Bearos News Archive 2001

01/01/2001

Happy New Year! Weren't we supposed to be discovering strange monoliths on the moon by this stage - there goes Arthur C. Clarke's scientific credibility!

The Glider and San Lorenzo singles will be in the shops by the end of the month. Cargo were too caught up in the Xmas rush to get them in and get them out so the release was put back. I'm doing them mail order and limited numbers have gone to Chunky Records, Norman Records, Boa and Rough Trade. This has put back the Xmas J Foundation/Kluster B release to February - thank goodness we did not drench the tracks in sleigh bells as planned!!

What's your album of 2000? A year is such a long time to condense into a single decision - even John Peel used to have his "Greatest record ever...of the week". Very impressed recently by The Action Time album which delivers all that the earlier singles promised. Thee Headcoates singles compilation is an absolute must with tracks like Is it art or is it arse and The day I beat my father up. Thanks to Fortuna Pop and XFM/Big Issue for providing wonderful Xmas soundtracks.

Bearos had it's own share of festive cheer. At the Christmas party Grover, The Regulars, Baxxter and Crazyface were all invited to perform their choice of Xmas songs. Baxxter opened the proceedings with Silent Night. Greg played trombone with Richard from The Starries as guest guitarist. The Regulars performed an angelic acoustic In the bleak mid winter and Grover gave us not only a post-rock The Christmas Song but their notorious rendition of After the Strap. Crazyface finished up the festive part of the evening with Santa Baby and the night ended with a wonderful set by Herman Dune. There are some tapes of the night hanging about and I might even get round to doing some CDRs - I'll keep you posted, e-mail me if you are interested.

A year or so ago Steve form Avrocar said that he'd have liked to do a single with me but could not reconcile himself with a label called "Bare-arse". This gave me an idea to do the "Bearos bare arse" calendar. The idea would be to get various Birmingham musicians to bare their cheeks for a monthly web page with an added diary - print it out, pin it to the wall. Early experiments with the more than willing Baxxter boys proved most distasteful and certainly not the sort of thing I'd want to share over the world wide web (I'm surprised that Jessops printed them!) Copies are in the possession of Russ from the band who now works in Tempest in Brum - go hassle him for a peek.

19/02/2001

Finally should be getting the J Foundation/KlusterB tracks mastered this weekend - seems all the no-fi technology needs a little bit more tweaking. That should be off to the pressing plant before the end of the month along with a four track EP by Birmingham bard Ben Calvert. Sort of Nick Drake with a few Nico-esque touches. A bit of a departure for the label but it'll be well worth a listen. If you are in the Birmingham area Ben is playing a solo gig at Ronnie Scott's this Sunday (25th - on stage 8.30ish) and then one with the full band on 28th February at The Jug of Ale (on stage 8.45ish supporting the Courtesy Group.)

I've already had the tracks for the next Baxxter and Starries singles. The Baxxter release is going to be a five track EP (Big Wednesday, Tramps, T.S.S., Feels like Summer and Hoggle.) I'm really excited about the new tracks by The Starries, the first with their new drummer. In Geordie's own words: "Three tracks in glorious stereo. The Years Are Hers is our "hey it's the summer" punk hit of the...well...the summer. Foreign Age is easily our darkest moodiest one ever, and Water Flow is our heaviest moment to date." At the moment I'm trying to persuade them to include another, older song as a fourth track. Both bands gave a rousing performance on Saturday. The Starries struggled against collective laryngitis. Geordie apologies for their lack of voices, "We haven't even got one to pass round between us!" he croaked. Headliners, Baxxter, were saying good-bye to drummer Kelly who is joining Twist as their new bass player.

Last Wednesday (14th) saw the broadcast of Grover's debut John Peel session. It's taken a while to arrange but the band had a great time down at Maida Vale studios (mine and Simon's pictures are on the Grover web site). As a result of the session they've already had two offers for single releases apart from the already agreed split with Jet Johnson (Billy Mahonnie spin off) on Oxford's Big Scary Monster label.

A few names that Bearos will introduce you to in the next few months are: Ogs Bunkadoo Band - West Coast late 60's psychedelia as played by four blokes from Derby with a Tolkein fixation (one track for the proposed single has a working title, The decline of Boromir!) Crazyface - More quality POP - I need say no more! Dreams of Tall Buildings - side project of Justin Wiggan from slow-fi rockers Subaqwa. Minimalist soundscapes studded with found sounds and haunting melodies.

Busy week for Jameson next month. They're supporting Twist at Birmingham's Flapper and Firkin on 2nd March and then with Six by Seven at the Dublin Castle on the 6th. This London gig is to launch the latest Fierce Panda four way split double single. The Jameson track is Sprinkle the Axis - my personal favourite from last year's 7" triple pack. The band have been back in the studio and are in the process of mixing five new tracks. More news on that as it happens.

