Hello
We need a new drummer who can rehearse in the Birmingham area once a week (Hockley St Studios to be precise, room 19 oooohh its swish) and play gigs with us.
Can you;
Play our songs?
http://soundcloud.com/kidnapperbell/kidnapper-bell-falling-and-laughing
http://soundcloud.com/kidnapperbell/kidnapper-bell-mouthful-of-pennies
Write new ones with us(possibly from the first or 2nd rehearsal)
Put up with me (Liam)
If you can do these things then please fire us off an email here
kidnapperbell@hotmail.co.uk
Gracias!
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Diary of A local gig
We don’t play many local gigs in and around Birmingham so I thought I would do a diary of our last one at the Flapper (from my perspective)
6am – as this weekend contains my birthday and due to the over indulgence of the night before I am up at this time as my body attempts to purge all the wrong things I inserted in it last night at The Actress and Bishop (then Standard International curry house)
8am – still sick I mean Linda Blair/Regan McNeil style sick!
10am – enter that “emotional” part of being hungover. I want more than anything to hug Antonio Carluccio from Saturday Kitchen. I resolve to feed Jen up and perm and grey her hair just for someone to hug.
11am – I am told of a wondrous sale at Cash Converters just up the road. Filled with all manner of things (one of them being a Saturday only sale of 50p a DVD) normally this would have me running for the door in a manner to quaff as many low price copies of 80s movies as I can
Not on this day!
12pm – first cup of tea of the day (mmmm tea, giver of life)
2pm – pack car ready for rehearsal. Due to lack of focus + hangover + shrinking of brain cells it takes me half an hour to pack this much
4pm – Reherse for an hour just to make sure the set is tight and I can check that all my pedals are working in an almost obsessive way
5.30pm – Drive across to the studio. On the way we pass a shop called “Wine Lord”, so we then discuss other ideas for shops that sell alcohol which we could one day own such as “Scotch Overlord”, “Lager Baroness” and “Spirit Emperor”.
5:45 – Kill time by watching this vid on youtube
6:30 – Arrive at Flapper after wading through traffic of countless parents dropping their daughters off for the Justin Bieber concert over the road. Its a sea of pink neon leggings and oversized glasses!
6:35 – (At venue)Ahh the familiar sight of different bands dotted around a venue with their instruments awaiting sound check. Normally I would go straight up and introduce myself. Not today though as I am still coming to terms that (for today at least) there is far too much reality in the world for me to cope with.
7:30 – We sound check. We know the soundman and he has done the sound for us before. We are in good hands.
During sound check I unlearn Falling and Laughing. This strikes fear into my very soul as Now ive thought about it so much that I have actually forgotten the Keyboard part.
After sound check I plug the Keyboard into my amp and proceed to re-learn it.
7:45 – Fetch Jen to ask her if what I’ve re-learnt is the actual song or just a selection of notes I’ve made up that are out of key!
7:50 – Greet people (friends that have come to see us).
8:05 – We play a half hour set, The set went well however it was a subdued performance from me to be honest. Maybe because we were on first, maybe because I was still feeling a bit rough.
9:00 – Mill around in an out, sell cds to pissed people that ask for them. Obtain one lovely guy that whenever he sees me he wants to shake my hand(the handshakes soon give way to hugging)
9:30 - I try to convince Jens friend Steve that buying cowboy boots is a good idea. But only from Vegas. I then launch into my theory that a gentleman can get away with certain types of clothing in different country but not in the UK. (I can often be seen swanning around Paris in all manner of silly hats)
10:30 – Middleman lead the crowd in a rousing chant of “Fuck Justin Bieber”
11pm – Middleman instigate a huge tropical dance party on the stage of the Flapper.
11:30-1am – the rest of the nights events blur into one as we play pool against a bunch of Middleman fans, dance around to Nu-Metal and attempt to settle arguments over who gets copies of our single with handwritten lyrics and who doesn’t!
At around 1:15am we finally get booted out of the Flapper and make our way home.
