Black Cross, Bromsgrove

4th December 2010

Heeeeeey! How you doing?

Another Green Head Man outing (this is getting into a habit) happened last week at Ye Olde Black Cross in Bromsgrove, West Midlands. Particularly special this one as this is where I spent my formative years getting "overly refreshed" on a regular basis so it was good to return and play the old haunt. Fair play to Ian and Dee the owners, they have made every effort to transform the dreary lounge that I used to drink in in the early '90's and turn it into one of the areas best gigs.

 

So, to the load in; this was half six a full half hour before the international load in standard but I was keen to record the gig as we had a few new and original compositions in the set and I wanted to see how they worked and were received (very well as it went).


As a band we are really keen to make each show, now matter how big or small, really special and this inevitably involves us bringing all of our best equipment, FX and ideas to the table. Lots of cars and lots of space taken up but hopefully this results in the audience having a unique experience and that is something that we think is special and that will encourage people to come to more and more of our gigs.

Always searching for the sound Timmy this week bought just the 2 bass rigs and ran them in stereo

Setup took a while; mainly because of the added complication of recording but also, as above, we had an acoustic guitar, Didgeridoo, Space Synth, 2 bass rigs, 2 oil wheels and Fairly lights to install and sound check as well as the rest.

A freak shaving incident meant that Little Dave had the same facial hair as Timmy

It was also so hot in there until I found the radiator valves and cranked them off. I was not wearing my gig clothes and in a scruffy big jumper, I swear I lost 2lbs just setting up!

Sound check was brief and the gig ensued (a little later than we expected at 21:45). The sets went well despite having a poor on stage sound and listening to the recordings things unfolded rather nicely, which is how we liked it.

You gotta love the fairy lights!

We performed the Greenwich Meant Standard two x one hour sets (1 x 64 minutes and 1 x 71 minutes) and finished some time after midnight. The audience were nice and appreciative and after a quick chat with friends the setdown began.

Green Head Manning

It's good to play. We are now back in the studio working hard on the originals, battling the snow and ice and trying to get them into good shape - its looking good!

Out next outing is on the 18th of December and then we (as a band) have Christmas off to look for fresh inspiration and spruce off the set for 2011. Many gigs already booked for 2011 including 3 notable ones:

Jan 27th at the Robin2, Bilston, West Mdlands where we support Space Ritual (Hawkwind)

Jan 28th at the River Rooms, Stourbridge, WM where we headline and then

Apr 27th at the Robin2, Bilston, West Midlands where we get a first full headline there!

as Little Dave said, next time we will all have facial hair!

See you laters,

Nick



A sneaky peek into the life of a bass player

Dairy update

Hi folks,

November has been an expected quiet month gig wise-but for good reason. Firstly and importantly Ron has recovered extremely well and is as strong as Ox again so Green Head Man are ready, willing and able to bully off for the final chucka in December and on through the new year.

Whilst we have been 'away' we have been busy writing and working up fresh music into the set and I have to say we are all pretty excited about it too; Human Zoo is turning out to be an instant fave and we hope to be able to offer a studio version of that to you soon. Other new songs include Moths to the Flame, Rise up, Golden and Fly Away. A few of these at least will make it into out next gig; please do let us know what you think of them.

We have ten or so gigs booked already for the new year so things are looking promising. Notably we start again this Saturday the 4th of December at the Black Cross in Bromsgrove and that's been a long time coming for us, especially as we were forced to redefine our last gig there due to illness.

Then after a stop off at the Stagborough Arms in Stourport on the 18th its into 2011!

We are playing our regular gigs throughout the year with a few notable additions; we have been asked to play three dates at the 300+ venue the River Rooms in Stroubridge along with a brace of gigs at the, frankly massive, Robin2 in Bilston (one support one headline).

We can nearly announce the support gig but are just waiting to have it finalised but lets just say, for the moment, that the headline band are RIGHT up our street and have been around for a very long time (not only that, one of the cover versions that we play in our main set will have to be omitted for that gig - hint!)

The River Rooms is on the 28th Jan please do come to that but if you can't then there is also the Robin2 on the 27th April, See Here for details

Can't wait until this Saturday, See you soon!

Oh Yes!!

Katiefitzgerald's, Stourbridge - 30th October 2010


Ooh I am getting out of practice in many ways. I nearly forgot the view from the stage shot, and in a departure from the usual behind the Hammond vibe (and because the stage was so small - more on that later no doubt) I ended up taking this gem from behind the drum kit - the stage entrance of choice.

Hello you!

How are you all doing? I don't want to come over all Sinead O'Connor but its been quite a few months since we all got together and had a bash and met you all again, and jolly nice it was too. Great to see faces new and old and on this frankly bizarre occasion .

