keith_totp's Journal

The Buffalo Bar 10/10/2009
I can remember virtually nothing about this gig except for two facts.

Fact One.

My band were amazing. I mean actually great. Even the two new songs we played that half of them hadn't heard before went amazingly well. Quite a lot of people turned up a bit late thanks to the Victoria Line being the worst thing ever invented and seemingly opening and closing whenever the hell it feels like.

I also thought we were going to run out of time due to going on first, so played quite quickly. Which means we got to play all the old songs, AND the new ones in a quite spritely 20 minutes or so. Time flies when you're having fun :-).

But still, we were great. And it was great fun, even if Paul did run out of patience writing the band name on the board.

Fact Two.

Glam Chops played, and were probably the best I've ever seen them (and I'm guessing I've seen them more often than most) they were great. Actual harmonies at the end. I think they even surprised themselves :-)

Lineup
------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar
Charley Stone - Guitar
David NRF - Guitar & Singing
Fruitbat - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Vessel - Guitar & Singing
Eddie Argos - Bass
Sara - Saw
Sue Denim - Violin
Mike Brut - Drums
Arec - Sax

Now That's What I Call Music..
The last couple of days I have been making an album.

It's sounding amazing.

Not all the band has been able to make it so far, but then there are a lot of them.

On the album so far are,

Me

Mike Drums

Fruitbat

Micky Ciccone

James Rocks

David Barnett

Sue Denim

Arec

John Moore

Luke Haines

Ian Catskillkin

Jasper Future

& Tim Ten Yen

people who aren't on it yet, but who will be on it soon are,

Simon Indelicate
Julia Indelicate
Adie Nunn
Charley Stone
Sarah Nixey
Johnny Fade
Vessel
Eddie Argos
Dave Newton
Sara
Dave Fade
Sian
Gypsy

It really is great :-)

Camden Head, Micky's Birthday, 04/09/2009
my fourth night in five at the Camden head.

This gig was for micky's birthday and was acoustic.

Once again, I am the only band to actually do it acoustic, with everyone else plugging in.

All of the other bands playing live in my house, so I don't mind.

It does however mean I WIN!

It was great :-)

There were party poppers on the tables and a good time was had by all.

we couldn't fit on the stage, Dee on Bass had never heard the songs before, I lost my keys, and my night ended at a club that only played power ballads.

Can't go wrong with that.

Line up
-----------------
Me - 12 String Acoustic Guitar and Singing
Richie Abdou - Acoustic Guitar
Adie Nunn - Acoustic Guitar
Micky Ciccone - Acoustic Guitar
Sue Denim - Violin
Dee Plume - Acoustic Bass
Gypsy - Melodica
Sara - Saw
Arec - Sax

Adie's Brthday, Camden Head, 03/09/2009
Not my gig, but a gig I played at.

It was Adie Nunns birthday, so Steve 586, Arec and myself played as The johnny Dean Players.

our set consisted entirely of britpop covers, with no rehearsal and the ones that weren't already deeply ingrained in our indie consciousness being played straight out of The Big Britpop Guitar Chord Songbook.

Or as I like to call it "The Bible"

It was also the longest gig I've ever played, over an hour.

Which considering we didn't finish that many of the songs, and skipped bits in others, is quite an achievement,

As far as I can remember we played,

Connection - Elastica
Babies - Pulp
Daydreamer - Menswear
12 Reasons Why - My Life Story
Getting Better - Shed Seven
Slight Return- Bluetones
Live Forever - Oasis
Tatva - Kula Shaker
Brimful of Asha - Cornershop
On And On - Longpigs
For Tomorrow - Blur
Killing Of A Flash Boy - Suede
inbetweener - Sleeper

Solid gold I'm sure you'll agree.

we didn't have a drummer, so various people filled in. We started off taking song requests and quickly moved on to people requesting if they could play drums or bass.

and guest singers.

This is a photo Ewan took of us doing the My Life Story one.

And playing Live Forever was great, it reminded me of being 14 again :-)

It was amazing.

Line up
---------------
Steve 586 - Singing, Acoustic Guitar, a bit of drums
Arec - Bass & Singing
Me - Loud Electric Guitar
James Jam - Drums
A Girl I Don't Know - Drums
A Man I Don't Know - Drums
Another Man I Don't Know - Drums
The Same "Another Man I Don't Know - Bass
Jo Bevan - Guest Singing
Eddie Argos - Guest Singing

Flowerpot, Kentish Town, 19/08/09
This gig got off to an amazing start when Arec and I arrived in Lesser Camden at 4 o'clock to drop of the amps, only to find that there was free booze for the band.

