14/04/07

Hello Everyone,

Another cracking line-up for Saturday 5th May's Cockroach Club...

Making a welcome return visit to the club will be eccentrically-hatted folk troubadour Pete Molinari. Egyptian / Maltese by way of Chatham, Pete was discovered at an early age by Kent's most famous garage Stuckist, Billy Childish. His distinctive, keening vocals and brooding vista-like songs of love and loss earned him a lenghty hiatus in Greenwich Village, New York, where he perfected his art in such legendary venues as Cafe Wah and The Gaslight. Here, his authentic sound (which he describes as being like "Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen all mixed together") won over such well-known figures as Vincent Gallo, Sean Lennon and photographer Louis Stettner. Signing to Damaged Goods on his return to England, Pete's debut LP was released late last year to widespread critical acclaim, winning plaudits from Mojo, The NME, and even the Sun!

"Molinari's voice and haunting melodies left me feeling that the musical void that is present in the British music scene and on the world stage will most definitely be filled. I think he can go on to follow in the footsteps of greats like Dylan, Guthrie and where few others go.."
 - Laura Davies, NME

Ably filling the late, boozy, support slot will be Simon Sham & The Bedrocks. A stripped down, raw rock n'roll band led by The One-Eyed Cats' sharp-suited, hard-drinking frontman; The Bedrocks promise to let the good times roll with some deftly chosen fifties classics.

Promises to be another good one, but then, when isn't it?

14/04/07

Hello Cockroachers and a belated Happy Easter,
 
One week later than normal due to Charters’ excellent bank holiday beer festival, this month’s Cockroach Club (Saturday April 14th) brings together two very different acts for a night of pure, unfettered rock n’roll abandon! So, digest the last of your chocolate eggs and get ready – it’s gonna be a good’n!
 
Fresh from a Maida Vale session with Radio 2’s arbiter of taste, Mark Lamarr, The Dirty Backbeats ride their magic bus into Peterborough for the first time this year. Regular club attendees will be familiar with their unique vaudevillian take on psychedelic garage rock (which has been compared to The Cramps, The Who, Tom Waits, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Kings of Leon, among others) and will no doubt be eagerly anticipating another wild-eyed, organ-driven freak out. Since winning the Leicester band of the year competition in 2005, The Dirty Backbeats have been touring their helter skelter swamp pop around the country and winning some high profile fans along the way. As well as the aforementioned Mark Lamarr session, they’ve received airplay from Steve Lamacq, Rob Da Bank and Marc Riley on Radio 6 and Huw Stephens on Radio 1; and were recently described by Kerrang magazine as “Maniacal garage rock steeped in originality and charm…a band you need to watch twice just to confirm your drink wasn’t spiked”. One of the most eccentric and exhilarating bands we’ve seen, don’t miss this opportunity to watch them in an ‘intimate’ venue before they become international rock stars!
 
 True to the spirit of diversity which has become synonymous with the Cockroach Club, we are very pleased to announce that sharing the bill with the DBBs will be Southend-on-Sea’s premier rockabilly blues and soul-man Steve Hooker! Perhaps best known for his collaborations with Dr Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson, Mr Hooker is a near-mythical figure in rockabilly circles, having led a long, illustrious and always immaculately coiffured career in bands including The Heat and The Shakers. He has blazed a black-leather clad trail across Europe and the US several times over, playing shows with such legendary figures as Boz Boorer, Johnny Thunders and Chuck Berry along the way. Although he now usually delivers a dynamite one-man show, Steve is bringing along a full band for an extra special, wired rock n’roll spectacular. So, sort that quiff out and get ready to snap your fingers and tap your toes to the rhythm of another man’s desperation!
 
And as if that wasn’t enough… special guest DJs for the night will be Toni & Jo from Northampton’s Retrotonic club night, spinning the platters to which the Midlands thrum.
 
See you all on Saturday!

