17/8/2008 The Haunting AD @ Broomfield Park

Subject	The Haunting AD @ Broomfield Park
PostedDate	8/17/2008 4:03:00 AM
	After a gig in grubby east London last night it's time for a complete change of scene - an outdoor gig in broad daylight! No - not a festival. Well not unless you can have a 'festival' with only one band? The place is Broomfield Park in Palmers Green, north London, and the band is a local one. The gig is fairly local for me too - just a short bus ride away. I hate buses normally, but a few drinks in the park on a summer afternoon seemed a nice idea.  It seemed like a good plan, but on arrival I found the killjoy council had declared the park a booze free zone - so I might as well have driven down there!  I hadn't been in Broomfield Park since my mum used to take me down there to feed the ducks when I was a kid, and I didn't even know the park had a bandstand. However, today the bandstand actually has a band playing in it - not something that happens at many park bandstands in these times. This sort of band certainly isn't what the park planners had in mind when they decided to include such a feature in their park - but not many towns in the south of England have a brass band these days. This particular bandstand was refurbished recently, and electric power was added - and this afternoon the newly empowered structure is being put to it's intended purpose. The bandstand is in an enclosed part of the park, and in spite of it's hidden nature and the apparent lack of promotion there are quite a few people present soaking up the relaxed vibe to watch local band The Haunting play. This original band have been going for quite a few years now and were founded by two members of another local band Lick That (one of their members will be familiar to some of you ) who were doing quite well at one point and got national TV exposure on the rock show Raw Power/Noisy Mothers. The Haunting AD (as they have been since another 'Haunting' came to light) still play one of Lick That's more rocking songs occasionally.  Although the band write and perform their own songs they have always thrown a few covers into their set - I've seen their great version of 'War Pigs' take a pub audience by surprise! In fact, Shag and Witchy AKA John & Caroline (guitar & vox) had a rather good cover band called Airplay going on the side until recently. Today's set is a mixture of covers and Haunting originals. The covers range from pop and indie through to hard rock - Republica, Foo Fighters, and Led Zeppelin cover most the bases and the audience scattered on the grass seem to find this to their liking. The picture here isn't a very good representation as John the guitarist moved to the front for a solo and you can't really see the rest of the band. The actual sound was quite good, and surprisingly loud, but bandstands such as this weren't designed with rock bands in mind as rock 'n' roll was maybe still 100 years in the future! The band are experienced and highly proficient musicians and are able to make any sort of rock based music sound good. They also feature an electric violin player who adds extra texture, and also some very good harmony playing with John's guitar in a Thin Lizzy style!  The informal and very relaxed atmosphere at this free low key event makes a refreshing change from the normal gigs I go to - and it's nice to be able to be able to get home so quickly afterwards for a change as well!