Now I know what you're thinking: What the hell am I doing in a Beer festival?
How this came about is that Sam was doing an open mic for the day there. It transpired that not all that many people turned up for the open mic (probably too busy with their Christmas Shopping) so when Sam texted me at 1.30 asking people to come then I was happy to oblige. I got there around about 3 and found that Sam had been more or less playing on his own for an hour and a half, with a short set from Baden to break things up a little bit. So, I took the quite impressive stage, and began:
Because of what was happening, I decided to do a set of mostly covers. I began with an old favourite, High by Feeder. Again I suffered from not concentrating; it's not a hard song to play and for that reason I tend to keep playing the wrong chords; I probably get away with it to a certain extent because the Gsus chords cloud the sound anyway but I shouldn't really be doing that at this stage. It went down to a kind of passive indifference, as is so often the case with Feeder songs, but they rarely go down badly.
Followed that up with the song that I now know is called Never Forget You by the Noisettes. This went absolutely fine until the key change and then I kept fluffing up the chords once again. I do get a bit confused with this one; as I've said before I do this song in the 82s and we do it in a different key to the original to fit the vocal style a little better. Fine, except sometimes it's hard to remember which version of the song I'm actually playing and I end up making a complete mess of it from time to time, in both the band and the solo. The answer? Practice more...
Wanting to play one of my own songs but not wishing to let down the cheery atmosphere I then went on to play We Will Survive. I played it ok, I think, and it was the best reaction I could have expected given the environment. I felt exhausted though. Need to work on my fitness, I shouldn't be knackered after three songs!
Back to the covers for the next one, which was A Little Respect. This is where it started to work a bit better for me, because I could see some people singing along and getting in to it a little more than they were before, the difference obviously was I was playing something they actually know. This was probably the best song I played for the afternoon, I sang it fine and didn't mess up the guitar playing at all.
Sam was kind enough to give me another couple of songs so I went with another of my own, Bitterness. I always wanted to play this one anyway, but I've been taken to task before now for playing that one next to We Will Survive, and I had plans to end the gig so I needed to make sure I had enough songs to play it before I did! This went well; needed to edit out the swearing as it was a family event, but that's cool, and with a more energetic song I felt able to put a lot more into the performance.
Finally wrapped it up with On A Day Like This by Elbow. This was only the second time I've played that song live; it's a bit of a gamble because people need to sing along to the last part, otherwise it doesn't really work. Last time I tried it, it really didn't. But this time it did; some people were singing along with it and made it work! Trouble is it's been that song since I played it I forgot the sequece of vocal variations in the song, but never mind, we got there in the end.
So, not a bad one, and certainly quite good for an impromptu show like that. I think I need to practice some of those covers more if I'm going to take them out live though, those earlier songs were a bit sloppy.
Gig with Aki Maera tonight, Wheatsheaf in Walsall. Starts at 8! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, but we'd appreciate your support if you could make it!
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Wednesday 23 November 2011
November Gigs
Once again I find myself behind in my blogs, and I've got a whole months worth of gigs to talk about and another two to go. Trying to blog them all individually would of course be more work than fun, apart from anything else some of it was weeks ago and I literally can't remember what happened, so I'm just going to give a quick run down of each one:
5/11/11: The Royal Oak, Amblecote: Another Prickly gig, thanks to Joy for booking me for this one! My guitar actually doesn't sound too bad through an amp. Didn't play so well, unfortunately. I think probably I was distracted with the thought of the fireworks display that I was going to afterwards, and I was on first which would never be my, ahem, 'first' choice. It wasn't bad... but by no stretch of the imagination was it my best one. I said to Amy afterwards, I think I was mistaken in my assumtion that I can play a reasonable show (I did Katies a couple of weeks before,) not play my guitar for a week and a half and expect to be able to play just as good a show when I get it out again. Something to remember for the future, though it will be a while before my next scheduled acoustic gig.
6/11/11: 82s at Just Kroozin Fundraising Event, Four Ashes: Nearly forgot about this one! This was the time where we were trying out our new bass player West. He seems to fit the bill OK and having the keyboards there does fill out the sound quite a bit. We played OK, as ever I did make some mistakes but I was rather more concerned about being upstaged by Almost Easy who were on before! Terrific fundrasing event to raise money for research into Lukemeia, so I was glad to have been a part of it, though it was freezing cold!
