Fancy Sauce Friday

On Friday night I drove to gig for the first time ever, it was at my favourite venue in the world Le Pub, which is under threat of closure due to the premises being sold, do not fear they are already looking for new premises so we wait with baited breath...

Anyway the gig on Friday was one of my picks for best newcomer last year Hot Mass.

Support came in the form of KvsD who you can hear here: https://kvsd.bandcamp.com/releases

There was something very Wayne's World about the whole thing, but I enjoyed it thoroughly the drummer was hilarious like Peter Kaye, the wrestling mask was the end.

I fully supported the diy ethic of walking around the venue giving people stickers of ball bags and fancy sauce which will have pride of place on my fridge and selling demos which no one does anymore.















In the middle was People and Other Diseases, who I thoroughly enjoyed, elements of Wire, Gang of 4 with a dash of Sleaford Mods.

https://peopleandotherdiseases.bandcamp.com/track/wishing-people-dead-live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfs7qTYZ5M

Hot Mass headlined they sounded awesome they covered Fugazi, Full Disclosure, which is no easy feat by any stretch. Control was my stand out track I love it!

If you haven't heard them check them out here: https://hotmass.bandcamp.com/album/flatman-2

Their debut album Nervous Tensions came out last year on Brassneck records it's awesome you can get it here: http://brassneckrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/hot-mass

They also had awesome t-shirts featuring an image of a feminist Science Icon! Punk points + for naming her? ...

Even better was the People and other diseases t-shirt which features Dorien from Birds of a Feather maximum punk points!

Superb night and I can remember everything from a gig for the first time ever, don't know what all the fuss is about I'll be driving to more gigs in the future if you need a ride bro X

" I wish I was Household Name..."

I'm sat in my late Grancha's reclining chair, that he left me when he passed, I have the new Cutups record The Nerves on the gramophone, having just seen them last night and I'm reading the liner notes, something I always like to do on my first listen to a new record.

In the past two weeks I have been lucky enough to see The Cut-ups and The Take live, two bands who are extremely important to me. I got into both bands around the same sort of time, late nineties early noughties, they were both being touted by Household Name records, at the time I believe.

I first met The Take boys at gigs in Cardiff, at the old Capillary Life (Jawbox) gigs downstairs in The Oz bar. I met Jon from the Cutups at around the same time when he was in Shoe! and I think they opened up for The Take and Douglas, at the Cavern perhaps...

One of my fondest memories of seeing The Take on my 21st birthday in TJ's supporting Bluetip, (New Shoe! Premonition) a birthday I happen to share with Charlie from The Take, Bluetip got him up on stage, sang Happy Birthday to him and made him do shots, my brother had the whole thing recorded on a Dictaphone as well.

Later, I put on The Cutups at Le pub, I believe probably their first Welsh gig perhaps... Anyway they played a bunch of gigs and became great friends especially Reza, as he later studied in Cardiff and I later managed to persuade him to fill in on drums for my band and fulfil a life long dream of playing at the Cavern.

I also somehow managed to persuade Charlie from The Take to fill in on bass for a while too.

Anyway they are both immensely important bands to me personally, excellent musicians and great people. I am truly thankfully I ever got to see them live, listen to their records, let alone make an absolute racket sharing a few members.

To The Take and The Cutups and all who sail in them!

Long live the Cavern!

You can get The Take - Dolomite here for fiver:
https://bombedout.bandcamp.com/album/dolomite
You can get Propeller here for £4

You can get The Cutups The Nerves here:
http://www.thecutups.com/

You can hear Bluetip here: https://bluetip.bandcamp.com/album/polymer
and Jawbox here:   https://jawbox.bandcamp.com/track/capillary-life

I LUUV Pale Ale-gels

On Friday, I met up with two of my olde butties, the enigma otherwise known as Pugs and Kev. Me and Pugs met in Cardiff straight after work, over a Barry Island IPA at the Duke of Wellington. We also sampled an Anchor Street Porter at the City Arms, which was delicious. We headed to Newport on the train I had an M&S Belgian Cherry Wheat beer which was excellent. We met Kev at the Olde Murenger House, one of the oldest and coolest pubs around. We opted firstly for a Extra Stout which is rich, thick and delicious. We also sampled an organic wheat beer and a scotch each.

 

Le pubs beer selection is pretty damn great now too. We had a Celt Golden Age and a Bushmill's chaser. I also over the course of the night sampled. Butty Bach from Wye Valley (See Iolo Williams State of Nature on Youtube), Welsh Pale Ale from the Kite brewery, probably my fave on the night so I stuck with that. We headed upstairs to watch the bands...

Luuv features an old friend and probably one of the best all round musicians South Wales has produced Sami Hunt. So I knew from the off, going from his previous pedigree (see Harbour, Night & the City of Broken promises..., The Keep, Bedford Falls, Blackbeard, Chain of Flowers, From This Moment on, Of Noble Blood and the list goes on) that I was probably going to "Luuv" them (pun master). 



I was not wrong they take me back to when I first got into music and first started going to Le pub actually, they have elements of Echo & the Bunnymen, Wire and Jesus and the Mary chain going on all good in my book. Bit of fuzz, grunge, indie and a bit of goth for good measure.

Pale Angels features another dear friend Jamie Morrison of The Arteries, Mike from Static Radio and on this tour, Reza from The Cutups on drums (Reza also played in Blackbeard for a while) Pale Angels play fuzzy grunge, are heavily influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Dinosaur Jnr. I've seen them twice now and they've been great both times check out their debut album Primal Play out now on Specialist Subject records, you can listen to it now on their bandcamp page.