So its was Katie's and it was the Saturday before Halloween - a good combination. Ron was and is still recuperating well and it was time to start the GHM machine up once more after the enforced break. The last time we played together was 3 months ago and we were concerned about rustiness, bum notes, muscle wastage and flatulence. (the latter is an on going concern)


I love the effort the staff put into the gig and they are always so happy and upbeat about their job and meeting us.

Arriving at the Greenwich Mean Time of all gig get ins, 19:00, we entered the tube that is the venue. Instantly we all commented that it was even smaller than we remembered (we had already brought the cut-down kit - no acoustic guitar, smaller bass drum, no piano and only the 2 bass cabs and 2 bass amps)

Getting on the stage is a difficult affair, I need to get the Leslie speaker in at the back before the Guitar amp can go in front of it, the Bass amp needs to be in to show Ron how much space we are working with so its a struggle of an operation. We got it all setup in the end and the only way I could get to the Hammond was either on my hands and knees (presenting as it were to the audience) or from the other side past the bass amps, mind the cables on the floor, tilt the hi hat, over the drum seat (admiring the padding), over the floor lights and into position (Leslie*).What a laugh.

I was pleased also that Canadian Dave brought his stunt keyboard along and managed to wedge it in front and to the side of me.



This machine makes all the difference in our stage show I feel and takes us another step closer to the unique end of the spectrum (probably. Well that's what someone told me on the night anyway!)

Having agreed the set,printed it and then lost it I had spent the previous evening hand writing set lists out that we promptly tore up after 4 songs when it was clear that Ron was going to be able to make it! After so long away I just wanted us to play the first note and then I knew it would be fine and god was it fine. I am continually astonished at what this band can achieve and that the sum of the parts is a million miles away from the whole - but enough of that. Silly.

The set went well it was un-fathomably tight (when the team have their backs against the wall I think we produce our best work), there were moment of brilliance (ahem) and there were straight forward cock-ups but on the whole it seemed to work really well. Its good to have the space to explore on stage and at one point (while Canadian was 'exploring') I had enough time to snap this photo of him (above).

Then, cue the snare drum explosion and an impromptu performance of Gloria (G.L.O.R.I.A), something always explodes at Katies, I don't know why - next time: My Liver!

The set was tight, the buttocks were clenched but we needn't have worried, we pulled off a professional and consummate performance with Ron only losing his stamina on the very last song and cutting it slightly short - very impressive work seeing as he was still in hospital in August!

You guys were great, a lot of you were in fancy dress and had really gone the extra mile, my favourites were Where's Wally and the Mummy but the rest of you were great too.

We are all fired up and we are back. Well ish, November will be spend getting the 3 new and originals firmly in the set after the break and also working on more new ideas that we have and then its onwards and upwards to Bromsgrove and Stourport in December and then The River Rooms in Stourbridge in January.

Come and see us on the road, say hello, ask for a free and exclusive Green Head Man dot com badge and join our Facebook revulsion (sic).

We can't do it without you, well we can but we won't, we'll wait for you, but not too long, don't take the mick now



















* Crap 90's Vic Reeves reference.

Where HAVE you been?

Well nowhere really...well out and about...the odd curry...you know

The holiday period is over and so is the enforced break. I am pleased to say that Ron's operation was a complete success and the boys are rehearsing again. Short rehearsals to start with just building up the stamina for our return gig at Katiefitzgerald's on the 30th October.

The break has allowed us to work on Green Head things that do not involve Live playing and I think this has been beneficial:

Ron and I have been frantically trying to get wider reaching Gigs - more on that later - whilst Timmy and Little Dave and Canadian Dave and Little Dave (still following me? good) have been writing and recording. My piano has been upgraded to firmware release 2 - yes you heard me, release 2 - Wow!!


The recording session we did was a little fraught as it turns out, we really didn't capture what we wanted to capture that day, added to that a few technical recording difficulties unfolded - more on that too later. Still, we persist and work on the recording. In tandem we are trying a recording technique used by many a rock star (!) whilst Ron recuperates. In essence we are in our own studios adding our own parts to a song that starts with a timing click. Little Dave performs his guitar and vocals and emails the tracks to me and Timmy, we add Piano and Bass and forward it on to Canadian who adds guitar, space guitar and backing vocals and then - strangely - we add drums at the end. Only way we could do it timing-wise but lets see how it goes. As far as the acoustic track that it currently is its a killer and the drums are going on this week. Very happy about that.

