Gallows instore at Rough Trade East

Bank holiday Monday, 4 May, and today there is a free instore set and signing to further promote the launch of Gallows' second album Grey Britain. After working until about lunchtime, eating, showering, etc, the missus and I headed off in the car, London bound.

After parking just around the corner from the Old Blue Last, venue of the second of last December's two "East End Invasion" Gallows dates, we walked for a few minutes, arriving at Rough Trade's east London store at about 6pm. I located brother Dim, secured our wristbands, then ran off for a pee and a cup of coffee.

Back at the venue, a line had started to form. A pretty big one, too, but I spotted a bunch of buddies, and we hello'd and chitchatted while waiting for the doors to open. The rain was not welcomed by those young punksters who had arrived in T-shirts and/or short skirts, but with my leather jacket and woolly hat, I was all good. Sensible clothing ftw!

Once they let us in, I headed, uncharacteristically, towards the stage at the back of the venue. Ish. As it happened, I didn't stay just there very long, shunting slightly outwards from the pit. These hands are key to keeping a roof over my head!

As the band takes to the tiny stage, vocalist Frank tells us that they don't have a setlist and that they will play what is asked for by the crowd. This is a nice touch, and immediately the boys are inundated with requests. This process doesn't last long; soon written suggestions are the order of the day. And indeed some song choices, unsurprisingly, are overlooked altogether.

I was expecting only half a dozen songs, maybe, but was pleased that the set was a bit longer. Indeed, in terms of number of songs, this was the same length show as the first time I saw Gallows, slightly less than a year ago, at Chatham's Tap 'n' Tin.

The exact list of songs escapes me now, but I'm pretty sure it was all of the following, though not in that order. I love hearing "Gold Dust", even though it is so short, at just under 1 minute.

The new songs are already knitting seamlessly into the gig repertoire. The hard core of fans already know most, if not all, of the words, and the question/answer parts of the songs really lend themselves to the live environment.

YouTube user shambles247 (linked below) has footage of most of the set, wherein you can see that the stage didn't hold the band for long, and all except drummer Lee were in with the crowd for a good while.

Black Eyes
Death Voices
Leeches
Misery
Crucifucks
Abandon Ship
In the Belly of a Shark (+ Happy Birthday)
Gold Dust
The Riverbed
Orchestra of Wolves.

(Unheeded went: Six Years, Rolling with the Punches [a personal fave of mine], Party Hard [a cover of the Andrew WK song, which Gallows have performed live once or twice], The Vulture, Sick of Feeling Sick, and no doubt others that I didn't catch.)

Once the set was over, an orderly queue started to form at the front of the shop, where the band would be signing stuff for those in attendance.

My super deluxe copy of the album had not yet arrived, so I was in two minds whether to buy one here in order to participate in the signing, but I had taken my sleeve of CD single "In the Belly of a Shark", just in case. The aforementioned chaps obliged, along with Lags, Stu, and Steph.

It was then time to say ta-ra to the Gallows posse and head off with Red to have some dinner on London's Brick Lane, which is famed for its hundreds of Indian restaurants. Despite having lived in London for 10 years, neither of us has ever eaten there before, and it is difficult to choose a restaurant, to be honest, given that there is so much choice. It is also unappealing to have people stood at the door trying to beckon punters in, as though you are in some dodgy Spanish-island holiday resort.

We plumped for one that had no doorman -- though it later became clear that this was just serendipity and he was probably on a toilet break. He was there a-beckoning when we left anyway! The venue of choice was Poppadom's (sic).

We ordered veggie dishes (mushroom bhaji, sag aloo, tarka daal), rice, and naan, as well as a drink each, and the missus headed off to the loo. On her return, she said: "I hope the graffiti in the ladies' is wrong. It says the food took forever to come and was cold." Oh, bugger, we thought, we've chosen the worst restaurant on Brick Lane.

