ComEnts

"Crazy May" is thrusting furiously towards its climactic explosion this weekend as White Sunday play at the Face Bar, Reading on Sat night (The old Club Tropicana/TUC on Chatham St.) before hitting the stage at Newbury Fringe festival on Sunday. Some "developments" are starting to unfold behind the scenes as well, so hopefully we can head out on tour with *insert name of amazing band currently on world tour* before too long. There are people out there - good people - all over the world who will need us to play loud rock music for them. It's a global mental-health initiative, that's what it is. Just imagine, somewhere in an exotic part of the world there will be someone who is having a rough time of it, and their mate will say to them "Hey man, screw all that, let's go to the rock gig tonight, get drunk, get laid, listen to some music and forget about it for a while, if not forever." That's where we step in. It's a public service we offer.

Still no text from Sir Clive, I'm sure he would have called me by now if he had really wanted me to cover the hooking berth, so I'm really close to giving up on the whole idea. I'll give him until 5 mins before the last test before I give up completely, but it's not looking good.

Still waiting for the White Sunday CD's to be delivered.. *taps foot impatiently* - we used a company called CD Mule to get them done - and they've been great - www.thecdmule.co.uk - so now I reckon we're just waiting for DHL or some other delivery co. to get a wriggle on a drop the box off at chez Kaupa. Very frustrating.. Lots of people waiting for us to get them a copy, lots of fans waiting to be able to buy a copy, and still they are nowhere to be seen! Grrr! Speaking of CD's, must chase up the Müf CD artwork so we can get that sent off to be printed up. My mate Lydia said she really liked the Müf CD (I lent her a rough copy), she seemed genuinely surprised - I think she was expecting a home-made recording of crap tunes from a local pub band, and not the crafted tunesmanship that the four of us managed to come up with and have had made into a gloriously great-sounding slice of aural sophistication like what Rob B has lovingly prepared. She doesn’t believe that it was me singing though, apparently it sounds nothing like me. I think that's a good thing, never let them see you coming (and other Al Pacino-inspired existentialist ruminations).

I see all the fit women have come out of hibernation now the weather has turned for the better - I think they must all live in a big underground cave during the winter months, and only emerge once the sun has put his hat on. Hip hip hip hooray! How much longer must I petition the government to introduce national "Under 30's Bikini Day"?

Still no text from Sir Clive. I'm getting nervous now cos they fly out soon and I need to arrange a dep to play the White Sunday gigs this weekend.. *drums fingers on table*.

Top rehearsal last night - didn’t work as closely on the vocal harmonies as I wanted to, but they all sounded fine during the set runs we did. Got a new tune nailed last night as well, should be debuting it on Sat at the Face Bar - it's a mish-mash of sounds based around Jimmy G's vocal "I caught a cab on the road to nowhere", and I can pick out bits that remind me of Smashing Pumpkins, others that sound like Dinosaur Jr, Dan's drumming is full of the funk so it kind of steers well clear of any of the usual suspects that we get tagged with. Mike came up with a great melody line which I ended up playing - it lifts the song to another level, which is clearly where it's at. Having played with All Wrapped Up for a couple of years now I've got an over-developed sense of disregard for any song that just sounds like all the others songs that have gone before it. I can't stand writing original music that isn’t that original, I need to feel that we're doing something different, worthwhile, and Mike's got a sense of melody that is so different to my own that I really feed off the stuff he plays. We've definitely got that Zen-like telepathy thing going on (what Tim from Off The Radar called "Voodoo" in a recent interview), and I suspect that we both want to be able to play like each other! He does that J Mascis/Thurston Moore psychadelic/intuitive style where the sounds just come out, and I'm still trying to break free from the pentatonic box (half the time at least).

I'm happy to be directed by Mike, musically speaking, and I don’t think I've ever really had that before. The Heff has always been able to say what he thinks (another luxury - there's few things worse than someone who is too shy to say that they think what I'm playing sucks) but sometimes you just need someone to point you in the right direction and give you a kick up the arse to get you going. Making music isn’t rocket science, but it does seem to stagger awkwardly between being the easiest thing in the world and the hardest, most infuriating thing ever. I knew a girl like that once.. Or, to be more accurate, I once knew a girl who WASN'T like that..

