All Done For 9

Korks Wine Bar - Otley

This isn't art for arts sake but it is music for goodness sake. Music that adds to the common good of the gig-going public of our fine town. Eschewing the lure of barbecues on a summer night in July, one hundred souls headed for Korks to partake of food for the soul rather than charcoal burgers and undercooked sausages.

For starters tonight Billie Marten. I want to be with the people who care she sang - we do care Billie that was why the room felt so silent. This sound of silence was nothing to be scared of. Billie plays a kind of Yorkshire flamenco and there is a church choir soloist quality to her voice. These hymns to melancholia ring around a congregation smiling at their memories of youth and wondering how a 15 year old can be so wise.

Next up the CJ Smith Band. The story goes that young Mr Smith, when he was a little older than our Billie went to study Art at Ealing College. Whilst he was there he formed a band with friends who included Freddie Bulsara and Brian May. They recruited a drummer, Roger Taylor and became SMILE. Chris's passion for American roots music meant that he decided to pursue his songwriting outside the band - Chris went on to play with many great talents of the 70s and 80s and Freddie, Brian and Roger followed a different musical journey.

These are mainly Chris's songs but the gentle blues of West Coast America wafts into Otley on the breeze. We are treated to a couple of solos from Chris but he is being coy tonight - not giving us too much. The band bounces into life when Francis briefly joins the band - two guitars better than one on this occasion. The fiddle playing of Neil Tunnicliffe is a joy - he picks out rhythm guitar riffs on his fiddle that offer a new slant on the songs.

And finally, Mojah treat us to the reggae compilation that would accompany any party. Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Janet Kay all join the party, and for one brief moment Jimmy Hendrix inhabits the guitar. All this accompanied by the massed ranks of the Korks choir, shimmying and swaying all around the room. It is easy to forget that reggae is the music of rebellion as well as the food of love and we are reminded of this as 'Redemption Song' brings this particular Sunday Service to a close.

by Ant Cotton