14/04/2001

This month sees the eventual release of both the J Foundation/KlusterB split and Ben Calvert's State of Travel EP. Available mail order as I type or from independent record stores by the start of May - order it now and boost the pre-sale! Last month saw the re-emergence of Baxxter with ex-Starrie, Steve Kelly, behind the drums. They've decided to re-record the tracks for the single with this different drum sound. Expect a release later in the summer. The next release by the Starries is ready to go to the pressing plant. The fourth track will be a version of the live favourite Crying Girl, recorded last year. Also off to be pressed is a double 7" by Dreams of Tall Buildings. The stuff is too good to just put out two tracks!

The pictures above are from the Bearos Easter Party. Similar thing to the Xmas do but this time all the bands had to do a glam rock cover version! Crazyface (above left) gave us Virginia Plain, Grover did Crazy Horses (with me on stylophone - see above right) and San Lorerenzo finished with Ziggy Stardust. A real highlight for me was Ben Calvert doing his solo acoustic version of Slade's Cum on feel the noize! We're already plotting the end of summer Madonna night.

Last night saw Stu's last gig as bass player with The Regulars. Unknown to Stu, and the rest of the band, Stu masks had been distributed amongst the audience creating a John Malkovitch type welcome as they came on stage. I can't remember when I last saw the Flapper so packed and the Regularsgave a great performance. Pete dedicated the last song to "The man who formed The Regulars, Mr. Stu Fletcher". He'll complete the recordings for the next single but then feels that he wants a break from the music business as he joins the hallowed ranks of ex-Regulars. Replacements are already on the horizon!

14/06/01

Two more releases for you this month. The first, as promosed two months ago, is The Starries summer single, The years are hers. "What happened to the colour vinyl?" Richard asked. "The pressing plant have just put all their prices up," I reply. Tis true - we're all having to dig a little deeper in our pockets at the moment. The other release is a double 7" pack from dreams of Tall buildings. The band features Justin Wiggan from Subaqwa, Simon Oz and Darren Joyce. Full of mosaics of found sounds and haunting rhythms. Very seductive, very enchanting.

Sad news this month with Nigel (AKA Kraken) vacating the Jameson drummer's stool after a two year stint - the longest any of them have lasted. He's back off to the Valleys to rest up before joining his brother in Belize! "I might be there for three months, I might be there for three years!" he told me after a most packed and sweaty farewell gig at The Jug of Ale (right). I'm told we later drowned our sorrows at Edward's Night Club and finished the night with a curry. All I remember is leaving the pub, buying loads of drinks, falling out of a taxi, eating a delicious curry very slowly, taking half an hour to get my socks off and waking up with no money and lumps on my head!

San Lorenzo (left)also called it a day this month (the Bearos Easter party ended up as their last gig). They'd just sent me the best stuff they'd ever recorded - two tracks, We've got mysticism and my favourite song at the moment Mirror Witch. Rather than put these out as a single we've decided to release a farewell CD which will bring together the seven tracks on the three vinyl only singles along with six unreleased tracks. I'll get it out at as bargain a price as possible - take my advice, buy it just for Mirror Witch!

Last month I was in New Orleans. Great holiday destination and great music. Went for two days of the Jazz Festival (which had very little jazz!) and saw loads of Cajun and Gospel music. Highlight of the Sunday was a great show by Fats Domino. On a less traditional level I also caught the start of The Misfits 25th anniversary tour. The show started with Glen Danzig, Jerry Only and drummer playing stuff from the first few albums (crowd go mad). They then introduced their first guest, Des Cadenza, ex-Black Flag, and the four of them tore into 30 minutes of early Black Flag songs (crowd go madder still). Exit drummer, enter Marky Ramone and 30 minutes of Ramones' tracks (crowd go mental!!) The evening finished with a run through more recent Misfits stuff with that funny singer from the last couple of albums - dreadful Goth pantomime.

It's festival time here's my pick of the best so far:

June 30th Safe Between the Ears this years day of guitar abuse is to be held at the Maltings in Farnham. Line up is Billy Mahonie, Reynolds, Hirameka hi-fi, Econoline, the Oedipus, escanna, Montana Pete, dISOMA, Feint.

