Hi everyone,

- as some of you are already aware: we've been having quite a few problems with the music player & it's content on our profile.

In the first instance - the Music Player dissappeared completely - not great...

And then, now it's re-appeared, it's one of the new-fangled ones that MySpace are using, powered by Snocap, & the problem we have is that the band's tracks that they've put on the music player on our profile are not by us at all, but by a different, U.S.-based band called Neck &, as we're not U.S. residents, it appears we're not allowed to have an account with Snocap & physically change the tracks ourselves - so we've, obviously, got quite a bleedin' problem.

It would appear we don't have any choice over using the new player, which wouldn't be so bad, but it would also appear that we also have no control over the tracks that are being presented on our profile.

Quite a problem!

We have contacted MySpace & Snocap, but - in the meantime - please all be aware that the music on our profile isn't bleedin' actually us!

Bollocks!

Leeson O'Keeffe

Neck

Hi everyone,

- firstly: just a few lines to clear-up the confusion over our no-show at the Bizarre Bazaar Acoustic Stage - I realise that there were a lot of people that wanted to see us & had to leave before our later set, so we're really sorry you didn't get to see us: basically, all it was, was with one thing & another (mainly meself trying to make sure, against all the obstacles thrown-up against us) that we all got the USA the week before! - & it weren't easy: poor oul' Wispy was stuck at Heathrow for two days solid waiting for a flight! BUT the quare fella made it - & helped us rock the bejaysus out of Dublin, Ohio - fair fucks to 'im!) I took me eye off the ball a wee bit & there was a breakdown in communication between us & Daz & Jennie: no biggie - I shouldda been on it more - but it's been a wee bit crazy out there! + they also had quite a bit on their plate too, what with the colossal juggling act that Rebellion is (& fair play to 'em for putting on probably the best Punk Festival in the world!) + the arrival of their new addition, Keir - congratulations, guys!

Also - I'd just like to say thanks very much for the support from all you lovely, wonderful lunatics that were able to stick around for our 'Totally Plugged' set which we closed The Pavilion stage with - if you were there, you'll know we were under the cosh, & why, but out of respect for yer wan's privacy, I won't go into it any further - suffice to say that we love you all - you adorable loonies!

It was very reassurring in such difficult circumstances to see so many friendly faces & hear so many familiar, rowdy voices! 

Thank you SO much! Go raibh mile maith agaibh!

XXXXXX

 Hi Everyone,

- just a quickie: those nice people at iTunes have gone & helped us out no-end, by putting a direct link to 'Everybody's welcome to The Hooley!' , which saves youse havin' to root-about  trying to find it!

Hiya everyone!
 
- hope all's well?

-just a quickie: we got a gig this weekend

- The Academy in the City Punk All-Dayer

(see the gig-list section) - & a whole bunch of stuff for the coming months & the summer festival season (ditto) - which is pretty cool + we hope to have some more exciting news to tell ya soon...
 
++ ahead of Sunday's gig, meself & Guido are gonna be guests on The Razor's Edge Punk show on Kerrang Radio this Friday (May 4th - erm, that'll be tonight, then!) @ midnight, talking a hell of a lot of shite, confusing the bejaysus out of the DJ (sorry, Chris...) & spinning some of our favourite tracks of all time, along with some of our some top Neck tracks - which includes a couple of surprises...

http://www.kerrangradio.co.uk/

 
If you got UK Freeview TV/Radio, it's radio channel 722 & if you live in the 'catchment area' (I think it's mainly in the UK midlands & Northern England) it's 105.2 FM.

Mad as a bucket of spiders!

G'luck ya bowsies!

Hi all,

- just want to make you aware of the resurgance of a brilliant Roots Music magazine:

Rock 'n' Reel:

http://www.rock-n-reel.co.uk/

...run by a good mate of ours, & another second-generation Irishman, Sean McGhee.

It's tag line is "Roots, Rock, Blues & Beyond..." & it covers loads of great bands including R.E.M., Flogging Molly, The Dropkick Murphys, The Waterboys, Wilco, The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull & Neck... + I believe there's quite often a free cd with it...

You can order or subscribe a copy from the above web-site  - it's a right rivettin' good read, run by someone with a genuine passion & love for the music they write about!

- do yourselves a favour & check it out!

- all the best,

Leeson

Hi all arís / again,

- this is the second sad duty I have to perform here, & I am gutted, I have to say - The Irish Music scene lost one of it's most talented sons - &, for a lot of us, not just a decent mucker & a 'good 'oul shtick', but an inspiration too, just recently:

The official release is as follows -

"On December 15, 2006, Tom McManamon passed away after a long battle with illness. Tom played in The Popes, and has also played with Storm, The Pogues, Depeche Mode, Joe Strummer, U2, Sinead O'Connor, and many more. He had his banjo in his hands and was surrounded by friends when he died."

