Stonehouse Violets

From a wee chat this is what comes of it.

Similarly if you have a drink with Mike of Stonehouse Violets then there is no way of knowing how the night will end up.

You have been warned.

ItsaXXXXthing - So who is the best band in the world Mike. Go on share it with us as you have told me often enough?

Mike - Well it's us isn't it? We are the best band in the world!

When I say that I mean in my opinion of course, but fuck it. Unless you truly believe that you are the best then what is the point?

If you are going to do anything in life you have to give it one hundred percent and believe in yourself.
I don't need anyone telling me that we are good.

I already know that.

So you are better than everyone from The Beatles to Oasis to the guys that can fill stadiums just now?

Well let's just say we are in the same niche as them. People just don't know it yet.

We are the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, Primal Scream, The Clash and every other band who defined the rules for themselves.

There's a rule book that people keep talking about.

I've got it in the toilet, but not as reading material.

It saves on buying toilet roll and I reckon I'm half way through using it.

That's all the rock and roll rule book deserves.

Me wiping my arse on it.

So is this a front. Sort of a swaggering Oasis thing?

Not at all.

Oasis had the right idea though.

It's like this. If you want something then it's rare for anyone to just give you it.

That's a life lesson right there.

If you want something you have to take it.

The more you want it the harder you will work to get it and the more you will hang onto what you have got.

Fuck anyone who gets in the way of what we want.

It's dog eat dog.

We will work with anyone who wants to help us and as long as the deal is fair for all parties then it's not a hassle, but without wrapping it all up in bullshit we know what we want and we want to keep our eye on it, and if anyone wants to get in our way then their name goes down in our wee black book.

What?
Like a hit list. Ha?

Nah. We just list them under the title 'Fuckers' and we wont tolerate them.

When things pick up for, us as they will, there will be the 'fuckers' hovering around for a slice of the pie and if their name is in our book they aren't getting a slice.

The good guys are on our team and they are the ones who are welcome to jump aboard for the ride.

Fair enough then. So who is on the list?

You will see them outside the gigs looking for a guest list pass and asking people if they know who they are.

No one will be giving a toss.

What would you say to the people who would say that I have heard this all before from shit like Towers of London?

That it's just the arrogance of a front man?

Ha. Remember them? They are an example of a band who can talk the talk but couldn't back it up.

Once people see us live they know that they have nothing to do with us.

I don't feel embarrassed about blowing our own trumpet.

For me this is just facts getting expressed as I see them.

If some people disagree then that's fine.

They're wrong, but they are allowed to be wrong. Ha

I suppose of people want to take what is really a confidence in myself and the bands abilities and think it's arrogance then I can see where they are coming from, but it's our job to make music and play shows that make them see that the claims I'm making are true.

It's not really a case of empty boasting.

What about the mainstream music press. Has there been any interest?

Not so far, but we aren't trying to kick their doors in.

I've not read the NME since fuck knows when.

I couldn't tell you anything about it.

Who else is there?

Q, Mojo?

Do they feature new bands?

Every time I see them in the newsagents it's Led Zep on the cover, or Bob Dylan.

So you aren't interested in them featuring you?

No, that's not what I am saying. Exposure is exposure after all, but the whole music business is crumbling.

For every label that is in dire straits there's a million bands putting out their own stuff, and for every mainstream magazine there's a million blogs like this one.

It's all changing.

I guess what I mean is that I don't care.

If it's the NME that want to agree that we are the dogs bollocks or joe blogger from fuckyermaw.com then fair enough.

Do you think the confidence you have could put people off?

Well I hope not. To go back to the start of the interview when I say we are the best band about I mean that with all my heart.

The thing is that I think that every member of every band should think the same way.

If you say it out loud then you have to deliver on it. It urges you on.

We can play with bands who have members who we would call mates, but it's like professional boxers going into a bout when we step on stage.

We want to knock them out in the first round and they should have the same attitude about their performance and go for it.

Once the gig is over then we are mates again.

Like the boxers we can shake hands and hit a club for a drink together.

Remember that baseball film with Kevin Costner in it. It's like that. Believe in it and make it happen.

I don't have room for entertaining self doubt in my head.

This band I am in is the best and we will do everything that we can to maintain control of our own destiny.

When someone asks us why we are doing one thing or another then we just tell them straight.

