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

The Borough 18-11-2016

Well what an unusual night it turned out to be for us!

it was a cold night to start off with and the Borough was ready for the punk rock night!

with local rockers Bleach for support on the line up and from what we saw in the borough down stairs, which was a lot of punk rock fans. turned out to be a huge huge let down on the local music scene.

With only a hand full of people, came down to support bleach and ourselves on the night, and after all the work we had put in to our drummer bringing her drum kit from home, myself and mike sorting out the back line and PA system on the night. it was a let down for both bands and the local music scene.

so with the band loaded in and ready to go, Bleach set off their set of wild screaming vocals, ear piercing feedback screaming guitar and thundering drums to the small crowd. 

with a room big enough to hold 30 to 40 people only a 3rd of that was there to watch the bands play. 

Bleach finished up their set and we were in mixed emotions for tonight's set, with being used to playing crowded bars and a relaxed environment. i was quite on edge for the nights gig. i had no clue what or how anything was going to happen during that set.

we kicked off our hour long set with UK Subs CID, going through the set at 100mph in your face punk rock, but still no one showed up. So eventually the gig became a sort of intimate gig playing to the small crowd of local punkers who showed up to support both bands.

all in all is was a night of mixed emotions but still was a great night and more experience for our new young member of the group harmony who is still getting used to playing the punk gigs round the pubs and clubs.

Let's Talk Punk With Spitfire Bullets from the UK Interview By: Lisa/PunkrPrincess

We recently did a interview with  Lisa/PunkrPrincess for punk globe magazine! here is the article
you can also see the original article here >>> PunkGlobe Magazine

Let's Talk Punk With
Spitfire Bullets
from the UK
Interview By: Lisa/PunkrPrincess

Spitfire Bullets are an awesome band from the UK always supportive and rockin great tunes if you can see them live do and check out their sites:
http://spitfirebullets.wix.com/spitfirebulletsband
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/spitfirebulletsband/?fref=ts
Bandcamp
https://spitfirebullets.bandcamp.com/
and most other social media sites.

PUNK GLOBE: Hello guys and thanks for the interview, can you tell us the current band line up?

Spitfire Bullets: Hey Lisa thank you for interviewing us, at the moment our main line up is myself Robert on Lead Vocals and Guitar Michael on Bass Guitar and vocals And john on Drums, but he has just recently left the band.

PUNK GLOBE: How long have you been a band and are you all original members?

Spitfire Bullets: The band has been going for 4 years, and Rob and mike are the main original founding members, we have been playing together since 2010 when we first started out in a rock band together.

PUNK GLOBE: Tell us about your music scene in the UK.

Spitfire Bullets: The music scene in the UK, well in our area it varies from each year sometimes a big music scene then nothing!, but across the country its quite a big scene, with new bands forming almost every month!

PUNK GLOBE: Where are some of your favorite venues to play at?

Spitfire Bullets: we do have a few haha, our main venue we enjoy playing at is The Black Bull in Gateshead, its pretty much our version of CBGB’S! There is also the Borough pub in our hometown, where mike and me played our very first gig.

PUNK GLOBE: Who are some of the bands you have played shows with?

Spitfire Bullets: we have played with Rotunda, Logoz, TV Smith, The Ramonas, The Sex Pistols Experience, Angry Itch, Happy Spastics, that’s all I can think of.

PUNK GLOBE: Any tours in past or future?

Spitfire Bullets: we never done a tour before, but we would love to do one in the future just a mini tour round the UK, playing with the bands we previously played with.

PUNK GLOBE: What inspires you?

Spitfire Bullets: Lots really, The Ramones are a big inspiration to the music, and the writing but its mainly our lives growing up in Sunderland what inspires us more than anything else.

PUNK GLOBE: When and why did you start playing?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: I started playing at 17 years old, I was in college doing a course to be a car mechanic, and just thought it might be fun trying out to play guitar and learn a few chords, 7 years later and am still playing so I must be good haha.

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: I took up guitar first in school during music class but I had a hard time playing cause it was too small for my hands, until my teacher gave me a bass to try and that was it. I just couldn’t put it down.

