ComEnts

Hey everyone, thanks for the encouragement to get started blogging again. I feel like I haven't really had much to say recently but actually there's been quite a lot going on. 

Labels: Does it Offend You Yeah, Joey Ultra, Pete and the Pirates

After 2 years of not recording at all, it could be that Joey Ultra get 2 lots of recording done in 2 months! Urk!

Exciting? Yeah.

Hopefully we'll do some live recording first in August followed by proper studio recording in October.

Labels: Joey Ultra

So, it's been a busy weekend for me. My band Joey Ultra played at the best venue in the world on Friday, the Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading. It's a tiny little venue run as a charity by hippies and is absolutely brilliant. We played well again, I think we're getting better every time we play. We don't really know what's going on with the band at the moment. Bass player Sam is having a baby in 6 months or so and won't really have any time for band stuff for a while. So we need to work out what is going to happen. Hopefully we'll carry on in some capacity probably after a bit of a break. Also need to work out recording

Saturday night we went to Twickenham to watch Iron Maiden. It was a brilliant gig. Twickenham is a really good stadium venue, really good transport links, well organised, easy to get drinks etc. I was very impressed. Maiden were brilliant, as always. I think everyone in a band should watch them at least once, even if they hate the music just to see how entertaining they make their shows. It's fairly incredible that after 25 years the band is bigger than ever.

I surprisingly saw my brother on Sunday. He'd been meant to be playing Zoo8 but it seems to have been a complete and utter disaster. Quite a lot of bands cancelled in the end and it seems the organization was utterly shambolic. Comments from people who went are almost universally scathing.

Labels: Iron Maiden, Joey Ultra, Zoo8

It'd been nearly two months without a rehearsal, everyone hadn't been sleeping well because of our lovely hot weather and was a bit knackered but yesterday's Joey Ultra rehearsal went surprisingly well. We could remember and play all the old songs, although Data Entry was a struggle with my shoulder not being quite fixed, and they sounded great. Plus we got most of a new song that PaulC had written sorted out, and it's potentially the best one we've ever done. Very exciting. And we have a couple of gigs in the next two months to look forward to/work towards too.

My aim for the next few weeks is to get writing some songs myself. I struggle to write for Joey Ultra because everything I play tends to go just a bit too metal. We'll see. There is a slight problem at home, because I tend to like to just have guitars lying around that I can pick up whenever I feel like to play on, and my girlfriend likes to have everything (like guitars) nicely tidied away. So at the moment I rarely if ever pick up a guitar outside rehearsals. We're working on a plan to fix that.

Labels: Joey Ultra

Someone asked how the gig was. Well. It was pretty good.

My first experience of Bar Four as a venue and it worked quite well. The sound for the bands was good, there was a backstage area for us to sit in etc.

There were a few downsides. It was a bit confusing what was going on. We didn't know what the order of bands would be until we got there, we were on first, which was fine, but that wasn't until 9:30pm. I think the peak time for band watching on a school night in Reading is 8:30pm to 10:30pm, after that, people start wanting to go home for work the next day. The other problem with us going first, and so late, was that a lot of people who came to see us watched us, then as it was already gone ten, pretty much left straight away. Which was really tough for the other bands. The Cheddington Incident played to basically the other bands and a handful of other people.

I'd certainly go back as a punter on a Wednesday to watch bands there. Playing wise I think we did ok. Due to the late start time I was pretty drunk when we went on but a few people said some nice things which is always good to hear and the promoter said he'd like to have us back sometime, so that's good too.

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra

It's like I only blog when we've got a gig... we should have more gigs. Anyway... Joey Ultra are playing at Bar Four in Reading tomorrow. It's free entry, and I've never been to the pub when it's hosting gigs before so I don't quite know what to expect. I hope it's a really good night. Reading could use a really good regular free midweek gig. I'll let you know what it was like, if you can't come down.

The other bands are Echobeat and Chedington Incident.

I also got the Let's Wrestle EP, In Loving Memory Of... yesterday. Let's Wrestle are on Stolen Recordings and apparently formed a band after spending many Sunday evenings watching the Stolen gigs and being massive fans. Live they can be a bit shambolic but they've got great songs and both the shambolicness and the greatness comes across on the EP.

I can't remember what else I was going to tell you so I'll leave it at that and post again if it comes back to be.