We then made an effort to drink lots of it before the rest of the band arrived.

I also soundchecked, which I usually NEVER do as find it all a bit pointless when none of the amps need micing up and only two people are there.

This time I did it because the soundman just looked so put out at having nothing to do. It was actually quite lucky as I found out my amp didn't work, and it was only vocals and one guitar, so not too bad.

and I got to rock out

As we were sitting in the beer garden waiting for the rest of the band, as always happens, the texts started to come in from band members who couldn't make it.

Now I don't actually mind this, as I've done it with just me and Mike Drums before and it's really the whole point of the band to be a different lineup every time depending on who can make it, but it still panics me slightly for a second when the messages come in.

Then I remember that there will probably still be about 8 of us and it's fine :-)

The gig itself was great :-)

There was a version of Love is Lethal without James, so with an extra chorus, a missing bridge, and the guitar solo in a different place. It still sounded great though:-)

I'd told Steve 586 that if he came to the gig we would cover Daydreamer by Menswe@r, with him singing.

a fact I told the band about 30 minutes before they went on which lead to a lot of them outside practicing their D minor chords and trying to remember where the stops were.

I think Arec played the bass line to it on the Bassoon

That went great too :-)

My mind went totally blank at the end of I Hate Your Band (which it often does) causing me to just ramble about bands, and I think call Radiohead "ungrateful motherfuckers!"

it was ace though :-)

"Fuck the MSP" was also great with Arec seamlessly blending the riff from Rio by Duran Duran into the outro.

After the gig Charley found out she had bled all over her guitar without noticing, due to the rock.

I've also promised to write a song called "Channel Of Rock" for her, for which I shall rip off Dire Straits "Tunnel Of Love"

That'll be great too :-)

Sara's mum and dad came to watch her play the saw, I could tell they were very proud of the saw solo :-)

And David even made it to work only 5 minutes late after we went on half an hour later than I thought.

So, a great night all round really :-)

Lineup
------------------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
David Barnett - Guitar & Singing
Charley Stone - Guitar & Bleeding
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Fruitbat - Bass
Jen New Royal Family - Drums
Naomi - Bassoon
Sara - Saw
Arec - Sax & Bassoon
Steve 586 - Daydreaming

Buffalo Bar 08/08/2009
Another trip to the Buffalo Bar.

Which means another amazing gig :-)

I was at a barbecue earlier in the day, so was already pretty drunk when I got there, but as we were on first, it didn't really matter.

After phoning Arec 3 times to see where he was, only for him to keep hanging up because he was stood about 5 metres away it was time to play.

Arec taking his microphone into the crowd without me noticing, and confusing me with his voice through the speakers when I couldn't see him.

It's become a bit of a tradition, that only applies to me, for me to cover a song by one of the bands that make up my band at each gig.

Tonight we did two :-)

The first one was The New Royal Family's "That Girl Has Got It" Which went amazingly well, if you saw us the last time we tried to play it, then you could say it went incredibly amazingly well :-)

David was singing and playing the bass both times, this time he was sober.

see

Maybe it was that, or maybe it was because half of The New Royal Family were in the band this time.

Who knows:-)

I then did Two Of The Beatles Are Dead, which after realising that the chords are exactly the same as Faithlift by Half Man Half Biscuit, now has the "Sing Hossana" refrain nicked from that song with a subtle change from "The jazz fans are all going home" to "The Florence fans are all going home"

It worked pretty well, but then plagiarism usually does.

Then, because two of them were in the band, (here's a picture of Foz? watching my hands to play the songs, as I didn't know he was playing before I got there)

we covered "One Thing After Another" by David Devant & His Spirit Wife, which is pretty much my favourite of their songs.

Now, this is a song that normally I could sing backwards, but once on stage I couldn't remember a word of it, which meant I had to keep nipping to the back of the stage to ask Vessel how each verse started.