In fact, our food arrived pretty quickly and was a good temperature. Certainly it was warmer than when we get takeaways delivered back home. And you know what? It was good, too. Subsequently I have found another bad review online. Maybe we got lucky, but I really enjoyed the food there, and so did the wife.

All in all, a good end to a great evening!

Bye.

Gallows' Grey Britain album launch

Believe it or not, it's not every day I get invited to a band's album launch party and debut screening of the accompanying short film. But this week I was invited to exactly that, on 29 April 2009. And it only happened to be the band whose music I have listened to more than any other (by a long way) over the past year. The band I have seen live more times in the past year than any almost any other pro band in my life. (Only Manic Street Preachers beats this, over a 10-year period, give or take.) So, well, I had to go, didn't I?

The first part of the evening is the screening of the eponymous short film that accompanies the album Grey Britain. It will be released as a DVD in a special double pack with the CD on 4 May in the UK. I don't know whether it will be available in other territories, but that's what the global Internet marketplace is for, isn't it?

The venue for this screening is the Curzon Soho cinema, where many years ago, before my time, my missus had worked. This was a trip down memory lane for her!

I knew the movie would run about 30 minutes, but that's all I knew. I didn't expect it to be almost end-to-end music; in a way, I suppose I'd hoped there would be dialogue, too, and initially, for a handful of seconds upon this realization, I was disappointed. It's not long ago that I'd said to my other half that I thought frontman Frank Carter would probably make a good actor. If I ever get my arse back into film-making, maybe I'll drop him a line!

What we have here is almost a mini punk-rock opera. And as fucking weird as that idea sounds, it actually all holds together really well. The plot seems to be that a boy is raped and killed by someone who appears to be a priest (though he could be Death incarnate) in a London that has been overrun by heavy-handed riot police while da kidz are running scared underground. Cue much dark brooding photography, fighting in the streets, bricks and bats and blood -- all with a snarling six-song punk-metal soundtrack and bursts of the band in action... It is not only the band who might be surprised that Warner Bros Music actually agreed to foot the bill.

It looks fucking gorgeous, fair play (as the clip below shows), and if one could complain about anything, it might be that it's a shame more people won't get to see it on the big screen. I really feel very privileged to have been a part of that and look forward to getting my DVD next week. It might be broadly derivative of any number of shorter scenes you've seen in bleak-future movies, but it's done with a huge amount of style. Oh, and yeah, it's more than a little bleak. I won't give it a numeric score because I am too biased to be fair, either way.



After the screening, the missus and I chatted to some of the folks we have met before through seeing the band over the past year, and then we headed off to another of our old haunts back when we were Londoners: Melati restaurant on Peter Street. Man, the times we've eaten wonderful Malaysian food there... And it's just as good now as it was when I first went there some 16 years ago. Same staff too. Never been? Go, for the love of God!

The final part of the evening was a Gallows gig proper -- a full-length set at legendary club Madame Jojo's in the heart of Soho. I've never been there before, but again this is somewhere that my wife used to go regularly before my time, dancing the night away while grown men were paid to cavort in thongs for the punters' entertainment!

On arrival, the tiny venue was already pretty packed, but we were still able to secure what might, traditionally, be considered a good spot from which to view the action: against a balcony just to the left of the mixing desk, with the dancefloor sunk 6-8ft below us and the raised stage diagonally opposite. I say "traditionally" because one never really knows where Frank will actually end up singing from. I also had it on fairly good authority that they would be playing within the dancefloor/pit, rather than on the stage. I had also heard that they would be playing straight through the new album...

First up, we get "London Is the Reason" -- not the first track on the album (but I guess you could consider it so if you disregard the CD's prologue song "The Riverbank"). And from there on, we do indeed run through the album in order, omitting "The Vulture (Act I)", the acoustic version, as either Lags or Steph (I didn't catch who) jokingly said "I've left my acoustic guitar at home."

It's not long before Frank is more or less out of sight, on the same bit of balcony as me, but hidden behind taller, bigger spectators. He tells the throng that he's not getting down into the pit because everyone down there is so much bigger than him, though it's not long before he is indeed in there. And the rest of the band, except drummer Lee, is soon down there with him, while the crowd is politely asked to make some effort not to knock over the musicians while going about their circle-pitting, moshing, windmilling, and whatever else they want to throw into the mix!

After anti-knife-crime track "Queensberry Rules", we are treated to a couple of old faves. "In the Belly of a Shark" is first, and bassist Stu asks if he can do the first line. Rather than the usual guttural screamed a cappella four-word intro, then, we get Stu putting on his best plummy voice, announcing, "So, hear I lie," before the song kicks off proper. To repeat the refrain halfway through the song, Frank picks on his mother, who looks mortally embarrassed to have to do it. She does it, though -- inaudibly as far as the band goes. I think I heard it only because (a) I was about 10ft away from her and (b) because I could see her lips moving. "She did it!" Frank exclaims to the band, who seem to be wondering when their cue will come. He then asks her to do it again. She obliges, of course, and the song goes on.

And the set continues too, with the classic "Abandon Ship" before we return to the new album's tracklisting, with "Misery", which ends with the eminently singalongable chant, "Misery fucking loves us / And we love her too", and then "Crucifucks". As a final treat we get the time-honoured set-closer "Orchestra of Wolves".

It's been quite the night -- and quite the set. Although those of us who have seen Gallows a few times over the past year will have heard several of the new songs before, it's the first time, of course, that so many have been played in one gig. It was incredible to see just how many people were singing along, too, given that the album is not even out yet and has only been streamed on MySpace for a few days. One reviewer elsewhere also reckons that this room is made up of 70 per cent music-industry folk. You wouldn't have known it. I also wouldn't have known I'd be joining in a round of applause for Warner Bros Records. Crazy thing, rock 'n' roll.

I could watch this band every night. Each gig is completely unique, just the way it should be. What is the point in watching a band that do the same thing every night? Gallows are now out on tour till about December, I believe, taking in the Warped Tour in the US once the UK tour is over. Go and see them. And buy the album Grey Britain while you're at it. It's anthemic as fuck and a damn good ride.

Click the setlist image below to see my pictures from the night.

Whoops, there goes another ear / Whoops, there goes another chandelier *

* with apologies to Billy Bragg for this twist on his lyric


So, next on Gallows' East End Invasion mini-tour was the Old Blue Last, upstairs, in what is apparently a 100-capacity venue.

Getting there by car, as for the night before, was not too taxing, despite the traffic diversions because of gas works in the area. Parking in London is always fun, trying desperately to decipher the double-Dutch signs to ensure you don't get a ticket. We were all cool, though, thankfully. And then for some pre-gig sustenance we decided on Pizza Express, just opposite the venue.

Something quick, we thought. How wrong we were. Indeed, so slow was the delivery of our food that we ended up getting the starter on the house. Which makes me wonder if this was the reason the gig had been delayed from its 9pm start time to 9:30, since while we were waiting for our food, Mr Frank Carter left the restaurant with some friends (and no, we didn't know he was there when we went in, for all you haters saying I've got a man-crush). Maybe his grub had been delayed too, and now he was late! But the little blonde girl who served us, on only her second day in the job, was very sweet, and it certainly was no fault of hers.

According to ViewLondon, "live music is where [the Old Blue Last] can't be beaten, and if you see a favourite artist perform here you won’t be disappointed". I was geared up for quite a night.

We said hello to some of the usual faces, most of those name-checked in yesterday's post, plus Sophie this time (and James later), and as they all once again grabbed their spots at the front of the stage, I secured myself a former cinema seat at the edge of the room and readied myself for standing on it for a decent view of the proceedings.

Within seconds of the first song, "Come Friendly Bombs", starting up, Frank is swinging from a chandelier at the opposite end of the room. I have no fucking idea how he got there, but by the end of the song a second chandelier has been trashed by one of the audience. Back on the stage by the end of the song, the frontman announces that the remaining one is his.

