High Tide Magazine
     
The Squatters play house
Tuesday, 24 May 2011

DJ team The Squatters have become a global phenomenon – but they are returning to their Scarborough home this month to launch their new record label.

 

‘What's Your Status?’ has been set up to promote and release the best new and old talent through digital download stores and social media. The idea is to create a credible record label and a solid Community of DJs, producers and music lovers.

 

It’s been a wild year for The Squatters, aka Oliver Portamento and Alex Powell. ‘We have just got back from South Korea where we played the World DJ Festival, which is the biggest festival over there. And we are now touring all over the place to spread the word. We have also been as busy as ever working hard in the studio on some new productions ready to try & test this summer.’

 

The two are Scarborians, and say their biggest memories are the amount of activities to do as a child - having a chalet for the summer season or just skateboarding on knees down the esplanade gardens.

 

Oliver and Alex are regulars at Vivaz’ Sessions night which, they say, is ‘off the hook!’ The label launch will of course be held there. They say: ‘We are mainly looking for music that is well produced, arranged and will tick all the right boxes on the dancefloor. We believe club music should be made this way as so much music goes on too long to hit hard, and can sometimes drag on in our sets. It all ultimately has to work as a club smash. If it makes you wanna dance and get your palms in the air then yeah... it’s pretty much about the way the tracks make us feel.’

 

And they most definitely know what works on the dancefloor. Their productions and remixes have had plenty of play on the likes of Radio 1, Kiss100 and Galaxy. Kissy Sell Out picked them up for his San City High tour last year. This year they have been asked to be monthly residents at Judgement Sundays at Eden, Ibiza. So if the island’s in your sights this summer, get over there for some explosive sounds.

 

The Squatters launch What’s Your Status? at Vivaz on Saturday 28 May.

http://www.the-squatters.com

 
Something special: Laura Welburn
Wednesday, 05 January 2011

It’s hard to say what makes a really good blues singer – that indefinable something that’s easy to know when you hear it. A big enough voice to hit the high spots without cracking, but with the emotional range to draw the listener in to those quiet moments. All that and the catch at the back of the throat that makes your hair stand on end – classical singers need not apply, we need earthiness along with the right notes.

 

Judging by these standards Laura Welburn is already a very good blues singer, and she might go on to be something very special. There’s certainly a thrill when she opens up and her voice floats effortlessly over the top of the band. A bit more attention to phrasing, which also means a touch of arrogance – telling the band what to do and when – and she’ll go to another level. Get to see her while you can.

 

The blues club is forging on, with a new package of gigs on Tuesdays (national artists), Thursdays (club nights) and now Friday nights too, reserved for local and regional bands. It’s evidence of Mark Horsley’s astute management and hard work – and Scarborough’s long-time love affair with great music.

 

Laura Welburn, Scarborough Blues Club, Sigma at the Cask, Tuesday 18 January

See our events calendar for Blues Club listings

 

Home page pic and cover: Olivia Cawston

 
Trouble in mind: why the blues is big
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Live music in Scarborough looks set for a timely boost with the formation of a new blues club. Based at Sigma, the lower floor of the Cask Inn, Scarborough Blues club will run every Thursday from 8pm with free entry. In addition there will be regular ‘Super Tuesday’ gigs featuring high class guest musicians – blues, acoustic and other genres – from around the country. Entry for these gigs will be around £10.

Thursday nights will feature the house band led by Tom Townsend (guitar and vocals), Paul Tilley (drums) and James Grunwell (bass) along with a range of other talented local musicians.
 
The moving force behind the club is Mark Horsley, who first found the blues in a familiar way: ‘The first single I ever bought was The House of the Rising Sun, by the Animals. Of course, I didn't realise at the time that I was listening to the blues but it was certainly the sort of music I liked.’
 
Music clubs need high quality music and a good venue. Mark lived and worked in Scarborough in the 1970s, the heyday of the Penthouse Club, and has recently been involved with the jazz club. He was impressed with their new venue: ‘When the club moved to the Cask about 18 months ago I was surprised to find how little used the Sigma Bar was.’ Out of that was born the idea of a blues club.
 
