Gigs2

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Gigs

Weekend of the 13^th-15^th February (2009!), Coastival, Scarborough

Ok, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here but it’s always best to be prepared. The chap who has brought us the Acoustic Gathering mini-festival for the last few years has decided that we need something bigger, longer, with more acts and less temperature. Yep, it’s down at the coast in February. I don’t know anything more about it at the moment but I guess we’ve got plenty of time. Judging by his previous work, expect the best of the region and a few bigger names.

Sunday September 28^th, WFOne, Wakefield, Bullring.

Back again at WFOne in Wakefield, trying to get TWO to come down with us for another night like saturday! WFOne is a really nice little bar in the town centre (honestly, it’s a nice bar in Wakefield!), top sunday night acoustic shenanigans. Free to get in, come down if you’re around. From about 8:30 - 9 o’clockish

Friday 26^th September, York Food Festival, Parliament Street, York

Yep, you read it right, we’re playing at the food festival! Two sets, one at 5:30, one at seven, playing for about an hour in each. Next to the fountain (though interestingly the add did actually say “in” the fountain), come down, chill out, eat good food, drink good drink, enjoy the atmosphere!

Thursday 18^th September, Verve Bar, 16 Merrion Street, Leeds

Acoustic night at Verve in Leeds with the excellent Hayley Gaftarnick and guests. We’ll be on four about twenty minutes, I think it’s free to get in and should be a nice relaxed affair.

Saturday September 6th,St Michael Le Belfrey Hall, 52 Stonegate, York

My stable mates, the very excellent TWO, will be having a launch party for their debut album “One” (do you see what they’ve done there?) – I don’t know anything about it yet but I have heard some of the tracks in the studio and they do sound the like the dogs bits. Oh yes. It will be good, it will be in York, we will be supporting, you will be there – unless you really don’t want to be, or have some pressing business somewhere else, a wedding maybe? I don’t know, it’s your life…

Wednesday September 3^rd, Melton’s Too (Walmgate)

Following our top night out there in June we’ve been invited back. It’s a really nice little venue this, cosy, completely acoustic (not a mic in sight!), and very up close and personal (watch your eyes or Dr Jones will have them out with her cello bow). This will be another full length gig so if you’ve got any old favourites or special requests drop us an e-mail beforehand and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.

Entrance is a measly £1 and things will kick off at about 9pm

Sunday August 31^st, The Stone Roses Bar, York

Supporting Pete Briley, on another acoustic night, not sure who else will be on yet but will update nearer the time. Entry will be free but it will be late (things don’t kick off until 9:30 – 10ish) so make sure you’ve got a late start planned for Monday morning…

Monday August 11^th, The Junction, York

Headlining another top acoustic night at the Junction, also in attendance will be Midnight Caravan (couldn’t find anything on them sadly), Arthur Rigsby and the Baskervilles (fantastic alternative acoustic stuff – well worth a look) and fellow SOUP recorders TWO

Should have a couple of new songs for you and the EP will also be available! Yes indeedy…

Things will probably kick off at about 8:30 and will probably probably cost about 4 or 5 quid.

Saturday August 9^th, Rockvilla Hotel, Lochcarron, Wester Ross

I think this is going to be a pretty special little gig for those who are either local or who fancy an odyssey to get there. It’s at the Rockvilla hotel in Lochcarron on the west coast of Scotland. It’s a really cool little hotel in a beautiful area. It’s also about a hundred miles north of Glasgow so we’re going to have something of an epic drive up on Friday night and then spend all of Saturday hiding from midges…

The gig will be free but we will be passing a hat around for a charity that’s run locally to send kids from the local school to teach children in Africa how to use computers.

Checkout the hotel’s website and if you fancy coming up, bring a tent and we’ll have a helluva shingdig.

Sunday August 3rd, Leeds, Santiago’s

Basically it’s an open mic night but more so – it’s organised and vetted so hopefully there shouldn’t be any duff acts. And what the hell, it’s free to get in!

Santiago’s is in the Grand Arcade in Leeds

Thursday July 31^st, Leeds, The Chemic Tavern

Hilary (my delegated memory) has come good and informed me that the venue is the Chemic Tavern in Leeds. It’s an open mic night in Leeds with a proper headline slot – which is us! We rock. Well, sway a bit maybe. So anyway, if you’re Leeds / Bradford based and fancy a top night out, music starts around 8:30 and we’ll be on about a half hour before closing (probably around 11).

