Katie Fitzgerald's, Stourbridge - 29/7/11 - Review

This was our second time playing Katies however, the first time was way back in 2009 on the You and Your Adored tour and we were very tired and coming off the back of five straight nights of gigging. This time we felt good and strong and ready to rock the joint.


Turning up around 9 we met the promoters Dale and Sam and they showed us to a completely different part of the pub that we didn't even know was there. A proper little venue hidden in the basement with a stage, it's own bar and it's own little bear garden. With FREE beer behind the stage for the artists, we knew we were on to a winner and dropped our baggage and started to mingle.


It was great to chat with Dale the promoter as he seemed to be a real fan of the band and really fed our egos. He instructed us that we had to play 'Aftermath' and that he had been a big fan since we played back in 2009. It's always great to chat with real fans that love your music as it makes you feel that all the gigs and recording sessions are really worth it. It is still an amazing feeling to know a song you have written has struck a chord (good pun) with someone.


The first chap onstage looked like Christian Bale and played a nice set of rock covers. Then Dale and his friend took to the stage to perform a cracking set of 'Spaghetti Acoustic Rock' original tunes that were reminiscent of the Bookhouse boys who's self titled album I have just got into. To further feed our big heads, Dale announced just before he took to the stage that they hadn't performed together for a couple of years and he only put the duo back together as he wanted to be on the same bill as us. We took to the stage next and banged through half an hour of tunes and seemed to really capture the audiences attention. Coming off stage we sold a few albums and bumped up the mailing list considerably. A few drinks later and after more mingling we hit the road for the hours ride home feeling like the last set of gigs (with the exception of Milton Keynes) had all been good to us and the 'All I Have Is Here' tour has so far been a success.


A big thank you to Dale and Sam for having us and we would love to book in again for round three.

Jonathan

Songs we did
The Preacher
I Gave Up The World
Come Together
Aftermath
Run
Roundabouts
Sleepwalkers
Dazed

Bar One, Derby, 28/7/11 - Review

It seems we have found the City that takes no prisoners.

Case 1:
We played the Big Blue Coffee Co. gig ages ago. Went OK but travelled 100 miles to essentially play to 5 people. Was it worth it? Well yes as out of it we got ...
Case 2.
Derby Showcase Cinema. An hour and a half set playing to people who want to go to the cinema and watch Spiderman 3 rather than Awesome Acoustic Act 1. We did, however, get paid for this gig. Then there was a large break until last night when...
Case 3.
Derby seemed to have turned into one long one way system directing us every which way apart from towards the venue. We saw it, but it was down the wrong way of the system. Ten minutes of menouvering the roads when we finally decided to just reverse down the one way. Pointless as there was no parking. We found some just down the road and got to the venue at 8.

The venue seemed nice. Small, dark, with a smattering of audience, mainly student folk. Due to go on at 9.20, we didn't hit it til nearly 10. When we did hit it, only 2 people were left in the room (there were several people outside and the PA was coming through there so it wasn't too bad). We got a few of the outsiders in, seemed to storm through the set, playing Always Yours for the first time along the way, then stepped off at about 10.25. The student folk welcomed the free badges and keyrings, and did sign the mail list, but it felt that after the last 3 gigs where we really rocked it and got loads of album sales, it was a downer. We'd be back at the venue again I think, but not one of our best gigs.

Maybe I was harsh with the opening line of the review as on reflexion we enjoyed it, chatted to the audience, got emails to add to our WDP (World Domination Plan) and ate a really nice bag of chilli crisps.

It's Katie Fitzgeralds for us tonight in Stourbridge.

By next weekend we should hopefully have a few live tunes available on the net exclusively to certain sites. More next week.

M x

Set
The Preacher
I Gave Up The World
Run
Aftermath
Always Yours
Roundabouts
When We Were Young

A day in the life of a Barricade

Seeing as we've been doing so many gigs and the majority of the posts on here are gig reviews, I thought I'd freshen it up with a little bit of blah. So, what has been going on with us then...?

