Rock'n'folk'n'punk'n'roll.......isn't it?
Well, July is done and dusted now, and from a Headsticks point of view will be remembered with much fondness to say the least, for multiple reasons, all in their own right quite small reasons, yet as a whole, enough to give this Good Ship a massive boost as we continue on that voyage, circumnavigating this crazy world of folk'n'punk'n'rock'n'roll.....so here's not so much a review, but a collection of musings to help explain this veil of positivity surrounding the HQ!
So, we entered the month fresh in the knowledge that were to be included in our first Podcast, the excellent Celtic Punk website, 'Shite 'n' Onions' had deemed 'Are you Feeling great, Britain? ' worthy of AirPlay and for this we were grateful.....these guys have always been supportive, going right back to Jugopunch days when they included 'Black Heart'on their compilation album 'What the Shite!!!!' which sold decent quantities in The States and beyond.....and, now this accolade for our debut EP.....good start!
First up gig wise was a trip to The Express in Crewe, a decent little boozer venue with a reputation for good quality live music, and yes, I know what you're thinking.....and they booked Headsticks? Well, yes they did smart arse, and this gig presented us with another unexpected lift. We played a decent set, introduced new songs, but above all it was the first time people who we didn't know actually turned up wearing the T shirts they'd bought at gigs when last we played in the town, and where people we didn't know we're singing songs back at us, shouting requests for songs and so on.....so maybe the word is spreading, maybe we are on a roll.....time will tell, but time can be bloody cruel too!
A decent weekend on the horizon as far as gigs were concerned, and what do you know but another huge plus for us.....having being included on the aforementioned podcast it had made me think, made me realise, that though we seem to have been pigeon holed in the folkpunk genre we had always leaned towards the folky end of this spectrum, and with our raw and confrontational brand of folk were we maybe doing ourselves out some of our audience base, and depriving those poor punks of our company?...so I sent out a few EPs to various more punk orientated sources, and to our immediate delight/relief we were rewarded with a sensational review on 'punkonline', a web based magazine site for all that is punk and apparently folkpunky too.....check out the full review!
Second gig in the diary for the month was 'Parklive' festival in Congleton, Cheshire, an idyllic setting in the town's park, great set up and massive effort made by the organisers to create something a little inspiring to celebrate the British summer time......it had everything you could ask for really....decent stage and sound set up, stalls, fairground the whole shooting match......but where were the punters??? Well, if I tell you that it was a blisteringly hot day and that this park boasts one of the only outdoor paddling pools in the county, that might give you a clue....yep, anyone with the slightest amount of sense was sat over the other side of the park in the shade.....those with even more sense were basking, baby seal like on the grass embankment outside the pavilion, swilling copious amounts of over priced, pretentious European lager whilst waiting for the ensuing stewards to verbally club them for committing such hideous a crime of standing on the Tarmac whilst in possession of alcohol.....hoodlums!
Indeed, so hot was it that previous performers had struggled to compose themselves and one even managed to make an Elbow cover last just under an hour (or so it seemed) while the skins of the gathered masses actually began to shed....another offence I'm sure in the book of the Steward Militia.....eat your skins before they see you folks! Anyway, we did our stuff, sold a few EP's and got the funk out of Dodge.....
So, straight after the episode in the park, we headed northwards to Bolton....why would you do that? I imagine you are saying.....well, because we had been booked by the very lovely Merry Hell people to open for them at a boozer venue called The Dog and Partridge.....an all day-ish sort of affair or so we thought. We arrived well in advance of our ETA and loaded in much to the bemusement of the sound engineer who had no idea we were coming along to the party! In fact he didn't know nobody else was coming, in fact I'm not convinced he knew Merry Hell were coming, but they did, and so did their fans, bloody loads of them! We were fourth act on, our bassist Nick was in a bad way by this stage after being ill for several days and was beginning to flag a little, but he summoned enough energy to be part of an extremely well received gig.....you have a clue you've done a decent job when the band you are supporting, or most of them, are dancing in front of the stage and going a little bit mental to your stuff....and they did you know!!! , and when one of the members catches you at the bar and tells you that she was in the band minibus reading and relaxing as she normally did before playing a set until she heard the commotion and just had to see what the fuss was about....and was very glad she did.....so top result in Bolton,which is more than can be said for the search for enticing pre gig sustenance......chicken burger and Irish curry sauce.....what the f......Oh by the way, that sound engineer, yeah, well he was a frickin' sound maniac genius...the dog's danglies he was!!!!!
