the World of Verbal Warning 30.12.2010

Phew 3 gigs in a week, don't think we could keep that up for long, still it stopped Guitar boy feeling too sorry for himself with his man flu, in fact all that sweating helped him out.
We were at the Half Crown in Long Eaton on Monday the 20th, bit of a funny one, Monday night, but good luck too them and I hope it's a success, especially as we've been booked for 5 more gigs next year. There were about 50 people in there and most stopped till the end, even after we inflicted our Christmas medley on them.

On to the Stumble on Thursday which turned out to be a cracker, the place was full all night and we all had great time with plenty of pissed up punters. Another Paul, one of our ever increasing fan club, well in Long Eaton anyway, decided that State Control of Rock and Roll sounded like State Control of Sausage Rolls and proceeded to start throwing Sausage Rolls at us during the song, well at least they were reasonable soft and they still tasted ok even after they’d been on the floor, I was feeling a bit peckish after the gig.

The last of our trilogy of gigs was the Horse and Groom in Derby which we last played on the same day last year, there was a decent crowd there and everything went well, apart from Drummer Boy’s floor tom collapsing, so hopefully it won’t be another year before we get another gig there, especially as we decided against doing the Christmas Medley, having decided that surely everyone must be sick of Christmas. Hopefully I will remember how to get there and get home, I thought my days of getting lost in Derby were behind me now I’ve got a Sat Nav, but no, Derby’s traffic systems proved too much even for that, after failing to get us there, we were at the wrong end of the street the pub was on and it was blocked off in the middle, we knew there was something wrong when going home we realised we’d gone round the same block 4 times and would have still been there now had we not, eventually, decided to stop turning left as the Sat Nav was telling us too.

We’ve got a month to recover now, next gig is at the White Hart in Lenton on the 29^th January, shouldn’t need my Sat Nav for that.

the World of Verbal Warning 22.11.2010

We've had a couple of gigs since my last blog, first up was the Olympic in Draycott, and that bought us down to earth with a bump after the Greyhound gig, a very small crowd, in fact apart from the 10 or so Warning faithful the pub was practically empty, still we tried to put on our usual enthusiastic show with Drummer Boy kicking his kit over at the end (for only the second time). The highlight of the evening was the chant of "You fat bastard" as Singer Boy rather unwisely decided to change his T shirt after the gig in front of everyone. The landlord enjoyed Nellie the Elephant and wants to book us again, 29th January is looking a possible date.Last Friday we were supporting Sham 69 at the Old Bell in Derby which turned out to be an enjoyable night for everyone, we were first on which raised concerns about whether anyone would actually be there, having suffered a similar fate at the Mill in Mansfield, but our fears were unjustified as the place was a nearly full when we went on for our 35 minute slot, and it all went well with lots of compliments afterwards. No Jimmy Pursey in Sham but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, I've got a soft spot for Sham anyway because it was the first punk gig I ever went to back in the mists of time, and I was able to sink a few pints as well having set the stage by scrounging lifts off Guitar Boy and Singer Boy, thanks lads.No gigs now until 20th December, which is the first date our Christmas tour, 3 gigs in 7 days, ROCK AND ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

the World of Verbal Warning 4.10.2010

If it carries on like this I'm going to have to stop doing this blog, it gets really boring when nothing goes wrong, the Greyhound seems to have been our best gig yet, the place was rocking with a great crowd singing along to the songs, even our own! and we sold loads of Cd's and T shirts. We started off with Monster Mash, especially learnt for Halloween and to get into the swing of things we all bought masks to wear, it frightened everybody to death when we took them off. Backing Vocals proved a problem, I had to do a crib sheet because they altered every chorus, what a waste of time, with the masks on our backing vocals were totally inaudable, watch the phone video on facebook, still we made the effort. We must have been good Paul, the landlord bought us all a pint afterwards, just hope the rest of the band don't expect all Paul's to be as generous.
Next gig is at the Olympic in Draycott 13th November.

