MARLOW <marlowmusic2007>
"The house is on fire"
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 | The Jangle of St Stephen's Bell | 186 dni temu | ||
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| AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH HHHHHHHH! CAN'T STAND IT! I KNOW YOU PLANNED IT! etc etc Good evening. I hope this blog finds you well. Come in, take off your shoes. I'll make you a cup of tea. Would you like a biscuit? A ginger snap? Pringles, maybe? I'll dim the lighting, make it a little more sociable. I will turn down the radio, a noisy din. I find myself writing on a warm Friday evening. The sun hangs high in the sky, it is warm and bright and I feel as though I should be outside, drinking a cold boilermaker and watching girls frolic with hula-hoops and Chubba Chubbs. Absolute paradise. The Blue Nile lulls softly on the stereo and, muted, Napolean Dynamite os on the DVD player.I have made enquiries into learning Rex Kwon Do. Break the wrist and walk away. I have learned so much about self-respect since I decided to dress less like Peter Pan and started wearing star-spangled action slacks. Everything is chugging along nicely just now. The stickers still go on the boxes. The IBM units still get booked in on a regular basis. I still get my £6.10 an hour. I still believe I am on the wrong tax code but am too fucking lazy to find out. Falkirk is still a crappy town... The only decent thing happening right now, not just in my life, or in your life, but maybe the entire world is MARLOW. There is a cure to swine flu, dishonest MPs, the global recession, tulip mania (Wikipedia it!), pirates in Somalia, the BNP, a broken heart, Jonathon Ross, the price of oil, Hurricane Katrina and maybe, just maybe, Cowdenbeath FC. It is MARLOW. I think I can speak on behalf of my bandmates when I say that we played two of the best gigs of our careers (YES! Careers!) in the space of a week. There's been some belters in the past, Stereo, The Caves, The Martell... But these two shat all over them like some crude internet movie posted on a football forum that promises Jennifer Aniston's slick clacker, but instead have two Easter European girls crapping on one another. You've all seen these videos, you've all watched through the cracks in your fingers. I'll begin with Aberdeen. A dismal Saturday afternoon's drive with Quinny up to the 'deen (abbreviation can be fun, if used sparingly). His stereo's fucked so he had connected a makeshift, yet still brilliantly functional, system using some speakers from the 99p shop and his MP3 player. We had some of U2's new album on the go - hard to believe it has sold so poorly. Have you heard the song Breathe? What is he singing about? Is is one of U2's best ever songs? Could they be Bono's greatest lyrics? YES. Excellent drumming, excellent guitar sound. What is a Juu-Juu Man? Maybe I am a Juu-Juu man, I just haven't realised it yet. Hotel room, Cafe Drummonds. It was whilst we were getting set up and ready to soundcheck, this old boy, fucked aff his tree wi the drink comes swanning into the bar. An Adidas jacket that is far too young for him, a t-shirt from Matalan (perhaps) and a cracking pair of New Balance trainers. He came in, swaying down the stairs, shouting AM HERE TAE SEE YEZ! at the four of us. We stared at him agog, what else could we do? He could have turned nasty and offered us violence. He shimmmied down to the front of the stage, repeating the point that he had made the effort to come and see us. Entranced at the strange man, we stared at him. He demanded a drink from the bar and was refused. he pleaded his case, telling the barmaid that he was there to see us and wanted a beer. Once again, his request was not granted, and he was asked to leave. So, as what one normally does when asked to leave a pub, he took two steps back from the bar, performed a Seig Heil, then left. utterly, utterly the strangest thing I've ever seen. Quinny missed this, he was out having a smoke, but he saw the guy leave Drummonds, go to a pub across the street, come back out minutes later, then vomit on the pavement. All of this in the space of one cigarette. Oddly enough, we saw him come back in around 7 hours later as we were packing our stuff up. He was still cunted and he still had a pair of New Balance trainers on. Unless you're out running, you should not wear New Balance trainers. We watched the Eurovision Song Contest in our hotel room.I don't normally watch it, and I can safely say that I don't intend to watch it again. What's the point of it? Shit Eurodisco for two hours? Even as an ironic attraction it fails. Graeme Norton hasn't been funny since Father Ted. I am left cold by the whole event. Mark loved it though. The show was moved back by a whole hour, meaning that we weren't due onstage until just before midnight. Eskimo Blonde took to the stage first for an semi-acosutic show and were mightily impressive. Their singer has some voice on him. I can't really remember the band that were on after them except for the fact that they seemed to go on FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER with the same song. I think they