MONTHLY BLOG - January 2012

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to our first blog of 2012. 2011 ended with an appearance at The Complex and then we took a few weeks off to spend time away from the band with our family and friends. We all had fun over Christmas and New Year but January is when it all starts again for us.

January is a month that is pretty much known for the way it drags. It’s also renowned for new hope, fresh starts, resolutions and more importantly, a time when all women decide they are going to crash diet. C’mon girls, you know we’re right!! It’s also a month that celebrates some historical birthdays such as Joan of Arc (she would have been 600 you know), Benjamin Franklin and one of Harry’s biggest idols, Samantha Mumba. Harry is such a devout follower of the Irish star, that he owns Series 3 of “Dancing on Ice” in which Samantha was unfortunately eliminated. However you can see clips of him in the audience cheering her on with his “I love Mumba” T-Shirt while eating eight hotdogs and drinking a family tub of coke. We can regularly hear her classic album “Gotta Tell Ya” blasting through the windows of his BMW as he arrives at gigs and practice. We’re not sure if he is trying to suggest something but let’s clear this up once and for all, we ain’t playing it!! ;-).

January is always a quiet month for gigs. Christmas and New Year takes its toll on people’s finances so it would seem silly to fill the month up with performances. We deliberately kept it low and left it at three gigs for the month. But before we could really get involved with doing any of these, we had a few things planned for ourselves.

Tris flew off to America for a mini tour of Las Vegas , California and LA but forgot to take the bands enormous kitty of £28.00 to gamble with. Gutted!! We could have doubled that!! He had an unbelievable trip but it would have been a lot better if he wasn’t chasing Jaden Smith around and uploading very blurry photos as evidence. Although we can forgive him this time since he brought us back some m&m plectrums!! In the meantime, the rest of us were purchasing wireless kits for our guitars and learning the ten songs we had earmarked to bring into the set within the next couple of months. There are some very different choices in there and some from bands that we don’t presently cover but we’re looking forward to getting a few of them nailed for late February.

So the first gig of the year was at a new venue for us called The Standard Inn in Torpoint. We’ve never played there before so were quite looking forward to somewhere new. We arrived and started loading the equipment into the pub. Honestly, if you could see the look on the landlords (Mike) face as flightcase after flightcase came through the door, then you wouldn’t wonder why he was panicking. The girl behind the bar said to Aaron, “Oh my God, you’re huge”!! … Make your own mind up what the response was!! Lol!! So we now had a red faced bar lady and a very worried landlord watching us as we were setting up. Mike told Aaron that he thought we were a four piece to which he had to be assured that the space we had was adequate to fit us. Once everything was set up, it was absolutely fine and we had more than enough room to work with.

Our good pal Andy Strickland leant a hand for the evening doing our mix as Owen’s Dad watched over his shoulder as he is currently learning how to work the desk. Andy is the lead guitarist of a local band called The Heist who are frigging awesome!! They play a lot of the classics from bands such as The Police, Stevie Wonder, U2 and Skunk Anansie. With it being a new venue for us, Andy asked if his band could play through our break. They played around five or six songs but had the whole pub dancing and singing. What was surprising is that it isn’t just Harry that uses illuminous strings on his guitar but Chris from the band does as well. This must be the way bass players get attention these days. It was a shame we had to go back on after as it was quite nice watching another band go through the motions. We did return and the plan for the wireless kits to start showing their worth hit a halt as the pub was simply too busy for us to descend the stage. We finished the night playing “Don’t Look Back In Anger” which we don’t really play as often as we should so it seems like a perfect excuse to bring it back into the set. It gets people singing and will no doubt be a little more utilised within the weeks to come.

Our next gig was at The Live Lounge on The Barbican on Friday 20th January. With the array of gigs we play at this venue, it does feel like our second home. Once a month we join Jordan and his crew for a night of hard hitting indie classics and it’s a pleasure to be involved with such an awesome venue. Once again, our night was made easier as Andy helped out with our mix while Paul’s (Owens Dad) eager eyes watched and digested what Andy was doing. It was a good and busy night once again. It is a big venue so can hold a fair few people but we think we are doing better and better as we play there more often. It was also nice to catch up with a few people who we are playing events for both in February and later in the year. Owen, Aaron and Harry even had a chance to disappear onto the dance floor on a couple of occasions for a bit of a boogie which looks like it could lead to gigs with just Martyn and Tris on stage. Although if you know Tris well enough, it’s probable that he is attempting to build a drum pack that is controlled by some kind of bodysuit or something. Ha ha!!