4/11/06

The Nightingales
The Nightingales was formed by former members of Birmingham's original punk group The Prefects. With an ever fluctuating line up, based around lyricist/singer Robert Lloyd, the band recorded a bunch of singles, three albums and many radio sessions for John Peel before splitting up in the late '80s.

Following various, but occasional, reformations in 2004 The Nightingales re-grouped in earnest. Since then they have released five 7" vinyl singles, played around the UK, undertaken a small U.S tour and recorded numerous radio sessions, and made their finest album yet, "Out Of True".

The current line up, and best batch yet, features Lloyd, original Prefects guitarist Alan Apperley, ex Pram drummer Daren Garratt, teenage guitar sensation Matt Wood and bassist Ste Lowe.

The 'Gales will be touring England in October. More dates in the UK and mainland Europe will follow later in the year and/or early 07. Another U.S tour is planned for Spring 2007.

The Nightingales turned in a performance of the type that will serve to confirm their excellence when other infinitely better known bands stand revealed as charlatans - JOHN PEEL, BBC RADIO ONE...

The Nightingales in Southend on Friday (19 May 06) jetted in to my top ten gigs of all time - PHILL JUPITUS, BBC 6 MUSIC...

Morally sound, cynically sweet, disturbingly comedic, carelessly and unconsciencly cool 'Out Of True' is as true as it gets - UNPEELED...

The Nightingales revisited their past and offered up the future at the Death Disco show. Still stunningly relevant - LONDON EVENING STANDARD...

The Nightingales - they're back and they're marvellous! - MARC RILEY, BBC 6 MUSIC...

Forget all these NME Band of the Week types who make out they don't care, won't compromise, etc, whilst wearing the same indie uniform andchurning out the same old tired riffs. They don't need your attention. The Nightingales do. Because rock 'n' roll rarely gets as uncompromising as this - PLASTELIN...

The greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world - DAVE HILL, THE GUARDIAN...

Kris Dollimore
Kris was born to the swampy marshes of the Medway delta, and the rural isolation of the Isle Of Sheppey on the estuary, growing up in the late 60’s and early 70’s listening to the sounds of the British blues revival. Clapton, Beck, Page, and Richards, and so back to Muddy, John Lee and the ever present figure of Robert Johnson. A professional musician his whole adult life, Kris’s career used to be one of sideman. As a session guitarist, a gun for hire, he saw the world standing alongside musicians as diverse as del Amitri, The Godfathers, Eileen Rose, The Dammed and even Adam Ant. But you can only play for others so long before you have to step up and play for yourself. And that’s just what Kris has done. Combining all the music he has always loved with the abilities hard learnt on the road for so many years, he slowly evolved a self possessed repetoir. His live shows incorporate the great and the good of the past, (Charlie Patton, Bukka White, Rev. Gary Davis, etc.), together with his own evolving songwriting. It’s in him and it’s got to come out!
 
For those who care about these things, the whole album was recorded live with very few overdubs. Mostly just Kris, in a room, with a bunch of microphones. Three tracks feature Wolf Howard, (The Buff Medway’s, The Solarflares, The Chatham Singers) on drums and percussion. No rehersal, no click track, just two guys in a room feeling their way through the music. The album also features the virtuosity of engineer Jim Riley on harp and vocal harmony. Also a spontaneous rip through one of producer Stuart Turner’s songs,The North Kent Post Industrial Blues also to feature Stuart on back up guitar and vocals. But perhaps the key song to the album is the second track, ‘Brother Ray’. A driving and insistent piece, haunted by the death of an old friend, but walking away from the past, incorporating Indian figures in the play out solo, this is the music of his surroundings.
 
02/01/1978 is the mark of where Kris stands now. Predominately his own material, this is his attempt to take the music he loves past where he found it. A blues record for now, and for here.

