Band of the Land competition - The Vic 01/10/11

Venue: The Victoria, Fletcher Road, Stoke

Other Acts: Fighting Flux, Rain, All Over Now and Shouting

Swift on the heels of the Memorial at Denry's, we hotfooted it to The Victoria in Stoke for the Semi-Finals of The Band of the Land competition 2011.

First up were Fighting Flux, who apparently since the 1st heat have had a line-up change. An interesting bunch, with a ukelele player!! Playing mainly rock based sounds. The guitarist, a young lad called Taylor, was clearly the main force behind the band espescially when he pulled out his twin neck guitar!!!!
Rain were up second, a half hour set Louise told us, so we mixed things up, doing Fever and Know on Bass, followed by the other tracks. good reaction from the crowd too...
All Over Now and Shouting were up last... at which point Graeme and I thought we should pack our bags and go. They are incredibly techinically proficient, and while a metal band, with a female singer and the growling vocals reminiscent of Korn, we thought they were clearly the winners...

However... the judges made their decision... Rain were to go through to the Final... on one point!!!
Diversity.
OMG!!!! We were in shock!!
Apparently they have had so many metal bands in the competition, it really put the judges off, and they were pleased that there was something different!!
AOKaS had a band meeting, and think that words were said, then the head judge announced that AOKaS would be entered into the final as well... seeing as they have a female vocalist as well, she thought it fair.
Have to admit, while the idea of judges decisions being final.. we are probably the oldest people in the competition and have very little by the way of milage... the youngsters have their youth, plus amazing technical ability... I do think its important for judges to stand by their decisions.. and if it upsets a bunch of teenagers, then they have to learn that they can't win everything.. and there is a lot to be said for losing, as it can mean that they'll try harder for what they want... had they been to the X=Factor.. I'm sure Simon Cowell would just tell them to grow up and stop being petulant! lol

Considering that we

Denry's Bar - Memorial for Patrice 1st October 2011

What a day!!

Venue: Denry's Music Bar

Other Acts -Wired, Cheesecake, Arthur Righteous, The Friendly Campaign, Rain, The Deep, The Nanateas, The Clockwork Owls, The Longwave, Giro Junkie, The Seers, Nemo.

Organised in a very short space of time by Sian of Cheesecake, this was an event for Pete Norcott (The Incontinents) as a memorial for Patrice, his lovely lady who had died a mere 12 months previous. The idea was to raise funds for the Cocker and English Springer Spaniel Rescue, which was Patrice's favourite charity.

The day began with a rock/metal band made up of 14/15 year olds!!! Sian turned to me (Sheena) and said, "We've got to follow these guys".. to say they were indcredible was an understatement. The drummer did most of the singing (no mean feat) and musically they put a number of folks to shame! Chatting after we discovered that they were music students, obviously dedicated... Lets see where they end up.. just wish I could remember what they were called!! ... Oh yes.. Wired!!!
Cheescake followed with their usual ecclectic style, a sort of bizarre mix really, but still great! Hampered somewhat by the limitations of the sounddesk and the bass amp lead cutting out.. swiftly dealt with my Graeme, who stepped in to sort it out!
Following Cheesecake was Arthur Righteous, taking things in a more relaxed direction, displaying a really rather nice and somewhat expensive Martin Guitar and Roland Acoustic guitar amp.... Think there were a few jealous eyes in the room, as he played with his usual aplomb!
Picking up Arthur's Guitar, Gaz played alongside fellow bandmate Ian for the newly Acoustic Friendly Campaign... Proving that punky songs can sound great as acoustic numbers.. in fact.. I would say that they sounded better, lovely harmonies too.
Rain (us) were next - Playing rather a number of songs from our songbook, well, no-one told us to get off!!! lol... We took the time to set the PA up ourselves, so think we got a really good sound from it.. all things considered.
We gave way for Leek's finest - The Deep... who are a definate sight for sore eyes. They are a band not to be missed, I said that if John Peel were still alive, then he'd be a big fan... Tehy don't mince words and inspired all the crowd to join in on their seminal track "God is dead, long live Satan"
Unfortunately we had to cut the day short, due to appearing at The Band of the Land Competition 2011 at The Victoria that evening... would have been nice to see the other acts.. Oh well, there's always next year!! lol

The Acoustimass Project - The Victoria 8/9/11

Other Acts: Paul Heeley, Thornleaf, Stokie Mart, Julia Rowley, Sarah and Jonno, Ed Lawton

Venue: The Victoria Hotel, Stoke

We arrived early to this event in order to ask James to record a couple of songs for us. We're interested in putting more of our work out there, so we recorded the same 2 songs around 8 or so times each!!! Crazy, but hopefully worth it, we might get a working couple of demos out of it!

