Rocktober 2011

Wow is it already a year since our triumphant triumvirate of our Camden show with Ginkinta and Monsters in the Attic, our Shazam session, and our blood, beer and flames glory in Nottingham with Ulterior?

This October might not be quite so adrenalised, but we are playing in central London on Wednesday October 5th at The Comedy courtesy of Dead or Alive Promotions. We're aiming to record the gig so if it comes out okay and we don't have any massive disasters I'll put some stuff up for download soon. There's a Facebook event here.

It's been quiet here recently as I've been over in Sydney and R-man has been realising his dream of adventure on the high seas by borrowing a narrowboat. I tend to check in on Twitter when possible so do come and say hello to us there.

See you on the 5th!

Return of the Son of the Space Octopus

Well it's been a busy week in Great Men's registered office here in Holloway.

We had our first high volume practice in months, then followed it up with a gig at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes. Thanks to the folk that came along (including you Frank Skinner)! No photos have surfaced yet but I'll let y'all know when they do.

On Friday we sadly waved off The Fabulous H-Town Savage as she has gone to conquer the Australian music scene. We dealt with it in our own ways: Regan overcame his fear of heights and climbed to the top of some trees at Kew Gardens (rumours of faeces flung at passersby have yet to be confirmed or denied). Then we went and hung out on a wall in Hackney with that Scottish one from Ulterior and ate sausages.

The natural way to follow a night spent sitting on a wall was to hang out in a cemetery. Here's the proof:




The weekend rounded off with some CD shopping at the mighty Music Video Exchange in Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and that naked guy. Then we went to see Obzerter, Regan's very first metal gig. I'm not saying it was a revelation, but here's what he looks like just one day later:



By the way, did you know we have a YouTube channel now? We'll probably get shut down soon so have a look while you can.

Guest Men

The many legions of Great Men fans who have been pining for us to appear onstage in 2011 got a taster last week.

First off on Wednesday it was our good buddies Ulterior's album launch party at the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen in That London. (I'm allowed to say that for 2 more weeks). The show opened with a cracking arrangement of the album closer Shallow Brown, featuring the inimitable harmonica and fashion stylings of Mr Regan Aloysius Naughton. It was a cracking gig and although I unfortunately couldn't make any of the other tour dates I gather there were also some sweet blues sounds from our man R-Man in Leeds and Nottingham.



Thursday was a pretty solid day: big breakfasts at Delicio's in Kentish Town (the finest cafe this side of anywhere), then we hopped on the bus to check out my new locale in Holloway. We got through 3 afternoon pints in the pub across the road from my flat so I'd say that's a result.

Then it was off to the Bowery for me, delivering another guest bass spot with Ginkinta. I do hereby proclaim it to have been a sweet gig. There was a great headlining set from Leeds rockabilliers (yes that's right) X-Ray Cat Trio, support band Fighting Fiction were spotted outside burning bibles (not really) and I'm not sure what the middle aged punks who came on first were called but they did their best to 'tood out as many people as possible before playing. I managed to play a whole set of bass without developing blisters! Look out Claypool!



Watch this space Great Men fans for not only are we discussing the possibility of actually playing a gig together, but I've just recorded guitar and machine on a demo of Magnum Myers which I'll share with y'all soon. So far it sounds like getting your face punched off in the 1970s.

This and That

Happy March everyone!

Here are some things that are happening at Great Men HQ:

We finished our track Magnum Myers and have pretty much got another new one sorted; we're thinking of a superfluids related name, suggestions so far include Nathaniel and Superfluid or λ.

Hopefully we're going to record another live EP sometime in the foreseeable future featuring these tracks plus the hitherto unrecorded Staymaker (there's a demo of this on the myspace).

Excitingly I am moving to That London at the end of March! At which point it will of course be referred to simply as This London. Fear not though, you haven't heard the last of Great Men.

Speaking of London, might I recommend a rocktastic coming week: on Wednesday March 9th our good friends Ulterior are having their album launch at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen. Then on Thursday night I am once more guesting on bass with Ginkinta at the Bowery on New Oxford Street (formerly The Fly).

By the way the aforementioned Ulterior album, Wild in Wildlife, is tremendous and you should get it. Look out for a guest appearance from R-Man on guitar and harmonica.

Harry Potter and the Newfound Respect For R-Man

Last Saturday I was once again invited to play bass with Ginkinta, supporting The Peacocks at Camden Underworld. I pulled out pretty much all the stops: learned which key the songs were in, put some new strings on my bass, and drew a picture of Peregrine the Easter Bunny on it (I'd recently bought a new 4-pack of Sharpies). I kind of think of playing bass as a bit of a holiday from my usual guitar+machine duties, however I didn't anticipated the amount of ache and pain my hands would be suffering by the end of the set. For this I hold a newfound respect for Regan and all the bass players out there. I will now be endeavouring to practise more bass, or I'll never be Bootsy.

I mentioned the other week that we had a new track underway that was bigger than U2. Well it's still underway and we've now got another one as well which sounds like a cross between Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack to Dirty Harry, and John Carpenter's soundtrack to Halloween. It's tentatively titled Magnum Myers.

Maybe because I've spent too much of my life watching films with cool soundtracks, or maybe because I'm a grown up, I've not read the actual book that the new Harry Potter film is based on. For others of you that may also be contemplating tackling the marathon experience of this film with a similar lack of preparation, here's what to expect:

Scene 1: Voldemort says he needs a new wand.

