ComEnts

Cool, what a top weekend! Friday was supposed to be a quiet one, chilling out in preparation for the big Saturday night gig at Reading university but instead I met up with some mates at the Sahara bar (which used to be Bukowski's, on the end of Gun Street), and it ended up getting fairly messy. I remember quite clearly and distinctly the sense of surprise and unexpectedness I felt as my body decided to throw my digestive tract into reverse to avoid alcohol poisoning - hooray for two-way peristalsis! So it was a subdued little Kaupa who made his way to rehearsal on Sat morning, but it was a cracker and I felt much better afterwards (see "detour-related hangover cure" from an earlier post on this blog).

Then the fun and games really began! Pitched up to the uni at about 3.30pm, bit of a rigmarole getting the van close enough to he venue to unload, but eventually we made it up to the students union. No-one had been in touch to let us know what the plan was for the night (unless someone had neglected to pass the info on…) but turned out that student band Chinafight were due to go on last in the main hall, and then the music would switch to the big circus tent erected just outside, where the Fun Lovin' Criminals, Chicane and a few others would see us through till sun-up. However, as it was drizzling outside, most of the student population were inside the student union building, getting drunk - and there's nothing like a captive audience!

We didn’t mind not going on last - Chinafight are actually students at the uni, so to play at their own summer ball must have been a blast, and they're really cool guys and a great band - which was our chief moan (it's not arrogance at wanting to headline all the time, it's concern for the poor souls who have to try and follow our set!), but we were mildly amused when they asked us if they could use our drumkit and bass amp! I thought it was pretty Spinal Tap-esque, anyway! However, my spidey-sense started tingling when some people started arranging tables and chairs in an al-fresco café style manner right about where we were kind of hoping the moshpit would be. We assumed they'd move them out the way once the hall started to fill up. "Assume" - making an "ass" out of "u" and "me".

Some background info for the uninitiated - the third of the three bands chosen to play on the main stage in the students union were Sequoia, a Berks band led by singer/songwriter Andy Stedman. As I found out on Saturday, they are a sound bunch of blokes. Now, a while back I reviewed them as part of a charity gig at Bar Oz in Reading, the upshot of which was that I thought they were a really tight band, the crowd enjoyed them but I didn’t really enjoy their music. OK, so maybe if I had put it as "I didn't really enjoy their music" I would have avoided some trouble, but I make no apologies for being passionate about music, and if I'm honest I just can’t stand the sort of music Sequoia play, not matter how well it is played (middle of the road, Dawson's Creek, countrified indie-rock?). But no worries, few bands cover all the demographic bases, I'm sure there are more people who love Sequoia's music than there are who disagree with it as vehemently as I do. I thought it was actually a good review of Sequoia, but I received some criticism over it, which basically led to me losing my normal cool, calm, collected air of nonchalance and writing a few things that I probably should have kept to myself. Anyway, when I heard that Sequoia were also playing at the summer ball, I thought it might be a good chance to bury the hatchet, as long as I could keep sober enough to stop myself making things worse...

The lovely Cat was in charge of the event, and she made sure that the bands had easy access to beer in the backstage area, and I had the tricky task of making sure that there was a smooth transition between managing my hangover via my own, detour-related, hangover cure and jumping back off the wagon to let the dog bite me again. Long story cut short, I was slightly worse for wear by the time the soundchecks had finished, what with being all excited about the gig, and having successfully completed some business with Yankee 99er shortly beforehand. All three bands had been chilling backstage, having a laugh, enjoying the gig atmosphere, and it was going well. I was actually thinking to myself how pleased I was that it looked like a good night was going to be had just as Sequoia were heading to the stage to kick things off, and in a show of unity Y99er and Chinafight were going to head out to see Sequoia's set. This is where the beer monkeys started cross-wiring my brain. I thought all of Sequoia had left to take the stage, and mentioned in passing to the room in general that I wanted to see Sequoia, but I wasn't really looking forward to their set, as it wasn't my cup of tea. But this came out as "I want to see Sequoia, but they suck". Their keyboard player - still in the room - turned round to me, and said with a suitable amount of disdain in his voice "It's a common problem with bands, I find." and headed off towards the stage. I wanted to die. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I started trying out Harry Potter incantations to make it happen - "Terra Exposam" was one, I think. None of them worked though. If I had just picked my words carefully enough to convey what I meant, I could have avoided the same problem that had come about after the review. They say a mistake is only a mistake if you make it twice, as the first time it should be a lesson. Lucky for me, Andy came in shortly after and I explained what had just happened, and he was very understanding. We shook hands, and I felt like a twat for the rest of the night. So I got even more wasted to try and get over it. Not a good idea, spent most of our set falling over the drum riser and getting solo's mixed up. Ah well, it was a great show nonetheless, we rocked out, Henry whipped up the crowd and everyone had a good time.

