Argonauts gig will be a rich fabric of styles

GETS THE LOW-DOWN FROM A MUSICIAN WHO HAS PLAYED WITH PRINCE AND AMY WINEHOUSE AND WHO IS HEADING TO NEWCASTLE’S HOOCHIE COOCHIE CLUB

LAST week’s selective look at what lies ahead in the early months of the year showed just how much choice there is out there on the live music front.

However, one show I was unaware of when putting together that piece takes place at Newcastle’s Hoochie Coochie Club on Pilgrim Street at the beginning of February.

The guests on Friday, February 2, certainly have a classy look. Aaron and the Argonauts weave strands of funk, soul and electronica into a fabric which also boasts textures drawn from Jamaica, Cuba and Brazil.

Fronted by Aaron Liddard, the band is a multinational collective of top-drawer musicians with oodles of experience in some rarefied company.

Liddard was saxophonist for Amy Winehouse but his experiences up to that point are worth hearing, particularly for any aspiring musicians.

Demonstrating quite clearly that talent is only one component on the road to recognition and respect, Liddard explained how he developed: “At age 16, I turned down a career in airplanes to pursue a life in music, and joined Slithey Tove [now The Toves] the following year.

“I paid my way through a degree in music at Salford College, working as a sound engineer. One night in 1994, I edged on stage with my sax, and within months I was playing in 12 bands.

“I joined the UK’s first touring samba group, Inner Sense Percussion, and toured Kazakhstan, where we left the country as national heroes. I started a Latin hip-hop band called Nylon Jungle, and wrote the song Catfood the night before we played a headline slot at the Manchester Jazz festival in 1999.

“In 2003 I moved to London and very soon spent my life savings buying a baritone sax. That was the year that Amy Winehouse’s musical director called up and asked me to play it in her band. The first day’s work was filming the Rehab video. I was with her as she became a household name and spearheaded popular music’s return to real music made by live musicians.

“We toured, appeared on TV.

“A year later I got a horn section together and toured, recorded and did some TV with one of the greatest voices in the UK, Beverley Knight.

“Prince asked Beverley to play a support slot at his 21-show residency at the O2 arena. We played two nights of that tour, where I was hugely influenced by Maceo Parker and Prince himself, whose mastery was inspiring. And when Prince hushed the rhythm section to better hear the riff I’d come up with during our jam session at the Indigo it was one of the highlights of my life!”

Alongside Liddard in the Argonauts are Giulia Joni Marelli (vocals), Jimmy Norton (drums), Eric recorded, and

Young (percussion), Filipe Monteiro (guitar) and Paul Michael (bass and keyboards).

The collective also boasts a cast of top-notch guests who just happen to be on tap when schedules allow. These friends include (but are not limited to) Cuban violinist Omar Puente (Courtney Pine), Yelfris Valdés on trumpet (Buena Vista Social Club), Tom White on trombone (Kylie Minogue), also on trumpet Sid Gauld (Incognito), guitarist Dave Ital (Chaka Khan) and guest vocalists Miss Baby Sol and Decosta Boyce, both of whom are artists in their own right and have performed alongside artists such as Paloma Faith, Redlight, Rebecca Ferguson, Florence and The Machine and The Noisettes. The show is still several weeks away but you can witness their appearance at Hoochie Coochie for free (before 10pm, £5 entrance after that).

The venue has other high-calibre attractions, too, when Smoove and Turrell play a sell-out show on February 22, Brand New Heavies on March 2, also sold-out but with a 5pm show the following Sunday, March 4. The James Taylor Quartet return to the venue on February 23. Full details of these and other shows on the club’s website. In the middle of next month there is also a chance to catch one of the hottest acts on the UK reggae scene when the London-based Hempolics play a gig at The Cluny on Saturday, February 17. The band recently released their album Kiss, Cuddle and Torture Volume 1 and have received glowing praise from the likes of reggae doyens such as Don Letts and David Rodigan and were declared as the “best new reggae band on the planet” by Chris Hawkins of BBC6 Music. Supporting the Hempolics is a familiar face, to film-goers at least! Newcastle lad Kema Kay played the role of China in the award-winning Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake. He is, of course, a singer/rapper as well, hence his support slot on this show. Turning to folk, the Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 has a gig by fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and his quartet on January 29. Guitarist Dennis Cahill, Doug Wieselman (bass clarinet) and Liz Knowles (violin/viola) form a formidable foursome with him. Aaron Liddard