the World of Verbal Warning 25.12.09

Well its Christmas morning Ho Ho Ho and I’m hanging around waiting for the pub to open, so seeing as we had a gig on Wednesday I thought it was time to bring you all up to date. The Harrington gig was our Christmas party which nearly didn’t happen as the pub changed hands recently and the new landlady wasn’t keen, but Singer Boy managed to talk her round, can’t go into details, it’s their little secret. Her fears about having a horrible punk band on in her pub were dispelled though, a good time was had by all, a reasonable crowd considering 5 inches of snow had been forecast, and everybody stopped to the end resulting in the 11 o Clock bar being extended. For the second encore we decided we needed to do a song with white in the title and seeing as how we don’t know White Christmas we did White Riot instead.

Our day in the studio turned into a 12 hour marathon, Guitar Boy was well knackered at the end of it after doing god knows how many overdubs of 500 miles, I bet he wishes he’d done more wrist exercises now. And we’re still waiting for the results. Guy who runs the studio is a lovely bloke but he does seem to have trouble getting round to things. Back in on 29^th January we’re having to write new songs now as we’ve used up all the ones we’ve taken the last 4 years to write, well it is the difficult 2^nd album.

Next gig is on Sunday 27^th at the Horse and Groom in Derby which should be a good one if past trends are maintained, 3 good gigs 1 bad, which means I have bad vibes about the Langley Mill one on 3rd January, that’s the Sunday before everybody goes back to work!

the World of Verbal Warning 23.11.09

Well, the Stumble gig turned out to be a cracker, we had a good turnout of our Long Eaton contingent and a good time was had by all. We got the impression that Martin, the landlord wasn't keen on having live bands on in his new pub, we think that maybe he'd had a couple of bad experiences of too loud bands driving the punters away but he relented under pressure from Singer Boy and a few of his regulars and he seemed well chuffed by the result, free drinks all round and an extra tenner, can't be bad. Before the gig I got a blood blister on my thumb after trapping it in a mic stand, by the end of the gig it had burst and I'd got blood all over my new bass. Rock and Roll, copying Sid Vicious now, I think I'll stay off the heroin though, and Wendy Verbett will be relieved to learn that I'm not planning to murder my girlfriend.Had a bit of a result with my new amp which I got a bit cheaper cause it was an ex demo, sent it back to Marshall because of a fault and they sent me a brand new one .The remixes of the 3 tracks we did in the studio were deemed to be acceptable by everyone, although we still think there's room for improvement, we're back there on December 6th to do some more recording. Next gig is our Christmas party at the Harrington in Long Eaton, we've got to relearn Gary Glitters, Another Rock and Roll Christmas for that one, just love the line, "You'll never guess what you've got from me".

the World of Verbal Warning 06.10.09

We've just had an eventful weekend, in the studio all day Friday, managed to get 3 tracks down, guitar boy was knackered after doing God knows how many overdubs, we don't know how successful we've been till we get the final mix, by the way, be careful about the Burger King at the end of Meadow Lane, we saw a rat running AWAY from it.
Saturday night saw us at the Mill in Mansfield, we finished up first on with Chelsea headlining, which meant the crowd was on the thin side for the first couple of bands, it was also bad news for Ronnie, one of our Mansfield faithful, he normally gets thrown out for climbing all over the speakers during our set, but because we were first on he didn't get to see any of the other bands this time, and it was £9 to get in! Also out of 4 bands it turns out I was the only one to bring a bass amp, after Apocalypse Babies used it I decided enough was enough and took it off stage, the sound engineer asked if I was going and I said "yes" and he turned round to the guy behind him and said "We haven't got a bass amp then" amateur hour or what? It's not quite as disastrous as it sounds cause bass can go straight through the PA, not ideal though. I was going to stop long enough to see the next band till Wendy Verbett pointed out that I had said I was going and that I might be not a little inconspicuous standing on the front row with white jeans and a bright red tie on, so, in the best rock star traditions we left the building. On to the Vic at Derby on Sunday, now we may have had worse gigs but I can't really recall one at the moment, hardly anybody turned up, we made the mistake of using the amps that were there and the sound was truly horrendous, on stage as well as off it, Drummer Boy couldn't hear his drums! the rest of us couldn't hear the vocals, Phil Spector would have been proud of the wall of noise that engulfed us, front of house was just as bad apparently with a bass drum to take your spleen out and a sound as muddy as Morecambe Bay sands, there's not many gigs we've played when we couldn't wait for it to be over. Felt sorry for the guys from Still Dying promotions, everything was against them, King Blues at the Rescue rooms, beer festival down the road and a deaf sound engineer. A special mention in dispatches for Lee Cooper and his mate, Wendy and Janet Verbett who stuck it through to the bitter end.
Next gig at the Stumble Inn on November 20th, should be a good one we're doing the sound ourselves.