6am – as this weekend contains my birthday and due to the over indulgence of the night before I am up at this time as my body attempts to purge all the wrong things I inserted in it last night at The Actress and Bishop (then Standard International curry house)
8am – still sick I mean Linda Blair/Regan McNeil style sick!
10am – enter that “emotional” part of being hungover. I want more than anything to hug Antonio Carluccio from Saturday Kitchen. I resolve to feed Jen up and perm and grey her hair just for someone to hug.
11am – I am told of a wondrous sale at Cash Converters just up the road. Filled with all manner of things (one of them being a Saturday only sale of 50p a DVD) normally this would have me running for the door in a manner to quaff as many low price copies of 80s movies as I can
Not on this day!
12pm – first cup of tea of the day (mmmm tea, giver of life)
2pm – pack car ready for rehearsal. Due to lack of focus + hangover + shrinking of brain cells it takes me half an hour to pack this much
4pm – Reherse for an hour just to make sure the set is tight and I can check that all my pedals are working in an almost obsessive way
5.30pm – Drive across to the studio. On the way we pass a shop called “Wine Lord”, so we then discuss other ideas for shops that sell alcohol which we could one day own such as “Scotch Overlord”, “Lager Baroness” and “Spirit Emperor”.
5:45 – Kill time by watching this vid on youtube
6:30 – Arrive at Flapper after wading through traffic of countless parents dropping their daughters off for the Justin Bieber concert over the road. Its a sea of pink neon leggings and oversized glasses!
6:35 – (At venue)Ahh the familiar sight of different bands dotted around a venue with their instruments awaiting sound check. Normally I would go straight up and introduce myself. Not today though as I am still coming to terms that (for today at least) there is far too much reality in the world for me to cope with.
7:30 – We sound check. We know the soundman and he has done the sound for us before. We are in good hands.
During sound check I unlearn Falling and Laughing. This strikes fear into my very soul as Now ive thought about it so much that I have actually forgotten the Keyboard part.
After sound check I plug the Keyboard into my amp and proceed to re-learn it.
7:45 – Fetch Jen to ask her if what I’ve re-learnt is the actual song or just a selection of notes I’ve made up that are out of key!
7:50 – Greet people (friends that have come to see us).
8:05 – We play a half hour set, The set went well however it was a subdued performance from me to be honest. Maybe because we were on first, maybe because I was still feeling a bit rough.
9:00 – Mill around in an out, sell cds to pissed people that ask for them. Obtain one lovely guy that whenever he sees me he wants to shake my hand(the handshakes soon give way to hugging)
9:30 - I try to convince Jens friend Steve that buying cowboy boots is a good idea. But only from Vegas. I then launch into my theory that a gentleman can get away with certain types of clothing in different country but not in the UK. (I can often be seen swanning around Paris in all manner of silly hats)
10:30 – Middleman lead the crowd in a rousing chant of “Fuck Justin Bieber”
11pm – Middleman instigate a huge tropical dance party on the stage of the Flapper.
11:30-1am – the rest of the nights events blur into one as we play pool against a bunch of Middleman fans, dance around to Nu-Metal and attempt to settle arguments over who gets copies of our single with handwritten lyrics and who doesn’t!
At around 1:15am we finally get booted out of the Flapper and make our way home.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Goodbye you old knackered donkey!
I'm refering of course to
Our Myspace Page!!
But lets start at the start and remember fondly our dearly departed social networking site.
MEMORIES
My first memory of Myspace was that of when we( in our first incarnation with a different lineup) rush recorded a glut of demo songs and hastily rushed them up onto myspace(which made the recordings sound even worse) then sat back and waited for the praise to roll in.
I remember the intense joy upon finding out that we had a new comment
Only to feel crushed when it was an advert from some promoter putting on a "dance" night in San Fransisco
I remember teaching myself HTML code and trying to make the page as beautiful as possible.I took sooo much pride in our page, it was the equivalent of my house and I had it decorated how we wanted it.
I remember the sometimes hilarious/deluded/nonsensical notes that came with "friend requests"
I remember the intense feeling of joy when we were placed in someones "Top Friends"
I remember feeling mind bendingly frustrated when I couldn't do a "page break"
I remember it being a gigantic personal statement whenever I changed the profile song on my personal page!
