UNDER A ROCK

Hello! *hangs head in shame*

Firstly, I’d like to inform everyone that I have slapped my wrist for taking so long to update this blog.  As some of you are already aware, I have been studying a sports degree for the last 3 years and the last few weeks have been a little busy to say the least.  I have now finished University and due to an epic amount of job hunting and organising of other aspects of my personal life, my work load has not decreased much! 

I’m going to cover a few things in this instalment and I will try and keep things to the point (not my greatest skill).   I will discuss some of the goings on outside of performance with the band as well as some of our gigs.  I don’t intend to do much in relation to reviewing the gigs.  I intend to bring some ideas to the table that were provoked by those shows and I’d love your opinions.

Going forward this blog will be monthly and I will include some information on gigs we have played and I will also include my own ideas on how things are going and other developments.  I will include a supplementary update next week due to the volume of things that have happen since my last update.  I will be doing a special daily blog during October which is when I will be back on tour with This is Turin.  We are doing a full UK tour in October with the band ‘I Defy’ and I’m pretty excited about getting back on the road.  We often play one or two gigs a week, but it is rare that we get the opportunity to go on the road and spend a few days as just a bunch of lads doing what we love doing best.  Some of the best nights of my life have been on the road with the band so I’m looking forward to more character developing incidents!

We will also have an album ready by then.  We have some news relating to our record deal and album status that we will be releasing soon, but we are excited about being able to deliver and album as soon as we can.  This past week I have been recording vocals for two tracks we are going to release in the next couple of weeks and I was pretty pleased with how it sounded considering they were recorded in our drummer’s bedroom!  Recording and demoing our new material has taken longer than I wanted really, but I think we are getting more organised and more focused on getting the tracks down.  I think it is vital we have some new material to provide to people.  I’m personally looking forward to recording some of our more aggressive tracks in the next couple of weeks.

We have played a few gigs since I last blogged.  I’m going to briefly mention two of them today because I believe they all bring different considerations to the table.  I will also include one next week which will cover a couple of other shows.

The Tivoli in Buckley

The venue is huge and probably a little large for a local metal band night.  However, with big venues and big sound systems often comes a big and clear sound so I’m definitely game.  We were asked to arrive at the venue for 4pm.  I have a real gripe about turning up at venues so early.  I understand that bands must turn up before the audience and I also understand that sound checks must be done in good time.  I could probably count on two hands the amount of times it has been that organised.  Usually it would be the same promoter that acquires two or more of my weathered digits.  Often we arrive early, wait for an hour and then sound check.  In all honesty, I don’t really mind that.  Far too many times have we arrived before others bands to be told that only the headliner and openers receives a sound check and because we are sandwiched in the middle, we have to do a line check before we go on which means we may as well of turned up at the same time as the audience.

This gig was an extreme example of why I often snigger at being told to turn up very early.  A few of our lads turned up at just gone 4pm.  No promoter to be seen, no others bands and no sound guy.  When the headliner turned up at 5pm they spent the next 2 hours messing with their drum kit before sound checking.  We started to set up our gear and sound check whilst the audience were being let in the venue.  What a fucking joke.  The promoter didn’t even turn up to the show.  In my opinion it is his responsibility to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen and that we works with the bands and sound guy to make sure people pull their finger out and get the job done.

It isn’t that I’m not appreciative of having an opportunity to play a venue and I’ll happily turn up early to a venue for sound check, but if the chances are that we won’t get a sound check and that we will be waiting an hour or two for the sound guy, then I wish the promoter would be honest so that we don’t have to miss out on wages at our day jobs, especially if the show is not financially viable.  Some promoters are fantastic at organising their shows and I really do commend them for supporting the bands in this way.

Roebuckfest

This show is a festival that is put on at the same time as a bikers rally.  A fantastic idea that also raises money for charity.  It also gigs some locals bands a chance to play on a bigger stage outdoors and gives young fans who don’t have much money or methods of transport an opportunity to see some good bands.  When I turned up at the venue I couldn’t help but feel surprised that there was no security on the door and only one in sight.  During the day there was a security member on the door, but I still couldn’t help but feel there should have been more throughout the crowd.

We won some new fans at the gig despite a sound I can only describe as disgraceful.  Luckily enough we weren’t the only ones cursed and we managed to make it sound as good as we possibly could.  It was great to meet some new people and share some banter about metal or past and present.  I was also encouraging to see us gathering a younger fan base as well, something I think we have been lacking for a while.  I saw a few people singing my lyrics in the crowd and I can’t explain in words how proud and honoured that makes me feel.  I was so surprised and engrossed by someone who was correctly singing the words of a song we have yet to record, that I actually forgot the words myself and prompted free styled the line.   I chuckled to myself when I saw them explain to a friend that they got the words wrong.

I went home early to draw the curtains and have a horlicks after a solid day of drinking and noticed how the positive atmosphere throughout the day was slowly setting along with the sun.  Some people had obviously had to much to drink and some people should not of been allowed in as I was more than aware of their reputation for trouble.  It did not surprise me in the slightest to hear that trouble the following day meant that the police had to shut the festival down before the headlining acts could take to the stage.  This meant a few hundred people were let loose into the local town and caused a shut down of many pubs.  I’ve seen a number of facebook groups slating the police for not responding soon enough to an original call to them regarding the trouble.  People should realy point their anger towards to idiots that created the trouble, but I don’t think many people have the balls to stand up to people like that and would rather blame others.  I also think that in hindsight far more security would of helped considering that we’ve played shows in front of 30 people where 2 security lads are working.  Ultimately, people should remember that it doesn’t matter how much you prepare, it’s the narrow minded idiots that cause the problems that should be blamed.  I really respect the job the organiser had done for the event and only hope that he isn’t put off future endeavours by this incident.

I will discuss a couple of other shows next week but I think by now you have more than had your fill of my ramblings.  On a more personal note, I am currently getting to grips with some of the tracks on the new album from ‘Colonel Blast’ as I will be handling vocal duties for them next month.  Go to their myspace and check them out.  The album is both solid, varied and always interesting!   I’m looking forward to hitting a stage with them real soon.

www.myspace.com/colonelblast