well as theLast Night’s Victory EP, and going on tour with Oui Legionnaires in the spring” - Charlie Baxter, of Last Night’s Victory and Oui Legionnaires

If you are an unsigned musician, or in a band, upload your music to us and other BBC networks at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/uploader/ It’s free and although we get a lot of music sent to us, we do our best to play out as many new artists as we can each week. Listen to Paul and me every Saturday at 5.30pm on BBC Radio Gloucestershire or catch us on BBC iPlayer.

Gem x

Lawrie Donohoe’s Review of the month

Rufio Summers - Over it EP

“There ain’t no problem that I can’t fix with a baseball bat and a broken heart”, Rufio Summers snarls. Ten seconds into the first song and I’m caught totally off guard by this unexpected burst of rage. Already I can see his appeal - this angel-voiced soul

singer just got his heart ripped out so brutally that he’s exploded out of his own mould. This is a passion you just can’t fake (and many have tried). In fact it’s so convincing you almost feel like crediting circumstance rather than talent. In his world - that where the emotionally bland and unconvincing rule supreme – this deception is a rare gift. When it comes to the destructive love that inspires this emotion and dominates his songwriting, he might claim to be ‘Over It’, but every track on this EP is a statement that he’s not. He tries to escape it but ends up just looking at it from different angles – the theme here is addiction. Perhaps the other theme, which goes hand in hand with addiction, is self-deception - as well as the aforementioned claim, Rufio also insists he’s a ‘One Trick Pony’ despite clearly having his fingers in several musical pies. One minute he’s ripping out a rough, Seasick Steve blues riff, the next he’s crooning to the sexy minor 7’s of R&B, ending the EP with a track that only a beat away from something you’d hear at Moo Moo’s on a Saturday. It’s a perfect demo tape – every song a new example of what he can do.

However, there’s no doubt that Rufio’s forte is his vocal style. Swelling with soul, virtuosic but not overly gymnastic, his is a trans-Atlantic blend of Stevie Wonder and Kele Okereke. He flawlessly glides in and out of falsetto, even us-ing it to squeeze a chuckle out of ‘Watch Out’ with his squeaky ex-girlfriend im-pression. Unfortunately his guitar doesn’t carry the emotion like his voice does, and occasionally sounds a little sloppy and slurred, painfully exemplified in the nasty bum notes at the end of ‘Akeachi’. The lyrics, too, are only pulled off by his dulcet tones – once you look past the melodic embellishments their lack of ambition becomes apparent. As a bit of a lyrics nazi, this is an area I am often disappointed with – too many people just aren’t trying to say anything new. Then again, this is probably just my ‘Bob Dylan syndrome’ talking.

With a history of disintegrated rock bands behind him, it seems likely that the modest accompaniment of guitars and backing vocals was the result of collaborative frustration rather than a deliberate gravitation to a sparser sound. I think it’s safe to say, not least after having listened to a more recent track on his website complete with full band and swelling production (Ok, you caught me, the EP has been out for a while!), that the ‘lonely singer-songwriter’ medium doesn’t do Rufio justice. All too often this arrangement, which should really be kept for those introverted enough to exploit its intimacy, is adopted by songwriters purely out of convenience. His bluesier mo-ments may give him a shot at being a modern day delta troubadour, but a man oozing confidence like Rufio needs beats; a horn section, goddamit!

The production has a couple of tasty tricks – the vocal’s high pass reverb and delay hangs back, leaving the raw surface to rip undisturbed, which is a thoughtful technique - but the guitar, and indeed the whole track, is well, well too compressed in my opinion, leading me to wonder whether this was a studio job with a producer or just a well done bedroom demo.There’s something transitory about ‘Over It’, like Rufio’s treading water until he gets the chance to do what he re-ally wants. However, his confidence is infectious and it’s hard to imagine him not going places once he’s found his way. Keeping my eye on this one.

An interview with:

Funeral for a Friend15/12/2011

Interviewer: Emma Perry

FFAF’s Mark & Kris

I’m here with Funeral For a Friend a mere hour before their gig here at the Gloucester Guildhall, hi guys how are you?M & K: Hi we are very good thanks

How are you feeling now right before the gig, do you have any pre-gig nerves?M: No, not really. 10 years in we have pretty much got rid of those, no room for nerves!K: I remember we used to be quite bad didn’t weM: I used to throw up a lot, but I don’t really know what hap-pened to me. Maybe a little bit of me died inside. Probably vomited out my nerves (laughs)

I’ve got to ask, how did the UK tour go in October?M: It was really good, a lot of fun.K: Short but sweet. Made a lot of good friends!

