A couple of years ago we demo'd every song we knew (about 20) so people who might be interested could hear them. No one was, of course, and I didn't have a copy. However, the other day a friend moved house and said that he'd found his copy! So he burned a copy and sent it to me...

They're all pretty rough and ready but the songs are good so seeing as Tom has recently upped the quotas I thought I'd bang a few of them up here.

Alongside the recently added Kent-based classic "Dungeness" I've also put:

You Make Me Feel Like A Cloud - lyrically a song of unrealised internet love, musically it's Ian McNabb;

Usually Scared - infidelity song from 1993, originally performed by my then-band Trousershock BC;

I Don't Like You Anymore - downtune-disco frenzy about friendships turned sour and nutters on fireblades in Brighton;

Count The Zebras - cuter-than-cute instrumental and, if truth is told, one of the very first things I ever wrote on a guitar, circa 1986-or-so. Vox pops intro sample stolen from Chris Morris.


I might and get the others up, I'm not sure if myspace will allow us to get the behemothic "Now I'm Winning" uploaded, which is a shame but life, as you'll know by now, is a series of disappointments punctuated by total disasters.


Bye for now,
Graham

Hello again,

Another "gem" from the Three Litre archives. This one is called "Luke Skywalker Sings The Blues" and the idea was that it would be the Star Wars trilogy (Special Edition) set to an indie-dance tune. Lyrically it didn't quite work out as you'll notice that verses one and two are episode IV and then the last verse jumps straight to the end of episode VI, sans ewoks. No mention of "Empire" at all. I guess I couldn't get anything to rhyme with "Hoth".

Like the previous entry in this "revival" series ("Cats 'n' Kittens") this is a song where I tried to write about things other than boy meets girl etc etc. Of course, it still touches on that theme in the guise of inadvertant incest.

This was not the first song I'd written about a film, that honour went to "Rouge" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/ ), a very short song that I did with Pete and I's previous band, Headcopter. Funnily enough we started doing "Luke Skywalker..." with Headcopter but our then drummer wouldn't do it, saying that it sounded like Rick Springfield's "Jack and Diane"!? It was the beginning of the end for Headcopter, and he was soon replaced with a Roland TR-626 drum machine (as used in my previous-previous band, Trousershock BC) which is what you hear on this recording.

This song was recorded I think in 1999 in a studio in Eversley, Hampshire (probably the only studio in Eversley) by Phill "Two Ls" Harrison. In retrospect I'm not overly happy with the vocal but believe that the strength of the tune carries it through. I like the "Imperial March" guitar solo which would no doubt have got us into loads of trouble with John Williams had this song ever been successful in any way whatsoever.

You can read reviews/mentions of this song heres:

http://www.josaka.com/Reviews/2004/ThreeLitre140604b.htm

http://www.inter1.demon.co.uk/issue1.html (please note that the contact details mentioned in this review are no longer applicable, but I did really live there once)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/music/local_bands/unsigned_showcase_2/unsigned_0605.shtml

 

Enjoy. More to come, as and when.

Welcome back.

 

I was going thru the music files on my PC and found a full band demo version of "Cats 'n' Kittens" so I've stuck it up here for your listening pleasure. Maybe.

Lyrically this is one of my favourite songs, along with "I Hate Christmas", what I wrote. The opening lines inspired the whole song and I thought of them as I was walking from my then-home in Battle Street, Reading to my local Chinese takeaway. I went to stroke a neighbour's cat and got a playful nip on the hand for my troubles and thus is rock 'n' roll history written.

This song seemed to be one of those polarising tunes that I guess most bands have. Some people thought it was brilliant and would bay for it at gigs - other people thought that we, and the world in general, would be a better thing if we never ever played it again ever. You can't please all of the people all of the time and we certainly didn't. In fact, we rarely pleased anyone at all!

I believe that this recording was done at Impact Studios in Reading - an excellent rehearsal facility and purveyors of fine exotic spices and fake weaponry - now called The Cell, I think. We recorded all the instruments live to 2-tracks and then I recorded the vocals in Pete's spare room a bit later. The "meow, meow, meow, meow" refrain is stolen from some cat food advert from way-back. When we did a pre-Darren recording of this we tried in vain to sample a cat meow-ing but they all got shy and we couldn't find a suitable download. So, on this version, we took the easier option of slowing the tape down when recording...

Enjoy. As and when I find more stuff I'll put it up here.

 

Cheers,

Graham, formerly of Three litre

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the tragic passing of Hobbes, one of the cats that owned Pete and his wife Kym. Our then-bassist writes this:

"If you ever came to our house in the last ten to twelve years, you almost certainly would have met this big, daft, lovable bundle of ginger fur that we called Hobbes.

Unfortunately we had him put down this morning (Tuesday) after he was taken ill in the small hours of Sunday morning. Tabitha is already looking for something else to beat up!!

Just a few pics of him doing what he did, from such a tiny little thing to a big cat (!) packing himself in your bag when you're going away, catching some rays!"

I can confirm that Hobbes was indeed a loveable great lump whose presence was always welcome at early Litre practices which happened in Pete's spare room.

RIP Hobbes.

 

Hello.

I've just posted a "new" song for you to listen to and to download, if you want. It's called "Here Without You" and is rather pretty, I think. It was recorded in 2004 at the same place and time that we did "Downhill" but at the time we chose not to release it as we went for the winter-sports-themed "Alpine Suite" and I don't believe that being left alone to wallow in your misery is in the Winter Olympics just yet.