We had our first practice of the month (24th) and started to work on some of these new tracks. There is a lot to get through so we probably won’t be doing any new songs until at least the middle of February. It’s always good going to rehearsals when you have something new to do. It’s encouraging when you start a song that sounds OK to getting it right and gig tight so it can go into the set. Although we basically fluttered through all the songs to see if they would be OK and unanimously agreed to ditch one at the end as it just wasn’t really hitting us with any impact.

Now after one of our rehearsals in December when Tris cut his thumb on glass, it was now Aaron’s turn to show his intelligence and did so by cutting one of his fingers on a brick. Seriously, it’s a long story so we will just leave it at that!! Drummers can get away with this kind of stuff but guitarists ain’t so lucky. It seemed quite painful for Aaron as he was playing through the evening so Tris disappeared to his van and returned with some mitre fix. This is stuff that you would generally use to fix pieces of wood at weird angles together. Tonight though, it was going to be used to superglue Aaron’s finger …. And it worked. So a note to any guitarists: If you cut your finger on the day of a rehearsal or a gig, get yourself down to B&Q and pick up some mitre fix. Sorted!!

The last gig of the month came at yet another regular venue, Black Jacks. Again, we play here quite a lot and love nothing more than cramming ourselves onto the venues balcony. Black Jacks always seems to draw a good and enthusiastic crowd. We had crowds of people dressed as “Where’s Wally” in December and January saw the appearance of some heavily intoxicated Mexicans. These aren’t the guys that play their pan pipes in town on a Saturday outside ‘Gamestation’ but a bunch of lads out for a good night and a good laugh.

The evening will definitely be remembered though for Harry’s crazy drop at the beginning of the evening while we were setting up. The clumsy oaf tripped over some drumsticks and landed awkwardly on his foot. Although he was in pain, he shrugged it off to play through the night and when we finished, he casually limped home. We thought that it was nothing more than a sprain until the following Monday morning when Harry posted a picture on Facebook of his leg in plaster. He had only gone and broken a bone in his foot. Harry was adamant that no gigs were going to suffer in result of his accident and remained dedicated to making sure he was still around to play. Although we had to cancel rehearsals for the week, it was a small price to pay in making sure the big man was ready for the February gigs.

The Black Jacks gig was also the first time that Paul was going to handle the mix for the evening. For months he has been looking over the shoulders of both Andy Strickland, Lez (Aarons Dad) and Bobby (Aarons brother) in trying to get familiar with the desk and what he would need to do in basic situations. He has watched how we have set up during sound check and what we’ve had to do to get the sound as close to perfect for any evening. There’s no better way to get involved with these types of things unless you take the reigns and go for it. So we thought it was about time he went solo and had a bash. We’ve got to say he handled it really well and appeared very confident in what he was doing. In terms of the bands opinion, it is so much easier when somebody is out there and knows when to bring an instrument or vocal up or down. When we do the sound ourselves, we hope to get it right during the sound check and that’s the way it stays during the evening. You usually get the odd comment that something was too low or too loud but with Paul taking a regular seat behind the mixer, we feel we’ve got a huge opportunity of getting better and better. We’ve got to say a massive thanks to Paul for all of his help and are really looking forward to the next batch of gigs!!

Four new videos

We've popped four new videos up on our media page for you to have a look at. They have also been uploaded to our You Tube channel as well so you can browse through other videos as well.

The videos were taken at Black Jacks on The Barbican on Saturday 28th January 2012. These include covers of Norgaard (The Vaccines), Inhaler (Miles Kane), Days Are Forgotten (Kasabian) and Arlandria (The Foo Fighters).

We'll be adding more and more videos throughout the forthcoming weeks and months so keep your eyes peeled for lots more material.

Harry breaks his foot

Someone always has a story to tell about when they broke a bone in their body. These stories are either about showing how hard somebody is or about how gruesome the actual break was. But hey, let's change this around a little bit and add in the most clumsy!!

