Black Bull Supporting TV Smith 4-12-2015

It was a last minuet decision and gamble, the Black Bull we're after a support band, and i'd thought id pop our name down for it, and asked the guys if they were free on the night.

Turns out everything went our way for that gig, the guys were free and wanted to play and no other band came forward wanting to perform!

After battling the horrible wind storm from Sunderland getting through a traffic jam in Gateshead we arrived after 7pm, cold and wind swept, we grabbed the gear and loaded in while trying to keep away from the wind as long as possible.

while setting up our gear on stage, the man him self Tim (TV Smith) spotted us and we had a good chat, last time and first time i saw him was at the Toy Dolls gig in Sunderland, at that time i really did not expect i would be supporting him at a gig or even standing there in front of him having a full conversation. the first time i saw him on tv was on the Top of the pops 1977 re runs on BBC 4 singing "Gary Gilmore's eyes"

so our time had come to get on the stage and play, the punters were coming in and we kicked off with CID, and with those spot lights pointing at us we started to get a bit too hot, shooting through the set going through Spitfire then hitting in to high gear with psycho girl, and crashing into Pretty vacant, the sweat pouring down my back and my fingers slipping on the neck of the guitar, we were almost home free but it wasn't long before i came to misread the set list and played havana affair instead of head in the toilet then as we were going through alternative ulster, the worst happened, guitar string snapped on the faithful SG, probably from my heavy strumming during the songs chorus i gave in and swapped guitars coming in just in time to sing the bridge of alternative ulster, we ended the set with Beat on the brat and house of the rising sun, and at the final verse of the final song and out of breath i forgot the lyrics, well that's rock n roll!!!

after the show, we had a few drinks and chatted to Tim before saying goodbye and facing the wind battle home!!

ROCK NIGHT AT FARRINGDON SOCIAL CLUB 27-11-2015

Back with a bang in the local social club and all in the name of raising money for project Gambia.
A good friend of mine, put this whole event together so he could raise the cash to travel to Gambia.

We loaded in nice and early, trying to keep warm from the freezing cold outside, and getting ourselves set up for the show.

first up was an acoustic act, performing various covers including Oasis and Stereophonics.

We took to the stage all warmed up and revving live a V12 merlin, and blasted off with CID a UK Subs cover we enjoy playing, there was a few sound issues during the set but it didn't stop us playing.
Going through song after song of our originals and covers we ended the set with House of the Rising Sun.

the final act on was lost cause, performing various covers, including bon jovi and zz top.

in the end the the money was raised a raffle was held, and everyone had a great night.

The Rocking Magpie - Spitfire Bullets – New York City and EP

the main feature article is from The Rocking magpie you can see the original article here >>> The Rocking Magpie

The Rocking Magpie

One man's views on the world of Americana, Blues, Country, Ska, Alt. Country & Folk music

Spitfire Bullets – New York City

OCTOBER 29, 2015

Music lands on my desk from a variety of countries; yet very little from my own doorstep in the NE of England. Who knows why; possibly because I don’t belong to any of the cliques that tends to spawn musical cultures; possibly because these bands and singers don’t think I’m any good!

Which brings us the Spitfire Bullets; whose name popped up on a friend’s Twitter timeline and the name attracted me; so I got in touch even though I knew exactly nothing about them.

Before these two discs arrived I tried to research the band; but they remain mysterious and something of an enigma; although a bizarre event on my own Twitter feed unknowingly did bring them to my attention; but I wasn’t to know that at the time!

Spitfire Bullets

New York City (Single)

self-released

The Spirit of ’77 is Alive and Well.

The bands second single opens with the chorus driven New York City; instantly evoking memories of the first Damned LP and too many Toy Dolls gigs. The (unnamed) singer has a raspy voice; which is perfect for breakneck songs like this. The immediate difference between bands like Spitfire Bullets and the Punk originators is that the modern bands can play their instruments and understand the concept of production.

That last sentence gets thrown right out of the toilet window with second song Psycho Girl! Recorded ‘live’ at the CBGB’s of Wearside, Farringdon WMC this track is 110mph Stella Artois fuelled spittle enhanced Punk; with added whistles and feedback.

New York City re-enters the frey with a live version recorded at the same prestigious venue and is virtually unrecognisable as it sounds like it was recorded on a Casio Cassette Recorder just before the batteries died.

