Calypso Deathmetal is the New Nu-Folk-Grindcore

Well thats it then – WRB aka The Whisky Rubber Band have called it a day !!  Kris Douglas has left to pursue a career in baking and the rest of them are now working behind the bar at the Ironworks (isnt everyone ?).

The above statements are of course utter bullshit – Kris isnt that good a baker and the Ironworks are currently overstaffed with local musicians – the following statements, however, are true.

DARWIN – The Band, not the place or person, is the cheeky wee side-project featuring the aforementioned Mr Douglas along with Whisky bandmate Andy Davidson and drummer turned bassplayer Mark Williamson.  Two  members of one band both appearing in another band – this sort of behaviour is previously unheard of round these parts !!?!!?

Had a quick blether with Kris about the ‘project’.  He and Andy had been joking about a 2-piece ukulele speed metal band for some time then thought they would rope Mark in and go for a  ZZ Top tribute band.  The logic here was that Kris and Mark could grow a pretty decent beard but Andy would be lucky to grow a tash – along the same lines as ZZ Top proper.   After a few jam sessions they found the songs came pretty quick and sounded totally different to what they were doing at the moment with WRB. All three are part of the Whisky Family now that Mark is helping with gear and driving so theyre the obvious choice as a support act for any upcoming WRB dates.  Hehe !!  Now thats keeping it in the family.

There should be a WRB support slot for them in May and no doubt you can keep up to date with the Darwinian goings on by heading over here where theres also a video. I had intended sharing it on here but cant due to it being on faecesbook rather than youtube……..Whisky River Band are of course still going strong and heading into the studio for some album recordimification !  Looking forward to those results but in the meantime head over to the Darwin Facebook and take a look/listen to the stuff on there !!

DARWIN – THE LORDS OF CALYPSO DEATHMETAL

Netsounds Show off Their Latest Luggage……….

The whole of Netsounds Unsigned was in attendance tonight in Hootenanny along with a bass playing Outsider, all of Bronto Skylift and a late entrance by Frank Finlayson in a plaster cast !!  Theres the great and the good of the Inverness/Scottish Pop Scene right there under one roof.  Scheduled for upstairs at Madhatters was of course the first Netsounds Unsigned Showcase of 2012 featuring Terraqoma, Dead Boy Robotics , Team Kapowski and Lady North hence both lynchpins of Netsounds being in attendance.  Jamie ‘The Voice and Body‘ Macdonald and Murray ‘The Brains and Violence‘ Cameron would be the final act to follow the 4 band onslaught.  2 Many DJs ?  Rumour has it thats two too many DJs.  Ok Ive had my fun now so Ill stop !!

A helluva line up in store for those who attended. Me ? Im rubbish at attending and managed only the soundcheck for Dead Boy Robotics and Lady North.  The joys of shift work and fatherhood.  Gutted I missed Team Kapowski cos we like them a lot here at houdi towers. Terraqoma I shall research at some point soon !  So not a lot to say here really – heres me blogging about something thats still happening while watching a Beatles documentary on BBC4 as I drink cheap and nasty Aldi wine !!  Rock and flipping Roll ! Wish I had some manchega cheese and I could tapas the fuck out completely and listen to some Dead Boy Robotics online !

From what I heard at the soundchecks both DBR and LN were mesmerising – tech meets drums meets stringed instrumenticationals !!  All my favourite stuff yet again !!  Someone even mentioned having a boner when DBR finished their soundcheck.   Go figure.  Im not going to waffle about it – heres some photos and some links and sound files.  Im basically practising my typing tonight

Nice one Netsounds for putting this line up together and well done Bulmers for making what Im sure will be a very interesting DJ set later – cheers for letting me hang out again. Murrays always polite and Jamie got the beers in…………

The Art of Seduction - Team Kapowski

Its All About Gettin That Claude Monet – Lady North

Gatherer On The Threshold - Dead Boy Robotics

Move – Terraqoma

The Pop Cop: Music Photos of the Year 2011

A cracking batch of photos here from the past year !!