PUNK GLOBE: Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: I do admire Johnny Ramone, just because of his playing, I know people say it a lot but when I first saw a video of the Ramones playing live and saw Johnny’s Guitar playing, at the time of still learning the guitar I really didn’t know you could do that on a guitar, I always thought it was up and down strumming, not strum down really hard and angry and have no guitar solos, it was perfect!

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: Cliff Burton is one of my favorite bassist, I do like Metallica, and his playing style really got me into playing bass, it just made me want to play like him and own a Rickenbacker

PUNK GLOBE: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: the best memory I can think of is the time I saw PIL in Sunderland playing a small festival and I stood right in front of Johnny Rotten staring at him in amazement. I was so close to him I could shake his hand.

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: Its probably the time me and rob played Houghton Feast in 2012, we were told we’d be playing in front of a crowd of 1000 people or more, but it was actually 10 or 20,000 I can’t remember, we played a cover of God Save the Queen, and Rob was very nervous that day after being told how many people we were performing in front of.

PUNK GLOBE: What are the best and worst things if any of being a musician?

Spitfire Bullets: The best things, is being able to write your own music and express yourself in your own way, the other best thing is you get to meet some awesome bands and hang out with them! the worst things, is just trying to find the same like minded members or even work round your day job to play and perform in a band.

PUNK GLOBE: Do you get nervous before a performance?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: Yep but it depends on the gig, like when we supported the Ramonas I couldn’t sleep the night before, and on stage I stuttered a lot during breaks between songs But if its just a plain old local punk band supporting punk band gig and its mainly friends at the show, my nervousness just goes and I end up very calm.

PUNK GLOBE: What advice would you give a new band starting out?

Spitfire Bullets: Practice hard no matter how bad you think you are, just practice hard write terrible songs if you have to or play covers and play any gig you get offered, even if its an open mic, “A GIGS A GIG” as we always say start from the bottom and work to the top.

PUNK GLOBE: Describe your music making process.

Spitfire Bullets: This is a tricky one, usually its Rob who comes up with the lyrics and guitar parts, he would come up with a song idea from either reading a book, watching a film or just having conversations with friends. Then he would play about with it, write down the lyrics and try and work a guitar style round it, sometimes he would listen to a certain band to get the drum beat idea or even how the guitars would go in his song. Mike comes up with any bass lines that can fit on either instrumental parts of the song, or what would fit round the vocals. And John would record our little jam and come up with a beat at home on his drum kit, then we would practice it until its perfected.

PUNK GLOBE: Any upcoming shows or news you would like to announce?

Spitfire Bullets: We haven’t got any shows booked just yet, but we would like to announce we do have two demo tracks of our newest original songs on Soundcloud and we have recently released our EP and single for Download on Bandcamp! We also have T shirts!!! And patches on sale at the bandcamp site too!!

PUNK GLOBE: Any shout-outs you would like to give?

Spitfire Bullets: I wanna give a shout out to Richie Ramone, Charlie Harper, Lisa PunkrPrincess, Punk Globe Magazine Readers, our good friends Logoz and all of our friends who support Spitfire Bullets and our Music!

PUNK GLOBE: Thanks for the interview and your continued support You Rock!

Spitfire Bullets: Thank you PunkrPrincess and Punk rock globe for interviewing us!!! It was fun!

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!!!!

  

BottleNeck - The John Doe Experiment & Spitfire Bullets | The Borough | March 18, 2016 | REVIEW

BottleNeck did a review of our recent gig at the borough you can see the original article here >>BottleNeck

Nestled upstairs in The Borough on a chilly Friday night, two local bands scurried around trying to get the “stage” set up, stage is said loosely, as it was just a corner of the pub next to the bar. The backdrop of the “stage” being a large black flag sporting the words “The John Doe Experiment” in big red letters. The venue is very small, sort of ‘U’ shaped, with limited seating, meaning most punters had to stand, not that it was a problem. The music was worth it.

Photo credit to Chris Baker.

