NEWS ARCHIVE
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06/07/05 - |
Some of you may remember that we did a UK tour last year with Wob and the sublime Jason Webley from Seattle. If you do, you'll probably remember Jason's hypnotic stageshow most of all. It was wonderful to have him back here, and it felt sad that this time we were just with him for one show. The Marlborough gets hotter with each passing day. The place filled up pretty quickly, and we were first treated to a post Live 8 Wob, who was worn to a frazzle by his busy weekend. He was on good form however, and delivered as sound a set as always. We played betwixt he and the squeezeboxed one, and did a set of mainly new songs, so It's Never Too Late To Be Good, Bigot and The Virus and All Change received their virginal blasts. Pennywatchers inspired a singalong, although with the lights as bright as they were, we couldn't see where it was coming from. Jason was awesome, and I was chuffed at how many people present knew the words. I reckon some had seen him at Glastonbury. He did more guitar songs than last year, incuding a few penned since, but it was nice to be treated to such songs as Music To Put Things Back Together, The Last Song, Dance While The Sky Crashes Down and of course the nausea inspiring Drinking Song. Bloody marvellous, and we all trouped back to Buz and Emma's (Punker Bunker) abode for teenage deliquent movie trailers and a cup of beer. |
| 9/06/05 + 10/06/05 Pog @ The Marlborough and The Sanctuary, Brighton |
It was a weekend of legends for us, namely Wreckless Eric and Alan Clayson. So, star-struckedness aside (especially seeing as they're both such warm, smashing people) we strode the tiny stages of the Marlborough and the Sanctuary like colossi. Friday was very hot - the Marlbourough is prison to a local Noise Abatement Society member, who complained twice the weekend prior. So no doors open. We went on and did our thing, and it was nicely well-recieved. The thrill of supporting 'established' names is usually tempered by the fact that opening acts are usually tolerated in a polite, cautious way, and really everyone is waiting for the name of the night to play. And what an act he gave! Eric always leaves me feeling gobsmacked, violated and emotional. Tonight was no exception. In fact it was probably heightened by the Dantesque environ - very hot, reddish stage lights and a tiny box. Songs across the twenty odd year span were played, including (naturally enough) Whole Wide World and Recconaiz Cherie. Roughly half of the new Bungalow Hi album was played as well. Same always sends shivers down my spine. Friday evening was a four act bill, namely We Am Janet, who really should be world famous, but perhaps in a similar way to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. They showcased a couple of new songs tonight - Tea O Lay and In Theory. Roger is great, and so are Nic and Dan. Alan Clayson followed with a set so cosmic it actually blew my mind to a degree. I always really enjoy Alan's set, but I'm always left wondering if I enjoyed it in the intended way. I can't really describe what he does in a way that would do it justice, but Eric said the night before that an Alan Clayson set was like watching something breaking down in front of you. Appropriately enough, one of his keyboards packed up during the last song. But it was a good hour or so from a genuine genius. Still rocking at 54. We played afterwards and the likeness to a school disco kept occuring to me. I think the Sanctuary's new asinine atmosphere helped there. It was well recieved. Project Adorno always have a new song or two to show off when they visit Brighton, and these camein the form of a couple of fresh library songs. I've banged on enough about the Adorno in previous writeups, so suffice it to say, they were superb. |
| 25/05/05 Pog @ The Freebutt, Brighton |
After Wasted we were expecting a few days respite until I was informed I'd got the date wrong on the flyers and we were actually playing the following evening. It was nice though - The Freebutt was transformed into Cafe Butt for the evening and we played to roughly twenty people. Cafe Butt should be a regular feature. Also on the bill were Capital Skill (although they'd changed their name to Edgar Poe shortly before playing) who were a couple of guys I recognised from an open-mic I'd put on a couple of years ago. They were very nervous, and looked like they'd attempted to quash the terror with dope, but the songs shone through. Last time I saw the singer in action I remember noting that I liked his voice. I'll go and see them next time, I reckon. Flying Marrows were back in action after a year or so in Brighton, and it was really nice to see them again. Since our last encounter, they'd wisely invested in guitar straps so they could approach the rock vertically. Tashegra were on next, who play alt-country style stuff. They were minus their banjo player, but still had melancholy by the bucketload! Bagheera finished the night, and I enjoyed them immensely. However, post-Wasted tiredness kicked in towards the end, and Annalise had to jab me in the ribs at one point. Afterwards we went back to Buz's house and ate all his food. |
| 24/05/05- Pog @ Wasted Festival, Morecambe |
Wasted was great, once again. We arrived on Wednesday evening and spent the evening in the campsite pub, which boasted a nightly entertainments package comprising kareoke, bingo, live cabaret courtesy of Becky Jay, Full Stop (excellent young male comedy duo - very entertaining) and Dean Richards (sensational star vocal entertainer) and a kids comedian who looked like Timmy Mallet meets Mr Motivator. The next day Amateur Ninja Club opened the festival to a small but increasingly warm audience. My favourite part of the festival was when Annalise cried upon meeting Toyah. There seems to be a sizeable chav problem in Morecambe, but I reckon the Wasted weekend polices it to a degree, as for three days out of 365 they don't own the streets, and they look as scary as the moronic, malnourished teenagers dressed in white plastic they are. Daytime sustenance was supplied by the wonderful Rita's cafe (chips and beans for £1.55). We did our set on Friday afternoon, and even had a few brave souls dancing. It was a really nice gig, with a particularly vocal tableload of punters being particularly enthusiastic! Playing such a down-the-line punk fest always makes me fear being such a twee combo, but my fears were ill-founded. Full marks once again to Jennie and Darren Russell for putting together such an inspirational festival. I came back feeling completely recharged. |