Young fella from Inverness, Al Donnelly, gets an honourable mention (thatll be me then).  Cheers to Michael Lambert, Homework & Stanley Odds Dad/Mentor,  for telling me to enter and thanks to Harry Benson and The Pop Cop for giving me an honourable.  Well done to pit colleagues George Mackie and Euan Robertson for doing better than me in the rankings !!  Nice work fellas !!

This is the photo…………..

And here are the rest THE POP COP PHOTOS 2012

Insert Appropriate Cliche featuring Thin Lizzy Song Title…….HERE

Ok the only thing local or Invernessy about this post is the venue !!  This one is purely for my own inner denim and leather clad teenager.  The mighty Thin Lizzy have come to Inverness Ironworks !!  I first saw them with the late, great Phil Lynott way back when I actually was a mulleted, denim and leather clad teenager in the late 70′s early 80′s – I forget when exactly although Im fairly sure one of the gigs I attended was Aberdeen Capitol – hazy days indeed !  Also saw Phils solo thing, Grand Slam, at Ritzys in 1984 for which I still have a poster taken off Ritzys wall somewhere.

The latest incarnation of Thin Lizzy features stalwarts Scott Gorham, Brian Downey and Darren Wharton along with Damon Johnson of Alice Coopers band on guitar, bassist Marco Mendoza whos CV includes Ted Nugent and Whitesnake and The Almighty’s Ricky Warwick on vocals and guitar.

Support for tonights date is from Antwerp trio Triggerfinger.  Now I do like a band in a suit and these guys wear a suit well.  Like Masters of Reality meets The Hives these Belgians quickly had the crowds attention.  Good solid rock n roll and I for one would be a happy snapper if they were to grace the Ironworks stage again.

Triggerfinger – All This Dancing Around

Ruben Block

Mario Goossens

Monsieur Paul

Even got a short but very sweet drum solo from the stripey jacketed Mario Goosens.  Ruben Block took a bit of stick about his dapper hairdo from Mr Goosens.  No problems on the hair front for ‘Master of the Sub Harmonic Groove’ Monsieur Paul on bass – bald as a coot but not a coot you’d want to fuck with.

These guys genuinely looked delighted with the audience response – plenty of participation too on songs like the recent single, All this Dancing Around.  They thanked absolutely everyone……twice.  Triggerfinger dress good, play good – real good !!

Drum Solo Time

Full house for Lizzy by the looks of it – Im told that about 830pm there were only 20 or so tickets left.  A struggle to get back to the pit tonight but well worth it for the greatest hits package !!

In no particular order we were treated to Thin Lizzy classics The Cowboy Song, Boys are Back in Town, Jailbreak, Dancing in the Moonlight, Emerald, Still in Love with You, Rosalie, Don’t Believe a Word, Waiting for an Alibi, Do Anything You Want to, Killer on the Loose, Bad Repuation, Black Rose and more.  Scott Gorham looked great and Darren Wharton looked positively ecstatic at the back with a constant grin on his face.  Who wouldnt grin when faced with the Ironworks crowd.  The Barras of the North perhaps – hehe.

Ricky Warwick

Scott Gorham

Damon Johnson & Scott Gorham

After Id gotten over the lack of Phil Lynott I got into it a little more but still couldnt help feeling that I was watching one of the best tribute acts around who just happened to have 3 members of the original band.  If we’re totally honest theres only one member of the original Thin Lizzy and thats Brian Downey.  All in all a cracking gig but for the pure energy and killer songs Id have to say Triggerfinger were my highlight of the night.  Well that and Tom Bissett telling me a dark secret which I shall take to the grave with me.  I still shudder when I think about it !!  :)

My only ‘complaint‘ tonight, and theres not a great deal anyone can do about it, is the entrance and bar position in the Ironworks.  Full house this evening meant a lot of people trying to get a beer and hanging around the bar as well as stopping as soon as theyre in the door. I heard a lot of bitching at the entrance about this but I dont know how you could remedy this other than having door staff punting the punters further into the hall – I dunno !!  Maybe Im too old/sober for this shit nowadays but I left before the end cos I just couldnt be arsed with the sardine situation around that area anymore and fancied a beer.  Having said all that its another Hats off to the Ironworks shout – another killer gig pulled off with a happy audience and by the looks of it, happy bands.  I was 17 again for a couple hours.  Today Im 45 again !!

