ComEnts

This has been a busy week of going out for me. After hardly going out during the week at all for the last few months I've been out almost every night this week. Last night I went to the Oakford to see The Limes. The Limes are my little brother Pete's 'Winchester Band'. He went to uni there and had The Limes in Winch and The Pirates in Reading. Which was nice. I went to Winchester to see them once a few years ago and they were pretty shambolic but ok. Last night they were really good though.

It seems like The Limes is a bit of a musical collective. Pete hadn't played with 3 of last night's Limes before although they'd gigged together without him. Last night's line-up featured bongos, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, Anthony from the Hot Silk Pockets playing a snare drum resting on a coat, a tambourine and a couple of shaky bell things. One Lime, far right of the picture, was employed soley to shake a bell thing at a microphone. I was speculating that maybe on some other Limes songs he's the main guitarist and lead singer, but they just didn't do those songs yesterday.

The main 3 Limes seem to be Pete, The Legendary Jimmy Fish and Jez and musically they remind me a little bit of how Pete and the Pirates were when they set out. Chilled, folky, a bit country but with poppy vocals and long rambling instrumental sections that lazily drift in and out of time but somehow do so in a cool manner rather than a crap one. Last night they played a song they'd written 2 hours before the show which seemed to involve Pete leading the other band through the verse and chorus in a jam before they started playing and an audience member bringing the book with the lyrics to the front of stage for Pete to read in the verses. It was all great fun, really relaxed. A random party of office workers took time out from their cocktail and champagne consumption to bust some of the most incredible dad dancing moves you'll ever see! PaulC (Joey Ultra guitarist) and I made a pact to hang out more and just jam for fun.

So much to talk about going on today. It's Josaka's 8th Birthday at South St Arts Centre featuring The Race, Rebus, Audio Runway and What is: Protocol. A great line-up and I'm really looking forward to it. It's also Club Velocity at the Rising Sun Arts Centre has Libor Spacek, November Five and The Enigma Project. Every year they clash and it's always a tough choice to know what to go to. One year we (Sonic Undermind) were playing South St for the birthday party and Velocity had Bloc Party at the Arts Centre.

Well, it turns out last night was a really fantastic gig. As I mentioned last week I was going to see Damien A Passmore, Ben Marwood and Jim Bowes do a special one off Josaka gig at the Global Café. The night was a great success. I got there early and a nice seat at the front which was good because the place was totally packed.

First up was a surprise performance. Gerry from Six Nation State dropped in to do his first ever solo acoustic set, and he was really very good. He's got a great voice and the Six Nation State songs he played really held up acoustically. Which they always say is the sign of a good song. I've got the new SNS single to review at some point. It's a bit more chilled out than the last one but still sounds great. I'll do that closer to the release date which is 26th March.

He was swiftly followed by Damien A. Passmore. (DAP!) As far as I know DAP is Reading's only acoustic act who sings songs about rednecks and is a former wrestler. It was really nice to see DAP do a long set of his own material in an intimate setting where people can actually hear the words. His songs are funny but as with all 'comedy' music, the music has to be good as well, and it is. He seemed slightly unsteady on a couple of songs last night, but in the main it was really top stuff.

Jim Bowes took his one man comedy show 'Quiz shows, rap offs and blind confidence' to Edinburgh last year and last night was to be the final performance. He's currently working on his show for this year's fringe. I've got to admit despite lots of people telling me it was a great show I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was. I know, that's ridiculous, especially after my comments on this blog a while back about people asking 'was it funny?' after you've been to see a comedy show.

I've just seen on Berkshire Live that Rob Rebus said Jim has a kind of Dave Gorman style, I think that's very true and I think Dave Gorman is extremely funny. It's mainly down to the use of interactive media, music, slideshows, graphs etc. This is particularly self deprecating. The main butt of almost all the jokes is Jim himself and it seems he's a keen observer of his own foibles. I'm looking forward to the 2007 show. I'll let you know if it previews locally.

Up last, for his first ever headline show in Reading was Ben Marwood. Normally on a Monday night Ben is working at Impact Studios in Reading whilst Joey Ultra rehearse. He is generally a very excellent and helpful person. I'm not just saying that because he makes us tea. Although that helps.

I've seen Ben play quite a lot acoustically, he's one of only a few local acoustic performers who can really hold my attention. His songs are catchy but he gets real emotion into his vocals. It's something you don't hear often. Recently it seems Ben's been really growing in confidence. His between song banter yesterday was really funny and his songs sounded great. He's got a split single out on Velocity Recordings at the moment with the Heartwear Process. It's available in Reading HMV if you want a copy or see the Velocity website.

... but this makes it 5 posts this week!

I'm going to visit a friend in Exeter (Home of the Met Office) for the weekend. Not sure what happens there in the deep South West. I've only been to Exeter once and had a couple of hours to kill between trains. Found a pub and had a couple of beers and also found a music shop and adverts for a place that sounded like the AD. If there's anything fun I'll report on Monday. Speaking of Monday, Jim Bowes/Ben Marwood and DAP are playing at the Global Café sounds like it'll be fun. It's your last chance to see Jim Bowes' 2006 Edinburgh Show. I've never seen it and I did ask him to book one more show of it close to my house. He couldn't have gone much better! It does mean we've had to postpone Joey Ultra rehearsal to attend so it'd better be good. I'm sure it will be. Ben Marwood wouldn't have been at Impact to make our cups of tea anyway so I'm sure the rehearsal wouldn't be quite the same.