7/10/06

The Surgens
Twisted country surf blues, hot-welded in Beefheart-like concoctions of dirty rock'n'roll, The Surgens sound like they've fallen straight out of a Tarantino movie. "Absolutely magnificent, a truly unique sound!" - Mark Lamarr Radio 2

The Fabulous Penetrators are a group whose reputation precedes them! They play ultra good time garage rock’n’roll – they wear matching outfits and give a full-on show, not just a performance. Expect lots of dancing and hollering. Watching the Penetrators has all the joyous carefree abandon of drinking cheap martini at a party and getting your hand up a girl’s/boy’s (delete as appropriate) jumper at the age of 15 (actually that sounds good to me now). They started out playing covers of all the hits that came out of the US garage and the British beat boom. But now their finding their own path, playing their own tunes – they’re still heaps of fun though, that’s for sure. They sound like Hound Dog Taylor and Bo Diddley having a good old medieval jousting session with their gee-tars to the voice of the rotting corpse of John Lennon, a melodic French dwarf and an over-sexed bear, with the drummer from Slayer just having heard Little Richard for the first time.

5/8/06

Next cockroach club brings you another great double bill Pete Molinari (close friend of Billy Childish) and Mudlow (Brighton Blues Swampsters)
see what the press have to say

Pete Molinari
"Molinari's voice and haunting melodies left me feeling that the musical void that is present in the British music scene and on the world stage will most definitly be filled: i think he can go on to follow in the footsteps of greats like Dylan, Guthrie and where few others rarely go" -Laura Davis, NME

"With the wisdom of a seasoned rolling stone, Molinari's songs effortlessly capture the sound now synonymous with the late 60's greats ; he truly feels every damn word he sings" - Tod Drury, The New York Folk Guide

Mudlow
"With a voice like a rarely (although occasionally liberally) greased pawnshop trombone, Mudlow's Tobias wails, croons, growls and squalls across the lushly criminal sultry seaport landscape that is "Welcome To Mudlow Country"... This is frayed sharp black suit Outlaw Music..." - Rick Saunders' Homestead

"Gritty, absolutely un-PC pub blues sung with a low rasp and roar, guitar as nasty and swampy as you want. Two saxophones - thrust stage-front. Songs were lewd, deliciously so. Like Dr Feelgood given an injection of Detroit soul."- Everett True, Careless Talk

1/4/06

Deltahead - Travelling through time and space in a frantic ambulance, Deltahead leave audiences across the cosmos crying out for Peace, Junk, and Drums. Enormous bassdrums and screaming slideguitars are escorted into your eardrums by incense and confetti. Amidst a radiogram type bass speaker emanating Dali-esque horns, Benjamin Quigley plays a stand up bass sitting down whilst David Tallroth wields a slide guitar. Simultaneous singing and drumming is supplemented by erratic snatches of radio interference and, of course, the occasional washboard.  www.deltahead.net

Dogbreath - In the world of Dogbreath the Blues never left Mississippi for Chicago. Instead it stumbled around halfdrunk between the Delta and the Hill Country. Sometimes it took it´s turns to Georgia to watch a cool drag queen who´s name was Richard Penniman. In the sixties it let itself become fertilized of James Brown´s hard erected groove. Then it was Come On In for real. Hard rock, punk and even pop stood in the doorway and demanded to be noticed. The Blues (carefully nursing it´s grand grand child Hip-Hop) took a glance and said: - Cool… And kept going.

4/3/06

The Cockroach Club is back to normal this month after a chaotic February saw not one but two bands pull out due to illness. Thanks to The Forty Fours and The One Eyed Cats for stepping in at late notice. Anyway, that’s in the past and we’ve got a completely different night planned from March when The Fallen Leaves will be joining The Surgens and DJ Wolfman Jock for what should be one of the most entertaining Cockroach Club nights yet.

The Fallen Leaves, from London, have been receiving great interest since their formation in 2004 for their aggressive pop created from a history going back to the early UK punk scene. Guitarist, Rob Symmons was the founding member of the original and true version of the Subway Sect, and Rob Symmons (singer) played at the original 100 Club Punk Rock Festival with the Mortlake based Subway Sect in 1976. Also, now with the band is ex Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain bassist Phil King with King James Bradley III on drums.

