17 posts tagged “manchester”

I don’t know about my French (see title), but it was one hell of a big fish that arrived at the diner table on Sunday afternoon, as we sat in a pub in Edale, feet up and smiling with a rosy glow that comes from a day spent in the hills. Let me recount our journey to you. Some of this is true...

Edale is a small village, nay hamlet, which occupies the valley basin of the vale of Edale, marking the start of the Pennine Way and home to a great many more localised rambles and scrambles, hills, vales, bogs and hitherto undescribed natural wonders. Its rolling hills are home to a great many rabbits, hares and sheep, birds and other such creatures existing unspoilt and as nature intended. Water falls in quantity from great slabs of limestone, and legions of Sunday walkers, motivated by the pursuit of large open spaces, trample and climb there way to the top of the valley. Those that survive are greeted by exposed, boggy moorland and impressive views of the surrounding farmland and peaks.

Let me introduce our group. Ahead, walked Mr. Daniel Smith, a one time trumpeter with This Morning Call and infamous northern wit and impresario. To my left, Mr. Lee Marks, wannabe film-maker and critic, and renown purveyor of Tasmanian dark ales. To my right, Ms. Julia Madien, who made a name for herself singing musical numbers to orphans during Vietnam and has seduced her way into some of Manchester’s finest bordellos and boudoirs with only a stocking and a hat box to her name.

The clouds lifted and although the sun tried to warm us, it was to limited effect as we set out from the village car park, boots and waterproofs at the ready.  Although I insisted on travelling “map-free”, we felt no fear as we plunged into the unknown. It wasn’t long before the hills began to close in around us and we felt the firm hand of nature by our sides. Not for the faint hearted are the rough crags and stony precipices of the Grindlebrook. There are tales of goblins and trolls dwelling in them there hills, and the hills themselves have eyes, ready to trap a unsure hiker with a loose stone or sucking bog. Maybe an evil half-breed mutant with a gun and an unhealthy obsession with breast milk hides behind the next Tor. But we didn’t let such thoughts trouble us.

We scrambled our way up the valley, and with each turn the ground rose before us, great boulders were strewn across our path, and soon the time came to forge the stream itself. Ms. Maiden leapt gracefully from stone to stone, while Mr Smith and Mr Marks satisfied their imaginations by regaling our party with tales from Middle Earth. The climb became steeper as we neared the summit, near vertical in parts, and with the ever present danger of slipping and falling we had to take extra care, only allowing ourselves to stop for a few moments before toiling upwards, hearts in mouths.

The summit brought with it a fabulous view across the vale and an opportunity for Mr. Marks to compose a “hero shot” in his head, for his latest “blockbuster in development”, and, of course, with the wonders of modern technology, he received a phone call from the bank on his mobile as we began to traverse the hillock, apparently chasing a bad debt. “Now is not the time for banking”, I remarked, “Not when there are hills to be tamed and pies to be pursued. Onwards!”

The downward passage was blocked, so we had to take a more treacherous route on our return, most of which was conducted via the method of a rolling, or sliding, descent. That’s a technical term first described by Edmund Percival Hillary in 1953 as the best and quickest way to descend from a great height. Luckily, the soft, moorland grass provided an ample opportunity to get a wet bottom, and three dozen pratfalls later the descent was complete. We found ourselves returned safely to the village, and, of course, the local pub.

Upon entry to the pub, it was immediately apparent that we had found a haven. We quickly made ourselves at home. Food was ordered in quantity. We feasted on cooked meats, soup, crusty bread and chipped potatoes. Mr. Marks did indeed order one of the King’s own haddock, and it was a prize catch indeed. At almost fifteen feet long, the young gentleman proved his metal and polished the monster off in record time. He was followed in no uncertain terms by Ms. Maiden and Mr. Smith, who both consumed a whole sheep each. A royal feast!

And so, with a heavy heart and a sore toe, we removed ourselves from the vale and returned to Mancunia. Our heavy eyes and tired limbs sent us quickly to bed, to dream of hill and vale, brook and stream. To wake in the knowledge of a Sunday well spent. God bless this green and bountiful kingdom.

Seems ages since I last did a bit of a blog. Well, as it happens I did put a short one up on VOX but it was only a two line job that read something along the lines of "Why can't I upload music to this site again... b*stards!?"  (see below)

You see, they are rather behind the times over here, because you haven't had the joys of hearing The Observatory or Invisible Man yet, or indeed other stuff that I would like to upload and let you all hear. Quite simply, everytime I try to upload a track I get "computer says no!"

Don't know why and yes, I have contacted their support services and they were pretty helpful but couldn't solve it. Hopefully it will mysteriously come back to life like it did the first time. And then VOX and MySpace can once again live together in perfect harmony (to quote McCartney).

So what news? Well, we have finished our current run of gigs. Its almost like finishing a tour. Well, a tour that went no further than Manchester, London, Glossop, Cheltenham and... er... thats it. We started playing out live ages ago in the current format - (thats Joe on Drums, Mark ..s, Dave on Bass, Jake on Guitar and Nigel part-time due to family commitments) - I couldn't tell you the exact gig now, but it was probably sometime around August 2007 because I definately remember Jake playing with us at Pride 2007. Since then, we have supported a band called "Ghosts" at the Hard Rock Cafe (and drunk the bar dry), played Thriller Killer nightclub, played the MAPS festival, enjoyed two storming London shows especially The Troubadour in spring 2008, and last but not least the Greenbelt Festival, which was the Christian rock festival we attended over the August bank holiday. We also enjoyed playing several live shows at the Enchanted Brave, a lovely acoustic night now sadly no longer running, and some rather dodgy shows at the In The City fringe and Jabez Clegg. By far the hottest show, from a temperature perspective I mean, although I'm sure there were a few hotties in the crowd, was upstairs at the Green Room, where I came off stage looking like I'd just stepped out of shower. No joke. You could have rung me out like a sponge.

