ComEnts

Has anyone ever been to a battle of the bands that didn't end in controversy?

Last night saw Nokia bring their Rock Up and Play night to the Fez Club in Reading. The idea of Rock Up and Play is that Nokia set up a "Nokia Raw" stage at some of the summer's big festivals and bands who are attending can turn up at the stage, sign up and get a slot playing. All equipment including guitars etc. is supplied so that festival goers who might not even have a plectrum can turn up and rock out. In practice the stage last year got booked up within about 30 seconds of the gates opening each morning, but at least that proved how popular it was.

The idea of the Rock Up and Play tour (other than advertising Nokia products of course) was to allow bands in a few of the towns near the festivals Nokia are playing to come along and just turn up and play. It was also a competition, so the winning band would also win tickets to the festival and a slot on the Nokia Raw stage. So far, so good!

The only downside was that a few bands were selected in advance by sending in demos and got to play 3 song sets, and were able to bring down all their friends whilst anyone who rocked up on the night to play only ended up with a single song set. The judging was then done on "crowd noise" so the bands who had advance notice to bring fans did noticably better. However they'd judged it the result would have been controversial, but it'd be nice if all the bands got an equal shot at it.

In all it was a fantastic night of live music. Almost all the bands were of a very high standard, and it really showed the talent that's around the area at the moment. Two that I hadn't seen before impressed me. I thought Audio Runway were a lot of fun and I'd class The Kicks as one of the top few Reading bands after only three songs. If nothing else, it was a great way for The Kicks to introduce themselves to Reading.

There are so many exciting events being planned. I don't want to plug any before they are confirmed just in case they don't come off, but if things keep going at the rate they are it's going to be huge.

For my own part, the screwball team are planning something a bit different this time. We've got loads of ideas which we are investigating. The feedback from the last two nights was so great that we've got a lot to live up to!

Not even one congratulation! Why do I bother. I expect the comment facility must have been broken.

Do you remember about six hundred years ago I was talking about having recorded the rest of the Müf songs? Well, earlier this week I got the initial mixes back from Rob at Bleeding Ear (it must be stressed that the delay was nothing to do with him!) and it's been a mixed experience. The first song I got back was the new song which we kind of semi-wrote in the studio and it set me in a bit of a negative mood about the whole session. It's just not right yet. Again, nothing to do with the recording, it just needs a bit more work on it. Writing in the studio is tough!

Having taken a bit of a break and gone back to it I'm feeling a lot happier though. We've worked out what needs doing to it and it's going to be a great little EP when it's done. Don't worry I'll plug the hell out of it when it's finished.

I just found out yesterday that Pete and the Pirates are playing at the Rising Sun Arts Centre with Manic Cough on Saturday. Which is a shame because I really wanted to go and see DisGuys at the BBBs. I think I'll go and see the Pirates. Haven't told my girlfriend the change of plan yet, but she does read this blog. Is that a reasonable way to transfer information or will she be really confused come Saturday night?

But we missed its birthday last month. Happy Birthday Coments.

The stage invasion at the Six Nation State single launch.



The pitch invasion as Reading won the Championship.



Fringe Festival Launch Party.




Eight pints of scrumpy at the Come Together Festival



And this is what happened after we'd drunk them. No wonder we were warned.



I will try and post the pics with the stories in future.

That's what a festival should be like.

Earlier in the year I'd decided not to go to "The Carling Weekend" this year. In the end it sold out before I knew the tickets were on sale anyway, so that was lucky. Last year's was a bit too souless, although I still had a great time and Maiden were amazing. I don't know if these things are related but as the tickets sell out faster and faster you seem to get a much more homogenous crowd. I'm sure I remember the attendees having a much more varied age range when I was a pesky kid. Anyway, that coupled with the insanity on the last night put me off going again this year.

Instead, the plan for this year was to try and go to several small (and free/almost free) festivals. Even so, I nearly missed the Come Together Festival in Henley-on-Thames. I only really went because I knew lots of people playing, but I'm definitely going to try and go next year too. The atmosphere was brilliant, really nice mix of people. It was much bigger than I expected with several stages of music. Main stage, acoustic stage, the stage in the bar, er... a drum and bass thing, some guys holding a kind of turn up and play bongos exhibition (I expect Rob will post a comment telling me what those drums are really called).

Paul C and I had the wonderful experience at the bar of ordering 4 pints of scrumpy, having the barman warn us "be careful with that..." and responding by changing the order to 8 pints. I also had some excellent curried goat. Mmmmm.

Oh yeah, and the bands were good too. I'll post some pictures when I can get them off my phone.

Next cheapo/free festival I'm planning on is Ashton Court in Bristol, but if another one comes up in the mean time, please let me know!

Well, Mikey thinks he's all cool and "hard" by publishing a few new posts but I'll show him: two can play that game.

Fringe festival is getting more and more fun; Kevin Harrington and I are being interviewed on BBC Radio Berkshire on Monday but Henry Kelly. We've already agreed that in the interests of fringe success we are not to abuse, misuse or denegrate the opportunity to publicise and promote the fringe and as such we have already drawn up a short list of the funny things we would like to say but won't. They mostly consist of Going For Gold expressions (Thanks to PaulC for his "You're back in the game" gem).

White Sunday have found our drum-bitch. He's real good and rehearsals are coming along nicely thanks for asking.

Yesterday was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster; my amp blew up (hope it's still under warranty - I get the feeling that Marshall's valvestate combo's have a habit of expiring at random) but I borrowed Mike (from White Sunday, not my erstwhile Muf bandmate) his vintage Fender Deluxe to play at the Madjeski last night and it sounded sweet! Amazing; 72 Tele through a classic fender and suddenly I felt like Craig Ross (sans afro, naturellement). Quality Lamb, Beefy.

