Turgid Animal UK

Gig in Newcastle 29.07.2011

2011-07-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Sumarr and the beginning of The Harvest

2009-10-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Autumn Days

Autumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All these things I love so well

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces
And a winter’s moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the song the milkman sings.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they’re worn out and they’re battered
And the taste of apple pie.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Scent of gardens when the rain’s been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that’s been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

As I lay here in bed, laid up with a sore throat/fever no less, I reckon it's about time I updated the old blog with recent and not so recent happenings. The weather is turning all Autumn-like and it's getting colder. The sky is dark grey and all is still and quiet. The leaves are all starting to fall. I've been walking in the hills and in the woods a lot again and it's really beautiful around here at the moment. Perhaps being in the woods for hours on end is the reason why I have the flu and am here doing this in the first place, every cloud eh? I am in a strange, fever induced, dream-like state so if anything doesn't make sense then perhaps this time I have a real bona fide reason, perhaps... so here is a run down of every gig I have played in the last few months, no need to find it interesting because you feel you have to.

WARNING: Some of these could be false memories or jumbled up turns of events as I can't really remember much past last week let alone half a year ago...

2-.06.09 - Mutant Ape - Helsinki, Finland

From North-Eastern England to North-Eastern Europe, my first visit to Finland ever and certainly not my last was excellent to say the very least!

I had to travel down to Heathrow airport in London because it seems no where outside London flies to Helsinki, at least for a sensible price, which seems odd but nothing makes sense these days. I arrived in London a day early and went straight from Kings Cross to Archway to meet my all time favourite cockney wide boy Pete from Second Layer, I got to his road and thought, being the lovely lad that I am, as he was going to let me stay at his house for the night then perhaps I should have brought him a present. So I nipped in the nearest off licence and bought some tins of lager, only to find Petes drink of choice is Smirnoff Ice and he won't touch any of my presents and I have to drink them myself, as much as I'm not to bothered about lager. Cruel I thought but ah well. We go to the park and it's nice but full of degenerates and hippies and homeless people and all the rest of god's mistakes (joke...) but then again I was in London so... (joke again... or was it?). We meet up with BBBlood and his girlfriend at "the jazz curry house" (don't ask) up the road from Petes and as much as I don't really like spicy food, the company was grand. I get up nice and early to get the train to Heathrow Airport which takes ages as some line or track has turned to shit and parts of the underground are closed here and there all over London. I arrive in time for the plane though and the flight takes less time to get to Finland than it takes for me to get to London from Yorkshire on the train.

It's nice to see Pasi and Tiina of Bizarre Uproar again, after they came over here for a UK tour last summer, as they meet me at the terminal in the airport bang on time. The first thing I notice is it's about 10 times hotter here than England and that doesn't seem quite right judging on what I've heard about the countries climate and before I can ask they tell me this heat wave is not at all common but it didn't pass for the whole 5 days I was there. Not the year round winter weather I was hoping for but never mind! We get in the car go back to their house and they give me lots of beer and food and I feel like a bloody king! We soon meet up with Pekka of Gelsomina/Sick Seed and it's great to see him too as it's been a year since he came over as well. I also get to meet Riku who is a great bloke and from the band Ride For Revenge, Toni from Strom.ec, Ville and Jyrki from the EST label and Aleksi from Above Suspicion, who are all fun-loving great individuals. We drink lots and wake up the next day to find Pasi doing 1000's of things at once like a Power Electronics octopus, running around, fetching amps and people and generally getting everything ready for the evenings show, his enthusiasm and general willing is extremely impressive and is certainly unrivalled on these shores.

