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Yet another London date has been cancelled. Our gig in Battersea at The Halo Bar this Tuesday (1st) has been pulled due to the venue closing at short notice.
With the only London date now not until April, we'll be looking to get something in the book for February, so watch this space.
Sunday 29 November 2009
Thursday 26 November 2009
London show cancelled
As you'll see form the latest blog - the Half Moon gig in January has been cancelled.
We'll be looking to book a replacement London show for early New Year, but we do still have the one more London gig for this year, in Battersea on 1st December.
We'll be looking to book a replacement London show for early New Year, but we do still have the one more London gig for this year, in Battersea on 1st December.
Another Venue On The Brink
It’s with a great deal of sadness that we heard today that the legendary venue The Half Moon in Putney is facing closure after over 50 years of live music performance. Our gig scheduled there for January has been shelved as they have had to book acts that will definitely pull a full house while they get themselves sorted, and hopefully continue trading.
I think I speak for the entire band when we say that playing at The Half Moon is one of the highlights of this bands existence so far, such is the history and reputation of the place. The Rolling Stones, The Who, John Martyn, U2, Kate Bush and Nick Cave are all world famous acts that have graced that stage at one time or another. Even over the last couple of years it’s played host to the current crop of outstanding artists gracing the music scene from Newton Faulkner to Kasabian. There’s even rumour that Fairport Convention’s manager used to run the band from the pay phone in the corner!
It’s venues like this that bands like us, in our current position aspire to play. It ranks up their with legendary London venues like The Marquee and The Troubadour and is the sort of venue that, once you’ve played it you know you’ve made a giant step in the right direction. To be booked for places like The Half Moon is almost like getting your act validated.
So I imagine the immediate future will be fundraising gigs and the current staff doing all they can to get people coming through the door. With more and more venues going under because of lack of support for live music in these times – it’s increasingly difficult for venues like this to stay open, and without venues, you don’t have live music, and without live music you don’t have a music industry. Like Sting said recently, if you think the X Factor is the future of music, you’re very much mistaken.
So, have a look at the Half Moon listings – www.halfmoon.co.uk and see if there’s something there you fancy. There is usually something for everyone and the more they get in, the more chance of places like this staying open for years to come.
I think I speak for the entire band when we say that playing at The Half Moon is one of the highlights of this bands existence so far, such is the history and reputation of the place. The Rolling Stones, The Who, John Martyn, U2, Kate Bush and Nick Cave are all world famous acts that have graced that stage at one time or another. Even over the last couple of years it’s played host to the current crop of outstanding artists gracing the music scene from Newton Faulkner to Kasabian. There’s even rumour that Fairport Convention’s manager used to run the band from the pay phone in the corner!
It’s venues like this that bands like us, in our current position aspire to play. It ranks up their with legendary London venues like The Marquee and The Troubadour and is the sort of venue that, once you’ve played it you know you’ve made a giant step in the right direction. To be booked for places like The Half Moon is almost like getting your act validated.
So I imagine the immediate future will be fundraising gigs and the current staff doing all they can to get people coming through the door. With more and more venues going under because of lack of support for live music in these times – it’s increasingly difficult for venues like this to stay open, and without venues, you don’t have live music, and without live music you don’t have a music industry. Like Sting said recently, if you think the X Factor is the future of music, you’re very much mistaken.
So, have a look at the Half Moon listings – www.halfmoon.co.uk and see if there’s something there you fancy. There is usually something for everyone and the more they get in, the more chance of places like this staying open for years to come.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Update
Just a couple of dates to make you aware of. We've just confirmed a slot in Taunton, Somerset on Saturday 9th January - supporting the outstanding Tinderbox at The Perfect 5th music venue.
Also just announced is what we hope will be the first of many festivals for 2010. We'll be doing a slot at The Secret World festival in Lincolnshire at some point between the 20th and 22nd August.
Also just announced is what we hope will be the first of many festivals for 2010. We'll be doing a slot at The Secret World festival in Lincolnshire at some point between the 20th and 22nd August.
Latest Goings On
Premature? Perhaps. But the Christmas countdown has begun!
Only 21 working days until I (Emma) set off for sunnier skies for a family festive season, and I couldn’t be more excited.
