SpideWriter

New Album: Gavin Bowers' Cheap Therapy Upfront, I have to declare an interest.  I met Gavin Bowers soon after lockdowns became history and we have kept in touch ever since about any new music in town, his projects, always promising to meet soon.  We've both been busy adapting to changing circumstances, just like everybody else, so the 'soon' has been stretched a little.  We both came to Norwich with our respective plans, but Life happens and priorities get reconfigured.  However, we are both still here and keep making that 'catch-up soon' promise, whenever our crazy-paving paths cross.  So, I was delighted to hear from Gavin that he had been working on a solo project, in which he has been relaying his path into some semblance of order, or least trying to make some honest sense of it. His debut solo album Cheap Therapy is the result. It is now available on all digital platforms, as well as in a limited run of vinyl pressings. I reviewed the single release of Our...

Gavin Bowers' debut album imminent Our Flame, the first single from 'cheap therapy' out 6th March 2026 There's always good music streaming out of Catch-21 Records.  Producer Gavin Bowers has been investing in supporting some of the best new acts working in Norwich and East Anglia for the best part of six years now. Operating out of his studios along Magdalen Street, rock, psyche-rock, country, folk and blues musicians have been nursed through their first singles and album recordings with sensitivity, patience and genuine concern to capture the authenticity of their music. I am not going to name these acts because this post is about the musicianship of Bowers and Bowers alone. I first became aware of Gavin's guitar work when he was playing locally with WAXX! Seeing them play at the Wild Fields Festival post-lockdown was an eye-opener.  There was an accomplished authority to the band's performance. The sound was full, the blend of rocking guitars, bass and drums w...

Phew! Sultry Stuff - In The Desert You’ll Find Me The Molee Shakes - Debut Album - Review Released this morning, with the launch gig at Norwich Puppet Theatre tonight, we at last get a full draft of The Molee Shakes – and it tastes good.  It is like a long, slow, cold beer on an oppressively humid day.  The duo of Mowenna Farrell and Lee Dickerson bring welcome chills to heat of summer. This is a great album for a go-with-the-flow, tell me a story, laid-back mood, in a let’s not rush about, (it’s too hot for rushing), let’s just rock gently to the swaying rhythms of a lived-in voice telling slow, wild tales, accompanied by the echoing lap-steel guitar laments. The album is beautifully put together.  It sets a distinctive tone and maintains that mood throughout.  This is sustained by sparingly-used percussion.  Drums are lightly deployed, with the delicate touch of Jack Gascoigne bringing music of his own to the melodic scenery. The rhyth...

Yeeeeeehaaaw!   The UFO Rodeo Band Red Rooster Festival 31 st  May 2024 & 1st June 2024   It had been a long night, with rain generating floods in the roads approaching the Red Rooster festival site.  Campers and the MoHo people were getting their collective act together, steeling themselves for an unseasonably cool day ahead and somebody, anybody had to get the show going again.  Who would be first on stage in the big tent on such a dank Friday at noon? Who had been dealt the Joker from the deck?   “Now it’s time to face the music.  Time to find out how the story ends…” Gavin Bowers dramatically introduced his previously rarely-heard singing voice to the half-awake, half-crowd, as the UFO Rodeo Band confidently grasped the nettle and fired the starting pistol for Friday, setting off at a brisk canter, to pour some much-needed, burning Bourbon down Friday's chilly throat .     After their lively opening number, the band ...

VOTE PEDRO DANGER Interview with Pedro Danger: Bass Player; Guitarist; Singer. The live music scene in Norwich and Great Yarmouth is hotting up.  After being locked into the chrysalids of bedrooms, apartments, shared houses and student halls, a whole new generation of Norfolk musicians has emerged.  There is so much going on locally it is hard to keep track.   The Norfolk-based musicians who used lockdowns to experiment, learn new instruments and fine-tune their skills, are now out and about, playing an almost overwhelming quantity and quality of music.  Naturally some spread their wings and headed to London, but others have returned after finding the capital too expensive, not to their taste, or less collaborative than they knew Norwich to be.   For example, this past month I have been made aware of a flock of women musicians calling themselves  Murmurations  who are bringing an angelic, harmonious element to the local contemporary musi...