The first gig was at a place called Lepakkomis, which means Bat Man in Finnish, on the 26th. There was a giant wall of amps and the sound was brutal. I did a new set that I had been working on for a while prior to the trip which uses more of Jamie Gillis' insane commissioned rants that I got him to do for the "Erotic Yorkshire" LP on Ecstatic Peace. This time he told us a tale about how he met this girl at a party and took her home for some fun and she wanted him to hurt her really badly and he got into but all of a sudden realised it was probably a bad idea and kicked her out. 21st Century Romance at it's best. From there on it built into a wall of harsh racket and just ended, it seemed to go down well. The other bands that played this night were Freak Animal and Northern Heritage label boss; Grunt, local Power Electronics performer and member of Ride For Revenge; sKKK, ex-Gelsomina main man's new PE project; Sick Seed and Tommi from Testicle Hazard's solo project; Keränen. All of which were truly excellent and powerful performances and I couldn't help grin like an idiot fan boy for the whole night. Lots of people turned up and the place was packed, I even managed to sell some LP's and got paid for doing the gig, insane to say the least in the world of noise! I also got to meet Haare and he is a great bloke too, big and cheerful. He slapped me around the face a few times but I didn't mind too much...

The next day, or was it the day before or two days earlier or after? We met up with Sebastian of Halthan and his son and the EST lads and went into Helsinki town centre where there happened to be a massive gay rights gathering in the town centre. Quite a sight to behold as we were on our way quickly to the docks. We got a ferry across the river to an old Russian military base/island made into a tourist attraction, bought some beer and looked around all day in the sunshine, a truly excellent day.

No need to go into too many details about the private gig (it was private after all) that occurred the day before I went home but rest assured that was awe-inspiring too. I played the same set as I did at the gig some days previous except this time was joined on vocals by Pekka.

And with that I was back on the plane heading for London. I arrive and someone has shit themselves in the terminal and all the trains are shut... Yes, I'm definitely in London. Met up with Pete again at the other end when I finally reach Archway and didn't bother with a present this time... A huge thanks must go out to Pasi and Tiina for being such great hosts and to everyone else I met. I hope to return soon! I had a great time and the gigs were excellent, a lot of fun was had and although it was unusually warm for Finland, I still found it to be a beautiful country full of people that are, for the most part, very friendly and more importantly; big drinkers! A country that I can certainly relate to!

Both sets were recorded and the one from the first gig will be released this month on a tape on Turgid Animal in special packaging, going by the title: "Euro-Jizz" so keep your eyes peeled for that if interested. I have yet to hear the other set but am sure it will sound great with Pekka's vocals on top. HAIL SUOMI!

19.07.09 - Sump - Newcastle

Second Sump gig in Newcastle since our first gig ever back in March and it was a strange un.

Actually pleasant is probably the word that came to mind first as opposed to strange. A lovely day up by St. James' Park at La Toscana Restaurant, the sun was out, I had a bottle of Brown Ale (this was way back when it was still brewed in Tyneside and not Yorkshire!) in my hand and was happy as Larry. As soon as I went up stairs I realised that this place actually was, or still is sometimes, a real life restaurant. The chairs were all lined up in nice neat rows near the front by the stage and towards the back was where the tables with chairs around them were. Pleasant, no doubt about it.

The first band on, after we managed to draw the punters in from the sunshine, was Lobster Priest. Another amazing and engaging experimental rock act from the Newcastle. Fast improvised rock with guitars, drum, vocals and violin. Featuring Mike Smith and Mike Vest from Bong, Cameron Skeed and now with the new addition of Cara France the band is reaching new heights of psychedelic insanity, must be seen, must be heard. http://www.myspace.com/lobsterpriest

Next up were Sump touring partners and good pals, Sex Wound. Strange setting for Sex Wound, again everyone sitting around pleasantly, row by row and the sun streaming in with a nice summers breeze wafting the curtains up gently left very little room for the aggression and energy to be fully exposed that these lads are used to, resulting in a slightly less stimulating performance. Sound-wise though the lads sounded on top form and the vocals were nice and loud. Great set but it felt like just watching a rehearsal or something, not their fault though. Somewhere grizzlier next time eh lads? http://www.myspace.com/sexwound

Diodaar were next. The duo of Kev Wilkinson and Waz Hoola playing guitars and electronics. The sun was starting to set and La Tuscana was the perfect setting now for Diodaar. Almost folk-like drone with electronic scrape piercing over the top. This was the first time seeing Diodaar and I'll admit I didn't catch the beginning. But overall good stuff!