I originally wrote this song in 1991 and performed it with my then-band Trousershock BC. I believe we debuted it at the West End Centre in Aldershot when we supported Bleach there. Remember them? It went on our 6-song cassette (remember them?) called "Cheers" which sold over 300 copies. We used to sell them for a pound, I did all the artwork myself on the work's photocopier when everyone else had gone home. This song and another ("I Don't Want You To Go Away" - where was my head at back then?!) were included on a compliation LP called "Snakebite City" on Bluefire records. The latter of our two songs was played on Radio1 (remember them?) by Simon "goody bags" Goodier and in a review of the album in the NME (remember them?) we were described as "perenial bedsit miserabalists" which I rather like. Search the internet - you can still buy this album and the bloke that ran the label has a site of photo's of bits of London that aren't as good as they used to be.

I decided the song was too good to be buried by history and revived it with the Litre. I hope you like it, too.

I have a recording of the last gig (audio and video!) as well as a CD of, I think, every song we did but never released - recorded quickly at Impact Rehearsal studios in Reading (with the vocals added in Pete's spare room). I am going to try and get everything up here soon. Legacy.

 

Cheers, then.

Graham, who used to be out of Three Litre x

 

Realising that we, Three Litre, are never going to enjoy the success that our songs truly deserve we have started hawking them out to various nefarious established artists for consideration. We sent "I Hate Christmas" to the undisupted King of the festive ditty and this was the reply we eventually recieved:

 

To be honest, the thought that Sir Cliff enjoyed listening to one of my songs is enough for me. I have enjoyed listening to some of his stuff over the years, too. He's underrated is Cliff.

 

ps. Robbie Williams' management knocked this song back last year stating that "Mr Williams writes his own material" while Ronan Keating's lot liked it but didn't do "novelty records"! The search continues....

Morning.

Well, our first gig for ages is now just a few days away and Darren and I actually had a practice at the weekend and we've come up with a few things that we hope will make the gig EVEN MORE special. But maybe not. Basically it is Dazza being charged with a load of extra musical responsibilities and becoming the outrageous comedy (indie) rock equivalent of Rick Wakeman. Or something.

Also, on Thursday we are doing 2 sets - one main one as the penultimate act and then we are playing a short set right at the start of the evening so that people will have something to listen to as they arrive and order drinks, etc. Should we do a set of covers like we would if we were in the foyer of a hotel?

In other news, does anyone agree that Gordon Ramsey is the most boring man on television. YES? Jamie Oliver must be delighted that he is now only the second-most hateful chef on television. YES?

 

Right. See you Thursday. Check these:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/11594
http://www.myspace.com/screwballcabaret
http://www.readingfringefestival.com

 

Adioski,

Graham

We are delighted to announce that we will be performing as part of the Screwball Cabaret on 17th August in Reading, Berks, England. It will be an acoustic set but this is no problem cos at least that way you can hear the words innit. A full-length set at least - so get those requests in now!

For full details (inc. directions, tickets, etc) please visit: http://www.screwballcabaret.co.uk - they also have a myspace page which is www.myspace.com/screwballcabaret.

This event forms part of the Reading Fringe Festival which runs for the following week and will no doubt be excellent. Feel free to visit http://www.readingfringefestival.co.uk for more info.

 

The best thing about this site is that you can quickly and easily hear music by bands that you might get told about or you might have heard of. With this in mind I implore you to visit the sites located in the our favourite friends (or whatever it's called) section below. These are groups whose music I love and may have been an influence on my music:

Loop ruled my world 88 - 91, The Wedding Present are prolly the single most influential band on me, They Might Be Giants are at least the second most influential band on me, when we had a drum-machine instead of Darren every other beat was a Renegade Soundwave beat, Morrissey is Morrissey, etc.

There's some others too, of course. I'm waiting for them to accept my requests....

Cheers,

Graham out of Three Litre

Pick your own, madam!

Hey, it's Graham out of Three Litre here just a-writin' to let you know that we're still here, albeit only just. We were hoping to do a gig in Reading in August (as part of the town's Fringe Festival) but we got our dairies befuddled and Pete's away so we couldn't do it but thanks very much to Sid at Velocity for asking us and if you're in the area on the night then please go cos I think it's Fogg, Marwood and the 'Mona amongst others (the others being Pete and his Pirates).

Pete and I actually played together the other week - he and his wife came visiting me and my wife (to be honest they just came to see the kids - we just make the tea!) and we made some gawd-awful racket on acoustic guitars and a little casio PT-30 keyboard going dronedronedrone and playing the disco2 rhythm. Expect the mp3 anyday now! We did another "nu-country" (the "tree" is silent) number and I made up the words on the spot while watching my daughters play and it's called "Give Me Back My Toy"! Expect the mp3 anyday now!

I'm going to see The Wedding Present tomorrow at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells (the venue used to be a public convenience!) and I'm very excited! It will only be my 3rd gig of the year (1 = The Darkness, 2 = Morrissey) and I love the Weddoes, I must have seen them over 30 times since the first time back in.... 1988? That was at the Town and Country Club in Kentish Town, London NW5. Of course, that venue is now called.... The Forum! Funny old world. (FACT: when I was on TV's Blockbusters back in the day I had a Wedding Present counter-top display as my mascot.)

That'll do for now. I saw Noel Edmonds 'round here the other day. I asked, "Have you just been in Sandwich?" He said, "No, Deal."

I than' yew.