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Naked Lunch Evolve
80s electro pioneers NAKED LUNCH have unleashed a new EP, entitled ‘Evolve’. The four track EP is available here from their Bandcamp and contains live favourites such as ‘Alone’ and ‘Glow’
Naked Lunch originally formed in 1979 and were a big part of the early electro scene alongside acts like Human League, Depeche Mode cite them as an influence.
Naked Lunch are also touring this week with another iconic synth band, Covenant, although prior commitments rule them out of the tour launch in Glasgow, they join the tour at Manchester and play Newcastle University this Thursday, 5th March alongside Analog Angel.
Tragedy Interview “We Played with a band called Motorhead who showed some promise”
We are starting a new series of interviews with some of the bands we have coming up (and some of the bands we’ve had in the past) and it seems very fitting the first one we are featuring is…. TRAGEDY.
Yes, everyone’s favourite Metalized Tribute to the Bee Gees.
Their next UK tour is imminent and they visit The Cluny on March 17th (ticket link)
They will be touring in support of new, 4th, album ‘The Solo Albums’ which guitarist Royce chats to us about.
They’ve also released a new video, for ‘You’re the One that I Want’ which you can view here before reading the interview.
Hi guys, you last played Newcastle in March 2014. What have you been up to since then?
Dealing with the “issues” we caught from some of Steel Panther’s sloppy seconds. Doc says we’ll be fully recovered by Newcastle. Also, we have just completed our latest masterpiece, The Solo Albums, and the video for the new single, You’re the One That I Want. Last summer we headlined stages at Rebellion (UK) and Summer Breeze (Germany). That was awesome. And we’ve been working out a ton in the gym. We look like Manowar now.
You’ve done quite a few UK tours, what makes the UK so special for you to play?
We first started touring the UK with The Wildhearts and Electric Six in 2008, I think. Ginger Wildheart put out our first album, We Rock Sweet Balls and Can Do No Wrong, on his label. Those support tours, along with a festival alongside Motorhead had us really connecting with peeps in the UK. Rock n Roll is such an integral part of people’s lives there, more so than in the US. The number of legendary artists that have come out of that relatively small country is astounding- Adele, Susan Boyle, Aerosmith. That’s all I can think of right now, but you know what I mean.
Where did the Tragedy idea come from in the first place and what made you decide to continue and expand this?
I was producing an album for Barry’s old band, Children of the Unicorn, when we got a call from a promoter friend who asked if we had any ideas for a support band for this big Neil Diamond tribute, Super Diamond, who was doing a weekend at NYC’s Irving Plaza. We said, “yeah sure, we’ll be a metal tribute to the Bee Gees…haha”…and the promoter said, “OK, as long as I’m in it”. The promoter became our dearly departed brother, Robin Gibbens, and the band became Tragedy. We thought we’d do those two shows and that would be it. But everything connected in a special way- the music, the fans, the personnel…and here we are a few years later on the cusp of our 11th international tour.
You’ve got a new record coming out, what can you tell us about it?
It’s called The Solo Albums, kinda inspired by what Kiss did. We do some songs as a band, then on each of our mini-albums, we got to explore things in our own way, and have great musicians as guests on our albums. We searched the world over for the the ultimate disco-metal musicians, and they appear on this record. Incidentally, they happen to all be members of Tragedy. Except for Dave Hill, who is Tragedy’s personal trainer and a rippin’ guitarist. It’s a tremendous range of source material- The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Ozzy, John Denver, Roberta Flack, Kiss, Donna Summer…even a Tragedy original! 18 songs in all.
Your UK tour should hopefully have some old friends and new faces to your shows – what can the new faces expect?
They can expect to be covered in glitter and not be able to stop smiling for days. They will witness grown men dressed in sparkly costumes, exploring their deepest, most sensual passions through the world’s greatest music. Tragedy is a force for happiness. You may hate disco. You may hate metal. It doesn’t matter. Tragedy will have you hearing music and seeing life in a whole new light.
And what about old friends? What can they expect?
Old friends can expect even bigger bulges than they remembered. We’re not divulging our secret, but, let’s just say his name rhymes with “DANCE”.
Although you’ve been in the UK a few times, I don’t recall much national press. What you’ve been doing has been a lot more DIY and word of mouth, has this been a deliberate decision? How important is word of mouth?
If you’re not going to put your mouth on it, how are we going to trust you? Seriously? A few decent publications finally got the message- such as Metal Hammer and The Sun. Put your money where your mouth is. And put Tragedy on your money. We’ll be your Queen.
You’ve played around the world with a lot of interesting bands, do you have any favourites that readers should check out?
Well, we played with Steel Panther in LA a few years ago. Now those fuckers keep following us all over the world…stalkers. You can always taste where Steel Panther has been. We played with a band called Motorhead that showed some promise. There are definitely some OK bands out there, but none of them play metalized Bee Gees/other disco classics, so they suck in comparison to Tragedy.
Anything else to add?
We’re looking forward to a dangerously good party in Newcastle Upon-Tyne City!!! Bring it!!
Tragedy play The Cluny on March 17th – ticket link – for all dates and more info on the band, check out their website www.letsmaketragedyhappen.com
Support on the Newcastle date from Elvana and Hellion Rising.
Analog Angel are Breathing Freely
Scottish synth act Analog Angel have released a new single ‘Your Breath’ – it’s available as a free download from their bandcamp here.
Analog Angel are touring with Covenant this week, kicking off in Glasgow on March 3rd.