got in the words "Fit, min" to a song. I wasn't too impressed. They played ten songs. I went to see Friendly Fires at the start of the month and they played less. Which band did I enjoy more? I'll let you decide. MARLOW were fucking brilliant on Saturday. From the first rolling chords of Shawdowland to the final crash of Across Winter, we were excellent. We really have become quite the live band, we're tight and right and everything just sounds crisp. The crowd was pretty good too, evetually - we had a few friends from back home and one or two boys who'd been with us since we first started gigging up in the 'deen and when the second band were on, the numbers seemed pretty healthy, but as soon as they finished the place seemed to empty. As our set continued, more and more people came in through the door, until we played Who Do You Love and Across Winter, the place was almost full. And all eyes seemed to be on us, I looked into the crowd, like petals on a wet, black bough, and everyone looked back at me. Not talking amoungst their friends or anything like that, but nodding their heads and getting into it. We succeeded. I was proud of Kip, Mark and Quinny that night. We went back to the hotel room and went to our beds. I was up first thing to high-tail it back to Glasgow for the Queen's Park -vs- Stenhousemuir game on the Sunday. We will be back in Aberdeen soon enough. Cafe Drummonds is a fucking superb venue. The sound and the atmosphere is first class. I've played three shows there and it just gets better and better. Thank you very much to everyone who came to see us and had the patience to sit through the mire and wait for us to perform. Means a lot, it really does. Let us fast forward to from Saturday night to Monday night, fast forward through a crappy 0-0 draw that was enough to get us into the playoff final, through more fucking stickers on pink plastic boxes and conversations about what we all had for our tea last night, through the vomit green ASDA uniforms, the angry children and the countless claims files, away trips to Cowdenbeath, The Cantos of Ezra Pound from amazon.co.uk and here we are after over 90 soul destroying minutes in the car stuck in traffic between Castlecary and Moodiesburn when even the "Name 10 films with a colour in the title" game begins to wear thin, and here we are at one of the best venues in Glasgow - the ORAN MOR. The venue. The best gig of our lives. There's a few people who have been to see us plenty of times - Kippy's burd, my brother, my da and Kip's ma, Big Rou Felly - and they told us that that's the best they'd ever seen us. That's quite the compliment, considering the number of times they've all seen us. The venue, the sound, the light show... And we were very good. We've got a very high standard of performance, but that exceeded it, better than Aberdeen. From the breathy synth sounds of Wonder Wheel, to the thump of Across Winter, the soaring You Cannot Stop New York City... We even got it filmed, so we should have a video for Who Do You Love up and running. Many thanks to Keren, Malky B and Alex from the Mill PR group, the ound and lighting guys, the people the came along to see us... And many thanks to the excellent Hercules Mandarin. Not only are they a shit-hot band (Always Never was a fucking belter - I was slightly peeved they didn't do This Is A Riot, but you can't have it all eh, it just goes to your head and you start acting like a spoilt brat when it doesn't go your way, and who the fuck wants to be a big 23 year old baby?) but they are some of the soundest guys you can meet. Their singer Chris loves The Office too, so any situation that comes up can be met with a quote from David Brent. For example, when I met the band, it was a little like this: Which was nice. What a band. What a night. I wish you could have been there. Playing in venues like that is a luxury, so any chance we get, we want to play there. It really was excellent. Where do we go from here? I do not know. It's getting late. I want to tell you about new songs, forthcoming shows, Who Do You Love, photographs, poetry, but I'm running out of steam. I have a friend in Australia just now and I haven't written to her in nearly three months. I need to get my act together and write to her, there's plenty to tell. If she reads this - I HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY WITH OTHER STUFF BUT I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU. I think about what I'm going to write every day, I really do. Problem is, I tend to write massive, fuck off letters and can't find the time to get it all down. I hope to go over to Australia and see her in a month or so for a couple of weeks. I haven't left the country in fucking ages. I need to get away from the boxes and go and see some of the world. It is a big place out there... But in the meantime, listen to our songs. Who Do You Love should be mastered soon and we could have the full shebang up shortly. Marlow is great fun to be in at the moment, I just hope that we can push on after these two shows and get noticed, it's been a while since we started and we deserve for the top table to know who we are. We're a good band, we just need people to hear us. Then things will happen. If people will listen to us, things will happen. There is so much to tell you. I have forgotten half of what I intended to write. I will leave you with this: I have tried to write Paradise Do not move Let the wind speak that is paradise. Not my words. MARLOW MARLOW MARLOW MARLOW MARLOW MARLOW MARLOW Thank you Craig G Telfer bass guitar I wear my heart on my sleeve | ||||
