Admiration and grief have been given equal measure this week as people express their feelings about Jackie Leven’s death.

The singer/songwriter was a resident of Botley, but born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, and lost his battle with cancer on Monday night.

Even though his career began in the 70’s fronting ‘Doll by Doll, and although he has about 30 solo albums to his name, Jackie was still being labelled a new act by BBC Radio 2 in 2010.

“I have long thought of Jackie as Britain’s lost rock star.” Says Neil McCormick, the Daily Telegraph’s chief rock music critic and one of Jackie’s biggest champions.

The young Jackie Leven had the same dangerous magnetism as Oliver Reed in that a drink and a fight weren’t far away. As Neil eloquently describes Doll by Doll: “They were positively scary live, you thought they might jump off the stage and punch the audience, but the toughness of Leven’s persona was counterbalanced by the tender depths of their songs.”

Leven’s voice sets him apart from almost any other performer and once you felt the emotion it never left you.

The frustrations of knowing that he should have had wider recognition are tempered by the fact that over the coming years many people will discover this ‘new’ artist called Jackie Leven.

As Neil McCormick summed up: “…to those who knew, he was the real deal. His work has incredible depth and resonance. I have a feeling we haven’t heard the last of him.”

You can hear an interview with Jackie Leven and Xan Phillips on Playdio.com

Even though bands hate being pigeon-holed music labelling is really helpful and easily defines an era: anyone remember BritPop?

When there isn’t a specific genre you invent one, for example ‘cool/dark’ is how I’m summing up Robin Foster’s latest album.

Courtesy of the Southampton four-piece ‘Wolfe‘ a new genre “ChillWave” has been brought to my attention.

A term coined by blogger ‘Carles‘ which became ‘official’ when iTunes gave it a category and John Pareles in the New York Times summed it up as “recession-era music: low-budget and danceable.”

Wolfe dropped it into a conversation about professional acts they’ve recently supported.

Musicians such as ‘Tropics’ who headlined the club Pop in May: “Musically it worked really well and there was a mutual admiration between bands. It was great to support an up and coming band and one which is part of ‘chillwave’.”

Vocalist Gav Brook continued. “It led to a headline slot a few months later at the ‘Wednesday Night Live’ night at Pop which is a brilliant night for a more eclectic, electronic and left-field artists.”

Other acts they cite are ‘Suicide Party’ and ‘Bridpen’ because of… “the vibe that they create at gigs.”

Fronted by singer/bassist Laura Wolfe, with Paulus Fielder, Stu Rogers and Gav they created a brilliant ambiance, and very well balanced sound, when they supported ‘Maths and the Moon’ at Guava Bar in October.

Their EP “Cries” is available as a free download on Soundcloud and they’ll blow your house down.

First published in the Southern Daily Echo, Friday 11th Nov, 2011

Wolfe “Cries” by WOLFE

From economist to housewife, through shop floor worker and student, the world’s plight is putting this question on everyone’s lips: “Where do we go from here?”

Its also the title of the second album from Robin Foster, a British musician living in France. [Cover photo by Benoit Pelletier]

You might not recognise his name but his music could have underscored your television pleasure as tracks from his debut “Life Is Elsewhere” have been used by Hugo Boss, Barclay’s and the US show ‘One Tree Hill’.

Robin’s latest mix of cool/dark instrumentals and songs features the south’s Dave Pen the singer from Birdpen and Archive.

“It was an instant click between us so it just naturally transpired that we we would do something together,” Robin explained. “I was working on the new album and asked him if he fancied singing on a couple of tracks. Those 2 songs soon became 4 and so we got him over to record them. Then we had a free day in the studio and wrote another on the spot, that was the best part because I’d never worked with anyone so easily before. It was very liberating, we’re completely on the same wavelength.”

And as you’d expect Dave feels the same: “I liked his instrumentations and it felt natural to write lyrics to his music. Also the fact he was an Englishman working in France had a similarity with the musical projects I am involved in and we also connected as people which made working on these songs enjoyable and slightly mad.”

The most important aspect for Robin was the enthusiasm Mr Pen brought to the project: “I love Dave’s voice, he throws himself into it, he really brings a whole new dimension to the songs, it stops you in your tracks.”

The songs Dave has written lyrics for, and also poured his soul crushed vocals onto, are: “A collapsing light”, “Concrete Skies”, “Forgiveness”, “Black Mountain” and the almost
pop “Wait for her”.

I asked Dave if album’s title alluded to a global or inner perspective: “Its a more personal statement. The songs are about guilt, loss, hope and love, not about the state of the economy and the state of our beloved planet earth. That’s in another project you will hear about soon !!”

And many Birdpen fans around Europe are busting for news about that almost album finished!

However Robin takes us a little deeper into the background of the title: “It is also a personal statement regarding two very close friends who died while I was making the album, sparking that eternal question of “what’s next?”… It has many connotations really, it’s also a natural follow on from the first album’s title “Life Is Elsewhere”. This is the next step so to speak, though it’s not just a negative question, it’s also a hopeful one, the whole album has the recurring theme of a light in the dark. ”

For the record I think its a great listen. There is a fine balance between Robin’s instrumentals and the songs he and Dave have produced: they are like pauses during an evening’s conversation. And the answer to the album’s question? Onwards and upwards for both artists.

http://www.robinfoster.fr

Robin Foster’s upcoming live concert will feature special guest singers Dave Pen (Archive & BirdPen) et Ndidi O at the Transmusicales de Rennes, a major French music festival, Friday 2nd December.

Jean-Louis Brossard, organisateur du festival, dévoile son artiste «Coup de coeur», Robin Foster pour ces 33ème Rencontres des Transmusicales de Rennes, au Parc Expo Hall 4, vendredi 2 Décembre à 22h00.

You can visit the festival’s website : www.lestrans.com

Having once been in a band that had a combined age of over 200 years I can definitely say it helped, but not for long.

Experience counts but it is far better to have youth on your side.

With Southampton’s latest alternative rock band ‘Fighting Tyler‘ they are lucky to have youth and also years of gigging and theatre experience on their side, rather than life’s cruel twists and turns.

They are fronted by classically trained Vikki-Jo Keens and the talents of Ali Koller (guitar), a strong rhythm section of Sam Towson (Drums), James Wills (Bass) and Christopher Pearce (guitar).

For stage presence Vikki can draw inspiration from her drama education along with her performances in a number of musicals, but like all singers she found rock was the answer: “I decided after a few years that as much as I love musical theatre, I wanted to work on my own original sound and image.”

The result is their first single ‘Alive’ which is full of heavy southern promise and recorded at the Ranch Production House, in Nursling.

As bassist James (formerly HourstilAutumn) told me “It was a great honour to get to work with Neil and the guys down there as they have a great reputation for working with signed and unsigned alternative rock acts.”

You can download the new Fighting Tyler single from iTunes and Amazon, or listen via Facebook and Spotify.

And if you missed Wednesday night’s gig they are back at the Talking Heads on the 24th November.

First published in the Southern Daily Echo, 21st October 2011

http://fightingtyler.com/

@FightingTyler