Curlers - The Glory Box
Our first real review From the I&I newsletter Glasgow Uni
ROCK 'N' ROLL
Hot on the heels of their successful gig at the Halt Bar on Friday the 30th July, Marlow, a Glasgow popular beat combo played to a modest but enthusiastic audience upstairs at Curlers on the balmy evening of Tuesday the 3rd of August. And the man who puts the "beat" into the combo is none other than our own Scott Arkison. Scott has been playing drums with the band since February of this year when he and Ric (on bass guitar) joined up with Gareth and Giles (vocals and lead guitar). The newly formed band entered a Battle of the Bands competition at the QMU and won! Their prize included securing the support act at the Freshers week gig at the QMU and a day of studio recording time in the Brill Building. The result is a 6-track EP "Lucky 7" ( available from Scott at a very modest sum).
So......the gig then. Marlow played about 8 or 10 songs (I lost count... something to do with the fizzy pop), some from "Lucky 7" some not. Highlights were "I Desire You" and "Spur". My companions, for whom this was their first Marlow experience, were impressed and commented (favourably) on influencesthey detected in the music; REM, Manic Street Preacher,Blur. The band may disagree but you can't argue with the punters. Gareth's voice is undeniably good and is best in higher octaves than lower ones, although any straying from key on the low notes may have been a consequence of the mince acoustics of Curlers. Later in the gig Giles took a few opportunities to let loose with some darned funky guitar work - it was a bit of toe-tappin' treat. In the background Ric's bass was steady and appropriatley understated. and what of Scotty? Well chums, he's really good. He lays down some pretty complex and nifty rythms and his long suffering neighbours should seek solace in the possibility of living next door to a pop star of the future!
Olwyn "Groupie" Byron.
Scotty's opinion....
Well, our second Gig, and within four days, Sheesh. Well we were the last band of three. The other bands were: The Heyes and Brown Eye Superfly. As usual, one band never turned up, so it was up to us and B.E.S. The setup was pretty good, decent P.A. (WOO HOO!!), decent crowd and we got paid in beer!!! B.E.S came on and started kickin' up a storm, very funky with the bass player using a distortion, turbo overdrive and Wah-Wah pedals to get some strange sounds. After they finally cleared the stage, we only had 5-7 mins to set up the back line to suit, a bit tight but we got on with it. Personally I didn't think it was quite as smooth as the Halt Gig but the crowd were getting right into it. Some of the guys we asked along specifically to give us pointers on our sound said that we were tighter and played with much more energy than the Halt. I don't know, I can't here a bloody thing behind the drums anyway. It was a much shorter gig, only 45 mins, and as soon as we came off we were asked if we wanted to play again in the near future. We should have a review from people who were there in the next week or so, but no-one has said we were crap so we have to assume we aren't that bad. Any comments, direct them at me Scotty
Set List
Front Runner
Troubled Mind
Part Two
I Desire You
Spur
Making the News
Eros
Friday Night
The Truth
Scotty's opinion #2 28/09/99
Well, back to Curlers again. On second of three bands this time. Better sound and a lot tighter. The first band on was 'Lifeform 281', pretty good, bit too much like Elvis meets The Undertones for my taste, but there we are. The 'main' band were the Finger creams (now known as Mic Smiles ??-ed). They were a bit too cabaret sounding, I was expecting the keyboard to have pink fluff, but it was not to be.
The only down side was that we only had 30 mins to play for, we we under the imperssion that it would be 45 so we had to cut the set short. Other than that it was a good gig.
Scotty
SET LI
Troubled Mind
Spur
Making the News
Part 2
I Desire You
Lost On My Own Without You
Front Runner