Update

'Bands start up each and every day, I heard another just the other day, a special new band..'

Hello Blog Readers,

That's right, a blog entry! 'Ohmigod!!!111 LOL Us Pearly boyz are bare lazy when it cums 2 da postin!!!' I hear you say..

Anyway, if you're on our mailing list or looked on our myspace, you will have received this:

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Dear All,

Pearly the rock band are currently on hiatus while Richard our guitarist is travelling around the world for a year. This means that there will be no full Pearly gigs for the foreseeable future.The rest of us are working on ‘other projects’ which we will let you know about in due course!

In the meantime… I am playing a solo acoustic gig on Monday 8th December at Nambucca..
Monday 8th Dec
Hot Head Show,
National Snack,
William Adnams
Nambucca, 596 Holloway Rd. London
Doors: 7pm
Will 8pm
National Snack 9pm
Hot Head Show 10pm
£5 entry (or £4 with 2 items of unwanted clothing for the dressing up box.)http://www.nationalsnack.co.uk/tickets.shtml

The fantastic National Snack are releasing their Apply Machine EP and this gig is the launch night for that. It’s gonna be a great evening of music and fun, they’ll be a raffle and prizes to be won and you get a pound off entry if you bring 2 items of unwanted clothing to go to their dressing up box. I am kicking off the evening with some intimate acoustic tunes, some old some new. Then National Snack (www.nationalsnack.co.uk) and Hot Head Show (http://www.myspace.com/hotthedd) will be rocking the rest of the night away with quality tunes. It’ll probably be the most amount of fun you can have on a Monday night for a fiver (£4 with those unwanted items of clothing..) so come down!!

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So that's what is going on at the moment.. The gig is going to be good, I'll be playing some Pearly songs that have never been played live as well as 'Hangman's Hood' which will be fun. The whole night sounds great methinks.

The 'other projects' that we are working on are quite exciting but we'll tell you about them when we think they might be exciting for people other than us!! We're not sure what's going to happen long term, but I think uncertainty can often focus the mind which is a good position to be in really isn't it?
In the meantime music lovers would be advised to keep an eye on what's going on with National Snack (Monday is the beginning of something special..), Skulls (formerly Fleeing New York) and My Luminaries as they are all coming out with new tunes and playing live at the moment.. all are in the category of 'Why are these bands not known by more people?'.

Until 3-6 months time..

WFA

Pearly nearly plays over two days

23.15 hours and I'm wondering if this is the latest drumming session I've ever had. It's certainly the latest gig I've ever had the pleasure to play. Still, as I gripped the wooden sticks in my hands it became obvious that I didn't really care.

The gig had its fantastic moments. The debut of Social was certainly one of those and it had been and gone in the blink of an eye...literally. It's brief but ballsy I think. I couldn't see a thing because of a blinding stage light right in my face....but I could see Bruce, Brown and Bill weaving their magic so that was the important thing.

It seemed bizarre seeing the buses and night crowds wandering past the window whilst I waved my arms about behind a drum kit and gurned for 30 minutes but it was a cozy atmosphere thanks to those who came and listened to our set.

Next gig is at The Comedy and we're up for it as always!

Blog by the blurry one at the back.

Take Pictures

'So sick and tired of all these pictures of me, everybody's dying just to get the disease'



Well, I guess I’m picking up the dirty baton again then…

I was going to put a few pictures from the Dublin Castle gig up (taken by Stu the Pearly Legend!) however, blogger seems to be having some problems. There should be a load more on the website soon but for now, this is it.

Oh well.. I tried. At least the one I put up is OK.. there are a couple of pretty bad ones! Ha! Ha!
When asked to comment on this Photographer Stuart Hogben had the following quote: 'Yeah, well you can't polish a turd can you?'. Mr Hogben is available for hire (there are some good ones too!), I'll get his website address up here somewhere..

Other things
Saw the Eels at the Royal Festival Hall - It was probably the 4th best concert that I've seen of their's, it was also the funniest but definitely the most expensive.. £30! Still, I guess Queen impersonators don't come cheap.. Here are 2 quite gushing reviews:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2260139,00.html

http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/2984356

In my humble opinion, it was an entertaining show but a bit disappointing from a music point of view as the stripped down versions of some songs seemed a bit half-arsed to me. I would have preferred a full band assault.. blah blah.. £30!... blah blah.. has become more about him than the music... blah blah.. I could bore myself and you, dear reader, writing about this shit so I'm not gonna bother.

Come to our gig on Friday if you can, we're on at 11ish.. we have a great new song that goes 'You got big plans.. Yaaeeahhh-Errrr' and it rocks.
Details here: http://www.pearlyband.co.uk/gigs.htm.