Well, what a lot of gigs. Some were good, some were great, and some were shite. And time for a rest. Time to write some new music and hunker down for the winter. I like that word, hunker. It puts me in mind of big, Russian landscapes with warm hats and ice cold vodka, roast mutton and great piles of wood for the fire.

It was quite a contrast, actually, because the day after we came back from Greenbelt at Cheltenham Racecourse, it was time for Pride 2008 in Manchester city centre, which wasn't a gig for us, just a piss up. It was rather disconcerting to go from a very conservative environment to a very liberal environment. No swearing at Greenbelt, every other word was a bit blue (or should I say pink) at Pride. No bare flesh at Greenbelt, unlimited bare flesh at Pride. No booze outside of the beer tent at Greenbelt ("The Jesus Arms!" I did like that...), no end to the beer consumption at Pride and that was just the start of it for some. A unexpectedly large number of young teenagers at Greenbelt (brainwashing?), a totally unavoidable multitude of twinks, queens, bears and lesbos at Pride (dirty minds?). I couldn't possibly comment on where I felt the most at home!

I will be trying to post a little bit more regularly actually, as I do feel the blog has been a little bit neglected. So stay tuned folks. I'm going to start work on a new EP right now. If you haven't downloaded the new tunes yet, please do. The next lot will be going back to the electronic roots and beats a little bit more, I think. But no more to say on that subject right now, its time for a brew.

In the meantime, we are getting ready for our show at this years In The City festival in Mcr.

Laters.

Ben

Its festival season once again, and as usual the City of Manchester manages to serve up a healthy platter of local talent all crammed into the bank holiday weekend in venues around the Northern Quarter.

Its called the MAPS Festival and it’s the brainchild of several local promoters who have all clubbed together to ensure all the major venues in the area are flying the same flag. Basically, it’s “In The City” without the industry bullshit.

We were asked quite along time ago if we wanted to be involved in the festival and since its always nice to be asked, we agreed to participate. We are coming to the end of a run of six or seven gigs, many of which have been in Manchester, and which started with the Thriller Killer gig back in February. We felt it would be nice to be onboard with a well promoted, well organised (I hope) event to bring the campaign to a conclusion. The remaining gigs include a set at The Ruby Lounge on the 21^st June, the Coventry gig at the Kasbah, and a show in Glossop on the 31^st August, if memory serves. The time to retreat, write, record and take stock once again will soon be upon us. So really, if you fancy catching us live, you should get yourself down to MAPS and check it out before its too late. I’m sure it’ll be one of the gigs of the year.

Our exact stage and venue time is: 10pm (ish), The Mint Lounge (Oldham St, a few doors up from the Night and Day Café), on Sunday 25^th May.

And yes, it is a bank holiday weekend, so there’s no excuse not to raise a glass and join us along with pretty much every local band of note, and party.

It’ll be interesting to see how the general public take to the MAPS festival idea. In recent years, Manchester has enjoyed several summer events aimed at promoting local music. Aside from the obvious ITC related activity, we’ve been lucky enough to have enjoyed the D-Percussion Festival, which really was quite a major event and also free. I had the misfortune of being hungover at a previous D-Percussion and I remember it all got rather too busy and hot at about 6pm in the evening and I had to leave. They certainly cram them into the Castlefield arena, that’s for sure. The event is also memorable because Lee was sick after drinking three sips from a can of Stella at 11am in the morning. Although this was a few years ago now, and I trust he knows better! Why were we drinking Stella at that time? Well, you couldn’t take your own beer in so the cans had to be drunk before entry because the price of beer on site was beyond tolerable.

I remember on one occasion, there was a street festival around the Northern Qtr with some large outdoor stages, and the line up included 808 State and Kinesis, amongst others. Mr. Scruff normally gets his tea-stained fingers involved in some capacity at these events, being a local lad. I think I remember seeing him at D-Percussion a few years back. Mr. Scruff had a few years of being the best thing since sliced bread around these parts, but I could help but think he was a little overrated, and certainly when I saw his Glastonbury show last year I was a little disappointed. Too downtempo for the Saturday night.

I know there is no getting away from it, but in the end these “local band” festivals do rely on the band bringing their mates along to generate a bit of atmosphere, and I must admit that it's also rather galling to have to put up with yet another great event where we are not being paid. In fact, with the cost of transport and rehearsals, it is costing us money to do the gig. The whole “get the band to sell tickets and only pay them for ticket stubs returned” thing may make life easier for promoters but it essentially means that the band have to do most of the leg work and frankly that annoys me.

If you are doing a lot of gigs, this becomes impossible to manage. Its not my day job, don't forget. IMO, if the band are willing to play for free, then the gig should be free. Otherwise, they should get a fee, even if it simply covers expenses. I imagine the only people who will be making any money from this shebang will be the bars, because everybody likes a drink. Why don’t the bars put their respective hands in their pockets and help pay for these events? Afterall, we are the people who frequent these establishments and keep them in business week after week. Stop ripping us off. When we were at the Troubadour in London, it cost me £6 for a gin - that was more than the ticket price for the show. How is that justified?

What we need is a hit single then we wont have to worry about this sort of thing…!

MAPS tickets in advance (i.e. the ones that we will get a cut from) are available from the band – just drop us an email – and are priced £6. I know I'm moaning about the ticket thing, but I really do think this will be a great event.

Here’s the full line-up: