A word from the Editor

Pg 1

Cheltenham’s MND

Pg 2

Trees on Fire Review

Pg 2

Gemma Dunstan

Pg 3

Fabio Thomas Talks to Young Kato

Pg 4

Dan Gutteridge’s Record Store Day 2012

Pg 5

Live Music Listings

Pg 6-9

Keziah Kurg’s Krafts

Pg 10

Hello!

I hope you have all polished of your Easter Eggs and are ready and raring to go for a busy May.

Festival season starts in earnest this month with not one but three festivals across the county. Cheltenham Jazz festival runs from the 2nd to the 7th. ‘Thing in the Spring’ from the makers of Frogfest runs from the 18th to the 20th and Tewkesbury’s own Lakefest is on from the 18th to the 19th.

There are some superb gigs happening in May if you can’t make one of the festivals. The Frog and Fiddle plays host to US band Wheatus while The Gloucester Guildhall has a sold out Robert Plant show.

This month’s issue is celebrating some of the county’s finest musical offerings. We have a review of Trees on Fire a warm up all dayer from the lovely folk of 2000trees. Fabio Thomas interviews Cheltenham’s band of moment Young Kato ahead of thier Pixie Lott support slot and record deal. We also have a review of some of the goings on from this year’s record store day. And as always we have our regular coloumnists Gemma and Keziah as well as the most comprehen-sive music listings for the county.

We have alse upped our Tweeting why not follow us @MusicAtGlos and we’ve set up a new website www.musicatglos.wordpress.com

Amelia x

A word from the editor

MAG Needs You!

We are always looking for news and reviews for MAG from lovely people like you! Being a non-profit initiative we don’t pay but can get you into gigs and publish your work. Please contact Amelia if you want to contribute any-thing to this fanzine: ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

Tell us what you want to see inside MAG:ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

Cheltenham’s Music Network

Developer

Welcome you, May.

It’s great getting to sit down once a month, look through the listings and get to write a couple of hundred words about what I’m really looking forward to seeing over the upcoming weeks. There’s so much programmed in over the next month that I’m not even going to name a single event - just use the listings and pick one, it’s all good.

Instead, let me briefly highlight June, when we’ll be in the thick of festival season with so many bills featuring so many bands worth seeing. I love festival season. It also marks the end of the ‘academic’ portion of my year, enjoying as that is, it signals the start of just over four months of very different working hours... I probably get to go to 20+ festivals a year with my band (or work) so am blessed with the opportunity to see so much music and meet so many people. The last four years have also been spent establishing a self-sustaining student effort to equip, broadcast and support the biggest of these festivals - something I am proud to say has been a great success and continues to grow.

So allow me to use this month’s column for a purpose other than saying what I’ll be seeing, who I am listening to and my own personal spin on the local music scene - allow this to be a warning: get tickets to one of our great Gloucestershire based festivals now before they sell out.

That is all.

A x

MAG would like to say a special thank you to the

Popular Music course at The University of Glouces-tershire for their contribution to the distribution of the fanzine.

Trees on Fire ‘Spring Fling’ Saturday 14th April

Words: Alex MArlow

Saturday saw The Barn of the Frog and Fiddle taken over by Trees on Fire’s Spring Fling an all day gig by the organisers of 2000trees.

The first band I saw was Run, WALK! They are a bass guitar and drum duo so I guess you could draw com-parisons to Death From Above 1979. The bassist/singer was great and was playing chords on the bass giving the band a really engaging sound for such a simple set up.

Next up was the four piece Max Raptor and they were my favourite surprise of the night! I’d never seen them before, but I will definitely be seeing them again. The lead singer, who had a Frank Turner esque vocal was often down in the crowd having a good time and the screaming guitar work was a driving piece of the sound. Their single ‘Carolina is’ was great, they are without a doubt one to watch and I can’t wait to see them play at 2000trees.

After Max Raptor it was time for a change of pace so I headed over to the other stage to see Ben Marwood. This was one of my favourite sets I’ve ever of all time. I’ve seen Ben Marwood before and I really enjoyed it, but tonight he was on top form. The highlight of the set was “Singalong” where the crowd sang every word back to him, he hardly had to sing himself!

