Thursday, May 19, 2005
Have you played at a Bar down under? Where women blow and men chunder?
Crazy May is coming along nicely, played at the Half Moon in Putney last night, a venue so steeped in music history that you'd have to be a fool not to feel good about playing there. A Mini-bus full of mates (if they were people I'd never met, I'd probably call them "fans" but I've been out on the piss with most of them, so "mates" they be) made the trip up the M4 to Putneyto see us, and my bro and his better half Nicky also came along, which was wicked! My bro is a legend, Mixmag magazine voted him the 2nd biggest illegal party operator in the UK - although most of his work is completely above board and legit, with maybe just the odd free party thrown in for good measure these days! So it was a good night all round, the other bands weren't exactly my beaker of Ribena, but they were as good as you'd expect bands playing at the Half Moon to be - and the band on after us delivered some top banter while we were loading up the van! One of them offered Jimmy G some - and I'll spell this phonetically - echinesia which James gladly chugged back, his face when I told him it was good for staving off colds and not a huge amount else was the proverbial picture!
Makes all the difference playing through a top soundsystem with a top engineer too, we could all hear the vocal harmonies, all the little intricacies with the guitars, etc. and apparently it was like crystal out front. As a result of this, we're going to have some vocal rehearsal sessions to get everything screwed down tight! Some of the songs are new and are still evolving into their finished articles, but that's no excuse for not getting everything spot on!
Tonight we're playing at the official "last" night at Colorz/Bar Oz - a saddish day for the local scene, but I'm dead chuffed to be on the closing bill as I've played many gigs down there (as have most Reading bands I know of!), from Yankee 99er to Red Antennae and Müf, I'm glad I can sneak in a gig with White Sunday on the last night there. Also very cool to be playing with Kaldera, who are a great bunch of people and musicians, and probably the funkiest band playing the unsigned circuit. I'm still waiting for an opportunity to hear their new recordings - which I have been assured are spectacular! Will be good to get a listen later today. One of the best gigs I've been to in recent years was Kaldera playing at Jagz last April/May(?), I wrote up a review for Josaka if you can be arsed to go and look but they were on fire. Hope tonight sees more of the same. I've heard good things about Bernard as well, and me ol dmate Dez is playing with Call Sign Panda, so I know they'll be better than useful cos Dez' old band Ziegler were quality. They did a cover of Lionel Rich-Tea's "Hello", fantastic!
So, adieu Bar Oz/Colorz, let's see you off with a bang. How I will miss your conveniently-placed pool tables, chaotic car-parking round the back, and grungy, underground dive-ness. Reading's short-lived equivalent of Liverpool's Cavern will be missed, but fondly remembered.
Makes all the difference playing through a top soundsystem with a top engineer too, we could all hear the vocal harmonies, all the little intricacies with the guitars, etc. and apparently it was like crystal out front. As a result of this, we're going to have some vocal rehearsal sessions to get everything screwed down tight! Some of the songs are new and are still evolving into their finished articles, but that's no excuse for not getting everything spot on!
Tonight we're playing at the official "last" night at Colorz/Bar Oz - a saddish day for the local scene, but I'm dead chuffed to be on the closing bill as I've played many gigs down there (as have most Reading bands I know of!), from Yankee 99er to Red Antennae and Müf, I'm glad I can sneak in a gig with White Sunday on the last night there. Also very cool to be playing with Kaldera, who are a great bunch of people and musicians, and probably the funkiest band playing the unsigned circuit. I'm still waiting for an opportunity to hear their new recordings - which I have been assured are spectacular! Will be good to get a listen later today. One of the best gigs I've been to in recent years was Kaldera playing at Jagz last April/May(?), I wrote up a review for Josaka if you can be arsed to go and look but they were on fire. Hope tonight sees more of the same. I've heard good things about Bernard as well, and me ol dmate Dez is playing with Call Sign Panda, so I know they'll be better than useful cos Dez' old band Ziegler were quality. They did a cover of Lionel Rich-Tea's "Hello", fantastic!
So, adieu Bar Oz/Colorz, let's see you off with a bang. How I will miss your conveniently-placed pool tables, chaotic car-parking round the back, and grungy, underground dive-ness. Reading's short-lived equivalent of Liverpool's Cavern will be missed, but fondly remembered.
# posted by AK @ 10:53 