The object of 2011 is to play bigger and better gigs whilst retaining our feet in the pubs and clubs that continue to support us and live music along the way. We already have a gig on the 28th January 2011 at the River Rooms in Stourbridge (please come, go on please) which is a dedicated gig holding up to 350 people. We can also announce that we now have a gig at the Robin2 Club in Bilston (please come, go on you know you want to) on the 27thy April 2011, yup Easter break. Now, the latter is a 700 seater and we need all the supporters that we can get in order to show the admirable Mike (owner) that people really do want to hear psychedelic rock and soul these days.

So the gig getting is going well, we have 12 or so for 2011 already and with a decent recording of what we do (we have never really hawked our wares to get gigs but usually receive calls asking us to play - which is extremely nice of everyone) but now we are going out for the assault of the festival circuit in 2011. Wish us luck!

Canadian Dave and Friends performed the originally scheduled Green Head Man gig last week at the Black Cross in Bromsgrove and pulled off an excellent tribute to John Lennon's birthday - featuring the great Mike Bannister from Slowburner and Stepping out on guitar (everyone's left handed these days!). Ron got up for two numbers with Timmy and the GHM borg briefly connected for the first time out since July. We really can't wait until the 30th October. (You getting it now? 30th October. I'll slip it in later just in case).

Oh and I went to Cornwall this year for my holidays:



So to recap:

Drummer = Well
Rehearsals = On
Gigs = Oh yeah
Recordings = On Sale soon
Cornwall = Wet
Onwards and, at the very least, sideways = Oh go on then.

Thanks for reading,

Nick x

30th October!!

Summer Hols...

Dave just wanted to say hi. Hi!

Green Head Man are on an enforced break at the moment due to an operation that Ron has had. He is fine and is recovering pretty well - I know this because he is already itching to play the drums again!

A couple of the band are on their Summer hols and things have quietened down a fair bit since the frantic and really enjoyable first half of the year. More to come too!

So we are chillin', but anyone who knows me knows that I can't really do that! Before the op we went into the studio (see earlier blog) to record a few songs. Canadian Dave and I have been having a listed to the film equivalent of the "rushes" (whatever that is) and are quite optimistic that there is some scope for a few nicely laid out songs. We want to maintain the vibe so are pushing for limited overdubs if possible.

Keys are pretty good (even if I say so myself) with only 1 notable gaff but we are not sure if that song is going to make it onto the EP yet anyway.

We recorded 4 songs at the session, 3 compositions of Little Dave's and a cover by the Open Mind. Watch out for "Human Zoo" that's going to slay you! (I hope, ulp).

So now its mixing and all the things that this entails. there is a little too much overspill due to the live record environment so we may reproduce the awesome acoustic track again with the gorgeous Rode mic to get the warmth out of it that we want.

I popped over to see Canadian last week and it was great to have a chat about everything, as he points out two thirds of the time we spend carrying equipment and the other third playing so its good just to talk a bit of crap (and fix the odd laptop for him) once in a while :-)

So, we're here, we're still psychedelic get used to it!

New CD EP our this side of Christmas, Ron on the mend, gigs booked from October onwards, venues ringing us up for more dates in the new year, new Piano operating system and sounds library just waiting for me to install, so we are as happy as we could expect to be whilst not actually gigging.

Hopefully people will turn out to see us play after the break??

Lets hope we still have our Mojo (if not a Sherbert Dib Dab)

Nick

Goodbye...Again!

Stagborough Arms Stealth Gig
31st July 2010



Hello again. Well this is a little quicker than we had planned but still a pleasure all the same. Hello. When we last spoke we had just finished the recording of a new EP and as I left that late night session Ron told us of a chat he had had with the manager of the Stag, who drinks in Ron's local. He was in a pickle and in danger of not putting a band on Saturday night and asked us if we were free. We were. And besides he really cares about live music and we want to do what we can to help him.

So we confirmed, on Thursday. Bearing in mind the gig was Saturday we expected it to be a quiet sending off type affair - we were wrong.


Anyhoo, we arrived on time - minus Ron who was busy preparing for Slide Boy Roy's Tour de France next week. We had checked his slip and it was approved. So, we setup the whole thing with a drummer sized space at the back - or more accurately about a foot less than a drummer sized space at the back.



Ron turned up after a particularly busy day and we loaded the kit in (well me and Ron did anyway). He's a pro that boy (!) and he had his kit setup and LOUD in 21 minutes flat. Good lad.

We have done this gig many times before so the setup was smooth, the only thing I did different was to put my bass rotor in stereo through the PA - that's right girls, Stereo!! I'm sure everyone noticed.

Soundcheck was good, Marco was invaluable as ever with his perfect and trustworthy ear (and muscles) and the onstage sound was nice and quiet. Could have been a little bit too quiet but I'll take that. A friend of Ron's was playing a gig 10 miles away and couldn't make it but he did send a message to Timmy to ask him to tun the bass up a little so that he could enjoy our gig too!

