Peter Buzzcock Shelley

This week we unexpectedly lost Pete Shelley and there are been a lot of respectfully posting and a lot of suddenly crawling out the woodwork tributes and love like when anyone passes on.

It's possible that the Buzzcocks kicked off the Manchester punk scene, I remember Shelley with his half a Woolworths guitar proving that anyone could do it. They took this further with the self produced and distributed "Spiral Scratch" EP.  The was the true spirit of Independence and it sickens me when I hear of some new "Indie" band have signed to a label to produce their first record. The thing is now, with digital distribution, it is far easier to self produce and publish than it was in the mid seventies. There was no internet or home computers then.

Shelley was there from the start and I didn't realise that their original drummer was Mick Singleton (no relation).  Their original single came out on their own "New Hormones" print but they signed to United Artists for their first album, and the single "Orgasm Addict" which the BBC refused to play at the time.

Shelley came up with one of the greatest riffs ever which appeared in the Buzzcock's "Lipstick" but was used by Howard Devoto for Magazine's debut single "Shot By Both Sides".

They were responsible for inviting the Sex Pistols to play the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, a gig that everyone was at, apparently. I think I saw both bands at the Lodestar at Ribchester, and later saw The Buzzcocks at the King George's Hall in Blackburn. I arrived after a darts match and the bouncers tried to confiscate my darts and belt, so I took em back to the car (the confiscated stuff was just being piled up). Then was amazed they were selling drinks in glasses, bottles and cans which idiots were chucking at the stage as well as gobbing at the band and at one point Shelley threatened to walk off. I didn't blame him, but the band played a full set and encore.

I then saw them at Newcastle UNi and the final time I saw them was a cracking set at the Mouth of Tyne Festival.

Pete Shelley wrote some amazing pop and produced some great solo albums and his second album "XL1" contained computer graphics for the ZX Spectrum that played in time with the music. As there's a Youtube take on that I'll include it below, but I am including a great video for my favourite Buzzcocks song "Why Can't I Touch It" absolutely perfect Shelley.

Two Festivals: Corbridge and Mouth Of Tyne 2014

This weekend I treated myself to two festivals. Both were excellent and although there was a bit of rain it didn't affect the day too much. At Corbridge the rain came during Big Country's set and at the Mouth of Tyne it was during Neville Staple's set.

Saturday: Corbridge

Corbridge Festival

Talk Like Tigers

I got there a bit late and had missed the excellent Bessie and The Zinc Buckets and the compering of Stefan Peddie, but got of f at the train station walked past the excellent Valley Junction restaurant located there and destination of the Curry Train from Newcastle , past the caravans and tents (thinking this is quite a gathering), then a guy with a guitar on top of a platform, and a small (what I thought was and acoustic tent as someone was playing there) to what I thought was the main tent where the excellent Talk Like Tigers were taking to the stage. I enjoyed the set, and so did the crowd but I was thinking that this was a bit small for a festival stage and thinking is this it. Check out their web site and give them a listen, I think you will enjoy.



I then wandered round the corner saw a big crowd and the main stage, so I'd found the where I needed to be and had left was was actually the main stage, Where Leeds band The Happy Daggers were playing. The crowd liked them but their brand of pop funk was not my thing, although the final song Get Yourself Together was good and they left the crowd happy.

Ska Toons on the Night Boat To Cairo

Next up were the excellent Ska Toons , with an excellent ska based but eclectic set which included a ska version of Johnny and The Hurricanes "Red River Rock". The band really got the crowd going and their set was shorter than normal (most bands were playing 30-40 minutes, so it went by in the blink of an eye touching Madness, Toots and The Maytals and many other ska and pop touchstones, a must see if you get the chance.

Chris Helme - ex Seahorse

There was then an announcement that Chris Helme , the original singer with The Stone Roses was playing the acoustic tent. This obviously got my interest as I was sure that Ian Brown had been their front man from day 1 , but I went along to a packed acoustic tent where Chris Helme was just launching into the Faces' "Ooh La La" , which went down well. He then did a few more songs before doing  The Seahorses' "Love Is The Law", then it became clear, he was The Seahorses original singer. Again another great set which I enjoyed before wandering back to the main stage.

Then is was back to the main stage for Boy Jumps Ship who reminded me a little of General Fiasco, who are in the Kerrang chart  with their current single "Call To Arms". They were followed by half an hour of Chart Rave from Rozalla who the crowd really enjoyed , followed by the human beatbox Ball-Zee who kept the crowd jumping even though the rain started coming down.



