3 DAZE LOST

On arrival at the Crimea, Col and I were pleasantly surprised at the height of the stage, but were a bit unsure if we’d fit all the gear on it, what with Malki taking up whatever space we tend to leave! So, we set our stuff up and had almost finished by the time Malki showed up. We needn’t have been too worried though, we fit on ok.

Before we started, we chatted to a few people sat nearby and it turned out that some of them had been told by friends that they should check us out! We, apparently have gathered a bit of a reputation in the area!

So, on with the first set and a very warm reception from the gathered crowd. We threw in “Vertigo” by U2 in honour of the stage, and people were singing along with the Green Day and Foos stuff and headbanging along with us to the rest! We ended our first set, as is becoming a bit of a tradition, with “D. O. A.” by the Foos and “Holiday” by Green Day, and left the stage for a well earned break.

The second set started pretty much where we left off, with “Rock Show” by Blink 182, and we were off and running again!

Halfway through the set, we attempted, for only the second time, “I Predict a Riot”. Which we’d only learned during the sound check the night before at Bar 15! But since we seemed to have got away with it then, we figured we’d chance our arms once more! Thankfully it went off, almost, without a hitch! We are not infallible, we are rock musicians after all!

The guys down the front were calling for AC/DC and Twisted Sister. So, because they asked so nicely (!!), we obliged with “Let There Be Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”! Much leaping around ensued! Woo! Yeah! Alright!

The lighters came out for the sing alongs “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” then we were into the home straight!

Jim, the landlord, climbed on stage and demanded a huge round of applause for us and said we’d be back in November – which we will be after the night we had! Then it was into the final three, or so we thought! “Basketcase”, “Paranoid” and of course, “Ace of Spades”, and Good Night, Castleford!

“MORE! MORE!” shout the horde!

Ah, er, ok! What the hell d’ya follow “Ace of Spades” with??

How about “Monkey Wrench” by the Foos!!??

At the end of the night, we had made some good, new friends! People who say they’ll make sure they come down next time we’re on in the area! Excellent!

We had an amazing night, and wait with baited breath for November. Should be great! Be there and join in the brilliant atmosphere of the Crimea in Cas-Vegas!

See ya then!

Since the licensing laws in pubs changed earlier this year, the Rockshack has been a hard one to fathom. Let me explain...

When we first played there, the pubs kicked out at 11pm and all the interested/interesting people came down to the Rockshack, cos it was open til 1am. So, we'd start playing at around 10.30/10.45 and the place would be nicely filling up along through the first set, and for the second set the place was rammed full!

Now that the pubs stay open longer, it's a slightly different story. The first time we played Bar 15 after the law change, the place was pretty quiet the whole night - relatively speaking, of course - cos people were taking the opportunity to drink longer in other bars.

So last night, we didn't know whether it was gonna be packed or empty! When we'd finished setting up it was about 10.15pm, and there was hardly anyone in the place. We went thru to the other bar to write the set list for the night...

While sat there doing this, a few familiar faces suddenly appeared from Bradford! There was Derek and Mick from Full Tilt and their respective other halves, Claire and Jackie, and the twins, Sharon and Tracey - who kept insisting on this mention on here as they'd, and I quote, "followed this band since the start! And it's cost us a fortune in taxis to come here tonight!" (There ya go, happy now? Stop bugging me, ok?!)

Another person to show their face during the evening was Neil, who's house we used to rehearse at! And yet another, was Greg, our original drummer! He's in another band at the moment, Western Suburbs.

We decided, cos ya can in Bar 15, to start quite heavy and just take it from there. So "Screamager" started the night, quickly followed by "Piece of the Action", "Stone Cold Crazy" and "St. Jimmy"!

The place actually did fill up quite a bit during the first set, and then even more so by the start of the second.

Halfway through the second half, we threw in a song by Jaxx's fave band - and one of ours - The Wildhearts, "Caffeine Bomb"! (Jaxx, if ya don't know, is the manageress at the Rockshack, Eh up, Jaxx!) - **Jaxx is no longer at the Rockshack as manageress.**

By the end of the night loads of folk were up dancing and we let them take the vocals on bits of songs, such as "American Idiot", "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" and the obligatory lines in "Ace of Spades"!

It was a great night again, but as I said at the start of this, it's a late gig. When ya play most places, you're on at 9.30 (ish) and done by 11.40 (ish). At the Rockshack, ya start at 11pm and I'm sure ya can figure where this is going! Col and Malki had work this morning, thankfully I didn't! But it makes no difference, we enjoy the atmosphere in the joint and the crowd never fails to deliver!

See ya next time down the Rockshack!

Goddzi

Set lists are usually a fairly essential part of playing a gig. They mean there are fewer pauses where ya have to think what to play next, and make the evening flow. But when ya play at the Fleece in Elland, ya may as well not bother writing down anything other than a selection of tunes just to pick and choose as ya go, cos either the crowd'll shout out for something, and if ya know it (ish) ya play it cos they're up for a laugh round there. Or, and this is most likely, Neil, the landlord and one man crowd - toppest geezer you are ever likely to meet - will be up there with ya, asking you to play songs you may have only heard OF rather than know, at all!

