18-19 DECEMBER 2004 NINE BELOW ZERO

BLOOD, SNOT AND BOOGIE - review by "City Girl"

Back in 1981 I met a young man called Jim, within the first few dates, he took me to see a band called Nine Below Zero, I married him. In December 2004, the marriage is better than ever, and so are NBZ !

The weekend started slowly, we were warmly greeted at the door by the resident bouncers and bouncer lady, inside - Shock! Horror ! - tables and chairs! I took up bemused, temporary, residence on a chair. The support, John Crampton, was really good. I have never seen a musician beat up his instruments so much, (except members of The Who) and still manage to make a great sound. He was a nice surprise and we bought a CD, and of course the statutory NBZ t shirt. (And I won a prize in the Raffle!)

We'd been warned that Dennis was feeling a bit 'ruff', I was trying to imagine if they could do a gig without him, when they all appeared on stage. The chair took up its rightful position as coat hook; handbag holder and casual leaning support as required.

'Unplugged' and 'Nine Below Zero' are 2 phrases that I've never quite got the hang of in the same sentence, I think its because, even though they aren't plugged in, they still create more energy and depth than any other band that I have seen. And, whose stroke of genius was it to include "Don't point your finger" in such a session? And how can Spanish Harlem ever be the same? Magic.

They were brilliant, Dennis was upset at losing his day job as a BBC light (!) entertainment correspondent, but he soldiered on, managed to stay in tune, and fought snot and 'man flu' that would have driven other mere men to their beds. They were all brilliant, and I left the hall wishing it was Sunday night already.

We walked up the lane to the farm (thanks for the hospitality, Dawn), singing, star gazing and chatting to the local wild life, did I mention that I'm a City girl? We don't get many ponies on the corners of our housing estates!

Next morning we found out that we were sharing the digs with a couple of the sound crew. Two hours of swapping musical/ groupie anecdotes followed, I think I won, because Kim Wilson (Fabulous Thunderbirds) actually kissed me - they'd only been in the same room!

Breakfast finished, the farmer strode purposely towards his cows with a strange looking piece of equipment (I didn't ask) I did what all good city girls do… I set off to Harrogate for retail therapy.

Sunday night finally came around, we admired the changes that have taken place in the building since we had first seen it a year ago, haven't you done well! Andy sent us on a tour of the upstairs rooms, we fell over a group of lads crashed out in the snooker room (always wondered what musicians did when they aren't playing..)

Back to the gig, they plugged in, well they did, until some idiot(!) trod on Dennis's lead, resulting in trusty sound man rushing to resolve the problem.

Then we got it all, everything we wanted and more, some lucky so and so walked off with Mark's hat - It should have been me!

Gerry shone on his birthday, I was disappointed that we didn't give him a full on Happy Birthday from the audience, but I think he got our sentiments, Brenden had left the brylcream off for the occasion, not that it made any difference to the sound, their base underpins everything that the band is about - deep, down, dirty, R & B!

Mark does things with his harp that makes Jim (the husband and lifelong harp player) swear, by the way, Mark, we ALL know when you are going to play L & N…….

A review in Red Lick of the latest album, said Dennis is playing guitar better then ever, I think so too, I especially liked the big red one, its tone certainly hits all the right spots with me.

The husband has interjected with a complaint - the Boogie after 'On the Road again' should last 3 days, not 3 minutes.

What I like most about a NBZ gig, is that you always get more than your money's worth, and you feel that although they are being truly professional and doing a 'Job', that they enjoy the shows as much as we do. I hope so, it would be a shame for them to miss out on something as good as that!

The night ended with a 'see you next year!', note…. (must do a letter to Santa " I promise to be good etc" )……..- only 363 days to go!

Ps an explanation of the title…….. " Snot" provided by Dennis, "Boogie" provided by a cracking band and terrific audience, and the "Blood" was spilled by Jim from a paper cut on his lip, which is his excuse for not playing Harp as good as Mark!

See you soon … City Girl xx

(please see the guestbook for some nice comments received, and to leave your own!)

5 DECEMBER 2004 THE HAMSTERS

Sunday 5th December witnessed the long awaited gig by the Hamsters, the legendary blues-rock outfit from Southend-on-Sea , who played to a full house. The Hamsters are a no-nonsense / value for money trio who originally started life as a Jimi Hendrix tribute fun band. To this day no-one plays Jimi as well as Slim (witness the instrumental “Little Wing”), but the material is now much broader based.

They rocked through all the favourites, including All Along The Watchtower, Crossroads (? Didn't Cream do that), Sweet Little Lisa, I Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down and I Wanna Make “Lurve” To You (or Ewe, as Slim reminded the lad from Knaresborough who shouted out) and Otis and Zsa Zsa showed just what a tight rhythm section they are in their jazzed-up version of “ The Walk”.

Their novelty ending, coming down into the audience during Sharp-Dressed Man with lit up guitars is neat, especially when they all change instruments. The CDs and Videos are good value and of a high quality, and we look forward to a return gig a.s.a.p.

- Philip Mitchell (Killinghall member)

Please also see the guestbook - and feel free to add your own comments / reviews. Thank you.