The Fun Lovin' Criminals were cool, too. One of my favourite bands, and I got to play at the same show! Didn’t hang around after they'd finished though, my lift had to work the next day so we bailed out at about 2.30am.

So, thanks to Sequoia for putting up with my drunken nonsense, and everyone else involved, including Keith C for taking some cool photos, the new Yankee 99er team for their support and faith in us, and a girl called Siobhan from Cardiff (and her friend Louise?)who came backstage afterwards.

Sunday was another exercise in hangover management, but a brief walk down the bank of the Thames from Reading bridge to Tilehurst station helped sort my head out. Diving under trees to avoid the hail, sleet and torrential rain that descended at one point was a bit vexing, but fifteen minutes after that I was sunbathing on the grass and contemplating dangling my feet in the water. The Czech's beating Denmark was good too, as I'm one quarter Czech, so I still have a realistic chance to celebrate Euro 2004 success this year!

So I hit the track running, like a nose bleed.
Life ain't great now, but it's much improved
Your album dropping this summer? Man, that sucks for you!

Yeah, Hick-hop was pioneered into the mainstream by the likes of Bubba Sparx and that bloke what wrote "White Boy in New York City". On a similar note I heard a song called "Rodeohead" a week or so back on John Peel's Radio 1 show, it was a montage of Radiohead songs played in a bluegrass stylee, and it was awesome. Don't know who played it, and as JP said it would never be released officially, but if you can track it down, it's a slice of genius: imagine a foot-stompin' version of the theme tune to Postman Pat (with a madman playing fiddle) and someone singing "Fake Plastic Trees" complete with a chorus of backing vocal chants. Better than brilliant.

Mikey, I'm not in this for the money, I don;t think we are getting paid a bean for warming up the crowd for the FLC (with the mucho grande style...), but I do expect to pull on Sat night, and that's why I do what I do. Being a rock star is a lazy man's way to meet women.

Earlier today I discovered that there was a genre called Hick-Hop. As soon as I stopped laughing at the name I decided to investigage. Apparently, as you might guess from the name, it's hip-hop played by rednecks. It's also known as Hillbilly Rap and a few other things. Brilliant. It's the kind of thing that Nikhil (sonic undermind guitarist) would be into. It's an amazingly varied genre (at least so far). First things I found were on this article. Delivery and the Kuntry Killers, which is pretty standard bad hip hop and Dirk Powell and DanjaMowf which is bizarre mellow instrumental country with vaguely Hip-Hop beats under it.

The funniest thing I've found so far is Cowboy Troy, who is (apparently) a "250lb black rapper from Dallas Texas". I suggest everyone who is interested downloads Tae Kwon Flow from Amazon.com link. If only for the hillarious moment in the chorus when you first hear him say that they call him "Hickules". It's so beautifully naive and old school. It's not good though, don't think that for a moment. It is another great song to listen to my collection of "hey, listen to this..." mp3s though. If you find that amusing you might want to check out Bus Driver. It's purely worth it for rhymes like "I love food that's Mexican, I eat it so much I'm a Texican, I love wrasslin' and motorsports and women that's wearin' them way-too-shorts".

Hick-Hop, what a great concept. It's made my day!

4 blog entries in a day! I'm going to be in the middle of nowhere next week, 2 miles from the nearest pub! So don't expect any posts from me. Maybe I'll update on this weekend's activities on Sunday before I go though. Texican 'till I die.

Wednesday saw me head down the M4 to the Land of my Fathers, the land of the perfect fry-up (courtesy of my Gran), the perfect cuppa (courtesy of my Grandad), and one huge, mummy-hugging stadium on the banks of the river Taff in Cardiff. After a quick warm-up pint in Cardiff, we rucked and mauled our way thorugh the crowds to our seats in the upper tier (oxygen masks provided under seat) for the night's entertainments. The roof was closed cos the weather was a bit ropey, but the squillions and billions of people who had thronged into the venue threatened to take it off on more than on occasion with their cheers of rapture, and their screams of delight (not to mention their howls of outrage at the quality of some of the food on sale.

The first band on were called "Chicks on Speed", and they'd be better off playing in small, dark and dingy clubs where their annoying Playschool-meets-happy-hardcore-with-whiny-voices-and-crap-instruments beats could - on a good night - take a few more steps towards "entertaining". Classic moment of the night was one of the singers waffling on about how bad capitalism is; not a great idea in front of 70,000 people who had each paid £35 for the privilege. Boo's and whistles were duly administered throughout the rest of their set, which was painful and drawn-out. An amusing female Meat Loaf impersonator joined them on stage for a while, which was quite funny I suppose. I boo-ed and repeatedly asked them to keep the noise down (in between songs, so that they could hear me) but to no avail. They even used the old "You're the best crowd we've had so far!" chestnut, which - due to them avoiding things that were being launched at them from the crowd - had a certain deadpan comedy value to it, but not enough to rescue what was basically a crap show with crap music.

