Stuff

**************************************

June 10 2005

Bloody Hell, we've been a bit slack keeping up with this! errrm so then quite a lot has happened in the past year! we toured holland and belgium and the u.k., released the album, did some great gigs (memorable ones being frog at the mean fiddler, the queens of noize pineapple fest, the big gay out which was on a double decker bus (rob also got to have his pic taken with the cheeky girls), virgin megastores, the garage with art brut and the very strange wowow party in peckham). Whats new I hear you ask! Well we've got a new drummer (Jonny Rocks) who is brilliant (of course) and are currently writing what will become 2 distinct albums and believe me when I tell you that they're gonna be bloody great. The best is yet to come my friends!!

lotsa love jamesxxxx

**************************************

April 12 2004

Woohoo we have FINALLY finishing recording our long-awaited (at least by ourselves!) debut album!!! It's now been mixed, ready for mastering later this week. It sounds 95% brilliant, tho you'll have to wait till the summer to hear it... However, never fear cos there'll be plenty going on before then.

In between long mixing sessions, heated debates about various tracks, and enjoyable discussions about album titles, we've also found time to squeeze in TWO Rhythm Factory shows... the first featured an emotional surprise return for the original cheeky scamp Aidan on drums, as he happened to be there that night, and coincidentally, err, had his sticks with him! Chris wasn't at that one, so it was a kind of semi-acoustic-but-with-drums affair. Going on straight after the Libertines was a challenge, but we managed to pull it off (just!!). We also Rocked against Racism at the Borderline, and gave a coupla new songs ("Tearjerker" and "Pluto's Underworld") an airing - Rob heroically "doing a Phil Collins" and racing down (with kit and all) from a gig with Lomax in order to fill the drumstool for us that night...

In between all this running around, and of course rocking out at Pink Grease shows, we also guested on a new Art Brut recording ("Top Of The Pops") along with a whole host of other bands associated with Angular Records, you'll be able to hear our heartfelt and passionate vocal performance on the track when it appears on the next Angular compilation, some time next month...

Also, talk of European dates is hotting up… more news soon. xxxx

**************************************

February 25 2004

where do we start? how about Coventry, on Valentine's Day - how romantic, amongst the crack houses and run down council blocks - the only place to be!! we start the story in a 15-seater van with exactly 15 people on board, plus loads of guitars and sleeping bags and "strollers", on and around people's heads. the cast: five Rocks, five Special Needs, drivers/tour managers (well, they tried, anyway!) Bromides and Rick (complete with now-infamous 'palm top'), Jenny Jenny, Needs manager Zee, and Glyn, who helped out on the stall and generally got enthusiatic about all the bands. so, sent to Coventry first, and we manage about 5 minutes before the first arguments about what music to play on the bus surface, as does the now-legendary "Commando" debate. "What do you MEAN, Kula Shaker were all right? you must be fucking joking". food portions are very large in Coventry. all three bands get the tour off to a pretty fine start. the Barbs seem very popular here. the immortal chant of 'Tim Box Barbs, Tim Box Barbs, Tim Box Barbs' is first introduced, the start of many running themes throughout the tour.

afterwards, mauro kips in a travel inn, whilst everyone else is grateful for some floorspace, Rainman revealing his personal febreze supply (1 part febreze, 4 parts water, got to spread the magic..), although with barking dogs and snoring parrots, let alone snoring bandmates, we arrive at York considerably worse for wear... Rainman's folks are at the York Fibbers gig, as are a few old friends. they have table football. yesssss. the Needs perform the touching "Mauro's In A Fix" at the soundcheck. we give "The Bomb" its first outing for a while, of course everyone is out of tune and missing strings by the end of it. the rhythm section, regardless, start up "We Got It" anyway, as we'd forgotten to play it earlier...! Zac helps out on vocals. post-gig, we serenade the bemused Fibbers staff with a capella versions of "(I don't wanna take) E's (next saturday)"...

and then off to Cleethorpes, where Rick's parents have kindly, and inexplicably, allowed all 15 of us to crash, AND are making us all a gigantic fry-up in the morning!! despite moaning on the bus ("I could've been in a travel tavern by now!" "turn off that fucking Radio 4 documentary about Iranian fashion, i'm trying to sleep!"), it's appreciated by all in the morning, especially as everyone gets to have a shower...! the trip to Cleethorpes marks a seminal moment on the tour, and probably of Rainman's
life, where he comes face to face with the legendary "Deadbeat" playing arcade games in a service station at 2am on a Sunday night...

