Podcast No 1: Trestles table a motion for change

THE Al O'Hare fronted Liverpool four piece The Trestles are pretty unusual for a modern Scouse band.
Eschewing nearly three generations' commitment to the faux mystical by the permanently stoned, the Trestles are dedicated to an old fashioned rock and politics manifesto which kind of sets them apart on the local scene.
Instead of looking at a mix of Beefheart and the Beatles for their inspiration, they look to the spiritual twilight of Celtic soul-era Van Morrison and raw early period Springsteen for their key influence. A hefty dose of Oasis-style working class pride also seeps through - it's no surprise given how O'Hare delights in declaring his love for the Gallagher's peerless first record, Definitely Maybe.

The key to understanding The Trestles is their fearsome live reputation and it's clear that the work ethic of Spingsteen underpins the whole shooting match.Theirs is classic, sincere, emotional, human rock and the lack of skinny jeaned/ floppy fringed cool is somewhat refreshing in the era of identikit Scallydellic rock. The Clash (particularly Joe Strummer), Neil Young and Christy Moore all leave their mark on either O'Hare's lyrics or the overall sound of the band.

You can see them on Saturday night, January 30th, at Liverpool's wonderful Zanzibar Club on Seel Street and for £3 on the door it's an absolute steal. 

They play the hipster hangout Korova in early February and as soon as their album is complete a raft of dates are promised and we'll do a review when it appears.

Scouser O'Hare (above right), a music journalist in his day job, joined forces with North Wales guitarist Tom Carroll (left) two years ago and the partnership is bearing fruit, first in the form of last year's Hard Faced Town EP and with the forthcoming 10 track long player we chat about in their interview.
The first single with the songs 'The Civilised' and 'Drink of Water' are available over on their mySpace page. I'll pop them up here tomorrow as a sneak preview of the gig.

I went along to Al's gaff, appropriately enough in the Penny Lane area of Liverpool, and we chatted for nearly two hours - 40 minutes of which have become the inaugural some might say premier GM podcast.

Al's going to join GM for a regular music podcast over coming months so let us know about what you think and we'll have a chat about it.

GMs most pertinent blog of its short history?

WE'RE not saying Noel Gallagher, former chief songwriter for the erstwhile Champagne Supernova hitmakers Oasis, cocks an ear to what emerges from GM HQ, but surely it can be no coincidence he sidled out of the band a week or so after we posted this?

Noel Gallagher: Rock's great interviewee

NO-ONE could ever accuse Oasis of reinventing the wheel, their brand of British cultural magpie-ism sees them often derided as cheap rip-off merchants by the serious rock media.
However, this often detracts from band leader Noel Gallagher's great intelligence and engagingly witty personality, which rarely get a chance to shine on the page of music magazines.
The dominance of Noel's brother Liam as voice of the band, live and on record, also masks Noel's own brilliance as a singer. Well brilliance would be overstating it, but his voice has improved with age and is now an emotive instrument and his acoustic sets and B sides have long been a favourite of GM.
Hopefully these clips will give you an insight into the world of Oasis. The first is an acoustic version of B side Good to be Free and the other two - why he is a funny and engaging interviewee.
Again thanks to the wonderful Interface podcast at spinner.com for this free download, the highlights of which can be listened to below.



Good to be Free


On the M Ward, Edgar Jones Jones and music


Solo album, acoustic sets and annoying Liam