Had a hot dog - the worst hot dog in the world. Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler would have been proud of it. It was made up of the bits that aren’t good enough to join the eyes, lips and foreskins in the real hotdogs, and I'm surprised I managed to keep what little I was foolish enough to swallow down. Bleeuurch! (In Welsh; "Ach y fy!").

Next band on stage, some aging American guy called James Brown. Not bad, couple of good tunes in his set; his band were tight and reminded me of the band in the Blues Brothers for some reason. I realised that the big screens at the side of the stage were OK, but the camera men were inept, and failed to film any of the interesting things going on, and focussed instead on whoever was solo-ing at the time. Mr Brown, it seems, has quite an eye for dancers, and his stage-show centres on some luverly laydeez wearing next to nothing, all getting their grooves on (none of which was caught that well by the camera-monkeys). Watch out for Mr. Brown, he could have a big future - and he did inspire me to wheel out almost the entire dialogue from Rocky IV with my esteemed companion for the evening when he played a song called "Living in America". I also cheated and used "You next, Joe!", which is actually from Rocky, but is a great quote, and should be used whenever possible. Great show, great band, great vocals from Mr. Brown, and after the opening band, it was nice to have some "Ooomph!" injected into the crowd, who loved it from start to finish.

But the band I had come to see could not hit the stage soon enough, and when they did finally wander on, I thought the place erupted. I say I thought the place erupted, because the audience certainly made a lot of noise, but not as much noise as they did when Mr. Frusciante opened up with the chords to "Can't Stop". Wow. They absolutely rocked from start to finish, give or take the odd crap joke from Flea ("Why can't ants run in marathons? Because their legs are too short.") and some weird punk covers that weren't familiar enough to be enjoyable. It was hard to dance from where we were, as we were in the stands, and had only enough room to sit down, let alone stand up and move about, but it was awesome to see the whole show - and the whole stadium enjoying it.

For a while now, I've been lamenting John Frusciante's reluctance to play distorted guitar, and I was wondering what I'd make of his sound, but I was a fool to ever doubt the man who wrote "Mother's Milk" when he was 18 and "BloodSugarSexMagic" when he was 21. Every song rocked; he played a Brown Telecaster, and the white Gretsch which appears on a few of his videos, and they all rocked. He is a genius, and has a very pure falsetto voice to boot - he did a cover of Donna Summer's "I feel love" which worked beautifully, and on more than one occasion his backing vocals proved much more reliable and polished than Anthony's singing. I got the feeling that Ant (as he lets me call him) is a very nervous performer, unconfident in his own abilities. Of course, he might just have been wasted and not in the mood, but he was still a great frontman.

The RHCP's played mostly material from "By the Way", and "Californication", the audience knew every word and sang along as one, screaming appreciation for all the band as they took solo's, and deservedly so as Flea and John displayed some mesmeric musical skills (Flea's trumpet solo interlude was a jazz masterclass, he's better on the trumpet than he is on bass - a legend I had heard some years ago, but can now verify - my jaw still hurts from when it hit the floor).

An encore saw them wheel out "Under the Bridge" and "Give it Away" - the crowd out did themselves again when "Give it away" started up, the Millenium stadium was a sell-out, and every single person in the stadium just went into funk-spasms and rock-ileptic fits whilst screaming "YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSS!!!!!" as loudly as they could muster. A sight I shall not forget. These were the only tracks they played from "BSSM", and although I held out right to the end in the hope that they would bless us/me with something - anything! - from "Mother's Milk", my hope was dashed when they started throwing the drum kit into the crowd, but I can forgive them. "Higher Ground" would have been fun; "Taste the Pain" would have made my night; "Nobody Weird Like Me" would probably have driven me insane with delight, but looking back, I don’t really care. I finally saw RHCP live, and can dispel the rumours that they "aren’t a great live band", or that they are anything less than super-heroes in my eyes. John Frusciante, I tip my hat to you, sir.

AK just asked why I get loads of comments compared to him. I don't think really get that many, except for when I posted that apparently contraversial rant about the NME band thing. I managed to get a compilation out of Jo Caged Baby for that as well. I don't actually have it yet but he said he made me one. Hopefully he's not going to label the tracks so I can post what I think about them and he can tell me what an embarassingly predjudiced listener I am.

Oh and I seem to post more about local stuff, which you don't as much because you are too busy getting rich and famous or something. For instance tomorrow whilst you are off swanning around with Huey and his merry band of criminals, seducing hideously drunk student girls and generally enjoying yourself too much I'll be in darkest Tilehurst undergoing an emotional rollercoaster as I watch some of Reading's top underground bands bleeding for their art. And probably seeing as much female action as Dean Gaffney would if he hadn't been in EastEnders.