I'm pretty sure no one noticed though (Though obviously, I'm lying to myself there)

But once we hit the chorus it all seemed to take off and became amazing :-)

Singing this song, especially the ending bits was probably my favourite bit of the night and considering that nobody on stage who wasn't in David Devant and His Spirit Wife had any idea how it went, it was pretty great :-)

Special mention to Charley Stone's soloing again, this time she played the guitar with her feet, and it STILL sounded ace :-)

There was a bassoon solo too from Naomi. I don't think anyone could hear it, but it was there :-)

Also special thanks to Jen, who had not heard ANY of the songs before, there are myspace versions, but they are totally different, therefore totally useless to learn drums from as they're all about a third of the tempo of the live versions, but still did an amazing job drumming :-)

Then it was Dream Themes, an amazing gig from Devant, and magic from Magic Ben

All in all, loads of fun :-)

Lineup
------------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
David Barnett - Bass & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Vessel- Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Foz? - Guitar
Charley Stone - Guitar & Singing
Naomi - Bassoon
Arec - Sax
Jen NRF - Drums
Paul Guided Missile - Keyboards

Brixton Windmill 25/07/2009
This was a gig that I said I'd do ages ago, then never heard back until another band put me in their facebook event for it the day before.

I started the day off at a school reunion, then a stag do, then off to the gig only to find that TWO of the bands had cancelled.

One due to "Swine Flu" and one because their tour manager had got massively drunk the night before and overslept causing them to miss their ferry and so they were stuck on a later one.

This was only a problem as one of them was my drummer :-)

So that, coupled with people playing festivals, and various other things, meant that tonights band only had three people in it

Despite this, we were amazing :-)

Special mentions to Charley's guitar solos which were great, and to how weird it was to actually be able to hear myself singing.

we were pretty in time considering the lack of drums :-)

I also realised which Half Man Half Biscuit song one of my songs sounds like, and since I've not really written a proper ending to it I might steal theirs.

Line up
-----------
Me - Guitar and Singing
Charley Stone - Guitar and Singing
Fruitbat - Bass and Singing

Indelicates book launch, 22/07/2009
This was a special acoustic performance in a pub called The Old Crown, which just to confuse matters is practically next door to a pub called The Crown.

There was even more confusion when I turned up with 6 acoustic guitars only to be told that there was a comedy night booked.

After explaining to the Barman, that no, he didn't have a a comedy night booked but it was in fact a book launch with poets and musicians he asked "So, is it a sort of music and comedy thing?"

I don't think he understood.

The night was to launch The Indelicates book of poetry and lyrics, which is ace and you should buy here

www.indelicates.com/shop

So the night was split between poetry and bands.

The room was full, so after listening to a bit of poetry from the hallway, made all the harder by poets seeming to have aversions to microphones, I went downstairs to the bar to wait for the Indelicates to play.

Their gig was great, just Simon & Julia on acoustic guitar and piano, until Simon broke a string and borrowed my little pink guitar with a built in amp, allowing him to rock out, albeit quietly :-)

My gig went great as well, with Simon swapping to piano half way through to do what I called jazz solos, but probably weren't.

The duet between me and James was great, especially as the band has heard it enough times now to at least have learnt a bit of it each :-)

And I Hate Your Band with special section devoted to Mercury award nominees.

I might do more acoustic ones as they're always fun.

Eddie got to play his first bass solo and I think it went very well, although I don't know if anyone could hear it :-)

Line up
-------------
Me - 12 string acoustic guitar & Singing
Jasper Future - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
James Rocks - Acoustic Guitar and Singing
Micky Ciccone - Acoustic Guitar and Singing
Simon Indelicate - Piano
Julia Indelicate - Little pink guitar
Eddie Argos - Bass
Arec - Sax
Girl in the audience - Tambourine

Buffalo Bar 21/07/2009
I love playing the Buffalo Bar.

Especially as they are one of the few places that put the whole band name on the board :-)

Tonight is Paul Guided Missile's debut on the keyboards.

Because it's his first time in the band, I break with tradition and allow him a quick soundcheck, which consists of him playing me three keyboard sounds and me picking the second one.

Here is a picture of him rocking out.

The gig itself was ace :-)

Although think I may have insulted the rest of the bands by introducing "I Hate Your Band" with "If your in a band and not on this stage, I probably hate you!" but they didn't seem to mind.

There was then a lock in, which resulted in me drinking far too much bubblegum vodka with special celebrity guest Mick Jagger.

Line Up
---------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Gypsy - Guitar
Micky Ciccone - Guitar & singing
Charley Stone - Guitar & Singing
Jasper Future - Guitar & Singing
James Rocks - Guitar & Singing
Johnny Fades - Guitar
Mikey - Drums
Eddie Argos - Bass
Sara - Saw
Arec - Sax
Paul Guided Missile - Keyboards

Gig on a boat 18/06/2009
Playing on boats is excellent :-)

This gig was for the album launch of Ten City Nations album.