"Gold Dust" comes next, and I think this is when the first scuffle of the night breaks out. All of a sudden one guy is pummelling another in the face. He gets about three hits in before someone separates them, and by the time Franks asks what's going on, the two are making up.

Not so sweet is the resolution of the second bit of fisticuffs, midway through "London Is the Reason". Suddenly someone at the front of the stage is getting smacked in the head by Frank before the fight spills on to the floor. Several people spring into action to break things up, and Carter is holding on to the dude, saying "Come down here, I wanna talk to you and you're too fuckin' tall." He has a private word, and the bloke is evicted. It seems he'd been having a grope of the singer, something more intimate, shall we say, than one should reasonably expect. The song picks up pretty much where it left off.

I think about now comes the new song about the trials and tribulations of being in a band, "when all you want to do is be at home, drinking tea and playing XBox". I can't fully relate, not being a rock 'n' roll star, nor particularly liking tea or having an XBox. Bill Gates ain't getting my fucking money. PS3 ftw! You'd get the impression that Frank hates being in a band, but I don't really think that's true. We all moan about our jobs, I guess. I do. And yet this is the best, most cushy job I've ever had. Certainly beats being verbally abused on an almost-daily basis and having people threatening to shoot me, as in my last job, back in 1993/4. Surely being in a band can't be too bad? Indeed, last night at the Macbeth, he had said, "You gotta take the good with the bad."

For me, the band is playing better tonight than the previous night, though discussions later with some of the crowd reveal a mix of opinion in that regard. Either way, the set is different, which is great and a special treat for those who attended both nights. We get no "Black Heart Queen", despite the attendance of brother Richard Blackhole Carter, who occasionally guests on this track live. (A bit of banter between the brothers -- about facial tattoos [Frank's] and almost-fainting tattooees [Richard] -- provided a bit of light relief.) Instead, though, we get the ever-wonderful "Rolling With the Punches". To be honest, that's a trade-off I can live with.

More new songs and old intertwine seamlessly, Frank taking the opportunity to go to the bar during the instrumental track, and the show ends, as is traditional, with "Orchestra of Wolves" and general mayhem. I'm sweating enough without being in the pit. How Lags can sport a full beard and Stu can wear a hooded top without being uncomfortable is beyond me!


Oh, did I mention that the third and final chandelier got trashed? Well, it did. I guess the Old Blue Last got an extreme makeover.

Setlist included, roughly in this order:
Come Friendly Bombs
Gold Dust
London Is the Reason
I Dread the Night
Kill the Rhythm
Abandon Ship
Rolling With the Punches
In the Belly of a Shark
Orchestra of Wolves
plus some other new songs, including the instrumental.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Could those words be Gallows' equivalent of the famous Sex Pistols question: "Ever get the feelin' you've been cheated?" But hopefully this doesn't signal the end of the group that has so re-energized my interest in gig-going.

Frank Carter sounds pissed off and he spits out the words. He forcefully throws down his mic, the thud of it hitting the stage booming through the sound system, and he leaps on to the floor and into the circle pit that he is so disappointed by. He had asked for the biggest circle pit possible, but clearly this was too small or too tame. He was gonna mix it up a bit.


We are just over halfway through Gallows' set at the Macbeth pub in London's East End, and this is the first of two special "East End Invasion" pre-Christmas gigs sponsored by Atticus clothing. Apparently the gigs are also something of a warm-up before the recording of the vocals begins next Monday for the new album. This task has been put on hold after Frank fucked up his throat and was told to rest it a few weeks back.

After buying a limited-edition print and a T-shirt at the venue, Red and I chat with some familiar faces, such as Paul, Dim, Steve, Donna, Weene, Linda, Mark, Geoff, Robbie, and Jak (and meet a couple of new ones, Pat and, later, Dan). We all have our excited faces on. This pair of gigs are the first Gallows shows since August, and both sold out within 10 minutes. As the kick-off time of 9pm draws closer, those brave enough (or should that be young enough?) head towards the front of the crowded venue (capacity about 150-170).

