Wire On Fire

Last night I went to the Cluny to see Wire for the first time ever in 35 years. The problem with the Cluny is that when it's rammed you are lucky to see the band. Still that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the night.

First band up were a Japanese Neu influenced band called the Xaviers. Consisted of Drummer , Guitarist and Electronics / Percussion. The started and played a seemingly continuous piece for 30 minutes much to the delight of the crowd. I can find nothing of them on the net! If you spot them , try and see them.

Wire hit the stage at twenty to 10 and played for an hour and half mostly incendiary stuff , such as Map Reference , Another The Letter and Adore Your Island. A fantastic night for all.  Really sorry I can't tell you more , it just blurred together in a mess of brilliant sound , one song after another some amazingly short all amazingly good. If you don't own a Wire CD rectify that immediately.

Big Ray , Chestwigs another Schooner Extravaganza

A Good Crowd

Well today was a bill to hope you would see once in your life , The Star Spangled Chestwigs and Big Ray and The Hipthrusters on the same bill outdoors at The Schooner in Gateshead.

 For reasons unbeknown the billing switched round and Big Ray opened , a still huge stage presence powering though classics like nobody's business . "No Spittin On The Bus" , "Riot In Cell Block #9" and Shel Silverstein's politically incorrect "Freakin' ant The Freakers Ball" . The weather was brilliant as were the band .

Big Ray , Ratty and a Chicken

When the band had finished the crowd were treated to Chicken Shit Bingo which raised £25 for charity , if you don't know what it is try Wikipedia , but this one involved Big Ray as adjudicator and a man in a chicken costume.





Next up were the Star Spangled Chestwigs , it was good to see them out of doors in daylight , a first for me I think , and for many of the crowd. Shev a master crowd manipulator in his sparkly dress , Adas the powerhouse drummer  driving the guitare and bass of through "Sweet Caroline" , "Hey Rock and Roll" , "Radar Love" and "Take Me Home, C(o)untry Roads" (John Denver will be turning in his gravy, which is a good thing). Any the crowd loved it , another great sunday at The Schooner. 

Mouth of Tyne Festival 2013

The Stage and some ruins

I'm writing this suffering from heat exhaustion and possibly a little sunstroke despite being well covered in the Priory. Details of the progam can be found here. Anyway this year they decided once in you couldnt come back out , so we'd missed ICENI , incidentally named after a tribe in Britannia (or Britain) who inhabited an area corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD.

We heard The Longsands from outside the Priory and the did sound excellent. I'll be checking them out but follow the link to their site where you can cop a listen.

Next up were Kitten and the Hip from Brighton who again sounded fine , and at this point we went into the impressive confines of the Priory and Castle.  Again check out their web site . Mpouth of Tyne Festivals sledom have duff bands on (last one I think was Dean Friedman).

Aswad we next up and the crowd enjoyed them , though I find their songs a little bland , though the finishing pair of "Don't Turn Around" and "Shine" were strong. Official site here.

The  Wonder Stuff  did not disappoint with a mixture of hits and album tracks , "Size Of A Cow" , "Don't Let Me Down" , "Red Berry Joy Town" , "Unbearable" and more , Miles Hunt and crew were most excellent.  Official site here.

Anyway it was another great day , and am looking forward to next years. I may expand with this with a couple of Wonder Stuff videos.

Some Ruins and The Bars and Hog Roast

Smokin' Wigs and Star Trek Dresses

Last night the Star Spangled Chestwigs had a Bar-B-Q at The Doll at The Black Bull , and it was scorching . The band were on top form and the crowd entered into the summer feel though is was red hot in there. Shev , Adas , Bill & Paul gave two storming sets - with great reaction to "Rivers of Babylon" and "Take Me Home Country Roads" by people who had forgotten or not heard the Chestwigs take on them.

Drinking on the Ceiling

Thanks to Maz and Shev the place is a fantastic venue , and was impressed by the table and chaires on the ceiling and the great selection of drinks and remarkably efficient , friendly and tattooed bar staff.

