Stokesounds review by Danny Hill

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Current mood: recumbent Soul 69/ The Trent Vale Poet/ The Clay Faces @ The Old Brown Jug, Newcastle-under-Lyme. December 7th. 2008 Review and Clay Faces interview by Danny Hill Photos By Darren Washington Conditions were bleak last Sunday night at The Old Brown Jug and it wasn‘t just down to the cold weather. The experts have been warning us for a while that the pub industry is under serious threat due to the collective strength of a smoking ban, a credit crunch, inflated energy prices and cheap supermarket alcohol. And under the grim, dark cloud of a recession, who can blame punters for shopping cheaply and drinking their beers at home? It’s all a little Catch-22. It’s not just licensees bearing the cost of these economically challenging times either. It’s bands and artists. Fans, too, though sacrificially rather than financially. Many of you will already know that The Glebe in Stoke, a fantastic live music venue, will be shutting its solid-oak double-doors for the final time not so long from now. So, as a live music fan, you have to ask… Which one’s next? The Clay Faces have recently completed the 08 leg of their current tour and so are perhaps the most suitably placed band to speak about the current crisis. I spoke to multi-instrumentalist Paul Dunn from the quartet: “The '08 leg of the tour was pretty much just a warm-up for the big push in '09, so we haven't been too far afield. We've been to places both familiar and unfamiliar and I have to say, the main impression is that live music at the licensed trade level is on its arse. It's the arty/cultural music club and theatre type venues that are the best to play, meanwhile some of the pubs can be really hard work.” That isn’t to say The Old Brown Jug wasn’t doing any business at all last Sunday night, but the venue offered free-entry and one of the top local bands to its punters and still it only remained half-full throughout the evening. If precedents are anything to go by, the same gig would’ve been packed to the rafters 12 months ago. In the spirit of professionalism, however, the bands were not to be deterred. First up on Sunday’s bill was Soul 69, an acoustic trio with two guitarists, Marcus handling rhythm and vocals, Doon on lead and Vinnie on the turntable. Their quirky, choppy Iggy Pop- Passenger-style riffs and Marcus’ falsetto singing style fused well and made for agreeable listening straight from their opening song, Lookin’ setting the scene for some genuinely unique songs. Soul ‘69’s reggae and hip-hop influences then came across with their next number Old England, with some awesome scratching and lead work and lyrics laced in social and political irony. Songs Sometimes and Answers set the trio in poppier, sing-a-long territories. They finished their set with the infectious In This World to great applause. The Trent Vale Poet has followed The Clay Faces over the last few months of their tour. “Taking the poet with us and watching him perform outside his comfort zone has been great,” enthuses Paul. “He really raises his game and it's a pleasure to see his work being enjoyed outside of Stoke. I've challenged him to write a poem about the tour, to be performed at Oggy’s on the 20th Dec. So that should be interesting.” It’s always a pleasure of mine to see TVP perform, and I’ve seen him numerous times. I’m accustomed his act these days, so it’s not him I‘m watching as he begins. I‘m watching his audience. I’m looking for the ones that haven’t seen or heard of him before. Their initial reaction - they don‘t know what to expect. Trent Vale Poet, a man characterised by his flowing black trench coat with its pockets stuffed with his poetry on scraps of paper, performs his work with such passion and energy that his audience’s faces can sometimes leave them set to stunned. That’s when they’re not wise to his approach. Seasoned followers of TVP look forward to his appearances rapt with attention from the second he grabs the microphone. I Were Born In Fenton! is a poem that personifies his approach, written about a real character from the pubs of Fenton, a character that after a few pints or more would always shout “I Were Born In Fenton!” TVP echoes this broad statement as the entrance to his poem, startling a few punters in the process. But after that they’re hooked, and TVP goes on to deliver a few more poems from his massive repertoire, all perfectly-timed and flawlessly crafted, including the tongue-in-cheek one-liners of A Love Letter To Steve Davis. Performance poetry and band collaborations are on the rise. Just recently, poet John Cooper Clark supported The Fall at The Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh. With