Back to the main stage was Bastions, as soon as I walked into the room I could see the lead singer climb-ing up on the PA speakers getting the crowd going. I ventured back to the second stage, where Harbour were another pleasant surprise, I could hardly get into the room it was so full. They had fantastic vocal harmonies and a really great sound to their songs, yet another band to look out for.

The James Cleaver Quintet were the headline act of the evening, but to me they were disappointing. Their sound wasn’t as infectious as the other bands during the day. This however should not distract from their enormous energy, the lead singer was down in the crowd for pretty much all of the set and it was still good fun.

The whole day has wet my appetite for the summer and I will be looking forward to all these bands and more at 2000trees.

BBC Gloucestershire Introducing… is the show for your new music. Every Saturday from 5:30pm on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, you can hear the tastiest new cuts of unsigned music from across the county. We might have only been on-air since the beginning of October, but the response has been fantastic with shed loads of you uploading your tracks at bbc.co.uk/introducing – keep em comin’!

Catch Paul Moss and Gemma Dunstan presenting BBC Gloucestershire Introducing... every Satur-day from 5:30pm to hear the tastiest cuts from the county’s up and coming artists. The 30 minute show also includes interviews with the people behind the music and a gig guide for who to see play live, and where.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire 104.7, 95, 95.8 FM, 1413 AM and on the BBC iPlayer

BBC Gloucestershire Introducing presenter Gemma DunstaN

Hello!

I am pleased to say that we have had our second live session for BBC Ra-dio Gloucestershire, this time with Funky Horse Milk. I can not wait to play them on the show very soon but until then you can catch them atwww.facebook.com/funkyhorsemilkuk

We are currently organising our next session and will be bringing you details very soon.

Festival season is upon us and soon we will be announcing the acts which you have voted to play the BBC Introducing stage at this years Wychwood Festival. Last year Charlie Baxter, Black Canvas, Pink Crudge Caravan and Swift Manouver did Gloucestershire proud and I am sure this years chosen acts will do just as well.

Remember to keep uploading your tracks via the BBC online up loader which can be found at: www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/uploader/

Listen to Gemma Dunstan, James Thomas and Paul Moss live every Saturday at 5.30pm on BBC Ra-dio Gloucestershire 104.7FM or online. You can catch up on BBC iPlayer for up to 7 days afterwards.

Gemma x

Local Music With...Fabio Thomas

Fabio Interviews local boys Young Kato ahead of their

show with Pixie Lott and new record deal.

FT : You have recently signed to LAB Records, how did that come about?Joe (Bassist): “The head of A&R at the label got in touch with our manager and it all spiralled from there really… we sent them some demos, they liked them and so we met up a few times, talked and then it just happened really - they like what we are doing and

we like what they are doing so it was a perfect match”

FT: In hindsight, do you prefer working independently or with management?Joe: “It is a lot nicer working with management especially if you get on well with them which we do. We still get total con-trol over everything we do as we did when we worked alone, they just help us really. I guess for some bands if they have a lot of conflict with their management/label then that could be an issue but fortunately we don’t have that problem. Its nice to have help from others and also knowing that other people are passionate about your music and are wanting to push it is great.”

FT: If you could support an artist of your choice on tour, who would it be and why?Joe: “Probably a band like Foals or The Maccabees, it would be amazing touring with one of your favourite bands that inspire you and that you listen to every day. Also a big stadium band like U2 or Coldplay would be nice haha…”

FT: Upon writing your tracks, does your method vary from song to song or stay consistent?Joe: “Our guitarist Joe (Green) generally plants the seed and gets the main idea of a song rolling and then we all make suggestions, adding our own individual touches etc. Its a pretty consistent process I guess with a few exceptions. We find it is often the songs which are the quickest to write which are the best though… If you spend too long working on a song it looses the initial excitement or spark of it.”

FT: You have also recently worked with Entirety Clothing, as a band do you try and co ordinate a boyband-esque ‘look’, or just wear what you would normally?Joe: “Yeah we did a limited run of T-Shirts with a local company called Entirety Clothing run by a mate of ours, they are all sold out now though unfortunately. In terms of a ‘look’ we don’t think much of what we wear as a band at all - we just wear whatever we would usually in our day to day lives. We don’t have any co-ordinated outfits or anything although that could be a laugh, we might have to try it haha.”