Have you got any stories from any of the gigs you have played at?M: Oh, our old bassist fell off stage that was quite funny. We didn’t realise until we turned round and he weren’t there. It was a 6 foot high stage and he fell right into the security barrier at the O2 Academy.

Was it like a rock and roll thing?M: No he just tripped over a monitor. He was jumping back-wards and didn’t sort of judge the actual size of the stage, caught his heels on the monitor and went arse over tit. Yeah, so a lot of falling over and crotches of jeans ripping, the usual things!

When playing at a gig, how does it compare to playing at a festival, such as Download?M & K: It is your show when you play a gig really. With us we have more control over our shows. Less stressful usually. Sometimes festivals can be pretty hardcore and you’re either spending about 5 hours doing press with very little time to prepare for the show, then as soon as you’re on stage, you’re off. The time slot is very different too, at a festival you generally play for about 30 minutes. You have got to put a lot of faith into the crew because you don’t do any sound checks so you’re going out there cold.

Your latest album Welcome Home Armageddon, which was released back in March, saw you going back to your roots and original sounds. Was this your intention as you were writing the songs?

M: Urm, to a degree I think we wanted to start playing music that we loved again, the kind of music that got us into wanting to be in a band in the first place. I think we realised over the past few years that we have veered off the path and we were feeling that we weren’t really happy with what we were doing, even though we couldn’t really articulate that and communicate that well with each other, so it took Gareth and Darren leaving to be honest and getting Rich and Gav in the band for us to completely acknowledge that and them saying it to us what they felt was good about Funeral For a Friend, which made us look at what the band was about, where we were and where we were going. And just really re-connect with the music that we loved when we first wanted to rock out and play shows.

K: Yeah definitely. As a band we try to be as original as possible and when everyone else starts sounding like your band, then you start trying different things. We just realised what we do best and what comes naturally to us.

And without giving too much away, are you writing any new songs for an upcoming album?M: Yes we are

Can you give us any tasters?M: Not really, we don’t even know what the hell is going on. It is in the evolutionary period, where we’ve got ideas but they are final. They are like eggs waiting to be hatched, we are currently all sat on one each. Ryans sat on about 5.

What do you hope 2012 brings you?M: Hopefully not the end of the world. Just to be able to keep doing the things we like doing: playing shows, making music. We still enjoy doing this, being in a band. That’s all we’ve ever really wanted to have out of this really. We’re not interested in being in the rock and roll lifestyle or being on the front cover of OK magazine.

K: Mine would be no more remakes of classic horrors. That would suit me!

Well thank you very much and I hope your gig goes really well.

M & K: You’re welcome, thank you!

Cheltenham 01/02/2012 Pittville Pump Rooms Masterworks Touched By Spain 19:30 02/02/2012 The Exmouth Bex & Franks Latin Night 20:00

03/02/2012 The Exmouth Kim Cypher Band 21:00 03/02/2012 The United Services Tubby Blues Club 20:00 03/02/2012 The Venue Wheatsheaf Ukeholics & Reentrants 20:00

04/02/2012 Slak Gannets TBC 04/02/2012 Charlton Kings Club Dave Adams Soul Review 20:45 04/02/2012 Fiery Angel Free Wheeling Blues 21:00 04/02/2012 Town Hall Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra 19:30 04/02/2012 Witcombe Village Hall Rockology 20:00 05/02/2012 Rising Sun Hotel Tony M 21:00

07/02/2012 Little Owl Som Franks’ Strayhorn 20:00 07/02/2012 Town Hall Lunchtime Recital 13:05

08/02/2012 The Bayshill Bex, Franks & Friends 21:00 08/02/2012 Town Hall Scott Of The Antarctic Centenary Concert 19:30

10/02/2012 Exmouth Arms Bad Back Band 21:00 10/02/2012 O’Neils Otis Mack & The Tubby Bluesters 21:00 10/02/2012 The Royal Damson Sky Duo 20:30 11/02/2012 Albion House Affinity 21:00 11/02/2012 The Bayshill Steve Franks 21:00 11/02/2012 Charlton Kings Club Roving Crows 20:45 11/02/2012 Town Hall Lunchtime Concert 12:00

14/02/2012 Town Hall Lunchtime Recital 13:05 15/02/2012 Town Hall Adam Kham 20:00

