24 August 2008
It's a shame the closing ceremony of the Olympics isn't quite living up to the standard set by the opening ceremony.
Anyway, hello! I bear news of stuff! The Platform Zero EP (of which more below) is on its way back from the pressing plant to Lostmusic, which means that those of you who've pre-ordered it (thankyou!) should receive your copies in the first week of September. Those of you who've not pre-ordered it – what are you waiting for? Some sort of whizzy thing whereby you can listen to the entire record online as a kind of preview? How fortuitous for both of us, then, that the Lostmusic folks have made just such a facility available on last.fm! Now do you want your arse wiping as well, or what?
The prognosis is less happy for the Bloody Massive Megatour, which has collapsed like a soufflé, featuring fewer dates than I had hoped for and spread across a longer period of time. At the time of writing, though, there are still an amazing eleven popshows listed on the gigs page, and I'm really excited about playing in Brighton and Hull for the first time! Note, also, that the Corporate Juggernaut and I will be off the road for two or three months from sort of late November onwards, so don't count on being able to come to see us at Christmas, cos we won't be playing!
When we return in 2009, though, there may be another new release on the way, as The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut are recording some new stuff! The sessions are again being recorded by Mr Pete Bowers from the mighty Horowitz, and here are a couple of pictures of Dan, Rob and me at Tremolo Studios in Stoke. I'll tell you more about this when it's finished.
And finally, right, do you remember when I played the PopArt London Bargelife Britpop all-dayer in March and did a cover of 'Inbetweener'? I'm sure you do. Well, it's been posted on Youtube! It's got some dead cool video editing going on, and the audio seems really quiet but never mind about that because I seem to have been looking fabulously pretty that day. Have a look!
23 July 2008
Just a quick one to let you know that you can now pre-order Platform Zero from the Lostmusic site (scroll down for more details about the EP). Wooo! And that, for the pre-order period, you can have a free download of one of the tracks, 'Best British Band Supported by Shockwaves', exclusively from the Lostmusic site as well. Waheeeeey! And that the aforementioned hair product sponsorship-related ditty was played this morning on a show called Qwee! on the radio station WHPK which broadcasts from the University of Chicago. Wheeeeeeee!
Also: new tour dates! There still isn't a southern/western/midlandern date to fill the gap on Friday 5 September, sadly, but the Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut will roll on home to Sheffield the following Thursday and thence to Hull Adelphi – one of my favourite venues since I saw 14 Iced Bears and The Field Mice there in the early 90s and somewhere I've always wanted to play. See the gigs page for more details. Woohooooo!
18 July 2008
First of all, let me introduce the artwork for the Platform Zero EP...
Now ain't that the purtiest thing you ever did see! As mentioned somewhere below, the drawing is by the very excellent Mr Andy Hart. You should be able to pre-order the EP very soon over at the Lostmusic website. If you scroll down this page a bit you can see the tracklisting as well. I think it's flipping brilliant, but then I would say that, wouldn't I.
The record is due for actual proper official release in early September and so, to exploit and capitalise optimally on the unique promotional and marketing opportunities offered by this situation, the Juggernaut and I will be trying to play lots of popshows. There's a sort of southern mini-tour in place already with London, Bristol and Brighton gigs on the 4th, 6th and 7th (full details on the gigs page – let me know if you can think of anywhere down south I could play on the 5th!) and I'll be busting a gut to sort some more out in the rest of the country. Join the mailing list to be kept fully in the loop!
Meanwhile, The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut roared in to Nottingham for the first time earlier this month for a smashing popshow at Lee Rosy's with The School and the mighty Horowitz. We do hope everyone's wrists have recovered from a highly refreshed Rob high-fiving them all. The Juggernaut rolls again in early August with gigs in Nottingham, again, and That London. Meanwhile I've had a frolicsome old time continuing to play solo gigs: the one at Trof in Manchester was distinguished not just by an awesome (and very long) line-up but also the presence of Mel out of Corrie, you know, Sinbad's girl, great hair; and, as I alighted from the train at St Pancras earlier this week en route to open for MJ Hibbett, who did I spot disembarking from the very same locomotive but Arthur Scargill? If you're an old-time socialist like me you'll be pleased to know that our ageing comrade travelled in standard class. Admirable!
Bye for now then, folks – but I expect I'll see you at Indietracks. I'll be the one without a guitar!