Sump were up next and the set went quite well I think although we only had one mic so I wasn't able to do vocals as well but we managed to air a few new songs and were both pleased with it, we only played for 10 minutes or so. The setlist was as follows:

Suicide Pact
Aim For Blood
Rothwell
Satan Has Spoken
No Romance

Next up was the A Band which I chose to miss as I could tell it wouldn't be my sort of thing, but dropping in 10 minutes before the end and saw the chaos that ensued, I couldn't help but laugh. It sounded terrible noise-wise but was good to watch I suppose. There was a big crowd participation thing going on and flutes and whistles had obviously been passed around (unless the audience had all brought these on their own accord...) which in itself was sort of annoying. Then when Jamie broke their prized vacuum cleaner, everything came to a quiet end and a few of the actual band members looked slightly miffed. That's what ye get for bringing a bloody hoover for a gig! Only joking... just not to my taste.

Here are the set's as recorded and released (for free on Blyth Bites Back) by Jamie, sans A Band:

GET EM HERE

15.09.09 - Mutant Ape and Jazzfinger - London

After one hell of a drive and a long time seeking out the venue, we finally arrived at The Windmill in Brixton for the Colour Ride all dayer with warm hearts and then I starting drinking like the alcoholic that I am, drinking only Brown Ale to prove the whole Northern point as I always tend to do when down there. We set up our merch in this tiny shed that was out the back of the pub and then there was a BBQ, a free BBQ!

Onto the music and Mutant Ape was up, I asked Ben Jones of Jazzfinger to play guitar with me and he did. The set was probably a little over 15 minutes and had a nice range of biscuit tin noise and darker, more brooding moments that I have been into as of late. There is a 10 minute video of the set here on youtube.

Later on it was my turn to accompany Jazzfinger on guitar in some bizarre incestuous meeting of minds, and what resulted was a very loud harsh drone set by the 3 of us (no Sarah this time). There is a short video of this set here on youtube too.

But all that aside it must be said the most enjoyable part of the day was the company of a certain Loveshark. I showed her the real windmill that was in the park around the corner and stuff like that. We had a right laugh. This is the reason I saw none of the other bands whilst there, very poor on my part but fuck thee all, in the nicest possible way, I bet I had more fun in the end...

Thanks to Colour Ride for putting this one on and for having us.

29.08.09 - Female Borstal - Newcastle

It was ar pal Nathan Sex Wound's birthday and to celebrate he pooled together some of the finest bands in the north to play the Head of Steam in Newcastle including Drunk In Hell, Gruel, Master/Slave and CSB. My new doom-like band Female Borstal, in which I play drums, played as well. It was our first gig and although I try not to get too pissed before I play, I must confess to having 8 tins of John Smith's on the train on the way up from the match in Sheffield, followed by a few more at the venue before we played, the old confidence boosters, but that aside the gig went really well. What didn't go so well was later on when we went to Student Sam's house for some "Skins" style party and me and ar Dean ended up on us backs like tortoises on a flooded kitchen floor, but that's another story.

You can hear the Female Borstal set by clicking here and if you search around that site for a while you can find the other sets from the night too for free download or streaming as well as a host of other delights from various other gigs too. Cheers to Daz for recording and uploading that!

11.09.09 - Sump - Manchester

A disgruntled Proctor has to once again travel across the Pennines to the place where his band mate lives and this time where the gig is. The Radiation Line came down from Sterling for a nice and cosy private gig in Daz's and Gaz's basement. Not being fully aware that the place was just a house and not a fully pledged venue, things could have turned sour but it all worked out in the end and the lads were sound as a pound. The lads were "stirling" you might say, pun intended.

Despite constant complaints from neighbours they show went on and Gary Kelly of Bess Keloid opened proceedings with a bizarre guitar/voice/cymbal set that was great and just plain weird in equal measures.

Next up was Sump and we played loud and fast for 10 minutes as ever. Including a really weird version of Satan Has Spoken played half at normal speed and half at warp speed. Download the set here.

