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

Are You having A Crisis?

Actually for a change, no, I'm not having a crisis. It is a line from a tribute track to Poly Styrene from X Ray Spex and one of the tracks I have been working on for the new project which has finally been named DeKadanCe. Its just acoustic guitars and the wonderful voice of Kaya (Decadent Few / Youth In Asia) whose idea this project was.
It all started when I was supposed to be supporting Decadent Few at my second gig at the Birds Nest when we rehearsed three songs to play as DF's bass player was very ill and they had to pull out of the gig. They went down better than was expected so we decided to record them. Five tracks later and we are so happy with them that we released Identity as a free download on the third anniversary of Poly's death. The other 4 including a very different version of Identity will be released as a CD single very soon. No vinyl yet as we can't afford to do that. Hope you enjoy.



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.

The Second Gig

Well as you may have seen by the video, the second gig went down really well. I managed to stay in tune for most of it and even managed a new song and one I had avoided doing coz I wasn't comfortable with it at the first gig. I am really enjoying doing this acoustic guitar lark and finding it quite liberating from being in a band. Since the last gig I had aquired a Chorus pedal with the intent of trying it out - After hearing what it sounded like I think I will be having it on premanently at every gig from now on - it altered my sound  entirely - it was awesome, well haopy with it

I went up to the Birds Nest with Kaya from Decadent Few who had agreed to drive up despite not playing due to an illness in the band. Not wanting to cancel the gig or let anyone down who turned up expecting Decadent Few, Myself, Kaya, Bruce from Mindframe and their drummer did an impromptu three songs at the end with me borrowing Mindframes guitar. Myself and Kaya had had one rehearsal acoustically of all three songs earlier in the week but to do it with an unrehearsed rhythm section was going to be weird - especially as I had met neither of them before. We ploughed thru Power & The Glory (an old Youth In Asia song) something called "In Chains" which was a bit of acoustic blues we had thrown together and "They Shoot Children" (Decadent Few song) in rapid succesion and I was amazed at the response. It was recorded and although I haven't heard it, I have been told by Kaya (who has) that it is rather good - soon as I hear it I will let you know.

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. Pissing In The Wind
7. Generation iDiot
8. Question Authority

2nd Set list - With Kaya Decadent & Mindframe
1. Power & The Glory
2. In Chains
3. They Shoot Children Don't They

I actually stopped playing during the last song of my own set as I was laughing so much at one bloke who threw himself on the floor and was shaking like mad, so much so that he knocked a burger off of a plate and onto the floor where he stopped, picked it up and ate it. I was in hysterics, stareted the song where I left off finished and went for a beer. No encore this time but I didnt care as I had had such a great night and the two other bands Bucha Effect & Mindframe were excellent - both well worth seeing.

The Welsh Tart took a few pictures as welll as the video of Generation iDiot from the previous post and a good night was had by all, unfortunately no photos of the 2nd set as I forgot to give The Welsh one her camera - bugger. Too much waffle for this post - I will post the song I was going to in the next post.

First Gig

Bloody hell I have got a gig in Sheerness and what a cracker it is too. I'm supporting Kent legends The Commited at their album release party for their new CD "Older & Faster" and reasonably new boys Swampstomper Here is the flyer, come along if ya can - I will only be doing about 15 minutes but thats enough for an old bloke with an acoustic guitar shouting things down a mic. If everyone pisses off outside for a cigarette I shall go and annoy them out there.

 

Pissing In The Wind

After the disaster that was last year and losing two entire hardrives I decided to start again with the recording. Pissing In The Wind was never going to be the title of a track just the title of this blog but it seemed like a wasted opportunity so here ya go. Its a song about how we, the people have to pay for absolutely everything whether we want to or not and was written instaed of the Christmas song that was going to be recorded.
I have also been offered a few gigs this year and will put the dates up in due course when they are confirmed. Unlike the tracks here I will be doing these gigs acoustically, me, a guitar and my big mouth should be interesting.

This track will be one of six that are going onto a CD and download and will be given away free soon as the artwork is done and I can afford it. Here is the tune - with the lyrics.

 
 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.



Every day you pay the price,
You pay for someone elses life
You pay for someone elses dream
To earn yourself some self esteem
You pay to live and stay a slave
With the tax you pay on the wages you're paid
You pay for the prison where you're sent
Got caught and you pay for the rules you bent

We're pissing in the wind, Pissing in the wind
One step forward two / three steps back
We're pissing in the wind, Pissing in the wind,
The Union Jackboot marches on
Pissing in the wind

You pay for the Queen and the priveledged few
You pay for the hold they have on you
You pay the bills of corporate greed
And the bonus for the boss thats guaranteed
You pay for the government you vote in
You pay all the time for their wages of sin
You pay for the army and pay for the police
You pay for war and you pay for peace

You pay for this and you pay for that
You pay for it all as a matter of fact
Everyone will pay coz nothing is free
They'll soon make you pay for the air you breathe
You'll pay with your blood and pay with your sweat
You'll pay with your fears, hopes, dreams and regrets
You'll pay the price, lets not pretend
You'll pay with your own life in the end.