First off, the gigs are coming thick and fast and we love it. With exception of the Milton Keynes gig last week we have sold albums at every gig we have played since the launch. I think a marvelous effort from us! The new songs are sounding more confident on stage and tunes like 'When We Were Young', 'Run' and 'Animals' are very comfortable to play. A few of the tunes are almost there live, and only 'Always Yours' and 'Nod and Smile' are proving a bit tricky, but we'll get it in the end. The set's we play almost always include tunes from all three of our releases.

The mail list is also growing after having a slight rethink of how we gain emails. In the last 2 gigs nearly 25 people have signed it, that's 25 more people who get our free extra song per month. If you want to sign up, put your email in the box on the left hand side.

Coming back from a gig recently, we ended up discussing the 'roles' of Barricades Rise. Without really realising it I have booked 90% of the gigs whilst Jonathan has sorted 90% of the reviews. Because of this we now have decided to designate tasks to each member. This really helps as in the past we've both contacted the same promoter within a day of each other without realising the other had already done so, now that won't happen. This new 'Task sheet' has been ongoing for about a week or two and it's bared a few fruits already. It's the basic's we are getting right - organisation.

Another venture we will be embarking on shortly is our very own radio show. This will be featured on Cross Counties Radio who have been very kind to us this year. The show will predominantly be circled around unsigned acts from the Midlands, with music played, live songs and interviews on all our favourites from the area. We've never attempted anything like this before so we're really looking forward to it. More info available soon.

There are other irons in the fire but nothing set in stone yet so when something comes good, we'll let you know. The best place (and first place) that any news, video, new song etc will feature is on our Facebook site. We've just passed the 350 'likes' mark so help us reach the 400 by liking us or sharing us if you already liked.

Finally, we've upped our game with our tweets too. I run our twitter feed and the important issues such as what am I watching/reading/listening to and what I think of the whole Amy Winehouse saga are revealed. Follow us!

Love and cheese

M x

P.S
For those not on Twitter. I'm watching Pretty Little Liars, reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, listening to City and Colour's new album Little Hell, and think that if she was told to go to rehab but said no, no, no then the writing really was on the wall.

Review – Online gig, The Maudsley, The Crumbling Cookie

Online Screen Gig 21/7/11

After the disaster that was our first attempt at doing an online gig, we changed the venue to Michaels house and Thursday night saw us try again. This time everything went smoothly and we managed to broadcast our session online to anyone who wanted to watch. We intended to play for about 15/20 minutes but that soon extended to about 45 minutes. I must admit, at first it was a little strange finishing a song and having no audible applause, however, after a few songs people started interacting with the chat feature and we felt right at home. In fact, we enjoyed it that much we have booked in Solo shows and plan to do a few last minute shows just for fun. Keep your eyes peeled to the website and Facebook to find out more

The Maudsley, Coventry 22/7/11

We always look forward to playing the Ditch The TV night at the Maudsley for the simple fact that it's the perfect night/venue for acoustic acts. People pay to come in and sit at candle lit tables and actually pay attention to the acts on stage. The running order for the evening was ourselves kicking the night off, a two piece from Liverpool called the Universal on second and Emma McGann with her full band finishing the night off.

Getting there about 8, the wife and I made ourselves comfortable and ordered a mixed grill each from the bar. Michael and Heidi joined us about 15 minutes later and then some family joined our tables for good measure. The room started filling up and some familiar faces started saying hello and it was great to see so many people come down just to see us. With a stage time of 8:40pm my mixed grill hit the table at 8:39pm and I gobbled down some chips and reluctantly left my meat with the vultures that are my family and just preyed it would be there when I returned. By the time we tuned up and was ready, the venue was full and no table was bare. I estimated around 50-60 people had there eyes glued on us and we didn't want to disappoint.


