In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings.  We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer.  So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Plans are afoot for a BSOD EP launch early next year. A 7″ vinyl release with the two different versions of I Want To Die on them, with finished b-sides of Hal and Knives on the flip should make up the tracklisting.

In this session we tracked a live version of Old Salty Seadog, and Andy’s drums for Your Cock’s Too Big. Luke took special care to remove as many crucial parts of the drum kit as possible before each take, and Andy did an excellent job of reaching across the room mid-take to hit them anyway. I hung a microphone from the ceiling, put one inside the floor tom (which I broke on the first take) with the rest of the mics placed strategically inside the kick drum, except for Luke’s whistle mic which was gaffer taped to his guitar, and the one he put inside his coat. A session earlier in the week had seen an RV4 placed inside an acoustic guitar, and a box placed over the head of the backing vocalist during the recording of Painkillers.

The results of such antics have ranged from the sublime, to the downright unlistenable, which in its own Blue Screem way makes it sublime as well. A lot of things got knocked over.

Work on Shin Jin Rui’s sophomore effort continues. The weirder the things we do with the Kaoss Pad and mic arrangements, the better the results seem to be upon playback. This has encouraged me to be a lot more experimental with guitar sounds on this record than in any of my other projects that I’ve worked on this year. It’s refreshing to muck around with boxes, samplers and bass feedback again after previous sessions have demanded a more literal representation of what’s coming out of the amp, and nothing more.

Two meetings were held this week, with the first at The Off Quays as the snow came down. I wasn’t expecting Adam to do any vocals, so had neglected to bring a pop shield. I had to improvise with a sock and a bin liner, allowing him to nail the take to Quit Smoking.

The second session was at the Libris Gulag, with bass feedback, pitch shifted solos and an inspired piece of crow bar work from James Emsell, who is by far and away the best kept secret about the band. He’s been in consistently spontaneous and inspired form since we started the project, often playing great takes in less than ideal conditions… with Adam and me crawling over his pedals, amps and Kaoss Pad changing settings mid take and twiddling knobs at random.

Tonight it was the turn of Lasso You to get the kitchen sink treatment, with an executive decision being made by the guys to go with the faster, older take from last year’s demo sessions.

Below is the megaupload link to the festive webcast conducted at Libris Acres on Saturday 19th December, with special guest and narrator Adam Schofield of Shin Jin Rui. Also featured on the show were performances by My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, with music of varying seasonal relevance by Vanderveer, John Egdell, Nathalie Stern, Four Tet and The Ramones.

A link to the upload site can be found here.

Friday

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

A rousing encore from a drunken, messy trio that seemed to fit the mood of an excited audience perfectly. People were still stretching their legs from long car journeys and quaffing beer in a constant attempt to catch up with those around them; Karen O shouted “I’m wasted, are you fuckin’ wasted? This is off our first ever EP,” much to the joy of die hard fans.

Mum

Expecting smooth, subtle, acoustic electronica, I was blown away by these guys. There were no manners in their set; just lots of glitch, strings and aggressive guitar licks. The two female vocalists did well to harmonise together amid the racket going on behind them, before jumping behind various cellos, fiddles and whistles themselves to add to the confusion. Excellent stuff.

Fuck Buttons

A determined and calculated assault on the senses here. Two men pouring over a vast banquet-sized table filled with boxes, synths, analogue systems, modular effects and a giant spinning disco ball got my mouth watering. Throughout the set there were at least four very distinct types of noise that they inflicted on us, all of them deeply pleasurable to listen to. At one point there was a Game Boy solo. During another section a cut up vocal began oscillating into a hypnotic beat. Baseball Cap Man played live percussion like a circus performer. The Clever Wizard to the left just stood in a state of supreme composure, laying layer after layer of monophonic synthesiser on a rapturous audience. At some point I looked up and realised that somewhere along the line they had both begun to twitch like lunatics, and any attempt at keeping beat or melody had been abandoned in favour of all out sonic warfare. Very exciting.

Saturday

Afrirampo

The most bonkers band of the festival, Afrirampo consisted of two dolled up Japanese girls in fishnets and sequins, thrashing out drum and guitar punk rock as if they were actually wearing skinny black jeans and leather jackets. Their energy was infectious, and some of the guitar breaks were truly deranged: they seemed to come from nowhere, one moment a riff, the next a cacophony of fretting and feedback with no warning whatsoever. The drummer was excellent too: she had a speed around the kit which gave the show real momentum. They peppered their set with kazoo solos, bizarre lost-in-translation adlibs about the speed of light, and a cappella duets complete with waving and dancing.

