Fantastic Frontmen

A live band has to have a fantastic frontman, there are no two ways about it. It can have a fantastic frontwoman too but this is very rare! Recently I have been pleased to see that we still have REAL performers out there who give you a show and make you feel as if you have had your money's worth. Too many bands these days just seem to stand in front of you playing their instruments and they may be musically perfect but it is just not on!

The first of these excellent bands I have seen recently is The Young Knives. TYK benefit from not one, but two fantastic front men. Henry and House of Lords both share the vocals and they can sing (quite high at times) at the same time as entertaining the audience. Their inbetween-song banter is funny and their lyrics are even funnier. We sang along to the old favourites at the Norwich Waterfront and got very excited by their new material from an album which will hopefully be out at the end of this year.

Here is a pic of House of Lords belting out a tune, taken by Simon


Here is a pic of Henry and House working on lyrics for their new songs



The next three groups were all on the same billing at the UEA in Norwich last night. What a fantastic bargain! £13.50 for all three and we even escaped paying for the car park.

Cougar, from Wins-scones-skins (I believe that is how it is pronounced) in the USA, had rather unique frontman. Well, he wasn't really at the front, he was at the side on percussion and there were no vocals to their songs but he did the chat in between so I guess he was 'the man'! I have never seen such enthusiastic drumming - it was also a bit freeform in places - incredible! The band describe themselves as, "emergency rock", which I don't really understand but they were really good. I also liked the fact that they had a nerd on stage playing samples from an Apple laptop while drinking tea out of a little polystyrene cup.
I have since found out that the drummer's name is D.H.Skogen which is a very good name for a frontman I think. And here he is...


Next on the billing was Art Brut who I had heard of previously but didn't think I knew any of their stuff. Turns out I did recognise one of their songs but didn't know it was them. Art Brut are another band with a fantastic frontman. He can't sing - he doesn't even try - and it really doesn't matter. For the first couple of minutes I just stood with my mouth open, I couldn't quite believe it. They sounded like a cross between The Young Knives and Sultan's of Ping. Frontman is Eddie Argos apparently, but there is no way that is his real name!
Eddie (?!) really connected with the audience, ad libbed the songs to include many references to Norwich and generally threw himself around like a mad man.

Here, for your pleasure, is a pic of Eddie Argos...


Now the main attraction - the reason for our visit to the UEA last night... Maximo Park. I originally saw them a couple of years ago in London just after they had released their first album - A Certain Trigger - and they were so impressive that I couldn't wait to see them again.
The band has just released its second album - Our Earthly Pleasures - which I have only owned for a matter of days but tried to get as many listens in before last night as I could. The new stuff was brilliant live and the old favourites were just as fresh as when I saw them two years ago.
Singer Paul Smith is another fantastic frontman and last night he was sporting a bowler hat. I can't imagine what he did to keep it on his head while he threw himself around the stage and thrusted at the mic stand. Again he connected with the audience really well and briefly told the stories behind the songs. They did not play my favourite song but everything they did play was excellent and they just ran out of time I guess. Here are a couple of pics of Maximo Park in action - the first one was taken by me last night...





My favourite frontman is yet to come! He is coming to Norwich in a few weeks so this isn't the last you'll hear from me on this subject!