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March 2005
03 March 2005
17:21:00 o'clock GMT
Hearing Melys - life's too short
It was like a red rag to a bull. The touch paper was lit and everyone apart
from the one with the match took cover, as they knew the firework would be a
big one.
No one pisses on Adam Walton's bonfire and then justifies their actions in
print.
I am talking about the BBC Radio Wales broadcast from Holyhead a fortnight
ago when Weapons of Mass Belief, Inferno and Skinflick played live to a
small audience at the RNA Club and the proceedings were pumped quite
wonderfully across the nation in FM and digital sound quality. It was an
excellent night, even if I was sat at home with a roaring log fire, glass of
wine, tartan blanket over my knees and my pipe and slippers at the ready. I
did have a reason; Holyhead is 62 miles from Crud Acres. Those who didn't
have an excuse for not going were the bands involved with Green Dragon -
notably Xms3. They, as it turned out, with their entourage
boycotted the evening, hence the small audience. The bands and management
were displeased at having not being asked to play at the event and felt the
inclusion of their local 'rivals' Inferno, smacked of nepotism, as the
drummer Jay is the son of the RNA promoter Jim Lee.
All the stranking achieved was to wind up one of the very few people who has
helped and would have continued to help the likes of Xms3 develop and
broaden their appeal. The fact was that Adam wasn't aware of the family
connection until during the show and he himself chose the bands and that
choice had nothing to do with the RNA Club. In fact, Jim Lee had fought the
corner of keeping it local and putting on other Holyhead bands at the event.
But the formula for these broadcasts has always been to pull in talent from
all over Wales.
I do love rivalry and bitching and even fighting between local bands,
probably because I'm not in one and can sit back and enjoy the show. The
reason for being in a band is about ego, even though there are those who'll
deny that, but it is, ego, ego, and ego. So egos get bruised, but to bite a
feeding hand will always lead to your food being taken away, and someone
like Adam has such a huge larder that you cannot afford to go hungry for too
long.
Xms3 were given a session on Adam's show last year and I did raise an
eyebrow and put it down to Martin Green Dragon's enthusiasm and clever
coaxing skills to cajole Mr Walton into letting them record for the BBC. The
year before I talkedhim into giving sessions to Gintis, Jives Room and the
Hollow, it turned out the latter two were not ready for the pressures of
rattling off 4 songs in a studio in one day, and it showed on the broadcast,
and they would have probably been better off leaving it for a year. The
Hollow have since recorded a second (and excellent) session for the show and
Jives Room are now long overdue a return.
Xms3's session showed promise, just like the bands from the year before, but
it didn't do them any good. They weren't ready for such wide exposure or
would've benefited from a producer in the studio with them to oversee their
work. The same would've happened at a live broadcast and it would've (as
Adam stipulated about Gintis last year) shattered their confidence when up
against the slick professionalism of Skinflick and Weapons of Mass Belief.
The Great Eskate Tour arranged by Green Dragon was a superb concept and
fantastic experience for such young bands, where his bands toured Wales in a
proper bus playing proper venues with proper equipment, but they need more,
more gigs, to be out there mixing it with bands from other areas (I do
believe they're organising shows with some South Wales bands). The more
shows they do they'll then realise they're either ready to take the world
(not just Holyhead) by storm or apply for that job in McDonalds.
Its easy to say 'fuck off Crud, you don't know what you're talking about,'
and you could be right. But I thought a similar thing after playing my debut
gig as a 19 year old in 4Q. Anhrefn's bassist, Rhys Mwyn said, 'you'll be
pretty good after about 20 gigs.' I thought what a cheeky twat, we were
excellent. He was of course right, we were shite and it was about 30 gigs
before we really clicked as a unit. And back then we didn't have websites,
BBC radio DJs and internet radio shows to help us, we were lost in the
wilderness and eventually imploded through lack of people out there in a
position to expose 4Q to the world.
Don't cut off your lifelines and let that happen to you.
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17:21:00 o'clock GMT
Hearing Melys - life's too short
Warring Factions
It was like a red rag to a bull. The touch paper was lit and everyone apart
from the one with the match took cover, as they knew the firework would be a
big one.
No one pisses on Adam Walton's bonfire and then justifies their actions in
print.