Glasgae. Skips is glad to be home, and we give him a stirring rendition of "Letter from America" as we cross the border... There are no deep-fried Mars bars to be found in Glasgow. apparently you have to go to Dumfries or something. boooooo. the Needs aren't allowed to play this gig due to some strange local ruling about only two out-of-own bands playing the same bill or something. Zac is upset and needs consoling. boooooo again.

aaaargghhh, the Liverpool curse strikes again!! the promoter has cancelled the show because Scousers clearly hate all three bands. and once more, booo!! HOWEVER, this means we can GO OUT AND PARTY, BIG TIME!! we oblige, and pile down the Glasgow Garage after the gig, 20 or so of us take over the dancefloor, probably the highlight of the tour so far. i've promised not to say anything about Whitney Houston and Amy Barbs. the immortal "busking" gig happens around now, with members of all three bands performing an impromptu outdoor show at 3am, whether the terrified busker whose acoustic guitar was "borrowed" ever recovered we do not know.
"God gave Rob'n'Roll to you" indeed.

drive back to London for some decent sleep the next night. it's a long-ass drive from glasgow to London all right. feels strange travelling by tube to the London show at the islington academy - but great to see so many friendly faces down at the show, which is indisputably our best one yet... crowd surfing and bar hopping are enjoyed by everyone, even the slightly bemused bouncers who aren't quite sure what they should be doing. by this time, everyone's joining in on everyone else's songs. "Sex! I'll have sex with you!!" and so on. Julian - who manages us and the Barbs - is onstage by the end of the night, before delivering some sort of speech from what i think was a rubbish tip outside. i can't be sure. failing in our bid to find a "crap indie club" on a Wednesday night, some of us adjourn to the Duke of Clarence, which is very messy indeed.

'anybody? no? Dust. anybody? no? Dust. anybody? no? Dust. anybody? no? Dust.' - thank you marjorie doors and thank you one person.

and then back to Bath Moles and the fabulous Purr Club, wow there's articles about us in the local paper. Rob thinks Bath is "like Paris". yesssss more table football. the Dirty, who are opening the show tonight, arrive and somehow manage to blow Tim Box-Barbs' amp. also, much of the rider has mysteriously disappeared! despite that, the show is another classic, by the time we get onstage three bands have already played and the excitement level is HIGH. james gets to crowd-surf during "What Have You Done". mauro nearly brains people in the front row with his guitar. the place is packed and riotous. brilliant!!! Rainman pulls!! hooray!!

the infamous "speed camera" wind-up occurs on the drive back afterwards, almost reduces the much-abused Rick to tears, and almost everyone in the back of the bus to tears of laughter. for anyone bored on long journeys - all it takes is the flash from a disposible camera. "Can we stop? Zee really needs a piss." "Mmmmm Ginsters!". who won the "stalling" count? Bromides? Rick? or was it Morpheus? we'd all lost count by the end. and then... "we drove to the coast"!!

Bournemouth the Villa. very scary. the place is sparsely populated, mainly by Dorset Headhunters it seems... wooahhh who is THAT bloke? why is he standing centimetres away from people and glaring straight through them? are we in danger of our lives?? no time to worry about that, there's a show to do, and we have to educate the nu-metal kids here somehow. Zac does Ozzy and Freddie Mercury impressions. will that win them over? we attempt to play "We Are 138". give up pretty quickly. maybe James playing with the smoke machine will win them over. or Sarah's "Everybody In The Place" dance? who knows?? let's get out of here as quickly as possible...