It’s free to get in but they do pass a hat around, any funds received will doubtless be going on petrol for the next gig (see below)

Wednesday June 4^th, in the loft at Melton’s Too (Walmgate)

Bit special this one, it’s two sets of just me and Dr Jones. It’s up stairs in the loft area and will be completely acoustic (how do you turn down a cello? I can’t even work out where to turn one on). All being well we might even have the early copies of the cd by then and we might turn it into a bit of mini launch party if so. It’s a fairly unforgiving venue if empty so we’d really appreciate it if you could make it down (hell come down early and have a bite to eat downstairs!)

Tuesday 20^th May, supporting the Andy Curry Band at the City Screen Basement

An opening set from us (be there prompt at 8, there’s 4 bands on so we won’t be farting around) followed by something of a range of different musical styles: Dorien Starre (http://www.myspace.com/dorienstarremusic) upbeat indie guitar stuff, really quite listenable to, Towns and Houses (www.myspace.com/townsandhouses) lyrically original local band trying to do something a bit different, and then Andy Curry’s latest line up (http://www.andycurry.co.uk) when, let’s face it, you could get anything!

£3 on the door, starting at 8 prompt, it’s quite a cosy little venue so make sure you get down in time

Sunday 13^th April, supporting AKP at the Junction

I'll be kicking things of with my new cellist (erm, maybe that could have better phrased!) and we'll be followed by Alpha Waves www.myspace.com/thealphawaves (local band based around singer/songwriter Marbled), Narration www.myspace.com/narrationmusic (pretty handy band on tour around the UK, sweeping and majestic are words that come up a lot in their reviews - you'll see why (I think it's the crowns they insist on wearing)) and AKP www.myspace.com/akpcep are headlining on their final gig (indie rock with gratuitous keyboard).

It'll cost about £4 and start at about 8. Be good to see you there

Sunday 27^th January, Acoustic Sunday at the Junction

Another Acoustic Sunday at the Junction, you can pretty much guess what we’re looking at from the title I’m guessing…

This time we have Toby Domoney, me, Pete Godson (of Rottn Karma) and TWO. Have a shufti at the links (ok, Rottn Karma don’t appear to have a link, expect some stomping rhythm and blues), stump up the £4 (if you still have that much left in your bank account at the end of January), get a couple of beers in, sit back and enjoy.

Things will start around 8ish, hope to see you there.

Sunday 25^th November, Supporting Great Lake Swimmers @ fibbers

Back down at fibbers for what should be a cracking night with the Great Lake Swimmers, a bunch of dudes with beards from Ontario (more samples on their myspace). The door price of £9 is quickly brought down to a bargain £5 with the production of this flyer on demand. Described as having a “remarkably haunting, heartfelt folk-pop sound, mixing ambient textures with skilful instrumental interplay; weaving lyrical tales with shimmering songs to combine intimate songs with some catchy pop-rock.” Which doesn’t tell you a great deal but they are very good. Also on the tour and the bill is the ”insanely driven cryptic and chilling Will Johnson, already with a cult following for his folk-pop juggernaut, Centro-matic and its grey-skied cousin, South San Gabriel.”

So get your butts down there and have a good night. Things will kick off at 8.

Monday 29^th October, Supporting BossCaine @ the Junction

Get down to the Junction for a top night (or as good as you’re going to get on a school night) and have a shufti at what have for you hear. First up is the Haze (I think this is their website! http://www.myspace.com/thehazetheband), then I am graced with your presence as an audience (about 9ish). Dave Arcari (http://www.myspace.com/davearcari) is oop next, a Glaswegian slide guitarist and blues man who sounds like he’s drunk an entire bottle of Jack Daniels before he comes on, top stuff. And whilst we’re talking about JD, the junction had better have got a barrel load in because the excellent BossCaine are on to finish things off. Coffin-country at it’s best.

All this for just £4? You’ve got to get yourself down for that now, haven’t you?

Sunday 3^rd June, Acoustic Sunday at the Junction

This is a monthly session that is bringing some of the best acoustic talent in the region in, and me. Actually, I’m headlining this one so I can’t be all bad… Joining me on the stage on the 3^rd will be Jordan Senior, Alastair Artingstall and Oliver J Brooke. Price is £4 on the door and it starts at about 8. This should be a very good night of some top acoustic music from the local scene.

