Kid Id + Tigerbomb + Dirty Fakirs + Unexploded Shells + Owter Zeds

Just us!

Tigerbomb + The Wind-Up Birds + Unexploded Shells + Bad Monkey

This night was an overdue return to putting our own gigs on. We booked out The Library, asked a few (well, quite a lot of) bands that we liked to come and play with us, most of them said no, but we managed to get a couple of aces in Tigerbomb and The Wind-Up Birds, plus the debut gig from Unexploded Shells loyalty card holder Paddy’s new band, Bad Monkey. (I also tried to tie it in with my somewhat unpopular indiepop night The Comfort Zone, but the less said about that the better).

All the bands were great, I nearly did myself in through the exertion of a couple of weeks’ postering and flyering the thing in the cold and damp of November, followed by the panic of trying to get everything to run smoothly and ontime on the night, and the surprise of being electrocuted by a dodgy microphone several times during the course of our set. We were alright other than that, a solid 7.75 out of 10, aided by the vocal support of my excellent drunk colleagues.

Unexploded Shells + Rent + The French Defence

First time at the Wardrobe for us, albeit in the upstairs bar bit not the lovely club bit downstairs. But that’s alright. This was a free-in Monday night affair with nicely laissez-faire promoters who let us choose the other bands and gave us free booze. The result was a pleasant evening with some talented musical pals who we’ve not had the pleasure of playing with before. Owen (aka The French Defence) was great, as were the sadly soon-to-be-defunct Rent, playing in a more stripped-down format than usual. We were, I’m sorry to report, a bit rubbish, being somewhat out-of-practice and making a particular bolix of the new song. But we still had a nice time, and so, it seems, did the people who were there to see us. Upwards and onwards...

Chicken George and the Champion Swimmers + IO + Louis Romegoux + Unexploded Shells + Nuff Zed

It only seemed proper to organise another gig as soon as possible in order to recover from the horrors of the last one. And where better to recover from a horrible gig than The Primrose, the venue where it's officially impossible to have a bad night?

It's impossible to say what it is about The Primrose that makes playing there such a tonic, but somehow it's like nothing can possibly go wrong, no matter how hard you try. It might be something to do with how tiny it is, or how removed it is from the trendy careerist bits of the music scene in Leeds (not that there's anything wrong with those, if you're in the right move). Whatever, there just seems to be a complete lack of pressure, you just turn up, enjoy playing, have a few drinks, watch the other bands and have a laugh.

Thankfully we were about a million times better than last time out, even managing to wheel out a new tune, based around a bassline of Steve's which we've been mucking around with more or less since the band started. It was played as an instrumental tonight but the words are coming, you mark my words.

The other bands were a mixed bag, the best thing about Nuff Zed was the enthusiastic sixth form audience they brought along for us to play to. Louis R was lovely and folky and generally very impressive, and IO were Brummie postrock par excellence. I think I may have missed Chicken George. Good night all round though.

(Erm, also, don't tell anyone but despite the general loveliness of the Primrose and the badness of the last gig, this still somehow seemed a bit.... er, boring compared to the high drama of last time. I'm never happy me.)

The Blueskins + Francesca's Adventures in Europe + Unexploded Shells + The Peekaboos + The Reckoning

I (Mark) spent the week leading up to this gig working myself up into a state of near-hysterical excitement. It's always a busy night, you see, and it'd be a chance for us to play to loads of people who wouldn't normally hear us. So everyone was looking forward to playing to a decent-sized crowd, win some new people over, hopefully sell a few CDs and generally raise our game a bit.

We arrived at the venue 15 minutes before we were due to go on, with at least two of the band far too drunk to be allowed anywhere near the stage. We then found that the band who we'd arranged to borrow a guitar amp from for Tim had left the venue, apparently taking all their gear with them. By the time we'd sorted out an amp, there was no time for me to properly set up my own amp or tune my guitar. We began the set with no soundcheck. The sound was dire and we were already seething at each other over various petty irritations. As we started the first song it felt as if the band was falling apart there and then. We carried on. When we finished playing, it was with the words "we've been Unexploded Shells and this has been the worst fucking gig we've ever played."

I came off stage punching walls with the sheer frustration of it all. I was unable to look anyone in the eye for the next hour.

The next day I listened back to the recording and observed that it was probably our best ever gig, in a way.

The Wind-Up Birds + Blah Blah Tin + Unexploded Shells + Snakes Fighting

First appearance at the Cardi since almost exactly two years ago, when we opened for a little-known up and coming group called The Pigeon Detectives. This one was a really good night, loads of people were down and the chaps from Blah Blah Tin did a really good job of putting it all together. Despite completely arsing up Tender Kisses (starting the song, stopping it again after a few bars to switch your amp on, starting it again, singing the first verse while the guitarist plays the chorus, then realising at the end that you had also forgotten to plug in your guitar is perhaps not the best way of opening your set), this was our best performance in a while and the kids loved it. And The Wind-Up Birds were bloody great as well.

The Lovers + Unexploded Shells + acoustic boy (sorry, haven't got his name, he was good though!)

This wasn't strictly a public gig. It was a birthday party for the lovely Coreen who gave us a lovely review in the Huddersfield student paper a few months ago. She asked us if we wanted to come and play, so we did.

The Runaway Girl is a very swish venue (by our standards - it has a stage and everything). Indeed, I commented onstage that it felt a bit like playing in an exclusive German sex club, such was the leathery black and red-ness of its decor. We'd been recording in Doncaster all day, and six hours of playing the songs over and over again meant it was probably the best gig we've played in a while. The party setting was such that most people were too busy chattering and having fun to listen to us much, but those who heard us seemed to enjoy us. And we enjoyed ourselves too. And The Lovers were Gallic smut par excellence.

Icarus Drowning 1976
Nothing Matters Anymore
Tender Kisses
Lost Property
Summer Again
The B-Roads
Losing It
Railings
High Times
Lank

Unexploded Shells + Pole Dancing Monkeys

Since last September, I've had the misfortune to be temporarily stuck out in the uremitting horror that is Scarborough, doing a PGCE. It only seemed sensible to take advantage of the one imaginable plus of such a situation - the fact that being a student (even a not-really-a-proper-student type student who has to actually get up in the morning and work and stuff) means that I have any number of housemates/coursemates at my disposal who might be easier to persuade down to a gig than the usual sort of people in Leeds who go to about a million gigs a week and have seen you a million times and therefore can't really be arsed.

But anyway. I digress. This was fun, nice tiny venue, good crowd of people and a longer set than usual, meaning there were a few oddities included - notably the debut of The B-Roads, the return of Icarus Drowning (for the last time ever... really, this time), and the first appearance in about a million years of Losing It (the first song I ever wrote, you know). I'd had a bit of bad news earlier that day so there perhaps wasn't quite so much bouncy energy as there might have been. But then I always seem to say that sort of thing these days. I'm rubbish me.

16 Bit Revival + Avarice + Unexploded Shells + The Ins And Outs

The all-new Shells finally make it to Leeds. This was pretty good, nice new venue, lots of people in, Nothing Matters Anymore made its debut. Decided we needed to tighten up Lank a bit, we've only been playing it at every gig for two-and-bit years after all...