CSB played a short but sweet noisecore-eque set to set the mood for the coming headline attraction. Daz bouncing around the small basement whilst Gaz who barely had time to breath from doing the Sump set moments ago, screams his lungs out again.

The Radiation Line was next to play in the dank basement and did so with gusto. Is it drone? Is it folk? It's neither, it's just class. They played guitar and bass in ways they shouldn't be played and after going at a quiet drone for 10 minutes or so, one of them shouted something and all of a sudden everything erupted, I'd imagine the neighbours enjoyed that moment the most of all. Look out for a split 7" on Turgid Animal soon.

Other highlights from the gig included a nice pear punch that me and Gaz made and the acquisition of a melodiker given to me by Daz, complete with case!

19.09.09 - Inseminoid and Voltigeurs - Newcastle

Despite a freak accident whilst getting out of the van at Wetherby services where I sliced my hand open on a sticking up rivet on my jeans thus having to wear a "sissy" plaster and have the piss taken out of us for the gig, everything went great.

I always love doing Inseminoid live but it was a real honour to collaborate with Matthew Bower and Voltigeurs. Even though in a way it was just Skullflower + me (which was a daunting thought) I didn't feel too much like an extra wheel and really enjoyed the gig. Following a great solo set by Brythen (sometime Sump collaborator Pete Ryde) it was time and Inseminoid took the stage and did our usual 20 minute set but during the song at the end Voltigeurs started and we turned off, they play a blinding 15 minutes and then we joined in again. The total time was about 50 minutes. 50 minutes of sheer brutality! Great gig and one of the highlights of the year for me.

26.09.09 - Mutant Ape - Leeds

A mere week since the last gig and Mutant Ape nips up the road to Leeds for a gig at the Expo Leeds festival at the Left Bank (which is a church, or ex-church?) on Cardigan Road. As I'm sat outside a homeless bloke comes up and asks if there is any chance of sleeping there tonight, I tell him probably not. We have a tin together and he totters off, to go to his real house he says...

Phil Todd has set the bill and as such there is a nice selection of queer music on offer along with a few "art" installations. One of which consisted of a microphone and a load of amps which make your voice sound weird. So in between acts you would just hear some bloke yelping down a microphone, followed by another bloke yelping down a microphone and then a bit of laughter and so on...

Now this being a church and all, it was a big venue. I thought how the hell are they going to make the 4 or 5 Leeds regulars look big in here? The answer was, it was a free event. So the punters gathered in their hundreds, as us Yorkshire folk tend to do when something is free, to watch the proceedings.

First up was a bloke called Shemboid, can't remember too much about it but it was psychedelic and series. http://www.myspace.com/shemboid

Next on the bill was charming solo folk singer Stephanie Hladowski. Upon further investigation she is the Bradford born daughter or Polish parents who likes to sing various traditional British and Bulgarian (?) folk songs and is a sometime collaborator with Leeds pysch heroes Ash Nav. She sang roughly 5 songs I would say, all unaccompanied and all very nice. http://www.myspace.com/stephaniehladowski

Foldhead and Ocelocelot were third. Foldhead is Paul and Ocelocelot is Mel from Ash Nav. Weird space sounds and synth destruction from these two makes for a pleasant listen and I just sit back and let it happen. Class do! www.myspace.com/ocelocelot & www.myspace.com/foldhead

Next up is me and I drape me Yorkshire flag over the table as per and look out into the church. Someone's put a smoke machine on, or was it always on, and I can only make out the dusty silhouettes of the audience giving it a creepy Christian ghouls in a church type vibe. Most of my gear breaks either before or during the set and I have to rely a lot on pre-made tapes and players to get through the set, but it's loud (apparently, sounded quiet as a mouse to me stood behind the PA) and people seem to like it, so I'm happy. http://www.myspace.com/mutantape

Ashtray Navigations are next and Mel is too quiet making Phil do an improvised piano solo, I was told this afterwards, but it sounded great non the less. Really great setting for these lot and this set was everything you could ever want from Ash Nav and more. Always a pleasure! New Ashtray Navigations 7" out now on Turgid Animal, only 25o copies! http://www.myspace.com/ashtraynavigations

Last but not least were Danish drone legeneds, Family Underground. They over from Denmark for this one gig, that's dedication. One gig and it was in Yorkshire! I felt honoured and when they'd finished their amazing set of deep and dense drone I felt even more honoured. Really great stuff from start to finish and right up my street. Great people too and although I may have been too pissed by this point to communicate properly, I hope I made some friends here. Hopefully something will happen on Turgid Animal in the future! http://www.myspace.com/familyunderground

Thanks to Expo and Phil for having us. Now if only they would give us that £50 they owe me eh? Ha!

