...cos it doesn't seem to be happening elsehwere. I would have thought with the power of a very good, positively-reviewed album behind us, at least a new album's worth of new material, a free single to give away (on vinyl too), a string of really excellent gigs behind us, and a newly-qualified teacher on keyboards who knows when her terms dates are that we'd have little trouble in securing a few decent gigs around the country.
But it doesn't seem to be working like that.
I don't think it's anyone's fault exactly, but for some reason we cannot get any gigs. Part of it is that things seema bit quiet at the moment. Part of it is the fact that the site where we found our main contacts -and the reason why we formed- has closed down; we're really grateful for the time we were on there and it's made us loads of friends as well as useful people to know (often these people are one and the same), but its absence has limited our ability to progress further in the live arena. And I really, really hate spamming people on MySpace for more gigs, especially people we don't know. First impressions are everything, and I've no doubt that everyone who's advertising a clubnight or promoting gigs gets hundereds of emails a day from bands far less talented than us requesting a slot. How do they sift through it all? I don't blame them for getting sick of it.
Nonetheless, it's a shame because we've got a string of cracking new songs to test out - in fact by the time our next gig rolls around (October 23rd at Brixton Jamm, in case you forgot!), we could populate the entire set with new material. Between the four of us who're writing, we pretty much composed an entire album in about a month, and it's all very exciting.
So what's the answer? We can try and keep asking nicely; we could put on our own gigs; we could rely on our current contacts, but we don't want to pester them to death...it's tough to say. But something has to be done.
On the plus side though, like I mentioned above, the new stuff is sounding good. After a few consecutive months in the studio, we're having a bit of a break before we go back in and put the new stuff down. But look at this for a welter of new material:
Razzle
Give It Up
Rat Attack
The Little Sisters Of The Poor
Berry Buck Mills Stipe
Blacwall Tunnel
Aggregate Horse (If Any)
Those Are Not My Arms
Troopy
are all the songs we've recorded the first few of them and played live since we got the album finished. On top of that, we're working on the following new ones:
Split
Your Friend
Frittata
Trouble At The Garden Centre
Your Heart Will Never Hold Out
Don't Tell Jenny
Johnny Boy
Motorsnake (Pts 1,2,3,4,5)
especially Motorsnake. We're fired up by the new stuff, and the creative process is still going strong. All we need is an outlet to try them out.
More good news is that we'll be contributing a new song to the annual Cherryade Christmas compilation. Since John provided last year's tune, he's delegated responsibility, so I've decided to turn my hand to this year's submission. I've just finished it, though it's still lacking a title. Nonetheless, I'm very pleased with it. Whether it works or not is a different matter. Cross your fingers!
Thom