that in mind, you could call TVP a pioneer. The Clay Faces’ birth, in 2004, came from the demise of Jugopunch - a band, then, more concentrated on its Celtic influences and songs about whiskey-drenched songs of yore. One of the original band member’s Paul Dunn explained their name: “I can take responsibility for being the first one to utter the words 'The Clay Faces' as a band name suggestion. It came about at an emergency brainstorming session - the first EP was in the can and we had a production deadline to meet, and no name! In fact, the decision to change the name at all completely overshadowed the name itself. But basically we just wanted to have something that tied us back to our roots, so that the name would kinda be an explanation as to what we were up to in terms of us moving away from being 'an Irish band'. We wanted to show that we represented Stoke and her history, her heritage…” And although the Celtic influence may still be alive with The Clay Faces’ material, only somewhat to a lesser degree, the band admit that it was the demise of Jugopunch that opened doors in terms of their songwriting. The band are certainly no strangers to addressing the problems of society through the medium of social commentary, particularly with songs like Football On The T.V. - a song, ironically, about the decline of the pub trade, and World’s Away - a song regarding recent problems in America and Iraq. “The social comment is a Clay Faces trait,” said Paul. “Jugopunch was mainly the traditional Celtic thing, and then on the last album you can hear that political aspect beginning to creep in, with songs like Dark Waltz... That’s when we realised it was that kind of emotional response and social comment stuff is what we wanted to do. We're pretty emotional types, so singing for 90 minutes about whiskey and highwaymen and bonnie maidens wasn’t really doing it for us - much better to vent our spleens about the real problems like fascism and racism and all the other problematic 'isms'.” These days, it’s only usually hip-hop artists using their music in this way, and in the sappy-pop order of modern times - the music dominating today’s charts - where thousands upon thousands of television viewers will vote for a Christmas number one that has already been decided twelve months earlier (The X Factor) it’s refreshing to see a band using their music in an innovative way to address issues that are important to everyday life. The Clay Faces kick off with what is also the first track on their album ‘and the word was..’ the punchy Mississippi Burning, quickly followed by my personal favourite Love Lies Bleeding, percussionist Cara Beech trading her drums for a bodhran, and written by mancunian guitarist Dave Walker. Masters of the build-up and break-down as they are, The Clay Faces then soften the mood with the melodic Will You Come Away With Me, singer Andrew Tranter’s trademark deep-throated bark and venom in perfect working order throughout. Their songs are a reminder of some of the most essential sing-along punk(ish) songs ever written, and played by those who wrote them in the way they were supposed to be played. In my opinion The Clay Faces stand exposed as the most rousing trad-fusion band since The Pogues. Later on in the night came a cover of traditional Irish favourite Barney Hair, along with a collection of favourites from their Jugopunch days, including Cold and A Fiver On The Horses, with Paul seemingly switching instruments between each song. “I get really bored playing the same instrument all the time,” he said. “Definitely a 'jack of all trades, master of none' thing going on.” Impressively, throughout their set, The Clay Faces use a total of nine different instruments in their set, including the mandolin and a penny whistle. “It's a conscious thing on our part to ensure a bit of variation sonically through the set, and I think it works…” Singer Andy awkwardly attempts to draw conversation from the audience between songs but, alas, it’s a slow night in The Jug and The Clay Faces are more at ease communicating through their music. Up-tempo versions of Marianne and Monyash Road follow, and for the encore fans’ favourite from the new album And The Word Was… earns great applause. For the encore the TVP-penned Black Hearts rounds the evening off. As for 2009 the tour will continue further afield, with the band considering a few good offers from different parties. Paul also informs me that the band are currently rehearsing-up a fifth member, predominantly playing bass and lap-steel. In the near-future, however, The Clay Faces, along with TVP and Soul ‘69, will be playing Oggy’s on Dec. 20th. Listen: The Clay Faces The Trent Vale Poet Soul 69