I remember getting really excited about how many song plays we had whenever we uploaded a new song
I remember THIS GUY being EVERYWHERE!!!!
A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP
We worked well with myspace, even though a lot of bands at first seemed embarrassed to tell people that were watching them that they had a myspace page, it seemed to normalize after a while and venues all over the country would be filled with bands quoting their myspace address.
Come to think of it, if i went to see a band now and they said "you can find us on Myspace" i would have trouble determining if they were being ironic or not!
There was a time (shortly before everyone got megafeckedoff with constant band adds) when Myspace and people worked harmoniously. It was a great time when everyone was happy
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
I remember the beginning of the end. It was the day a certain Jenny Hipkiss said to me "I'm on Facebook, its like Myspace but more grown up"
I was cynical at first but uploaded myself to Mark Zuckerbergs global database of self preening.
Then Came Twitter
Then came Soundcloud
Then came Bandcamp
Slowly the features of Myspace started to get buried under an almost inexhaustible amount of better social networking sites.
Then the final nail in the coffin!
Myspace changed the way its users could do stuff.
I dont know about anyone else but after this i felt like Myspace had run its course, i was too well acquainted with it to re-learn how to re-use it and to top it off our beautiful band page had a permanent advert in the right hand corner for something like UGG Boots!
So, (for us at least) Myspace is no more!
Goodbye old friend
Our Myspace Page!!
But lets start at the start and remember fondly our dearly departed social networking site.
MEMORIES
My first memory of Myspace was that of when we( in our first incarnation with a different lineup) rush recorded a glut of demo songs and hastily rushed them up onto myspace(which made the recordings sound even worse) then sat back and waited for the praise to roll in.
I remember the intense joy upon finding out that we had a new comment
Only to feel crushed when it was an advert from some promoter putting on a "dance" night in San Fransisco
I remember teaching myself HTML code and trying to make the page as beautiful as possible.I took sooo much pride in our page, it was the equivalent of my house and I had it decorated how we wanted it.
I remember the sometimes hilarious/deluded/nonsensical notes that came with "friend requests"
I remember the intense feeling of joy when we were placed in someones "Top Friends"
I remember feeling mind bendingly frustrated when I couldn't do a "page break"
I remember it being a gigantic personal statement whenever I changed the profile song on my personal page!
I remember getting really excited about how many song plays we had whenever we uploaded a new song
I remember THIS GUY being EVERYWHERE!!!!
A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP
We worked well with myspace, even though a lot of bands at first seemed embarrassed to tell people that were watching them that they had a myspace page, it seemed to normalize after a while and venues all over the country would be filled with bands quoting their myspace address.
Come to think of it, if i went to see a band now and they said "you can find us on Myspace" i would have trouble determining if they were being ironic or not!
There was a time (shortly before everyone got megafeckedoff with constant band adds) when Myspace and people worked harmoniously. It was a great time when everyone was happy
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
I remember the beginning of the end. It was the day a certain Jenny Hipkiss said to me "I'm on Facebook, its like Myspace but more grown up"
I was cynical at first but uploaded myself to Mark Zuckerbergs global database of self preening.
Then Came Twitter
Then came Soundcloud
Then came Bandcamp
Slowly the features of Myspace started to get buried under an almost inexhaustible amount of better social networking sites.
Then the final nail in the coffin!
Myspace changed the way its users could do stuff.
I dont know about anyone else but after this i felt like Myspace had run its course, i was too well acquainted with it to re-learn how to re-use it and to top it off our beautiful band page had a permanent advert in the right hand corner for something like UGG Boots!
So, (for us at least) Myspace is no more!
Goodbye old friend
Sunday, 13 February 2011
I am a PR Machine!
I sometimes wonder how bands got signed in the days of Joy Division.
I would imagine in the most pure way possible, by playing shows and creating a buzz. I cant believe how much the music industry has changed over the past few years.
Incase you didn't know we have a new double A-side single out in March
We are taking preorders here
http://kidnapperbell.bigcartel.com/
You can listen to both tracks here
http://kidnapperbell.bandcamp.com/
How does a band like us get this facking single into peoples ears do you ask?