the World of Verbal Warning 28.09.09

Seems a long time since my last blog but we've finally had another gig, it was at the Poet and Castle in Codner which happens to be our "local" after practice, the omens were not good when my car refused to start in the car park after Wednesday's practice, after spending 40 minutes fiddling around, the immobilizer was still stubbornly stopping the car from starting so we ordered a cab, and guess what, yep, it suddenly burst into life, it's getting expensive running these modern cars, it's only 5 years old and I've had to replace the battery in the key fob already.On to the gig which despite Wednesday's troubles, turned out to be a cracker, the place was punk rocking, people were actually dancing around, there was some inter band violence towards Guitar Boy when Singer Boy got carried away and smashed him in the face when he spread his arms during Jet Plane and then I hit him on the head with the end of my Bass (fortunately there was no damage to my bass) all it needed was Drummer Boy to spear him with a flying drum stick and he would have had a full house, the place was still pretty full when we played our 2nd encore, we're on a roll at the minute, that's 3 good ones on the trot it's bound to go pear shaped soon, anyway so far so good and we think we'll be back there in March sometime.We're in the studio on Friday to start recording our 2nd album so we're all looking forward to that and then we've 2 gigs next weekend, on the minus side we've just heard the Fishpond gig has been cancelled due to the pub being refurbished, we've been promised a date when it reopens.

the World of Verbal Warning 01.09.09

Just returned from a better than expected weekend at Lumb Farm playing at the Blyth Power Ashes, didn't bump into any Australians fortunately, or is that unfortunately after England's victory in the real Ashes? Overdid it a bit on Friday night, the Abbots was slipping down a bit to well, after being a bit poorly I was freezing cold in the tent and decided to stumble down to the car to get warm, woke up 2 hours later with the engine still running, still I was nice and warm, got back to the tent at 3.30 where Wendy Verbett, imagining I was lying face down in some ditch was about to call out mountain rescue.On to the gig, we had a Saturday Lunch time slot again, I think we've resigned ourselves to the fact we aren't going to get a prime Friday or Saturday night slot, they seem to be taken by the same bands every year. In spite of that it went very well, unlike last year, I had sobered up enough to remember the bass line to the opening song and the room was pretty full to start with and more importantly at the end of the set as well, and we had some very nice comments from people who hadn't seen us before. After the gig we were having a drink on the site, when the strains of OCD wafted through air, someone was playing a Kick in the Verbals, glory glory.Next years Ashes are in Norfolk, so we're all looking froward to that, next gig is the Poet and Castle in Codnor, rock on

the World of Verbal Warning 17.08.09

Got 2 gigs to talk about this time, first one was the Birthday Party of the son of someone who works at Guitar Boys place, it was in a normal pub near Ripley, family party's are always a bit tricky because of the wide variety of people there, and to be honest we thought we were going down like Billy Bragg at a National Front rally, the pub was L shaped and we seemed to be playing to ourselves, as opposed to with ourselves, then when we finished the last song all these people appeared from round the corner shouting for more, so we finished up doing an unexpected encore and to top it all we got a booking for a scooter rally next year, so a worthwhile exercise as it happens.On to the Air Hostess gig and we weren't sure what to expect, a 70's pub in the middle of a housing estate in Tollerton on a Sunday tea time, strange eh? But it turned into one of the best gigs we've done in a long time, not a very big room and the Verbal Warning barmy army turned out in force, that's when it started to occur to us, there's not a lot to do on a Sunday tea time is there? First half was ok then it looked like we were doing our normal trick of emptying the place when it suddenly started filling up, by the end the pub was packed, loads of applause and 2 encores and we've been booked again for February 7th next year.

