SpideWriter

Bodur Plays it By Ear at Cinema City This was a show with a strong basis, neatly executed: a concept album, with accompanying arthouse film, sync'd with the singer and her band playing in the near dark, to a very comfortably seated audience, in Norwich's classiest fleapit.  The musical heart of the show uses music known as Maqam. This is an Arabic music form that gives a structure of scales for building a melody, within which each musician is free to improvise.  It is how melody developed in Mesopotamia and Persia, absorbing influences from indigenous Arabic practise, Ancient Greece and Byzantium. It is the music of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and throughout Central Asia. There has been the usual ooohing and aaarghing about a young musician bringing new music into the ageing Hipster world of North London, but maqam is older in origin than London itself and is why, when we travel eastward musically, we hear marked differences to western European originated melodies, which evolved ...

Wild Paths: Day 4 Part 3 Hipology Sounds After around an hour at the flicks, it was time to traverse cobbles and enjoy a lighter environment. Up the wooden stairs to a beer and a period of de-compression with Lloyd Jones (cables, knobs and buttons) and Simon Taylor (saxophone), in the company of a few good people amongst the solid oak beams of the pub, once notorious for wild pub-rock Friday nights, which is as far from Hipology Sounds laid back, Valencian inspired vibes as you could get. A quiet pint, enjoyed to electro tracks and improvised,  bluesy sax on max reverb. Beam me up, Hip-Hoppy I'm delighted to have discovered this duo and will look out for more of their live sets in the coming gloom of winter. They have a few recordings out on the ether at the moment, with more to follow.  Not much more to say about it really. Just a damned fine moment in time. Memorable.  Spencer Ide 18/10/2025

Wild Paths: Day Four Part 1 Vanity Fairy Goes to Church It's been a tremendous few days so far. Manageable, fun. Peopled by a wonderful variety of musical performances. I couldn't get to everything I wanted to on Thursday, so it was on Friday, hungry for more. I had to make choices without FOMO. C'est la vie, as Vanity Fairy would say, before undoubtedly turning it into a disco smash hit.  Vanity Fairy sets a high bar for Friday fun. In an act that just gets sillier, funnier and so very enjoyable, watching her explore every nook, cranny and architectural feature of St Lawrence's church to a disco beat, set the Five PM audience dancing, swaying and definitely smiling. Vanity, singing with a backing track, with day still lighting the windows high in the celerestory, brought all the glamour of a Friday night out in Mykonos, then some, to the first gig of the fourth day of Wild Paths, 2025. In her set of old and new tracks, Vanity Fair twirled and whirled around the magnifi...

Wild Paths: Day 3 - Evening SPACE Studios, Swan Lane The Wednesday of this year's Wild Paths was quite wonderful and there was more to come.  Having located SPACE Studios, which is housed up very steep stairs in a building on Swan Lane, right in the heart of the old city, I was impressed by the intimate dive club venue.  I had been briefly once before for an electronic music junket, when lighting was deemed an unhelpful distraction, but a necessary evil. To see it this evening with its trippy, bright walls and full lighting arrangements was a bit of a treat. The very serious DH Temple corporation at work DH Temple, resplendent in black leather waistcoat and strides, with a matching ten gallon hat, or maybe six gallon hat, (I wasn't too sure), to top it all off. What would that be in litres, forty, thirty-six? His band, of drums and guitarist / keyboard/ effects man and bassist with backing singer, were just about all set for an on-time lift-off.  They looked great, with t...

Sound Issues At The Octagon Chapel: Quinn Oulton trio John Ivory's building, opened as the New Meeting House in 1756.  The master carpenter, Freeman of the City, who had previously built the Methodist Hall up on Chapelfield Road, adjacent to The Champion pub, (for reference), clearly took great care to shape a building where a speaker would be able to address a large congregation with minimal vocal effort.  Preparations underway to bring down the old chapel Acoustically, it is an almost perfect building, as proven by the self-indulgent couple who 'whispered' through out their time at the disastrous Quinn Oulton gig on Thursday night. Thankfully, they left after being glared at, then shushed by a distracted audience member, who'd finally had enough of their ignorance. Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of the sound problems that beset Oulton's blyth attempts to play on despite obvious technical issues with the sound system.  A very successful show by Sofia Grant,...

Behind The Sun Collective at St Laurence's. Wild Paths: Day 3 Evening I wasn't quite expecting what I got at the church of St Laurence. I had popped in and seen a local art show during the summer. The space is impressive. There's a lot of headroom, (several metres), the nave is wide and much longer than the old church of St Swithin's, home to Norwich Arts Centre. St Laurence's is a biggie. Without any furniture, other than a temporary bar, it offers an exciting opportunity for music promoters.  What I hadn't expected was two sets of gigantic speakers, possible four metres high by three metres wide, either side of the chancel, suggesting some heavy-duty noise was about to be generated. I put my ear plugs in pronto - that amount of power in a stone and flint construction could have hearing diminishing consequences.  It was a good move, because those of us who trooped down St Benedict's were about to be reminded that jazz is a very broad church.  St. Lawrence...