17/02/2012 Exmouth Arms Over the Hill 21:00

18/02/2012 The Bayshill Last Man Standing 21:00 18/02/2012 Charlton Kings Club Bootique 20:45 18/02/2012 Exmouth Arms Synergy 21:00 18/02/2012 The Daffodil Just The Two of Us 12:00 18/02/2012 Town Hall Mercury 19:30 18/02/2012 Leisure@Cheltenham Mega Roller Disco All Day 18/02/2012 Frog & Fiddle Glos-Tone-Beret TBC

19/02/2012 The Rising Sun Hotel Russ Matthews 21:00

21/02/2012 Town Hall Lunchtime Recital 13:05

22/02/2012 The Bayshill Jam Session 21:00

24/02/2012 Exmouth Arms Over the Hill 21:00 24/02/2012 The Royal Kim Cypher Band 20:30 24/02/2012 Town Hall Connections Concert 11:15 24/02/2012 Town Hall Orchestra of the Swan 19:30

25/02/2012 Albion House Over the Hill 21:00 25/02/2012 Exmouth Ams Leon Daye 21:00 25/02/2012 Charlton Kings Club The Injectables 20:45 25/02/2012 The Bayshill Shark Dentist 21:00 25/02/2012 Strand Bar Synergy 21:00 25/02/2012 Frog & Fiddle Rock Horror Picture Show 19:00 26/02/2012 Strand Bar Franks and Newman 12:30 26/02/2012 Royal Union Jazz Jam Session 21:00 26/02/2012 Rising Sun Hotel Steve Degutis 21:00 26/02/2012 Town Hall Cory Band in Concert 15:00

28/03/2012 Norwood Arms Jam Session 21:00 28/02/2012 Town Hall Lunchtime Recital 13:05

Gloucester 01/02/2012 Café Rene Pete Christie 21:00 03/02/2012 Café Rene Feathers & Dirty Ray 21:00 08/02/2012 Café Rene Laurence Jones Band 21:00

09/02/2012 Guildhall VIP Prom 19:00

10/02/2012 Café Rene Funkinsteins 21:00

11/02/2012 Walls Club Red Alert-Elvis Night 20:00 11/02/2012 Blue Lagoon Otis Mack & The Tubby Bluesters 21:00

15/02/2012 Café Rene Ash Mandrake 21:00

18/02/2012 Guildhall Helena Blackman 19:30 18/02/2012 Guildhall-Theatre Jackie Generation 19:30

22/02/2012 Café Rene Nudybronque & Super Squarecloud 21:00

24/02/2012 Dick Wittington Otis Mack & The Tubby Bluesters 21:00 24/02/2012 Café Rene Harker & Stillbust 21:00

Stroud 03/02/2012 Sub Rooms Black Roots-Reggae Night 20:00

04/02/2012 Sub Rooms Panjandrum 20:00

05/02/2012 Sub Rooms Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra 16:30

11/02/2012 Sub Rooms The Masters of Madness 20:00

18/02/2012 Sub Rooms Miranda Sykes & Rex Preston 20:00

24/02/2012 Sub Rooms Friday Night Live 20:00

25/02/2012 Sub Rooms The Virtuosi GUS Band 19:30

Tewkesbury 04/02/2012 The Berkley Sax Appeal 21:00

08/02/2012 Theoc House JB3 20:00

29/03/2012 Theoc House Kim Cypher Band 21:00

Birdlip 10/02/2012 The Royal George Tom Jurgens 21:00

17/02/2012 The Royal George Scott 21:00

24/02/2012 The Royal George Revue 21:00

Winchcombe 07/02/2012 Corner Cupboard Bluegrass Session 21:00

23/02/2012 Corner Cupboard Song Session TBC

Woodmancote 02/02/2012 Apple Tree Nigel Miles 21:00

09/02/2012 Apple Tree Jim Ramsey 21:00

16/02/2012 Apple Tree Becky Carter & Paul Sixtus 21:00

23/02/2012 Apple Tree Sax N Axe 21:00

Open Mic Nights Tuesday St Paul’s Tavern, Cheltenham Tuesday Salisbury Inn, Cheltenham

If you have any gigs you would like listed in MAG then send them to ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

Wednesday Cross Keys, Gloucester Wednesday Norwood Arms, Cheltenham

Thursday The Strand Bar, Cheltenham Thursday Hogs Head, Cheltenham Thursday The Restoration, Cheltenham

Friday The Fiery Angel, Cheltenham Friday Royal George Hotel, Cheltenham Friday Gardners Arms, Tewkesbury

Sunday Royal Union, Cheltenham Sunday The Cotswold Inn, Cheltenham Sunday Under the edge Arts, Wotton Under Edge Sunday Walls Country & Western Club, Gloucester

Festivals10th-12th Cheltenham Folk Festival Cheltenham Town Hall25h Big Bang Festival Gloucester Guildhall

Keziah Kurg’s Krafts - Valentine Special!

