As of today (26/10/09) it is eighteen days until Rock Out has its first gig at the Cheese and Grain Hall in Frome, Somerset UK on Friday the 13th of November this year. I must admit to being anxious and a bit nervous about the whole thing. So much has gone into it since December/January 2008/9 when I had the dream which inspired the whole thing alongside so much inspiration from bands and friends of mine on various networking sites. However I am confident that this project will be a great success and achieve its goal to raise funds for Cancer Research UK while providing an additional promotional platform for so many brilliant and inspirational independent/unsigned bands and artists who I have befriended while networking and working here at www.rockandrollreport.com as Intense Nick (UK Correspondent).

Full details and a great many ‘free’ downloads from many willing and supportive bandmates are available at the recently made Rock Out website, www.inrockout.com, do please take a look at this and enjoy the generosity of the bands. All that is asked is that you show appreciation by using the ‘Donate’ button on the ‘favour for a Favour’ page, but this is not essential, just highly useful and the best way to show appreciation for the involved bands generosity and to show support for the project. This set up is likely to change very soon to ramp up the incentive to donate.

The more support this project gets, the more likely it is to carry on, and genuinely and sincerely hope that it does, there are just so many great bands involved now, even if they are just awaiting patiently for the project to stage them.

Notable bands include the three who are to perform at Rock Out 1, I AM BODHi, Le Cul and Janey Summer, who is top of the bill. Also the Buffalo Kings who sadly had to withdraw from the first set due to other unavoidable commitments. Le Cul deserve a special mention as they are traveling all of way from Copenhagen to the west of England to play for the cause.

Other bands who deserve a big mention here are Johnfish Sparkle, who has offered to travel from Italy to perform for the cause, Anubis from the Midlands UK as do the Fores and Beyond Redemption. Four Year Beard, from New Jersey, has been so inspirational and generous.

I thank all the bands involved along with everybody who has helped to support and promote this event and its very worthy cause, Cancer Research UK. Rock Out is registered there,

Registration no. 400268521

Thanks,

Intense Nick (Nick Giles)

1. ‘Between Two Worlds’ – This opening song begins with an eerie sound of a distant large bell ring over a backdrop of windy weather sounds. Then a basic two finger keyboard rhythm comes into play and keeps flowing throughout the song. The bass, drums and guitar all subtly com into play along with Janey’s glorious vocals. It flows along very gracefully for about 4.5 minutes and pulls you in and along with it in a gentle majestic fashion. This like all of Janey’s has true heartfelt feeling to it, This combined with that voice of hers as always makes this great song shine out wonderfully starting ’Along The Way’ perfectly.

2. ’Flame’ – Begins with some great acoustic sounding guitar work leading to those vocals again where they tell a story about the chase of love. It is another beautifully written, arranged, and recorded song flowing from all of the care and love that the Janey Summer Band have put into it.

3. ‘Seeing You’ is another truly classic, loving rock tune that mesmerises with flowing joyful rhythms and harmonious riffs and chords to take you to the heights of the song.

4. ’Lie Along The Way’ goes a bit deeper, musically and lyrically and carries a feeling of melancholy. It is not a highlight, the title gives this away but it is an absolutely top quality song, with some beautifully overlaid vocals which highlight the emotions perfectly.

5. ‘Kept Me Waiting’ is another top notch classically Rocking love song which raises the tempo up. It is a really strong tune using more vocal overlays and choruses which highlight Janey’s vocal power.

6. ‘Stranded’ Is a sad love song about the breakdown of a relationship which flows so smoothly telling its tale of emotional blues and heartache using a little slide guitar which harmonises into the choruses so subtly and beautifully.

Then the mood of the album is turned around drastically as it moves onto:

7. ’ You Rock(My Chemistry), This brings the musical mood right up as it Rocks along expressing the feel of loves initial buzz so well. It is the high point of the album and once again beautifully written and performed with a highly catchy chorus. It is no surprise that this song has been a highly successful single release, it is a supreme example of high quality popular Rock and been a favourite of mine from the fist time that I heard it.

8. ‘Sometimes’ closes the album perfectly. It is a wonderfully written and strong rocking song, its melodies entrance as those vocals and lyrics draws you in and along with it. This song has to be my top pick from the album. It is a perfect example of the skill and style of Janey and her great band as well as being a top example of the amount of thought, feeling and love which Janey and the band puts into their music.

This great album is out through Holier Than Thou Records and available through from Play, HMV, Amazon, itunes as well as direct purchase.

You can check Janey out on her myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/summerock

Or on her site http://www.janeysummer.com

This album has been achieving a great deal of success and rightfully so, this such high quality material that it puts Janey and her band right up there, matching any artist on a major label and surpassing most with ease.

