So yeah, I was supposed to post things here wasn’t I? To be honest I’ve been so busy being famous that I just forgot all about it. But y’know, I can’t leave my fans waiting can I? After all they’re the ones that have to gargle my wilkins backstage and - well I don’t want to piss them off to extent that they bite.
We’ve had a couple of exceptional gigs over the past few weeks. We’ve been played on four different radio stations. We’ve been interviewed on one (special shout out to Ross Cummins). We’ve started filming our first music video. We’ve got another exciting gig on Saturday. Everything’s coming up Footprints!
I’d like, in attempt to be vaguely coherent, to break things down a little bit (maybe into sub-blogs or mini-blogs or whatever the hell you want to call them).
January 19th – Ragnarock – Rumes, Preston
I have to say – this gig was incredible. The crowd response was intense. A FUCKING conga line?! You guys are genius. The guys that put the gig on were superb. The sound on stage could have been a little easier going but it was more than made up for by the atmosphere. It was nice to play on an actual stage again too, although we don’t want to get used to it just yet.
A few hiccups here and there, such as everyone falling over cables and pulling them out. But it was all part of the show. The bands we played with (Fire in the Empire and Bury the Conscious) were so fucking tight compared to us – but I don’t mind saying that we totally stole the show. I put it all down to windmilling, cross-dressing and generally just not giving much of a shit.
All in all a big success! Cannot thank the crowd enough for the amazing reaction. Pretty pissed off that I had to drive home so I could get to work early (that’s not rock and roll) but I believe the other guys had a rather thrilling (if wet) night.
What we learned:
- Preston is still epic
- Footprints fans are by far the craziest fans we’ve yet to experience
- Don’t trip over leads
- Saffin’s snow angels on the dance floor are inspiration only found in the deepest depths of intoxication
- Jumping off a six-foot stage doesn’t sound as high as it feels when you’re doing it
- Make sure your mic is working before you begin your set
- Free beer is free
- Girls don’t get their boobs out when we heckle them, because we’re not KISS yet.
February 1st – New Revolution – Retro Bar, Manchester
Our first Manchester gig! This, along with the Rumes gig and that mammoth one back at Nantwich Civic Hall in 2007, is one of the best gigs Footprints have ever played. Seriously, the combination of a cramped, sticky, sweaty atmosphere and lots of people singing along to all the words.... Well I went and did a big spaff didn’t I?
I couldn’t tell from where I was but I think we pulled the biggest crowd of the night again (if we didn’t then I’m just going to believe that we did anyway to satisfy my large, throbbing, veiny ego). And it was definitely the tightest we’ve ever been (in terms of musical integrity – my arse was pretty lax).
There wasn’t quite as much crowd movement for this gig as the last one, but I’m going to put that down the small space. Everyone is forgiven because everyone was singing! And it was awesome to see people coming from so far afield to see us! Liverpool, Preston, Crewe to name a few.
Massive shout out to the other bands of the night Propax, Carnage, Shades of Avalon and Junker, they were all great guys. And cheers to Ste for putting the night on! It was all brilliantly organised and ran as smoothly as a hand would over an underage girl’s fanny spot.
What we learned:
- People know the words?!
- Green lights blind bass players
- There is a fine line between being merry and too drunk to play a gig – Russ tight-roped that line
- Me and My Ironing Board sounds awesome
- Tommo really, really dislikes attention
- Tiny stage means Russ has to spend time with the commoners in the crowd
- Uhm...can’t remember I was drunk.
And the rest!
Yeah so we’re filming a video for the song Every STD in the Book at the moment. We’ve done our first shoot and it went brilliantly. Chris (sorry, ‘John Nocturne’) has been brilliant with us thus far, just giving us this opportunity is incredible. Just the sheer thought of seeing a Footprints video involving strip poker, penile discharge, masturbation, vomit, cake baking ape scientists, and corpse burying is enough to bring stiffy central to pantyland.
I won’t give any more than that away right now. Next shoot is on 4th March. We might need some folk to be extras in it too, so get in touch if you’re interested.
Other than that there’s some BIG NEWS coming up. I’m talking something mightily girthy. And of course there’s this fundraiser gig on Saturday 11th at the Whitworth! Get on that! There’s cheap booze, bands, cake, art. Lots of things really. Oh AND we have a special guest drummer in the form of Sam Bucanan (of Bathroom Crooners fame) because Tommo’s away solving world hunger or some bollocks like that. We attempted to teach Sam the songs last night... The drummer doesn’t need to know the songs right?
BIZZLE
Russ
xx