It was at the Tamesis docks, harder for taxi drivers to find than you might imagine, despite it being a boat with a massive sign outside.

It had a very nice view of the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, a barbeque, and a very busy bar.

Although I didn't get to use my new amp, with presets that say "Sound Famous, FAST!" on them, and couldn't hear anything, it was still loads of fun :-)

I would say it was one of the more "experimental" gigs that I do from time to time, including guitars played with drumsticks, a saw player, and everything just turned up very loud, with the cover of The New Royal Family's "That Girl Has Got It" being a particular highlight.

When me and David decided to cover it in the pub there was going to be a guitar player and a drummer from The New Royal Family in the band.

As it turned out, they couldn't make it, leaving David as the only person in the 10 piece band who knew how to play the song, and me as the only other one who had heard it.

But I think it went great :-)

and most of the audience had left by then anyway :-)

Line Up
------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Micky Ciccone - Guitar & Singing
Simon Indelicate - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Gypsy - Guitar
David New Royal Family - Bass & Singing
Julia Indelicate - Drums
Sara - Saw
Arec - Sax
Pierre Homard - French Nonchalance

The Mercury Lounge, New York 05/06/2009
I'm away touring America with Art Brut at the moment.

I played at their last New York gig, which was the last night of five nights they played in New York.

Also playing after me was Jeffrey Lewis, who is amazing.

The gig was ace. And sold out. All of the gigs sold out, and I'm not sure if this one sold out before or after my name was added to the bill, but I like to think I pushed it over the edge :-)

James Rocks flew over from England to play in the band and didn't tell his work he was going, but I'm sure it all worked out fine.

Especially as he stayed out here to come to Chicago with us for the week after that as well

I filled out some more space on the stage with my friend Nathan playing his daughters rattle, and Kip banging two drumsticks together :-)

There was a bit of a problem with James' guitar during the first song, meaning I had to fill in for a while with some stand up comedy about the differences between people from New York and LA.

After playing I realised I didn't have any merch, so I decided to sign two Primavera vip passes I had in my wallet, write "Keep on keeping on!" on the back and sell them as motivational cards.

If you're ever wondering how to handle something, you would think, "What would Keith TOTP do?" turn the card over and think "Ah! He would keep on keeping on. Sound advice."

I quite drunkenly priced them at $20 each, or $42 for the pair, as like antiques they're worth more in a set.

They didn't sell.

I did however get asked to write out the lyrics to Two Of The Beatles Are Dead, and a man gave me $20 for that.

Which is ace, and very surprising :-)

There are some photos, but I don't have them on the computer, so instead, here's a few videos,

This one is about some friends of mine.

This about how I'm great

This a duet with James Rocks on The rock and Roll Idiots song, Love Is Lethal

And here's I Hate Your Band, adapted for New York

And because it was ace, here's Jeffrey Lewis doing part 5 of his complete illustrated history of Communism, this time about North Korea

My next gig is either in LA in a couple of days, or on a boat on the Thames on the 18th of July.

Feel free to come to either :-)

Line Up
-------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Jasper Future - Guitar & Singing
James Rocks - Guitar & Singing
Eddie Argos- Bass
Mike Brut - Drums
Ed Idiot - Guest Bass
Nathan - Rattle
Kip - Banging sticks together

Gracetonbury II 25/05/2009
Day two of my south London residency.

Unlike last night, tonight's band was mostly made up of people who had heard the songs before.

Apart from the drummer.

But it still went excellently :-)

It was an all day gig, with loads of friends bands playing and a free barbeque.

I got to join the Helmholtz Resonators on stage to sing "Moonlight Lovely Time"

No lab coats this time though, but a gangster hat and some sunglasses :-)

I then had to find a drummer,

Julia was going to play the drums, but she and Simon couldn't make it.

So I drafted in Tim Ten Yen, who was very excited as he'd not played drums in about 15 years.

unfortunately, because we were going on almost 2 hours after we were meant to go on, after his set he had to go home.

So I got Ben Lambert to play. Ben used to be in Carter USM and Jim's Super Stereoworld.

He is however a keyboard player, not a drummer.

The thing with drummers not knowing the songs, is that when there are ten or so people on a little stage, they can't see me for when to stop or come back in, meaning I often end up screaming at them "DRUUUM! NOOOWW! and the songs all tend to become extended versions :-)

Which I like, because it leaves more time for other to play guitar solos :-)

This is quite a short entry, as even though I didn't go on until (I think) 1.30 am or so, I had been there in the pub since about 6, so I can't actually remember too much of it.

