The Illuminations @ Base Studios Friday 30th April 2010

Peeps may have noticed a slight lull in the Bandzine activity of late. It's true. There has been a period of slumber which has been down to the need for physical rest (we are only human) but also down to the fact that my band The Illuminations made their first outing appearing live at Base Studios in Stourbridge in Friday 30th April.

Base Studios is the kinda music venue that I imagine most towns would like to have. A simple set up. Clean and attractive with a significant amount of young input. In fact when we arrived the room's wrinkle count must have shot up by over 500%. Needless to say that we initially felt slightly out of place, but staff were fantastically friendly and accommodating and there was obviously on the part of the young muso audience, a desire to hear and support live music. Every town should have a venue that is able to record live vids and stream them to an internet audience giving musos a real opportunity to reach out to fans near and far. These are the kinds of initiatives that younger generations tend to bring to the party.

One of our favourite sayings is "music is music is music." In Blakenall terms, good music will go down well wherever it's played. And in The Illuminations, on account of the exceptional songwriting and riff busting talents of Allan 'Bones' Tranter there is no doubt that musos will hear good music.

Some local musos may remember 'Bones' from his previous outings with the fabulous 80's band 'Ron's Neighbours.'

In those days the Walsall music scene was a vibrant living entity, breathing heart and soul into local events that brought the borough's generations enthusiastically together.  And Ron's Neighbours were at the forefront of Walsall's musical revolution alongside bands like 'Bliss The Pocket Opera' and 'The Young Doctors.' It would be unfair to suggest that Walsall's bands of today lack the same enthusiasm as their yester-year counterparts, but what doesn't seem as apparent these days is the comraderie that was shared amongst musos during the Ron's Neighbours era. With the invention of internet and web technology artists can afford to broaden their horizons and focus on creating fan bases outside of their home town without even leaving their living rooms. Curse or a blessing? Who can tell?

And so, alonside 'Bones' and our ace drummer Tom 'Toad' Mitchell, I and thus, 'The Illuminations' performed four songs for the Stourbridge muso lovers. It wasn't a packed house but it was a pleasurable evening and we were warmly recieved (even described as exciting!?!)
Thanx Stourbridge.

And so with many more gigs on the horizon, (thanx to all of you guys who have sent the Bandzine invites to your forthcoming events) and having felt the benefits of lavendar and radox (amongst other pleasurable remedies)  it's back to work for the Bandzine.
See you soon.

Truly positive ~ watching 'The Gruber'  and the band that was on before us (sorry guys ~ can't remember your name!!!)

Kinda messed up ~ thinking we could think of a better route to Stourbridge than the Sat Nav. Now we know, she was only trying to help!!!