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

Lord Rochester Sets Sail In The Schooner

Didnt expect to be writing this post , but my friends Dave and Julie Campbell have taken over The Schooner in Gateshead and last night was the first gig featuring the excellent Lord Rochester. I'd seen Lord Rochester at the Central Bar (then under the tenure of Mr Campbell) on the recommendation of someone or otrh , and he's one striking dude with his Bo Diddley sound and custom square guitar, backed by the equally excellent Lady Muck on bass and Siberian Tim on Maracas driven drums (something you don't see every day) . There's a few tracks from the night on my youtube channel here

Lord Rochester's website is here with all the details of how they came into existence, plus the albums and singles available , though you can grab a copy of the excellent Hey Here. I also noticed the Mods and Rockers EP here and the only download I could find is Deathbed.

Needless to say the venue is excellent and the setlist was just one good song after another mixing originals with Bod Diddly and Chuck Berry classics such as Almost Grown.

If you get a chance to see them , do not miss them,

Half Man Total Genius

In 2003 Half Man Half Biscuit played the Cluny . The gig was sold out but I blagged tickets from the then manager of the place Dave Campbell . I thought it may be my only chance to see them . Theres a review of mine here. A year later they were back at Northumbria University , two gigs in 12 months I was beeing spoilt.

Then they were back again on 15th November 2012 at the O2 Academy in Newcastle. Half Man Half Biscuit may seem to be like any other band but they are not. The support band I think were Lovecraft , the sort of band HMHB take with a spoon of salt, Anyway eventually they came on , the mosh pit was packed as the band opended with The Light At The End of The Tunnel.

Blackwell

Zod

Nigel Blackwell was looking more than a little like General Zod, as the band powered through song after brilliant song from there huge back catalog until eventually finishing and returning for the encore opening with a cover of The Beatles' Help with Nigel on his custom caravan guitar.The songs they played run into a blur but "Fuckin' 'ell It's Fred Titmus" , "Everythings AOR" , "National Site Day" , "99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd", "Joy Division Oven Gloves" were in there much to the crowds delight. The whole band were awesome as always and the banter scouse , laconic and funny. Incidentally when they came on Nigel asked if they won the jackpot on Pointless which we had been watching before going to the gig.

Anyway this a band you MUST always see if you have the chance , as Andy Kershaw reckons , the greatest British folk band , always domumenting what is current in society these days.

Also its the first time I've seen the merchandise stand as packed after the gig as it was before the gig . A brilliant night again , thanks to the band,

There website will all the details , T-shirts and merchandise and free sessions including the indisesible "Brampton Live" is here.