Shellac

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. After their set finished I looked around the hall, and there was this one guy holding his hands over his mouth, still staring at the empty stage in disbelief at what he had just experienced, before his friend came over and hugged him. They both stood there a long time. I almost joined in. I was reeling, shivers zinging up and down my spine, mind expanded, head bent, life irreversibly changed. Why? There was an economy to the trio’s performance that focused the mind and the ear. Their careful choice of tone and arrangement created a powerful density to the songs that seemed to leave an indent on your imagination long after they had finished. There was true showmanship, from Todd Trainer’s drum solos that involved him getting up and walking around the venue with his snare drum and sticks, to Albini’s expression of electrocution inbetween guitar licks as he danced on his tip toes around the left of stage. Surreal humour ran through the whole thing too: the question and answer sessions had people asking all sorts of odd things, from queries about Albini’s mastering to what their favourite type of sandwich was. In each song the lyrics veered from the script. In End of Radio, Steve started riffing: “Snare drum, I am a beacon, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… snare drum, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… drum stool, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… hair stylist,” as the rest of the band broke out in laughter. They didn’t miss a beat either: the proficiency of their playing was acid sharp. Travis guitars, nylon guitar leads, simple kit and only one distortion pedal on the whole stage: this was minimalism at its finest. By the end, I was bopping around like an extra from Top Of The Pops, with most of my brain orbiting around the venue in outer space. Retired to the chalet afterwards to think seriously about amp settings, waist-mounted guitar straps and a drummer who plays with the handles of the sticks rather than the tips.

Battles

Disappointing; none of their arid vibe that their records display was present here. Almost fell asleep standing up, so drifted away in search of something else.

Melvins

This was the something else I needed: two drum kits pummeling away at once, delayed ranting howls from a man dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, and blinding guitar from Buzz Aldrin (hidden behind a huge grey afro). They would not let up, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any heavier, the back curtain was raised to reveal a further two more drum kits. Bloody marvelous. One suspects these guys are as good today as they were when they were first name checked by Nirvana eighteen years ago.

Modest Mouse

Competent, but left me cold. I returned back to the chalet worried that I was missing something everyone else had got.

[below is a handwritten account of The For Carnation and Sunn O)))]

Sunday

Shellac

First into the venue, coffee in hand, placed front and centre. I watch them finish sound check and talk with the audience about possibly touring South America. My camera is recharging back at the chalet, so I’m absorbing all events, images and sounds the old fashioned way. They begin with the drummer walking through the audience from the back of the room bashing his snare to a hail of flashbulb lights from the press pit, and end it by deconstructing the drum kit one drum at a time as he plays frantically with whatever is left in front of him. Inbetween is more of the same brilliance as displayed the day before. This is total indulgence, seeing one of your favourite bands twice in less than twenty four hours. I watch Albini coil up his guitar lead afterwards. He does it the special way. My question of “Can I come and work for you for free and learn all that you know?” goes thankfully unasked. Steady As She Goes is more relentless and uncompromising than yesterday’s rendition, and Squirrel Song is like being hit over the head with a spade. Albini barely bothers with the vocals and instead stalks the stage. At one point both he and Bob Weston creep to the rear of the stage, almost out of sight, leaving Trainer in the limelight he so readily deserves. The man is a vision: Kiss hair, Ramones clothes, Led Zep scarf, and a succinct telepathy with the rest of his colleagues that means every break is cut and dried, exacting to the last millisecond. Weston’s bass playing is crude but limber: nothing too showy, nothing too pretty. Albini’s guitar weaves amongst this, sniping out solos at the most unexpected of moments, other times playing in sympathy with the bass, other times dropping out altogether. They seem to be so far ahead of everything else I’ve seen: they give the impression of being this angry, hard rocking band… yet when you see them their songs are laced with absurd humour, and their three piece set up doesn’t restrict them from conjuring up grooves most dance or Krautrockers would give their eye teeth for. Their arrangements sho no fear at all: they have faith in the bits they have chosen to leave out, in the gaps of silence between the beats. I stand in rapture, eyes closed, on the edge of giving up music forever, learning.

