Author Archives: Tim Hall

Chantel McGregor, The Zephyr Lounge Leamington

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Tim Hall

Chantel McGregor at The Zephyr Lounge, Leamingon SpaBlues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter bought her power trio to The Zephyr Lounge in Leamington Spa for the first date of her Autumn and Winter tour to promote her album “Lose Control”, to be released in October. I hadn’t caught one of her gigs since the tail end of last year, so this is the first time I’ve seen the band with new bassist Colin Sutton, who looks for all the world like a younger version of Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt.

The raw and dirty guitar sound on the opening number “Caught Out” set the tone for the evening. Most of the set came from the new album, interspersed with favourites from the début “Like No Other”. The reworked blues standards and Hendrix covers that filled out her set in earlier days are gone now, save for her version of Robin Trower’s “Daydream”, retained as excuse for the set’s one remaining extended guitar wig-out. Even the mid-set acoustic interlude is now originals rather than covers, with the delicately beautiful “Anaesthetize” a particular highlight.

The new material comes over very powerfully live, to the extent that some of them surpassed the more familiar songs in the set. Although they’re still plenty of soloing with the context of the songs, there’s definitely a greater emphasis on songwriting than on guitar pyrotechnics. It’s also more hard rock than blues; with a heavier, darker sound; Chantel has cited the likes of Soundgarden and The Stone Temple Pilots as influences for some of the songs. As is always the case with her gigs, there is a fire and passion to the performance. She ended the set with the prog-flavoured epic “Walk on Land” with its spectacular solo ,a song that gave the impression it will be an album highlight and live favourite for years to come. All of which makes the album more eagerly anticipated.

Chantel and her band will be on tour across Britain and continental Europe for much of the rest of the year. Catch them if you can, you will not regret it.

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Story Games vs. Traditional RPGs: An Analogy

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Tim Hall

I think this analogy makes sense, at least to people from Cricket playing countries.

Story games are the equivalent to limited overs one-day Cricket compared with traditional RPG’s long form of the game.

A game of Cricket in the long form takes place over the course of several days, five in the case of international games, three or four for domestic games. Connoisseurs of the game will always maintain it’s the higher form, where the story unfolds across multiple days. It’s true that some games do peter out into dull draws when neither side can press an advantage, but the best games ebb and flow with occasional dramatic reversals. Games like the 1981 Test Match at Headlingly where England came back from a seemingly hopeless position to beat Australia after heroic performances from Ian Botham and Bob Willis have passed into legend.

The one-day game, in contrast, cuts to the chase. It’s all over in a single day, appealing to a wider audience who doesn’t have the attention span to follow a single match over multiple days. It trades drama for spectacle, and tends to produce more exciting close finishes. But it also tends to result in far more cookie-cutter games, especially the ones that don’t end in close run chases. There is no one-day equivalent of that 1981 Headingly Test.

Like all analogies, it’s not an exact one, but does illuminate some strengths and weaknesses of two different forms of a similar thing. There are, I think, some definite parallels.

Posted in Games | Tagged | 11 Comments

The Trolling of Joshua Goldberg

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Tim Hall

The saga of Joshua Goldberg is hard to take in. Here is a prolific troll who managed multiple personae and passed himself off in different spaces as a radical feminist, a white nationalist, a Jihadi supporter of ISIS, a Gamergater, a Zionist and an anti-Semite. He even spent ages arguing with himself on Twitter. I’m wondering if he has two sock puppets fighting both sides of the EM vs P4 wars.

It’s a reminder of just how much of the toxicity of internet discussions is the work of a tiny number of people. It’s also a reminder that many of the worst trolls aren’t true believers in a cause, but just delight in causing mayhem and damage for their own entertainment.

Most of those groups accepted Goldberg as one of their own, since he reliably repeated their memes and talking points. Which makes the “Hurr, hurr, my outgroup fell for him” I’m hearing sound a bit hollow. Your own sect probably fell for him too. As I’ve said before, if your rhetoric so predictable that an outsider can fake it without being immediately recognisable, you have a problem.

Has a successful troll ever passed themselves off as a pragmatic, principled moderate? It’s difficult to imagine, because they would involve laying themselves bare and expressing doubts, something that’s orders of magnitude harder to fake than fanaticism.

Posted in Religion and Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 6 Comments

N Elevation – The Vertical Fiddle Yard

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Tim Hall

Nelevation Train Lift

Nelevation demonstrated their high-tech train lift system at the N Gauge Show in Leamington this weekend. It’s a very clever idea, a vertical traverser that doubles up as a display cabinet. The footprint is far smaller that a conventional fiddle yard with associated pointwork.

It’s designed for N-gauge, though the concept ought to work for proportionately shorter trains in larger scales.  The website quotes a length of 1400mm, which isn’t quite long enough for a 2+8 HST,  though talking to the designers on Saturday I got me the impression that it may be available in muliple lengths.

A the moment it’s not yet commercially available, though when it does go into production the likely price will probably run into four figures. Which seems a lot until you look at the likely value of the trains you will put in it.