Intense Nick – When, where and how did you get into your singing?

As for getting specific about the when, where and how – I’d have to say “When” – around 1986, “Where” – in my bedroom at my parents house in Shepton Mallet, that well known centre of the Rock Universe ;o) *

“How” – ‘discovering’ the likes of Rainbow, Dio, Free, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, and being blown away and inspired by the quality and power of those guys voices. That’s when the dream of being a rock singer first emerged, with the help of my hairbrush ;o)

But yeah, it wasn’t until I was living in Australia a few years back, that I decided to really ‘go for it’. You’re seen as a dreamer if you imagine you can make a career out of any kind of art form, plus I’d had the stuffing knocked out of me on more than one occasion. So even though I was writing a lot and playing in different bands I never gave myself the chance (or had the confidence) to imagine that it would develop into anything more. I guess moving to another country snapped me out of it – helped me shake off my reservations. I became determined to push myself more and more and develop as a rock vocalist and songwriter. And I’ve never looked back!

Intense Nick – How did you get your great band together?

Well, basically, after getting the album done, I wanted to do bigger live shows. So, getting a backing band became a necessity for me. Out of the blue I got an email from Rob, who had just bought the album, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing any of his songs. I liked his material, and I mentioned that I was looking to team up with a guitarist/songwriter, and so we met up try each other’s songs out. It worked really well, so we decided to recruit a bassist and drummer to complete the line up – Matt and Jay were both an instant hit, and so we formed with the aim of doing a series of gigs during 2009 to promote my album and see what happens from there. So far so good!

Intense Nick – You have played at a wide variety of pubs and clubs, could you tell us about any high’s and lows from this experience?

Oh, man, what a variety! The highs and lows most often come from the atmosphere in the crowd, assuming there is one there in the first place. I really love it when the audience gets into it – creates such a great vibe that everyone feeds off. It’s awesome. I can’t decide what’s worse – playing to no-one or playing to a bunch of people that aren’t into the music – both very disheartening. I did a gig in Bristol once where I played to my boyfriend, the promoter, and the sound man and his girlfriend who were necking all night. What made it worse was that the ‘support’ was some god awful folk sing-songwriter that I had to sit through. Fuck me! I should have left before it started! I did sell a CD though, so not all bad!

Some of my best highs and lows were with Rock Godz, who I was proud to front for a couple years. We pretty much cleared a place once. I knew we were on to a bad thing when we setting up – a girl came up to us and asked ‘Do you do any Madonna?’ I said “Not really, love, have you ever heard of Saxon?” “No”, was the answer, and oh my heart sank! But on the up side, in the same gig, a bunch of guys came in dressed up as nurses with fishnet stockings and whatnot – one of them came up to me half way through the gig, lifted his dress up to reveal his posing pouch which he gracefully waggled in my direction, just as I was getting into the chorus of “Can’t get enough” Hilarious! I don’t know who the guy was, but I hope for his sake he was just cold that night ;o)

Intense Nick – What size and type of venue is your ideal dream, a hall of say 5000 capacity or 50,000 arena stadium?

Well of course I’m going to say a 50,000 arena! Or the main stage at Download Festival? In reality the atmosphere in the crowd matters more. Some of the best gigs if I’ve been to have been pretty small, really – like Saxon in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff, probably only about 400 people there, but man, what a gig! If I had to pick my dream venue though, I’d say either the Colston Hall or Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol.

Intense Nick – Given the choice of any, which Rock band or Deity would you most like to team up with for a double act, also why?

Deity? Does that include God? I’d do a double act with him, that’d be awesome! As for teaming up with a ‘rock god’ for a gig, top of the tree would have to be Ronnie James Dio – his contribution to rock and metal is immense, and he is an ongoing inspiration to me. I’d love to share a stage with Paul Rodgers and do some old Free and Bad company classics too, that’d be very cool.

Intense Nick – What advice would you give to any budding vocalists out there at the moment?

Your voice is your instrument, so you have to be prepared to invest in it. Practise, develop your range, tone and projection, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different singing techniques to find your ‘real’ voice. Sometimes people are too fixated on sounding like a certain person that they don’t set their own voice free. Find a good vocal coach and look after your voice.

Intense Nick – Which of your own songs are personal favourites and again, why?

‘Sometimes’ is probably my personal favourite to listen to. It has a lot of meaning for me, being about the loss of my brother, and how I would have given my life to save his. I’m sure many people feel the same when they lose someone so close. But Sometimes is my favourite for other reasons too – the process of recording and producing the song was awesome! Hearing it develop from the ‘demo’ version I’d done at home, to the glorious production that’s on the album was great fun and very rewarding – it is how I’d always imagined it sounding, and I absolutely love it. Big thanks go to Mark and Shane for their input to the track. I also love ‘You Rock (My Chemistry) – again it has personal meaning as it is the first song I wrote for my boyfriend, but aside from that it is a great song to perform, and catchy crowd-pleaser!

Intense Nick – Where would you like to see yourself in say 5-10 years?

Ooh, on a yacht floating on the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia drinking Boag’s Draft out of a frosty glass – yeah that’d be very groovy. Seriously, though, for me the future is simply about being 100% committed to continuing along this path – as long as my voice is healthy I want to carrying on recording and doing live shows until I fall of my perch! What ever else comes along on the back of that – eg yachts, or being able to invite Dio or James Hetfield around for a morning cuppa, well, that’d be a blessing and a bonus.

http://www.myspace.com/summerock
http://www.janeysummer.com/

* Shepton Mallet is a small market town in the county of Somerset, United Kingdom.

About six months ago, I began to have far too much spare time on my hands due to a lack of work. This gave me the chance to finally take a proper look at the My Space networking site, which I had previously shied away from for various reasons, mostly time and network connection related. My original intention was to write and rave about all the aspects of Rock music, which had been irking me for some time. I may still get to this, watch out!

After a very short search of the music and artists in My Space, my enthusiasm for the genre went through the roof with the sudden discovery of so many inspirational and truly brilliant bands and artists getting themselves known though the site, and other networking sites. This halted my plan of being a ‘Rock Pig’, instead I decided that I would use my page as a platform from which I could be positive and help to support and promote some of the bands who had been honouring me with their friendship. After reading a blog relating the loss of a brother through throat cancer, on the part of the year where I am most susceptible to this due the loss of my own Father to colonic cancer several years ago. At that time I had also had several ‘spacemates’ enquire as to whether I was able to assist them in setting up tour dates or recommend promoters etc who could. I was just an out of work Construction Site Engineer with too much time to kill, what do I know about staging a gig? I knew that I was touched by this and took it as a compliment. This led to waking after a heavy session the night before, in the middle of a dream involving myself having put on a Rock gig for all of my great new band mates. My instant thought was, hell yeah, go for it! I have been banging away at this since January this year. I have now had the confirmation for the booking of the Cheese and Grain Hall in Frome, Somerset in the UK, for the gigs, we are going to run the first event on Friday the 13th of November this year and test the water, once up and running it should I hope lead to more gigs. I have nearly a dozen quality Rock bands offering to play at the event. If all goes well I hope this to become a series of gigs, all for Cancer Research UK who Rock Out is presently registered with, registration Number 400268521.

The Cheese and Grain

The venue is as mentioned, the Cheese and Grain Hall in Frome, Somerset. This is a great venue in an old building, which is part of Frome’s heart (http://www.cheeseandgrain.co.uk/Venue/History.htm)

The first Rock Out gig has Janey Summer at the top of the bill. Janey’s commitment to her music along with her friendship and her own commitments to Cancer Research plus a desire to play at the Cheese and Grain, all helped inspire Rock Out tremendously. Another brilliant band who have inspired me with their friendship and support are The Buffalo Kings from Swansea in South Wales, UK. They are to play also. Le Cul from Denmark have overwhelmed me with their support, friendship and enthusiasm to come all the way over to the South West of England and Rock Out for me. They are to go on first and set it all off in style.

Rock Out has all these great bands offering to play and so far one night on offer to test the water and see how it goes. I am sure that it is going to be great, I do hope that it goes well enough to make future dates a reality.

The bands offering their services on stage are :

The Buffalo Kings (http://www.myspace.com/thebuffalokings) – I have reviewed The Buffalo Kings as a Nick’s Pick at the Rock and Roll Report. They are an inspiring bluesy heavy Rock band from Swansea, South Wales UK and active in the UK ‘Live & Unsigned’ competition, competing in the regional finals on the 26th of April in Bristol.

Janey Summer

Janey Summer and her great band are another act that I have covered for the Rock and Roll Report and are from the South West of England (http://www.myspace.com/summerock). The more I hear of Janey’s voice, the more impressed I get, the more I wish to hear and definitely a voice to die for.

Anubis (http://www.myspace.com/theanubisprojectuk) are from Wolverhampton, Midlands UK. I have not covered them as yet, they are part of my back log of reviews. They have a very accomplished sound which is unmistakeably Anubian. It is traditional melodic hard Rock music using some beautiful female vocals. Simon Lees(the Pharaoh) is on guitar, he used to play for Budgie, who were a highly acclaimed and influential Rock act(they certainly helped to influence my taste).