All of you familiar with Shane's band The Popes will know Tommy as 'Tom MacAnimal' or even just 'Beastie', with his 'Slash-like' cloud of black, curly hair & 'Electric guitar-banjo'.

 & it's just so sad, because it's not just the people that knew him & loved him that have lost him, but The Music has as well. Which is an awful tragedy.

He was such a gifted player & so obviously loved playing.

He grew-up in the middle of the Irish Trad session circuit, just down the road from where I'm sitting typing in a pub called The Favourite - it's now since been pulled-down for the new Arsenal stadium, along with another Irish boozer he played in regularly - Clancy's - & both of them, literally, over the road from where Johnny Lydon grew-up in County Holloway!

The Favourite was one of those pubs that was at the hub of the Irish Trad. circuit in the '50's, '60's & '70's (& probably even '80's & '90's) - the ubiquitous Trad. Irish music pub session started in London - not in Ireland - amongst the Irish immigrant population & Tom's parents ran The Favourite - a pub which played such an integral part in that scene that there's even a revered album of 'barfly-on-the-wall' recordings from there, way back (I think they mght even have a young Tom on some of them) called 'Paddy in the Smoke'...

Apart from Tom's gifted playing & his complete immersion in the The Music when he was playing, he was so generous, for someone of his ability: when your humble correspondant first started sitting-in on Trad. sessions on the London Trad. circuit, Tommy made a huge impact on me - he was so generous & so accepting - when other people were saying 'Feck off, ye little bollix - ye're too shite to be after playin' here!', Tom would say 'Ah - Fuck 'em! We all play The Music 'cos we enjoy it - it's not like a competition, so fuck 'em - I could turn round & give-out to them 'cos they ain't up to my standard if I wanted to, but I don't 'cos that ain't the point...' & he was right - the session should be a 'Come all ye' - he said he felt it was his duty to pass The Music on - & he's right there too!

The problem is that there ain't enough people like him around - there are too many that want to make it like a private club or keep it as a museum piece & it has to be played just so & that's all to hell & shite!

He loved playing, he loved a laugh & he loved a drink - & I'm priveleged to say that I've done all three with him: Himself & Brian Kelly may have been 'Duelling banjos', but me & him were once 'Sweeping banjos' for the sake of a pint! & Sweet Jesus, could he drink! I remember playing a session with him once - & he was grand to play alongside, Jeez, he had the profile of one o' them fierce old Celtic fellas like Cuchaillain, or yer man Foinn MacCumhaill - but Jaysus, if he wasn't drinking pints of Jack Daniels & Coke & me after making a Holy show of meself trying to keep-up & I was only drinking Guinness! But then, that's what kinda started him off down the slippery slope, it would appear...

But I ain't here to get all preachy or hypocritical, ('cos it's not like I've got all the answers, for a start-off & there's the old matúbagh about people that live in glass houses not droppin' their trousers too often...), or to cast aspertions on the official version of events, so.  - Suffice to say that, as a race of people we do seem to make a grand job of makin' shite of ourselves...

At the end of the day, with Tom, it's such a shame & such a waste - for someone that was so vital & alive & full of The Music - he will be sadly missed - not just by us mortal feckers but also the thing he devoted his life to: The Music...

My heart goes out to his family & close friends & Sue, of course.

God rest ye, Tom & I hope you're at peace

- I fully intend to follow your example & carry your attitude on with The Music & I really hope more people do & keep it the living, breathing, growing thing it should be!

- slán agat, agus go N-éirí an bóthair leat, mo cara

Leeson

p.s. keep it warm for me down there & we'll have the few scoops & a few oul' tunes next time I see ya, so ;-)

Hi all,

- this is the first of two sad, belated duties I've to perform here:

I just want to pay tribute, fistly, to a guy most people - meself included - knew simply as Wiz.  He was the songwriter & lead vocalist & lead guitarist with Mega City 4 & later Ipanema. He died suddenly recently, but, at least, he was surrounded by his close friends & family when he did. My heart goes out to them - particularly Karina, his partner, & Danny, his brother, who supported Wiz more than ably with harmonies & rhythm guitar in MC4 & who I also knew & got on with.

