Posts
Well, we have had a short break from updating our blog, however we are now back to hurl a big old bag of crazy at you twice a week. Hazar!
Not much new stuff has been going on in ATC-world. Just a nice bit of hard gigging. We have had some fantastic gigs recently, with perhaps the best being at the Icaurus Club at The Station Hotel in Lewisham. However, much to our sadness (but perhaps my wallet's joy) tonight is our last sojourn into London for a while, where we are playing at the Half Moon in Putney in a rather stacked line up that contains a bit of a who's who of the London acoustic scene. If you like spontaneous trips to Putney, come on down tonight.
After tonight, we are bouncing around the glorious South East of England (a full list of gigs is of course up at www.myspace.com/atcuk) and doing some radio stuff. We are also starting to put a definite emphasis on writing some new material, which is always fun. So it means that you might catch something new from us. Keep your ears open!
On a personal level, not much is going on. I've scared the rest of the band after sharing a dream I had, Adrian is still trying to work 25 hours a day, Phil is still a bit of a bastard, Emma is still wonderful and Gethin is still regularly surprising us with random acts of genius.
And now we are back sharing it all with you. In the words of General Melchett – Baaaaaaaaa!
Monday 20 July 2009
Monday 13 July 2009
New gigs confirmed
So, back after a weekend (well, Thursday and Friday, that almost counts) of gigging in London, and we've got some more gigs confirmed for all of you lovely people:
Sat 15 August - The Bull, Bracknell - Playing a slot at our guitarist Adrian's pub. Other acts TBC.
Thurs 22 October - Folking Live @ The Cellar Bar, Bracknell - 30 minute set opening the night alongside great roots acts Eddy Johns and Lewis Garland & The Kett Rebellion.
Mon 9 November - Good Intentions, Puttenham - Playing a 25 minute featured slot at the great Good Intentions night near Guildford.
Hopefully we'll see some of you at these, and please check out our full listings as well!
Sat 15 August - The Bull, Bracknell - Playing a slot at our guitarist Adrian's pub. Other acts TBC.
Thurs 22 October - Folking Live @ The Cellar Bar, Bracknell - 30 minute set opening the night alongside great roots acts Eddy Johns and Lewis Garland & The Kett Rebellion.
Mon 9 November - Good Intentions, Puttenham - Playing a 25 minute featured slot at the great Good Intentions night near Guildford.
Hopefully we'll see some of you at these, and please check out our full listings as well!
Friday 10 July 2009
When it all goes to plan
It can be tough sometimes. Rehearsals can go badly, you can turn up to a gig to be told you have to make do with 2 microphones and no sound tech, or even worse trek halfway across the country for a gig just to play to three people and a cat. We've been in all of those situations in the past (I might have invented the cat), and it does make you wonder why you're in a band. But then, once in a while, you have a gig where everything runs smoothly, everyone plays well, and a great time is had by all, and you remember why you put up with all the crap.
Last night was one of those gigs. I have to admit, we had all been dreading it slightly as, being in South East London, it was going to be a bit of a nightmare for all of us to get there. But we persevered, and despite detours to Maidstone and broken Sat-Navs we all managed to get there just about on time. And from the minute we walked in, we knew it was going to be great.
It was in a great pub called 'The Station' in Hither Green, near Lewisham. A proper old-school London pub - high ceilings, a long bar selling good ale (we're all getting a bit old you see), slightly battered but comfy seats. Then we saw where we were going to be playing - as one of the other acts commented, "it's like playing in someone's living room". And it was - a big wooden fireplace, pictures on the walls, everyone gathered round sat on sofas and old-fashioned chairs. Even the tealights on the tables seemed to work, rather than being the acoustic music cliche that they usually are!
And then the music started - 3 other great acts (whose names I'm afraid I can't remember, but should be up on the promoter's blog at http://icarusclub.blogspot.com at some point), all top-notch musicians, playing everything from intricate acoustic ballads to country to traditional blues. We played two pretty good sets as well, but that almost seemed besides the point - it was the warm atmosphere, helped no end by Andy the promoter and compere (from Icarus Music), and the fact that everyone was there just to play and enjoy great music in great surroundings.
So - we've now just got to hope that our next few gigs are up to the same level! We're playing at The Spice of Life in Soho this evening, and last time we played there it was a great night, so we've got our fingers crossed... Pop along if you're in the area, and see what happens.
Last night was one of those gigs. I have to admit, we had all been dreading it slightly as, being in South East London, it was going to be a bit of a nightmare for all of us to get there. But we persevered, and despite detours to Maidstone and broken Sat-Navs we all managed to get there just about on time. And from the minute we walked in, we knew it was going to be great.
It was in a great pub called 'The Station' in Hither Green, near Lewisham. A proper old-school London pub - high ceilings, a long bar selling good ale (we're all getting a bit old you see), slightly battered but comfy seats. Then we saw where we were going to be playing - as one of the other acts commented, "it's like playing in someone's living room". And it was - a big wooden fireplace, pictures on the walls, everyone gathered round sat on sofas and old-fashioned chairs. Even the tealights on the tables seemed to work, rather than being the acoustic music cliche that they usually are!