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| The Mill at Oran Mor - 21st May - HOW TO GET INVOLVED | 202 dni temu | ||
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| Hello everyone! This is the ultimate cut'n'paste job, lifted from the Hercules Mandarin MySpace page, with only the pronouns changed. This may read like that bit in Friends when the burd cooks the trifle and adds mince by mistake... We are delighted to announce that we have been selected to play at The Mill at Oran Mor in Glasgow. This will be our first appearance in Glasgow since the show at King Tuts with the, ahem, technical difficulties... The Mill is an initiative showcasing fresh unsigned talent with the assistance of major financial backing from Miller Genuine Draft. Bi-weekly showcase gigs take place in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Oran Mor is unquestionably one of the best venues in Glasgow and we are very excited about playing there. Also on the bill are Hercules Mandarin, one of the most interesting bands we've played with - an amalgamtion of punk, country, new wave, Americana, pop into one fantastis band. We played with them back in January 2008 and although they declined our advances for tea and Father Ted, they're the soundest bunch of guys you can meet, and one of the best bands we've had the priviledge to take to the stage with. In such barren times as these, one of the best things about The Mill is that it is FREE. To receive your FREE TICKET for our gig by sms direct to your mobile, simply text "MILL28R" to 82500, or go to www.themill-live.com and register your name, email address and mobile number. Availability is extremely limited, and tickets are expected to go fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. www.themill-live.com www.myspace.com/herculesmandarin www.myspace.com/marlow_music Blog written by Hercules Mandarin (70%) and Marlow (30%) | ||||
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| Patrick Swayze! | 228 dni temu | ||
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| Hello, Wilkommen, Bon Matin, etc etc It is a fine Saturday morning (it actually is - the skies are pretty blue outside, which is a welcome change to dismal piss that's fallen from the skies through the week - I would have been, had the weather been decent last night, in the middle of a campsite in Callander just now and not in my bed at 8am with only my underpants on and my laptop across me) and what better way to bring in the day than by writing another thrilling blog? I've often said I'm unsure of who actually reads these (judging by the number of comments left after my epic novel from last weekend - very few...) but having spoken to a few friends, they say the actually enjoy these inane ramblings. Why? I do not know. The self-deprecating wit? The insight into being the bass player in noise-pop outfit Marlow? The fine use of similie and metaphor? (I did English Literature at University for four years, I need to channel my literary skills and techniques somewhere because I'm not utilising them at work putting stickers on boxes for eight-and-half hours a day...) I even have a friend currently living in Australia and she reads them - the word of Marlow spreads across oceans... So long may it continue! I wasn't too sure what to write about this morning - I suppose I can only really offer an update on what's happened in the last week or so coupled with some thoughts and feelings on love, life and literature. And that's yer lot. The week started well with a good practice in Edinburgh on the Monday night where we finished Low Winter Sun, a song that's fast becoming one of my favourites. The genesis of this song is actually a very strange one - I had a riff on the piano (!) that sounded like something that parodied Springsteen - not Springsteen himself, but one of these bands that have popped up in the last few years that make absolutely no effort to disguise the fact that they're ripping of The Boss and the E-Street Band (The Hold Steady, I'm looking in your direction) - that Kippy described as "too heroic". If you were to hear it, you'd be like, "Cool, which album is that off, The River or Born In The USA? Or is that something by one of "those" bands?". He was round at my house and we were trying to get something to take into practice for the next night and we were mucking around with bits and bobs, trying to see if we could use that piano riff (which was named "A River Runs Through America" for that special touch), my brother sitting in and trying to offer some advice, listening to Boy and October for inspiration and not really getting anywhere... Until one of us, I can't remember who, came up with the