Deerhoof

I was curious to see if these guys could bring the quirky sound of their records to the stage, and it took me about two songs to ‘get my eye in’; after which I was in heaven. Standing in a position where I could see the drummer really helped because his playing was fantastic. Another highlight of the festival, with a suitably crazy rendition of ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ in tribute to the event itself.

Explosions In The Sky

An unexpectedly good show from these guys; I was anticipating something more wishy-washy based on their recordings, but Lauren persuaded me to stay and listen and it was worth it. “We’re on our way to the stars tonight,” said the dude who would end the set hitting his guitar with a tambourine. One of the few acts who managed to fill the Palladium stage with their sound, as many other bands seemed a bit dwarfed by the size of the venue.

Fuck Buttons

An even better set from the Buttons, in the club environment of Reds. Video below demonstrates the Game Boy solo.

Crazy Horse disco

The weekend ended here, in the dilapidated Crazy Horse Wild West-themed bar. Haven’t danced as energetically as I did here in some time.

The whole event was a revelation. I’ve enjoyed festivals in the past, but the choice of music at this one outstripped anything else I’ve been to before. Coupled with the beach on your doorstep, the greasy spoon cafes and trinket shops of Minehead high street, the water slides and snooker halls with the comfort of your own shower and kitchen right by the venues… you cannot knock the Butlin’s experience one bit. A return in the new year is now a certainty.

Met with Mark from TEDCO to discuss accessing public funding to finance my Apple Certified Logic 301 training course at the Northern School of Sound.

Also tackled the mastering of The Yummy Fur’s debut album ‘Night Club’; which featured two future members of Franz Ferdinand amongst their ranks when they were a functioning band back in 1996. Issued as a joint release between Slampt and Guided Missile Records, it was a debut album that achieved cult status amongst the Scottish indie underground, but has since gone out of print. Pete wants the thing brightened up for an American reissue through a label Slampt has worked with in the past.

On the whole, the lo-fi sound of the record is sublime – the vocals distort and the drums are often AWOL, but it works. Each song is mixed differently, with plenty of volume and tone changes between each track. The added mystique of Night Club’s producer Mark Gibbons later committing suicide after battling heroin addiction only adds to the mystique. This is the sound of a band ten years ahead of its time stuck in some Glaswegian basement, shouting about housing estate youth clubs, blue movies and going roller skating with the school tart who tells you to “put lipstick on your nipples”. It should be held up as an example of that most romantic of achievements: musical greatness coupled with virtual obscurity.

I’ve managed to remove some rogue frequencies, and generally make the songs louder, though I would hesitate to say they sound any better. I had quite a struggle in my head to convince myself
I wasn’t messing with something that should be better left alone, as its creators intended. Just because something isn’t technically proficient doesn’t mean it should be reduxed. The spectre of George Lucas hangs heavily over this project; and my dismay at the inclusion of a CGI Anakin at Vader’s funeral pyre at the end of the Special Edition DVD release of Return of the Jedi.

In the end, I think the disc does sound better; and I was glad of the mastering practice. It’s a dark art that needs further investigation; there’s too much smoke and mirrors surrounding it.

Much of December was spent working at the Whitley Bay Playhouse as a sound tech and stage crew member on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The whole production was a friendly bunch of people at the peak of their game; doing two or three shows a day with full-on dance routines, pyrotechnics, multiple costume changes and two hours of singing in each performance. The amount of work that went into the sound, lighting, staging and wardrobe behind the scenes was astonishing: a two-day load-in with a metal rig that required twelve men to lift, a sound desk that required eight pairs of hands to get up to the back of the theater, three tons of sets and lights, and a full sized motorbike that I had to position stage left for the show’s finale. I have a new found respect for theaters and the companies that tour them - the work involved in putting on such an accomplished show is staggering.

On the 10th, Luke was screening a 35mm print of The Flaming Lips’ film Christmas on Mars, complete with a personalised introduction from Wayne Coyne where he namechecked The Star & Shadow Cinema before explaining how the film was made. After the credits had rolled, Luke, Nick and I ran the Zaireeka Experiment on five stereos. A crazy, four CD album that only reveals its contents when all the discs are played simultaneously after vocal instructions at the start of each track get you to sync the whole thing together.

