Postcard no 2 from Balham

Hi All,

Well, despite a multiple Tube journey involving three different lines through the Metropolis, we finally made it to balmy Balham in time for the second and third day of the four day Resonance Rock Festival.

The Bedford Arms in which it was being held is an expansive, impressive building, a Victorian pile full of dark carved wood and low slung antique leather sofas which made you feel as though you about to be swallowed up when you alighted upon them.

Its most distinctive feature is the central performance area, known as the Globe after Shakespeare’s famous theatre, because of its elevated minstrel’s gallery around the four sides of the stage, giving it an intimate atmosphere. Two other stages were constructed in the ballroom and on the top floor, where bands and fans were eyeball to eyeball.

The whole purpose of the festival was to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, one of the UK’s leading charities in providing invaluable support to people with cancer and their families to help them through their most difficult of days.

As well as a star-studded cast, all the Resonance crew were giving freely of their time, their toughest tasks including lugging cabinets full of equipment up sizeable staircases and ensuring quick turnarounds between bands.

Those two days yielded plenty of surprises and delights, several of which I shall impart here over two blogs. The opening session on the Friday evening saw the mighty John Mitchell, producer, composer, guitarist and singer with It Bites, Frost*, Arena and Kino – to name but a few – in mellow mood with just an acoustic guitar and on keyboards, Liam Holmes, who delivered an eclectic selection of songs including Nat King Cole’s Smile and Floyd’s Comfortably Numb to which the attentive audience duly sang along.

This all felt a bit safe and familiar until a lion haired, wild-looking young rock dude came bustling onto the stage to join them who John Mitchell introduced as Nathan James. You may not have heard of him now but believe me, you will do so very soon.

From nowhere, Nathan launched into the most extraordinarily impromptu reading of Jesus Christ Superstar’s Gethsemene, not a song to be trifled with lightly at the best of times, especially in front of a strongly prog crowd.

Even with a simple acoustic setting, Mitchell, producer of his debut album under the band name of Inglorious and Holmes, Nathan’s musical director, were grinning widely as this 26-year-old unleashed only a fraction of the potential power of his monster voice.

Further research reveals that Nathan was a contestant on two television talent shows, BBC’s The Voice show to find brilliant new singers and also Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar in which he was a finalist.

Since then, he has sung with Scorpions’ legend Uli Jon Roth and is now vocalist with prog theatre specialists Trans Siberian Orchestra. Catch him and them if you can.

It is no secret that Lifesigns was my favourite album of 2013, a heady combination of classical prog with lots of modern twists in its content and style, five individual songs being linked with a theme about life, the Universe and all things in between. For the record, Nick Beggs provided bass and vocal harmonies, while Robin Boult, Steve Hackett and Jakko Jakzszyk offered up some beautiful guitars and Thijs van Leer the intergalactic flute.

With Beggs touring the world with Steven Wilson, Steve Hackett and Kim Wilde, composer John Young went on a recruitment drive to find a bassist and guitarist to join him and drummer Martin “Frosty” Beadle. They found the Cardiacs’ Jon Poole as bass player and Steve Wilson guitarist Niko Tsonev to fill the vacant berths.

I was lucky enough to travel to the Leamington Assembly in March to witness the debut of Lifesigns live which was a revelation. Ten gigs later, Lifesigns in concert continues to grow in stature as a multi-faceted show, full of power and beauty. Poole has a full-on bass style which never tries to imitate Beggs while Tsonev has continued to develop and personalise the guitar parts to fully exploit the considerable range of his prowess.

The final act on Day Two was Also Eden, a band playing on the eyeball to eyeball stage, who have continued to forge a strong reputation through the release of their emblematic Think Of The Children album which they followed up last year with the widely acclaimed [Redacted].

Much of their material is written by their vocalist Rich Harding, who nearly died in a road accident soon after joining the band in 2010, suffering multiple fractures, a ruptured aorta and broken ribs. Hovering between life and death while in an induced coma has coloured his lyrics as he articulates a place where hopefully, none of us will ever venture.

Now with Mr So & So’s keyboard player Andy Rigler in to replace Howard Sinclair, their live show is both melodic and intense, guitarist Simon Rogers adding solid riffs throughout and a gorgeous waterfall effect on Chronologic. They really are a band who are as engrossing live as they are on record.

And so the curtain fell on day two at Resonance. Day three promised even more with one of the most heavenly singers around on show.

* Nathan James performs with the Trans Siberian Orchestra. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utjo6iJ8A_I