We seemed to storm through the set and had the crowd in our hands. Both the old and new songs sat well with the kind audience and our banter was flowing nicely. A quick change to the last but one song to enable a little audience participation saw us rock through our version of Silence is Easy and the audience played their part to perfection. Dazed ended the scheduled set to rapturous applause and an encore was demanded. With Sleepwalkers waiting in the wings we bashed it out and came off the stage dripping with sweat but extremely happy with the night. There were a few lyrical hiccups but that is to be expected at a Barricades Rise show and to be honest, you wouldn't have it any other way :)


Chatting with some fans outside I unfortunately missed the Universals set but Michael said they were very tight and the harmonies was very sweet. Emma seemed to have a few technical problems but her songs were strong and she played well. Overall, it was a great night with new fans gained, old fans pleased and a few albums sold to boot. As always we will be chatting with Malc to get us booked back in next year.

ps. My mixed grill was still waiting for me when I got back to my table. Maybe I underestimate my family

The Crumbling Cookie 23/7/11

From our favourite venue in Coventry to our favourite venue in Leicester. The Crumbling Cookie is a great looking Café that has bands and comedians playing constantly. It has ground level, upstairs and the owner has big plans for a basement venue also. After playing the gig he took us round the Basement and I must say, if he gets what he wants then this will be THE venue to play in Leicester.


This gig was labelled as 'Barbacoustic', and i'm sure you will have already worked out that it was a BBQ afternoon coupled with acoustic performances. We were given the honour of kicking the day off and getting people to take note and come in from the street. We seemed to do just that as by the time we finished playing we had a small crowd watching and cheering along. Again, I think we gained a few new fans and sold a few more albums.

Leaving the venue at around 5:30pm we left on a high due to the last three gigs and after dropping Michael at home I joined some friends for a 30th Birthday party playing BINGO. Yes, I am just that Rock and Roll :)

Jonathan

We played (I think)
Online Gig
I Gave Up The World
Twist and Shout
Making Faces From Clouds
Just For Tonight
Roundabouts
When We Were Young
Sleepwalkers (requested)
Brakes (requested)
Aftermath (requested)
Dazed (requested)
Run

The Maudsley
I Gave Up The World
Animals
The Preacher
Twist and Shout
Making Faces From Clouds
When We Were Young
Roundabouts
Aftermath
Silence is Easy
Dazed
Sleepwalkers (requested encore)

Crumblin' Cookie
I Gave Up The World
The Preacher
Come Together
Sleepwalkers
When We Were Young
Roundabouts
Aftermath
Seperate Divide
Dazed

The Living Room, Milton Keynes, 20/07/11 - Review

The Living Room is not what it sounds like. It's not small and cosy with a mish mash of different mugs, selling real ale and Kettle Crisps with a big dog on the floor somewhere. We knew this beforehand, I knew the kind of place it is. Sharp, shiny, swanky, suited-up. The place that makes you feel it's OK to spend £3.85 on a beer as you feel slightly superior for a fraction of a second. The kind of place where no one could care less about the music being played.

So why did we travel the 100+ miles to go and play there? Two reasons really. Firstly, it's a chain bar and we've played a few of them before, and one of them provided a hit (or so I thought, after re-reading the review from 2009 of it this morning, it was actually not good). Maybe we could replicate this? The second being we'd never played in Milton Keynes before so wanted to see if it was worth it. I guess the sorry answers to both questions is no.

For those that have never been to MK, imagine having a dream where you are on holiday, somewhere City-like, American. Now take this dream and mould it with a £99 Spanish holiday resort. This is Milton Keynes.

Anyway, to the actual gig. The compare was doing his best to drum up support for the artists on and to be fair a lot of the people there responded appreciatively. It was full. We headed on stage with the ambition that we normally have. We rocked through all four (yes, 4) songs we were allowed to play, still putting as much energy into the gig as possible but by the time the last tune came around, we both knew we'd got a dud on our hands. Throughout, Jonathan's mic was falling down plus the applause was getting weaker as the bar gradually dispersed. When we finished I think there was a new trend for apathy as no one really batted an eyelid. Either that, or we simply didn't go down that well.

In a way I'm kind of glad we played as we got a feel (again) for the kind of audience we attract. There were no real ale drinkers in there, that much was clear, and if people want to go out after work for a swanky dinner and wine, then who are we to put a big full-on awesome acoustic rock performance in their face? We tried, we failed. We move on to TONIGHT!

