The Flat Tops Supporting Kickback Generation 25-11-2016

It was the first time we've played in this bar, but for myself and Gilley it was our first return to Boldon Colliery after 5 years, last time we played was in the crown just 5 mins away from the flat tops, long story short, it was an awful gig being our second one as a rock band who just started out!

But anyway its in the past and this is now! we all loaded in to this interesting pub on a cold November evening, with the locals drinking and a stage layout I've never seen before, vinyl records all over the walls and big bright stage lights. It seemed to me this bar loves their local music scene!

We hopped on stage ready to take off our set, with a huge Marshall rig behind me cranked up to 11 and gilleys huge bass rig cranked up aswell, we kicked off a loud set going into our usual opening song CID by UK Subs and making it loud! we had a great crowd reaction from our mixed up set of originals and covers. i think we found the best venue to play at too! Then just as the set is going good and we were nearing the end, it just had to happen, the guitar string snapped during the song "Head in the toilet" so without stopping i had to do a quick change of guitars and carry on the song from the chorus, well its what happens when you play hard and fast! (also it was caught on video which i wasn't expecting)

we blasted through the full hour set nice and loud and even got a few encores in on the end.

We finished on Rock away beach and left the stage ready for Kickback generation, it was our first time supporting them too!

Kickback generation took to the stage with their anti-consumerism set kicking off with "Profits Not Enough" a great track to hear live along with their other track "stuff" they even stuck in a short cover of UK Subs emotional black mail!

all in all the night wen't quite well even though it was really cold and my car was frozen up with ice and frost.

Be sure to check out kick back generation on facebook >>> kickback generation facebook

Museum Vaults *Symbient EP Launch*

Museum Vaults *Symbient EP Launch*

Well i don't know how to start this blog off, its been a while since i wrote the last one but here it goes!

Sunday saw us take to the stage for the first time with our new drummer Harmony, with only a few rehearsals with our newest member who joined us in August, there was no pressure to show off our guns!

I was nervous for our first gig, thinking ahead on how to help our drummer during the set in case of something happens and she forgets the song or the set, but Harmony was very nervous herself, with this being her very first band and also her very first gig with a proper gigging band, we were keeping her calm and from talking her through the set and what would or could happen, i would say anything can happen so expect the unexpected!

So we took to the stage (carpet floor) in a very cramped layout with a huge PA system towering over us and a crowd of eagerly waiting punk fans and musicians waiting for us to kick it off. 

We kicked off the set with UK SUBS CID making it a loud entrance to show we're back on the scene!

going through our set list of our original songs and the odd cover and a crowd being pushed back by the volume of the band, we were on top form, with Harmony being cheered and welcomed by the young punk crowd, and flying through the set, i wasn't expecting it but we all put in 100% of hard playing that day, even had to do a encore at the end to fill out our time limit, with that song being Pretty Vacant!

all in all the day was very successful with our newest member of Spitfire Bullets she showed some amazing drumming and performing on the day. Not to forget Symbient's amazing set with them releasing their very first EP, for their final encore i joined them on stage to play a few Ramones tracks "I believe in miracles" and "Blitzkreig bop" ending on the classic track Teenage kicks!

Both Bleach and Symbient played amazing sets on the day with Raish of Bleach performing twice by stepping in on the drums for Symbient as their main drummer Jay had broken his thumb.

we have alot more gigs coming up! so keep a look out on our facebook page

North East Unity At Graft Night @ The Black Bull 22-04-2016.

Well this was a very exciting night, for myself and Spitfire Bullets, our main drummer boy was unavailable to play the gig as such short notice due to his work schedule so i asked a young lad i know very well called Elliot to hop on the drums and learn our full set within 3 days for the gig, and he didn't disappoint us!

We got to the Black Bull nice and early to load in, have a quick game of pool and an adventure to burger king for something to eat.

poor lad was in the back seat with all the gear

once we got back, Anord were busy setting up and sound checking, soon it would be us to set up sound check and kick off the night of Punk Rock!!

8:30 soon arrived, we hopped on stage, did a quick check on sound tuning, making sure Elliot remembered the set and kicked it off with our opening track CID! taking things slow for this gig we blasted our way through our usual set list of covers and originals within our 30 min set finishing off with a high tempo of Beat On The Brat!!

Anord took to the stage with their Anarchy hardcore angry screams and grunts about David Cameron, being stuck on the dole and Katie Hopkins with a back line of screaming feed backing guitars and awesome Mowhawks. 

Keyside Strike took to the stage as the main headliners blasting out some wall of sound hardcore punk, with snarling vocals wah wah wailing guitars, heavy bass lines and good laughs even covering a few very very short songs such as "You Suffer" By Napalm death

All in all it was a great night as such short notice, its amazing when a group of punk bands can come together and instantly get a gig sorted within a week!!

Spitfire Bullets would like to thank the Black bull, Anord and Keyside strike for having us and a big thank you to Elliot for jumping on the drums for us at last min to play a great set list!!

Be sure to check out Anord and keyside strike on facebook and buy their merch!!!!

  

Rock Skool wall of fame, and the Black Bull

Happy new year to you all!
and i hope you all got a hangover aswell.

To kick off my first blog of 2016 a few exciting things have came up!

Firstly Rock Skool in Herrington, where i started going when i first picked up the guitar back in 2009. This has been pretty much my second home of music, i've never stopped going after learning guitar and still getting lessons on how to play the dam thing! but after all those years i got my name on the wall along with Spitfire Bullets it is quite an honour aswell its just like being inducted in to the Rock and Roll hall of fame but with out the speeches or the snobby people in the front row wearing Tuxedos, (watch iggy pop performing at the RNRHOF to understand what i mean, like just go watch it now here is the link to it too >>iggy pop did you watch it?? see told you all them suited up people just sitting there not understanding what is going on lol) anyway back to the blog

So on to the Black bull for our first gig of 2016!!

and what a corker of a gig! it only started off with Rotunda offering us a support slot for their mini uk and Scotland tour but it has now turned in to a huge all day punk fest! i guess you could call it celebrating 40 years of punk mini all dayer gig! with a great line up too!

Did we mention we may have some new songs out too! two in fact we hope to be playing them live for the very first time aswell!

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

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