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.

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!