Is it vaudeville?  Is it 30s jazz?  It’s thoroughly endearing, whatever it is.  Spiral Scouts’ frontman, George Spittal stakes his claim to become Blackpool’s very own Cab Calloway

Release Date:  Out Now

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

Hailing from Blackpool, Spiral Scouts are a loose(ish) collective, formed and led by guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, George Spittal.  Current ‘other’ members in the band’s constantly-changing line-up include Nathan Beaumont on guitar, Eddie Vernon on bass and Sean Zaboni on keyboards and, together, they make a pleasant noise.  I can’t make up my mind whether to call it vaudeville, 30s jazz, Gypsy jazz or whatever else comes to mind but, whatever it is, it’s thoroughly endearing.

Spiral Scouts originally formed for a one-off performance, back in the summer of 2010, at the Mellow Yellow Festival on Blackpool’s North Pier.  Since then, they’ve played gigs and festivals all over the country, appearing on bills alongside many of At The Barrier’s favourite artists, including the likes of Edwina Hayes, Emily Barker and 3 Daft Monkeys – Cropredy stalwarts all.

George admits that he became a musician at an unusually late stage in his life – he was 37 when he came to own his first guitar – but there’s no doubt that he’s blossomed as a songwriter since he decided to take that cold-water plunge and his songs (over 60 of them to date) cover an impressively wide acreage, from sultry love songs to raucous observations on our social situation, calling at all stations along the way.  What’s more, his music has won comparisons with the work of Nick Drake, Paul Weller, Bert Jansch and Everything But The Girl.

Three of the four tracks that constitute Tales on the Tide, the new EP from Spiral Scouts, were recorded live in November 2023 (although I’ve not been able to pick up any clues with regard to the venue at which the recording was made.)  The ‘odd man out’ is opening track, If Only, which is a solo offering from George.  It’s a nice chunk of raga guitar, and the similarities between George’s vocal style and that of Nick Drake are striking from the outset.  He may have only picked up a guitar when he was clocking 40 years of age, but – by thunder – he can play!  It may seem deceptive at first; the introspection of If Only creates a very different mood to the jazzy fare that follows, but, in a way, this is the song that cements the EP into a cohesive product that shows the listener the wider picture of what the Spiral Scouts project is all about.

A few lines of vivid, sharp, electric guitar introduce Time, a song that combines reggae with baroque and Gypsy references.  Baroque Gypsy reggae, anyone?  George assumes the mantle of a 1940s big-band balladeer (although his Lancashire accent shines through the glitz…) as he sings “Time comes, time goes, come what may,” whilst violin and piano add the exotic edges to the infectious Caribbean rhythms.  Everything becomes a shade more vaudevillian with the choppy, bouncy rhythms of We Know More and George delivers a jazzy, storytelling vocal as guitar, violin and piano all intertwine around that persistent rhythm.  I particularly like the wha-wha fiddle parts, and the piano, violin and guitar solo interludes are sublime.

Setting Suns, the collection’s lead single, offers more of the same, although this time, the guitar solo is possibly even hotter.  George provides a shuffling rhythm on his acoustic guitar and there are plentiful keyboard sweeps from Sean’s piano.  George has an expressive vocal style and he adds a touch of drama as he breaks into spoken word to warn us to “Listen carefully this race is far from run…”

As George Spittal is wont to remark: “Life is a Spiral, and we all Scout for Answers.”  I’m not sure whether you’ll find the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything here, but I know that you’ll have a lot of fun Scouting for it!  And, in George Spittal, Blackpool may very well have found its very own Cab Calloway.

Listen to Setting Suns – the album’s lead single – here:

Spiral Scouts: Official Website / Facebook / Spotify

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