THE TELEGRAPH, 3RD MARCH – LINE UP CONFIRMED

I have now fully confirmed the line up for my gig at The Telegraph on Saturday 3^rd March 2012.  It’s a very exciting line up, so it’s got the potential to be an awesome night.  For a paltry three of your British Pound Sterling, you can see four quality bands from a range of different genres perform live.

Proper fukkin bargain!

If you use Facebook the details of this event can be found using the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/events/318489318195064/

The Telegraph - Saturday 3rd March 2012

The final confirmed line up is Ginger Snap & The Style Pile, Emergency Door Release, The Shake Appeal and Honey Chrome.

Emergency Door Release featured in one of my previous music blogs.  See the link below.

https://mallazmalcolmwhite.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/fuck-christmas-songs-this-is-what-you-should-be-listening-to/

Ginger Snap & The Style Pile

Ginger Snap & The Style Pile

Ginger Snap & The Style Pile are a Funky Ska band based in Newcastle.  They are a reformation of what used to be Chrome Attic.  Fronted by the extremely talented Joanne ‘Gingersnap’ Robson, The Style Pile perform with an electric energy and generate the exciting party vibe that I personally believe Newcastle has crying out for.  Wind player Andy Strong is an incredible talent as demonstrated with his awe-inspiring work on the saxophone and clarinet.  The rest of the band comprises of Hal McCutcheon (Plank-Spank’ist), Eddie Hughes (the bass man) and Dan Deltodesco (drummer).  Their unique and up-beat sound is the ultimate treat for your eardrums.  Ginger Snap & The Style Pile have a groove that will blow your fukkin mind, so this truly is a gig you don’t want to miss!

Ginger Snap & The Style Pile are currently in the process of sorting out all of their internet profiles so to hear examples of their music check out their previous incarnation, Chrome Attic, and then like their Facebook page on the following links.

http://www.myspace.com/chromeattic

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ginger-Snap-The-Style-Pile/181677578554592

Emergency Door Release

Emergency Door Release

Emergency Door Release are a brand new Indie Rock band who are in the midst of preparing a full frontal assault on the North East music scene.  Their singer, song-writer and guitarist, James Rooney, is a driven individual with an incredible voice, which is reminiscent of Editors vocalist Tom Smith.  James’ determination and dedication has helped Emergency Door Release overcome early problems and keep the band running despite losing their original drummer.  The other members of Emergency Door Release are Adam McMeiken on guitar, David Lloyd on bass and their new drummer, Daniel Mokhtari.  Emergency Door Release are recording new material on Wednesday 8^th February and also have several other live performances on their horizon.

You can catch their debut gig at The Dog and Parrot on Saturday 11^th February.  Entry to that is priced at £4.  Check out the Facebook event for this on the next link.

http://www.facebook.com/events/172533106184410/

Check out Emergency Door Release on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/EmergencyDoorRelease

The Shake Appeal

The Shake Appeal

South Tyneside based Rock four-piece, The Shake Appeal, are also in the process of recording new material.  The Shake Appeal were formed in 2010 and consist of vocalist Georgia McRae, guitarists Joseph Inskip and Jordan Johnston, Phil Morgan on bass and Matthew Cowey on drums.

Despite her cute appearance, vocalist Georgia McRae, sings with an attitude that would not be out of place in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Be Your Own Pet.  The Shake Appeal have a vibrant flavour to their music and a cool, edgy style.  You can listen to some of their tracks on Facebook on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Shake-Appeal/176851872342363

My personal favourite from the tracks available is ‘A Fist in my Pocket’, which for me truly captures The Shake Appeal’s grit and attitude.

If, like me, you use Twitter you can also follow The Shake Appeal on there.

The Shake Appeal – @Shake_Appeal

I actually head-hunted The Shake Appeal for this gig after they were brought to my attention by both Chay Hobson, at North-East Rehearsal-Recording, and Eesh of DLB.  I have a huge respect for both of their musical opinions and have been an admirer of The Shake Appeal for some time.

Honey Chrome

Honey Chrome

Unclassifiable by standard definitions of any genre, Honey Chrome’s unique sound is an amalgamation of several genres.  This is an act that is oozing with individuality.  Honey Chrome bring together Punk, Rock, Grunge and Electronic Pop, among many other styles, in an incredible fusion that is mind-blowing.  You need to hear what they have to offer, because no explanation will give you the full feel of what they do.  Check out their website and like their Facebook pages on the links below.

http://www.honeychrome.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Honeychrome/163839323697264

These four bands will be performing on what has the potential to be an epic night.  For a bargain price of £3 you can be a part of it.  Entry is payable on the door and the doors open at 7.30pm.  The Event is being held in the function room upstairs in The Telegraph, which is on Orchard Street, located behind Newcastle’s Central Station.

But before that…

Obviously March is still some time away yet and before that I have another event at The Telegraph scheduled for Friday 3^rd February.  The February event is also charged at just £3 entry on the door.  As you can probably tell, I don’t give just any shite act a gig.  I carefully select the artists involved and unlike some promoters, I actually listen to their music before deciding to book them.  The Stroll, Baron Von Alias & MistaBreeze and Artisam will all be performing live at The Telegraph on 3^rd February, and there will also be a DubStep DJ set by L87 of SubLevel2.  This is shaping up to be an epic night.  So get down, bring some friends and have some fun!

More details about this event can be found in my blog;

https://mallazmalcolmwhite.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/my-next-gig-friday-3rd-february-at-the-telegraph/

Or on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/events/162422163865780/?ref=ts

The Telegraph - 3rd February 2012

A couple of acknowledgements…

I’d like to say thank you to Nathan Wood of Spark FM in Sunderland for plugging my February gig at The Telegraph on his radio show.  Nathan presents The Local Music Show every Sunday from 4pm to 7pm; you can listen to it on local radio, exclusive to Sunderland on 107FM or online at http://www.sparksunderland.com/

It’s usually a highly entertaining show cram-packed with low-brow humour, smut and, of course, great music from some of the best bands the region has to offer.  You might as well give it a listen, I mean, what the fuck else you gonna do after church on a Sunday???

You can follow Nathan and The Local Music Show on Twitter.

Nathan Wood – @NathanWould

107 Spark FM – @Local_Music_Pet

107 Spark FM

While I’m mentioning Twitter, I’d also like to thank Tyneside Tweets for retweeting my blog to help my friends Clair Moore and Tahti raise money for LiNK Community Development.

Clair and Tahti are hitch-hiking from Newcastle to Marrakesh in Morocco, in April, as a fundraiser for LiNK Community Development.

LiNK Community Development works at improving the quality of education in Africa and providing children with the opportunities they deserve.

Please help them to make difference by sponsoring them and/or sharing the link below, where you can make donations online.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=clairandtahti&isTeam=true

And if you are a user of Twitter, you can follow both Tyneside Tweets and Clair Moore.

Tyneside Tweets – @TynesideTweets

Clair Moore – @clair_moore

LiNK Community Development

WHY I DECIDED TO LEAVE DOWNTOWN LESTER BROWN

On Monday 5^th December I parted company with Downtown Lester Brown, the band that I started earlier this year.  The main reason behind my quitting the band, both as a band member and their manager, is that I feel the band’s arrogance outweighs their ambition, although this mainly applies to Ben and Richard.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the text message that I received on the Saturday following the gig I had organised on Friday 2^nd December at The Telegraph.

The Telegraph - Friday 2nd December 2011

The Telegraph is a small venue and for my gig it was only about a quarter full, only thirty-five or so people attended the gig.  Obviously I felt disappointed at the turn out.  The crowd Downtown Lester Brown attracts has seemingly been getting smaller the more gigs they do.  I feel that the more gigs they do the more followers they should acquire.  That would denote some level of success.  But to be pulling smaller and smaller crowds each gig, is stepping towards failure.  So to receive a text message from Richard the following day claiming to feel “like a god after that”, I was highly dissatisfied.  It shows a terrible lack of ambition as well as a ridiculous amount of arrogance for someone who had just played a gig in front of a handful of people.

Unfortunately this was not the first act of unwarranted arrogance from Richard, let alone the band.  Richard cancelled a gig that I had arranged, to go to another gig.  The gig I arranged was set to be Downtown Lester Brown’s debut EP release.  At that point Richard claimed to be too big to play at venues of that stature and Ben also stated that that gig was unimportant as it was a free gig and not one where we would earn any money.  When a band has just started out, every gig should be important but to cancel a pre-arranged gig to go see another gig shows a lack of dedication and ambition.  As well as the arrogance shown by Richard thinking he’s too big to play small gigs of the stature that I was arranging, as it’s “not Wembley”, and Ben’s attitude of it not being important as we weren’t getting paid, there is the wasting of the time and the effort I put in arranging gigs in the first place.  Ben is also the self-proclaimed “voice of a generation”, although he’s not saying a great deal with tracks such as Each To Their Own, which despite being free was only downloaded twenty times.