There was a plethora of talent there, as is often the case with The Acoustimass Open Mic night. So many good acts and so many shakey/drummy things!! lol

We tried out a couple of new ones (Forever and the one with no title as yet), which were warmly received, though it made us aware that we need to work on them more. However, onwards and upwards!!

The Boat Band Acoustic night - The Greyhound 7/09/11

Other acts: The Boat Band, plus the usual menagerie of performers from various places

Venue: The Greyhound, Penkhull.

The Boat Band do really put on a show, a mix of folk/cajun.. whatever...
Everyone has a play, everyone inputs a dance/song/poem, whatever and managed to make for a very entertaining evening!

Band of the Land competition - The Vic 03/09/11

Other Acts: No Redemption/Thornleaf and Beyond the Blaze

Venue: The Victoria

Well. this was a rather unexpected gig. Phone call received at 7.30pm from James (No Redemption/Thornleaf) asking if we'd like to support them at The Vic. We were totally unaware of the Band of The Land competition and they had entered it, simply instead we thought we'd be providing a musical interlude.

We arrived at the venue within half an hour to be told we'd been entered into the Band of the Land 2011 competition!

Lots were drawn, and we pulled second! First to entertain were Beyond the Blaze a group of young lads from Coventry, who apparently had only been together for a couple of months.. All original material and loads of enthusiasm.
We were up second with: Forever, Je Ne Regrette Rien, At Seventeen, and others.
No Redemption/Thornleaf went on third and generally blew everyone away.
Time for judges consultation was met with much mutual patting of heads and drinkies.. Then the winners were announced.
It was decided that all bands were good enough to go through to the semi-finals, with the overall winners of the night being Beyond the Blaze!!!
Watch this space for news on the competition!!

New songs and thoughts on them.

Well, the time has come for us to work on new songs. We've been singing the same 7 or so songs for the past few months and the decision was made to work on some original material and another cover. These things inevitably take time to come together, through discussion, disagreement, and downright hard work. Some songs are relitively easy to do. Their chord progressions make them easy to interpret and the lyrics are straightforward and might hold memories. Some songs are by their very nature tricky. They are hard to learn, hard to find a way into and hard to interpret. Thats why we choose to do them. No point in trolling out the same covers as everyone else, we made a  concious decision to work on material that very few actually cover, specifically because its difficult, it might have strange progressions, tricky time signatures, or otherwise tongue twisting lyrics.
One song has kept us busy for around 2 months now. It was refusing to be bent to our will. Whatever we did to it, something just wasn't "quite right" with it. Last night (Friday), we finally cracked the three songs we've been working on. Well... we cracked 2. Both original songs. We feel like we're accomplishing something now. Its inspiring us to create more songs and work harder on the ones we have already done.

The BlackFriar - Sunday 28th August

Venue: The Blackfriar - Newcastle under Lyme

Other acts: Tez and friend, Rain.

The plan was to go to The Unicorn Open Mic night, via the Blackfriar in order to watch Tez (formerly of Discharge) doing his acoustic set. As things rarely go to plan, we watched Tez and friend doing various covers until they decided after about 8 songs that it was time for a break. Tez had motioned to Graeme earlier in the evening to "come up and have a go". So Graeme asked the bar staff if we could get up a "do" a set during the break. The staff were tremendously supportive and allowed us to get up and play. We played/sang all the songs in our current repertoire, to a rather surprised crowd. Not sure what they were expecting but it was encouraging again to receive warm applause and kind comments. The bar staff were enthusiastic with their praise and have encouraged us to try their open mic night, which is on a Tuesday, which we have agreed to do, once the other songs are finished.
Currently working on some original material and some other covers. Time to expand the repertoire and take over the world!! (I'm joking, of course!)...

The Rigger: Bearfoot Live! Open Mic night 24/08/2011

Venue: The Rigger, Newcastle under Lyme

Other acts included: Bearfoot (our hosts), Someone who was new.. can't remember their name, Kayleigh, Slug, Gaz Bennett, Martin (from Dead Radio Society), John Mcleod, Rain, Sarah Hood and John, Paul. (May have been others, but I, Sheena, can't remember)

