Great Silence

Couple of snaps from the gig the other night, courtesy of our mate (and champion flipper-offer) TerrorFoster Photos...

Last night was nothing short of ace - big cheers to Outpost Liverpool and Liam for putting us on, Alright, Mugsmasher and Clayface for all smashing their sets, and everyone who showed up and helped warm the place up!

Our next fixture, and last of a bloody good starting year for us, is Saturday 30th at Bank Top Tavern in Oldham, oddly enough with Clayface again, as well as Sn**ch Game, The Crash Mats and plenty of others!
Evil Music Live X-mas Party @ The Bank Top Tavern

It's just as well Dec survived tasting that homemade naga phall in the early hours. This could be either a positive or a negative review to be fair...

Our setlist is written for tomorrow's gig at Outpost Liverpool, and we're all primed and ready. Just as well there were no last-minute details to sort, when our band group chat earlier today devolved into adding curry references to classic Blink 182 songs; we got as far as "Phall the small things" (naan naan naan naan...), "Naan overboard", "First plate" and "Dysentery Gary" before admitting defeat. For more banter of this ilk, interspersed with a few downbeat cynical punk rock ditties, be sure to get there for 8pm sharp tomorrow... ;-)

Also Alright, Mugsmasher and Clayface are on who are all boss, it's only 6 quid in, cheap drinks, good pizza and no train strikes. Let's do this!

Clayface, Mugsmasher, Alright, Great Silence

Next outing for us is back at Outpost Liverpool this Saturday, actually our 3rd time there in the almost 6 months we've been gigging - must be something to do with the pizza and cheap drinks, and it's always a good craic in there of course!

Joined by our mates Clayface, Alright and Mugsmasher - be sure to get down handy to catch us too though ;-) . Looks set to be an ace night, and we're still not gonna play any Fightstar. Oh aye!

Clayface, Mugsmasher, Alright, Great Silence

Our stage banter is not (and will never be) scripted, but with golden s**te like this getting thrown around in the group chat on a regular basis (often with limited or no context) you can at least see how we manage to get some practice. Some mysteries are best left unsolved...

Well last night was the absolute dogs bo****ks. Nice one to Artisan Tap, China Drum, Reverse and everyone who came down, especially the early birds who were there to watch us ;-)

Highlights of our night included:
- Getting the Rosetta stone and Blarney stone mixed up and thereby almost completely derailing our inter-song banter (which is shocking enough at the best of times)
- Shouting Pogues songs badly in the back room (aka "when Dec met whisky")
- Some serious shapes being thrown in The Rigger afterwards (aka "when Joe met whisky")
- "I HAVE A DOG!!!" (don't ask...)
- China Drum (legends, great lads too!)

Next up for us is another appearance at Outpost Liverpool, alongside our mates Clayface, Mugsmasher and Alright. Set to be a good night with punk rock and murderously spicy pizza! However Big Ian's on holiday, so we'll have to count on someone else to heckle us - hint: we DON'T play Fightstar covers...

Stoke pals. Tonight's the first local gig (to me) with the fine chaps in Great Silence and it's a bit of a dreamy lineup. See you there yeah?

A reminder that on Friday we play Artisan Tap in Stoke with Reverse and the awesome China Drum. Getting wired for this one!

China Drum got some great free advertisement back in 1994 when Mike Dirnt wore one of their T-shirts in Green Day's "When I Come Around" music video; the best we can offer by comparison is that one of us plays an old Gibson G3, just like Mike Dirnt used to always play around that time. So in short, buy a ticket and come the gig, because by some VERY shaky logic, Mike Dirnt said so.

Next gig coming up - Artisan Tap in Stoke on Friday, supporting Reverse and China Drum!!!

For the first time Dec won't have to drive to one of our gigs, as he reckons he can more or less jump out of his back window, walk over a roof and fall into the venue, so chances are fair to good we'll have at least one pi**ed guitarist if not both by the end of the night...

Probably a good thing we're on first in that regard, but be sure to get there nice and handy!

Great night down The Cheshire Cheese. Cheers to the pub, Pardon Us for playing a boss set (gutted Zapiain had to pull out but we'll definitely sort something with those lads again in future), Tim for doing sound and sorting the gig with the pub, and everyone who turned up!