OK, there's no guarantee that they'll actually be bleeding but Pirate and Caged Baby blood does seem to have been hitting the stages of venues around Reading regularly in recent times. We can but hope.

Can't see much difference in the presentation/style sheet thing Mike, but it looks good, so I'll just assume that the old one looked really bad.

How come you get lots of comments made against your blog entries, and I never have any except ones from you? I wish my mates had more time to browse the web and make pithy remarks on here. Not that I could ever get any of my mates to read this drivel, they are all illiterate!

But, as Terminator X said when his drum machine came back from the shop where it was getting repaired; "beats working".

I don't know if any of you would even notice but I've been playing about with the stylesheet and formatting options for the blog. I've only made subtle changes, no prizes for spotting them. You should all thank the blogging gods that I couldn't get it to put my photo next to every post I make! Stupid thing. I also barely resisted the temptation to make all my posts appear in giant text and Alex's posts all appear as tiny little subscripts. Don't tell him though. I'll save it as a punishment for an unknown time in the future when he's really naughty.

From Coments comments: "Who's playing at Club V this week Mike?" Anonymous

Thanks for pointing out my slackness Mr and/or Ms Anonymous. You are, of course, totally right. I should give more details about these things. I am very lazy and should be punished.

I believe it's The Snags, We Start Fires and Jackie at Club Velocity, not that it normally matters what bands are on. It is nice to have some new bands at Club V again. I haven't seen or heard of We Start Fires or Jackie before so I don't know what they will be like. Club V promoter Sid has his own views on that which you can read here on Berkshire Live. That's Club Velocity at the Rising Sun Arts Center, 30 Silver Street, Reading, RG1 2ST


On Saturday night I've decided to go to the Requirement Records night at the Roebuck Hotel in Tilehurst. Featuring Pete and the Pirates and Caged Baby amongst others. Read all about it here.

Josaka and Berkshire Live really are wonderful places full of lovely information that you should check regularly. (The cheque's in the post right Kevin?)

OK - nice to have me old sparring partner Mikey back from Swizzerlundt, I hope he brought me back some chocolate... Rehearsal/audition/getting-to-know-you session yesterday went swimmingly, it only took us three or four songs before we could have legitimately gone down the pub to talk shop, but we played the whole set for 'em anyways (it was a long way to go to just play two or three tracks, so we felt like the trip was worth it from a rehearsal point of view - espesh with a big gig coming up this Sat).

The most important thing about the people I met yesterday was that they were all nice, cool people, heads firmly screwed on and pointing the right direction, and we had a great time chatting away about football, music, getting wasted, etc. So, I'm happy to spend time with these guys, listen to what they have to say and try and create some great music with them. Secondly, they know exactly what they are talking about and are very good at what they do, so from a professional point of view I feel like I'm associating with the right people to further my "career". *laughs a lot, then stops*.

But anyway, it's all out of my hands now, I just wait for the phone call... and carry on my life as a mild-mannered data-entry clerk for the time being..

I haven't been to a gig for 2 weeks. Haven't played a guitar, have barely listened to any music. ARGH! On the plus side I have been watching Euro 2004 every day.

At the very minimum this week I'll get to go to Club Velocity and a gig on Saturday. I'm not sure which one though. AK is playing at Reading uni and it's very tempting to go along as his guitar tech, as is watching Pete and the Pirates at the Roebuck (in Tilehurst). Both of my favourite 'local' bands are playing on the same night.

Things are pretty tough for SU at the moment. We haven't got any gigs or anything planned and everyone's stupidly busy. Even finding time to rehearse seems to be tough at the moment. Hope that'll improve soon. It really sucks not doing anything. Maybe I should find myself a side project as well.

It was the latter day social commentator B Real who hit the nail on the head with the Cypress Hill classic "Rock Superstar" - and that's what I'm aiming for at the moment.

To summarize the past two or three weeks:

1. Did showcase gig in Brixton for our manager-elect. Went well, talks are under way. Keith Flint from the Prodigy was there (cos someone had told him we were worth seeing), he seemed to have enjoyed himself, and I had to stop myself from doing the whole "We're not worthy!" thing - The Prodigy are one of the best live bands ever, provided a large and completely cool chunk of the soundtrack to my life so far, and to have Keith come down and check us out was a massive, massive buzz for me. Possible future collaboration? I should be so lucky, but I'll keep my fingers crossed anyway...