Arrived a tad late to this night, due to mix up over babysitters, and general lack of communication between Graeme and I. Still was able to see Bearfoot mid flow, doing their usual brand of Country/Rock a couple of members down, they still held the stage and proved how professional they really are.
Managed to catch up with a few folk and Graeme approached Joe, with a view to try and get us on earlyish... Obviously arriving after everyone else meant that we had to wait a while, we couldn't just expect to walk in and go straight on, plus a couple of the others who had turned up early were needing to get off early too.
Kayleigh was on form, can't wait to see what she's like in a few years, she has the chance to do really well, if she keeps working hard.. suppose its easier when your dad is in Bearfoot!! lol
Then a guy, who's name I can't remember stepped up, apparently he's only been playing the guitar 8 months, but he did really well.
Slug performed a rather unusual version of"Take on Me" with a kazoo solo.. definately had to be seen to be believed!!
Gaz, laid everyon'e bladder to waste with his didge... though one can't help wondering if open mic nights are really the best place for didge's... and they are pretty much a one trick pony.. Shall encourage Gaz to get his flute out!
After a short spell from Bearfoot, it was our turn. In no particular order we performed "Another Suitcase", "Rosemary Lane", "Fever" and "At Seventeen". Graeme having taken his Fender Jazz down to show Matt the Sound engineer, meant that the dynamic to fever was enhanced. After coming off a chap by the name of Kieran approached and said "you did that song from Evita really well, you've got a great voice"... which was lovely. Our performance was videoed by Glenn Amos, so hopefully the footage will be up on YouTube before too much longer.
The night continued with Martin from Dead Radio Society... I could hear harmonies in the songs he performed and wondered if they were band songs that were converted to solo use...
John McCleod did his "new songs" very well... it would appear that he has new songs every week, which shows how prolific he must be!
Sarah Hood stepped up with her guitarist John and did a couple as did Paul to finish the night..
Overall the usual high calibre of performances that showcase at The Rigger really raise the bar, there are some fabulously talented people out there and I'm glad that Rain are a part of it!
Though Graeme and I have agreed, while we love doing the cover versions, there is a number of original songs we'd like to do.

Denry's Bar - 21st August 2011

Venue: Denry's Bar, St John's Square, Burslem

Found out that this "Acoustic Night" was on from 3pm on Facebook, so we decided to pop along.. knowing that The Nanateras had played the night before, and Nemo had played on Friday night, we figured it worth checking out. Denry's has been set up as a purposeful music venue for Burslem, by Pete Carney, who felt there was a need for a venue in Burslem.
Pete did say that the Acoustic night wasn't due until around 7pm, but seeing as we'd turned up, then we could play.
We decided to do all the songs as a demo of what we're capable of to a very receptive audience.
Started with "Know", just to let Pete balance the sound, the continued onto "Fever", to which Pete joined us on Guitar, which added an extra dimension to the song.
Switching to Guitar, "At Seventeen", followed by "The Poacher", "Sunrise", "Another Suitcase",
"Rosemary Lane" and ended the set with "Je ne Regtrette Rien".
Flawless set! And plenty of encouragement from Pete!
Now to learn some more songs!

The Victoria - 18th August 2011

Hosted by: The Acoustimass Project.

In attendance: No Redemption, Paul Heeley, Rain, Thornleaf and Stokey Mark

"We're videoing this tonight".... crikey.. the unflappable Mr James Earnshaw had set up a camera in order to video some "timelapse" of the bands, and another camera to film the audience, in order to do a timelapse montage for everyone's perusal on You Tube! (Good job we were dressed up then!!)

Started the set with "Know" - seemed to be well received by the majority, follwed swiftly by "Fever".. Graeme playing on his 20 something year old bass... sounded good.. For a cheap bass (once upon a time).. it sounds better than some new instruments and lended a nice intonation to the songs.. I like the set up of bass and vocals, its interesting and think it should be an avenue other artists should consider.
Next, after swapping to the holey Takamine six string acoustic, we gave the audience "At Seventeen".. one of the best that we do, imho. Its a song I'm very comfortable in singing.
For the last song in the section we chose to do "Je ne Regrette Rien".. which we right royally messed up... so we went for a second go and managed to squeeze it out, despite some odd moments. Phoenetically learning French songs is all well and good, as is learning classic songs.. but mistakes tend to show like the open wounds on a rubgy players face when they've had a bad tackle.
We put it down to tiredness. This was the third Open Mic we'd done this week and we were fit for nothing really. It showed up our need to practice almost continually and rest adequately too.
It also highlighted our need to get to grips with the other songs we've got on the back burner and our desire to move forward with things too.
In order to be remembered we have to get out there and "do" as equally as spending time rehearsing, writing and the like. If this is to be a success, then we have to make it so!

Rain the blog goes live

Here it is.. the real time, live blog for Rain.

So, why a blog.. why not?

So, we are getting ready to level the world with interesting sounds and unusual songs to touch, delight, and simply generate something tricky in the landscape of acoustic music.

Genres do not define us.

Rain simply levels the playing field for everyone
When it rains everyone gets wet!

:-)

Next gig: The Rigger Open Mic Night on Wednesday 17th August.