Everyone was waiting for Big Country. As they stated "The faces have changed but the songs remain the same", and they certainly did not disappoint. They opened with "Harvest Home", and despite the rain they crowd were buzzing throughout the night's final set.They only played for about 80 minutes including encore, but the set seemed to go very quickly as the light faded and the rain was just sporadic. There were a lot of smiling faces both on and off stage. Big Country's sound is particularly suited to outdoor events , and they were excellent headliners for this gig. A rousing end to a brilliant day.


Sunday: Mouth of Tyne

Mouth of Tyne Festival

Sunday started off with heavy rain in Newcastle, which was a bit worrying for the Mouth Of Tyne Festival. After the success of Corbridge , my expectations weren't to high for the Sunday gig, and the previous night Paul Weller had been here. The full online program is here and hopefully t will stay there permanently. The afternoon was enhances by meeting up with some great friends, which is great for sharing the experience, whereas Corbridge had been totally solo.

I got into the Priory  and Jen Stevens and The Hiccups from South Shields were playing who provided an hour orf pleasant songs. the band I had come to see was Nevile Staple (ex Specials and Funboy 3)  and he certainly did not disappoint. Ska is great music in any environment and it was great to see all ages enjoying the gig.  

Neville Staple   is the first act I've seen more than once in this setting (the last time was as support to the Buzzcocks)  , he and his band could certainly come back as a headliner.





Toploader followed and while the first number was acceptable they soon descended into the blandness I expected , which some people love but I don't, and so I then left as I was not too bothered about the Brand New Heavies.

So all in all two great days, neither of which I would have wanted to miss.

I'm now looking forward to next year.

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

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

Mouth of Tyne Festival - 2012

The omens for this year's Mouth of Tyne Festival didn't bode too well. The street entertainment in previous years had been reducing , this year's headliners wer Heaven 17 , not my idea of a headliner and the cost of tickets for the Sunday gig was now £10 a ticket and £5 for children. Added to that the weather in the run up had been mostly torrential rain.

Then .....

Sunday morning glorious sunshine ,  great start to rhe day. Arriving in Tynemouth I found  I'd missed The Undertones  , Richard Hawley , The Wanted & McFly and the Festival actually started on Thursday , but I didnt have the cash or time to see the other act, and some of tem I would rather not see!!

Lots of street entertainment and the weather stayed good . Two highlights were a couple of weird cycly taxis for children which were going down very well. The trad jazz stage att the entrance to the Priory is still there and the crowd in front fairly rammed. Always well attended.

Tickets for the Sunday were sold out like last year , and so on to the Priory having missed the openers The Caffrey Brothers. So this is how it went:

• Rossi Noise : Loud Rage Against The Machine lite band and an excellent opener for me , would see them again.
• Yes Sir Boss : Bristol based ska band , who had driven up that morning , who had excellent rhythm but no memorable tunes until the last two numbers which got the crowd up and was a big tick as far as I was concerned displaying Klezmer influences as well as their Nu Ska sound.
• The South : or The Beautiful South sans Paul Heaton. Surprisingly excellent with an excellent Paul Heaton lookalike / sound alike . Every song was instantly recognisable , and they even included a cover of Cass Elliot's "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" , overall the best band of the afternoon.
• Heaven 17 : The problem with Heaven 17 is that most peopl eonly remember Temptation , and while there were odd songs I remembered such as "Fascist Groove Thing" and "Crushed By The Wheels of Industry" , the band were fighting against adverse weather and some dodgy material, and , as Bob said , a keyboard player (Martin Ware) who should have been working in a library!. Finally came a storming version of "Temptation" and if the set had consisted of songs this good it would have been brilliant , but it was still worth waiting for. They finished to rapturous applause and then dropped the bombshell ... "We're going to play another song!!" . "How?"  "You haven't got another song" .  What we were forgetting was that Martin Ware had a hand in writing the Human League's best ever song "Being Boiled" , and they topped "Temptation" with that. Those two songs were worth the entry fee but we got the rest as well.

So another brilliant final day for the Mouth Of Tyne Festival.

No Money Down: MOTFEST 2011

The Mouth of Tyne Festival 2011 was the first one that was a ticket (£2.50) only event for the Sunday festival in The Priory. I nearly missed out but mty friend Sarah let me have hers. The details are here.

In the street there were some amazing exhibitions like these dinosaurs!!




The line up ran thus:

13:00 Martin Stephenson

           Played some excellent folk and rockabilly stuff getting th ecrowd of to an excellent start.

14:00 Fuel Fandango
           Didnt see these but heard excellent reports.

15:00 Smoove and Turrell
           Didnt see these either

16:00 Neville Staple Band
           Some excellent ska covers (Johnny Too Bad , Pressure Drop) , Specials numbers (Ghost Town ,
           Gangsters) and one or two originals . Well worth seeing and had the crowd jumping.



