Monday 31 December 2007

A Few More Dates

As we are in that strange limbo between Xmas and New year and there aren't really any decent gigs on anywhere, I just thought that I'd add to Ste's last post there about tentative dates on the coming 2008 tour by adding a few of my own:

  • Wednesday 30th Jan - Baroness, Kylesa and Bastard Of The Skies @ The Star & Garter, Manchester.
  • Wednesday 6th February - Polysics, Cutting With Pink Knives (+1 more tbc) at an unconfirmed venue in Manchester.

Friday 28 December 2007

Claw Tour 2008

We've already got some dates (preliminary) for the 2008 tour itinerary. List to be updated whenever I discover something new:

Last updated April 27th 2008

12th Jan: Orange Goblin (Liverpool)
19th Jan: The Almighty (Manchester)
29th Jan: Henry Rollins (Manchester, spoken word)
30th Jan: Kylesa / Baroness (Manchester)
7th Feb: Earth & Sir Richard Bishop (Manchester)
8th Feb: Brutal Truth (Sheffield)
14th Feb: Iron Maiden (Yokohama)
15th Feb: Iron Maiden (Chiba City, Tokyo)
26th Feb: Mayhem (Birmingham Barfly)
16th March: Gallhammer (Liverpool)
20th March: Weedeater (Manchester)
9th April: Portishead (Manchester)
17th April - 20th April: Roadburn Festival (Tilburg)
21st April: Boris (Manchester)
24th April: Suffocation (Manchester)

8th May: Gloomy Sunday (Manchester)
10th May: Heavyfest All-dayer (Bradford)
11th May: Genghis Tron (Leeds)
13th May: Shit & Shine (Brudenell Social Club, Leeds)
17th May: Charger, Mountains Became Machines, Krupskaya (Stoke)
21st May: Today Is The Day (Birmingham)
27th May: Dio (Birmingham)
29th May: Ministry (Manchester)
22nd June: Melt Banana (Birmingham)
5th July: Iron Maiden (Twickenham)
11th - 13th July: Supersonic (Birmingham)
12th July: Doom Metal Inquisition (Bradford)
15th July: Whitesnake & Def Leppard (Liverpool Arena)
18th October: Queen & Paul Rodgers (Liverpool Arena)

No date yet but on the list: Southern Lord's ASVA are touring the UK in June or July. Let's hope dates don't clash with anything already on the list.

Also on the list is a trip to Holland for the 2008 Roadburn Festival to see Trouble, Celtic Frost and Boris play, although not all at the same time. Which is a shame.

Wednesday 26 December 2007

Thanks, Mieszko.

Has it really been three years?
I will not give up until
The truth's nailed to the wall
The lies won't serve our purpose
In corruption lies our fall

The overmind is dying
Its eyes can't see us all
But I'll be here when you are gone
I'll make it through the storm...

Mieszko Talarczyk
December 23, 1974 - December 26, 2004

Tuesday 25 December 2007

That was the year that was.

So, the year is nearly over, and there isn't a gig in the last week of the year for us to attend, and now it's over I sort of look back on the "tour" with a sense of wonder.
Wonder that we didn't get killed or arrested.
Gigs that we attended this year, in reverse order (oh, and this isn't split 50-50 or anything, we did it all together):

