2 posts tagged “us”
Hello,
Saturday night was really rather jolly good. Murray James opened the evening with a strong set. There was some new material in there that sounds really interesting. Ball and Chain was my personal highlight and I'm looking forward to getting a recorded version off his manager soon. TF's crowd is quite tough for singer songwriter types, but he came across really well and got a warm reception. Though I did end up shouting at some hecklers afterward (I shouldn't be allowed a mic between sets).
It was weird starting a gig whilst it was still daylight. I guess it's now officially summer. Evening though it's sodding raining (again) outside.
Daniel Flay & The Irreparable Guilt followed. There was only to of them, so I guess it could have been Daniel Flay and the Nearly-Irreparable guilt, the Slightly Guilty, perhaps it could have been Daniel Flay and the bit Shifty? Anyhow, enough Michael-taking. His set was great.
Millionaire is one of my favourite songs and regularly features in my iTunes, as does The Antagonist which I hum a lot. As I raved on about that night, I find a really charming vulnerability in his music but real strength in its execution. (what am I on about?!?!?) But seriously, as a character, Daniel is quiet, reserved, possibly slightly introvert which is apparent on stage but the music expresses some really strong sentiments. The almost continuous two part harmony between Dan and Ellie Walker makes for engaging melodies and songwriting that works really well. Be sure to listen to both Daniels and Ellie's stuff. They finished the set with a really great Cyndi Lauper cover (bet you can't guess which). I hope they're doing some more London dates soon, if they are check them out.
Ched followed (I approve of the name change). The six string bass implied to me that it was going to be quite jazzy, or really frickin heavy. Jesus H Christ it was loud. There is a really strong reference to Rage Against the Machine in their style which is no bad thing. Lots of manic synchronised head banging interspersed with leaning back screaming vocals. Really taken aback by the performance and I was smiling the whole way through. At one point the bassist had his foot on the window sill to the left of the stage and was performing to his own little crowd gathering outside. Christian has real presence as a front man and knows how to grab a crowd by the goolies. They haven't got any gigs booked, which needs to change I think.
Occupying that uncomfortable space that followed Ched, Capisce? followed. Luckily their tight performance and stark contrast in style didn't highlight them as a lull in the evening's line up. I've never seen a guitar with a piercing before but that's exactly what I saw on Ian's instrument. Possibly early days for the band but Time Crisis 4 really stood out as a potential hit with moments of brilliance in its performance.
So, headlining the evening was Tough Love. I'd been looking forward to this literally all month. The only reason I got them booked is I've known the manager for 10 years and lived with him for a while. Otherwise I think this lot could have been an optimistic booking on my part. Because there's a lot going on stage-wise. I sound-checked them earlier in the evening. Two drummers, FIVE vocals, guitar and bass. Crazy sound. When listening to their stuff I hear Paul Simon (during the whole Ladysmith Black Mambazo thing), Adam and the Ants, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Scissor Scisters, and a whole heap of others. Getting Over It is another iTunes highlight of mine and I recently really started to get into Alpha Male which I think could be a hit for radio depending on the mix. They're currently working with a producer I'm familiar with and I'm really looking forward to hearing their new stuff. As mentioned before, they're really involved in the whole London burlesque scene and have picked up a lot of fans as a result. Their night White Mischief is eagerly anticipated and was described as the 'Event of the year' by Timeout last time. No dancers at my gig unfortunately. Hopefully this is something I can rectify in the future. Purely for artistic purposes. Anyhow, visit their page and say hello. Be sure to check them out at some point soon.
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Apart from that, all in all a quiet weekend. I didn't get to bed until 7 on Sunday morning. I don't really get to enjoy the gigs as I'm too busy running about making sure everything is ok. Plus I'm filming n that. One day I'll just sit back and project manage, having my own 'people' for such things.
Will all this busyness I've lost track of time, and not been doing the excercise that I've meant to. Checking my diary my competition is 2 weeks away!!! :-s So I thought last night "Right, intense training, now! Nothing but training for the next two weeks" Then I looked at my diary and every night is booked up with something. As is the weekend. Hmm. Maybe I should use Condaleeza Rice as a role model (she gets up at 4am every day for the gym). Saying that, I get my bike tomorrow which Sony BMG has supplied me with. Hopefully I can take it off some sweet jumps.
Anyhow, hope all is sweet with you.
Just had a look at my hit counter that I stuck on here in August and it's over 10k now! Gosh. Though I do think a large
percentage of that is probably mum as I know she reads my blog to see what I'm up to.
Had another fun packed weekend though that will probably be my last for a while as I need to economise on the lead up to xmas.
I was out at Calvados in Clapham the other day. I've started to really like the areas. Might try and live there at some point. Apart from dancing like and idiot and stealing my mate Deb's hat (which is risky as she lethal at jujitsu) the evening was quite civilised in the most part and had a really good one. I was speaking to a young scottish lass and she was asking me about bands I'd been listening to and I mentioned Lady Mercedes. "They're sooooo brilliant!" she squeeked and insisted that I go to see them some time soon. She was only visiting London for a couple of days before heading back north and couldn't recommend them enough. If you live up in that part of the world be sure to go see them. I hope to head to Scotland eventually but I don't see it happening before Christmas. I've never actually been up there which is unforgivable I guess considering I could just take the train or something.
I haven't heard back from my US A&R counterparts as yet so I'll be sure to chase that up this afternoon. I'll chase up our suggestions to Vox aswell as I want to add stuff to my list. Also I've started investigating other options such as reverbnation who have very powerful syndication tools for social media sites. Plus it seems they're still in their early stages which always presents good opportunities for mutual development.
It looks like I've got the gig on the first of December sorted as regards line-up. I'm now looking at the 28th aswell. So far I've got a band called Helene who, shock horror, are outside of Vox currently. Though I intend to change this. Maybe have a look at their Myspace, see what you think.
Vote Show Pony are playing tonight at 93 Feet East. Plus it's a free gig I believe to there's no reason not to attend if you're nearby. Well worth checking out as I imagine they're quite fun live. I'm going to try and make it down. This is going to be my first test of not drinking. I'm going teetotal for a week or two as part of the whole trying to be healthy thing.
I still have about 2 tonnes of demos to go through. They still come in so I open em up and mail them back to tell them to get a blog set up instead. Don't know what caused the sudden influx last month. Tell your mates, spread the word that we don't want CD's dammit. I'm going
to start the day with Era Vulgaris at teeth trembling volume through my headphones. I love this album. Songs for the Deaf was my favourite QOTSA album, but I think this maybe taking over. It's quite like JH's Eagles of Death Metal stuff on our label but I still prefer QOTSA. I still haven't seen them live either. :-(
Apart from VSP I don't know of any other Vox gigs
happening tonight. So add em or comment on this post to update. Especially if there's anything happening in East London as I'm over that way anyway.
Hope all is well with you.
IB