Despite that arrogance though, they totally lack ambition.  When I put the band forward for the Battle of the Bands, in Redcar, Ben didn’t want to do it and claimed it was pointless because his last band, the generic and unoriginal Casino, always sucked when they did them.  I had to convince him that it was a good idea and the winning isn’t important.  It’s an opportunity to play your music in front of people who might not otherwise ever get the chance to hear it.

Another massive issue for me was the style of the new material.  When I set this whole thing up I had a specification that I wanted to work towards.  I wanted to create a band with a fun attitude that would play psychedelic, up-beat music that would get people dancing and in the mood to go out clubbing because, after all, if you’re playing Friday and Saturday night gigs then your demographic is the pre-clubbing market.  Unfortunately neither Ben nor Richard has enough attitude or edge and, due to Richard having too much influence over Ben, we’ve ended up with songs with whiney vocals and songs crying over girls.  Too many of their new songs are songs that you can’t dance to.  The psychedelic guitars, such as the style in Empty Heed or High Definition Jazz Kitten have been dropped and I feel the music is heading in a more mainstream direction.  They’re heading back down the same route as their old band Casino.  I also have major concerns that all of the lyrics Richard writes are wet, too tame and basically shit.

After getting back from a short break in Amsterdam near the end of November, I was basically told by Ben that my input in the sound of the band is no longer wanted as I can’t play an instrument so know fuck all.  At this point I told them I would work with them for one more recording and the promotion of that release, and after that I would leave the band and concentrate solely on managing the band.  I am aiming to set up my own independent record label in the new year and was hoping to commission a Downtown Lester Brown album through my label.

As part of my role in managing the band, I sent the tracks from our EP away online for some independent reviews.  The reviews basically supported the things that I had been saying from the start.  Tracks such as Empty Heed, High Definition Jazz Kitten and Man On The Run were reasonably well received.  Those were three songs that Ben wrote before the band took off and before Richard had gotten involved.  Each To Their Own was unanimously panned for being generic wannabe-Beatles stuff, but that was an unrecorded Casino track that we used when we first started and has now been dropped.  Dufresne’s Escape bombed.  I had said that I thought the vocals were weak and let the track down because it’s just Richard whining again.  All the reviews seemed to agree with me and one even went as far as to say the vocals “ruined” the song.  However, Richard also sung on Fun & Games and there were several reviews raving about how good he was on that track.  On Fun & Games Richard sings with a bit of grit.  When we recorded it I was blown away.  Unfortunately that’s the only track he’s done like that and at the last practice I attended before leaving the band, he was whining on a new song and opened with the lyrics, “I was feeling down..” and went on to do the crying, “Why? Why? Why?” throughout the track. It was typical Richard Gilroy music; it wasn’t anything new or original.

I also have concerns over plagiarism in some of the new songs, and the legal ramifications that could come from that.  I wouldn’t want anything to do with the recording of Be Someone, another of Richard’s tracks, as that’s basically Breakfast at Tiffany’s and also the exact same guitars are in some crap pop song that I heard on whichever mainstream shite radio station Wor Colin listens to.  I also expressed concerns over several other songs.  There are only two tracks that I would want recorded, Mallaz Beats The Devil and Eesh’s Jam.

So after Richard’s “god” text, I have decided to quit Downtown Lester Brown to pursue other ventures.  I’ve got my next Telegraph gig on Friday 3^rd February 2012 and hope that the next couple are successful enough to start looking for bigger venues.  I’m going to be starting a new band after New Year and I am also going to be setting up my own independent record label in 2012.  I’ve also got the art to keep me occupied and several other ventures that I’m looking into.

I have processed Downtown Lester Brown’s debut EP, ‘Love & Other Diseases’, and that will be available to download from Boxing Day 2011.  As for the physical copies of the EP, I am not sure if or when they are going to become available.  That’s now down to the band to give me the green light to get them manufactured.  Also, as far as I’m aware, they don’t have anything at all book for before the Battle of the Bands, in Redcar, on 10^th February 2012.  There was some doubt whether they will actually attend that though.  Ben was telling me that the band had all basically agreed that it would be pointless as they wouldn’t win, I shit you not!

I wish Downtown Lester Brown the best of luck for the future.