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra, Let's Wrestle

Just found some photos of the gig on Adam Reading's photostream on Flickr.. check them out here

Labels: Adam Reading, Joey Ultra, Photos

Woo, we had our first good gig on Saturday.



Our second appearance at the Plug'n'Play version of Club Velocity went really well I think. Paul dropped our gear off early on in the afternoon so we could just wander down a bit later on for soundcheck. Which meant we could go and get some food and a few beers in the pub together which was cool. Soundcheck went really well. The new monitors at Plug'n'Play are brilliant. Really crisp and clear, and Richard the new sound guy really knew what he was doing. So for the first time since I played in Brixton with Sonic Undermind I actually had perfect on-stage sound. It's a very rare and very beautiful thing.

We'd been slightly worried beforehand that we might not fit in too well with some of the other bands styles, but in the end it worked quite well. Diamond Lines were really nice guys and sounded brilliant in sound check, although I didn't see much of their set due to catching up with friends who'd come to see us, and we had a good chat with the singer from The Noyze backstage, he was cool too.

Unlike our lead guitarist, I didn't end up at an illegal rave that could have been straight out of Skins (new series tonight 10pm E4!) but never mind.

Labels: Joey Ultra

Joey Ultra have a gig on Saturday! Woo. In fact I think we're going to have another one on the 12th of March as well, but I don't have the details of that yet.

Rehearsals have been going really well. We're trying to write a new song for every gig and just about managing that at the moment. The newest song is inspired by University Challenge, there's really no point trying to hide our middle classness is there? Anyway, as the gigs go on I think the set's getting stronger and stronger. With that in mind we're dropping two of our older songs to make it a shorter, tighter set for the gig.

Anyway, it's Club Velocity on Saturday 9th Feb at Plug'n'Play in Reading. You can get full details here.

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra

Approximately a year after everyone else got in on the act, I finally got myself a copy of Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady. I'd listened to it a couple of times before but now, after repeated listens , I can confirm that it's very, very good indeed.



Thanks to the Anonymous poster who asked about Joey Ultra. As well as the Club Velocity gig I mentioned below, we've got some more gigs we're trying to line up, as well as recording. We wrote a great new song yesterday. As we're finding our feet as a band I reckon the set is starting to sound a bit more coherent and it's all clicking together nicely.

Labels: Joey Ultra, The Hold Steady

Joey Ultra have a gig tomorrow, at the 3Bs in Reading. We'll probably play at about 10ish and before that some of our showbiz friends will be playing some excellent acoustic music to entertain you. If any of them actually turn up. To be honest, if you came to watch and brought a guitar you'd probably get to play!

I'm hoping that us taking time off gigs (since August) to concentrate on rehearsing and getting better is going to pay off. It sounded brilliant in rehearsal last night, but you never know what'll happen in an actual gig situation. Normally all my gear breaks and I have a nightmare.

I've had tons of technical difficulties at recent gigs. This time rather than transport my ridiculously big 4*12 speaker and head to a tiny pub I decided to recover my old Carlsbro amplifier from my little brother and see how it sounded. I haven't used it since I got my new guitar (about 5 years ago) and my English Muff'n distortion pedal. Surprisingly it sounds really good. I guess the blame for it sounding so bad previously has to go to my old guitar.

For the first time in ages yesterday I could actually hear what I was playing over the rest of the band. Not in terms of loudness, but clarity. The Line-6 amps in the rehearsal room are very adequate in terms of being flexible and convenient, but they do tend to sound muddy and a bit farty.

I guess this means people will be able to hear all my mistakes clearly. Woo!

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra

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

So, as all you regular readers know Saturday was the day of Joey Ultra's big gig. Second ever gig for the band, and the second ever gig for our drummer and singer. Huge! The line-up was dauntingly good. I felt like it was a bit like an episode of Faking It. 3 extremely talented bands, major labels turning up to see 2 of them and Joey Ultra, who've only ever played once before, in a small pub in Reading. It was the biggest gig I've done since 2003 and I was getting pretty nervous before we went on! Great, haven't felt nervous about a gig for ages.

In the end we played ok, we were first on but not until 9:30pm, by which point Sam and I had imbibed rather too many shandies. It's quite hard to say Asahi when you've had a few of them. The two of us made quite a lot of drunken mistakes that apparently no-one in the crowd noticed. The rest of the band did well though. There's a video below so you can judge for yourselves!

