8/3/01

new songs coming on. did rough four track versions of ‘amnesia’ and ‘wave like misery’. they’re not ready yet. can’t quite tell what’s missing but it’ll come to me. i usually get these blinding flashes where it instantly becomes apparent what needs to change. but i’m not there yet… i’ll have to let these tunes sink in a bit first.

took an interesting call in the afternoon – rocksound (and more specifically darren sadler) want to do a big feature on the band, but are keen to get some bespoke photo’s to accompany it. darren’s idea was to get us to dressed in full-on seventies gear (a’la saturday night fever) in a local disco. despite initial reservations we soon warmed to the concept and i organised to hire some appropriate garb for the shoot.

 

9/3/01

spent the morning lifting ridiculously heavy weights. i’m sure there is an easier way to achieve fitness.

finished up and headed into town to meet neil kulkarni (metal hammer journo) for an interview. was a bit worried how it was going to be taken that it was i, a lowly guitarist, who was answering questions. as it turned out it was cool. added to which neil was part of the dying breed of writers who actually bother to research their subject and a genuinely interesting chap to boot.

we indulged in some light whinging at the dilapidated state of the movie making industry and some more intense discussion at the implications of nu-metal’s current vogue status.

i came away with the nagging feeling that i had said too much. you know, opened up a tad further than was healthy. especially those comments about ‘prepubescent schoolboys and their inability to distinguish between glib marketing and genuine quality’. oh, and when asked if i was concerned that some people might be put off by our ambiguity i’m sure i said ‘anyone that doesn’t like it can go and fuck themselves’.

oh well. anyway thinking about it i’m actually pretty happy to stand by that. and if you don’t like it – you can go fuck yourself.

the afternoon hours involved band accounts (dull), mainlining coffee (dangerous) and sending packages of tshirts and albums to spaced’s simon pegg (desperate).

 

10/3/01 – frome, cheese & grain

et9 / kaned and unabled / ambervoid

(i nagual eye / tat twam asi / approx.purified / prd chaos / star damage / binary 101 / evil crawling i / withered / grind & click / simon says

our west country residency continued at the hilariously named cheese and grain. the lengthy journey down was characterised by severe worry over the nature of the venue. it sounded like a pub and no-one had ever heard of it. not that that’s really a problem. these regional shows are usually great. but we argued about the sense in bringing our backdrop and accessories. seemed like an unnecessary extravagance.

as we drove into the carpark of the cheese and grain we soon realised our mistake. normally home to weekly trade and farmers markets it resembled an aircraft hangar. the capacity has to be 1000 plus. oh, how we laughed.

the promoter (colin) has done other shows for us at the salisbury arts centre, so we were not surprised when we were well looked after. soundcheck was a little odd – due to the size of the venue and the resultant bounce-back it was like playing in a highly polished swimming pool. all fairly painless though.

missed the other bands as we were sorting our evening meal out in frome town centre. we ordered from the most hilariously inept takeaway i’ve ever encountered. imagine fawlty towers meets ronald mcdonald’s inbred brother. our requests for jacket potatoes seemed to spark some kind of mental breakdown as the staff broke out in a spontaneous attack of goldfish memory syndrome.

"i’d like a jacket spud with beans please." i said.

"that’s a potato with cheese and butter?" he retorted.

"what?" i said.

"chips?" he tried.

"no, a potato with beans please."

"ok." he intoned, before bringing me a cheese, butter and beans filled king

edward!

the entire band suffered similar problems, not least of all karl, who only discovered the butter in his supposedly vegan spud back at the venue.

we utilised the provided rider alcohol to smooth the situation (quite successfully i’d say), and waited for our stage-time.

before long we were out there, in front of a healthy audience, throwing some shapes. it must be a west country thing because like yeovil and exeter, frome is populated by nutters. they certainly made us feel welcome.

we flew through the set and as the closing notes of withered rang out we narrowly avoided disaster when our backdrop (and it’s huge t-bar support frames) collapsed directly behind simon. must have looked very spinal tap. hey-ho – another day, another gig.

infact we weren’t finished. the frome contingent wanted more, and after a considerable period of them screaming and stamping their feet (think microcosmic bon jovi gig), we decided we really should play something else. so we returned to the stage and ripped through grind & click and simon says. encores, hey! how sad – we are clearly turning into ego fuelled rock stars.

but we still had more excitement to face. as we packed down it became apparent that some amusing little tyke had pilfered our fallen backdrop. this was a considerable blow and we collared all and sundry in the vicinity to try and locate it.

si (who was instrumental in the backdrop’s creation) took it worst and seemed to lose the plot somewhat. he started to berate the promoter (the one who always looks after us well remember) in a particularly violent manner. the gentleman in question interrupted the red-faced drummer and asked ‘how old are you?’.

looking bemused si replied ’25’.