We've now done a Will/Joe hometown gig, and we covered Hendrik's adoptive hometown when we played Manchester a few months back, so it's about time for Dec to finally get a chance to pretty much roll straight off his couch and onto the stage (and most likely get drunk before/during the set) - our next outing is 17th November in Stoke, playing the Artisan Tap supporting the mighty China Drum alongside Reverse. Gonna be a belter so get your tickets!

We had a belting rehearsal last night. Got a new song sorted (we only forgot 3 or 4 lines of lyrics between us, which is probably a record...) and a setlist nailed-down ready to play The Cheshire Cheese tomorrow night.

Looking forward to our first "half-hometown" gig and hope to see a few familiar faces in, if nothing else so those nice folks in Pardon Us and Zapiain don't think we're a bunch of miserable old billy-no-mates ;-)

First band at 8:30. Oh aye!

Free punk at the Cheese, with Great Silence, Zapain and Pardon Us!!

Ahoy! Check out where we're playing for the rest of the year:

13th October (i.e. THIS FRIDAY) - The Cheshire Cheese, Warrington, with Zapiain and Pardon Us

17th November: Artisan Tap, Stoke, with Reverse and 90's legends China Drum.

2nd December: Outpost Liverpool with Alright, Mugsmasher and Clayface

30th December: Bank Top Tavern, Oldham, with The Crash Mats, Old Radio and a tonne of others.

Hope to see some faces down the front at these! On the hunt for 2024 gigs as well so promoters do shout up ;-)

It's less than two weeks until our next gig, Friday 13th in Warrington with the magnificent Zapiain and Pardon Us.

It's free, drinks are cheap, we might possibly have a new song to wheel-out, and those good folks at The Cheshire Cheese even played with the poster we did and made a better one. What more can you possibly ask for (other than for us to finally get Photoshop and stop using MS Paint... ;-) )

Free punk at the Cheese, with Great Silence, Zapain and Pardon Us!!

Holy s**t. Look what we've got coming up in November! Absolutely cannot fu***ng wait to support China Drum at Artisan Tap in Stoke.

Dec's particularly excited about this one, since as well as opening for one of our favourite bands (and at a cracking little venue as well), the place is just round the corner from his gaff meaning he can FINALLY break his record streak of completely sober gigs (unless he can find a way to accomplish it at our Warrington show next month first...)

China Drum famously covered Kate Bush and also did a bloody good Crowded House cover, and we've got a Bruce Hornsby song in our repertoire; Reverse we hope you lads have got a nice cheesy 70/80/90's cover lined up for this one too ;-)

Tickets:
https://www.wegottickets.com/event/594590

Remember our post about drummers getting a raw deal, getting stuck in a dark corner and almost never appearing in gig photos? Well no such issue at Outpost last night; here's Hendrik either very pleased he's finally visible, or someone was about to throw him a fish. We're not sure, you decide...

Pic by Richie.

Last night at Outpost was, once again, bloody ace. Cheers to Richie/Ade/Terry/Big Ian at The Last Stop Sounds for arranging the gig and the general banter, Outpost Liverpool for being mint as usual (and feeding us with some SERIOUSLY spicy pizza!), MRI and 2 Sick Monkeys for both smashing it (and in the latter case, not sueing us when it became a little obvious our new song and one of theirs sounded a little similar...), and of course everyone who came down.

Our next outing is 13th October, at The Cheshire Cheese in Warrington, with some old friends of ours Zapiain and Pardon Us. We're arguably not quite a Warrington band but half of us are from there so it counts as a hometown gig. Plus it 's Friday 13th - what can possibly go wrong!
Free punk at the Cheese, with Great Silence, Zapain and Pardon Us!!

Friendly reminder to everyone not to get too drunk or eat too much s**te tonight - save some room for the beers and pizza in Outpost Liverpool tomorrow night, where we just so happen to be playing, alongside M.R.I (why the f**k can't I tag you lads!?) and the awesome 2 Sick Monkeys. Oh aye!

Last Stop: 2 Sick Monkeys, Mugsmasher, Great Silence, MRI - Outpost Liverpool - Sat 2nd September

Our next outing this Saturday, back at Outpost Liverpool for The Last Stop Sounds crowd. Looking forward to trying out the apparently murderous hot sauce, and more importantly supporting the legendary 2 Sick Monkeys alongside our mates M.R.I (who I can't tag for some reason).