How clumsy can Harry be? Trapping fingers in lighting rigs, constantly breaking bass strings and now taking his mother too seriously when she told him to "break a leg" on his way to the gig in Black Jacks. So after loading all of the gear onto Black Jacks dancefloor, Harry couldn't wait to get started and promptly picked up his bass head to take up onto the stage. Dodging obstacle after obstacle on the way to the stairs, the bands strategically made assault course proved far too difficult for Harry as he tripped over Tris' drumstick case and fell awkwardly onto his left foot. Clearly in a bit of pain, Harry was happy to carry on and played the gig. Admittedly, it did look like a bad twist while we were on stage as Harry was getting into the gig with his usual moves. Come the end of the night, we packed up and Harry limped off to his car and drove home.

It wasn't until Monday morning when we saw on Facebook that Harry had posted a picture of his leg in plaster. He took himself off to A & E on Sunday evening and was told that he had broken a bone in his foot. We still don't know how serious it is but Harry has told us there is no way he will be missing any gigs. Harry is a big fan of Jessie J but we think breaking his foot was maybe a step too far. Or is it the fact that he has now demanded to gig sitting in a big red throne?

The guitarists go wireless

If you’ve ever met Aaron, Owen, or Harry, you may notice that they are one of the biggest sets of gear junkies you could ever meet. Aaron has around 15 different switches at his feet, Owen buys pedals as often as your “Mrs” buys OK magazine and Harry’s ensemble of equipment since he joined The Sound has just got ridiculously huge. So with Harry being the only “wire free” member of the band, the other two thought it was about time they should join him.

Two more wireless kits later, and all three of them have the freedom to roam stages and dance floors without a restrictive lead twisting around their feet. They were all tested out at The Standard Inn for the first public gig of the year and while it would have been fun to hit the dance floor, there wasn’t really any room as the pub was a little bit packed.

So if you see the band at a venue in the near future and happen to see three crazy guitarists jumping off stages and tearing up dance floors, then don’t be afraid to join in …. Oh, and give Tris and Martyn a little wave, they may get a bit lonely up on stage by themselves!! ;-)

We've joined Reverbnation

We have now added Reverbnation to our list of social networking sites. It’s a handy little tool that pretty much puts and combines everything in one place. As well as being able to post images, videos and recorded tracks (ahem … hint hint chaps), it also enables visitors to find our other pages like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Lemonrock and of course; our very own website.

The link has now been added to the links tab at the bottom of each page as well as to the “come find us” area of our home page. Hey, click the icon and find out what it’s all about!!

The Snow Drop Appeal - CHARITY NIGHT - Saturday 4th February 2012

We will be performing at The Hyde Park Social Club on Saturday 4th February 2012 in aid of The Snow Drop Appeal. The charity was set up to raise £100,000 for a new specialist unit at Derriford Hospital for women and families going through the pain of still birth, miscarriage and early baby loss. This unit will be ideally situated away from the busy maternity area to hopefully ease the trauma and loss bereaved parents experience in these tragic times. The new unit wouldn’t make the situation go away, but it would be a comfort to know that there are specialised staff who can help and follow up the after care that these families need.

Many families are affected by these traumatic events during their lives and it is without a doubt that we all know somebody that has experienced this at some stage. We’d really love for you to show your support!!

Tickets are only £5 each and there will be a buffet and raffle on the night to help raise additional funds. For more information, you can visit the facebook event by clicking here. And for more information on the charity, please click here.

If you would like tickets, please contact Leanne Tremblett via email at: leannetremblett26@hotmail.co.uk

MONTHLY BLOG - December 2011

So what did the merry month of December bring to the band then? Well, what better way to open the first window of your advent calendar with a “punctured thumb”. No, this isn’t one of Dominic Burns ridiculous surfing moves that he mentioned in his interview with Cameron Diaz on Radio 1, this is in fact Tris’ way of being a complete pillock in the pub. So what happened?

After our first rehearsal of the month, Tris, Harry and Owen disappeared over to the local ale house for a few late night drinks. As the time ticked on, some alcohol induced games were created which included “throwing empty pint glasses in the pub’s open log fire” and “let the customer cook the fish”.

