Monday 21 April 2014

Hipsville 60's Garage Go-Go Party Weekend May 16th-18th



Hipsville 2014! The countdown is on for a 60′s SPACE themed party weekend like no other! International Live bands, Top DJs, Gyrating Go-Go Girls in Cages, Wild Gorillas, Exotic TiKi party, Robots, Aliens and Spaceships. Plus a 3 Day Vintage market, Psychotronic Movie Theatre, Live TiKi Carving, Hot Rods, Custom Cars, Motorbikes and Scooters and more, more, more...It's gonna be the craziest, wildest space age weekend you'll ever experience! Bands appearing include King Salami & The Cumberland 3, MFC Chicken, The Sine Waves and The Stags amongst many other international acts over the three days. Check the official web-site for up-to-date info and announcements


Hipsville takes place on Friday 16th May, Saturday 17th May and Sunday 18th May at The Bisley Pavilion, Queen's Road, Brookwood, Surrey GU24 0NY and you can buy advance tickets here. For our Retro Man Blog feature on one evening at last year's Hipsville please click here.


If you enjoy Hipsville you may want to check out the regular Weirdsville Club nights held at the Fiddler's Elbow in Camden, London on the Saturday of every month. Also, if you're in Brighton, there are the Stay Sick Club nights held every 2nd Saturday of the month at The Blind Tiger.

Sunday 20 April 2014

The Galileo 7 to release their third album "False Memory Lane" late May/early June

The Galileo 7 are due to release their third album entitled "False Memory Lane" sometime in late May/early June. As well as bashing the bass in The Forefathers, along with his ex-Prisoners and Solarflares colleagues Graham Day and Wolf Howard, Allan Crockford also plays guitar, sings and writes the songs in his psych-tinged four-piece garage-pop combo, The Galileo 7, who also feature Mole (from the Higher State) on bass, Russ Baxter (Secret Affair) on drums and Viv Bonsels on organ. You'll be able to see the band perform songs from the new album at our very special Retro Man Blog Medway Garage Rock Night at The Half Moon Putney on Friday June 6th as they will be opening the show at 8pm to be followed by The Len Price 3 and Graham Day & The Forefathers. The band are currently finalizing distribution for "False Memory Lane", however it will definitely be on sale directly from the band's recently re-vamped website, so keep an eye out for news on the official release date. It will be available on vinyl, CD and download with the vinyl package also including a bonus 3 track CD E.P. featuring songs that didn't quite make the album along with download codes. Hopefully the band will be selling copies at the June 06th gig too.

The Galileo 7 photographed at The Pipeline, London by Paul Slattery
Tickets and information about the Retro Man Blog Medway Garage Rock Night on June 06th can be found at this link here. The gig is almost sold out as tickets were limited to 200, so please contact the Half Moon to check availability as it is unlikely tickets will be available on the door on the night.


You can hear "Don't Follow Me", an excellent and exclusive pre-mastered track from the new Galileo 7 album, in Episode 13 of our Retrosonic Podcast which is available to listen to or download for free below or from our Retrosonic Soundcloud Archive site.



Saturday 12 April 2014

Retro Man Blog Presents: Graham Day & The Forefathers + The Len Price 3 + Galileo 7 at The Half Moon Putney June 06th


We are very proud to announce another Retro Man Blog Night at The Half Moon Putney, this will be a Medway Garage Rock night on Friday June 06th featuring Graham Day & The Forefathers, The Len Price 3 and Galileo 7. This is in conjunction with the excellent new book "The Kids Are All Square, Medway Punk & Beyond 1977-1985" by Ian Snowball and Bob Collins. Copies of the book will be on sale at the gig and hopefully the authors will also be there to sign copies.

Graham Day & The Forefathers by Paul Slattery
Graham Day & The Forefathers are the crucial ingredients of The Prisoners, Prime Movers, Solarflares and The Gaolers extracted and squeezed into one stripped down power trio. Cranking out choice live cuts from four Graham Day-fronted bands, The Forefathers (triple) distil 30-odd years of high quality song writing, low-fi production and high energy performance to their stripped down garage-rock essence. After a handful of dates as the Prime Movers, Graham Day, Allan Crockford and Wolf Howard, now rechristened Graham Day and the Forefathers, are unashamedly pumping out the best material from all the line-ups, including the Prisoners, with an uncompromising verve and energy, undiminished from their earliest days.
 