Take it easy.

WFA

‘I wont always love these selfish things
I won't always live not stopping’

And so.. a full 4 months on since our last proper post, I’m picking up the dirty baton that is the band blog and running with it.. and sticking down another proverbial (insightful/thought-provoking/interesting/completely pointless - Delete as appropriate) marker flag of a post to let people know what is going on with us. Thank you to anyone who has taken the piss out of us for not updating this regularly enough, please keep doing it as if you hadn’t, it would have been summer before we’d written again.

The gig on Saturday went well despite the 2 other bands that were supposed to be playing pulling out, one on the day.. in fact we still do not know what happened to them. We hope they are ok.

Things that stick in my brain about the gig/night..

People singing and dancing!! Woo-hoo!! Singing and dancing from the audience! In Camden’s fashionable Dublin Castle even!! I may consciously try to write for the singing and dancing masses now, so I guess expect some disco tunes.
The Strawberry cider available there.. lovely.
Pondering the question.. Why do bands have managers if they don’t relay messages about equipment sharing onto band members?

Music..

Bobby Gentry – How have I not known about her before??
The Weakerthans – Song writing genius.. songs written from the perspective of a cat anyone?
Sample lyric:

‘I swear I'm going to bite you hard and taste your tinny bloodif you don't stop the self-defeating lies you've been repeatingsince the day you brought me home.I know you're strong.’

One of my favourite lyrics of theirs is ‘I’ve got more faults than the state of California’.

Pinback – This band should be known by more people. They make such great songs out of building up sparse intricate melodies and harmonies
Radiohead – This band should be known by.. oh that doesn’t really work does it?.. I like the new album a lot, it feels like a concise piece of art which is cool. However, I just wish that they would get round to recording more of the stuff that everyone knows they have. I love the songs that clearly come out of jams but I also think that they leave everyone behind when it comes to flawingly magnificent songs like Nude (although I preferred the ending on the Meeting People with the mini rock bit..). It just seems quite funny that a band who probably have over 100 songs on the back burner only put 10 on one album. Songs I’d like to hear recorded properly on an album: Lift, Big Boots/Man-O-War, True Love Waits.. but hey, I’m just one more fan happy that they’ve released another album.
Jimmy Eat World – Their new album is very good. I’m going to see them soon… woo-hoo!
How about that Feist lady – I was naturally suspicious due to that song being used on an advert.. but I saw her on Jools Holland and she rocked it, she played a couple of wicked guitar solos. I never understand female performers who play guitar allowing some guy to get all the solos when they play live. Anyway, I think her album might be on a mid-price re-release drive at the moment.

New Bands We’ve Seen on Our Travels

www.myspace.com/sevendayslater - Saw these guys at The Purple Turtle, they were very good. They have a strong Biffy Clyro influence(a very good thing in my book) and I heard a little bit of Soundgarden in there too. Good riffage, they rock hard and the singer has a good voice. If you like a bit of good quality British rock check ‘em out.

Things I’ve Learnt:

Rufus Hound the comedian is very very funny.
You can get a black eye from playing 5-a-side football.
February seems to like to make up for January’s quietness.

Anyway, band stuff.. the site should be updated soon with new news. I’m going to be turning my room into a little creative factory this evening in an attempt to try to finish some of the half finished songs we have floating around. I’m a lazy bugger when it comes to finishing songs. Sometimes I like the fact that the individual ‘mini idea’ is sometimes more interesting on it’s own rather than adding anything.. much like a parent in love with their child at a young age, I just don’t want them to grow up too fast.. Ha! Ha! I want to have a brand new tune for the next gig so I’d better get cracking! The most promising things are one thing we jam which has a working title of ‘Zombie Girls’, a piano thing with an orchestral arrangement waiting to happen and a big lovely Chorus I have which is looking for a Verse with a GSOH for fun and frolics.
That’s right my room is a singles event for song ideas tonight, let’s hope a few ‘love connections’ are made.. Ha! Ha! Wish me luck.

Who wants the dirty baton? Who? Come on you blaggards!

WFA

Blog Entry 24/11/07

'Good evening ladies and gentleman, what is your desire
Good evening ladies and gentleman, explosions and fire!'

Blog Entry 24/11/07 written in a notebook.. typed up 07/02/08!

