An American’s Night Out in Chorleton, Manchester....
A Daily Planet Gig Report
| By Eric Brunvand
AS A SABBATICAL VISITOR to Manchester for 6 months, bluegrass fan and marginal mandolin player, I have been pleasantly surprised to find a nice smattering of bluegrassy events in the North West. First a short introduction. I’m an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. As part of my sabbatical this year I’ve been visiting some colleagues at the University of Manchester until the end of June. As part of getting settled in Manchester, and getting my payroll set up at the University of Manchester, one of my first tasks was to acquire a National Insurance Number. To make a long story short about that experience, I ended up in the Chorleton social security office with variouspapers, forms, letters, and passports speaking to a surprisingly friendly woman through two-inch-thick glass about why I didn’t have quite the right set of papers, and why I would need to come back again. As I was waiting for my bus which would return me to the University I noticed a flyer about a band called the Daily Planet playing at the Irish Club in Chorleton the following week. Deja-vu? The Daily Planet. That name dredged up a dim memory. Had I heard them somewhere before? I had a hazy memory of hearing that name at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado a few years ago. Could they also have played in Salt Lake City? Although I couldn’t recall theirsound or personnel, for some reason I had them mentally lumped with bands like Salamander Crossing and Leftover Salmon: bands that played a form of high-energy jam-oriented music with roots in bluegrass and played on (mostly) traditional bluegrass instruments. It sounded like a fine reason to spend a night out in Chorleton. The first challenge of the evening was to find the Irish Club. The directions on the flyer simply said “Irish Club, High Road, Chorleton.” I’m certain that anyone who spent any time in Chorleton would know where this was, but as I had only spent a couple of mornings at the social security office, I couldn’t really count myself as a Chorleton local. I took the #46 bus and got off in the business district. High Road turned out to be fairly easily to find, but after walking down the road for a half mile or so it was clear that this was a residential street and was continuing to be so. I was expecting a place that would have a concert to be in a more commercial area.
Prof. Brunvand picks with
John Prytherch (left) and Foreigners need more directions! I asked a couple folks if they knew where the Irish Club was and gota couple of blank stares and apologies for not having any idea where this club might be. As a wondered up and down High Road for a while (after all, it must be the right road!) I noticed one of the houses that I’d been walking back and forth in front of had a sign that said something like “Irish Social Club”, although it looked dark and deserted - and quite large. After a little more wandering I thought I’d try going down a side street to get a peek at the back of the place and, loand behold, there was a parking lot and a well-lit entrance to the Irish Club! I’m not sure what I expected the Irish Club to be, and I’m still not quite sure because I didn’t see the rest of the club, but on the ground floor wasa fairly large room with a stage on the long wall and a bar in the back. By this time I had missed any opening act that might have played, but The Daily Planet had not come on yet so, relieved, I bought a ticket, went in and had, what else in an Irish Club, a Guinness. After a few minutes, the members of the Daily Planet came out and I got a chance to talk with Leon Hunt, their banjo player, before they went on. He confirmed that not only had they played Telluride a few years ago, but they actually had played in Salt Lake City too! Mmmm...not a trad Bluegrass line-up... The line-up of the band is interesting and definitely not traditional bluegrass. The band consists of Leon Hunt (electrified banjo), Jason Titley (guitar), Tim Robinson (drums), Duncan Kingston (bass) and Jamie Matthews (harmonica). Bluegrass harmonica? It works a lot better than I ever would have thought! I’m not suggesting that Ralph Stanley or Del McCoury should add a harmonica to their bands, but it is an interesting sound. However, straight-ahead bluegrass is not what the crowd came to hear and not what the band came to play! After a bluegrassy opening number, the band shifted into what seemed to be their preferred sound and played a number of jazzy, bluegrassy, funky, tunes that brought to mind the early Bela Fleck and the Flecktones sound back when Howard Levy played harmonica with the Flecktones. In fact, The Daily Planet did a darned good job of playing in that style which, I’m sure, is not easy! That style of music can be very complex, especially compared with the standard I, IV, V and 4/4 time of a “real” bluegrass tune. I thought the stand-out players were Leon and Jamie. Leon has apparently studied with Bela Fleck and it shows. He has a great command of the electric banjo and of the complex tonal and rhythmic structures of Fleckstyle music. The Harmonica player has likewise really captured that jazzy harmonica sound.The crowd clearly appreciated what the band was doing: At a couple of points a few uninhibited souls got up and danced in front of the band, quickly retreating if the music got too slow. A short break, another pint and another set of fine music later things wound down. Is the ‘Planet’ a bluegrass band? Nope. Is their music inspired by bluegrass and have roots in bluegrass and other traditional forms? Clearly. Although the Daily Planetdoes have its own sound, it seems to fit in a class of bands like the Flecktones, Leftover Salmon, and Salamander Crossing that play jazzy, improvisational music that attempts to fuse a variety of traditional styles into a new sound. Sometimes this succeeds brilliantly, and sometimes it’s, well, interesting. One thing I find interesting about this type of music is how ‘Deadheads’ - followers of the (now former) Grateful Dead - and other people that I might call neo-hippies have begun toflock to these types of bands. The type of spacey improvisational spin that the Grateful Dead put on rock and pop music is the type of thing these bands are doing for traditional music. Even the dancing that some folks were doing at the Irish Club looked like what would have been enjoyed at a ‘Dead’ show in times past. Is this the future of bluegrass? I hope not! As much as I enjoy these bands, I also enjoy traditional bluegrass and am confident that there is room for all sorts of music in the greater scheme of things. Does Daily Planet have a future? I hope so! I’ll definitely look for them again and hope that they manage another north American tour sometime soon. Come back to Salt Lake City if you get a chance, guys! So, after a minor struggle getting back to Withington in the middle of the night involving missed cabs, no night buses, and running across a friendly cab after a short walk on quite deserted streets, I was home and happy. All in all a very fine night out in Chorleton.
Eric Brunvand, Salt Lake City, Utah
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