Graham Day & The Forefathers by Paul Slattery
The Len Price 3 are an adrenaline pumped pop band from England, forged in the traditions of their Medway Delta roots. They are a revelation to those who encounter them, encompassing all of what you would want from a band in one invigorating sonic experience. Their dazzling live performances feature a thunderous set of well-honed melodic nuggets played at breakneck speed, complete with shiny pop hooks and chrome glazed harmonies. But dig a bit deeper and you will find a rich lyrical content that is full of acid tongued lyrics and wry social observations. With each album and single release receiving glowing reviews and every live show leaving behind a highly satisfied audience full of enthusiastic devotees, The Len Price 3 are fast becoming a true national treasure…

The Len Price 3 by Paul Slattery
As well as bashing the bass in Graham Day & The Forefathers, Allan Crockford also plays guitar, sings and writes the songs in his psych-tinged four-piece garage-pop combo, Galileo 7. He'll be doing a double shift on June 6th as they warm up early-comers before the evening's power trio extravaganza. Also featuring Mole (from the Higher State) on bass, Russ Baxter (Secret Affair) on drums and Viv Bonsels on organ, their 3rd album 'False Memory Lane' is out in a few weeks.

Galileo 7 by Paul Slattery
Tickets are only £13.50 in advance but are strictly limited to 200 so please book now "to avoid disappointment" as the old cliché goes...you can get tickets in person directly at The Half Moon (to avoid any booking fee) or at their ticket booking link here.

You can listen to our announcement about the gig and hear some great tunes from The Prisoners and Thee Mighty Caesars as well as an exclusive track from Galileo 7's forthcoming new album "False Memory Lane" in Episode 13 of Retrosonic Podcast. There's also music from The Chocolate Watchband, The Sonic Jewels, The Movements, The Afex, The Uniques, The Clique, Otis Clay, Fogbound, The New Alchemy and another exclusive, this time from the excellent Modern-day French Ye-Ye Beat group Les Kitschenettes...you can listen in and download for free below or visit our Soundcloud page for the whole archive of previous episodes. 



Gig Poster designed by Eric Boitier at Flying Lunchbox with Graham Day photo by Paul Slattery.



Friday 11 April 2014

Oasis: Opening Night Party "Chasing The Sun 1993-97" Photo Exhibition featuring Paul Slattery

Photo by Paul Slattery
"Chasing The Sun: Oasis 1993-1997" is an exhibition of rare and iconic photographs, artefacts and memorabilia from the early years of Oasis, the most significant band to emerge from the U.K. in the past two decades. "Chasing The Sun" takes us on the band’s supercharged journey from a Manchester rehearsal studio to international rock stardom, via three landmark albums - "Definitely Maybe", "(What’s The Story) Morning Glory", and "Be Here Now" - and many legendary gigs, from London’s 100 Club to Glastonbury Festival to their era-defining two night stand at Knebworth House. Curated by renowned photographer Lawrence Watson, who has photographed Oasis several times and worked on Noel Gallagher’s solo album, the exhibition includes previously unseen images from the photographers who had fly-on-the-wall access to the band, including Jill Furmanovsky, Paul Slattery, Tom Sheehan, Kevin Cummins, and Jamie Fry. The exhibition will also display some of the iconic instruments played on the early albums (lent by the band members themselves), vintage merchandise, artefacts from the album sleeves, plus rarely seen early audio-visual content. There's also a full size mock-up of the room from the "Definitely Maybe" album cover where you can recreate your own take on the photo. Opening 20 years to the day since the release of their debut single "Supersonic" (released 11th April 1994), "Chasing The Sun: Oasis 1993-1997" is the first ever exhibition dedicated entirely to Oasis.

Paul Gallagher, Bonehead, Paul Slattery & Liam - Copyright Retroman Blog 2014
The Exhibition takes place at the Londonewcastle Project Space at 28 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London E2 7DP, it's free to enter and runs until April 22nd. The Opening Times are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday 12:00-19:00hrs, Thursday & Friday 12:00-20:00hrs, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday 12:00-18:00hrs.

I went along to the private view launch party last night as my Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast colleague Paul Slattery has some of his excellent early Oasis photos on display and I got there early to make sure I could check out the exhibition itself. I can thoroughly recommend a visit, there is an excellent selection of superb photos and memorabilia on display, some as yet unseen and the gallery space is large so it's easy to view the exhibits. Liam Gallagher made an appearance along with brother Paul and guitarist Bonehead and it was nice to see them meet up with photographer Paul Slattery again. Here are some photos from the opening night. 



