Mojo Nixon

More Elvis related madness from Mojo Nixon. This one's for Andy Strads.

Rode Festival

Went over to this fantastic little festival about Sunday tea-time. Saw the tail end of Tessa Bickers set as the sun started to sink slowly toward the horizon - very laid back.
Next up were Patchway Theft we played the Cheese and Grain with them earlier in the year and these boys can really play but they are better when they don't noodle on too much. Very tight and gifted players with a great sound.
We were on next and the sound decided to go all wrong, Andy's squeeze box fed back like a bastard so we just knocked a few songs out of the set and carried on. We were nearly finished by the time the sound got a bit better but people still enjoyed it i'm told - we'll come back next year and do a bit better.
Stiffs up next and Grant started on the audience and d.j.s before a note had been played. The band were properly fired up and got the audience dancing into the dusk. Only five complaints about Grant's swearing but, as he said, "nine o clock - right it's after the f***ing watershed".
Big G only swears between the songs but Up the Rebels swear during theirs, songs about living in Frome accompanied by acrobatic stage climbing antics, most entertaining!
Last up were the Rock Pirates who took an age to get ready. They were like a cartoon of a hair metal band and performed an irony free set of eighties style metal anthems - no thanks lads.
Look forward to next year and promise to do a ten minute sound check rather than the usual five so we can get all the gear working.

Mojo Nixon

Mojo Nixon

Elvis died on my birthday in 1977 when i was 22. I had a skewed perspective on the king 'cos i only really perceived his fat Vegas era persona and the fact that he allowed himself to be managed by a cash obsessed carnival huckster with no feeling for the music.
I've seen the light now though - in his early incarnation he was a fantastic natural performer with a fans ear for quality tunes. Time and circumstances bought him low but he kick started a movement that couldn't be stopped and for that i salute him ....and so does Mojo Nixon!

Rode Festival

Were playing at this festival on Sunday with our old friends the U.K. Stiffs. Grant (long time personal friend and potty mouthed Stiffs lead singer) has recently been diagnosed with canine septaphilia this is a very rare disease that means you drink in dog pints. Therefore every pint that he drinks is equal to seven pints for a normal person - this clears up a lot of mysteries such as when he claims to have drunk 21 pints of Guinness and you know he's had three.
More info here- http://www.rodevillage.info/.

Groovie Ghoulies - Running With Bigfoot

Just found out that this great Sacremento band have split up. Hugely influenced by the Ramones and with great funny tunes - check 'em out.

Buckland Beer Festival

Ivan won a couple of free tickets to the Buckland Beer Fest on Sat so at about 4.00 in the afternoon we booked Gill's taxi and headed off for a look. They were unlucky with the weather again (nobody's actually been lucky with the weather this year) but the site is well set up and will be more successful year by year if it keeps going.

The first band we saw were Electric Ladyland and they showed some real promise. Nice and noisy they performed with real confidence - i'd watch them again. They keep their telecasters polished, shiny and clean so extra marks for that.

Next up were a two piece country act named Lincoln County after a shaky start they warmed up a bit and the sax player went for a walk into the field with his radio mike. I don't think they can have been going long but they kept us occupied as we began to sample the ale.

Neo-Geek were the next band on and i liked them a lot. They were spikey and melodic with interesting songs and lots of good ideas. They had a sound of their own and weren't too over the top on stage. Visit them here http://www.myspace.com/neogeekspace .

For some reason there was a gap in the entertainment at this point which was used as an opportunity to purchase junk food and sample more ale. I'd review some of the beers only i can't tell the difference between them half the time i certainly can't detect "a soupcon of barbed wire and angel's tears with nuances of rusty stinging nettles" the only one i wished i'd remembered was the one i had to chuck away 'cos it tasted like nasty cough mixture (even Ivan couldn't drink it and i offered it to him for free!).

I didn't catch the name of the next ensemble but they were very well turned out and played a mixture of western swing , country, and gospel - good! + some jazz - bad!
I had great hopes for the Jerichova skiffle band but they were a bit poor on the night. The sound was bad - couldn't hear the singing - reasonable choice of covers but no real oomph.

The Operation were up next and proved to be the most popular act of the evening. They were confidant and forceful on stage with the plus that they have a couple of good tunes in their locker. The show was slick and energetic one of the best of the young local bands around at the moment. One minor criticism they reminded me of the Stereophonics on a couple of occasions and i can't stand the bloody Stereophonics (like everyone else i only liked the drummer and they sacked him).

