News Round-up for January 2009

Phew! It’s been ages since we’ve had an update on the site (as a few people have kindly pointed out to us). Lots has been going on during 2008, which I’ll cover later - however firstly let’s stick to current news:

2009 gigs so far.... This year already promises to be our busiest yet (not difficult by our standards!) and so far we have the following dates booked:

Jan 11th (Sun) - Bridgehouse 2 in Canning Town supporting the Original UK Subs - other supports from Red Flag 77, Insane Society, Dun 2 Def and Noise Agents (the latter being Andy K from Demob’s, er, new mob)
August 6th to 9th - we’ll be appearing at the annual Rebellion Festival in Blackpool.
November 21st - Rebellion Amsterdam, supporting the 2nd best band from the East End of London, Cock Sparrer.

Merchandise
We’d hoped to get some merch up last year, but various issues put a spanner in the works. However, we do have t-shirts and badges available, also hopefully some vinyl LP pressings of our demo. Once I’ve got the postage rates sorted, details will be added to the website.

Current Line-up
Following various line-up changes during 2008, our current line-up is still myself (Dom) on bass, Terry (vocals), now joined by Cherry (drums) and Phil (guitar). The profile page will be updated with an in-depth look at the new members in due course.

Line-up Changes
During 2008 we saw Tarik (drums) move on to concentrate on playing with Viva Las Vegas. Dave (2nd guitar) also moved on, as did Chris, our original guitarist, who is now playing with South Coast band Cut Throat Militia. We wish them all the best

2008
God, where shall I start? I guess at the beginning would help. Following our show supporting Argy Bargy at the Ace Café, we were due to play a show in Brittany, but due to line-up issues we had to pull out (although hadn’t actually committed to play).
The band was also offered the opportunity to play the East Coast Oi Fest, however due to work commitments and a shady past, Chris and myself couldn’t make the trip and Terry took a Mark2 line-up. Other dates were played in New York (at a transvestite bar) and in Boston - however the actual show at the Oi Fest in Allenstown evidently went down a storm. There are clips of both this and a cable TV appearance on Youtube, links for which will be added to the website in the not too distant future.
I understand that Craig, promoter of the Oi Fest, has since turned to God, so Tel and the boys obviously had a profound impact. For a view of how the show went, check out this review.
Between times the band also played a show in April up in Sheffield. During the summer, we played the BH2 twice. Firstly with Argy Bargy, at their album launch party and then supporting Cock Sparrer at a charity event. Both shows were certainly cracking nights out and not to be missed, turning into a Who’s Who of the Streetpunk/Oi scene, with Garry Bushell, Steve Whale, the Business, the Last Resort and Gary Hodges all in attendance.
August also saw us playing Rebellion in Blackpool once again, drawing a fairly sizeable crowd, despite being on at the same time as the Sweet (now this may sound strange, but a great deal of the old buggers in Blackpool decided they’d rather watch a bunch of 60 year olds in lycra). We were joined on stage by our good friend Marty from Runnin’ Riot for a cover of Lost Generation and a rousing finalé of Chaos.
The month tailed off with us supporting the Dropkick Murphys at their UK warm up show in Coventry at the Kasbah club.
Our final show of the year was a long awaited return to the 12 Bar supporting* the Gonads.
* It has to be said here that a certain Mr Bushell pulled a bit of a flanker, by deciding to go on before us, although those that saw the gig may well have though this was a smart move on his part.

Due to personal circumstances, Dave has been unable to fulfil his commitments on the drums, so for the interim Tarik (Viva Las Vegas) is filling in, with Cherry (Code 1) also helping out. Big thanks to both guys and their respective bands. We have added Dave Yob as a second guitarist, although this is subject to his commitments with Superyob and the Concrete Gods.

As you can see from elsewhere on the Website, we are playing with the Cockney Rejects at the Mean Fiddler on 30th June. This promises to be a right old knees up, with the Rejects promoting their new album.

The weekend before (Sat 23rd June) we have another real cracker, playing the 12 Bar with Concrete Gods, Runnin Riot, Superyob and Viva Las Vegas. This is some sort of benefit for vertically challenged folk.

Beyond that we have shows lined up at the Wasted festival in Blackpool (on Sat 11th August), with dates in Brittany, Valencia and Finland TBC. Our show with Argy Bargy at the Ace Café has been moved from July until October.More recently we have played shows in various foreign and not so foreign climes, along with working on some new numbers which we hope to air soon.

So far this year, during February we played in Brighton (thanks to Lee Brett for organising that one) and the Berlin Punk & Disorderly Festival (thanks to Marc, Elli, Errol etc). In March we managed to play the aftershow party for the Dropkick Murphys St Paddy's day shows. Only half the band made the trip (myself & Tel), so we borrowed Dave Superyob & Matt Kelly from the Dropkicks. The crowd certainly enjoyed it, despite the blizzard conditions (8.5 inches of snow) and despite Tel's daughter mistaking a hole for a puddle (consequently disappearing up to her neck in water!). Special thanks to Dave H, Matt K, Dropkick Murphys, Tommy & the Terrors (great band) & the Tampoffs (another great band), Brother Colin from the Riot & Rick Barton. Fantastic weekend.

A mention also has to go to the Concrete Jungle festival organisers (especially Simon & Unagh), for another cracking weekend - looking forward to next year already. A further 12 Bar show was also slipped in on Friday 13th April.

Finally, thanks to Darren Russell for putting us on at Rebellion Amsterdam in the Melkweg, for what really was a truly 'wasted' weekend.

Dom/East End Badoes

P.S. we might eventually get around to doing the album!