The band take their positions, and it quickly becomes clear that our vantage point is a bit shite. [That said, it's no worse than the "gig of the year 1995" of PJ Harvey and Tricky. Both are total dwarfs, and I could barely see a thing that night.] Nevertheless, I'm here for the music, and while it's great to see the band too, sometimes that just ain't possible.

They kick off with the recent, download-only 60-second-long "Gold Dust", to which most in the crowd seem to know all the words. This is a great high-octane start to the evening. (Grab your copy of this track for free over at Gallows' MySpace.) And with very little ado, they then head straight into the classic "Abandon Ship".

This early on, it's clear that at the very least we are gonna get reasonable views of Frank, even if we can't see much of the rest of the band -- hence my pictures being pretty much of Frank only. During the course of "Abandon Ship", he makes his way, via the bar and some vertical ceiling supports, to the mixing-desk area right beside my head.


The awesome "Kill the Rhythm" follows, then we get two more new songs -- "London Is the Reason" and "I Dread the Night" -- in a 15-song set that actually boasts more new songs than old.

Frank advises us that he wants to see carnage. He wants us to "be able to tell your bastard offspring that you stage-dived from the bar of the Macbeth. I'll be checking Facebook tomorrow to see how many say they did," he says, before adding, "Well, Lags will. I don't have a Facebook account." Apparently they shut his down, though one is left to guess quite why.

During the course of the evening, while halfway up one of the ceiling props, a few voices start chanting "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can." Frank tells us that he's "fitter than him. He's old and fat." Personally I always thought Tobey Maguire was in good shape. Clearly, there's no hope for me in the cruel, fattist world of rock 'n' roll!

New and old songs continue well mixed throughout, though it's hard to remember quite how some of the new ones go. I do remember an instrumental, but maybe it had no words cos Frank was busy dry heaving and "puking up acid". I thank the maker for my limited POV. During one of these new tracks, though, the refrain "I know where you live!" makes a frequent appearance.

At some point, bassist Stu Gili-Ross is crowd-surfing, bass in hand. I could swear I hear a thud as the head of the instrument thwacks against one of the room's uprights. I'm sure that did it some good! Lags seems to have learned his lesson at the Underworld in August, where, after a crowd-surf-with-guitar, he admitted it hadn't been a good idea.

I'm glad to hear "Sick of Feeling Sick" and "Black Heart Queen", which are fast becoming two of my favourite Gallows tracks, while "Come Friendly Bombs" and "In the Belly of a Shark" are also always a pleasure.

For the last song, we are told Frank doesn't want to sing. We are to do the honours instead. We know what song it's gonna be: album closer and gig closer "Orchestra of Wolves". We do as we are told, and Frank "treats" us to a microphone masturbation on the top of the bar for the lines leading up to and including "while you're washing my cum off your fuckin' face". The young girl and her boyfriend beside me are singing along with just as much enthusiasm as I am.

There's one question the audience certainly can't put to Gallows tonight: "Is that all you've got?"


Setlist:
Gold Dust
Abandon Ship
Kill the Rhythm
London Is the Reason
I Dread the Night
Come Friendly Bombs
Mama's Kettle
In the Belly of a Shark
Swallower
Sick of Feeling Sick
Car Chase
Forgiver
Black Heart Queen
Suicide Goals
Orchestra of Wolves.

And there was music...

Stop me if you've heard this before. A couple of nights ago, I went to see Gallows...

No, really, this is a different story to the last three I've posted in the past 10 or 12 weeks.

I actually haven't even had time to process fully the whole evening, co I've just been too damn busy with work, but it was a fucking great night (if you discount the frankly very unappealing eggs and chips I had before the show and the bland omelette the wife ordered; shoulda known better!).

So we got to the venue at about 8:30. We were in the queue just behind guitarists Lags's parents, whom we'd met at the last show. This time we were better able to converse since at this point the volume was quieter. Well, we were outside, fighting off only the sounds of rain falling and drummer Lee chatting to chicks in the phone booth!