I do remember it being amazing though :-)

Lineup
------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Fruitbat - Bass & Singing
Richie Abdou - Wah Guitar
Johnny Fade - Guitar
James Rocks - Guitar & Singing
Micky Ciccone - Guitar & Singing
Naomi - Bassoon
Ben Lambert - Drums
Crissi Cromer - Singing

Local Girls album launch 23/05/2009
The first day of my weekend residency at the windmill, and it was ace :-)

Even though it was The Local Girls album launch, I was "Headlining" or "Going On Last" to put it another way.

A lot of what I loosely call "The Band" were busy, on tour, on holiday, and doing other gigs, so I thought the band would be a bit smaller than usual.

Luckily, James Rocks came straight from the airport after flying in from Austria, and I met some people outside who said they would play.

Which meant that almost half of the band were people i'd never even met, let alone played them the songs :-)

I love my band :-)

The Local Girls mentioned halfway through their set that they didn't have their usual drummer, and had only managed to have two rehearsals with him, my heart bleeds :-)

My gig was ace, there was more stand up comedy based on the difference between people from Brixton, and people from Clapham.

we did a cover of The Rock & Roll Idiots "Love Is Lethal" which only me and James knew, with James screaming the chords.

I Hate Your Band turned into a bit of a rant about the eighties revival.

All in all, a great night :-)

I even got paid.

Line up
----------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
James Rocks - Guitar & Singing
Drums - Stuffy
Bass - No Idea
Guitar - No Idea
Keyboards - No idea

Am off to do it again tonight, with some more people :-)

Innsbruck, 20/05/2009
This gig was a secret gig, as I didn't tell anyone I was going.

Art Brut had a day off in Innsbruck, and Ed, Mike and James Rocks had decided to do a one off gig as The Rock and Roll Idiots, whose last gig was about five years ago.

I decided to fly out with James.

The flights being to early in the morning to get to the airport by train meant that we kicked off this reunion tour by drinking cans of lager in a bus shelter at Gatwick airport until 3 in the morning when we decided to get some sleep.

The hotel were little pod type things owned by Yo Sushi, called YOtels.

They were like rooms on spaceships, if all rooms on spaceships were light by a pink neon light.

I was meant to sleep, but after failing to turn off the pink neon light, had another can of lager and watched the final of Ladettes To Ladies on telly instead.

finally got about half an hour sleep before getting the plane to sunny austria

After telling the venue that I'd be playing a few songs, and it wasn't an Art Goblins gig but a Keith TOTP gig, it was off for a lovely walk around Innsbruck,

and to eat schnitzel, only to get back to find posters saying "Rock and Roll Idiots VS Art Goblins" on the front door.

still, the actual gig was amazing!

The Rock and Roll Idiots have four songs, and are ace!

This is them soundchecking, and writing their fourth song.

Following the classic showbiz trick of always playing your best song twice, they introduced my band, or the extra members of the band as they were in it as well, and as I strummed the first chord I stepped on the lead, pulling it out of the guitar.

Luckily, someone scrambled up on stage and plugged it back in.

The crowd were ace!

there was chanting, a mosh pit, and stage divers :-)

For the end of I Hate Your Band, I read out a list of bands from the Weekender Records poster on the wall.

Since there was time for an encore, we decided that The Idiots should play their best song for a third time, but with everyone joining in on the last chorus, this went well apart from we all decided to come on in the first verse instead.

It turned into an extended version, with the excellent trick of shouting "GIVE ME YOUR HANDS! YOU'RE WONDERFUL!" over the end, which results in the crowd throwing their hands in the air. It's ace :-)

I can't really explain exactly how much fun this gig was :-)

I'm missing out the bits about the planned stand up comedy, "Hey INNSBRUCK! Have you ever noticed how people from Innsbruck drive their cars like this? While people from Vienna drive their cars like THIS!"

Me singing into a mic suspended above my head from a broken mic stand with Ian playing lead guitar over it,

James Rock's call and response chant of "I say Inns, you say Bruck! INNS! BRUCK! INNS! BRUCK! NOW JUST THE LADIES!"