the World of Verbal Warning 27.07.09

Just got back from our Rock and Blues weekend, which we survived intact. Bought a new amp because my old one was still playing up, and it sounded awesome, really clear and powerful, the only trouble is everybody can hear my mistakes now, every silver lining has a cloud, huh . On to the gigs, we got moved to 6pm on Friday which we thought was an improvement, but the gig was real hard work, very little feedback from the crowd so we were a bit down at the end but everybody said we went down well, the guy running the PA promised to get us gigs and everybody enjoyed the set, just to cool to clap I guess.Exhibit A were next on but not till 10.30, and what a difference, can't argue with the decision to put them on last, they're better than us, play all covers and a wider variety as well, but a pissed up crowd went wild and they were playing some of the stuff we do, I couldn't help thinking we'd have done just as well at that time of night .The second gig of the weekend was a strange one, it turned out we were playing to the fully indoctrinated Outlaws in there inner sanctum which was separated from the rest of the sight by fences and guards, a little bit intimidating, they too were to cool to applaud much, but I enjoyed the gig, we played well and sounded good and I got the chance to listen to Verbal Warning from the crowd, when Neil the PA guy, who got us the gig, asked if him and his bass player from another band, could play Teenage Kicks with Guitar and Singer Boy, so me and Drummer Boy retired to the audience and very good it sounded to, I'm hoping it wasn't anything to do with the fact I wasn't playing.The worst thing about the weekend apart from having a freezing night under canvas on Saturday night was the bar, what a very poor effort, cans only and on top of that they stopped anybody taking their own booze on site, Alfreton's Wetherspoons was an irresistible draw on a couple of occasions.Got a gig next Friday but it's a private birthday party, but apparently it's just at a pub, "the Railway" on Peashill Rd Codner, so you VW fans can pop along and see us if you're in the area, it's free! otherwise you will have to wait till the Air Hostess gig on August 16th to get your next Verbal Warning fix as we can't do the Fightback gig next Saturday as they moved it to Friday and forgot to tell us!

the World of Verbal Warning 20.07.09

Sorry about the weeks wait for my wonderful blog report on our last gig fans, or is that fan? but I've been on holiday. First things first, looks like we've found a studio to record our long long long awaited 2nd CD in, hopefully we'll make a start in September a full 3 years after our debut recording, a disgraceful effort really.
Bought another bass of ebay, a Tokai P bass, why do us guitarist always think the instrument we haven't got will sound better than the one we have? decided to give it a try at the Derby Beer Festival gig, a mistake as it turned out. Problems with the sound made it an iffy first half, first of all my amp packed up during the sound check, but they had a spare at the venue which they kindly lent me, but the direct input line didn't work in that one so they finished up micing it up instead, all this meant we couldn't do a proper sound check as the hall was filling up, after a quick poll among the faithful at the break and me changing back to my Stingray bass we got the sound a lot better for the second half and it all went rather well, the sound guy must have been impressed because he offered us a 2nd slot at rock and blues next week on the new 3rd stage.
Got back from holiday plugged my amp in and it worked perfectly wondering now whether it was the dodgy DI lead that was causing the trouble, the new bass will be back on ebay shortly.
New blog next week after the Rock and Blues gigs, if we've survived a festival attended by 2000 Bikers, it might be prudent to take the Jams Modern World out of the set, don't think they'll be too many Mods there.

