Pamelia Kurstin and Seb Rochford duo @ The Shed, Brawby Village Hall. 25 September 2010

The Shed goes back to its original home of Brawby for a special show from Pamelia Kurstin and Seb Rochford who come together showcasing an interesting project; one I’d never thought I’d witness, let alone in a Shed… Pamelia Kurstin on theramin and Seb Rochford on drums. Plus Seb Rochford went on the road the day before in a van taking in hotspots such as Kirkbymoorside and Helmsley, pulling up and playing with the doors shut. Something I missed unfortunately but this lot didn’t… But tonight its time to head to Brawby for some Shed Bitter and a good show, what to expect? No idea.

Pamelia Kurstin hails form California has a background in upright bass, a skill she adapted and really ran wild with to create a unique and creative theramin playing style of her own. The sounds she creates is something else, I’ve never heard anything like it. One minute she’s creating low-slung slow motion funk by messing with frequencies and looping them into new shapes with pedals, synths and effects. The next its eerie b-movie soundscapes via a Aphex Twin–esq Selected Ambient Works collage of sound or a Herbie Hancock electro-funk. Whole tracks were created live with such control and precision. Seb Rochford accompanied her with some seriously creative drumming; accenting the compositions with anything from incidental meandering through lilting funk and intense shed rattling drum workouts. It was a hypnotic experience swimming in layers of theramin built from the ground up infront of you.

My prediction is that drum & theramin will take off just like drum & bass did, expect to hear it take over soon. The pair have an album on the way for the Slowfoot label and after tonight’s performance its one I’m keeping an eye out for. As always The Shed continues to be one of the most inspiring and entertaining venues around, bringing something new to the table with each season.



http://www.myspace.com/pameliakurstin
http://www.angelfire.com/freak/pamelia_kurstin/welcome1.htm
http://www.myspace.com/sebastianrochford
http://www.theshed.co.uk/
http://www.vangig.co.uk/

*Photo by Susan Balf in Kirkbymoorside market place, 24th September 2010.

Fulborn Teversham @ The Shed, Hovingham Village Hall. 2nd May 2009

One of many of supreme jazz drum being Seb Rochford’s groups is hitting The Shed this weekend yet again. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Polar Bear twice and the band tonight Fulborn Teversham just the once in this shed of a venue. Seb is joined by long time collaborator in such bands as Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear Pete Wareham on Sax, Nick Ramm on Nord synth and Alice Grant on vocals. They make one hell of a punk infused, experimental jazz racket unlike anything I’ve really heard before. They drift from sweet mellow smokey jazz numbers to full on balls to the wall skronk sessions, they even manage to sound something like ye olde seaside music at times mixed with a hammer horror soundtrack, interesting stuff.

A pint of Shed bitter a hand full of nuts and Fulborn Teversham take the stage, opening with a set of instrumentals in the first half then joined by Alice in the second for some vocal workouts. ‘Count Herbert II’ opens things nicely with a Transylvanian vibe with tweaked synths, elaborate drums and skronky sax. The mood ebbed and flowed from punked out hardcore jazz to deep and mellow ballads about love in a sweet melancholic style. Throughout the night pretty much everything of debut album, ‘Count Herbert II’ was played including maybe two or three new tracks.

The musician-ship on show tonight was something else, this group and all their projects blow me away each and every. Nick on the Nord really does make some quality sounds ranging from deep bass to skewed 8-bit-like gameboy, it’s a joy to hear. Seb’s drums are tight and varied as always playing some full on funk licks this time as well as almost 80’s like stuff in the ballads. Pete on sax can make eerie atmospheres or really crank it up and build layers of psychedelic hard rock-like melodies; he really takes you with him. Alice has such a wicked voice that can go from soft and delicate to all out punky shouts; she has a knack for lyrics too.

Highlights have to be, ‘Beachtune’, ‘Castle Music’, ‘Amazing’ and the closer ‘Silent’. To be fair it was all quality and The Shed bitter has made me forget some names. It was also a special day for The Shed’s head fella Simon, it being his birthday and all so much respect to him for that and putting on so many excellent nights.

Oren Marshall & The Charming Transport Band @ The Shed, 29th November 2008

Tonight The Shed welcomes Oren Marshall who I have heard be called, ‘Hendrix of the Tuba’ now this made me wonder what the hell was going to happen? Turns out he was in a dance to my African riddim’s mood rather than a Hendrix freak out, and you know what that’s fine by me.

