Halfmoon

Halfmoon

That's more like it!

We played at the Halfmoon in Putney on Saturday night. This is home from home for us so it was great to play there again. Soundcheck was a bit dodgy though. We found out the Steve's bass guitar isn't 'shielded'. I have no electrical knowledge so I don't really know what this means but what I can tell you is that it made an awful high pitch buzzing noise. Apparently it was because he was standing right by a load of electrical equipment, compressors and limiters for the PA system. So Laurie and Steve had to swap sides to stop the problem. Swapping sides made it better but there was still a buzz. Cheap copies hey! It's not actually a cheap copy. He got Wunjo Guitars to make him a special bass from scratch in the style of a 70's Fender Jazz. He got it made to look old too.

Anyway. We took longer than we should have done for soundcheck. After soundcheck we chilled out in the pub, had a beer or two, a bite to eat and waited for people to turn up. It's always the worst part because your anxious that you get enough through the door. At the halfmoon, we always get enough people, we just want to fill the place and please Carrie and Steve, the promoters, because they've helped us out in the past. If we fill the place we get a nice bit of cash too that goes on rehearsals etc.

The place started filling up and we went on stage at 9:30pm. We walked on to Beethoven (I think)!! I don't know what that was all about! Giles must have arranged it. I decided to keep my coat on for the gig. Last minute decision. I started to regret it in about the 3rd song. I must have lost about a stone up on stage!!

The Set:

New Way, Devil in Me, First move, Run Aground, Beauty, All I Need To Know, Bullet, Do It For Me.

We crammed a good set into half an hour. I tried to get on with things and minimize the muckin around between songs when I think Giles wanted to chat. Giles took the piss out me a couple of times about my hair and my jacket but it's all part of the show. He was like a man possessed on Saturday night. Great performance. He stepped on the mic lead on the last song so his vocal cut out. But stuff like that didn't matter on the night. On Tuesday in Manchester, maybe that would have thrown us along with the string breakages, but on Saturday the whole package seemed to work.

After the gig I met bloggers Mark and Jill and I had my photo taken with Mark after several attempts! I kept closing my eyes! Mark and Jill, I really appreciate you coming to show and I hope you can come again very soon! Mark has written about the gig on his blog. Click Here!

in December we're doing 3 gigs at venues we've never played at before. Should be interesting! Hopefully they'll be successful and we can round off a great 2005!

Back in London

Back in London

- I'm exhausted! Need another holiday.

I did very little in France even though I couldn't relax as much as I would have liked. My mind was on Monday's rehearsal and Tuesday's Manchester Gig.

I ate a lot, drank a lot, went for a bike ride, went for a run, watched a lot of sport on the TV, went to great antiques fair, went out for a 5 course meal at a French Restaurant. French Restaurant in France? Whatever next...

All in all I had a really good time and it was good to see my little bro. He speaks French!! He spends most of the time with a childminder because my Dad and his wife both work. He'll eventually speak English as well I suppose. He'll be spending Christmas in London so It wont be long til I see him again.

On Monday we flew back and landed at 7pm. I had rehearsals at 9:30pm. We did our best to get back in time but I ended up making rehearsals at 10:10pm. There was no one at the reception desk so I didn't know which studio my band were in. So I put my ear to the door of each studio until I got to this room where there was a top funk band with just drums, bass and organ. I stopped and listened for a bit and then peered my head round the door. It was my boys. Funk band? We'll be doing weddings next. We worked on the new song, tightened it up a bit ready to debut at the Manchester gig.

We left for Manchester at 1pm Tuesday in a 15 seater mini bus we hired. Everything was going alright until we saw the sign 'Manchester - 36 Miles'. It took us 3 hours to do those 36 miles! The traffic was murder. Very frustrating. So we arrived late and quickly did our soundcheck then jumped straight back into the minibus to go and check in to our hotel, scrub up and change etc. We then got back to the venue just as the band before us, Serotonin, were finishing their last song. We were on!