These two tracks are as awfully authentic as any Punk gig I ever attended; but not something you want to play on a first date.

Spitfire Bullets

Spitfire

self-released

Pure Fire & Brimstone Punk!

It was the cool band name Spitfire Bullets that first caught my attention; and this their debut single sounds exactly like what you would expect of a band with that moniker.

The title track Spitfire! crashes out of the speakers with some of the dirtiest guitar that I’ve heard in ages; then the singer attempts to swallow the microphone in his attempt to get his message across. The bass and drums hold the show together with gaffer tape and luck; but the end result is a doozy.

Psycho Girl starts with the traditional 1-2-3-4 and you can sense the veins popping out of the singers neck as he screams his love for two skull crushing minutes of scorching Metalic-Punk.

Head in the toilet starts with some deliberate feedback; and the tale of teenage angst wouldn’t have been out of place on a Dogs D’Amour or even those old romantics the Angelic Upstarts; but it’s unlikely to ever get played on BBC Radio2.

Then we finally arrive at the best of the bunch – She’s a Punk! The obligatory crashing guitars get the show on the road; but the produced judiciously uses his fader to allow a good song to be heard as the band get faded down when the singer sings and back up to 11 at other times.

‘Back in the day’ an observational song like this would actually have been played on Radio 1; certainly by John Peel; and possibly by the likes of Kid Jensen; but today? Highly unlikely; which is a damn shame.

So, there you have it The Spitfire Bullets keeping the Punk flag flying high in a time when the world needs more shouty music.

https://www.facebook.com/spitfirebulletsband

Spitfire Bullets new track and Whatever68 Radio.

Its been a good few months, since my last post about the corner flag but just as professor farnsworth quotes "Good News everyone" and its good news aswell!

with it soon coming to the end of 2015, the time has come for us to start slowly writing new songs for our very first album!! and to kick it all off you can check out our new song "I Don't remember" on SoundCloud just click the link >> *I Don't Remember* did i mention its also a free download too!

so with new songs coming along and plans for a album to be recorded next year, we also have a live interview on the 18th Novemeber on the Whatever68 Radio show, since this radio station is in the good 'ol US of A we will be doing the show live via Skype and chatting to punk princess lisa about the band and many many things! be sure to check out Whatever68 Radio

CORNER FLAG - 27-08-2015

Well we may haven't played for a while and the guys of Spitfire Bullets have been busy
but that doesn't stop us from getting together and playing a one off show in our local boozer!

Thursday arrived with excitement, stress and panic. Of course the odd gig has those little problems
but it happens, it happens to every band.

Spitfire Bullets loaded in to the corner flag at 6pm, not long after silence fiction had turned up.
We all chatted and had a laugh while we got to work setting up the stage, soon after the PA had arrived and work soon was under way setting up everything.

unfortunately the local rock band "Guilty" were unable to perform due to the singers illness and had to pull out, but this didn't stop us.

after Silence Fictions very loud and thunderous sound check and having to rearrange times for the bands to go on, we began the long wait for people to come down. And being a Thursday night in Sunderland which is Rock night, we hoped the misfits of the night will come crashing in hoping to hear some great music.

Silence Fiction kicked off their set with a collection of originals and covers, with some heavy screaming vocals from Shaun and clean high vocals from Emily their newest member of the band.
this band performed a great 45 min set with a small mosh pit consisting of one guy (whitey who we all know from Sunderland) be sure to check out silence fiction if you are a metal fan

Spitfire Bullets took to the stage kicking off with stepping stone and sliding into 5th gear with Spitfire, and being this year the 75 anniversary of the Battle of Britain Rob dedicated the song to those who fought in the air.
nearing to the end of the set a unusual event had occurred, the ex original bassist of Spitfire Bullets from 3 years ago was watching in the crowd, Rob and Michael hadn't spoken or seen each other since September 2013,a very long time if you think about it. Calling this as a sort of a reunion mike had joined rob for the first time in 3 years on stage as a one off performing Beat on the brat and Rock away beach. it was a short performance but was rare to see.

all in all the whole thing was a successful night.

we would like to thank the Corner Flag for putting up with us and also a big thank you to Riff Raff Guitars who hired out the PA system to make this gig possible

and of course thanks to Silence fiction to performing.

