The Blackheart Orchestra
The ‘Hotel Utopia’ tour
Chrissy Mostyn (vocals, synthesizers, keyboards, guitar) / Richard Pilkington (vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass)
Another new band for me. The band’s own publicity tells me that, “The Blackheart Orchestra is officially the smallest orchestra in the world. Two people playing 13 instruments between them, Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington perform in what has been described as a ‘musical space station’ of instruments including guitar, bass, percussion, mandola, piano, organ, omnichord and their collection of vintage synthesisers. After over 1000 concerts and 3 albums they’ve played everywhere from Southampton to Sydney including London’s Palladium and Royal Albert Hall while piling up achievements from a nomination for the Progressive Music Limelight Award, Best British Duo, #4 Best New British Band, and #10 Most Important Rock Event of 2020. Their 2019 album Mesmeranto charted at #18 in the UK Rock Chart, single If You Tolerate This made #22 in the iTunes chart and Chrissy Mostyn was voted in the Top 5 World Female Vocalists in Prog Magazine’s 2021 Readers’ Poll. The brand new 2022 release Hotel Utopia is already being described as “Epic” (Uncut), “Spellbinding” (The Progressive Aspect), and “One of the best albums of the year” (Progressive Rock Central). On its week of release the album went straight into the Official UK Rock Chart at #13. “
Phew! Obviously the band are going to blow their own trumpet, but that’s still quite a CV given that I’d never heard of them before the gig. They were actually punctuating a headlining tour of their own (supported by Foxpalmer – see flyer below) and it seems that this wasn’t the first time that they had supported the Hawks.
Anyway, what were they like? Well, if you think Kate Bush / ‘Hounds of Love’ / side two, then you would be quite close to the mark. That second side is quite weird and this couple were definitely prog-rock, basing their pieces on melody and lyrics that could be heard and had meaning. Chrissy sang very much in the style of KB and having described their first two songs as the happy, upbeat element of their shortened set, they then proceeded to play five darker songs to complete their 35-minute set. And they were indeed multi-talented as you can see from the earlier credits.
I enjoyed them very much, as did the audience which afforded them generous applause at the end and throughout their short set. There were clearly fans in the crowd calling out for several particular songs, Chrissy responding on more than one occasion with “Someone’s seen our setlist!”
I have certainly seen much worse support acts and it made a change from one or two people on acoustic guitars pouring their hearts out in romantic ballads. I might even look for their stuff online. 👍
Setlist: Raise Your Heart; Drown Me Out; The Tide; Dangerous Thing; Under The Headlights; Astronaut; The Flood
Here’s a flyer for their tour with Foxpalmer supporting them. Our gig on the 29th April was not listed.
Hawkwind
‘The Future Never Waits’ tour
Dave Brock (vocals, guitars, shaker, penny whistle) / Magnus Martin (guitars, vocals, keyboards) / Thighpaulsandra (Timothy Lewis) (keyboards, synthesizers) / Doug MacKinnon (bass, vocals) / Richard Chadwick (drums, vocals)
And they’re back again – the band that just won’t die! Hawkwind – in one incarnation or another – have been around since 1969 and here we are in 2023. This was the fifth time that I had seen the band (plus another two for the HawkLords) and I have to say that without any shadow of a doubt, this was far and away the very, very best performance that I have ever seen. They were just… awesome! The band themselves seemed to be having a blast, looking very happy throughout. Dave Brock, the man who singularly encapsulates everything that is Hawkwind, was on top form although it has to be said that seeing your heroes in heavy spectacles makes one very aware that time marches on and does indeed wait for no man (we can all talk in clichés until the cows come home! 😂)
Hawkwind hit the road in April with a new album to promote, but their set dipped heavily into the back-catalogue (as you would expect) and clearly hit the mark with an almost capacity crowd (I haven’t seen the balcony as full for many a gig). With only two songs from the new album, ‘Rama (The Prophecy)’ and ‘The Beginning’, the tempo never dropped throughout, though it was ramped up significantly around the hour mark as the band launched into ‘Spirit of the Age’, ‘Assault and Battery’ and just got better and better through ‘The Golden Void’ and my personal highlight ‘Right to Decide’ (I’d never seen them perform this live before) through to the closer, ‘Brainstorm’. There then followed an interminable wait for the band to reappear and give us one more song which, on this occasion turned out to be crowd-pleaser ‘Silver Machine’ with drummer Chadwick taking the lead vocal.
Their near hour and three-quarters set bounced along with the omnipresent sound of Tim Lewis’s keyboards even punctuating the gaps between songs as on all of their recorded live material. Then there was the rhythm section of MacKinnon’s thundering bass and Chadwick’s drums, both clearly enjoying themselves with smiles almost glued to their faces. There was humour as Brock’s timing went awry towards the end of one song although, as he pointed out, at least he can still remember the words. Chadwick had the opportunity to play a short solo on his cowbell (and not his woodblocks!) and Thighpaulsandra kept Martin waiting as he initially came in early on one song. Yes, it was definitely a night for fun!
And then, in almost the blink of an eye, it was over. It had been a brilliant night’s entertainment, supplemented with the usual lasers and psychedelic backdrop projections (including footage from Fritz Lang’s classic ‘Metropolis’ during ‘Utopia’). Just before the band had taken the stage I had met up with another pal and ex-colleague, Simon Holroyd, and when we chatted on our way out at the end we were both in agreement – along with several punters around us – that we had just witnessed an outstanding gig.
I look forward to their return to Nottingham. 👍
Setlist: Levitation; You’d Better Believe It; The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke) / You Know You’re Only Dreaming / The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke); Arrival in Utopia; Rama (The Prophecy); The Beginning; Spirit of the Age; Assault and Battery; The Golden Void; Right to Decide; Brainstorm; Encore: Silver Machine
Martin, MacKinnon, Chadwick, Brock (photo courtesy Simon Holroyd).
Gigs'n'Stuff 