Tonight sees us play our Screen Gig at 7.30 from the comfort of My House. Now My House IS the kind of place where there is the mish-mash of different mugs, people drink real ale (most probably tea), eat Kettle Crisps (heck, sometimes pork scratchings too) and even though I don't have a dog lying on the floor, two cats (Sammy and Dean) can be found moulting. Most important, it's less than 100+ miles away seeing as that is where I live. The trip up the stairs won't be that taxing after the long haul last night.
Our Online gig will last about 20-30 minutes and maybe more if you come and chat and request some tunes.

M x

We played
The Preacher
I Gave Up The World
Sleepwalkers
When We Were Young

How not to do a screen gig - Sorry and a new date *EDIT!* Review of what we DID manage to play.

Talk about a f@#k up. All the big talk, all the texts, all the Facebook status's, all the tweets and for what....People looking at a blank screen and no screen gig.

First off, we are really sorry this didn't work. We fully tested this a couple of days back and all was good. We had video and we had sound and all was clear. For some reason our Internet connection just died on us tonight and wouldn't connect again for more than 10 seconds at a time. What's more, I've just BLOODY upgraded my Internet to a faster service.

We are going to try again on Thursday at 7:30pm but this time over at Michael's house with a better Internet connection. Please come back then as it WILL work

******EDIT - We finally managed to go live for a little while (about 9 o'clock) and test it all. Michael managed a set from his house and then I cut in from my house. Think the test was sucessful. The Screen Gig on Thursday will be from Michael's studio as we know it works now. Feel happier and going to order a curry ********

Jonathan

****A DAY LATER****

So we did manage somehow to play something last night. After we figured it was a lost cause at Jonathans, I whisked on home, installed the software and got online in 5 minutes. The first 3 minutes online was a lot of chit chat between Jonathan and I whilst I sorted the sound levels but Thursdays gig will be fine from the off, we'd have sorted it by then. Having literally walked in the door and straight on the computer I wasn't prepared at all for what to play. I grabbed a load of lyrics and just picked at random. As I do not play the chords in our songs it was pretty difficult to find some that I would be able to play solo. As it turns out, Jonathan is useless too so he writes the chords on the lyric sheet which was handy. I went for 2 of my own songs for obvious reasons then 2 random ones. Just before I left Jonathans previously I picked up the guitar and worked out Always Yours as it's super simple to play. I decided to go ahead and see if it would work so there, on the spot, I ploughed on through. Jonathan then rang me and stated his net was back up so as soon as I finished playing the last tune and disconnected, the focus shifted 1.2 miles away to his studio where he played 6 songs. One of which his camara fell down and showed behind the magic of the studio which was laugh out loud hilarious! It was a great experience and we'll both be doing solo shows no doubt in the future. We have set it so that THIS THURSDAY we'll be playing like we should be, 2 guys, 2 guitars.

Michael

We played -
Michael
Folk Songs and Jazz Bands
Brakes
Always Yours
This Creation

Jonathan
Roundabouts
Twist And Shout
I Gave Up The World
When We Were Young
Just For Tonight
Making Faces From Clouds

The Corner House, Cambridge 17/07/11 - Review

This is the second time we have played the Corner House in Cambridge. The first time we played well but to very few people. This time we played well but to even less people. Couple this with the fact that it is about an hour and a half drive, we are wondering whether it is worth the trip!

The Dreaded hour and a half drive. SNAV never lies

The weekend preluding to this gig was a happy affair. I caught the new Potter film on Friday which was ok. Me and the wife only watched the previous films for the first time a couple of months ago so we haven’t had that Harry Mania for the last 8 years or so. A cheeky game of Poker on Saturday led to me cashing and then Sunday morning I proudly watched my Wife and Mum along with Michaels Sister and friend run the 5K Race For Life in Leamington. Also, I managed to snatch a sneaky picture of Emily and me with Ed from the Heart FM breakfast show. We listen to it every morning and just couldn’t resist.


