Galahad / Traffic Cone Wizard / Lucymuses

Sep25

Galahad / Traffic Cone Wizard / Lucymuses

on September 25th, 2025 at 14:15

Hangover Hill Presents Live & Unheard

Poole Lighthouse

After the usual Summer hiatus the ‘Live & Unheard’ team are back with another thrilling line-up of original music acts at the Sheiling studio within the Poole Lighthouse complex. The Hangover Hill team of Matt Black and his wife Mel have been working hard during the Summer, putting together a host of stellar line-ups to continue this event’s tradition through the rest of the year.

After a warm introduction from our host Lord Si Genaro of Branksome-shire, London singer/songwriter Lucymuses “aka” Lucy Davies is brought to the stage to open tonight’s proceedings. From the start Lucy’s charm, honesty and velvety smooth voice beguiled the Lighthouse crowd. The singer chatted openly about her past relationships and the songs that were inspired by them. Her simple but effective self taught guitar style acts as the perfect background to Lucy’s powerfully emotive lyrics. With songs like “Falter” giving her innermost thoughts of her feelings after a breakup, to “Wisemen” featuring a little bit of borrowed lyrics from one of the King’s best known songs. Lucy shows herself to be vulnerable to the feelings of loss that effect us all and cleverly delivers these beautifully. The final song of her set called “Good Grief”; which describes her experiences with a cancer group, with one of the stand out lyrics ‘wearing a smile with tears in my eyes’ emotionally, passionately and engagingly telling the story. The audience have clearly loved all that this artist has to offer and give Lucy a really warm round of applause for a great set.

Lucy Muses 1–2–3–4–5

After 10 minutes to compose ourselves it’s time for last years Dorset Original Music Award winner for best album Traffic Cone Wizard to take to the stage. The band feature Jason Ayriss on lead vocals, with his two sons Luke on electric guitar, Damien on drums and “Brother from another Mother” Adam Harmer on bass. The band are always moving forward, evolving, changing and experimenting. They open with a brand new song called “Tales From The Riverbank” and what a giant of a song it is. A middle eastern feel with some big atmospheric instrumentation, this fills this studio with a big bold beautiful noise. Traffic Cone Wizard have a host of obvious and not so obvious influences, their music comes from a certain area of Post/Punk persuasion, but includes some Progressive, Rock and Electronic. The tracks each have their own self produced electronic backing with some wonderful sound effects and instrumental additions.

Traffic Cone Wizard 1–2–3–4–5

With the lyrics featuring a host of political and social commentary subjects. The set is made up of mainly tracks from the band’s album We:Are, namely great sounding tunes “Grease n’ Grime”, “All Smile and Acid Tongue” and infectiously powerful “We Are”. The quartet have a certain chemistry that the closeness of family brings and each member equally knows their part, contributing to the quality of the overall delivery. The band’s new single “About You” particularly shines and seems to get a huge vote of confidence from the audience. From Jason’s fine no-nonsense vocals, to Damien’s epic drumming, Adam’s rock solid bass lines to Luke’s production and monumental guitar work. Traffic Cone Wizard are an exciting live and unpredictable band that have an armoury of great tunes, a local band that should most certainly be on most peoples bucket lists to see.

Local Progressive Rock band Galahad have been around since forming in 1985 and it’s safe to say that they were one of the first local live bands I got in to. I was fortunate enough to see them play at now defunct venues like Malt & Hops, Mr. Smiths, Mr. Kyps, Mr. C’s and many more back in their early days in the late eighties/nineties. The band are still going strong and have to date produced 12 studio albums, along with a host of compilations and live recordings. Tonight the band play with just three of their current line-up, minus their rhythm section featuring Stu Nicholson on Vocals, Dean Baker at the Keyboards and Lee Abraham on Electric Guitar. Opening with a unique version of one of my favourite tunes “Guardian Angel”, I just knew it was going to be a very special performance.

This venue was made for nights like tonight with the Lighthouse crew up in the technical box excelling with their skills on sound and atmospheric lighting. Tracks like powerful ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ influenced “Beyond The Barbed”, along with the emotive “This Life Could Be My Last”. The sublime instrumentation from Dean and Lee is complimented by Stu’s characteristic euphonic vocals. Think of bands like Genesis, Yes, Marillion, and Robert Fripp’s King Crimson; they have all had a hand in carving out Galahad’s sound. Even German band Rammstein get a shout out with a rare cover in the form of the unusually delicate “Mein Herz Brennt” (My Heart Burns), sang for the most part in German.

Galahad 1–2–3–4–5

The band take a trip back to their early days with a venture into “Richelieu Prayer” and “Room 801”, where the rhythm section sound magically appears by the use of some smart technology. Progressive bands seem to have always been the innovators of technology as they always try and push the boundaries. We are brought up to date for the band’s last number with an absolutely epic track called “The Long Goodbye” from the band’s latest album of the same name. The song is about dementia but sung in the first person, with the protagonist trying to understand what is happening to him/her. The song ebbs and flows with some wonderful synth parts from Dean and the big soaring guitar solo is worth the ticket money alone from Lee. Stu’s from the heart vocals are the proverbial cherry on top. The track is an absolute masterpiece and a tribute to anyone who has suffered the devastating effects of dementia. This concludes what has been a fantastic evening perfectly.

Set Lists
Galahad
Guardian Angel
Beyond The Barbed Wire
This Life Could Be My Last
Mein Herz Brennt (Rammstein)
Richelieu Prayer
Room 801
The Long Goodbye

Traffic Cone Wizard
Tales From The Riverbank
Neanderthal Man
Grease ‘N’ Grime
Hanging Tree
All Smile and Acid Tongue
Run For Cover
About You
Uncomfortably Dumb
We Are
If I Die

Lucymuses
Cut Loose
Closure
Wiseman
Overboard
I Swear
Falter
Swoon
Off
Good Grief

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N7iKCEorj