Tag Archives: south west

13-04-2015 – Wales

Aloha!

And, as what passes for a tropical heatwave in the UK slips away into the familiar springtime grey chill, and another weekend devoid of gigging fun slips quietly past (Well, actually, I had a very pleasant weekend, as it happens, thank you very much!) at last we can look forward to a relatively normal weekend coming up – i.e. one with some gigs in it!

Friday 17th April – Auberge, Abergavenny
Now, having spent some nine years living over the bridge up in the mountainous peaks of South Wales, I happen to know in advance that Abergavenny is the name of the town, which presumably means that Auberge is the name of the venue. Although it does sound rather more like the name of a fictional Belgian detective, or possibly even some kind of clever figure skating move, than the name of a pub in South Wales, which usually tend to have sensible names like “The New Inn”, and “The Old Tavern”, and possibly even “The Middle Aged Hostelry”. In any case, I think it’s fair to assume it will be a rather more upmarket establishment than the ones we used to frequent over there. I recall one time going in the local miner’s club, (when they had only recently allowed women to actually go and order their own drinks) one of the more elderly staff in up in the valleys expressed concern at my beloved Dem going up to order herself a pint at the bar… READ MORE

07-04-2015 – Easter Special

Yo homeys!

Well, we hope the Easter Bunny brought you everything your little tummy desires – and if not – well, it’s your own fault, you obviously don’t Truly Believe, and that’s why you didn’t get anything.

Mind you, there’s any number of silly rumours going around that if you Truly Believe then – get this – after you’re dead, you actually get to live forever in a wonderful place where everybody is happy and nice. And it must be true, because nobody has ever come back to complain. On balance, a giant rabbit with a basket of chocolate sounds pretty credible, dontcha think? READ MORE

03-03-2015 – Bucket and Spade

Yo homeys

Well, I’m off on hols now for a week – so if anybody wants to go round to my house, break in, and tidy up a bit – maybe even redecorate the bathroom – now would be a good time.

Well, had a rip-roaring time this weekend, from a trying-to-remember-how-the songs-go evening up in Stroud, to a full-on silly jumping around dafty session down at Molloy’s in Bristol. Huge thanks and kudos to Massimo for coming along to film the gig, braving the inebriated with considerable aplomb.

I’m off to pack my bucket and spade now, so I’ll leave with our gig selection for next weekend: – READ MORE

23-03-2015 – Jack Daniels

Hey gang

Seems like ages since the rawk’n’roll leviathan that is Angel Up Front surfaced from the murky depths of the abyss, but we’re just about to emerge blinking into the unfamiliar sunlight, dripping salty fluids and, quite possibly, encrusted with barnacles.

In the meantime, I for one have had a manically non-rawk’n’roll weekend, involving much rebuilding of gardens and shouting at children – sometimes my own – and, all in all, I really can’t remember what all the fuss was about at work last week. I’m pretty sure I was very worried at the amount of jolly important and desperately urgent things I hadn’t managed to get finished by the end of last Friday; but I’m damned if I can remember what they were. Possibly the answer lies inside the bottle of Jack Daniels that lurks in the kitchen cupboard. I shall have to investigate that possibility; rather thoroughly, I feel… READ MORE

02-03-2015 – Inappropriate Dodgems

Hello possums!

Well, that’s the last bit of rawk’n’roll action we’ll see for a couple of weeks; on Friday, we opted to separate into small groups in order bother the drinking public in a more flexible and detailed manner. Thus it was that I decamped to the Clothiers in Stroud with young Lily for one of our acoustic/electric hybrid gigs, while Lou hit up Keynsham with her Loops duo act. And I think both gigs went rather well; ours did, even after Lil’s opening comment, “If anybody is still eating their dinner, we’re sorry for disturbing your meal – and if there is anything you can’t quite finish up; well – I’m here to help you out… …Two, three, four…”. READ MORE

23-02-2015 – Fish Tea

Hola, homeys!

Ahhh, a whole weekend off… except for young Lou, of course, who apparently had an excellent weekend gigging with her other projects. I really don’t know how she manages to keep up.

So, as I can’t give you any first-hand reports of rawk’n’roll action this week, we’d better keep this thing pretty short. The one thing I can tell you, following on from last week’s missive, is that the very best tea / fish pun that anybody managed to come up with was as follows: –

DarjEeling. READ MORE

16-02-2015 – Tired Pub

My my, hey hey*

Well, that was a strange old Saturday. February 14th, Valentine’s Day, and what more romantic way to spend it than to be playing a gig fifty miles away from your loved one in the middle of Nowhereshire…?

Lou at least had thought this one through a bit, and actually brought her young man along with her; unfortunately for him, since he was the only one who actually sat anywhere near the band, this meant he got persistently harangued by their resident outspoken lady, American Mary, who spent most the evening exhorting the rest of the punters, who were hiding at the far end of the pub (and who can blame them) to “get up and shake your butts”. READ MORE

09-02-2015 – Deepest Zummerzet

Hey folks

Well, Friday at the Red Lion in Staple Hill started off in a slightly disappointing way, with an hour’s wait before we could start playing, thanks to the England – Wales match. And after all that, the Welsh didn’t even win. Still, once we got going, it was a fine night, we were just banging out tune after tune trying to fit as much in as we could in the remaining time. Strangely, my suggestion that we play everything a double speed was not met with universal approval – Ben instead choosing to save time by playing one song while I was playing another. READ MORE

03-02-2015 – Rammed

Wassup dudes

Yet more rawk’n’roll silliness this week; Friday night at the Windmill in Swindon featured some spectacular dance moves from the locals, which had us in stitches; and also a special guest percussionist spot, with our new friend Sarina from local rawk outfit Broken Image – somebody has kindly posted a clip of us playing along with her on the old favourite “Rock and Roll” – originally written, of course, by our Illionois-based chums Band Of The Lost, but then shamelessly nicked by obscure ne’er-do-wells Led Zeppelin – if you find yourself wandering aimlessly about on Facebook at any time see if you can find it. She’s a rather fine hitter of drummy things, as it turns out, and hopefully we’ll catch up with her again next time we’re in those parts. READ MORE

26-01-2015 – Granddad Dancing

Aye oop, lad!

Well, as another weekend full of rawk’n’roll fun sails majestically past down the river of Time, flowing relentlessly onwards to the Sea of Oblivion, and we stand thoughtfully on the banks of the Present gazing into the distant horizon of Eternity, where the birds of Desire fly homewards to their nests of Remembrance silhouetted against the sunset of Significance, I can’t help but wish I’d remembered to put some trousers on.

Young Lily and I ventured up to Swindon on a freezing Friday night; we arrived at the Tap & Barrel to find it pretty quiet, but the folks that were there seemed nice and friendly. By the time we’d set up it was a bit more populated, and by a stroke of luck we more-or-less managed to remember the whole set. Not that it mattered too much, I don’t think they were too fussy; there was reasonable amount of singing along and jigging about, and we were even treated to some granddad dancing (imagine dad dancing, only much, much more so) from a very amiable chap, whose name remains a mystery – as was everything else he said. Full marks for incomprehensible muttering, that man! But, he seemed to be happy enough. READ MORE