Wish I could have been there for Sam's wedding, instead of playing at someone else's wedding with AWU. Just looking at the photos Mikey took tells me it must have been a great day/evening. Hope the new Mr and Mrs Cops are happily ensconced on honeymoon somewhere hot and sunny by now, anyway.

So I get home from giving guitar lessons last night to see the Lions play like kittens against a second-string Argentina XV. But no injuries were picked up, and in the long run if they had wiped the floor with the Argies then they would have headed down to NZ full of false confidence, because the first team they play down under will play at three times the intensity that I saw from the Argies. Better that the team get a bit of a rocket under them from this game and head south with the bit between their teeth. I'm still convinced that I can go down there and do a job for the midweek team - Steve Thomson hasn't been anywhere near form since the world cup, Shane Byrne and Gordie Bulloch will probably scrap it out for the test berth unless Andy Titterell has a blinding tour. I just think that my technical ability (line-outs especially) will lend a stable platform to much of the midweek games when making the most of your possession - and retaining it - will be key. I'll await Sir Clive's text message.. My best guess is that I'm probably 800th in line for the call up, but you never know with injuries and such like. I "worked" with Clive at Henley RFC, so he should be aware of my qualities as a modern-day footballing front-rower.

Ow. My cheek hurts, maybe I shouldn’t put my tongue in there quite as far as I do. Walter Mitty only imagined things, at least I take it one step further and actually talk about it as well. Anyway, I've seen "Once Were Warriors" loads of times so I know what these Kiwi's are all about. As long as you cook them some eggs when they ask, you'll be alright.

So, after my frankly miserable and tired post on Thursday I'm much more cheerful today.

The wedding on Saturday was absolutely fantastic. There was loads of live music. First Sam (Sonic Undermind and Müf bass player)'s brother played with My Two Toms. They did an excellent instrumental rendition of Zombie Wedding on acoustic guitar and banjo and then continued with more really cool instrumental stuff. As well as the guitar and banjo they also used a really tiny, and I when I say tiny I mean tiny, guitar which only had two strings. Very cool. Several gallons of sparkling wine and some food later and The Palestinians hit the wedding with some punky political rock. I'm not sure it was exactly what you normally expect from a wedding band but it was great fun and loads of people were dancing. Probably the best sounding I'd seen them and I really enjoyed it.



Sometime after that, and a few beers later Sonic Undermind hit the stage. We actually played really well, and had great fun with it. Especially considering how drunk we were (very). It was much better than the rehearsal! As well as the three songs we'd rehearsed we played Rock Cliché as an encore. We hadn't even run through that in the rehearsal but kind of came back to us. It was so much fun I didn't really want to stop, nor did the crowd but hey, leave them wanting more.

Anyway, as the guy we met in the pub before the wedding said - and who may have featured in a blog entry I wrote about a Nocturne Acoustic gig - Happy Days, Happy Days.

White Sunday made our TV debut on Sunday night, on Meridian News' Sunday evening show. We were helping promote the Newbury Fringe Festival happening this Sunday, did an acoustic version of "Fire Me Up", although they didn’t use any of the interview I did with Jimmy G (probably best, really). Nice to get a bit of national exposure, here's hoping that the festival is a success (i.e. it doesn't rain). Lots of shots of James looking cool and playing harmonica, but drummer Dan and I got cut out of the shots cos they only had room for Jim, Mike and Luke (the pretty boys!). I think I may be part vampire, as I never seem to come out on celluloid. You'd have thought that the press would be mad keen to capture my boat on camera - so I can only imagine that my image just does not show up on film, Dracula-stylee, and causes some panicked editing from concerned parties. Yes. That must be what happens. Yes.

Lions play their pre-tour warm-up game tonight, I reckon they'll get a very stern test from Argentina but as a source close to me said last night "You give 150% every time you pull on a Lions jersey, it's not about not getting injured or playing it safe - it's about making your own legend." And, true to form I'm going to miss the match cos I teach guitar on a Monday night. Sheez.. Coulda predicted that one. Oh well, at least I enjoy the classes I give. If you can't be doing something that you want to do, it's good to get paid for doing something else that you enjoy instead. Plus I'm getting a really strong sense of satisfaction from helping my students understand and enjoy playing the guitar. Next week's lesson will be "How to demolish a guitar with one easy swing" - fun!

