Is it just me...

STIFF Little Fingers received the Northern Ireland Music Awards (NIMA) ‘Legends’ award at the biggest event yet on Wednesday 2nd November, and proceeded to show the young whippersnappers just how a proper band delivers a live performance.

Later that same evening I had the privilege, together with my son, to see another legend in the shape of ex-Guns ‘n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan deliver another solid, stonking set at the Spring and Airbrake with his current touring outfit Loaded. These two legends are worthy of the status in a world where hyperbole is the norm and every numptie who can play two or three chords is given a wow factor.

Attending the Northern Ireland Music Awards was a mixed blessing – the chance to see SLF again being uppermost. But while one must accord congratulations to AU, Oh Yeah and Belfast City Council for organising the event, I was left feeling very much confused for what the mainstream passes off for music. Is it just me? Am I getting too old? But all bar And So I Watched You From Afar left me cold, and for large parts bored.

General Fiasco are an obvious favourite amongst the many teenagers and twentysomethings in the crowd, but even my son was bored by what was a performance that seemed to me to lack depth. Wearing ties and looking like they had just come out of a prep school party.

As for Cashier No. 9...well it was difficult to tell whether they were Byrds wannabes, or some sort of take on reviving the eclecticism of the 60s and 80s. Dogged by technical problems (errr guys even if everything goes down sing something! Or rehearse properly with your gear!) they left in a huff after two songs.

Returning after some much needed refreshment we came across what seemed to be a distorted guitar riff...only to find it was a sample – The Japanese Popstars where on stage. Ohh dear me, Satan must be reserving a very special place in hell for people who ‘perform’ with a couple of samplers and their Apple Mac laptops open. Sure they can mix other people’s music and add yet more samples of other people’s music and other people’s music (getting the theme here) what’s the point. Go programme computer games soundtracks or play Call of Duty, but don’t pass it off as a performance. If you can’t write music...

Is it just me? Am I getting too old?

Salvation was at hand however. Having no real live experience of And So I Watch You From Afar it was a delight to have an edgy, over the top instrumental wall of guitars, bass and drums: the bastard child of alt rock and Mastodon, there was something electric on stage. And for a change it was no faux angst. Tony announced he was leaving ASIWYFA before diving into the crowd. Due adulation, ecstatic scenes among the appreciative and the thrown down guitar... One cannot tell what the future is for ASIWYFA and Tony, but well worth tracking it down.

Radio Ulster’s Rigsy and Emma Fitzpatrick of Citybeat did an admirable job as hosting the event, but special mention must go to Stuart Bailie for organising it, and for Belfast City Council for being so open to Northern Ireland music for being among the backers (can’t figure out the Invest Northern Ireland link, but hey perhaps local bands should be applying for a special rock grant!).

BBC Northern Ireland’s Mike Edgar gave a glowing accolade to SLF, complete with a video charting their history (and some fashion mistakes). But what can you really say. Off stage they could be a group of middle aged men gathered round for a natter and wee bit of craic. But onstage there is a fire and an intensity that few can match even when they are only there for a 20-minute blast through.

Suspect Device, Strummerville, Wasted Life - all delivered like the fury of the late 70s and early 80s was still burning in Jake Burns heart. And with a new – long-awaited album follow-up to Guitar and Drum promised one can only see the Stiffs go from strength to strength.

This is beginning to read like a GCSE attempt at a review rather than a serious journalistic analysis, but what the hell:

With the final chords of Alternative Ulster echoing it was a quick dash to the Spring and Airbrake, thanks to the kind folks at CDC Leisure, to catch the last half of Duff McKagan’s Loaded. Laconic, every bit the Californian superstar punk, heavy rock icon, Duff’s set was almost like he was the resident act for the venue. Chatting to the front row as if with old friends.

But make no mistake about it; this is not a man on nostalgia trip. Yes the Gunner’s It’s So Easy was punched out to the crowd’s delight, while Attitude summed up a lot about the man. The acoustic version of Wasted Heart, however, showed that this is a man and a band prepared to see what comes next rather than resting on past glories.

So, why in the world did it take so long for SLF to be accorded Legends status? Why was the Spring and Airbrake not rammed to the rafters for Duff? And why was local hard rock and metal talent not received accolades and awards in the Ulster Hall? Trucker Diablo, Last Known Addiction, Million Dollar Reload, Worldsend etc etc etc may have small flaws each, but those flaws are tiny, minuscule compared to the flawed fashionable ones.

I posit two reasons: first, fashions fickle fingers swaying from the arms of the playlists of BBC, (un)Cool FM and Citybeat and the pages of AU. The second one is related, but all the more serious: airplay.

