SpideWriter

Fall From Grace Latest release by Ross Stewart New Single launches 29 th  May 2025 Two things to get your teeth into straight away with Ross Stewart's new single  Fall From Grace:   it’s another great, bouncy tune; you get to bask in the sheer joy of a needle-sharp Stewart rock guitar solo that is hard as diamonds.  It is the kind of guitar solo you feared might be lost in the Digital Age, but here it is, a solo that makes you want to unpack an air guitar and spin round the room, eyes squeezed tight shut. Lyrically, Ross Stewart continues to explore his growing awareness of emotions, life and the kind of mistakes that can seem catastrophic early in adult life.  His latest song poses the question  Is it a fall from grace, or is it just getting older?  The song   ends with a cry for help for the over-whelmed voice,  I’m drowning, I’m drowning .   There is no attempt to push trite answers. The power of the vocal delivery...

Spear of Destiny, Janus Tour 2025 John Peel Centre for The Arts, Stowmarket - 1st May 2025 The impossibly handsomest boy of the post-punk scene was looking positively cherubic as he took the stage to plug in his lead at The John Peel Centre on May Day 2025.    The young man who looked like the son of a Greek God in 1983 is 68 years old now and he’s still looking good, the hair curl still with us.   Kirk Brandon ’s Spear of Destiny are back to a six-piece band, he’s still got his big guitar, a grand piano of a guitar, there’s the saxophone blended into the constant guitar ( as found on The Stooges second album Funhouse, released in 1970) , the slightly incongruous ‘muso’ lead guitar, the keyboards and the rhythm section, the driving force of this show.   The crowd, standing (thank goodness) are an assortment of the committed, the curious and the ambivalent.  T-shirts on show include Spear of Destiny’s latest promoting  Janus -  the new recording...

The Garage Goes Goo-Goo for Gaga Joyous REWORK Norwich Show picks the meat off Lady Gaga's tunes Words by Spencer Ide , Photographs by Gordon Woolcock   It’s bloody difficult!  and  It’s hard, really effing hard!  and it’s  Scary!   But it’s a lot of fun too.  Last night’s show at The Garage was the twentieth appearance of  REWORK Norwich  in the past two years.  Twenty shows of local bands and musicians being tasked with stamping their mark on the work of the biggest names in the music biz.    The latest focus was the songbook of Lady Gaga .  Three groups of Norwich-based musicians were invited to rework her songs for as diverse an audience as she would have hoped for herself.  Posters around the city these past few weeks attracted the curious, the self-questioning, embryonic-confident and some of Lady Gaga’s  Little Monsters  keen to hear some of  Mother Monster’s  songs live,...

Steven Wilson The Overview / ST5V5N W9LS15N – TH5 OV5RV95W Out Now on Fiction Records Album Review Oh! How we needed Punk Rock! The turgidity and suffocation of the hippy dominated long-haired Prog Rock amblings suffocated like a winter duvet on a warm spring morning.  The singles market was thriving with cut and paste emotions, smash and grab lyrics and the briefest of brief guitar solos and breaks. Everything under three minutes for a quid, with a quirky B-side thrown in, (sometimes a proper gem).   Survivors from this edgy, musical tidal shift hold onto the mantra “Don’t bore us, get us to the chorus!” Elder siblings, or the long-hairs of the upper school were boring.  Parties full of dope smoking lay-abouts listening to albums were tedious. The older kids could get about in fifth-hand motors bought for £50, carrying a prized album to play, when we were looking for the punch of Glam Rock.  I recall a house party where an elder brother of the party g...

Ross Stewart Steps Up Sold Out Show Worth The Wait  Voodoo Daddy's Showroom. Tuesday, 28th January, 2025 Ross Stewart at Voodoo Daddy's  It took him a while, but at last a headline set from Ross Stewart for which the audience had to pay to get in.  I first saw Stewart playing in the Walnut Tree Grapes when the Norfolk Blues Society returned to action after the pandemic.  The Walnut Tree in Old Post Office Court was a godsend to fans of quality live music.  My life in the city was transformed by the place, introducing me to the local music scene, in which Ross was just becoming established because of his truly outstanding ability to rock a guitar, make it weep, make it sing.  Astonishingly, the young Scot's talent with the guitar is matched by a voice that he has managed to nurture and develop in tandem with his playing.  Ross has played at The Champion, The Lamb, The Reindeer, The Brickmakers, (amongst other pubs) as well as being an opening act at Nor...

Album Review:   Gus Eaglehorn, The Hornbook Beautifully Bonkers This is a remarkable album.  My gut response to it was to seek out where this guy and his band are playing.  With an album title that suggests witchy spells for aphrodisiacal purposes, Gus Eaglehorn has produced a collection of songs that promise a theatrical event, an American rock musical for the age of The Great Pushback on Humanity we are living through.  With its quirky drama and humour, Eaglehorn demonstrates vital aspects of American art as old as the travelling freak shows of the Wild West and Victorian Britain.  Released on 31 st  January, 2025 ,   The Hornbook wraps up all that is to be loved about the indie American music scene in a candy-coloured bag that invites you to pick out what we fancy, but I reckon, you’ll not want to share and just swallow it all in one go.  It’s witty and weird enough to be played repeatedly – and it rocks where it has ...