A Thousand Yard Stare In The House of Love

In the early nineties I became aware of an excellent band called Thousand Yard Stare. Their music was full of jangly and impressive guitar motifs and titles that were often two words melded together like "Wideshire" or "Seasonstream". Eventually after two albums and several EPs they split but their music stayed with me.

Post millenium I started tracking down their music, the two albums and all their EPs (just in CD format), Ebay was instrumental in me tracking this stuff down.

So to the gig, first of all The Boilershop is remarkably pleasant and extremely clean, even in the toilets, absolutely pristine unlike say The Riverside or The O2. All the staff were excellent and sparkling water was available for £2.50 a bottle which was good.

House of Love:

I'll start of with the headliners House of Love who most people had come to see, and they were absolutely excellent drifting from subdued to noise as and when required. They opened with "Christine" the opener from their debut album , which is what they were touring. Unusually their second album has the same eponymous name as the first and contains the excellent "Shine On". Here's a minute of "Christine" that I caught on Instagram.

Thousand Yard Stare:

Due to issues with public transport I arrived at the Boilershop ate ten to eight, doors opened at seven thirty so I thought I wouldn't miss anything. I was wrong, as I was walking up the road Thousand Yard Stare were playing probably my favourite of the their songs, the great parent / child narrative "Version of Me".

The sound of the band in the Biolershop was excellent with drums, guitar and vocals all coming over brilliantly,  Apparently "0-0 After Extra Time" isn't about football, but we got "Comeuppance" (still relevant today, "Seasonstream" and "Wideshire" as well as a few I missed the titles of, but the sound was excellent the jangly guitar motifs came through loud and clear. Click on the links to get an instagram minute of the songs that I caught.

After the gig I spoke with Stephen (vox) and Dominic (drums) who were exteremely affable and seemed to have really enjoyed what, in my opinion was an absolutely brilliant gig, everything that I expected. They said they hadn't included any new material as this was a greatest hits tour, but the new stuff more that stands up with the old material and does sound great. You can hear the new stuff on the "Live at Electric Studios" and their latest two EPs.

How Much Pop Can You Have?

It's Iggy Pop's 71st birthday and my friend Brian along with three other people hosted an "Iggy and the Stooges, Shambolic KO Tribute Afternoon"and truly wonderful it was. The revers running order for the afternoon was:

16.25 IGGY AND THE RAW POWERS
16.00 IZZY POPPED'S FUN HOUSE
15.30 RUBY AND THE SHAKIN' STOOGES
15.10 THE IGGYOTS
14.30 FIVE FOOT JUAN AND HIS GO GO MIDGETS
13.45 MOTOR CITY MYSTERYS
13.10 THEE RAVAGED IGUANAS
12.45 ZIGGY AND THE GERMANS

..and every band was absolutely brilliant. I managed to have quick chats and hugs with Lynn and Dave, Sheila , Barbara, Jonathan, Sarah, and met a wonderful singer called Stephanie and though we have been Facebook friends for yeans for the very first time spoke to Caroline.

So this was a great afternoon for catching up with friends, although when I got there the door was locked, though that was soon rectified.

I was surprised to see quite a few family groups there and the kids loved the bands and were active in the mosh pit.

Each band played three songs and was surprised to see Ziggy and The Germans using pedal steel as the guitar part of the band.

Although everything was excellent I loved Ruby and The Shakin' Stooges take on "No Fun" and Ziggy and The Germans take on "Funtime" so they are the ones I'll include here but you can see all my Youtube posts from today here and my Instagram posts here. I must apologise for the sound quality, I think it was a bit loud for my my Wilefox phone to deal with but you get  the idea.

Looking forward to the next afternoon gig, it was awesome. 

A Very Special Festival - Chase Park Whickham 2015

This is probably not going to be a normal music review, because it's more about the concept of this amazing festival. It's supported by Keiro (you can find out about them here) who cater for the needs of young people with disabilities. Keiro in Japanese for  "Pathway and/or Journey". Hence the festival featured Aukestra brought together by Autism and their love of music. I spoke with the lovely female singer who was wearing a great T-Shirt with the words "My Superpower Is Autism - What's Yours" on the front.