Saturday night there's a great sounding line-up at Plug'n'Play for Club Velocity. To the Barricades, OK Tokyo (debut gig!), Heartwear Process (acoustic) and The Bandinis. If I was in Reading I'd avoid the worst of the chavvy Reading fans in town celebrating Reading thrashing Man Utd in the cup and head down there to celebrate instead.

I've had a bit of a play with the formatting of the site. The text was just a bit HUGE and it was bugging me. I'm using proportional fonts so if you can't read it because it's too small for you now you can resize the text with the text size controls in your web browser options (or hold down ctrl and move your mouse wheel up and down).

Speaking of not being able to see things, I have to go and pick up my first ever pairs of glasses today (buy one get one free). My sight's been bugging me recently and according to the very nice girl (can you call a qualified optician a girl?) in Specsavers I have a slightly weak left eye which is what's confusing my brain, especially after long hours of staring at a computer screen every day. I was surprised to find that my current symptoms of extreme blindness are considered by opticians to be a very mild almost trivial prescription. I have newfound sympathy for people whos eyesight is actually pretty bad. Being slightly over competitive about most things I still didn't like 'failing' any of the areas of the test though. It was my first eye test in about 15 years or so and things seem very high tech these days. Also surprising was that glasses didn't make me look noticably more ridiculous than I already do in fact I maybe even thought it looked ok?

Oh, Brits were dreadful yesterday. Admittedly I only saw bits the second half but there were no redeeming features at all from what I could tell. Shame.

My girlfriend and I don't really celebrate Valentines Day but as today is our only day in together for like a week we might coincidentally have a nice meal at home and quiet night in. Last year I had a Müf rehearsal on Valentines Day which was good. Caused some consternation with some of the women I work with when I told them that was what I was doing for V-Day. It seems it's ok for men to not be bothered about it, but if a woman isn't that bothered it's seen as bizarre.

Also of interest is that The Brits is on today, hosted by Russell Brand and live on TV for the first time since 1989. Well it's live-ish with a 30 second transmission delay. I watched the Brits last year hoping for some drama like you used to get in the old days but they were pretty dull. The 'highlight' of the show was Duran Duran doing about 3 of their crappy old songs badly and looking old. There have been some interesting performances in the past though. I might watch some of it. It is up against big Televisual competition from the new series of Dragon's Den and Bolton vs Arsenal in the FA Cup though. Record Dragon's Den and flick between the Brits and Football? I can't imagine that'd go down too well.

I mentioned a few weeks back that we'd been booked for a very exciting gig. It's all properly announced now, we (Joey Ultra) are playing at the April Plug'n'Play Club Velocity, which is also the Rebus CD launch party. WOO!

The reason I think this is exciting is because it was the Velocity guys who suggested us for the bill, not Rebus. In fact, Sid had this to say on Berkshire Live "possibly the first josaka supergroup-we love them already because they will piss people off-shucks we aint even seen or heard them-Dreadders wants to get in Binzs pants and said 'I have seen a lot worse,' after their classic debut gig-we just like the idea of joey fucking ultra-we trust the little fella-he has good ears". I don't think you could get a recommendation much better.

I've wanted to play a Club Velocity for ages, since they started up. It's basically a Reading music scene institution. I'm not sure I could define exactly what a 'Club V band' is exactly. I've seen a lot of bands I really loved at Club V nights as well as some I thought were absolutely awful, so it's not just a matter of quality. Hopefully it's about having something a bit interesting about you and we'll live up to that.

Joey Ultra getting picked for a Club V bill after 1 gig that they didn't even see is pretty excellent. Apparently it's already caused some controversy in some quarters which is brilliant.

Recently, there was also some controversy on Berkshire Live about the Josaka Birthday gig, and the line-up. Accusations of favouritism basically. That stuff always annoys me. The fact is that getting gigs etc. is a million times easier if you have good contacts. People often complain about the scene being cliquey or people having favourites or whatever, what they maybe don't realise is the amount of work that you have to put in to meet people and build and maintain these contacts, friendships and working relationships. Bands like Rebus, Six Nation State, My Luminaries, The Race that seem to be local favourites and commonly on bills are there because they know the right people and have a reputation for reliability, professionalism and popularity. You can do great stuff without being part of a cliquey scene as such but maintaining contacts and relationships is still very important, whatever level you are at. The contacts and their importance might change, but the principle is the same. You might find it a lot easier to get on the Ozfest if you know Sharon Osbourne, or one of her kids!

It's not about lying or not being yourself either, people can spot ass kissers/fakers a mile off and it doesn't go down well. In most places I've played if you are professional, friendly, helpful and work hard to put on a good show people will be the same to you, and they'll remember you. I say it's hard work but to be honest, you don't even really have to do anything other than go to gigs have a few drinks and talk to people. More fun than flying a desk!


