SpideWriter

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,...

 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

The Perfect Pitch for Norwich: Wild Paths Festival, Norwich 2025 Tuesday, 14th October - Sunday, 19th October 2025 Norwich has many diverse music venues, many potential music venues and with St Andrew’s Hall being totally refurbished, more music venues to come.  Each has unique qualities, from the intimacy of The Bicycle Shop cellar bar, to the cool vibe of Gonzo's Two Room , to the best dive bar in the country, Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom , to the enormous cathedral, Norwich has something for every genre of music.  To underline this, after soulless arenas and cavernous halls, the appeal and perfect acoustics of the Norwich Arts Centre often moves international touring acts, such as Alan Sparhawk of Low, or the late Martin Phillips of The Chills, to speak in awe of the venue, but there are other old churches that Wild Paths 2025 has teamed up with, such as St Peter Parmentergate , the wondrous  Octagon Chapel   and St Laurence.    Brown Horse w...