A Special Day

The thing about this festival is that it was designed so that people in wheelchairs could easily get about , with tracks laid on the grass. I spoke with people with various "disabilities" and it was just normal. This is how it should be in everyday life, everyone I spoke to was absolutely brilliant. I will be going again next year as it was totally amazing. Oh and the other thing they had someone signing all the songs for anyone who couldn't here. This festival really did bring everyone together.

Also it was family friendly so lots of children heard some brilliant music , so I'll run though the music now with the odd thing that stood out for me. When I first saw the poster I thought Turin Brakes were the headliners, then I looked at the snazzy graphic and realised they were second on the bill!

My next shock was the ticket prices £6 for an adult , £10 for a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children).

Anyway there was a lot of music on there so I will just point out a few as I said before.

First band that struck me were Hot Soles  , who I did get close up to but produce some excellent rock sounds and any bill with them on is woorth going to see.

Then next were Gallery Circus who get better every time I see them, Theres only two of them but they make an amazing noise and have come on in leaps and bounds since I first saw them in Bar Loco .. and they were good then.

Aukestra were again excellent and I talked about them at the start of this post, just great to see them enjoying themselves and entertaining the crowd and I did catch 15 seconds of them on my Instagram feed , which is here.

Hulkenburg looked and sounded as you would expect from the name , a monster challenging two piece who might have frightened the children but I certainly liked them.

Monogram came on around five and sounded awesome and epic , I suggest you check them out although only a three piece the sound that cam e just filled the area , in a very exciting way. Check them out .

Slug were next up , part of the Sunderland family that has brought us The Futureheads , Field Music and Beak, dressed to the nines and impressing the crowd with some amazing and sophisticated sounds.

Turin Brakes still have it and their songs hit the right chords with everybody, and amazingly rich sound provided by two acoustic guitars . There songs , once heard are never forgotten.

Finally Ash hit the stage and the crowd went sedately wild , there were children and and peopel with disabilities all having a great time. I included the filmed finale which blurs at times , but you can see the song being signed and the crowd having an amazing time. They played lots of hits , some new stuff including "Free" and  "Cuckoo" from Kablammo  finishing up with Burn Baby Burn.

An amazing and perfect day

I'm now looking forward to the next one.

An Unexpected Sailing on Clippah at JJ20

This is a post I certainly didn't expect to do , especially on the blog. It was my friends John and Julie's 20th Wedding anniversary , but where most people organize a meal , night out , part at home , John and Julie organised their own weekend festival with camping , bands and DJs in a big field in Northumberland signposted by JJ20 signs down even ever smaller and rougher roads until you find the place, which is well landscaped for music.

The Engineer Has It Covered

Last nights band Clippah were a young five piece , the lead singer sporting a huge beard. They ran through an instrumental sound check which sounded promising and I posted 15 seconds of it on Instagram.The engineer had a great sense of humour as the picture shows, and then the band kicked. My first impressions were Free, and they had a good mix of originals and covers , doing justice to the Sonics "Have Love Will Travel" and a superb version of the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter", I didn't catch the titles of all the songs but the crowd loved them and the time flew by., remember "Rib Cage" and "Coastline" was brilliant.




They have a Facebook page and play a charity night with the DJooks in Morpeth (details here)

An  excellent night and will be seeing these guys again

Stand and Deliver - The Chestwigs Come Again

Chestwigs Suitably Attired

Sheve Serenades Alan

Just a short post to say how excellent the Star Spangled Chestwigs were last night at The Doll at The Black Bull . All kitted out in winter attire in the middle of summer for a typical brilliant night.










Opening with Showaddywaddy's "Hey Rock and Roll" Shev press ganged me into singing the "Hey Hey Hey" response when the crowd weren't playing yet. I post a few pictures on Instagram and Twitter using the #SHITE hashtag if you want to check them out, though oddly the Chestwigs don't appear on that feed but it recommends you check out Ant and Dec and Fearne Cotton , so go figure that one.

Crowd Participation

Anyway the Bull was full and jumping , the crowd and band totally up for it and every song was brilliantly executed, and still find their take on "Rivers of Babylon" amazingly inspired.











The Doll at The Black Bull is now the North Easts number one Punk venue , I remember walking in when Maz and Shev took over, the place is unrecognisable and just a brilliant place to be, great staff , great crowd , great band and great everything and and a great setting for a great band. The Chestwigs always deliver and last night they did it again.

Fantastic gig.