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Live Music for the Music Lovers of Buckinghamshire

(...some musical musings from Mursley)

Bands who love to play are bringing the unique experience of great live music to the people of Bucks.

We’ve all got our mp3 players. Fine. Everybody’s phone doubles (triples?) as a music player. Half of us have got MTV. Music downloads are so quick and easy we don’t even notice (or care) that we’re paying for them. But here I am, carrying 1500 music tracks everywhere I go (and I’ve got five times that much on my disk at home – not to mention Spotify and the thousands of radio channels that DAB and Broadband can throw at me). So how is it that I’m still looking for – well – more?

Last time I went to a live gig I think I found the answer.

In these X-factor days when it seems the nation gets into a tizz because somebody can actually sing, or can pick out a tune on a saxophone, it is a great joy to go out and see that there are very talented musicians everywhere, just doing what they do: playing real music to real people. And being one of those people reminds me what music is about – and what’s missing from my mp3 gadget.

Of course one of the big challenges for a band when making an album – a challenge that is very rarely met – is how to give it life. When the musicians are aiming for perfection in a recording studio (often singing or playing alone), and there are layers of processing and production between the ‘performance’ and the audience’s headphones, how do you make it rock? And even when you’ve achieved the punchiest master, it’s inevitably going to stay exactly the same every time it’s played back. Where’s the fun in that?

Then there’s the question of variety: I’ve got every single song that’s ever been recorded by my favourite bands, but because I’m listening to them at home, on the train, in the car, I’m constantly looking out for the next “favourite band”. And not only that: There are styles of music that have passed me by – either because I heard one bad track once, or because I didn’t want to dive into the hornets’ nest of confusion that is the unfamiliar music genre. One of the best gigs I’ve been to recently was a bluegrass band – mandolins and everything! I pray to God that I never actually buy any bluegrass records, but if that band did a gig within 100 miles of here, I’d be there like a shot. Yee-ha!

Enough of that! The thing is (is) that with recessions, smoking bans, cheap supermarket drinks and all that, it’s getting harder and harder to find the jewel that is a Live Music Venue. So some of our proud Buckinghamshire-based bands have got together to promote a series of gigs at Madcap in Wolverton.

Bands playing in the Jazz@The’Cap series tend to have a Jazz bias – and if this word starts to put you off, it really just means that there’s an emphasis on musicianship and improvisation (the life-blood of live music) without compromising great tunes, great rhythms and great fun.

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