Plymouth - whoops people are starting to feel the strain, tiredness and illness is creeping in, the Barbs' van is the first to crack, it collapses. they just about make it to Plymouth. Rainman spends much of the journey berating Phil Needs for being a coward for getting a hotel room the previous night. but then he spends most of the tour berating somebody, anybody...! Plymouth Chasers has security guards at the front of the stage, heh heh... theyre just asking for it, of course james obliges. we try to leave in the van with hoardes of studoids hanging off the back of the van. rick is worried he's going to kill one of them. everyone else is too drunk and loving it. 'run em over, bloody students!'

the most fun (and the most pain?) was had afterwards at the Novotel. "Don't let Zac know which room we're in!" "Could you give us the number for adult entertainment in the plymouth area, please?" "I'd better pass you over to my manager." "shit someone's coming, hide!" "Shack, you total deadbeat, you've broken the curtain rail!!" "go to another room if you're gonna do that", "Where's Jenny?" and so on. did Shack really fall asleep in the bathtub? did Zac really wake james and sarah up over and over again until about 5.30am? has anyone heard Chris say anything for the last four days? again, memories are hazy...

last day. sad indeed. sad that we end it on such a low in Birmingham, with no Barbs (stuck with a broken down van) and doing a lousy show with lousy sound. for some reason, we sell loads of T-shirts after tho. the show wouldn't have gone ahead at all without Sam Huxley's intervention, most likely. his set is great. the Needs are still on form too, and we join forces for "Roy", just as they return the favour on "Celeste". at least we've still got each other! a melancholy trip back, with bursts of high spirits and a few blasts of "Make me Smile (Come Up and see me)"... "It's over.... it's over!!" "oh nooo, oh noooo, oh noooo, oh no"

Evil Rocks! Evil Rocks! Evil Rocks!
a time to remember... ah yes.

 

**************************************

January some point in 2004

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, ouch, oh dear oh dear. "Whats going on? Er who are you? Mauro, put a record on." "What do you mean you can't?" "Hang on I'll just crawl over here" "errr is there any music coming out?" "Wheres all the rum gone?" Bohemian Rhapsody BRILLIANT!! If i just climb on this speaker stack i can get a better view. "yes of course, i'll put a cd on in a minute, got to have some more drink first, wheres those free tokens?" 5-4-3-2-1 hooray!! Outkast Hey Ya first record of the year played by those pesky queens of noize. Yay lots of people we know. "hmmm, yes a litre bottle of rum should do us for the night" "i'll just get some gin and tonics with our drinks tokens". "don't worry Mauro we'll have a few drinks, do a spot of djing and it'll all be ok"

Somewhere along the line this all got a bit muddled. Neither of us are sure what really happened. Apologies to any injured parties. Brilliant and Rubbish at the same time. a fitting start to the new year.

much love to you all

jamesxx

now lets bring it on...

**************************************

November 25 2003

New York Fucking City. oh yes. three dates, eight nights, and MUCH fun. the first show (at Luna Lounge) was kinda hazy, as we were all still jetlagged and it was about 5am London time by the time we went onstage, but we ploughed through nonetheless, not only treating the crowd to a rare rendition of "E's", which nobody understood, but also "Where Is My Hair?", which even less people understood. one person was overheard explaining, in all seriousness, how it had something to do with Moloko, rather than Brian
MOLKO. ah well.

we sampled the kashas, knishes, kishkas and latkes, Bromides (freed from the duties of having to drive us around for once!) managed to blag himself an acoustic slot at Sidewalk, i stepped up to the mic at the punk/metal karaoke at Arlene's Grocery (as Glenn Danzig), we regrouped for the Sin-E gig and kicked ass, as we learnt to say. ("The Rocks" sounds great in American. "The Raaaaacks") Chris then buggered off back to London, his girlfriend having spent all his money on shoes or something.

the gig at Plaid was marred by dismal sound, but Vivian (from Mommy & Daddy) made up for it by guesting with us on bass, and then me & James joined em onstage during THEIR for a riotous encore cover of "We Are 138"... at this point i should thank all the band members who we hung out with or were cool with us while we were over there - Dirty on Purpose, PS, the Bamboo Kids, Interpol (massive shout out to Eric for free drinks!!), Eric from the Strines, Rachel Stamp, the Boxes, Apollo Heights, Laptop, plus a special
thank you to drummers Kevin (from On!Air!Library) and Steve, who had the thankless task of trying to learn our set in about two hours between them! somehow they pulled it off...
SPECIAL thanks go out to the fantastic Mommy & Daddy for putting me up/putting up with me all week, and the Flesh for sorting out accommodation for the others!!

you can check out some reviews of the gigs here and here and here and here amongst others.

the rest of the time was mainly spent bar-hopping and buying cool shit. as you do in NYC... can't wait for our next visit! but before that, serious shit to get on with over here - ie finishing our damn album!!! oh, and watching "Celeste" sail up the charts. errrrr....till next time, when we'll hopefully have the album done... x mauro

**************************************

November 1 2003

THE (AMAZING DISAPPEARING) TOUR OF THE NORTH

Of course this was the most gruelling on-the-road marathon since Aerosmith's mid-70s heyday, we were all burnt out, fried and road-weary by the end of it... Err hang on, it was only two dates in the end. The whys and wherefores could fill an entire diary entry on their own, and they're not very interesting or in any way anything we had anything to do with. But we were pretty gutted to miss out on playing Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, believe it!