  • 12th December - Pelican, High on Fire - Whelan's, Dublin (ROI)
  • 11th December - Earth, sunnO))), boris, Altar - Kentish Town Forum, London (UK)
  • 4th December - Witchcraft, Gentlemens Pistols, Winters - Fenton, Leeds (UK)
  • 18th November - Cold Ones, Bow and Arrow, Gentlemans Pistols - Korova, Liverpool (UK)
  • 17th November - jesu - Cockpit, Leeds (UK)
  • 9th November - Iced Earth, Heaven and Hell - MEN Arena, Manchester (UK)
  • 31st October - Thumper - Hotel California, Birkenhead (UK)
  • 30th October - W.A.S.P. - Cavern, Liverpool (UK)
  • 26th October - Warning, Against Nature, Unsilence, The River - S & G, Manchester (UK)
  • 20th October - Damnation Festival - ULU, Leeds (UK)
  • 12th October - Gorilla Biscuits - Academy, Manchester (UK)
  • 10th October - Narcosis, Marco Tomasi, A.P.A.T.T. - Roadkill, Liverpool (UK)
  • 5th October - Pagan Altar, The Lamp of Thoth - The Fenton, Leeds (UK)
  • 29th September - Misfits - Academy, Manchester (UK)
  • 19th September - Ramesses, Unearthly Trance, Stuntcock - Star and Garter, Manchester (UK)
  • 10th September - Send More Paramedics - Barfly, Liverpool (UK)
  • 3rd September - High on Fire, Hordes of Satan, The Freezing Fog - Jabez Clegg, Manchester (UK)
  • 30th July - Thumper - Barfly, Liverpool (UK)
  • 14th July - Supersonic Festival - Custard Factory, Birmingham (UK)
  • 8th July - Metallica, Mastodon - Wembley Stadium, London (UK)
  • 7th July - Napalm Death, Impaled - Academy, Manchester (UK)
  • 27th June - Boris, Day for Airstrikes - Sacred Trinity Church, Manchester (UK)
  • 24th June - Iron Maiden - Brixton Academy, London (UK)
  • 23rd June - The Who - Knowsley Hall, Knowsley (UK)
  • 18th June - SunnO))), Chrome Hoof - Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (UK)
  • 17th June - Fisted Sister - Bath Springs, Prescot (UK)
  • 10th June - The Great Donington Bunk-in - Donington Park, Derby (UK)
  • 4th June - Capricorns, Lair of the Minatour - Star and Garter, Manchester (UK)
  • 29th May - Trouble - Rios, Leeds (UK)
  • 22nd April - SunnO))), Bohren und der Club of Gore -013, Tilburg (NED)
  • 15th April - Annihilator - University, Liverpool (UK)
  • 12th April - WASP, Suspiria, Under God Fury - Carling Academy, Liverpool (UK)
  • 8th April - Thumper - The Vic, Widnes (UK)
  • 30th March - Thumper, Ornament - Roadkill, Liverpool (UK)
  • 18th March - SunnO))) - Bergen Cathedral, Bergen (NO)
  • 14th March - Celtic Frost, Kreator* - Bradford (UK)
  • 6th Feb - Brutal Truth, Total Fucking Destruction, Narcosis - Music Box, Manchester (UK)
  • 5th Feb - Brutal Truth, Total Fucking Destruction, Narcosis - Voodoo Lounge, Dublin (ROI)
  • 16th Jan - Atavist, Winters in Osaka - Bar Fresa, Liverpool (UK)

It's been a mad, crazy, sweaty and sometimes frantic year (dashes to the airport, hiding in hotels) but I wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world.

We got to see some amazing, one-off shows, some humdrum ones, travelled to some amazing cities and made some good friends. I can only speak for myself (I'm sure Ste will have something to say about it himself) but it's changed not only the way I think about gigs and music, but the way I see myself as a person. The plan now is to get all the reviews off our seperate blogs and get them on here to give some sort of background to what I hope to be as eventful a year on tour in 2008 as it was in 2007.

I can't wait.

Thursday 20 December 2007

Lamp Of Thoth (Band) - Lamp Of Thoth (Song)


This video is from when we went to Leeds (5th October 2007) to watch the legendary Pagan Altar's 1st gig in 25 years. Lamp Of Thoth were the only other band who played on the night and - maaaaan - they were awesome.

I hope we get to catch more of the Cauldron Of True Witchery again sometime during 2008.

This Week's Playlist (Ste)

Albums currently gracing my ipod nano:

Abigail (King Diamond)
Advance And Vanquish (3 Inches Of Blood)
Altar (Sunn & Boris)
Cold Lake (Celtic Frost)
Flood (Boris)
God Luck And Good Speed (Weedeater)
Heavier Than Thou (Saint Vitus)
Painkiller (Judas Priest)
Rock Dream - Disc 2 (Boris & Merzbow)
Snail On A Razor (Hototogisu & Prurient)

Check out that last one , it's completely off it's head.

http://rapidshare.com/files/23075670/Hototogisu_and_Prurient_-_Snail_on_a_Razor.rar

Wednesday 19 December 2007

New Arrival


This actually arrived the day that I came home from Dublin, but like I say, I've been mad busy.

Ste pulled up outside my parent's and as I was getting out of the car I spotted the postman on the other side of the road.

"I bet you he's got some vinyl in his bag for me" I said to Ste.

"Does he go from side to side or something?" Ste said.

Sure enough, he came over to me - "Are you going to number 76?" he asked.

I love the fact that he delivers that much vinyl to me dear old mum that he knew it was mine straight away, the first time he'd seen me.

Monday 17 December 2007

This Week's Playlist (Patchie)


Antisect - In Darkness There Is No Choice
Killing Joke - What This For...!
Darkthrone - F.O.A.D.
Hordes of Satan - Hordes of Satan
Pitch Shifter - Industrial
Depressor - Collection
Dead On - Dead On
Kong - MutePoetVocaliser
Kong - Phlegm
Kong - EARMINeD

Sunday 16 December 2007

Earth, Boris, SunnO))), London 11th December 2007


Sunday
I suppose the tale starts here. I was in work on Sunday, not really paying any attention at all to what I was doing, and suddenly six o'clock rolled around and I was out the door like a shot, and went straight up to my parent's house in Halewood, as this is closer to Ste's and is therefore better for both of us.

Ste knocked off work and we went out into Woolton for "a quiet pint"... we all know how that dance goes, as we've all danced it before. The last thing I remember about Sunday night is drinking sake in Ste's living room and then knocking all kinds of stuff over in the kitchen trying to make a cup of tea.

Monday
The first day of travelling starts off the way that all mine and Ste's trips away this year have done; with Ste slapping me around the face saying "Patchie! Get up you lazy twat we're late!" and late we were. The coach I'd booked (the luxury, leather seated behemoth with a half hour break in Birmingham for a smoke and a leg stretch) had left ages ago. I knew that sake was a bad idea, but it seemed like a good one at the time. Cut a long story short, they charged us extra (on top of the extra we'd paid for the luxury coach) to travel on a shitty one all the way there with no break. I got my own back by booting a cup of tea over in the aisle though. Cunts.
Anyway, arriving in London, there's been a car crash in Golder's Green and the scuffers have closed off the road. Deciding that ditching the coach here, and leaving my mobile phone on it, then making our own way to the meet-up would be a good idea, we do just that.
Four hours later, we have walked all the way from Golders Green to Camden.
We walked for four hours. Still, we saw some cool stuff. I can't remember what most of it was, but we must have done because we weren't killing each other by the time we arrived at the World's end in Camden. Crossing the road outside the venue, we bumped into Tom (who he hadn't seen since the Supersonic festival in Brum this summer) and his mate, and off we headed for a pint. I popped outside for a smoke, and look up to see a guy with a long beard squinting at me. It was a friend of ours, Radokaz from Slovenia who we met in Norway earlier this year. So we go back inside to catch up and drink some more, and then Jonas appears from nowhere. Well, from Stockholm actually, but you get the drift. This is weird, it's the five of us who hung out together in Norway for the sunn gig in Bergen all drinking together in London for the sunn gig there. Anyway, we go downstairs to meet people from the messageboards we all use on the internet, then it's more fucking walking to get to the venue.
Earth are on stage first, they play well and sound great, but I'm not really that big a fan of their newer, epic-country-and-western-soundtrack style. Give me Phase 3 or Extra-Capsular Extraction any day. Now it gets a bit mad, as far as I was aware this show was something along the lines of sunn and boris present Altar; with special guests Earth. Now to me, that implies that Earth are the support band, and that sunn and Boris will then come out together to play their Altar album together, right?

Wrong.Boris come out and play a set that is basically their Flood album. Boris live are amazing, this is my third time of seeing them, and I am absolutely convinced watching them that I am witnessing the kind of thing people who saw Pink Floyd in 1971 got to see, proper out-there one of a kind type music being played by great musicians. Half way through their set I start to get excited because this must mean we are going to get to see a full sunn set too. So Boris finish, the crowd are happy with the set and the roadies clear the stage, setting up sunn's backline.

We had heard from friends who had played at and had been in attendance at the previous day's ATP festival in Minehead that sunn members had a fight on stage, so we were just wondering exactly what was going to happen tonight. Smoke fills the stage and one by one the members of tonight's lineup come out on stage. And then, mine and Ste's favourite Hungarian comes out, Atilla Csihar. And he is in the biggest mind-fuck of a costume ever, like the king of the evil forest or something, and I am so glad that I haven't taken any drugs. No picture can do it justice, but I'll have a go:
The set is awesome, this is the fourth time we've seen them this year (and sixth overall) and I must say that their live performances keep getting better and better, especially the theatrical elements of it all. Wave after wave of drone with the bass making your chest vibrate, and banks of fog with Atilla swaying inside them, can't be beat. It seems a pretty short set though by the standards I'm used to from sunn, but I suppose the main event is yet to come.
(and no, they didn't have any on-stage fisticuffs)
The stage is again, swathed in smoke, and bathed in red lights, and sunn, boris and Jesse Sykes come out and play The Sinking Belle. Jesse's vocals are absolutely haunting, Ste shot a video of it that he posted on youtube and it's since made it's way onto Stephen O'Malley's personal blog.
They don't play all of Altar, but Atsuo's drumming on Etna and for most of the show are astounding, he bashes the shite out of the gong so much that roadies have to come and hold it steady; then he crawl over his drumkit and falls backwards into the crowd, getting passed to the back of the hall then back up onto the stage again. Total class, we left feeling happy that we'd travelled all the way to London (again) to see a gig (again).
Afterwards, we walked to a hostel and sneaked in, staying in the warm TV room until we could leave for the second part of the adventure at 4am.....
Tuesday
After a night of squatting, we left the Hostel quietly at 4am and walked, GPS system in hand, to the train station. It's 70 minutes and £12 each to Gatwick on the train that will get us there in time to check in and leave the country, the 4.45am. Neither of us have had so much as a wink of sleep since those few alcohol addled hours on sunday night, and to say that the journey to the airport was one of the trippiest times of my life would be an understatement. Luckily, the gods are smiling at us and at no point does anybody approach us with a demand that we buy a ticket or pay the £25 each penalty fare. Result, a warm hostel for nothing and a free ride across the city to the airport.
I slept in various places of differing levels of comfort, and we arrived in our hostel in Dublin around 1.45pm, checked in, went on the internet for a bit, then slept til teatime. Bliss.
We'd made plans to return to Eamonn Doran's, the scene of many a drunken jukebox-and-guiness-fueled Dublin night out for me and Ste, but the need for sleep and the subsequent need to eat from Subway took over I'm afraid, next time then. We made our way to the venue, Whelan's, and proceeded to get stuck with some guy from New York who was convinced we were Scottish. Anyway, we thought we were in the venue, but we were actually in the bar next door. When we got to the venue it was absolutely packed, seems that Pelican and High on Fire are quite a crowd puller over here.
I used to be a massive Pelican fan, right up until they released City of Echoes and then I sort of went off them for a bit. Watching them in Whelan's had me kicking myself; live, they are absolutely amazing. If you have never heard Pelican before, they fall into that instrumental, post-rock type category, but they are heavy live, exactly what it is that makes them heavy is difficult to put your finger on though. Sort of like Capricorns with less Motorhead influence.
High on Fire are brilliant. Last time (the first time) I had seen them in Manchester, I had literally just stepped off a plane from Las Vegas and had a week's worth of Jetlag catching up on me, and to be honest, I couldn't tell you a single thing about that gig except that I was there. At least, parts of me were. In Dublin though, they are rocking. We met a Ducth girl called Matilda who's friend had brought her along on the premise that High on Fire sound like a mix of Black Sabbath and Motorhead. She is bored by the band so we buy her a drink. Meanwhile, the crowd are going ballistic to High on Fire, and their scuzzy, fuzzy metal goes down a storm.
We leave, boozed up, to eat at a 50's style american diner. Staffed by Mexicans  In Ireland. Three hours later we are back up and on a plane to merry old England.


Wednesday 12 December 2007

The Sinking Belle


Sunn & Boris (Featuring Jesse Sykes on vocals) - "The Sinking Belle"

Recorded live at The Forum, London on December 10th 2007.

Passing by
Rose and emeralds
In silence I
Stand alone

And out of you
Grey birds fly
The gravel path
You qualified
Pretended to
Favor few
The walls are fine (?)
In hollow time

The shape I'm in
Oh she knows so well
My hearts become
Her sinking belle

The sinking belle
Oh the sinking belle
I'm worried now
You're worried now
I

The sinking belle
Oh the sinking belle
You're worried now
You're worried now
I

We're smaller than
We used to be
What came from you
Is now inside of me

Don't ask me why
Oh, don't ask me why
All my life,
All my life
Wear in black and white

The sinking belle
Oh the sinking belle
I'm worried now
You're worried now

The sinking belle
The sinking belle
I'm worried now
You're worried now
I

The sinking belle
Oh the sinking belle
You're worried now
You're worried now
I


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