3 posts tagged “invisible man”

We’ve had a real burst of hot weather here in sunny Manchester so predictably nobody has been sitting in front of a computer for longer than they have too. As a result, my blogging has almost died a slow and painful death. But low and behold, it suddenly gone rather muggy and there’s the possibility of rain. I’ve decided to retreat to the safety of the online community for a quick half hour just in case the heavens open.

Now let me see. What has been going on? Well, given that the last entry on the MySpace blog was regarding our lovely gig at The Troubadour, which is now some time ago, quite a lot has happened. We have basically returned to the studio to work on recording some of these new tunes, and I’m pleased that 90% of “The Observatory” is complete and once I’ve lived with the mix for a few weeks, I’ll post it both on MySpace and Vox for some feedback. There’s still a few guitars to put down, but the weather is just so not conducive towards being in the studio that I don’t think its going to happen just yet. Also started doing some drum loops for Invisible Man which I’m hoping will come together quite quickly.

We had a fun time playing Green Bohemia last weekend at The Green Room, Manchester. The Green Room is one of those small, urban, arty theatre spaces for experimental and community based productions. It also has a nice bar and a balcony for afterhours entertainments. It was so hot, I was dripping wet by the end of the gig and it was rather like I’d just stepped out of the shower. I can only assume that the heat was rising from the bar downstairs, as heat is want to do. Thanks to everybody who came down to support us. It was a rather spontaneous show, I don’t think we really knew what we were going to play, and it was fun to just launch into tunes on the spur of the moment. At the end, I really regretted wearing those black skinny jeans, I can tell you!

I should at this point mention that we have a show coming up at the end of the month for the MAPS Festival, which as you may know is an urban festival based in the Northern Qtr across the bank holiday weekend. I think it should be a good do. There are a lot of venues and a lot of quality local bands involved. Tickets are quite expensive unless you get them directly from me or a member of the band, so I would urge you to do so. We are playing in the Mint Lounge on Sunday 25^th May, in a prime time slot (cheers Stuart!), so obviously the powers that be think we can pull a decent crowd. Lets hope so. I think it could be one of the gigs of the year, so do join us.

It should be fairly obvious to you all by now that I have recently turned 30. Now, if I gave a shit about major labels wanting to sign us I shouldn’t really be announcing this fact on the blog, because these days if you are not under 25 you don’t stand a cat in hells chance of getting a major deal, and there might be A+R men reading this. It’s totally discriminatory but such is life. Even so, I couldn’t let this go without mentioning what a fabulous time we all had across my birthday weekend, and you can see the video over on our facebook site. I might post it up here or on VOX if I’m allowed. I’m glad to say that as well as our cultural expedition up Pendle Hill, with the witches and wind and the bleakness, we also partied hard throughout the night and I’m reassured to learn that despite what EMI might have to say about us being too old to rock, we are certainly not too old to party!! (just ask the neighbours!)

And that is, of course, another reason why I’ve not managed to blog as much as I could over the past few weeks, as its been “birthday season central” right here. I’ve lost track of how many birthdays have been upon us recently. Let us have a big happy birthday to all our friends, family and fans who have struggled up another rung of the great ladder of life in recent weeks!! I’m sure 2008/9 will be a fabulous year for all of you.

Manchester in the summer is a great place to be. Less students doesn’t necessarily equal quiet clubs and no atmosphere, and its also the season of outdoor gigs, impromptu street performance and light nights till late. It’s normally a short lived affair, but a worthy one. Everybody at least tries to make the most of it. People float round town wearing vest tops and light dresses, and sit on the grass in Piccadilly Gardens. Children jump about in the water feature. The knackered old houses don’t look quite so knackered. I’ve heard it said that Manchester has such a thriving arts scene because for nine tenths of the year, we are all inside, having to make our own entertainments and create our own little worlds in music or art. This is partially true, for sure. But at least once a year, the party spills out onto the street and if you are willing to embrace it, its one hell of a ride.

I think the possibility of rain has finally passed, so I’m going outside again for more sun. Lets hope it doesn’t storm on me as soon as I cross the threshold.

Ben

As regular readers will know, we’ve been hard at work producing and recording a few new songs, some of which have been infiltrating the live set of late, and these are coming on nicely. Nigel and I spent most of Sunday working on some cello parts for the track “The Observatory”, and with a bit of help from Cubase, managed to make one cello sound like the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, which was fun. I think I’m finally happy with the sound of the drums after a lot of fiddling, and I may have to bite the bullet and have a go at the lead vocal at some stage in the near future.

In between all that, last Thursday we were welcomed to a splendid venue near Earls Court in London called "The Troubadour". Having spent the day enjoying the delights of Britain’s motorway network in our trusty minibus, we arrived in good time for the sound check at half six which was concluded with the minimum of fuss and faff. I’ll say now that I thought the sound guy was excellent and really helpful, which is always lucky, as we are not the easiest band to engineer. The venue consists of a busy restaurant upstairs, and a cool, rock and roll club downstairs. It actually reminded me of one or two places in Manchester that have a similar vibe. The layout of the venue was rather like an “L” shape, with the stage in the corner, so you have to sing a bit to the left, and then a bit too the right in order to see the whole audience.

Apparently, The Troubadour has a long history of musical excellence, having seen performances from Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and others. There was a long list on a flyer but I've not got it on me right now. Anyway, nice to be in the company of greats, and makes a change from people banging on about Morrisey/New Order/Joy Division/Happy Mondays and The Smiths which I'm sick to death of.

Troubadour 2

Many thanks to all those who came down, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It was nice to do a full 45 minutes and therefore actually stands as the longest set we’ve ever played! I could certainly tell because I was gasping for a drink after “giving it some” during the first few songs. A nice person provided me with a gin and tonic half way through the set – I don’t know who this was but many thanks for that! It certainly wet my whistle at the right time. In terms of industry presence at the gig, there was some, and I don’t want to name names here, but I suppose that's good and we must be on the radar finally. I hope they didn't hate it. 

You’ll be able to read a review of the show in next months Sandman Magazine, and I’ll post the feature and links up here when I get my hands on a copy. Lets hope its positive.

Anybody interested in what we actually played, here’s the set list:

Troubadour 1

Orange Glow

Tides

Deserted

Clockworks

Romance

Healing Hands

Invisible Man

Whistle While you Work

The Observatory

Kudos to Liam Bailey who supported us with his excellent roots acoustic set – I would post a link but I can’t find one right now. Many someone could post one if it turns up? He is definitely worth checking out. And also to Inflatable Buddah who provided some light, comic skiffle with a fine selection of wind instruments, including bass clarinet that I haven’t seen in a rock and roll venue for some time.

So onwards and upwards, and its time now for another Manchester show on April 16th, and this one is linked to a thing called “Have You Got The Nerve?”

“What is that?” I hear you cry.

“thenerve.tv” is the world's first crowd sourced TV production company. Mark Bowness, creator of Tribewanted, is looking for ordinary members of the public who will create a new breed of TV and web based programming. “Have you got the nerve?” is the tag line, and we’ve been asked to play at their Manchester launch night which is at the TV21 bar, in the Northern Qtr. I’m not quite sure how this all fits together, but I imagine Wednesday will be some sort of social networking / hobnobbing session with creative types and media people, and they’ll be a lot of drinking involved. Anyway, I think it’s free and we are headlining and possibly trotting out the full 45 minutes again all being well, so if you are around, come down.

Here’s a link: http://thenerve.tv/

Can I also just say thanks to all of you who have been in touch with positive comments and such via MySpace/Facebook/Vox etc, that’s great and we really appreciate it. Keep it coming.

Ben

Hello folks,

Yes, before you ask I know the blog entries have been a little thin on the ground recently, but never fear, I’m never too far away with a quick update.

There’s lots going on at the moment (as always) and since Thriller Killer we’ve had a couple of engagements including an ill-fated acoustic show and a studio session.

First of all, apologies to people who turned up to the “While Other Bands Park Vans” gig, we had to pull the plug on that one due to technical issues that were not of our making. A shame because we’d worked hard on getting a set together for that show and I think it could have been really good. But despite turning up on time and trying out best to help out the impromptu sound engineer, we felt that the equipment provided wasn’t up to the job. So we didn’t play. In the event, it was pity because the place was pretty rammed. So muchos apologies but we’ll do another acoustic show later in the year all being well.

Onwards and upwards, as I frequently remark, and we have turned our attention to recording some new songs that have recently been invading our live set. So it was off to Noisebox studios on Easter Sunday to record some drummage, bassage and guitarage. Noisebox is one of those typical Manchester recording studios based in some freezing warehouse full of refitted PA speakers and studio gear from 1976, with limited comfort, electric heaters and massive spiders. We felt entirely at home. It was recommended too us by our friends “Orphan Boy” who recorded an album there. That evening, I started to put together some rough mixes of these two new tracks on the computer ready for electronic tweaking, string and wind parts, guitar overdubs and vocals. No idea when these tunes will be completed but I’ll be sure to post them up here for your entertainment.

Its nice to get back home and into the spare bedroom and knuckle down to some serious production because with all the gigs and the promotions, I actually haven’t had a lot of time spare, and in reality that is what I enjoy the most. The two new tracks are called “The Observatory” and “Invisible Man”. We’ve had “Invisible Man” since the Hard Rock Café gig, and “The Observatory” is the first decent tune from 2008 to appear from a clutch of ideas that came from Christmas writing sessions.

On top of that, we are still pottering around with ideas for the “In 2000” tune which I wanted to re-write due to having crap lyrics and a lack of direction, and there’s another newbie called “Goodnight, Goodnight” which I’ve just started to demo which I think might sound good – a sort of electronic Parklife/It Must Be Love cum 1920’s Ragtime. …Maybe…. Anyway, there are plenty of ideas floating around.

There are a few changes to the gig calendar – the date of the Glossop gig at the Moon and Sixpence needs to change – I don’t know when it’ll be yet, possibly August. Also, the headline show at the Ruby Lounge looks like it might have to move as well, and as this is a big event for us, I’ll be promoting this one to the max when I know the new date. Stay tuned for that one.

In the meantime, London fans need to know that we are playing The Troubadour on the 3^rd April – and that’s NEXT WEEK!! So I hope we’ll see as many of you as possible and please message me if you are coming so I can get all excited!! AND YOU CAN ALL WISH ME HAPPY BIRTHDAY IF YOU LIKE. Is that clear enough? Industry folk should get yourselves down that night too, and if I get chance I’ll be phoning round to make sure you’ve got it in the diary…so beware, the TMC bandwagon is on its way!

Incidentally, here’s a few records that I’ve been listening too this week that I love…and that have inspired recently written songs….

Blur -  “blur”  - It was never my favourite Blur album but I recently realised that the last three or four tracks are amongst the best ones they ever did – “Strange News Fro Another Star”, “Moving On” and “Essex Dogs”. I’ve got strong recollections of standing in a muddy field as Blur headlined at Glastonbury in 1998 listening to Essex Dogs and people not really getting it. I loved it, so screw them.

Crowded House – “Time on Earth”  - The latest CH album is full of classic songs with great lyrics, although the inclusion of the track “English Trees” is a mystery to me because its rubbish. Luckily, I love “pour le monde”.

Goldfrapp – “Seventh Tree” – Two or three tracks really stand out  - “Clowns”, “Happiness”, and the other one that I can’t remember the name of right now. But is it as good as “Felt Mountain”…. No. And will Mark ever stop singing “Only clowns will play with your balloons…” The boy has an obsession. Those goddamn Clowns!

Ben