‘my teenage son behaves a damn sight better than you’. the placid promoter sighed.

si took this as an heavy insult and proceeded to the dressing room and began to smash it up.

this didn’t seem to phase the promoter at all. he simply shrugged his shoulders and told the rest of us that any damage would be invoiced direct to the label.

the next thirty minutes was spent cleaning up the fruits of si’s labour.

 

11/3/01

by the time we got back and unloaded the gear it was nearly 5am. didn’t feel too hot, so did the old sleeping thing.

afternoon was spent working through and cataloguing the four track tapes. i wanted to see what the state of play was with the new album material. as it stands we have five songs on the go.

amnesia – epic sounding with a big riff in the midsection…

wave like misery – odd, off kilter verse and big rock chorus…

anti-everything – early days… really driving, intense song… but not sure i like it yet…

spacey song – a bit of led zep, a bit of emo, a bit of intensity…

marching – don’t know how to describe it… a song…

you may have noticed that these titles are not likely to be definitive. i have to write something on the side of the 4 track tapes, so i make any old shit up.

made some notes about what we need to work on and refined some of the riffs. spent an hour or two working on a new standing dead centre song. i’ll post it to ish next week.

then i drank wine and watched spaced on video.

rocksound had organised to do their photoshoot with us on monday, so their snapper (and our mate) nigel crane appeared at our house late in the evening. i crashed out early, but knowing nige he stayed up into the early hours taking heroic amounts of drugs.

 

12/3/01

surreal. in preparation of our photos we spent the morning clothing ourselves at a fancy dress shop in town. the main ‘thrust’ of this session was to be ‘earthtone9 in saturday night fever stylee’. thus the clothes we were hiring fell into the shaft/carlitos way/boogie nights area.

karl’s outfit was pre-organised. he was to be in john travolta’s dapper white suit, as seen in the aforementioned saturday night fever. the rest of us had to fight over what was left. luckily there was plenty.

i had a beautiful ruffled shirt and tan suit. dave opted for the pimp look. si tucked a lurid hawaiian shirt under his safari jacket and joe crowbarred his bits and pieces into the tightest pair of slacks i’ve ever seen.

the first load of pictures were taken at conrad’s – a pole dancing club close to where we live. si (a member of this club) had organised for us to have a few hours in there. nigel set us up (quite literally) with cigars and drinks and flashed away for, what seemed like, an eternity.

having a beer at 11am (not to mention a bloody cigar) did little for my sense of wellbeing. but it’s all in the name of rock.

with that done we agreed to take a few hours off and then reconvene at rock city for some further snaps.

joe and i used the time to buy essential touring supplies – fuses, plugs, gaffer tape etc etc. just the usual shit. don’t know what the rest of them did, and frankly i don’t care.

the rock city shoot was pretty painless. grand theft audio were playing in disco2 and the majority of their entourage seemed to wander past us laughing. can’t say i blame them.

and that, my friends, was that.

 

13/3/01

did the interview for the rocksound feature with darren sadler today. he ran up his phone bill for an hour and a half and i got to talk rubbish. it’s usually a very contrived experience doing an interview. luckily i genuinely like darren and he is actually interested in music and, more specifically, et9.

with that in mind i’m looking forward to reading the results of this particular conversation.

 

14/3/01 – kingston, peel

et9 / hundred reasons / ursa

(approx.purified / tat twam asi / off kilter / prd chaos / star damage / yellow fever / evil crawling i / binary 101 / withered)

arrived at the peel to discover that hundred reasons were advertised for this gig as ‘hungry raisins’! not sure what that was all about - maybe they are embarrassed about playing with us.

soundcheck was all good. we even had time to run through amnesia (one of our new compositions). i think i may have finally nailed the verse parts. time will tell.

while the others tucked into the rider i worked on ‘six of the best’ for metal hammer. it’s an infrequently run mini questionnaire that utilises a freshly written set of questions for each recipient. the hammer’s news man dave ling had thrown some queries my way and i took great pleasure in responding to them. should be quite a funny piece.

heard ursa through the floor and was blown away. very complex, post hardcore, emo-fuelled racket. seriously talented bunch of musicians. keep your eyes peeled for this lot.

the mighty hundred reasons didn’t disappoint. having almost entirely dispensed with their earlier songs there wasn’t a lot of material i was familiar with, but the sheer quality of the band shone through clearly enough. since the last time i saw them they have matured and integrated as a band. the balance of passion and intensity is faultless.