So to the gig. Well, people turned up. Lots of them. The Landlord Steve was very pleased with this and so were the band, nothing like playing to a full crowd. The volumes were good onstage (Acoustic a little low perhaps) and the outfront was perfect. I can always tell when the Organ is at the right volume as, due to my aggressive visual style (shall we say) I get a little pool or people on my left looking over my shoulder. If they don't come, I turn up!!

Its was hot and the first set, which we had written in the carpark 2 minutes before going on(the set not the songs!) was a belter and really seemed to work. We quickly wrote the second set outside. Personally I was really going for it on stage and I think there was a feeling that we had to do 3 months of performance energy in one night - I certainly did. I was more sweat than man!

So, we are cooling off outside and I am photographing stuff. On the wall, behind where Timmy's bass amp sits we actually noticed a crack forming in the building.

I never checked it when we left, I wonder how big it is now. Timmy asked me to take a picture of his far better half, Sue, which I did.Sue was very self conscious of the cut of her top as you can see..

...and it was only the next day that I though this was odd. I wonder if she knows that she was outside in public where people can see her? I do have a picture without the hand there but I think that stays off the Internet...for the time being anyway...

This is the view from the carpark!

Back in with set number two. Very aptly named that too as Little Dave was suffering from a poor stomach and just before we played the first note he raced off the stage not to be seen for 5 minutes. GHM style we improvised a really atmospheric piece of music for roughly 4 or 5 minutes (in the key of E) before our singer appeared and we could jump into Magic Potion by The Open Mind.

Slight intermittent user based fault occurred so far that there was not guitar for the first 45 seconds until the fault was diagnosed by Canadian Dave and he got back in. I kind of enjoyed it, reminded me of Deep Purple, NEC gig 1987 when Richie Blackmore had one of his strops and refused the encore. They all did Smoke on the Water without him and Jon Lord was immense. To be able to pull off a song minus guitar is pretty impressive. Needless to say, when Dave did come back in it sounded much better!!

The Second set was also good and my concentration levels were on top form, I managed to stay focused in the music throughout which is pretty good as sometimes you tend to drift.

It was hot and full and the audience were most appreciative. We overrun as usual and finished on 25 miles and Roadrunner missing out the now traditional Pink Floyd / Doors combo. Nevertheless it was a great success.

We say goodbye now, for a bit. We will be working on the EP whilst Ron gets better and we plan to return on 30th October 2010 at Katie's in Stourbridge. Do be there. Oh go on.

See you later dudes,

Nick

Searching for a Green Head Man ... Vibe

Hello!

Bit of a surprise blog this, I was expecting to be a little quiet for a bit but we had an idea – or two. Ron is going to be out of Acton (sic) for a while so we decided at short notice to get a studio recording of some sort initiated (drum parts the essential bit) so that whilst he is recovering we could be overdubbing and generally making great a few songs for a studio e.p for release the back end of the year. As we have had to do the unthinkable and cancel/rearrange/redeploy a few gigs then this would keep our and possibly your momentum going until our victorious return(!) on the 30th October 2010 at Katififzgerald’s – the irony of course being that we don’t fitz on the stage there!

So, where are we? Well we didn’t feel like we needed to enter a commercial studio for this for many reasons; cost of course, the fact that we have got (and it has to be said) some very good recording gear and also that we prefer the manky environment that we affectionately call the Chicken shack (due to there being chickens running lose all around it). Basically it is a rectangular room and that’s what we wanted.


With the day cleared we arrived around 14:00 (well some of us did) and got to work with the load in. That’s a feat in itself, and Canadian Dave started assembling his hard disk recording environment. Regularly being attacked by wasps and me getting a little Spinal Tap about it affecting my performance we got a fair bit of it setup.


Just as Ron arrived we popped out to the shops. Now that sounds simple but for us it gets a raucous affair. Timmy decided that he wasn’t going to bother with food and just bought larger, I was under instruction to get something cheesy and I lived off nuts and Pan au chocolat – middle class rock stars! You don’t need anything too upsetting as the “recording studio” has no erm.. facilities if you know what I mean. Actually I lie, after two years I found a little shed claiming to be a toilet. Actually it wasn’t too shabby expect for the JESUS spiders, occasional Rat and the lack of light or electrics – not that I wanted a shave there or anything just good to see what’s crawling up your leg you know?