We managed to get some decent footage from the Bolton experience, (the gig, not the Irish curry sauce you understand), which we whacked up on t'internet and numerous people seemed to have taken the opportunity to have a gander at us....including the guys from 'punkonline' who made one of the tracks 'video of the week' on their front web page.......and coincidentally we received further airplay in the States on 'Punk Britannia' and also on 'Studs and Punks' podcast while Facebook 'fan page' 'The 'Church of Punk', with over 50,000 members around this mad world, promote our tunes and vids to a whole new mass of watchers/listeners.....there is a penny beginning to drop here!!!! Oh, and local punk promoter for 'punks not teds promotions' books us to play his birthday bash as part of a pretty decent lineup in Stoke, in September, at the areas most renowned alternative/punk venue The Green Star.....interesting eh? Nervous......not tellin you!!!!
At the same time we were also receiving continued support from local folk/roots show 'Dead Roots radio Show' and also 'The Quiet Revolution' dedicated to new local based music and also receiving plays on 'The Folk Hour' which is broadcast via several Yorkshire based stations and also on roots based presentation 'Anything goes....', but we'll come to that shortly......
The day after the Bolton gig was our 'Song Club' event at The Old Brown Jug, our second or maybe third home! We'd put together a decent line up, and most who were invited to play turned up, and those that didn't, well, we'll see eh! Not to go too much into this night other than to say it was a bloody good 'un and well supported.....inspiring Song Club debuts for Jim Mcshee, Trent Vale Poet, and Dave Dove who all did themselves proud, and welcome returns for the ever inspiring John Macleod and his band and also Cheshire's loved up troubadour Rich Clough.....and us, yep, we made some new friends, some new fans and enjoyed not only playing, but putting this gig on, and nailing it......and a special mention for our Nick, struggling like hell, but battling through to provide a grand sound again.....then off he goes to bed for as long as he is allowed!
Now, we've touched on a tale of two genres, sort of, and now to a tale of two festivals......We managed to get ourselves booked for two very different festivals, at two different parts of the country, but on the same weekend.....logistical nightmare or adventure in the making maybe.....
First up was Bug Jam at Santa Pod, Northants.....a gathering of some forty thousand Volkswagen enthusiasts, revellers, party animals and sorts! Forty thousand of 'em!
Now, we had been allotted a main stage slot, on the Saturday afternoon......The Hoosiers had headlined the Friday night, and Toploader were Saturday's creme de la creme so to speak, so we were in bloody decent company.....however it's fair to say that this is a festival not renowned for it's musical contribution, though the staging set up may have told you otherwise. Nope, this is a loud, boisterous, brash festival based around racing,showing and generally getting off on your prized VW.....but the emphasis on brash and loud!!! We managed to pull a decent little crowd in, fair to say not our usual clientele, but a good chunk of onlookers anyway..... The stage was massive! Proper job, on stage sound more than acceptable and judging by the enthusiasm of the few hundred gathered before us, it sounded decent out front too.....plenty of banter and participation, plenty of positive comments and bucket loads of the EP sold.....and subsequently loads of FB activity all on the plus side.....so against all odds, and with very little sleep the night before we made a non folk crowd have a bit of our brand of folk, or punk, or both.....oh I dunno anymore!!!
So, South West bound was the good ship Headsticks (well, four vehicles carrying us and our suffering loved ones) to the Dorset countryside and the sleepy old town of Tolpuddle for The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival. For the uninitiated Tolpuddle is the home of the first trade union, the birthplace and Mecca for those of that very fine persuasion.....and for all the brashness and in-the-faceness of BugJam, well, this festival was the complete opposite....so chilled and laid back, uplifting and inspirational, this was nigh on bloody perfect this was!!!