FT: Were you worried that supporting artists such as Olly Murs and Pixie Lott would compromise your credibility as independent musicians?Joe: “Not at all, when an amazing opportunity comes up like playing a show in front of 8,000 people you just take it and make the most of it regardless of who else is playing. I don’t like Olly Murs or Pixie Lott’s music but those kind of artists have massive fan bases and if you can win over some of their crowd - of course its worth it. I don’t see how playing a show with someone who was in the X-Factor or is in the charts makes your own music any less credible. I am very much looking forward to seeing Pixie Lott though!”

FT: Lastly, can you give us any news on any imminent releases?Joe: “Our debut single is out early June and then our debut EP will be released across the UK physically and digitally mid July. Its going to be nice having a proper release out - previously we had just put up a 3 demos for free download which was good for getting our music around to people but its going to be cool having a full 4 track EP which they can download on iTunes etc and also get on CD. We will have a few music videos out in the next few months as well so stay tuned! We couldn’t be happier with how the EP is sounding so we’re excited to get it out there.”

After their last E.P ‘Thoughts’ Young Kato have done everything they can to maximize their fan base. Whilst other artist would shun supporting more mainstream groups the band have embraced it as merely another way to promote them-selves. This refreshing attitude to making ‘pop’ music is something that is rarely seen in indie culture, but Young Kato have lapped up the rewards, which will be seen in their over the coming months.

Dan Gutteridge’s Diary of Record

Store Day

Words & Pictures: Dan Gutteridge

Saturday April 21st. Record store day. Easily in my top 4 favourite days of the year. Fighting it up there with the big guns of my birthday, Christmas and St Paddys. And much like the first two, RSD is filled with the build-up, the anticipation and then waking up and knowing it’s finally here.

Record Store Day was started 5 years ago in the US to promote small independent record shops against the corporate giants by having bands put out limited releases and having acts play live in store. The day soon caught on and now 5 years on it is an interna-tional success.

My Record Store Day Diary

Friday 20th April 7:30pmAs I said, like any Christmas there is a build-up to RSD. Months before the actual day bands announce that they’ll be releasing limited editions and shops announce in store entertainment. My Friday evening was spent selecting the records that I would be target-ing as soon as Saturday morning comes along. Bloc Party announced they’d be releasing a limited 7” in the UK pretty much as soon as there reunion was confirmed by Kele, the bands frontman. This was my target, my prey, the Tweetie Pie to my Sylvester and unlike the heart break of 12 months ago, and seeing Kurt Cobains face dragged from my grasp by some bold chap, I was not missing out. There would be other releases including re –issues from Dylan, Metal-lica, and The Clash, and the Beatles and well as 7” from the likes of Frank Turner and The Arctic Monkeys. My plan for tomorrow, get to the store half an hour before opening (7:30) straight in,

grab the Bloc Party record then enjoy the rest of the day. I would go to sleep that night, setting my alarm for 7am, knowing that tomorrow I would be a very happy chappy.

Saturday 21st April 7:30amF@#~ing S*#@!! I’d slept an extra half hour, in fact, it was down to my wonderful flat mate Sam that I didn’t miss the whole morning altogether. There was no time for Weetabix! A quick brush off the teeth, clothes on, and I was out that door.

7:45amI had planned to visit Rise that morning, but due to my late awakening and still feeling a bit bitter about missing out on Nirvana last year I changed my mind and headed for Badlands. In my humble opinion the best record store in Chel-tenham, situated at the bottom of St Georges Place, it is the spot to dig out a mighty fine record, if ever in need.

8:00am I had made it, and wasn’t too far back in the queue. Luckily for me the people ahead were off a slightly older generation and didn’t seem to be Bloc Party fans. Then the dark side of RSD day struck I was at the front and not only did I ask for the Bloc Part 7” but the words ‘I’ll have the Noel Gallagher record as well please’ had come out of my mouth. I’d seen it the night before and quite fancied having it in my col-lection but I really couldn’t afford the extra money. Before I knew it my card was in the machine and my fingers were typing the pin. It looked like id return home with two vi-nyl’s for my listening pleasure.

9:00amBack home. I decided to have a small nap, then it would be time for my ears would be tantalised like they are, only once a year.

