Along with the great 'Blue Star Music' nights, Joseph's Well also played host to several other regular events, such as 'Northern Sound Exposure'. As we knew the main promoter at the Well, we could pretty much get a gig there whenever we wanted so we never bothered with NSE. From the outside, my impression was that they were more akin to John Trueman gigs, in that the promoters were far more concerned with how many 'fans' a group could bring along than how good they were as a band. This may be a little unfair, but the line-ups did little to persuade me otherwise, consisting, as they usually did, of a random collection of bands of wildly differing abilities and musical styles.
When my mate Spenner asked if I fancied going along to a Northern Sound Exposure gig that Freewheeler were playing, I thought it would be fun. Obviously I was always up for seeing live music, I loved hanging out at the Well and what else was I going to do on a Sunday night?
Freewheeler were up first, at the spectacularly early time of 7.15pm. Despite singer Andy having trouble with the monitors for most of the show and, uncharacteristically, singing out of tune, the band played well and I enjoyed their set. They'd improved musically since the last time I saw them, helped by their new drummer, Barry Steel. Although he was nowhere near as good as his arrogant persona suggested he was, Steel was solid and added a bit of grit to Freewheeler's songs.
The rest of the evening didn't live up to the early promise unfortunately. Next band, Downfall, played a rather lacklustre 30 minutes of *shudder* funk metal. They too had problems with the sound, with the bass guitar being barely audible thoughout, but they didn't have the songs, or riffs, to compensate.
Third act, Porcelin, were a minor improvement, playing reasonable songs in a sort of polished, post-grunge style, à la Bush. I think they might have featured Freewheeler's former drummer, Daz. Innit.
Solace were an unspectacular mix of driving Britpop and slightly more interesting college rock influences. They didn't sound massively different from the previous band, although I think Porcelin had the edge on the night.
The event was brought to a conclusion by Mojo Pin. Unsurprisingly, given their name, the band were reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, with added touches of blues and even FM rock. Although they didn't blow me away, Mojo Pin were a much more accomplished band than those that had played below them on the bill and I made a mental note to watch out for them in the future.
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