On entry we caught the last few bars of the first act, Throats. It was a shame to miss them, but this became something of a theme for the evening. We headed in to check out who was up next, but it was Lakes and we'd seen them before. I'm just not crazy enough about them to see them again.

We headed back to the bar to keep an eye open for some of the guys and gals we'd met last time and some other forum members of whom we had yet to make the acquaintance. And they began to turn up from all angles. I shan't go to town with names because I appreciate some people may not want their business posted up. But a great little brotherhood stood around chatting and excited with the anticipation of what ("probably") would be Gallows' last London show of 2008. Fuck.

We chatted so much, in fact, that several of us missed the third band, Hexes. I actually had intended to see these guys but I'm not too sad since it's nice to shoot the breeze and hang out.


Gallows' set was the longest I've seen, lasting pretty much for an hour, I think, and including the recent free download "Gold Dust" and new songs "London Is the Reason" and "Misery", which I don't think I'd heard before, as well as three oldies that I've personally not seen live previously: "Black Heart Queen" (which was a likely candidate for the setlist since the show was being played under the pseudonym Black Heart Kings rather than as Gallows), "Sick of Feeling Sick", and "Just Because You Sleep Next to Me Doesn't Mean You're Safe". Additional tracks included "Come Friendly Bombs", "Abandon Ship", "In the Belly of a Shark", "Rolling With the Punches", and set closer "Orchestra of Wolves".

Another awesome fucking night of rock 'n' roll fun.

Didn't have time to stay behind and chat for long afterwards, since we had a longish drive back home from London, only to have to turn around and do it all again on Wednesday night to see Alkaline Trio...

Free Gallows gig!

I mentioned there was some Gallows news, and there was. On Wednesday night the missus and I went to a magazine launch where Gallows were playing. In terms of Gallows' invited guests it was forum users only plus one guest each. A free gig!

It was a strange affair (apart from the gig element), since almost nobody seemed to see a copy of the magazine being launched. The magazine is called Relentless, launched by the producer of the energy drink of the same name, which in turn is owned by Satan. Sorry, I mean Coca-Cola.

We arrived at about 9pm and after grabbing a couple of waters from the free bar (yep, free bar!), we set about looking for the cloakroom. There wasn't one. Um, okay... So we each kept hold of our drinks and coats. Great. We looked around, admired the venue, and then I saw one of the guys from the forum. Bazza is the father of drummer Lee.

Now, you, dear reader, know me: nobody sees my face online. So when I gave a one-finger salute to Bazza (no, not that kind of one-finger salute), I was aware that he would have bugger-all idea who I was. But he made his way over and I introduced myself and Red. It was the first of several forum MIRLs of the evening. We chatted for a wee while before the show, and he introduced us to another forum user and her hubby: the parents of lead guitarist Lags. It's so cool that the bands' folks go the gigs, I think. When I was in a band, way back when, my parents came to two or three gigs we did.

Not only were there no cloakrooms, there was no air conditioning or any fans of any sort either. And it was hot as fuck in there. So as the appointed kick-off time of 10pm approached, we thought we'd grab a little fresh air outside. Haha, we'd not counted on the fresh air being cigarette flavoured, cos of course smokers couldn't light up inside. One of the bouncers told us we could go outside the main gate as long as our stamps were still visible on our hands. It was much less smoky there.

We chit-chatted like you do, and I looked to see if I could spot any other faces from the forum, but most people's avatars are so tiny that it was difficult to be certain of anyone. Meanwhile, people came and went through the gate. One of the bouncers seemed a tad militant about who was coming and going. "He takes his job very seriously," I mockingly said to the wife.

We headed back in, flashing our stamps twice on the 10-metre journey. We headed toward the stage and the guys were just getting ready to start playing. I noticed at least one bouncer in front of the stage. "Oh, that's not going to go down well," I thought. I may have even said it out loud, but I can't remember now.