I met Wiz & The Mega's - the other guys being Gerry on bass & Chris on drums: together they made-up a phenomenal band - when Jon Fat Beast's 'TimeBox' & 'Hype' gigs @ The Bull & Gate were, pretty much, the hippest shows in London & Mega City 4 were , unwittingly, starting to spearhead a grass-roots scene of bands that played fast & furious 'Pop-song Punk' - which is a bit of an over-simplification - other bands that came out of that scene (or rubbed shoulders with it) that you may have heard of were / are: Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine; The Senseless Things; Snuff; Neds Atomic Dustbin & Leatherface (the last two being more of the 'rubbed shoulders with', due to doing some early supports to MC4, variety). If memory serves me correctly, Steve Lamacq (or was it Simon Williams?) - then of the NME, did us all no favours by dubbing the scene 'Fraggle', but, to be fair, he championed all the bands - & did his level best to get reviews in of all the gigs & releases.

Mega City 4 - & Wiz's songs & ideas - were incredibly influential & MC4 gigs were incredibly uplifting & inspiring - which is why they inspired such respect, love & dogged devotion. Their ethos was to play anywhere - & they did! It certainly worked for them & it spawned the title for their seminal (& Indie chart-topping) first album 'Tranzophobia' - referring to the 'cabin-fever-on-wheels' experience of relentless touring in the back of a Transit van. The music was something else though - altho' they were very much a great live band, that album in particular, became the touchstone to a whole generation of people that either went to their gigs or played in bands that played with them (which usually meant the same thing anyway). We all knew even the daft samples between the tracks off by heart ("This little box...", "Stop yer grinnin'...",etc.) Playing that album on the way to gigs in our own transit defo was the perfect way to wind-up for the band I was in at the time. Something which struck a chord for me this year when bands we (Neck) played with in the U.S. were saying the same thing about our album!

I should mention Wiz's song-writing here: he really knew how to put a song together - both in a Punk Rock sense (altho' more SLF Punk, it seemed to me - which, as you'd think, is no bad thing at all, in  my books! - tinged with a big slice of U.S. bands like Husker Du & The Pixies & The Replacements) & also a Classic Melancholy Pop-Song sense. - his songs were at the same time brutal, crushing, punk-as-fuck, melodic, sensitive, world-weary & some of the most beautifully melancholy yet defiantly uplifting sounds I've heard - again, for me, no bad thing at all. He also pulled-off the pretty good trick of being heavily influenced by a lot of American bands, but still sounding very British (& I don't mean in a flag-waving kind of way, but in a Punk & classic Kinks / Squeeze / Blur melancholy pop song way). He flew the flag for honesty, sincerity, sensitivity & even introspection - all wrapped-up in melodic Punk Rock Buzz-saw melancholia - a winning combination!

Some of the later MC4 singles are classic examples of this & stand-out even more: Finish ("& the only pleasure that I get is knowing it" - brutal, chilling stuff, but incredibly resolving too - & I bought it on the way back from the Poll Tax Riots, Triv fans, on the way to see C.U.S.M. play Brixton Academy - what a bizarre day that was! I'm sure I saw meself on the news...), Shivering Sands (stands up alongside anything by anyone at all, for me - absolutely beautiful, 'band-at-the-top-of-their-game' masterful stuff  & it was great seeing 'em playing it in Finsbury Park supporting The Cult) , & Iron Sky (a bit more claustrophobic, but an immense chorus).

Basically, he made it acceptable to be sensitive, introspective & to give a fuck on a personal level in an all-too easily 'testosterone'-fuelled scene. He definitely influenced my song-writing - more obviously so then, but that influence is still there to this day, along with Shane & the rest...

They helped a fuck of a lot of people out too & paved the way for many more. Which is something that should always be credited to them & him.

I suppose, when all's said & done, the best way for his legacy to be remembered is for his example to be followed  - honesty & sincerity, a willingness to help other people out, to 'think outside the box' (they didn't fit in to any scene, so they made their own - thru' a mix of hard slog, inspiration & perspiration) & for all those people he inspired - meself included - to stay inspired & carry that on.

God luv ya, Wiz & thanks for everything! 

p.s.

If anyone that reads this knew Wiz or Mega City 4 & you'd like to leave a message for him, tributes have been set up. www.myspace.com/wiztribute and via the Mega's site, www.megacityfour.co.uk

Also, Wiz saved four lives by being a registered donor.

And, if you feel strongly enough that you would like to give something in memory of Wiz in lieu of flowers, the family have chosen two charities that Wiz would have liked donations to go to. Please send your donations with a cover note saying these donations are for Darren 'Wiz' Brown to either:

International Fund for Animal Welfare
Helen
87-90 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7UD

or

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice
Waverley Lane
Farnham Surrey GU9 8BL