 The Maid's Head: Act 3 Anolah And The Bonez Another trio. Same format, but wow, how different can you get?  I was again concerned, when I entered the room, that this band were already into their set, but with everyone in the substantial audience chuntering away!  I should have remembered where I was. Norwich gig goers have utmost respect for their musicians. As soon as the trio were ready everyone, bar two, stopped chatting and tuned in. With the light fading outside, the stage lighting came into play, giving Anolah's understated band just the right level of lux to cast a sultry spell on an audience still buzzing after the previous bunch had done their work. This trio were lounge jazz with a bit of edge. Anolah's voice, was pure, hot chocolate; a classic jazz vocal. Not wanting to be unnecessary, I am going to use word the 'sexy' to describe it, because there are few other words for its tone and delivery. A gorgeous singing voice. Bass, played from a chair, was lai...

Archie & The Astronauts: Maid's Head Hotel 16/10/2025 Three in a band. A power trio. A bass player, who really plays that heavy piece of equipment. The guitarist doing the general lifting, obvs. A drummer setting the pace.  Painters' whites are also available in white. Of course, the prospect of a three-piece band can be a worry in the post-Nivana world, but these three swerve that particular pitfall, flirt with the sound of Motorhead and end up, via their amazing bass musicianship, getting into bed with The Dead Kennedys, although leaving the acerbic political commentary at the door.  High energy, volume dialled to 11, pounding rock. A bloody good act. Minstrels? Debateable, although they conjured audience participation in their concluding song, with some ooohs and woahs. A spirited band, giving it all at ten-to-five on a Thursday afternoon, a week or so before the clocks go back. Very enjoyable rockers. I'm sorry these reviews are brief (mercifully brief?), but I'...

 Wild Fields: Day 3 - Afternoon As it happens, it all kicks off at The Maid's Head Hotel. There's a wedding downstairs, a ticket collection point in the Edith Cavell Room for Wild Paths and three music biz seminars / talks for the local music college in the Minstrels' Room, before we get round to the music.  The room, as you'd hope is acoustically sound and the solo performance from Arthur Black, (stet) make it feel like a lazy Sunday afternoon, a slightly mournful one at that.  Reflective, with a little angst thrown in.  The carpeted floor is quality enough to be a comfy seating area, at least two thirds are settled down. I think the presence of two people with wheelchairs have set the level, which others have responded to. Nice. Photographers do their busy thing. Arthur does their thing. Working solo, a break from their band, just for a change.  The lack of chat in the audience is an absolute godsend. We can hear every word. It's cool.  I am beginning to ...

 Wild Paths 2025:  Day 2 Evening Pleasure Inc. spitting fire At last a decent picture of my own for a review, as luck would have it. The second Wild Paths event of this year's festival presented a lively crowd with another three acts: Chest, Canned Pineapple and Pleasure Inc. To put it simply, this was a fun night out.  Chest were refreshing to the ears after last night's intensive aural workout.  With audible lyrics, tunes, chorus, who would have known that such ingredients were a recipe for a good time?  As proponents of shoe gaze that leans towards the poppie side of that style, Chest are a band who engage with the audience through lively songs, structured in a standard form: guitar intro, singer comes in with a verse that blends into chorus, then round we go again. The songs are delivered by a front man who makes extended elegant shapes with his long limbs, emphasising his emotional input to the act. Each number gives the instrumentalists room to feed in ex...

Wild Paths: Day One Evening Voodoo Daddy's Showroom, London Street Headliners, The Empty Threats Definitely an evening for the ear plugs. Three post punk noise bands in a row, poses the old question of how to organise a night's entertainment when the performers are doing much the same thing. Of the three sets tonight, openers Feasts , were able to offer something substantially different with drums (Ben), guitar and a small keyboard, (Connor).  If you think, White Stripes in reverse, i.e. drums taking the lead, driving the truck with the guitar providing some tonal depth, you will have some idea of the instrumental power and output of these two.  Ben's drumming is quite something to behold. Essentially, this set was a series of amped up drum and percussion solos, never dull, that take the part of the planet's original. primordial musical device to the extremes of its capacity, whilst still remaining inside the boundary of what might be recognisable as music. With rhythms...

Day One, Morning  Fear and loathing on Elm Hill this is not.  Transport, no fabulous red Chevvy, just the number 14 bus into the city from the N&N Hospital.  Drop off is under the looming, refurbed Norman castle, then a stroll round the corner to the Maid's Head Hotel.  There no sign yet of a festival, although the receptionist assured me the Edith Cavell Room would be functioning as a ticket office from Thursday.  I went back up through Tombland, once the site of a Viking market place, past Voodoo Daddy's Showroom, where a small street sign was tucked into the doorway announcing this week's events, to the bus information office to buy myself a week's bus pass, as it looks like I'll be tripping back and forth over the next few days for various reasons. Good value I thought, that bus pass.  Talking of taking trips, the bus will be the only type of trip I'll be enjoying this week. Gonzo's Tea Room as close to Gonzo journalism as this gets. Tonight and tom...

I've been looking forward to this week ever since I first heard about this festival...interesting it's called Wild Paths, not Wild Cobbles, or Wild Streets, but it is here at last, Tuesday, 14th October through to Sunday 19th October. My mission is quite simple: get to every venue when there's a show, or talk in session. How I get on will be written here, as I go. I'll try to keep it tidy, but it may get messy. Edits of articles will be notified when the whirlwind has been and gone. I think this festival could be a gem. Info and tickets are available from the link here:   https://wildpaths.co.uk/ Hope to see you in Norwich at Wild Paths 2025  Spencer Ide Monday, 13th October, 2025