that said, colin’s afro definitely lacks the density and quality of curl that i would have liked to have seen.

our performance was a sadly tepid affair. despite the attendance of messageboard regulars potato king and offkilter69 we were playing to a primarily disinterested crowd. it reminded me of the old days. poorly attended shows with people chatting through the set. infact a gaggle of young ladies situated themselves right in front of me for the entire gig – and proceeded to dissect the days gossip.

came off pretty gutted. the peel is a nice venue. the promoters work really hard, and earthtone9 and hundred reasons have done enough groundwork and hard slog to warrant at least a little undivided attention.

fuck it – this shit is outside our control.

bed.

 

15/3/01 – milton keynes, woughton centre

et9 / stegel / tarpot

(approx.purified / tat twam asi / off kilter / prd chaos / star damage / yellow fever / evil crawling i / binary 101 / withered)

the woughton centre is a cavernous, sports hall style venue situated in a leisure centre. we have played there many times before and the ‘drill’ is fairly well established. today’s gig was marginally more interesting than the usual affair though as si’s side project, tarpot, were playing.

formed a mere fortnight ago their line-up features a number of our sticksman’s mates and our very own dave on bass. we had been regaled with stories of hilarious rehearsals (well, one anyway) and appalling lyrics (tarpot,tarpot… get some, get some… big cock, big cock). nothing too unexpected from a drummer.

si had hinted at some quality stagewear and it promised to be a gig to remember.

but before the pleasure of their opening slot could be enjoyed i had an interview planned with the remarkably open-minded and knowledgeable soda pressed zine.

we got underway with the q&a but tarpot’s dressing room preparations quickly became too intrusive. seeing si slip into a leopard skin posing pouch and a skin tight flowery dress was only the start of our horrendous experience. fat gary (our one-time driver and si’s best buddy) squeezed his non too svelte frame into one of karl’s weightlifting leotards. his ensemble was completed with a tshirt adorned with the legend ‘eat up bitches’.

dave opted for a slightly more restrained affair. a long-sleeved black tshirt, the infamous leather cap and the dodgy 70’s shades. the rest of the band were equally as sad.

the zine guy and i decided to postpone the interview until post tarpot. no-one wanted to miss their performance.

safely out front we watched in horror as a poorly disguised karl bounded onstage and introduced the ludicrous five piece. and with a cry of ‘get some bitches’ from gary we were off. imagine lawnmower deth meets the bloodhound gang meets the beastie boys (circa licensed to ill). think genuine hilarity and, surprisingly, think half decent songs!!!

the crowd seemed to take it all in their stride and when dave started a def leppard-esque two-handed wave a frightening number of the attending hordes followed suit. obviously the guy has more charisma than we give him credit for.

stegel had a lot to follow, but their post-apocalyptic hardcore blast was a searing antidote to tarpot’s comedic stance. taking stylistic pointers from bands like will haven and neurosis, they have so much more to offer than the nu-metal hordes. heavier than a sack of spanners, stegel are a reminder that extreme music can be visceral and genuinely exciting.

perhaps due to the generous size of the woughton centre stage our rock posturing took on new levels at this show. we seem to be subconsciously embracing the revivalist tendencies of monster magnet and queens of the stone age. call it a reaction to the predictability of nu-metal if you like, but we now like to raaaawwwwwwwk.

the gig was ok. nothing special, but enjoyable enough. the set concluding jam (now a staple of our shows) is getting better and better. joe and i discussed adapting it for the new album. if we can capture the abandon of our better attempts at it we could have a killer tune.

hey-ho, another day gone.

 

16/3/01 – salisbury, arts centre

et9 / brutal deluxe

(approx.purified / i nagual eye / tat twam asi / off kilter / prd chaos / star damage / yellow fever / evil crawling i / binary 101 / withered)

this venue (made famous by the napalm death live video) is a hugely impressive converted church. a year or two ago we played here with raging speedhorn and kane (now cortizone) in the smaller half of the building. it was manic, but the weird thing was playing such aggressive music under a backdrop of glorious stained glass windows.

anyway, we were in the manly big room today. no stained glass but a multilevel stage that resembles a roman coliseum painted black. our friend colin, (promoter from frome remember), had done the business and sold most of the tickets in advance of the show. and, of course, he supplied a fantastic rider, so we were happy.

came up with a new riff during the soundcheck. definitely from the grunge end of earthtone9, but i reckon it could develop into a cool new song.

