He Scores When He Wants!
I’ve been a busy little bastard over the Easter weekend. On Good Friday I was in Stockton with Honey Chrome at The Sun Inn for a gig by The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show, also featuring Dressed Like Wolves. Unfortunately that meant that I missed the Swansea v Newcastle game on the telly. On the Saturday it was The Egg at The Telegraph, my gig and also my celebrations for my 28th birthday which was on the Wednesday. Sunday was my chill-out day and then the Newcastle v Bolton game at St. James’ Park yesterday.
I’m gonna work my way backwards and start by writing a bit about the Bolton game followed by The Egg then the Sun Inn gig. Then I’ll probably have a little prattle on about some of my upcoming events. I mean, why the hell not?
NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-0 BOLTON WANDERERS
Before yesterday’s game at St. James’ Park there were people on Facebook and Twitter predicting Newcastle would win 4 or 5-0. I never fancied it being a walk in the park. Before the match I said to Mark ( @Mark2606 ) on Twitter that I thought it would be 2-0, with Papiss Cisse to score the first goal. I even bet on it, it was 20/1 with Paddy Power.
The first half was tight and neither side really got a foothold on the game or created any clear cut chances. Papiss Cisse did show some of his quality on the ball and his first touch was impeccable. Davide Santon showed some signs of improvement in the first half and did well getting forward but we lacked any end product in a difficult first-half, with the play mainly in a congested midfield. James Perch again had a solid first half and didn’t put a foot wrong. Yohan Cabaye on the other hand failed to impress and his set-piece play was woeful. Bolton proved hard to break down in the first 45 minutes and it was goalless at half-time.
Bolton started the second half well and Tim Krul was forced into making a good save from Chris Eagles within five minutes of the restart. We also had another scare shortly after that when Martin Petrov played a very dangerous ball across our goal, which fortunately Darren Pratley was unable to reach at the back post.
With just over twenty minutes left Hatem Ben Arfa curled a free-kick narrowly wide after Nigel Reo-Coker was booked for a foul on Yohan Cabaye. Then in the 73rd minute Ben Arfa, obviously finding the 0-0 score-line a bit boring, just decided he’d score. He picked the ball up in our half and, with an amazing run; he skinned three Bolton players before coolly slotting his shot past Adam Bogdan to make it 1-0. It was an excellent solo goal by the Frenchman and we were going mental!
He scores when he wants and in the 83rd minute Papiss Cisse decided to add his name to the score-sheet. Shola Ameobi easily beat Tim Ream and played a perfect pass for Cisse to tap home and put the game out of reach for Bolton. 2-0 to The Toon, making it five consecutive wins and leaving us in fifth place, tied on points with Tottenham Hotspur in fourth place.
Other results in yesterday’s matches have left Newcastle in with a serious shout for Champions’ League football next season, with only five games left this term. Tottenham lost 2-1 at home to Norwich and Chelsea dropped two points in their 1-1 draw away to Fulham. Plus Everton trounced Sunderland with a 4-0 win. It’s always good when the Mackems get hammered!
Mathematically, either four more points or if Everton drop a single point within the next five games we’re guaranteed at least sixth place. If Liverpool beat Everton in the FA Cup Semi-Final on Saturday then we’re pretty much guaranteed European football next season, NICE!
THE EGG
The name for my gig at The Telegraph on Saturday night wasn’t really Easter related; in fact I named it after The Egg-Man ( @EggusMaximus ) on Twitter and also the Happy Mondays song of the same name. The Egg was also my birthday celebration and I was serenaded with Happy Birthday by the awesome Eliza Lawson (that rhymes!) and also Brotha Priah gave me his unique twist on Happy Birthday. I’d like to thank both of them for that as it really topped off a great night for me.
The Egg was also the largest attendance I have had at a gig so far, improving on the attendance from my last event in March, also at The Telegraph. I’ve had some really positive feedback about the atmosphere from the artists involved and also some of the people who attended. I also received some good feedback on my selection of the artists, most notably Parastatic, who most of us had never seen perform live before and were really well received by the audience. After the relative success of my last two events, (The Telegraph was rammed on Saturday night) I have decided that it’s time to look into securing a larger venue.