The results were mixed: after a shaky start, some of the middle songs on the album sounded great and quite crisp. Others were more noise based and messy, especially when played back in such a large, reverberant room. The best thing was being able to walk around the room and get a different sonic experience depending on where you were standing: some corners of the room were just bass and vocals, other parts were just the reverb washes and some cymbals. Well worth doing, and we think the noise scene in Newcastle might appreciate it even more than Lips fans. Especially the bit where it sounds like you’re being attacked by killer bees.

A satisfied Phil Tyler signed off on The Hind Wheels of Bad Luck – the name of the second Tyler LP – on Saturday 7th November after a few final fiddle parts were added at the very last. And Nathalie called over for the data DVDs of her disc on the 10th, officially closing the case on that one too.

Saturday 14th saw the debut live show of My Attorney at Retreat @ St. Dominic’s (the venue used by Pop Klubb), where we supported No Fit State and British Lichen Society in a triumphant show that finally got one of the projects closest to my heart off the mark. We played as well as could be expected for a first gig: plenty of mistakes but also lots of passion and grit, and I’m proud to say that I don’t think there’s anything else in the region that does weird pop music quite the way we do. The next step is to hunt for that elusive fifth member that can add the depth we so desperately need to our arrangements… The night as whole was successful; I covered my costs and was able to pay the other two bands enough to cover their fuel, not to mention the fact that we had over forty people in to see the show which was startling when one considered the other events we were up against that evening. I would say this however: running a gig, doing the sound and performing a set all at the same time is quite a challenge. Luke did a sterling job on the door and stepped in on the desk while Attorney were attempting their four part harmonies on Moon & The Sea, without which the whole trifle would have fallen off the table. Photo below is of No Fit State with their Desperate Housewives-inspired washing line and domestic garb.

Luke had his own promotional duties around this time: The Wave Pictures visited the Star & Shadow Cinema in October, to a great reception. Very pop, very indie, very sweet - but with the songs to carry it off.

The week beginning Monday 16th November was spent working on Gx3, trying to rescue the difficult guitar tones out of the gutter. I’ve resolved to minimise the compression around the kit so that less ambient white noise from the guitars feeds into the drum track; hopefully clarity will improve as a result of this method. No doubt I’ll post more on this in the future.

Week beginning the 23rd saw the first concerted effort begin on mixing the Shin Jin Rui stuff. Giddy with elation after seeing them perform at the Head of Steam that evening, I was all over their stuff now that I have the hard disk space to store it on the Mac. They more than upstaged Wavves; they played 12 hits in less than twenty five minutes, which left the audience reeling. It feels as though a new band has suddenly emerged, fully formed and completely in control of their faculties. Brilliant to see them tread the boards once more. Have been tinkering with the space ship guitar sounds and thunderous drum takes on their recordings ever since.

Saturday 28th saw the live debut of Blue Screem of Death, in the safe environment of the rehearsal rooms. Despite the load-in taking almost two hours, we managed to play our seven songs without any obvious disasters or howling errors (with the possible exception of our Shellac cover Prayer To God). Our audience of eight people was actually quite appreciative, though it was such an intimate environment that I found myself feeling quite self conscious. The biggest challenge was getting all the changes in settings between songs right. I play eight different devices during the set, with Luke mastering four; requiring a lot of fiddling around between tracks. We managed this ok though, which was encouraging… leaving only the musical proficiency of the three band members to cause us any difficulties. For example: I appear to be playing bass on four songs. This troubles me. Thanks to Attorney bassist Ian Leaf for the photos and film.

Luke and I finished the show itching to play a “proper” gig at a show where unsuspecting punters can be exposed to our mad ramble.

Above a short clip of an unworked b-side: JulianO.

The start of the month was spent tidying up the last of the Milk Wimpshake mixes, which to date is probably the work I’m proudest of: it has all the levity of an indie pop release, with plenty of left turns and obscure moments to keep the listener interested long after the hooks and melodies have been ingested.

In a sudden fit of completionism, I resolved to finish the Chronicity recordings too; so that both discs could be handed over to Pete at the same time. Employing what I had learnt from Pilgrim, Wimpshake and the Rui demos, I was able to cut versions that sounded even more solid than before. Hopefully the group will be able to release the songs in some format or another next year.

On Saturday 10^th October, Ex Libris achieved its ultimate dream: to DJ at PopKlubb. Rather optimistically I turned up with my Kaoss Pad in tow, expected to sample and bit crush my way through the set… but their equipment was unable to accept such equipment. The night began quietly, but the room filled to its usual busy self during our hour on the decks, and playing Modeselektor and Grilly to a bunch of unsuspecting indie geeks was too good for words. If only all dreams could be so easily realised as this one; I was very, very happy and got to finish the set with John Peel’s shout out he gave me on Radio 1 the night before my dissertation was due, when he played the Kreutzfeld Nausflauten Orkestra. Fitting, considering it was the anniversary of his death.