We left for the Gig around 5:30pm and the usual conversations of ‘What is Next’ were banded around the car. It’s exciting times for us and we have a plan of world domination that we intent to keep to. Arriving at the venue around 7:15pm we noticed it was extremely quiet. We also were told that 2 of the four bands had pulled out and we would take to the stage around 9 ish. We had a little sound check and waited for the room to fill. A couple of people took some seats but even by 9 o’clock we were playing to a very small audience. The old Barricades Rise would have given up at this point and tried to get off stage with as little energy spent as possible. The new Barricades Rise played a decent set with minimal mistakes and plenty of sweat. It paid off to a certain extent as we did sell a couple of albums and added some names to the mailing list. Leaving soon after we finished, we listened back to the set (recorded on a little handheld digital recorder) and were pleased with how we had played. The MP3 player then came on and ‘What is Next Part 2’ flowed.



Gigs like this leave you in a bit of a quandary. Are they worth the distance? We felt that traveling so far and playing to pretty much nobody is obviously a bit of a waste however, out of the three people that actually listened to us (there were only about 6 in the whole room), we got their email addresses and sold two albums. Now two albums don’t even cover the petrol costs however, we have never been about making money. In all honesty, I think the only reason this is even being mentioned is because it was school night and we both had to get up early  Maybe Fridays and Saturdays for these types of gigs in the future.

Jonathan

PS - It's our first screen gig tomorrow - Come check it out - http://www.barricadesrise.co.uk/p/online-gigs-live-on-your-screen.html

Set
The Preacher
Animals
Sleepwalkers
Folk Songs and Jazz Bands
Aftermath
Run
I Gave Up The World
When We Were Young
Dazed

Adam and Eve, Birmingham, 13/7/11-Review

Having literally just walked through my door from this gig, and with the added bonus/annoyance of being wide awake due to Red Bull, I thought I'd plough on with the review.
Turning up at 8 we found a deserted pub, then it got less busy. Thinking we would play to the bar staff we would have, a few months back, sighed and hoped to get it over and done with. The renewed Barricades Rise version 3.0 though held it's head high and thought that said barmaid might actually like us so to play like we owned the joint. By the time we headed on stage there were a few bodies in the room, mainly the other band waiting to play, but a few others amongst the vast spaces. After a rushed first song, we headed into new tune When We Were Young. Things went downhill. Half way through, Jonathan forgot a complete section of the song and went straight to the end practically. I tried to cover the cock up the best I could. A sheepish grin from the cheeky chap tried to restore the faith, but a few more school boy errors on I Gave Up The World and it seemed we were doomed. However, in true Rom Com style we came back from the brink of being bullied by the millionaire ex-boyfriend, stormed through another 5 or 6 tunes and got the girl. We even managed to gain quite a few names to our mass domination plans (email list). A strange one, but overall a fairly succesful one.

The new Barricades box made it's debut too. Containing albums, T shirts, flyers, badges, keyrings and best of all, BLUE LIGHTS!

M x

Set list
The Preacher
When We Were Young
Folk Songs and Jazz Bands
I Gave Up The World
Run
Roundabouts
Aftermath
Dazed

Off-Beat Magazine Album Review

As you very well know, you can read all our reviews by clicking on the 'Press' tab at the top of the page. You will find links to all the reviews of our new album 'All I have Is Here' and a few we salvaged from the old site for previous releases. Because of this page, we don't post every review on blog section so please keep checking it.

That being said, if a website doesn't have a specific URL for a review they have printed, we find it easier to post it on here as it can get a little lost over time on the original website. This review was given to us by the Off Beat Magazine team from Leicester. They have been avid supporters of our work and we actually felt a little pressure to impress them with this album. See what you think . . .

"This was always going to be one of the toughest reviews to write this year, we have adored every piece of Barricades Rise material and a new album meant one of two things – either we would be disappointed and have to find a way to say it, or we’d have to find more ways to tell you how amazing these guys are. Fortunately with All I Have Is Here, the Barricades boys have given us a brand new direction, which means that there’s a whole bunch of new things to say – so here they come.

