Set Sail Fest @ The 1 in 12 Club Bradford 11/09/10

Set Sail Fest @ The 1 in 12 Club Bradford 11/09/10

So off to the legendary 1 in 12 Club in Bradford for one of their all dayers.  These tend to range from awesome to empty so there was a slight trepidation to the day!  Luckily this day veered more towards the awesome and fair play to Sean for this being his first ever gig, the place was nicely packed (though with 14 bands it would be hard not too!) and I didn’t see a dud band over a looong day and night.

Most people know Oliver John Ward as Jugs, Sweet Jugs, ‘that dude from Rooftops’ or many more never derogatory (!) names.  Well he’s recently branched into that perilous field of punks that is going solo.  I know Ollie is a good dude but was a bit worried about what he’d be like on his own.  Luckily I, and many others there were very surprised by how good he was.  Rather than going the ‘folk-punk’ route, Ollie plays his guitar hard, sings from his guts and packs a serious punch, plowing a very unique style and oh the poem at the end!  When you listen to the poem, remember that a small child was in the room at the time.

Here’s a video of one of Ollie’s tunes then right-click here to download the full set (set list coming soon).

Apologies I Have None played a mid afternoon set and it was great to see them playing to a non-home town audience and still getting an incredible reception.  I won’t wax on about them any further as I think I’ve said it all before but this set really reaffirmed that they are one of the greatest bands going in the UK at the moment.  So as a break from the norm here’s a video of the whole set.  It was originally recorded in awesome HD quality but for some reason when I divided the video up for youtube the quality moved to that of an 80’s VHS but hey!

Part (1)

Part (2)

Part (3)

Part (4)

Whilst we’re chucking out videos, here’s one of my boys We Grow Beards rocking out ‘Miner’s Strike’ later in the day.  Good times were had by all in their set including members of Apologies and Don’t Let Paris Fool You stage invading for their now fairly tight (honestly!) Against Me cover.

My biggest surprise of the day was Durham’s One Night Stand In North Dakota.  If I’m going to be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to them, I’d written them off as another shitty ‘folk punk’ band of which there are very few doing it well.  How wrong was I.  Without one of the most exciting, inspiring and enjoyable sets I’ve seen in quite some time.  Managing to show a well considered, intellectual covering of important issues without patronising people and all the whilst managing to create an atmosphere where people can sing a long, crowd surf and have an amazing time.  I never thought two people with acoustic guitars could create this and I’ll be checking out their back catalogue asap on Discount Horse Records

Set List:

Heterosexuality is a Construct

Shop Less Live More

Kim Kelly is My Friends

If Anyone Needs Me I’ll Be in the Angry Dome

That Takes Ovaries

Either He’s Dead or My Watch Has Stopped

My Clean Sweep at the Clown Oscars

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

I could Carve a Better Man out of a Banana

Download the set from here by right clicking and saving as or just click to stream!

Apologies I Have None @ The Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

Apologies I Have None are shit hot, that is all you need to know.  If you would like to know more though, then in the words of Chris Morris, ‘here is the news…’.  AIHN used to be a two piece (Josh and Dan) they were fucking sweet and the songs were shit hot.  Then a little while ago they announced they were becoming a four piece, moving Josh from drums to second guitar and getting in a drummer and bassist; uh oh! said everyone, change is bad!  We were all apprehensive but then we found out PJ (of Rooftops, Neil Sutherland Band and mostly importantly of all PJ & Gaby fame) was to be the bassist, this made the world less sceptical as he’s a well known cool dude and wouldn’t be in a shit band.  Then I saw AIHN as a four piece and all was good with the world.  The songs are now bigger, warmer, dare I say better and with some bad ass motown-esque bass lines.  Rejoice!  Here they are playing at the Cowley Club in Brighton in fine fettle, a slightly shorter set than usual as shit was tight on the night with lots of bands but I like short sets (leaves you wanting more innit).  So tuck on in then go and buy their new 7″ from here its ace and has some cut out and fold animals, what more could you want?!