I broke a string in the 2nd song. I don't have a spare guitar because I smashed it up at the marquee back in September. So I had to use Giles's Telecaster. This was annoying because a Tele sounds really different to a Les Paul and I'd only rehearsed the new song on the Les. I was thrown off track a bit. Then I broke a string on Giles's guitar! I did this in 'Bullet', which is second to last in our set. I think I could have done the last song, 'Do It For Me' with 5 strings but Giles noticed the broken string and quickly said "That's It! Thank You! Goodnight". Lights went down and DJ started playing. That was it!

The guitars were in a cold environment all day in the back of the van and then in the backstage (kitchen) area. Then up on stage the temperature was very hot with the lights etc. I don't think the strings could cope. They were brand new strings and the guitars have been set up recently. Has anyone invented a heated guitar case? Now there's an idea.

After the gig I finally relaxed. Got on Vodka Sodas and enjoyed myself.

Me, Steve (Bass), Alex (Drums)

Click Here for more Manchester pictures

3am came and we had to take the gear back the hotel. We accidentally stole an acoustic guitar that belonged to another band. We've left it at the hotel in Manchester. Hopefully they'll get it back.

Got to sleep about 4am and then the alarm went off at 7am to get back to London. We had to get the minibus back by 12 otherwise we'd have to pay for another day. We got back at about 1:30pm. Traffic was bad. Traffic is getting worse in Britain. Pointless roadworks everywhere. The M25 will be 50 lanes wide before anyone's happy.

We're playing at The Halfmoon in Putney on Saturday. This is about as local as it gets for us. We love the venue and the promoters and we normally get a good size crowd. We haven't played there since June so hopefully there'll be a good turn out. I'll blog about it on Monday...

France & Manchester

France & Manchester

I'm going to France today with my girlfriend, Tess. Visiting my Dad, his wife and my 2 year old brother, Jack.

He's got a place in the middle of nowhere. A place called La Souterrain. Doesn't that mean 'The Underground'? It's a big house and there's lots of land around it. Lots of land! There's a shed/barn in the garden that I'll convert in to a recording studio one day.

I'm looking forward to the trip. I'm going by plane. Unlike a lot of people, I like flying. It'll be a nice relaxing couple of days. Nice food, Red wine etc...

I get back on Monday and then on Tuesday, I've got a gig in Manchester.

We're doing this charity gig all in aid of The Laura Crane Trust, a charity that deals with youth cancer. Check it out at www.lauracranetrust.org

Tony Wilson is presenting the night. Some people may know who he is but for those of you who don't: Tony Wilson kickstarted the Manchester music scene. He created Factory records who discovered bands such as Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays. These bands are very well known in UK. Not sure if they're heard of in US.

Anyway. It'll be a quality gig. We're playing with some great bands. The Whiskeycats and Serotonin.

We were meant to be doing a BBC Manchester Radio Interview after the gig but it got cancelled because a band called Elbow have given us the elbow. We're welcome back anytime. We just need another gig in Manchester to be able to talk about.

I finished that song. It's called 'First Move' and we're debuting it at Tuesdays gig.

Cheers

Leicester

Leicester

- The gig we did on Friday @ De Montfort Uni was truly a great gig if we do say so ourselves.

We got there at about 7pm to soundcheck and I immediately took full advantage of the £1 a drink offer. I needed it after the journey up. The weather was atrociouss and there was the usual Friday night traffic. I didn't drive. Steve (bass) drove so he probably needed that pint more than me!

The other band we played with were called The Screening. I was saying in a previous post about the (lack of) quality of bands we'd played with at wimbledon, well I'm glad to say that The Screening are a quality band. They were Leicester boys so they had a few people down to support them. We had a few to see us too mind.

After we soundchecked, we needed to eat so Ollie, the guy who organised the night, pointed us in the direction of 'Pizza king'. Don't know what they put on this pizza but it did my stomach in big time. I felt rotten. Not ideal preparation for a gig!

