From what I can tell, I get a fair few hits on this site from people wanting to know more about the Boss MG-10 amplifier, and since I have had one since they came out in 1989 (and now have three) I thought I’d post about what I know about the amp, starting with some […]
Music
Cassette Minaret
It’s raining and I have the day off work. I am trying to make sense of this lot. I always knew I “kept all my tapes” but it has been a long time since I have dealt with them and making sense of all of these cassettes is quite something. There is the content for […]
The Scorpions – Blackout
I bought the 1982 LP “Blackout” by The Scorpions on cassette back in the summer of 1985, and it was amongst the first albums I bought totally by myself (as opposed to by my parents as gifts for me when I was little). The Scorpions are still touring today and listening back to Blackout over […]
Vehicle Derek
Years ago I was in a hardcore punk band called Vehicle Derek. Recently I’ve put a few recordings of us on YouTube for posterity and nostalgia. There was no other band like us in our hometown of Boston, Lincolnshire at the time and whilst we divided opinions musically we were certainly unforgettable. Apart from stunning […]
Firefly Amplifier (and Flying V guitar)
A few years back my brother built me this little valve (tube if you live across the Atlantic) amplifier, based on the Firefly circuit. I say based as I don’t know exactly how he did it, but I know it has an extra valve in it for a boost circuit, which is what I am […]
There is no Head…
2014 saw me revisit the LP “Tales of Ordinary Madness” by the late 1980’s Bristol band, Head. Head were often in the weekly UK music press in that era, but like so many bands that it was easy to read about, I never actually really listened to them at the time (I was mostly into […]
Musical coincidence
This morning, on the bus to work, a song came on my music player on “random”. This evening, on the way home and passing the same place, the same song came on. A small moment of randomity for a foggy evening. The song in question incidentally was “Abacab” by Genesis.
Gig review: Steve Lawson, Andy Edwards and Jem Godfrey
King’s Norton Tower of Song, August 10th 2014 I had a very interesting evening last night at the Tower of Song in Kings Norton, Birmingham watching Steve Lawson, Andy Edwards and Jem Godfrey improvising. The TOS is a compact and bijou venue for starters; as it was my first trip I was thinking it would […]
Konstanzegraff – a reflection
Since releasing the Konstanzegraff songs as part of Volume 5 of the Cinque Pezzi Facili Series on Under My Bed Recordings I’ve been pondering sharing the reasoning behind the music and why it exists. There’s at least one good reason for this, in that most of the people who know about it are familiar with […]
Mixtapes = nein danke
A plea. If you are British, and over 30, don’t say “mixtape”. Say “compilation tape”. As it was, and as it should be.
Red Panda
Red Panda was an improvising band which I was part of in 2012 and 2013. We were made up of two drummers (Laurence from Small Machine and Chris from Audium), me on bass and Rob (also from Small Machine) on guitar. We played one gig with one song (called “Japanese Hair”, improvised on the night) […]
Gig review: Frost*Bites
King’s Cross Scala, December 16th 2012 Legendary bands Frost* and It Bites played a one-off Xmas gig last year at The Scala in London, and I was there! Here’s my gig review (originally posted on the Frost*ies forum)… Arrived at King’s Cross at about 18:10 and felt quite thrilled walking around in my normal winter […]
Deep in the Grass
Although the audience for what I do musically is TINY (what fun it is to represent a word meaning small with such gusto and emphasis), I do nevertheless get asked what I am up to from time to time and in particular “is there any new Spunkle stuff coming out/are you going to play live […]
Konstanzegraff on YouTube
All the Konstanzegraff tracks from the fifth Cinque Pezzi Facili EP are now online on YouTube – check out the playlist here – there’s a special video for each track.