Oh yes, and there’s more, if £4 is too much for you there is a flyer deal to bring it down to £3. If I’ve done this right you should be able to get to the flyer by clicking here

Thursday 26^th April, Supporting The Plug at The Junction,

Short Notice can actually only get slightly shorter than this, it’s the day after tomorrow, but it’s Thursday night and it’ll be good so get your arses down. Cost is £3, full details are:

The Plug - I quote: "Violin-lead acoustic rock. Yeah, you heard right!" Check out their previews at: http://www.myspace.com/thepluguk; Wurlybird & Chimera, two bands about which I can find nothing, Dave tells me they’ll fit in ok though; Drew Stephenson - that'd be me then; Stewart King - my mate Stew, well worth listening to so make sure you get down for early doors - Check http://www.myspace.com/stewartkingmusic.

Yep, five bands for £3. Got to be worth coming down.

Tuesday 3^rd April, Supporting the Murderhouse at City Screen Basement

Short notice appears to be the way things are working at the moment but I guess we live with what we get. Anyway, we’re down at the City Screen basement (which actually a really quite nice venue) with cracking gig coming up: The Murderhouse, check out their acoustic rockyness on www.myspace.com/themurderhouseuk, The Listeners more acoustics and harmonies here: www.myspace.com/thelisteners, Two, (buggered if i can find a site for these two - but i've been told by a reliable source that they're pretty damn good) and ME. All for £3? That's silly money for a night of this quality. So there you have it, it's a Tuesday night for pete's sake! What the hell else are you going to do apart from get down to City Screen for some seriously good music? Go on, you know you want to, go on, go on, go on...

Doors will be at 7:45 and tickets are £3 on the door

Monday 5^th March, Supporting the Lear Jets @ Cert 18

Short notice again but worth coming down, the Lear Jets are a local-ish band who, to me at least, sound like a bit of a cross between the small faces and the animals. I’ve been listening to some of their stuff on myspace (click the link above) and I think they sound quite handy.

Doors are at 8ish, I know the venue is looking for a third act after the headliners cancelled so can’t confirm if I’ll be first up of three, second up of three or first up of two. So come down before half 8 and you’ll be right.

Door price is £3, which is a bit of a steal for an evening’s music, get a couple of beers in and enjoy.

Wednesday 24^th January, supporting Get Vegas @ The Junction

Sorry for the short notice but if you're not otherwise busy (or if you are otherwise busy but need an excuse to get out of it) get your arse down to the Junction on Leeman road.

I'll be opening things at 8, following me (in an order that I don't yet know) will be Get Vegas, The Universals & The Bayonets (sadly not the Novisad-and-Serbia-based nutters but our local York substitute), bit of an Indie guitar night I'm thinking.

If, like me, you haven't heard of most of the above click on the links for MP3s etc (i don't have any reviews i can quote from unfortunately but i guess there's always google...)

Yep, expect some pretty boys with loud guitars and some really quite good tunes.

Cost us just £3 on the door and that's got to make this the best thing to do next Wednesday.

Sunday 17^th December, Acoustic Shindig @Cert 18

Another acoustic malarkey (great word that) down at Cert 18, expect the usual variety of style and talent. Just £3 on the door (no cheap advance tickets this time I’m afraid) for a whole night of music including 98 pages, Andy Curry (dust bowl central), me, Akrasia Society and others.

Come on down, it’ll be laugh, and watch everyone try to get to the bar during the obligatory Christmas song for each act…

See you there

Wednesday 8^th November, Supporting Player 1 @ the Stone Roses Bar

Can’t tell you a great deal about this one as I’ve never heard the band play, I have heard the some of the individuals though and they’re a talented bunch so I’m hoping for some pretty handy guitar based indie pop.

Also on the bill is foxy who will be chilling you out with some nice acoustic work.

It kicks off with me sometime around 8:30 – 9:00 and is FREE to get in

CANCELLED - Sunday 12 November, Sorry folks, event pulled by the organiser

~~Acoustic Shindig @ Cert 18~~

~~More details to follow soon as they’re available along with links to myspaces etc.~~

Cost will be £3 on the door or just £2 if you see me in advance and get one of the cheap tickets, which is not to be sniffed at as we’ll probably looking at around 8 acts – and that’s got to be value for money.

Wednesday 20^th September, Stewboss @ Fibbers

Fibbers has this to say ”A Bob Harris favourite, Greg Sarfaty heads Americana trio Stewboss whose New Jersey lineage charts Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Counting Crows as well as traipsing through a bit of Tom Petty. Their live shows have Neil Young references, all turbulently emotional roots-rock songs that draw on John Fogerty, Woody Guthrie and Steve Earle - they suit a whisky-swilling Saturday night as well as a quiet concentrated listen! Gorgeous New Jersey Americana making the link between The Stones and Counting Crows; highly recommended!!” Apart from the fact that they’re now a quartet it’s all true.