2. Next Sat (26th June) we're supporting some crazy bunch of Noo Yoik gangsters called The Fun Lovin' Criminals at Reading university's summer ball. Another band I have a lot of time for, I'm just a bit pissed off cos apparently they are only going to play four or five songs, I want to hear "King of New York", "Bear Hug" "Korean Bodega" and "Love Unlimited" at least, but I know they'll just do "the hits" that everyone knows. They're cool and all, but I've heard Scooby Snacks to death! "Bombin' the L" would also blow my mind live. Don't know what the arrangements will be like back stage, but if I can have a bit of a smoke with Huey and the lads, my night will be perfect. Oh yeah, rocking out in front of a shit-load of drunk students (over 3000 tickets sold thus far!) will be awesome too! I'm hoping to be able to moonwalk through an entire guitar solo in one of the songs, just so I can say I did it.

3. We have a gig at the Borderline Club in Soho on July 7th. Guns n Roses played there, Rage Against the Machine played there, it's a serious rock venue in London, I'm stoked about playing there, and on the strength of our Brixton showcase gig we should have a lot of people there to see us. I want Marshall amplifiers to offer me an endorsement deal, along with Gibson guitars and Ernie Ball. I am the last of the great lead guitarists, after all.

Maya Angelou wrote in the first book of her autobiographies "I know why the caged bird sings" a sentence that has stuck with me since I first read it, and I'm beginning to understand what she meant and how she felt.

"I had out-run unpleasant sensations by miles."

Haven't really got anything to say, just trying to make AK feel bad by posting from Switzerland when he hasn't managed to say anything.

Hello Coments readers, sorry for the lack of updates last week. AK has been particularly busy and I think that last week was the first week I didn't go to a single gig since I can remember! So there hasn't been a huge amount to talk about.

I'm off to Switzerland for the week as well (work not play sadly) and don't know if I'll have internet access, so you probably won't hear from me until next week.

If I had been here there are plenty of excellent gigs I'd have been going to. Tonight I'd have gone to Three Litre at the Student Union. Free entry and cheap beer! (oh and Three Litre). Wednesday it's another Nocturne Acoustic night at Bar Square in Wokingham featuring Ben Marwood who's solo CD is one of my favourite local CDs. Thursday night at Bar Oz has one of the best line-ups for a long time. Kaldera, Carter, Red Antennae are all playing. Gutted to miss that one.

Hopefully AK can fly the torch with a couple of posts in the meantime.

Oh and it was nice to have stirred up some comments with my last post. Maybe I should rant away more often!

So I've just been called a twat on Berkshire Live after I listed a bunch of possible "The" band names that rhymed with The Thrills and The Kills. Which was assumed to be an anti-NME Strokes backlash comment but was actually just me being bored and wanting to rhyme. Is that a crime? Should I do time? Should I start washing my hair with a hair washing product scented with lime?

Ok, I don't deny being a twat but I think it's a bit unfair that I get a hard time for anti NME/The band rhetoric if that's not what I meant. If I am going to get accused of it anyway I might as well try and explain myself.

I'm not entirely sure why it annoys me that so many really average bands in the Garage Rock scene seem to be so highly overrated these days. When the same thing was happening with Nu-Metal it didn't bother me so much, and we were flooded with loads of REALLY bad Nu-Metal bands. And Durst.

I think what it comes down to is the fact that I get annoyed by qualitative judgements on the amount of 'art' or 'credibility' in music. For some reason the generic Emo and Nu-Metal bands are shit but the generic Garage Rock band is cool. Why? Just because their influences are more credible? In a way I blame Lester Bangs. Brilliantly ascerbic writer and pioneering music journalist he might have been but his legacy seems to have been to leave one section of music journalists scared of liking anything that doesn't sound like something he liked. Garage Rock bands influences read like a summary list of bands Lester Bangs liked, the influences of the bands that are dismissed by the 'cool' music press are mostly descended from the ones he hated for being pompous, overblown and, dare I say it, widdly. I'm not saying he didn't have a point but I think that a lot of the current bands are missing the point of the music they are influenced by. Lester would hate them. Lester once said the following:

Look at it this way: there are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100%, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation.

That's explains so well what I want out of 'credible' Rock music. It's why I so instantly connected with At the Drive-In and Nirvana and it's exactly why so many bands (in whatever genre) leave me dead. I don't feel the passion, I don't feel like the band wants to hurl themselves through a wall.

That'll probably seem weird to some people who know me. I'm well aware that a lot of my favourite bands have absolutely no musical credibility and yet I know how much they mean to me. Ok so I also like stuff that has a lot of credibility. I can listen to Velvet Underground and the "girl with 5 colours in her hair" McFly single and enjoy both or Andrew WK and Mogwai or The Darkness and The Mars Volta. I connect with them in different ways and none of them in the same way I connect with music I really love. There's such a wide mark between music I like and music that wires itself into my nerves and reminds me why I'm alive. I'm not always in the mood for flesh tearing, soul rending passion. Although it's the music I connect with most I can't handle it all the time. Sometimes I want a nice happy pop melody or just some laugh along fist pumping rock. Sometimes you need sad music, sometimes happy. As a personal thing though what I never want is smug, whiney and gutless jangly guitar pop masquerading as ultra cool art. I know that's not how a lot of people hear it but it's how I hear it, I'm not sure what I can do to stop it. I can't make people hear the music I love in the same way as me. I know I probably get just as frustrated by people thinking the music I absolutely love is rubbish as people do by me spouting off a load of abuse at their favourite bands.