Key: red - Luke, black - Andrew

Vaselines - You think your a man, you are only a boy [album]

Outdoor Miner - Wire

CSS - Lets make love and listen to death from above

That 80s Vibe - Assfunk vs DJ IBM PC COMPATIBLE*

Moldy Peaches - track 5 - Downloading Porn With Davo

I ‘Aint Thick - Jeffery Lewis / Crass

FYC - Suspicious Minds

Dark Side Of The Sun (feat. Debutonner) - Modeselektor

The organ - Memorize the city

The Beach - Milky Wimpshake / Jonathan Richman*

Roxy Music - Dance Away

Filmstar - Suede

Strangelove - Track 4 (20th century gold)

Klein Bottle Fish Tank - Grilly

chuck berry - Roll Over Beethoven

Star Wars Main Theme (disco rmx) - Mecco

Hefner - Live at the John Peel Wingding - The Day The Thatcher Dies

Teenage Slave - Girls Girls Girls

The Cure - The Catapiller

Louie Louie - Krautzfeldt Nausflauten Orkestra (w/introduction by John Peel)

More practicing with Death and Attorney, more guitar overdubs with Rui – this time extensively employing the Kaoss Pad to twist everything James was playing into something even more unusual. More mixing of Phil & Cath Tyler’s material, with a perfectionist Phil stopping by on the 13^th to add more finishing touches to various songs, and insist on a particular guitar EQ and compression combination which he wanted applied to all the songs, rather than just a couple. More work on Nathalie’s album too… many days spent indoors, wearing the clothes that I had been wearing all week, leaving the house only to get milk or rehearse, drinking obscene amounts of coffee, and sweating down arrangements and EQ-ing layer after layer to get everything sounding just so: not the sort of stuff that makes interesting blogging, especially since the proof should be in the listening rather than the writing.

The Girls arrived on Friday 16^th to begin recording their new EP, thus christening the new rehearsal space with its first studio work. All in all the session went well: they tracked four songs and one demo in a day, with keys and percussion being added later in the evening, and vocals and guitar overdubs being done on the Sunday. They seemed enthusiastic enough about how things went to warrant a return in the new year to lay down more songs for their third album. It was good to get the guys playing and recording live again; the stuff they’ve done so far is miles more energetic than anything on Stop or Songs. A step ladder was employed for added percussion on O’Pathological Life, and Andy laid down some sick trumpet on Record Label.

Monday 19^th and Tuesday 20^th spent putting the finishing touches to Nathalie’s work; some of the tracks have benefited from mastering, others have lost a little air, so it was just a case of picking the best bounces and making the final sequence flow. I had Nathalie pause the machine after each song when she felt ready for the next one to come in, and then dragged the wav to that exact location. A real buzz to finish this particular record so quickly and cleanly; proof that the artist is also a project manager when she isn’t mucking around with loop pedals… I’m very happy with the album, and intend to give a copy of Firetales to my relatives come Christmas, as I think it’s the most accessible thing I’ve worked on this year.

On Monday 26^th Pete signed off the Wimpshake and Chronicity records, bringing the total number of projects I’ve finished this year to four albums and three EPs, with five more albums and one EP on the slate in various stages of completion. Much of the rest of the week was spent battling with unruly guitar sounds on the Gx3 material.

To my great excitement, Amelia Fletcher – the lead singer from 80s indie pop band Heavenly – had been lined up to contribute backing vocals on a couple of Milky Wimpshake tracks, and I had offered to visit her in London to track the parts. My reason for visiting the capital was primarily to see To The Boats..! launch the Bruised Pilgrim LP, a party which united much of the extended Libris clan: with Aaron McMullan, Jo Kelly and Jeremy Williams all out in force. Sadly, Amelia had lost her voice and had to cancel our appointment at the 11th hour, so I was unable to meet what Pete described as “the dream girl of every teenage indie boy during the Eighties”. She promised to mp3 the .wavs to me instead.