White Sunday have pulled out of our Camden show on Friday as well, we finally discovered that we were playing at the Canaervon Castle (having been told that it was the Camden Lock) with a load of extreme metal bands - we're having a word with our London bookings agent to make sure that we don’t end up on any more Black Metal bills and we'll try and arrange some more dates oop t' big smoke.

BBC Berks gave us a great review from our gig at Colorz last Thursday - Jim was a bit pissed off cos Linda (lovely BBC reviewer) said she wished he'd stop trying to be like Noel (think she prolly meant Liam..) Gallagher and Ian Brown, but she didn’t make it as a criticism - just a personal opinion, which are always gratefully received. She also said I was Yankee 99er's guitarist, which I'm clearly not! Best for both bands if that little connection can be swept neatly under the carpet, I think.

"Nice Blog" "But I haven't written anything?" "Exactly!"

Bah.

Well there's been very little to write about. Müf is still in hiatus, I haven't been to any gigs. Had the Sonic Undermind rehearsal for this wedding on Saturday, hopefully we might be able to knock out 3 songs barely adequately at the wedding. Which I'm looking forward to as a great party more than our playing part.

The whole rehearsal was extremely odd. We hadn't got together since last September and we were all so obviously influenced by our new bands. I found musically I didn't enjoy playing the old SU stuff half as much as I enjoy the Müf songs. We did jam some really cool fun proggy stuff which was a lot of fun and hanging out with the guys again and getting drunk together was really good too. Anyway I think this will probably put me off any public SU reunion performance at least any time in the forseeable. It was great at the time, but it's time has gone. Got to sort some stuff equipment out for that tonight so might not be able to make Bar Oz/Colorz again. Which is getting to be pretty normal. Double bah.

Yesterday on the way home from work it was really windy and something flew in my eye which then puffed up loads and made me look all lopsided. That was fun.

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.

Nice to see the safe return of Mikey "The Heff" from Scotland - I look forward to heading up to Aberdeen next month - apparently Aberdonians are as tight as a duck's batty? My mate from Edinburgh said that "they tight coonts frae' Aberdeen" are considered frugal even by Scottish standards. Now - without getting into stereotyping or mass-labelling or anything like that - if my mate Don says you're tight - well, that's like having John Gotti accuse you of having nefarious underground contacts!

Anyway, enough of Sweaty-baiting. My news today is that White Sunday are doing a TV interview and an acoustic song (we're still trying to figure out which one to do) on Monday for Meridian TV - to promote the Newbury Fringe festival we're playing at on Sun 29th May in Victoria Park. I'm looking forward to it, I haven’t really done a lot of TV so should be a giggle. I am looking forward to playing an acoustic song too, when I first hooked up with James it was just sitting in his house jamming tunes on acoustics and it always sounded really good. I think Jimmy G's voice lends itself to acoustic accompaniment, although I'm reluctant to put down the Telecaster for good!

Other than that, not a lot to report. Oh, our gig at Po Na Na on Tuesday was cool. Bit of an odd venue to get used to - I think it's brilliant if you are a punter, and a bit dodgy if you are in a band! I expect it will grow on us, it's still early doors and we managed to get an impressive number of people down for a Tuesday night. Ecoute kicked things off (sounding lovely), followed by Sequoia (who also sounded lovely) then we played - when we weren't snapping strings or playing around with guitar pedals, etc. - and debuted 2 new songs which were well-received. Off The Radar wound things up with another tight set. As tight as an Aberdonian's purse strings.

Anyway, rock on kids - and be excellent to each other. Watch out for White Sunday on Meridian TV on 22nd May!

Yours - and mine,

Alex

AK's just about to be flown up to Aberdeen and I've just come back from there! Well Aberdeen Airport anyway. It's very small, there's not much to see. The airport that is, I didn't make it into Aberdeen the town although we drove through it briefly.