Damon Johnson

All images contained in this post are
© aldonnellyphotography / houdi
unless otherwise stated

Copying, displaying, manipulating or redistribution of these images
without permission from the artist is strictly prohibited !!

Marco Mendoza

More shots from the gig can be found HERE and HERE

Slideshow Sideshow !

Simply a collection of my photography put to music.  Thanks again to all the bands for allowing me to a) photograph them and b) use a track or two of their wonderful music as a soundtrack to these slideshows.

More to come soon hopefully – if you know Ive taken photos of your band and want me to do one of these videos for any reason just gimme a shout…….  :)

The Lushrollers 

Sara Bills & the Hasbeens 

The Leonard Jones Potential 

Homework 

Andy Tucker & the Scattered Family 

2011 in review: The WordPress Annual Report for Houdidontblog (exciting isnt it ?)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Squash with the Stars: #1 in a series of 1

How the hell did “Fancy a chat about the album and tour, James” turn into “Squash ? What an utterly spiffing idea“.  We’ll never fully understand how that process came to fruition but it did and one fateful Wednesday evening (ie about 3 hours ago) I found myself in Inverness Squash and Tennis Club with James Mackenzie, local artist Hew Morrison and Calum Chisholm of the Parmaviolets.  Here we would play squash.  Go figure !!

James did like that wall……

James and I got going on Court #2 – we’re more centre parcs than centre court in the racquet sport stakes.  After our initial warm up we started to get our groove on so I saw this as a good time to begin my questioning.  Bear in mind this was after 10 minutes play so the conversation went something like this………questions and answers are barked between gulps of oxygen as we careen off the 4 walls avoiding each others bats.  Whos stupid fucking idea was this…….James ?

Me: Tour ? James: Aye !!

Me: Lookin forward ? James: Aye !!

Me: Album ? James: Yeah, done !!

Me: Title ? James: Curtain……………………………………………………….Road  !!

At this point both it became impossible to speak so we gave up on both speech and squash for the time being !

Enough with the questions !

Hew and I then batted a few balls around – ooer – and after a while the same style of interview technique was used again……

Me: Art, Painting n stuff ??   Hew:  Aye, website, check it out………..

After this I managed about 10 minutes with Mr Chisholm the Parmaviolets drummer – on the squash court that is.  the only fact that I gleaned from that was that Madhatters is the next gig on Sat 21st – rest of time was spent falling about the court and laughing a lot.  Good craic this squash  !!

Hew tries out James’ wall tactics

James then decided to take on Calum on Court #1 – now Calum can play so this was always going to be interesting.  I took this oppurtunity to ask James some more questions……in quick succession……while he was flying back and forth across the court.  I asked about about the albums producer (Grammy Award winner Steve Orchard whos worked with the likes of Travis and Soundgardens Chris Cornell), his time spent in London recording the album, his choice of shorts for tonights event and why he wasnt wearing his headband as we knew he’d brought it with him. I recieved one two-word  answer to all of these questions as James hammered into the nearest wall.  Im thinking this wasnt the time  :)

A gentlemanly shake of hands and the evening had come to a close.  Tonight we are happy – tommorow we shall no longer walk properly.  Feel the burn – no pain no gain etc etc !!

James Mackenzie will be touring throughout February and the dates are as follows

Feb. 9th – Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh

Feb. 10th – The Tunnels, Aberdeen

Feb. 11th – Y-Not, Thurso

Feb. 12th – Captains Rest, Glasgow

Feb. 16th – Walkabout, London

Feb. 17th – Milo, Leeds

Feb. 18th – Esquires, Bedford

James is joined on the tour by Irish gents The 1930′s and his acoustic mini-album Curtain Road,  is scheduled for release on February 7.  More info can be found here

Visit Hews website here to find out what he’s up to at the moment – exhibits etc

Parmaviolets play Madhatters Inverness on 21st February with support from The Maydays

James Mackenzie – Cap to Wear

Posh tour poster made by city people – hehe

My List of Lists for 2012 – The Year of the List

There appears to be a helluva lot of lists kicking about this festive period – there are 10′s of this, 12′s of that, 5′s of the other.  This has somewhat irked me as Ive just suddenly realised where the idea for this came from.  Ok Im not going to stamp my feet and gnash about it but Ive just sussed that those cads at Netsounds  have pinched, nay usurped, my original idea and leaked it to the public - ‘The Bakers Dozen – 13 Acts You Could Possibly Tap a Tenner Off in 2012‘.  Granted they have modified it slightly and changed its name but it remains essentially a list.  This has meant Ive had to rethink my listy of the lists in a listing style post.  So instead of The Bakers Dozen shennanigans Ive had to go with the following, if I say so myself, inspired idea.

So….(drum roll please)….without further ado…(stop drum roll as its now annoying)……..in no particular order cos that would just be too much like hard work……..I give you………..

“3 to Not Bother With In 12″  

• Heston Blumenthal, do we really really need bacon and egg ice cream ya fanny ?  Go and make me a cheese toastie and stop arsing about with dry ice !

• Micheal Buble just because hes a smarmy, crooning goon with no more discernable talent than anyone else out there……..

• Dermot o Leary  because, as with Buble,  I simply cannot abide this horrible little shit !! ’I think blokes like me because I’m short and not especially good looking’: Dermot O’ Leary – on the other hand, Dermot,  the rest of us cant be arsed with you cos youre a………

Anyway all of the above ramblings and talking of the pish is just me trying to say Im not going to do any music-related lists as there are enough out there made by those who actually understand what theyre talking about.  Me ? I take photos and dislike Heston, Dermot and Buble – those activities keep me busy enough over the course of a year so I shan’t be making any grand, ill-informed reccomendations for the year but do strongly advise you to check out the Netsounds 12 as they are all rather good.  Theres an archeological website out there which also has a list featuring some local Highland acts – InverurieDigs or something, I forget the address but if you find it of your own accord then the acts are also worth a look. You might even find some examples of my photography there – you shouldnt but you might. The bloggers list over there >>>>>>> also all have their own lists – some of which have freebies………check out Peenko, Kowalskiy etc – all good and all have a finger or two on the pulse of the Scottish music scene!!

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut having said all that I am crossing my fingers for good things to come to Homework, Stanley Odd and The mighty mighty Little Mill of Happiness.  Plenty other huge talents out there but those are the guys who’ve consistently done it for me over the last 12 months so lets see what the next 12 bring !!  There Ive said it !   Personal opinion as always – other views are available…….

……….and just incase you thought you were off the hook, Matt Curdle, youre not !!  Not a fan of you either and if it had been a list of 4 up there you’d have made the cut !

A Serious Moment…….no, really……

Not normally the thing I post about but I just realised today that the subject matter had been having quite an effect on me for almost 30 years.

Every now and again a song gets written, recorded and released that stops you in your tracks.  Me and old mate Tim had a mixtape – the Tubbis Megamix – waaaaaaaaay back when we were in Aberdeen in the early 80′s that contained such a song.  Now Tubbis, if my memory serves me correctly, was one of the DJ’s at The Venue – Aberdeens premiere indie/goth/punk/rock/you-name-it-we-cater-for-it/antidote-to-MrG’s kinda gaff.  I cant actually remember off the top of my head what else was on that C90 apart from maybe Mighty Lemon Drops, Gang of Four maybe.  I have no knowledge of how the cassette came into Tims possession – none of this matters.  The one track that stopped me in my tracks and made everything go slow motion the first time I heard it and we almost wore the tape out rewinding and fast forwarding to find was the one below.  Steve Lamaq just played it on 6music this afternoon – little Evie is throwing a mental and Ive just done 48 hrs out of the last 72 at work.  This piece of music still slows time for me and just makes everything seem…………alright again !!  The haunting vocal of Paul Buchanan and just something about the production gets me every time.  My favourite song of all time ?  Maybe.  Definitely my favourite song for today.