17:00 Buzzcocks
           Headlining act and they were superb helmed by Shelley and Diggle , finding room in their
          set   for my two favourites (Why Can't I Touch It? and Love You More() , tearing through loads
          of hits in thesun , and encoring with Harmony In My Head , Ever Fallemn In Love and
          Orgasm   Addict.


There's a lot of photographs from the day here
A superb day , but next year I'll be getting my ticket early!!

This Perfect Day: MOTFEST 2010

This years's Mouth of Tyne Festival again got perfect weather and was the best attended one I've seen so far. The website is here. The downside of this was that the food and drinks trailers had permanent queues which we circumvented by bringing in our own drinks which meant we could lie on the grass , talk and listen to the bands in glorious sunshine , not having to move to get a drink. The contents of our pack looked like this at some point in the afternoon.

The only time we had to move was to get up for a toilet break, and must admit the portaloos were spotless and almost pleasant to use!!! Maybe that's a sign of age.

Only caught four of the acts.

Walked in on Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny who were excellent crowd pleasers , and included a cracking version of "Devil In Disguise" . Well worth tracking down and here's a litle video of them below:

Next up were the Batacuda Sound Machine from Auckland New Zealand (web site here) who served up some festival friendly funk. Them live below:

Next up were the hit of the day , The Easy Star All Stars , who entertained with dub and reggae versions of most of Sergeant Peppers , Pink Floyd's Money , Radiohead's Paranoid Android and closing with Karma Police . An odd choice to finish with but awesome and perfect festival entertainment especially in the sun . You can download their albums here , and see them below doing "Money":

Headliners were the Lightning Seeds , but without England in the World Cup Final (which wasnt gonna happen) they had their work cut out . The opened with "Sense" my absolute favourite and managed to keep big chunks of the crowd dancings even through the ill advised cover of Phil Spector's "Be My Baby". Below is an acoustic rendition of Sense:

All in all another excellent Festival , looking forward to next years!!

Summertyne 2009

The Summer Festivals are coming thick and fast and the Tyneside Americana Festival under the Summertyne banner is another great one.This year must be the best one yet with a superb turn out and an incredible line up. Some goigs are paid and some are free and it's a combination of live acts and films shown both inside and outside of the Sage.

Because of the clashes , the fact that there was hardly an inch of free space outside , the hot sun and all that , I ended up catching just a couple of the acts .

Two Fingers of Firewater and Eliza Gilkyson produced some excellent country sounds , but unfortunately I missed out on the headlining Hot Club of Cowtown , due a major sun induced headache.

However Ryan Shaw was a major revelation , the band starting with a reasonable funk / soul instrumental workout , before Ryan appeared with a stunning rendition of the Jimmy Cliff song "Many Rivers To Cross" , this was followed by one of their own song featuring gorgeous backing vocals from the band. If you want to download the album you can download it here. Here's them in 2006 doing "We Got Love":




Had to cut the gig short to catch Baby Gramps inside for his fourth set of the day!! I've seen Baby Gramps before and theres a lot of debate as to whether he's real or animatronic!!. Let me put you right, the guy is a total gentleman as I found out talking to him after the gig . The gig itself featured a new pirate song , and a hell of a lot of audience participation. A Baby Gramps gig is an experience you will never forget, this him with the Akron Family doing "Cape Cod Girls" on Letterman:



Bands Featured :

Memory of a Free Festival - MOTFEST Sunday 2009

The Mouth of Tyne Festival has been going for a number of years now (see the website here)and still maintains the essence of a decent free festival , no wristbands , no fenced off areas, decent music and you can get a decent drink either at the Iron Horse Saloon in the Priory on at one of the many pubs along Front Street such as Hugo's and The Turks.

The rain kept off and early in the afternoon with visited the trad jazz stage. I'm not really a fan of this sort of music but the bands fit the event and it's enjoyable to lie on the grass, drink beer , and soak in the atmosphere. We caught the Hot Five Jazzmakers from Canada and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band from Switzerland , both were excellent. Any bands available are on the carousel at the bottom of this post.

Next up were the excellent Soznak in Front Street . They should have been on the main stage. If you've never heard them think Baghdaddies with African instead of Middle Eastern influences. And the video is the rather wonderful "Weekily":


Unfortunately , we had to leave them early to see the wonderful Teddy Thompson who even covered Abba's Super Trouper , has the most amazing voice and held the crowd spellbound for an hour. The guy is a genius , just like his dad.

Amazingly the headliners Dodgy were even better , being greeted by bright sunshine and steaming through hits and album tracks delighting the crowd. Someone got "Staying Out For The Summer / Good Vibrations" here:


The problem was that the Baghdaddies were in South Shields when Dodgy were on so here's them doing "Not Drowning But Raving":



Here's some stuff from the afformentioned bands on Amazon: