Fossil Collective at the Yardbird Gig Review

Fossil Collective @ the Yardbird
Gig 31: Sun 10 June 2012


The last day of my holiday rattling around, fed up about having to go back to work and so it seemed incredibly sensible to go and see a band to take my mind off it. In fact this was a gig that I was looking forward to as it would be my third time of seeing The Fossil Collective, and I was becoming a bit of a stalker, if one can be a bit of a stalker at the age of 40 fitted in around a young family and work.

So a quick tweet to find out when they were on, and the Pub Quiz was deffed out again. Arriving at the Yardbird with a bit of time to spare I found that something must have aligned in the stars because everything was going my way:

i) Walking into the venue a little early it turned out that........there was no entry charge...Freebie!
ii) There was a bar stool available right where I wanted to be sitting, making me feel like I was a member of cheers whilst supping my pint of Coors
iii) The Ireland v Croatia game was on the TV right in front of me, which was a nice twist as I got to watch the Irish wupped (not so good), with lots of talk about a contentious offside goal (played onside) and the Villa Goalie manage to score a nice header into his own net, pretty good feeling.
iv) Oh yes and a couple of bands were coming on!

The first band up was a support act called Sam Eden, who was local (well from Malvern in Worcestershire) and battled for attention with the crowd which was filling out and talking robustly when he started. I enjoyed his set, and felt for him battling on to make a living as a singer songwriter, as he pointed out he's not signed and doing his bit the best he can. Looking back with a couple of weeks grace, his songs had something about them and he won the battle with the audience.




He had a good level of banter between each song about what they were all about and swapped between the guitar and keyboard. In my opinion the guitar tunes took the edge, but then I've never been too much of a fan of Elton John sitting at the piano singing moments. Standout tune, probably Footsteps but pretty entertaining, I would suggest purchasing it!

After Sam Eden had finished and received a standing ovation from an incredibly young looking orange T Shirted chap on the front row, we had the lull between the bands, livened up by the 'did you know there's no such thing as death' conversation which kicked off on the bar stools next to me, and the Ireland game (which had been quite distracting for me whilst Sam was on) came to an end.

The Fossil collective took to the stage at around the same time as the young student posse from Edinburgh arrived to watch the Fossil collective. Again another quality gig, lots of great humour and banter about the set, particularly when the same orange T Shirted chap had a song dedicated to him for his enthusiasm, just when he stood up to go to the loo. Well we can't wait all day suggested the band, querying whether it was a number one or two as he left the stage. Quite amusingly when he came back, and they were mid song the must have been a wee comment went straight over Orange T Shirt's head.

Just shows what a glamorous lifestyle it is for a band up and coming as they were looking forward to finishing the Yardbird gig, being the last of the current tour as they will then be off for a break and not having to spend the night 6 to a room in the hotel, and when quizzed on what format their debut release was taking the following day, it was simply electronic - all purchased though!

Pointing again to the superb harmony's from the fossil collective and standout single 'Let it go' is easy, I will be back - and getting in contact next time they are in Brum, especially as Jonny knew my name, unlikely I will be in Edinburgh again!

Also love the cover of Power of Love which has been on the ipod on heavy rotation (if thats relevant to the zero's and ones of an ipod) over the last few weeks




which you can download for free here - BOOM!!

Buy That Single off Itunes

I am now officially a stalker, I'll get my coat.

Fossil Collective Gig Review Edinburgh

Fossil Collective @ Sneaky Pete's Edinburgh

Gig 29: 28 May 2012

And so I may be getting a little bit obsessed with this new found love of live music but when I got the opportunity to go to Scotland for a couple of days there was no way that I was going to pass up the opportunity of seeing a gig north of the border. The organisation of the trip was ludicrous, as I had expected a full week in Edinburgh last week which came to nothing, and today I found myself up with the lark at 5:00 sneaking around the house so as not to wake the sleeping children and incur the wrath of Mrs P.

