Pack Fair And Square – Mark Feltham […with tab]

Life is like a card game, you always take a chance

And so to the final installment in our 9 Below Zero trilogy. So far we have covered Riding On The L&N and Swing Job. We’ve looked at the key musical influences in each case and considered some of the history involved. We’ve also tried tabbing out the harp parts. Pack Fair And Square holds no secrets. It’s drawn directly from The J.Geils Band’s live Full House album. Simple.

With 80s contemporaries such as The Cheaters from Manchester, 9 Below Zero were inspired by the high voltage delivery of the J.Geils Band’s live performance and they set about reproducing it British Pub-Rock style. (more…)

Swing Job – Mark Feltham […with tab]


Thank you. Good night!

Welcome to the second part of our trilogy, covering the top three harp tracks from 9 Below Zero‘s debut Live At The Marquee album, released on A&M in 1980. By that time the UK had already experienced the revolution of Punk Rock and DIY record labels such as Stiff, Beggars Banquet and Rough Trade. New Wave was virtually passe, two-tone ska was skanking it’s heart out and dueling shirted New Romantics such as The Teardrop Explodes and Duran Duran were waiting in the wings, busily back-combing. (more…)

Riding On The L&N – Mark Feltham [..with tab]

You can imagine sittin’ at Tulse ‘ill can’t ya!

I first encountered this barnstorming track on 9 Below Zero‘s debut Live At The Marquee album (A&M) when it hit UK record stores in 1980. The band had already raised heads with its eponymous EP a few months earlier (originally on M&L records featuring Pack Fair And Square, Rocket 88, Last Night and Tore Down). Their new LP bowled in, tweaked noses and blew everyone away. My copy flew onto the bedroom turntable straight from its jacket and there it stayed for months. Of the fourteen tracks that received a daily spin, L&N, Pack Fair And Square and Swing Job went straight to the top of the ‘I want to play harp like that‘ list. It was a tall order, but through trial and error the decoding process slowly took shape. (more…)