I tell you.
Since we announced the single we have had a flurry (3) of emails from P.R companies asking if we need any promotion done for the single.
When we first started out we did pay a PR company £250 pounds and sent them about 100 cds to promote to their contacts.
They typed us up a (poorly written) press pack and sent our cd out to various online sites.
But because we had already done a lot of the legwork in sending out our cds ourselves some less observant websites cave us two seperate reviews.
I would hate for the reader to think that i'm making out P.R companies to be an evil in the music industry, indeed like bands there are good ones and bad ones, the ones that are good use their contacts and only work with bands they work with in order to claim some sense of pride in the material they send out!
indeed here is a good one
http://www.abadgeoffriendship.com/
All i'm saying is reeeeaaalllly given the right amount of time (and lurking on other peoples websites) theres no reason why a band putting their first cd out cant make a killing with countless reviews if their material is good!
Take a look at our Hotmail Outbox for instance
While it may not be considered Punk to trawl through websites asking people to give you time of day, its an awesome feeling when people write back and say not only that they like it but will also take the time to write words about it.
I would imagine in the most pure way possible, by playing shows and creating a buzz. I cant believe how much the music industry has changed over the past few years.
Incase you didn't know we have a new double A-side single out in March
We are taking preorders here
http://kidnapperbell.bigcartel.com/
You can listen to both tracks here
http://kidnapperbell.bandcamp.com/
How does a band like us get this facking single into peoples ears do you ask?
I tell you.
Since we announced the single we have had a flurry (3) of emails from P.R companies asking if we need any promotion done for the single.
When we first started out we did pay a PR company £250 pounds and sent them about 100 cds to promote to their contacts.
They typed us up a (poorly written) press pack and sent our cd out to various online sites.
But because we had already done a lot of the legwork in sending out our cds ourselves some less observant websites cave us two seperate reviews.
I would hate for the reader to think that i'm making out P.R companies to be an evil in the music industry, indeed like bands there are good ones and bad ones, the ones that are good use their contacts and only work with bands they work with in order to claim some sense of pride in the material they send out!
indeed here is a good one
http://www.abadgeoffriendship.com/
All i'm saying is reeeeaaalllly given the right amount of time (and lurking on other peoples websites) theres no reason why a band putting their first cd out cant make a killing with countless reviews if their material is good!
Take a look at our Hotmail Outbox for instance
While it may not be considered Punk to trawl through websites asking people to give you time of day, its an awesome feeling when people write back and say not only that they like it but will also take the time to write words about it.
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Desert Island Disks
Jen made a few Desert Island style compilation CDs the other day for some people she knows,
Its got me thinking. I made a list of songs, however compiling a Desert Island disk is a hell of a lot different from doing a comp cd for someone.
RULES
1. These have to be songs that you have always loved and will continue to love
2. These have to be songs that if someone said you could never hear these songs again you would be most upset
3. Ten Songs
I think I short-listed about 30 songs but finally got it down to ten
Some of my dilemmas are;
1. I would like either Atmosphere or Love Will Tear Us Apart By Joy Division, I would also like Crystal Or Blue Monday By New Order. I would also like Getting Away With It By Electronic.
Theres three bands that are all connected to New Order Joy Division and also feature Bernard Summer
2. I would like a Post Rock song on there since Post Rock has influenced me and been a big part of my life for years. As far as i'm concerned there are 2 Post Rock songs that are seminal
Mogwai - Fear Satan
Mono - The Kidnapper Bell
3. I WANT MORE SONGS
Annnnnnnyway
Here are the ten Desert Island Disks songs that I consider seminal in my life, These are songs I cant live without and will love forever!
The names are click able and will take you to the song should you want to hear them!
1. Grammatics - Relentless Fours
2. REM - Man On The Moon
3. Owl City - Fireflies
4. Fountains Of Wayne - Hey Julie
5. Spin Doctors - Two Princes
6. Take That - Never Forget
7. The National - Fake Empire
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric
8. New Order - Crystal
10. Mono - The Kidnapper Bell
Its got me thinking. I made a list of songs, however compiling a Desert Island disk is a hell of a lot different from doing a comp cd for someone.