Cheltenham 01/05/2012 Little Owl Tommy Charles Tetraphonic 20:30 01/05/2012 The Daffodil Mitch Winehouse TBC

02/05/2012 Norwood Arms Acoustic Jam 21:00

04/05/2012 Waystone Hotel Just the Two of Us 17:00 04/05/2012 Strand Bar Paul Newman & Becky Carter 21:00 04/05/2012 United Services Club Tubby Blues Club 20:00

05/05/2012 Bayshill Free Wheeling Blues 21:00 05/05/2012 Charlton Kings Club Nice n Sleazy 20:45 05/05/2012 Saracens Social Club Over the Hill 21:00 05/05/2012 Albion House Koheesion 20:45

06/05/2012 Bayshill Dan & Gordy, Swift Manouvre TBC 06/05/2012 Albion House Sax n Axe 15:00

08/05/2012 The Exmouth Bex, Franks Latin Special 21:00

09/05/2012 Bayshill Bex, Franks & Friends 21:00

10/05/2012 Slak Bak2Slak Andrew Bates 20:00 11/05/2012 2pigs JUDDER 22:00 11/05/2012 Bayshill Light Thief 21:00

12/05/2012 Bayshill Swing from Paris 21:00 12/05/2012 Charlton Kings Club The System 20:45 12/05/2012 Strand Bar Bex & Franks Quintet 21:00 12/05/2012 Albion House The Echos 20:45

13/05/2012 Albion House Sharon Stanton 15:00

14/05/2012 The Daffodil Swing from Paris 20:00

16/05/2012 Bayshill Jam Session 21:00

18/05/2012 2pigs Suicide Watch 20:00 18/05/2012 John Gordon’s Wine Bar Just the Two of Us TBC

19/05/2012 Bayshill Mad Ferret 21:00 19/05/2012 Albion House Ramrods 20:45 19/05/2012 Charlotn Kings Club Time Machine 20:45

20/05/2012 Albion House Tiger Feet 15:00

22/05/2012 Frog & Fiddle Wheatus 19:00

24/05/2012 Frog & Fiddle The Xcerts 19:30

25/05/2012 Slak Natalie Ross 20:00

26/05/2012 Slak Port Erin 20:00 26/05/2012 Bayshill Dirty Trainers 21:00 26/05/2012 O’Neills Otis Mack & the Tubby Bluesters 21:00 26/05/2012 Albion House Undercover 20:45 26/05/2012 Charlton Kings Club Shazam 20:45 26/05/2012 The Cotswold Inn Profoundly Blue 21:00

27/05/2012 Albion House Steve James 15:00

29/05/2012 Norwood Arms Jam Session 20:30

Gloucester 02/05/2012 Café Rene The Wishbones 21:00

04/05/2012 Guildhall The Road to Big Bang 2013 19:00 04/05/2012 Café Rene Funkinsteins 23:00

06/05/2012 Guildhall The Farm 19:30

08/05/2012 Guildhall Robert Plant SOLD OUT 19:30

09/05/2012 Café Rene The Drawing of Three 21:00 11/05/2012 Café Rene The Karma Kanics 23:00 11/05/2012 New Inn Roving Crows 21:00

12/05/2012 Guildhall Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun 19:30 12/05/2012 Dick Wittington Otis Mack & the Tubby Bluesters 20:30 12/05/2012 Longlevens RFC Rockology 21:00 14/05/2012 Guildhall Folk Unplugged 20:00

16/05/2012 Café Rene Jake Watson & Pete Taylor 21:00

18/05/2012 Guildhall Spiers and Boden 19:30 18/05/2012 Café Rene Trashville Country 23:00

19/05/2012 Guildhall UK Guns and Roses 19:30 19/05/2012 Café Rene Blackberry Wood 23:00 19/05/2012 Ridge & Furrow Rockology 21:00 23/05/2012 Café Rene Live at Gloucester Studio Presents 21:00

25/05/2012 Café Rene Hired Guns 23:00

30/05/2012 Café Rene Harper Brothers 21:00

Stroud 04/05/2012 Subscription Rooms Mike dAbo and his Mighty Quintet 19:30

11/05/2012 Subscription Rooms The Barber of Seville 20:00

18/05/2012 Subscription Rooms Dan Cassidy Swing Quartet TBC

19/05/2012 Subscription Rooms Hells Bells 20:00

25/05/2012 Subscription Rooms Friday Night Live 20:00

Tewkesbury 05/05/2012 The Northway Featherstone TBC

09/05/2012 Theoc House Kim Cypher Quartet 20:30 13/05/2012 White Bear Sax n Axe 16:00