July 20th-22nd Happy Robots at the Rising Sun, Reading. Friday: Electrelane, Kaito, Portal (first ever live show), The Chemistry Experiment. Saturday: Pram, Clearspot, Big Eyes, Stars on the Water (formerly LazerGuided). Sunday: Headline (tbc), Saloon, Delicate AWOL, Arco (tbc)

July 21st Truck Festival. Steventon, Oxford. Those confirmed to play at The Truck Festival include: Goldrush, Four Storeys, Black Nieson, The Rock of Travolta, Simon Baker, Rareform, Pug, Moonkat, Eeebleee, Captain Howdy,Tongue and Groove, Toby Kidd, Ellis, Six by Seven, Meanwhile... Back in Communist Russia, Samurai Seven, Dustball, Juno Pixie, X-1, John Otway, Kaito and Fonda 500

Hope those links get you the information that you need.

21/10/01

I can't believe that 4 months have gone by without an update! I can't believe that people are still reminding me how I fell out of a taxi in the middle of June. My excuse is that I was waiting for the scanner to be mended - it's still not working but I'm off work with the flu and have got a couple of releases to tell you all about.

The first is the new 7" by The Regulars. It's called "This is the sound", a song that anyone who's seen them will instantly recognise as their best live track. When an inebriated Pete Regular was asked for ideas for a press release he wrote, "An affirmation of guitar pop's musical and moral supremacy. In a world ruled by ugliness and hate, rebellion means creating something beautiful or just being nice to someone." For my part I'll say intense guitar sounds with C86-era melodicism and pop sensibilities. It's Bearos023 and as it's off to Cargo within the week you should be able to order it from your local independent store (or just send me £2.50!)

The next release is the long awaited, and unfortunately posthumous, San Lorenzo CD. Bearos024 has the 7 tracks from the three vinyl releases along with 6 new tracks. Full track listing is on the "product" page of the website. I'm putting it out at a bargain price of £7 mail order and it shouldn't be too much more than that when it hits the record shops.

It was good to bump into so many people at "Safe between the ears" in Farnham in June and at Reading's "Happy Robots Festival" in July. Sold loads of records with no letters of complaint since! High spots for me were Reynolds in Farnham, Big Eyes, Pram and Saloon in Reading. Another day out I did not have the chance to tell you about was "Audioscope", a Shelter benefit in Oxford in September. The Starries and a recently reactivated Avrocar made the journey over from Birmingham and showed the locals how to rock and reverberate respectively. Strong performances from Saloon, Econoline and Meanwhile back in Communist Russia with the ever excellent Kaito coming on just as the England v. Germany result was announced! A great day out and lots of money going to charity.

Big, BIG news in Birmingham is the arrival of Radio 1 this week for "One Live in Birmingham". It runs from Friday 26th October to Thursday 1st November at various venues all over Birmingham. There's a whole host of gigs at the major venues that will be broadcast on Radio 1 (Pulp, The Charlatans, Starsailor etc) Home grown talent has organised itself into the "One Live Fringe Festival" with 7 days of FREE gigs in the smaller venues.

Here's my pick of the fringe:
Friday 26th: Go to Scruffy Murphy's early and catch Thee Reverends who are first on stage at about 8.30. Then walk across to the Flapper and Firkin to see Theory of Everything headline.
Saturday 27th: Delta are playing The Jug of Ale but I'm off out for a friend's birthday. Get to the Jug early, it'll be packed and sweaty!
Sunday 28th: No competition here because it's THE BEAROS SUNDAY SOCIAL at The Medicine Bar. Runs from 5-11pm and stars GROVER, THE REGULARS, OG'S BUNKADOO BAND, THE STARRIES, BEN CALVERT,CRAZYFACE and CALVADOS BEAM TRIO. Did you remember it's FREE!
Monday29th: Winebago Records night at The Flapper with slo-fi country rockers Buick6
Tuesday30th: If I'm not at The Medicine Bar for Richie Hawtin/John Peel show I'll be at Twist/Ego So So/The Grandscope at The Flapper
Wednesday 31st: Here's another not to be missed THE SALLY/BAXXTER HALLOWEEN SPECIAL at the Flapper. Fancy dress optional!
Thursday1st: Still got any energy left? Then finish the fringe with style with JAMESON at the Jug of Ale.

Yes, Jameson are back. Now with new drummer Steve Perkins (ex-Broadcast, ex-Pram and the man who keeps children's TV's Brum on the road) and a new studio let's see CLEAR ROCK finally deliver the goods! They played just four songs at the Splendid Afternoon festival in August (all he'd learnt at that stage!) and later that month a set of Pavement cover versions with a stand-in bass player as a surprise for Stuart who was about to get married!
This was part of the Bearos Summer party which we decided to turn into a surprise prenuptial party for the couple. The night included Calvados Beam Trio playing an 18 minute math-rock-jazz-fusion version of the "wedding march", The Starries interpretation of "Eternal Flame", the aforementioned Jameson set and a finale by The Bearos Big Band (members of Grover, Baxxter and The Starries) performing Colourblind James Experience's "Wedding at Cana" and Havanagila (that Jewish wedding song from "The Deerhunter") A fantastic night and preparations have started for the Xmas night of carols and other festive songs - anyone remember Baxxter's rendition of "Silent Night" from last year?!