RULES
1. These have to be songs that you have always loved and will continue to love
2. These have to be songs that if someone said you could never hear these songs again you would be most upset
3. Ten Songs
I think I short-listed about 30 songs but finally got it down to ten
Some of my dilemmas are;
1. I would like either Atmosphere or Love Will Tear Us Apart By Joy Division, I would also like Crystal Or Blue Monday By New Order. I would also like Getting Away With It By Electronic.
Theres three bands that are all connected to New Order Joy Division and also feature Bernard Summer
2. I would like a Post Rock song on there since Post Rock has influenced me and been a big part of my life for years. As far as i'm concerned there are 2 Post Rock songs that are seminal
Mogwai - Fear Satan
Mono - The Kidnapper Bell
3. I WANT MORE SONGS
Annnnnnnyway
Here are the ten Desert Island Disks songs that I consider seminal in my life, These are songs I cant live without and will love forever!
The names are click able and will take you to the song should you want to hear them!
1. Grammatics - Relentless Fours
2. REM - Man On The Moon
3. Owl City - Fireflies
4. Fountains Of Wayne - Hey Julie
5. Spin Doctors - Two Princes
6. Take That - Never Forget
7. The National - Fake Empire
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric
8. New Order - Crystal
10. Mono - The Kidnapper Bell
Monday, 20 December 2010
Mouthful of Pennies/Falling & Laughing single
Hello,
As most of you may know from being in a band, you seem to gather a fair few pictures, be they taken by a photographer (which wont be used as they caught your bad side or make you look 900 years old) or by yourselves to stave off boredom while playing shows etc.
The vast majority of them wont be used for anything other than clogging up my pc, so heres where I had the idea for the artwork for our new single.
The inlay (which is the paper case inside the more professional looking outer case) will feature a picture to do with the band, it doesn't even have to be of the band just sentimental things really
I myself still take pictures of posters we appear on whenever we play a show. Its almost as if i'm saying to myself "Oh effing christ, someone has cared enough to write our name on something"
Sad I know
Anyway to give you an idea of the inlays heres a mock-up ive done over the past day or so
I think we will have a pink and black theme running through the release much like one of my heroes
The Pink and Black attack Bret "Hitman" Hart
IT WILL NOT BE WRESTLING THEMED THOUGH so dont worry about that.
Annnnnnnnyyyyway
Each picture will have a reason written on the back of the story behind it.
I offer some examples below:
This picture is from the first time we played London, I think it was a place called The Dry Bar, after we played we thought we would go out onto the streets of London and take some "Promo Shots", as the picture evidence will confirm it didn't go according to plan as we clearly had no idea of how to stand.
This picture is taken from the stage at a Halloween gig at Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge.Keith Decided to wander off into the crowd and I took a picture(although I probably should have been playing guitar).If you look closely you can see Jens mum after being whacked on the top of the head by a guilty looking guy with a camera.
This picture is of our "Choir" that we used to record Collapsible Friend.Some had stronger voices than others but the finished product came out fantastic
Picture from the Little Civic in Wolverhampton.Members of our fave bands (Library Of June and Bears In Caves) are in this picture.I think we were main support to Amusement Parks on Fire that night
Each one will be different ( I have loads of Pictures)
Should you have a favourite photo of us,about us that you would like to include please feel free to email them to kidnapperbell@hotmail.co.uk
The cd will also come with handwritten lyrics and a possibly a free download!
YAY
As most of you may know from being in a band, you seem to gather a fair few pictures, be they taken by a photographer (which wont be used as they caught your bad side or make you look 900 years old) or by yourselves to stave off boredom while playing shows etc.
The vast majority of them wont be used for anything other than clogging up my pc, so heres where I had the idea for the artwork for our new single.