the World of Verbal Warning 20.10.2010

The Nottingham Beer Festival turned into a rollercoaster ride, but I think we managed to pluck victory from the jaws of defeat in the end. We had a disastrous start, after the traditional shout of “1234” we launched into Blitzkrieg Bop, I was just thinking "Guitar Boy's quiet" and then it dawned on me that he was very very quiet. So we stopped and Guitar Boy played about with his leads, no sniggering at the back please, and he got a satisfying kerrang noise from his speaker, right we're ready to rock now, “1234”, silence from the guitar, ok swap the lead, kerrang from the speaker, “1234”, silence from the guitar, the sound engineer came on stage and they swapped amps, kerrang from the speaker, “1234”, silence from the guitar, I’m standing thinking “bloody hell, there by the grace of God and all that, I’m glad this isn’t happening to me” and even Singer Boy’s running out of things to say. Only one thing left to do swap guitars, kerrang from the speaker, “1234”, for the final time thankfully, and away we went everything firing on all cylinders. Now as you can imagine concentration levels were not good by this time and we made a right pig’s ear of Teenage Kicks, fortunately it didn't get any worse after that, there were one or two more errors but to paraphrase Basil Fawlty “I think we got away with those”. From Should I Stay or Should I Go midway through the first set to the end the place was rocking, when I asked Wendy Verbette what the backing vocals were like she said “Don’t know couldn’t hear them for the crowd singing along” and we got the loudest shout I’ve heard for an encore, finishing off with 500 Miles and Nellie the Elephant. This was probably the biggest crowd we’ve played too, and we like to think we did our bit to make this year’s Nottingham Beer Festival the most successful ever.
See you all at the Greyhound on the 30th October

the World of Verbal Warning 28.9.2010

Well we had a 'smash it up' time at the Stumble Inn on Friday night. Our overly enthusiastic Punkette turned up again, she was even dancing to the sound check! No bubble wrap trousers this time though. But she did manage to last the whole gig this time, jumping around and grabbing microphones, unfortunately our equipment doesn't seem to be designed to withstand such treatment, we finished the gig with one PA speaker and one microphone knocked out, nothing serious as it happens, just leads giving way under the strain, you could say it was a proper punk rock gig, and most of the crowd seem to enjoy the extra entertainment that was on offer. In fact we earned ourselves some kudos points for carrying on like the troopers we are, mind you I couldn’t really do anything else after publicly slagging off Jake Burns for throwing a hissy fit because somebody threw some beer over him during a SLF gig at Rock City .I was a little concerned that the Stumble might not have us back again if they thought we were attracting a overly boisterous crowd but Martin the landlord gave us an extra 20 quid and promised to fix us up another date, bless him.
Next gig could be a big one if it doesn’t rain, it’s the Nottingham Beer Festival in the Castle grounds.

the World of Verbal Warning 6.9.2010

Phew, that was a busy week, first off, last Saturday we were in Draycott again doing a gig as Fightback’s guests at the Coach and Horses, everything went off smoothly this time, no sharing the bar with a swing covers band as happened last time we did a gig with them at the Melbourne Hotel, our Canadian ‘backing singer’ turned up again, this time in a thong and bubble wrap trousers, which caused something of a stir, very Punk Rock though, Singer Boy got off lightly this time, on this occasion he was only ‘assisted’ on vocals a couple of times. We played the Clash’s Complete Control for the first time, ..Holiday.. in ....Cambodia.... had a rare outing which went down particularly well and Fightback shared the fee with us which was good of them.
On Wednesday we finally did our MFN gig, we thought we would be in the bar, but it was such a pleasant evening and a good turnout of bikers was expected that it was moved to the main ball. Unlike Guitar Boy I have to say I didn’t enjoy it that much, the sound on stage was fine on the sound check but when we did the actual gig my bass was booming all over the place, and Guitar Boy sounded like he was using a phaser to me, but apparently it sounded ok at the back of the room which is where most people were standing. Drummer Boy got a request for a signed drum stick and Guitar Boy got a request for a pick, so we made some new friends. Highlight of the evening was Drummer Boy falling off the drum riser and finishing up flat on his face on the stage, well highlight for the rest of us, not sure about Drummer Boy though, but it did make a pleasant change from me being the fall guy. Dave and Wayne a couple of members of the original Verbal Warning were also there for a bit of reminiscing.
Finally, on Friday night we had an away day at the Cherry Tree in Kettering, I thoroughly enjoyed the gig, got a really good sound where I was standing, and sounded good in the crowd too, according to Wendy Verbette., sold a few CDs and gained some fans on Facebook. Special mention to Adam, who came all the way from Brighton to see us, alright I know his girlfriend lives in Coventry, still a good effort though, and Keith for not going to see Goldblade, and his lad for backing vocals on I Fought the Law.
Few weeks R and R now, next gig at the Stumble in Long Eaton.

