"10 Miles Away" by The Upsiders

Many of us are still rather reeling from the news that as well as celebrating a full decade of making us happy, The Upsiders have decided to end their project & move onto new ones. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing them luck & in catching them in their new contexts.

Thankfully they are parting in friendship (which sadly isn't always the case) and I am pleased that we managed to showcase their considerable talents back in February at one of our "Hot Music Live Presents" fundraisers for The Tin. Those present are unlikely to easily forget the intensity of the audience reaction.

 Much as I enjoyed reporting on their excellent original songs, I suspect that the ratio of gigs they've played in recent years has skewed excessively towards their covers incarnation (they are in huge demand in that department) but a consolation is that they are some of their own material still to share.

 First out of the gate today is Nathan's song "10 Miles Away".

 To be honest, I had rather assumed that the wretched cloud of Covid19 had departed from casting its shadow over my articles but then I reported on the recent Superhooch album ‘Gallons of Gold' which began before the pandemic and here Nathan uses it as the basis for his song about his Mum (who was really ill) and the frustrations of separation despite geographic proximity.

Perhaps we all need the passage of time to process that era as objectively as possible.

At any rate, would you expect an Upsiders song to dwell on the obviously melancholy aspects of familial separation & worry? Most bands understandably would but it's not in their DNA.

 This will make your heart leap up: like their best work it brings together all sorts of styles that are so disparate they you'd normally consider them incompatible: a bit of Queen here, into 1930s big band crooning and little funk passages. Pretty much a run through of their trademark types of  music really and hence a sort of mini career round up. Credit to producer Ian Todd for helping with the weaving.

The lyrics radiate positivity & hope and therefore also sum up the Upsider philosophy of life: if one can survive the pangs of the pandemic, then don't be too downhearted by the end of the band. They are certainly far from the sort of band to be so calculating as to deliberately conjure up the sort of track which helps prepare us for December, but it really does work the trick nicely as fate would have it.

And it's not their final release so look out for what they'll be sharing in the next few months.