I had a last minute change of sound engineer and Sound-Guy Dave did the duty this time. There were some technical difficulties on the opening set and unfortunately the sound was a bit too quiet for Baiqian Jiang’s acoustic set that kicked off the night. On the other hand, Baiqian’s performance was flawless. His fingerstyle guitar work is beautiful, well composed mellow music and a nice start to the evening. I really recommend listening to Baiqian Jiang’s music on Soundcloud, so here’s a link for that;
Following Baiqian were Artisam, one of my favourite bands to work with. I’ve worked with Artisam on several occasions and each time they have delivered a unique performance. This time it was the debut of two new members, Laurie on electric violin and the new drummer Kieran. Artisam even switched it up mid set with Kieran and Cam swapping drums for bass for a couple songs. As always Artisam were entertaining and really contributed to the atmosphere of the night. Check them out on Facebook;
Artisam are also gonna be performing at my event at The Bridge Hotel in Newcastle on May 19th. I’ll get around to that later on, but in the meantime here’s the link to the Facebook event for that.
The third act to perform at The Egg was Parastatic. As I mentioned before, Parastatic went down a storm and impressed a lot of people there. Their Krautedelic Electro Fuzz is brilliant and set a dancey tone to the night. They also added an extra element to the night with strobe lights and visual projections on the wall. You need to have a listen to Parastatic because quite frankly, they’re class!
The Egg was the first time I’d worked with Parastatic and I would highly recommend them to other promoters. They were totally professional and a pleasure to work with, as well as their music being shit hot!
The last live band to play was Ginger Snap & The Style Pile. This was the second time I’ve worked with them after they played at my March event at The Telegraph. I’ve loved ginger Snap & The Style Pile since I first saw them play live in December and believe they are Newcastle’s Ultimate Party Band. As always, they had the audience dancing and played a top quality set. Check them out on Facebook.
Ginger Snap & The Style Pile on Facebook
The live bands were followed by some Comic Book Hip Hop from Baron Von Alias, MistaBreeze and Eliza Lawson, another act I was working with for the second time. I’ve become a huge fan of these since they were recommended to me by Spark FM’s Nathan Wood ( @NathanWould ) and ‘Get Wild, Gan Mental’ has practically been adopted as my theme tune, since I slated it on Twitter after Nathan recommended it to me and I’m usually invited on stage to do the dance with them.
Baron, Breeze and Eliza never fail to entertain and The Egg was no exception. They performed tracks from the recently released ‘Brace For The Impact’ EP as well as tracks from the forthcoming ‘May Contain Nuts’ EP. Download ‘Brace For The Impact’ and watch the epic video for ‘Impact’ on the following links;
I was a fun-filled, entertaining set, as I’ve come to expect from Baron, Breeze and Eliza and, despite it being a bit embarrassing, it made my day when Eliza sang Happy Birthday to me. Like their pages on Facebook on the following links;
Baron Von Alias, MistaBreeze and Eliza Lawson are also performing live tomorrow night. They will be at Official Destiny Nightclub for Rex Regis’ album launch party, which is free entry all night so get yourselves down to that. Details of that event can be found on Facebook on the following link.
Rex Regis: Faithful album launch
The Hip Hop was followed by Brotha Priah, who totally blew people away. For the majority of the people there, it was their first time seeing Priah in action and what he does in amazing. Even during his sound-check, which seemed to take no time at all for such a technological act, there were looks of awe on people’s faces. Priah beat-boxes and using a looping station and a Kaosspad creates tracks using only the sounds he makes himself. It’s unbelievable stuff and oozes individuality. He also performed a rendition of Happy Birthday for me, with his own unique twist. It was fukkin awesome and he played an epic set!
His next live performance will be at The Warehouse Party, at Dynamix Skate Park in Gateshead, on Saturday 28th April. Pre-event tickets are only £5 and can be purchased at; http://www.wegottickets.com/event/162802
For more details of that event, which also features Baron Von Alias, MistaBreeze and Eliza Lawson, check out the Facebook event on the next link.
SubLevel2 & Milk The Cow present: The Warehouse Party
To round up the night we had a DJ set performed by Greenline DJ, his debut under that name as he is also Dj Id. His selection of music seemed to be well received and was a fitting end to the night. Greenline DJ also took care of the music in between each of the artists’ sets and tied the night together nicely. As well as rocking a new name, he was also sporting a new design in his facial hair and resembled V from V for Vendetta.
Check out Greenline DJ’s Facebook page on this link;
From the feedback I have received so far, and there has been quite a bit, The Egg was a very good night and people really seemed to have enjoyed it. The attendance was the best I have had so far too, making it the most successful event I have run to date.
Unfortunately I still don’t have any of the photographs or videos of The Egg though from David Johnston Photography yet, but will get the photos uploaded onto Facebook and videos onto YouTube as soon as I do.