2 OCTOBER 2004 THE BLUES BAND

Our biggest and most prestigious gig to date; The Blues Band on their 25th anniversary tour and a capacity all-standing audience. The timing wasn't the best as we were half way through work to restore and refurbish our historic venue.
When the P.A. man arrived he exclaimed "This dressing room is a toilet!" and so it was as we have converted the former dressing room to a toilet block with the plumbers and decorators still working on the morning of the gig. The "new" dressing room was only plastered out on Thursday and it took a lot of work with a wet and dry vac. to make it presentable for the band. Not being over-confident about the stability of the electrics I gave the electrician a couple of complimentary tickets and asked him to bring his tools with him to the show.

The band are insistent in their contract that no one member gets priority billing and rightly so - Paul Jones is a highly talented artist but so are Dave Kelly, Tom McGuinness, Gary Fletcher and Rob Townsend and it is the sum of the parts that has seen this band prosper for 25 years. During the evening all these talents were spotlighted although we had to wait until almost the end to hear a drum solo from Rob. It was a thrill to see these fine musicians in our small venue and even better to see that they were obviously enjoying themselves playing two great sets. The night set a number of records - record attendance, record bar sales, record raffle ticket sales and it would seem record enjoyment for all those present.

- Andy Herrington

Please also see the guestbook - and feel free to add your own comments / reviews. Thank you.

9 JULY 2004 THE IAN PARKER BAND

This website is superbly maintained by Rob White who also designed www.IanParkerMusic.com . Rob is based in London and regularly reports to me on the Ian Parker band gigs he attends in the south. His enthusiastic reviews contain phrases such as "tear in the eye", "hairs standing up on the back of the neck", "best gig I have ever seen" etc, etc. After last night's Ian Parker Band gig at Ripley I can confirm that Rob tells no lies!

I first came across Ian and Morg (then Parker's Alibi) back in 2001 at Colne and was overwhelmed by the band's covers of the classics "Five Long Years", Double Trouble" and "Man's World". Since that time Ian and his band have appeared five times at RipleyBlues and they can now easily fill a two hour set with almost all their own songs. I much enjoyed hearing the latest compositions and " It Hurts A Man" written for the band's appearance on the Paul Jones radio show on August 5th was particularly interesting. The merging of "Almost Cut My Hair" and "The Green Manalishi" brought about a superb conclusion to the evening.

Appearing with Ian and Morg now are Steve Amadeo (bass) and Wayne Proctor on drums - Wayne appeared at Ripley in our second ever gig (2000) as part of the Aynsley Lister Band. To my unprofessional ears it appears to be the strongest line up in the band's history.

Thanks also to local band, "The Growlers", for getting the evening off to such a good start.

- Andy Herrington

(please see the guestbook for some nice comments received)

7 MAY 2004 THE YARDBIRDS

OK, being an old Feelgood fan I admit I only really went to see what Gypie Mayo is up to these days, not really knowing what to expect. Would it be a 60's nostalgia night?

I should have known better, this band has an impressive pedigree after all. The playing was tight as a ducks bottom and we didn't have time to draw breath, as we were hit again and again by all the classics (Heart Full of Soul, Shapes of Things, For Your Love, Train Kept a Rollin) and newer songs from "Birdland", as well some well chosen blues standards. The band played with conviction, and if this was a warm up for their forthcoming major tour, it certainly didn't feel like a rehearsal. Founder members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty brought authenticity to a line up which also included Billy Boy Miskimmin (where have I seen him before??), Gypie Mayo and John Idan (who looks spookily like Keith Relf). The performance was absolutely the real thing and not a parody of their old selves, as is the case with so many bands who have been around so long. As well as having a back catalogue to die for, these guys obviously love playing, and they were given fantastic support from an appreciative Ripley Blues crowd. Highlight of the night for me were the set closing "Still I'm Sad" and "Dazed and Confused" which totally blew me away. Outstanding!!

Congratulations to Andy and the rest of the Ripley Blues team on yet another fantastic evening of RnB, from internationally respected musicians in the most unlikely of settings.

- Colin Tait

Well that was just tops. The Steelyard Blues Duo kicked started an evening that a lot of people will remember for a long time to come. I had chat with The Duo and was amazed to find that they had never heard of the Cowboy Junkies. Now that's who I thought they sounded like. Their choice of material was amazing especialy Led Zeps Since I've Loving You. I could never imagine a Duo bar Plant & Page, who would dare to perform this hard song, with a broken string on the guitar to boot. Spot on the Duo please come back.

Now the Yardbirds, well we haven't seen these guys since Skegness (Butlins Blues Festival well worth attending) they have gone from strength to strength how can a career spaning way over 40 years still give a band that freshness. I was nowt but a lad when The Yardbirds were about so I could not see them. Plus most of their time was spent in America as Zeppelin went on to do. The gig just flew by. They never missed a beat it almost as if Paul Samwell Smith was still with them. Every track that I wished to hear was there, and sounded as if they were having the first airing. My favourite just blew me away "Train Kept A Rollin".

Thank you The Yardbirds if you ever pass by this way again pop in for a gig.

Thank you Steelyard Blues Duo hope to see you guys again.

And thank you Andy for having the faith in the Blues and keeping Ripley alive and kicking.

- Ans & Margaret

In the guestbook, Steve from Harrogate writes "The Yardbirds were simply AMAZING best gig ive been to for years, and at such a brilliant venue!!!!"

Promoters note - "Thanks are also due to James and Duncan on the P.A. for doing their usual magnificent job. It was rewarding when an original "Yardbird", Jim McCarty, rang me on Sunday to say how much the band had enjoyed the gig."

- Andy Herrington

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