12/11/11: The Wharf Bar, Walsall: Regular readers of my blog will know that it is a rare time indeed when I speak kindly of The Wharf Bar. There's never usually anyone there, the whole place smells of sick (which comes from the canal, by the way; it's not actually their fault) and the only people to watch me tend to be the other bands who are either leaving the venue or counting down the minutes until it's their turn to go on. Quite often, the best I can say about it is that at least they do still book me for gigs. So imagine how pleased I was when not only were the modest audience actually listening to me and, as they told me afterwards, enjoying it, but I actually found myself enjoying it as well! That was certainly the best I'd ever played at the Wharf Bar, I've got another one there on the 10th so I'm actually looking forward to it. That's almost unheard of!
16/11/11: 82s: Cover Band Showcase in Cannock: We have - not a deal - but a good working relationship with some booking agents in the area, who invited us to play this showcase to several booking agents who may or may not want us for gigs in the future. We got all our big guns out, which were Word Up, Trick Me and Sound of the Underground. Quite far removed from what we orignally put the band together to do, and I think there is a concern that it's not representative of the set, so you may see some changes with this in the future.
22/11/11 Recording Christmas Song with Sam Draisey: Sam's putting together another Christmas album of original material and I went up today to record mine. I hadn't rehearsed it nearly enough and I know it, the guitar took a few goes, but my vocals I did pretty much in one take. I don't know whether I like the song or not; it's hardly full of Chirstmas Cheer and lyrically it's very lazy, there isn't a single line I haven't copied off someone, not least of whom myself! Still, it will hopefully work for the album, and it will be interesting to see what the other guys come up with this time.
So, there you have it! Aki Maera's first gig is coming up next Wednesday, which will be... interesting. See you all there!
5/11/11: The Royal Oak, Amblecote: Another Prickly gig, thanks to Joy for booking me for this one! My guitar actually doesn't sound too bad through an amp. Didn't play so well, unfortunately. I think probably I was distracted with the thought of the fireworks display that I was going to afterwards, and I was on first which would never be my, ahem, 'first' choice. It wasn't bad... but by no stretch of the imagination was it my best one. I said to Amy afterwards, I think I was mistaken in my assumtion that I can play a reasonable show (I did Katies a couple of weeks before,) not play my guitar for a week and a half and expect to be able to play just as good a show when I get it out again. Something to remember for the future, though it will be a while before my next scheduled acoustic gig.
6/11/11: 82s at Just Kroozin Fundraising Event, Four Ashes: Nearly forgot about this one! This was the time where we were trying out our new bass player West. He seems to fit the bill OK and having the keyboards there does fill out the sound quite a bit. We played OK, as ever I did make some mistakes but I was rather more concerned about being upstaged by Almost Easy who were on before! Terrific fundrasing event to raise money for research into Lukemeia, so I was glad to have been a part of it, though it was freezing cold!
12/11/11: The Wharf Bar, Walsall: Regular readers of my blog will know that it is a rare time indeed when I speak kindly of The Wharf Bar. There's never usually anyone there, the whole place smells of sick (which comes from the canal, by the way; it's not actually their fault) and the only people to watch me tend to be the other bands who are either leaving the venue or counting down the minutes until it's their turn to go on. Quite often, the best I can say about it is that at least they do still book me for gigs. So imagine how pleased I was when not only were the modest audience actually listening to me and, as they told me afterwards, enjoying it, but I actually found myself enjoying it as well! That was certainly the best I'd ever played at the Wharf Bar, I've got another one there on the 10th so I'm actually looking forward to it. That's almost unheard of!
16/11/11: 82s: Cover Band Showcase in Cannock: We have - not a deal - but a good working relationship with some booking agents in the area, who invited us to play this showcase to several booking agents who may or may not want us for gigs in the future. We got all our big guns out, which were Word Up, Trick Me and Sound of the Underground. Quite far removed from what we orignally put the band together to do, and I think there is a concern that it's not representative of the set, so you may see some changes with this in the future.
22/11/11 Recording Christmas Song with Sam Draisey: Sam's putting together another Christmas album of original material and I went up today to record mine. I hadn't rehearsed it nearly enough and I know it, the guitar took a few goes, but my vocals I did pretty much in one take. I don't know whether I like the song or not; it's hardly full of Chirstmas Cheer and lyrically it's very lazy, there isn't a single line I haven't copied off someone, not least of whom myself! Still, it will hopefully work for the album, and it will be interesting to see what the other guys come up with this time.
So, there you have it! Aki Maera's first gig is coming up next Wednesday, which will be... interesting. See you all there!
Friday 11 November 2011
Crashpoint to Reform?
Can't sleep, and this is on my mind so...