met a few more website regulars at the show (including myoptika man, matt coleman) and had some interesting conversations. not the least of which came courtesy of bristol metallers incision, who had retrieved our backdrop from some kid in frome. they had obviously explained how we felt about this theft because they also brought a typed apology from the aforementioned tea-leaf.

oh well, we were just glad to have it back.

checked out brutal deluxe and their impressive stage show (have you seen their drumkit??? who thought of that!). definitely cool and the crowd seemed to love it. don’t know if i could be arsed to put the make-up on for every show though. i have trouble finding the motivation to change my tshirt!

we had an interesting start to the gig. with george doing merch we were left to our own devices in terms of preparing the stage. sadly this meant that when si started the mini-disc intro karl had no microphone, nobody had a setlist and dave was still locked in the dressing room toilet! not the most auspicious of starts. but, as always, we blagged our way through it.

it was a pretty full house and the audience reaction was great. we played the longest set we’ve ever done (ten songs including a full length binary 101 and a massive seven or eight minute jam) and finally filled an hour long slot!

all in all – a good one.

 

17/3/01 – sheffield, corporation (sheff-fest)

et9 / lost prophets / goldblade / last girl / mine / fr8 / half a dog / … etc etc

(approx.purified / tat twam asi / prd chaos / star damage / yellow fever / evil crawling i / binary 101 / withered)

the sheff-fest was a 10 band affair spread over both stages of the corporation. we headlined the main stage (somewhat strangely over goldblade) and the welsh contingent (lost prophets if you’re confused) had to play after the gig during the club night. in any event it was remarkably well attended, and even the opening bands had healthy audiences.

although this might reveal more about me than i’d like, the highlight of the day for me was watching the masters of the universe movie while i tucked into the rider. anyone who knows us will have been asking themselves the same question i was: has our tour manager (george) modelled his hair on dolph lundgren’s? i think we need answers.

despite having a four hour wait prior to performing the time seemed to fly by. this was partially due to the amount of mirth caused by lost prophets receiving some free trainers from acupuncture. not funny you might think. in fact it sounds rather cool doesn’t it. well it is cool, but the prophets asked specifically for white shoes and ended up with something akin to a pair of golf shoes each. you see, you should never turn your back on heavy metal black! oh, how we laughed!

after this mirth filled experience a few of us wandered over to the second stage to check out last girl. definitely impressed by their glassjaw-esque jarring rhythms. seem to remember we played with them a year or two ago in rotherham. i think they were called gerl then. ones to watch.

when we hit the stage we were surprised to see not only a healthy audience but a large number of people actually coming into the main auditorium. yes, that’s right – coming in! most un-uk like.

and continuing with the unlikely trend of audience interest and participation we received all manner of applause as we launched into star damage. beautiful.

as the set wore on we witnessed more and more madness from the crowd. then the crowd surfing and stagediving started. karl made some of his trademark sarcastic quips (‘we live in a democracy and the people at the front don’t look too happy to have the heads trodden on!’) but still it continued. even through yellow fever! so when some guy began to squirm over the monitors karl gently stood on his head, effectively holding him prostrate on the lip of the stage. it was obviously taken in the manner it was intended (gentle humour) and everyone had a good laugh.

the end-of-set jam was a beauty and we went home happy.

 

sun 18 march 2001 – gloucester, guildhall

et9 / kids near water / underule / ????

(approx.purified / tat twam asi / prd chaos / star damage / yellow fever / evil crawling i / binary 101 / withered)

what a venue. this is obviously part of some bigger arts centre servicing the gloucester area. aside from the gig area there is a cinema, a conferencing room and numerous mysterious looking chambers that could house anything.

we got to eat our evening meal at a magnificent old table situated at the front of the aforementioned cinema. and this was no showcase or warner’s village. this was a real cinema. grand old piano in the corner. huge paintings hung on the walls. high ceiling, red crushed velvet curtains. oh, my kind of establishment. in fact i commented at the time that post-lottery win this would be my first investment.

anyway, it wasn’t just the environs that was impressive. venturing backstage was like a trip into mainland europe. (for those of you who don’t know – in europe bands get treated like royalty). our rider was spread across two huge tables and looked like a feast of unparalleled beauty. homemade vinegrette for the fresh salad. beers on ice. top notch red wine ready corked. nice.

and the final proof of the quality of the gig came when a very healthy audience arrived. these regional shows are turning into something of a revelation.

i spent most of the evening in the dressing room, so i didn’t see the other bands. but i could certainly hear them through the floor, and they sounded ace.

the show for us was one of the best we’ve done in ages. really warm reception and even those at the back of the hall seemed interested in what we were doing. gigs like this make it all worthwhile. hopefully we’ll be back.