World of Bohemia

Hey All, happy new year, I’ve come out the other side of it with not one single hang over, smug me …. No snow daaan saaf :(

For those of you who’ve been with us for a while, today (7th Jan) is the one year anniversary of Jim’s massive back opp. Yep this time last year Londons swingingest drum dandy was up to his eyeballs in morphine with half his spine in a peetry dish beside him. And if you’ve caught a gig in the last 12 months I think you’ll agree, the chap’s done great!

Niceties over with, I’ve been lax and lazy, 5 gig’s and not a single blog… so I’m going to do them all now, in one shot, fasten your seatbelts.

The British Oak (17th Nov) is basically our local, there are closer pubs to Bruise HQ but none cooler, last time I raised a glass in there Joolz Holland’s brother was rocking the house, Nice! We played all night, adding some heavy folk ballads to the repertoire specially for the land lord, and the locals loved it. Jim on electric and me playing his acoustic (thank you Mr Tealeaf! Grrrr – see Vibe Bar 15th Oct) and breaking out the Ukulele for the first time ever. Thanks to the Mish Mash lot who took many busses to get to this venue, and it was great to see Fiona and Chella grinning and grooving on table 2.

The Vibe Bar (3rd Dec) was a smash. Monday nights are not dull down there, apart from the bookish Brick lane loungers and the shouty shandy drinkers singing and dancing along I got offered £50 for the dress I was wearing. No deal.

11th December we were at The Railway in Stratford. I was really on edge for this one, last year on the 12th Dec at this very venue Jim started loosing the use of his legs and here we were, same place, almost the same day and I was waiting for the same thing. But NO, it did’nt happen. A tasty line up including Lizzy B (DJ and songwriter) thanks for the airplay Lizzie, Paul Steven Wood (Legion Seven) thanks for the request. Only 6 songs but received with massive warmth by all, particularly the Olympic Newt protection league, nice to meet you gents!

Back to Bar Sonic (15th Dec). I’m telling you this lower east side London hang is electric, Deptford houses some venues with personality plus and this is not the least among them. Bob the Bass had the flu, and YES the actual flu, the can’t get out of bed, mushroom soup’s too much work to swallow type affliction so there was no way he was playing. Jim and I did it White Stripes style, featuring my new amp, grrrowly, georgous valve assisted Laney, 12 inch speaker, made in Birmingham dontcha ya know. With that behind me and Jim spanking the skins we shook the foundations for an hour and a half of knee trembly, hip swinerly Pop. Punters and staff dancing, drinks all round sort of thing, and though it was’nt filled to the gills you lot were making enough noise to have me thinking we were down the road at the O2. Thank you.

And the last gig before Christmas was down the road at the Deptford Arms. I was blown away by this venue and this crowd, its a shabby sofa world of bohemia. Sophie and Dave opened the night with some sublime acoustic janglings, then we were up. Bob was better so we were a 3 piece again, and I bloody loved it. The new amp, the mended bass player, the voice of God (or was that Simon?) ordering a t-shirt. I’ve had a look for the set list but I can’t find it, however I’m almost certain it went like this…

The Game
Coldburn
Girls Best Friend
Turn me Over
The Northern Line
I don’t Like You
Masses and masses of cheering and shouts of encore, so Jim and I did an accapella version of “Little Town of Bethlehem” tee hee, and the sooty eyed hedonists turned their backs in…. no they didn’t. Jim was suitably adored by some ladies and Sophie and Lucy started a fan club for my trousers. Result!

There’s a gig on the 25th of Jan, new venue middle of London sort of thing (See listings bruisemusic.com or myspace.com/bruiseuk), it’s going to be blisteringly brilliant, make sure you’re there. Come On! X

Subculture, Leeds

It’s been too long since we made the trip up to Leeds, in fact it’s been nearly 12 months., and for a band that used to pride themselves on their nationwide touring habit it’s down right disgraceful. Fortunately there’s more than a handful of decent people in Leeds and they didn’t hold it against us. Rocking Fish hosted a suitably heavy night at the stickiest bar I’ve been in for some years, Magnificent supports from Xi (my jaw dropped, my heart broke)) and Swimming With Sharks (like an angry swarm of bees). Xi had in good grace lent us their gear and when I plugged into Daz’s Marshall the Strat made a massive roar, much louder than the lady Laney I use, but the stage had been set and you just can’t turn down. Unsophisticated though it is volume to some extent equals excitement.