The inlay (which is the paper case inside the more professional looking outer case) will feature a picture to do with the band, it doesn't even have to be of the band just sentimental things really
I myself still take pictures of posters we appear on whenever we play a show. Its almost as if i'm saying to myself "Oh effing christ, someone has cared enough to write our name on something"
Sad I know
Anyway to give you an idea of the inlays heres a mock-up ive done over the past day or so
I think we will have a pink and black theme running through the release much like one of my heroes
The Pink and Black attack Bret "Hitman" Hart
IT WILL NOT BE WRESTLING THEMED THOUGH so dont worry about that.
Annnnnnnnyyyyway
Each picture will have a reason written on the back of the story behind it.
I offer some examples below:
This picture is from the first time we played London, I think it was a place called The Dry Bar, after we played we thought we would go out onto the streets of London and take some "Promo Shots", as the picture evidence will confirm it didn't go according to plan as we clearly had no idea of how to stand.
This picture is taken from the stage at a Halloween gig at Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge.Keith Decided to wander off into the crowd and I took a picture(although I probably should have been playing guitar).If you look closely you can see Jens mum after being whacked on the top of the head by a guilty looking guy with a camera.
This picture is of our "Choir" that we used to record Collapsible Friend.Some had stronger voices than others but the finished product came out fantastic
Picture from the Little Civic in Wolverhampton.Members of our fave bands (Library Of June and Bears In Caves) are in this picture.I think we were main support to Amusement Parks on Fire that night
Each one will be different ( I have loads of Pictures)
Should you have a favourite photo of us,about us that you would like to include please feel free to email them to kidnapperbell@hotmail.co.uk
The cd will also come with handwritten lyrics and a possibly a free download!
YAY
Monday, 6 December 2010
GRACIAS
The reason for this blog is really to say thanks to Keith who seems to have taken over management of the band over the last few months.
Its been a tricky year this year. I think we have spent a lot of time honing our sound and attempted to write poppier songs, it seems to have worked as people seem to refer to us as a pop band rather than a hardcore band(I dont think we were ever Hardcore).
Plus as we haven't had anything released this year (mainly due to not really finding our sound recording wise) its been a pain as we have had nothing to promote which is especially frustrating for the likes of me a person who thrives on finding webzines/reviewer pages and then posting them promos.
Actually on the subject of promos someone told me there are a few of ours on Ebay
I saw one that sold a while ago of our first EP, the packaging of which was made out of wallpaper and wax sealed. I'm sure it said something along the lines of "sold out LTD edition Kidnapper Bell EP"
BOLLOCKS!!!!
While it is true that there are no more left I still have the wallpaper used to make the cases (its a lovely red/blue from Home-base. A bargain quite frankly) I can knock one up in 30 mins.
Anyway i'm drifting off topic again!
Next Feb will see the release of our single Mouthful Of Pennies/Falling & Laughing, with special packaging and goodies to go along with it as well as gigs aplenty.
Another thanks to Keith who has been sending out emails aplenty in my absence.
Next year will be the year we make the people who dont know about us care about us!
Yay
Its been a tricky year this year. I think we have spent a lot of time honing our sound and attempted to write poppier songs, it seems to have worked as people seem to refer to us as a pop band rather than a hardcore band(I dont think we were ever Hardcore).
Plus as we haven't had anything released this year (mainly due to not really finding our sound recording wise) its been a pain as we have had nothing to promote which is especially frustrating for the likes of me a person who thrives on finding webzines/reviewer pages and then posting them promos.
Actually on the subject of promos someone told me there are a few of ours on Ebay
I saw one that sold a while ago of our first EP, the packaging of which was made out of wallpaper and wax sealed. I'm sure it said something along the lines of "sold out LTD edition Kidnapper Bell EP"
BOLLOCKS!!!!
While it is true that there are no more left I still have the wallpaper used to make the cases (its a lovely red/blue from Home-base. A bargain quite frankly) I can knock one up in 30 mins.
Anyway i'm drifting off topic again!
Next Feb will see the release of our single Mouthful Of Pennies/Falling & Laughing, with special packaging and goodies to go along with it as well as gigs aplenty.
Another thanks to Keith who has been sending out emails aplenty in my absence.
Next year will be the year we make the people who dont know about us care about us!
Yay
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