ComEnts

So much to talk about from the last few days, as you can imagine with the list of stuff I was going to be doing in the last post. Here's a summary:

Wednesday: Club Velocity featuring Pete and the Pirates, Six Nation State, Hot Silk Pockets, Somebody's Mind

What a line-up! There was no way the England - Germany friendly could compete with this gig. I don't think I can remember a time when there's been four bands I really liked on the bill before, certainly not a gig that I didn't put on myself. Somebody's Mind were atmospheric and moody. The Hot Silk Pockets were lo-fi and catchy Six Nation State got everybody dancing and Pete and the Pirates kept them moving.


I was obviously drunk enough to be disturbed by the horrific dummies in Jacksons window again. They look bad enough in the daytime but at night it's horrific!


Thursday: Joey Ultra gig, Black & White Festival Warm-up

This was one of those strange gigs where I basically went straight from work to the gig. Black & White had things all sorted out though. We arrived about an hour before we went on and found Shane the promoter running around like a mad thing getting last minute things sorted. We got a beer and tucked into the sandwiches he'd laid on for the bands which were very well received indeed. It makes such a difference if there is food. We even had a special Joey Ultra lettuce as our singer Binz is a vegetarian. He later used it to chat up some festival going fitties. Surprisingly they weren't impressed by a strange man coming up to them with an iceberg lettuce, taking a massive bite out of it and then chatting to them. I don't know why. They left not long after.

Anyway, that was after we played, the gig itself was good. Quite a lot of our friends made it down to see us and got in for free because they arrived before 7pm. I had some technical difficulties and because it was a mini festival we had to really rush to get set up and just had line-checks but by the second half of the set I think we had got into it. We really need to get some recordings and more gigs!

Coming next: Reading Festival proper.

Tons of gigs happening this week. Of course it's Reading Festival this weekend and in the run up is Reading Fringe Festival. As regular readers will know I was involved the last 2 years with the Fringe until it was usurped this year. It seems that things are going ok so far. It's much smaller and much less diverse this year (I make it 34 events compared to 61 last year) but the programs look good and I'm going to a few of the events.

Tonight it's Pete and the Pirates Reading Festival Warm up gig, Club Velocity at Plug'n'Play with
Six Nation State, the Hot Silk Pockets and Somebody's Mind which is an incredible line-up!

Tomorrow night it's the Black and White festival warm up gig at the Walkabout and I'm playing it with Joey Ultra! Come and see us. Free entry before 7, £2 after 7 with the cost going up as it gets later. We're on at 7:55, get there early and bring ID! We've rehearsed, got good, ditched all the shit songs and Binz is more of a sex fiend than ever!

Reading Festival seems to be mostly flooded. I'm only going to on the Saturday but I get to see Reading acts Pete and the Pirates and Does It Offend You, Yeah? Which is great. I also just found out that White Sunday, featuring AK who used to write on this blog, won a 210FM competiion and are playing on the Nokia stage at 2pm which is great.

I should have more time to blog in the future. House mostly sorted. Broadband coming back to the house early next week.

Labels: Club Velocity, gig, Joey Ultra, Pete and the Pirates, Six Nation State

We've been offered another gig and for once we can actually accept. It's on the 23rd August at The Walkabout in Reading and the night's being put on by Black and White Promotions. It's the day before Reading Festival starts which is nice! Loads of gigs happening in the run up to the festival. I'm also particularly looking forward to Pete and the Pirates/Six Nation State/The Hot Silk Pockets/Somebody's Mind at Club Velocity on the 22nd.

Someone commented on the last post "Record!". If they meant they want Joey Ultra to record, well, we'd love to. If all 5 of us are in the same time at any point for a weekend at the same time as some kind of recording facility is free, then there's a good change we will!

Nothing's really happening in the 'communications and entertainment' areas for me at the moment. The band are continuing to have a quiet time concentrating on getting good and writing better songs. Last week our bass player couldn't make rehearsal due to a bereavement but we did manage to use the time to good effect and jammed out a brand new song which is going to be Joey Ultra's Stairway, probably. We have another good song to write on, plans to record somehow or another at some point and gigs to get... it's been a very frustrating summer everyone being so busy, but we'll be back, and better than ever, soon!

Anyone got any gigs they want to give us?