Firstly, this is one of the bravest releases I have been aware of for some time, speaking to the boys in the past few months they had told me that the new album was a lot gentler and they were concerned that their audience would be disappointed by the lack of energy there was in the songs. I can reassure them now, having listened to this album a lot over the last week, that there is no chance of that.

Yes the songs are slower on the whole, the album has taken a far folkier angle than their previous material and it is very different, but it is still very Barricades Rise. What they have done with All I Have Is Here is evolve, which is what every good quality act should do – The boys have grown up and so has their music. The subject matter is more optimistic on the whole, with a couple of well deserved exceptions – If You Were Here is a truly heartbreaking song for example, a tough topic handled with exceptional maturity and the class that one has come to expect from Barricades Rise.

Instrumentation has also evolved, heavy use of a banjo is always a risk but as always, the boys have a complete understanding of when and how to use all the instruments at their disposal and the banjo is no exception. Still a mainstay at the centre of the album are Jonathan and Michael’s spectacular vocal harmonies, never so amazing as they are during a chant breakdown in Nod and Smile.

I am a big fan of sections of albums that flow perfectly – Laura Marling’s Alas I Cannot Swim album found its way into my heart due to the back to back awesomeness of My Manic And I, Night Terror and The Captain and the Hourglass, which flow better one after the other than any three songs I’ve ever heard – well, until now. All I Have Is Here ends with the gorgeous folk ridden Folk Songs and jazz Bands, the epic and powerful Roundabouts which conjures up the energy and passion we all know and love from Barricades Rise and the album draws to a close with the majestic Just For Tonight, a love song with the perfect sprinkling of cheese, conjuring up the spirit of Meat Loaf’s early material but, as always, maintaining a completely modern spin on it.

It was difficult to impress me with this album, the pressure that Barricades Rise were under from us were unreal, we have put them on a pedestal and we expect them to stay there (to give you an understanding of how important this album was to us, when I received it, myself and several Off-Beat staff had a listening party followed by a discussion group, that is not our usual way.) With class, style and grace Barricades Rise have not only kept up to our expectations, with the bravery, the evolution and the sheer beauty of this album they have far exceeded it.

After winning last years best recorded material award from us, the boys have made it clear they hope to win next year’s and in all honesty, this album is really going to take some beating. The album is released today, buy it, you need it, an absolutely mind blowing effort from one of the best in the country."

I think we nailed it :)

Fuse Festival, Lichfield 09/07 - Review

Long term readers of this blog may recall we played Lichfield's Fuse Festival back in 2009. We had a great time, played well and made a few new fans (read the 2009 review here). We even got a song of ours on the Fuse 2009 CD. Needless to say, we were looking forward to coming back and playing again this year.


Due to after gig plans, we made our way to the festival in separate cars with our wives in tow. Strangely, this felt a little weird as we have only ever travelled apart to gigs a handful of times in four years (cue the Arhhhhhs ). Arriving first, me and Emily signed us in, caught up with Rob the organiser, walked around the stalls and grabbed a pint. It was a glorious day for a festival and I reckon the natives knew it as the festival was packed. Michael and Heidi arrived and a little time later and we staked our claim to a little patch of grass just outside of the Acoustic tent.


BOOM – A fight broke out. . . A suspicious looking group of youths challenged each other to a dual only meters from our patch and for about 2 minutes all eyes moved away from the music and towards this show of testosterone. It spilled out into the side of the acoustic tent and some poor fellows guitar got snapped in half. Now I know what you are thinking, being the hero that I am, I must have thrown myself into the middle of it and stopped this war before it breeched our little area where our defenceless wives and friends were. Well I was gonna, but Michael had conveniently gone to the bar and left me as the sole protector and I thought a hands off and a dirty look towards the little scamps was the best approach. It seemed to work as the stewards must have seen my disapproval and then came running over and broke it up. So in a way, I was a hero :)


Anyway, we made our way into the tent to watch the act on before us and was shocked to see a full band setting up to play the ACOUSTIC STAGE. We have ranted about acoustic acts having to follow full bands before so I wont do it again. Anyway, the jingle jangle indie band did fill the tent up with bodies. When they finished we got our instruments together, sorted the set, tuned up, got on stage and saw that the filled tent had emptied to only a third full. Bugger