I am talking about the BBC Radio Wales broadcast from Holyhead a fortnight
ago when Weapons of Mass Belief, Inferno and Skinflick played live to a
small audience at the RNA Club and the proceedings were pumped quite
wonderfully across the nation in FM and digital sound quality. It was an
excellent night, even if I was sat at home with a roaring log fire, glass of
wine, tartan blanket over my knees and my pipe and slippers at the ready. I
did have a reason; Holyhead is 62 miles from Crud Acres. Those who didn't
have an excuse for not going were the bands involved with Green Dragon -
notably Xms3. They, as it turned out, with their entourage
boycotted the evening, hence the small audience. The bands and management
were displeased at having not being asked to play at the event and felt the
inclusion of their local 'rivals' Inferno, smacked of nepotism, as the
drummer Jay is the son of the RNA promoter Jim Lee.
All the stranking achieved was to wind up one of the very few people who has
helped and would have continued to help the likes of Xms3 develop and
broaden their appeal. The fact was that Adam wasn't aware of the family
connection until during the show and he himself chose the bands and that
choice had nothing to do with the RNA Club. In fact, Jim Lee had fought the
corner of keeping it local and putting on other Holyhead bands at the event.
But the formula for these broadcasts has always been to pull in talent from
all over Wales.
I do love rivalry and bitching and even fighting between local bands,
probably because I'm not in one and can sit back and enjoy the show. The
reason for being in a band is about ego, even though there are those who'll
deny that, but it is, ego, ego, and ego. So egos get bruised, but to bite a
feeding hand will always lead to your food being taken away, and someone
like Adam has such a huge larder that you cannot afford to go hungry for too
long.
Xms3 were given a session on Adam's show last year and I did raise an
eyebrow and put it down to Martin Green Dragon's enthusiasm and clever
coaxing skills to cajole Mr Walton into letting them record for the BBC. The
year before I talkedhim into giving sessions to Gintis, Jives Room and the
Hollow, it turned out the latter two were not ready for the pressures of
rattling off 4 songs in a studio in one day, and it showed on the broadcast,
and they would have probably been better off leaving it for a year. The
Hollow have since recorded a second (and excellent) session for the show and
Jives Room are now long overdue a return.
Xms3's session showed promise, just like the bands from the year before, but
it didn't do them any good. They weren't ready for such wide exposure or
would've benefited from a producer in the studio with them to oversee their
work. The same would've happened at a live broadcast and it would've (as
Adam stipulated about Gintis last year) shattered their confidence when up
against the slick professionalism of Skinflick and Weapons of Mass Belief.
The Great Eskate Tour arranged by Green Dragon was a superb concept and
fantastic experience for such young bands, where his bands toured Wales in a
proper bus playing proper venues with proper equipment, but they need more,
more gigs, to be out there mixing it with bands from other areas (I do
believe they're organising shows with some South Wales bands). The more
shows they do they'll then realise they're either ready to take the world
(not just Holyhead) by storm or apply for that job in McDonalds.
Its easy to say 'fuck off Crud, you don't know what you're talking about,'
and you could be right. But I thought a similar thing after playing my debut
gig as a 19 year old in 4Q. Anhrefn's bassist, Rhys Mwyn said, 'you'll be
pretty good after about 20 gigs.' I thought what a cheeky twat, we were
excellent. He was of course right, we were shite and it was about 30 gigs
before we really clicked as a unit. And back then we didn't have websites,
BBC radio DJs and internet radio shows to help us, we were lost in the
wilderness and eventually imploded through lack of people out there in a
position to expose 4Q to the world.
Don't cut off your lifelines and let that happen to you.
Written by neilcrud Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
This entry has 6 comments: (Add your own)
-
OK Neil and I have swapped bodily fluids, and sucked each others dicks , all friends again, so piss off sending me pissy email whoever the lowlife is who thinks they are funny, and may the hairs on your arse turn to drum stick and beat the crap out of you.
-
Nice one Green Dragon, anyway who is this neilcrap...SORRY..neilcrud guy!!!!
-
I have replied in person to the above to Neil via email, and haven't done so here as I feel this matter should really now be dropped, and any further public comment by myself would only be seen as "sour grapes" or whatever, and would serve no real purpose.
-
OK Mike, point taken.
To the extent that I've removed your name off the original entry. But if you don't agree with the opinions of those who represent you then you should reconsider your representations. And it is only now that you have come out to denounce any involvement, rather than rasing your voice at the start of the debate a fortnight ago.
I stand exactly by what I said in that entry so far as 'not being ready' is concerned and hope you take heed from it. Or tell me to fuck off like most people do.
19/04/05 09:21