Most of us arrived in time for Swill Odgers, the folkpunk Daddy's stunning set, all The Men They Couldn't Hang's classic numbers and plenty from Swill's cracking solo album too, 'The Godforsaken Voyage', a great welcome for me anyway and great to hear and see so many people joining in with the set both inside and outside the marquee.....but enough about this chap, back to us!!!!
We were to open the main stage on Sunday morning at the unearthly hour of 10.45, a main stage which would later see Billy Bragg enchant the gathered disciples of the left.....but it was our job to kick it off and to get things moving, so that's just what we did.....I've half a mind that we were employed almost as musical fog horns to wake the festival goers from their slumber, to let them know it was game on; we're not exactly known for our gentle approach are we?.....so we gave it our all, went down a storm, sold another bucketload of EPs and then relaxed for the rest of the day, enjoying everything thrown at us.....this was a really special day.
I can't recall being stopped by so many people, not just to let us know how much they had enjoyed our stuff, but also to discuss our songs, their messages and contents.....we had engaged a complete new audience here.....and the whole experience left us feeling damn good, it was impossible not to get caught up in the whole feel of this festival, the whole occasion and above all the positivity created in times of relative hardship.....the punters, the stewards, the organisers all deserve massive credit here for producing something really special....and despite late thunder storms, that vibe can never be washed away from our memories, except for Nick's because he was struggling like hell and unable to take in the later atmosphere as he set off homeward bound in search of more antibiotics!
From a gigging perspective that was it really, all good from our point of view, and more bookings coming in, festival interest for next year, and continued radio play on various shows, and interest on Facebook and Reverbnation going pretty mental.....and 6 months at number 1 in our area/genre on the Reverbnstion charts, but that's for folk, so are we being charlatans here? What the hell are we? Does it really matter anyway?, as long as people are listening and taking note, coming to our shows and spreading the word and putting up with our inane nonsense then we are happy bunyips....honestly we are.
The month concluded with a visit to play a live set, and chat a little on Simon Jones' 'Anything Goes....' show, on Moorlands Radio, a station that is punching well above it's weight and showing some of the more established local stations how 'it' should be done and that there is more to music than Lady Gaga and William Robbins or whatever his name is.....their support of local music, for want of a better description is unlikely to be surpassed....not for a good while anyway.
Great to take up the invite to play live, particularly as Simon is an esteemed music journalist and regular contributor to fRoots magazine which has a nigh on biblical status in the world music genre....and you know what, he seems to be on our bloody side!....unfortunately due to continued illness Nick was confined to barracks, so it was deemed that Andrew and Doon should be the ones to carry the torch, so they did, chatted, performed and received rare old praise 'We really enjoyed having Headsticks in........it came out as one of the best sessions we've done. Full of attack, passion and commitment.',again the FB page goes mad and the Good Ship continues on it's merry way, sailing towards the calmer August seas before facing the Autumnal storms.....bring it on, we're coming for ya! Rock'n'folk'n'punk'n'roll is going to getcha!!!
Various relevant (links in no particular order) for you lovely people:-
Shite'n'Onions Podcast
http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/shitenonions/id/2369004
Punkonline http://www.punkonline.co.uk/
Punk Britannia podcast http://www.studsandpunks.co.uk/podcasts
The Church of Punk https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Church-of-PUNK/147386228620900?hc_location=stream
Dead Roots Music Show https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadRootsMusicShow?directed_target_id=0
Moorlands radio http://www.moorlandsradio.co.uk/
Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/index.php?page=martyr-s-festival
Headsticks Reverbnation page (for our songs, our photos and our videos) http://www.reverbnation.com/headsticks
Videos From our show in Bolton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ObeTAcaFkI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_8g4Tr77jI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to55MtbJUZw
Merry Hell http://www.merryhell.co.uk/
'Swill' Odgers and The Men They Couldn't Hang http://www.tmtch.net/
Bug Jam http://www.bugjam.co.uk/index.php