4.10.09 - Sump - Newcastle

A quick return to Newcastle for the Sump lads. Playing with a whole host of names, some big some only slightly bigger than us, but all for the most part; sheer class. The venue was called The Boathouse and is right on the Newcastle side of the Tyne not so far away from the millennium bridge. A very unassuming place, big room looking like it houses long ships when the Vikings stop by, perfect for a gig of noisy rock!

Local lads Bong kicked the night off and Bong are a band I always look forward to seeing and tonight they were on top form as ever. The only thing that spoiled it for me was that it was still sunny outside as the gig kicked off dead early. Bong should be listened to in the early hours of the morning! Definitely one of the best bands from England at the moment, if you haven't heard them you really should make the effort. Might I suggest the 3xCD Box Set "Novum Castellum" on Turgid Animal? If you don't want that, then the LP on Heidenwut is very much essential. Northern Doom! http://www.myspace.com/landbong

We were on next and I think we did the best set we've played so far, unfortunately the tape recorder broke so you'll never be able to let me know if you agree or not (as you weren't there!). We played some new songs and some old ones including the first performance of Unanswered:

Suicide Pact
Satan Has Spoken
Aim For Blood
Unanswered
Devil Can Collect
No Romance

It seemed to go down really well, was great to see folk (even though just our mates) singing along to Aim For Blood, something you don't see when just making a harsh racket behind a table of effects pedals...

Missed Joe Pesci and Spoonful of Vicodin due to going for a bite to eat and then a pint across the road.

Punchcutter were next and they're a talented bunch of lads that's for sure. Members of Mazuraan (Pete on Guitar), Turkish Bath, Losing the Battle and Bong (Mike on drums) doing a kind of technical approach to noise rock. It was good but not my cup of tea and the singer didn't really work too well with the rest of the band in my opinion. http://www.myspace.com/punchcutterofficial

Next up was Jazzfinger sans Sarah, and the only "experimental"/non-rock band on the bill. They played a great and loud set as a two piece heavy drone unit, perched in front of their amps as per usual. Ben and Has can do no wrong in my book! Class act. http://www.myspace.com/jzzfngr

Missed Insect Warfare because I couldn't get in the room and judging from the sounds I heard stood outside, wouldn't have been "my bag" anyway.

Last up were Blackpool maniacs Ceramic Hobs. Complete with two drums they tore their way through a strange and wonderful set of classics. Aside from loads of the American worshippers leaving and not giving the rest of the bands a chance and the violin being too loud, the set was very enjoyable! http://www.myspace.com/theceramichobs

Thanks to Mike Vest for his hard work on this one!

24.10.09 - Tight Meat Trio/Female Borstal - Newcastle

Another trip to Newcastle, you'd never know I was from Yorkshire the amount I'm here. Two gigs today, one in the afternoon and one at the night time.

The afternoon gig was at the Cumberland Arms in Biker which has some great local ales on offer if you're partial to that type of stuff, I am. Two pints at a time to be precise. Two pint Proctor they call us. Anyway: Jamie had the idea that if a band breaks up you're free to use their name. Now I'm no expert so don't know if that's correct or not but either way I was roped into Tight Meat Trio to play dicta and Saxophone but of which I did at a very low level but by god was it fun? Yes. So me, Jamie and Borstal Boy Jerome took to the stage and played an array of guitars, drums, woodwind, organ and other instruments for about 20 odd minutes. Jamie smashed a few CD's and then we went and sat down with big smiles on our faces. First job of the day done.Next up was young (and I mean young, perhaps 7-10 years old I would guess?) band The Gloom and when I looked around the room I soon realised it was full of kids similar age with their parents and there weren't really any of the regular Geordie noise attendees there. Which also means that we had just made fools out of ourselves in front of a largely "fully grown up" audience. Ah well... The Gloom sat on the stage looking bored and played dicta's, pretty much what me and Dean do on a weekend and as such I enjoyed it thoroughly, until they started bashing poles against the floor and ruining a metal blind, then I really enjoyed! Total next generation stuff, putting us big uns to shame. Great stuff! More from them on youtube. http://www.myspace.com/thegloomlive