Joining The Fallen Leaves will be Mark Lamarr favourites, The Surgens who will be making their first appearance in Peterborough this year after taking time out to record their debut album due to be released later this year. After an incredibly busy 2005 the Surgens are back with a vengeance to deliver their own brand of “twisted psycho country blues” and if you don’t know what that means you will once you’ve seen them!!

The DJ Wolfman Jock will be keeping everything in order, or maybe out of order, between bands and before being thrown out with the usual mental (howling?) sounds

4/2/06

Anyone who came to the second ever official Cockroach Club last year will still have firmly implanted in their minds, that amazing blisteringly quick and frenetic set performed by the 5 space travelers and robot (M.I.L.O) that go under the name of Copter. Well, they’re back this month at the Cockroach Club complete with M.I.L.O., telephone mics and Flash Gordon outfits playing their needle-down rock & soul from outer space to your inner ear.

For the uninitiated Copter (on stage 11.00pm) play with a fierce right side of the brain and are all about fire and soul. They have played live with Blues Explosion, The Dirtbombs, Viva L'American Death Ray Music, The Hunches, The Soledad Brothers, Weird War, Mr. Airplane Man, The Immortal Lee County Killers, Speedball Baby, Bob Log III, Kid Congo Powers, The Woggles, The DT's, The Ponys, Rocket Science, The Mistreaters etc.

Will definitely be another rockin’ night and when was the last time you saw a savage rock’n’roll band with a real robot as the frontman!

Supporting Copter will be The Forty Fours (on stage 12.15pm) playing their stripped down ol’ time stomping blues. This two piece band (guitar/vocals and drums) were recently formed after the disintegration of Leicester “punk blues” band Pig Iron Joe, and describe themselves as a mix between R L Burnside and the White Stripes; so that’s a dead man in a red and white suit! Only kidding guys.

Throw in The Wolfman spinning his usual eclectic mix of Pa Pa Oo Mow sounds and another stonkin’ night will be assured once again at the Cockroach Club. You betcha!

7/1/06

Well 2005 didn’t last long did it! I know your all feeling fed up, skint, depressed, (fat!) etc. after the last couple of weeks but we have the perfect antidote to cure those post Christmas blues. Anyone who came to the Cockroach Club last year to see the fantastic Dirty Backbeats will be pleased to hear that they are returning to once again cause havoc and mayhem to our first club night of 2006. If you didn’t catch them before, don’t miss them this time as we probably won’t be able to afford them when they become international rock stars, probably later in the year!!

It’s been a busy 12 months for The Dirty Backbeats; winning the Leicester band of the year competition, and gaining some high profile fans through their manic live shows and mixed up psychedelic bluesy, Zeppy kinda Beefheartish cacophony of sound! Steve Lamacq  thought "They sound like Kings Of Leon meets the Sensational Alex Harvey Band … with a bit of The Coral thrown in." and The Fly reckon they are "Like a gypsy circus troupe with rabid Jack White ringmaster, The Dirty Backbeats act like they're the first to grow their hair and play awesome psychedelic garage rock." Guaranteed to be great.

Supporting the Dirty Backbeats is Manchester’s very own alcohol fuelled punk country blues band The Medicine Bow. The band has been described as sounding like “Ten Benson taking on Kings of Leon at their own game, or Johnny Thunders playing the part of a deranged backwoodsman in Deliverance. They take their cues from various swamps, back-alleys and rot-gut juke joints, hammering out ramshackle jug-blues on whatever boxes, tea-chests and old planks they can lay their hands on.” Should be an interesting night!

Also, we have the welcome return of the Wolfman Jock spinning those Pa Pa Ooh Mow sounds after being unable to make last months Cockroach Club. Unfortunately, he was kidnapped by some local peasants who locked him up in a chip shop all night!

