Reviews

Jarek Mace (14th May 2008)

The Daisy Hill, Sacriston
9th May 2008

Gladstone are a 4 piece band comprising of

Ruth (Vocals and Keys)

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Arty (Guitar, Cello)

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Snap (bass, Guitar and vocals)

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and John (drums)

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I first heard of 'Gladstone' several years ago, when I was in Tubesnake.

Carl, owner of the 'Mill House' in Eighton Banks, financed a CD featuring his favourite artists that played at his pub.

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'Gladstone' were one of the artists who recorded songs for the album entitled 'Sweetcorn'.

I was blown away by their version of Stings' Fields of Gold' and on the strength of that, purchased Gladstone's debut album of original material.

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My first sighting of the band was at Rocketfest 2007 and again at Rocketfest 2008, where I quickly snapped up their second album 'OPM' (Other Peoples Music).

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It's this that most of their set is based around.

Gladstone are very, very different from any other band kicking about the north east music scene.

The story goes that Ruth, basically a raunchy rock chick inteh Alannis Morrisette genre (that's from my 13 year odl daughter who is a massive AM fan)

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Met this very quiet, studious, classically trained fella called Arty

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They form a band with Snap and John..

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and the two styles are fused perfectly...rock/pop with their own interpretation.

There's a lot of great use of the cello.

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Blended with some 'oomph'...
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The set started off with 'Don't Get Me Wrong' by the Pretenders followed by 'I'll Stand By You'.

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A self penned track called 'Not Alone' was the first indication of what's to come from 'Gladstone's' third album.

I like the sound of this already.

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'Substitute' and 'Stand By Me' lead into 'Snap singinglead vocals on Jim morrison's 'Delilah'.

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Ruth's banter with the crowd is good fun with her scolding the crowd for clapping Snap's vocals more than hers
'I'm not f*cking kidding' she laughed.

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'Billy Jean' lead into 'Eloise' , dedicated to Arty and Ruth's 3 year old daughter (oh yeah..I forgot to mention they were married, but you just have to listen to them scrapping on stage to guess that anyway hahja)

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'I breathed and put him off' complained Ruth as she recieved a hacky look from her fella.

Then came a cello lead version of Sabbath's Paranoid which was just further indication of how different 'Gladstone' are...

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The first set was deawn to a close with 'A Little Respect'.

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The second set contained more well known material by The Likes of Bad Company, Buzzman tails, White Stripes (with Snap again taking lead vocals) and the high points of 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Paint it Black'.

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By now the crowd were dancing away and made Gladstone perform no less than 3 encores including 'I Predict a Riot'.

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Gladstone are one of my favourire local bands.
As well as all 4 being really nice people that make you feel welcome at their gigs, they play instantly recogniseable songs with a totally different feel.

The use of keyboards and cello in a lot of the songs add a 'mournful' feel that make you sit back and listen.

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Ruth's vocals are raunchy at times but very melodic and sweet and others.

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Snap's a good singer as well and the rythm section of him and John are nice and tight.

If you get the chance to se them or get a copy of any of their CD's you will not be disappointed.

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