| 09/04/05 Pog @ The Marlborough, Brighton |
Our show at The Marlborough on Easter Sunday was lovely. It was one of the regular Don't Feed The Poets nights that the irrepressibly cheeky Justin Rhyme hosts. As it turned out, we were the only musical relief in an evening of spoken word. First up was a lady called Brenda (I think). She opened with a spot on, but somehow ''why oh why' letter to the local newspaper' type piece on lad mags and their dependency on statistics and lists, rather than actual action. As her set progressed she did one of my pet hates, which is a poet describing (through verse) their sex life in graphic detail while gyrating breathlessly round the mic stand. Always gets me, that one. And then onto death - her husband died of cancer 11 days after their wedding. Shut me up anyway. After that we played, and due to the advancing years of many of the audience members, dropped Compulsory Euthanasia from our set. Once again, I'm New Here was also snipped out due to set length. One day.. one day.. it was very warmly recieved which surprised me to a degree, but not so much because we had tailored our set for suitability! After us was Liz Bentley, who performed as a nervous, naive and slightly bitter spinster type with a ukulele - I enjoyed some of her poems, particularly the unaccompanied song about cyclists that ruin your day by being mental on the road. Rachel Pantechnicon of Project Adorno closed the night, and was as masterful (mistresful?) as ever. Rachel's set is always a real joy to behold - she presents as a clearly insane mother hen who never gets the right angle on things, messes up stories and jokes and can't end poems. Justin compered through the evening with considerable ablomb, and someone won a boiled egg. Why can't all shows be like this one? |
| 23/03/05 Pog @ The Sanctuary, Brighton |
Deacon did indeed get it together to play with us last night, and a very welcome addition he was too. It was a real thrill to hear the keyboard parts and acknowledge that they were being played live. And I couldn't take me eyes off his fingers dancing out Compulsory Euthanasia. And so we came to play with Kevin 2 Sheds and Ska Gal, playing an acoustic set as the full band are no longer active (a shame). Kevin was fantastic, and managed to coax a good response from a crowd who were there primarily for Ska Gal. If you get a chance to see Kevin play, I recommend it highly. He's like an irreverent 21st century hybrid of David Bowie, Dan Treacy, Patrik Fitzgerald and Jilted John. I tried to describe to him that if his songs had been written during the first wave of punk they'd have gone down in subcultural folk history, but I think he took it to mean that I was saying he was dated. Next time I shall keep my meanderings where they belong. We went on next, heads full of the continual Talulah Gosh / C86 comparisons Ian Ska Gal kept making during our soundcheck. I'll blame that on the (to our minds, endearing) shambles that resulted. As mentioned about, Deacon kept his end up admirably well, but an unholy coalition between the minidisc player and the venue's noise limiter (vile contraptions) kept us on our toes in a very unpleasant way! During Little Fishes the sound kept cutting out, which was the only event during our set to effectively shut the audience up. I don't know what it is about the Sanctuary that invites such a strong hobbledehoy element. However, I think we won people over, in so far as we apparently exhibited a charming bumble to our proceedings. We didn't have time to play I'm New Here, which was possibly just as well as its still very wet behind the ears. Ska Gal closed the night with a magical, effortless acoustic ska set. Danni must have one of the most stunning voices in Brighton, and Ian told a joke about a lobster. A NICE evening. |
| 14/03/05 Pog @ Hobgoblin, Brighton |
The Shambles show last Sunday at The Hobgoblin was exactly that! But in a good way. We ended up playing with three other acts. The first were two guys from a local punk band called CJD. When I did the Mr. Bethnal and Mr. Ongar comic book, I was going to bundle a CD with it featuring Mr B and Mr O's band. It would have sounded like the inane, puerile and totally ridiculous noise these lads managed to summon forth. I loved it, but felt like I shouldn't have done. It made me laugh lots. The second act, who are apparently regulars on the Shambles stage were OK (the high point for me was a cover of Cliff Richards' 'Devil Woman'), but they let themselves down with some 'humourous' homophobia towards the end. They were OK but I don't think they'd survive far outside their circle of friends in terms of comedy. The Speece Eenveeders (or something) were an ugly mish-mash of psych hippy weirdouts that ventured too far into 'show off how many instruments we can play at the expense of a decent song' territory for my liking. They had boons however - the Chaos Box device was well utilised, and there were some nice vocals. We went on last and pretty much banged in the faces of the couple of dozen present. It went down pretty well, and we gave the first full outing of I'm New Here which now sits at 8 minutes long. I had to tie a strip of rag around my arm to stop the guitar rub from annihalating my flesh. |
| 14/02/05 Pog @ Evening Star, Brighton |
Last night at the Evening Star was an odd one. We made the mistake of opening with a pair of slow, acoustic moaners which were completely ignored. So we changed tact with Dog End Man, Little Fishes and a few blasters, which were also ignored, and a table of people right at the front simply turned up their own volume accordingly. This is something I have a real problem with, both at Pog gigs and gigs generally. The etiquette of performance dictates that the band have to remain polite and tight-lipped in the face of total rudeness. I pointed out (possibly rather grouchily) that there were probably over 100 pubs in Brighton that didn't |