British IBM - Friday Night at the Twitch Bar

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 8 / 11 / 2022

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Review

As they rightly point out to me, it’s been over two years since we reviewed ‘Play the Game’, at that time the third full outing from The British IBM. Blimey, how time flies and as they point out once again to me “Although it feels like it’s gone quite quickly. We’re slowly turning into a studio band these days.” That brings me to their latest offering ‘Friday Night at the Twitch Bar’ released on 9th September this very year, which according to the boys was born out of a regular live stream that started during the first lockdown in March 2020. Every Friday at 8pm Aidy Killens strapped on his acoustic guitar to play a few songs for anyone that cared to tune in. A couple of years later that regular live stream has gained a life of its own with a small loyal audience, various in jokes and a bunch of new songs that were written and performed on the stream itself. Now, at some point the acoustic stream was dubbed ‘Friday Night at the Twitch Bar’ as it slowly became a pseudo bar where regulars would chat, watch the gig and have a few drinks and as if by magic the fourth studio album was born with the help of Sick Room Studios and a plethora of overdubs including strings, backing vocals, trumpet and even the odd glockenspiel. The guys themselves hail from the east of England, Cambridge to be exact and comprise of Adrian Killens’ (guitar and vocals), Scott Wilson (percussion) and David Martin (bass). The tracks are based and themed around the Twitch Bar’s in-jokes and more direct chat and include such entities as regular patron ElectronGreg and his dog named Kit who actually has a song of his own and is even featured on the album cover. The album also has reference to a website that was dedicated to refuse trucks in films. This new album sort of continues where they left off but shows an obvious growth in the finished article on the production side of things and a progression toward the studio. It is still the indie rock British IBM we have come to know but a little more polished and with a little more of a humorous outlook. They have continued the theme for the album cover sporting the same colour profile and if you want a quick insight to their guitar laden antics then flip on to YouTube and watch the video for ‘Where is Mathew Smith?’ and enter the retro world of The British IBM. It won’t disappoin

Track Listing:-

1 Friday Night at the Twitch Bar
2 California
3 Long Way Back
4 If Charlie Sheen Was Winning
5 King of Everything
6 Gasoline
7 Refuse Trucks in Films
8 The Best Days Are Behind
9 Kit
10 Photographs
11 History in the Making
12 Have a Nice Day
13 Twenty Two
14 Friday Night at the Twitch Bar (Piano Rendition)

Band Links:-

http://www.thebritishibm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheBritishIBM
https://thebritishibm.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/thebritishibm

Play in YouTube:-

Have a Listen:-