BLACK ARTS & KRAFTS’
Witchkraft have been kicking about in our local pubs for such a long
time now, and I’m guessing at close to around 14 years. They’ve had
their ups & downs with some disappearing (and then sometimes
reappearing) band members, yet they’ve been a good work-horse that have
done their best to always honour bookings and still keeping their brand
of rock covers out there on the pub circuit. It had been a while since
I’d last reviewed this band, yet with newer members now on board then
it seemed an appropriate time to give them a closer inspection once
again. So here’s a short review of their show at the Office on Friday
the 29th of June.
Witchkraft have had their share of misfortunes over recent years, with
a revolving door of singers and drummers coming & going. Yet
through it all there has always been the solid pairing of Mal Midwood
on guitar and Gaz Croft on bass. This has been the backbone of the band
for so long now and it’s their driving force that has kept the band on
the road for countless years. Familiar Witchkraft face John Westgarth
left the band a few months back after his third stint with the group,
yet after 3 sessions with Witchkraft it appeared that things still were
unsettled and that his time with them was definitely over. Gaz’s son
Lloyd had been drumming with the band up until last year when he
eventually decided to put his efforts full-time in to his other group
The Zoo. In came former White Noise drummer Cliff Massey whose style
was distinctly more typical 70’s rock, and as such (in my eyes) suited
Witchkraft’s choice of rock covers more authentically. The final piece
of the jigsaw came in to place just a couple ofmonths back with the
arrival of Mick Hanby on vocals. I know nothing about Mick’s previous
live experience etc, so to me he was a new guy on the local pub scene,
and I was very interested to see how he would fit in with the band, and
if he would have any effect on the group dynamics.
I’ve got
to say that Mick does have a very positive impact on Witchkraft.
Firstly he has a strong personality, and probably more so than any
previous singer with this band. He’s chatty with the audience, not shy
in any way, and carries himself on stage with confidence. This night
was most likely not the best of occasions to catch him in action as he
had just that morning suffered a close personal bereavement, and the
fact that he insisted on still playing the gig showed great strength of
character. The rest of the band would have fully understood if Mick had
wanted to pull this show (and so would have I under the unfortunate
circumstances), but he chose to play on and still gave a great
performance. His voice has a decent range and he managed to get in to
the upper reaches of the vocals for Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Deep
Purple covers. Not easy at all (especially when the band play in a
standard concert pitch tuning), but Mick fared well and only
occasionally could you hear his voice hit its limits on thevery top
notes. Yet what impressed me most with Mick was his buoyant
personality, his ability to communicate with the crowd, and his
enjoyment of being up their on stage with the rest of the lads.
Considering the events he had been faced with that day then he did a
splendid job and coped incredibly well. Hats off to you Mick!
Cliff on
drums is a great driving force within the group, and has given them a
strong framework on which to display their talents. I enjoyed watching
him play with White Noise last February shortly before their split (a
new line-up of the group is now back in action), and his job on the
drums was excellent back then. With Witchkraft then this is an even
better suited role for him to play, as Cliff is a massive Deep Purple
fan and he’s loving being able to play the songs of his hero Ian Paice
at every gig. And with the second set of the band being almost entirely
Deep Purple material then you could noticeably see him revelling in the
experience. Gaz on bass is the one that keeps everything grounded
firmly with his solid playing, and to me he is the heart of the band
that has kept it alive for so long now. Yet once again it’s Mal on
guitar that is the biggest showman within the group, and it’s always a
pleasure to see him in action with his Ritchie Blackmore mannerisms and
guitar-wielding antics. He’s a fine entertainer, and although he’s
often in a world of his own at the right-hand side of the stage, he’s
still very charismatic throughout the show. He cuts shapes, spins
about, throws his arms up in to the air, and generally puts on a highly
visual performance. He’s guaranteed to put on a real show every time,
and this is one of the band’s greatest strengths.