HONEY CHROME at THE SUN INN
On Good Friday I was in Stockton on Tees, at The Sun Inn, to see Honey Chrome perform. Their drummer, Stevie, gave me a lift to and from the venue, which is massively appreciated.
This was the second time I’ve seen Honey Chrome after they performed at my March event at The Telegraph. This gig was free entry, so you can’t grumble at the price. Also performing at The Sun Inn were Dressed Like Wolves and the headline act, The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show. It’s a really small venue so it was a pretty intimate environment and despite being busy, there were only really a handful of people there.
Honey Chrome performed the opening set and played brilliantly. I was particularly impressed by mR mATTIAS’ vocals on ‘Mind Machine’, which had more of a Punk vibe to them than the recorded version on their website – http://www.honeychrome.co.uk/
I am now also of the belief that Dan may possibly be one of the most technically gifted guitarists I have ever seen live. The fingers he hasn’t severed off in Karma-balancing, chainsaw-related incidents were going ten-to-the-dozen throughout their set. I also find their use of samples, especially at the beginning and end of tracks, very interesting. Unfortunately Honey Chrome’s Psychedelic Ambient Punk-Metal seemed to be wasted on what was predominantly an Indie crowd.
Check out Honey Chrome on Facebook on the following link.
Dressed Like Wolves followed Honey Chrome and they were as Indie as they come, which appealed to the audience but unfortunately not to me. Their effeminately-voiced vocalist didn’t cut any ground with his lyrics and the band’s sound was nothing I haven’t heard before. Dressed Like Wolves just seemed a bit flat to me and really lack any sort of edge. It was simply just typical, whiny, generic Indie stuff. If you want to, check them out on Facebook.
Dressed Like Wolves on Facebook
The headline band, The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show, did seem pretty interesting. The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show perform Punk covers of old Swing music such and also Disney songs. We only managed to catch the very start of their set as Honey Chrome had to leave to get back to their obscure and widespread dwellings in mythical places, and obviously Stevie was my lift. If you’d like to check out some stuff by The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show, you can find them on Facebook on the next link.
The Skank Sinatra & Friends Show on Facebook
Honey Chrome are next performing live at Trillians Rock Bar in Newcastle on Wednesday 23rd April. That event is a Battle of the Bands Semi-Final. Keep updated for that, and future live performances, on their website or Facebook page. They’re also booked to play two gigs for me in May, but I’ll get on to that next.
ORDER 66
My next live music event is scheduled for Friday 4th May at The Telegraph, on Orchard Street behind Newcastle’s Central Station, again. I’ve called this event Order 66, after the Jedi Purge in Star Wars.
http://www.facebook.com/events/218606574907062/
Order 66 will run until 2am again and begins at 8pm. The doors will be open from 7.30pm and entry will be charged at £4, payable on the door. There will be seven acts performing over the course of the night.
The acts performing at Order 66 are;
Honey Chrome (Psychedelic Ambient Punk-Metal)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Honeychrome/163839323697264
Peculiar Disco Moves (Alternative Pop)
http://www.facebook.com/peculiardiscomoves
Emergency Door Release (Indie Pop Rock)
http://www.facebook.com/EmergencyDoorRelease
Clint (Alternative Rock)
http://www.facebook.com/official.clint
Cerebral Scars (Games Console DJ)
http://www.youtube.com/user/CSworkz
L87 of SubLevel2 (DJ set)
Double D (Acoustic set)
http://www.facebook.com/DoubleDMusic
A full night of music, featuring seven separate artists across a range of genres, for only £4 is a steal so be sure not to miss Order 66 at The Telegraph on Friday 4th May.
THE TROLL AT THE BRIDGE
Order 66 will be followed just over two weeks later by The Troll at The Bridge, which is being held on Saturday 19th May at The Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth, Newcastle.
http://www.facebook.com/events/212146425556581/
This will be a night of live bands running from 8pm until 11pm, with doors opening at 7.30pm and entry being charged at £3 on the door.
There will be four bands performing at The Troll at The Bridge. They are;
Honey Chrome (Psychedelic Ambient Punk-Metal)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Honeychrome/163839323697264
Emergency Door Release (Indie Pop Rock)
http://www.facebook.com/EmergencyDoorRelease
Artisam (Alternative Rock)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTISAM/122829691064495
Downtown Lester Brown (Funk Rock)
http://www.facebook.com/downtownlesterbrownmusic
WHAT MALLAZ IS SAYING! 