Of the other bands, Rebus were brilliant, one of their best gigs for a long time. Their single This City is available for pre-order now. Kicks sounded exactly like they do on CD live. Quite poppy guitar music and I reckon they'll sell a lot of records. OK Tokyo seemed to split opinion, I thought they were good though.

Labels: Joey Ultra, Kicks, OK Tokyo, Rebus, video

Last night at rehearsal we spotted the new issue of Blah Blah (local entertainment listings magazine) as we were leaving. Paul opened it at the center pages to find that our gig is in there in the previews. Pretty good write up of us considering hardly anyone has seen us or knows much about us. It was mentioned that local celeb Binz is our singer. Great to see that he's a local celeb in the press now!

Reading the line-up back in the preview it's pretty awesome. Rebus launching their single and also on the bill are OK Tokyo who have apparently generated a lot of interest. Their recordings sound really great judging by the stuff on their site. If that wasn't enough we're also playing with Kicks who I haven't seen since the Nokia 'win a chance to play at the Reading Festival' thing at the Fez last summer. They were very good then though. Recordings also great. Scary! 3 very professional bands and us... not only is this only our second gig but for two of the members of Joey Ultra it's their second gig with any band. That sounds like the plot of a Fakin' It episode doesn't it? Get Channel 4 on the phone!

On the plus side, last couple of rehearsals have been sounding really good. We've pretty much shelved Indy Disco which we all really like in theory but in practice it's almost impossible to play well.

Also, we're tentatively working on our acoustic set. We are planning to try and do a song or two at Bohemian Night (open mic night at the BBBs) on Thursday. After all, there's no school on Friday and maybe if that goes ok we can play the After Dark acoustic thing.

Club Velocity, 21st April, Plug'n'Play, Milford Road, Reading.

Labels: Joey Ultra

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

We've been offered another gig. It's very exciting, and I'll explain why when I can say more about it. I don't know if we can do it yet, or what the line-up exactly will be, but it's potentially a really good gig at a really good venue with some other really good bands.

It's good to have targets like that, we now need to finish enough songs for at least a 30 minute set, and hopefully get something recorded.

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra

Hey, it's almost 2 weeks since the Joey Ultra debut gig. I should really have written about it earlier, but I didn't! Ha! It went really well in the end. Andrew Spiers took some great photos (link to his gallery from the shot below)

It all worked out surprisingly well on the night. Six Nation State who were supposed to be playing dropped out and were replaced by Damien A Passmore. He ended up going on first so we played second. I think all of us just wanted to get out there and play so it was a bit wierd hanging around waiting. When we did get on it went really well. Most of the songs we played spot on, there were only a couple of dodgy bits in Indy Disco and Single Boy (cover of Single Girl by Lush).

The other bands on the night were apparently really good too, but we spent most of the rest of the gig standing by the bar, getting very drunk and talking about how it went. I had calmed down by the time Rebus came on though, and they were very good. Another highlight was the Heartware Process' cover of one of Ben Marwood's tunes. Really can't wait until the next JU gig now! Also need to organise a recording session with Rob at Bleeding Ear so that people can hear us on myspace. Once that happens we'll probably be the next Arctic Monkeys or Lilly Allen I expect.

If anyone wants to give us a gig e-mail joey@joeyultra.com

BTW, we're apparently on a new version of this blog software, I don't think it makes any difference to what you see but maybe there'll be more options for me to play with.

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra, Rebus

I'm really looking forward to it now. Last couple of rehearsals went really well and the set last night was great. Which means it'll be terrible on the night. Never mind!

Only downside, the stupid utterly non-standard adaptor for my excellent valve pedal broke one of the prongs off so it won't work anymore. I have borrowed a Big Muff from Michael Palestinian for the gig but I need to get a replacement and it looks like I'll have to buy one. Bah. I knew the weakness of this pedal was non-standard power but I've been looking after it really carefully. Annoying!

Hopefully see you all tomorrow. We're on at 8:00ish at the moment, although unfortunately Six Nation State have had to cancel so we might get bumped up the bill to 8:30! WOO!

Rebus and Friends including Joey Ultra, Heartware Process and The Vice, 8pm, BBBs, Town Hall, Reading, Weds 10th January 2007. Be there!

Labels: gig, Joey Ultra