Altercation launch release party @ The Purple Turtle

I look like a fucking saint on that picture !
Sorry for this opening line...
The launch went very well, we had about 100 people there, we covered our costs, sold some t-shirts and cds, it was a good night !
I was told our performence was one of the best one we've made, obviously it's not going to stop there and it's always going to get better and better, but it's nice to hear that, specially when it comes from someone like Mark Thorn, Bubblegum Screw singer, who's not the easiest person to please... ;)
I found the perfect dress for the night, about 10 pounds only, it was love at first sight when I saw it in the shop window; it's a purple cocktail dress who could belong to Cinderella as much as it could be owned by a maid of honour...

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Banana did my hair during the afternoon as well as my make up which was obviously more than useful.
Show up at the gig, Burma Guns are the first ones there, we're all waiting around and when Dave drummer from Bubblegum Screw arrives we set up everything on stage.
It was a bit of a slow start and as a result none of the bands got a soundcheck. I guess with a venue like The Purple Turtle it doesn't really matter as the p.a is one of the best I've seen.
People started arriving slowly, I was obviously stressing thinking it's going to be a big flop and that no one care about the Dress Up E.P....
I went to the backstage to re-do some of my make-up, saw Mark there and made sure he would wear the feather boa I bought him on stage, he sure did.



When I got out from the backstage I was surprisingly happy to see the venue fuller and finally coming to life.
DJ Frog was great and he put some great tunes to make people stick around for all the bands.


me with Dj Frog

Burma Guns opened the night, they had some technical problems on stage with the bass sound but in spite of it I really enjoy their set and they were the first band on so as a conscequence they were the one sounchecking for the rest of us.

We went on at 9pm. I enjoyed Paranoia like I've never did before, the set went all smooth and nicely for us, Ko attempted once again to make some jokes in the middle under my request, he made me swear to not pass him the mike ever again on stage or he will tell about some compromising secrets of mine next time I do it, I won't take this risk. ;)







some live action :



We ended our set with a jam joining with Glam Sister, it was inspiring and it felt good to have more freedom and not always follow a verse chorus bridge formula, just trusting in your instincts is sometimes very liberating.
We did that same kind of thing at The Dublin Castle just before Insomnia, I put the video of it in the Charity topic, just two blogs down this one, feed your curiosity and have a look...
Here is a video of London City, at The Purple Turtle...



Then HiroshAmour went on...
They delivered a hell of a set with jam, long instrumentals and soulful songs such as Fever and Suicide Bomber.
Hiroshamour and I did a cover of Mylene Farmer for Ethan's birthday who is a huge fan of her, we did Desenchantee. It was a new thing for me, I won't make it a habit to cover the french Madonna but always good to do once !
Here are some live pictures of them where you can see the lighting is better... Maybe because they're only three in the band so they stood in the right spots. However The Purple Turtle isn't the best venue for pictures.









After the brillant performance of Hiroshamour it was the turn of Bubblegum Screw to entertain the crowd...
They gave a very good gig, once again, Mark was great with the red feather boa on, they were all on fire, Mark showed his ass at some point just to make sure that everyone was paying attention.
Unfortunately they didn't have time to do Rock'n'roll losers as they were last on the bill and it was all running a bit late.
So they ended with their brillant song Power ( my new favourite one )...
Here they are :









We all ended the night in The Purple Palace, and I even got Mark to model for my band t-shirt :



Now Altercation is preparing for the last gig of the year as a part of the Christmas itch festival which will start on the 7th of December at The Purple Turtle, again, and Healthy Junkies will be playing that night, their first gig !
We'll only be performing five songs.
Then Altercation will be playing at The Bull and Gate on the 9th of December, check the website for more infos :

target="_blank">www.myspace.com/xmasitch

Also I just thought I'd mention it, all pictures and videos of the launch and of the charity gigs have been taken by Brigitte, she's been a dedicated fan who has supported us for quite a while now and it's always nice these days. So thanks again miss... :)

So no gig at the Proud Gallery for HiroshAmour tonight due to childish behaviour...