10/12/05

Well, the Cockroach club ends the year back where it started this month; at the Brewery Tap. So it’s a happy growling, dirty, country, blues Christmas to ya’ll from the Cockroach Club with a special “seaside flavour” when we welcome both Mudlow and The Dials who’ll be crawling up from their old shacks on the pebble beaches of Brighton to join The Surgens and DJ Wolfman Jock for the Cockroach Christmas drunken extravaganza.

Apparently, Mudlow isn’t just a band, it’s a place. Characters, stories and landmarks combine to paint a sleazy picture. Formed from the ashes of Brighton swamp-rock favorites Crawl Limbo, Mudlow is inspired by screwed-up blues, garage, country, klezmer, striptease and more. The sound is dirty as the swamp that spawned it and sexy as hell with screaming sax, hollering harmonica and dirty guitars while the sleazy growling vocals bring to mind obvious comparisons with Tom Waits and Nick Cave.

The Dials obviously live a bit further up the beach from Mudlow where it’s a little less dangerous. They describe themselves as “acid country folk-garage pioneers”. Don’t know what that means but if you can think of a big boiling English stew made from late 60’s “country period” Byrds, The Carter family and Blind Willie Johnson then your getting close. Pedal Steel, banjo, keyboards, b-benders, etc., you know the sort of thing. Should be exceptional!

Of course we couldn’t end the year without a final appearance in 2005 from the Surgens who’ll once again be twisting everything rootsy! Now enjoying a modicum of success after a recent play of “Twisted Brain” on the Jonathan Ross show when Mark Lamarr stood in! Ooooooooh!!

Once again it should be an unmissable night, oh, and I almost forgot to mention that the tree pipe beast himself, Wolfman Jock, will be filling in the spaces between the bands with the monster Pa Pa Oo Mow sounds!

12/11/05

This months Cockroach Club brings you one of the Hottest bands in London right now Vincent Vincent and the Villains. Just have a look at what the press have to say

"One of the hottest bands in London, if not the whole of the UK. It's slick stuff, indeed from the remarkable Vincent Vincent And The Villains." PHIL ALEXANDER, MOJO, MAR 2005

"No one on the scene today can belt a tune, sock it, rock it, roll it, ride it and bring the walls tumbling down like Vincent Vincent and the Villains." FLUX, JUL/AUG 2004

"Vincent Vincent and the villains are big favourites and show great promise" JOHN KENNEDY, THE FLY, JAN 2005

"On My Own...one of the best songs of 2004...Expect wonders from The Villains in 2005" JOHN KENNEDY, XFM APRIL 2005

"Ace pomade-packing punkery from East London's riotous doo wop primitives. The look's retro, the attitude right this very minute." KEITH CAMERON, MOJO, MAY 2005

"Every now and then you get a piece of music, just rhythm and melody - it comes through - and everybody takes a look at each other when they hear it for the first time and they just know...they just know that this is the kind of music that you've got to spread love to…you gotta play it for people...you gotta spread the word…you gotta let them feel it...feel it wherever you are. If you're driving in your car. If you're sitting at home. If you're doing the dishes…homework...still at work…walking down the street. Perhaps even if you're thinking about committing a crime - don't. Listen to this piece of music. It'll change your life...as we introduce you to Vincent Vincent and the Villains, 'On My Own'." ZANE LOWE, RADIO 1, MARCH 2005
"'Blue Boy' and 'The Boy Who Killed Time'...absolutely lovely stuff, an excellent piece of work." GIDEON COE, BBC6MUSIC, APRIL 2005
"These four young guns look good and boy, do they sound good. On the evidence of this cool, boppin' and swingin' affair dedicated to those unlucky in affairs of the heart, they've got it…baby" BBC LONDON
"With a name that's hard to forget and a sound that makes them instantly recognisable, Vincent Vincent And The Villains are a welcome reminder that rock 'n' roll isn't all about blazing amplifiers and trashing hotel rooms" XFM.CO.UK

for more info visit http://www.vincentvincentandthevillains.com

15/10/05

OK we’re a couple of days late, but as the very first John Peel Day will take place on Thursday October 13th the nearest the Cockroach club could get is the 15th and consequently we are putting on a very special night to celebrate John's life and massive contribution to music and broadcasting with a night of bands and music with a strong Peel connection.