--------------

Backstory
Gallows don't like crowd control. They like small venues where the audience and band can merge more or less at will. Stage diving is part of the show. Band members getting in among the crowd is part of the show. It's a big fucking party atmosphere.

--------------


They launch into "Come Friendly Bombs". I'm not fully aware what's going on yet, but within 30 seconds or so the band is stopping and telling the bouncer to fuck off and that he's been a prick all evening. They announce to the crowd that he has been trying to score coke off them all afternoon, and they "don't even do coke". Singer Frank says he'll be back in two minutes and off he goes, presumably with the bouncer, though I don't see.

When he returns he tells us that we can now be in charge of ourselves and have a good time. At this point I see he's bleeding from his forehead and a bruise is coming up on his cheek. I don't know at this point where these wounds have come from, but I read later online that he did it himself with the microphone.

Back into "Come Friendly Bombs" we go. From the top, as one might say. The lines about "black knuckles and broken teeth" and how people "wanna kick my fuckin' head in just to feel alive" seem horribly appropriate.

As does the title of the next song, the new "Black Eyes", if that indeed should wind up being its actual title. The next new song follows before we crash into the ever-awesome "Rolling With The Punches", which is one of my personal favourites.

The new song "Love Leeches" (formerly known, perhaps jokingly, as "Swedophile") follows.

By now, Frank's back is scratched and bloody. He spent some time writhing on the floor of the stage. Clearly it was not a great surface for such antics. He's probably gonna be sore in the morning.

Despite having seen Gallows three times in the past three months, I'm getting some of the new songs mixed up. I find myself too much in the moment to pay the right amount of attention to which songs are which. Too much in the moment? Is that possible? Either way, I know that I enjoyed them all. I'm not sure which one, but one of them seemed to have a chorus that said "You're a bunch of cunts" over and over. How could I not like that one? Was it the one about the Catholic Church, or am I getting confused?

Next up was the classic "Abandon Ship", which seems to be the favourite of many, many fans. And not for nothing. It's so fucking sing-along-able!

Then new song "Botched" according to the setlist, though it may have been introduced as "London Is the Reason"; then "In the Belly of a Shark", which has been their opening gambit the previous two shows I've seen; then the grand finale: "Orchestra of Wolves".

Man, what a blast. The missus and I grab another couple of drinks and decide to try to catch up with some other forummers before heading home. There are only a couple who I definitely recognize, so I head over. From there, we are introduced to another couple. Everyone is really nice and friendly! We hang some more, then someone mentions we should say hey to drummer Lee.

We do, and a photo is taken. Then Frank comes out and we have a chat about the bouncer and some other stuff. Hey, I'm not the type to chat and tell!

We say our goodbyes and exchange details of which is the next Gallows gig we're going to. More MIRLing coming up, then.

We head off and...

... what's this? Oh yeah, a £60 parking fine. I guess there's no such thing as a free gig, no matter how great the evening had been.

Frank in the pit

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?

Gallows at Tap 'n' Tin

I have no idea what goes on in mainstream music these days, no idea at all. But in the sort of magazines I read, Gallows is a big-name English band. Those of you who play Guitar Hero III will find their song "In the Belly of a Shark" tucked away in the Bonus tracks.

They play energetic hardcore/punk, though you'll often see them lumped in with certain emo types and even with metal. I've given up on trying to decipher musical genres anyway: anyone who plays a real fucking instrument is okay with me; I can't stand fucking synthesized pop bollocks full of samples and inanities.

I bought their album pretty much on the back of seeing a gig that was televised on Rockworld TV over here, and it's a great record.

So, when Gallows announced that they were playing a warm-up gig on 10 May in a 260-capacity venue just 20 minutes' drive from my house, I didn't have to hesitate to get tickets.

We got to the venue -- Tap 'n' Tin, in Chatham -- just after 9pm, too late for the first of the support acts. This was due to not knowing where the venue was and not wanting to park too far away from it. Several aborted attempts at both parking and locating the venue led to delays, but it was ultimately the best decision. I don't think anyone relishes the thought of walking Chatham after dark on a Saturday night...

