March update - Website, gigs and gear.

Welcome once again - 

To the Blog that  no one reads.

So the last time I graced this page was after the 1st leg of the Lordaeron mini-UK tour which was incredible fun mixed with part pain/cold. However the few days break we had was a welcome relief and allowed us to clean up and all that jazz. Although in the less Rock n Roll lifestyle of myself, I went back to work for a few days. Joy.

The 2nd part was more fun, crazy, shitty, and smelly. Literally. The gigs were a lot better too and as a unit we became very tight on stage, and off. Between all the bitching of course! Although that was probably just me telling Mike to turn down at every gig and everybody else to chill out. Phil. It gave us all a small insight in to what a "real" tour would be like and I would love that opportunity now. Being on the road is like nothing else in the world. Despite the lack of sleep, hygiene, money and food it just feels great. Really hard to explain. I have never been in to the whole "bedroom" guitarist syndrome that seems to be so viral now. Never seen so many Steve Vai's or Marcus Miller's on YouTube as now. 

My place is on stage or in a van. Nothing beats playing a gig, even the rubbish ones still appeal to me. I would rather be out there playing than stuck inside watching TV or playing on an Xbox. God I sound like a right cynical git. I am. 

Anyway - my new website is up and looks lovely courtesy of Eugene of Sun Studios. I will be updating it with all manner of goods soon. Including the PDF version of a music book I wrote during college. I will be trying to get more pics on there and more content too. It's a slow process as I have done away with my home PC as it was the only sure way to stop playing online games. The downfall of humanity! 

Got a new bass cab too - the EBS Proline 4x10. It is a god damn beast and I can't wait to play my 2nd gig with it. Just got to try and sell my Mark Bass 610 cab now. Shame really but such are these tough times.

On that note I will wrap up this blog and prepare a fresh one just for The London Bass Guitar show I worked at over the weekend. 

Cheers.

Destroying the UK tour (or Line 6 heads!) Part 1

So the first three shows are well and truly behind us now but I wanted to write a small piece on what they were like and all that jazz-core-metal.


The first gig was in Alton, a small town north of Portsmouth in a community centre that looked 100% un-metal. It was a very bizarre venue but we were well looking forward to it anyway. We even managed to get sausages, chips and beans before the show. Grittles managing TWO portions. Madness. The highlight (or not) was Mike blowing both his Line 6 amp heads up within 10 minutes of each other. We are still unsure what happened but in a strange way it has worked out for the best with him using Bloodshot Dawns Peavey 5150 head, which simply sounds immense! 


Next show was back up in Leicester at the Sumo Bar. An all day (ish) event with 5 or 6 bands (?). I lost count after the 100'000'000th blast beat. It is a great venue with a great PA however we had the displeasure of having the infamous "FEEDBACK PHIL". Somewhat of a legend on the music scene. The usual obnoxious mid-50's balding sound guy who thinks he knows a lot more then he does. The gig had been hamstrung by some competing promoters apparently so the crowd was a lot less than it should have been. Never believe Facebook Event invites. Night ended up in Beths flat drinking some Polish lager and watching American Idol. Metal. 


Last show was in Bristol and was by far the best of the three shows. Great venue, great town, great food and all round nice people. Brilliant crowd reaction to all the bands playing and we went down a storm. I even represented my football team on stage. Shame we lost 5-0. 


On to the next leg of the tour tomorrow so will attempt to bodge up a blog soon.


Cheers

So what will 2011 bring...

This is my New Years blog post albeit nearly a month late!

I'm feeling positive for 2011.

Despite the utter doom and gloom perpetuated by the UK Media, I believe this year will force people to work together more and support one another. Even more so in the music industry. 

A lot of the time it is every man/band for themselves whilst proclaiming they support the local scene and other musicians. I find this very rarely happens around Nottingham. It seems as exposure for Northern bands is less likely there is a more cut-throat attitude harboured by bands. Especially in the Metal scene in which I am heavily involved in. There are very few people I know of who are in bands but actually support other unsigned/small bands. Most see each other as competition. Even I have and still do in some circumstances which saddens me but is mostly caused by the other bands stepping on our toes and trying to pry our assets away from us.


How can we change the views of a musician? 

The one difference I have found is with solo artists. The ones I know and interact with support and promote other local acts greatly via many different out puts. Steven Lawson for example often promotes solo acts and bands he loves via Twitter and his Blog (www.solobasssteve.co.uk). So whilst being a great solo artist himself he doesn't "castle" himself up and disregard other artists around him. How can more bands take heed from Steve and support their peers? 

So the year is reaching its end...

...but my blog has not...yet.


So what has been happening since my last blog? A few gigs scattered amongst the Great British Isles which have been immense fun! Rock City in Nottingham was as usual, a complete and utter blast. Even met some of the Reef guys backstage whilst meandering around before the gig who were completely laid back and chilled out. We then played The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton which was a first me and hopefully not a last. A really professional venue with a great bar (and CHEAP!) and brilliant P.A. The crowd were a little on the cold side to start with but by War Pigs, it is the loudest I've ever heard a crowd sing back to us. Qual-a-tee. 


Lordaeron have got a tour booked for next February which I am really looking forward to. We never gig enough but that's not down to laziness, simply finding venues who will have us and finding time to do them. We are doing the following dates; 


18/02 Alton Live Lounge
19/02 Leicester, Sumo Bar
20/02 Bristol the Croft
24/02 Croydon, Scream Lounge
25/02 Wolverhampton, Giffard Arms
26/02 Edinburgh, Bannermans
27/02 Derby, The Old Bell


We always end up stupidly tight after a run of gigs so can't wait for this.