So, anyway, I'm aware that I'm much too harsh on Garage Rock, way beyond it's failings as a genre. It's not the first genre to feature a massive wave of mediocre bands in the wake of a few great ones and it won't be the last. For me though it's the most annoying one since Britpop, mainly because that was the last genre that hit where I didn't even really like the best bands in the genre very much.

I should really be reviewing last night at bar oz but I'm too tired. The place was rammed though, it was a really good night.

For once I have a relatively quiet weekend so not much to talk about. I need it!

We got the Chimpcopter CDs last week at the festival and sales are going pretty well, I've even sorted out a paypal ordering thing for our website. No orders from that though yet. While I'm on the subject, let me recommend CD Mule, if you need high quality short production runs of CDs then he's great value and the results are really good. We're having a band barbecue on Saturday to celebrate Chimpcopter's release. I expect our next song will be about Cheese Racing or something. That said we haven't written Crane Angel yet.

I am not "always late", I am "always busy". A lead guitarist arrives neither too early or too late, he always arrives exactly when he needs to.

I was going to write this yesterday but I saw that AK had written that gigantic post and I thought I'd save something interesting (yeah right) for today instead.

Friday

Senser at the student union then the After Dark. Senser were absolutely brilliant, the guitarist rocks really hard whilst hardly moving. He's playing these huge riffs and barely even moving. The place was pretty empty but everyone who was there was standing in front of the stage dancing. Which is something you hardly ever see in Reading. The less said about the support band the better though. Terrible mediocre drum and bass with a bit of live guitar and violin. Really, really crap. I'm not massively into drum and bass but I've been to enough D&B nights when it was huge to know how lame this stuff was. They played Helix at the After Dark again, which was great.

Saturday

I turned up at Impact for a rehearsal at midday having had about 5 hours sleep, the best nights sleep of the weekend as it turns out. My housemate and her boyfriend had decided that early Saturday morning was a great time to have a huge row. Ben Marwood, who had been guest DJ at the After Dark the night before, sorted us all out with tea and coffee but it wasn't ever really going to cut it. After two hours rocking, I was surprised we could play at all, we started packing up early. Got out of the rehearsal to see most of Yankee Nine-Niner waiting to rehearse. Not AK though, apparently he's always late.

After a quick nap I headed into town to meet some friends who were going to see The Ukranians. I had been planning to go but it was £8.50 and my finances had been devastated by the preceding couple of weeks. Apparently they were great. Instead we headed over to the Afro Bar to meet AK and the rest of the Niners. For some reason I thought Tequila was a good idea. As AK mentioned below we then went back to my house and I played him all the crazy tunes that I have on my PC. It's becoming quite a collection!

Sunday

I didn't need to be up early on Sunday but ended up being awake early (again) anyway. We had the Newbury Fringe Festival gig in the afternoon but decided that there was still enough time to pop to Guitar Heaven in Wallingford. Which we did. Played a couple of guitars, looked around, bought some strings and a strap and headed back to Reading. Soon after we got back and had lunch Chubby from S4G turned up with his van and some crazy punks from On Trial and associated friends. We had a rocking time listening to Pantera on the way up there, drove through a huge rainstorm which luckily had already passed Newbury, and
generally had a great time on the way. When we got there at about quarter to four it wasn't long until we had to load in. First impressions were that it was a bit quiet and full of families. By the time we came on the crowd had filled out a bit and we had a pretty good gig I think. At one point there was some kind of squeal that stunned Nik temporarily and stopped him playing but all in all it went really well. It was an extremely well organised and efficient gig set-up and great sound considering there wasn't time for proper soundchecks or anything. It was weird but good to just be able to turn up, plug in and play without having to hang around the venue for hours before hand, and it was really cool playing outside... actually it was really hot.

Apparently a little kid in a batman costume kept getting up and dancing to us but his parents kept making him sit down. When I heard about that it was probably the best SU related thing I'd heard. I wanted to go and find him, give him a chimp mask and tell him never to let his parents stop him rocking out. We also sold a CD to a girl who said she was singing at a friend's wedding the next day and wanted to sing Zombie Wedding. It's the little things that make it worthwhile. The rest of the day is a bit hazy. We went from having no beer to suddenly having loads and outside afternoon drinking can be quite... effective. I enjoyed the rest of the bands and talked a lot of rubbish to a lot of people. After that we went home, Dai (who was mentioned previously by AK) ended up going to a party with Chubby and the On Trial guys despite having never met any of them before.

