Melissa Waterfield, one of The Mild Ones moderators had a challenge. A birthday project/present for Richard Oakes, Suede’s guitarist.
Part of what Melissa wrote on the Mild Ones Facebook: “Raquel Pinheiro and I were inspired by hearing of Richard’s appreciation for birds, an appreciation that we share, and decided upon this collaboration of field recordings, a Haiku, and her original piece to commemorate his 50th year🎂”
My original piece is called Richard’s Theme, and the Haiku, written on purpose for Richard, The House Martin.
The House Martin
In the cliff and the cave The House Martin nested Then, to the city it moved to
Carlos Paredes – Verdes Anos. From Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film. Verdes Anos. An instrumental piece in which the Mestre and his Portuguese guitar carry the atmosphere without needing words.
Paradise Lost – The Last Time From by beloved album of theirs Draconian Times. Heavy, dark and beautifully atmospheric, with that particular sense of weight and beat that Paradise Lost can create.
Ethel Ennis – Dreamer Dreamer From the album Lullabies for Losers. A voice carrying longing and vulnerability with extraordinary warmth upon an arrowing musical background.
Hildegard von Bingen – Ave GenerosaMusic from the twelfth century, luminous and otherworldly. Hildegard is also one of my main inspirations and central to The Polymath
I week ago I was sitting in the front row, right in the middle of the stage, when Heavenwood began their 30th anniversary concert at the Coliseu Box in Porto.
The stage was framed by beautiful sculptures by Helder Cabral, creating something that felt entirely at home with Heavenwood. It was theatrical, completed by the backing vocals and elegant movements of Beatriz Mariano and Sandra Oliveira, without ever taking away from the songs and music. It gave the concert another, ethereal, fairies-and-deities dimension.
I have known Heavenwood since the very beginning, when they were still Disgorged, and have watched them travel a very long way from those early days. Thirty years is a considerable stretch of time for any band. Standing there watching them, the number itself became less important than what was happening in the room.
Heavenwood are often described as melodic heavy metal, and there is certainly a great deal of melody in their music. But there is groove too. A strong physical movement underneath the songs that makes them work not only as something to listen to, but as something to inhabit.
From the beginning, the set moved through different periods of their history, with Death, Moonlight Girl and Morning Glory Clouds giving way to The Empress, The Moon and Since The First Smile, beautifully sung by Beatriz Mariano.
This was particularly amusing for me because Tarot had already been appearing repeatedly in my own life in the days leading up to the concert. I pull a card every day, by hand, from my Giger Tarot, and The Star has been the card that has appeared more than any other over the past four years.
Then, there I was, at a Heavenwood concert celebrating 30 years and found myself surrounded by The Empress, The Moon, The High Priestess, The Sun, The Hanged Man and The Stars, as the band moved through the music of The Tarot of the Bohemians cycle.Sometimes life does have a sense of humour.
The Hanged Man brought Sandra Oliveira to the stage for lead vocals, adding another change of texture to the evening, while Ricardo Dias dos Santos, Eduardo Sinatra and Walter Teixeira carried the band through a set that had both weight and atmosphere.
And the sound. Oh! The sound! By the latter part of the concert it was so powerful that I could feel the floorboards moving with it, and the vibes and frequencies emanating from the stage wrapping me.
I was also having a rather wonderful time air-drumming.
My the eldest of my brothers, who is an actual drummer, was beside me tapping his legs to the music, while the drummer on the other side of the aisle was air-drumming too, even more enthusiastically than him. So there I was, sitting in the middle, flanked by two drummers and joining in.
On the encore there was a great singalong to the magistral and catchy Suicidal Letters, and by the time the curtain was about to fall, Heartquake arrived, and the room had changed completely.
Everyone was standing up and dancing.The seated concert had become a moving room.
That is one of the best things about seeing a band that has been around for thirty years. The history is there, certainly, but it is not a museum piece. It is alive when the songs still move people, when old songs are sung back at the stage, when a room full of people gets up and dances.
Heavenwood’s music has always carried a particular atmosphere, gothic, dark, melodic, poetic, sometimes symphonic, sometimes heavy as hell without ever losing itself.
