Well here we are again; this will be the final update for 2014 and notification of our last gig of the year.
Keeping the best until last we are pleased to say it is at our favourite venue and takes place this Saturday
Saturday 20th December
The Greyhound
High Street
Beeston
Notts
We love playing this place as it has great people on both sides of the bar and good sound engineers on the PA. I can also fit my full guitar rig in! Not something I can say very often. It’s also the venue where our live album was recorded back in 2012. So roll on Saturday and then we have a break for Christmas and New Year (no gig this New Year’s eve by choice). Be nice to have a proper break but we return to rock in January 2015,
Last week we were at another of our favourite venues – the Hogs ‘n’ Heifers in Bentham. It’s a great place and like Beeston has great people there. The one negative is the fact that you have to cart the gear up the stairs but as the gig it is actually worth it we can live with that.
To be fair it was not as busy as it has been previously but having spoken to the owner we don’t believe it was our fault just a timing issue. Could have been because it clashed with the X factor final of course but somehow I doubt it. We will be back there in 2015.
Speaking of 2015 we are going to spend some time changing the set around a bit with some new songs amongst the old favourites. We will take some time over Christmas to work this out. I don’t really want to just add another collection of covers but I suspect there will be a couple. I have some new Clan songs to record but it is controlled by finances and availability and at the moment both are in short supply. It won’t stop us playing them live though.
If there is one thing that I am determined is going to happen in 2015 it is going to be Clan T –shirts. I have been waiting four years for someone to design one and nothing has materialised so it looks like it is down to me. I want to keep it simple, desirable and ideally easily identifiable. Even for someone like me with absolutely no talent in the art and design department surely it can’t be that difficult? Haha Well it has defeated me for four years but it won’t be five.
So how has 2014 been? Up and down really. At one point earlier in the year I really wasn’t sure if the band would last until now let alone be talking about gigs and making plans for 2015. I think the decision to reduce the number of gigs and concentrate on the better quality ones has paid off. A bit of time in-between gigs is also nice to have and allows us to enjoy each gig rather than feel like we are on a treadmill. We were back at Cambridge Rock Festival of course which was a highlight although we did notice an increasing trend for Blues bands and bands playing multiple cover versions which kind of went against the principles of a rock festival to us; having said that the organisers are free to book who they want of course and I have to say it is brilliantly organised.
It would be nice to return in2015 although I know the date is unlikely to be in August as it usually is.
It was good to see Saxon again this year after so long and together with Irish support band Stormzone they delivered a very enjoyable night out despite the best efforts of the Tivoli to ruin it with their excessive beer charges.
We released our Rock for You EP earlier this year although critical acclaim is still pending. Actually between now and Christmas you can download it free from our website www.clan-rock.com
It was good to be included on the TBFM magazine cover CD recently and we got some good feedback from that.
So all things considered I would say it hasn’t been a bad year albeit a very quick one.
Pleased to see that the spoof TV show “Brian Pern: A life in rock” is back on BBC. There are only three episodes, as there was in the first series, about the prog rock singer and his band Thotch. With lots of cameo and guest appearances I think it is brilliant if you know enough about the subject to appreciate the references. On a similar note I believe there is a new series of the excellent W1A in the pipeline as well.
Rants
It’s Christmas so nothing too extreme.
I really have had enough of Motorway maintenance at the moment. Every time we are heading home from a gig the motorway or the required exit seem to be closed. I appreciate that this is the best time for them to work on the roads but do they really need to shut all three carriageways at once? The diversions are usually not very well signposted either. I am sure the haulage companies are thrilled.
I wonder how many of you are going to Christmas parties. If TV advertising is anything to go by then everyone is going to massive parties full of fine food and wine. I suspect the reality is somewhat different. Not sure I know anyone who is going to one. In fact most people are really quite glad they are not. Are we all just Humbugs and grumpy old men/women?
Speaking of fine food there are no end of people on TV telling us how to make the best this and that are there? I am sick to death of the Celebrity chef phenomenon. There are far too many of them, it is unnecessary.