Ok lovers, it’s that time of year again... Let’s get all googly eyed and loved up. Are you rubbish at presents, stuck for ideas or perhaps on a

tight budget? Well I have the answer...

Door hangers that read “Love to knit” or “Love to Sew” are a perfect Valen-tine’s Day gift for your crafty lover. How about a biscuit brooch for your food loving lady? Or maybe a love bird necklace would be a sweet little something to send anonymously? Kath Cooper has a beautiful collection of gifts and with prices starting from only £2 you can afford to spoil someone!

Kath Cooper is a Cheltenham based ceramicist and textile artist, her business is growing well despite the recession. Her work is fun, funky and affordable. Love hearts, birds, and cupcakes are incorporated in to the designs that make up a super cute collection of goodies.

So this valentine’s day find your inner romantic!

Visit www.kathcooper.co.uk for more information.

Or see her work in By Local Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Cen-tre, Gloucester or M.A.D.E in Cirencester.

Local Music with Fabio ThomasVery few unsigned bands maintain the buzz that surrounds them following a release. Gener-ally, momentum is lost along with fans. However, Young Kato, a local group, has defied the musical laws of gravity following the release of their October E.P ‘Thoughts’.

Almost three months after its release, the three track E.P is on its way to 1,500 downloads on their Facebook page alone. It is unsurprising then that, in Young Kato, you will find six guys writing staggeringly good pop songs.

The title track, ‘Drink, Dance, Play’, wastes no time in introducing the listener to the bands overall sound. The track eschews a slow build up, preferring a barrage of sound leading to singer Tommy Wright declaring “Its Begun” as the song breaks down into elaborate piano runs that contrast with a four-to-the-floor bass drum. The song then moves into another phase, adding intricate drum patterns to build up to a heavily layered chorus that would not struggle to fill a stadium. The song continues to keep listeners guessing when everything is cut, leaving interweaving guitar melodies to back a chant of “We drink and we dance and we dance and we play” which provides a Foals-esque hook that the song was previously lacking. The simplistic and clear lyrics portray their love for youth culture.

The title track of the E.P picks up exactly where ‘Drink, Dance, Play’ left off; in a swirl of pulsating synths over bulky bass and guitar, that take up every inch of space. The song ends with a mesh of layered backing vocals and harmonies that are note perfect adding to its grandiose and operatic feel. Sink or Swim, the final track, ends the E.P in similar style. The driving drum rhythm is enhanced by the predominant Bass and crashing piano chords that falls beneath a ‘Best Coast’ style guitar hook.

For their first release under their new name, Young Kato have done all they can to maximize the popularity of their music. By calling upon influ-ences such as ‘Two Door Cinema Club’ and ‘Friendly Fires’ the band have created a sound that will be pleasing to most ears. Despite the fact that they may not be achieving anything ground-breaking or artistically subtle, this incredibly well produced and instrumentally competent E.P sets the band in good stead for the future.

For fans of: Friendly Fires, Two Door Cinema Club, Maroon 5, Coldplay Picture coutesy of Ross Silcocks

Want to contribute? We like listings, reviews, editorial, previews, pictures, art, cartoons and would like to fill these pages with things you care about. We‘d love to hear about anything to do with live music in the county

really and can help with anything from promoting you here to getting you reviewed, played on student and local ra-dio, putting you in touch with venues, musicians and artists across the county and just about anything else you can think of!

Want to advertise? Put your gig posters in with the MAG for distribution? Ask what our favourite kind of ham is? You can contact Amelia – ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

MAG Editor Amelia Scognamiglio | Cover Design Jordan Bonner | Listings Contributor Ollie West | Staff Writers Keziah Kurg, Gemma Dunstan, Lawrie Donohoe, Fabio Thomas, Emma Perry| Thanks to all the people who con-tributed to issue THIRTEEN of MAG, special thanks (again) goes to Nicky Hughes @ The University of Gloucester-shire for organising the funding and production of this work and to Andrew Lansley for continuing to support MAG and everything musical in Gloucestershire| All work remains property of the original owner, used with permission. Reproduction in whole or any part (especially the listings) of this fanzine would be awesome as it’s great to spread the word people, just make sure you credit the fanzine : )