Critical Condition

November was a bit busy for me, 4 gigs all in a row. Nice. Plenty of video and recordings from them which I am not going to bore you with. Instead, I present the latest demo which I decided to do both an audio and visual for. This song is called Critical Condition and is about the state we will find ourselves in, if we let the government tear apart what was the envy of the world - our wonderful National Health Service.  I am not going to blather on about it, just watch the video, listen to the words and make a stand. Enough is enough.

And if you want a purely audio version of it - here ya go



I will save the gigs for another post as there are a couple of video tracks to post including a new song, which somehow didnt get written about, in all fairness, I have been a bit busy with the new songs and gigs and kinda forgot so they will be on the next blog post soon which will include another cover version and no, I'm not turning into a nostalgia freak or cover song merchant - I just do songs I feel are relevant at the time.

When The Tea Runs Out

When The Tea Runs Out is the tilte of one of the songs I am recording at the moment. Yes, almost nearly a year since I started playing acoustic guitar, I am actually recording what could loosely be regarded as an albums worth of material. Basically, what I'm doing is recording everything I have played live, plus one or two other tracks in one hit over a few days that will probably get released about February time to coincide with the anniversary of my first solo gig in Sheerness (Here)
I have debated doing this for a while and thought that as I have no one but myself to answer to, I will do as I please and being offered the services of a local sound engineer to record and mix it for sod all, I jumped at the chance. What else was I going to do ... No thanks mate, I'm going to pay a few hundered quid per day to go into a studio so I can get pretty much the same sound as your gear and listen to someone who doesnt know me or my sound telling me what they think is best and pay for the preivilidge ... I am not that fucking daft. So DIY it is and a nice pleasant change it is as well.
So after the guitar led day one its time to do some guide vocal. I think I may be getting a cold, four songs in and my voice is croaky as fuck. Time to have a quick mixdown of one of the tracks - pick the roughest one of the lot and mix - result - not too bad ot too good either - here it is and will only be here for a little while




Two weeks later and most of what has been recorded has been scrapped. Including the above track as I did not feel that it was good enough. A sit down with the sound guy and a good think is what is needed. I still plan to have something out in February but whether it is an album or not remains to be seen.
One good thing came out of it tho ... I got a new track which I will be doing live at the following dates.

Im on early for all of them and all of them are free entry.

November
1st - Garlinge (Nr Margate), The Rodney supporting Black Rose
8th - Ramsgate, Red Lion supporting Cozy Dunts
14th - Canterbury,  Maidens Head  - TBC
15th - Sheerness, The Castle supporting Ted Dibiase & The Million Dollar Punk Band, All Flags Burn,
                                                              The   Half Wits, Deanos Hose

December
20th - Ramsgate, Elephant & Castle supporting Cozy Dunts, The Shammed

And more next year

And....... relax ..... and then some

Well that was a busy month, which is why there were no blog posts. Now I am going to have a few weeks off to learn another chord and maybe another chord change and possibly write another song before the end of civilisation as we know it . . .  also known as Christmas.

So what has been going on - I have played three more gigs - two in Canterbury and one in Ramsgate, all three were very different from each other
The first was at the New Inn in Canterbury at a beer festival on a very wet and rainy bank holiday Monday as part of the support for a spoken word tour by Chris Clavin. Interesting night to say the least as this was another of the split sets with DeKadanCe and the set list just sort of happened but these were the songs that were played ... I think ... as copiuous amounts of alcohol had been consumed and I cant remember much and the set list doesnt help:

You're A Terrorist

This Means War

Drip By Drip

Race To The Bottom

Pissing In The Wind

Generation Idiot

DeKadanCe

They Shoot Children Don't They

Knight Of A 1000 Knives

Just One Life

Power & The Glory

When The Lights Go Out

Identity

The next one was the following Saturday at Churchills in Ramsgate supporting a covers band called The Shammed - they were rather good and the reason I turned up to the New Inn gig six  days before a bit worse for wear. The evening  with them was bloody good fun and those that were there said it was possibly the best gig I had done.