Em-D-Bm chord sequence for the verse (I'm giving all our secrets away here!). The rest of the song pretty much came from there. In practice, we had the idea that it should be a bit Friendly Fires-ish, with a spikey verse and uplifting chorus... and it all seemed to sort itself out after that. K-Man started using his Slicer unit to create this fragmented dancey signal, Quinny dusted the song in an icey reverb (fast becoming a speciality - it sounds pure and unique - the Marlow sound, nobody elses), I thumbed away at the roots notes (but do I care? Do I fuck, I could play augmented riffs, pentatonic scales, a million notes a minute all day long, but it sounds fucking crap compared to doing the simple thing - who the fuck wants to hear frantic bass work in Marlow anyway? Listen to us for the singing and the soundscapes, you want slapbass and all that, go and listen to the early RHCP stuff and never darken my door again) and Marky clattered away, getting this incredible drum sound... and we have a great song. In my mind, it sounds a bit like a cross between Friendly Fires and U2, but I think there's elements of My Bloody Valentine (a band I think we might begin to sound a bit like), Idlewild (the chorus sounds a bit like American English - remember that song? They could have "done a Snow Patrol" after that alnum but seemed doomed to remain on the fringes... Maybe that's the way they want it...) and The Blue Nile (the "breakdown" sounds like the middle section of A Walk Across The Rooftops)... But most of all, it sounds like MARLOW. You can listen to it and hear all these different elements from other bands, but most of all, it sounds like something that only we do, and that is something I'm immensely proud of. It's taken us a long time to get here, through the dull and uninventive "U2 tribute band" slurs to develop this. Painting with Music, or Guitar Socialism, whatever you want to describe it as. ***** I would like to point out that I had written a massive, a fucking massive blog, and for reasons only known to my computer, it clicked out of the page, and I had only saved the opening paragraphs. I do not have the patience to write it all out again, so I'll summarise. I AM FUCKING DISTRAUGHT. ***** Town Hall: Went OK, few sound problems, didn't play too well, but we seemed to go down favourably with the crowd. I like playing on big stages like that. Cassette show: Balls up after the venue lost their license and we're no longer playing anymore. I had written a huge and detailed description on what happened, but it's lost. We were very disappointed to be missing out on playing with a high calibre of band, but there will be other times... ROAD HOUSE: Possibly one of the campest but brilliant films I've ever seen, Craig from San Sebastian loaned me it (look at me, name dropping!) and I thoroughly recommend that you watch it too. King Tut's, 24th April: Get involved, this could be a really big night for us. Tickets £5, I'll have them by tonight and then we can get it on the go. Make sure YOU are there. And that's pretty much it. I had written all the way up to King Tut's and then lost all that work. Fucking gutter when that happens, it really is. There was so much to tell you. Look how detailed the opening paragraphs were. And looks at what followed. Fucking hell, I am raging, this took me nearly two hours to type up, and I fucking lost it all. There was some pure poetry in there too. So I conclude on a sombre note. Have a listen to Peace At Last by The Blue Nile - it's actually very good. Don't go in there thinking it'll be like A Walk Acriss The Rooftops or Hats, it's much different to that. I didn't like it at first, but after a few listens, it's a strong album. I am sorry that you are not able to see all the detail that I had written earlier. I hate my fucking computer. Craig G Telfer, The heartbroken blogger :-( | ||||
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| Cassette is KANCELLED :-O | 230 dni temu | ||
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| Pretty much as it says on the tin - the gig on 11th April at Cassette is cancelled. I'm fucking gutted. | ||||
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| Twitter... | 231 dni temu | ||
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| Hello - We are embracing modern technology and we're now on this Twitter thing. Stephen Fry says it's class, so who am I to disagree? You can find out how many Big Macs I've eaten after practice, what Mark's cat is doing, how Kip felt about the latest episode of Lost, and, crucially, where Quinny buys his shoes from. If you're interested in that sort of thing... Go to http://twitter.com/marlow_music and sign up AT ONCE. Your life will be better for it. Log on to Twitter, get involved with us and get some Katy Perry on YouTube. Craig G Telfer | ||||
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| YOU STAY CLASSY, MARLOW FANS! | 235 dni temu | ||