On the 11th I began the audio extraction from the big old desk that lives in Nathalie’s music room, in preparation for mixing her album. It meant lots of laborious cabling between channels on her desk and my mixer, and I was sure to use the desk EQ to colour the sound on the way out: some sweep in the 600Hz region (since most of the layers consisted of female vocals) and a touch of brightness about 10kHz – although this kicked up as much dust as anything. Nathalie was very clear that she wanted all the hiss and noise left in, with all the analogue desk warmth included in the mix.

Thursday 17th September was an important day, as My Attorney had their first rehearsal at the new Libris rehearsal space we’ve started renting from the Roots & Wings group. It’s opposite the Star & Shadow Cinema, and next door to the Tanners Bar and Blank Studios, and has a PA, amps and drum kit ready for use. It’s an ideal locale for web casts, small gigs and recording; and we intend to use it for such in the coming months. Sunday 20th saw Blue Screem of Death start to use the space for their rehearsals too, adding fresh impetus to the project to get gig ready before Christmas.

The end of the month saw continued rehearsals with Attorney and Death, overdubs at the new space with Rui (during which I rigged up a floor tom next to a guitar amp to act as a reverb chamber ) and more audio extraction from Nathalie’s desk. Phil also visited to keep an eye on the Tyler mixes, adding backing vocals and some extra fiddle to a couple of numbers.

Near the end of February, Luke and I were lucky enough to happen upon a Khunnt rehearsal at The Off Quays building, late on a Saturday night. The deal was struck there and then to have them play at the Narc. Fest that we were helping curate at the Star & Shadow Cinema later in the year. In a confined space, with the Blank Studios gear piled high around us, and the avian screams of the singer ringing out over truly disorientating levels of bass and guitar noise, it was the ultimate way to experience one of the best bands Newcastle has offered up in some time. Bizarre to think that one of the players is the same man who produced O’Messy Life…

I was also fortunate enough to see a rare appearance by the Country Teasers at Morden Tower, supported by Les Cox (Sportifs). Les Cox played arguably their best show in years; no doubt raising their game as a result of the family connection between the two bands (LCS drummer Christo and CT singer Ben Waller are brothers). Equally shambolic and intense, the Teasers played a marathon set that seemed to get progressively more divergent as the whiskey bottle by the mic stand was emptied.

It was at this show that I was offered the Milky Wimpshake work by Pete Dale, and we retired to the corner of the room to thrash out specifics on how the sessions would proceed.

At this juncture, My Attorney recorded some drum tracks for our long delayed second album/7” single release. Andy and I were lucky enough to get our resident session man Stuart Stone in to do drums for Missed Connection Room, using the upstairs room in the Cumberland Arms as a makeshift studio. Because we were all using headphone feeds for monitoring purposes, I was able to open the drum mics right up and capture the whole room. The wooden floors and sparse furnishing gave a really bright, expansive sound that should sound fantastic once mixed. We also made use of the old organ in the corner behind the stacked chairs for the choruses, and sampled some interesting beats off the built in drum machine too.

On the 14^th, Girls Girls Girls visited to launch their album in Newcastle. The night on the whole was a resounding success: we had a large audience that covered our costs and the supporting bands played brilliantly. British Lichen Society was a punk, twelve minute tour de force of bass noise with Casio teeth. Education Education Education were a more grungey affair, while The Wooden Spoons conjured up images of the show bands of old: virtuoso guitar and key lines mixed with big anthemic numbers. The Morrissey disco which followed Gx3 was also packed with people coming across from PopKlubb over the road; at one point the floor in the Star & Shadow was full. Local artists from Newcastle Art College had also decked out the foyer with their works in progress for their degree shows, attracting a whole new clientele of art students to the gig. None of that can make up for the disaster that was the Girls’ set. Through no fault of their own, of course. After all the bands sounding great up until that point, one of the S&S amps blew just as the guys took to the stage, meaning much of their music was either murky or inaudible. It was a painful hour before the problem was diagnosed and in the end they abandoned their set in favour of doing the disco (using the monitors turned around to face the audience as a replacement PA). Again, the Star & Shadow equipment had ruined what was otherwise a successful evening and after about a month of prep organising the publicity and support, the Girls and I were understandably crestfallen.

At the end of the month, I began rehearsals with Ian Courtney for the Airstrip One shows that were scheduled to take place up in Edinburgh. During these meetings in Ian’s freezing spare room, I managed to capture a rough and ready recording of our repertoire, which would form the ‘Fall and Stay Down EP’.