There we were onstage in a cube of reflective surfaces, part deaf and completely blinded by the stage lights we open with Excuse Me. Don’t mistake this for the dull dull dull “I could’nt hear myself in the monitors” or “I’ve got a soar throat” style whining, I’m just letting you know what it felt like, and it felt amazing! Onstage with two people I know I can trust implicitly, we all know what we’re doing and just DOING it, blind and deaf, like running along a cliff top in the fog. Palpable tension coupled with total abandon, and that’s what we did, for the full 40 minutes, swaggering through the set part deaf and totally blind. Despite kicking the cables out of my pedals more times than I wanted the whole show was storming.

I wasn’t massively chatty on stage that night so I’ll make my thanks here, Pete, Steve, all the Xi and Swimming with Sharks, Katy, Sarah, Mark, Ben, Tony and Kog, THANK YOU! X

Bar Sonic SWINGS

This swinging little corner of London, technically the Lower East side, has attracted little crowds of music lovers for years. It’s got an impressively late license and there’s an amount of crowd exchanging between it and the Amersham Arms late late at night. When Jim and I are driving back from a gig we always pass this joint and more often than not there’ll be a diverse collection of faces, fags on the go, watching the world drive by. I’ve been one of those people on many occasions and it really is magical, how did this slice of New York evolve here? Less than 200 meters from entirely more sinister looking situations how does this harmonious corner retain it’s identity? Big question, no answer.

The set list went like this…
Morning Morgantown – aaaah Joni
Inch Me In – it has been a very long time since we played this, it felt great and Jim, using an unfamiliar guitar really underpinned the whole thing with that solid, insistent and swinging intensity that runs through his veins.
Maybes
Pariah –this was a request from Shey, who had been complaining about its long term absence from the set. Again it was really energizing to play this song after many months of resting it.
Excuse Me – Jim tells me this track gave him ‘the chills’ it was sounding so perfectly formed, the guitar chiming it’s introduction, Bob’s elastic bass line and the drums irresistible invitation to move your feet, I should say so.
Don’t Make Me wait
Miss Bigfish – my amp was sounding throaty and deep, lots of power behind it, and I really felt it in this song. It’s very exciting to give your guitar strings a glancing blow and FEEL the growl of your amplifier build up behind you, almost projecting you forward.
Only You – here’s where I turned to jelly, three part harmony, not so much Flying Pickets, more Beach Boys meet Breeder.
Nobody Else
Silver Machine
Blue Line
Emilie – I am so keen to demo this song up, it’s got such momentum despite being arranged for two acoustic guitars. We’d got a fair amount of feet shuffling and girl dipping going on in the audience. I do remember catching a view of someone playing the ‘air drums’ here, it’s good for the heart.
The Northern Line – I’d really like to mention Katy, who has an amazing memory for Bruise lyrics and had been singing along with impressive accuracy for most of the set. She’s asked if it puts me off, which it doesn’t; it’s a massive complement that always makes me smile. And for your reference Katy it goes,” You’ll be fine, I’m just 10 minutes on the Northern Line. Don’t waste your time, I’m just 10….” X
Coldburn – it felt very definitely that things had taken off; I remember a good friend standing open mouthed at the bar for remainder of the set.
Girls Best Friend – we sucked it right in…
The Game – we pumped it up…
I Don’t Like You – we splattered it all over the room…
Mr Rat – we all slid around it in self indulgently, weeeee!

There were cries for more so we obliged with Silvertown, (you’re very welcome Rupe).

It was a fantastic night, well supported, and one of those musical and emotional experiences that live music should always be. Thank you Dave for doing a fantastic job on sound. See you all in Leeds? Love X

And all who sail in Her

Ooooh My Gawd, that was spectacular wasn’t it. I had such a great night, you lot blew me away! The Heels gig was very much fun, with the clapping and the dancing, and Bob himself on such fine form. I feel very lucky to be bass player in such a fine band. Then for the Bruise set, we got such a warm welcome. So many people liked the dress and told me so, I felt very lovely. I do enjoy transforming from bass player to front man (though obviously not a man last night), there’s something superhero-ish about it. Because the new album has much more or an acoustic feel we wanted to start with a few tracks with just two guitars and that felt so good to me, a lovely response to three fragile songs. Then Bob the Bass came onstage and I slipped on the Strat, now that felt great with Don’t Make Me Wait and Mr Rat. Thank you Ian for your constant appreciation of that song and Josie for pointing out that gold high heals may look great but when you can’t hit your Wah-Wah first go, the shoes have got to go. I’m going to skip over the tuning debacle except to thank Steve Morrison for translating for me and those of you who said you enjoyed it, you are sick and twisted human beings and I like you very much! We really had a magnificent time, the last few songs…the encore….the big cheer for my guitar solo. A super launching for Nobody Else, God bless Her and all who sail in Her, eh?

PS John, Sean, Judy, Jess and Brian, special thanks!

