Diamond Skulls launch

In recent weeks, this blog has become something of A Blog About Gallows, but this is purely coincidental, so those of you who don't share my enthusiasm (firstly, why the hell not?!) need not be too concerned. To be honest, with work taking up as much time as it has, it seems the only things we've actually done in recent weeks has been go to a couple of Gallows gigs, though I also got some more work done on my backpiece tattoo.

Monday night, though, with free tickets in hand, we made our way to Camden Town for the punk-rock gig of the year: the launch night of the Diamond Skulls Social Club.

Gallows were the headline act, and the four supports were, in order of appearance: The Dead Formats, Dead Swans, (Toronto's own) Cancer Bats, and The Ghost of a Thousand. The first band had supported Gallows at the Tap 'n' Tin show a couple of weeks prior, but we'd missed them due to arriving late to the venue, so this was a good chance to play catch-up.

To be fair, all of the support bands put on great performances, even if I wouldn't necessarily buy any of their material at this point in time. Cancer Bats were probably the best of the supports, but tGOAT were also very strong on performance.

Gallows came on at about 10:15 to play about 40 minutes or so. They started with "In the Belly of a Shark" and ended with "Orchestra of Wolves" amid a mass stage invasion (see pic below). In between those songs they also played four new songs, including the three played at Chatham, along with "Rolling with the Punches", "Come Friendly Bombs", and "Abandon Ship".



Throughout the set, singer Frank (see my pretty awesome pic at top) was throwing T-shirts into the audience, and those purchasing shirts got 33% discounts as well as some freebies thrown in. I got a limited-edition signed print with my purchase.

On our way out, Frank was manning the merch stand, chatting with fans and getting photos taken. Overall it was a top-notch night of entertainment, like a mini hardcore/punk-rock festival. Here's to the next Gallows gig...

In the meantime, tonight the wife and I are off out to see one of her current favourite bands, Maxïmo Park, at the Forum. It's exactly 12 years today since she first set eyes on me at the very same venue while watching Manic Street Preachers. Weird, huh?

Bizarro World

It's contagious, this Bizarro World phenomenon...

A week or so ago, I ordered a lovely Snake Oil (aka Snakred Heart) T-shirt from Frank "Gallows" Carter's newly launched Diamond Skulls Social Club range. They are limited editions, this one of 111, signed and numbered and rather fetching.

Then a few days later, a MySpace bulletin from Gallows said, "Buy a Skulls T-shirt on Monday [19 May], and get a free ticket to the launch party."

I'd been toying with the idea of buying another shirt anyway, cos I really liked the cranberry-red Skull one, so a free ticket for the launch night, at which four bands including Gallows are due to play, seemed a ridiculously good deal. I ordered my shirt and wondered whether it was just a gag...

Today the new shirt arrived -- limited edition of 50, this one -- with NOT ONE BUT TWO free tickets in the package -- that's added value of £20 (US$40) on ordering a £30 shirt. How fucking cool is that?! Not to mention bizarro.

Here's a link for those of you who want to purchase a shirt or two yourselves.