And the Word Was... Blog

Friday, October 24, 2008

Current mood: evil And the word was... Recording. I wanted to do a blog talking about exactly how our first album was recorded. Covering the 'why's', the 'how's' and the 'when's'. The album is really a collection of EP's. The entire thing was recorded over four sessions between November 2006 and September 2008. In the first session [aka the penguin sessions], the objective was to spend four days recording four songs, and they were: Will You Come Away With Me Mississippi is Burning Love Lies Bleeding Whiskey Train At that point, Steve Dunn was still with us playing lead acoustic and banjo, and at that point we were a band without a name. The plan was to get these tracks onto a launch EP and have a Xmas bash somewhere for all our friends and supporters. Which we did, and things were looking good for a while. The Clay Faces were established. Then Steve decided he didn't want to be involved anymore and we were suddenly down to four members. In a crisis meeting we decided that really we had two choices, either carry on or stop completely. The possible third option of cancelling the bookings we had, and hanging fire for a few weeks until we could properly take stock of the situation didn't seem particularly appealing, and was quickly dismissed. Sometimes you've gotta let your momentum carry you through. We had several rehearsals in which the entire set was adapted and re-arranged. I personally spent a long time practising new banjo and guitar parts in order to fill the void left by Steve. I even attempted playing harmonica and banjo simultaneously, but found I was compromising my harmonica skills with the harp in a brace – plus I looked like a complete twat, so... In May of '07 we returned to Prism studios in Hanley, S-o-T, to record another four tracks, these were: Marianne Monyash Road Mission Bell Kiss Football on the TV We had another four days booked for the coming September, so it was decided that we'd wait until then to choose the best four songs from the two sessions combined for the next EP release. So we continued to gig. We had a pretty steady summer playing some really good gigs and supporting the likes of Dave Pegg & PJ Wright, the Battlefield Band, King Creosote and the Oysterband. Oh, and an unfortunate near miss with the mighty Blood or Whiskey, in which I got pissed off with the sound man and decided to do one of my patented prima donna "I'm outta here" acts – resulting in no gig. September came around, and leading up to the days in the studio, somebody had the brainwave of recording a video to go on the new EP. We met with a production company and settled on what to do. It was decided that the video would be for the title track of the EP, and that track was to be 'Football on the TV'. The rest of the songs would be decided after we had finished Septembers' recording. On the first day in the studio, we shot the video and over the remaining two days we recorded: Prelude Where the Waters Meet A World Away And the Word was Love Once these were mixed and done, and the video in the bag, we had the disc mastered and sent off for production. It was during that period that we hit upon a slightly maverick plan. With the first EP, we had a few thousand produced in standard jewel cases with greyscale artwork and knocked 'em out for a fiver. This time, we decided to do the 'music 2.0' thing, releasing 10,000 'enhanced' audio/video discs in basic [but full colour] cardboard sleeves, and then giving them away for free. At the time of writing, almost 12 months later, we have managed to shift around 7,000. That's right; we can't even give stuff away. In all seriousness, the EP was generally very well received and gained some favourable reviews. Although there were some people who couldn't get their head around the concept of an independent label releasing a free CD. I remember one friend of mine [who in fairness has learnt the hard way about the value of a song] was baffled as to why we would want to go down this route. And sure, he had a point – even if we'd done them for a quid each we would have at least made back what we paid for them. But, it was never intended to be a money maker - the idea was to get ten thousand discs circulating around in areas where we may not have otherwise been heard. Also, at the time, there was a local music rag with a circulation of a couple thousand and, part of the idea was that we'd have the EP mounted to the cover of the Xmas 07 issue. Unfortunately, the rag never saw it's Xmas 07 issue published. So anyway, if you've been paying attention, you'll remember that I said that the album was recorded over 4 x sessions, and so far I've listed all the songs, yet only mentioned 3 x sessions. Our last visit to the studio was just a couple months ago [by which time Prism had relocated to a very posh ex-nuclear bunker at the other side of town] and only about 5 weeks prior to the target release date. This time around was just Davey and myself and producer Shaun Lowe, going through the album track by track, laying down some pretty major overdubs, re-records, edits and finally remixing. As I've said elsewhere, it's testament to Shaun's production that the album in no way sounds like a collection of three separate EP's; the continuity, regardless of our track placement, is bang-on and all in all we're very pleased with how the project has ended up. But, I guess like most bands, by the time the album was released, we are already concentrating on the embryonic stages of the next one, so it's difficult to adjust to the fact that (despite the release of the two EP's) this material is brand new to the outside world; when to us it's old hat. But nevertheless, we are really happy and proud of our little baby of a first album. So to the future, and as I mentioned above, thoughts within the band have long since turned to our next recorded output. At least half of the material is written already and we feel very excited and confident about this one. And the Word Was... in terms of production, is a very polished and clean sounding record; as is most of Prism's digital work, which is great for a first album in terms of getting it actually listened to by radio stations and the like, but not always the best production value when it comes to acoustic/roots music. The next album, which has a working title of 'Poor Man's Beat', will be a self recorded affair, featuring as much live work as possible. We're hoping overall for a far more ramshackle approach, something with a bit more character. Another project that we've briefly discussed, but one which Dave and myself in particular are very keen to sort out, is an invitation only show featuring songs old and new, which we would like to record for a DVD release. Again, this wouldn't be until the end of 09, but you gots to plan ahead, right? Back to the present and the reality is that this first album is only 2 weeks old and there's a lot of work to be done. There is a hint of a whisper of a possibility that we may be able to get it onboard with a UK distributor, but as anyone who knows about these things will tell you, sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth. We sincerely hope that, if you have a copy of the album, you are enjoying listening to it as much as we have enjoyed making it. And if you don't have a copy – drop me a line and we'll sort you one out. In closing, I should just mention that we are currently rehearsing with a new member playing bass and lap-steel, and it is sounding very promising indeed. The identity of this individual will hopefully be officially revealed very soon! And I'll just leave you with the following suggestions: Support live music and small live music venues, grow your own vegetables, avoid the consumption of sodium benzoate, try to discourage people from voting BNP, eat 7 x Goji berries a day. peace