Neee-naaaaa Neeee-naaaa Woooo-wooooo-woooo

I’m writing this blog from Limehouse police station, it’s a first for me. Blogging from here I mean, I’ve spent hours here over the last few years but that’s another story…

Monday’s gig at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane, was turning out to be what we had anticipated, another tune-fest of an evening, self possessed people soaking up the atmosphere, very nice, what could be nicer? Jim and I sauntered into the red room, which is what they call the green room there (you rule breaking bohemians you) and there was something missing, MY Guitar. Gawd Almighty Jim turned grey and I felt like I was moving through water. We were whisked up by the management, questions questions, a search of the room , talking about times the room was empty. Jim and Martin went out looking for anyone with a guitar and demanding that they open up and identify what they were carrying. I sat in the office checking the CCTV with Greg and talking to the police, who made all the right sounds….”we’ll be with you right away” vrrooooommmmm, neee-naaaa neee-naaa neee-naaaa it was an episode of …. Nevermind, because they never showed. Hence my current situation.

Anyway under the circumstances, one guitar down and Jim a bit smashed after many free drinks, we sounded great. Winging it a bit, but we played, at times it was very exciting at times it was very funny.

If anyone sees a short man, indeterminate age or colour with a guitar case, I’m looking for my Taylor “Big Baby”, bugged up with hand carved bone nuts, you heard me, bone nuts…

Thanks for all the drinks Paul! x

Bar Sonic

I’d been nervous about Friday’s gig for days, my heart was pounding at the thought. For those of you not familiar with Bar Sonic, it’s small and in Deptford. You wouldn’t think it would be so daunting, the thing that was getting me was the knowledge that every face in there would be a friends. Though all of them have come to gigs at one time or another for some of them it had been quite a while, for others it was their first electric gig. The important thing to me was it actually mattered that each individual had a good night. Normally someone’s not going to get it, you can’t please everyone and I don’t expect to, that night though I wished we could.

We started with a new song “Emily” , I finger pick it and Jim comes in with driving complementary chords, it really took off. I like it when a new song feels that good first time out. Then there was a bit of fooling around. I get a bit of stick for not saying what songs are written about, I’m not being cagey I just think people would rather listen to the song than me talking about the song. It turns out I’m wrong. To test this theory I made up a couple of signs, sort of subtitles, one word descriptions saying ‘Sex’ and the other ‘Death’, this covers all bases. Once Bob joined us onstage I’d stopped holding up the cards and I was still getting asked for clarification, I’m going to remember this lesson. There was a bit of instrument swapping over the next few songs and a mood shift over the evening that ended up with dancing, not bad at all.

We played 2x45 minute sets and we had a bunch of friendly faces some singing along and we had the bar staff jumping, the landlord bought both the albums, and we all left feeling richer, or was that just me?

I've got a good feling about this

All day Friday Jim was saying “I’ve got a good feeling about this” and I like to hear that, but as we were approaching the venue I was beginning to question his sanity. Yes it was beautiful, rural Essex, with thatched cottages in painted pale colours and covered in patterned plasterwork. Yes it was a beautiful evening in the perfect setting to enjoy a beautiful evening, trees, rolling hills, fields of sheep, but when I’m about to play a gig I want fields full of tents, or smoky old cities. I want PEOPLE. So, situated in the middle of this bucolic backwater was the venue, High Barn, Great Bardfield.

Now I’ve been known to use the word ‘barn’ as an insult when talking about a venue. Sound tends to get lost in the roof or bounces around the place till it’s muddy and indecipherable. But when we got onstage for sound check I was blown away. The sound was incredible, so human and intimate, I can not remember the last time I sang into a system that perfectly set up for the venue. Lovely lovely lovely, by the time James the Sound had balanced our guitars and vocals my heart was beating like a drum.

My faith in Jim’s intuition restored we were given the next blinding bit of info… the night had SOLD OUT. 160 seats in a village that might not have 160 houses in it and the venue was rammed – how are these people getting it so right, tell me how? There were four acts booked that night, a bit of folk, something jazzy, a solo pop person with a show tune twist (nice hat Stuart) and Bruise.

What can I tell you other than it was proper? I’m serious, it felt amazing. Candles everywhere, a sound system that made us feel as comfortable as if we were on our own sofa. The audience was so attentive I could whisper into the mic and feel it impacting on the whole room, ooooOO. No one had a long set, no one needed one. We played 6 songs and when we got off stage strangers were quoting lyrics back at me, and you know you’ve made an impact when that happens. I think that was the most musical experience I’ve had this year, and unless we get booked to play the Barbican Center or possibly the Royal Festival Hall I cannot see us having a more musical experience this year.

If you’re interested in the Tec specs for High Barn check out this months issue of Audio Media, they’re front page. And if you’re interested in hearing us live check out the gig listings on our myspace and get yourselves in the audience! X