Monday, April 23, 2007
Craziest day ever
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
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Club Velocity
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).
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
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
So... how did the gig go?
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.
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