Earlier this evening Cj who I'm now in Aki Maera with text me to say some mutual friends had enjoyed the Crashpoint stuff and that it was a shame we weren't still together. I wholly agreed with this. When I was at the Just Kroozin fundraising event with Natasha and the 82s last week (blog to come later) and saw a storming set from the band Almost Easy, I considered the music I was playing (Good indie rock from the Fakes with a not-so-busy gigging schedule, quite restrained soul music in the 82s and bass in Aki Maera and who the hell knows what Post Hardcore actually sounds like anyway) and found myself missing the days when I could take the stage with an electric guitar and play rock songs that I'd had a hand in writing. So yeah, I'd quite like the band to still be together as well.
Quick history for the uninitiated - I put Crashpoint together with Cj in late 2007, still hurting from Jack's Legacy and my experience with The Dastards having sucked all the fun out of playing bass. Band members came and went until shortly after our first gig we settled on what became the definitive lineup of me on guitar, Emma on vocals, Jay on bass and Cj on drums. Musically, not the best lineup, and we were never as good as JL was, but it was the most stable lineup and did the most gigs. We recorded a reasonable-sounding demo and kept a steady momentum going on the live circuit for most of 2009. Then Jay and Emma dropped out for their own reasons, we struggled on for a bit with some different people but as it was going nowhere and neither Cj or I could afford to keep the band going indefinitely for its own sake, in May 2010 we sadly stepped down and added Crashpoint to the list of the also-rans.
Since then, amongst everything else we've done, I've tried various different things with Cj and Aki Maera has lasted by far the longest. Now on Facebook Cj's on about putting Crashpoint back together for one final show to go out with a bang. I'm against this, for the following reasons:
1) We've already done our farewell show. That was in February 2010. I made it clear a number of times during the show that this would be our last one, until we could get ourselves sorted out, and we never did. I drove home that night knowing perfectly well it was all over and crying my eyes out to The Poet and The Pendulum. Losing Crashpoint didn't hurt as bad, or for as long, as losing Jack's Legacy - we were nowhere near as good, and I was certainly not as close to the individual members - but putting myself through that again will for me be at best a waste of time that I don't really have, and at worst a desperate attempt to recapture something I lost nearly two years ago which will hardly be conducive to a great self-esteem.
2) Even if that first point didn't apply, we could barely get anyone to come to our shows when we were a band. Who's going to come to see us now, when we haven't been active on the live circuit for nearly two years? I for one find it very difficult to get people to come to gigs, (usually the only way I manage it is if I drive them there myself,) any new 'fans' will be disappointed that there will be no continuity in the band, and everybody else has presumably either forgotten about Crashpoint or weren't there for us the first time, and simply won't care if we do a reunion show.
3) To be fair Cj has picked up on this one already - we're not going to get the definitive lineup back together now. Emma left the band because the strain the style of music was putting on her voice was causing her some damage, and she's busy with In Between Seas now so I can't imagine her wanting to do it again. Jay's busy working as a chef. That just leaves me and Cj, and while we were the only two members of the band to be involved right from the start to the end, we couldn't manage it on our own.
Could we ever get back together and do Crashpoint again as a band? It could be done, I think. We'd need to find a new bass player - one that we can get on with, actually wants to do the band, and can play bass, you'd be surprised how hard they are to find - and that would be the bare minimum. Possibly we'd need a lead guitarist. I wouldn't waste my time looking for a singer when I can sing most of the songs myself anyway. And I'd love to write songs again in that environment (Marcus writes the songs for Aki Maera, and the one song we play that I wrote we did at the end of Crashpoint so it's not like I've written anything new in a band setting since then) and perform them with the same kind of energy that I've been sorely missing these last couple of years.
Unfortunately, I can't see that happening either. Aki Maera's got it's first gig coming up at the end of the month and we've been working very hard over the last few months to make sure it goes OK, we're not going to abandon it now for our old band. It's very easy to get disillusioned with finding band members (of all the people who contacted us off websites for the positions available in Aki Maera, Ian was the only one who got as far as meeting us and lasted more than about a week) and it's not a process I'm keen to repeat now that we've finally got the lineup sorted out. And I honestly have not got time to put Crashpoint back together and do it alongside all my other bands. Maybe, if Marcus ever decided to pull the plug on Aki Maera, we'd have time to give it another go. But we know perfectly well he's not even close to doing any such thing, and quite rightly so for all the work that's gone in to it.
So overall, I think it's a no. And to be honest, I was happier with the dream of rocking out on stage with my either of my old bands than contemplating the practicalities of actually going through with it. But it was interesting to think about for a while.
Got gig blogs coming up, and another gig at the Wharf later today - see some of you there. Maybe.
