Jeanice Lee with support from TORRS

A unique blend of modern, melodic, guitar-fuelled heavy rock with wide-ranging influences from classic rock to old school heavy metal. Fronted by Jeanice’s deep and emotive vocals, we tell stories with powerful melodies.Band Members:Jeanice Lee - Vocals and rhythm guitarMarco Morelli - Lead guitarLeen Hodge - BassTony Hodge - Drums
Gig Review by Rock FiendUrban Legends Album LaunchJeaniceleeEBBTergazziLegends, EdinburghSaturday 7th May 2022It takes a lot of effort for an unsigned act with full-time jobs and careers to get an album out, even after they’ve written and recorded the actual music, and there was extra pressure on Jeanice and her band to organize this showcase gig in addition to sorting out physical CDs, T-shirts and promotional activity – she even had to endure a pre-gig interview with some old numpty from Rockfiend before the show!It was doubtless a relief to get on stage and do what they do best; actually performing their new tunes, and that might partly explain the energy and intensity that they brought to the show in what turned out to be a quite brilliant presentation of their new work ‘Urban Legends’. Jeanice opened with a few words of thanks before the band blasted through the first three songs from the album in order. Both ‘Overhaul’ and ‘Back in Our Cage’ got blistering renditions but it’s the second single ‘From the Ashes’ which most clearly shows the development and maturity of Jeanice as a song writer and vocalist. It’s almost three years since I first saw the band and it’s an absolute pleasure to see how much Jeanice in particular has grown and how confident she rightly is in her own abilities.It is not a one-woman show of course and the all-Hodge rhythm section is tight all night while the brooding Marco Morelli adds guitar magic, not least on ‘Walk Away from Me’ – one of the few songs he did not co-write, but his contribution is compelling. ‘Divine Red Roses’ is one of the highlights of the show and Jeanice explained that this was actually one of the first songs that she wrote and it was originally performed with Marco at acoustic open-mic nights around six years ago. The current version benefits hugely from the full band’s input on arrangements and is hugely impressive.Although she has lived in Scotland for more than half of her life, a huge part of Jeanice’s identity derives from her upbringing in Hong Kong. This is reflected in a suite of three songs played together; starting with a Cantonese song which translates as ‘City Hall Auditorium’, followed by the 2019 single ‘Our City’ and crowned by ‘The City We Used to Know’ from the new album. It is very powerful and Jeanice bristles with righteous indignation in her delivery.There are a couple of ‘old’ songs thrown in, including the signature ‘My Heart is Complicated’ which closes the main set, before the band fire out a great cover of Maiden’s ‘Wasted Years’ to close the night and it looked like they enjoyed the release of playing it. Their loyal and respectful crowd clearly enjoyed it too on this valedictory night.The album has been released in digital and CD format on Bandcamp at very reasonable prices and the T-shirt is very nice too.https://jeanicelee.bandcamp.com/album/urban-legends-albumA further digital release will follow but I would thoroughly recommend the physical product as it comes with stunning art-work and a full representation of the emotive and poetic lyrics which will enhance your enjoyment. The band also have quite a few Scottish dates lined up over the next few weeks if you want to pick one up in person. I was also intrigued to hear that esteemed producer, Bryan Ramage, had been in attendance to record the show, so hopefully we will get to hear some of the results at some point.There were two great support bands and first up were EBB, whose name originally derived from The Erin Bennett Band – Erin being the Scottish-based, Texan singer, guitarist and front person. There’s actually six of them onstage (5 women and one guy) including two keyboard players and they deliver fantastic 3-part harmonies and brilliant instrumentation to go with a fine set of tunes.They describe their sound as “prog with songs” and that’s not a bad starting point. They’ve recently played The London Palladium with Hawkwind and that’s a good musical comparison as EBB deliver a bit of an avant-garde, mind-bending performance but with great musicality and intrigue. There’s a sensuality to their performance too – not least from, I think, Kitty Biscuits, who delivers harmony vocals, percussion and spoken word in a beguiling way.This band’s rock family tree goes back a long way to the once-notorious band, Rock Bitch, whose repertoire included sex acts and various other liberated performance arts. Chatting to the charming Suna Dasi and bass player, Finn McGregor after the show, Finn cheerfully confirmed that the band live within a pagan, polyamorous art collective “and we still all f**k each other”. So definitely not The Nolan Sisters then?They are a very good live act and have some excellent songs, particularly the set closer ‘Suffering’. Finn also explained that they’ve got an album that is close to completion, although they have still to face the usual problem of raising sufficient funds to get it out there. I hope they succeed in their endeavours and look forward to seeing them again.It was also a big ‘welcome back’ to Lothians 3-piece rockers Tergazzi. I had not heard them before but you could instantly tell what they were going to sound like when you first saw Andy Bremner step up to the mike with his flowing blond locks, sleeveless shirt and white flying-V guitar. They’ve been off the scene since Covid but bounced back flawlessly and their old-school heavy rock went down a treat.It's easy to subconsciously underestimate ‘local’ bands but I thought their set was full of top-quality original rock songs that were at least the equal of many ‘name’ bands. As far as I am aware, they don’t have too much recorded material and they haven’t made a dent nationally but I will be making a point of catching them again whenever possible.All in all, it was a fabulous evening of music. It was my first visit to the re-branded Legends venue in Cowgate and I was impressed with its rock ambience, vibe and draught Magners. I’ll be back.‘Urban Legends’ is out now on CD and Bandcamp, and on all digital platforms from 3rd June.
Here is what to expectJeanicelee - Back In Our Cage [Official Video] - YouTube
Joining Jeanice Lee is Dumfries and Galloway boys TORRS.

TORRS are a young Alternative/Indie rock band from Stewartry and Dumfries who are hitting the South West Scotland with a bang!

TORRS released a video (which they have made themselves!) on Friday 29th January 2021 of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song called Goodbye Angels. By Sunday 31st January it has received over 6000 views on Facebook and has also had a good following on the bands Instagram and YouTube Pages.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvs9qmub5sY

 The boys’ first gig was back in 2017 when they played at an Open Mic night at the Catstrand in New Galloway. They played covers of bands like Gun n Roses and Nirvana and were known as PureSilver.

 

hey have gone on to play at various gigs and festivals across Dumfries and Galloway, Carlisle and Workington with gigs due to be played in Ayr, Dumfries and Castle Douglas. and Kircudbright and Whitehaven . They have supported bands like the Lutras, Tomorrow is Lost, She Burns Red and A Ritual Spirit. Torrs won a battle of the bands and gained a slot at the 2020 Eden Festival and will be playing there this year!

 The boys released their debut single February 2021 and on 5th March 2022 we released our debut ep, titled SCRABO, to be followed up with an album later in the year. 

Find below a link to a gig that they played for  XHBiT Live 2021 at The Venue in Dumfries.

TORRS: XHBiT Live 2021 - YouTube