Rock Regeneration

The Winchester, Bournemouth

After some great local performances including a couple of very memorable shows at the O2 Academy (Bandalism and Bandalism 2) in Bournemouth, Sirpico return with a brand new self titled four track EP and a headline show at The Winchester in Bournemouth.

The other big news is that some of their material, “In the River”, is being considered for use in the American TV series “Dexter”, and their song “Human Wreckage” also being featured on the soundtrack to “Green Street” and “Rock n Rolla” star Geoff Bell’s new film “Collio”. So things seem to be really going places for this well respected Bournemouth band.

For tonight’s show Sirpico have invited a few friends to provide support, the 1st on is Portsmouth singer songwriter Matt McGowan and then The Frequency with DJ Stu “Dafu” Lewis providing some record (vinyl) deck trickery in-between acts.

Matt McGowan 1–2–3

Even though it is early doors the place is really packed already, and the noise from the excited crowd is quite off putting as Matt McGowan tries to be heard about the din of the crowd’s excited chatter. With just an acoustic guitar and his fine voice, Matt puts in a really solid performance after the sound man kindly cranks up the volume so at last people pay some attention. Matt’s self written well constructed songs such as “Neverman” all about not wanting to grow up and “Lullaby” are really impressive and gives the evening a really good kick start. Matt has being working hard getting his music out to a larger audiences with some notable appearances at the Roundhouse in Camden and an appearance in the Southern Area Final of the “Live & Unsigned” competition at the O2. He ends the impressive short 30 minute set with a song called “Not Real” leaving a very memorable lasting impression. Lets hope he is able to return to Bournemouth again soon in a venue where perhaps people are more willing to listen.

Things really start moving when popular local four piece band The Frequency take to the stage, the place is packed, with more people than I have ever seen at the venue. An incredible amount of changes have happened to The Frequency in the past year, and watching them here tonight you’d be mistaken in thinking they were a different band.

The Frequency 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9

The band have recently recruited a new bass player Jim, this has seen them reinvent themselves with a new completely new sound and different direction. They have steered away from sounding a cross between the Stereophonics, and Ocean Colour Scene, to have a new original harder edged sound which includes injections of soul, with an almost bluesy feel. The band delight their home crowd with a mixture of mainly new songs including new live favourite “More Than Your Ever Be” featuring some great uplifting lyrical content. The new songs came in the form of “Full Circle”, “Pray”, and the final number “All Up”. It is quite a risky move performing virtually all new songs during the set leaving out some of the great songs of their debut album “Fall To The Floor”. But this shows the bands willingness to change and regenerate. From the reaction of tonight’s crowd the band were triumphant here in their performance with their progress getting a big thumbs up for their harshest of critics.

With the party in full swing after some more great creative record deck scratching from DJ Stu “Dafu” Lewis it was now time for tonight’s headliners to take their place on the Winchesters’ stage. The band received a homecoming welcome better than has been seen in Bournemouth for a very long time and this support gave the band just what they needed to deliver a very top draw performance. Kicking of with the very rocking and upbeat “In Your Soul” with the combination of Al’s piano and Dan Meazza’s full on driving guitar the place was thoroughly rocking from the start with the momentum keeping pace for the entire show. The set was littered with wonderful songs such as “Jostle” and the outstanding “Human Wreckage” that just oozed pure rhythm ‘n blues combined with large elements of powerful rock guitar which really hit the target right in the centre.
Sirpico 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14