a New Breed of Monkey

Haven't been on here for a while now, so need to update the reviews. Lazy or too busy? A bit of both really. Still, here goes.

Bacup Borough Football Club (19th April)

Last night, so we're up to date now. Played in a small bar at the football club to about 30 people. Not bad, for a gig in a town where no one heard of us. All paying to get in too! What was excellent about this was that everone there was listening. No talking, no heading in and out to smoke. An audience who were enthralled. And the promoter booked us for a Children In Need gig at Bacup Leisure Hall in November. Another result! 

Night & Day Cafe, Manchester (17th April)

Playing a gig for promoters 'Speechless With Sound' at one of the best Manc venues with Daniel Orlick, Them Next Door, King Kayak and The Manyanas. We went on early in the line up (2nd) and before 9 oclock, so again, not many there. Those that were appreciated it though. And SWS confirmed us for the Hide And Seek Festival in Manchester on 1st June (at Jabez Clegg - don't miss it) so not all bad. 

Dirty South, Lewisham, London (12th April)

The gig at Dirty South was good. The crowd got a lot smaller when the other bands finished, as usual in London and it was obvious we didnt take any fans but those who were there were impressed, including Mike Joyce. He said "I only caught the last 2 songs but that was good" His quote something along the lines of "If bananas are the fruit of love then I'm a Northern Monkey!" Not too sure what he meant but it sounds funny.  I had a word with him later and told him we were all big Smiths fans and he said "Thanks a lot, I like what you lot are doing, its good. Better than them Courteeners" I laughed and he said "but thats not really hard is it. Good look with it all, its a shit world out there but good luck" Very encouraging to hear from one quarter of the best band ever, sincere or not. A woman (who me and Jods were saying was Jo Whiley, (shame it wasnt) approached Matt with a flyer for a bands myspace page (which he probably lost) and said she was really impressed and if we get in touch on that myspace page she could get us a few gigs round London like Barfly etc. All that said, Im still fuckin knackered. It was possibly the worst journey we have ever endured. Bring on the next one.

Joe (Bass)

King Edward VII, Blackpool (5th April)

Take a busload of fans travelling to sunny Blackpool (sic) add a New Breed of Monkey and bring on a bike club on a run... what do you get? An eventful night! Nina booked us for this pub gig on the strength of her son in Canada who heard us on the internet. The bikers liked the music but something sparked a riot late on in the evening and we had to take a break while the police sorted things out, returning to the stage to do the final half hour when they'd gone (Police, not bikers). Overall, and eventful but good gig.

North Bar, Blackburn (4th April)

Sharing the billing with a great band called The Xcerts, who are from Scotland. Small venue but

Rumours

Ronnie who runs it is a real muso. Not many there though, and Ronnie seemed to think it was because we played a gig in Blackburn a month back. We disagree - being from Burnley doesn't bode well for us in Blackburn at any time. Football rivalry and all that. Listen to Rumours and you'll get the gist.

Commercial, Harle Syke, Burnley (30th March)

Home turf and a full boozer. This is one of our regular haunts and, as expected, it was packed. Bored with doing the usual pub thing of two 45 minute sets full of covers, we launched our 'new' style for all future such bookings - a blistering 80-90 minute set with our full repertoire and just 3 covers of our personal favs. Went down well too.

WA1 Venue Bar, Warrington (29th March)

When you think about it, a venue usually has an audience (or should have) yet so many bars these days call themselves venues, either because the owner loves music, or because they think they can book bands (good or bad) who will bring their own audience. Despite having a line up of which The Cavern Club would be jealous - The Shooters, Julia Martov, Exit State, Hans Island, Guru Sales, and a New Breed of Monkey, this venue was relatively empty. Still, as Tony Wright once said to our manager "If you play to a nearly empty room and just one person like what you do, you made an impression", we had a good gig.

Burnley Town Centre Bandstand (29th March)

A very wet and windy day when Burnley tried to emulate Boscastle... Channel 4's BIG ART PROJECT culminated in a BIG GIG featuring Milky Bobbins, Say, a New Breed of Monkey, The Earlies featuring Lucy and the Caterpillar.Half hour set saw the band fighting getting blown off stage by the elements, and a few die hards willing to brave the storm to listen to them. Then it was (wet clothes and all) off to Warrington...

So thats it. Up to date... off now to todays gig (will review this one later).

Some 100 people packed into the newly refurbished Attic venue in Accrington last night for the much awaited second T:PARTY event (hosted by a New Breed of Monkey) and what a great night it proved to be. Inevitably running over time, there were four diverse and outstanding bands performing to a very enthusiastic crowd.