The game of Buffalo,

and the very long after show party which had Jasper djing Caught By The Fuzz three times, and a lot more, because i can't remember too much of them :-)

Lineup
------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Mikey Brut - Drums
James Rocks - Guitar
Ian Catskilkin - Guitar
Jasper Future - Bass & Singing
Eddie Argos - Bass & Singing

The Camden Head, Foxy's Birthday, 08/05/2009
A gig that I didn't know was really happening until about an hour before it happened :-)

After spending the whole day feeling like death thanks to the night before, I'm actually even more surprised when this turns out to be ace :-)

This being Foxy's birthday party, we waited for some people to turn up while playing Give Us A Clue.

Playing the Camden Head is good.

There are no monitors and no mics for the instruments, which means no soundchecks and you can just get up and get on with it :-)

Once again I had a drummer who had never heard or played the songs before, but since I think he was mostly hitting a bongo with a tambourine it didn't matter too much :-)

My new thing of shouting "GUITAR SOLO!" at band members seemed to work ok with Micky.

Not so well with Adie, who decided to just ignore it.

And I don't have to say anything to Arec as he mostly solos over everything anyway :-)

I was going to finish with I Hate Your Band, but when I said it was our last song someone shouted for Fuck The MSP, and being the crowd pleaser that I am we did that too.

I usually only sing half of that song, and never the first line, as I can never remember what it is.

Tonight was no different :-)

Outside I met a man who said "Your band is amazing! You're like The Velvet Underground taking the piss"

Which is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said :-)

Line up
------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar
Micky Ciccone - Guitar & Singing
Arec - Sax
James Drums - Bongo and tambourine

Art But Aftershow, The Buffalo Bar, 07/05/2009
Another excellent gig.

I say that a lot, but I've never done one that has been anything less than loads of fun :-)

Wasn't sure who was going to be in the band until the last minute, had to keep it to a minimum as I had no way of sorting enough guitar amps in time, and would be mostly using Glam Chops equipment.

Excellent start to the day, Meeting Jasper, Paul and Jimmy, who thanks to his new hat is now the spitting image of Steve Craddock from Ocean Colour Scene, in the pub.

There is a self imposed rule on Art Brut, after one too many touring incidents, called Booze O'clock

This is a set time, usually 2 hours before the gig, that they can start drinking.

So Jasper had a coke, and I had cider, which meant that my Booze O'clock was about 8 hours before my gig, which considering I ended up drinking pints of vodka and coke, turned out ok.

Just before the Art Brut gig, I got a message from Paul Guided Missile telling me that Glam Chops would now be going on first due to Mikey being ill.

Which is fine by me, as I'm almost as fussed about running orders as I am about soundcheck, which is not fussed at all.

So after the amazing Art Brut gig, it was time to get everyone into a taxi and head to the Buffalo Bar.

The Glam Chops set went great, then after borrowing Tim Chop's guitar for Jasper, and all their amps, it was time to play.

I still had no idea who was drumming for me as Mike couldn't do it.

Paul Guided Missile was my original replacement, despite him not being a drummer.

Just as I arrived though, Michael Tapper, Ex We Are Scientists and current Bishop Allen member, who I'd not seen in at least a year, turned up, and he IS a drummer, so a quick shout of "Do You Fancy Drumming?" "Yeah!" and I had a drummer.

A drummer who had never heard or played the songs before, but a drummer none the less :-)

It went amazingly well.

I have taken to shouting out the names of band members followed by the words "GUITAR SOLO!" I should probably tell them about this before hand, but it seems more fun not to :-)

Here is a photo that Jo took, and then I stole from Facebook as usual.

and some more, that I also stole from facebook

Line up
------------------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
David New Royal Family - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Jasper Future - Guitar (for a bit until the amp broke)
Eddie Argos - Bass & Singing
Fruitbat - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Sue Denim - Violin
Arec - Sax
Michael Tapper - Drums

The next one is at the Windmill in Brixton on the 23rd of May for the Local Girls Album Launch.

Then on the 24th of May at The Windmill for Gracetonbury Two. But that one's a secret, so don't tell anyone. But still come.

x

The Camden Head, Camden, 25/04/2009
Another excellent gig

This gig is upstairs at one of the few pubs that you don't need a Camden Crawl wristband to get into, which is nice.

I decide to start the day with a pop quiz in a pub about 30 seconds from my house.

Despite having been up til 4 in the morning, the quiz starting at 1 pm, and there being nobody else in my team until James Rock turns up to answer the last question,, I still come 4th out of about 12

I think this is pretty good.

