For The Record with Russ Petcher

Damon Albarn

Everyday Robots (album):

I really should like this but I don’t. It’s Damon Albarn’s very first solo album but unfortunately it doesn’t meet my high expectations of him.

The majority of this album is extremely depressing. Damon spills his heart out all over Everyday Robots but all I can think is that it’s not as good as Blur.

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I pretty much gathered that Damon’s debut solo effort would be weird and experimental and I was right, but the thing that scares me the most is that if I listened to this a few more times I might end up actually liking it.

Everyday Robots is out now and my personal favourite song is Mr Tembo which is all about a baby elephant.

Marc Ford

Holy Ghost (album):

I was looking forward to this upon reading that Marc Ford had once played lead guitar in The Black Crowes and so I was expecting more of the same but that didn’t happen. This is more country than country rawk but I can live with that. 
In fact, those who know me well will know that there’s a huge part of me that is totally devoted to country music, which doesn’t always go down too well – particularly when I hold a party at mine!

Holy Ghost is slightly middle of the road stuff and works better when played as background music, but there’s no doubting that the man has talent.

Jade Helliwell

Comrades Club, Heckmondwike:

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They say that all the best vocalists come from Batley (OK, so I made that bit up) and they don’t come much better than the superbly gifted Jade Helliwell.

I’ve seen Jade perform on a few occasions but the thing I love is seeing other people watch her for the first time because their faces say it all to me – they look purely astonished and that’s how I felt and still do when I hear Jade’s voice.

Jade and her acoustic guitar played a mixture of covers and self-penned songs which didn’t disappoint the lovely audience who had come out in the rain just to hear her sing. If you haven’t heard Jade before then may I suggest you give her a listen on YouTube sometime because she really is rather good.

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