When Sonic Undermind were playing regularly in London we found that sending out demos and chasing promoters etc. was a futile and frustrating process, but once we got the ball rolling things really fell into place. We eventually got to play at one good venue, the King's Head in Fulham (now closed) for a promoter who also put on the amazing Catapult Club in New Cross. Nikhil (lead guitar) lived in New Cross and drunkenly got chatting to the promoter at a Catapult Club gig and eventually talked the promoter round to putting us on at his 'feeder gig' at the King's Head. He promised us that if we were good there he'd put as on at the Catapult Club proper. In the end the night in Fulham was almost a disaster. 2 bands pulled out at the last minute, the promoter managed to draft in a last minute replacement but the night was marginally saved because we brought about 20/25 people from Reading and around London to see us (thanks anyone who came!). Promoter was impressed/relieved and we talked him into putting us on at the Catapult Club. When we played there (best gig EVAH!) we impressed potential management, a magazine who were moving into promotions and another promoter all of which led to more stuff in the future.

April 21ST Plug'n'Play 35 Milford Road, Reading
Rebus/Ok Tokyo (TBC)/Kicks/Joey Ultra DJ Dreadnought and others Doors 8pm to 2am £5(door)/£4(flyer).

Labels: Club Velocity, gig, Joey Ultra, Rebus, Sonic Undermind

For those of you commenters who were concerned, I saw AK alive and well on Friday night in the Kukhuri in Reading. So no cause for concern. I still haven't mentioned to him that this blog has upgraded to the new version and he'll need a new login... I think it'll talk him through that when/if he next logs in.

On Saturday night I went to the Concert Hall in the Town Hall to watch Sean Hughes. My brother (the one who isn't in Pete and the Pirates) got me the tickets for my birthday, which was very nice of him. I hadn't actually been to anything at the Concert Hall before and probably wouldn't have even thought of getting tickets myself so it was a random but excellent present. Anyway, the Concert Hall is a bizarre venue for comedy. As Sean mentioned in the show, probably most comedians mention it. It's incredibly grand looking and has a massive organ at the back of the stage. Nice setting though. I have been to Jongleurs a couple of times for peoples birthdays etc. and whilst that was fun, I think I will try and go to more stuff like this at the Concert Hall and South Street in future. It's a pretty decent ticket price and the drinks are pub prices. Plus there's no pressure to buy really overpriced terrible food boxes like you get at Jongleurs. Oh yeah, and you can order your drinks for the interval before the show which is nice although it is allowed to buy drinks in the BBBs and take them upstairs with you, saving yourself about 15p a pint.

I'm not sure why but after both occasions I went to Jongleurs people asked me "was it funny?". Well... yes. It was really funny both times. That's kind of the point. Actually I've never been to see comedy where it wasn't funny. At uni one guy died absolutely horribly but I'm not sure why, I thought he was good and I was laughing but people didn't seem to get him. So to preempt the question, yes, Sean was really funny. If anyone fancies checking some comedy at the Concert Hall Rich Hall is on on Friday. Although it may be sold out for all I know...

"Where did the name come from?"

You know it's a question you are always going to be asked as a band. Often the real story is a bit lame so it can be good to have an official story. I'm not sure what the official story for Joey Ultra will be, but possibly I'm going to now ruin the opportunity to make one up by posting the real story.

During the World Cup we spent a lot of time in the Great Expectations pub. Every time England had a weekend match we'd head down there early in the day armed with every paper published that day and take over the entire no-smoking area. There were a whole bunch of us, including most of the future members of Joey Ultra, most of Rebus and various other associated friends, partners, relatives, friends of friends and friends of relatives. It was a great time. During one or more of these long days of drinking, which had the additional benefit of dulling our senses to the awfulness of England's football, the idea of a new band was mooted.

Lead guitarist Paul C had recently left Ecoute because he was going to move to America with work. That never happened so he ended up bandless. Bass player Sam and I had been in Müf but that was in an indefinite hiatus as lead singer/guitarist AK took things seriously with his other band White Sunday. My girlfriend Ann wanted to play drums and we had the core of a band. All we needed was a singer.

The first applicant for the role was Rebus associate Joe (of no band). The latter part of his name clearly qualifying him for the job. He said he could sing, it was sorted. Band complete. All we needed was a name. Joe wanted to be called The Ultras, after the hardcore Italian football supporters groups. They've been in the news a lot recently after some of them blew up a policeman last week, the entire Serie A season has shut down as a result. I wasn't so keen. Whilst it sounded pretty cool, I didn't like the association and I didn't want to be in a "The..." band.

Someone, and I can't remember who, then said that if we were "The Ultras" we could all do the Ramones thing and have the surname "Ultra". Mikey Ultra? Paul Ultra? Joey Ultra?! So that's where it came from. In the end, Joe didn't want to be in a band after all so we drafted in Binz, who decided it was time he gave rock'n'roll stardom a shot.

Now we just need to condense that into a catchy response for a 5 minute radio interview.