However, the countdown with All Things Considered is a busy period as we try to squeeze in as many get togethers – gigs, rehearsals and interviews between work parties and family gatherings as we can.
Our next event you are all invited to is in Battersea on the 1st December, and we look forward to hopefully seeing some friendly faces to welcome us to this new venue. Details of that gig can be found on the website as usual. Also coming up is a return appearance on Surrey radio station Brooklands FM on December 7th. We have a full 2 hour show to play a few tracks, pick a few tracks and generally have a bit of a chat and a laugh. We'll post details on how to listen to the show a bit nearer the time.
Anyone interested in coming to see us in Reading on 17th December - we'll keep you fully updated with that, as there are a few promoter issues with that gig currently (i.e. the promoter has left!). We're trying hard to keep the gig on, but will of course keep everyone 'in the loop' with any news.
In the meantime, I assure you we will be working hard, writing to keep our set fresh.
Also, keep checking back on the website as we have some pictures from previous gigs and even some potential video footage being uploaded on the site very soon.
Have a good week!
Only 21 working days until I (Emma) set off for sunnier skies for a family festive season, and I couldn’t be more excited.
However, the countdown with All Things Considered is a busy period as we try to squeeze in as many get togethers – gigs, rehearsals and interviews between work parties and family gatherings as we can.
Our next event you are all invited to is in Battersea on the 1st December, and we look forward to hopefully seeing some friendly faces to welcome us to this new venue. Details of that gig can be found on the website as usual. Also coming up is a return appearance on Surrey radio station Brooklands FM on December 7th. We have a full 2 hour show to play a few tracks, pick a few tracks and generally have a bit of a chat and a laugh. We'll post details on how to listen to the show a bit nearer the time.
Anyone interested in coming to see us in Reading on 17th December - we'll keep you fully updated with that, as there are a few promoter issues with that gig currently (i.e. the promoter has left!). We're trying hard to keep the gig on, but will of course keep everyone 'in the loop' with any news.
In the meantime, I assure you we will be working hard, writing to keep our set fresh.
Also, keep checking back on the website as we have some pictures from previous gigs and even some potential video footage being uploaded on the site very soon.
Have a good week!
Wednesday 11 November 2009
TFL - Just Another Nightmare
I’d like to start off this week’s blog by thanking everyone who came to support us at The Slaughtered Lamb on Sat night. It was great to catch up with you all and we hope you enjoyed the night. We enjoyed the night – at least we did up to a certain point…after leaving the venue to catch the last train home the evening took a gradual decline for the next few hours….
We left the venue in an attempt to make the 11.15 train back home, however Ben & I (Emma) managed to lose the others who had gone to catch the tube and we were left wandering aimlessly around for the next 10 minutes searching for a tube stop. Eventually, with the aid of a sat nav on a mobile phone we found the desired location. On we got, Ben successfully going his way, and me n my fella on our way to Waterloo, with little chance of getting there now to catch the train, but travelling in vain hope until the announcement of several lines being closed due to work being undertaken.
DAMMIT – we thought as we planned for a new route back.
45 minutes later, we were standing in Waterloo station looking for any train going in our general direction…we’d just missed 1 back to a nearby town by 3 minutes! Never mind…last train 1.05 – we’ll get that one. Off to Burger King it was to kill a little bit of time – and to be fair, it went quite quickly. 1.05 arrived and we happily made it to our platform and found a seat…we waited – and waited…and waited!! But our train never left – SIGNAL FAILURE – the guard informed us all.
Genuinely not having any other option other than to sit on a train which was now well over an hour late, which may never move or pay £80 for a taxi home – we opted for the taxi…only 50000000 other people had also had the same idea and there were no taxis available! We queued, n waited, n waited and queued but we didn’t seem to be moving in the taxi line!!
THE TRAINS GOING!, came the shout from out of Waterloo – so we ran, back to the platform, back onto the train, found yet another seat and sat there – and waited, and waited. We waited – and eventually – over 2 hours after schedule the train left the platform. We finally made it back to the station, where we now needed to get a taxi as we were further from home than we would have been had we not missed our initial train. So we stood in yet another queue and waited for taxis. I’m sure you can imagine taxis are few and far between at gone 4 in the morning so it was a fair old wait, but eventually – tired n grumpy we arrived at ours at 4.30am
So – conversations were had the next day as I informed people of the torture we’d been through the night before and the decision was made that never again will we ever trust public transport to get us to or from a gig!!!