praise for the clay faces first album

Friday, October 17, 2008

Current mood: bouncy so, the album has been out in the world for exactly 1 week and the reviews are starting to come in: first in was courtesy of FATEA records closely followed by this from the fantastic blogsite that is www. stokesounds. co. uk

bring out yer dead!..

September 25, 2008 at 12:04pm

yo peeps! owz it goin?
hope everyone had a great summer? it's nice to be back, and great to see the unsigned chart pages have been flourishing in our absence. as many of you know, we've not been around these parts for a couple months. basically we had a well-earned summer break, with each of us going off to pursue various other projects, and having holidays and stuff...

also over the last couple of weeks we have been locked in a decommissioned nuclear bunker, putting the final touches to our first album. with every new cd i am reminded of the huge amount of work that goes into it. firstly there was meeting after meeting to discuss the music side of things, resulting in meself and davey having an intensive over-dubbing session [thats not a euphemism for us bumming each other btw], getting all the incidental bits and bobs that nobody will ever notice mixed onto the tracks. this basically involves hours and hours of standing in soundproofed rooms surrounded by microphones, being told through the cans to go: 'oooh' here and: 'aaah' there. and sitting with fingers poised over piano keyboards, waiting for that one second to strike a note, mis-timing it and having to do it over and over again.

then there's the cd artwork. again, after several meetings sat round various pub tables, we finally decided on a name for the album. then it was more meetings to discuss the general direction for the visual theme of the album. getting on for chucking-out time, bleary eyes and a table over-spilling with notes, scribbles, crisp packets and empty bottles, we finally agreed on what to do. and it basically resulted in me having to scale an 8 foot wall [taking the skin off of my arms in the process] in order to commit a not-quite-banksy-esque act of mindless vandalism on some 'un-developed' land in the city centre of stoke on trent. which was nice...

the album is called 'and the word was...', and is basically an account of what we have been up to over the past two years. the tracks are compiled from mainly three recording sessions [4 x tracks each session], the first of which was completed way back in december 2006! the four tracks from this session have been left completely 'as is' and seem to fit right in without any noticeable hiccup in terms of production continuity [which is testament to the skills of mr shaun lowe our producer]. the most recent session was march 08, those tracks being the 'jewels in the crown'. we think...

so. that brings me pretty much up to date. at the moment i am having a day off from everything, in order to update the websites [this page, myspace and theclayfaces.com], also i have the dubious honour of producing all the other promo materials such as posters, flyers, postcards, the afore-mentioned web duties, design of merchandise: new t-shirts etc etc... and whats the first thing i'm doing? this blog! hahar, old habits die hard...

on the gigging side of things, it's gonna be a great autumn/winter as we tour the new album. we are at the time of writing, about four gigs into the warm-up dates, and the tour proper will kick in on the 4th october @ the m19 bar in manchester, with more fantastic dates to follow through to the end of the year...

anyway, as i mentioned, full gig list and album info will be posted during the course of the day, so stay tuned - can't wait to catch up with everybody!

laterz ya freekz

NICE DISCO LADS... WOT - NO ENCORE?!!