Then me and James head off for lunch and pints and to decide whether to que up to see Billy Bragg in The Dublin Castle, or Tim Ten Yen in The Spread Eagle.

Decide to do neither and go straight to The Camden Head for more pints.

Then It's off to carry the gear down the road, as the pub the gig is in is also 30 seconds from my house in the opposite direction.

Tonight is meant to be an acoustic gig.

Lot's of other bands cheat with electric guitars and drumkits, but it's still good.

First off was Paul Hawkins, who was actually quite good and didn't cheat. Unfortunately there's only me and four other people or so in the room to see it.

Next up was Wojtek, who is always good, and didn't cheat.

More people arrive.

Then Mr Solo, who was ace, though he cheated, cheated MASSIVELY, but I love Mr Solo, so I'll let him off. :-)

Then Black Daniel, who also cheat, but are also amazing, and since they need a synth I'll let them off too.

More people arrive.

Then it was time for my band, which didn't cheat at all.

See

Eddie was busy supporting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Shepherds Bush, so coudn't make it back in time to play bass, but he did make it back just in time (with a botle of neat vodka in his bag) to see,

The Indelicates, Who also didn't cheat, and were amazing as well :-)

Though I had to miss one of the new songs as I had to run up the road to let people drop boxes of t-shirts off at my house.

It's a sign of how much I love this band that I did actually run.

Then the 18 Carat Love Affair, who used an electric guitar, but also covered Daydreamer by Menswear, so I'll forgive them just about anything for that.

Then I ran off very quickly to the Purple Turtle to see the Robocop Kraus, who were great as well.

All in all, an excellent day :-)

I was going to write a lot more about it, but it's totally slipped my maind.

It was LOTS of fun though :-)

Line up
------------------
Me - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Fruitbat - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Simon Indelicate - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Mr Solo - Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Arec - Sax
Julia Indelicate - Clarinet
Gypsy - Melodica
Sara - Saw
Sue Denim - Violin
Member Of The Audience In The Front Row - Tambourine

Guided Missile Vs The Fans, The Lexington, Angel 21/04/09
What a great day :-)

Woke up feeling a bit rubbish due to being up late, but me and Eddie decided to go and see Jeffrey Lewis at the Pure Groove in store at 1.15.

An excellent idea, as he was ace.

I used to live practically next door to what is now Pure Groove so after the gig, me and Eddie went to what is the best cafe in London. The Travelers Grill.

Feeling lots better, it was time to put 10 guitar amps in a taxi and go and meet Paul Guided Missile at the pub.

Paul turns up in a taxi with the drum kit. The Buffalo Bar house drum kit. The crappest drum kit in the world with only one leg on the bass drum, and one cymbal stand.

Luckily, I'm not a drummer, and hate cymbals, so wasn't worried at all.

Load in done, it was off to the all you can eat for £3.95 vegie indian buffet.

I tried to eat it all, but there was loads left.

Then back to the pub to wait for people to turn up. Paul sweating in his lucky soundcheck hat while we played the "Customer? or Member of Keiths Band" game every time we heard the door open.

I was winning for quite a while.

Then the gig, I thought it went amazingly well, but you can judge for yourself by watching the whole thing on nme.com here,

http://tinyurl.com/dceqcm

The second song is dedicated to my friend Caroline as it was her birthday, and it's the only one which isn't spiteful, bitter or full of rage :-)

Here is a photo of the left side of my band

Here's one of the right side of my band

And here's one of the middle, as nobody ever gets to see Mike, and he hates that :-)

and one of the whole band :-)

(all stolen from other peoples facebooks)

I am reminded, as I amevery time I see a picture or video of myself, that I should probably get a haircut.

Even though 4 people couldn't make it, we muddled through with the 15 or so of us.

After that, I watched the Kabeedies, who were great, and a rare appearance from Englands best Orthodox Glam Band, Glam Chops, who were ace.

Line up
-------------
Me - Guitar & Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar & Singing
Mikey Brut - Drums
Eddie Argos - Bass & Singing
Vessel - Guitar & Singing
Jasper Future - Guitar & Singing
Sara - Saw
Charley Stone - Guitar & Singing
Micky Ciccone - Guitar & Singing
The David - Guitar & Singing
James Rock - Guitar & Singing
Arec - Sax
Fruitbat _ Acoustic Guitar & Singing
Johnny Fade - Guitar & SInging

Not all of the people singing may have had a microphone :-)

My Next gig is on Saturday at the Camden Head, with the Indelicates, 18 Carat Love Affair and many more :-)

It's a stripped down acoustic affair, so it should just be 3 acoustic guitars, a violin, melodica, glockenspiel, clarinet and maybe one electric guitar for solos, as I can't play them to save my life on electric guitars, let alone acoustics.