You're A Terrorist
Still Called Scum
Go Back To Sleep
Pissing In The Wind
This Means War
Race To The Bottom
Drip By Drip
Generation Idiot

And the gigs got wierder, the following Friday and now into September I had to open the musical proceedings at Konrad and Annies wedding reception. It was also the first gig that I was going to open for my old band The Warriors, Also on the bill were Konrads band The Half Wits as well as Sheppy punks -  All Flags Burn. The Commited were originally going to play but had to pull out of it and I know that they wanted to play it so as a suprise for Konrad and Annie I organised with Daz to do a Commited song directly after They Shoot Children with Kay - here is the video of both tracks. Conratulations Mr & Mrs Harris

And here is the set list:
 

You're A Terrorist

Still Called Scum

Pissing In The Wind

They Shoot Children (with Kay from Decadent Few / DeKadanCe / PCF)

Fast Lane (with Daz from The Commited / Betty Swallox)

Drip By Drip

Generation Idiot 

Identity  (with Kay)

The DeKadanCe CD has been selling well considering that we have never done a full gig on our own as DeKadanCe but all that is going to remedied next year when we open the Davee Wild Memorial Weekender at The Lady Luck in Canterbury, Kent on the Thursday. I am opening the proceedings on my own on the Saturday at the Maidens Head with so many awesome bands that the best idea is to go and have a look at the facebook events page here.

 DAVEE WILD MEMORIAL WEEKENDER

 I am so very honoured to be playing this as Davee told me a while back before his sad and very untimely death that I was the person who had played the Maidens Head the most in all the gigs he had put on there. I questioned this as I was quite surprised and he said it was true, he could show me the list of gigs I had done and with who and reminded me that I had played in three different bands (The Warriors, Surgery Without Research &  Crimewave) numerous times and was looking forward to seeing my solo stuff live. Sadly he never did and now I play every gig I do in Canterbury for Davee and I will remember that conversation forever, I will miss one of the loveliest, honest and geniune blokes I have ever met.
This is a very short poem I wrote for Davee the night of his funeral.

For Davee
Rest In Punk my friend
May the party never end
Keep it going til we meet again
Rest In Punk my friend.

Here are a couple of pictures of Davee that I took on a very dodgy camera phone in 2011 - this was at Nottingham Rock City when Davee had come in the van with The Warriors when we supported Old Firm Casuals and The Last Resort. The first picture is Davee having a beer and a chat with Lars Frederickson (OFC / Rancid) and Tosh (Section 5) and the second is Davee deliberately walking past while I was trying to take a picture of Lars dancing to The Last Resort

DeKadanCe - Identified CD release

What is this, two posts in one month this must be nearly a record, well actually it's the new DeKadance CD - the project I have been working on with Kaya from Decadent Few. It is a 7 track mini CD and is available for download now or CD from Saturday. We are both a bit pleased with the end result and will be playing tracks from this at The Castle in Sheerness this saturday. See you at the bar



Normal service will be resumed next month

Terms & Conditions Apply

Terms & Conditions Apply is the title of a 3 track digital single that was released this week which includes a brand new track called Drip By Drip - the song is about the DRIP (Data Retention & Investigatory Powers) act - do a search for it if you don't know what it is - and how we have already given away our rights by just clicking agree on everything that comes on any digital device without thinking about it - check out this link about the new Facebook messaging service where you give them the right to record you and snoop on you coz you clicked OK without thinking - but this blog isn't about that it's about music so here is the new track with two others - free to download enjoy.




Terms & Conditions is also available here:


 
A couple of weeks ago I did a sneaky gig supporting a rock / metal covers band. Due to go on about half 8 I hammered a couple of pints down my neck and was then duly told i was going on at ten. A fair few pints later and I was very merrily pissed and did my set - to some people who had waited around to see me and a load that hadn't. No mass exodus for the door - that surprised me and I even done a cover version for my mate Davee Wild who had sadly died two days before (I will miss the Cider fuelled phone calls Davee and the best gigs in canterbury - Rest In Punk my friend) not having done a cover (unless you count the ones with DeKadanCe) i opted for Subvert by Zounds. I was very surprised at the reaction which was phenomenal considering this wasnt a punk gig and was very pleased it went down well too. Hope to do another gig at the Red Lion as I have enjoyed both gigs there.
Here is the setlist from that gig:

You're A Terrorist Still Called Scum
Go Back To Sleep
 Race To The Bottom
This Means War
 Pissing in The Wind
 Generation iDiot
Subvert (Zounds cover)

Sorry no pictures or videos from this gig - there is a video apparently but I havent seen it.

I have a gig coming up next Saturday 16th August in Sheerness as support to Monica & The Explosion - should be fun. See ya at the bar.

I'm A Lazy Sod

I'm not really a lazy sod, I just haven't had the time to update this blog as I have been rather busy sorting out the DeKadanCe mini album, playing a few gigs both solo and the first full DeKadanCe gig.
Im not going to bore the shit out of you with a rundown of what happened at every gig coz it would get tedious very quickly - so what I am going to do is post three videos from the three gigs that have been played since the last post - along with relevant set lists just to keep you updated. The next post will be back to the usual bollox and a new chord or two on the guitar, maybe a new song as well.