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| Copy and pasted from MySpace, took me nearly two hours to write as well... ========== It's a Saturday morning, I had an Indian last night and I'm going into Falkirk to buy a new pair of trainers in an hour or so. My mum's gone on holiday and she's taken her hair straightners with her, which is a bit frustrating, but I've got an old pair in the cupboard in my room that are probably worth digging out. Stenhousemuir play Dumbarton this afternoon and tomorrow I've managed to get my hands on a ticket to Manchester United -vs- Aston Villa, courtesy of my Uncle. I may go to CITY nightclub tonight, I haven't decided. All in all, it is shaping up to be a fantastic weekend. But enough about me, I'm not trying to brag or boast that my social life is somewhat more fascinating that yours, I'm just providing a slight introduction to this blog that will attempt to tie up the events of the last week and look ahead to a very exciting month in April - there's some very important dates to add to your diary. We want you to be a part of everything. Are we in this together? Last weekend was, without a doubt, an unqualified success. The Martell was probably one of the best shows we've played at, but the build up was not without its problems. We hadn't played live as a full band since the end of January and with a lot of our attention focused on recording Who Do You Love, we had let our high standards of performance slip. After the recording, we had gone back into the practice rooms thinking that we could just run through the old songs willy-nilly and spend the rest of the time working on new ideas and other stuff - it did not work out like that at all. For about three practices, we sounded absolutely wretched. In both Edinburgh and Bonnybridge, we were unable to get anything close to a satisfactory sound. Everything just sounded fucking yucky. You could have the amplifiers and monitors set one way one week and things would sound brilliant - you could come in the next week with everything set the exact same and it would sound crap. It's very frustrating that this is not an exact science. And because the sound was shit, you spend half your time focusing on the shit instead of what you're playing and it opens yourself up to making silly mistakes in songs you've been playing for ages. One practice in Bonnybridge in particular was awful and I was making so many mistakes, it was as if I had only played the song for the first time. We were genuinely worried that we would sound baws at The Martell. BUT! We got over that - the next week we came in to practice and everythning just clicked, the guitars sounded great, the vocals came through clear, everything fell into its right place. We played at Cosmpol in Glasgow as a warmup and I thought we were pretty ace, the sound was bright and we went down well with the crowd, especially with a wayward bunch of Swedes who seemed to be well impressed. They invited us to play at a pub in their hometown which we had to decline because of logistical reasons. One of them took off his shirt and showed me his Arsenal tattoo. I was well impressed. The Martell was an excellent night. I don't think I've ever seen the place so busy (last time it was like that, The View were bottled off the stage) and I'd like to thank The Harps and Casino for playing alongside us. I'd seen The Harps play at the Info Sessions at The Tolbooth in Stirling and, although the sound was quite poor, the quality of their song shone through. With a frighteningly good sound at the Martell, they sounded absolutely superb. One of the criticisms directed at them at The Tolbooth was that they needed a second guitarist to bolster the sound - James Fallon totally blew away any such sniping with his performance on Saturday. I think he's only 18 or 19 just now, in 5 years time he looks like he'll be an absolutely superb player. Not a million miles away from our very own Iron Duke, in fact. The Harps were tight and good and we will definitely be playing with them again the future. Casino brought along a mammoth crowd of wee pieces and blasted through their set with gusto, including a cover of The Who's My Generation. Pints a-plenty were skelped. They struggled a bit with their onstage sound but out front there were no problems. The only downside to their set was Ross Fairweather's horrid tablecloth shirt - he tried to defend it by saying it cost £70, but tablecloths are still tablecloths, regardless if they cost 70p or £70. Hopefully he'll consign it to his wardrope and it'll never see the light of day ever again. I was happy with our performance. We seemed to get a lot of people watching us and a few people were jiving away. One of the monitors had broken during Casino's set and it was slightly detrimental to us (I could barely here the Duke's guitar) but we powered on through. My synthesiser skills are getting better. I apologise to whoever I hit with a drumstick during Violet Hour, it looked like a sore one. I was proud of the way we played and I think the rest of the guys were happy. I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to come along. The Scotland game might have been on, but the people that made the effort to come and see us despite this made us very happy. Next time we play at The Martell, we'll make sure Stenhousemuir/Scotland/Def Leppard aren't