And then the music started - 3 other great acts (whose names I'm afraid I can't remember, but should be up on the promoter's blog at http://icarusclub.blogspot.com at some point), all top-notch musicians, playing everything from intricate acoustic ballads to country to traditional blues. We played two pretty good sets as well, but that almost seemed besides the point - it was the warm atmosphere, helped no end by Andy the promoter and compere (from Icarus Music), and the fact that everyone was there just to play and enjoy great music in great surroundings.
So - we've now just got to hope that our next few gigs are up to the same level! We're playing at The Spice of Life in Soho this evening, and last time we played there it was a great night, so we've got our fingers crossed... Pop along if you're in the area, and see what happens.
Thursday 2 July 2009
Reviews
Well, first BBC Radio 2 airplay and now a really good review posted on Folk and Roots - http://www.folkandroots.co.uk/reviews9.html#allthings. We haven’t made a bad start to the album promotion!
It’s a strange feeling, opening up your work for other people to critique. It’s like opening your front door and letting people who you’ve never met before loose in your house, picking fault with things, expressing their loudest opinions about your choice of curtains or the state of your carpets (well, unless of course you’re a Z list celebrity who seem to welcome that sort of thing).
Granted, we’ve made a hugely positive start, but for every positive opinion – there is the likelihood that somewhere down the line there will be a person who isn’t going to like what we’re doing and are going to document that fact. It will be interesting how we react to that. Part of me hopes we take the view that a review is a review, and that one person’s opinion doesn’t mean everyone is going to think like that. That you just need to brush the negative views aside and concentrate on impressing the people that are in to what you are doing. That is the correct way to deal with it.
However, like any act – we’ve spent a considerable amount of time and money creating, honing, recording, mixing and mastering these tracks, and we’re pretty attached to them. Yeah, like anything we could look back and think we could have done this and that better. We’re sure we could have done more in the mixing but time was short. On the whole though we’re pleased with the product, happy it portrays us and the music in a positive light and believe it is a good representation of what we are currently about. So, the fact that someone could slate it is likely to be quite a hard pill to swallow – even if it is just one opinion.
Being a reviewer of folk based artists myself, I know of multiple big names in the genre that have blacklisted certain reviewers (myself not included) after they gave them bad press. However, unless you put your record out there, open it up for critique and take the hit if it is panned, not only do you never improve, you’ll never make any money – as without people commenting on your material whether good or bad, you’ll never get any publicity.
So, we’ll wait and see. So far, we’re very very happy. We’ll hope that it’ll all be positive, but as soon as the first negative one hits the web – we’ll be on here to rant about it! At least then it’ll be out of our systems and we can get on with things……
Gigs this coming week by the way are a short set at The Farnham Maltings tomorrow (Friday) at about 10pm. Next week we are in the capital for back to back gigs at The Station Hotel in Lewisham on Thursday 9th as part of The Icarus Club nights and then the following evening we’re in Leicester Square for a return to The Spice of Life.
Be good to see you at any of those.
It’s a strange feeling, opening up your work for other people to critique. It’s like opening your front door and letting people who you’ve never met before loose in your house, picking fault with things, expressing their loudest opinions about your choice of curtains or the state of your carpets (well, unless of course you’re a Z list celebrity who seem to welcome that sort of thing).
Granted, we’ve made a hugely positive start, but for every positive opinion – there is the likelihood that somewhere down the line there will be a person who isn’t going to like what we’re doing and are going to document that fact. It will be interesting how we react to that. Part of me hopes we take the view that a review is a review, and that one person’s opinion doesn’t mean everyone is going to think like that. That you just need to brush the negative views aside and concentrate on impressing the people that are in to what you are doing. That is the correct way to deal with it.
However, like any act – we’ve spent a considerable amount of time and money creating, honing, recording, mixing and mastering these tracks, and we’re pretty attached to them. Yeah, like anything we could look back and think we could have done this and that better. We’re sure we could have done more in the mixing but time was short. On the whole though we’re pleased with the product, happy it portrays us and the music in a positive light and believe it is a good representation of what we are currently about. So, the fact that someone could slate it is likely to be quite a hard pill to swallow – even if it is just one opinion.
Being a reviewer of folk based artists myself, I know of multiple big names in the genre that have blacklisted certain reviewers (myself not included) after they gave them bad press. However, unless you put your record out there, open it up for critique and take the hit if it is panned, not only do you never improve, you’ll never make any money – as without people commenting on your material whether good or bad, you’ll never get any publicity.
So, we’ll wait and see. So far, we’re very very happy. We’ll hope that it’ll all be positive, but as soon as the first negative one hits the web – we’ll be on here to rant about it! At least then it’ll be out of our systems and we can get on with things……
Gigs this coming week by the way are a short set at The Farnham Maltings tomorrow (Friday) at about 10pm. Next week we are in the capital for back to back gigs at The Station Hotel in Lewisham on Thursday 9th as part of The Icarus Club nights and then the following evening we’re in Leicester Square for a return to The Spice of Life.
Be good to see you at any of those.
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