We’re hoping for a more successful, more accessible and equally enjoyable evening on Thursday and look forward to seeing you all at The Icarus Club in Lewisham tomorrow!!
We left the venue in an attempt to make the 11.15 train back home, however Ben & I (Emma) managed to lose the others who had gone to catch the tube and we were left wandering aimlessly around for the next 10 minutes searching for a tube stop. Eventually, with the aid of a sat nav on a mobile phone we found the desired location. On we got, Ben successfully going his way, and me n my fella on our way to Waterloo, with little chance of getting there now to catch the train, but travelling in vain hope until the announcement of several lines being closed due to work being undertaken.
DAMMIT – we thought as we planned for a new route back.
45 minutes later, we were standing in Waterloo station looking for any train going in our general direction…we’d just missed 1 back to a nearby town by 3 minutes! Never mind…last train 1.05 – we’ll get that one. Off to Burger King it was to kill a little bit of time – and to be fair, it went quite quickly. 1.05 arrived and we happily made it to our platform and found a seat…we waited – and waited…and waited!! But our train never left – SIGNAL FAILURE – the guard informed us all.
Genuinely not having any other option other than to sit on a train which was now well over an hour late, which may never move or pay £80 for a taxi home – we opted for the taxi…only 50000000 other people had also had the same idea and there were no taxis available! We queued, n waited, n waited and queued but we didn’t seem to be moving in the taxi line!!
THE TRAINS GOING!, came the shout from out of Waterloo – so we ran, back to the platform, back onto the train, found yet another seat and sat there – and waited, and waited. We waited – and eventually – over 2 hours after schedule the train left the platform. We finally made it back to the station, where we now needed to get a taxi as we were further from home than we would have been had we not missed our initial train. So we stood in yet another queue and waited for taxis. I’m sure you can imagine taxis are few and far between at gone 4 in the morning so it was a fair old wait, but eventually – tired n grumpy we arrived at ours at 4.30am
So – conversations were had the next day as I informed people of the torture we’d been through the night before and the decision was made that never again will we ever trust public transport to get us to or from a gig!!!
We’re hoping for a more successful, more accessible and equally enjoyable evening on Thursday and look forward to seeing you all at The Icarus Club in Lewisham tomorrow!!
Thursday 5 November 2009
One More Time
In these times of hardship, the banks have quite rightly been getting it right in the neck for crumbling this once great country to the brink of oblivion – however for the common man, the bank should still be seen to be a place of trust, or good management with our precious monetary assets.
We’re in a lucky position right now that we are making enough money from the band to warrant opening a proper band bank account. The days of Emma taking the couple of quid here and there and putting it in a nice piggy bank on her mantelpiece are now gone.
So, back in July we all wondered in to Bracknell town centre with the paperwork required to set up our account with this particular ‘reputable high street bank’, who are still (to my knowledge) one of the few who haven’t needed to worry about Government bail-outs. We thought this was a good sign, and as a few of us have banked with them for a long time, couldn’t really see any issues.
We gave all the details over to an affable bald chap, who duly took all our forms of ID, got our signatures and promptly sent the paperwork through. Done and dusted – great. Within a few days we’ll have a band bank account that will be so much easier to deal with than our current set-up.
Cue the 5th of November – some 4 months later and after the 5th copy of the mandate is sent out to us to sign AGAIN, another phone call is received by an ever increasingly irate Gethin – we believe this to be at least the 12th one he’s taken from this ‘reputable high street bank’. Still no account…..apparently one of the addresses they have is wrong, even though the correct one was confirmed to them on more than one occasion.
It appears the only thing wrong in this situation are the people that work for this bank. I don’t know whether the whole economic climate issues have frightened this ‘reputable high street bank’ – but it appears they are doing all they can to not open accounts. I blame the bloke with the dodgy eyebrows who always looks incredibly smug once a year while holding up a tattered red briefcase, which contrary to popular belief doesn’t hold the budget paperwork – but the latest copy of Viz and a moldy peach he forgot to eat a week last Thursday.