First up, LOTUS CIRCLE, hailing from Blackpool this eight piece are surely the Pleasure Beach of fun rock. With 'good time' written right through it. From the raunchy Kitty, female vocalist to the antics of the 6 foot something harmonica playing pogo jumping mountaineering (yes he climbs up the walls) geezer, this band are a joy to watch and are very very tight. The electric violin and the Page style bow playing lead guitarist are a fine example of the outstanding skills of these guys. Not to be missed if you get a chance to see them.

Next, KINGS OF THE DELMAR, punky psychobilly four piece with ex-UKSubs Wayne as frontman they powered through their set with gusto. " Don't know how long we've been on but it feels like hours" he said at the 25 minute point. It may have seemed like hours to them, but not the audience who clamoured for more. Nice to see another Sub - now Boomtown Rat - in the audience, come to give them some support - not that they needed it!

Then yours truly, a New Breed of Monkey, took the stage for half an hour, running through their repertoir and adding their latest writing - A House - to much enthusiasm.

Finally - all the way from Newcastle - the much lauded HUNGOVER STUNTMEN enthralled us all with a blistering set of their post-Jam mod rock. These boys are to watch out for, already having toured with Weller, been "discovered" by Simon Donald - cofounder of Viz magazine - who not only manages them, but drives the van and helps with the equipment, they've recorded at Studios Ibiza with Andy Taylor, and have a video on MTV produced and directed by Nick Light. Their highly polished 30 minute set which included the single Inside Out, left the audience baying for more and even though the Mirror said it first, these are a band not to be missed. We didn't, and hopefully we'll see more in the coming months. They are on tour, playing every single night in May so get to see them if you can! If not, get their album, released 28th April. You won't be disappointed.

UNDER THE RADAR EVENT

Manchester on a busy Friday night.

There are three bands on - The Rivingtones, who are pretty good - then ourselves - and headlining were a cover band The Shameless. Well, okay they did two original songs.

The bar in the room we were gigging wasn't open.Then the bar (downstairs) closed at half nine. Everyone had to leave by ten. The place was re-opening at 11pm for the Inspiral Carpets aftershow party!

The sets each band did had to be short and sweet, to conform with the curfew, so it was a fast run through Cradle To The Grave, Laughter, Trapped Under The Smog of the Industrial Blanket, Greater Than Thee, and finale Mannequin.

Many thanks to the door staff, and the Sound Engineer from Glasswerk, who did an excellent job. And thanks again to our travelling fans (who decended on Madchester en-masse after ten for a night out).

Hopefully we'll be invited back.

" We're a New Breed of Monkey... You are Blackburn... This is Laughter"

06 - a New Breed of Monkey - Laughter

Matt has an enviable ability to make veiled comments with a deeper meaning. Having said that, the football rivalry between Burnley & Blackburn wasn't all one sided on the night. David, the landlord of The Hordens, had seemingly received a few comments from his regulars about a band from Burnley coming to play so had told them not to come because he didnt want trouble. Really that wasnt necessary because the music speaks for itself.

Anyway, the night began with Blackburn band The Versatiles, young lads who perform a bunch of covers pretty well. They're just starting out and in all honesty need to rehearse more but nevertheless they produce a full sound and individual musicianship has potential. The pleasure on the face of the one selling demos for a quid when our manager bought one was worth everything.

Next up, after a six and a half hour drive from Colchester, the City Joy Cons. Their experimental sound is interesting, and the enthusiasm fantastic. Not sure what the crowd thought, but they seemed to go down reasonably well, despite a sticky ending when the (am I going on too much about this?) lack of rehearsal meant they lost it slightly. They knew, laughed it off, and stopped. Overall a good set, and we'd love to gig with them again.

So we then got our half hour on stage and generally went down well. David said he'd have us back, and we could have given away/sold a load of CD's but have stopped doing that. Folk will have to wait for the 'A Million Doors' single to be released on April 28th by Downhill Records. Just to make sure they don't forget, we gave away fliers advertising th release - and it's going to be playlisted on radio in Blackburn.

Thanks to all who came, to David and his lovely wife, the barstaff, The Versatiles, and especially The City Joy Cons who stayed for our set before setting off at midnight for the long drive back to Colchester! 

So we are back on the road again after taking time to write and rehearse. And what better than to start off in our town - the wonderful Burnley.

The venue is new, having been refurbished and renamed - it used to be a club type pub called Paradise Island, now its a venue type pub - and it was absolutely packed. Estimate 2-300 people jammed in the place. We played for an hour, no support acts, and we ran through our own stuff like we'd never been off the road.

Honestly the sound was impared by the shape of the place - too many different ceiling levels meant that you really needed to be up front to get the benefit of the PA, but hell it was a great night anyway.

Thanks to the dancers, and the pole dancer too. We'll be back.

