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This article was first published on Grapevine Live! 1st May 2023 A Breath of Fresh South Coast Air from Hot Wax Hot Wax carry a creative energy that the tedium of battling through winters in English coastal towns often provokes. Second on the bill at Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom on the Spring Bank Holiday, Hot Wax from Hastings, turn in an excellent short set. Casting aside traditional song structures, in the way Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey brought poetry into art rock, Hot Wax use pace and variation of tone, pitch and rhythm to net listeners. Choruses are used sparingly, but when launched, these are delivered with the fury of winter breakers smashing onto the shingle shore. I felt myself step back a little, not wanting to be pulled off shore by the emotional backwash, as the power surged and fell back into another pulsing bass line, a line hung with fascinating vocal lures to keep me hooked. Hot Wax have the edge like the jagged teeth of a double-handed timber saw. The sharp gui...

The Pearl Harts: Voodoo Daddy's Showroom - June 2023 This article was first published on the Grapevine Live Website, 1st June 2023 by Chris Perry | Jun 1, 2023 | Music, Reviews Presaged by a (insert your own collective noun here) of photographers,  The Pearl Harts  are attracting a lot of media attention right now. At one point, early in the evening, the paying punters only just matched the number of paparazzi present. I was intrigued to hear what so many lensmen had come to capture, (I saw no lenswomen). I pondered on the name. Pearl, (a precious, rarely-formed jewel, found in oysters) and Harts, (females of the deer species, an animal kept for hunting for sport and venison, idealised as strong and free-spirited), which is an aural pun on ‘hearts’, suggesting a precious sensitivity too; a poetic and interesting band name. Promising. Are the Pearl Harts the future of 21st Century rock? How far can duos take rock music?  Listen to local band  Whiskey  Lover Bass ...

BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS – IPSWICH 9TH & 10TH JUNE 2023 Words and Pictures by Chris Perry 14 June 2023 This article was first published on Grapevone LIve! June 2023 Waking to find a heavy sun beating down on the ancient city, warmth in the air at last, I hauled my old limbs into the shower, steeling myself for a long day. I was to be travelling south to trudge around the old port of Ipswich trying to make sense of Brighten the Corners. This multi-venue festival, has a name that misleads aurally, (Brighten, or Brighton?). It has artists listed appearing at six venues, plus talks at a seventh. It attracts musicians from as far distant as Los Angeles, CA. The whole event brings together the resources of the local university, the post- 16 college, BBC Su ff olk and venues, of vastly di ff erent styles and a range of capacities. My initial impression was that this is an ambitious event, o ff ering stages for over forty bands and acts, several of them possibly only known to each other. But f...

  First Evening in Manhattan by  Chris Perry  |  Sep 30, 2022  |  Music This article was first published on the Grapevine Live! website in Sept. 2022 Yes, it is possible to leave Norwich on the 06:04 train and still get to Manhattan in time to watch the latest version of Roxy Music on their US tour.  I didn’t set off with that concert in mind, but there was the possibility of picking up a spare ticket had I really wanted to see them. I saw two older men on their way to the show when travelling on the subway from JFK. One wore a black t-shirt with a copy of the cover from ‘For Your Pleasure’, featuring the model Amanda Lear, holding a heavily sedated black panther on a lead. The other man’s had a motif that looked to have been lifted from Queen’s “Night at the Opera”, with Roxy Music printed in an ornate script across his sternum.  Instead of hunting out a ticket, I wandered around for a bit in order to get orientated. Once I’d remembered that aven...

I had the pleasure of interviewing Martin Phillipps of The Chills in 2023. Sadly, Martin died the following summer. This interview was first published on the Grapevine Live! website in 23rd June 2023 by Chris Perry | Jun 15, 2023 | Music, Interview I was excited to be introduced to Martin Phillipps when  The Chills  came to play at Norwich Arts Centre. This was the chance to sit down with a writer of an unimaginable number of songs, (many more than the 500 oft- suggested), while he was passing through Norwich. We sat in the beer garden of The Plough, soaking up the late-afternoon heat and talked about song writing, playing in a band, the history and geography of New Zealand, where Martin, founder and leader of The Chills, resides. Spin a globe round until you find South Island. To locate Dunedin, look pretty much as far south as you can go on the east coast. It’s a fair way. Dunedin’s remoteness, (or is it we who are remote?), seems such that people have to make their own ente...