Earlier this evening Cj who I'm now in Aki Maera with text me to say some mutual friends had enjoyed the Crashpoint stuff and that it was a shame we weren't still together. I wholly agreed with this. When I was at the Just Kroozin fundraising event with Natasha and the 82s last week (blog to come later) and saw a storming set from the band Almost Easy, I considered the music I was playing (Good indie rock from the Fakes with a not-so-busy gigging schedule, quite restrained soul music in the 82s and bass in Aki Maera and who the hell knows what Post Hardcore actually sounds like anyway) and found myself missing the days when I could take the stage with an electric guitar and play rock songs that I'd had a hand in writing. So yeah, I'd quite like the band to still be together as well.
Quick history for the uninitiated - I put Crashpoint together with Cj in late 2007, still hurting from Jack's Legacy and my experience with The Dastards having sucked all the fun out of playing bass. Band members came and went until shortly after our first gig we settled on what became the definitive lineup of me on guitar, Emma on vocals, Jay on bass and Cj on drums. Musically, not the best lineup, and we were never as good as JL was, but it was the most stable lineup and did the most gigs. We recorded a reasonable-sounding demo and kept a steady momentum going on the live circuit for most of 2009. Then Jay and Emma dropped out for their own reasons, we struggled on for a bit with some different people but as it was going nowhere and neither Cj or I could afford to keep the band going indefinitely for its own sake, in May 2010 we sadly stepped down and added Crashpoint to the list of the also-rans.
Since then, amongst everything else we've done, I've tried various different things with Cj and Aki Maera has lasted by far the longest. Now on Facebook Cj's on about putting Crashpoint back together for one final show to go out with a bang. I'm against this, for the following reasons:
1) We've already done our farewell show. That was in February 2010. I made it clear a number of times during the show that this would be our last one, until we could get ourselves sorted out, and we never did. I drove home that night knowing perfectly well it was all over and crying my eyes out to The Poet and The Pendulum. Losing Crashpoint didn't hurt as bad, or for as long, as losing Jack's Legacy - we were nowhere near as good, and I was certainly not as close to the individual members - but putting myself through that again will for me be at best a waste of time that I don't really have, and at worst a desperate attempt to recapture something I lost nearly two years ago which will hardly be conducive to a great self-esteem.
2) Even if that first point didn't apply, we could barely get anyone to come to our shows when we were a band. Who's going to come to see us now, when we haven't been active on the live circuit for nearly two years? I for one find it very difficult to get people to come to gigs, (usually the only way I manage it is if I drive them there myself,) any new 'fans' will be disappointed that there will be no continuity in the band, and everybody else has presumably either forgotten about Crashpoint or weren't there for us the first time, and simply won't care if we do a reunion show.
3) To be fair Cj has picked up on this one already - we're not going to get the definitive lineup back together now. Emma left the band because the strain the style of music was putting on her voice was causing her some damage, and she's busy with In Between Seas now so I can't imagine her wanting to do it again. Jay's busy working as a chef. That just leaves me and Cj, and while we were the only two members of the band to be involved right from the start to the end, we couldn't manage it on our own.
Could we ever get back together and do Crashpoint again as a band? It could be done, I think. We'd need to find a new bass player - one that we can get on with, actually wants to do the band, and can play bass, you'd be surprised how hard they are to find - and that would be the bare minimum. Possibly we'd need a lead guitarist. I wouldn't waste my time looking for a singer when I can sing most of the songs myself anyway. And I'd love to write songs again in that environment (Marcus writes the songs for Aki Maera, and the one song we play that I wrote we did at the end of Crashpoint so it's not like I've written anything new in a band setting since then) and perform them with the same kind of energy that I've been sorely missing these last couple of years.
Unfortunately, I can't see that happening either. Aki Maera's got it's first gig coming up at the end of the month and we've been working very hard over the last few months to make sure it goes OK, we're not going to abandon it now for our old band. It's very easy to get disillusioned with finding band members (of all the people who contacted us off websites for the positions available in Aki Maera, Ian was the only one who got as far as meeting us and lasted more than about a week) and it's not a process I'm keen to repeat now that we've finally got the lineup sorted out. And I honestly have not got time to put Crashpoint back together and do it alongside all my other bands. Maybe, if Marcus ever decided to pull the plug on Aki Maera, we'd have time to give it another go. But we know perfectly well he's not even close to doing any such thing, and quite rightly so for all the work that's gone in to it.
So overall, I think it's a no. And to be honest, I was happier with the dream of rocking out on stage with my either of my old bands than contemplating the practicalities of actually going through with it. But it was interesting to think about for a while.
Got gig blogs coming up, and another gig at the Wharf later today - see some of you there. Maybe.
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