Nothing much to report really. Week away was eventful but not in any way relevant to this blog. I did manage to get hold of a guitar in Elgin for a bit of jangling and can't wait to get back in the rehearsal room with Müf. I've got loads and loads of ideas. It's so annoying having this enforced hiatus over May with other bands still going about their business!

Coming up we have Sam's (Müf bass player) wedding in a couple of weeks. My old band Sonic Undermind (which Sam was also part of) are doing a couple of songs at the wedding reception. We'll be playing late night when everyone (including us) will be rather merry I think! So we're using that as an excuse for a get together/piss-up in the rehearsal rooms this coming Saturday, which should be fun. It's a good 8 months or so since our last gig so I'm going to have to relearn some of the songs I think.

Also on Saturday Ipanema are playing at the BBBs. They are a fantastic catchy rock band, go and see them!

This week saw Müf, White Sunday and Red Antennae all acquire pages on arkade.com, a lovely, spanking new site for bands to promote themselves and sell music through. I wish I could find my copy of the Müf CD (and I know that Rob B will be deeply unimpressed by the fact that I have managed to mislay ANOTHER copy, he's already burnt three for me!) so I could upload "We Could Be Friends" and "Schmindie" to the Müf site - the two tracks that are currently up on arkade.com are currently available from our website as well, whereas the other two are not. If we could sell 5 million copies of Schmindie via Arkade I could start looking at yachts and things, which would be nice.

All three of the tracks available from Arkade feature guitar parts designed to have children and adults alike posing with tennis rackets in front of mirrors in their bedrooms - this, I have decided, should be the ultimate aim of anyone who writes guitar-based music. I love the idea of having someone listening to the tunes and waging an internal war/dialogue about whether or not they feel secure enough in themselves to prance about with a tennis racket in front of a mirror. In fact, I've found that prancing about in front of a mirror with a tennis racket is the best way to develop and practice new poses and "moves" as it completely liberates you from guitar-related practicalities and leaves you free to concentrate on how to moonwalk and play behind your neck at the same time. Plus I'm happier smashing up a tennis racket than I am a guitar. Justin Hawkins once remarked that smashing up a guitar was on a par with beating your wife, but I'd say that it was worse than that. A guitar doesn't expect you to buy it dinner and jewellery before it will let you run your fingers all over it as you try to coax some sexy noises out of it.

This week also saw the inaugural night of hip-shaking and finger-waggling at Po Na Na nightclub in Reading, as Unsigned Showcase prepares to transfer itself from Colorz. T'was good, much better than Bar Oz/Colorz from a punter's point of view as there are seats and nooks and crannies to sit in and chill without being deafened by a PA, as well as cheap booze, etc. From a band's POV I think the stage is a bit small and there's not much of a dance floor compared to Colorz, but then you need fewer people to make it look busy! It was one of Reading's strongest line-ups, The Palestinians, Pete and the Pirates, Heartwear Process and Rebus played, with a fair few people in attendance. White Sunday are playing there next Tuesday (10th May) so I'll report back with a front-line perspective next week.

White Sunday are also playing the last night at the former spiritual home of the Reading music scene at Colorz on 19th May along with LIV, Bernard and Call Sign Panda, which should be a great night. I haven't seen me old mate Dez with a bass in his hand for a while (he beat me in an air guitar contest once - he's a worthy adversary!) so I'm looking forward to hearing CSP, and Bernard are supposed to be good too (as I'm sure LIV will be!). I'll miss the place, have had many a good night there. Ah well, all good things end in come.

I'm flying up to Aberdeen to play a gig there next month, my first time being flown to a gig. Looking forward to doing the "walking across tarmac to the airplane carrying a guitar case" bit - will feel like un petit peu du roque star. Actually all our kit is being driven up in a van, but what's the point in being flown about the place to play gigs, etc. if you can’t let the whole world know about it? Money just isn’t enough of a motivating factor for me, I need to be able to live out these public cameos or it just stops being fun.

Re; the Aberdeen gig, someone mentioned that the party who booked us may be expecting a "traditional" Scottish band, so I am learning "Kayleigh" by Marillion in order to set-up a gag.

"We were expecting a Celidh!"

See you next time, grapple-fans.

E-A-S-Y! E-A-S-Y! E-A-S-Y!
You! Shuuut uuup!!! Etc.