the World of Verbal Warning 23.8.2010

Well the Olympic gig at Draycott turned into a cracker, a steaming hot night and a small packed bar meant we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Claire Bear, Janet Verbette's daughter, was back from China and bought along seven pissed up dancing friends, and we had a young lady who seemed determined to become a backing singer for us, I have to say Singer Boy stuck manfully to his task despite being continually assaulted, and was even bit on the lip at one point, a video of his discomfort has been posted on the band facebook site. The gig nearly ended in disaster before it started when I rather stupidly, and even saying to myself "I shouldn't be putting this pint of blackcurrant juice on top of my amp", put a pint of blackcurrant juice on top of my amp and within seconds had knocked it over covering my amp, the PA amp and Drummer Boy's kit in a sticky red mess, I dived to switch the power off as fast as my old bones would take me and mopped up the mess with Guitar Boy's sweat towel as best I could before tentatively switching the power back on just as Drummer Boy was sorting his sticks out which, too me, sounded remarkable like crackling electricity, after a heart stopping moment everything seemed to be ok. We managed to debut 4 new cover versions all of which went well, when you're finishing a gig to a pissed up pub you can't really go wrong with Nellie the Elephant can you? We're back in Draycott this Saturday with Fightback at the Coach and Horses.

the World of Verbal Warning 16.8.2010

We have just returned from our annual trip to the Blyth Power ashes which was this year held in Norfolk .
We arrived after a 6 hour journey thanks to a gridlocked Grantham, a Pub stop, and the usual Kings Lynn traffic mayhem to rather wet weather, but it did improve on Saturday.
I have another holiday tip to go with my “make sure you don’t pack 2 left footed baseball boots ”. If you wake up in the middle of the night and find you’re lying on the floor because the airbed’s got a hole in it, don’t inflate it in the car to keep the noise of the pump from waking everybody up because although it is relatively easy to get a deflated airbed into a car it’s not quite as easy to get it out again once it’s been filled with air.
Helen Verbett and Drummer Boy came to my rescue for the second night as they had a spare airbed for me to use. Helen is the band lifeboat, as whatever you’ve forgotten to bring just ask Helen at it’s produced in an instant, from bottle openers to, err, spare airbeds.
The Goat Inn at Skeyton is a lovely setting with a thatched roof pub, unfortunately the toilet facilities turned rather medieval as well, a brand new toilet/ shower block looked promising but it was fed from a local well which ran out of water by Saturday morning, resulting in no ablutions for 4 hours, causing Singer Boy much distress as he likes to make himself as light as possible before we go on stage if you know what I mean.
The gig itself was bought forward to 12.15pm due to licensing problems, by which time the sun was beating down which meant it was getting a bit sticky in the Marquee where the bands were performing, Guitar Boy decided to wear a black hat for the gig which meant he got hotter than ever, I kept looking across expecting to see a pool of sweat, a black hat and a Gibson SG and not a lot else. Still we got through it, but because of the heat there were as many people outside the tent as in it, don’t blame them, I think I would have probably done the same, we did nearly get an encore, but it was decided there wasn’t enough time, and we did sell a fair amount of merchandise.
We’ve got the Olympic at Draycott this Friday, so it’s all go.