Until next time, and then expect a period of silence on this blog as I'm planning to go on holidays... well deserved break I should add.

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Altercation charity gigs @ The Spice of Life and The Dublin Castle

On the 25th of October Altercation did a charity gig to help raising funds for children. Our drummer Veronnique had been selected in a draw by the company she works for and her price was to ask for anything she wants (pretty cool isn't it ?)...
So she decided to organize those two charity gigs with Altercation and other bands we met along the way.
The first bill on the 25th was After the Ice who played at the O2 recently, then Thunderbird 13 who apparently appeared in the sitcom Eastenders, then Rubinger, we met them at the Comedy Pub and us.


Ko, bass player in Altercation

The first time I went to The Spice of Life was to see The Duel doing a gig to support The Skuzzies. It's a very intimate venue very different from any others in London. The atmosphere is so warm, maybe because of the orange lights and sofas. The stage is also non-existent, not even a step, so it's on the same level than the audience that you find yourself performing.
Tiny place then but with plenty of advantages like the sound system; everything was so clear, you could hear the slightest thing on stage.


Vince guitarist of Altercation

We apparently sounded like a well rehearsed band, I'm waiting for some video to be sent, will post one here asap.
We had an encore and we did Silence, it sounded very cool, not having done this one for so long.
I think we raised about 400 pounds that night for the cause and I found it very inspiring to actually play for a reason, thinking your performance will actually help someone. You're not doing it just for yourself then.

They put some open mike nights at The Spice of Life every wenesdays, that's how Vero got the idea to do the gig here. That'd be more than great to play at The Spice of Life again on a saturday night. This venue is also very well placed.



Thunderbird 13 are a glam band with strong riffs and melodic choruses. The singer has long viking style blond hair and his drummer is literaly a beast on the drum, the bass player add a nice groove in all that male boyish element, very good band with inspiring lyrics too.
After the Ice is led by the french frontman Paul Lisak.
He is an incredible songwritter guitar player. You have to like that kind of mellow style but even so you can't deny they are great players.
You sometimes get lost in his dreamy solos melodies...



Second date on the board was The Dublin Castle on the 11th of November.
There is a nice vibe to this venue, on parkway road, a bit retired from the camden heart's craziness, there is a nice pub part and in the back room is the venue. The sound system was once again excellent, the sound engineer has been working there for 20 years so he knows his sound very well.




On the line up that night was HiroshAmour headlining, Thunderbird 13 again, The Figurines and Stolen Car.
Quite a big line up then and in conscequence of that there were more people than at the Spice of Life and we raised more money that night for the charity.
It was also quite stressful to get the band to play just 30 minutes each as we started with a bit of late but it all went well in the end.
We started our set very well, I got delays and reverb put on my voice, it really worked, specially when after the second song which was Sick Of You Vince broke a string. So he had a back up guitar which wasn't tuned. While Vince was sorting out his situation on stage I had a jam with Ko and Vero on Insomnia and with the delay on my voice it just worked perfectly.



But then it was taking a bit of time to get the guitar right so Ko started telling jokes to the audiance, winding me up a bit by the same occasion which was funny...
I told Ko when I saw him play his last gig with his other band Tuggy Tugs to take control of the mike for the talking on stage just because he's so good at it.



After that little situation which was actually a good experience of improvisation we finally carried on with the set and I absolutely loved the sound on stage, the lights were good too because you actually couldn't see anyone from the audience.
Paranoia is coming out so well, better and better every time.





Pictures were taken by Brigitte who also did a film of the two gigs. Thanks a lot for that ;)
The Figurines were very good, they're a kind of mixture between Nirvana and Cure with Tom's violent guitar riffs and Steevo's evasive vocals.
HiroshAmour gave an impressive set, they did this long song jam of 20 minutes that they never played before, it was completely on the moment and it had a grungy psychedelic raw sound...
They played Jack and Sacrifice as well. They ended the night superbly.