The tour hits Newcastle University this Thursday, 5th March.
Rusted Hero release debut single
Rusted Hero have today released their debut single, ‘The Unknown’
Visit their website http:/
The lads have been a fast rising band in Newcastle, playing some fairly big shows since their formation in late 2013, which has included supporting bands like The Last Vegas, Sister Sin and Paul Raymond (UFO) alongside their own headline events.
Compared to a wide-range of bands from Guns N Roses to Rival Sons to Shinedown, RH feel they can rise to the challenge of any line-up and go down well – this is something they’ve proved well at doing thus far.
You can see the guys doing a special acoustic set supporting Eric Martin at Think Tank on August 15th : tickets available here
Upcoming Shows : March Round Up.
Just a quick recap on some of our forthcoming shows… we’ve a total of 13 in the pipeline (a couple to announce soon) but 5 of those are coming in March.
Next Thursday, March 5th, Covenant cut up Newcastle as part of a rare UK tour, joined by Analog Angel and Naked Lunch – great night for synth fans!
Saturday March 7th, Skeletal Family are doing an acoustic show at Butlers as part of The Charnel House night. Nice up close and personal show with some Gothic Legends.
March 17th we welcome back Tragedy – the All-Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees. That’s at The Cluny. They’ll be joined by Elvana (The North East’s leading Elvis tribute to Nirvana!) and local groove-metal lot Hellion Rising.
March 22nd, first Skarlett Riot show in Newcastle since Dec 2013 – they’re touring in support of new album ‘We Are the Brave’ which will be hitting Cluny 2. They will be joined by Enversa, a very special debut performance for them and a to-be-announced tour support.
March 23rd, Dorje are coming to Think Tank. Putting the DO IT into ‘Do It Yourself’ these hardworking guys have built up a great following and this is going to be a killer show. Support comes from local guys 300ft Gorilla.
March 27th – we’ve a cool co-headline show at The Globe. Cypher16 and RSJ – RSJ have built up a good local following from killer shows previously (including supporting American Head Charge) and Cypher16 are immense. There will also be two other bands that we can’t quite announce just yet – but it’s a couple more old friends returning. And the best bit… it’s only a fiver…
Tickets for all shows available from www.seetickets.com and locally from Reflex Records
Photos : Snot + The Bastard Sons + Knuckle Dragger @ Cluny
GJB Performance Photography did some sets of all the recent bands at our recent show at The Cluny.
Check out the nice picture of Mikey Doling in this post
Click here to follow GJB on Facebook
Links for the 3 sets are below
I’m sure you will agree he captured the show very well.
RSJ release album trailer
RSJ have released a trailer for their forthcoming new album, Giant Glenn.
You can view the trailer at the bottom of this post.
Don’t forget, of course, RSJ will be touring in March in support of this album – you can catch them in Newcastle at The Globe on March 27th in a co-headline show with Cypher 16. Click here for tickets.
Enversa preview EP tracks
We’d like to introduce you to ENVERSA . They will be playing their debut gig for us on March 22nd opening for Skarlett Riot at Cluny 2.
For all the years we’ve been promoting, we haven’t done that many debut gigs and have only really done the really special ones. (Our last debut gig was Heartbreak Remedy). We’re very excited about Enversa, fronted by Laura Henderson Darling whom had previously fronted bands such as Dark Self (who we have had on) and Walking With Strangers – but also containing various other known local musicians – such as Neal Harrison (Rossi Noise), Mark Watson (Default Theory) and Matt.
They’ve been poking out preview tracks on their Soundcloud. We’ve been lucky enough to have heard the full EP – but you can hear the first track – ‘First to Fall’ – now. Simply click here to go to the Soundcloud.
This is a gig we’re very excited about and proud to be giving them their first show. We’re sure it will be a belter.
Cold in Berlin – coming to the Cluny 2
Coming to Newcastle this Spring is COLD IN BERLIN – we are proper chuffed to have this spectacular post-punk band up here for a show at Cluny 2 on April 11th.
The band are due to release their third album, ‘The Comfort of Loss and Dust’ to coincide with this tour. It promises to be “Darker, heavier, slower and better” than their previous work. Which given how amazing that was, well…
They’re signed to Candlelight Records. Try out some of these press quotes for size…
‘Translators for our imploding society’ ArtRocker
‘Taut punk anxiety and sizable hooks… tied together by an inherent darkness’ Rock-A-Rolla
‘Edgy and abrasive’ Dominion/Terrorizer
‘Maya’s voice breathes heavy stories of volatile sexuality’ Rock Sound
Support comes from local lot WAKE – a noisy punk act who’ve been making great impressions locally.
Tickets for this are £6 in advance and available from www.seetickets.com and locally from Reflex Records.
We don’t have any of their new stuff to share with you yet, so check this out…
On March 7th, we’ll have a special acoustic performance from Skeletal Family.
This is fairly big news, the band recently played at the Academy and have done many high profile shows since their return, but they’re doing a very special stripped down acoustic tour, which includes playing as part of The Charnel House, in Butlers, in March.
Famed for hits such as ‘Promised Land’, ‘So Sure’ and ‘She Cries Alone’ it will certainly be interesting to hear how these classics and others transcribe onto an acoustic set up.
The price for this – just £5 – that’s both the advance and on the door price.
If you want advance tickets – you can nab them from Reflex Records, www.seetickets.com or why not get one off us on Feb 14th at Dark Nation (at the Globe) ?
Here’s a classic of there’s for you to enjoy 