May 12, 2008 at 12:30pm

s'up dawgs? where the hell did april go anyway? got five gigs worth of re-capping to do, so here goes...
first off is a regular haunt of ours, the turnpike in middlewich, town of barges and salt. we first met landlord Tony way back in the day, when we played the boat and folk festival at the cheshire cheese. since then, having upped-ship to the turnpike, Tony has always been a firm clay faces supporter and it's been our pleasure to return time and again for the lovely crowd in there, who always give good craic and say lovely things about us too... which is nice.

a week later we were in that neck of the woods again, this time at the witton chimes in northwich [yes, all the towns in south cheshire end in 'wich']. we played here years ago with jugopunch to some mixed receptions, but mostly good. i dont know, it's a funny one, ya know when you think you've died on your arse, very little applause, and then as you're leaving you get punters coming up to you saying how much they enjoyed the gig, and of course you say "oh thanks very much"; when really you're thinking 'well why the fook didnt you give us some applause?'... hahar, different strokes i guess...

next day we were up in stockport, the venue: the bakers vaults. a well established music venue and a place we always enjoy playing. a good room, good sound, friendly and vocal crowd, good gig i reckon.

so we're pretty much up to date here. saturday just gone we had a little session up the road at the museum in newcastle under lyme. cracking boozer run by our good friends Steve and Karen. though, to be perfectly honest, not a great venue for us [a bit cramped - and nothing winds me up more than not being able to move around when im playing] and, following a day in the baking stoke sun, motivation wasnt exactly forthcoming either, but we scraped through like the heroes that we are...

and finally last night, upon the hallowed stage of hanley's sugarmill, supporting the mighty king creosote. i'll say it again: what a refreshing experience it is to play a mid-size venue like that and have total confidence in the sound crew, thanks a lot fellas - you expose a lot of your peers for the brainless fuckwits that they are. pardon my french, but a message to some other sound men with whom we have worked: if you can't get our sound right then, it's not a random glitch in the equipment, it's YOU not knowing what you're doing. the reason these dudes get away with sonic murder is because it's invariably the bands who end up looking the twats when things go pear. anyway, none such antics at the 'mill where the dudes on the desks are totally on the money and fair fucking play to 'em.
and yeah thanks to king creosote for last night, great gig and a pleasure to meet such lovely fellas. even invited us up to join them for their last number, unfortunately davey and meself, thinking they had finished, had nipped out for a fag and missed the opportunity for a further five mins of fame. anyway cara leapt up and threw in some fine djembe work so that was cool. and anyway, as i said to the king after, there's always the future...

...which, as we all know, is untrodden ground...

laterz

day 17 in the clay faces van... paul comes to the diary room...

April 18, 2008 at 3:31pm

well i don't know about you guys, but we had a blast down in the smoke on the 17th. really great to be a part of the show and fantastic to put faces to names at last.

'course the biggest shout of all goes to Keith, Leigh and Unleaded Clint for their sterling efforts leading up to, and on the day. Anyone who's tried to put together a multi-bill show will know what a stressful task it can be, but from where i was standing the entire thing seemed to run very smoothly. so yeah, very well done guys.

big big thanks and respect to Simon and the Atlantic team, making everyone feel at ease and doing a great job. don't forget folks, we'll be getting a professionally produced video out of the day, and [big thanks to big Rob] some quality pics to do with as you wish; more and more festivals, venues and bookers are requiring video footage of bands and artists these days, rather than just audio cd's, and usually you would have to pay a pretty penny for this kind of thing ya know? so again, a debt of gratitude to Keith and the team for providing this...

a massive massive thank you to Frooty, Plum and Anna Singleton for their fantastic contribution to the show, you guys rock! thanks especially to Froot for going easy on us in our interview!..

anyway, there was some talent knockin about in that room last night - was blown away by opening act Lizzyspit and of course big respect to our boy Matchstick - awesome awesome talent. first ever gig and he reckons he "bottled it", i reckon he rocked it. i remember my first gig, was definitely a pile of old arses, and that was just in a smelly old stoke boozer in front of about five people, with not so much as a box brownie in sight, let alone a full-on TV production crew! no man, Matchstick, you done good dude...

unfortunately didnt get much of a chance to get a good look at most of the other acts but from what i hear it was a great show all round.