Anyway as I was saying, Ron came in late (we checked his note his excuse was valid) and got to work setting up the drums. Once they were in we could get all the microphones in place (boring bit: AKG Drum Mic, SM57 on the snare, Senhiser clip on Tom mics – I liked them! – left and right ambient condenser mics and a central Rode condenser about 2 foot off the floor 4 foot in front of the kit). We had been compromised down to 8 tracks simultaneous recording due to a technical FAIL that is even too boring for me to explain so I won’t. That said I managed to link up my 16track porta studio via optical to Canadian’s computer and was able to sub mix all of my amplifier's inputs into an extra 2 stereo tracks making it 10. Still with me? Blimey! Good….

Next was the incredible bass booth. After the first take there was more hi hat on the bass track than on the hi hat track!! How could that be? The ceiling was to blame and we created a little Den or Fort for Timmy to play in, he liked that.




When recording in a live environment we like to play at a decent volume as we can bounce off each other and make something special. This band is about the interaction and the chemistry – that’s our strongest card – so playing stiff and regulated isn’t going to represent the band very well. The problem with this though in recording terms is the separation, the fact that everything is recording on all mic’s. Timmy went for a stroll. He came back with a couple of 6foor square corrugated roof panels – you just know something somewhere is raining in don’t you – and these made excellent walls so we didn’t have to see little Dave’s face, marvellous.


I’ve not mic’d up a Leslie speaker for proper recording before and there is a trick to it. Seeing as the speaker inside the cab is rotating and giving it that spinney sound you need to calculate how to reproduce the Doppler effect. I’ll leave it there as I can hear you snoring already. All you need to know is less than 120 degrees.


With everything in place we started a take. It was stiff. All too quiet and too “sterile” for us. I think we really wanted to get it right but maybe a little too much you know. I ordered everyone outside to immediately down a pint of Bank’s Bitter. Which we did. When we returned we turned up a little and had another go, much better. Come 20:00 Green Head Man kick into gear as the night band they are and the groove was getting better and better.

We did about 3 takes of our first original composition – “Human Zoo” and it was starting to sound good. Moving swiftly on to our second composition – “Golden” with a slightly Jon Lord-kinda-perfect-strangers-intro-sound going on. Very much liked being Jon for a song, when I first started on Hammond and indeed in this band I simple WAS Jon Lord and over the years my own style has developed but for this track is was 1972 Machine Head and Maybe I’m A Leo mixed with Perfect Strangers and a good old helping of 60’s fizz and pop.

Mistakes were abound and even arrangement and 12” and 18” versions were occurring on the spot. We had forgotten about the recoding and were just having fun – Green Head Man brought to you by Bank’s Bitter, a name you can trust. Things were good and we got the last take right down I think.

We then popped into recording a cover as a warm up, The Open Mind’s classic Magic Potion. This song suits us so well, and is a good indicator of how we want the heavier side of our set to sound. Stick that in with Lucifer SAM and you get the idea. Can’t wait to hear how that worked out.

It was getting late and we had another song to do. Another Original song of Little Dave’s called Moths to the Flame. By all accounts this has been well gigged by him for a few years now but we gave it the GHM treatment and hopefully it’s come out rather well.


Last thing I suggested that we hacked out another 3 versions of Human Zoo from earlier on, on the basis that we were all too tired to be up tight and we were in the groove and all that. They went well, the penultimate version was pretty definitive but the step up to the chorus was going to need to “post work” dynamically we thought. Timmy then had an idea and insisted that we recorded it once more and refused to let Ron play anything but hi hats. Madness pure madness. But we often forget that Timmy is a secret genius….

The song sounded mean, ironic, moody and just waiting to explode out (which of course it never did). Wow! The step up into the chorus is now going to be handled by Ron and Canadian Dave in post by overdubbing some percussion in afterwards to lift it. IT really did sound quite good.

It occurred to me that there were a lot of hats being worn that night. Have we turned into a “Hat Band”? One hat even turned into a rather neat and ornate mixed unsalted nut selection receptacle –which was nice.


Anyway, I think I’m all off topic. Time to pack up! Wow there was a lot of gear and wires all over the place and remembering who has what was an event. We packed up and discussed the very short notice offer of a gig at the Stagborough Arms in Stourport on Saturday. We’ll do it! Definitely the last time you will see us as a band until late October.

So the recording is done. Just the mixing and overdubs now. That’s the tricky bit. Canadian Dave is up to the task and I’m going to help him with it too. It’s got to be done right but I’m also a keen that it is done soon too but I must wind my neck in a little as I am impatient to the extreme! We are hoping that this Studio ep of Original songs plus the Live at the Stag CD will help us get bigger gigs and festivals in 2011 – Here’s’ to that eh?

Thanks for your time,

See you soon,

Nick

See you later...

The Hop Pole, Bromsgrove
16th July 2010



Arghh another Friday gig. My conscience gets me to work really early as I intend to leave a little earlier than I usual would in order to get home, changed, washed and loaded ready for arrival at the gig at 19:00. Military precision however, it ain't.

