Trust me for talking of my band again...tsss It's Monday afternoon and there is a feeling of emptiness floating around me. The end of the tour that's what it is. It looks like I could get used to play every day, although I must say I was happy when it ended in Cambridge just because my voice was about to give up. We've shared the road with Blend 71 who came specially from Switzerland joined by Kopperhed for one gig in Hull. There was a family spirit by the end of our tour.
So we started off with the Bridgehouse gig on the 7th of May. We never know what to expect when we play there due to the location of the venue which is literally lost in the middle of an industrial zone, and even though we've been there twice before we still got lost on the way. We shared the bill with Blend 71 and Gundogs, so it was an all female fronted night, Rebel City Radio were supposed to headline the night but they couldn't make it that day, I think we're playing with them at our next gig at St Morritz Club for losers, looking forward to it as I really like their sound... Fortunately Gundogs had a dedicated fan base that came all the way from Birmingham to see them. So there were enough people there to make it a good night. First time we saw Blend 71, it is a bit like a mixture of metal and sorta Queen Adreena by times, a good sound with excellent musicians to surround Ciny who has a hell of a voice, operatic and powerful, she carries it throught and there's no stopping her, by the end of it her sing lines got stucked in my head for the whole night. We played, didn't rehearse for a month, it was more of a jam, warm up gig where we could find our marks again. Good to see Steve who was driving for Gundogs that night, he also came to the Hull gig and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have any pictures of the tour. (need a camera!!)
Gundogs delivered some ingenious songs remeniscent of Hole and all the riot girls power chords.
We then did our gig at The Boston Arms which was to me one I've enjoyed the most, in spite of the fact that one band pulled out (again!) and another band supposed to play that night apparently split up so it affected our attendancy but it was the third time we played there too so it feels kinda familiar now. I'm used to the sound system more, the only thing I will say is about the lighting, there should be more really, I didn't notice it on stage but when I watched the video Zac kindly did for us it is pretty obvious. There it is, 20th Century Boy in the dark :
HiroshAmour and Blend 71 played at The Unicorn the next day, taking the day off which was much appreciated. Then we all departed to Hull on the next morning, leaving London in the sunshine to arrive under the rain in Hull. Hollywood and Vine it is, great venue with friendly people, arty and crazy, just down our street, a metal crowd should I say which worried me a bit to start with. I thought no one would like our pop shit, which is why I presented Little Groupie as our pop shit song. It went down well when we did it, we woke up some pop roots out of those metal heads. :) The owner was setting fire to plastic skulls and destroying everything in his path while the bands were playing. We were given plenty of alcohol, shots, snake bites and pastice (a bit like absinthe)... we then crashed on the floor until the early hours of the morning. I think it was probably our favorite gig, so different from the London audience where you have to jump in people's face to get a reaction. Here are some pictures Steve did, thanks again for that. :)
Blend 71
Ciny from Blend 71 with Steve and...me
Then final gig was Cambridge. We woke up pretty early and I stuffed myself with creamy cakes and croissant to cope with the drive. We arrived in Cambridge pretty quickly to then find Man on the Moon, our next venue, set a bit further away in a residential area. We visited a bit of this city that I've never seen before. Very old school style with a lot of universities type buildings, it seemed clean and quite yellowish. That night we were playing with Never a hero who kindly lended us all their equipment. They did an amazaing set, are very good at what they do (quoting Phil) and have a promising future ahead of them I would say. It was a chilled night with no pressure, a familial atmosphere, we got to play longer in Hull, that night in Cambridge neither of the bands felt like doing a prolonged set. Even though I think we've played the 13 songs of our album during the course of this tour, alternating set list, including songs we've never played before, it was a good experience. At the end of this last gig we all stayed drinking late at the venue, sharing farewell drinks. Here we are now, in London again, preparing for our album pressing, rehearsing to include some new material in our next gigs and I can also say we have a french tour in the making at the end of June and a launch party in September. Until then let's go back to the grey and buzzing London. Love it and Hate it.
7th of May @ The Bridgehouse2, LONDON 11th of May @ The Boston Arm, LONDON 13th of May @ Planet Hollywood, HULL 14th of May @ Man on the Moon, CAMBRIDGE 3rd of June @ St Morritz, LONDON 21st of June @ The Bowery, LONDON 24th of June @ Café de la Mairie, LILLE, FRANCE 30th of June @ L'Opa, PARIS, FRANCE
Also ALTERCATION will be playing in June on the 19th @ The Unicorn with new line up and new songs. :)
Hoping to get some time off... soon. Hoping to buy a camera so I can take pictures and make this blog more interesting, I've been too busy gigging, promoting, supporting other bands, obsessed with the whole music thing, and I forgot to live and take a bit of time for myself.
Well folks, I'll make sure my next blog isn't about music. ;)
Healthy Junkies are on the move with a UK tour in preparation starting off with some London dates... The album will be released soon.
Altercation are also playing a few dates with Jim and Joe on drums and bass as part of their new line up. A debut album should be released later on this year.
New resolutions ?... play more !
Here is a list of the gigs to come, it will be updated regulary I hope. :)
JANUARY
* Friday the 21st of January @ St Morritz CLUB FOR LOSERS Healthy Junkies, on stage from 11h30pm, club afterwards until 3am.
* Tuesday the 25th of January @ Anam Bar, Criminal Records night, ANGEL Altercation, on stage from 8h30pm.
FEBRUARY
* Wenesday the 2nd of February @ The Rythm Factory, WHITECHAPEL Healthy Junkies, on stage from 8pm
* Thursday the 3rd of February @ Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, HOLBORN Altercation, on stage from 8pm, Criminal Records night
* Thursday the 10th of February @ Punk, WEST END Healthy Junkies, on stage from 8pm, TFTV live show
* Wenesday the 16th of February @ Proud Galleries, CAMDEN Healthy Junkies, on stage from 8pm, Criminal Records night
MARCH
* Thursday the 3rd of March @ The Bridge House, CANNING TOWN Healthy Junkies, on stage from 8h30pm, Hot Vox promotions
MAY
* Tuesday the 10th of May @ The Gaff, HOLLOWAY ROAD Healthy Junkies supporting BLEND 71 and KOPPERHEAD, on stage from 8pm
* Friday the 13th of May @ Hollywood vines, HULL Healthy Junkies supporting BLEND 71 and KOPPORHEAD, on stage from 8pm
Here is a visual selection of the memorable day we spent making our song Trash My Love come alive. We shot everything at Bombproof (apart from the church scenes) and it was our lucky day as the studio was just about to get demolished. As a result of that we weren't too worried about damaging the whole location in the trashing bits, and it gave us full freedom in our quest of breaking everything. The make up, hairs and pictures have been done by Brigeoo, the outfits have been provided by Lucy, one of our lovely bridemaids, joined by Kate Ross who kindly accepted to get involved in that crazy day. The video was directed, filmed and edited by Steve Walker, who also did our previous video Copycat. I've presented the pictures below almost like dream sequences. It will give an idea of the synopsis and you'll understand the mention of dream fully only once you see the video itself. It will be up on Saturday.