playing that night. That'll fuck it up for everyone. So that was the tail end of March - what do we have to look forward to in April? PLENTY O' THINGS. We'll discuss the new songs first, because that's where I'm most excited. We could have had ready in time for The Martell but because of the problems we were having at the time (discussed above), we didn't really have the time to focus on it and it got pushed to the side to focus on making the likes of Across Winter and Don't Stop sound decent again, but we've got it up and running and it should be ready in time for the next show. I have mentioned the song in a previous blog, but now I present to you LOW WINTER SUN, a hugely interesting song. Think a mixture of Friendly Fires, U2 (of course!), The Blue Nile and some post-hardcore bands from the turn of the century and you're on the right lines. More and more though, it actually sounds like a Marlow song rather than anything else - I think with this one, Who Do You Love and Don't Stop, we're beginning to sound like us instead of borrowing techniques and ideas from other bands. Don't get me wrong, the U2 influence that was espeically prevalent in our earlier stuff is still there, but not as much now. Kippy in particular is really coming into his own. I was with him for dinner last night and we were talking about the approach to the guitar and all that and he said that he's much rather be able to be a master of the FX unit and noise pedals than eb ableto play 523678 notes in the space of ten seconds. Who's intereseted in all that show off stuff when you can have a lilting guitar track instead? Exactly. LOW WINTER SUN combines a spikey verse with a superb bassline (if I may say it myself!) with a superb BIG chorus that sounds huge but doesn't verge in Snow Patrol territory. Sounds hard to explain, but you'll know what I mean when you hear it. Think the good tunes off the Friendly Fires LP and you're along the right lines. Very happy with it. Even happier that oor Mark seems to have become more involved in the songwriting process over the last few months, something that has really helped us push on with our sound. Note the change in timbre at the very end of LOW WINTER SUN - mesmeriesing! The other song that's coming is probably the best thing we've ever done. I don't know if the other guys will agree with me, but this new tune has moved me in a way that the others haven't. That isn't slighting the older stuff, but this one... I had it stuck in my head at work yesterday and had a small tear in my eye thinking about it. That's only ever happened once before, and that was with Who Do You Love. The crazy thing is, we only have two chords so far! Nothing else, just two chords backwards and forwards... But everything goes together so well. Everything is stripped back, Mark playing some dancey-ish drums, me playing two notes on the bass, the Duke firing an arpeggio through a harmonizer and the odd delay swell and Quinny completely undersinging his lines... This is truly magnificent stuff. Not sure when we'll have the rest of it finished, but this one is incredibly exciting. We were jamming through parts for it and K-man came up with these two chords and I was shouting YES! YES! YES! like some mad Archimedes man on the cusp of something wonderful. Wait until you hear it all put together... We have some excellent shows coming up in April. The first is at the Falkirk Town Hall next Thursday (9th). I'm a bit sceptical about this - they want us to sell tickets at £5 a go for a 20 minute set. Hmm. If you want to come, by all means come along and watch us play 5 songs, but, if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, come and see us play at Cassette in Glasgow on Saturday 11th April. I was delighted to get this slot and it took a Jim'll Fix It letter to secure it, but, pound for pound, this could be the best bunch of bands we've ever played with. Great Eskimo Hoax and Nacional are very good but what I'm most excited about is playing with San Sebastian. My friend from University, Robin, had talked about them a bit and I was a bit dimissive before I heard them but after hearing This Is Modern a year or so ago... Hard to believe, but they are one of my favourite ever bands and have had a huge influence on my approach to making music, how you can get huge soundscapes of sound from the guitar without sacrficing that traditional pop dynamic... I only have a t track demo of theirs but it is absolutely fantastic. I've only seen them once before and I cannot wait to play with them. Come along to that instead of FTH. A Saturday night in Glasgow with Marlow - my pants are tight, are yours? Other exciting shows include a return to King Tut's Wah Wah Hut on Friday the 24th of April to support Jack Butler. Quinny says they're quite good, and who am I to argue? Make sure you're there for that, the venue is worldclass, the sound is immense and we will promise to put on a show. Heck, I might even join you in the crowd if it goes well! At least we're not playing there when T In The Park is on the next day eh! Between Casette and King Tuts I'm hopeful that we'll get another couple of shows booked at