The view from the stage this week is of a slightly quieter Hop Pole Inn in Bromsgrove and the gorgeous Timmy there on bass with ridiculous length cable enabling him to sound check the band from space. Very useful this as we are prone to playing Madison Square Gardens and you can never get a good sound engineer there!

Usual setup then, got there a little late and only two guys were ahead of us. Little Dave (attempting the aforementioned military precision) and Canadian Dave setting up his guitar rig.

What was spooky though was that there had been a bass rig in the corner all the time, all setup since 18:30 but no bass player to be seen?? These days you don't worry about that sort of thing, its for the best.....

I threw the keyboard gear up in a hurry. Ron wasn't here yet and my detritus was right in his Drum space so setting up quickly was the order of the day (there was around 3 square foot to setup in - Rock and Roll!) in other news Marco had suggested we get some chips and maybe a saveloy so the pressure was on.

Marco is a star, and a cheap roadie, and with the thought of fish and chips in our heads we setup in 16 minutes and then did one.......




















Off for chips then....

I couldn't face the saveloy (so to speak) so encouraged by the "Now serving new potato's" hand drawn sign (does that make any difference?) I went for a simple cone of chips, dry chips. Its nice not to be malnutritioned at a gig but also good not to be doubled over in the pain of IBS also.

Chips done, twitter updated (@nickster2000) I raced to find my mobile phone (!) and then back to the venue. Ron had turned up with his smaller venue kit and was setting up.
















By around 20:30 we were all setup and we whistled the rest of the band onto the stage in order to attempt a quick sound check. Difficult one as it was not our PA and we only have Marco to thank for our mixes. This is obviously a good thing and thankfully I trust his ears better than mine to be honest, in fact these days he's about as much in the band as I am!! (I still haven't actually passed an audition - Ron has been waiting nearly 3 years now!)
















This is me trying to get Dave's attention whilst he chats to Marco over a beer....when he should be sound checking!!

Oh and Timmy appeared by his bass...He'd been off for a curry! Nice

Eventually we got the sounds as good as it was going to get to be honest. Ron and I (both earplug wearers) got very confused by the sound we were hearing in the sound check, it was like we were playing next door??? then the engineer walked up and admitted to the fact that he had forgotten to put the front of house PA on! aaah, that's it then....

Anyway, that done and with the house carrying the bass so much (raised box stage) we could hardly hear it onstage. I'm not saying it was a small gig but you don't hear of the Deep Purple keyboard player (wassis name - not Jon Lord that's the significant bit) having to approach his instrument via the back of the drum kit with someone kindly leaning the hi-hats out of the way (nice padded drums stool Ron!)

Anyway, we were setup...
















But where was the audience?

It was around 21:00 and there were about 25 people in. This is not so good,usually and fortunately we pack this place so something was afoot. Okay the Upton Blues Festival was on and that would account for maybe 10 people but it was odd..





















The band retired to the back garden for a rest and a rock and roll entrance! (but mainly a rest - Rock and roll is very tiring)

A beer festival 3 miles up the road you say? Oh that's it, we're boned. We weren't of course and it did fill up. Not usual capacity crowd I have to say but busy enough and with space enough for the ladies and gentlemen to dance - which some of them did. Even my mom turned up!

The first set went pretty well. We hadn't really been able to rehearse since the last gig on the 2nd July so its always interesting to hear what the band have been listening and playing along with in the interim, it tends to come out in the solos and ad lib parts of the set.

This is our last gig for a while due to an autumn sabbatical so I think we all wanted to give it 100% and really go out (possibly until January 2011) with a bang! So, first set was good, little stiff on my part but hey. Hold on, I think we only did 40 minutes! that's the problem with not sticking to a set list.

Lets see if we can sell any T-shirts in the interval then...




















We had a quick break and reassembled at 22:15 for the second set with the ambition of playing 1hr and 5mins through to kicking out time.

The second set was much better, more flowing. The pub had filled up so it was a lot easier to get lost in myself (it just is) and we flew threw some powerful numbers. Hurry on Sundown was another high point, lots of dancers to that one (as there usually is) and I can never figure out if its a classic Hawkwind song of just a cool tempo.. anyway at this point Little Dave had a little rest and we played a 13th floor elevators track again with Canadian singing before Little Dave rejoined us, watered, for the back end of the set which finished with a crazy version of Gimme Some Lovin' with mad ending supplied by Ron..

It was good, nobody in the audience knew at the time that this would be our last gig for a while. They just shouted for more whilst we chanted "Greenheadman dot com" at them for a few minutes. We we not allowed to play any longer (by order of the management) so we said good night and retired to the car park.

And it was good, we were sweaty but proud of quietly going out with a bang. Set down was easy too, aided by potato sustenance and excellent roadie work from the over appreciated and under paid Marco, we left pretty earlier and I was home before 00:30 which I guess would be before Ron had unscrewed a single nut from his drum kit!

Ron is so lumbered with the drumming as all the cables and amps crowd around the kit and engulf it so much that he cannot hope to move it until all of the rest of the equipment is packed away so often after a gig you will see nothing but a pristine drum kit shining away on the stage waiting to be disassembled!

Our next gig is in Stourbridge at Katiefitzgeralds on the 30th October 2010. Hope to see you there, fully recovered, with a new load of songs and a very healthy team of telepathic, psychedelic Rockers!

Nick

The Queens Head, Wolverley, England

2nd July 2010




















Hello again, how are you doing? Yet another gig and this time at the Queen's, our spiritual home or the place we played first or the drummers local whichever fits best.

Good venue this. Its not really a venue but the audience are really appreciative and the odd celebrity (odd as in every now again - Sorry mate!) turns up to support Green Head Man, and that's a lovely gesture.

We are not allowed to setup until around 20:00 on a bad day due to the venues other function as a restaurant and this makes getting on stage at 21:00 difficult for us (especially as we have to provide the PA etc..) and so with the best will in the world we are usually a little late. This time we were very late - 21:40 - so we made a very special effort on a very hot and sticky Friday night to be extra trippy and extra committed to giving the assembled drinkers (and musicians too??) a good quality piece of entertainment.

That we did. A very hot experience all round.

The venue and the audience really enjoyed it and that's the best we can hope for. The band were in full jam mode - the drummer is packed away in an alcove so sometimes cues are missed and another 16bar improvised musical passage is called for but we get there in the end and visit many a magical place en route.

















We did only one extended set here as we were late getting on stage and it was interesting to see people flow in and out to the bar and for a fag and basically a breather too. In retrospect 2 sets is the way to approach these smaller gigs I think - gives people time to take 5 and buy a beer and all that - lesson learned there.
















The usual crew came, fans, musos, WAG's and we all had a very nice time indeed thank you very much. It was so hot and I was giving it "the beans (tm)" so much that at one point I seriously considered that I may collapse but I carried on with pints of council pop and remained vertical in the end.

We sold more CD's too and advertised our new clothing range (A shirt).

Next weekend off and then over to Bromsgrove to the good old (loud) Hop Pole Inn. Venue PA as well so the get in is easy. Ron is playing 3 gigs that day so we are setting up one of his kits for him - don't think he knows what hes letting himself in for!!




















See you later lovely people,

Nick

The River Rooms, Stoubridge, England

Saturday 26th June 2010



Morning.

It’s been a few days since the River Rooms gig but honestly its take a while for it all to sink into place and me to blog – so here goes.

Interesting gig this one, on the professional circuit and all that so it is a subtle but significant step up for us and one we were ready and looking forward to. It’s the little differences, example – load in isn’t into the corner of a pub at 19:00 but onto a 4 foot elevated stage at 17:00 before the punters get in. Soundcheck is done to closed doors and then the band disappear until they go on stage, which isn’t 21:00 but 22:15 – damn near bedtime!!

I picked Little Dave up who had been busking in the area went back to mind for a coffee.
















So then we turned up, waited in the carpark for a while (ahem) but loaded in an up. The sound engineer (Craig) was excellent as was the lighting guy (Tim) who had spent the afternoon googling us and downloaded Pyschedelic images for his 2 projector screens either side of the stage – proper commitment to the cause.

Soundcheck included Bass amp explosions, and nice rug, up to 3 bass amps and a generally good onstage sound. Featuring for the 3rd time only my ACS ear defenders which worked a treat I have to say. The only drawback with them is that it can hide dynamics a little, so that when we need to go quiet (on the fly) I am sometimes blasting out at full volume until I receive the Paddington Bear stare and back of the swell.















The band went home for tea (another weird one), I actually had tea, which in itself is a first for me. I returned to the venue first to see what the attendance was like. I booked the gig in the first place so felt a little more pressure on me to ensure that it was going to be a good one. My hopes had been dashed by the owner as he lets us in when he said “ooh this weather (sunny) doesn’t help us much and what with the World Cup and Glastonbury this weekend…”. Great, its going to be empty then. This is doubly a problem as it holds 350 people so even 50 people will get lost in the walls.

So, its was 20:45 and I did a quick headcount whilst drinking my only shandy of what was going to be a very long night. Yup, 30 people. Not bad in itself but the venue was only 9% full. Oh dear. Come 21:00 40 people. Oh dear.