Oren kicked things off by wandering around the room blowing what only can be described, as Jazzberry’s also know as the Jazz Raspberry along with some more rhythmic low end grunting. He even came at me and made me put my balls in his Tuba, which to be fair I was more than willing to do. After he had freaked out a nice section of the crowd with his testicular jazz march he made his way to the stage and the full band joined him.

This was no ordinary band this was The Transport Band. It featured well let me give you a roll call…

The line-up:
Oren Marshall (UK) – tuba

Afla Sackey (Ghana) - atenteben, vocals, percussion

Yaw Asumadu (Ghana) - djembe, congas

Annor Asamoah (Ghana) - gome drum

Nana Kwesi (Ghana) - keyboards

King David Sobiyi (Nigeria) - guitar

Julian Siegel (UK) - alto sax

Miles James (UK) - guitar.

So that gives you a little bit of a flavour of what was in store. A mish-mash of tuba led jazz and high-life was the call of the night. As always The Shed needs a little bit of a wakeup call, it is a sleepy village hall in rural North Yorkshire after all. This meant the first half was a little bit mellow in the crowd at least. The grooves where subtle, yet had some of the funkiest vibes I have heard for a while.

Jazz was the mainstay of half one, the tuba set the groove as the percussion which featured congas, drums and a gome that is pretty much a plywood box with a dude sat on it, lay down one hell of a rhythmic bed for the jazz improvisation to really get things going.
So as pockets of people got there bop on and other slowly nodded their heads. The kids at the front behaved and got praised from Oren as did we all, Pat’s on the backs all round…

By the time part two kicked of though and the crowd made up of locals and madmen had had some of that special local ale Shed Bitter down them, everyone was ready to move.

And they knew it, so picked up the pace by hitting us with the High-Life. The tempo came up, the grooves got hectic and the funk got rolling. Each track pretty much featured an improvised section from each artist then ended with them playing off each other then back into the groove. Improvised sections even got cheers and claps.

The vocalists brought a heavy African influence to the table along with the percussion this melted together with the jazz so well it was a perfect fit. Things really heated up when they worked the crowd with some work out style double time dance manuva’s. Even if it looked a bit like a mad line dancing class it was great fun and there was smiles all round.

Oren then let us know he was recording the set so as soon as that appears on his site I will link it on here right away just so you can get The Shed flavour from your home.

Some of my favourite moments must be when the two guitarists played off each other in a solid groove, just building the tension in the dance until you couldn’t help but move. Sax man Siegel was on form too when he really took over and let fly to make some hypnotic segments, when him and King David Sobiyi on guitar played off each other it was pretty special. The Gome drum was pretty damn special too, I couldn’t believe some of the beats coming out of that. The whole band was tight as hell and ready to roll. Orem kept it all in check and everyone did their thing.

To finish things off after some hardcore claps and stamps Oren Marshall and The Charming Transport Band picked up the pace even more with some super fast soca style beats. They gave us a warning to get those feet moving fast. This just kept going with improvisation after groove after improvisation until people had to sit down and the bar was drunk dry.

The Shed pull off another quality night.

http://orenmarshall.com/

Richard Herring @ The Shed, Hovingham, North Yorkshire 10th May 2008

Richard Herring the averaged sized* comedian came to The Shed to give us a comedy treat. Well this isn’t really music but I don’t really care and will carry on anyway. Richard Herring was on vocals with a laughter backing track performed live by us the audience, his rhythmic timing was spot on. That’s about as close as it got to music, so I will stop the analogy right there. The Shed delivered another top night out as usual, Herring came on with no support and warmed up the crowd with his show Oh Fuck, I’m 40! This was a midlife crisis in action in front of your very eyes for just £12 what a bargain. The self proclaimed Kidult wore a tight fit t-shirt and some badass baggy jeans, and even got out his skateboard at one point. The moral of the story was to keep hold of your youth while you can and for goodness sake don’t try and get head through the means of an ironic t-shirt. There was many a nob gag, and in fact one of the jokes was about gagging on a nob until some one died. Of course it was done with a lot of style and humour, even the crude stuff was executed in a lovable way. Herring has a friendly demeanour of a teenager that doesn’t want to grow up. Some of the routines where pure gold, especially the one that was repeated and repeated until everyone was laughing about two lonely people meeting for a one night stand and the argument about Herrings cock size, masterful. This style isn’t dissimilar to Stuart Lee’s his cohort on Lee & Herring all that time ago, he used to be on TV you know. That’s where the similarities end mind. Herring made humour out of what he knew best, accidentally being a teenager trapped in a middle aged comedians body, with a massive cock. It was a very enjoyable night indeed. Oh yeah find him on myspace because he is cool yeah, like the kids.