We are all aware that at Christmas time, the only things that should be in, or around the fire place are logs, Christmas stockings, a nice flashy garland and any CD released by an X-factor contestant. However, with Andy Boddington (2Tonic), Sam Johnson (french alcoholic) and Stuart Hammond (village simpleton) in the pub, anything could seriously happen. The game: Throw your empty pint glass into the open fire. The result: Bloodshed!! This isn’t your conventional family game like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or the one we all love, Game Of Life. This is the game that drunken folk played back in the day which usually end up in a western type brawl where you would see people leaving the pub through the window. One ‘o’ clock in the morning and several smashed glasses later, the first man fell. Tris’ attempt at crashing his glass through the fire ended up with the fire getting its own back on Tris. With the glass firmly crashing into the fire place, the resulting segments of glass back-lashed out leaving Tris staring at his hand while it sprayed out with blood like a water fountain. Some glass had managed to lodge itself in Tris’ thumb. He would no way have passed an audition for the British Gas adverts with a thumb click and the slogan “Don’t you just love being in control”, as he clearly wasn’t!! With Owen trying his best at playing nurse and offering a plaster, the thumb was bandaged up and Tris opted not to go to the hospital and instead wait for the pain to kick in the next morning.

In the meantime, one of the locals was crawling after someone to give him a lift back to St Germans. As Harry was only on the coca-colas, he was forced into being the taxi and despite not having any idea where he was going with this stranger, disappeared out of the door. Now Harry doesn’t hang around when he has to be somewhere. But after 45 minutes of him leaving, he still wasn’t back. Should anybody have been worried?? In the meantime, Owen had invited himself into the kitchen to cook himself some crab and scallops; and Tris was nursing his thumb like a little girl with a brand new baby Annabel. Close to the hour mark and Harry returned. Now from where we rehearse, a round trip to St Germans shouldn’t really take any longer than 15 minutes. But a whole hour?? Harry got seriously lost on the Eliot estate. He ended up getting so lost in the Cornish lanes, that by the time he worked out where he was, he realised he was closer to home than where we practice.

Next morning and Cornwall was greeted with an almighty scream from Tris as the effects of the alcohol had worn off and the pain from the thumb kicked in. Now it was time to get himself to A&E and after some TLC from the nurse, Tris’ thumb was ready for action. By action, we mean ready for the evening gig at The Barbican Live Lounge … if you were thinking of something different, then your mind is clearly filthy!! ;-)

The gig at the Live Lounge went well. It’s a cracking venue. You can’t really go wrong here. It’s situated on the Barbican, got great people running the place and the alcohol is a good price. Plus, you get some quality bands playing every week so what more can we say?? The following night, we played at The Junction on Mutley Plain. This was a last minute gig that was arranged so not a lot of planning could really go into it. We had never played at The Junction before and were always keen to get a slot. At last we had a chance to get in and show the venue what we could do and we had a great laugh. Credit must go to the chap that kept up with Harry all night on the dance-floor. He just kept going!! Top lad.

When we were packing up and loading the van, something seemed to catch our eye. Nope, it wasn’t the chap being sick in the side alley, or the pleasant smell of kebab coming from the charcoal grill. It was the threesome that was clearly going on in the window of one of the houses opposite the pub. A little video camera took pride of place as two birds made it quite clear that they were looking for a route into the porn industry. It was only when Martyn ran across the road to let them know that we could see what was happening (and so could the twenty or so passers by), that they swiftly pulled down their blinds. Now these can’t be very good blinds because we could now see a silhouette of what was happening. Can we just ask that if you are reading this and it was you involved in this teaser, could you please let us know where we can watch the rest of the video? Owen’s Dad is dying to find out what happens in the end!!

So after the weekends excitement, we were ready for the next couple of gigs. Next on the list was the “Plymouth University Masquerade Ball”. This was a new thing that the uni decided to do and we can say that it has to go down as one of the best gigs we’ve ever done. We had a huge stage to ourselves and a room filled with around 800 students who clearly made this a worthwhile event. We played in the main hall, had a full professional PA system, a cracking bloke doing the sound and an all round top night. You can imagine how bands that “make it” feel when playing something like this. It’s so easy just to set your gear up and walk away and let the sound guys do the rest. It would be nice if it was like this every week. The last song of the 1st set was “When You Were Young” by The Killers. Six or seven female scantily clad students embarked on the stage for a dance. While more attempted to do the same thing, the security at the front of the stage stopped them from finding their way up. When we finished the set, the girls were taken off the stage and one of the security chaps apologised to us for that happening. Hmmmmm … OK mate!!

The following night, we played Black Jacks on The Barbican. It was rammed with lots of Christmas partygoers out for a good night. Can we just say a big thanks to Lez and Bobby for coming down to do the sound and sorting out what the hell went wrong with the leads into the mixer. Tut tut Tris … hope you’ve soldered them properly now!! ;-) … It was a really fun gig and again made easier by the fact we had a sound man or two out the front. We could get used to this!!