The rock and metal scene exists despite being blacklisted from the radio stations and print media. With the right airplay on mainstream stations I have no doubt that hard rock venues and album sales would enjoy a resurgence. Mime-along acts enjoy their allotted scandal rag half hour of fame and sell-out the Odyssey for their pre-pubescent fantasist girls and their mums, but the conversion of the 12,000+ that went to Iron Maiden and Metallica in the Odyssey from weekend rockers to regular attendees for local acts is but an airplay step away. One can but dream that next year’s Northern Ireland Music Awards will offer due recognition to hard rock and metal acts, and SLF get another Legends award, to paraphrase a certain cosmetic advertisement: Because They’re Worth It!

Hometown heroes…don’t believe the hype…they’re better than that

THE Answer are on the crest of a wave. But there is no sudden crash waiting for the hometown heroes any time soon.

The usual form is that as soon as any band reaches a certain level the media decides to knock them down a peg or two.

Don’t believe the clichéd crap, because The Answer have ascended that; they have become the true hometown heroes – humble super stars with an awe inspiring live presence to match the peerless classic rock excellence of their recorded output.

On Monday night at the Mandella Hall it was a hot and sweaty lesson par excellence for budding protégés – there are many that might claim the throne, but few can aspire to achieve the presence and sheer joie de vivre that County Down’s finest can achieve.

Kicking off with the power packed album openers off Everyday Demons, Demon Eyes was blistering and Too Far Gone was a rallying cry for the disaffected, disenfranchised majority.

The true measure of any act taking to the stage in Belfast is their ability to merge the new with the old; the tried and tested with the new vibe.

Old favourites can raise the hands, raise the voices and raise the tempo. But can they stand beside the likes of Come Follow Me, Under the Sky, and Preaching in front of an audience that can react with indifference?

From the dark tones of Why’d You Change Your Mind, through to the surge of positivism echoed with Cry Out doubters be damned! The Answer proved they are now ‘all growed up’.

From the tiered stadia supporting AC/DC to the intimate Mandella Hall The Answer command any stage, any time.

It is too easy to say a band performed with aplomb. It is too easy to heap plaudits upon any band. But when the band is The Answer it is more difficult to find sufficient praise.

One magazine described Cormac as an ‘affable scarecrow’ off stage. On stage he exudes presence. Paul’s lead playing has emerged ever more powerful and lyrical in recent months, while Mickey and James lay down a rhythm tighter than ever before, despite James recent injury.

But what is more they now feel their way through the set. Preachin’ may get the crowd singing along, but newer tracks like On and On and Tonight sit easily in the set.

And it is a band that can have the anthem for ‘Norn Iron’ Dead of the Night dedicated to the first newspaper to cover then (the Newry Democrat) on the day that the newspaper closed its doors. In other words The Answer may have played to hundreds of thousands of people on the AC/DC tour; they may have appeared on then David Letterman Show: but they never forget where they laid down their rock roots and earned the stripes needed for success.

It is with that confidence that The Answer can throw in the Ike and Tina Turner song Nutbush City Limits and have Answer balloons bounced across the venue

The Answer’s take on classic rockin’ can be easily dismissed by the sneering critics who forget the sheer unadulterated excitement of a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. They dismiss The Answer at their peril.

Co Down’s finest…The Answer.

Now, if you have any questions we can offer The Answer…harder than quadrilateral equations…more down-to-earth than an earthworm…cooler than ice chips in a heatwave…The Answer are Northern Ireland’s finest.

PS: The Answer are so cool that, despite their hectic schedule, they took almost an hour to back the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People’s ‘Here We Are…Nowhere’ campaign at the Oh Yeah Music Centre. www.niccy.org/herewearenowhere. Cool, hard and caring...that'll be The Answer!

Free gig for teenagers

Wanna go to a free gig? Wanna meet The Answer? Wanna hear local acts like Shotgun, Dead Vito, and Escape Fails?

If you are between 14 and 18 and doing nothing between 4:30 and 7:30pm on Monday 29th June (i.e. today!) and your answer is YES to the above questions, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People is hosting a free gig to launch her campaign on play, leisure and things to do for young people at Belfast's Oh Yeah Music Centre.

Email john@niccy.org as soon as possible today to snag your free spot on the guestlist.

Special thanks to The Answer for their personal appearance!

Free gig for 14-18 year olds

THE Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People is holding a free gig for 14-18 year olds at the Oh Yeah Music Centre on Monday. Admittance is strictly by invitation only.

Escape Fails are headlining, with Dead Vito and Shotgun also playing. There will also be a personal appearance by The Answer for pix etc.

If you want to snag one of the free tickets you MUST be between 14 and 18 (seriously you have to be!) and email john@niccy.org as soon as possible. Doors at 4:30pm, gig ends at 7:30pm.