Take gig bookings.

Now someone could look at us playing a 200 capacity club as the headliner and think why aren't they supporting a major band in a 1000 capacity venue.

The reason is that we could get a crate of beer for the support slot and play in front of the eighty people who have turned up early enough to catch us, or we can blow the roof off of the club in front of people who are there to see us, and with a good deal with a promoter we can then go home with some cash that can then be used to record, pay for professional photographs, get a van and a hundred more things that will help us get out to more people.

We want to play for people, entertain them on our terms.

It's an attitude that others should go with.

But similar to how you wouldn't knock back an interview with the NME you would still consider a major support slot?

Well yes. If we liked the band. We would probably look on it as the chance to see a band we liked for fuck all rather than winning over fans though.

Although we would still give the gig one hundred percent. We don't do substandard.

So what's next for the band?

L-R Stewart Sonic Templar and Mike Stonehouse Violet 

Your gig is on the cards. It's the Sonic Templars and us in Pivo. As you know it's going to be another sell out. The only tickets left are the ones in Tickets Scotland and they might be in single figures by now.

What do you think about The Sonic Templars?

They're brothers in arms. They know the score and they will bring it on. I love them.

All bets are off for the performance though. They will storm it and so will we.

Battle of the Titans mate.

See I'm not that arrogant. If I wasn't playing at the gig I would be down the front for The Sonic Templars.

I want to take over the world, but so do they.

I wouldn't right any of us off as it may well happen.

Facebook  Bandcamp

Friday night footage

I was asked a few days ago if I had any footage from some of the gigs that I have put on through the blog.
I have.
Not that I filmed anything. Full credit has to go to the people who came along and done such a good job.
They are the ones who preserved some great memories.

Here's some Canadians. Lovely people and an outstanding live band. The Wooden Sky.




and equally as lovely, but from New Orleans this time. Hurray for the Riff Raff




Scabies/James/Texas Terri


Pretty much everything from the gig here

Scabies/James/Texas Terri - Damned Damned Damned - Pivo - 17/12/12 (Glasgow)

As I have said often I'm not very keen on reviewing the gigs that I've promoted.
So when others do I'm always pleased to share them.
Especially when they are so positive of course :)
Here's a link to what Joe Whyte wrote for Louder than War about the recent support slot that The Coffins played supporting Rat Scabies/Brian/James/Texas Terri in Glasgow.
Please feel free to visit the excellent site and have a look at pretty much all the content they have as you will not be disappointed.

The Coffins - Louder than War.
Take dark garage punk played with passion, add in a twisted sense of humour and a mad-man for a lead singer and you have LTW's New Artist of the Day,The Coffins!

Bursting out of Glasgow?s underworld, The Coffins are a breath of fetid air in a world of X-Factor pseudo-niceness.

Riding a Cramps/Gun Club/Meteors kinda wave, they play the type of music that will have you grinning from ear to ear whilst planning to murder your in-laws.

Joe Bone leads the band and the diminutive vocalist attacks the mic with a gusto and energy that positively screams ?goodtime? at you. That?s, of course, if your version of a good time involves songs about 60?s serial killers, drugs, celebrating alcoholism, blackmail and general mayhem.

Opening earlier this week for the James/Scabies Damned Damned Damned show in Glasgow, The Coffins wreaked havoc on the audience and quite frankly, blew the headliners away. With a rhythm section of Graham Platt and Michael Werninck on drums and bass respectively, The Coffins are a tightly-drilled garage rock machine. Add in Bill Gilchrist?s metal-tinged guitar and Bone?s bluesy, gravelly, shrieks and yelps and you have a mixture that?s hard to ignore.

Bible John' is about the notorious (and as yet, still not apprehended) 60?s Glasgow serial murderer who preyed on women in the legendary Barrowland Ballroom. It?s a sleazy, greasy rocker with sinister backing vocals from the band and evokes Alex Harvey?s mental-er moments. ?You dancin?...? I?m askin?,? stutters Bone in the songs coda. Unsettling in the extreme.

'Boy Band Member' has a staggered Who-style chord progression with spiraling lead from Gilchrist and a vocal line in which Bone urges, ?Bring me the head, of a boy band member.? Hard to argue with that, really.