After more than a month off the road, while the band have been writing new songs and rehearsing occasionally, they are all looking forward to going back on the road. If anyone is slightly interested in seeing them live, here's the low down. Where it says 'tickets', these can be bought online from the bands website www.anewbreedofmonkey.co.uk

Hope to see you at a gig!

Friday 7th March - Insideout, Bull Street, Burnley. Free.

Saturday 8th March - The Hordens, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn. Supported by The City Joy Cons. Door charge.

Friday 14th March - Jabez Clegg, Portsmouth Street, Manchester. With The Rivingtones, The Shameless. Door charge.

Saturday 22nd March - The Attic, Warner Street, Accrington. With Lotus Circle, Kings of the Delmar, and Hungover Stuntmen. TICKETS

Saturday 29th March - WA1 Venue, Warrington. With Guru Sales, Julia Martov, Hans Island and Exit State. Door charge.

Friday 4th April - North Bar, Town Hall Street, Blackburn. With The Excerts. Door charge

Saturday 5th April - King Edward VII, Blackpool. With comedian Carl Schofield. Free.

Saturday 12th April - The Dirty South, Lewisham, London. Supporting Mike Joyce. TICKETS

Thursday 17th April - Night & Day CAfe, Oldham Street, MAnchester. Supporting The Manyanas with King Kayak, Them Next. Door charge.

Saturday 19th April - Bacup Borough Football Club, Cowtoot Lane, Bacup. Door charge.

Tuesday 6th May - Josephs Well, Chorley Lane, Leeds. TICKETS

More gigs are being added as we blog so, keep an eye on our Live section at our website!

Haven't updated our blog for a while... excuse is, been too busy. Truth is... been too busy!

Gig last Saturday at Star Club in our home town saw a couple of hundred people fill a concert room at a local WMC which is on it's arse (as a lot of places seem to be since the smoking ban - no reflection on the club!) and the band did a 90 minute set. Some random guy said he was A&R from EMI. We'll see.

As requested beforehand, loads of folk brought their video cameras and recorded the performance on Mannequin, which we plan to release as a single. Currently we're collecting all the videos from youtube etc and editting it all down into one (very shaky) video. Hence being too busy. Will put it up here when its ready, let you all comment.

Also, very busy booking gigs and stuff.

Very interesting looking at our Frappr Map on mySpace as well... it seems we're very popular in Wichita for some reason! Strange how the internet works.

Love to you all for tomorrow (especially the ladies) xxx

... after a fantastic weekend - we packed out the Sanctuary rock bar in Burnley - this week has just about reached rock bottom.

Someone - we don't know who (yet) - got into our myspace page and deleted it. Could even be myspace themselves deleted it (there's loads of rumours that they do this whenever they feel like it) but anyway;

We lost our profile. It was built up over three years and we had almost 1300 friends and music contacts. load sof our gigs around the UK are booked because of initial contact on mySpace, so its very important to us. Three days later and we have a new profile up at www.myspace.com/anewbreedofmonkeyofficial so, if you fancy joining us (or just feel sorry for us and want to help build the numbers up) please send us a friend request.

Offthe back of this, we werent able to message our regular fanbase who travel with us to gigs, although we did contact a few of them, to arrange the coach for tomorrow nights gig at Dry Bar, Manchester. Result is, we have a 50 seat coach going to Manchester with some empty seats! Anyone who wants to come let us know quick.

On the bright side, we registered with Catco for CD sales to be recorded for the charts, so officially we now have our own label - Downhill Records - and although we technically remain unsigned, who knows what could happen?

Also we came in the top 100 on Slicethepie this week - number 73 out of 700. So today wasn't too bad! We actually improved our placing from the last time, when we were in the 90's out of nearly 1000. So, thats an improvement (or is it?)

Took a coach down to Brixton for our support slot last night wih Bloc Party. Set off mid morning with a load of fans on the coach, several of whom were suffering from the night before - one of them hadn't even been to bed at all. Still, a crate of Stella has a way of keeping you going.

Arriving shortly after 5pm a bunch of them set off on the tube to Leicester Square, whilst the rest went on foot to find a pub. Sound check done, we chilled out a while then went for some North West African grub. Yummy!

All the fans turned up about eleven, and the place was packed when we hit the stage around midnight. Did a half hour set and the crowd was very appreciative. Lots of action at the front of the stage and we enjoyed the gig immensly. Afterwards loads of people were coming over and saying they liked our music, and so we gave all our CD's away instead of selling them. The booker from Jamm said he liked us, and would have us back for sure.

After Bloc Party the coach arrived and picked up all the drunks. Set off at 4am for the five and a half hour journey home. Joe (bass) even managed to prise Tony's (Road Manager) false teeth out while he was sleeping, without waking him. No mean feat!