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The Queen Opens The Borders Railway

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Tim Hall

Union of South AfricaGood to see The Queen celebrating becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch by taking Nicola Sturgeon on a train ride pulled by a locomotive whose name includes the word “Union”. I’d love to know if she had any influence in choosing No 60009 “Union of South Africa” as the locomotive to pull the train.

The Borders Railway, which runs for more than 30 miles from Edinburgh to Tweedbank via Galashiels is the most ambitious railway reopening project to date. The original line, the former Waverley Route, ran from Edinburgh through Galashiels and Hawick to Carlisle. It was one of the last and most controversial of the sixties Beeching closures, wrongly considered an unnecessary duplication of the existing west coast main line despite being an important link for communities along the route.

Hopefully Tweedbank will only be the temporary terminus, and the line will be extended in due course to Hawick and beyond. Will The Queen still reign when 60009 steams beyond Tweedbank towards Carlisle?

Posted in Travel & Transport | Tagged | 3 Comments

Radio Men and Motors

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Tim Hall

XFM, which always was Radio NME, has decided to dumb itself down, rebranding itself as “Radio X” recruiting former Radio One DJ Chris Moyles to become a “male-focussed entertainment brand“.

Alexis Petridis’ one-star review of also-rans The Pigeon Detectives famously described them as “Not so much ITV indie and Granada Men & Motors indie. With the talk of “New car smell” and “Great Britain needs great banter”, this is Men & Motors radio.

As for “fresh music”, with a playlist including Kasabian and Noel sodding Gallagher, who do you think are you kidding? This is the musical equivalent of stale socks, lowest common denominator landfill music for people who think Later With Jools Holland is far too edgy and alternative.

I know it’s unsporting to wish failure on any business endeavour, but this one needs to crash and burn for the sake of our nations’ culture. As my good friend HippyDave said on Twitter, Kill it! Kill it with fire!

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Prog, Still Misunderstood?

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Tim Hall

There’s a well-meaning but flawed piece in the Telegraph about Prog, probably inspired by The Chart Company’s launch of a new progressive music chart. It does namecheck a lot of the new generation of progressive artists such as Big Big Train and Steven Wilson, and make a number of positive points

But there are a few things that suggests he doesn’t know the subject and hasn’t really done his research. The fact that it appears not in the paper’s music section but in the “Mens pages” may be the root of the problem.

First he makes the bizarre claim that Prog originated with Frank Zappa’s 1968 album “Freak Out”, which is a new one on me. Now Zappa’s music in certainly progressive, but he was really a whole genre in his own right. To claim any American artist founded the prog-rock genre ignores the scene’s roots in late 1960s Britain as a generation of musicians wanted to move beyond the limitations of commercial pop music. Prog surely took recognisable form somewhere between The Beatle’s “Sergeant Pepper” and King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King”.

Then he claims that prog has been dismissed as “too white, male and uncool” for decades. Uncool, certainly, but it’s only in the past few years that anything whose appeal is disproportionately white and male has been regarded with suspicion. But it’s not as if prog has ever been a hotbed of white power anthems or awash with misogynistic imagery. The suggestion that women and non-white people aren’t interested in music you can’t dance to is itself a bit sexist and racist; I know plenty of dedicated female prog fans and musicians who would take great exception to that. And I can’t avoid another mention of the bill at this year’s HRH Prog, where half the bands on the bill had at least one woman in the band, and they were the better half of the bill.

And then there’s a commenter who claims Transatlantic aren’t prog. Where do these people come from?

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Blackmore’s Night – All Our Yesterdays

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Tim Hall

Blackmores Night All Our YesterdaysIt’s a sobering thought that Richie Blackmore has been a part of Blackmore’s Night for longer than he was with Deep Purple, and has recorded more studio albums with Candice Night than with any other singer.

Steeped in the strange world of American renaissance fayres, the semi-acoustic project actually had had about as much in common with actual renaissance music as Dungeons and Dragons has with medieval history. The first couple of albums did have their moments, with songs that displayed a sublime beauty, but there were others that badly failed a saving roll against cheese. After the first few records they reached the point of diminishing returns; making a vaguely folk-flavoured pop-rock that was neither quite one thing or the other.

“All Our Yesterdays” starts out as more of the same. A couple of early numbers come over as a poor man’s Mostly Autumn, the same mix of celtic folk and rock elements, but with none of their atmospherics or emotional depth. For example, the instrumental rocked-up Celtic jig “Allan yn n fan” resembles Mostly Autumn’s “Out of the Inn”, only nowhere near as good, while the ballad “Long Long Time” is a reminder that Candice Night isn’t in the same league as either Olivia Sparnenn or Heather Findlay as a singer.

The instrumental “Darker than Black” is rather better, especially when Ritchie Blackmore lets rip on the Stratocaster and demonstrates he’s still got it as a guitarist, recalling the instrumentals that graced late-period Rainbow albums. The other instrumental, “Queen’s Lament” isn’t as effective, Blackmore noodling about on acoustic guitar without ever going anywhere.

The album then goes completely off the rails with some ill-chosen covers. The version of Mike Oldfield’s “Moonlight Shadow” is completely unnecessary, and their take on Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” is utterly horrible.

But even worse is to come. “Where Are We Going From Here” reworks a number from their own back catalogue, and attempts to turn what had been a beautiful ballad into a uptempo rocker, but only succeeds in cruelly exposing Candice Night’s limitations as a vocalist, who ends up murdering her own song. Which is a shame, because Candice does have a decent voice when she stays within her comfort zone.

Things do pick up slightly with the spirited folk-rock of “Will ‘o the Wisp”, one of the few songs that actually comes to life, but that’s thin pickings for what is ultimately a very disappointing record. It’s hard to believe this tepid album is the work of the musician who created “Burn” and “Stargazer”.

Listening to this album it’s very difficult to escape the conclusion that after eighteen years and ten albums Blackmore’s Night has run its course. Perhaps the time is right for Ritchie to do something completely different; there have been suggestions of some rock-orientated gigs in the near future. One thing is for sure, if Blackmore isn’t a spent force and still has anything to say, the evidence here suggests he needs a new project in which to say it.

Posted in Record Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Inappropriate Content?

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Tim Hall

Yet another big controversy has erupted in the tabletop RPG world after One Book Shelf (which owns the downloads sites RPGNow and DriveThruRPG) pulled a provocatively-titled small-press game suppliment its virtual shelves following a Twitter campaign.

It’s opened a massive can of worms.

One Book Shelf have now announced a new policy for reporting offensive content. The precise details are vague at the moment, but there are suggestions that there’s going to be “report as offensive” button which will cause automatic suspension of the reported product pending review. Some game publishers, most notably James Raggi of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and The RPG Pundit have raised very serious concerns over how this might work in practice, and have threatened to pull all their products from the site should a single one of their titles be suspended under this new system. They express a strong concern that their own products may well be targetted.

It’s near to impossible to tell whether their fears are justified or not.

I would certainly advocate no suspension of any product without human intervention under any circumstances, because such a process would be far too vulnerable to abuse. The ugly “PunditGate” saga remains a faultline in the community a year on, and the past behaviour of some of the personalities involved more or less guarantees bad things will happen unless active steps are taken to prevent it.

At least some of these people have an overtly authoritarian agenda combined with axes to grind against specific game designers and publishers, and can’t be trusted not to misuse any “report as offensive” button to pursue long-running personal feuds, or to report anything that fails absurdly strict purity tests. The “everything is problematic” crowd have very broad definitions of racism and sexism, and there is a very loud faction of them with the RPG community. Give them the power to disappear publications they don’t like, and it will have a chilling effect on the hobby as a whole.

In the world of self-publishing there are all sorts of issues of quality control and gatekeeping. If a line needs to be drawn somewhere over what content is beyond the pale, it matters who gets to draw than line. Twitter mobs with torches and pitchforks don’t always make the best judges. But are ill-conceived  technical solutions which could cause as many problems as they solve any better? It’s really a social problem.

I don’t want an RPG hobby that’s awash with overtly racist and misogynistic games. But I don’t want an RPG hobby where are small but vocal minority have the power to veto on what anyone else can publish.

Posted in Games | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Praying Mantis – Legacy

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Tim Hall

Praying Mantis - LegacySome may remember Praying Mantis from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early 1980s. Led by the Troy brothers, Chris and Tino, they never managed the success of the likes of Iron Maiden or Saxon, and like many of their peers they faded away after a couple of years.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. A decade later they were to reform, and aside from a hiatus in the mid-noughties have been touring and recording ever since. In their original incarnation they were a quartet with Chris Troy handling the lead vocals himself, but he’s long stepped back to focus on lead guitar. They’re now a five-piece with John Cuijpers as the newest in a long line of lead vocalists, and “Legacy” is their tenth album.

Today’s Praying Mantis play polished twin-guitar hard rock, more AOR than metal. It’s a long way from NWOBHM, though they were always on the more melodic side of things from the beginning. It kicks off with the Uriah Heep-like opener “Fight For Your Honour”. Songs like “The One” and “All I See” recall the hard rock side of Journey; the solo on the latter is very Neil Schon. “Believable” is a highlight with its a huge anthemic chorus, while “Eyes of a Child” and “Better Man” are heavier and darker. But this album is remarkable in its consistency, there is no filler and every track has something to like about it. Just occasionally it skirts on the edge of cheese, but most of the time this is a classy piece of work.

Even if nothing they on this record is particularly original, they’ve very good at what they do, and songcraft, performance and production is superb, polished just enough to shine but without taking off the raw edge. John Cuijpers has a great hard rock voice, and the other new member, drummer Hans in’t Zandt, also makes his mark with his propulsive drumming. It’s a rather different Praying Mantis from the failed metal band of the early 1980s, but it’s actually a far better one.

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