Master/Slave played next which is the duo of Mike Vest of Bong and Pete Ryde (sometime Sump collaborator). Harsh cranked up guitars and soaring distortion meld together into one hell of a tone full racket, really great stuff. Reminiscent of latter day Skullflower and Voltigeurs.

And with that done, a few pints down, it was off to the Chillingham Arms in Heaton to set up for the evening gig.

The Black Bread Knife started the night off, although they played before the doors opened which you may think strange, so did everyone else but alas. Harsh Dictaphone racket from the four boys.

Makakarooma should have been on last but they were next and played a blinding set. The band consists of two lads from Stoke, one on drums and the other on guitar and electronics but most of all the band also features my old good pal Darren Wyngarde of Filthy Turd fame on vocals and electronics. The result was blissful experimental and noisy rock channelling the spirit of some sexy shaman from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Laughing, chanting, all singing all dancing. You can download their set here.

Next up was the second ever Female Borstal gig and it nearly went off without a glitch. The minor problem was that I started off playing in some kind of daze and kept dropping my sticks for the first few minutes but after a while I sorted myself out and got down to it properly. Like someone pretending to play the drums instead of not. One of the nice thing about tonight was that I didn't recognise too many of the audience and their seemed to be lots of new faces, which is unusual and some of them even bought some stuff, which is always a plus. A rocking but pleasant affair!

Last but not least were Lobster Priest sans drummer Mike Smith who had decided to go to Ireland for the weekend. With this information in hand, I thought; The Priest with no drummer? Gonna be reight shite like... Nope! The trio of Mike, Cameron and Cara delivered an amazing and long psychedelic work out and I forgot all about Mike Smith ever being in the band after the first few minutes. Joke of course but; Great stuff!

Number one mistake of the night was gathering everyone's half drunken drinks left over from the night and putting them all into one big pot and drinking that over the rest of the night when we got back to Dean's. Bad idea but live and learn eh?

AND TO FINISH OFF, A NICE PICTURE OF THE LADS AND LASS ON THE FIRST DATE OF THE SUMP/SEX WOUND TOUR THIS LAST MARCH, LOADING THE VAN OUTSIDE BEATDOWN RECORDS.

Tour Blues/Recent Blues

2009-04-14T02:33:00.001-07:00

Well the Sump/Sex Wound/Brythen tour was class! One of the best weeks of my life and I would like to thank everyone I met, everyone who came out to watch and most of all the class folk I shared the van with.

After me and Gaz realised that yes you can play harsh noise pretty well when off your face, you can't really make rock music sound any good in that state; we stared to play better and better as the tour went on and I'm really pleased with how we sounded. Ultra primitive rock!

Sex Wound impressed me every single night and I really did love their sound, total low pitched noise rock dirge. Class!

Brythen was just mint from day one but when he decided to have Woodcock join in on drums it all fell right into place with a right nice early Skullflower meets Electric Wizard showdown sound.

Highlights included but were not limited to: Having a real van to tour in, class folk, Glasgow Implodes, seeing Drunk In Hell for the first time, Palmo's in Boro' (which is a "local" dish which is pretty much a squashed chicken with palma cheese on with chips and salad with garlic sauce, MEAN!), getting pissed everyday, going to or past parts of the country I haven't been before, not having to pay for food (cheers Nathan!) and generally having a right good time. Awwww...

