Worcester Music Forum

Well hope you enjoyed Will Dance For Chocolate's live studio session last week - I caught Emma and the guys the day before at the Marrs Bar in Worcester and I do like their blend of Blondie-ish powerchords and Neil Young-type melodies with lyrics that poke a bit of wry fun - mostly at the expense of blokes I think. Highlights are 'Don't Wanna' and 'Twisting Song' off the sparkly 'Disco Tuckshop' EP. Yeah - first impressions are a girly bubblegum band but there's a bit more depth than Bananarama with this lot good fun!

Visiting outfit on the night were threepiece Miss Halliwell (who she?) from Stourbridge/Dudley featuring Chris and Matt on guitars and Sarah on drums. Along with a few other local acts there's a Nirvana signature to this outfit with a bunch of chaotic energy and some tasty tape looping thrown into the mix.

Good to see Andy from The Arquettes, Steve - ex-Darren Brothers and now Skewwhiff - also Siani and Hannah of The Donns all having a busman's holiday on the night - why not?

Surprisingly there's not many straight rock/metal outfits in Worcester - possibly more of a Hereford thing maybe - so a treat to finally catch local outfit Jimmy Nylon - the 'other' Marrs Bar house band! Frontman Conner heads up a bunch of good old-fashioned rockers in the Primal Scream mode with an occasional mellowing touch of dub. Enjoyable stuff and I'll be looking forward to catching them again soon.

Not the slightest trace of dampness to cool things down at the excellent Jamstand Festival in Ross last Saturday - singlehandedly thrown together by local worthy Jack Baldus as a throwback to the breezy Unintentional Festival of a few years back. I caught most of the afternoon and early evening shift kicking off with Cheltenham outfit The Effects Of Alcohol. 'It's all about the booze' said the can-in-hand frontman Andy - true as these boogie-rockers are the most drink-themed outfit I've ever heard - probably.

After the usual get-up-offa-your-feet drum-banging beginning the fabulous Zebedy Rays repeated the Nozstock treatment to the sun-drenched Ross audience. Slightly restrained in the lyrics department a couple of times - it was still mid-afternoon - but Malvern's finest showed again that they're one of the best live acts in the two counties.

Good news everyone! In other words I managed to catch the rockers from Cirencester that are Zoidberg on the garden stage. No pink tentacles - just good time Steely-Dannish riffs with some well-placed police sirens thrown in!

Some heavy folk-rock from Cheltenham back on the main stage with Carmen

- who in places have more teen spirit than Nirvana - followed swiftly by Forest of Dean outfit Karma Mechanics (geddit?) and their thrashy powerchords.

I hoped last week that 7-piece band-of-all-Hereford-talents We Do Kung Fu would hit the ground running today and I wasn't disappointed. They're a colourful bunch of ska-rockers with two catchy front guys in Mat and Beti and appears they've got songs to match with the like of 'Oh Jeanne!' (with 'GayBar' sample half-way), 'I Can Climb Mountains' and 'All Guns Blazing' - well they got the crowd (plus Zebedy Rays) up-and-moshing - always a good sign!

Back to the garden stage where the smallish PA was just about to pack up for the day - this didn't seem to worry catchy Hereford metal-grungers Jivestick much and I swear frontman Dave was really enjoying the distorted howlings of poweramp and speakers in terminal decline - so did I!

Caught a slice of Thyrd Eye before a combination of the sun and rough cider forced an early finish - plus it'd be three hours before Dandelion Killers hit the stage. I spoke to DLK frontman Adam the next day and he said it had been a great evening session as well - anyone got some pictures?

Piccies attached -