Also on the bill is Bill Mallonee (ex-Vigilantes Of Love) who, I am reliably informed (which is probably one of the few times Boss Caine have been quoted in that context) is an incredible musician; capable of blowing major bands offstage with the Vigilantes, he’s even better on his own.

The door price for this is £7.50 but you can get in for a mere £4.50 with the flyer available here, because I’m nice like that.

Don’t miss it, it’ll be a cracker.

Sunday 17^th September, Acoustic Extravaganza @ Cert 18

More details as promised, the full line up is “Boss Caine + Andy Curry (AKP + Dustbowl Central) + Manifesto + Futuretro + Drew Stephenson + Craig Whitehead (Quintessential) + Akrasia Society + Parliament Street + Mike`n`Rob, all hosted by The Acoustic Knight.” Apparently, whoever he is. Either way there’s some quality acts on there for the tiny price of £3 or just £2 if you see me in advance and get one of the cheap tickets. I don’t yet know what time they’ll be kicking things off but will update the site when I do.

Check out the myspaces above, enjoy their songs then enjoy the show. Should be a good night.

5^th August, Baby Strange @ Cert 18 (Gillygate, York)

I’d not previously heard of this lot, the Cert 18 website describes them as “US(Boston)band Baby Strange take their stylistic clues from both the glam dusted age of British pop and full throttle mid 60`s American rock, add to that the epic sweep and romantic grandeur of 80s groups like Echo and the Bunneymen and The Smiths and you’ll have a flavour of what these guys are about.” And, having heard their mp3 on the website (www.babystrange,com

) that doesn’t seem an unreasonable description. They wear sharp suits, they’ve got a tight rhythm section and they Rock!

Cost is £4 on the door or just £2 in advance from me. There are three other acts (including me) on the night so if you get your ticket up front it’s just 50p a band and that’s got to be a steal in anybody’s book.

28^th May, Martin Stephenson @ Fibbers

More details on the gig: Martin Stephenson, ex-Daintees and ex-Toerags frontman, Fibbers have this to say about him “Supremely gifted singer, songwriter, musician and performer whose 20-year career started with The Daintees and still finds him peddling skiffle, jazz, rockabilly and country in his own whimsical and boyish style. Trivial Fact No 1: Martin wears James Cagney's hat. Trivial Fact No 2: He has a beer mat from every gig. Positively bursting with excellent, rootsy pop songs, ditties and charming life observations this Toon Army fan's shows are a riot of intimacy and good humour. .” Personally, I think he sounds a bit like how Van Morrison probably wished he still sounded. Check out the samples on www.daintees.com.

Also on the bill is Leeroy Stagger, normally when he comes over he headlines shows of this side so I guess what we have here is the live equivalent of the double A-side. A prolific artist who’s produced 4 albums (or should that be alba?) in as many years enjoy some fully-downloadable tracks here.

Fibbers have sorted me out with a flyer deal so click the link to get the flyer, take it along with you and it will cost you just £5 to get in rather than the £8 that it would cost you on the door

Apologies to anyone who has printed the Bic Runga flyer hoping for a cheap entry, these will no longer be valid so the cost is £6 in advance (click here for tickets) or £7 on the door. I’ll see you there if you’re going.

~~Wednesday 31^st May~~

~~BIC RUNGA at Fibbers~~

I have to say that I’m seriously chuffed about this one, this is almost certainly the first time that I’ve supported anyone that some of you may have heard off. It’s the first time I’ve supported someone whose albums I already have, and it’s certainly the first time I’ve supported anyone whose albums have gone multi platinum! Check out her website www.bicrunga.com for more details.

I’m pretty thrilled about this (as you can probably tell), she’s a great singer-songwriter and has toured extensively with Neil Finn (of Crowded House) and has a much larger presence on the other side of the pond, especially after her single ‘Sway’ was used in the soundtrack to American Pie.

Also on the bill are The Devastations, another bunch of antipodeans but I’m afraid I don’t know much about them. According to their website www.thedevastations.com they “were from the outset mining a well of their own, preferring understated emotion and veiled menace to the primal strut and bluster of the much-hyped 'new rock' of the time.” So there you have it. I guess we’ll learn more on the night.