So now those two gigs are done the next one on the list is our launch release party of the Dress Up E.P, as well as the HiroshAmour debut album One.
It's at The Purple Turtle on the 19th of November and Bubblegum Screw will be on the bill too.
They will also be a grunge band which are the english Nirvana in my humble opinion and they're called Burma Guns.
Always wanted to see them live and never had the occasion too so as my guests I finally will experiment a new musical experience with their set.
If you want to check them out : www.myspace.com/burmaguns
for more infos check the banana website : www.bananacastle.co.uk

We also got our band t-shirt. I choose the Love Suicide theme for those. Here it is :



There will be some at the launch as well as cds of the E.P.

We got a new song in the set as well as Paranoia, this new one is called Ego, will be performed during The Christmas Itch Festival.
Healthy Junkies will also be playing a short set on one of the Xmas date at The Purple Turtle once again, I'm looking forward to this gig.

Enough promotion and gig talk, I'm going to stop the writting now and go meditating about ageing rockers trying to seduce young aspiring vocalists with their industry contacts..... ;)

x x x x x x x x x

Here is a video of a jam we did at The Dublin Castle just before to start the song Insomnia...

229 CLUB vs Hope and Anchor

There were two venues in London that I always wanted to play which are the 229 Club and The Hope and Anchor, legendary venue in Angel, North London, were U2 played on their way to success.
There was also one band in London that Vince and me are big fans of and that we always wanted to play with : Noxshi.
On Monday morning we were surprised to find in our myspace inbox a proposition from Noxshi to support them for two gigs at the 229 Club and the Hope and Anchor. It just made my day, and my week for sure.
Those gigs took place on last thursday and saturday.
We had two rehearsals in a row with Altercation, because like Ko ( our bass player ) said ''we better be good, but not just good in fact, very good''.
The 229 Club is a cool venue with a lot of potential concerning the space and sound. HiroshAmour played there in May, unfortunately the night they played was organized by some promoters who wanted to make a maximum of money on the doors and who were taking the whole thing with a corporate attitude.
That night we did was organized by Noxshi themselves, so they were in control of the line up and they was absolutely no pressure concerning the amount of people, even so we had a good crowd there.
There was another band on the bill called The Palpitations, kind of cabaret rock, I really liked their sound and the singer is adorable.
The night was called Altered beasts, there were a lot of psychedelic lights and atmosphere which gave us great pictures and a feeling we were in the 70's again.



We soundchecked on London City and Paranoia, it all went well.
Ko was saying that in his experience it's always when he had good soundchecks that the gigs are a mess.
When the time to go on stage arrived I was suprised to hear that everything on stage was just too loud. Vincent's guitar, Ko's bass, my mike, and the drums were a bit lost in all that, I couldn't really hear anything but we just carried on.



Phil Honey Jones was once again our guest guitarist. He did Love Suicide, Glam Sister and Paranoia with us. It was good for Love Suicide on a personnal level. I love that song on the E.P but when it comes to do it live it seems to be something missing, I can never live that song fully. I did this time, for the first time since we performed it, and I think the guitars bits that Phil was adding made the song closer to the E.P version which is probably why I enjoyed it more.



Glam Sister was too fast, and Paranoia was a small chaos. That's how it seemed from the stage. We had a encore request from Mark who arrived late and just saw the last song. ( even late for his gig yesterday at the Tommy's Flynn, almost late ;) so we did Artificial Paradise. I had to whisper the guitar melody to Vince and Ko as they couldn't remember it. We took off that song of our set quite early in the year. It was a fun version, I did about four verses and a lot of No More No More No More....



A bit disappointed with our first performance then, but still good fun and it was much enjoyable to see Noxshi do their set. They sounded just perfect. Shame they don't want to include Aliyah in their set any more, that song is an absolute wonder.

Saturday arrived. I had to wake up extra early to go to Alberto's place as I was expected for a photo shoot. I thought that'd be really good to do that shoot, be all made up and dressed for my gig in the evening.
I arrived at the Hope and Anchor for the soundchecks. Small stage with a camera that projects the stage in the pub area, so everyone can see and go down to the live room if they feel like it. A bit like The Bull and Gate, I like that kind of concept.
I noticed straight away at the soundchecks that we were going to have a better gig there, as the room was smaller. It all make a difference when you play in a bigger venue, the sound can get lost sometimes, be too loud than you think and not giving enough feedback on stage.
That wasn't the case this time, the sound engineer put a nice reverb on my voice and I had a pretty good feeling about the show.
Noxshi in contrary weren't too pleased with their sound, weird how it sometimes goes so differently for each band.
Our bass player was having a house party on the same night, so he had to rush to the soundcheck, go back to his party and then come back to the venue to do the gig to then leave straight after we finished. It must have been stressfull for him as it was for all of us, wondering if he would show up, and he did. :)
So we started the set, I made quite a few changes in the set list, it's always useful, and I took off Insomnia off the set, I want to rework the lyrics to make them clearer. I also put Paranoia in third position, instead of Insomnia, rather than at the end. Because it's a strong song (and a new one ) I thought third position would be good to keep people interested. And that change of setlist really worked.
The sound was wicked, I could hear everything, the audience's answer was a million time better than at the 229 club and we had photos taken by strangers. I'm hoping to get my hands on some pictures a guy took, who knows maybe they'll be on here next week.
The second band were called Tales of George, the singer looks so much like Alex Turner, singer of the Arctic Monkeys and not just physically, he also got the behaviour and the notes on stage. Cool band.
Noxshi did their set, in spite of what they thought of their sound on stage I really liked it. It was more intimate and deep. The 229 club might have been their best gig in term of performance as they seemed more inspired by the sound system. However their time at the Hope and Anchor was memorable. I love the singer's tools. He got this vibrations machine that is controlled by the moves of his hands, and it makes very dark and psychedelic effects.
Their guitars riffs are powerful, specially in their song Swan.
Check them out : www.myspace.com/noxshimusic

Also another thing you can go and see in your spare time is the new Healthy Junkies song, ''Cat Story'' : www.myspace.com/healthyjunkies

music music music more more more...

Altercation in the woods...

Here is my new line up, wandering around in the woods...




Make up and style by Alberto Banana and photos by Barry MacDonald.



New songs to come soon, recording sessions are in order in September. We'll do new versions of Shallow and Sick of You with two new ones as well.
Our album is looking pretty good. Unless my mind turns into a complete blank.

Some people that didn't go on my blog for a while were so surprised to come back on it the other day. They said to me how incredible it was to see how much I promote my own things now, rather than promoting other bands like I used to do.
It might seem quite egocentric but that's what happening at the moment in my life. Music, more than ever, it's consuming me and my flesh and bones, it never stops, it sometimes goes wild.
We all wish that it's not going to a dead end.
That's the fear of all musicians.
But with a bit of DIY (Do It Yourself for those who don't know), everything seem reachable.

We have quite a lot of gigs coming up, we're trying to book the Purple Turtle for our E.P launch that will take place in November as a double launch with HiroshAmour that will promote their album.
Doing it in November leaves us plenty of time ahead.
I would like to have Bubblegum Screw, Burma Guns and Noxshi playing with us on the bill, that'd be just ideal...
We'll also have some work to do on the charity gigs at The Spice of Life and The Dublin Castle which are two venues in London I've always wanted to play. A bit like La Cigale in Paris. Very excited and very pleased with it.

I really liked that gig we did at The World's End with the two Parisian bands, Enosense and Haboob. Sandie Trash really don't know what they missed !
The place was packed, we had great feedback and following from it, and that was fun to be on the same bill than Matmet, six years later. They did a great version of Diana, english people loved them.

And six years later I can also say that my novel-book The Mirror Tales or Les contes du Miroir (for french version) is finally ready.
My one and only book.
Don't think I will have the patience to write another one.
Actually maybe I will. I already have an idea to exploit. I just wish I'd have enough time to spend on it. I mean I hardly have time to write on this blog any more so that'd be surprising to find some more for a book.
But that's something I should do, even for myself, without having it published this time because literature isn't really my speciality and I couldn't devote that much time in it. But I'm sure one day instead of writting about teenage cliches I will invent a really raw and mature story.

I've seen a lot of movies lately. The Reader with Kate Winslet. I didn't even know what the movie was about but I wanted to see it just because Kate won the oscar for her performance, a bit of a shallow reason really. So I was quite surprise when those sex scenes started to dominate the movie. I liked it. Kate was very convincing in this ex SS woman who's got plenty of issues with young lads and books.
I've seen Dead Man and The Brave with Johnny Deep. I've never seen them before, how uncultivated is that ?
Both great, specially Dead Man.
And more recently I've seen Milk with Sean Penn. That was brillant, very kind of old school movie, specially when they're in the first years of trying to win the elections. That was a part of the gay history in America that I never came accross before. Quite touching.
I've also seen the new Harry Potter and I was disappointed, the book was so much better, they missed a lot of things as usual, they focused more on the psychology of the characters rather than the action. That's something good in a way, but still disappointed. It's hard to compete with the books themselves.

I've just finished to read The force of Age by Simone de Beauvoir, there are four books of her that are autobiographic, that's the second one. I love it, the way she writes is just so precise. She can translate every emotions and feelings she wants exactly the way it seems to happen in her mind, she's probably one of my favourite writer. Before that I read a book by Anais Nin who tells about her affair with Henry Miller, naughty stuffs but so vibrant.
Next books I'm going to read are On the road by Kerouac and a punk book that Vince gave me for my birthday, with a very original concept, tell punk novels from songs that already exists. So there is one for Gimme Danger by The Stooges and a lot more...

I think that's it for now, until my next blog in three years... ;)
Not very interesting for my readers to hear about my band the whole fucking time. But that's my life.
Healthy Junkies are doing quite well too on a creative level. We even have a potential bass player interested in playing with us in the future, when we get the band all together for lives.
I actually enjoy the home studio recording process, more than I ever thought I would. It gives you a lot of skills on the production side and gave me some ideas for a technical asset in Altercation, that you will see in a few months.

Can't wait to play with Rick Blaze and Bubblegum Screw as backing vocalist again, it's like being on holidays, less pressure than being a lead singer obviously.

Oh yes I almost forgot, one more year has been added to my ''not so young any more'' age. So what is it like to be 24 people ask, not that much different from my 23, and still waiting for the first wrinkles to appear ah ah... It's been four years I am a londonner now, that's crazy how time goes.
I guess I know a bit more about myself now. And I also like what I'm hearing when I listen to the Dress Up E.P, comparing it with our last demo of June 2008 at The Enterprise. I can say I've learned a lot during my 23's, in term of drugs (no more), singing by doing stuffs with Phil Honey Jones in the Healthy Junkies project, sound and production, also thanks to HJ but also thanks to Richard Bignell who's been an amazing productor and guided us all along.
I've learned a lot on my stage presence too.

Et voila...

Dress up EP by Altercation

A year after our last demo recorded at The Enterprise studios, Altercation has finished the recording of the new EP.
The first half of the year 2009 has been pretty chaotic for the band. With irregular drummers for three months, the bass player Pete who has been with us for two years and a half didn't have the enthusiasm to carry on being in a band, and he also realised that his level on the bass had been stucked for too long.

The new year has given Altercation two new members on the rythm section with Vero on the drums who worships Dave Grohl and Nirvana and Ko on the bass who played in metal bands as well than in folk bands for the last ten years.
We've done about 20 rehearsals together working on all the songs, giving them more complexity and shape.
Then we came up with two new tracks, London City and Love Suicide.
Perfect stories of life, craze, loss and melancoly. London City is a statement about the London's lifestyle, the love and hate that every londoners feel towards their own city. But at the end this song is about the certain vibe that London offers you that can makes you feel stronger.
Love Suicide is a teenage ballad that is a mix of all the quiet songs I've done in the past, lyrically speaking. Love Suicide is also the death of the teens year.
Dress up is a clubbing tale, simple and not to be mistaken with a whore diary. ;)

Altercation recorded those three songs at the Area 18 in North Acton with Richard Bignell who worked with a lot of various artists over the years. The production is something that we have missed during our previous recordings. The kind of enginners we had in the past were more interested in the money they get at the end of the day rather than the music itself.
Richard has been helpful and a very good adviser during the whole process of the recording.
The musical chemistry between the new line up of the band has certainly made the experience very rich and inspiring.
The Dress up EP will be available on ITunes very soon.

