You are hereAlbum Review: The Albion Band - The Vice of the People (Powered Flight Music)
Album Review: The Albion Band - The Vice of the People (Powered Flight Music)
An impressive debut from a band that has been around for over forty years. It may be seen as taking a bit of a liberty referring to this record as a debut album, but the fact remains, this is a completely new band, featuring half a dozen young musicians who might just as well have adopted a new name altogether. The six members chose to continue the Albion Band tradition, now in its forty-first year, with complete approval of the band's founder Ashley Hutchings who effectively handed over the governorship to his son Blair Dunlop. With three distinctive lead voices up front including Horizon nominee Blair, who also plays guitar, Gavin Davenport who plays guitar, cittern and concertina and Katriona Gilmore who plays fiddle and mandolin, the band are equipped with a sound vocal front line, whilst the rhythm section comprises Tom Wright on drums and Tim Yates on bass, with Ben Trott completing the line-up, taking care of lead guitar duties.
Opening with an a cappella Kat Gilmore original, A Quarter Hour of Fame, which alludes to Andy Warhol's oft-quoted expression, that we all will have our fifteen minutes in the limelight, the album sets out its statement of intent, that their fifteen minutes are here and oh boy they're going to enjoy them. Continuing with a blistering re-working of Richard Thompson's iconic Roll Over Vaughan Williams, which appeared on the guitarist's debut solo outing back in 1972, the band's rendition captures the same sort of immediacy that managed to hook us all in way back then, many of us still around to remember with fondness.
One of the delights of this album is the fact that Katriona Gilmore's voice is attached to a rock backing, which is precisely how some of us imagined it in the first place. Kat's habitual Fleetwood Mac allegiance seems to have stood her in good stead and the tiny tin lady now has the freedom to explore the rockier realms of her music. Re-visiting older Albion material, we see the re-emergence of the old Francois Villon/Phil Beer stomper Set Their Mouths to Twisting, whilst Davenport and Gilmore provide some original material such as Coalville, Thieves Song and How Many Miles To Babylon.
Recorded in Sheffield with Tom Wright and Kat Gilmore slaving over the controls, THE VICE OF THE PEOPLE hopefully demonstrates that it's not about the name, the attachments or the legacy; it's all about the music. The newly formed Albion Band may have Warhol's prophesised fifteen minutes in store for them, but on the other hand, they may just have another forty years to go and judging by the music on this album, I would hope the current band can share some of those years.
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky
