More gigs!

We had an amazing time playing High Town Festival – so many people and friends and great sets from iiseefourfingers, the collective, the reavers and the knockouts. We also got to see Pixie Styx and The Mouse Assassins too. Loving the Jeremy Corbyn cupcakes!

Our next gig is on Friday 4th August at LutonAid which is one of the high points of the Luton music calendar with loads of established and new bands – this year ROGUE is headlining on Saturday in a much-anticipated gig after a hiatus of several years. EasyDread and The Baracutas headline on the Friday with fast reggae and ska.

On Sept 2nd we’re looking forward to playing Houghton Rocks festival again and on 8th Oct we’ll be returning to We Shall Overcome at the George II.

more commentary on the UK elections

if anyone fancies recording these properly |I’ll give you the chords..

I’m alright Jack

I was trying to understand why so many people in England voted against their own best interests in the recent election and this is what I came up with.. it’s very basic, maybe I’ll record it properly later

https://soundcloud.com/androktone/im-alright-jack

Legless

This is a song about a drunk mermaid.

Ludoviko Tekniko website

The website is up and running! Click the little robot to take you there 🙂

Jack in the green

This is just a little quick recording of a song I wrote last year after a muddled dream with snatches of old english folklore in it.

It’s much prettier than the last song!

The Knockouts

When we first came to Luton there were a few bands on the mini local festival scene that always blew us away.

When we moved up to Round Green (the Bohemian quarter of Luton) 4 years ago we were really pleased to realise we’d moved in next to the keyboard player from the Knockouts.

Not only do they play amazing 60’s Shadows-sounding warm beautiful and tribal music, but inthe spirit of Luton Renaissance they also:

Produce “The Clod” local arts magasine

http://www.hightown.org.uk/4.html

Run regular local arts days at the scandanavia cafe (which I am really sad to hear is closing)

Produce a short book of Luton Haikus

http://lutonhaiku.webeden.co.uk/

Like a ghost

I think my singing lets it down a bit but you get the general idea. If anyone fancies singing it for me I can send the track without the vox…                                                    Guitar, piano.

I went to see an old lady
alone in a big house.
Husband died two months ago, she
Can’t even use the telephone.
Everything had always been done for her,
you see.
She was hostile. “I don’t need you.
I don’t need anyone. Except him.”
And then she cried.

“I was beautiful once,”
she said – and she still is.
Transparently, as if
already a ghost.

“What would we talk about anyway?”
she said. And I thought
we could talk about loss
or gardening
or old films
but she was right
I may know of grief
but I don’t know what it is
to be helpless,
frail, and old.

“You have red hair,”
she said. “I had red hair.
“And I didn’t have to dye it,
either.”

And i made my excuses and left
Well, you can’t force people
If they say they want to be
alone
in a big house.

PDM Music

I was chatting with a friend recently and he reminded me about another great Luton institution – PDM (or Paul and Dave’s) Music.

When we were just little Adenoids with a broken guitar and a microwave for a drumkit,  PDM gave us gigs and let us earn a bit of money and self respect. And they’re still going, several times a month, putting on local and out of town bands, in the Hat Factory and the Four Horseshoes at local festivals and in the town square. They don’t make money but they do provide a great opportunity for anyone putting a band together to perform and make friends. In today’s world where venues demand you bring fans with you and charge deposits, that is a rare and beautiful thing.

So cheers to Paul and Dave for hundreds of guitar addled nights, and if you’re looking for something to do of an evening in Luton, check out their page:

http://893pc.com/gigs.html

Shown playing: Alone With Wolves, Amy Simpson, Right of Rebellion

 

And also, did I mention, back in the day when I was a poverty stricken young punk drawing sketches on the back of fag packets for beer money, I designed their logo? 😉

yeah.

Babushka One

A tribute to the old ladies who are still living in a village outside chernobyl 26 years after the reactor meltdown. You can read/watch about them here http://thebabushkasofchernobyl.com/

F#, A7, Bb, D, and one other B chord like an Am on the 2nd fret

Parishev village is five below zero
Nestled within the exclusion zone
Strontium brightly decays in the shadows
Motherland always is home

When the soldiers came to evacuate us
we ran to the cellar to hide
I’m not afraid of anything now
]we’re old but we survive

She flew like an eagle these 26 years
over radioactive snow
The invisible enemy wiped out the spring
Babushka comes in from the cold

With thanks to the film makers of “Chernobyl Babushkas”