Paul Slattery signing copies of his book "Oasis: A Year On The Road"
...and some of his photos that feature in the book

You can order Paul Slattery's excellent book "Oasis: A Year On The Road" from Amazon or decent book shops with good taste in music and photography. Paul also has a stunning book, "The Smiths: The Early Years" available which features many iconic photos of the band's formative years. 


Nowadays, Paul is still to be found at the front of many a stage photographing the underground Garage Rock and Psych scenes with bands such as The Fallen Leaves and The Len Price 3 and contributing to Retro Man Blog. He is also one of my regular co-hosts on Retrosonic Podcast and we will be discussing his time with Oasis in a future Episode, so please follow our various Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud sites for news and updates on when that will be released. You can hear Paul talking about his very early days in Rock Photography in this Episode of Retrosonic Podcast


Check out the excellent Oasis website oasisinet.com for further information on the Exhibition and for a huge archive and on the bands' gigs, press, videos, discography, memorabilia and much more. Exhibition Photos Copyright Retro Man Blog 2014, Black & White Portrait of Liam and Noel Gallagher Copyright Paul Slattery 2014. For more photos from the exhibition's opening night "Like" the Retro Man Blog Facebook page for access to the photo album.



Sunday 6 April 2014

The Fuzztones + Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons + The Go Go Cult at The Tufnell Park Dome March 22nd

The Fuzztones by Paul Slattery
It’s hard to believe that I first saw The Fuzztones back in 1985, the band had just released the faultless “Lysergic Emanations" and from the classic horror-comic cover to the unbelievably strong collection of songs within, it still ranks up there as one of my all-time favourite albums. The band were at the forefront of the mid-80’s American Garage Rock Revival, and with their paisley and leather, authentic Vox instruments, bowl haircuts and bone necklaces the timing was right for the Fuzztones to hit the U.K. Over here we had The Damned’s alter-ego Naz Nomad & The Nightmares, and their superb album of classic Nuggets cover versions along with The Cramps inspired Psychobilly scene. There was the Klub Foot at the Clarendon in Hammersmith putting on acts such as The Playn Jayn and not forgetting The Medway bands such as The Prisoners and The Milkshakes, all finding inspiration in those nuggets of American Sixties Psychedelia and Garage Rock. Now all these elements are certainly in vogue again and The Fuzztones are back for a rare return to the U.K.

The Go Go Cult by Paul Slattery
Opening the show tonight at The Dome in Tufnell Park, were The Go Go Cult who took the stage resplendent in matching stripey shirts and black masks, looking like villains from The Green Hornet or Batman. Powered along by a really great drummer they also had an impressively ear-shredding raw guitar sound and laid down a swampy, hypnotic beat that reminded me a bit of The Meteors or Clinic, who coincidentally also wear masks. So, a good start and the band were well received although it was a bit disappointing to see them come back on stage after their set and dismantle their own equipment. Seeing them unplug guitars without the masks somewhat ruined the air of mystery and I would recommend they employ a couple of similarly clad henchmen/roadies to handle their gear while the band make a secretive and mysterious exit!

Puss Johnson of Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons by Paul Slattery
Next up were Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons who cranked it up even louder and drew a few more interested people to the front of the stage. This turned out to be a rather dangerous place to be as Puss kept leaping off into the crowd every now and then to prowl and preen around us. She is a live wire alright, a real ball of energy on huge platform boots, Catwoman hair and yes, she does have a swinging tail too. Despite having a bad cold, Puss put on a great show and she and guitarist Jake have a nice chemistry between them. As a three piece, with no bass and Puss’s confrontational blur of a stage presence, there are bound to be comparisons with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs but the band are difficult to categorize and that's certainly to their benefit. They end a thoroughly enjoyable set with the great single “Trouble With The Devil” and got a really good reaction from the audience.

The Fuzztones by Paul Slattery
So here I was, eagerly awaiting my first glimpse of The Fuzztones in almost 30 years…but that eager wait was to drag on for what seemed like another 30 years, well OK it was about 45 minutes actually, but it didn't half drag and the crowd were starting to get irritated. It didn’t help as there was no DJ so we had to endure a tape of some awful tuneless stuff over the P.A. which was made even more frustrating by the fact that Dirty Water Records had a stall there and they had lots of great vinyl on sale (I picked up some 7" singles from King Salami & The Cumberland 3 and the Lyres, lovely…!) and it was a shame they couldn’t have commandeered the sound system to keep the crowd warmed up. By the time The Fuzztones came on there was a distinct thaw in the atmosphere, and there were some shouts of "Why are we waiting?!" which was a real shame as the momentum of the two excellent support acts was somewhat lost.