15 June 2008
Taste the Juggernaut! Dan, Rob and I, you will be pleased to learn, all had a merry old time last weekend on The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut's debut tour, and we had some quite nice comments from audiences and other bands as well. Rock on! Not even a two-hour delay just outside Derby caused by the theft of wiring from a points switch could hold us back, and we sort of got better as we went along really. All the other bands were ace, I felt, and The Kabeedies jaw-droppingly so. I have to say, also, that the hospitality we received in Birmingham and London was first-rate. From the pre-popshow pasta made by Debbie Autumn Store, through the chip sarnies and Quorn sausage sarnies lovingly prepared by my little brother, to the post-popshow pasta and pie (pasta and pie!) laid on by Marianthi Atomic Beat, the Juggernaut thanks and commends you all!
Sadly (but with a strange feeling that I've been here before!) the launch of the Platform Zero EP is being delayed and the 6 July gig at the Enterprise cancelled, due to unforeseen circumstances (well, would you have foreseen it taking more than one day for the masters to reach me by post from the USA?). We're probably looking at early September now, I'm afraid – but there'll be lots of fabulous popshows to celebrate and everything, I'm sure!
And! Speaking of popshows, I shall now be playing a solo date in London on Monday 14 July. It will be (surprise!) with Mr MJ Hibbett, at the 'press preview' of the sure-to-be-fantastic My Exciting Life in Rock show he's doing at that Edinburgh Fringe. Press preview! NME front cover guaranteed! The venue is in Kings Cross and it's called the Cross Kings, which is all rather cunning. Hope you can make it – it may be a press preview but you normal people are allowed in as well!
My solo gig this Wednesday, 18 June, is also confirmed – it's at Trof in Fallowfield; there's a link to a map on the gigs page – and the Juggernaut rolls back into gear on Friday 4 July for what should be a fab Nottingham popshow at Lee Rosy's with The School and the mighty Horowitz. Be there!
28 May 2008
The Juggernaut's rolling! You can't stop it! I am delighted to report that my new band The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut enjoyed a good debut gig on Monday with a sympathetic crowd at the Red House, followed by two class acts in Nat Johnson and Slow Down Tallahassee. Given that Dan and I had both spent most of the day in a state of abject terror, I thought we played pretty well, and, oooh, there's a kind review from SoundsXP to concur! Next stop: the Shakespeare, also here in Sheffield, on Friday 6 June (assuming their "cellar error" will have been rectified by then), and then Birmingham, London and all points Nottingham. Hit the gigs page and witness rock history in the making!
Those of you already nostalgic for the distant days of Pete Green solo popshows are specifically advised that just such a gig will be taking place at somewhere called Trof in Fallowfield, Manchester on Wednesday 18 May. I will still be doing solo gigs, like when Rob or Dan can't get time off work to travel or something, or when it's at a night where they only have solo people on. The latter is the case at Trof, and I've only ever played in Manchester twice so if you're in that area and you want a piece of me, do pop along.
Meanwhile the Platform Zero EP has moved from tweaking to mastering, which is a bit like tweaking except someone else does it. The someone else in this case is Shawn Hatfield at AudibleOddities, who last year did a magnificent job of transforming the badly recorded trio of tracks on the 'Everything I Do is Gonna be Sparkly' single into something vaguely listenable, plus he's in That America and the exchange rate is still very favourable! Fittingly for its transatlantic connections, the record should be available to buy for the first time on 4 July at the Nottingham gig we're doing with Horowitz and The School, and then at the Official That London Launch Gig on Sunday 6 July. Hooray, basically!
19 May 2008
The new EP has reached an advanced stage – it has moved from 'recording' through 'mixing' to 'final tweaky type stuff', to use the technical term of the music pros – and thanks to the studio witchcraft of producerman Pete 'Horowitz' Bowers, it sounds chuffing lovely. This being the case, I thought I'd celebrate by officially announcing its title and tracklisting. Here we go!
Title!
Platform Zero
Tracklisting!
I'm Gonna Stay With Her
Happy Being Me
Best British Band Supported by Shockwaves
Let it go by
I was simultaneously astounded and delighted last month on my way back home from Stoke, where most of the EP was recorded, to discover that Stockport railway station has a platform zero. Since then I have used platform zero several times more and been haunted by its minimalist optimism. And then I realised that minimalist optimism is quite a good way to characterise my acoustic pop music. Plus I couldn't think of a better title. Anyway. I am also dead excited that the artwork will be done by Andy Hart, who made a glorious job of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart side of their recent split single with the Parallelograms on Atomic Beat. Wahey! Lostmusic will be taking advance orders from sometime next month (if you join my mailing list I can email to let you know when!) and the launch gig will be at the Enterprise in London on Sunday 6 July. Phew!