Other news - My personal website is nearly up and running. It's taken a while but I am happy with that as it's given me time to get it right. My web designer Eugene has done an awesome job and has been a pleasure to work with. In Jan/Feb I will be heading to the studio with Rob Huskinson to record some "sample" tracks for the site so a lot to look forward to.


Until then, I bid thee adieu.  

Really must keep this updated more...

Seriously.


I set aside some time to write this blog and fill it out with weird and wonderful stories but then I just get sidetracked and it ends up being quite short. I've been reading some other blogs lately just to get a better idea and hopefully it will show.


Northampton - Thursday 4th November


I'll start with last weeks shows with Lordaeron in Northampton and London. I really enjoy playing gigs on the bounce with Lordaeron as I feel we get a lot tighter by the 2nd gig and people actually "get" what we do. We are relaxed, a lot more in the pocket and it just fits.
     The first gig was at The Racehorse in Northampton with Cancerous Womb (lovely though!) and some other bands I can't remember the name of. I'm not being rude but I see that many I just don't pay attention unless they are a) awesome guys b) awesome music. This was the first time I've played The Racehorse and hopefully won't be the last as it had a nice and compact stage and a tight sound on and off stage.

"no named band" Old school Death Metal

Grittles warming up

Phil, Grittles, Mikey (It's an Italian thing)

If the gig was on a Friday or Saturday and with a bit more promotion it would of been even better. We played a good set, it was fast and brutal and from the reactions of the crowd (mostly the other bands!) we went down well. Sold a few copies of our new album too which is always a good feeling (to our pockets). We hung around until the last band but Mike was driving and we had to get back to our abodes before the stroke of dawn. 


London - Sunday 7th November


I think we were all really looking forward to this gig for a while. It was at a great venue, The Purple Turtle in Camden and normally gets packed, especially if your on 2nd. The first band on here rarely gets the crowd as they are on so early. Luckily for us we were on 2nd. Or so we thought :-( A few niggles with the first bands members being stuck in traffic and we were demoted to 1st. It wasn't the end of the world because our friends from Thursday were playing, Cancerous Womb and tonight was just about having fun and a good time. 

Grittles looking a bit confused.

Grittles just looking like...Grittles.

Most important section of any venue.

The gig was quite a breakthrough for us. A lot of the crowd had seen us before in London but this was apparently the best they've seen/heard us and really got into the vibe of what we do. That topped the night off, along with Phil getting up to guest some vocals for Cancerous Womb! The drive back wasn't that bad although the first few miles getting out of London whilst everyone is still awake and buzzing can be a little bit "off putting" (Bastards!). 


Next gig is on November 27th, my birthday, and we are supporting Gorgoroth at Derby's newest  night club, Redemption. It should be a right good gig and I can't wait! 


Sack Sabbath


Tonight we play Yardbirds in Grimsby so no doubt a blog shalt follow. 


Until then...


Piss off.

Been a while!

It seems the more I want to write a blog the less time I have because I'm doing the activities I want to write about! Argh! A vicious circle indeed.

So what has actually happened since my last blog? I actually don't know because it's gone so fast. Most of it has been spent at work, which has been really busy as all the student's returning mean landlords go crazy about a week before they move in. 

It's been a bit quiet on the gig front too with only a handful popping up. They have all been great though and I got to blast out my new amp, the Genz Benz Max 12.0 Shuttle. It's a beast and probably the best purchase I've ever made. 

So what have I got coming up? I'm going to see Porcupine Tree in Dublin with Dana on Monday, I really can't wait for this and apparently they are doing 'The Incident' in it's entirety. Epic. 

I started playing World of Warcraft and will probably regret the amount of time it eats away at my life but playing this game with your girlfriend definitely improves the experience ;-)

Unitl Next time when I can be arsed to write a proper blog...

Peace x 

What a difference a gig makes...

The Moses Gate

Aside from sounding like an epic gate way to some Biblical land in Egypt, the Moses Gate in Bolton is one of my favourite venues to play. It's not posh, it doesn't have the greatest sounding P.A and it's fairly small.

...So why is it one of my favourite venues?

The atmosphere is always brilliant, the reaction from the crowd is never less than fanatical, bested only by Boudens Boudoir in London and the owner is a gem (and is the spitting image of Dave Spikey, accent and all!). It's also nice to see regular punters and friends alike there too, the ale is very reasonably priced and you get a few free ones chucked in.

Tonight was no different and after a fairly brief soundcheck we made way for our support band, Beyond Recognition who are a 4 piece from just up the road apparently. They were quite a mixed bag and their sound was quite a mix but best described as heavy rock/metal with female vocals. The music was tight and played to a good standard but I felt the singers vocals slightly let the team down. They really entertained the crowd though and warmed them up perfectly.

Our set was one of the best we've ever played, despite a momentus cock up on the start of "Black Sabbath" by Bill's Bored!!! (It's FOUR FOUR, not THREE FOUR!) We cained the rest of the set and everyone had a great time with some heavy duty dudes at the front really going for it. I felt I played a good set but sometimes I dug in a bit too much and about broke my strings/fingers in the process. Sometimes you really need to hang back and not hammer everything full pelt. A lesson learnt though. If you don't learn or improve from every gig then something is wrong (or your a machine).

Can't wait for my next gig with The Beetroot Kings this weekend. HOPEFULLY, it will be with my Genz Benz Shuttle Max 12.0. A review will follow shortly! Until then...

Dan