Monday

I'm woken up at 7:30 by Dai returning from the party with a bag containing 20 cigarettes and 4 Strongbow. I decide to leave him to it and go back to bed. Manage to get up in reasonable time to get to the pub for lunch and a lemonade (ok, and a beer) and can't decide if I feel better or not.

Later that day it's time for the gig at the Student Union. What a brilliant, relaxed gig. It's the same sound guy who did the Josaka launch party and the sound system is excellent. We are the only band on and have a really cool relaxed soundcheck. We get everything sounding really good on stage, it's probably the best soundcheck we've ever had in terms of lack of stress and effeciveness. It does help not having other bands standing around watching. When we played at the King's Head in Fulham they had a policy where each band had an hour slot to arrive and soundcheck, which worked brilliantly. Much better than all the bands turning up at once and hanging around bored.

By the time the gig came round the place was still relatively empty. I thought we played really well though, quite a lot of mistakes which were mainly due to us not having had any sleep for a few nights but I think we covered them relatively well. Everything was pretty tight which is easy having played together the two days before and having really good monitors. I really got into it. Personally it was probably the gig that I've got most into what we've been playing. It'd be good to be able to play every night.

A couple of people we didn't know bought our CD, one of them was in a band that was called (or used to be called) Fisted Foetus which is cool. Barney from Caged Baby even said he really enjoyed it which was something I wasn't really expecting. It was a pretty subdued crowd though. At the end of the day I had a great time and that's all that counts.

What a weekend.

What a great weekend, I could do with a couple of days off to recover though! Friday night was kicked off with a few beers after work to celebrate a colleague's birthday - always good to sit in a beer garden with the sun glinting off the dark green bottle of beer in front of you. Then off to see my ex-housemates for another quick drink and a bit of a catch-up session, before meeting up with my cohorts for an evening of hedonistic excess that ended just as the birds starting chirrupping on Sat morning. The details have been withheld - you'll just have to imagine what shenanigans us rock stars-in-training get up to behind closed doors...

A quick nap later, and I'm off to rehearse with the Yazzle Nizzle Nizzle at Impact. We're just champing at the bit to play our showcase gig in Brixton on the 10th June and we've got the set ready, can play the songs backwards, forwards and in our sleep, and the two weeks-ish that we have to endure before then are going to pass very slowly. Not for me though, as I have other stuff to help pass the time (such as the joy of a day job, not to mention upcoming Red Antennae gigs) - but all the same it's proving difficult to relax and forget about the 10th. Now, it's going to be a big stage with a great sound, so I'm not buying into the "Everything you have ever done in your life has been leading up to this gig" rubbish that some people are selling at the moment - I'm just looking forward to playing a cool gig. But I am still on my toes, in case I overlook something in my desparation to maintain an air of calm nonchalance about everything.

So, the rehearsal went well - it was good fun fine-tuning the set, making sure that all the bits and pieces were nice and tight, and we've even found time to write a new (and most excellent) tune which if memory serves me right has even found its way into the Brixton set! Very, very hot in the studio though, fans on full blast (making it difficult to roll.... cigarettes), everyone was leaking like a tap by the end of it.

Back home, quick bite to eat and a shower and off out into Reading with Y99er. Had to go and pick Cam, Henry and Neil up from the pub first though, they just couldn't wait for us before they refilled their beer tanks! Met up with Mike and a mate of his called Dave (referred to as Dai, he lives with semi-Welsh band Left Side Brain - confusing, as he is Scottish! - top man though, crazy mummy-hugger!). Started out in Afro bar, drank a lot and worried about the band, cos everyone seemed very hung up on the whole showcase gig thing. Lots of long, anxious faces, not much cameraderie until the beer kicked in and people loosened up! Had a fight with drummer Tom outside in the street cos he didn't like my shirt, but a few well-aimed jabs soon corrected his whole outlook on frilly red dress shirts. He's got the kind of face that needs regular panel-beating so I think I did him a favour!

It all got a bit hazy after we left the Afro bar - I remember a kebab appearing in my hand and suddenly finding myself at Mike's house listening to crazy music like MC Hawking, MixMeister Blaumfeldt and MC Hardy Har-Har Har and passing out face-first on his sofa. Quality! Can't remember much else than that though!