A whole load of Christmas specials on TV of course, some of them really are flogging a dead horse; “Birds of a feather” being one that springs to mind but there are others.
I have come to the conclusion that using a mobile phone makes you blind. It is the only explanation I can think of for people wandering all over the pavement, stopping dead in front of others, the inability to steer a car in a straight line (even though they should not be using it whilst driving) and general unawareness of anything around them. How more of them don’t get run over I really don’t know.
Did anyone see the program about the British Army leaving Camp Bastion? It was a good show but I have to say the Afghan Army officer who was inspecting the camp prior to taking it over didn’t come off too well. Was he really stupid enough not to realise that whilst he was telling his interpreter not to translate the derogatory comments he was making that the documentary makers would not translate them and subtitle them for us all to read on screen.
Music 1
Mick Ralphs Blues Band/Warner Hodges Band/Western Sizzlers gig review – you may wish to skip to Music 2..
Last week I went to see a four-band line up in a local venue. The first band, I won’t name them for the sake of their reputation, delivered the most plodding, stilted wooden performance that I have seen from an “experienced” band for a long time. Apparently they have just recently increased from a trio to a four piece so if that is supposed to be the improved version then they must have been absolutely dire before.
Next up were the Western Sizzlers – a band who “featured” Rick Richards ex Georgia Satellites on guitar. They had a singer who reminded me of Johnny Rotten who was wearing a silly hat and drinking beer from a can. For a pro band I found them to be annoyingly unprofessional. Now I am all for bands having a good time on stage however whether Rick and the singer were under the influence I don’t know but they just messed about throughout the whole set laughing between themselves at in jokes. On more than one occasion they bizarrely dropped in some amended lines from Amy Winehouse’s Rehab which was just irritating and not as funny as they obviously thought it was. Overall their music was a cross between Dr Feelgood and Status Quo, including a Quo cover version. I probably would have enjoyed it if they had delivered it properly, instead I was just pleased when they finished and would be most unlikely to go and see them again.
So was it to be third time lucky? Band three the Warner Hodges band. Great set, great band and good songs. Just a shame that (as I found out afterwards) their set was cut short due to the unprofessional shenanigans and over running of the Western sizzlers. I spoke to Warner and I don’t think he was overly impressed either.
Final band of the evening were headliners the Mick Ralphs (Bad Co and Mott the Hoople guitarist) Blues band. A side project for the legendary Mick Ralphs and presumably an excuse for him to play some of the blues which inspired him to play and he enjoys. Therefore what you got was a well delivered collection of blues standards and a couple of Bad Company’s greatest hits thrown in for good measure. A well-rehearsed band as you would expect who appeared to be enjoying what they were doing although being honest for me there was nothing to make it stand out from what happens in a hundred pubs every Saturday night.
It might be me being too critical (not that I am in any position to judge) but there seemed to be something lacking all night although Warner Hodges and Mick Ralphs delivered the goods. I suspect it probably is me but I do think that something is not quite right when you can hear someone’s mobile phone ring above the sound of a rock band.
Possibly four bands in one night was one band over ambitious but everyone seemed happy enough.
Music 2
Last week I mentioned I was going to try and obtain a Widowmaker Album; well I managed to locate both of them thanks to good old Ebay. So far only the second one has arrived and unfortunately it is quite disappointing. There are no real catchy hooks or sing-along choruses which is what I have come to expect from Dee Snider and the majority of it sounds like it is played with the guitars tuned down as so beloved by the heavy metal bands. Was he trying to fit in with the Metallica crowd? It doesn’t work for me. The best track is one which he wrote with Bernie (presumably a Desperado cast off) called the Iron Road which sounds like the only one in normal tuning and has a recognisable chorus.
Be interesting to see if the first album is better when it turns up.
Other music this week? The Warner Hodges Band – Gunslinger. This is not bad at all. Some of it reminds me of Rory Gallagher which I didn’t expect but I am not complaining about that of course. I’ve only heard it twice so I suspect it will grow on me.
So if you like some good solid rock with a blues /country edge check out
Warner Hodges – Gunslinger, you might just like it.
Anyway
Until next time
Keep Rockin’
Craig