places further afield. We conclude the month with a shows at Whistlebinkies in Edinburgh and Bar Brel in Glasgow, a nice little acoustic show at my old stomping ground in Ashton Lane (in truth, although I walked through the place a lot, I only ever went for drinks there a few times, it was a bit expensive for a shitheel student). So that's what's happening with us. There's a lot to do. More shows at better venues with better bands... Remember and listen to plenty of Springsteen, U2, The Blue Nile (A Walk Across The Rooftops is a current favourite) and do a lot of reading, especially the Penguin Classic editions with the silver spines. If I don't make it as a rock and roll star, I want to write a novel that becomes a Penguin Classic and is taught in schools and Universities the world over. Thank you for your time. Craig G Telfer, bass player, dream-maker, heart breaker, mover and shaker etc etc etc etc | ||||
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| Thank You for Saturday Night | 239 dni temu | ||
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| On behalf of my band, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who came along to The Martell on Saturday night. I'm sure you'll agree that the three bands playing were excellent, the sound was superb and the place was bouncing. We're hoping to do the same thingaround August, make sure you're there for that! Once again, thanks for coming, your support was superb! Craig G Telfer fattyfattyboomboom | ||||
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| A Brief but intriguing update | 273 dni temu | ||
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| Q - what was the greatest song written in August 2008 by a band with an funny-looking crooner and bass player with an orange guitar and eleven pin badges attached to his strap? A - if you said Who Do You Love, then you were correct. OOOOOFT. We're very pleased to announce that we are returning to Chem19 studios in Hamilton on the 7th and 8th of March to record it. There is not one inch of doubt in my mind that if a bigger band were to release it as a lead single fron their new album, it would be lauded as one of the greatest songs of the year. That's just how good it is. It started off by pure accident during a practice through in Edinburgh. We were setting up the synthesiser and I fired on a demo to get the sound levels right when Kippy started playing that now-familiar introductory riff - that DUH-DUH-DUH-DAAAA! DUH-DA-DUH-DUH! with his delay pedal turned up as far as it could go - as soon as he started striking the chords, we all knew that he was on to something. Quinny fired his reverd unit up as far as it would allow and draped Kip's riff in an icy blanket of noise. Mark battered out a mechanical drumbeat and I thumbed away at the bass. Within about ten minutes, the song pretty much fell together, verse, chorus, middle, ending, the whole lot of it fell into place so quickly. I think back and I can't believe the speed at which the song came together. The vocal and the lyrics were added soon after. I suggested we call it WHO DO YOU LOVE because it sounded like a disco record from the halcyon days of the 70s before punk music came along and shat all over everything. The song is about desperation and fear and you LISTEN to the words and the way he sings... High fives all round. Probably the most complete Marlow song to be honest. Every single instrument plays a crucial part in the song, from the vocals and the big guitars to the rhythm section. I am immensely proud of it and I'm sure that you will enjoy it. In other news, we have been selected for Your Sound at King Tut's at the start of March. I'm not sure how much prestiege there is in having your song played, but we're delighted to have been selected. Who knows, maybe we might even win it! But that's doubtful. I'm still gutted at not being selected for the Tolbooth Sessions... Never gets your hopes up, you'll only be disappointed. Still, something to look forward to. Quinny and I pitched up at the last one and met some very interesting people, got a few good demos from folk... A GOOD IDEA IS A GOOD IDEA FOR LIFE (if Chris is reading this, my wit is not lost). We are playing at King Tut's on the 9th of March and we hope you can come. We're playing with a band called Reemer who have supported the likes of McFly. Not sure if that makes them any good or not, but it does guarantee a squad of 15 and 16 year old girls will be going. Smashing stuff! I hope one of them wants to get off with me, I could write about it in my diary. Please come along though, it should be an excellent show, we're getting better and better live. This could be the biggest show of our careers (career eh! Haha!). Finally, we have a massive show coming up in Falkirk on March 28th. Don't fucking bother with the Scotland vs Holland match and the shitty evening kick off (fucking 7.45pm! Fuck off!), come along to THE MARTELL and get cunted and have a dance. This could even be seen as a single launch night - although I am sceptical about this, bands seem to have SINGLE LAUNCH NITEZ! all the fucking time, no idea what it even means - is your song getting released? Is it for sale on HMV? Can you download it on iTunes and stick on your MP3 player alongside the new Kings of Leon album? Will it appear in the charts? - just a fancy name for saying "we're playing in our local pub, go and come". Regardless, this should be an awesome night, football or no football. It might diminish the potential size of the crowd, but I know that the wise and the righteous will come along. Also playing with us are CASINO (starring my brother Ross and big Felly - nepotism at its finest) and THE HARPS, another very good band. Three very good bands, what more do you want? Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. There are probably millions of spelling errors, but I hope my enthusiasm and passion comes across in this. I fucking love Marlow just now. Craig G Telfer, bass player, poet and author, Slimmer of the Year 2009 | ||||
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| Hello there! | 307 dni temu | ||
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| Hello there. I am not sure who will read these mad ramblings, but I think it's important to keep the 206 hardy souls who've taken the time too become fans of Marlow up to date with what we're doing, so here goes. If there's any spelling mistakes or instances of poor grammar, please leave a comment and I will get back to you within ten working days. 2008 was kind of a funny year for us - the first half of the year saw us play some pretty great shows including venues like ABC and King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, but we all but disappeared from the live scene in the second half of the year. We were recording in August and that broke up our momentum, plus there was a delay in us getting the completed songs back (still ongoing, by the way).We completed the year with probably the best gig of our careers at Glasgow's Stereo, but I think that we felt a bit jaded - the length of time that it has taken to try and sort our recordings (not our fault) has gone on for too long and we were dragging our feet a bit... Step forward Ian Rodgers, who generously asked us if he could become our manager - a cross between Paul McGuiness and Ian Faith (cricket bat included), he has galvanised us, despite the brevity of his working relationship with us. Now we're more focused and have a definite plan of how to approach 2009 - more shows, more publicity, more radio play, better songs (hard to believe that we'll top what we already have, eh!) and hopefully the platform to go and make a career out of this. I don't think I've felt as optimistic about Marlow as I have right now. We've been slowly amassing a number of songs for the new year, some of them roadtested at the tail end of 2008. The pick of the bunch is Who Do You Love, which I mentioned in my last blog. It's actually more like dance music than guitar music, a jerky rhythm section offset by massive reverberating guitars that explodes into the mother of all choruses. The lyrics are excellent too - Quinny and I went halfers on the words for the first time. It's not about losing, it's about the fear of losing - the thoughts that drive you mental are actually far worse than what actually happens, if you follow me. We plan to record this in February and we're just sorting out dates as to when we can record. I don't think I've ever been more excited about one of our own songs. Also hot for the new year is Don't Stop, which sounds like My Bloody Valentine meets Unforgettable Fire era U2. The guitars are pretty indistinct but it merges into you swaying ball of sound. Mark's drums in it are superb. It's not what he's playing, it's what he's not playing that make it so successful. Treasure is a nother superb song - it's divided into two halfs, the first sounding like Pet Shop Boys/The Killers, the second half sounding like Arcade Fire/U2 (ahoy!). The final one, never before played live is Walk In Beauty - lovely chords, sounds like Jeff Buckley. It has one mother of an outro. Plenty to look forward to, I really hop youcan join us on our journey. This time next year we hope to be massive. Craig G Telfer (bass player and tit) | ||||
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| New songs and that coming soon | 436 dni temu | ||
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| Hello, Not sure how many people read these, but we seem to pay our MySpace page far more attention than we do this one. That needs to change and that, but I'll get a decent computer first. This one is shite. We've got two brand new songs called Under Control and Unknown Response all recorded and mixed and they'll be up to listen to very shortly. I think they're both wicked. We've also got another couple of tunes called Pyramid and Who Do You Love that sound fucking aces, espcially the latter - it sounds like a cross between Pop era U2, The Rapture, Foals, Interpol and all that jazz. Kippy and Quinny have also got tiptop new reverb units and our sound is getting fucking huge. Really into Marlow again at the moment, really happy with the way things are going. Craig G Telfer | ||||
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