Anyway, I snapped out of it and we ended up going on stage at about 10:40pm. By this time the room was pretty busy. We must have played in front of about 400-500 people. Geoff, our manager, had this idea that he wanted to make the start of our show have more impact. So I went on stage first with the lights down and just played E minor for about a minute while the other boys walked on stage. The lights came on and we went into 'New Way'. How dramatic! i think it worked.

i think the crowd of students enjoyed the gig. There were some people dancing on the chairs. There was one kid with a pierced lip and a Ramones T shirt that was going mental! He was a bit OTT, I don't know if he was being ironic or he actually enjoyed the show.

After the show we sold a few CDs and spoke to a few people, even signed some autographs! We've been invited back to play there again.Hopefullyy in January.

All in all. Success!! Really enjoyed it!

Had an early start on Saturday morning too. Me and my brother, Joe, went to watch the football. Swansea played at Southend. Top of the table clash! We won 2-1!!!!! What a weekend! :-)

University Gig

University Gig

- hope people who have ordered our EP have got them! Hope you like it! It sounds different to what you heard on 'In The Attic' doesn't it? Some of you may prefer the softer acoustic approach and some of you may prefer the full band, rock and roll approach. All the songs are written on an acoustic guitar and when I bring them to the band we pull the song apart, add bits and inject the song with energy and passion. One of the questions we always ask ourselves when developing a song in the rehearsal room is 'does it make you want to kick things?'. If the answer is 'yes', ...Great.

We've got a gig tomorrow at De Montfort University, Leicester. Leicester is about 2 hours north of London in the midlands. Like I said in my previous blog, we like university gigs because there is a crowd already there and we don't have to round up the troops in order to please a 'promoter'. We were hoping to play another new song tomorrow night but it ain't finished yet. It's nearly there. The music is in place. The verses and the bridges are good. I'm looking for a hook/chorus. The one I've written, I've got my doubts about. We REALLY NEED THAT CHORUS! The one that everyone will sing back!

You know I said about the Swans in the FA Cup last week and on paper we should win 10-0? Well...we fucking lost 2-0...and Wales got thumped in the rugby. Bad day all round. (Who cares Sam?).

Thoughts on Wimbledon

Thoughts on Wimbledon

Just did the gig last night at The Watershed in Wimbledon.

We played well. The new song got a great response. So I'm pleased about that aspect of the night. I didn't think much of the other bands we played with. I can't remember the names of the bands. Probably best.

What's worrying though is that the headline band used our drum kit which clearly has 'The Vibrants' on the kick drum. SO people who watched that band thought they were us! If they had the same impression of that band as I did then they go home thinking 'That band, The Vibrants, weren't much cop were they?'. It wasn't us!

Our next gig in London is on Saturday 26th November at The Halfmoon in Putney. This venue is home from home for us. I love the place. The promoters are great and more often than not, we get a great crowd. I'm trying to write another new song for this show. We've got the music all sorted, I just need to write some lyrics. I'm looking through my notebook for ideas I've jotted down or any themes that may work. It's difficult to write a song backwards like this! The lyrics normally come first for me.

I understand 'In The Attic' was controversial yesterday?! I'm trying to watch it now but it's got an old video of 'Who Are You' running. Is it being edited?

We've got some out of town gigs coming up this month. We're playing at De Montfort University in Leicester on Friday 11th November. University gigs are great. There's a responsive audience who love live music and we just enjoy ourselves. It's great to get out of London and the whole 'How many people are you bringing?' culture.

On Tuesday 22nd November, we're playing in Manchester at a place called 'One Central Street'. The gig is raising money for The Laura Crane Trust. This charity helps young people battle cancer. There's some great bands playing with us and Tony Wilson is presenting the night. Tony Wilson is famous for discovering the Madchester scene, developing the Hacienda night club, bringing on bands such as Joy Division and New Order. There's a movie made about him, '24 Hour Party People'. I'm looking forward to meeting him.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's the 1st Round (proper) of the FA Cup. This is 'soccer's best competition in the world. My beloved Swansea City FC are playing away at Stockport. On paper we should win 10-0 but the FA Cup is a great leveler. Also, Wales are playing the mighty New Zealand All Blacks in Rugby Union at the Millennium Staduim. I think Wales will get a complete hiding but I'll enjoy watching none the less.

Have a good weekend whatever you're doing!