The following weekend saw us return to The Post Office Inn and then the last public gig of the year came at one of our favourite venues, The Complex. We had the pleasure of the former ‘Crossing’ frontman Steve Dott joining us for a track and pretty much finished the year with a usual drunken concoction of shots and beer. Cheers Hue and Jess!! Xx

We then had a private event in Liskeard which was arranged by our good friend Sam Johnson. Sam has helped the band out in the past and more recently played a few gigs with us before our break at the end of August. We had to revert back to the older set; of which some of the tracks hadn’t been played since the break. However, Sam hadn’t forgotten anything and made it quite easy playing some songs of the past. It was a case of set list bingo as Tris’ usual arranged set list was shuffled around with during the gig by Sam so none of us really knew what we were going to play next. It was a good night and really enjoyable gracing the stage with Sam again. Cheers big man!!

Well, that wrapped our year up. We did manage to arrange a night out with the wives and girlfriends for a spot of food and drink on The Barbican and had a cracking time. And hopefully, Harry has now found it possible to distinguish the difference between a fajita and a burrito after seeing what they both look like!! …. Or maybe not!!

Can we just say a massive thanks to all of you who have supported us through 2011. It has been a particularly difficult year and one full of ups and downs and everything in between. Did we think we would see the band together by the end of 2011? Well, looking back, maybe not. With so many changes in the band, it has been very difficult for us to progress the way that we would have liked due to the breaks that we have taken while the new guys have learnt the set. However, we are still here and really looking forward to 2012 and hope to get as many of you out as possible. With a now very settled, solid and happy band, we’re looking forward to making lots of new friends and memories in the next twelve months.

Thankyou! xxx

MONTHLY BLOG - November 2011

Well, after three months of "gig celibacy", we were finally at that point in our diary where we had marked a great big X for a return to playing live once again. It certainly had been a painful few months and quite honestly, there was a point where we felt that this time would never come. All of our lives had been pretty much put on hold while we used October to constantly practice with Martyn to get him (and ourselves) ready for gigging all over again.

It was quite exciting being able to put an event up on facebook again!! As we approached our first gig in our new format, it became more realistic that the our once usual rigmoral for setting up gigs were about to return. The rush home from work, quick shower, load up the cars, drive to the venue, set all the gear up, PLAY (wahay), then do everything again in reverse was going to show its face once again. Getting home at the early hours of the morning with at least Harry, Owen and Aaron having to be up for work was the part we hadn't missed. With around four hours sleep then a second night "on it" to come, it really isn't surprising how exhausting this "being in a band" lark can be. But we wouldn't change it for the world ... and that is why we've continually remained positive about getting back out there and were so looking forward to our first gig back at "The Live Lounge" on The Barbican.

So the return was on Friday 4th November 2011. As we stood on the stage before our first song, Owen lent over to Aaron and said "I'm pretty nervous about this one". Not something you'd hear from somebody that plays his guitar around the back of his head in practice ... blindfolded!! (not really) :-)!! We had a barrelful of new songs that we hadn't played live which included some Foo Fighters, Razorlight, Kasabian and even Plan B so you could forgive us for being slightly apprehensive. The first set contained most of the usual material that we played up until our personnel change. The second set contained ten of the new twelve songs we had learnt. The night went really really well for us and even though we know that there is still a long way for us to go, getting that "first gig" fear out of your system is always a satisfying thing. What isn't so satisfying though, is getting a moron snatching a mic out of your singers hand to voice his opinion about the new singer. Now we are really open to hearing peoples opinions. That is the way we like to nail issues where we may need to improve. Chat to us after a gig if you want and let us know what you think. But don't do something like that during a set. Not cool!!

So the following night, we played at a nice and busy Post Office Inn in Plympton. We've always loved playing here, the staff are amazing and people really do love their music here. We had another good night and some really positive feedback so would like to thank everybody that made us feel really welcome!! Harry got his parents down as well and was pre-warning us that his Dad hates live bands. Now this was worrying, especially with the fact that on his arrival, he walked in and sat right next to a speaker. Surprisingly though, Harry said that his old man really enjoyed himself so hopefully we've changed his opinion of live music!!