*Referring to his cock, as he does through much of the show.

P.S. He told everyone not to say he had a avrage sized nob. Ah well.

Mrs Boyes' Bingo featuring Mark Sanders @ The Shed 26th April 2008

Where to start to describe this gig? You where greeted by Mrs Boyes and handed Bingo cards, then you could head to the bar and your seat. First on the bill where the Jazz Improv duo: John Edwards (Double Bass) and Mark Sanders (Drums & Percussion). They eased us in with some really quite inventive sections of Jazz, this ranged from atmospheric scrapes and shuffles to full on noise and rocking sections. They played off each other beautifully especially in the more intense periods. Edwards really worked every aspect of his instrument, its hard to imagine any bit of the Bass he didn’t play, I think I spotted he missed doing something with the holes on the side, but I could be wrong. Sanders, was pretty special and played his heart out, really working the drums in ways I’ve not seen before. I was especially mesmerised by the use of bells and, excuse my lack of knowledge, smaller drums on top of the regular kit to mute and add new dimensions. The duo really locked together on the loud sections, with awkward time signatures that chopped and changed, you didn’t know where it was all taking you, wonderful stuff.

Now on to the main event: Mrs Boyes’ Bingo Featuring Mark Sanders. This is hailed as a modern-day classic on The Shed website, they aren’t far wrong either. We are all familiar with Bingo the classic random number game, which involves crossing off lines and full boxes. That isn’t the surprising bit, that was left to the addition of Mark Sanders from the aforementioned Improv Duo. He played drums and percussion to accompany and distract the proceedings. I for one am so glad he did as Bingo rarely floats my boat. This was a wonderful addition to the traditional game. Sanders played off Mrs Boyes just like he would off any of his Jazz contemporise. His style has quite a range that added to the drama of the game. You never quite knew if you would be quietly serenaded with flicks and clicks or pounded into submission with smashes or cymbals and snares. I especially liked it when he caught Mrs Boyes off guard, as this added humour and also slowed her down, which was a godsend to us novice bingo players. The prizes where your usual affair; towels, lamps, gammon, electric hand whisk, the bottle of port got the best audience reaction. I was lucky enough to win a bottle of Irish Cream, which I’m pretty sure is a cheap imitation of Baileys and six shit glasses for a full house. You really had to shout to get herd over the numbers and drums, especially at this rapid fire pace. By the last few games every one was concentrating and trying there best, thinking they had finally come to terms with this magical combination. Then Edwards sneaked onto stage for some Bass action. This again added to the proceedings, as Mrs Boyes didn’t see it coming either.

Yet again another triumph for The Shed, I continue to love this place for its joyful and inventive shows and diverse audience. Mrs Boyes’ Bingo with Mark Sanders was a mischievous combination that you just had to love.

The Shed @ Hovingham Village Hall

The Shed is one of my favourite venues for music and other excelent forms of entertainment. It is small, it use to be in an even smaller place mind, but it punches above its weight for the acts it brings in. I have been going here for quite a while now and when a new seasons line up is anounced I get a smile on my face, as there are usualy some excelent supries. I have seen Fulborn Teversham, Polar Bear and narrowly missed Acoustic Ladyland (its ok I saw them at Fibbers in York a bit later on). These are some heavey weight Jazz beasts to play a small village hall in the wildrness of North Yorkshire. Leafcutter John; was another highlight with his lap-top folk-tronica and the best use of a slinky I've ever seen. More musical highlights have been Charlie Dark and his African inspired dance floor beats with live percusion, that really got pretty much every one who was able to dance, danceing by the end of the night. I think this venue is just as inspiring to the artists that play here as well as the crowd. Some of them see truly overwhelmed at the reaction, love and respect they get. Its not your usual gig venue, Tom Cawley who has played keyboards as part of Acoustic Ladyland and his own solo show at The Shed; mentioned to the crowd that he hadn't seen a crowd be so quite and listen so well durring his quite songs.

There is more than just music here too. There has also been brillint performances by comidian Stuart Lee and soon to come Ritchard Herring. Lee really worked the intermate room and even stood at the back selling DVD's and talking to people at the end. I'm also looking forward to the intreguing Mrs Boyes' Bingo featuring Mark Sanders. This is traditional Bingo with a Jazz Improv twist, just to spice things up Mrs Boyes and Mark Sanders fight for our attention. This is just the surface of this unique venue. I haven't even mentioned the sessions in skips and the fish and chip van tour. More information can be found at http://www.theshed.co.uk/