Then after a panicked security check in in Birmingham, queues through to Franky and Bennies, I arrived in Edinburgh finally for my trip, after settling in for 3 hours I was off to Glasgow, and having been there for about three hours I was on my way back to Edinburgh. I had actually covered planes, trains and automobiles (taxi and car) today quite comfortably by the time the end of the working day closed and I checked in at the hotel. By this time, having skipped lunch due to travelling the 5:00 am wake up call was beginning to take its toll, so I cried off going out with my colleagues and went to my room. Looking out of the window however I was confronted with the following view, a view so amazing I would be kicking myself if I had stayed in watching Dara O’Briain on Dave, so I tweeted the band I knew was playing in Edinburgh, found out they were on at 9:00 and set off.

Having planned ahead for this eventuality I had google map directions to Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh. When I got to the end of the directions and found no venue of any sort, merely a closed cinema, I junped in a taxi and arrived at SP’s just as the support Blank Canvas kicked off their final track, which was a reasonable support band effort but nothing I could do justice with for a review.

Grabbing a beer from the bar (no pumps, so a bottle of Tyskie had to suffice) and I was leaning up against the pillar right in the middle of this tiny venue, pretending to be engrossed in my blackberry I watched as a couple more people entered and the band discussed whether or not to start and at 9:20 they kicked off. When the took to the stage, suddenly I remembered why I was keen to see these guys again having supported Ren Harvieu, not just because they had a great range of beards, from Desperate Dan to bum fluff, not because the drummer (or yuke player previously) player was the spitting image of Jimmy Carr with a beard, but.....these guys had been the best support act I had seen this year, with in particular the harmonies that they came up with being phenomenal.

As they kicked off the gig I found I had a nice spot front and centre with no one to block my view, which was nice given the giants from the St Etienne gig on Saturday and within seconds of the first song it felt like despite there being a limited crowd around I was listening to the start of a really special band. 

To give a feel for how sparse the crowd was you could hear the pedals being changed by the band in between songs with a clear click.

Set List

What can I say about the songs apart from the fact that they sounded perfectly formed without the band having released a note, great harmonies coming from the lead singer, drummer (Jonny who had escaped the yuke) and keyboard player (resplendent in bowler hat) meant that every song was stand out. There was a nice mix up when the set list, helpfully written out in Italian by the Italian contingent of the band, was misconstrued, and again it all added to the warmth of the gig. If I was pushed I would put the band close to Doves, but with better harmonies, the fun and warmth of Doves shines through, similarly for Elbow when they aren’t being too serious in their songs. The single that’s due out in June, possibly called let it go wrapped up the set, and has been a staple on the ipod (sorry but taped off myspace) since seeing them support Ren, and the choice of cover was interesting and a great take on Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love’ – hopefully also to get an official airing.

The one thing that was slightly surreal was the announcement  by the band that it was their first gig in Edinburgh, and thanks for coming (no surprises so far) followed by, ‘Particularly these 2 at the front who have made the journey from Birmingham’ Aldridge we then found out specifically, and the guitarists from Hall Green. Armed with this knowledge of a Brum massive in the house, I felt I ought to make myself known at the end of the gig, and fuelled with a number of Tyskie’s I managed to avoid the ‘I love you I do’ initial gambit, to find out that this bands talent seems to have them on  a great upward trajectory, with some live radio potentially to come and play listing. Plus getting the band to sign a Tote bag (where would we be without Tote Bags) and embarrassing myself when stating to the Italian member of the band that he didn’t sound Italian after he said 2 words to me followed by a few sentences of pure Italian accent to make me smile sheepishly.

I left Tote Bag clutched in hand, warm Tyskie glow Reddie Brek like around me wondering whether I would be able to get Mrs P to come along to the free show at the Yard Bird in Birmingham, touch and go it will be, but as the drum playing Jimmy Carr impersonator is from Middlesbro, anything is possible.

Happy Days.