Set List:

BENT STRINGS

100 CLUB

SAT IN VICCY PARK

JOINERS AND WINDMILLS

GREEN GREEN MABLEY GREEN

right click and save as to download from here

North West is Best Fest @ The Junction Harrow 20.03.10

On the 20th March 2010, the one and only Olly Jugs put on a ridiculous amount of bands (12!) between 4.30 and 11.30 in the ‘cosy’ space that is the function room above the Junction pub in Harrow.  Downstairs is a vast ‘Scream’ pub with students and 80’s anthems, upstairs was a punk rock dream.  I haven’t been to any all dayer in ages where every band I saw was so ace and everyone was having such a good time.  Here’s some of the sets from the day (sorry I couldn’t record all of them but sometimes I had a drink or falafal or chips in my hand, and even once a bass and I’m incapable of doing two things at once).  Also there’s a great video by Ema up here from the day and some great photos by her and Dan over here.

ATHENS POLYTECHNIC

Athens Polytechnic opened the day up and in more than one ways set the mood and standard for the day.  A chaotic, youthful band who were very new to me; they play fast, snotty garage influenced hardcore with two singers.  I reckon this lot will be popping up on a lot of people’s radar’s soon and if both frontmen start to get a bit more comfortable and just be themselves they’ll really come into their own.  For better or worse (and I imagine it’s due to watching American Hardcore one too many times) singer Rory also came up with the best between song banter of the day directed towards the promoter without realising every single person there was a mate of said promoter, which gave every band after some ammunition for comedy gold.  I’ll let you work out which bit it was.  Random comments and slight harrassment of friends aside, this band are fucking good and I’m really really looking forward to seeing them again and picking up the demo when it’s out.

Set List:

OTHER SHOES

…AND I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT AS WELL IF IT WASN’T FOR THOSE MEDDLIN’ BOOKS

MOUTH TO MOUTH

SOCIETY LADY

LAST GOOD CITIZEN

THE KIDS WILL NOT HAVE THEIR SAY

THE DAY FASHION DIED

right click/save as to download their set from here

ROOFTOPS

Rooftops are the London via Norwich hardcore supergroup comprising members past, present and future of PJ & Gaby, Apologies I Have None, The Neil Sutherland Band, TV Party, Fletch Cadillac and The Scrape.  Mixing up doom laden hardcore with upbeat hooks and punk anthems this is a beast like no other (well maybe a bit like Young Livers or Samiam at times?).  The band were in full swing, the crowd were keen and guitarist/promoter Olly was well and truly boozed up and on form.  Enjoy.

Set List:

BLACK ICE

CAN’T IMAGINE YOU NOT BEING IN THIS TOWN

MAKERS MARK

SUN CREAM AND SAND

BOOK FOR A CROOK

I KNOW YOUR FAULTS I JUST CHOOSE TO IGNORE THEM

HARDHEADED

right click/save as to download their set from here

MEN

MEN (apologies for lack of live photo but thee camera ran out from all the rock) are a three piece band from Norwich.  I can’t pretend to know much about them as all my info was taken from a brief chat with Lloyd (of Southport fame) who tells me they used to be in a band called Fun? Yeah!.  All I know is that they were bloody nice blokes, had bloody good beards and were bloody good.  To me they sounded like a more poppy mid paced Marked Men but have a listen and decide for yourself.  You can also download their whole recorded output free from here so go do that and then buy a t-shirt or just give them some cash when you see them as a thank you for being so nice and giving away free music.

Set List:

DOMESCIBELS

GED SME

WORKIN’ IN THE OFFICE

CALCULATORS

BIG FUCKER

RE: YOUR RE-BRANDING

right click/save as to download the set from here

SERF COMBAT

Well it was inevitable I would cave and put my own band on here someday… This is our set from the all day fest.  We were on waaaay too high up on the bill but everyone humoured us.  People seemed to be into it and we had a total ball.  Our guitarist Paul summed it up well by saying we played our best when our mates were there and I reckon this is the total truth.  It’s the best I think we’ve played for a while (make of that what you will) and it’s always nice to see people singing along.  You also get the chance to hear some great drunken, mildly out of time singing from Dunc of WEGROWBEARDS fame who was kind enough to share the recording duties with my brother Josh. Well enough promotion from me.  Enjoy.