the World of Verbal Warning 18.07.2010

Just returned from a cracking weekend at the Rock and Bike festival, but first I'd like to clear up a potential misunderstanding over our none appearance at MFN last Wednesday, we bumped into a couple of fans and they'd gone to see us and were bitterly disappointed to find that NG26 were on and were somehow given the impression that we'd cancelled, this is not the case, we were moved by the venue to September 1st because of a "double booking" about 2 weeks before the gig.
On to Rock and Bike, we were on at 4 o clock on Saturday afternoon, before that a VW first occurred, an unplugged set, well, I say set, we actually had a practice in Drummer Boys tent before the gig, with Drummer Boy on a sort of drum Box, Guitar Boy on acoustic guitar and me using a little battery amp for my bass, it was certainly different, Singer Boy had to sing quietly for a start! the event was filmed on a mobile phone by one of the Verbetts so if the quality's not to bad some of it might get posted on our Facebook page.
The actual gig itself started off quietly but by the end when we finished the set with Jet Plane, My Way and 500 Miles the place was rocking, a memorable gig, as Drummer Boy commented we nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when we decide to do an unscheduled encore, trouble was Guitar Boy, not expecting to have to play anymore had put his guitar down and it got knocked out of tune, so White Riot was, frankly, a bit of a mess, but fortunately it didn't seem to matter. Singer Boy couldn't sell the merch fast enough after the gig and we shifted over a £100 worth of gear in about 10 minutes.
We all enjoyed the rest of the day, as we all had an access all area's pass ( Singer Boy was disappointed when we had to tell him it wasn't those area's) which meant we got into the hospitality tent with free booze and food and we also got to see the night time bands from the hospitality area at the front of the stage. Jimi Hendrix, not the real one silly, was suberb, looked like him and sounded like him, if you're a Hendrix fan I recommend you check out Are You Experienced, you definitely won't get nearer to the real thing. I even enjoyed Toyah's Rock Vampire Show against all expectations, it's hard not to like a show crammed full of rock anthems played well with top notch sound quality when you're full of free booze.
The Rock and Bike festival is brilliant value at only £24 for a ticket, Christ, even a tight arse like me would pay that.
Three weeks off now then a busy schedule in August starting with Blythe Power's Ashes in Norfolk.

the World of Verbal Warning 11.07.2010

We finally got back on the horse last night at the Poet and Castle in Codnor, it's fair to say we were a little bit apprehensive before the gig, especially after somebody pointed out it was the first pub gig, i.e a 2 x 45 minute set, since Kettering back in April, but it all turned out OK, in many ways it was typical VW gig, fast, furious with a sprinkling of mistakes, as somebody once said "you may not be the best, but you're good fun", it was a steaming hot night and the pub was pretty full, songs off the new CD seemed to go down well, the new Red Star Radio T shirts were also in evidence. I don't know who's stupid idea it was to put Jilted John next to Ace of Spades in the set, oh yeah it was me!, but they went down a storm, the fact that we had to restart Ace of Spades due to us losing the way, didn't seem to matter, in fact some would say it was better because I got to do the bass intro twice, well I would anyway. Due to the heat Drummer Boy finished up doing a Sandie Shaw impression, (the older readers of this blog will know what I'm talking about), by playing in his bare feet and the pub side door next to were we play was left open resulting in singer boy running up down Alfreton Road, all on his own, arms out stretched, during Jet Plane, oh yeah and doing his rock star impression by disappearing outside during the Whole Lotta of Rosie guitar solo only to reappear just in time to start the vocal again, I suppose we should just be grateful that this time he knew when the solo was due to end.
Anyway on to the Rock and Bike festival next week, slots on the indoor stage have been moved forward an hour, so we're on at 4 o clock Saturday afternoon, which just might be good thing because we were up against a Z Z Top tribute originally but now we're on our own, a nice rain shower would be nice as well, and it's not as bad as flying all the way to Japan to find out you're on at 11.30 in the morning (those of you who have seen the Anvil film will get that one)

the World of Verbal Warning 12.6.2010

We had an interesting weekend down in Sussex at the Glastonwick beer and music festival, I stopped off at my daughters place in London on the way down there for a couple of days and decided to have a day out at Thorpe Park, you would have thought that half term was not the best time for a visit and you'd be right, my initial delight at getting half price admission, with vouchers, was quickly replaced by the reality of the situation, I spent exactly the amount I'd saved buying priority passes for the rides so I wasn't queuing for over and hour in order to get terrified.
The weather at Coombes Farm where the Glastonwick Festival is held was very kind, ideal camping weather and a good time was had by all, until Saturday night that is, when a group of idiots thought it would be good fun to stay up all night and keep everyone awake, if you know who's van this is could you let us know so we can exact some sort of retribution on them


