Hi folks,
Well where are we at?
Before we start looking let’s give you the important info:-
Friday 16th August
Whittles Rock Pub
Oldham
Saturday 17th August
The Bath
Morecambe
Ok now that is covered I’ll just give you a heads up on something special next weekend.
Basically we are playing our first gig for over 12 months in The Swinging Arm – Birkenhead on Sunday 25th August. It’s the bank holiday weekend and as far as I know we are playing between 4pm-6pm.
This is their normal time for bands on a Sunday, if they decide to change it because of the bank holiday I’ll let you know.
It would be great to pack the place out for our return so if you could manage to get there for a couple of hours we’d really appreciate it. We don’t play locally that often as you know so we just want to deliver our Good time Feel good Rock to an enthusiastic home crowd.
In addition it’s a good chance for us to catch up with many of you and actually have time for a chat as for once we won’t be facing a long drive home without the possibility of bed before 2:00am!
As an incentive you can listen and download (free) our “Rockin’ the Arm” EP which was recorded at that very venue back in 2010. www.clan-rock.com/download. The new single “on the Radio” is also available there.
Last weekend we had two gigs. The Ridger on the Friday went reasonably well but fair to say it’s not the ideal venue for a rock band. Generally it has an after work early drinking crowd then the evening family diners. So by the time 9:30 comes around most of those people have gone.
Having said that the people who remained stayed and we heard nothing but good comments afterwards. Indications from the management are that we will return in the New Year.
Saturday was one we were really looking forward to, probably our favourite venue to play. The Greyhound in Beeston (Notts). They are totally geared up for music (Stage, In house PA, Sound engineer, Lights) we could do with playing a few more of these. The usual sound guy Adrien was not there due him attending the Bloodstock festival however Rob was a more than capable stand in and when I stood out front at the sound check it sounded great to me. Rob also took some rather good photos with his photographer’s hat on, a true multi-tasking guy. Check them out – The Clan – 10/08/13. Nice little write up as well.
Unfortunately Will is no longer behind the bar but Paul the boss is still there so it was good to say hello to him again. I would hope from the crowd reaction we will get booked again sometime next year.
Tomorrow night’s gig (Friday 16th) at Whittles is a similar set-up (Stage/PA, Sound engineer) so hopefully another cracker. Saturday we return to another favourite – The Bath in Morecambe. Had a few good nights in there and at least this time we have three different numbers in the set.
Other things – I had a tree removed from the garden last week, glad I decided not to do it myself. It is amazing how much debris they produce so a t least the guy doing it had all the right tools and disposal equipment, some of which was pretty heavy duty (Chippers, flat back truck, Root grinder). Still took them quite a while though. I’d still be doing it now.
The microwave packed up on Tuesday so that was another expense. I suppose they are actually relatively cheap but it just came on the back of the tree, MOT, road tax shock absorbers etc.
As I am sure you all know, there is always something to take your money just as you think you might be managing to save some?
Cars are notorious for it. Mine passed its MOT but already a back light bulb has blown as pointed out to me by a friendly police officer who pulled me over the other day. I have a VW and it does seem to go through back light bulbs quite frequently. I have had a few of them actually and they all seemed to suffer this problem.
I was hoping to progress the PR for the “on the Radio” single last week but it just never happened. I’m wondering if it is worthwhile given the next one is due out early October. Hopefully we will be recording it during September.
The idea was also to record an album this year which will include the singles but finances will determine that one. I am looking at Pledge Music as a possible option.
Cambridge rock festival came and went and by all accounts it was very successful. Already there are bands vying for next year’s line up. We’d like to be one of them of course but I think it’s a bit early to be giving the organisers hassle.
I managed to sort out some of my equipment boxes this week; it is amazing how much you end up carrying around as cables and “stuff” accumulate. The majority never used and after a while you aren’t even aware of them being in the boxes. It is good to have some spare cables but do I really need 20 mains leads? I generally need 4 plus a couple of spares but other than those spare fuses are probably all that is needed and a lot lighter to carry.
Rants
As you know I am a pretty easy going person so I don’t really get too worked up about things. I am however also a grumpy old man so there are certain things I do find irritating, probably without just cause.
People who keep sending me invitations to play games on Facebook for one. A long time ago I used to repair Computers and as far as I could tell all anyone was using them for was playing games. I had no interest in computer games then and I am still not interested. I wouldn’t mind but apart from improvements in the graphics the concepts all seem to be the same. Big business I know but it’s not for me.
High prices for everything in Motorway service stations? These are totally unnecessary given the volume of trade. I’m sure they would quote high rents as the reason but I’d like to see the balance sheets.
Getting somewhat annoyed with receiving phone calls relating to accidents I haven’t had. Should be illegal, it probably is.
Music
Well I am off to see Uli Jon Roth in September as he is playing in Liverpool, A Scorpions set I hope. So I have been listening to the classic Scorpion’s albums upon which he played. I do wonder if most of the people going will be expecting later incarnation Scorpions tunes such as Wind of Change / Rock you like a Hurricane and Big city nights. When Uli left the Scorps they had much greater success and really sound like a different band.
He is playing with Diamond Head, not sure who is on first. Diamond Head go back as far as I do to the NWOBHM days and actually I don’t know too muc about them. I know Metallica covered one of their songs which probabaly didn’t do them any harm so I’ve downloaded their best of album. Only listened to a couple of tracks so far but they’re ok.
Should be a good night. Just hope Uli has a singer with him as his vocals are not great. The chances of him using a Strat are slim as well, he use his own Sky guitars pretty exclusivley these days.
Anyway – check out The Scorpions – In Trance if you want to get a flavour of his style.
Until next week,
Keep rocking’ and here’s to a great weekend.
Craig