Another previous Nick’s Pick at the Rock and Roll Report are Le Cul (http://www.myspace.com/leculdk). As mentioned earlier are more than happy to travel and play in the UK at the Rock Out gig.

Also I AM BODHi are currently a review in progress (http://www.myspace.com/iambodhi). This act is a great young British Rock band from Swindon in the South West, UK.

Beyond Redemption are another band I am currently in the process pf reviewing (http://www.myspace.com/beyondredemptionthrash) and are a great new fusion Metal from Kidderminster in the Midlands UK. These guys are already involved in raising funds. They are staging a charity gig at The Sutton Arms in Kidderminster, Midlands, UK on May 9th to help refurbish Millbrook House, a local cancer center.

The Blue Embers

Blue Embers from France are yet another band awaiting review ( http://www.myspace.com/blueembers) are a great young Rock’n’Roll act who have offered to come and play. They are a great rock, classic rock and blues band, who have offered to travel for the gig bringing their own wonderful style of ‘Rock’n’Roll résistance’.

Mirtazapine Dreams (http://www.myspace.com/zeusmoose) are another brilliant alternative rock band from Birmingham and Stafford in the Midlands UK who wish to come and play. Again their review is pending so I had better get slaving over a hot keyboard. They are currently in need of a bass player, so if you can help please contact them.

The most recent offer has come from a metal act named Terrorform from Birmingham, Midlands, UK (http://www.myspace.com/terrorformbirmingham). They are a riotous metal band whose drummer is to take part in a sponsored bicycle ride from London to Paris in September and raise funds to help the organization called ‘Beating Bowel Cancer’, registered UK charity. He hopes to raise £3600 and so far has almost
£2500 so is doing very well, but could use more help. http://www.justgiving.com/..katerichterry is the place to go to if you can help here.

From London, Morning Lane have offered to head west and rock for the cause (http://www.myspace.com/morninglane). They are a well established indie/rock/pop outfit who have a tight and professional sound about them.

The Fores from Leicester, Midlands, UK are also keen to play (http://www.myspace.com/thefores). They have a great rock/indie style played with a true rock’n’roll feeling.

The next two bands who have expressed an interest are Gripshift from Bristol (http://www.myspace.com/gripshift). A great local Rock/Metal/Alternative outfit with a superb sound fronted by Luci who tops the Gripshifts creativity with amazing female vocals.

Finally for now the Bad Detectives from Frome itself (http://www.myspace.com/baddetectives) have responded to my enquiries looking for very local acts. They have been gigging around the Frome area playing pubs, clubs and parties for a couple of decades evolving into their current rockabilly/garage/country theme. A great bunch who keep going for the love and enjoyment of playing their music.

The Rock Out project (www.myspace.com/459406206) now has a bank account in the name of ‘Rock Out’ and also a Paypal account in the same name. If you are able to give a little (or a lot!) to this cause then please do, The sooner it comes in, then the sooner then the more I am able to make the bookings and hire necessary to stage this and make it ROCK while helping in a cause which affects so many people. The achievements of Cancer Research UK will obviously help all sufferers wordwide.

I have so many people to thank for their help and inspiration, Sharon Millar, Janey Summer and Mark Boudreau are the top three in no particular order, huge thanks here and to countless others not forgetting the Cheese and Grain Hall itself. Michelle, operations director of The Dorsey Touch also deserves thanks, along with Ed Dorsey, Church of Black Book Entertainment Group. For the flyer/bulletin/poster design I have to thank the young and enterprising Lewis Paulin for his great work in putting the design together and also Leann Wilson for her support and allowing me to use a photo of hers as background image. Finally I thank Cancer Research UK for their help and support especially Alexis Woodward the regional co-ordinator here in the South West of England. Most of all I thank my wife Karen for her support, patience and understanding while I have been putting Rock Out together. And of course, my Mum! (No, seriously!)

Rock Out will, I hope, grow into series of gigs for the cause and be a good event to showcase and help promote a lot of independent and unsigned bands whilst also providing a (hopefully plural) great night out for many rock fans.

Intense Nick http://www.myspace.com/rockpiguk thanks all.

Her first release will hit the main retailers in February this year, a single called ‘You Rock My (Chemistry)’, this is a beautifully written song with composition and arrangement to match or top any other. A cracking tune, with a gloriously powerful and catchy chorus, topping such soothing and intriguing melodies.

This song, like all of her work, brings out all the best in Janey’s wide vocal range, from gloriously bluesy harmonics to full on raunchy Rock’n'Roll. Her album ‘Along The Way’ was released in August 2008.

Given the opportunity, Janey could easily match the best of the all time greats and rise above them with ease. You can check her out at www.myspace.com/summerock or at janeysummer.com

Nick