Sadly our other mates Mugsmasher can't play this now but will tag them anyway since they're boss. However Big Ian's going to step out from the desk to fill the gap with a spoken-word recital of the lyrics to Fightstar's entire back catalogue, maybe...

In the meantime Dec is trying to figure out how to get there around the train strikes without burning a hole in his wallet or driving, and heaven forbid, playing his fourth sober gig in a row. You're not with Only Strangers now meladdo ;-)

https://facebook.com/events/s/last-stop-2-sick-monkeys-mugsm/1195390041326919/

A nice mention of our gig in Manchester earlier this month, cheers to The Last Stop Sounds. We do pride ourselves on our terrible banter to be fair ;-)

Next up for us is this Saturday back at Outpost Liverpool with 2 Sick Monkeys, funnily enough for the Last Stop lot. We'll bring the same bantz, you all just bring yourselves!

Last Stop: 2 Sick Monkeys, Mugsmasher, Great Silence, MRI - Outpost Liverpool - Sat 2nd September

Drummers often get a raw deal at gigs - they make by far the most racket but on some dark dingy stages no one can see them.

Well Hendrik wanted everyone to know he is indeed on the stage with us, so he adjusted one of our recent gig photos using the most state of the art advanced image enhancement techniques available, and sent it over in our band's group chat/s**tposting board last night. Sorted...

A few more snaps from the Peer Hat gig the other night, courtesy of Ade Wharton (the other half of the original The Last Stop Sounds dynamic duo, although there are about 6 of them now I think...)

As it happens our next gig's for Last Stop (and our old mate Ian "Fightstar" Digilogue), back at Outpost Liverpool on Saturday 2nd September. Proper looking forward to supporting 2 Sick Monkeys!

Last Stop: 2 Sick Monkeys, Mugsmasher, Great Silence, MRI - Outpost Liverpool - Sat 2nd September

We'd be lying through our teeth if we said this band wasn’t MASSIVELY influenced by Jawbreaker, but after seeing some of the pics which have appeared from our recent gigs, surely I'm not the only one who spots a certain visual similarity to our also (conveniently) left-handed guitarist Mr Dec Oh Really...

The current theory is as follows:

- Dec kissed the bottle so much one Friday night that he somehow ended up travelling back in time to the late 1980’s
- In need of a false identity to try to fool Dr Who into thinking he wasn’t in the wrong timezone, he ended up in New York where he wrestled some poor young university student known as “Blake Schwarzenbach” to the ground, and stole his ID card
- Under that alias he formed a band with two other lads with similarly German-sounding names, then wrote a song or 50 which quite a lot of people liked
- Despite his new identity and success he was still pining to return to the normality of 21st century Staffordshire, even dropping subtle references to his native Midlands in the lyrics, such as “I am jet black; I am STONE cold”, “CHESTERFIELD King”, and even going as far as bemoaning how much he missed the river Trent, singing “I wanna be a boat, gonna learn to swim, then I’ll learn to float, and begin again...”
- Eventually the band drifted apart, and after taking a few Jets to Brazil he wandered around lost for a while, somehow inexplicably ending up back in Stoke in the early 2020’s
- Before enough time could pass for you to pick-out the ever-increasing number of plot holes in this drivel, he had met a punk-inclined drummer, who being German happened to again have a German-sounding name, and a bassist who while not German in any way, shape or form, was more often than not seen in public wearing a German army jacket (and then some fella called Joe who played guitar happened to turn up as well...)
- “Close enough”, thought Dec, and promptly ‘reformed’ his old band with these three miscreants, “No one will ever know the difference…”
- After a few months of rehearsing, he suggested the name “Great Silence” as a metaphoric reference to the fans’ reaction when Jawbreaker’s “Dear You” came out in 1995 (even though it was mint), and the rest is more than slightly incorrect history/fantasy...

In short, Dec/Blake have a message; save your generation – don't kill each other by sleeping-in, come watch us at a gig some time soon. Or to put it more succinctly, “Iyaiyai-yaiyaiyai-IIII want youuuu...to come watch this band play”

I’ll get me coat...

Another gig chalked-up last night, and another boss night! Big cheers to The Peer Hat, Mediaslaves, 77 spears and Snakes Among Us, and everyone who came along - not a bad turnout at all for a gig, let alone a Tuesday night!

Pic by Richie from The Last Stop Sounds

Don't forget tomorrow evening we're hitting Manchester for the first time! Get down to The Peer Hat for 7:30 sharp to catch us, Snakes Among Us, 77 spears and Mediaslaves

LIVE HXC PUNK | Mediaslaves (Canada) w/Snakes Among Us, 77 Spears, Great Silence at the Peer Hat

We've been quiet for the last week while one of us went to Rebellion, one went on a jaunt to Whitby, one worked on writing a book and one ate avocado toast (you can guess who did what...)

However a week tonight we'll be let loose again, this time at The Peer Hat in Manchester supporting Mediaslaves, alongside 77 spears and Snakes Among Us. It's an early one being a school night, so get there for 7:30 sharp to catch us warming up the speakers!

LIVE HXC PUNK | Mediaslaves (Canada) w/Snakes Among Us, 77 Spears, Great Silence at the Peer Hat

Couple of shots from Outpost the other night, courtesy of TerrorFoster Photos and Riz

Sorry for a delayed Saturday post-gig post - one of us (guess who...) was daft enough to hoof it to Bristol and back on Sunday to do a fill-in gig, and was too bloody knackered after getting home last night to do it then. Some people never learn!

So, what can we say - the gig on Saturday was the absolute dogs, talk about getting off to a good start! Cheers to The Imbossible GIG PAGE and Outpost Liverpool for putting on yet another belting night, Big Ian on the sound desk/heckling, Fidget and the Twitchers, The Overbites, Bossmags, and of course all the punters who made it down early to watch us, especially Cainy who particularly enjoyed our Bruce Hornsby cover ;-P

Having seen what was chalked-up on the gig room door, our lawyers have advised us to take out an indemnity so we can't be held in any way accountable for anything Hummer did or did not do/say/cover prior to April last year. Of course, it could have also said Only Strange-ish, Bear Trap V3, Sense of One-gency, Flat Back the Fourth...ok I'll stop now.

Last thing to say is let's do this again some time - how about Manchester on 15th August...
LIVE HXC PUNK | Mediaslaves (Canada) w/Snakes Among Us, 77 Spears, Great Silence at the Peer Hat

It's TONIGHT! Get down to Outpost Liverpool to catch us, The Overbites, Fidget and the Twitchers and Bossmags. Doors 7:30 and we're on first, so make it bright and early!

👾 The IMBOSSIBLE Level 👾 PUNK SKA SUPER MEGA SHOWDOWN 🏴‍☠️🔥🌋🧨

A not so subtle reminder that our first gig out in the wild is on Saturday, 👾 The IMBOSSIBLE Level 👾 PUNK SKA SUPER MEGA SHOWDOWN 🏴‍☠️🔥🌋🧨 at Outpost Liverpool alongside Bossmags, The Overbites and Fidget and the Twitchers

As it happens gig 2 isn't that long after gig 1 - we'll be playing The Peer Hat in Manchester on Tuesday 15th August with Snakes Among Us, 77 spears and Canada's Mediaslaves. Keep 'em coming!

Mediaslaves w/Snakes Among Us, 77 Spears, Great Silence at the Peer Hat

This Saturday

Outpost Liverpool

Our first proper gig

On at 7:30/7:45ish (i.e. get there early ;-) )

There may be cake. And by that I mean pizza and craft beer.

GWAN!

👾 The IMBOSSIBLE Level 👾 PUNK SKA SUPER MEGA SHOWDOWN 🏴‍☠️🔥🌋🧨

This is it, our first "proper" gig out in the wild at Outpost Liverpool a week on Saturday, courtesy of The Imbossible GIG PAGE, with Bristol's Fidget and the Twitchers, Scotland's The Overbites and our equally Warrington-but-not-Warrington mates Bossmags.

Get down early to watch us pick-up on the exact same stage where two of our recent past ventures Hummer and the seemingly untaggable Bear Trap left off!

You might notice Matty Roughneck put a "slightly" different name on the poster, but to be fair we didn't have a solidly-agreed name at the time and literally resorted to flipping a coin on-stage at that party gig the other weekend to get it nailed down! Don't worry though, in no way is it gonna be a set of Bill Withers, Jimmy Dean, Steve Miller Band or Fightstar covers. Definitely not the last bit anyway (those who know will know ;-))

👾 The IMBOSSIBLE Level 👾 PUNK SKA SUPER MEGA SHOWDOWN 🏴‍☠️🔥🌋🧨