Lowlights included but were not limited to: The bloke who burnt a tenner in Blackpool, PA's and other equipment not working, blokes who thought they were rock stars, people asking me "deep" questions when I'm fucked, crashing the van on the last night (bugger!) and Gaz's cold, hard floor in Manchester. Boooo...

A big thanks must be extended to everyone who set the gigs up and put up with our behaviour. Cheers again! Also, a lot of the sets were recorded and hopefully some of them will see the light of day in one way or another in due course. We'd love to see or hear any photo's, recordings or video etc... from any of the gigs, so if you have anything please get in touch!

That was the end of that tour. Barely having time to shit and shave (not that I need to do the latter) I was off again for a few gigs with Aaron Dilloway and Nate Young for two dates in Nottingham and Leeds. I think these went really well and it was great to meet Aaron and Nate, have a pint and a chat. I saw Dilloway at Choclate Monk's Colour Out Of Space Festival last year and thought it was pretty good but his sets this time round were totally jaw dropping. How he uses all that tape gear for a start is impressive but the sounds were just totally class. Same goes for Nate Young, whom I had never seen before but was well impressed with his totally dry sounding early industrial styled stuff, when the vocals kicked in as well is what made the set's for me, well thought out and just plain great. As for my sets, well... I think they went quite well but unfortunately (or fortunately if you didn't like it that much) my gear cut out at pretty much the same point in the set both nights which was insanely annoying to say the least. I still haven't found out what the problem was/is but the mystery continues. Thanks to the lads and to Steve Underwood for being a right top bloke and driving us round in his car. Love the lad!

Leeds gig report by Idwal Fisher HERE. Not sure if his review of my set is favourable or not, but love the bloke anyway. Cheers for the lift home like!

Finally, played another gig with Sump at the crusty 1 in 12 in Bradford last Saturday. We'd for the most part forgotten how are songs went but I reckon we played not bad anyway, folk seemed to be into it like, which is always good. Besides I got to see the Drunk In Hell lads again for the second time in the space of fortnight for free! Which was totally fucking class. One of the best bands the North of England has to offer at the moment and it's the closest thing to dancing I've ever done I think, both times. Totally mint. The other bands on the bill weren't too much to my taste but enjoyed them bucket loads anyway. The Afternoon Gentlemen are a grind type band from Leeds and they played a really tight Grindcore set with one hell of an amazing drummer on the sticks. Ergon Carousel are the new Narcosis band and again were just a pretty class, tight and fast grind type stuff. Defeator has ex-Unforgotten Oath (of whom I have fond memories!) guiatarist in it and was typical thrashy type stuff, not bad though. Drunk In Hell totally stole the show, too bad it went on late and a lot of folk had to leave before they finished. Thanks to Martin for putting this on, totally class night.

Next event is Skullflower down in London this Saturday, Turgid Animal will have a "stall" selling all sorts of stuff including the new Skullflower T-Shirt. Should be great, looking forward to seeing Dieter Muh also.

Sump, Sex Wound and Brythen - UK Tour - March 2009

2009-03-07T02:53:00.001-08:00

So, Sump is my new blackened punk metal type band with Gareth of Barbarians and we're doing a Northern-ish tour of England with one date in Scotland with rotten Geordie noise-rockers Sex Wound and Toon droner Brythen. Here are all the dates:

24 Mar 2009 The Telegraph, Newcastle
25 Mar 2009 Klondike, Manchester
26 Mar 2009 West Coast, Blackpool (no Byrthen)
27 Mar 2009 The Chameleon, Nottingham
28 Mar 2009 Glasgow Implodes, Glasgow (no Brythen)
29 Mar 2009 Doc Browns, Middlesbrough
30 Mar 2009 Packhorse, Leeds

This will be the first tour where we're actually going around in a real nice big van/coach and that so I'm right looking forward to it. The full Rock n Roll experience. Ee Bah Gum!

Bizarre Uproar/Sick Seed Endorsed

2009-02-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

At least mister and missus Bizarre Uproar (left/centre) and Sick Seed likes us!

Warwick Endorsed

2009-02-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

At least old Bird of Delay, ex-pat Steve Warwick likes us!