Leonard Smalls

We (Weeds) played at a small and rather intimate venue in Chester (G21)... It was our first gig as a full band for nine years so we'd spent a couple of days at my house rehearsing and drinking tequila. We don't really rely on any guitar solos - guitar is mainly rhythmic noise - and our singer uses a vocal synth to make weirdness. After being fine in rehearsal it packed up, so some improvisation was called for. So first song was a false start due to laptop sequence mismanagement, but once we got going it seemed to work reasonably well - cock ups were mainly guitar based which was good as much of the set is drum, bass sequence and vox. And vox coped very well without vocal synth, all was generally groovy and I even managed slap bass plus improvised jazz funk solo. No cans were thrown so we could take down the chicken wire after the first song, and towards the back I could see our own @lurksalot pogoing about. It's possible we may be asked back in the spring to play in a larger venue... Gear was ACG-Helix-BBE& Crown amps- Markbass 4x10 with pedal distortion and autowah. Shoes were zebra creepers.

Sensoria - Cabaret Voltaire

We had a Weeds rehearsal yesterday... We haven't played together as a full band for about 9 years, though we did recently make a 5 track ep via the internet... Which actually got us a gig, so we had to rapidly and remotely write 5 more songs (we're spread across Europe, from the west of Ireland to the south of France). So we played 'em together for the first time. And surprisingly, it actually sounds pretty good! We're continuing today so we'll be a bit more polished though 2 full days of rehearsals takes it out on my fingers... Then tomorrow we bimble up to Chester - hopefully we'll get another gig sorted in less than 9 years!

James without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel

Guitar with teeth? here's bass with teeth!

We haven't even started rehearsals yet, in fact we've never played half the set together! We should probably think about getting started...

Come as you are... - Nirvana

Runaway! - Del Shannon

I rather suspected that... But a gig at the top of Beeston Castle would be great, apart from carrying the gear up!

Excellent mix of jazz, dub, klezmer and metal!

It's funny cos Beeston is quite close to Nantwich! I used to cycle to Beeston Castle - we'd jump over the wall and attempt to find the fabled (and no doubt non-existent) secret passage to Peckforton Castle...

For me it started when I joined the UK Subs fanclub at a tender age under the name of Marton Geerblorn...

Murder on the Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis Bextor

All that she wants (is another baby) - Ace of Base

Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan

I'm Coming Out! -Diana Ross

What a Waist - Ian Dury and the Blockheads

That Ain't A Thing, It's A Thang! - Dredd and the Badass Weeds

We'd kind of spotted that... The nearest we play to home is Hereford (nearly an hour away) where we get a decent audience. However, if you just bimble a bit further into town there's a venue called Gordon Bennetts which gets absolutely rammed. And it's full of pissed up folks singing along to "Wonderwall" and the like. Those same people wouldn't dream of going to see a band they hadn't heard of in a grassroots venue because they wouldn't hear anything they knew, without realising that those same grassroots venues are the places that gave the likes of Oasis their first gigs.

In some places it's almost impossible to find an audience for an originals band... Frinstance, round here there's no proper venues and folks don't seem want to come out - I remember seeing an awesome prog band rather weirdly playing in my local boozer (I'm not really a prog fan, but these guys were just serious quality musicians). There were 4 of us in there and maybe 50 outside completely ignoring the band - it wasn't loud so that wasn't it. One of the outside folks actually came up to me and asked what they were like rather than staying and listening for himself. As a result, any originals bands will never get a local audience because locals won't see anything they don't know already so it's a proper Catch 22. However, when "Lady DJ" comes to the same pub to play all the hits it's absolutely rammed with drunken folks singing along to all those songs I can't stand.

Aye! I found these Swiss funksters through FB...

Numan rocks!

He's Frank(enstein) - The Monochrome Set

Shiny Shiny! - Haysi Fantayzee