The final band i saw - there were more but we went home - were Crescent Shoreline. Despite having the whole of the Operation's set to get their gear ready they still took another half an hour to get ready to play and frankly it wasn't worth the wait. I suppose they think they are being avant garde by having no discernable tune and not being able to keep time but they're not. Just a messy, muddy, shouty racket. We left them to it as did most of the remaining crowd.

And so, as Samuel Pepys would say, to bed.

Album, vid' & guitar

Good news! We've finally received the reprinted Cd's so we'll be vending this fine piece of work to all points of the compass as of now. Officially we are now big in Sweden as a rather fine record store there has ordered some of our product check it out at http://www.burmans.com/ .
The Alligator Rosie video is finished and is very good Alan has done his usual sterling work in the editing suite and has created order out of our usual chaos. All three vids will be out in the Autumn so more news then.
I have just ordered a Gretsch "Way Out West" guitar the design of which features cows being abducted by flying saucers whilst terrified cartoon cowboys flee from the scene. Hard not to purchase such a fine conceptual instrument really. See pic's for full effect.

Sorted

Went over to Western Star Towers today to do some final close-ups for the Alligator Rosie video. This should be the final addition to Alan's compilation which is being sponsored, i believe, by the large independent distributor Cherry Red. The back of the recording studio doubled for Gatorville Alabama and the shots are, as they say, "in the can".
Got home to news that the CD insert is sorted and the updated discs should be here this week - so we'll be flogging them over the website and at gigs in the very near future.

Video Shoot

Up with the Lark and hungover on Sunday for the completion of the Alligator Rosie video shoot. The first part was recorded at Fusell's Ironworks Mells and consisted of us dressing in a redneck manner whilst mucking about in the old ruins. We then moved on to the duckpond at Great Elm where we met up with Andy who came back from holiday briefly to finish his bit.

This included wading into the river fully dressed, wearing a mullet wig, playing the Cajun Mellodian and fighting an inflatable toy Alligator. I believe at this point the spirit of Ingmar Bergman was hovering over us. Alan (Wilson - legendary Western Star house producer) did his usual fine job of directing proceedings and keeping it all together.

A very confused crowd of people congregated on the bridge to watch the stupidness unfold.

This is the final video of three we have made and will be released on a compilation later in the year. More news of that when the release date looms.

The Big Gig

Followed the UK Stiffs out to Gurney Slade on Saturday night. We all felt like a few drinks so a large taxi was booked. The gig was great lots of local bands and the crowd was up for it. The problem for our point of view was the gig began to run late and we had to get home. Paul, Ivan and myself had to rise early the next day for a video shoot. In the end we just made it to the entrance gate before our cab arrived.
The Stiffs were on blinding form - Chris broke the bass drum - the only drawback was some exhibitionist woman who decided she was a star and wouldn't get off the stage. Grant heaped severe and graphic abuse on her person but it made no difference at all she was like a sticky blonde winnit!
The set up at the farm was first class good sound and a nice little sheltered stage + plenty of junk food and beer.

UK Stiffs - Charity Gig + 'Tecs Vid' Shoot

The Stiffs are playing in Gurney Slade tomorrow night on behalf of the Madeleine Mc Cann appeal more information from http://www.myspace.com/theukstiffs. I shall be going along and will be reporting on the event. I hear that Grant has asked for a barrel of cider on the backstage rider so it could be an interesting night.

This Sunday the Bad Detectives are finishing off their video for Alligator Rosie at a secret location in deepest darkest Somerset. The venue obviously must remain undercover in case crowds of screaming fans turn up, ruin the shoot and pester the band when they go for a pint in the Talbot afterwards.

Weymouth Flyer

I've just heard that our song Weymouth Flyer is going to get a play on the radio this Saturday. Geoff Barker has supported our little band since we first started seriously recording and he will be playing the track on his Saturday Rock "n" Roll Party show this weekend.

I only ever used to make train journeys over a few routes - up to London for entertainment, to Bristol to watch football and in my memory the best of all down to Weymouth for days out. There are loads of great American train songs so i thought i'd write some lyrics that reflected a different point of view concerning riding the rails. Those American place names seem so exiting and exotic so i'm supposing the glamour of Castle Cary and Pen Mill will have a similar effect on the casual foreign listener. Brunel built our station and he was a visionary genius but in photos he looks a bit of a shortarse so maybe Tom Cruise could play him on screen in God's Wonderful Railway -The Movie!

Geoff's show is on most of the BBC local stations in the west country or you can find it on-line on http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2006/03/02/listenagain_fulllist_feature.shtml.