I'm old school, so ideally I like to buy a shirt when I go to a gig. Better still if it's dated, but since the current growing series of gigs Gallows are doing is not really a tour per se, there doesn't appear to be any tour-specific merchandise. No worries. At least I got a shirt (our lateness and the small size of the venue meant there was no queue at the stand). Three of the band members were even hanging out at the merch stand, and guitarist Laurent (or "Lags") sold me mine.

Support band Lakes were okay in places, but to be honest I don't think I'd buy anything by them. It just didn't quite gel for me overall. Maybe their sound wasn't well set up (certainly almost no lyrics were audible), but it was just a bit uninteresting to me.

I don't know what time Gallows finally hit the stage. About 10:15pm maybe. They opened with "In the Belly of a Shark" (the Guitar Hero III track) and did an awesome job of it. After that I sort of lost track, but all the fan favourites were there -- "Abandon Ship", "Rolling with the Punches", "Will Someone Shoot That Fucking Snake", et al -- just as you'd expect, along with at least three new tracks getting their debut airing, the best of which for me was "Graves".

The gig ended with "Orchestra of Wolves", vocalist Frank Carter making his exit in crowd-surfing style (see pic below) as the audience chanted the final refrain: "The hardest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return".

The gig was proper awesome, and even Red, who had not exactly looked forward to it since she's not mad on Gallows' music, gladly admitted that they put on an excellent show. Big love to her for trying to take some pix, but the lighting was so small-venue bad that it was all but impossible to get anything decent from our vantage point, stood on chairs at the side, hoping we were far enough from the crowd-surfers and circle pit (which we were)!

Here's the lads in action in their video for "Abandon Ship".



And here's some pix from us:

I went to a gig

Truth be told, I may be getting a bit too old for gig-going. At the ripe old age of 37 and ten and a half months, standing in the cold for hours at the precise time I should be settling down to a nice warm dinner has somewhat lost its appeal.

But there are some events that dictate I buck the homely trend, and the return of Avenged Sevenfold to these shores is one such occasion.

I'm a relative newcomer to the A7X phenomenon, having really only got on the bandwagon about two years ago, and this, believe it or not, is the first full-scale UK tour they have undertaken in that time. Additionally, last night's gig was their biggest yet in the UK, so it was great to be there. And once inside, I was warm enough to strip down to T-shirt too, so it's all good. It's absolutely imperative that you show your tattoos at a rock gig. That is, after all, what tattoos are for.

You can read full details, including the set list, over at Red's blog, but I just wanted to share a couple of thoughts and post a couple of pics.

1. Black Tide were a fucking awesome opening act. It's a shame that they were halfway through their short set by the time we had snaked our way around the entire venue and got in.

2. Bloodsimple had a great sound... except for the vocals, frankly. I can take only so much of that growly shit! And I just don't like to be told, "On the count of four, I want all of you motherfuckers to fuckin' jump up and fuckin' down!" I feel like I'm in some adult-language version of a children's playground game. I'm not jumping up and down, no matter how much of a motherfucker I am, thank you.

3. A7X rocked the motherfuckin' house, and thankfully they were not full of quite the same sort of crass prompts as Bloodsimple were. We did, however, learn the middle name of guitarist Synyster Gates, when singer M Shadows introduced one of the guitar solos with the words: "Synyster Fuckin' Gates!" (European/UK readers will be saddened to note that the "M" of M Shadows does not stand for Monsieur. I wish it did.)

A great time was had by all, and we were back at home with a mug of cocoa shortly after midnight. What more could an aging rocker ask for?

Okay, motherfuckers, here's some motherfuckin' photo-fuckin-graphs. (See how rock 'n' roll I am?)


M Shadows and Zacky Vengeance


Johnny Christ and Synyster Gates


Zacky V


Monsieur Shadows