Lot's of great T-Shirts , hair cuts and tattoos on show as well and the crowd were brilliant





 

Shev is out of his tree!

The gig went by like a blur some great dancing , running about , plastic palm trees , Shev's Kilt celebrating his love of all thing celtic !! There was also a young lady with an excellent cock-a-too hair style and Dead Kennedy's jacket on who delivered a heartfelt thank you to all the hard work Maz and Shev have put into the the place

Dixie in her Star Trek Dress

 Special mention has to go to my friend Dixie Foster's Star Trek dress and handbag (the dress all her own work) which had lot's of people stopping to take photographs.



All in all another fantastic Chestwigs gig and looking forward to the next one !

Slacktonbury - 2014

Strange Bruise

Slack Babbath

Just a short write up and an excuse to extol the virtues of Dave and Julie Campbell in putting on another fine sunday session at the Schooner in Gateshead.

We had some fine rock on vinyl from one of the guest DJs with stuff like The Stones Midnight Rambler and ZZ Tops La Grange spilling out from the speakers , and amazingly even the very young kids were loving it all. Dave sorted "Ratty's" barbecue and whilst I fancied something to eat the burgers and portions were too big for me.

By the way if you come down to the Schooner the food is awesome.

Anyway first up were Strange Bruise opening with "Strange Brew" , then I captured them doing an excellent rendition of "White Room". The crowd appreciated them and it's great to have a Cream tribute band in the area.  Certainly worth catching and a great warm up for the headliners.


I'm showing my ignorance here , I dont know what Slack Babbath opened with but Ozzy Ouseburn made a great entrance , the best I've seen since Big Ray joined The Hipthrusters on Newcastle's Blue Carpet. Anyway you can watch it on the first video below:


I managed to also record Symptom of The Universe and the band played many favourites including Snowblind, Iron Man (introduced as Iron Bloke) and Paranoid. The sound quality was excellent and it was a truly brilliant afternoon for all. Looking forward to more but this was a truly memorable occasion

Hot , Green and Spicy

A short post this mainly thanking my friend Barbara Blair for publicising the 2013 Green Festival and the excellent ska band Too Spicy. I caught half their act , but the combination of weather , great music , stage presence was brilliant.

The only cover I noticed was Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand Up" , which was the start of me watching them. I bought their EP which is fine but doesnt capture their live sound , remember thinking that about the early Baghdaddies albums. The other songs I now know the title of were the classic "Fixin'" (on the EP) and "Radical Killer".

Anyway , if you get a chance , go and see them , a wonderful addition to the live music scene , and hope they're around for a long time.

Incoming Gigs

Abominable Showmen - Irish Centre May 11th

This is just a short post to tell you of gigs in the area that are going to be on , which you can still get tickets for. I missed out on tickets for the Public Service Broadcasting gig at The Cluny this Friday , but they , like Strypes are getting very popular very fast. Anyway here goes:

• May 11th - Abominable Showmen at The Irish Centre with the Animal Themed gig . Details here
• May 11th - Lord Rochester play The Schooner for Dave Campbell's Birthday. 
• May 26th - 27th - Evolution Festival Too few bands I want to see but Strypes and Jake Bugg are playing , but they are the only ones that I would want to see
• 6th June - Mudhoney , Meat Puppets and METZ play the Newcastle  O2 Academy
• July 12th-14th Mouth of Tyne Festival featuring The Human League on Friday , Jame Morrison on Saturday , and The Wonder Stuff plus Aswad on the Sunday.
• July 19th-21st Summertyne with loads of acts including The Mavericks and Martha Wainwright , lots of free bands on the Jumpin' Hot Stage as well as The River Cruise!
• The Deputies have the following gigs (all Saturdays)
  • 1st June The Three Tuns (free)
  • 6th July The Teams Club (£3 in aid of GNR)
  • 13th July The Killingworth Club (£3 in aid of MacMillan Cancer)

There will be a lot more going on but this is just an information announcement