Am I wrong in really liking Orson's "No Tomorrow" track? I hope not, I know it's almost camp LA style rock showmanship but I really like it anyway. I heard another single of theirs and thought it was pants but N.T. has won a place in my heart.

Now wash your hands.

It's depressing being stuck inside on this lovely sunny day, which is totally made for sitting outside drinking beer!

So I've been cheering myself up by listening to fun things on MySpace. Found a link to some guy who made a Daisy Chainsaw page on the Bleeding Ear page so I'm listening to Love Your Money, imagining I was sitting in a field drinking beer and listening to it.

And I've ordered the Eleventeen album from Amazon so I can do just that later in the summer. WOO HOO!

ba dada-dum-dum-dum dada dum-dum-dumdum.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Come Together Festival in Henley. The bill is filled with people I know playing. Rebus, SixNationState, Mr Fogg, Barflyz, Wire Jesus, Kaldera... and many more!

It's an outdoor festival and today is a beautiful sunny day. This bodes well for a wonderful day's entertainment. Hurrah! Except, I checked the weather report and this beautiful sunny weather is going away for the weekend to be replaced with rain.

Bum.

I was talking to my brother yesterday (number 2). He works at the Town Hall in Reading and we were talking about when some of his co-workers could come and meet us in the pub. He said they shouldn't be too late because they were working upstairs and there was a "little people concert" on so they should get out early.

AWESOME!!! Genuine 'little people' performing a concert!? Why didn't I know about it? Can we turn this bus back around and go to see it?! Then my other brother (number 3) said, "I think he means children". Nooooo. What disappointment.

In the end, we were both wrong, it turns out he just meant there wouldn't be many people there. It wasn't even a concert. As he put it "there's a guy talking about how he travelled somewhere once, and his wife talking about how she used to be an actress."
I'm surprised it wasn't packed.

This post probably isn't very politically correct. Sorry.

My Uncle William passed away yesterday. He'd been very ill. I didn't really know him very well, I'd only met him a handful of times but I think I'll always remember him for this one incident.

I was about 10 or so I suppose, still at primary school. American Football had just started on Channel 4 and it seemed like it was the new cool thing. Everyone was watching it. My friend Paul had been to Minnesota so he even had a team to support, the Vikings! Anyway, my Uncle came down to visit one time with his two sons. I can't remember why. At one point during the visit and found me playing with a rugby ball in the back garden. He was a huge Rugby League fan who controversially supported Wigan despite being from Castleford. So he started playing with me, showed me a few rugby passes and things. Which was cool. Then my little brother, who was probably only 5 or so, came out and said something about American Football. I was really embarassed, but without missing a beat William just grinned said "I think this is how they do it now" and started showing me how to do proper American football passes, holding the laces and spinning the ball etc. (not that our old rugby ball had laces.) Neither of my parents are really sporty and I thought it was great.

Thanks William.

RIP.

but I am back at a computer so here's some gibberish.

Deal or no Deal didn't get a BAFTA, that was a bit rubbish. I still watch it whenever possible. Brilliant. Unlike the BAFTA Television Awards which are televised tonight, bound to be absolutely awful.

I saw that the BBC described David Blaine's latest Houdini inspired event in rhyming slang as an underwater stunt. I wonder why he's not doing this one in London? I'd have thought it'd be boring in there and if the public were willing to entertain you by shouting and flying model aeroplanes at you that'd only liven things up. Anyway, if anyone happens to be in New York over the next week, go and shout abuse to remind him of London.

It seems the drunken contact I mentioned a few posts ago might have paid off. Got an mp3 back from the band my friend met in the bar and it sounds pretty good!

Now to see what they can do with finding promoters/venues etc. Maybe we need to find another band in another town as well.

It looks like it's 10 times cheaper to take the Dover/Calais ferry and then drive to Rotterdam than it is to take the Harwich - Hook of Holland overnight ferry, which is a shame as long ferry journeys are fun.

As AK mentioned, we're at the same point now as when we started the Fringe last time. This year however, although not much has actually been done yet, everything is in place. We've got the message out to a lot of people already and started a lot of balls rolling. I think once you get down to it you need that little edge of pressure to really kickstart everyone. We've been lulled a little bit into a sense of security by starting so early and having ages to plan. I don't know about anyone else but I'm really starting to feel the sense of urgency that we had from the beginning last year.

Now is the time when we really need to start doing stuff, not talking about it. Not that I'm a shining example, I've missed the last few meetings and have done very little actual work so far.

It's definitely not too late to get involved if you want to. http://www.readingfringefestival.com for details. Next meeting is at the Outlook pub in Reading on Wednesday 10th May at 7pm. That is, inconveniently, my brother's birthday, so hopefully I can make that one.

Fringe festival comes along nicely - but worryingly we are fast approaching the same stage that we decided to put it on last year. I remember thinking "Great! we have LOADS of time to arrange stuff for this year compared to last year", and now we are about even! Oh well, things coming along, like I say.

White Sunday's search for a new drummer carries on apace - we may have found our dude, but we have much thinking, consideration, weighing - and skinning - up to do before we reach a decision. A band is only as good as their drummer, now I realise how lucky Müf were to get Lee on board - I just wish we could be as lucky with Weisse Suntag. Mr "Famous Producer" is keen to record us asap so we need to get a wriggle on.

Haven't seen or spoken to Mikey for aaaages, need to arrange a Müf gathering to listen to first mixes of new CD. Will prolly call Mike tomorrow when I get bored of practising scales, etc. and looking for a new job.

Played at the Garage last Wed with White Man Kamikaze (frenetically energised London rockers) and City Lights (all girl rawk band) - brilliant night, great venue. tricky to park, but still a top night.

That is all.