By the time of our slot on Sunday afternoon it's fair to say we were not at our best, a weekends boozing and a sleepless Saturday night had taken it's toll, concentration levels were not good in the band resulting in us making even more mistakes than usual, then the set got shortened due to previous acts overrunning, we nearly had mass suicide on our hands because we didn't play Jet Plane and 500 miles, well one or two of our Brighton contingent were having a moan. Still we managed to sell a dozen or so copies of our new CD, yes that's right we have finally got our hands on our new masterpiece thanks to heroic efforts by Singer Boy, going to the manufacturers personally on Thursday to pick them up, and a handsome looking thing it is too, if you can't wait till you see us to get your grubby little hands on it go to http://verbalwarning.bigcartel.com/.
No gigs for a month now, while the world cup's on then we've got 3 in a week, by the time we play the Rock and Bike festival at Draycott we should be really tight, that's musically tight, not financial, I don't need any practice to avoid spending money.

the World of Verbal Warning 31.05.2010

Sorry about the lack of a blog during the last 5 weeks but gigs are a little thin on the ground at the moment, still we played the Strummercamp pre festival party on Friday, we finished up going on first which was a "here we go again moment" but it all turned out very well, the crowd was a bit thin to start with, but filled up quickly, and by the end the place was rocking, we played some stuff off the new CD which went down well especially the State Control of Rock and Roll parts 1 and 2, which sounds a bit prog rock, but trust us it isn't. Unfortunately we didn't have any to sell as hoped due to production delays, but we've been promised it by this Thursday ready for this weekends appearance at Glastonwick, speaking of which, Attilla the Stockbroker who organisers the festival was so impressed when Singer Boy played him a copy he's trying to move us up the bill which is a good sign. Strummercamp itself was pretty uneventful with mixed weather, a not very inspiring lineup and nobody managing to put their foot in it, although me and Wendy Verbett did manage to find a shortcut to the nearest Whetherspoons for a cheap boozy lunch which went down rather well. Hopefully they'll be more news next week after Galstonwick.

the World of Verbal Warning 26.04.2010

Well, what an eventful gig at the weekend, it took me and Wendy Verbett a while to find the venue as the only Melbourne Hotel we could find had a poster outside saying a band called the Underlimes were playing there, eventually we found out the Venue had double booked the room, a compromise was reached, the Underlimes would play at one end of the bar in between Fightback, us and another band at the other end of the bar, not an ideal match as the Underlimes were a swing covers band, so a bizarre night was taking shape.

Guitar boy did his best to steal my crown as the most undiplomatic big mouth in the band, standing in the gents he struck up a conversation with the guy next to him as you do, and it went something like, “you in one of the bands then”, Guitar Boy replied “yeah that’s right”, the guy said “what you like then”, Guitar Boy “old school Punk, but don’t worry we’re not as bad as the first band”, guy in the next urinal “I’m in the first band”, whoops, quick exit by guitar boy.

I did my best later on in the night to reclaim my crown by totally falling to recognise the bass player from Fightback when he asked to borrow a pick, thought he was a fan wanting a memento of the gig, but I wasn’t in Guitar Boys league I’m afraid.

After the gig I saw Singer Boy trying to explain to a girl who had been throwing V signs at us that White Riot wasn’t a white supremacist song, a few minutes later Lee Cooper informed me we were all about to get a seeing too cause we’re a racist band, now with hindsight I could see the problem, the set consisted of England Belongs to me, and I had England Flags on my amp because it was St Georges Day, add to this playing White Riot, not to mention enthusiastic jumping about by a bunch of skinheads at the front and I could see why a few pissed up badly informed liberal thinkers would jump to the wrong conclusion, but it’s a bit sad when we can’t even show a bit of patriotism without being branded a bunch of racists, in the end the threats came to nothing.

The gig itself was cut down to 40 minutes because of the double booking problem, and predictable the covers went down a storm especially 500 miles, apparently the vocals were drowned out by the crowd singing along, song selection that’s what it’s all about.

the World of Verbal Warning 20.4.2010

You may well think that we’ve been a bit lazy during the last month, but not so, we’ve been beavering away in the studio trying to get our long overdue 2^nd album finished and if the final master turns out ok it looks like it might be out in May. If I’ve not mentioned it before it’s going to be called Red Star Radio, don’t know how we came up with that title but we did and for some reason we think it sounds rather good, it’s got 12 tracks on it and the last 2 are a sort of Punk Rock opera, so all you prog rockers out there, go and get it.