And so it was last night, at the Fleece!

The first set was pretty much as written, cos Neil had nipped down the road, but when we took a break, he was up asking to do his accapella bit on his own. Which, of course we let him do! After a few broken bits of Neil Diamond - we often play Sweet Caroline with him, but we'd done that at soundcheck with him already! - he got Col off his backside to join him on a couple of numbers. So, here came "Hotel California" with a few different words, some on purpose, some accidental, followed by "500 Miles" by the Proclaimers, which is the point I got my bass on and joined in on the vocals/shouts/ta-di-ra-da's etc. Quickly followed by Malki back to his kit! And away we went from there.

We started the 2nd set, officially, with Teenage Kicks and after a few songs, Neil was back up and it was time for his next suggestion..."Mustang Sally"! Bays of "No!" from the crowd, "We want some ROCK!" But they'd obviously never heard Col do "...Sally"! Then someone asked for some "Old stuff" which we took to mean REALLY OLD stuff. Buddy Holly medley anyone? Neil was a bit surprised at that one! I think next month that's gonna have to be written into the set...can anyone say "Here's a rod for ya back"! So, since we did that, Neil says "Ya must know 'Johnny B. Goode' then, yeah?" "Erm, no, not really." says we! I just turned to Col - quickly trying to remember the intro lick - "Just pick a key and we'll follow ya!" Johnny B. Goode in A! With Neil satisfied his work was done, he returned to the audience and let us get on with it!

A great night at the Fleece! They even managed to persuade us to play one more after "Ace of Spades" which is pretty unusual!

See ya next month!

Ok, so last weekend we were down for two gigs, one on Friday at the Coniston in Idle, and one on the Sunday at the Bridge Tavern in Bradford(world tour of Bradford anyone?)

So, on the Friday we rolled up at the Coniston, a place we'd only played once previously, but Bradford knew us and we have a small, but vocal, following cos Malki lives there and knows quite a few folk into the local scene!

We hadn't played for a couple of weekends and were a little worried we might be rusty, or at least, Col and I were...

We needn't have worried. Pretty much straight from the off we had a couple of people up dancing about, and more were singing along to whatever words they knew!

We were getting requests from the audience to play "More Green Day!" which, for anyone who's followed us for any length of time, is not a problem! In fact the night was, at one point, in danger of becoming a Green Day night, or at least would've been if we'd given in every time we were asked!

A great night was had by all present, including Graham,who we in the band have nicknamed, "Dudeman!" cos he's always at our Bradford gigs, and always joins in with Col and me when we do the "Dude, where's my car?" bit to intro "Action" by The Sweet. "Sweet!", say I, "Dude!" says Col. And repeat til one of us, or usually more quickly, Malki, gets bored and shouts at us to start the song! Apparently he'd been out drinking since about 3pm and had got so drunk that he'd forgotten to phone his mate, Mick, who we reckon looks like Robin Gibb(!), who usually turns up to the gigs with him!

Anyway, as I said, we weren't down for a gig on the Saturday night. Not until about lunch time...

Phone call from Malki, "Can we play at the Lockkeepers in Sowerby Bridge, tonight?"
"Don't see why not!" says me 'n' Col!

A mate of Malki's, Brian, from the band Splash Alley - see General Links page for website link - had phoned cos the landlord of the Lockkeepers, Taff, had had a band cancel on him at the last minute!

The evening passed quite well, considering no-one was expecting us! There were folk singing along, and when we did "Paranoid" by Sabbath, Taff joined us on stage to help out on vocals! Rounding off, once again, with "Ace of Spades" - as usual - we said our goodbyes and left the stage!

Cries for more were shouted, so we did another ditty by the name of "Smoke on the Water" and we were outta there!

The following morning, I know I felt quite rough! Col and Malki were aching in all the wrong places too, I'm sure! It's rare for us to do 3 nights on the trot, especially when we'd just had a weekend off! So it was that we prepared for our "homecoming" to the Bridge Tavern in Bradford!

A couple of the people who'd missed us on the Friday at the Coniston, namely Mick "Robin Gibb", and Full Tilt, another local covers band from Bradford had managed to get out to see us tonight!

It's always a great night at the Bridge for us. Like I said, it's a bit like a homecoming, cos we've played there so many times since we've been together.

The crowd, mostly, knows us, and to a similar degree, we know them. It's a nice relaxed, rock 'n' roll evening, where Col and I can take the p*** out of each other and act like idiots and not give a crap about looking like pillocks!

At the start of the night, "American Idiot" sung by me, was a bit dodgy vocal wise, as my voice hadn't quite recovered from the night before! The first 2 lines were a bit wobbly, but after that we were off and running!