The song
choices haven’t changed as dramatically as I hoped that they perhaps
would. There are newer numbers within the set that I hadn’t heard the
band play previously, but basically they fitted in so seamlessly that
it was hard to tell them apart. With tracks like Led Zeppelin’s
‘Rock’n’Roll’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’, and a couple of new Deep Purple
tunes like ‘Stormbringer’ and ‘Space Truckin’, then it wasn’t that much
of a change of direction for these lads. The 3 back-to-back Free
numbers in the first set can be a bit hard work with them all being
done in succession, but I realise that this is because Mal plays them
on a Les Paul guitar, and it’s less hassle having to keep constantly
changing with his beloved Strat all the time. So perhaps there’s not as
much variety with the second set being almost a tribute to Deep Purple,
yet all the tunes are done extremely well and when you get great
musical performances then that can make older standard tunes become a
lot more enjoyable. AC/DC’s ‘High Voltage’ at te end of the first set
has now been extended in the middle to become an AC/DC medley (very
much in the vein of FM’s famous Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin
medleys). During which they managed to squeeze in brief sections of
half a dozen other DC classic before finally refraining the main melody
and wrapping it all up.
The Deep
Purple inspired epic second half is done marvellously well, and to any
Purple fans in the audience then they would have lapped this right up.
Mick’s vocal rendition on the brief version of ‘Soldier of Fortune’ was
exceptional, and his tone on this particular track was amazing. Some
songs suited Mick’s voice better than others, and when he was kicking
things out in his mid-range then undoubtedly this was where he really
shone. The higher-end material didn’t get quite the same kind of power
(or natural volume), and the lower stuff like ‘Locomotive Breath’ was
definitely just a little too deep for his style. Yet when Mick was in
his comfort zone then he could blast out some fine vocals with great
ease, and with quite a nice tone too. I still would love to see the old
Witchkraft set list get some kind of radical re-vamp in parts. The Rory
Gallagher numbers have gone now, and the band have edged towards a
heavier side with a lesser blues feel. Yet it’s when they do tracks
like Montrose’s ‘Space Statin No5’ that you really get to feel the full
power & energy of this group. More songs like this would really
benefit their set list and give it a lot more light & shade
variety. What Witchkraft play is all done to a very good level, but for
me it can sometimes feel a little safe. I’d personally like to see the
band with a bit more edge to them with some fire in their bellies and
really going for it with higher adrenaline numbers too.
Yet
whatever Witchkraft do in the future, they essentially are a 70’s hard
rock outfit that is typically made up of classic songs from that era.
It would be insane of them to be anything else than true to themselves
and their influences, so they are probably restricted to that one
decade of rock (although I’ve seen them play the Cult’s ‘Lil Devil’
before). But these guys do it really well and quite authentically too.
I still hanker for that Hammond organ sound during the Purple numbers,
and probably always will do. I know that Mal and the lads would have a
full-time keyboardist on board if he had the right sound and was happy
to play this kind of material, but so far the position is still vacant
and open to offers. Yet for the rest of the band they all have a very
good retro 70’s sound that suits the material down to the ground. The
bass & drums work excellently together, athough it’s Mal’s
signature over-driven Strat sound that will always define the real
character of this band. There aren’t many one-gutar acts out there that
prominently feature a distorted Strat sound, and this is where
Witchkraft have a good foothold in the rock community by pretty much
having their own sound. Even if you were in the toilets, as soon as you
hear Mal’s playing you know instinctively who the band are, as that’s
how distinctive a group they are.
Witchkraft seem to have found themselves again after a few years of
turmoil. Cliff & Mick are both excellent assets to the band, and
they are a much stronger and far more focused unit because of their
inclusion. At last the group appear to have a solid line-up (fingers
crossed here as there are never any guarantees) that hopefully will see
them push ahead and re-establish themselves as one of the region’s
longer-lasting and best-loved heavy rock covers bands. I’d personally
would still like to see them take the odd chance here & there by
throwing in 2 or 3 songs that show a move away from the typical Purple
/ Free/ Zeppelin / ACDC covers that they are presently going for. It’s
just a case of mixing things up with a small sense of anarchy. Although
the band did play a bit of the Proclaimers ‘500 miles’, which was so
musically off-the-wall for them, yet absolutely worked superbly well.
So it shows that if done then it can indeed work.
Colin
Smoult. 2 / 7 / 07.
P.S. Best compliment of the night was Mal's lass saying
that I "looked more handsome" since losing weight. Mal, please feel
free to bring your lass along to the Office any time at all (ha-ha),
what a lovely woman.