A spark to set the world on fire

You would have thought that playing one of our biggest gigs ever would have produced a blog post, but for some reason I completely forgot to update here!

So, anyway, last Thursday we supported the truly wonderful and amazing band The Wonder Stuff. Our line-up was slightly different (Woody was stuck in Vladivostok with Uriah Heap, and my brother Dan stepped in on mandolin) and the song choices might have been a little off, but I think we pulled it off.

RFPB live at Apollo 23, October 2011

Last night I went to Cowdenbeath to play a benefit gig. It was pretty good fun, if a little different to other gigs I do these days. I love playing completely new towns as it is dead easy to get stuck in playing towns and cities on the main transport links. Took me almost two hours to get to Cowdenbeath, including two trains. Sometimes you forget that the UK still has local rail circles. Damn you Dr Beechings, Damn you.

During my rehearsal/preparation for last nights gig (and slightly incensed by Billy Bragg's current 'political songwriting doesn't exist these days' article), I re-discovered a song that I had written around 10 years ago. Not quite sure of how I used to play it, I blasted out a version, recorded it (with a couple overdubs of harmonica and backing vocals), and uploaded it to sound cloud.



Really hope you find time to listen to it. Even though I wrote it ages ago, it kind of describes my feelings on this whole Occupy protest thing. After The Wonder Stuff gig, my brother and I camped with the Glasgow Occupiers to try and find out more about it, but to be honest, my jury is still out.

My  next gig is 2nd of December with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay. Half the tickets are already sold, so you'd better hurry. Also, a couple days later is Book yer Ane Fest in Dundee, which I hear is also selling fast. This is my 200th gig. Wow.


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Tattooed lines beneath our skin

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my biggest gig in Dundee to date, at The Doghouse supporting The Travelling Band. Somewhat nervous about it, but also quiet excited at the prospect. First time I've played on a raised stage in the city since I played at The Cotton Club with my old band back in 2003. That was with Turtlehead, Bovine and possibly PMX (or another Dundee/perth band that were close to them).

Anyways, I have some tickets left for this gig going cheap if you want some.

In other news, I did a wee interview with The Music Ink about music and tattoos and stuff. You can read it here. And, over at the Make That A Take records' bandcamp page there's an awesome compilation of bands that are playing Book yer Ane Fest in December. Check it out, I for one really recommend the Algernon Doll track, but with the selection on offer (Franz Nicolay, Arteries, UNIFORMS, and others), your £1 is well spent (and given to the Safe-Tay Charity) so you can't lose.




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No Surrender my Bobby Jean

You know when your friend says "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" and you pick the bad news first so that the good news lessens the hit of the bad news? Well, that's what I'm going to do here.

So, as of yesterday, Jud Harron is no longer with the Renegade Folk Punk Band. We wish her all the best with her studies and impending solo stardom. On a side note, Jud was the first person to offer to collaborate with me on my music and has been part of this since our first gig at Slanj in February of 2008. Since then she's featured on many recordings (my favourite being Paradise from Connections) and came with me around the UK a couple times. I'm going to miss her as part of this.

Wednesbury, February 2010

For upcoming gigs and any recordings, we will have our sometime singer Rach coming to the front for duties. Rach isn't a stranger to the band, having played many a festival (Rebellion 2009, Full Throttle 2010) and gig with us. In fact, for fact fans, the first gig under the Renegade Folk Punk Band was myself, Dan and Rach playing. That was at Bloc+ in Glasgow in early 2009.

Today I'm finally allowed to mention that I'm playing in Glasgow on the 2nd of December with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay! Many, uber thanks to Lisa-Marie at Last Year's Girl for putting this together. I'm utterly 'stoked'. You all know how much I adore and worship Chris T-T, but to be on a bill with him AND Franz Nicolay of Against Me!, Hold Steady and Mischief Brew-colab fame is mind blowing!

Our upcoming gig calendar looks thus (full details for tickets on gigs page):

• 19th October - Doghouse, Dundee supporting The Travelling Band
• 27th October - Apollo 23, Glasgow, Supporting The Wonder Stuff
• 5th November - Wee Jimmies, Cowdenbeath, fundraiser for Gemma Reilly
• 2nd December - The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, supporting Franz Nicolay and Chris T-T (Limited Tickets)
• 4th December - Dexters, Dundee, BOOK YER ANE FEST MY 200th GIG! (Feat. Nicolay, T-T, ONSIND and more!)

We'll be debuting our new RFPB line-up in some fashion at The Wonder Stuff show. Except for an absent Woody who will be on tour with Uriah Heap. Although, you can be assured though that his place on the RFPB drum stool is secure.

The shape of renegade folk punk to come, 

Full Throttle Festival, July 2010

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Lackadaisical Walrus

It seems like I'm posting on here in fewer and far between measures. Somewhere in between a crisis of confidence, lack of interest from the inside and outside, and general interruptions from the real-life-adult-world, something got lost along the way.