3 years and still in perfect timing on stage

the original line up 3 years ago

Acoustic solo supporting Logoz 8th August ashington

well i haven't had time to blog but here it is finally.

a few weeks back i played my very first acoustic solo supporting Logoz for me not gigging for a while it was a breath of fresh air.

soon i arrived early after looking for a car park space i caught the boys of logoz setting up the amps
and guitars, all i had to do was put in a battery and tune up my 40 year old acoustic praying the thing
wouldn't break during the set.

after about a hours hanging about it came to 8:15 and for my time to shine,

though feeling nervous, i didn't have the time to think about it i was more worried about the guitar dying, i kicked off the set with Ramones rock away beach then sliding in to 5th gear with cretin hop a personal favourite song of mine (as you can tell the whole set was mainly Ramones) while playing 4 original spitfire bullets songs for the first time acoustically, everything seemed to just go perfect, the full 20 min set ended with not a Ramones cover but a misfits track!! Astro Zombies which am sure shocked Peesh when i played it.

Peesh took over on stage with his personal solo acoustic set from his acoustic calendar challenge

these songs are just great to listen to, even performing his own version of only fools and horses hooky street track before slipping in a cover of the minder theme tune. all in all the whole set was great, the crowd was enjoying it the drink was flowing and the main band logoz hadn't even kicked off yet!

Logoz took to the stage with their amplified 100mph in your face punk rock, blasting out the tunes nice and loud (my ears were ringing for 2 days)

soon after the show, we all had a good chat then set off home.

on the 27th you can catch Spitfire bullets playing live and loud down at the corner flag with support from guilty and scilence fiction 

Radio Northumberland, Gigs and more

Recently our old drummer John had rejoined us to continue the adventure in Spitfire Bullets

In more recent news Rob was live on Radio Northumberland talking about upcoming gigs,
spreading the sound of spitfire bullets to the Cubans and attending the live radio Northumberland
under the dome event and hanging out with the guys from Logoz

GIGS GIGS GIGS!!

Spitfire Bullets have a gig coming up at the Sunderland local bar the corner flag on the 27th August with a small line up which will be announced on the face book page.

but if you can't wait till then be sure to head to Ashington to catch rob doing a one off solo acoustic
after finding a guitar small enough for rob and having to fix it up, hes strumming away and practicing a list of covers and originals for the set.

thats all for now folks but keep checking in for more updates

FORKSTER'S Daily Band Review - Spitfire Bullets New York City

July 24th 2015 Intro on Spitfire Bullets at FORKSTER

 Forkster did a review of our new Single you can see the original article here >>> Forkster

FORKSTER Introduces

Punk Rock Magnificence with that ‘Back In The Day’ Era Charge Vibe

 Spitfire Bullets

Genre: Authentic Punk Rock/Rock N’ Roll Goodness!
Location: Sunderland, England, UK

Find Their Music at: Their YouTube

********************

The Intro-Fork Tidbit on The Spitfire Bullets:
The Spitfire Bullets are an exhilarating rock n’ roll that hail out of the UK in Sunderland, England. This rocking trio bring and authentic punk rock era brilliance in ‘now present’ rock and roll music times. They have recently released their exceptional single ‘New York City’ that will ‘thrill and chill’ any true punk rock music appreciator. In my case, they exceptionally ‘roared and soared’ my ear rock module orbits with sizzling riff chord jolts, throttling mighty vocal stances, stomping huge low-end bass booms and stickman actions that are ‘bringing and swinging out the rock bounce backbone immensely. This is a glowing example that punk rock still deserves to be recognised as a rock music that still can be made respectfully satisfying in modern rock era times. On that note, these rocking cats should really excite the ear rock catalogs who love their rock musics with ‘loud and proud’ 1970’s rock/punk energy and reminds you of bands from the RAMONES to The Clash. They ‘rock it out’ huge, ‘class rock n’ roll’!

For More on these rockers:
Their Website

Forgotten Records REVIEWED: Spitfire Bullets – New York City July 22, 2015

Sunderland local Record Label Forgotten Records did a review of our new Single you can see the original article here >>> Forgotten Records Spitfire Bullets

Here's what hey made of it

Sunderland punk act Spitfire Bullets recently released their single ‘New York City’. Here’s what we made of it:

Spitfire Bullets are an act I always enjoy watching, not for the short and sweet song structures, ruthless guitar sound, or aggressive vocals – but for the defiant perseverance to even attempt to execute all of the aforementioned things in 2015. They are nearly 40 years out of place.

‘New York City’ delivers on all I expected, but is no less satisfying. At just 1:57 in length, the track is as long as a punk song probably ever needs to be. A vocal hook is established early on, with a simplistic chord structure and a surprisingly elaborate guitar solo pushed in to add variety, because why the fuck not?

The song probably doesn't do the band’s schizophrenic live sound any justice, but that’s punk music for you.

Spitfire Bullets update July 2015

Its all quiet in the spitfire bullets base....

After the highlight gig of supporting the Ramonas back in march with their stand in drummer
things have been quiet too quiet.

There has been rumours about the band quitting and packing up for good
and they are probably still going about right now.

30th of June spitfire bullets had released their newest single New York City on CD
with 4 already sold things are going steady with reviews of the CD due to be coming
in during the month, we have already heard good things about it.

the newest release

so over the past 3 months the band has been quiet apart from recording the single

and also going to a few gigs seeing a few local bands and saying hi to a few familiar faces

HAVANA AFFAIR

it seems spitfire bullets made it in to communist territory recently

back in 2014 i was on a family holiday in cuba taking in the sights of that wonderful

communist country, meeting the locals and checking out all those beautiful classic american 1950's cars. 

all in all it was a great time. Until recently.......

I received a email in june of some photos from two people in Cuba holding what appears to be

the spitfire bullets EP. eventually i found out my mam had been chatting to some locals in

the hotel who were also on hoilday and were very interested in music and so a spitfire bullets

CD was sent over with out me knowing, it was a surprise i can say that and very exciting.
below are the photos i was sent along with a caption of the locations.

taken on the steps of the Loma de la Cruz, a place that represents the City of Havana, Cuba.

this was in Key Bariay, historical place of our island, the bay the Spanish Admiral Christopher Columbus and his crew had 3 ships discovered the island of Cuba on 28 October 1492. This place is located in the municipality Rafael Freyre, Holguin province.

this was in Key Bariay, historical place of our island, the bay the Spanish Admiral Christopher Columbus and his crew had 3 ships discovered the island of Cuba on 28 October 1492. This place is located in the municipality Rafael Freyre, Holguin province.

New York City Single

New York City Single

You may have heard this song live at one of our shows or on YouTube or even heard our demo on sound cloud, but after a year of meaning to get it recorded, we have finally recorded it ready to be released!

Though it will not be available to download off the internet, we are doing it the old-fashioned way of putting it on CD with two bonus live tracks but we aren't telling you the names of them so you gotta get this CD to hear the tracks!

Just like when a band in the 70's released a single 45rpm vinyl with a A and B side. S

Such exciting times waiting for the album to come out and playing the single over and over again.

There will be a limited number of these CDs released in June so once they are gone they are gone!

the reason why we have decided to release our single on CD instead of being available to be downloaded is because we want to keep it as a physical piece so you can hold it and look at it and not just stare at some tiny picture on the screen

it may not be a vinyl record but it does have some character to it, even looking at the cover makes it more interesting.

cover photos by Lisa Volpe

What has been happening?

What has been happening?

So as most of you know our drummer John had left us back in February and we began the long and painful search for a full time drummer.

With us having to cancel a few gigs and being lucky enough to have played with the Ramonas thanks to a temporary drummer, but ever since we have been advertising in music shops on Facebook and on the internet with no luck on getting a drummer from the local area we are just sitting about and doing nothing but twiddling our thumbs and strumming guitar and asking every one we know if they know a musician but it seems there is hardly a drummer about, even a lot of bands seem to have lost drummers this year alone.

New York City.

You probably heard it at one of our gigs on YouTube or sound cloud, our fifth song "New York City" was planned to be rerecorded in 2014/2015, and it finally has. with help from Herrington Rock skool music teacher bob and his recording studio and Elliot on the electric drum kit, the full song was recorded over a couple of days and is now in the process of being mixed and mastered ready to be uploaded to sound cloud and sent to a few radio stations most notably radio Boise and radio Northumberland.

Wanna buy our EP?/

over a few weeks i have distributed the bands EP  to two local Sunderland shops

Hot Rats Records and Riff Raff Guitars, so e sure to pop down to the shops and have a look about

or even buy one!

Check out Spitfire Bullets. Review by Surrounded by music

check the site out hereCheck out Spitfire Bullets

Posted on 12/03/2015

In an era of perfect production and polished songwriting, the music scene is heaving with bands who cite classic punk acts as inspiration, yet there are so few genuine punks out there. Splintering open the door with a metaphorical hobnail boot and sweating venomous malice, meandering all the way from Sunderland, the mercilessly red raw delivery of “Spitfire Bullets”, a band that genuinely have a sound akin to the Ramones in their earliest recordings. Reeking of bad attitude and couldn’t carelessness (so it’s not a word, well we’re making it one, we’ve been listening to Spitfire Bullets, haven’t you been paying attention?), their self titled EP has been around for a while, but it’s brutish honesty really makes it worth a listen, it’s REAL punk and not for the faint hearted, but with tracks like the full throttled “Spitfire” and Ramones-esque “Psycho Girl” (replete with 1,2,3,4), “Head In The Toilet” and “She’s a Punk” this is pure homage to the New York and London punks of yesteryear.

Like we said, it’s not gonna be to EVERYONE’S taste but as far as we are concerned …Spitfire Bullets – “Gabba-gabba-we-accept-you-we-accept-you-one-of-us” https://www.facebook.com/spitfirebulletsband and https://soundcloud.com/spitfire-bullets

THINK TANK 28-03-2015 THE RAMONAS

Spitfire Bullets @ THINK TANK

Newcastle 28th march 2015

Supporting Dead By Dawn and The Ramonas

Before i start to review this gig.

none of this would have happened with out the help of Luke

who took up the offer of playing the drums with only two practice sessions of 7 hours in total managed to help us blast through the set that night.

with a cloudy day over the North east and the little Spitfire Bullet mobile all loaded up with the gear we headed off to Newcastle to support one of the most amazing all girl Ramones Tribute band The Ramonas.

finding the venue was easy just working out how to get in was tricky after working out which secret back door to open by pressing a call button and accidentally locking connor and sophie outside not knowing how to open the door again we managed to get into THINK TANK. with the stage already christened with the Ramonas back drop and back line, there was a feeling that we had gone back to 1975 to standing in CBGB'S where the 4 guys from forest hills began to make a mark in history.

after sound checking tuning up and double checking everything our time on stage was 7:15pm

I had a feeling we were all nervous for myself it wasn't the first time i supported a tribute band going back to 2012 the early line up of Spitfire Bullets supported the well known Sex Pistols Experience. But with only a short few hours of rehearsals with a temporary drummer i worked twice as hard playing to a small crowd while attempting to cue the drum changes, we kicked off with stepping stone with screeching feedback and grovelling vocals we tore into the next track of battle cries of the song SPITFIRE!!

With no thought i dedicated the next track Psycho Girl to all the crazy one direction fans slitting their wrists over some karaoke singer leaving the group, i mean come on all one Direction fans are pretty psycho. Then crashing through with a cover of pretty vacant and our newest song New York City a short and fast tribute song to the city, CBGB'S and the Ramones.

With the band going at 100mph of snarling vocals over driven amps and crashing and pounding for cymbols and snare we ended our 30min set with a old classic house of the rising sun, with a slow and chilled out intro from the original animals version into a sonic blasting cranked up snarling punk crazy version (it really gets you hammering the guitar like mad)

next up was Dead by Dawn a crazy psycho-billy rock"a"billy horror band with a huge double bass a green sparkaly gretch and female fronted ghoulish vocals they kicked off with a full set of horror ghoulish original songs including a one called "Psycho Girl" (different to ours of course) while adding in a misfits cover of London Dungeon.

And finally The Ramonas took to the stage using the sound track from the good the bad and the ugly (clint eastwood film) they walked on stage with silence ready to unleash a lighting war. with the chant heard around the world BLTIZKREIG BOP! playing through two classic albums in track and album order Ramones and Leave home within 30 min's they blast through both albums just like the Ramones did in CBGB'S with a crowd of encores they went through classics such as kkk took my baby away, cretin hop, i wanna be sedated. 

in the end of the night when everyone left, we got a few good pics and had some good conversations 

Johnny Ramone and Rohnny Ramona

Spitfire Bullets

Ramonas and Spitfire Bullets

The Ramonas

15-01-2015 The Three Tuns with the Iron Hearts

its a cold thursday night, my car's heater fans are busted and the band was all over the uk literally!!

nothing like chaos before a show!

With Connor calling me up telling me he is in work in Wales! and our ed sheeran lookalike drummer craggsy busy doing a university exam, a plan of action and precision was required for this night.

The Iron Hearts

Spitfire Bullets

it begins with a phone call

(not the actual conversation happened but it was close)

Thursday 14:00hrs   

(rob is green Connor is Purple)

"Rob its connor am at work today i'm in wales but al be back in time to play tonight can you pick my bass up and take it to the tuns i will be getting a lift there"

"what the hell wales!! ok al pick it up no problem man. Why can i hear sheep in the back ground"

"cheers and what sheep there's none here" (baa baa) "Shush you"

and just like that a plan was being worked out.

1. pick connors bass up
2. get my gear
3. head to the Winchester and have a pint and wait for the whole thing to blow over. 

but like shaun of the dead. plans can go wrong.

Heading home from work i picked up connors bass headed to my place and picked up my gear

while feezing my ass off from the icy wind we headed straight over to the tuns, amazingly we were the first band to show up.

7:30pm

finding out we were on at 9pm connor was somewhere in a van on the M1 and craggsy was still in uni

the iron hearts turned up and we had a good chat with them about gigs and veunes while sharing stories of how long the bands had been going for.

8:45 pm 

i can't remember if this was the time but our drummer turned up with his gear ready to set up

since we were first on my gear was set up as well as connor's but there was no sign of connor.

9:30pm

there was a change of plan and the iron hearts went on first with no sign of a bass player we got worried our connor was killed or kidnapped (turns out he wasn't far away)

so the Iron hearts went on first and played a killer set of original songs as a 4 piece band they kicked out some loud noises. their guitarist is one crazy guy.

round about 10:30 just as the iron hearts finished off their set in comes running a long haired person from the cold exhausted and tired, Connor had arrived. Late but least he was alive which is a good thing.

we started getting our gear set up on stage while connor caught his breath and had a quick rest, 

tuned and sound checked we kicked off with our adrenaline fuelled set one song after the other like a high speed train crashing through a station. During our song Head in the Toilet the ending solo i ended up walking off the stage to give it a bit edge since there was only a few of us in the room and plenty of space to walk about, The iron hearts guitarist came up to maybe give me a hug while playing (there is a photo of it further down) and his sister who came along shouting out "do a solo" so i gotta give what they want and a full blast guitar solo for the small audience was done!

in total for the show it was a great fun exciting and exhausting night with a band that only just got together in time on the night from work and university to play a 30 min set we some how managed it
and get some great reaction.

if you wanna check out The Iron hearts check out their facebook >> The Iron Hearts

myself and the iron hearts guitarist

  

A bit late but Happy new year / Spitfire Bullets at the Roxbury

Happy new year everyone we hope you had a great start to the year already!
i know we did!

Sweet Ammonia

Spitfire Bullets

We kicked off our 2015 with our first ever show in blyth supporting Sweet Ammonia the grungy rock band from Newcastle. we got down about 7:30 pm for load in, we got in very early as Vince the man who organises these great shows was still setting up the pa and the guys of sweet ammonia were busy setting up their amps ready for a sound check and to go through a few songs.

we set up our gear and had a quick sound check and had some spare time to chat to sweet ammonia who turn out to be Ramones fans, its great when we all have that favourite band to talk about.

so roll on 9:30pm and we go on and kick off with our set of covers and originals with only a few people in the room for our audience we shot through 13 songs within 30 mins kicking off with our usual intro song i'm not your stepping stone.
We finished off our set with our fun punk rock piss take cover of house of the rising sun.

Sweet Ammonia came on next with their full hour set of originals a few i reconsigned from listening to their sound cloud a few days ago you can hear them here > Sweet Ammonia's Sound Cloud
they are a great bunch of guys who enjoy what they are doing with a passion you should check'em out sometime. check out their Facebook page if you want >>> Sweet Ammonia Facebook