Firstly we have Country Jem and DM Bob who are none other than Jem Finer from “The Pogues” and DM Bob. Obviously, Jem needs no introduction as the banjo player and founder member of The Pogues who were one of John Peel’s favourite bands and had numerous sessions on his Radio 1 show. He will be joined by DM Bob who had several Peel sessions with DM Bob and the Deficits. Together they produce pretty much what you’d expect, which is a raw dirty country blues party!

If that’s not enough, we have Jawbone!!  Peel was a huge supporter of Jawbone - inviting him over from the USA to record a special live session at the BBC's Maida Vale studios and happily telling anyone (including Jack White during a White Stripes special) who'd listen that Jawbone's debut album Dang Blues was one of the finest released in 2004. His support did not go amiss and Jawbone's subsequent tour of the UK was a massive success, winning him a loyal following right across the country and a very honourable two appearences in the top twenty of Peel's final Festive 50.  Jawbone is a one-man-band blues assault from Detroit that has a sound that strips the Blues to its bare-bones with a primeval stomp that's the missing link between Lightning Hopkins, Zoot Horn Rollo and The White Stripes.  Wow! Surely you can’t miss this?

The final Peel connection is our very own house band, The Surgens, who in Hanky Dog and Black Dixon, and ex member Wolfman Jock, had a Peel session and numerous airplay with The Pleasureheads and Plastic Hip!

Whats more the John Peel type sounds in between the bands will be spun by Wolfman Jock on the night!

10/09/05

It’s well and truly back in bluesland this month at the Cockroach Club, when we welcome all the way from Detroit (well, Toledo actually which is quite near); Dooley Wilson together with The High Plane Drifters who will be travelling almost as far from Stockton!

This really is a great chance to see one of the prime movers within the current crop of amazing young blues influenced bands to come out of Detroit and Ohio scenes in the last few years like The White Stripes, Black Keys, Soledad Brothers etc. In fact, Dooley Wilson actually penned the song “Goin’ back to Memphis” whilst with obscure garage blues band “Henry and June”, which was later covered by The White Stripes, The Von Bondies and The Soledad Brothers. The link goes even further with The Soledad Brothers as both Ben Swank and Johnny Walker were both also in “Henry and June” before going on to form The Soledad Brothers.

When playing on his own Dooley Wilson is a mind blowing slide guitarist who may well be the closest living flesh bound soul to be put on par with the likes of John Lee Hooker or Charley Patton. Whilst his guitar style might hark back to the early bluesmen like Robert Johnson don’t expect a nice finger in your ear quite folk night in the Cockroach Club!!

Supporting Dooley Wilson are the two piece eccentric musical outlaws calling themselves The High Plane Drifters, who will be playing their own particular brand of bastardised experimental psych garage blues. They are one of the most exciting bands we’ve seen this year and produce a gut wrenchingly powerful sound from just one guitar and drums. They are now deservedly achieving an ever-growing reputation for their ecstatic live performances and captivating songs through what would seem to some as a gruelling few years touring ( I’ve counted up 49 gigs for this year so far all over the country!).

Add in the sounds of the Wolfman Jock (how many versions of Louie Louie are there?) and I just don’t think you’ll forgive yourself if you miss this one!!!

20/08/05

This month’s Cockroach Club is pleased to welcome our friends from London’s excellent punk rock blues club, “Not the Same Old Blues Crap”. They’ll be bringing with them two of the bands featured on it's recent critically acclaimed sampler record, "This is Punk Rock Blues Vol #1", which is a compilation of all the acts that have played at NTSOBC in the last year.

We’re already trembling at the prospect of seeing the Stoke Newington sonic blitzkrieg AKA Gin Palace who have been described by KERRANG as “Rock 'n' Roll At It's Basest, It's Most Thrilling And Elemental - The Purest Spirit Of Adrenalised Garage Fury". We’d say they manage to fuse the meanest elements of PJ Harvey, Link Wray and the Stooges, and maybe a bit of blues in there! Unmissable.

Supporting Gin Palace will be Catweezel; a one man blues experience who opened the first ever NTSOBC 15 months ago. Apparently, Catweezel makes home made magic pie and lives in a round treehouse!

The Pa Pa Oo Mow inbetween bits as usual will be expelled from the Wolfman Jock.

 23/07/05

A special night indeed, is in store for “ ‘roachers” this month when the Cockroach Club proudly introduces the very wonderful Mr David Viner.

This ain’t gonna be no “nu blues”crap night but a chance to experience one of the UK’s truest blues musicians. Despite only being in his early twenties, David Viner displays the soul, pain and torment in the tradition of America’s finest early folk bluesmen. He is capable of blending the music of Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt with an almost “Dylanesque” lyrical quality.

David’s last album “This Boy Don’t Care” was recorded at Toerag Studios (White Stripes Elephant was recorded there) with The Soledad Brothers and has received wide critical acclaim. The NME stated that the album “defines Viner as an obscure legend, shiningly miserable and lovingly gruff”, whilst The Guardian observes that “Viner’s simple songs hark back to a time in the British sixties that fetished the roots music of the American twenties and beyond”.

Supporting Mr David Viner will be the Cockroach Club’s would be house band The Surgens, bringing their usual confused and often misunderstood musical and visual melee. Will it be Coats or Western Shirts; oh I’m not sure! But I am sure that a Wolfman will leap from behind the spinning wheels, devour a Doormouth and look down the barrel of a tree pipe!!! Just another strange experience at the Cockroach Club.

11/06/05

The next Cockroach Club turns all garage punk blues when it hosts two of the UK’s rawest and down right dirty alternative blues bands; Chicken Legs Weaver and the Dirty Back Beats.

Chicken Legs Weaver have been described by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore as “clearly the best band to come out of Britain for some time”. They are now gaining fans in Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic for their own raw and honest blues which blends the energy of New York punk with chilling socially conscious lyrics spat out in an almost Waitsesque growl by Andy Weaver. The bands excellent debut album, Nowhere, was produced in New York by the legendary Johnny Dowd. Enough said!

The amazing Dirty Back Beats produce garage blues that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nuggets album, but more important than that, they are a truly wild and fantastically chaotic live act with a fetish for bourbon biscuits. Don’t go too near the front though, or a giant may trample on you!

Once again the Pa Pa Oo Mow sounds will be spun out by DJ Wolfman Jock. Sounds like another mental night? You betcha!

14/05/05

This Saturday sees the return of the Cockroach Club to Charters after a temporary shift of venues last month to the Brewery Tap. The evening is being billed as a Surf n Sci-fi party featuring the legendary Sir Bald Diddly and his Wig-outs, and those deranged men from outer space; Copter.

Sir Bald & his Wig-outs first saw the light of day in 1990 and are now renowned throughout Europe for their fantastic live sound and action packed show, playing some of the finest garage rock'n'roll and surf you could wish to hear. They have toured with Supergrass and Dick Dale and their numerous record releases have received widespread airplay from the likes of Mark Lamar and the late John Peel. As well as playing a live session on the Mark Radcliffe Show the bands music has been used on a BBC film soundtrack and many TV adverts in the UK and US.

Supporting Sir Bald will be Copter who will be arriving in their spaceship via Birmingham accompanied by a robot playing alien garage blues and rock'n'roll.

Sandwiching the bands with roots music with a difference will once again be DJ Wolfman Jock spinning new and old sounds in garage/punk blues, surf, psychedelic, rockabilly, country, pop obscurities, you know the sort of thing!!


CLUB NIGHTS