the World of Verbal Warning 02.06.09

Saturday's gig in Mansfield could have gone 2 ways, with us headlining everybody could have gone home by the time we were on or everybody would be pissed up, fortunately it was the later so it all went rather well Drummer and Guitar boy were a little concerned about the sound we got but everybody confirmed it was fine, best sounding band of the night, which is the way it should be for the headline act, nice big stage to move around on which did mean even more bum notes than usual, but hey, who wants to see a band of statues, might as well put a CD on.First the good news or is the bad news? we've actually started doing something about recording our second CD, we'd arranged to go and look at a recording studio in Nottingham last Saturday morning, the bad news, or is it the good news? the guy who runs it called it off at the last minute, the Gods are against us, still we'll try again.No gigs in June, holidays and all that, then a big July, Derby Beer Festival and then the Rock and Blues Festival, here's hoping for a decent slot.

the World of Verbal Warning 04.05.09

Got 2 gigs to tell you about since the last blog, first off we were main support to TV Smith at the Mill in Mansfield after some German Band pulled out, perhaps they were going to annexe Poland instead. Only about 50 there but it went well, sold 4 CD's and got some positive comments afterwards. Trying to get a proper pint in Mansfield is a nightmare, after finding 3 pubs with only creamflow crap Wendy Verbett asked a bouncer and he pointed us in the direction of the White Hart, what a result, good beer at £1.51 a pint, after a few telephone conversations there was about 10 of us in there. About the only thing that went wrong was not finding out till the end of the evening there was some free cans for the bands, it was only larger but it was free, so we had to force it down pretty quick.
On to the Malt Shovel a week later where we in competition with a Motorhead tribute band at the Greyhound and, as anticipated the place was full to start with and still quiet full at about 11 o Clock then completely emptied apart from the VW faithful, didn't even do an encore, I was surprised when I was told we sounded better than ever because we all made mistakes, In defence of Guitar Boy he did suffer the duel concentration breaking experience of breaking a string then the strap coming adrift on his spare guitar, oh yes, then noticing Drummer boy taking his photo during the beginning of My Way. I had no such excuses for my performance during Mrs Robinson, after practicing it about 4 times during the day I still cocked it up. On the positive side we all did very well to keep it together as one of the barman took about 3 minutes to get a packet of fags out of the machine which is situated next to where we play, he got the biggest cheer of the evening when he eventually managed to extract the required goods.
Only one gig this month at the Intake Club in Mansfield again, where the wonderful Verbal Warning are headlining an all dayer, but it does look increasingly likely that we'll be on the at the Rock and Blues festival during July, fingers crossed.

the World of Verbal Warning 31.03.09

Things are starting to look up in the Verbal Warning world after a
rather bumpy start to the year, another good gig at the Sitwell Tavern
on Friday was followed by a possible slot at the rock and blues festival
after last year's highlight was cancelled by the police, who would be
rather be out issuing fixed penalty notices than doing the job our
considerable council tax bills pay for.
Anyway, back to the Sitwell, I think it's probably the loudest we've
managed to be with our own PA, we have to be if we don't want to be
outdone by Mick Moonshine's disco. Things didn't seem to be going that
well, no mosh pit and not that much applause between songs, but I think
they were saving themselves for the encore, I got so carried away I
decided to start playing the Warhead bass intro when everybody else
thought we'd finished, after several seconds of wide eyed WTF looks from Guitar and Drummer boy and a scramble to get instruments back in place we did quiet a reasonable job of it considering the shambles it was at the last practice. Our experimenting with recording gigs continued and we got the balance better on this one so, hopefully, Drummer Boy will
put a few tracks on our my space site.
Lee of Weston put a phone video of us doing Ace of Spades at the last
Sitwell gig on you tube, which obviously has quality limitations but
captures the atmosphere quiet well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbpQ1K3B89M

the World of Verbal Warning 09.03.2009

Nearly a month since my last blog, which will probably be the norm now we've decided to go for quality not quantity on the gig front. But first things first, had a very pleasant week in sunny Tenerife, found some beer at 1 euro a pint, well I say beer, it was the local largery stuff really but in the absence of anything remotely approaching proper beer I managed to force a few down my throat with the help of Wendy Verbett.. Spent the evenings watching tribute acts, that's the way to earn a living, turn up with a mini disc backing track sing somebody else's songs for 45 minutes job done. Buddy Holly was very good although he did keep straying into Eric Morcombe territory by moving his glasses up and down and shouting way hey and the end of every song. Freddie Mercury was also entertaining once he'd assured us all he wasn't the real Freddie and he hadn't got AIDS.
On to the Tiger gig with just one practice under our belts and it turned out to be just what the band needed, our Long Eaton contingent turned out in force, we got the sound spot on and a good time was had by all, got a bit of a mosh pit going, the highlight of which was singer boy being grabbed by a girl ( with very dubious tastes) and both of them crashing into the drum kit.
Next gig the Sitwell Tavern, see you there.