Bruce and I are perched on bar stools in a venue known as The Dry Bar in Farringdon enduring what is commonly known as ‘The Sound Check’, for those of you who don’t know, this is when a band checks their sound.
There are 8 bands on the bill tonight which means that the venue might explode at any minute due to the amount of egos crammed in with so many musicians in the room. We anticipate that we won’t get a soundcheck as we are the first band on. However, we have beer and the bar staff are friendly so we’re happy. The others have gone to seek out food. It is 7:05. We were scheduled to check our sound at 6:45pm.
Here are a few things we have decided/learnt:

1) We almost definitely won’t be playing for this promoter again.
2) We are going to dedicate songs to the bar staff and the parents of the band that are on last who are sitting at the back of the venue looking concerned.
3) The sooner we get our own gig night happening the better.

I’ve just overheard a member of a band say to the promoter: ‘I don’t know where the singer is’ which made me laugh out loud.

The third band to check their sound have made it to the stage, leaving 5 more to check theirs. The time is 7:15pm. We are scheduled to perform in 45 minutes.

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Gig life eh? Turned out OK in the end.

The good thing is that after an experience like that, it’s good to know that you can go out and get so drunk that you’re like that advert for sensible drinking (Not the superman one, the 2 different night ones..) forgetting all about it, I’m not saying that any of us did that but we might have and if we didn’t, we could have right?

WFA

Summer Hols

‘Why should you want any other
When you're a world within a world?’

Band members have scattered for a week or two for much deserved holidays, hence a lack of band activity.
It was my birthday last week, I am trying to make it last for about 5 weeks.
I have moved flats and now have a room that I think will be a big, lovable creative space for quite a while.. in fact the flat might be big enough to have a gig, which can only a good thing right?

Music I have been loving of late.. Prince, Elliott Smith, Biffy Clyro, Captain, Metallica, Nellie McKay.. some songs by these artists will be on the competition winners mix CDs that I will be making, hopefully this evening to send, along with all the other stuff that is.. so hopefully before Christmas!! Ha! Ha!

Things I have learnt in the last couple of weeks:
Always be aware of the time when planning to catch a last train home.
Don’t go to clubs in flip-flops, you might get a cut foot.
How some women must feel when sexually harassed by men on a night out.
Time flies when you’re playing Poker.
Sleep helps generally.
This is a cool website: www.songmeanings.net

Our next gig is at The Dublin Castle in Camden on 22nd September.. many people I have told about this have thought that we are actually playing in Dublin rather than a dirty corner of Camden, which is quite funny as some people discussed looking at Ryan Air flight prices! As far as I am aware, Travelcards are still roughly about £5… Buy a Magners/Bulmers/Gaymers (or even a White Lightning) and close your eyes and I’m sure you’ll feel the same if it was in Dublin for real.

Anyway, hope you are enjoying some kind of break.. like I said: Sleep helps generally.

WFA

Good times!

Hey y'all...

Brown's in. So, I'd say that everything seems to be going to plan, but I don't make plans so that can't be true. It is of course perfectly possible that my lack of plan is the precise reason everything is going to that non-existent plan, but there you go. That's probably just semantics.

Anyway, it now seems that my recent holiday is drawing to a close and employment is looming on the horizon like a strangely disturbing albeit beautiful sunset. Yes, I have now got to the point where I am looking forward to returning to the world of work (on my own terms) and the prospect of being employed is making me feel good. Especially as I have a few expensive nights out on the immediate horizon! And it's time to use the old brain again before it finally gives up the ghost and reduces me to drooling and gibbering.

I've got a good feeling about things generally. The sun's out, everyone seems in a better mood. I feel I've completely turned a corner with my outlook on life generally as well. Just been having so much fun I'm determined to keep it going and spread the fun wherever I go. Dancing in kitchens is my latest hobby, also gardens but that does tend to annoy the neighbours at 3.00 am. Can't wait for Stu's stag do, he thinks we're having a relaxing evening in Berlin but I couldn't live with myself if I allowed that to happen so I prescribe a shot of fun followed by a healthy dose of carnage. Yes gentlemen, the fun doctor is in. Happy days, good times!

I feel like things are looking good for la band as well. We're finally getting somewhere regarding getting a decent number of demos ready for mass mail-outs and I feel like the time is ripe to introduce a wide range of people to the pearly sound. Loving being in the band at the moment, coming up with some great new tunes and playing some good music whilst having a great time doing it with 3 fantastic blokes who know how to have fun. The reason I joined a band in the first place basically.

So all good. Well, it couldn't be bad could it? And if all that wasn't enough (and it is) I'm now off to hire me a van! Yup, a real van! Can't wait to drive it like a twat and swear at people out the window!

Ahhh.... brilliant!

Right, I'm off to have more fun before my liver finally disintegrates.

Laters!