At the Coliseu, with Helder Cabral’s sculptures surrounding the stage, it had the space to become something else again.
This was not simply a band’s concert marking thirty years.It was Heavenwood inhabiting three decades of music in one of Porto’s most special concert venues.
Heavenwood: Ricardo Dias dos Santos – founder/guitarist/composer/vocals Band Members: Eduardo Sinatra – drums Walter Teixeira – guitar Special Guests: Beatriz Mariano and Sandra Oliveira – backing vocals and lead vocals on Since The First Smile (Beatriz Mariano), The Hanged Man (Sandra Oliveira) Sculptures: Helder Cabral
Setlist: Death Moonlight Girl Morning Glory Clouds The Empress The Moon Since The First Smile – lead vocals Beatriz Mariano 13th Moon The Lightning-Struck Tower Shadowflower The High Priestess The Sun The Hanged Man – Lead vocals Sandra Oliveira Rain Of July The Stars Frozen Images
words: Telma Mota (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota
The second edition of A Noite do Cometa once again surprised and reaffirmed its restless attitude, always refreshing in its commitment to promoting emerging Portuguese bands.
This time, the fusion of different musical genres travelled through the sounds of the chosen projects with spirit, elegance and youthful energy.
The event began with what was called a Prólogo (Prologue) surprise, bringing together Carlos Raposo and Alexandre Manuel Pinto in a string duet. Carlos, on the 10-string viola campaniça, accompanied by Alexandre on classical guitar, opened the event in the best possible way, with original pieces inspired by traditional music, somewhere between folk and Carlos Paredes.
Well played and performed, it set the tone for a musical night marked by freedom and diversity.
Next came the young bands Manga Cava, Mordo Mia and Lesma, which, in the words of organiser Garcia, were not chosen to fit into a mere playlist, but because they were capable of “altering the night for one another”. Interspersed with the consistently quality music of Jorge Monteiro’s DJ set, they took to the stage with attitude.
Manga Cava, a four-piece girly indie pop punk rock band, recently released the EP Retrato da menina abandonada no lixo. They are ironic, noisy and competent. Joana and Maria sing, accompanied by their guitars, raw songs energised by bass and drums. Among their original songs, they performed one by Pega Monstro, a band from the underground scene with which they identify.
Mordo Mia added discomfort, in an unusual mixture of musical genres. Guitar, violin, keyboards, bass and drums come together in an intense and extraordinary amalgam that makes us pay attention to the details through which they communicate complex and contradictory feelings. Surprising for a band made up of people so young. Still a somewhat immature sound, but promising , already with two albums out: Sente-se Primeiro and Chumbo Côncavo.
To complete the emerging trio, Lesma, a girls’ band made up of three friends who released their first album, É mentira, in 2025 through Saliva Diva. Raw, strong and direct punk rock which, through Leonor Casimiro’s voice, gains a particularly interesting life, with lyrics delivered in a machine-gun verbal register, reflecting current personal and generational concerns, so many and so intense that they almost trip over one another in streams of muffled screams. An excellent performance, delivered with confidence and commitment.
To finish, the comet exploded with the performance of Fugly, a Porto garage-rock band that began its activities ten years ago, but has performed little lately. Nevertheless, they retain their intensity, with their two noisy guitars, precise bass and an energetic drum kit that tears through everything and drives the band’s live performance. With an explicit anti-fascist message delivered from the stage, their vocalist Jimmy finished by expressing the hope we all want to hold on to while there is still “road to travel”…
After these magnificent high-octane live moments, the night entered its epilogue, provided by the already very well-known rock ’n’ roll DJ Rodas, owner of the recently closed Barracuda bar.
And so another special night of musical comet unfolded at OPO’LAB. Long may it be repeated.
Good morning with our Middle of the Week Song – The Black Maria, O by Luke Haines & Mike Smalle.
The Black Maria, O is a 1887 song by Irish-American lyricist, Edward Harrigan and composer David Brahma was performed in New York as part of the musical comedy, McNooney’s Visit.
The song is included in From the Tombs the second album by Bring Your Own Hammer. From the Tombs features late XIX century and early XX century songs related to crime, law and order among the Irish Diaspora and Ireland interpreted for the XXI century by different artists.