the World of Verbal Warning 13.02.09

Just had an eventful weekend, decided to buy a new TV after my old one blew a fuse for the second time, but it was crap so I took it back, then I lost my phone, rang the number, unable to answer came the reply, then realized it was in my jeans pocket, which was in the washer! had to put it on spin cycle to get it open, fortunately although the phones knackered the simm card works in my old phone, then it was off to the frozen wasteland that is called Horncastle for a gig on Saturday, now I won't go into to much detail but relations within the band weren't good, and although we seemed to be going along ok once again the pub was decidedly on the empty side when we finished, for the third gig in a row, which bought about much agonising and emailing and near collapse of Verbal Warning ... we've decided to carry on, but a less intense schedule of gigs, so hopefully we'll see you all at the Tiger on March 6th.Oh, now I need a new exhaust for my car, so much for bad things happening in three's.

the World of Verbal Warning 20.01.09

the Derby Beer Festivals been and gone, another gig where we managed to more a less empty the place, but I don't think it was our fault really, the first night on a thursday was always going to be tricky and I think there was a lot doing early doors straight from work, so it was busy to start with but quietened down later on but the ones who stayed seemed to be having a good time, we'll have to see whether we get asked back next year.We've just been asked to support TV Smith at the Mill in Mansfield on April 24th, great stuff, but in true Verbal Warning style nothing is straight forward, we'd already arranged that date to play the Malt Shoval, so yours truely has to go along there and unarrange it.Statto the Drummer Boy has just informed us all that the new Verbal Warning has now done 115 gigs, 36 last year which is a pretty impressive effort, think we'll be struggling to match that this year, mind you, according to Guitar Boy we are in our creative period, getting ready for the long awaited difficult 2nd CD.

the World of Verbal Warning 20.01.09

the Derby Beer Festivals been and gone, another gig where we managed to more a less empty the place, but I don't think it was our fault really, the first night on a thursday was always going to be tricky and I think there was a lot doing early doors straight from work, so it was busy to start with but quietened down later on but the ones who stayed seemed to be having a good time, we'll have to see whether we get asked back next year.We've just been asked to support TV Smith at the Mill in Mansfield on April 24th, great stuff, but in true Verbal Warning style nothing is straight forward, we'd already arranged that date to play the Malt Shoval, so yours truely has to go along there and unarrange it.Statto the Drummer Boy has just informed us all that the new Verbal Warning has now done 115 gigs, 36 last year which is a pretty impressive effort, think we'll be struggling to match that this year, mind you, according to Guitar Boy we are in our creative period, getting ready for the long awaited difficult 2nd CD.

the World of Verbal Warning 05.01.09

Well, I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and New Year and you're all happy to be back at work :-(. We had 3 gigs over the festive period first the Tiger, which we were a bit apprehensive about, turned out to be the best, although not as good as the last one there because nobody tried to chin Guitar Boy, incidently he sent an account of that incident off to some guitar mag and won the star letter prize which was a dinky little home recording ipod thingy worth about £140, so a good result there. Next up was a private 50th birthday party of one of our Beeston fan club which went OK, we're not everybody's cup of tea but enough of the crowd liked us to make it worthwhile, and me and Singer Boy had a piss up afterwards. The New Years Eve gig was strange, the place was solid during our first hour then we took a half hour break telling everybody we'd be back to see in the new year and most of them left! so it all went a bit flat for the second hour, and my amp was playing up, suddenly going up to full volume for no apparent reason which was a bit disconcerting. We've got the Deby Beer Festival this Thursday so that should be a good one.