Derby Charity All Dayer

Derby Vic

July 24 1999


As a rule, I'm not that keen on all dayers. Partly because I feel obligated to try and watch every minute of every band. And that makes for a long day. Especially when, like today, it's a bit bloody hot. But, there's some bands I like here, and it's for a good cause. As far as I can make out, a hospice for terminally ill children, and today's proceedings raised more than 450 quid, so give a round of applause to that if you will.

Ok, so let's see what I can remember about the music. First were 12 Bore. Probably my least favourite band of the day, no, that's maybe a lie. The singer was heavy on the Chinoisms, light, heavy, same kind of moves and all that. The music itself felt disjointed. There were some nice moments, but nothing that really added up to a song in my mind. It's like the base elements are there, but they need to disover the glue to hold it together.

After that are Skatterbrain, a name I've seen advertised playing here on many occassions but never actually witnessed. There were a bunch of names running through the head. One was Reef cos the singer kind of seemed to resemble the Reef singer to me, not necessarily vocally. Also got the feel this was the kind of music that could go down well at some kind of beach party. It had that feel. Quite a load of wah-wah, the Chilli Peppers popped into the head as well, as did Faith No More in the song Evidence. The heavier elements made me think Dailo. A mixture and hotchpotch, but actually I've got to say I was well impressed by it, and may well try to find out a little bit more about them to tell you.

Next we move to the pop punk thang with Orifis. I remember now I've seen them before, cos the singer has quite a gob on him, trade insults in a sarcastically jokey fashion with the crowd. It sounded good in that "there's loads of other bands do this" sort of thing. Marks deducted for doing the ritualdelohabitual for this style of music, the comedy cover. This time it's a Bewitched song. Whhen you're looking for bands to show that they're not actually a typical band of the genre you're associating them with, then you need for them to avoid the standard characteristics. 12 Bore had the Chino impression, Orifis the funny cover tune.

I have to say I was slightly worried for the Milque performance. Time will tell if the worry is well founded, but, in spite of this, they turned in what to my mind was their most powerful performance yet. The sound was there, the songs certainly are. Talking afterwards to Chris from Chasm, he was in full agreement. Plus they were the only band today with the intelligence to use the one track soundcheck that each band got 5 minutes before the set to actually do a song that they weren't going to play. Thus giving everyone watching the soundchecks just a little bit more. The new stuff blows the EP away, and probably the best and most honest thing I can say at the moment, is that it will be criminal if this material doesn't find itself to a wider audience.

And next we return to local talent in the form of the aforementioned Chasm. Another band getting better each time I see them. I think this is because the music they play is actually quite a bit more complex and subtle than you at first realise. It's not obvious, and you need to listen, but the more I do, the more I recognise the quality. The new track Zen something or other, is a good example of this, and the improving quality of the material, even though the demo tracks of 54, Almost There and Block are still the highlights, with Block featuring a special guest guitar appearance. A lot of people have mourned the demise of Far, there are other bands out there who if you look, could help you get over that. One of them is Chasm. Along with Milque, band of the day

SCribble are next. I've heard the single, and didn't recognise them. Ok, partly because they've lost their drummer, and so do an acoustic set sat on chairs. So really, it's a little hard, and probably wrong to judge them, as this is a totally different sound to what they would normally strive for.

Bringing up the rear are Lightyear. Nice rhyme eh? Yeah, thanks. A 9 piece at times, they do the ska punky sort of thing, with the occasional backing of a few people on ye olde wind instruments. And to be honest, that's kind of a mistake, cos it didn't sound very good. The more standard moments were better, though it wasn't anything special to me, and in a way, was a slightly disappointing end. Mind you, by this time, I feel drained anyway. Like I said, all dayers are difficult beasts.