Altercation is now focusing on gigs and promotion. We'll be playing this Sunday the 21st at the World's End in the heart of Camden Town, from 7pm. It's free to get in so come and join us to end the week end in a rock'n'roll night.
There will be two bands from Paris joining us with HiroshAmour.
We'll also be playing Bar Rumba on the 18th of July, it's just next to Picadilly Circus, it's a rock club. We were supposed to play there two weeks ago but they double booked us, so we have been given another date !
We also have a gig down south of England on the coast on the 28 of August in Margate. Grungy night in an high school area. Club night.
We'll also be in the process of making a video for the first single of the EP, London City.
Banana Castle Records which is our label is in the process of pressing some cds to send out to people at radio stations and promoters, hoping for a positive answer from them all. ;)

That's what on for us at the moment, any news or curiosity for our new songs, go there :

www.myspace.com/altercationmusic

Vice Squad

Vice Squad is a punk band formed in 1978 by the explosive Beki Bondage, here on the picture. She's been on the punk scene for more than 30 years and she's been called a jewel in the crown of England's glory...
After she left Vice Squad in 1983 she joined another punk band called The Ligotage and then in 1986 she formed The Bombshells.
It's only in 1998 that Beki reformed with Vice Squad and they've been touring ever since, specially in east europe.
She is often cited as being the first punk pin-up featured on the front cover of a number of influential music tabloids such as Melody Maker, NME, and Smash Hits.



It's with great pleasure that I went to see her play in Brighton at The Royal Albert. They were playing with The Derellas which is another punk band from London. The venue was quite intimate and it was packed.
She played a lot of old Vice Squad songs, she had a lot of energy and looked like a 25 years old punk singer still, after all those years she kept a kind of eternal punk youth.
She was raw and straight, talking to a mostly male audience, dominating them all by her jokes and answers that no one else could have think of.
Their drummer never rehearsed with them before, the original drummer had a problem and couldn't make it to the gig so they were lucky to find one quite quickly just before the gig. No one would have noticed he wasn't an original member if she didn't say because he was really good. (reminded me of my own situation in Paris at the Sentier des Halles gig )
They played a long gig, and they did it in a punk atmosphere, talking to the fans after the gig...

here are some more pictures i took of the gig :









Once a groupie, always a groupie ! ;)





and to finish on a rock'n'roll touch, my picture with Tim, bass player of The Derellas and also ex bass player of Nurotica.

Rock'n'Roll Losers (edited)

Bubblegum Screw were recording their album this week in Old Street at The Fortress and it's with pleasure that I took part to the experience for one day to do some backing vocals for them with Genna.
It was raw and inspiring, loved to sing "filthy little bitch" for them and all the rest of it included their great track Rock'n'Roll loser.
We sang on seven songs, can't wait to hear the final mix.
It's an honour for me to be on their album, they've always been one of my favourite London band, they make great punk'n'roll and their lyrics are just wonderfully dirty.












Mark, singer in Bubblegum Screw...



Zuri, bass player... and great guide for those vocals, so was Mark who recorded his vocals same time than us which was nice. :)










Magda and the boys in the break room...



Great experience, I say it once again.
The recording studio is a whole little town in itself, it gots a bar, rehearsal studios and a roof where you can go and take some fresh air or smoke, whatever the choice is.
In the bar section they have some pools tables with a DJ installation and some art and pictures are projected on one of the wall with some Psychedelic Furs in the background.
Here are some shoots I particulary liked :














Then Mark and me decided to play a bit with our poses and shadows, mixing the whole lot with the artistic background.
We had some nice shoots, with a few drinks behind ! ;)
Here are some of them :















My turn to be a bit crazy and pseudo artistic... ;) The Velvet Underground and all of the glam 60's movement a la Andy Warhol are one of the first to have invented art concept into the music. Our little session that night was just a laugh.