As well as bringing in outstanding live acts, and giving Scarborough’s impressive musicians a place to play and develop, Mark wants the club to nurture new talent. ‘Too many venues just lay on live gigs and do nothing to actually assist musicians to reach their full potential. I'd like to think we can be much more supportive than that. This is why our jam sessions every month will play an important part of the club's activities.’

Upcoming gigs
Aynsley Lister (7 October)
Michael Weston King (14 October)
The Ezio Zone (28 October)
Guy Tortora (4 November)
Further gigs booked through to March 2009  www.scarboroughbluesclub.co.uk
 
Courtney Pine at the jazzfest
Friday, 22 August 2008
Saxophonist Courtney Pine is not simply a part of the British jazz revival, he is the guy who kicked the whole thing off. In the late 1980s Pine burst on to a jazz scene populated by dedicated, if ageing, white enthusiasts. The idea that young black musicians would be into jazz, and would want to follow a jazz career, would have seemed unlikely to say the least.

Pine bucked the trend. His debut album Journey to the Urge Within became the first serious jazz record to hit the Top 40, and suddenly Courtney Pine and jazz were cool. The follow up made an impact in the US as well and Pine became an international star, and an inspiration to young black musicians, and to young jazz musicians everywhere.

Part of Pine’s appeal is his refusal to be fenced in. In 1990 he went to Jamaica to record the reggae-influenced Closer To Home album. The single I’m Still Waiting helped make this another best-selling album among jazz and wider audiences alike.

Ten albums later Courtney Pine is still pushing the boundaries. Most recently working on the BBC series Made In England he left the urban environment we associate with jazz and travelled to Holy Island in Northumberland. The result was a jazz soundtrack drawing on the folk traditions, history and landscape of this special place.

At Scarborough Jazz Festival Courtney Pine will be presenting his Transition In Tradition, a tribute to the legendary Sidney Bechet. Born in New Orleans in 1897, Bechet played cornet and clarinet before mastering the soprano saxophone. He is credited as the man who brought the saxophone into jazz, and so beginning a line of great musicians, of whom Pine is the latest. Jazz festival organiser Mike Gordon says, Philip Larkin sums it up in his poem For Sidney Bechet:
'On me your voice falls as they say love should,
Like an enormous yes.'

Pine is keenly aware of jazz history and his tribute to Bechet is intended to show that jazz is both a historic achievement and an ever-developing art-form. Mike Gordon adds: 'Courtney Pine is a fantastic musician who, although having wide appeal, is highly repected by jazz purists.  I'm delighted he is doing a tribute to Sidney Bechet, one of my early jazz heroes who touched me emotionally.'

Roger Osborne

Scarborough Jazz Festival 26 -28 September, The Spa
www.scarboroughjazzfestival.co.uk Box Office 01723 357869
 
World music Atlas: Natacha and the TGU lads hit town
Friday, 20 June 2008
There’s a chance for a fine night out later this month, when the extraordinary musical ensemble that is Trans-Global Underground pay the newly refurbished Bridlington Spa.

In the early 1990s a group of musicians got together to record a single, ‘Temple Head’ for Nation records, a label created specifically to fuse western dance music with Arabic, Asian and African music. They had to have a name, so Trans-Global Underground was born.

The personnel was never fixed (vocalist Natacha Atlas arrived after Temple Head) just the determination not to be classified as dance, or hip hop or world music. This confused several record companies before the album ‘Dream of 100 Nations’ (1993) established their reputation. Over the next 15 years ten albums have been released, including the current Moonshout.

For all their studio work, the real way to experience the eclectic joy of Trans-Global Underground is live. They headlined Musicport in 2003 and have thrilled audiences all over Europe. Support comes from SAMAY with a fusion of Indian classical, jazz, flamenco & chill-out never fails to impress and whose new album Songs For A Global Journey will be available on the night.

It’s a good chance to taste the atmosphere for the full Musicport festival at Brid Spa in October. Filled with hi-tech equipment, but retaining its classic seaside architecture, the Royal Hall has a whopping capacity of 3750. When TGU get the place jumping, it should be some experience.
 
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