The following weekend we played at The Cherry Tree and Black Jacks. The Cherry Tree was probably our busiest at the venue to date so it's hopefully a sign that we are striding in the right direction. The following night, we had the pleasure of playing at Black Jacks on The Barbican. We love it here!! Absolutely love it!! It's a squeeze of a stage. If you've seen the way Harry moves, then you'll understand why!! It was an awesome night. It was busy, it was jumping and it was a hell of a lot of fun. We had the pleasure of Andy Strickland doing our sound for us with his fancy bit of kit so a massive thanks to him and Emma for helping us out.

Now what would be the best way to top off a good weekend?? Well, after Black Jacks, we were a little bit peckish so took a little drive to Tris' favourite late night food outlet .. Jake's. We all ordered some food and stood outside eating it watching students vomiting in bins and all over the street. Then a black cab turned up and parked right next to us. A couple of people got in but the taxi didn't move. It was still there for a few minutes so Harry made the mature decision to literally walk through the taxi to get to his car. Nope, he didn't walk around it, that's too many steps. He opened the door, closed it, said "hello" to the passengers before opening the other door and appearing out of the other side of the cab and walking over to his car. Brilliant!!

We then played our first gig in Kitty 'O' Hanlons on Wednesday 23rd November. This is a venue we have been trying to get for a little while now. A magic little Irish pub situated between town and The Barbican. Judging on seeing videos by other bands in here, it is no surprise that this is something that we really want to be involved in ... plus Aarons Nan said if we get in an Irish pub, then she'll make the trip from London to come and see us play. So we played and hopefully done enough to get some gigs for next year. Let's hope we have the luck of the Irish eh?? Boom boom!!

Our last gig of the month came at The Thistle on the 25th. We made sure not to wreck the venue this time after accidently smashing a ceiling light at the last visit!! However, we did notice that it has been replaced and looks better than ever!! So we did you a favour really?? Yeah?? ;-). Again, it was nice and busy and we had people dancing all throughout the night. We had some really positive feedback from the staff so could close the month of on a high.

So it was a packed month of gigs and quite a lot for the new guys to get their teeth into. Harry and Martyn are continually showing their presence on stage and have brought so much to the band in terms of both heir quality and drive. We're all really enjoying what is happening at the moment and are excited about the next gig as the last one finishes!! 'Good things come to those who wait' is an English phrase extolling the virtue of patience. How true this is!!

Black Jacks CANCELLED ... but replaced with The Junction!!

If you're planning on coming to see us on Saturday 3rd December 2011, then we have had a venue change. We were unfortunately double booked at Black Jacks on this night but have been able to get a gig at The Junction on Mutley Plain instead. We will be on from about 9-ish. This is our very first appearance at this Plymouth-renowned venue and we would love to see as many friendly faces there as possible.

Our gig at Black Jacks has however been re-scheduled for Friday 9th December instead so we will be back on The Barbican the following weekend!!

Martyn releases solo EP - "Animals"

Martyn released his own solo EP titled "Animals" on Monday 7th November under his alias "This Calamity". He has been working on it for the best part of a year and it is a really top piece of work.

It is a three track EP and is available to download for free from here. Please take a bit of time to download and have a listen and give us some feedback on what you think. You can do this by selecting "Animals" from our contact form on our contacts page or click here to be directed straight to the page.

MONTHLY BLOG - October 2011

It's quite hard to imagine that given you have a months worth of gigs booked in, that you would seem relatively happy about cancelling them all. It's never a nice thing to have to do and as a band, it's not something we make a habit of. In fact, we could count on one hand how many gigs we have unfortunately cancelled over two years due to illness' etc. But when you know that come November, you'd be "back on it", it does soften the blow of losing gigs. And that is the case. After months of auditions, we were able to narrow the list down and were confident to make a decision. We took on Martyn Crocker who is in no way unfamiliar to the live music scene. After the impact he had with his originals band "Less Than Me", countless tours and EP releases, we knew we were onto a good one!!

So the hard work began. We felt that as the faces in the band had changed so much over 2011, then it was a chance for us to re-brand ourselves. A new logo was top of the agenda, updates to the website, a new backdrop, a new set list of songs that we were all happy to play and an opportunity to show people who we really are. That may sound a little bit cryptic, but we are by no means unaware of the reputation that followed the band from the early days of it's existence. This is our opportunity to change that and make a fresh new start and it's also up to those that follow live music in Plymouth to "let us in". We believe that over time, the changes will become extremely apparant and we can only try to encourage live music lovers to let us prove what "The Sound" is really about. A fresh new line up, a fresh new set, a fresh new look and a fresh new start.

