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Reviews
First let me offer my most heartfelt congratulations every band who made it into the final for what has been a fantastic competition, and to Smiley, who was a true magician last night. Congratulations dude, a deserved win and a spellbinding performance.
Smiley - Came in a song into the set i believe, this is where i began to slip into intoxication thus my lateness. Smiley played a top set, gotta respect the pure musicianship to do what he does, and whilst i feel its more of a live experience than a studio one, it was more than worthy of winning the competition.The whole room was gripped during House of Pain, good stuff.
Smiley - First time I’ve seen him and I was pleasantly suprised. I’ve seen lots of acts who loop stuff and build their songs from scratch, live. I’m not gonna say Smiley’s a cut above the rest of them but I wouldn’t expect him to be after what? two months? But he’s certainly up there. He’s the sort of entertainer who keeps your attention and that’s hard to come by. My friends who attended who aren’t really into the local music scene thought that smiley was the best by far as it was something fresh and new.
Smiley - Just great. As a live act he is phenominal. He comes accross as a really likeable guy, and there was a great element of playfulness about the whole thing. The whole process of building the layers of his songs up was a joy to watch, and by the end of the set, the whole audience was eating out of his hand. The glockenspiel was a real nice touch too, putting in an air of delicacy on the last song in particular. A truly amazing talent. My only criticism, and it is my only criticism, is that, take away the visual aspect of watching one person do all that and say, put it on a record. Now is that record going to stand up against any other if nobody knows the process to create it? I feel Smiley is very much a live entity, as it needs to be seen to be believed, but I feel some song development is needed to stand up against the likes of After Hours’ anthems. But seriously Mike, well done. Well fucking done.
SMILEY When i first saw this guy i thought he was gonna be a one trip pony, everytime i see him i can’t help but fall more in love with what he does, it’s not really my thing to watch to what he does is just great. also he is an amazing guy to talk to and get to know and he is a pleasure to have around.
Smiley was just.. incredible. Everything I’d imagined it would be and more. A very well deserved win.. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone attempt anything remotely that ambitious in Tamworth in a long time. Cover was absolutely brilliant. I struggle to say anything negative really.. it was really nice to see something different. And fuck me, did people turn out for it.. first time Above Ruin/Risen Fear’s fanbase has been outnumbered in a long while I think.
Smiley - I’m so glad it went down as well as i thought it would. I know how much effort and practise Michael’s put into preparing for last nights gig so to see the audience going for it and cheering so much was great. I’ve had the opening song stuck in my head all week, 5am looked like it was going to go horribly wrong at one point when the feedback got into the loop but it turned out ok and didn’t seem to phase Mr Dryburgh too much. so far, so good…
SMILEY, absolutely fantastic, enjoyed it immensly, well deserved win and a great performance. Need I say more? I have an AKAI Headrush pedal that I can loop samples but I’ve never really had the patience to get the hang of it so it sounds good, but that was awesome, well constructed and able to stand up there with some of the best bands in Tamworth I reckon. We Love SMILEY!!
Smiley? Ha ha, yeah Smiley. It was something of a secret, cards played close to chest and all that but, as with most things, I got wind of the concept and the cat behind it a little while ago. To be fair, I was pretty non-committal about it. I’d seen Mike Dryburgh a few times before, seen him do his solo loop treatment of Massive Attack’s Teardrops and, although it was obviously clever, I’d tired of it before the song was through. So the thought of twenty minutes of this didn’t exactly wet my whistle.
As it goes it was very enjoyable indeed.
His nerves were obvious as he introduced himself, as one probably would be being the soul operator of a one-man-band, but he shouldn’t have worried. By the end of the first song, on audience reaction alone, it was clear that he’d make the final two.
It was a human beat-box’ed beat, an sang bass-line, a lick on an acoustic and a couple of vocal melodies, all looped and used to fine fettle for everything he needed to cover all bases and produce, not only a spectacle, but also a pretty good song in the process.
The crowd loved it and, add what seemed like a natural charisma and a obvious relief, they were literally eating out of the palm of his hand.
There was another track done in a similar style, an improvised ditty thrown in due to a lack of prepared material and, the move that sealed his win, quite an unbelievable cover of The Sugarhill Gang’s Rappers Delight, Santana cowbell, bass-line, rap and all. Old Mark ‘Mystery Thingy’ Cocklin may as well walked on stage right there and then and gave Mike his ticket to the semis as it was as clear in my mind as it was in everybody else’s that he’d nailed it.
Before I seen Smiley I was apprehensive that the novelty of this show would carry him through but, although I’m sure there was a little of that on his side, there were also good songs there and, as I said, a rare display of genuine charisma too.
It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on in the semi-finals.
