9:54am Friday 12th March 2010
By Melanie Dakin
Taking the stage at his local, The Carpenters Arms in Southdown, lead singer of The Low Lamps (TLL), Ryan Coggins opens the gig with the words: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m not Johnny Cash”, but not to worry, because the band’s powerful mix of foot-thumping classics and original blues gets the audience up and dancing just as if the Man in Black was back.
Ryan and fellow TLL members Martyn Bentley (guitar, vocals) Jon Trussler (drums) Tom Quick (bass, vocals) will be headlining at Harpenden Rocks! on Saturday night, a charity event at the Royal British Legion to raise funds for the A-T Society. Based in Harpenden, the society aims to help families affected by Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T) a rare, neurodegenerative condition that can lead to premature death.
Local musician Anjali Rundle has organised the event in memory of sister and brother Caroline and Gregory Poupard, who died nearly ten years ago while in their early 20s. Anjali will open the charity gig with an acoustic set of her original folk-tinged tunes and covers, followed by The Gigantics storming the stage with their energetic guitar-driven rock before The Low Lamps take the floor.
Although bluesmen through and through for the past two years, Martyn tells me he and Ryan attended “Sir John Lawes School, Roundwood, And the School of er Rock!,” and started out some 20 years ago as heavy grunge outfit Noise Cage, who were well-known on the St Albans/Harpenden rock circuit. Nowadays, with families and jobs replacing the leathers and long hair, they’re more at home playing Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and early Fleetwood Mac, plus their own blend of mellowed out blues, with special guest Andy Stokes (aka Hot Gravel) on harmonica.
“Our gigs can range from fairly mellow country/blues type evenings to raucous and foot stomping boogie blues jams,” says Martyn. “I have a feeling that the audience is more interested in the louder stuff, which is just fine with us.”
So does Harpenden rock?
“Wow, that’s a tricky one. I think there is certainly much more live music springing up again which is great to see. There are so many musicians around here, I'd love to see more events like the Harpenden Rocks! to showcase all the talent in this town. This is a cracking event for someone to go to the effort to put on.
"We know Anjali from back in the old rock days and she sang with us a year ago. We really like having other people play with us as it always broadens the sound and feel - recently we have been experimenting successfully with some female singers and a good friend Andy Stokes (aka Hot Gravel) joins us regularly on harmonica, traveling down from Bristol.
So what’s next for The Low Lamps? “Even though we are laid back, we set ourselves the odd challenge - this year we aim to make the effort to play further afield, like maybe St Albans, and we have a band target of getting on the Jools Holland's Later show by end of 2010 - so if anyone knows him, please let us know.”
Harpenden Rocks! is at the Royal British Legion, Leyton Road, Harpenden on Saturday at 8pm. Tickets: 01582 760733.
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