Slaughtered Lamb – Down At The Front

Amelia Coburn

Paul Hudson — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:51:56 +0000

Gallery of Amelia Coburn playing with her new touring band to play songs from her debut album. The fuller sound worked really well. With so many Teesside accents in the audience, it was like being at home.

John J Presley

Paul Hudson — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:21:31 +0000

Another excellent evening with John J Presley at the Slaughtered Lamb. I have said it in my reviews before, the mix vocals that sound like they have been dragged backwards through a quarry, and his excellent grungy blues guitar, just works for me. I really wish he got the recognition he deserves. But then selfishly, there is something special about seeing him and his band, in such an intimate space. Support was from Dolls. It is several years since I last saw ‘them’. It seems Dolls are now just Jade after Bel went back to Australia(?). Though I did miss the garage dynamic of guitar and drums just a little bit, Jade put on a fine show.

Blood Wizard

Paul Hudson — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 16:04:09 +0000

After Rachael Dadd, I decided to head into London to try and fit an evening gig. I don’t like Saturday evening gigs because I spend the evening looking at my phone in case trains have been cancelled due to lack of drivers. Blood Wizard was actually the support. As feared, the train cancellations started to come in, leaving only one train between 2220 and 1am. I wasn’t willing to risk that train being cancelled, so sadly missed the headline set from Samana.

Bloody Wizard is not a great name for a band – well any band that isn’t a metal band. But it’s a terrible name for a solo performer, as Cai Burns was tonight. He seemed embarrassed to use the name. Last year he released a really interesting solo album, Western Spaghetti, that was a departure for his previous work with Kagoule. The stripped back versions played on acoustic guitar, retained much of the charm of the album. Halo, my highlight of the album was just as good stripped back. While it was disappointing to miss the headliner. I didn’t feel short changed by only seeing Cai’s short set. I will have to catch him with his full band.

John J Presley at the Slaughtered Lamb

Paul Hudson — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:35:34 +0000

First evening since lockdown where I was double booked with a Warpaint’s Rough Trade in-store starting the evening. I haven’t seen Warpaint for a decade. Rough Trade in-stores usually start at 7pm which would leave enough time to walk across to the Slaughtered Lamb for John’s set. Unfortunately, tonight’s in-store didn’t start until 8. It is a sign of how much I like John, that four songs in, I hot-footed it across to the Slaughtered Lamb so I didn’t miss any of his set.

Luckily, they were running a little bit late which gave me the opportunity to catch the end of James Brute’s set, somebody I haven’t seen for a few years and another fine musician. Playing a grungy blues rock, he joked about how rusty he was after not playing for two years. It didn’t sound it.

This was also John’s first set gig since lockdown and showcased some of the songs from his Albany Sessions album released in 2020. John combines his excellent dark, scuzzy, psychy, delta blues guitar sound with his gruff vocals. On his cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘In My Time of Dying’ the song is stripped back almost to his vocals. The guitar simply being used to accent the darkness of the song. I absolutely love the sound John creates. The temptation when you are as good a guitar player as he is, is to overdo the guitars. But he blends his vocals and guitar perfectly. The set seemed to be over in a flash. Leaving me wanting more. Hopefully, it won’t be long before he plays again.

Set List

Come Alone
Sinnerman
St Louis
Chaos and Calypso
True Love Waits
Sweet Angel
In My Time of Dying
Dance With Me
Left
Age of Affluence
Riders