Scene 2 - Scene 986: Harry and his pals dick about looking for the plot.

Scene 987: Voldemort gets a new wand.

In hindsight it's a mash-up of Cash In The Attic and a Hollyoaks omnibus, set entirely at night.

The Lords of Rocktober: The Fellowship of the Rock

After the drum dramas of the night before, R-Man phoned every music shop, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse from Nottingham to London and none of them, regardless of what their websites claimed, had an Alesis SR-16 in stock. So we ended up buying an SR-18 on our way down to Camden. With an hour to spare between arriving at the venue and soundchecking, I set about learning how to use it and programming our set for that night:

The gig went fairly smoothly considering, Messerschmitt received its world debut, and we got some good feedback after, including this gem:

"so rocking they hurt my spine and made me miss a call from my mum"

Sorry about that Mrs Tolliday.

I later made a guest appearance playing bass with Ginkinta (very nearly playing all the right notes), which was good fun and something of a holiday without all the machines to operate as well! Then it was like a trip down memory lane watching Robin rock the drums for Monsters in the Attic. The highlight of the night though was catching up with lots of old (and new) compadres who'd come down to see us. Thanks everybody!

Tune in next time to find out what happened on Friday...

Rock Week!

This is the week we've all been waiting for! Here's the lowdown:

Monday 18th October

We kicked off the week with a loud rehearsal deep under the streets of Nottingham. Big In Japan came along for the ride and captured this moment as proof of the rock in the room:

Tuesday 19th October

Craig David taking us for a drink.

Wednesday 20th October

More practising!

Thursday 21st October - Tommy Flynn's, Camden

We're on early - 7:30 - so get down early for our first ever London gig. Although strictly speaking to most of the London crowd all our songs are new, we will be giving Messerschmitt its live premiere, the first time anywhere in the universe! Later in the night I will be guesting on bass in all-girl punk band Ginkinta. Bring one of these flyers for cheap entry, and tell them Great Men sent you!

Friday 22nd October

We're off to the Shazam Live Lounge to do a session, probably some new material that's not on the album! Check out the awesome Foxy Shazam video, in whose footsteps we will be following. Later on we'll be Oystering round London like a couple of tourists.

Saturday 23rd October - Chameleon, Nottingham

We're hosting our second Evening With Great Men, again featuring the films of The Turrell Brothers to open the show, and this time we're the support band, with our pals Ulterior headlining. Chameleon is just off Market Square, near The Bell - it's above Clinton Cards (physically and socially). Get down for 8pm and let the good times roll!

Sunday 24th October

We're dividing to conquer: R-Man will be checking out our hombres The Cupid Stunt at Nottingham's Hockley Hustle, and I recommend you do too. I would if not for the fact that I'm off to see one of my all-time favourite guitarists, Adrian Belew. Thela hun ginjeet!

Hopefully see y'all at one or more of the gigs!

Waiting For Rocktober

It's all action at GMHQ as preparations for possibly the rockingest month ever continue! After a couple of months of writing new material at semi-respectable suburban Beeston volume levels, we decided it was time to crank it up to a near-Tufnel 2 (I have an extremely loud amp - Fender Dual Showman 100w head for the geeks out there). Our good friends and accomplished hat-wearers the Saboteurs have kindly let us take up a temporary residence in their practice room deep beneath Nottingham's darkest backstreets.

The haziness of this photo might be due to the high density of rock in the air. Or it may be because my phone camera lens was very dirty. We won't know for sure until the results come back from the lab.

We've also begun to think about the setlists we'll be putting together for our coming engagements. Committed fans can rest assured that every show will be different. Here's a sneak preview of what we expect our setlist on October 23rd (Chameleon, Nottingham) to look like:

Also coming soon in Great Men land: new t-shirts! Watch this space. In the meantime if you haven't been paying attention, here is the lowdown on our major UK tour:

Thursday October 21st - Tommy Flynn's, Camden. With Ginkinta and Monsters in the Attic.

Saturday October 23rd - Chameleon, Nottingham. With Ulterior and films from The Turrel Brothers.

Rocktober and the Twitdome

Guten Tag!

I am totally psyched about next month so wanted to make sure all twelve of our fans are clued up on the following rocking events:

Great Men's First Ever London Gig!

That's right, you heard right! The Fabulous H-Town Savage strikes again as we'll be playing not only with her band Ginkinta, but with our mutual friend and my rock brother Robin's band Monsters in the Attic.

Hear some of our new tunes for the very first time at Tommy Flynn's in Camden on Thursday October 21st!

Another Evening With Great Men: vs Ulterior!

After the jam-packed success of our last Evening With Great Men, we return to Chameleon in Nottingham on Saturday October 23rd with our good friends Ulterior on the eve of their Sex War Sex Cars Sex single launch. Expect chrome.

Hopefully we'll also have some cool new t-shirts available for these gigs, anyone fancy a Springsteen Stallone design to accompany our American Dream essay?

One last thing - we've just lurched forward on our quest to embrace nearly-archaic technology and signed up for Twitter. I haven't got much of a clue what it does or how to work it so if you're down with that then tweet us up and welcome us into the Twitdome. http://twitter.com/great_men