This month, September, has been the first month since sometime in 2008 that I've not played a single gig (or indeed written or recorded a song). I've got a few things ticking over that I can't announce just yet, but hopefully October will be the month for that.

So, October, what do you have for us that I can talk about? Well, it kicks off with a couple gigs with Canada's Rob Moir. He plays folk-indie pop stuff (a bit like Ciaran Lenehan's stuff, but Canadian). He used to play in a band called Dead Letter Dept who were pretty good.

• 1st October - Thomsons Bar, Dundee, free entry 8pm
• 2nd October - MacSorleys, Glasgow, free entry 8pm

Then I have a wee break until the 27th of October when it's finally time for The Wonder Stuff gig at Apollo 23 in Glasgow. Really excited and scared at this in equal measure. That's a good sign, right?

There is one bit of awesome news that I can announce for the tail end of the year, and that's that I am playing the absolutely amazing Book Yer Ane Fest 5 in Dundee in December. Other acts include Chris T-T, Franz Nicolay (The Hold Steady, Against Me!, World Inferno/Friendship Society), ONSIND, and many many more. Check out the facebook event for full details. Or, indeed, this poster for the full line-up.

And finally, I wrote a wee top five of Independent Scottish acts for The Ruckus since we spoke last. Check it out here.

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The big Two Zero Zero?

Apologies for the radio silence here, I've been trying to sort out things in my life that aren't musical. Not too much avail, but hopefully in the next couple of days something will happen.

Anyways, seems like there's big changes happening around RFPB Towers. We played at the end of August in Nice'n'Sleazys for Roscoe Vacant's album launch (cheers for putting us on), and it has kind of struck me that that gig would be the last of the 'original' line-up for a wee while. Jud has buggered off to college in Carlisle and Woody has taken on a job as drum tech for Uriah Heep. He's currently on the bus to Manchester to go fly out and meet the band. Kenny's obviously busy with the meteoric rise of Carnivores, which leaves Dan and I twiddling thumbs.

So, the next few gigs I've got listed are going to be solo efforts for me. It's still up in the air what's happening with the Wonder Stuff gig line-up wise, but I've a feeling things will come together in some fashion.

While looking at the gig listings, I noticed that I'm around 10 gigs away from hitting my 200th gig. I was thinking it would be pretty cool to get this landmark out of the way before the end of the year. So, what I'm asking is for some kind of 'crowd-sourcing' of gigs between now and end of December. They don't need to be big or 'proper', just a place to play a wee set for some people. House shows, pub gigs, backgardens, car-parks, that kind of thing. Anywhere around the country is fine by me, so please email me and we'll see what we can set up. Oh, charity gigs are also good.

I've a couple more gigs that are lined-up to be announced on the page, including an end of November spectacular that's currently sitting in my head as a cross between KISS and Phil Ochs.

"Will we ever see the likes of you again" (Taken by Ross Morris)

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Shut the door and cover me

Almost back in to the swing of being back home and at work. Played a nice wee show last night at Tonic in Dundee. Just a last minute set to help out Sarah who runs it, mainly covers with a couple of new songs from the album. Got a free dinner out of it, so can't complain.

I've added a couple new sections to the website since we spoke last. I guess they are related to each other. Firstly, you can now stream the new album from the music page before deciding to buy it (hint hint hint hint etc). Then you can head over to the brand new 'chords' page to learn how to play the songs. And finally, you can send me an MP3 of you covering one of my songs and I'll add it to the, aptly named, covers page.

There's already a few covers that I've found and uploaded, including Ross from Bandito Fleeto who gets the prize for being the first to cover a Despite the Blackout track. Cheques in the post.

Again, I have undying gratitude to everyone who's picked up a copy of the album. It has been selling pretty well through the Corporate Records site which is a good thing. If you know how the music industry works, not much money is made through selling DIY independent music, however, CDs that do manage to be sold make a good impression to the label for the artist. The label is, being a capitlist institution, more inclined to nurture those who sell well, if you get what I'm trying to say.

Basically, everyone on an independent label has a coat on a shoogly peg, and if the CDs don't sell, the coat falls on the floor.

My coat thanks you.


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Emotional battlefield

While watching people's homes and livelihoods being destroyed in London, I can't help but hope that everyone I know (or met) down there is keeping safe.

The tour is over now and I'm back home in Dundee licking my wounds but also smiling at the good times we had. Cheers to Ciaran Lenehan for coming out on the road with me. Of course, much gratitude and thanks are sent out to everyone who put on a show for us. Manchester, Beeston and London in particular are high-points for me. Many thanks as well to everyone who showed face at various dates around the country. Travelling hundreds of miles by buses, trains and cars is somewhat easier when you see familiar faces at the other end.

The album is still available to buy from the Corporate Records website (currently sitting at number two in their charts). People who have got their copy seem to be enjoying it and so I'd love it if more people could hear it.

Next gig: 25th of August, Roscoe Vacant Album launch at Nice'n'Sleazys in Glasgow. We'll be a three-piece electric punk rock band for it.

Right, I'm away to work out what I've learnt or got from all this.


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