We did have a gig at Kettering last Saturday which seemed to go ok after a slow start, I enjoyed the 2^nd set after we were told to turn up, which meant I could actually hear what I was playing, though some of you may think that would be a bad thing, I don’t think Guitar Boy over enjoyed it though he was stuck round the corner which meant he had to have his amp really loud so the rest of the pub could hear him, unfortunately this meant that he couldn’t really hear what the rest of us were playing, still we did ok and the Landlord’s not canceled our September booking there, not yet anyway, which is a good sign.

There’s a gig this Friday at Melbourne with Fightback, so we’ll have to restrict our set to an hour, only about 20 songs then.

the World of Verbal Warning 18.3.2010

Things are a bit quiet at the moment, had my weeks holiday in Gran Canaria very nice it was too, found a bar that sold the local beer at 1 euro a pint, which was well patronised, we actually found one that was 90 cents a pint but it smelt like a toilet, the bar that is not the beer, so it was decided the extra 10 cents was well worth it. Remember my advice on making sure you don’t take two right footed baseball boots on holiday if you own two pairs? Well I found out the same advice applies to flip flops.

We’ve had one gig, at the Sitwell Tavern in Derby which turned out to be another stormer, wish we knew what we were doing right at the moment then we could carry on doing it. A good mosh pit developed with mic stands being knocked over and people falling over monitors, great stuff.

Going into the studio for our final visit, hopefully, on the 29^th March, we’re frantically trying to learn 3 new songs, new territory for us, we’ve always had loads of time to get new songs sorted out before so we’ll find out whether working under pressure will bring out he best or the worst in us.

Things are a bit slow on the gig front at the moment, partly by design while we’re trying to get the CD finished. Next one is an away game in Kettering, after enjoying the night away in Horncastle I decided to try and book a night away for this one too, imagine my delight when I found a Travelodge deal at £19, booked it straight away then had one of those big red light moments, double checked the date of the gig and found out I’d booked the wrong week! The right date is £35 and I can’t get a refund on the original booking, once again my enthusiasm for saving a few quid has blown up in my face.

the World of Verbal Warning 21.02.2010

Verbal Warnings cup is full to overflowing at the moment, last Saturday we were in Horncastle and, no, it didn’t snow surprisingly, decided to stop over rather than drive the 70 miles back after the gig which made a pleasurable couple of days away. Decided to go and watch the Rugby in the pub on Saturday afternoon Wales and Scotland were on and I said to Wendy Verbett “What’s the Score” as I was ordering drinks, she said ”37-44”, so I looked across to have a look “bloody hell” I replied “it’s not even half time yet”, when we sat down we realised we’d been looking at the clock which had been stopped for an injury, it was actually 3-9 or something like that, God knows what the barmaid thought.

The Gig itself was another VW triumph, we didn’t empty the pub like we did last time we were here, did a couple of encores and everybody was well pleased, we're back in October, there’s a independent review of the gig on the pubs newsletter which is rather gushing in its praise, all perfectly true though http://www.verbalwarninguk.com/media/OldNicksReview.pdf ....

On to the Greyhound the last night, which is a home game for me, we’ve not been back for 18 months, I think we upset the landlord last time by being too loud, so we needed a good one. On the way in I stumbled while carrying my amp in and the momentum made me crash head first into the wall, as I looked up in a rather dazed state I realized I’d headbutted a Verbal Warning poster, a good omen as it turned out, the first half went down well despite me messing up Daydream Believer again, I keep getting a mental block on that one, one of the guys that helps at the pub who bears an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Albert out of Only Fools and Horses remarked how well we were playing and how much we’d improved, we must have really been off form last time. The place really warmed up for the second set, after the first encore a VW first occurred, when a rather scantily dressed young lady exposed her breasts so we would do two more, one for each breast apparently, an event witnessed by Drummer Boy and Singer Boy, but, would you believe it? Me and Guitar Boy missed it, typical, we were probably too busy looking at our fretboards, We finished up doing a 5 song encore, a record I think, perhaps the bands own Statto, Drummer Boy, would be able to confirm it. Anyway we redeemed ourselves with the landlord, we’re booked again for September 18th.