Anyways, October was full of rehearsals, not auditions, but rehearsals. We had a list of fifteen new songs that we wanted to play plus a list of the older stuff that we wanted to keep. We had given ourselves a month to do this and get back out for a pencilled return at "The Barbican Live Lounge". We practiced sometimes three nights a week and literally just played, played, played ... had some of Owen's Mum's cake ... then carried on playing. (Thanks Sue for all the cakes by the way and keep them coming)!! The songs rapidly started falling into place. We all made sure we knew what we we were doing at practice in terms of what songs we were learning and started to get quite excited but also quite nervous about returning to the circuit.

We made a decision to play at "The Fallstock Festival" on Saturday 22nd October so that we could do something rather than coming back out without any kind of public performance. It was an opportunity for us all to get to know where we could improve as well as what we could expect. We only had to do a 45 minute set which was quite handy. Admittedly, we were a little rusty and slightly nervous but it was a good experience and we knew we still had some work to do.

We pretty much had two more weeks of practicing and decided to do a whole day of rehearsals on Sunday 30th October and it helped us massively. We had our friends Matt and Claire turn up to take a few photos for us so a massive thanks to them for that. The pics had even been edited and sent back to us while we were still rehearsing later that evening!! Then Tris' brother Jason arrived with burgers, baguettes and wraps from his restaurant, The Granary (amazing food, book a table there and you won't be disapointed). Oh yeah, and don't forget Sue's cakes (Cheers Sue!!). It sounds like all we did was eat all day reading back on this; but we felt the day was a huge success and the remainder of the week was used to tidy up loose ends of songs ready for our return.

It would be a shame not to mention Harry's competition win ... so we're not going to. You can read up on that in the news feature below!! So are we ready for Friday at "The Live Lounge"? ... Of course we bloody are!!

Harry wins "DR Strings Haloween Competition"

We're really not sure what to say about this!! It came as a surprise to the band when we found a picture of Harry dressed as the shuffle robot from LMFAO's hit, Party Rock Anthem. Without a doubt we had a good laugh about it!!

Harry entered a competition on the "DR Strings" facebook page for the best halloween costume with the neon green strings on show. He won four sets of bass strings, a bass strap, a DR T-Shirt PLUS he will be featured on their FB page until Sunday, November 6th. A strange well done!! For the full image, please click here.

We'll be back with a bang on Fireworks Weekend

We're really excited to be able to confirm that we will be back playing live on Friday 4th November 2011 at The Live Lounge on The Barbican from 10pm.

We've had two and a half months off from playing publically and we've seriously missed it. The time has been put to good use though via auditions and then being able to take on Martyn as our new lead vocalist. We've practiced constantly holding onto most of the existing set and learning lots of new material by other bands.

So the new line up is (fingers crossed) ready to go. A new band, a new look, a new feel and lots of new songs. It would be good to see as many of you out as possible and join us in welcoming Martyn to The Sound. We'll keep you updated on facebook with all the details!! Cheers!!

Big welcome to Martyn

We would like to say a huge and massive welcome to our new frontman Martyn who joined the band at the beginning of October. Martyn has a wealth of experience on the live music origional scene and we are really ecstatic to have him on board.

After twenty four auditions over a six week period, we became experts at playing Pyro, I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor and many others while we continued to audition a host of vocalists. However, we managed to bring the number down to three and brought them all back for a full session. It was Martyn though that really stood out for us and it really is exciting for us to add such an eager new member to the band.

We're really looking forward to the future with the new line up that now consists of Aaron, Tris, Owen, Harry and now Martyn ... and we seriously can't wait to be gigging again in November.

2012 diary NOW OPEN!!

We have now opened our diary for 2012 and are booking up quite fast. A lot of bands will book up for the forthcoming year and find that there are very limited dates come January for both venues and events.

If you are a venue that are interested in booking The Sound for a gig, then please get in contact by clicking here and using one of the contact methods.

Additionally, if you have a wedding or a special birthday planned, then please do not leave it too late to get in contact. Many events are booked up at least 9 months in advance for peace of mind and to get the band you really want. Please get in contact by clicking here and again using one of the contact methods.

