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The U.F.I. Local Live Love In Original Music Digital Recording....and audio webcast!!!! 4pm Sunday 25th May til 2am
Scroll down for words.....Click Here for photos
This years event is on Thursday 13th May 2004...click here for details
So how did it go....?
Alex Kirby
The Maybes
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Okay so how did the upforit.tv 'Local Live Love-in' go......?
Woke up & went for a stroll with the last few upforit's along south cliff to clear my head for the day....lined me belly @ 2 down the Valley with an eat as much as want Sunday dinner then by 3pm started to get a bit nervous about the afternoon evening/morning to come.....I collected my gear and legged it to Murray's :)
By the time I'd arrived Mike Lynskey had sorted out a couple of projectors at either side of the stage area illuminating the backdrop with stereo, red and black, images of our 'Llll 03' logo. Titch was setting up the mics and testing the sound, whilst Wilf our roadie wiseman grinned and said "Hello where's the back line then?".
The back line was still on the road with the Surf Sluts....or should I say in a lay by as their van had broken down two minutes from leaving the garage.....not to worry, I thought, it's acoustic til quarter to seven drums not require til then....no need to panic quite yet..:)
Alex Kirby was propping up the bar with a warm smile, Tom, Dan and Al were mingling with the fair sized crowd that had by now trickled down the stairs into the building.....Daz and Danny cuddled their guitars in a secluded corner....
Graham Rhodes having been given the nod from the sound desk tapped the mic a couple of times then, with Alex Kirby by his side, proclaimed and protestized the event open....Graham stepped aside and Alex caressed his strings into an upbeat opener of original & new material that gave you the feeling he was 'loving to be with you'....
Daz and Danny were next with a set that reminded us all just how blindingly brilliant these two are getting....a bit of a snipe at an ex between songs by Daz gave an air of 'I can tell you all these things 'cos I'm with friends' kind of atmos... :)
I'd snook off and come back with the Digital Video camera, plus an extra long telephone extension so I could start streaming the live audio across the net...The sound desk audio out line had turned out to have been just wee little thing no longer than a gnat's how's yer father....sweating profusely after my jog up the road in the blistering bank holiday heat wave....ah well smiles all round as I plugged in and set the computer from record to streaming sound down the copper cable...
Mike ran off and turned on his server and we were 'cooking on gas'
Well, we would have been had it not been for someone making a phone call on the same line :( After a cuffing round the ear all was well....we were now live, local and broadcasting to the world...a Scarborough first me thinks?
Tom, Dan and AL had replaced the double D's on stage and kept up the flow of acoustic ear arousal as the punters pints pleasured their palates....
I handed over the DV Cam to a young lady to play with as I remembered urgent business..we were still without a drum kit.....mmmm...Help!
Half an hour laters a tap on the shoulder from Graham Rhodes also reminds me a couple of bands haven't appeared, we've got a couple of hours to fill and only a couple of acoustic players left to espouse their set lists....ok plan B :)
Matt who had played the Sea Creatures and seagulls tour plucked up a few tunes of Dillan's plus many of his own compositions... before Alex regained exposure on the webcast he'd lacked earlier due to telephone trouble..fantastic moments the hundred and fifty or more punters who were in the building @ 5.40pm will treasure for many a while :)
A bass amp walked onto the stage area after six o'clock announcing the arrival of Stepney in the building....Wilf's longed for back line turned up half an hour later with the Asylum Seekers drummer along with their Keyboard player, I gave a sigh of relief :)
An hours lull as the lines were tested and more bands entered the subterrainian venue, I spotted the Maybes, Dirk - the lead singer from the Asylum Seekers, a trio of Fuzzgun Sniper, Brian Murray from R@E, all six of the Surf Sluts fresh faced from an afternoon @ the Indigo, Ashley from Stepney @ the Bar and Esme the female lead singer of The Finger Puppets in the green room checking her make up...her leathers/PVC outfit shining and shimmering......ah hum....where was I?.....ah yes the gig....
A bit of negotiation with the bands, ie finding out which one had all their members in one place at the same time, resulted in the opening Live Bands set being taken by the 'pretty boy' star-turns and 'college girl heart breakers' Stepney....The venue was absolutely rammed by now and the bank holiday heat was on. A short sound check and they were connecting with the audience!
Fun writ large, a better start I couldn't have wished for, relieved the second half of the upforit.tv Local Live Love-in was underway I sank a pint and had a breather as I DV cammed their performance...tres magnifique!
Mike was as happy as a new spring lamb and bounced about tigger like raising thumbs and grinning inanely shouting "It works, it works!" he'd been on the blower to a friend that was listening in off t'internet.....I sent him off to work the door to calm himself down :)
Next up came the Maybes, a new Scarborough band whose whole set was compiled of all their own material, their only cover version was their lead singer who looked a little like Liam from some famous band or other...
They looked the part, their sound was student indie, a bastard child of The Fall & happy Mondays, with a Gallagher thrown in for good measure.....my kinda stuff...which is lucky as I'd invited them purely on the strength that they played their own original material... trust your instincts and all is well is my motto from now on....or is it just "Suck it and See"?
John Peel should have been in the building for the lads who've already produced their own CD and put together a set list as long as your arm in as little as a few short months that they've been formed....I'll do a full resume on these guys in another upforit.tv issue for you to peruse laters...
The Asylum Seekers set was tight in places and drifted in others in that rock'n'roll good time feel that a band of this ilk always generates....Dirks' words and vocals flowered up and made sense of by a band that made the audience feel good...
The Finger Puppets exploded onto the stage with a Goth rock bish bash mosh! Esme working the audience and putting smiles on a few gentlemen's faces....The sauna like temperature rising......with a new drummer in tow they were taking a calculated risk with only a weeks rehearsal behind them....these guys and a gal were on a high and weren't gonna let it go!
Fuzzgun Sniper had been waiting in the wings all day for their chance in the spot light, so all pumped up and eager they ran to the stage and got plugged in. R@E's roadies sorted out their gear at the same time as the Fuzzgunners to save time later...
Twenty minutes later, unhappy with their set up, they struck up a burst of their first number giving us a flavour, a crumb and a teasing taster of what we were going to miss out on.....then they decided to make a dramatic exit stage left to a slightly stunned appreciative audience.....well, we'll all just have to get to their next gig and find out just how excitingly fuzzy this lot are won't we :)
The next new Scabby Band were in like the proverbial Flinn......R@E stepped up and, to some, caterwauled their way through a set of high octane extravagance. To others like myself, they were fantastically self assured and full of attitude.....getting the crowd to gyrate in front of them....I was like a dog with a bone :)
Fez caught my eye as I was DV camming R@E.... he pointed at a watch on a raised rist with a fist attached...I got the message we were running late...luckily R@E were on their last tune so a quick band change later and the Sluts were waking up the sozzled bank holiday punters from the bar side and the seating areas.....
The Sluts were half cocked but put in a good showing that raised the crowd from it's slumber....just the ticket to get the blood flowing ready for the long walk home....
We all went surfing on Heroine, had monsters in our garage, realised our daddy was a vampire etc.......hey there what yer doin' now....? suddenly the PA was cut and we were left feeling slightly short changed having not heard the Surf's usual finale of Madona's Material girl complete with "Papa ooo mow mow!" but hey we'd had a good innings and it was time for home.....
Cheers! everyone for turning up and see you down the beached:h2003 if not before......over to you Steve and Mikey!
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Read review of 2002 event......click here
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