Col, once again, was wearing his Superman t-shirt and when he introduced the band, he said "On my right! Playing the bass, it's Goddzi!" (round of applause), "On drums! It's Mr. Malki!" (another round of applause), and in a down kind of voice, "and my name's Superman! It's all gone wrong for me!" At which point, I collapse in a heap of giggles and can't get up!

Halfway through the night, during the break, while talking to Graham "Sweet, Dude!" He whips out his phone and starts showing it off to me?! When he turns it over to show me the back, it transpires he's designed a "3 Daze Lost - Sweet Dude!" back cover! He then takes great pleasure in informing Col that he's gonna be my stalker and I explain to Col that Graham wants to "hunt me down like a dog!" LOL (at least I hope he was only joking!)

In the second half we do "Kick Out the Jams" for Andy, Full Tilt's bassist, and later get Mick, their guitarist up to play "All My Life" by the Foos with us!

We have the girls up dancing to "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Paranoid" and everyone shouting "That's the way I like it, baby! I don't wanna live forever!" in "Ace of Spades" and yet another gig is over!

Comments like "Awesome!", and "Brilliant!" were passed our way, at the end of the night. From one of the twins who come along to most of our Bradford gigs, but hadn't made it on Friday with her sister, there was a "Phenomenal! Considering ya played three nights on the trot! I wasn't expecting ya to be that good!"

So, all in all a good weekend! We don't have another triple til November, but I, for one, am not that worried about it any more!

See ya down the mosh pit!

Goddzi

'AWESOME!'

That seems to have been the word of the night! When we started the first set at around 9.20 we were a little apprehensive about the crowd cos they looked mostly as though they'd be more into The Killers than Green Day...but, HOW WRONG CAN YA BE!

This bunch could teach some crowds how to ROCK OUT!

Like I said, we started the first set and all seemed to be ok, the initial reaction to the first 2 songs (All the Small Things - Blink 182, and Cold Sweat - Thin Lizzy) was great, then someone shouted out for some Ramones...

"It's a bit early to start changing the set," says I, "but, since you asked...1, 2, 3, 4!" Sheena is a Punk Rocker! There was a bit of singing along towards the end of the song, which was only gonna get louder by the end of the night!

So, we were off and running now! A couple more trax down and we stick a bit of Foo Fighters in "Breakout". This is when the crowd started to really warm up. They like their Foos in Knottingley!

By the end of the 1st set - Holiday by Green Day, the crowd were well and truly behind us...

And so, to the 2nd set...

Col and Malki decide to lull them into a "False sense of security that maybe we'll do an acoustic set" by starting with "Good Riddance(Time of your Life)" by Green Day. One day I'm gonna listen to this before a gig to make sure I don't forget any words! I can sing it word perfect at home or whenever I'm not in front of a crowd, but I needn't have worried, they sang along all the way thru anyway! It's an amazing feeling to look out at a pub full of people and see nearly every single person singing along with ya! Finish that song and immediately into "Let There Be Rock" by DC. So much for an acoustic set!

Now there was singing along, people dancing and falling about, can-canning, punching the air, shouting along, it was mental!

When, for a laugh, I started to try and get them clapping along to "Stone Cold Crazy", which isn't the slowest song we play by any stretch of the imagination, they all joined in, I nearly broke my hands clapping myself, it was ace! So every opportunity I had, I clapped, and so did our people, the whole pub full of 'em!

"American Idiot" received an unprecedented reception! The fists were punching the air with rhythmic shouts of "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" and of course we let the audience sing the "Calling out to idiot America!" line! Brilliant! This is what it's all about, this is how it should be every gig, it was truly amazing!

Another surprise came for us, when we decide to take it down a notch with "...a bit of Country & Western!" This is our piss-take start to DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" and usually I have to lean into the mic and say "Angus." in a faux country singer stylee. Not this lot, though! Straight off they were away "ANGUS!" I was gobsmacked! Col even stopped and let them shout out the "42, 39, 56! Ya could say she's got it aaaaalllllll!" line, and we took our timing into the song from them!

We ended up playing "American Idiot" twice that night, with "Basketcase", "Smoke on the Water", "Paranoid", and "She F**kin' Hates Me" as encores, and still they howled for more! Someone came right up to Col and asked for Guns N' Roses... Now, we don't really do any Gn'R cos Col's not the biggest fan, but he knows the chords and the words to "Sweet Child O' Mine", so he began, I joined in playing the widdly guitar part on bass up to the main solo and then Malki came in, with the folks singing the "Where do we go..." bits at the end it was feckin' cool!

We finished the night with "Anarchy in the UK" and our now traditional set ender "Ace of Spades". We were knackered and ecstatically happy and still they called for one more!!!!

The only song that sprang to my mind that would be appropriate at this point was "Monkey Wrench" by the Foos, and it did the trick! After that even the crowd were worn out! Huge cheers and shouts for "One More!" but that was it, we figured we'd leave 'em wanting more, rather than risk wearing out our welcome.

So, an enormous "THANX for being AWESOME!" to everyone who came along and joined in, and keep checking the gig dates page for when we're back there, at the Railway!