So, Sunday - dragged my hung-over self back home, washed, cleansed, vomited, cleansed again and dressed before heading to parents house for big Sunday roast slap-up meal. Half a pound of chicken, eight roast potatoes, sundry vegetables and a pint of gravy later and I'm half asleep in front of England vs. Barbarians on telly (a joke English XV were out-muscled and out-thought by a wise old Baba's side) wondering if I'll be able to manage dessert when I realise that Sonic Undermind are playing at Newbury fringe festival that afternoon. A cartoon puff of dust appeared over my chair as I launched myself out the front door and down the M4 at as close to 88mph as I could manage, but despite my best efforts at time travel I arrive just to see Sonic Undermind packing up and leaving the stage. DOH! Oh well, stayed till the end to see the other bands (Bidgie Reef were excellent, as were a couple of others) and generally hung out, soaking up some sun.

Also managed to meet up with the voice behind my new, top-secret recording project - but only briefly as she was with her friends and I was hanging out with mine - and given the nefarious sorts that I was associating with that afternoon, I thought it best to keep the two apart as much as I could! She's very cool though, I'm used to being like a family with bands and band members, and both Rob and I are already starting to feel like big, over-protective brothers - despite the fact that I don't think Rob has formally been introduced to ... I'll call her Col for the time being. The project is going well, hopefully should have five or six tracks ready for the vocals to be recorded onto when we are all free to do it - it's a pleasure working with Rob B, and I'm looking forward to hearing what our chanteuse sounds like over the tracks! All will be revealed later this summer...

So, back to Mike's place for some more mirth and merriment (I love bank holidays!) before heading home to dive headlong into the black, unconscious void of recuperation. Woke with a start; I'm running half an hour late before I even get started. Balls. Not good. Very quick shower, dressed and on the way to Natalie (singer in Red Antennae)'s house in Henley with guitar and gig bag in tow. Threw Natalie in the boot and commanded Mr. Zulu to set a course for Hackney at warp speed, which he must have done as next thing I knew we were at Old St. roundabout, trying to figure out how to get to Dan Antennae's new pad. Eventually find it, and what a pad! It's like the ground floor of a sky-scraper office block, one big room with a middle section/wall breaking the space up. After checking with the neighbours (who all seemed cool), we were told it would be OK for us to have full rehearsals in there during the day (making rehearsal rooms and studios obsolete for the time being!), which we promptly did!

The Red Ants are gigging in Islington at Lark in the Park this Friday, and although we are headlining we're kind of looking at it as a warm-up slot for the big gig which cometh on the 17th June at Bar Oz in Reading - SoulCyde, Kaldera and Carter are all coming together to groove the living funk out of Reading. It's going to be amazing, and probably the coolest gig Red Antennae have ever played! But we have new material to play, and we rehearsed the set inside out, so we're all quietly confident. Especially now we have an official base of operations in Dan's new pad! He's going to set up some soundproofing (even though the neighbours didn't mind about the noise levels) and once his studio is set up we should be able to record anything and everything we choose to! We're all ecstatic about this, especially Dan who now has the coolest flat I've ever seen in my life.

So, rehearsal over and it's back down the M40 to deposit Ms. O'Neill at her place, and then shoot to my place to pick up my 4x12 Marshall cabinet which I am lending Sonic Undermind for their gig at Reading University that evening. After we've crammed everything we can into my car - including Mike Heff - it's off to the Student Union in my official capacity as "Chief of Sonic Undermind Operations" - a title that was downgraded from "Boss/sir" after missing their show the night before. Soundcheck was completed without too much hassle, and MIke and Pete and I headed off to get some food and to while away the hours before showtime "dahn tha boozah".

Back at the uni and the crowd was gathering. It's slap in the middle of exam time, so most of the students were either in the library or in their rooms, but a respectable crowd still turned out to witness the "high-octane" conceptual sci-fi rock of the Underminds, who were the only band on the bill that night. They were on great form as well, with the nice big stage to play on, and a nice big sound system to play through, they gave a great account of themselves. A girl who was working in the union that night recognised me from when Yankee Nine Niner won a battle of the bands there last year too, which was nice! She was very cool, actually - helped bring in and take out some kit for us, and had a very warm smile! Yeah, OK - so she may have won me over by recognising me from Y99er...! *holds hand up*. More pool, and my one beer for the night (I was driving) later and it was back to Mike's to unload the kit, a quick smoke for the road and Mikey suckered me into playing Pro Evolution Soccer. I've only ever played FIFA football games before, and I must admit the playability of PES is miles better, I don't remember ever being beaten 6 nil on FIFA. Mike obviously took full advantage of my lack of experience and ability, the bastard.

So, tonight I have a rehearsal with All Wrapped Up, Friday gigging in Islington and Sat gigging at a wedding I think. Mmmm, yes time will pass quickly up to the 10th, mainly cos I'll be busier than a bunny in bonking season. I'll keep y'all informed of any major developments till then though.

And cheers Mike Heff, for a legendary weekend - and for introducing me to the Silver Ginger 5 track "Divine Imperfection", which is now one of my favourite songs. Good work, fella!