New for the end of the year is the Baby Bearos CDR label. It'll still have the same standards as the main label but will enable me to put out some more experimental and/or indulgent stuff. Falling into the latter category in a Lord of the Rings tribute. Contributors so far include Kat from Babes in Toyland with local rockers Sally, members of Saloon, solo stuff from Owen San Lorenzo, Og's Bunkadoo Band, KlusterB, Baragon Flag and Steve from Unisex/The Telescopes. Many more to come including some big names that need a little prompting or reminding of offers they made when they were a little tipsy! Lots of other stuff in the pipeline and more details to follow.

11/11/01

Just recovering from the week of Sound City here in Birmingham. Full marks to everyone involved with the fringe events and a special star to Steve Lamaq who kept a high, and very friendly profile throughout the week. Black mark to the disgustingly poor "Industry" turn out! Really enjoyed the seminars, all were entertaining and some rather informative. Steve Lamaq's fantasy band talk went down a storm - Simon from Crazyface was on the panel and delighted the audience with his talk of "Rock 'n' roll sundries"! Musical highlights of the week for me included best sets ever from Grover and The Grandscope as well as the Sally/Baxxter heavyweight Halloween duel.

Yesterday saw the return of L'augmentation (right)! Now down to a three-piece - Simon, Lisa and temporary drummer - the sound is sparce and fragile but still wonderfully evocative of Parisian cafe life. Surprise of the night came with the Woodbine set - with only the drummer remaining they were certainly not the band we remember from their Domino days. The band thrashed their way through a Stoogey set of classic punk rock much to the amazement of the audience. Not sure of their future plans but I'll certainly be looking out for them on the local circuit.

Look out for the CrazyFace CD single that should be hitting the shops any day now. Already played on Steve Lamaq - he wants another one as he's lost it and wants to play it again!

Off to the Ochre Records fifth birthday party in Gloucester next week. Should be brilliant with Avrocar, The Freed Unit and Bearos Towers favourites, Skyray, as part of the all day event.

29/12/01

Almost the end of another year! Apologies to those of you who have been trying to buy the CrazyFace single in the shops. Problems at the distributors I'm afraid. Don't worry it'll be there within the next week or so.

December has seen some great gigs in Birmingham. It was great to finally get Kaito over from Norwich - the whole place was blown away by them. Blast from the past as well with both Mighty Mighty and The Nightingales playing live (Rob Lloyd's been busy as there were a few Prefects shows the other month as well)

The Bearos/Winnebago Christmas quiz was chaotic but enjoyed by all. Thanks to Al from The Courtesy Group for asking the questions, many of which were being written as the quiz was in progress. And so onto the second Bearos Xmas party which was as festive a night as anyone could want!

The evening started with Jim and Saul from Og's Bunkadoo Band (them with the hats) and Family Wipes drummer volunteering himself 15 minutes before they went on stage! A wonderfully sprawling prog-rock jam was followed by their version of Walking through the air. The Regulars (Pete pictured above centre with Greg from Baxxter) mixed new and old favourites before finishing with a rousing version of Ding Dong Merrily on High. Next up were Richard and Geordie from The Starries who played a couple of acoustic numbers before handing our hymn sheets and leading the audience in fairly ramshackle versions of O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night (remember Baxxter's version last year?!) The beer and homemade absinthe was flowing, musical content had begun to nose-dive. What prompted Baxxter to close the evening in their underwear is anyone's guess. They opened with The Pixie's Wave of Mutilation and had just started Merry Christmas, war is over ("This one's by the dead Beatle who's not George Harrison," explained Greg) when the mischievous Starries present burst out from backstage and relieved them of their remaining clothes. There are pictures but you won't find them on a respectable web site like this! (try the Baxxter site in a couple of weeks!). It's all recorded and the bands have got copies if you want to start hassling them!

Bleary eyed and hung over, the following night was a pilgrimage to Burton-on-Trent for the first Telescopes gig in 6 years. A fantastic show with loads of material from the forthcoming and much delayed (6 years that is) third Telescopes album. Big band, often orchestral sound with a few power tools thrown in for good measure. Jo and Steve's harmonies were even a bit Low-ish at times. Crowd pleaser of the night was Perfect Needle. Brought back loads of great memories and when I spoke to Steve afterward he said that it almost brought a tear to his eye, playing it again after so long. Watch out for the album which is out around Easter time with a few dates to go with it. There will also be a Telescopes track on the Bearos Lord of the Rings tribute which is nearing completion and should be out February/March 2002. More information as it happens!