Loads more popshows, meanwhile, are peeping over the horizon beside the aforementioned EP launch shindig. After waiting half a year for a bus to Nottingham, two have turned up at once – for 4 July and 1 August. Before this metaphor overreaches itself completely, please note that there are also a truckload more London dates, with maybe a tour in September, and before all that, of course, there's the gig here in Sheffield with Slow Down Tallahassee and Nat Johnson next week and the Sheffo/Birmingham/London tour in early June – and most if not all of these fine popshows will see the Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut in action. Flamin' Ada! Hit the gigs page for the latest – and please come and see us if you can.
Wheeeeeeee!
12 May 2008
Great news for those of you beating your chests and tearing out your hair in crazed frustration at the seemingly interminable wait to see me play live with a band! The public debut of the Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut was originally pegged for next month's three-date mini-tour to Sheffield, Birmingham and London – but I am delighted to announce that the band will now make its first appearance just a fortnight from now. Eeeeeee! We are all delighted to have been asked to play at the album launch gig of the fabulous Slow Down Tallahassee (yeah, I wish they had a proper website) at the Red House here in Sheffo on Monday 26 May – and when I say delighted, I mean, you know, shitting bricks. But since I saw their debut gig two years ago SDT have been one of my favourite bands in the world, so I'm genuinely delighted as well! See the gigs page for very slightly more details.
Meanwhile I've just been out playing more solo popshows – not tonight, I mean, but quite recently – in Derby, London and Stoke-on-Trent (and some pics from London are see-able, courtesy of the highly efficient Mr Warren Pilkington). I thought they all went pretty well really – practising regularly with the Juggernaut seems to have been good for my performances all round, since these three gigs were definitely up towards the not-too-bad-by-my-own-limited-standards end of the scale. Oh, who am I trying to kid with the modesty shtick? I was fupping ace! Thanks and hugs to John, Trev, Pete and Ian for organisey-promotery-type duties. You were fupping ace too!
In other exciting popshow news, I'm playing a post-Indietracks gig in Nottingham (Nottingham! First time since December! How I've missed you, Nottingham!) with a lovely line-up of The Smittens and The Deirdres, and the very wonderful Little My have been added to the bill for the Birmingham gig on 7 June (Birmingham! Closing down the Jug of Ale! How I haven't missed you, Birmingham!). In a word: yay! Apart from the Jug of Ale part, obviously, which is the very antithesis of yay.
And finally... the German fanbase continues to burgeon after 'I Haven't Got a Myspace Because Myspace Fucking Sucks' was played earlier this month by Jakob Kranz of Potsdam-based radio station Fritz. Danke schön, Jakob! Maybe I'll jump on one of those Eurostar trains and try and play some gigs out there one day, just as soon I get this cover version of '99 Red Balloons' polished up!
28 April 2008
Now then buggerlugs! I've just spent a brilliant day in Stoke-on-Trent, which is not a phrase you hear every day – but it's not every day you have a session recording your new EP with Pete and Ian from the mighty Horowitz. For these are indeed the estimable indiepop figures who are engineering and producing three tracks for the record. We all had a highly productive day on the Saturday just gone, and I am glad to be able to reveal to the world that Pete cooks a mean pasta sauce into the bargain. The home studio-based knob-twiddling (it's analogue recording, using real tape!) will be concluded at a second session next month – and Trev from Lostmusic, the label that will be releasing the record, has just emailed me with a date of Sunday 6 July for the bloody that London launch gig. Hoorayness!
As if that were not cause enough for hyperventilation, I can now reveal that my mini-tour of Sheffield, Birmingham and London in early June will be the first set of popshows at which I am accompanied by my new backing band, The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut. Yes! Actual real other people! On bass, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Daniel Hartley of Maltby, South Yorkshire. On drums, boys and girls, Mr Robert Dean of Monkey Swallows the Universe. It's official. The Juggernaut's rolling. You can't stop it!
Amid all this excitement I must catch my breath to say thankyou to everyone who came along to, and indeed played at, the me-organised 100 per cent acoustic gig at the Red Deer here in Sheffield last weekend. We enjoyed fine, fine performances from Frankie Machine, Numberdan and my fellow haddockpopster Jam on Bread, and a not quite so fine performance from me, and a splendid night all round. Wahey!