Rudi Protrudi of The Fuzztones by Paul Slattery
But then finally The Fuzztones appeared and blasted into Davie Allan's manic surf instrumental "Blue's Theme" closely followed by "Caught You Red Handed" and "I Never Knew". Only lead vocalist guitarist Rudi Protudi remains from the original line-up, however the current band does feature the super-cool Lana Loveland on organ, who I had seen a few years ago playing brilliantly in The Sean Bonniwell Music Machine. Rudi then speaks "I'd like to say how nice it was to be back in London, well I'd like to say that but..." He then goes on a scatter-shot rant about fox hunting, Obama, the "crisis" and living in Germany before introducing a great version of The Shadows of Knight' "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" and finally the atmosphere has warmed up considerably. A slinky "Romilar D" and storming "Brand New Man" pick up the pace even more but then things grind to a halt again. "Has anyone got a guitar I can borrow?" asks Rudi "I've been banging my guitar around so much that I've snapped a string". Someone shouts back, "just put a new string on then!" Rudi replies "I haven't got any spare strings either, I blame the Government! It's the crisis...I couldn't bring our other guitarist over, or a roadie or even a spare guitar..." Then someone shouts out for the classic "Gotta Get Some", and Rudi quips, "Hey we all gotta some but we can't even get that anymore, there's a crisis going on!"

Lana Loveland by Paul Slattery
Luckily Jake from Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons hands Rudi his guitar to use and they start up a cover of Bevis Frond's "Eyes In The Back of My Head", this shudders to a halt suddenly, "I can't hear the guitar now" says Rudi and they try again with what is a pretty damn good version. "This is going to be our last show in London, we had so much hassle getting here so enjoy it!" I do, there's a great double hit of "Bad News Travels Fast" and "Highway '69" before Rudi asks us all to "Get Naked!", nobody does although some chap at the front takes his shirt off. "I'm old enough to remember the Sixties and we didn't need to be asked to take our clothes off!", luckily the subject is changed by the slow burning classic "Ward '81" which is one of my highlights of the night. Rudi chats again, "In 1984 we did our very first and only tour and recorded a live album "Leave Your Mind At Home" so we would like to do a few songs from that album" and then they played great versions of Gonn's "Blackout of Gretely", The Sparkles' "Aint No Friend of Mine" and We The People's "Burn Me Up and Down". Unfortunately the late start and delays caught up with me and as the band blasted out The Sonics' "The Witch" I had to dash to catch my last train home feeling disappointed to say the least. Let's hope Rudi changes his mind and brings The Fuzztones back to the U.K. again!

Here are some more photos of the gig by Paul Slattery, all photos Copyright 2014.





For more photographs please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and hit "Like" for access to the exclusive photo album. With thanks to Paul Slattery.


Saturday 5 April 2014

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 14: Steve from Retro Man Blog, Rock Photographer Paul Slattery and Adam from The Jetsonics with an eclectic mix of goodies from the Retrosonic record box...In this Episode there's a track from The Monochrome Set's latest album "Super Plastic City" and news about our gig with the band on May 24th at The Half Moon Putney, there's scary tales from Killing Joke gigs and a classic slice of KJ Dub. Paul and Adam talk about the good old days at The Nashville and pick a couple of their favourite bands who played at the legendary venue. There's a new one from Shack and Pale Fountains front man Michael Head with The Red Elastic Band, power pop at it's best from Cotton Mather and old school Rockabilly from Walter Brown & His Band. Some Slap Shot inspired Ice Hockey Punk from The Hanson Brothers and a tuneful blast from Hot Hooves. There's talk about Hamburg's Neue Deutsche Welle scene and some German Psych Soul from The Soul Explosion and the Surf Guitar twang of Dresden's The Roaring 420s...If that's not enough there's sleazy guitar boogie from Eagles of Death Metal and a Psychobilly Garage Rock opener from The Things...Listen or download below...Enjoy!


Tickets for our Retro Man Blog Night at The Half Moon Putney on Saturday May 24th are available from the box office here at the special advance purchase price of only £12.50.