Set List:

HAND CAST IN MUSIC

TOPPED/TAILED

MAN UP

THE BUCKLEY ERA

EMERGENCY FLOWERS

FOR SPRING

KING SHIT OF FUCK MOUNTAIN

right click/save as to download the set from here

ABOVE THEM

Once again sorry for nicking a photo but visit tfranis.co.uk to check out more of their awesome shots (my camera was dead by this point in the day…).  Above Them headlined the NWIB Fest and everyone was REALLY TRULY WASTED by this point, I mean to the extent that most people at the front had white masking tape on their face fashioning them into unicorns, elephants and a very impressive cat.  Heckles were plentiful as you can hear from the classics of ‘one more song’ after the first song down to the harsh ‘are you guys drunk, you’re playing so well’ down to the obscure ‘spring break!’.  Everyone knows Above Them are one of the greatest, tightest bands in the UK and should be bigger than all the other crap clogging up the radio by the end of 2010 if the world is right and just.  Here the band played a great set, stalled only by human pyramids, loudmouths and Jon from Serf Combat stealing the mic and singing vocals to For Those Who Paved The Way!.

Enjoy!

Set List:

KEEP SMILING

IMPROVE ON HAPPINESS

NEW SONG

SECRETS OF THE ORIGINAL BEERBOX

WHERE DID ALL THE HEART GO?

FOR THOSE WHO PAVED THE WAY

GIVE IT UP TO START AGAIN

KEEP GOOD HOLD

right click/save as to download the set from here

Brighton Zine Fest!

From February 18th-February 21st we (the Brighton Zine Fest Collective) put on the Brighton Zine Fest 2010.  This involved a social trading evening with acoustic bands, a gig, a zine fayre, an evening cabaret meal and a Sunday roast.  Find out more about all the events and upcoming ones at our website

Here’s a rather fetching photo of an e-numbered up crowd at the Friday night gig, click on it and it should take you to a load of other pictures from across the weekend that I (badly) took.  Apologies for the repitition of some photos, when I get some much needed time I’ll be sure to sort that out.

On the Thursday night at Coachwerks (the swap shop bit) Brighton (via Exeter)’s Will Rene wooed us with his acoustic protest anthems.  Here’s most of one of his songs (yes I won’t be giving up the day job to pursue a career as a cameraman just yet…)

On the Friday night we put on an old fashioned punk rock shin dig at the rather fantastic Cowley Club.  The Arteries headlined and it was good to see them finally getting the recognition they deserve, crowd surfing, sing a long and a specactular finish with a Bon Jovi cover all occured.  The rest of the bands were pretty bloody special too.  It was a proper honour to have The Social Club down, if you’re into the idea of Weezer with Andrew WK on keys, then get involved.  Rooftops ripped it up as well and if the rumours are true, certainly left a mark on the Brighton party scene afterwards.  This Business Is Closed surprised quite a few people by not being another boozy Norwich band (not that there’s owt wrong with that!) but by in fact being fine purveyors of Fugazi influenced post rock and Sauna Youth showed a side of Richard Phoenix that terrified and excited in equal measures.

Here’s some live sets from the weekend for your enjoyment…

SAUNA YOUTH

Brighton’s Sauna Youth play a rather delicious brand of snotty garage punk with a healthy dose of humour, intelligence and quaintness for good measure.  With quite a good pedigree between them in terms of past bands SY aren’t breaking the mould but are definately putting a good spin on it and having a bloody fun time at it by the looks of things (more bands should spend their petrol money on doing shots after the gig).

Download their full live set from the Brighton Zine Fest at the Cowley Club on February 19th here.

Set list:

DELTA CAPS

E2 BANG BANG

BIG BOBBLES

ROLANDO

EUROZONE

PICTURES OF CATS

DES ANIMAUX

MILD HORSES

DEAL CASTLE

WEIRD FRICTION

VACUOUS IDIOT

On the Saturday night at the Westhill in Brighton we had a punk rock cabaret, this involved the Anarchist Teapot cooking up an awesome three course vegan meal (mmm chocolate pie!) with a zine reading from Seb Wheeler, a DJ set from Dr. Keyboards and fantastic sets from the Bobby McGees and The Lovely Brothers.

Here’s the (almost) full set of Dr. Keyboards across two videos.  Punx, goths, crusties and scene kids were united in utter confusion (and a little bit of joy I’d like to think but probably also a smidgen of disgust) by this mysterious euro-DJ who’d found his way to the zine fest.