Generation iDiot

After posting Still Called Scum on the internet I wrote a few other songs, mainly a load of crap but a couple of good songs came out of it and I posted them to a couple of people I knew to get some feedback from them and to see if I was heading in the right direction.
The thing about sending them to your mates is that they will do one of two things, tell you the truth or lie profusely just so they don't upset you or piss you off in any way. Luckily I have mates that will be brutally honest and they said that with a bit of work the new songs could be really good. I decided against posting them on the internet as they need to be worked on a bit before I did so and set about writing some more.
My changing of the chords on an acoustic was getting better, it still wasn't good as I was missing strings, hitting bum notes all over the place and still couldn't play a C or F properly. But I was going to damn well carry on and would get my fingers round those two bastards sooner or later.
I was playing electric guitar as well, swapping between them so that I could play on one what I played on the other or so I thought. Nope, i found it easier to play barre chords on the electric and open chords on the acoustic, I was struggling with  barre chords on the acoustic but was going to persevere.

Generation iDiot came about one afternoon while I was in a pub trying to have a conversation with someone who insisited on checking their phone and using it pretty much contstantly. Its pretty frustrating when you are trying to say something and the person you are talking to is texting or in this case updating their status on Facebook while in the middle of  a conversation. How frustrating and annoying and more to the point - bloody rude. The other thing that annoys me about modern technology is people taking ipads to gigs to film the gig. You're at a gig to watch the band or whatever not to stand there watching the entire thing thru an ipad whilst filming the gig - show some respect please.
I mean who takes an ipad to a gig ... this bloke obviously

Like the previous song, Still Called Scum, this was entirely played and recorded by myself, I even managed to work out some harmonics on the electric to give it some dynamics, rather than a straight forward chordorama thrashalong song.





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 or Urban Fallout know - Thanks Russ Crimewave

Still Called Scum

I used to play bass guitar for a fairly well known Punk or Streetpunk band until damage to my right hand prevented me from playing bass and I had to leave or go into retirement as I put it. The damage wasn’t bad enough to stop me playing completely but enough to stop me playing what I loved in a live situation - my bass.
Frustrated at the thought of not playing again if it got worse, I went to the Doctors showed them what was wrong and what caused it and the result was that there was nothing they could do. It was not bad enough to have an operation on it to sort it out, until it got worse. I didnt want it to get worse, it was bad enough as it was. No more live bass for me - I was gutted.
I was miserable as sin not playing my bass. After a week or two I started messing about on an electric guitar I had at home and found that I could sort of play a normal guitar without the damage getting worse, which was a result, so I set about learning to play one properly.
Not being able to play guitar very well in the first place was one of the factors in me picking up a bass many years ago. The other was the fact that I had a one thrust in my hand, told I was shit at guitar and  I was playing bass in a band whether I wanted to or not - seemed like a good idea at the time, so I did.
Many years later and I'm back where I started, playing guitar very very badly.
Basically, I know how to tune a guitar to play it with one finger and plenty of distortion to cover up my inadequacies and had managed to play second guitar in a band for a while before it came to an end but actually playing proper chords was a bit alien to me.

I set about learning some basic chords in Summer 2013 and to make life difficult for myself, decided I was going to learn the whole lot on an acoustic (as averse to an electric) guitar. I didn't have an acoustic guitar and not being able to afford to buy one, I did what any musician in my situation does ... I blagged one.
Having never picked up an acoustic before, I was a bit surprised when I worked out the shapes fairly easily, moving between them tho, that was going to be the bugger. I have rather large hands that are used to a bass guitar, 2 less strings and I only had to use one finger at a time, now I had to use all of them together and on six skinny strings and a smaller guitar neck, I figured the easiest way of learning how to play proper chords would be to write a song.

I have been writing lyrics on and off for years so that wasn't going to be a problem. I knew how to construct a song as I had learned that in the few bands that I have been in so it wasn't all alien just the chords and moving between them bit.
I had also recently started using a new bit of music software, or D.A.W. to record stuff onto so it was going to be a whole new learning curve from start to finish. So I set about writing some lyrics and tunes. Very clumsily and very very basic. E, A, D, F, C, G were the chords I learnt first and badly - I still cant play the F or C or change between them very well, the E  generally turns into Em (one less finger you see) and the A gets barred (1 finger instead of 3) but i struggled on for a month and it started to get easier but only a bit.

This song is the result of my first efforts and this was recorded in August 2013.



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 or Urban Fallout know - Thanks  Russ Crimewave

This was and is  the start of a different journey for me which I am going to share from time to time.
I will be sharing songs, lyrics, photos, pictures, thoughts, ideas and basically anything that I think is  relevant along the way.  If you want to praise, heap ridicule or just say something then either comment or don't. Cheers