(prior to October 2003 known as IT)
Here's their very, very good official website (030204)
Photographs Sounds!! New 100603: Bamjimba CD!!!
Ever seen a band that plays in a few pubs mostly in the one county and you can't even begin to understand why they're not headlining at major international festivals? |
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"There's a distinct whiff of 1969 about Lancaster's Underground Ballroom - several tons of Hammond organ and Leslie speaker on the stage, and a valve guitar stack enrobed in lilac snakeskin leatherette - albeit with a distinctly modern sensibility. Amongst their album collection (all vinyl, of course) you will find plenty of Muscle Shoals, Deep Purple and Ornette Coleman. Not a little Lee Perry, no shortage of Traffic and more than a modicum of the Green Manalishi. And the Coral. And Jack Bruce, Miles Davis, various Allmans and Wailers - and Elvis in his Vegas period. What this all adds up to is a live performance of dripping viscerality: original material, spontaneous apple creation and a magnolia caboose vying for precedence with clarifoil gatefold sleeves and the RIAA curve, until the whole morphs into a chaotic melange of boogaloo funk, reggae and 'out' jazz".
Let's very much hope that you don't get the wrong idea about Underground Ballroom. This guy apparently did: To info@undergroundballroom.com Sent: 08 February 2004 17:01 Subject: Gig. Hey Guys, I take it you are a Sweet Tribute type band, well we would love you to play at the next Glamtastic Gigfest. Obviously, we would want you to wear the gear - the fans love it! But as long as you play Fox on the Run and Love is like Oxygen - there would be many thrilled punters. Keep swinging - let's BLITZ 'EM ! Ride on, Robbo 'the hair' Lepler x (Now stop laughing!!).
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BOYCOTT CHINESE GOODS MADE IN LABOUR CAMPS - A PERSONAL WAY OF OPPOSING THE CHINESE OCCUPATION OF TIBET AND SHOWING SOLIDARITY WITH ITS PEOPLE. A CONSIDERABLE PERCENTAGE OF TOYS, SHOES, CHEAP TOOLS, MACHINE TOOLS, CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, STUFFED ANIMALS AND OTHER GOODS ARE MADE IN CHINESE LABOUR CAMPS. |
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Underground
Ballroom
are an entirely wonderful band. That's very easy to say. Yes,
but they are! Hmm. In what way? Well,
in every way. OK. So what style do they play in? |
Gigs Gigs Gigs Gigs Gigs
For gig info go to the
official website Gigs Gigs
Gigs Gigs Gigs
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Almost any & every style that's worth listening to - blues, reggae, (acid) jazz, soul, rock, funk, (and many of those combined in the same song & still sounding 100% appropriate). And, who do Underground Ballroom sound like? Well,
that's the weird thing - they sound just like themselves really. Comparisons
don't make much sense. There's no-one else who sounds like them.
OK,
that's a big help. So, if they were playing Glastonbury, onto which stage would
you put them? The
Main Stage. If
they weren't on the Main Stage? The
Jazz Stage. OK.
Give me some more clues... Well, Mike Atherton, the singer and guitarist, sometimes sounds like Roger Chapman, but sometimes he sounds like Buddy Guy. And what a guitarist he is! |
So, what guitarist does Mike sound like?. Nobody
else ever anywhere, though just
occasionally he might remind you of, (dare I mention, Carlos
Sultana?), definitely Buddy
Guy, but with even more attack! And he's
spent some time listening to Jimi Hendrix
and a hell of a lot of jazz, soul and funk. And I've a sneaky feeling
he'll have a fair few Jack Bruce
albums in his collection. Mike writes
all of Underground
Ballroom's material. There's Jake Soul Patrol Jackson on phat wheezy Hammond organ. Gary
Thistlethwaite
plays bass in just the right way, (like a rhythm instrument!),
unpretentious, jazzrock- blackbluesy and never once dull. Jim Bamber produces from his drum kit a wider range of sounds and styles than you might ever expect and can drive the band along like a......... greatbigdriving thing.
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| Get a
copy for £10,
(that's "2 for £20", bargain hunters!),
via
mike@thehustle.co.uk
or 01524 39034. Like me you may find yourself for weeks on end listening
to nothing else.
In 40mins you get 6 tracks, (yes, we're talking 70's length tracks here, dudes), full of themes, riffs and melodies almost any of which should very quickly entitle Underground Ballroom to lead a long life of several Rileys. (Mike's former band, The Hustle, were the only blues band absolutely guaranteed to hold Will Newman's undivided attention right throughout their set. And now Will has a copy of Curious? so you really should have one too).
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| If you've read this far you might be one of those people who've realised that, (just behind food, water, clothing and shelter), there may not be too much that's more important than live music & you'll surely want to be looking out for Underground Ballroom here & elsewhere in the North West. |
| Sounds! The Way That I Feel from the album Curious? Now you might think this is taking a long while to download, (9mins on a 56K system), but the track is 5mins 50secs long & it's worth every damn second of waiting. It will fill your heart & ears with joy for certain. Enjoy Underground Ballroom. |
From the sleevenotes of Underground Ballroom's DVD released October 2003:
"But for the vagaries of fashion and the ravages of time, a toothless gimping public, (weaned on a bland diet of pre-digested and reconstituted rock and pop artifacts), would be cowering beneath their beds at the primeval post-blues onslaught of Underground Ballroom.
At once visceral and cerebral Underground Ballroom combine a swirling and fiercely funky Hammond organ lead with a fat, lean, stingingly incisive and quintessentially British valve-stack guitar attack - startlingly contemporary yet together evoking the as-yet undead spirit of 70s rock behemoths Free and Deep Purple.
Dial in a predatory rhythm section - fearlessly spontaneous, relentless in their pursuit of perfect groove - and a question arises. Think! Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it beats cowering under a bed waiting for old age to do it to you instead." |
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Minimise the risk of hearing damage:
Source: Royal National Institute for Deaf People |
