Reviews

A report from our gig at the Cheese & Grain, Frome on 18 April 2009. Report courtesy of Billy

When you lose a family member it can take a long time to recover. And so it is with a band. AFGM lost drummer Mike Dawe very suddenly to a heart attack last year. The band have drawn strength from each other to overcome the loss, and as often happens have found new friends to help build on that strength.
So it was that we gathered at Frome’s Cheese and Grain Hall on the 18th of April 2009 for the first gig for the new and enlarged line up.
The first thing that was obvious was that although advertised, we weren’t expected. The headliners, Dutch prog rockers Focus had filled the stage with their gear and were engaged in a prolonged sound check.
When the sound check finished Focus’s sound guy wandered over and remarked “lotta gear huh”! Now as anyone who has seen the band before will know, they come fully equipped.
Once we had the drum kit and its attendant bits and bobs in place, there was precious little room for anything else. With John Telfer’s keyboards teetering on the edge of the stage, everybody else squeezed in wherever they could. The backing singers were very nearly shoved off the back of the stage and were almost invisible during the gig.
With everything in place the sound check should have been a breeze, but that’s when the sound guy dropped his bombshell. “We only have eight channels left” he said “is that OK for you”?
A lot of bands would have just packed up and walked. AFGM are made of sterner stuff. With a considerable amount of head scratching, lead swapping and other adjustments, the sound was produced. This despite the backing singers in the gloom at the back, doing a fair impression of Zaphod Beeblebrox from the Hitchhikers Guide, as they tried to get both voices into one microphone.
After this inauspicious start it was obvious from the first note, that everyone was so focused, (no pun intended), that this was going to be a “belter”. Despite being a relatively short set, familiar tunes, and some new ones as well, melted together into a show of concentrated musicianship that had the crowd calling for more.
No one in the audience would ever have known just how many hoops the band had to jump through to sound as good as they did.
With the addition of three new members, AFGM’s sound is much fuller and more rounded. At times almost orchestral it filled the C&G and showed that, however many young bands may pop up; you just can’t beat years of experience in the world of music. The concentration was etched on all the guys’ faces, and there was a little less of the banter that I have come to expect over the years, but there was no doubting, that despite all the problems.
AFGM are definitely back!

A review of our recent 10th anniversary gig at The Fleece, Bristol on 7 November 2009. Report courtesy of Bristol Rocks.

AFGM have been playing together for 10 years and tonight is their anniversary gig at the Fleece in Bristol. The support band 'Smoke & Mirrors' kick off their set of rock covers at 8.45pm to a good Fleece crowd and by 9.45 pm the audience was ready for the band that they came to see.

Despite the fact that there are some new band members, AFGM play like a band that have been together for ten years and the front of house sound mixed by the Fleece sound engineer Rich is just superb. Every band members is a master at his or her craft and the sound that they produce is as sophisticated as you likely to hear. The band played tracks from their new album 'The River' that went down well with the enthusiastic crowd. Excellent gig, well done chaps!