Next gig is at the Sitwell Tavern, another place we’ve not played in a while after I’ve had a week’s holiday in Gran Canaria.

the World of Verbal Warning 7/02/2010

It’s been an exciting few weeks for the Warning Brothers, the Ripley Harriers Scooter Rally attended by 400 people apparently, turned into one of the best gigs we’ve had for audience reaction, a boisterous mosh pit developed with people falling on the stage knocking mic stands over and one bystander got a knock in the mouth, but she was soon back in the thick of the action, PUNK ROCK!!!

Then we had a day in the studio where we recorded another 3 tracks for our forthcoming masterpiece, working out the harmonies, yes vocal harmonies, for Someone Somewhere proved a little tricky, but it all went surprisingly well we’d finished for 7 o Clock, we await the outcome with baited breath, especially the vocal harmonies. Photos of both are on our revitalised facebook site, courtesy of guitar boy

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verbal-Warning/10452018141?ref=nf ....

Then we had our annual Derby Beer Festival gig at the world famous Assembly Rooms, well world famous in the East Midlands anyway. The lead up to it was full of mixed messages, I’ve just joined CAMRA and took great delight at getting a pint for 85p in Wetherspoons but this was tempered by the fact that we’d paid a £1 to get in, a charity event for the Deaf apparently, this amused us no end because at times we do our best to add too there potential membership, Wendy Verbett had ringing in her ears for 2 days after the Harriors Scooter gig. Drummer Boy was having trouble with his snare at the sound check, but this was resolved by using Guitar Boys shoe lace as an emergency repair, it will be interesting to hear his explanation at work on Monday as to why he only has one shoe lace “Oh yeah it was used to repair the drum kit before one of our biggest gigs of the year”. Singer Boys battery went dead twice in his radio mic, he really will have to stop buying batteries from the charity shop. The gig itself was a blast, the place was rammed, it was 1 out 1 in by 7 o Clock which resulted in Lee of Weston queuing for 90 minutes to get in then only seeing half of our set, he got in just in time to see our rather dodgy version of Jilted John. But we went down really well, got an encore, which for a support band is not bad and afterwards I’ve never had so many people telling me how much they enjoyed it apparently the sound was excellent, so thumbs up to the sound guy.

We’re off to the wilds of Lincolnshire next week for the Horncastle gig, it’s bound to snow.

the World of Verbal Warning 11-01-2010

These are worrying times for Verbal Warning another 3 gigs and all of them went surprisingly well, we must be due a apocalyptic one any time now. 1st up was the old school punk gig at the Horse and Groom in Derby, Singer Boy was predicting a no show with his voice due to laryngitis, I do think this was a little more serious than his normal complaints about his throat though, as we had to take one or two songs out the set but a good crowd had turned up by the start and the old adrenalin kicked in and he was still talking 10 to the dozen by the time we left, everybody enjoyed our efforts, we had a few dancing and we have been promised a return gig, a guy was chatting to us while we were loading up and he said “you might not be the best but you’re good fun” a comment which immediately came under consideration as a title for our new CD.

On to the Great Northern in Langley Mill, a strange one this 6 o Clock start on a Sunday evening and a wall down the middle of the pub which served to divide the sound, if you think my bass playing is not far off God like you could stand to the left and hear a bass heavy mix, if you think Guitar boy is son of Hendrix you stood to the right and couldn’t hear me very well, why anybody was standing to the right is a complete mystery to me.

Finally we were back to the Poet and Castle in Codnor, all of you who have been paying attention to my earlier blogs will know this is our preferred watering hole after practice, apparently it had been very quiet all week due to the snow but we had a half decent crowd some of them had come along after seeing our Great Northern gig and it all went well, Singer Boy’s battery in his radio mic packed up at the start of the encore though, and he’s only had it a year, I’ll have to watch my step otherwise he’ll be taking my crown as the tightest member of the band. I was partially hidden from the audience due to the PA speaker being right in front of me, but this turned into a bit of a blessing as I forgot to put my sunglasses on for the second half so didn’t look my usual cool self, this was despite Wendy Verbetts frantic hand signals, no she wasn’t calling me a wanker, well I don’t think she was.

Next gig in a fortnight a Scooter Rally at the Out of Town in Ripley, after last nights gig somebody said they’d come along if we did Jilted John, you never know.