Anyway – in honour of this monumental hassle we’ve had, Emma has decided to pen the following poem, which may or may not turn in to a song at some point. A peanut to each of you who guesses the bank – it really isn’t that hard.
One More Time – By Emma Johnson (copyright All Things Considered 2009)
‘One more time’ they said to me
I’ve heard these words before
But still I trust, still I hope
It’ll be right this time for sure
But no it’s wrong again it seems
What’s your excuse this time
Just a few minor details
Where do we draw the line
But we forgive, we try again
They’ll get it right – you’ll see
But no, they still want more from us
The fricking _ _ _ _
We even went to see the man
Who claims to be the boss
But he was useless & a waste of time
We’re really at a loss
All we want is an account with you
Don’t play so hard to get
Or we’ll take our custom elsewhere
Your bank we will forget
One more time, it’s all we’ll give
You’d better get this rightOr we’ll release this wonderful track
Telling how _ _ _ _ are shite
In other news – if you’re London based we’re at The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell this Saturday, on sometime after 9pm - £5 on the door. Alternatively, you can pop along and see us in Lewisham next Thursday. We’ll be doing 2 short sets from 8pm at The Station Hotel, which is right outside Lewisham station, funnily enough. Free entry for that one. Hope to see you there!
We’re in a lucky position right now that we are making enough money from the band to warrant opening a proper band bank account. The days of Emma taking the couple of quid here and there and putting it in a nice piggy bank on her mantelpiece are now gone.
So, back in July we all wondered in to Bracknell town centre with the paperwork required to set up our account with this particular ‘reputable high street bank’, who are still (to my knowledge) one of the few who haven’t needed to worry about Government bail-outs. We thought this was a good sign, and as a few of us have banked with them for a long time, couldn’t really see any issues.
We gave all the details over to an affable bald chap, who duly took all our forms of ID, got our signatures and promptly sent the paperwork through. Done and dusted – great. Within a few days we’ll have a band bank account that will be so much easier to deal with than our current set-up.
Cue the 5th of November – some 4 months later and after the 5th copy of the mandate is sent out to us to sign AGAIN, another phone call is received by an ever increasingly irate Gethin – we believe this to be at least the 12th one he’s taken from this ‘reputable high street bank’. Still no account…..apparently one of the addresses they have is wrong, even though the correct one was confirmed to them on more than one occasion.
It appears the only thing wrong in this situation are the people that work for this bank. I don’t know whether the whole economic climate issues have frightened this ‘reputable high street bank’ – but it appears they are doing all they can to not open accounts. I blame the bloke with the dodgy eyebrows who always looks incredibly smug once a year while holding up a tattered red briefcase, which contrary to popular belief doesn’t hold the budget paperwork – but the latest copy of Viz and a moldy peach he forgot to eat a week last Thursday.
Anyway – in honour of this monumental hassle we’ve had, Emma has decided to pen the following poem, which may or may not turn in to a song at some point. A peanut to each of you who guesses the bank – it really isn’t that hard.
One More Time – By Emma Johnson (copyright All Things Considered 2009)
‘One more time’ they said to me
I’ve heard these words before
But still I trust, still I hope
It’ll be right this time for sure
But no it’s wrong again it seems
What’s your excuse this time
Just a few minor details
Where do we draw the line
But we forgive, we try again
They’ll get it right – you’ll see
But no, they still want more from us
The fricking _ _ _ _
We even went to see the man
Who claims to be the boss
But he was useless & a waste of time
We’re really at a loss
All we want is an account with you
Don’t play so hard to get
Or we’ll take our custom elsewhere
Your bank we will forget
One more time, it’s all we’ll give
You’d better get this rightOr we’ll release this wonderful track
Telling how _ _ _ _ are shite
In other news – if you’re London based we’re at The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell this Saturday, on sometime after 9pm - £5 on the door. Alternatively, you can pop along and see us in Lewisham next Thursday. We’ll be doing 2 short sets from 8pm at The Station Hotel, which is right outside Lewisham station, funnily enough. Free entry for that one. Hope to see you there!
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