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.