It'll be ace :-)

The Windmill, Bad Friday All Dayer, 10/04/09
If I'm in Brixton, I must be at the Windmill.

A last minute replacement for a band that pulled out, again.

I'm always up for being a last minute replacement band, I just wish it happened at a pub a lot closer to my house, than it happening in Brixton.

The short notice meant that the band was a bit harder to put together. Including phoning Stuffy on the afternoon of the gig to see if he could play drums.

Luckily he only lived round the corner.

So there was only 4 of us until the last song.

It was a great day though :-)

I got to join the excellent Helmholtz Resonators on stage, singing about the moon while dressed in a scientists coat, and wearing a fur hat.

I think the actual gig went off pretty well, even if I did forget quite a lot of the words.

I think this was due to my excellent plan of playing twice as loud as usual to make up for the missing guitars :-)

Eddie was playing the bass, usually I tell him at the start of the song which notes to play, but I was a little drunker than usual as I'd been in the pub since 3.30, so for some reason I told him all the notes backwards, leaving it to Adie Nunn to shout out the correct ones from the audience :-)

Here's a photo of the last song, when there was a few more people on stage

there are actually seven people on stage there, which sounds a lot, but isn't :-)

you also can't really see me in it. I think I'm shouting at Stuffy to play faster.

Line up
-------------

Me- Guitar and Singing
Eddie Argos - Bass and Singing
Johnny Fade - Guitar
Stuffy - Drums
Adie Nunn - Singing
Foxy - Shouting
Ashley Me My Head - Jumping around holding a bass guitar.

Next one is on Tuesday at Londons trendy Lexington pub with Let's wrestle, Kabeedies and Johnny Cola & the A Grades.

There should be a bigger band, as I've already got eleven guitarists, clarinet and a violin.

It's going to be pretty amazing :-)

Dublin Castle 10/03/2009
One of my favourite things about playing the Dublin Castle, is that it's thirty seconds from my house.

This meant that me and Eddie were able to take all the gear over in 3 trips just before it started to rain :-)

The assistant sound guy got a bit of a shocked look on his face when I explained that I wasn't sure of my line up, but it would probably have eight or so electric guitars, a saxophone, and possibly a hoover.

There is always such a look of relief on their faces when I tell them the amps won't need micing up.

There was meant to be a soundcheck at five, but since nobody in the band could make it, and there's not really much point when I don't know who's going to be playing, we ended up drinking beer at my house instead.

Other people started to turn up at the house, and we prepared for the gig in much the same way as I imagine The Killers do it. Which is sitting around drinking Sainsbury Value Wine (£2.50 a bottle) listening to Johnny Fade rating "The Foxes" on Holby City.

Got to the venue about 20 minutes before we had to play.

We were amazing. each time we play I seem to have more fun :-)

This one was made better by acrobatics, as James Rock put his foot on the monitor to do a solo, slipped, and somersaulted off the stage pulling the monitor and two amps over.

I look over the edge of the stage to see him still playing the guitar while lying on his back. :-)

This was after he and David decided to play each others guitars in a fine display of rock and roll posing. As seen in this photo I stole from Facebook. :-)

I Hate Your Band was updated to include more bands, mainly The Airborne Toxic Event, Anyone who just rips off U2, Anyone who just Rips off the Arcade Fire, Anyone who just rips off the Jesus and Mary Chain, and White Lies.

The next day, three members of the band got in touch to apologise for being so drunk.

I really didn't notice :-)

Have another photo stolen from the internet, it very nearly fits us all in :-)

Vessel, Charley, Arec and Paul Guided Missile all had to pull out at the last minute, so I was down two guitars, a saxophone, and whatever Paul was going to bring along, which meant I still had,

Line-up
----------------
Me - Guitar and Singing
Adie Nunn - Guitar
Jasper Future - Guitar and Singing
Simon Indelicate - Guitar
David NRF - Guitar and Singing
Johnny Fade - Guitar
James Rock - Guitar
Eddie Argos - Bass and Singing
Julia Indelicate - Various Keys of Harmonica (sometimes even the right one) and Singing
Mike Drums - Drums

Next one. The Lexington on the 21st of April. I'll be trying to get everyone that's ever been in the band to play at this one :-)

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