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<h1 align='center'>Thermal Overload!</h1>
<p align='center'>Fighting The Curse Of The Josephs Well</p>
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<p>Leeds. The great commercial capital of the industrial North. Once one of the grimmest cities in England, in recent years Leeds has leapt ahead to become a thriving and vibrant setting of a wealth of local and national culture and talent. It boasts some of the finest Goth, Darkwave and Alternative clubs to be found outside London, including the weekly "Black Sheep" and monthly "Wendyhouse" and "Black Veil" events.</p>
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<p>The Leeds live scene lost a significant venue when "The Duchess", in the heart of the lively and beautiful Victorian city centre, was demolished and replaced with a Hugo Boss store (yeah, like we really needed one of those - not!), "The Josephs Well", opened in 2001, is the Duchess's replacement, and now hosts a lot of alternative and darkwave talent on a fairly regular basis. Inkubus Sukkubus first played there in the depths of Winter, 2001, a gig that was plagued with equipment faults and a very ropey PA, despite which the band still delivered a stunning performance.</p>
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<p>I had it on good authority (Joel of Action Directe, no less) that the sound quality at
The Well had improved considerably since that 2001 gig, so as the crowd gathered once more,
seventeen days past Beltaine, 2003, we all wondered if the Curse of the venue would return. </p>
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<p>I'd offered Princess Linzi a lift from Sheffield, which had the side benefit that I got fed chocolate digestives on the journey - thanks!
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We arrived more or less on the stroke
of 8pm, to find the band already chatting to people in the bar. The usual merchandise was available, sitting next to the sales table were Gary and Allison, soon to be married - say cheese! During the Inkies' set, Candia dedicated a song to these two, but in the heat I've forgotten which one - sorry!</p>
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<p>Tonights support act were the Soultakers, a very interesting band formed fairly recently - this was only their fourth gig, even so, they delivered a very polished performance. Their style seemed to me to lean a bit more to the techno-goth end of the spectrum, the
instrumentation was all electronic, with two keyboards and no guitar, and all five bandmembers singing.</p>
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<p>They actually started playing to an almost empty venue, as there is no bar in the room everyone had stayed in the pub at the front, however within a couple of tracks the room started to fill with people.</p>
<p>Towards the end of their set they did a pagan track, "Ritual", which had some interesting repeating backing lyrics and was delivered with a great deal of gothic style. Overall, a band definetly worth watching.</p>
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<td align='center'>Mistress Of The Keyboards</td>
<td align='center'>Master of Music</td>
<td align='center'>The Taker Of Souls</td>
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<h1 align='center'>The Soultakers</h1>
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<td align='center'>The Vampyre</td>
<td align='center'>The Slave Girl</td>
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<p>A few well known faces were observed to be present during the support slot, including
Rob Sherlock of Gloucester and York video fame chatting to Candia, and Avritia in a very fetching floor-lenght PVC wench dress, accompanied by partner in a Mr Goth t-shirt. Linzi even insisted on taking a shot of me, so of course I had to retaliate <evil gryn>. Lurking at the back of the stage, Tony was doing his best to blot everyone out entirely with the smoke machine!</p>
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<h2 align='center'>Isis - Astarte - Diana - Hecate - Demeter - Kali - Inana</h2>
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<p>Suddenly, the room was thronged, the air was alive with energy, the tolling bells sounded, and once more we were all dancing wildly to the driving beat of the 2002 version of the legendary Goddess chant!</p>
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<p>"Wytches" was delivered with style and power, followed up with "Smile Of Torment" to really get the already enthusiastic crowd moving, and they went down an absolute storm. The PA was vastly emproved on the previous version, the sound rich and clear, and in the last couple of years the band appear to have finally overcome their long-standing live fault of having Candia's mic set too low - here, as on the previous gigs of this tour, we could clearly hear every word and were left panting for more!</p>
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<p>Before the band came on the crowd had come right up to the stage, now the front rows really showed their enthusiasm, with the Soultakers writhing and weaving in front of the left hand PA stack, while Alan, former co-ordinator of part of the Sheffield pagan scene, who I'd not seen for several years, was utterly enwraptured with Candia's incredible performance.</p>
<p>I was of course dancing like a maniac, as were most of us in the front rows. It may be becoming a cliche, but once more, the magic really was flowing.</p>
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<p>The lighting in the Josephs Well basically amounts to four hulking great flood lamps mounted about ten feet back from the stage, and their main contribution to the gig was to roast anyone standing in front of them, despite not actually casting enough light to photograph by, hence this review is all flash photos. They also made it hard for Tony and Adam to see their guitar frets - now the PA has been upgraded can we have these ancient lamps replaced too please?</p>
<p>It was during "Smile Of Torment" that the curse of the Josephs Well made its presence felt once more, as Candia's mic cable abruptly dropped out, leaving us withan unexpected instrumental version! The cable was re-plugged but dropped out twice more before the engineer saved the day with a quick application of sticky tape to hold it in its socket. Perhaps next time we should cast the circle and purify the venue before the band starts? <gryn></p>
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<p>The set was the now-familiar "Wytches" one first heard at Camden last year, and we got a full 17 of the 18 possible songs, missing only "Corn King" from the end. Despite the stifling heat the band gave their usual full-on performance, and the crowd responded to every move and every word, while up on stage Tony, Adam and Candia mananed to get up to yet more of their traditional antics, which this time included Candia grabbing Adam from behind, and later on Adam playing bass while lying flat on the floor!</p>
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<p>The full set was:<br>
<i>Wytches<br>
Smile Of Torment<br>
The Rape Of Maude Bowen<br>
I Am The One<br>
Take My Hunger<br>
Vampyres<br>
Away With The Faeries<br>
Heart Of Lillith<br>
We Belong With The Dead<br>
Catherine<br>
Lucifer Rising<br>
Belladonna & Aconite<br>
Vampyre Erotica<br>
Song To Pan<br>
Paint It Black<br>
Vampyre Kiss<br>
Leveller<br>
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