The first of the three gigs was in Canterbury at The Lady Luck Bar (with Anthrax, The Commited & Snide) - There is an entire video of this gig but unfortunately the sound didnt come out too well (Thanks for the vid Melvin)
 
Set List :
You're A Terrorist
Question Authority
Generation iDiot
Go Back To Sleep
Race To The Bottom
This Means War
Pissing in The Wind
They Shoot Children (with Kay as DeKadanCe)

Here is Race To The Bottom 

   

The second gig was the following day in Ramsgate at the Red Lion supporting  Cozy Dunts
Set List : 
You're A Terrorist
Question Authority
Riot In Progress 
Still Called Scum 
When The Tea Runs Out
Go Back To Sleep 
Race To The Bottom
This Means War 
Pissing in The Wind 
Generation iDiot 
They Shoot Children (with Kay as DeKadanCe)
  
We were going to do another track (Knight of A 1000 Knives) but my string snapped and we didnt have time to restring so didnt do it

Here is Go Back To Sleep


 
And the third gig was a novelty for me - I was doing an integrated set of myself and DeKadanCe at the same time and it was outside a newsagent on a Saturday afternoon in the arse end of Cliftonville.

The set list was as follows
You're A Terrorist
Still Called Scum 
They SHoot Children Don't They (DeKadanCe)
Go Back To Sleep
Just One Life (DeKadanCe)
Race To The Bottom
Knight Of A Thousand Knives (DeKaDanCe
Pissing in The Wind
In Chains (DeKadanCe)
This Means War
Power & The Glory (DeKadanCe)
Generation Idiot
Identity (DeKadanCe)
Blitzkreig Bop

The last song was balgged on the spot as Tommy the last of the original Ramones had died the night before - this was my tribute to him

Here is DeKadanCe doing a cover of Power & The Glory which Kay originally wrote with her first band YouthInAsia




And there you have - not such a lazy sod - until next time when i will be spouting on about the Mini Album

Thanks to The Welsh Tart for all three videos

Billy Bragg On Steroids

"Billy Bragg on steroids!!" - Yes, that is what I was called at this weekends gig in Folkestone. I have no idea where the bloke got that from but that is how he chose to describe me to the guitarist of Surgery Without Research. I must admit I am quite amused by it (Thank You Terry).
The gig itself was a bit of a nervous one even tho I know all the people in the bands and half the audience, I was on second, after the wonderful Deanos Hose and their psychadelic experience. I had, up til now, gone on first and was just getting used to that and as I had done gigs before I shouldn't be nervous. Even so, this kind of gig was still new to me and I am still learning but I had done this before so it was easy, wasn't it?
I went on a bit over confident and the nerves showed straight after the intro to the first song when I completetly forgot the words and had to start again - first bloody song, I was a bit annoyed with myself. I re-started and things went a lot better, I even managed to do a very rough version of a new song called "When The Tea Runs Out" which although I struggled a bit with it, went down very well. It will go in the set but needs working on so maybe not for a couple of gigs, a quick check on the time and I did one more, bloody hell my half hour went quickly. I got called back for an encore so maybe it wasn't as bad as I first thought.

Set List:
1. You're A Terrorist
2. Still Called Scum
3. R.I.P (Riot In Progress)
4. Go Back To Sleep
5. Race To The Bottom
6. When The Tea Runs Out
7. Generation iDiot
8. Pissing In The Wind (encore)

I wanted to do Question Authority as well but I still hadn't learnt the words and didn't really have time so ditched it. I actually enjoyed the gig even tho it was probably the hardest one to do yet. I must have enjoyed it as I was buzzing about it in the morning so much that I even managed to write a new song and wanted to try out a new (to me) way of mixing the guitars. I recorded it on the Tuesday night, mixed it and uploaded it on Wednesday. I was way pleased with how the guitar had come out and will have to try mixing like that again. Its still a bit rough but here ya go, have a listen. Personally I think the mixing is better on this track than previously. I'm still very much a learner on both the guitar and a DAW but am enjoying the journey and the different ways of doing things, so no doubt there will be fuck ups along the way as well as moments of almost genius - I am looking forward to both.
After I had uploaded this someone else  tried to describe it as "Hardcore Acoustic - If there is such a thang" - we shall see.



Please feel free to download this or any other track from the soundcloud page. If you use this in a radio show or podcast - please credit me and and let me know - Thanks Russ Crimewave.