As more and more folk congregated in the tiny upstairs area, it was almost time for the first band to take to the floor – Spitfire Bullets. The embodiment of punk, Spitfire Bullets formed in Sunderland in early 2010, and consists of Rob with vocals and lead guitar, Gilley on bass, and John on drums. The trio are clearly influenced by The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash, among others. Playing a handful of songs, from covers to originals, Spitfire Bullets well and truly ripped apart The Borough, Rob’s downpicking was so ridiculously fast that it was impossible to see his hand without it being blurred. Starting every song with a “1,2,3,4” chant like any good punk band would, Spitfire Bullets ended their set with a Ramones cover. But that wasn’t enough, the audience wanted more. The guys made the snap decision to play an intense punk cover of House Of The Rising Sun, which was absolutely mind-blowing. It was clear to see that Spitfire Bullets had a great time playing their set, and it was a shame for it to end!

But next up was the headlining act – The John Doe Experiment. Bottleneck interviewed them beforehand, and they are a bunch of the most down to earth guys (and gal), that you could wish to speak to, they all lead very different lives, but one thing they have in common is their love for music. Coming from all over Tyne and Wear, The John Doe Experiment consist of Louise Snowdon as the lead vocalist, Tom Holmes playing the lead guitar, John Hughes on rhythm guitar, Mark Young on drums, and Mike Todd on bass. Together they create something pretty special which is much to be admired.

Starting their set with a very catchy intro singing “we are The John Doe Experiment and we play rock ‘n’ roll”, the band were absolute crowd pleasers playing covers such as Blitzkrieg Bop and many of their originals such as Psycho Killer and Roxy. The different band members complement each other perfectly, and their banter between songs is great too. Getting heckled from the audience doesn’t seem to phase them either, often having long conversations between songs with various different people in the audience.

The band played one of their original songs, Kryptonite, which is a “standard superhero song”, which starts a conversation between the band and the crowd about who Louise’s favourite superhero is. Kryptonite is just an all round feel-good, fun song, which had everyone bopping around and having a good time.

Sadly though, all good things have to come to an end, and this was so for The John Doe Experiment’s set. The whole night was a success, the pub was packed full of like-minded music lovers, and both bands put on an absolute stellar performance.

Listen to The John Doe Experiment performing Kryptonite below:

Check out Spitfire Bullets and The John Doe Experiment on their Facebook pages.

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

12-12-2014 Golden Lion Show and other news

With a early load in of 7:45 we were the first band there with all the gear guitar amp a bassist myself and guitar and bass but no drummer (he turned up eventually he got lost LOL) with only two bands on the set the boys from Black Bloc stepped in to do a short set of anarchic punk kicking off with Anti-nowhere leagues "So What"!!! mixing in originals and ending the set with sarin taking the vocals on SLF classic Alternative Ulster (which we covered but dedicated to them :-) ) we set up our gear and we got a lend of all out attacks bass amp we nearly ended up borrowing black blocs guitar amp to use as a bass amp we might have blown it if we did!. With a cheap karaoke microphone a really good PA system to use and the bars own HI FI speakers used for the bad and drunken karaoke singers for the sound we kicked off our set with stepping stone with feedback squealing from the mics we pushed on going through our set, until the microphone stand got tired and collapsed looks like my gaffer tape on the floor keeping the stand up didn't work sadly. we finished the set with a cover of house of the rising sun our own way which got the punters of jarrow looking confused bewildered and more drunk.

All out Attack took to the stage which now looked very crowded considering the stage is quite big they kicked off their set of originals and adding a Motorhead "class no class" they were loud and the PA some how managed to take the sound well but they were pulled it off well,

Spitfire Bullets

Black Bloc

All Out Attack

IN OTHER NEWS

i have been working on a side project blog called LOUDMOUTH  > http://loudmouthpunkzine.blogspot.co.uk/
the blog will be a monthly update on reviews local bands and whats on
I already kicked off the site with a blog review of Collisions EP released this year and it seemed to go off well so this january you can see a full page of local bands, reviews and local gigs and who to check out so keep your eyes open.

Up coming GIG Golden Lion Jarrow 12-12-2014

so with one week to go we will be down at Jarrow blasting out some fast Punk Rock fun of our usual set list of covers and originals in a supporting slot for the headlining Group "All Out Attack"

we're gonna get some rehearsals down in the Bunker and do a bit maintenance to our gear before the day comes, cause we don't want a G string snapping or an amplifier Blowing.

in other news Rob has been creating a new blog site called Loudmouth for reviews and news on punk and alternative bands you can check it out here >>> http://loudmouthpunkzine.blogspot.co.uk/

thats all for now folks!!

The Corner Flag 08-11-2014

Our second gig with our new Bass player Conner who fitted in perfect with the "bullets"

the bar was slowly filling up with punters misfits and the usual Uplifting Gormandizers. with the sun setting and the night coming in fast we loaded in to the Corner Flag at 7:45 and hung about waiting for the stage to be set

The night was kicked off at 9pm with sittin pretty playing a collection of clash inspired reggae style originals while adding a few covers including a Beatles one! with lead vocalist Raish with his joe strummer style playing on the strat while his boys complemented the sound of fuzzy bluesy riffs and heavy bass lines with a good strong drum beat, 

next up was Fire Lady luck a green day inspired pop punk band they were known as the Blitz before their name change they played a mixed set of Green Day covers and originals through a very loud wall of sound with their lead singer Billie Joe lookalike taking up center stage with his left handed les paul double cutaway.

soon it came to our time to shine, the stage was set and all was quiet with a loud 1234!!! we kicked off our set with a cover of a sex pistols cover version of I'm not your stepping stone then going to one of our originals Spitfire!!! a song dedicated to a familiar aircraft every body knows, the one that won the Battle of Britain. we finished off our set with a punk cover version of house of the rising sun.

but before we could pack up we got Raish up of sittin pretty to join us for a jam playing Beat on the brat and blitzkreig bop and tried a cover of anarchy in the uk before finshing off.

the whole night was a fun exciting and very loud! we didnt get home till about 1am 

our next gig is down at Jarrow on the 12th December at the golden lion supporting all out attack

8 simple rules to play on a backline

I saw this on a forum and i think every band can relate to this not just us but every band that has either lends or shares their gear to other bands, luckily we have never had any of our gear broken, damaged or stolen

all we ask is you to look after it and respect it and we will respect you

Dear band members who aren’t playing on their own back line.

The last couple of years we shared our backline A LOT. We actually don’t mind doing so

Often we are happy about it, but we don’t mind. The reason why we are not always

Happy about it is because some unwritten rules of playing on someone else’s backline are (too) often broken.

These rules are very simple and based on common sense and respect.

1.You break you pay! – Sorry man, but you broke it and we were already kind enough to lend you our gear.

2.Help (un)loading the van – The backline owners probably had to leave work early to get the gear you need to the venue. They will also have to unload all the stuff late at night after the show.  Ask if you can help (un)loading at the venue. This will be much appreciated, as they don’t have to carry it all 4 times in one evening/night.

3.Plug in correctly (ask how when in doubt)! – Or else things will get broken… just ask. Please

4.If you want to move stuff, do so carefully and with respect – seriously? Do we even need to explain this?

5.Ask if you can use the backline – Ask the band a couple days before the show if you can use a cab, drum, complete backline, … it’s common courtesy.

6.Stay and watch the band play. – Okay, this isn’t always possible, you may have another show, you may be sick, or you may have another good excuse. But not doing so because you don’t feel like it? Come on, that’s a bit pretentious, no? Without the backline you probably weren’t even able to play the show and everybody needs the support.

7.Respect the gear. – Don’t put beer on the cabs. Don’t stand on the bass drum (no matter how cool you think it makes you look), don’t trash any guitars on the backline … COME ON! Seriously bring your own stuff if you want to do this!

8.Say “thank you” – Sounds obvious, but those two words tell the guys that you do really appreciate that you could play on the backline. Another magic trick to really show your appreciation: offer them a beer (or any other liquid they prefer)

EVERY LITTLE HELPS

Rock N Roll Radio

Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go

Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go!

i never expected the band's music to be played across the airwaves but here it is being played live on 3 radio stations!!

Radio Northumberland on Keith Newman's unsigned punk show every Monday night.

Radio Boise in Idaho USA  DJ Frankenbyan's return of the disco witch's hunt radio show.

EGH Radio on the unsigned bands show.

these are great radio stations and great radio shows to hear REAL music, you know Rock, metal, Punk the real stuff not that commercial crap that's always on FM and AM radio stations, they play what you wanna hear and will play the best of unsigned local bands and unsigned bands from across the pond.
be sure to check out these stations