Birdlip 04/05/2012 Royal George Alex Chapman 21:00

11/05/2012 Royal George Revue 21:00

18/05/2012 Royal George M I Brown 21:00

25/05/2012 Royal George Rick Chase 21:00

Winchcombe 01/05/2012 Corner Cupboard Bluegrass Session 21:00

If you have any gigs you would like listed in MAG then send them to ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

24/05/2012 Corner Cupboard Song Session TBC

Woodmancote 03/05/2012 Apple Tree Rick Chase 21:00

10/05/2012 Apple Tree Slap n Tickle 21:00

17/05/2012 Apple Tree Touch of Blue 21:00

24/05/2012 Apple Tree Jim Ramsay 21:00

31/05/2012 Apple Tree Dave Beale 21:00

Festivals 2nd-7th Cheltenham Jazz Festival Town Hall, Cheltenham 18th-19th Lakefest Croft Farm, Tewkesbury

18th-20th Thing in the Spring Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham

Open Mic Nights Tuesday St Paul’s Tavern, Cheltenham Tuesday Salisbury Inn, Cheltenham

Wednesday Cross Keys, Gloucester Wednesday Norwood Arms, Cheltenham

Thursday The Strand Bar, Cheltenham Thursday Hogs Head, Cheltenham Thursday The Restoration, Cheltenham

Friday The Fiery Angel, Cheltenham Friday Royal George Hotel, Cheltenham Friday Gardners Arms, Tewkesbury

Sunday Royal Union, Cheltenham Sunday The Cotswold Inn, Cheltenham Sunday Under the edge Arts, Wotton Under Edge Sunday Walls Country & Western Club, Gloucester

Keziah Kurg’s Krafts

If it’s anything like mine your sofa is a monstrous manky rather faded beast. It smells a bit, the cat has scratched arms and the throw you decided would make it more socially acceptable spends more time on the floor than the sofa.

Then I discovered these amazing sofa tamers! If the structure of the sofa is fine then why not get it reupholstered. Yes I know “reupholster” sounds like one of those scary grown up words but look!

Based in Cheltenham, Justina Designs specialise in creating unique and beautiful furniture by reupholstering old pieces with bright, fun and funky fabrics. Riotous colour and luxury textured fabrics; yes I do believe I’m in love. The patchwork pieces really are one of a kind! They use high quality fabrics including those made by the designers’ guild and work with customers to create a design to meet their tastes.

The cost of the service does depend of the size of the piece you want covered, but when you compared that to the cost of a new sofa...? Justina Designs will strip your old sofa down, replace the padding, and fix any faulty joints too. So it really is like getting a new super sofa!

So, it’s good by manky beast – hello beautiful creature!

To find out more about Justina Designs visit www.justinadesign.co.uk

Want to contribute? We like listings, reviews, editorial, previews, pictures, art, cartoons and would like to fill these pages with things you care about. We‘d love to hear about anything to do with live music in the

county really and can help with anything from promoting you here to getting you reviewed, played on student and local radio, putting you in touch with venues, musicians and artists across the county and just about any-thing else you can think of!

Want to advertise? Put your gig posters in with the MAG for distribution? Ask what our favourite kind of ham is? You can contact Amelia – ascognamiglio@glos.ac.uk

MAG Editor Amelia Scognamiglio | Cover Design Jordan Bonner | Listings Contributor Ollie West | Staff Writ-ers Keziah Kurg, Gemma Dunstan, Alex Marlow, Fabio Thomas, Dan Gutteridge| Thanks to all the people who contributed to issue SIXTEEN of MAG, special thanks (again) goes to Nicky Hughes @ The University of Gloucestershire for organising the funding and production of this work and to Andrew Lansley for continuing to support MAG and everything musical in Gloucestershire| All work remains property of the original owner, used with permission. Reproduction in whole or any part (especially the listings) of this fanzine would be awesome as it’s great to spread the word people, just make sure you credit the fanzine : )