and so yeah, thanks for all the support during our set btw, i think it went ok? i was too busy trying to concentrate on attempting to look remotely cool i dont quite know what was goin on hahar! but i did notice some crazy-ass dancin goin on so thanks for that!

and before i close i've just gotta say - huge [with a capital 'hue'], huge thanks and respect to Paul the sound-man of Treacle Studios fame. i guess there's no need for me to elaborate on the love/hate relationships bands have with these guys, suffice to say there's a lot of jokers out there who shouldnt be allowed within 50 feet of a desk and/who give the rest a bad name; anyway yer man Paul [who also happens to be unnecessarily tall] was in complete control and did a, quite frankly, fucking amazing job.

now then Simon, it's all down to you my friend, holed-up in your cutting room - i complimented you on your mastery of the fig-rig, now i dont care what it takes, just make me look handsome, ok?

pauly comes out...

April 8, 2008 at 12:11pm

so.
last thursday we piled down to the full moon in newcastle under lyme. thats about all there is to say on the matter, except for another shout to the guys from a thousand wild flowers who opened up for us and were, as ever, absolutely fantastic and destined im sure, for much bigger and better things.

saturday night was a new one for us, at the queens head, situated in the sprawling derbyshire hamlet of belper. ace little venue - the pub itself seemed a cracking little boozer, but the gig itself was held upstairs in a kind of function room/bar-with-stage type affair.
to be honest i personally didnt have a great gig as i was struggling with sound and technical problems for my various strings, but that aside we really enjoyed the gig and hopefully went down ok.
would just like to extend not only our thanks to the queens head/music team but also our deepest sympathy for their loss [an integral member of the organising team had sadly passed away on that very day, and i understand the team had rallied under the adage 'the show must go on']. anyway, muchas respect to the belper crew and punters, thanks very much for having us and we would love to return sometime in the future...
and just to make something perfectly clear: the main man at belper is a charming fella by the name of Dick. some of you may have read a comment from our drummer Cara [who will be slapped], that i "prefer dick". yes, i did say that, HOWEVER, i was talking about my preference of the above individual - Dick, over another peak-district based music promoter [who shall of course remain anonymous] AND NOT my sexual persuasion. OK? OK...

i smell toast... is the PA on fire again?..

April 1, 2008 at 1:09pm

sat 29 march - oggy's bar, hanley

oggy oggy oggy

let's just get one thing straight - we don't do, and never will do, the fields of athenry. ok? good.

anyway, yeh, good gig. a rainy saturday night in hanley and, standing having a smoke outside the venue i was reminded of the frame of mind i was in when i wrote 'dark waltz'. yep, stoke on trent is truly one of the shittiest of shit-holes in the country.

however, the craic was getting on for ninety and a fair bit of drinking was performed by all.
the trent vale poet did an interval recital despite appearing several sheets to the wind, some crazy dancing took place, an interesting vocal rendition of 'and the word was' was attempted by our esteemed frontman, i personally was fairly well toasted and, indeed praised by someone for 'my vitriol' following the opening number, when i informed the audience that in fairness, they should have applauded more enthusiastically "because that was fucking brilliant"...
oh, and dave claims that, following an unusually flawless version of 'where the waters meet', he heard a punter exclaim, simply: "wank". which is fair enough.

also deserving of an honourable mention, the dude who told me and dave that we'd done "quite enough tinkering, get on with the show", and the inexplicable smell of toast which manifested halfway through the first set, prompting us to check if the PA was about to explode. again...

but, nice to see y'all, especially those faces from yesteryear, happy birthday to sean, thanks to the oggy's crew and everybody there, see ya next time.

Green Ale and Hippies

March 25, 2008 at 10:13am

yo.
hope you all had a good easter weekend? ours was a very restful one, no gigs since thursday night at the crown near telford.
ace venue. only small, but a pretty good sound, an audience who are actually there to listen to the music and the ale is probably the best for miles - at the risk of sounding stereotypically northern, a fookin crackin pint of mild! but yeh seriously, a very well kept public house, so hats off to John the gaffer and everyone there at the crown.
we were joined for the last time in march by our dear friends Fola, who played a flawless set [for once ;-)] and went down a storm.
tcf's of course played a blinder also, and it was nice to have a couple of hippies jigging about in front of us, kept me entertained anyway. i believe there is footage of said occurrence so i will endeavour to hunt down the pics...
and following the gig we all adjourned to the curry house next door for a nice slap-up... what more can you ask for?!
last gig of march is @ oggy's bar in hanley on saturday - a new one for us so should be interesting, just don't expect to see any posters for it. 'nuff said...

the future, is untrodden ground...