15 March 2008
Busy times again in the Green attic room! First and most importantly, I am honoured to have been asked to record a new single for the dead cool Lost Music label! I shall crack on and record it as soon as I know which songs I'm doing – and, indeed, how many. The lovely people at Lost have said I can make it a four-track EP should I be so minded, and I may very well take them up on that. One of the tracks will definitely be 'Let it go by', as I've already got a nice twinkly recording of that down which pleases me greatly – but for any more news you'll just have to watch this space. We're aiming for it to be out in the summer so I'd best get me skates on!
Aforesaid new record is one of the subjects covered in an interview I've just given to the Indie MP3 website. There's a load of other stuff I talked about as well which I wouldn't normally go into here and it was all quite jolly. If you want a look, it's here – and even if you don't, go and check out Indie MP3 in general if you've never been on it before, cos it is dead good.
Another interview I once took part in was when Radio 1 went to Birmingham to do a load of stuff about the local music scene. And although my speaking voice was then broadcast over the nation's favourite radio station, my singing voice wasn't, as my old band The Regulars enjoyed the great distinction of being the only act on Bearos Records never to be played on John Peel's show. But this duck was finally broken at around 01:54hrs on 18 February 2008, when 'Everything I Do is Gonna be Sparkly' was played by Mr Rob da Bank! As my lo-fi production skillz created a blitz of distortion across the airwaves when the chorus kicked in, my appearance on Radio 1 seems unlikely ever to be repeated, but it's one more thing to tick off the 'to do before I die' list. Next: cagoule sex at the top of Mam Tor!
Lastly, thanks to everyone who was involved in, or came to gigs on, the recent Atomic Beat Records roadshow. All the bands I played with and watched were amazing but it was a thing of deep awesomeness to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart three times (and, indeed, to party with them until daft o'clock in three different cities). If you want a copy of their fabulous new split single with The Parallelograms – and believe me, you do – then get thee to the ABR site quick, cos there are hardly any left already!
That's all for now then – hope you can make it to see us at the PopArt all-dayer in London next Sunday!
17 February 2008
Just a week to go until the Atomic Beat roadshow so I just thought I'd check in and tell you some news-type things. First up, I have just writ a new song! It is inspired by the NME awards (which happen at the end of this month) and named after one of the categories: 'Best British Band Supported by Shockwaves'. If you want a sneaky peek at the lyrics, I've just put them up here on the site, and the song should be debuted at next Saturday's popshow at the Betsey Trotwood in that London, all being well, like unless I get eaten by brown bears on the way there, or the NME send their hired goons to waylay my path. Don't laugh; it happens all the time.
And speaking of popshows in that London, I have another one: on Easter Sunday, at the PopArt all-dayer on Battersea Barge. This is mightily exciting, as I have never sung on a boat before, despite having got tipsy on what seems like dozens of the things; and the theme of the day is Britpop, so everyone has to play a Britpop cover version. Yikes! Any ideas? Let me know...
Lastly for now, thanks to all involved in last month's gig at the Fishtank in Durham, which was more fun than I ever thought possible and, I think, even worth having missed the Mariners' 1-1 draw against Shrewsbury for. Ta, also, to The Stool Pigeon, which has just published a lovely review saying my "honest humour and lyrical talents are unquestionable". Aw!
That's all for now – hope to see you for next weekend's pop heroics in that London and this Sheffield!
18 January 2008
We have a venue for the Atomic Beat Records all-stars popshow in London on Saturday 23 February. It's the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon, which, as seasoned London popshowgoers will know, is bloomin' tiny – so if you want to come, buy yourself a ticket sharpish, because this gig will sell out quickly.
That's all for now then – see you in Durham!
6 January 2008
Life is sweet. The sun is shining; yesterday I saw Town win away at Chesterfield, just a bus ride away from my house; and 'Everything I Do is Gonna be Sparkly' has been voted to number 37 in the Festive 50! For those of you who don't know, the old John Peel votey thing from the end of every year has been kept alive by the fine people at Dandelion Radio and... yeah, number 37. Little would I have suspected that, back in the days when I first started listening to Peel, with my A-level geography homework all about glaciation spead out over my bed. Eeeee! Ta to the Dandelion team for playing the single, and ta to you for voting for it, if you did!
That's about all there is to tell you just now, save for the news that I shall be playing somewhere I've never played before later this month: the north-eastern city of Durham, on Saturday 26 January. Full details are on the gigs page. Happy new year!