sorting the pro's from the bankers!

There's no glamour in music these dayz ... There shood b Glam and or ... But there isn't cos there's 2 many similar sounding bands clamouring for 2 few record deals, as soon as the next big thing happens, like lemmings they leap ... (If only they were more like Lemmy's) ... Anyway Garage Rock is a great example of how nmusic is these days ... I love Garage Rock but its got boring... 4 years ago no one under 30 had heard of iggy pop ... Now gangs of 10 year olds are parading around in authentic CBGB's t-shirts! ... Not down to some new punk revolution ... Basically because the lazy old GIGANTIC LOLLOPING record companies, marketing departments and the media have told them wot to do and wot to like, its BIG BROTHER CULTURE GONE MAD!!!!! While A&R men sit around waiting for talent to sign up to the million and one unsigned band websites and grabbing the first thing that sounds like the last thing instead of getting out and seeing bands and caring ... ITS ALL BIG BUSINESS TO THEM I'm afraid ... While the bands are being herded in and out of venues like cattle at the slaughter house bleeding there friends dry in the processes for the promise of half their bus fare home each!

All that said however, you only realize this once you have 'well, the old phrase would have been paid your dues', but lets not drown ourselves in cliché here, once you have done it and been shat on so many times that you either give up ... Or as The Scratch have done, done it all themselves ... from bedroom home recording, minidisc drums, putting on their own party nites with other similarly 'disadvantaged' bands and creating all their own artwork, begging, borrowing and stealing the photocopies and cd's from work and their mates work (cheers guys, I need my laptop back by Monday!!!!), they have achieved DIY on sale and downloadable from their own site, they are a self contained unit ...

Punk is an all to often used word these days ... But if u want to keep quoting it, u need to understand that basically as Mark Perry from sniffing glue and the original DIYers would have described it ... 'an attitude and a feeling, get off your arse and do it yourself', otherwise, u may dress in the clothes and listen to the right music, but when it comes down to it, its all the same you are part of the BIG BUSINESS fake, all the punk posturing is just razzamataz!

I was chatting to the band after the last Dublin Castle gig and in their words ...

"We're not perfect (well Grim nearly is!), we don't all by our clothes and food from Fare Trade (try SO board for t-shirts!, Andy pipes up), not everything we do or say is politically correct, but we love music and basically pop music, because of how it makes us feel when we play it . We have been inspired by T.Rex, Bowie, The Kinks, The Stones, The Pistols, The Specials, The Clash, Nirvana, Sparks, Iggy and a million other pop bands, because we like them, not because we were told to. Music is like a massive exploration in time and energy, not 5 minutes in the car to the supermarket to save £2.99 on the latest chart cd! "

Pro's or bankers, you decide ... but be sure to get a copy of DIY, or you won't have an opinion from the start ...
anyone got the new Keen album?

Dave T.

Private Parties

Private Parties... Now there's a slightly different angle!?! In theory a lot less heartache. No obligation for NUMBERS and FREE drinks. Nambucca is in Holloway Road, not a million miles from the Garage... But a million miles away if u know wot I mean... It's a huge pub, the party was in the backroom, which was about as big as the whole of the Dublin castle. Party organiser Gary did a great job on the décor spinning motifs and smoke machines galore, shame he didn't hire the crowd!. Our heros were due on at 9, but thanks to a no show from the 'headliners', 9.45 was action stations. 150 people were due, unfortunately as is SOooo often the case at these events, the first set was viewed by 3 or 4 wall flowers, our mate Jake and a balloon in the middle of the dance floor, if one's souls had the remotest chance off salvation by now, it was time to kiss them goodbye! ... That said (shock horror, Trousers ever the optomistic trumpeter!) the Scratch as ever played hard, some old (great to hear supermodel and erotomaniac again) and one very new... 'numbers' (as edgey and 'hooky' as Peter Pans nemesis). By the second slot it was obvious the massed throng had turned left into upper street at Highbury Corner, so when in doubt ... It's greatest hits time... Spiral Scratch, Brainstorm and Texture to the flava, bit of a shame the mic packed up on the grand finale X-Ray eyes, but still sounds sublime as an instrumental... In summary, It's always great 2 c the boys but when 38 of the 40 who finally did turn up, were there for a 90's rave reunion... Tyson and Bruno comes to mind... I left soon after singing ... Na, Na, Na,Na,Na, Na, Na,Na, Nambucca, No thanks!