March 17, 2008 at 2:30pm

or: 'pauly's marijuana loop'...

man, what a crazy few days, i hope y'all had a good st patricks weekend of gigs and stuff, i think it's safe to say we had a blast...

i'll try to avoid making this too long a post but there's a hell of a lot to report. i guess i have to start at the middle of last week, and my conversation/interview with podcaster extraordinaire and all round good egg, mr Dave Coroner. Which of course, while it was an absolute pleasure and privelege to do, i must apologise in advance for subjecting you all to my, frankly, utterly inane ramblings, eg "the future, is untrodden ground", come on pauly, what the hell is coming out of your mouth son?. However, our boy Dave has done a hell of a job in the edit room and i come across as only half as twattish as i actually am in real life so, jobs a good 'un! But, i have to say on behalf of us all, a huge and heartfelt thanks to Dave, Keith and everybody on the ukm/unsigned chart team not only for having us, but for always being there bigging us up...

so. thursday night we headed down to the boars head tap house in kidderminster, a venue which we simply love playing - if you ever get the chance, you gotta check it out and i guarantee you won't be disappointed. Joined by our good friends Andy and Kate from Fola, who played a bostin' set and then i think we finished the night off in relatively fine style. massive thanks to the gaffer Andy and all the team - we love yers!

friday night... i think the bridgecross club in burntwood is the only remaining 'folk club' type set-up that we still do; because, frankly, it's one of the only remaining 'folk club' type set-up's in the midlands area that is actually worth doing. Barry, the organiser is a very dear friend and has been a jugopunch/clay faces supporter through thick and thin, so it's always a pleasure to play for the burntwood audience who are simply a cracking bunch and we always appreciate their tolerance of us! joined once again as we were by our 'paddy's-period-sidekicks' Fola [great gig Andy, well done], and a good night was had by hopefully, all.

then the madness began in earnest. Saturday afternoon i headed down to stoke station to meet the legendary mr Ray Heffernan; and following a couple of beers and a chin-wag, headed up to the tytherington club, macclesfield. and a great gig by the cf's and the heff, though unfortunately the room had been set up in such a way that we were unable to make any kind of contact with the audience. there was a perfectly reasonable, natural stage area in one corner, where someone had seen fit to place a large table, meaning the bands were shunted up to the opposite corner, playing to two huge concrete pillars and about 20 feet away from the audience. which was a shame, but you just put it down to experience hey? big thanks to Bryn and Faith for the lift, way above and beyond the call of duty.

but, shit, we made up for it on the sunday.
meself and the heffster strolled down to the brown jug in newcastle, about 4 o clock, did a quick set-up, by which time individuals carrying various instruments were turning up and what ensued was an afternoon/evening showcase of some great local acoustic talent. compered by my boy mark bailey aka the trent vale poet, i think the running order was something like: our buddy Bryn, and his ukelele with a superb opening set, followed by James, one time jugopunch mascot and now all grown up and purveying some fine pink floyd and christy moore covers, followed by our very own crazy davey walker - you should check out dave's myspace, some cracking tunes - head over and listen to 'maybe i'm a fool' and come back to me and tell me that it's not a 'CHOOOON'!; followed by uncle Scotty, doing his fantastic dylan-meets-moore, dulcet belfast style tunes, brilliant; followed and wrapped up by the frighteningly talented mr mark murphy-burke. more on that man in a separate post to follow very soon.

so, come 8 o clock-ish and the first of the bands. A thousand wild flowers kicked off the nights line-up, i think if i do say so meself, i got their sound sweet as a nut and boy these guys put on an impressive show, check 'em.
Fola were next up, and what can i say? belting gig guys really, a cracking show.
cometh the hour, cometh the heff. i was so glad, particularly following saturdays apathetic crowd, that Ray got such a great reception from the brown jug audience, and he didn't disappoint them. a deadly set, great tunes, a big shit-eatin grin on his face and yeah, thats what it's all about. i can't big the guy up enough man, and can't wait for his next visit.
all's i have to do now is persuade him to ditch his bloody facebook profile in favour of getting an RH page going on this very website. a campaign that also ties in with my mission to get Dave Coroner to play some of his own stuff on the podcast; two righteous causes which i'm sure all of us in the unsigned chart family will welcome and support?
oh but yeah, anyway, we finished the night off and were spectacular as always.
massive massive thank you's go to: Nigel and staff at the jug, all our buddies and everyone at the jug gig, everyone, staff and punters alike at the boars head tap house, kidderminster; Barry et al and the crowd at bridgcross club, the trent vale poet, a thousand wild flowers and their crew, Andy and Kate, Bryn, Scotty, James, Mark MB, and anyone who i've forgotten to mention.
and a very happy st patrick's day to all of you reading this!
hare hare krishna