Still, what there actually was went great... The Zafira that Bromides drove us in (SO much more comfortable than the transit van!!), the quick and painless journeys, the free food and drink (though maybe not the "cauliflower and broccoli bake" in Nottingham - aaarghhhhh), Toddington Service Station, the crowd in Sheffield who obediently obeyed James' orders to "come down the front", the price of drinks in Sheffield... Hanging out with the Parkinsons and Martini Henry Rifles in Nottingham,
Mclusky playing drums on "We Got It" during soundczech and later drinking vodka out of a kettle, the impromptu all-in wrestling in the
ring (ouch, some of us are still bruised), The Bulk's amazing secret drum skills, Danny Parkinson having his back shaved (Shave The Wolf), Rob deputising on drums and entertaining us with vitriolic Brian Molko anecdotes and impressions, Sarah attacking a rowdy punter with her guitar... If only it coulda gone on for longer!!

Back in London we got the chance to appear as guest Rock'n'Roll Idiots on John Kennedy's Xposure show as he played the rest of our session tracks as well as "Celeste", talked some rubbish with him and cringed
about it afterwards...

New York is just around the corner, as is the release of "Celeste". Shit, we're supposed to be making an album as well! Err better get to the studio
More soon x
M

**************************************

October 12 2003

Oh noooo it's been a long time, we shouldn't have left you, and all that.

What have we been up to?? Well, we've found a producer to take charge of our long-awaited debut album - Marc Waterman, who has worked with Elastica, ARE Weapons and most importantly, Peter Perrett!!! - a brave man indeed. We should be going into the studio over the next few weeks, in between doing this Tour of the North (yesss!! At last!) and, er, going to New York again! (lots of yesssses and stuff) Had a quick preview of the Tour of the North when we ventured up to the freezing wastelands of Manchester and did Night & Day, managed to avoid getting attacked by walri, made some new friends and had a spectacular curry, but didn't manage to avoid our first ever streaker (male of course! Pah. You can tell Sarah doesn't write these entries) or the trip home somehow lasting eight hours, which must be some kind of world record.

Aidan is - whatever next - unavailable for our tour and also our John Kennedy XFM session, so we searched around and found Rob (once of Placebo, but don't hold that against him), who did a sterling job on the session, despite only having two rehearsals with us! The results should be on air next week... Oh yeah, there was another "acoustic" appearance (at Special Needs' single launch last week) tho we continued to shed members - at our first acoustic show we managed four of us, then three at the next one, two at the last, until this time only I was there in time for the gig, due to general Rocks-style misunderstandings and chaos. Fortunately, Zac and Skips from the Needs bailed me out, after I floundered my way through "Celeste" on my own... (Well, I don't know the damn words!!)

Tour of the North any day now... Hoping for a comfortable tour bus this
time! "Celeste" is out in a month... Bring it on!!

**************************************

September 2 2003

AAARGHHHH we've reached new heights of slackness in terms of diary entries... suffice to say, things have been up and down and all over the place (when are they not?) over the last few weeks, but we've come out of it stronger and with many plans for a full-on Autumn assault...

where did we leave you? yeah, two more gigs with (wait for it) Special Needs, aka the Other Best Band in London, one at their Funfairs & Heartbreak bash in west London, along with several balloons and umbrellas, Aaron Barschak (for some reason) and that Razorlight band who lots of people like at the moment. the other was a night of chaos down in Brixton, which got messier and messier, but as the last gig in a while, i guess that was appropriate...

then back in the studio with Pat Collier to try and perfect our "pop classic" ("Celeste (Where Did You Go)"), blimey i'm all confused with brackets and quotation marks now ...anywhere where was i?? oh yeah, "Celeste" is finished now and it's BRILLIANT. (you know us, call a spade a spade!! we usually tell you when we're rubbish too...!) as are the other two tracks we knocked out, which will see the light of day soon, maybe as B-sides or (whisper it) album tracks...!

back on the boards next week (at last), a load of new material being worked on and lots to get excited about in the next months, so we'll keep you posted. no honestly, we will!! love x M

 

**************************************

July 14 2003

Well well well.
Our second single's supposed to be out today. Professional organisation that we are, of course, it may have in fact come out last week. Or it might be out next week! All I know is customised 7" vinyls will be a week later than the CDs. Or SHOULD be, or whatever... Badger your local HMV or Virgin anyway!!

Anyways, as per usual it's been a busy old time these last coupla weeks - the single launch gig at the Paradise Bar was one of the best we've ever done, (certainly the longest, heh heh!!), thanks to everyone who joined us down there, the Sarf London massive of course and those who travelled quite a way (Bedford?!) to get there... they got to hear a comprehensive Rocks set (even "(I Don't Wanna Take) E's (Next Saturday)" made an appearance), and just when they thought it was all over, the Spocks (ie Zac, Shack and Neil from Special Needs and James, Chris and me) terrified the punters with versions of "Don't Cry" and "All The Things She Said" that should probably have been outlawed... Special shout out to the Needs (of course, no diary entry would be complete without 'em!) and the Mac and his Circus Sideshow for kicking things off perfectly with his jaw-droppingly melancholy renditions of Dead Boys and Stooges classics...

And thankfully, Sarah's guitar WASN'T stolen that night, it turned up next day in the ladies' toilets. No-one appears to have any idea quite what it was doing in there. Errr...

Just got back from doing a special birthday show out in the Hertfordshire countryside for one of the stars of "The Bomb" video, Chris Battye, along with, of all people, The Steve Gibbons Band, much cake and champagne was quaffed by all, much rubbish spouted (least of all our disastrous attempt to revive our cover of "Buffalo Stance") and plenty of fun was had. Tipping cows....! Yesssssss!!

Oh yeah, we also did a gig at the Barfly the week before.

Plenty of press... including reviews and features in NME, Kerrang, X-Ray, The Fly, Rocksound and The Independent, not to mention mentions in The Face and ID.

Back in the studio soon...
"I'm so tired/I really need to sleep"
Mauroxx

 

**************************************

June 26 2003

jesus christ, what a week it's been...
it's always a good gig at the Dirty Water Club (even supporting the Go, heh heh!), one of our favourite venues. especially when your singer disappears during the set, only to be spotted dancing around at the back of the venue as the rest of us play a very extended intro to "We Got It". or else singing from the toilet...

next night, a last-minute, three-song appearance at Return to Hackney (aka "Wadestock"), with Bromides' next-door neighbour and all-round diamond geezer Jason filling Aidan's vacant drum stool (no, of course we didn't rehearse with him! what do you think we are?!), onstage two hours later than planned, set interrupted by a police raid, finished off with a surprise appearance by Special Needs, lots more messiness and chaos as the night wore on...

and THEN...the legendary Acupuncture/80s Matchbox/wrestling Rocket Rooms extravaganza - what can i say?? how could i even describe it?! a walkway from the stage to the wrestling ring, hot dog and candy floss stalls, lesbian strippers doing unspeakable things, dwarves, a man dressed in a mouse costume, 'the bulk' and 'big dave', the Matchbox themselves, at least 1,000 punters, Sean Mclusky, a free bar... what else could you ask for? Paul Trueman from Eastenders? OK then!!
you can imagine the consequences. actually, maybe you can't. suffice to say the Rocks' "Stadium Show" seemed to go down a storm...

off to see the Futureheads tonight to attempt to restore some sanity... oh shit there's another gig tomorrow!!
x
"coming to get you whether you like it or not"
Mauro

**************************************

June 18 2003

Errrm. What have we been up to then? Buffalo Bars with our friends The Blood Group. Usual Buffalo Bars fare for us really. Artrockers are GREAT though always a pleasure to play for them. Metro with Whirlwind Heat and the usual amp problems. I think we are probably cursed, what do you think? hmnnnn maybe. I'm sure theres some things I had to mention. Well Special Needs again coz we love em and they're stars in waiting, Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Monarch, Shoe Telephones, Rocklands and Pop of the Tops (don't be sick in the bath afterwards), Bromides, 80's Matchbox, HOT SHIT, Twinstar Revolution back again yes! Sorry we couldn't play Bristol. boooooo! anyways lots of stuff soon so we'll make up for it. single sounding good and ready to go. thanks to John Kennedy from XFM as well for the support.

We're off to practice now!! Yes thats right PRACTICE!! Wooo HOOOOO!! there'll be some NEW SONGS arriving in a rocks set near you soon.

till then.... love james

 

**************************************

May 27 2003

THE ROCKS TOUR DIARY...

BIRMINGHAM... last-minute slot offered to us by Hot Hot Heat, as Har Mar Superstar mysteriously pulled out. how lost can you get driving into Birmingham?? very lost. rising panic as it approaches 7.00pm and we still can't find the venue, resort to Sarah hailing a cab and us following it in the van! eventually make it to the Academy 2 at 7.15, piling in with all our stuff past queues of bemused-looking punters, what an entrance... onstage before we know it, great response, James tries to compensate anyone missing Har Mar by dropping his pants to reveal his magnificently large green boxer shorts. made lots of new friends afterwards, and had a curry... a brilliant first trip to the Midlands.

LONDON... Water Rats is somewhere we've never played before. The sound is great as are the crowd and we have a very fun and exciting gig. Photos are taken onstage so you'll be able to check out the view we get from up there. Thanks to the Mowers for the date. Scratchstock looms at the end of a tough week and what should be a simple job turns into a nightmare with breaking down amps, tuners and singers. Too much Cava is consumed and only a visit to the Dublin Castle to czech out Special Needs can revive our flagging heroes.

PORTSMOUTH... the 80s Matchbox dates!!! everyone's been looking forward to these lots, and excited at seeing the sea. we make this one on time. get fed. other bands very friendly. we make it through the whole set without breaking anything. YESSS This is more like it. Matchbox are great. We leave with lots more people having joined the Rocks gang.

BRIGHTON... very high stage, separated from the crowd by a barrier - how's James gonna manage to get in amongst them?? needless to say, he finds a way... a four-band bill, so we run out of time and don't get to play "The Bomb" (boooo). various old friends turn up, some of the band go back to London after the gig, some stay in Brighton and party on the 24th floor of Sussex Heights, then eat fish & chips on the seafront next day like true tourists...

LEEDS... aaaarghhh how far away from London is Leeds?! hadn't counted on six and a half hours on the M1... despite only making it to the Cellars at 8.30, record label boss/van driver/guitar tech/merchandise seller Bromides thankfully gets to do his acoustic set (shrouded in dry ice, which is bizarre), Tennessee Train Crash and 10,000 Things get the crowd so hot half of them go upstairs to cool off, probably just as well as we play one of our poorest gigs in a while...! great pizza/chicken/curry place next door tho, they give us free poppadums (just what you need with pizza). ta to Hayley for finding space for us all to crash that night...

TUNBRIDGE WELLS... crappy service stations, hangovers, more driving... shit, where's our drummer? (ha, not the first time we've had THAT thought!) not wanting to travel in the van (don't ask), he and his lady come down by coach, which obviously they miss, and the next one doesn't get to London till 7.30pm (and we're on at 8.15!). he ends up hitch-hiking down and gets to the venue 10 minutes before showtime... the Forum used to be a Victorian toilet and still smells like it. British Sea Power have an enormous van. Mower are yelling at each other. we're all knackered. see you on Tuesday for more...

CURRENT ROCKS TOURBUS FAVES:
"Out There In The Night" The Only Ones
"Last Caress" The Misfits
"Carnival Kids" The Futureheads
"Do You Wanna Come Back To My Place and Listen To Roy Orbison" Special Needs
"Working All Day" Pink Grease
"Time For Heroes" The Libertines
"Fly By II" Blue

**************************************************************

May 6 2003

Blimey! been a bit slack lately, ain't we?
I suppose we should tell you about Amsterdam. It was BRILLIANT (as if you couldn't guess!). The Paradiso was arguably the best place we've played yet, we got treated to expenses money during the day, an interview by the canal in the afternoon and some kind of banquet in the evening (which I guess is what passes for a rider in Holland!), before playing to an initially bemused, then highly appreciative crowd who bought loads of singles. one of 'em proudly displayed the bump on his head from some part of the mic stand which had made its way into the crowd (probably down to James somehow!), he didn't sue us thankfully. On the way back home we were a bit late arriving at the airport and had to jump the queue much to the anger of the other passengers. As we made our way to the front of the queue a bloke who was with a group of girls piped up 'excuse me but we're late too' to which the security replied 'sorry but you'll have to wait' it turned out to be 'Girls Aloud' (crap girl band who were products of some tv programe that I fortunately never saw). So that told them.

meanwhile, back in London, the videos for the next single have been finished
- the "We Got It" clip should be appearing as a bonus on the next CD single... Sarah was named in Dazed & Confused's "Fantasy Band" alongside 50 Cent and Meg White, and starred as the er, "indie vixen" in Vogue... (and also had a birthday bash... Which all got very messy in true rocks style, oh our poor neighbours and oh our poor heads) as for the NEXT coupla months - we're gonna be all OVER the place...!

"it's never going to leave you alone"

Mauro & James xx

 

**************************************************************

April 14 2003

To say that we had a busy weekend would be something of an understatement. Things kicked off with a fairly late night at the Rhythm Factory 'Bring Your Own Poison' shindig on thursday. Friday afternoon came along and we were all looking for a quiet night in and some sleep perhaps, however things never seem to be that simple for us. We received a call from Queens of Noize at 5.00 asking us to play at the Barfly at around midnite alongside the excellent Whirlwind Heat, friends of Jack White. Of course we are not ones to turn down a gig so off we went, surprisingly cheery given the fatigue setting in by midnite.... and what a gig! We played to a packed crowd managing to get through the set despite a fight and two stage invasions and some quite dangerous speaker climbing antics from myself. Its always good to play to a crowd who have no idea who the hell you are! Needless to say sleep was in short supply that night too! No peace for the wicked of course and on saturday we headed off to Acton for Zachery from Special Needs birthday party and ANOTHER GIG!!! This time in Zac's bedroom. Needless to say it was a legendary evening and we got to see Special Needs play too which is always a pleasure. Being professionals of course we got an early night (errrrrr?) ready for our video shoot the next day. Save The Wolf have done a bloody great job and the video for 'We Got It' when it's finished is going to be absolutely BRILLIANT!!!! Much thanks goes out to Miss D for taking the time to do this. We also confirmed some out of London gigs with the 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster which are going to be BRILLIANT too!!! All very exciting stuff. Anyways no London gigs for a while now so make sure you've got your tickets for the May 8th show with Mower at the Water Rats coz its going to be much much fun! We're all going to sleep well toonite and hopefully recover ready for Amsterdam at the weekend where we've been asked to do an interview on Dutch National Radio. hmmmmmmmnnnnn. have they any idea what they're letting themselves in for? hehehehe!

'noone said that this would be easy'

c u soon

Jamesx

**************************************************************

April 7 2003

Right. A Diary entry by me. Well its all very exciting as usual. The Rhythm Factory gig is on Thursday which should be great and probably messy in our usual manner. I'm looking forward to seeing The LAMs again too. What have we been up to? Hmmnnn. The usual drinking too much and embarrassing ourselves. I watched the libertines at the monarch two weekends in a row (what was I thinking?) and they got better the more drunk I was, which this weekend was very indeed. Last week we all went to see Special Needs at Catch in Shoreditch and they were Brilliant! Czech em out if you get the chance, the next time is at the Paradise Bar in New Cross on April 22nd. Its free to get in before 8.00 3 squids after and bottle beers are 1 squid all night. Sounds BRILLIANT to me. Oops sounds like I'm the promoter or something but I'm not. Czech out the Brilliant and slightly mad Rocklands for that. At some point we will play at the paradise bar and we'll do a special nite but we'll tell you all about it later. Well as for now we can tell you that we're doing a gig in Amsterdam over Easter which should be much much fun. Did some recording, new single is sounding excellent of course. Writing some new songs too, shock horror! Anyways that's too much from me about very little. Till the next time……..
'where are we? What happened?'
-James x

**************************************************************

march 17 2003

... about time we had another diary entry. not that i thought i'd necessarily be the only one writing it, but there you go!!

OK.... what's been happening. LOADS!! the single snuck out, for one, a week early! yup, virgin ended up stocking the CDs on march 10th even though the artwork was faulty & had been sent off to be corrected!! so some "lucky buggers" have got some collectable shit... apparently it's all over the bloody country, from Norwich to Dublin. sharp-eared listeners might notice that the 7" vinyl version of "Everybody In The Place" differs slightly from the CD version - yup, it's a different mix!! of course, another bonus for collectors, er...

we got out of London for a change, played the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham with the Black Madonnas, (weren't allowed to share their rider, that's another story tho) a great day out despite the subsequent illnesses various band members suffered! ahhhh, on the road, blaring out Blue & Oasis, smokin' homies out the window... whoops, that's enough information!!

now looking forward to the Dirty Water Club, and more potential tour dates round the country in a month or so... keep you posted of course. Keep buying the single y'all (yeah, both of you!), we need to make our money back, heh heh...

love - till next time

"i swear i didn't do anything"

Mauro (the Rocks........)

***************************************************************

february 25 2003

Whoooaaahh!! the party on the President was BRILLIANT!!! soon-to-be-legendary, perhaps, like the ICA last year... sorry to those who couldn't get in - restrictions on numbers was pretty tight, and no-one expected so many punters, i guess we should've really, with that line-up! thanks to DJ Rubbish and Crack Village for helping make it a storming night - the Crack's onstage collaboration with us on a new tune (yes we've even written new songs!) kicked things up a gear for sure.

all that and dingwalls on wednesday as well! despite breaking or losing most of (whatever's left of) our equipment... it was brilliant too!!

aaarghhh the single, the single... has been put back a week. never mind. very nearly this week's "Big One" on John Kennedy's XFM show, Playlouder's Single of the Week (much to their surprise, heh heh...)look out for reviews in Rock Sound, NME and Kerrang! as well this week...
"we never even try"

Mauro (the Rocks)

*****************************************************************

february 11 2003

PHEW!!!!!!!!

artrockers gig in front of The Nation's Press was, er, eventful. probably a MORE intensely rubbish and brilliant gig than we've done in a while... put it this way, we may well have all our gear fixed for dingwalls next wednesday, but then something'll probably blow up or someone'll manage to break something else anyway!

still, there is no middle ground with us, it seems. some reviews or other are allegedly on their way...heh heh. all sorts of backstage shenanigans going on with the interpols and the datsuns & the like last week too, but i'd have to let james fill you in on that (if he can even remember any of it!!)

some new material on the way as well... those of you fancying hearing that should keep your ear to the ground about the boat party bash we're doing with Crack Village and DJ Rubbish very soon... till next time "it's always gonna be this way"

Mauro (the Rocks)

 

********************************************************************

january 30 2003

well, it looks like the Great Artrocker Controversy may be resolved...
word was getting around that our show there next week would have to be pulled - something to do with the amount of damage caused last time we played!! (both by us and by punters, apparently!) we've had negotiators from the UN working on it, so i think the show WILL go ahead (at time of going to press) on tuesday 4th.
phew!! s'pose we'd better rehearse, or something...

also got played on XFM last night, the first playing of "Everybody In The Place" by John Kennedy, bless 'im. he promises more, so tune in!!

anyway, for anyone who hasn't heard yet, (and who is actually reading this - that's probably just one of us really) you can get in cheap to The Bomb on friday night with the following password on a slip of paper... "We Are 138". special offer!! till next time...

"we are 138". remember that!

********************************************************************
january 24 2003

just over five weeks to go till the big day... "everybody in the place"/"i won't need you when you're dead" available to all & sundry from march 3rd!!!! all very exciting. almost too exciting.got a brilliant video done for "i won't need you", by Save The Wolf (who also did the one for "the bomb"), who knows, it may get on MTV, heh heh... the slo-mo live footage from the legendary ICA gig last year looks amazing!!played our first south london gig last weekend, at the castle in tooting, which was plenty of fun. as south london's finest, we should do a few more gigs south of the river in the coming months...!The Bomb on friday 31st... looking forward to seeing The Lams play (as i'm told they're very good indeed) and also to playing some brilliant tunes on the decks. we WON'T be playing live at this one, contrary to whatever anyone might think, or tell you! till next time, "apathy won't win the war we started"
xx
Mauro (the Rocks)

******************************************************************