It's been a couple of weeks since the last blog post now but I'm gonna try and keep this short. I was halfway through watching 'David Bowie - Five Years' which I'd recorded from Saturday night but the fire alarm in my building went off which distracted me and made me want to write something.
Last night me and Tommy tried something new. We did a not-quite-acoustic gig at Ye Olde Cock Inn in Didsbury. I took my Telecaster, and Tommy brought his acoustic guitar and his newly acquired (1 hour before show time) electric piano, which we may as well have stolen from some poor Spaniard who was desperate to sell before he went back to Madrid "In search of work". I think I put the boot in a bit when I quoted Spain's unemployment rate but he had a dig at United so fuck him. Anyway, what was new about it was the set. It was comprised of 100% covers! We opened with Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen with me on the Telecaster and Tommy on keys, which played out like an unravelling dream: every single line delivered with pure joy. Then we did Mr. Brightside by The Killers before going into Big Love by Fleetwood Mac, both with Tommy backing me on guitar whilst I just sang. Then we finished off with Sit Down by James and Don't Look Back in Anger by The Burnage Beatles. It was an experiment but I think we will be doing more of this in the future as it went pretty well. Great craic. Chris rehearsed with us and was supposed to be involved but he wasn't feeling great so didn't make it in the end. Its a bloody long journey from Atherton to Didsbury and back on public transport anyway so fair play to him for doing it as often as he does. Like I said though, a shame, purely because the version of Get Back by The Liverpool Beatles that we have been messing around with is incredible but only works with the three of us. We've been rehearsing quite a few other tunes as a three piece like this too, including our own set, so look out for pop up gigs like the one last night. We announce them all on the day on Facebook and Twitter so be sure to follow us on both.
Other than that, I have done quite a bit of writing recently. It's interesting material (for me at least) and it certainly isn't like anything I've written before. Like anything I write though, its just the right riff away from being a rock and roller that pays homage to The Glimmer Twins so this paragraph could be rendered useless on reflection. I've been listening to far too much Ryan Adams and Rolling Stones recently so lets hope the final product comes out somewhere in the middle.
In other news, we are trying out bass players this week which is great because it opens the door for Tommy's long awaited move to keys/guitar. We are also talking to our preferred venue for our next Manchester show, although it is looking like it will be towards the end of summer now, as opposed to July as originally planned. The whole thing is shaping up to be massive and I can promise it is gonna be worth the wait. If you are willing to travel in the mean time, we are playing at The Talbot, Burnley on June 5th followed by a double header in London in August starting with Brixton Windmill on August 10th (day before the Charity Shield…against FA Cup Winners, Wigan Athletic…arf) and ending with our hugely anticipated show with The Madding Crowd on August 24th at Archway Tavern (pictured below, Kinks style).
Speaking of The Madding Crowd, Ben and Dom played a fantastic acoustic set at The Go Go Club in Oldham on Saturday night. Now the Metrolink runs from Didsbury to Oldham, I thought I'd go and see them play in their native 'Norf Manchester'. Its a strange trip for an honorary south-sider but I somehow made it out alive. The gig was fancy dress (nobody told me) to the theme of Bugsy Malone, which is my favourite musical but only because I played Leroy when we did it at school. Their set was eclectic to say the least. They played some old favourites, covered Bad Guys from the Bugsy Malone soundtrack and played some new songs from their soon to be released EP 'A Stitch in Time' which I am looking forward to for many reasons, the main one being that the songs are sounding great when they play them live in their stripped down acoustic form but also because they are recording a track with me in my studio which I honestly could not be looking forward to more if I tried. To my ear, their new tunes sound rich. I know what I mean by that but I may have trouble expressing it with words (thank god I found music eh?) so I will just say that one track instantly said to me 'if Rodger McGuinn wrote Piano Man'. Remember, The Madding Crowd possess so much raw power that they make SSAC look like One Direction feat. Justin Bieber. So, now I've turned the hype machine on amongst fans of our own, check The Madding Crowd out all over the internet and keep an eye out for 'A Stitch in Time'. I will be plugging that and the new Faraday EP quite a lot in the coming months.
The aim was to keep this short so I'm gonna go back to being dazzled by Bowie. I will leave you all with a picture of Bowie and Ronson on a train to Aberdeen that I discovered earlier in the year when I visited the Glam! exhibition at Tate Liverpool, a trip I was reminded of this afternoon. Since then, this picture seems to have popped up all over the place and it always reminds me of my Rock and Roll brother, Chris Gilman. And because we have each now created a title for a blog post from the Bowie song Changes, here is Changes. Only realised today that this song is probably about his rise to fame (or possibly lack thereof at the time) so its fitting, hence the title in the first place. Oh look out you rock and rollers, pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Still...whats another year?
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