We only went and filled the New Cross again!!!

This blog used to be one mans public diary for band shenanigans and thanks to every incredible person who bothers to click on a link it's a well read thing. I'm extremely grateful for that and your reading this little blog has directly led to me writing for other proper publications. I love every word that I type so thank you all very much for that.
I will of course get to the bit you care about and talk about the New Cross show in a bit but first I'm gonna take things back to basics and talk about a musical journey and learning which is always at the route of this blog - if you don't care that's cool, please buy yourselves copies of Lights Go Out and Seeing Your Scene for real journalism - and I'm gonna talk about my journey into and probable exit from music promotion, and also the growth of a one man solo outfit into a competent skate punk act.

If you dig back a little ways into the archives you will come across the first serious show I attempted to put on in Harrow. If you hadn't read it already that's ok I'll wait, but yeah it was a train wreck. Since then I have been responsible for a slew of other shows all of which have given me extra grey hairs. From bands not turning up till five minutes before they're on a  show to sound engineers who are two hours late I find that my delicate fun loving spirit cannot handle the stresses of music promotion. That is not to say that I'll not do it any more, I love the music scene I've been adopted by with huge passion and will continue to support it in every way possible but maybe promotion can take a back seat to the label which is a fraction less stressful and just as rewarding. The gold star on all these shows is unequivocally the Authority Zero show that recently happened this Tuesday. It was a major undertaking for our fledgling promotions enterprise and thankfully a large chunk of the effort was taken on by ska punk sister company Be Sharp. Working with a big team of people was by far more fun but no less stressful. Putting on a major band comes with a lot of complications from rider negotiations (do you

really need a juicer?) to pushing online sales for the first time (successfully) and the burden is a lot better spread out. That's not to say it was easy though and I think all of us are going to take a lovely stressless break from promotion now. I think that I'm going to quietly bow out of these things, having given it all a go and deciding that it's not really for me. I love to play a show, but the organisation of it it a little too much for this old punk these days.

Red Rag Front
Last Tuesday was a night of big steps for me, as a promoter but also as a band. It was the brand new

unveiling of the four piece properly skate punk band and I was goddamned happy with how it all went. playing on shitty equipment first on couldn't dampen the fact that this was big news for us and we knocked it out the park as far as I'm concerned. I don't really see much of a future anymore in the acoustic shows. This was how RRF was always supposed to sound and I couldn't be happier with it right now. Also Eric from Counterpunch gave me some very positive encouragement after which kind of made my year!!

My Third Leg
These guys knocked out a solid set to the background of a rapidly filling NX Inn. They may not tour extensively or play in all of the places but when they do it a little treat and they obviously have all the fun while playing. Last time I wrote about them I spent way too much time talking about Dave, but then Dave is

awesome and the nicest guy and super cool and totally my friend now. We both have a deep love for the walking bass line which he is a bit of an expert at. The Be Sharp crew make up the rest of the rythmns and everything is glued pretty nicely together by Will who is the corner stone that keeps everything rocking along nicely.



Demon Smiles
I was the guitarist for Demon Smiles in London for a blissful few months but this show was time for me to hand the keys over to brand new guitarist Jazz, and it's a bloody good thing too because The DS crew have never ever sounded better, tighter and more alive than they did at NX that night. Something about the new energy has sparked everyone in the band to new levels of excellence. I have never heard Steve play faster or with such confidence, never heard Cat sound so powerful and never heard such crunchy perfectly delivered riffage as from Jazz. This is the band that Demon Smiles always promised

they could be in the flashes of brilliance we saw too few and far between before. Demon Smiles is Dead. Long Live Demon Smiles.

The Crowd.
I won't cheapen Counterpunch and Authority Zero with a write-up as they were above and beyond exceptional both and are too worthy of great acclaim for my feeble blogging to accommodate. Instead I will finish this post with a love letter to those 200 - 250 souls to packed themselves into the New Cross Inn on a Tuesday night to have the best bloody time they possibly could. There is something special about packing people into the NX that I never see anywhere else. When you have and A* caliber band playing there it's like that act are playing especially to you and every person feels the same. There is a closeness and sense of familiarity that spreads through the crowd and infects them all with an enthusiasm that is hard to match anywhere else. When you are singing the lyrics to your favourite song you know that the guys on stage can hear you and when you are dancing you are dancing for your heroes entertainment and when you turn to the 200 strangers next to you, you see the same look in

their eyes and you know you're all on that perfect same level and that you're all the best of friends right there and then and that you're sharing in something really special.

Finally thank you once more to Cottage Chicken. The single greatest Fried Chicken joint in all of the cosmos. You will never stop amazing me with your quality fast foods at astoundingly cheap prices.

Viva La New Cross Inn
Viva La Cottage Chicken

Photo props to Warren Miller