Then, I got carried away with technical issues; arranging Little Dave’s radio pack monitors, discussing the lighting setlist with Tim, attempting to record the gig off the desk + ambient mic’s, trying to stop Timmy playing bass on stage at full volume before the gig started (waaaay before the gig started!) and arranging setlists with the DJ (songs not to play basically!!)

It was 21:45 all of a sudden and you know what, it was busy. Ish. The Stourbridge News was there, Members from DC Fontana and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin too and other musicians (we have a habit of attracting muso’s and I can’t for the life of me think why).

So, at 22:00 we huddle of into our dressing room (I know –Dressing room!) and get changed and in my case do some star jumps and warm up the vocal chords. The message came to us that “after the next song your on” and we let Canadian Dave who had the furthest to walk go on stage on his own and break out the weird noises from his Juno 60 synth for a minute or two before we got onstage ourselves – sets the scene a bit.

Then we pile on – it was busy! You could see the audience. This was good.













We had a setlist and because the lighting guy had a copy we pretty much stuck to the set – people who know us will know that this is a very unlikely event. The first 2 or 3 songs were a little tentative and I made a few howlers but once we got back into the whole concept of the big gig we really rose to the occasion. The two Dave’s grew in stature and the gig was a rip roaring success.

165 people in the end and only a handful of them were friends and family. This means that we actually have fans now and we are delighted by their support – thank you guys and girls. A couple of notable dancers too and next time we will get Amanda Dance Commander™ on stage with us I hope. We played for nearly 2.5 hours, far too long, and even though the voices were broken by then we really enjoyed it.

Then – 2 hours of watching people drink and dance before we could set down! Got in around 02:30 and with no alcohol in the house went to bed at 03:00 and didn’t sleep until the daughter kindly got me out of bed at 08:19.

The venue just called, they are still getting people in saying how good the event was! They were impressed we pulled in so many people under difficult circumstances and want us back there again – January 28th in fact. Put it in your diaries!! The facebook group has slowly expanded all week too and that is pretty impressive considering we didn’t even mention it.

A huge thanks to the venue, so professional with so little attitude, The bar staff were excellent sports, wearing GreenHeadMan badges for the evening and Mark, Craig and Tim were superb. Cant wait to do it again and again and again..

…and maybe even get that recoding to actually work next time..

Nick

The Stagborough Arns, Stourport, England

19th June 2010



A lovely summer's day that threatened to be a quiet one as well. A couple of high profiled gigs around the corner, the world cup on, perfect BBQ weather and a 60’s birthday party on up the road. This place should be empty. And at 21:00 is still was. This was going to be a paid rehearsal! And I got a new shirt for this?

We set-up reasonably professionally, Little dave was terminally short of cables as usual (terminally short as usual!) and I think we used every cable we had (even an XLR to XLR with a XLR to female ¼”” converter and a patch lead hanging out of the back of it but... we got it all working and sound checked for around nine.

Little Dave was also terminally hung over bless him, due to an impromptu and completely free bar party that he found himself at the night before. In contrast the summer detox is in full (lack of( flow for Canadian Dave and Timmy who were more cohesive than ever.

The audience came...if you play they will come right? (if you are any good like...) so they came, bless ‘em all. And although it wasn’t packed it was pretty full, and the venue owner was delighted again, as were the audience.

There was a lot of jamming, at one point we got stuck in a loop and couldn’t get out of the song but some quick thinking got the intro riff out there and we were able to bring it to an end.

The setlist was tight, between songs chatter was down to a minimum and seemed to work well and we ploughed thro two good sets including two original Green Head Man numbers which also went down well. As per we ran out of time and had to cut short a requested Pink Floyd song (Lucifer SAM) down to around 7 minutes! Yes, it was a jammy night!

Steve put on some cobs and a pork pie and Kelly sold a CD so all in all not a bad night.

Got in for 01:00 which was good, beer, then bed for 02:-00 (up at 08:30 with kids bouncing on my had – down to earth with a bump)

See you next time

Nick

The Wishing Well, Bromsgrove, England

21st May 2010



Always an awkward gig this, in that the stage is shallow and the volume always too loud.

Its badly lit too so you can't see which plug goes in where, luckily I have my array of torches!

Once setup its fine of course and the pub is on a local circuit so our job it to entertain 'fans' but also stop people from moving on to the next pub. Not too sure we pulled that off on this occasion as we hadn't seen each other for 3 weeks, Ron had been on holiday and had lactic acid and blisters and we probably chatted too long between songs.

This is due to the fact that we don't really do set lists. We know around 35 songs and the singer and guitarist know 350 together so there is no real telling where we go with the telepathy.

I got to try out my new Solar 250 projector cassette here as well and it was well trippy!

Nick