MONTHLY BLOG - September 2011

There's not really much we can say about September really. Just auditions, auditions, auditions!!

We had to unfortunately cancel all of our gigs for this month due to our situation and would once again like to thank all of the venues for their support during the time.

It did feel kind of strange though. When you're used to being out every weekend playing music, then you do feel at a loose end when you're not. However, we do have the grace of the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing on our screens don't we?? ... and we can catch Match Of The Day without Sky +ing it!!

On the auditions front, the responses had grown and we kind of felt inundated with the amount of calls we had. We still stuck to our decision to see everyone that wanted a blast with the band. After some conversations, it was right to turn people away without an audition due to their locality. We gave ourselves until the end of the month to complete the auditions and to have an idea of who we were going to take on. Thankfully, come the end of the month, we were in a position to make a decision and felt extremely confident with our choice.

MONTHLY BLOG - August 2011

So we started off August where we finished in July. Sounds rather obvious but given the changes to the line up, it felt quite fitting to roll the two months into each other. Harry had settled into the band really well and what a pleasure it is having this guy on board. He brings an edge to the stage and really lifts the performance of the band in general. He has continually been learning song after song attempting to have the bands entire set of tracks in his memory bank.

So our first gig of the month was a wedding for some friends of the band. It's always nice to see so many happy faces at these types of events and this function was a prime example. It's great when people get involved with band and it really does make our job a hell of a lot easier knowing that everyone is having a good time. It was truly a pleasure to be involved in such a lovely day so a big thanks to Kate and Chris for having us.

We then played at two of our favourite venues. Firstly the Spinning Wheel Inn in Paignton which is always a great night and then at The Complex ... a gig that ended up proving to be Mark's last with The Sound. It would be unfair and unprofessional for us to go into detail regarding Mark's departure but would urge people to take the comments posted on our Facebook page by Mark with a pinch of salt.

So, the auditions then began. The adverts had already been put on line and we had an impressive response to be able to book up a couple of weeks of auditions. It seems we are experts with auditions this year with Owen joining in January and Harry in July so we really do know how they work ... if anyone wants any advice, then give us a shout!!

However, we were now singerless (is that a word?? Well, you get the point). We had two weddings and a new venue at the end of August and no singer. There is no way in the world we would ever want to cancel a wedding especially with them being so close. We would rather take the pressure on ourselves and get something sorted out and once again, we came up trumps!! Back in January, Sam Johnson covered a gig for us on New Years Day. Sam lives in Paris but he had travelled back to Plymouth for the summer to visit his family. An easy solution for us was to ask Sam if he was up for it and indeed he was. So we had a few rehearsals to get a couple of sets ready which also meant we had to learn some new songs to cater for what Sam knew. So how did we do??

Well, all three gigs went without a single hitch. Both couples were aware that we had Sam filling in for us for the weekend and were really pleased that we had sorted something out rather than have to cancel last minute. So a big thanks to Sam for filliing in!! Harry became a little bit of a superstar at The Island Street Bar & Grill with some stage busting moves. However, he was a little disapointed not to see any photos of his little shin-dings so if anyone has a pic, then please let us have a sneaky peak.

The biggest mistake of the night though was Aaron falling asleep in the van on the way back from Salcombe. Talk about giving someone a piece of their own medicine. At some point down the A38 while Aaron was snoozing away, Tris hit the brakes and let out an almighty scream with Sam. If you've seen this type of prank on You Tube, then it is as every bit funny with your mates as the clips. Very funny!!

So, onwards to September!!

All September Gigs CANCELLED

Due to recent situations within the band, we have unfortunately decided to cancel all of our gigs for September while we audition new lead singers.

We would like to thank all the venues for their understanding and support during this period of re-organisation. However, we will be back as soon as we are ready with a new frontman.

Keep an eye on our website, on facebook and twitter for information of our return. If you do know somebody that could fill the vacant position of the band, then please get in contact by clicking here.

Mark leaves with immediate effect

After the recent departure of Steve, we have to inform that the band and Mark have parted company with immediate effect. Mark's last appearance with "The Sound" was on Saturday 14th August 2011 at The Complex.

Mark joined the band in September 2008 after a nervy audition and confidently grew in his position as the frontman of the "The Sound". Many will remember some brilliant performances by Mark at venues accross Plymouth.

We'd like to thank Mark for being a part of the band for the last three years and wish him every success for the future.