We were introduced by the compère as Barricades Fire, which we made a joke about, made him re-introduce us and by that time we seemed to have the dwindled audience on our side before we even played a note. We belted through a few originals that got people foot tapping and then got the audience singing along to 'Come Together' which also helped get more bodies in the tent. The crowd participation continued for our own 'Separate Divide' and then after another couple of well received originals, we got the ever growing audience to play their part in our cover of Starsailors 'Silence is Easy'. We were then given a one song extension and 'Dazed' it up for everyone.

A couple of lovely ladies from the audience that grabbed an album

Cheers, claps, album sales and friendly meets and greets followed after. We felt we played well and enjoyed another beer before we decided to leave this land and head off. Michael and Heidi left to spend a romantic evening together in celebration of their one year wedding anniversary (cue the Arhhhhhs again) whereas me and Emily decided to celebrate the fact that it was Saturday and not a work day tomorrow and gatecrashed a friends house for some dinner before moving on to some other friends house for lots of beer and music and then hit McDonlands at 5:30am for a Big Tasty (the greatest of the burgers). A great afternoons gig and a wicked after show night.

Thanks to Rob for having us back, we would love to grace the stage at Fuse 2012

Jonathan

Set List
The Preacher
I Gave Up The World
Come Together
Seperate Divide
Silence is Easy
Dazed

Watch us on the Internet on July 19th

Just a few bits and pieces.

First off, we have organised an Online gig on the 19th July at 7.30pm (gmt) entitled...
Screen gig episode I: The Fellowship of the Gig (my handywork thank you - M).
The premise is you go to this link here (link will be live at the end of the day when I can be bothered to sort it) at about 7.25pm and it'll all be ready to go. You can watch the gig anywhere in the world what with it being the Internet. Lovely eh. You can 'chat' with us too by using the features of the site. To chat you need to make up a username and password, then input your email and that's it done, but to watch you need do nothing. A little window will appear and you can type away. Our friend Stylusboy has been playing them pretty much bi-weekly and they are great to watch and interact with.

You can ask us to play any of our songs and as long as we can remember them we'll play it. Also if you want us to play a cover, tell us now and we'll try to work it out in time for the gig. (email suggestions to band@barricadesrise.co.uk or facebook us).
We have a few planned (on our gig guide) so even when we are not gigging in the real world we'll still play a few tunes live.

Speaking of Stylusboy, he has blogged himself regarding the support he gave us on our launch gig. Check it here.

There are some lovely words being said about the album so far, every review has been posted to our facebook site. Within a week we have sold a quarter of them which is a lovely feeling. Now to get rid of the other 15...

M x

STOP PRESS!!

We did indeed rock Godiva

Review below

Godiva Festival 1/7 - review

Being super busy this last week with gigs, work and more we were unable to get across to Coventry to pick up our performers pass to the festival, thus we had to park a million and one miles away from the stage. The festival opened at 6 and we were on at 7. We comfortably got to the stage at 6.30 to find it absolutely deserted.

A bit downhearted, we headed to the bar to purchase a cup, then the beer to go in the cup (flipping festival prices) and when we got back to the stage there were a few peeps hanging around.

When we hit the stage it very quickly filled up. As for the set, we nailed it. Playing a best of we new the tunes inside out and upside down. By the time Dazed came along the grass in front of us was relitavely half full.

We were both extremely happy with the gig but a little frustrated that by the time the next act came on the crowd was huge. But hey ho, it was a great gig and we sold an album (over a quarter of all our albums have been sold in a week!). We stuck around and wondered the festival for another hour. We headed home about 9.30 with Jonathan a little over tipsy.

Apparently we are on the FRONT PAGE of the Coventry Telegraph today. I'm off to get it now so will see if it says 'BAND OF THE YEAR WOW FESTIVAL CROWD' or 'WHO?'.

Next saturday we take on another free festival at Fuse in Lichfield. We're on at 6.30ish

M x