Land of the Tall, home of the Ass, voice of a Turkey...

March 12, 2008 at 12:51pm

yup, so another busy weekend comes and goes in the blink of an eye and, by the time i get round to writing this short post, another gig is looming and we find ourselves topping the unsigned chart once again.
exciting times!
i'm also sitting here practicing my telephone voice in preparation for my interview with our mutual friend Dave Coroner for inclusion on the next UKM podcast. should have thunked about some elecution lessons - i'm trying to iron out my dulcet stokey tones into some semblance of understandable english, only to end up sounding like robbie williams with a mouthful of treacle. ah well, should be fun.

so anyway yeah, the weekend's gigs were a blur, as is my recollection of them - saturday at the Swan in Stone turned out to coincide with the Staffordshire Tall Persons Society AGM. which was nice. i'm pushing 6'3" myself but hell, i didnt get a look in. seriously, what are they putting in the water there in Stone? anyway, pretty good gig although i'm informed that A.] the sound/acoustics in there is a little on the nasty side and, B.] the tall people were distracting the audience
never mind...

big shout and respect must go to Gaz Birtles, the man behind the song club and other great events held at the donkey in leicester. It was a pleasure to be involved in one of the thursday night song club sessions a couple months back, and a great honour to return for our own gig on sunday. anyone catch the webcast? no? good!
check out the song club etc here

peace y'all!

dart-throwin, punk-rockin son of a gun...

March 7, 2008 at 10:44am

NO TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS!

reads the sign on the door of the imperial hotel in the forgotten town of crewe. anyone who's spent any time in crewe in recent years will appreciate what a bold decision that is for a pub to make. in days of yore, crewe was englands railway nerve centre, the central hub for travellers heading north, south, east and west. those days are gone and nowadays you could be forgiven for thinking that, for it's next claim to fame, crewe is vying for the position of 'chav-opolis'. however, i think you'd be wrong...

though, understandably, the last time we played at 'the imp' it was to a room of around a dozen people. last night however, proved that the "no trackies" stance has paid off. a pretty good turn-out for a week night in crewe, with an audience who defied any kind of demographic pigeon-holing. from punks to oap's to what appeared to be a contingent of fraggles, and not a burberry cap in sight. so fair play to the management and staff of the imp for sticking at it - in a time where venues are closing left, right and centre, i can see this place going from strength to strength.

so yeah, a rather spiffing gig was enjoyed by both band and audience. so cheers to the peeps at the imp for having us and we'll look forward to returning in the not too distant future.
www.myspace.com/theimpcrewe

next post will be following saturdays gig at the swan in stone, from where our annual st paddy's week of madness will begin in earnest...

hare krishna

gigadee gigadee goo

March 3, 2008 at 9:22am

thought this might be as good a place as any to keep a regular gig diary, 'specially seeing as from here on in, the calendar is pretty full with some interesting stuff

saturday we were up the road in cheshire at a great little country boozer called the fox inn. a couple years ago we played the wedding of the landlord and landlady, so was nice to return and see that they are doing well. good little gig and some very kind comments from a disconcertingly knowledgable audience. so aye, a good night.

sunday night we were up at the sugarmill in hanley supporting 3 daft monkeys who, as well as being lovely people, put on a marvellous show for the stokey punters. massive thanks to all our crowd who came along - we do appreciate it as we know our buddies can see us week-in-week-out for free around the local area so yeah - a big thanks for shelling out the ticket money and coming along to support us.
also a shout to geordie nick for throwing the gig our way, and the sound crew for being the most efficient bunch i've come across [ahem] at a venue like that for quite some time...

best of luck to the monkeys on the remainder of the tour...