It?s refreshing to hear a band these days with so little pretension and pre-planned agenda. The Coffins are a straight-down-the-white-line punk-rockin?, garage-stompin?, arse-kicking rock and roll band. The songs are fast, furious and darkly humorous courtesy of Bone?s deranged mind.

Looking for something to blow away the Xmas cobwebs? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and ghouls, I give you The Coffins.

The Coffins forthcoming album is called 'Bob's Shed' and it will be out in January. You can hear what you will be in for on their Soundcloud page. Be sure to check out theirFacebook page as well

and then if that's not enough there was this from The Scotsman.

Gig review: Rat Scabies and Brian James, Featuring Texas Terri - Pivo Pivo, Glasgow

By DAVID POLLOCK
Published on Wednesday 19 December 2012 01:41

THE fan who yelled at the top of his voice that “Sensible’s a w*****” might simply have been fulfilling a tradition where live concerts by first wave British punk outfit the Damned are concerned, with Captain Sensible himself – never less than a snot-nosed wind-up merchant in the group’s enduring incarnation – well used to fielding the slogan as it’s chanted in his face.

Rat Scabies and Brian James, Featuring Texas Terri

Pivo Pivo, Glasgow

* * * *

Yet in those words there was more than just a decades-old slogan being trotted out, more a statement that this group before us laid strongest claim to the soul of the UK’s first punk band.

Guitarist Brian James and drummer Rat Scabies (real name Chris Miller) haven’t been involved with the Damned since the early 1990s, but they’re both key members of the classic line-up and enough of a draw that Pivo Pivo’s low-ceilinged basement bar was rammed full of punks old and young for their return. The body of the set was an in-order run-through of the debut album Damned Damned Damned in honour of its 35th anniversary, but this was no nostalgia trip.

Scabies, James and their band played tracks like Neat Neat Neat, Feel the Pain and the Stooges homage I Feel Alright at ear-splitting volume, offering a conduit back to both the nihilist danger of punk’s early days and their spiritual forebears on the Detroit garage scene of the 60s. In this their secret weapon was “Texas” Terri Laird, a gangly, tattooed androgyne with a voice like a drill splitting cement and the same forceful, trashy sexuality as Iggy Pop. “You are the Damned,” screamed another thrilled acolyte, and the definitive finale of New Rose suggested he had a point.

Hurray For The Riff Raff - Pivo Pivo - Glasgow.

I'll refrain from reviewing the gig as I never feel comfortable giving an opinion on a show that I have put on myself.
The possible opportunity of accusations of bias casts a long shadow so I prefer to let others freely express their views on the night, good or bad.
So instead this is really just a roll call of thanks.
Of course first and foremost I should say thank you to Kelly Conway who has been my partner in crime for four years now.
My love for her over that time has never faded, but instead increased.
Then there's Claire Amos and Pauline Oubari whose positive support is very much appreciated.
Of course I have to also extend my gratitude to the support acts of the evening.
The Dirt, Little Fire and Matt Scott all played sets that enthralled, and that brings me onto everyone who turned up to the gig.
From the bottom of my heart thank you.
I'm struggling to recall ever being part of such a communally supportive audience.
I'm sure I can speak on behalf of the supports and extend some gratitude from them to you for how freely you lent them your ears and how you all willingly displayed your appreciation.
It does make a difference.
Then there's the venue.
Pivo.
If I had a glass in my hand just now I would be raising it to duty manager Foley, sound man supreme Omar, all the bar staff, and of course the best doorman in Glasgow that is the legend who is Sam.
A personal thank you is also extended to friends who supported the evening and by attending sprinkled a bit of magic over it for me.
Douglas and Rochelle. It's been too long. Seriously.
Robbie and Angie, John and Angela, Johnny Fiddles and his crew, Dani and Cat, Taylor, Jamie NoMan, Chris Devotion, CJ Monk and..........
I could go on and on and on.
In fact I've probably mortally offended someone by failing to give them a shout out.
Oh. The people who I don't know who traveled from the Highlands.
They really do deserve to be lauded for their efforts.
Last, but never ever that low down in my thoughts is my son Euan, who finally reached an age where he could come along and see what the outcome is of all those nights I batter away at the keyboard, and of course my daughter Alanna who is and always will be my angel.

Mainy


PS Here's what you missed.