The Temperance Movement Live
Manchester Club Academy. 22 November 2013.
Way back in 1997 I heard an utterly brilliant, epic pop-rock record by a young Scots singer/songwriter called Phil Campbell. A couple of years later I became involved in the online music game and immediately tried to make contact with Campbell to talk about the album (that still remains in my top ten favourites list) and to catch up on more recent work.
I couldn’t find him. He had disappeared without trace.
It took another couple of years before I found him but this time through his new three-piece band White Buffalo. I at last established the true story about that album entitled Fresh New Life, his relationship with troubled record label EMI, and the seamier side of an industry that entrapped him…
It seemed for a long time that I was virtually the only one talking about this wonderful talent and reviewing several consistently good records released by the band. Eventually Capbell went solo again and released another three wonderful albums one of which pricked the interest of the Sunday Times that devoted substantial space to him and his music. But then he seemed to disappear again eventually turning up back in his hometown of Glasgow where his most current musical incarnation was formed.
The Temperance Movement are a blues rock band formed in 2011 by Glasgow-born Campbell and guitarists Luke Potashnick (ex-Rooster and Ben’s Brother) and Paul Sayer. The rhythm section consists of former Jamiroquai bassist Nick Fyffe and the Australian-born drummer Damon Wilson, who has played with the likes of Ray Davies, The Waterboys and Feeder. The band released their “Pride EP” in 2012, and their eponymous debut studio album was released on 16 September 2013.
Phil Campbell — vocals
Luke Potashnick — guitars
Paul Sayer — guitars
Nick Fyffe — bass
Damon Wilson — drums
The eponymous debut long-player received universal acclaim and in this age of reduced volume sales of hard copy managed to reach number 12 in the charts. The band has spent the last year touring relentlessly and in the process won gongs for the best new rock band. Tonight’s show I believe is their last in 2013 and I’m delighted to witness them play live at last.
Supporting the band is a young singer/songwriter from Utah called Joshua James. And what a support he proved to be!!! James was backed by three other musicians and backing vocalists and on any other night could have been the lead act - he was that good.
James was an object lesson in homespun Americana story-telling and the most expressive delivery. It was all so natural for the young man with music obviously running through his veins. Vocally he was excellent and able to travel the vocal range with ease. Songs actually meant something with wonderful lyrical quality and a passionate, sincere delivery that had the audience eatng out of his guitar-laden hands. He connected easily with spoken and sung tales and of his religious upbringing and a song from the TV series Sons of Anarchy (one of two of his songs used in the show). He ended the set with a Spanish language tribute to The Temperance Movement with whom he had shared the stage for several months.
Rarely have I witnessed a support act so in tune with the lead band, and an act that has prepared the audience so well for what was to follow. Credit also must be given to to his backing musicians who much of the time provided the most delectable vocal harmonies.
While the massed ranks of The Temperance Movement mounted the stage, the audience grew to capacity in yet anotehr sold-out show for the band. Eventually Campbell arrived decked out in his fur-collared coat and wearing abundant facial hair. This was not the clean-cut, quite static rocker I had seen years earlier but someone who seemed at peace at last and ready to rock his little socks off.
Young Knives New LP and Tour
YOUNG KNIVES
New album ‘Sick Octave’
released 4th November 2013 + Sick Octave UK tour
“Weapons out on the count of three, we’re going to fuck you up”
“I’m listening to rough versions of songs from the next Young Knives album and feeling somewhat knocked out by them. A huge leap forward. They sound like they’re past caring in the absolutely best possible way.” Pete Paphides
Sick Octave The Album
We’ve just made this album called Sick Octave. It’s our fourth studio album and it’s the best album we’ve ever made. It is of course only a matter of opinion, but that is our opinion. Sick Octave is a fully self-produced, self-recorded album that is a totally free and unbridled expression of our love of music and music-making. It’s as DIY and as filthy as we could make it. We wanted to make something dark and industrial, and a bit crass but with a sprinkling of pretty shit. We didn’t go for producers or high-end studios, we just started recording the stuff that made us excited.
It’s a lot rawer than our first three albums. We were keen to experiment with the freedom and creativity that computers offer and then mix that up with live sounds and field recordings. We built our own drums out of junk and sheet metal, and made our own synths and pedals. We spent hours messing around with sounds, nicking stuff off YouTube and recording in a disused airbase hanger.
We are pretty excited to be getting this record out. I don’t believe that this is the effortless parpings of a band in a rut churning out another ‘fan pleaser’, so we truly hope you find this record different and invigorating, or at least interesting, or otherwise we hope you really hate it. Here are some of my favourite tracks:
Owls of Athens is a song about faded glory, delusion and then death, with a cool beat. We wanted an intense drum machine sound like Big Black. It’s also full of homemade percussion, an old gas cylinder, metal bars and stuff.
Something Awful is a mix of all different musical styles that we like. It’s got bits from Silver Apples, Bowie, Major Lazer, Led Zeppelin all mixed together. My grandpa’s Alzheimer’s inspired the lyrics, but I used that real experience to inform something more vaguely about metamorphosis. It’s also about changing into some kind of super killer monster.
We Could Be Blood is really just about feeling so close to someone that you don’t notice them, but there’s this creepy/murdery side to it that I like. We borrowed a Hammond organ off Steve Winwood to record this, though I’m not sure he knows we did.
Sick Octave The Live Show
We are taking the album on the road in November for our first tour since 2011, but we didn’t want to just rock up and play some songs and then go home. We wanted to put together a real live experience. Not like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, not so many lasers, but something that has an element of theatre.
The Sick Octave show is a total performance of the record from beginning to end, with set pieces, homemade instruments and dancing, all mixed together with a blast of spectacle.
The last third of the show will be a stripped-back set of our old stuff because we are not wankers.
Young Knives The Biography
Young Knives are Henry Dartnall (me),The House Of Lords and Oliver Askew. I’m the big cheese in the band. I write a lot of the songs, play guitar and sing. The House Of Lords is my brother, and he plays bass and keys and sings a lot. He has a cool stage name, so fickle people tend to think he is the best in the band. Ollie plays drums and sings; he has the voice of a castrato and grade 3 violin.
Our first album Voices of Animals and Men was really popular! We had three singles entering the UK Top 40 and the album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2007. In 2008 we released Superabundance, we got a couple of Top 40 singles and the album included our most synched track Turn Tail; something to do with the big string section, I reckon. Then we decided very much that we needed to get away from major label pressures as it just didn’t suit our temperament, and although it may have been a naïve move, we decided to start our own label, Gadzöök. In 2011 we released our third album Ornaments from the Silver Arcade, and this felt like the last record in a trilogy. This record has some of our favourite songs to play live, like Vision In Rags and Woman.
Sick Octave has been a new start for us. It has definitely been the most fun record we’ve ever made, and I think you can hear it in the tracks. We almost didn’t make it a Young Knives record as it feels so different from what went before. But that would be a lie; it is totally a Young Knives record.
Live Dates 2013
November
Tue 5 - Glasgow, O2 ABC
Wed 6 - Birmingham, O2 Academy
Thu 7 - Cardiff, ClwbIfor Bach
Fri 8 - London, O2 Academy Islington
Sat 9 – Southampton Joiners
Sun 10 - St Albans, The Horn
Tue 12 - Newcastle, O2 Academy
Wed 13 - Sheffield, O2 Academy
Thu 14 - Liverpool, O2 Academy
Tue 19 - Manchester, Sound Control
Wed 20 - Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
Sat 23 - Bedford, Esquires
For ticket links and more information visit
www.young-knives.com
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