HA!

Indeed ha. For this was our 3rd gig in one week. That’s a lot of gigs and not so many weeks. Are we on a roll? I think it’s too soon to tell personally, but we certainly are popular. Well, I like us.

So the gig: we had been approached by Adrian Phillips who had previously featured us on his site tuna the day - you should check it out, it’s a neat site (can I say “neat” and still be cool? I dunno, but I’m going for it), and we of course said “delighted to”. Pete seemed disgruntled, but then again he often is. And we had the pleasure of supporting Avipaul (look at me and my hyperlinking. Took long enough to remember how to do it though) at said Fat Lil’s. Again, check them out, they make some good sounds!

The venue: Fat Lil’s. For those who have not been to Witney then you may not have heard of it. For anyone who has been to Witney this is the venue that you want to play. Situated just on a road (some road, dunno which one) leading into the town centre, this venue looks quite modest when you look from outside – you can see that there is a door and name across the top and that is about it. Venture on inside however and you can see why we were excited to play here. Walk on inside and the venue takes an almost terraced-house approach: seems to stretch on forever! Bar on your left (this of course was the first point I noticed) and stage straight on ahead, on the other side of the seating area. There is even a musicians area with lovely comfy seating just off the side of the stage! We then got the tour from Ade, introduced to our sound engineer and spent some time getting ready backstage.

On for soundcheck: and it was a breeze. Mics were set up readily while we were getting ready, stage was nicely sized for a sextet and all that was required was to blast some notes out (I blasted, everyone else played proper stuff) and rattle through a couple of tunes. And then on to the Chinese we went.

The gig itself. Good. Very good. We had a shortish set (compared to some of the others we have done) of 45 minutes and so we were able to produce a pretty tight set. A couple of new tunes were aired as well, though we stuck mostly to what we new (we don’t know a lot, but what we do know is….. good). And then Avipaul followed – very impressive set, especially the use of the Tabla (if you don’t know what it is you can look it up).

So a B+ for this one. We were treated very well, felt very welcome and the sound and crowd were excellent. Just waiting for our next opportunity to show Witney and Fat Lil’s what we are capable off!

Adam

Ha!

2 gigs in 2 days? Dear me Quadrophobe must be popular, as we made our second visit back to the Banbury area to partake in one of our most favourite pastimes: drinking. Oh wait, i mean playing tunes. With beer.

So we ventured our way up to Chacombe, 5 of us even squeezing into a single ford focus (it was COSY. a little too cosy…) and eventually found our way, instruments and all. The venue, for those who are intrigued and even for those not intrigued: a country pub in Oxfordshire, parking provided for in a field with a large elongated (look at me and my long words) pub garden. Patio area complete with huge (tasty) barbecue then stretches off into grassy area where the beer tent and adjacent perfomance tent were situated.

We arrived a good 2 hours early and proceeded to settle in: ales (with commemerative pint glass) were purchased, food was eaten and chatting to some of the village residents was done. Just what you want on a Saturday eve. And so Quadrophobe were suitably relaxed, calm, pampered and inebriated to perform (well, I was pretty drunk, I wouldn’t want to speak on behalf of everyone. Except for Jim, he was definitely drunk).

We were fortunate enough not to have to bring any sound equipment with us (as stated, the ford focus of wonder was already packed, never mind if we had to bring amps and all) and so we got the luxury of trying out their system. Did a good job I think: 3 dedicated cound guys catering to all our needs (much appreciated ) and we were all micced (miced? miked?) up and ready for action.

Following a 2 and a half hour session the previous night, we were feeling pretty on the ball. Unfortunately we had to cut it off after 30 minutes (not because we were bad. I don’t think :S), but I for one thought we could have played for another hour: it was tight, it sounded good, the audience were getting involved. Only issue from our perspective was a cutting out of the monitors part way through – made it tricky to tell if brass/vocal levels were there with the rest of it, but as said, had 3 guys keeping an eye and audience reaction was very positive!

I give this gig a B. The amount of playing the night before was really telling – but in a good way! Tight ensemble, energetic performance, and awaitng the invite for next years event.

Adam

Ha!

‘When did Quadrophobe visit America’ I hear you cry. WELL WE DIDN’T! We in fact made a short slightly long stop to the town of Banbury to visit this new refurbed venue to steal it’s musical virginity. And steal it we did in sublime slightly okay fashion.

For those of you who are not aware, or could not tell from the above ramblings (don’t worry, even I’m not sure what’s going on now I’ve reread it), we rocked out at the newly refurbished pub/restaurant on the outskirts of Banbury. As said (twice, now thrice), this place was newly refurbished, and so when mentioned to my peeps at work (yes, I have work peeps) they said “but it’s been closed for aaaages!”. This brought about a certain amount of worry, but I live to tell the tale so all is good.

About the venue: it is a large establishment (as said, on the outskirts of Banbury = lots of space) and they are partaking in regular friday and saturday night entertainment. Hence the Quadro-action going on. So, you walk in and forward to the left you have the bar (important note), with seating expanding round to the left, while the main stage area (well, cornered off section) was round to the right in an open space with more seating and the other bar (second important note). We were situated infront of the fireplace (there was no fire in it so Dan was safe), using our own sound system. Stage size was perfect for our band, must say.

As for the gig, was probably our tallest demand: playing from 8 30 until 11 30! 3 hours of Quadro-fun. Is it possible? Is it even legal?? The answer of course is no, it is not legal. So we had to take a half hour break in the middle.

And we performed all we had: we played our hearts out – originals, covers, the lot. And was a dam good effort – my lip even survived the whole gig (my playing is somewhat inconsistant :S ). Unfortunately there were not a huge number of people to see the first half but things certainly picked up second half: dancing galore for all! Pete probably danced a little too much but that’s okay: we forgive him. At least I did. Alas though, despite cries for “Buzzcocks” we were unable to to deliver on this!

All in all, a good effort given that the venue was still looking to establish itself on the music scene. I give this gig a C, though we need to up our repertoire for our next visit!

Adam

HA!

Hello all fans of the Quad (not the quad at school, but the mighty Quadrophobe who present awesome music everytime they are anywhere). Saturday was a good day for music, and I will tell you why.

For those unfamiliar with the Astonbury festival, it is held in a village by the name of Aston Rowant (hence Astonbury) at the local cricket club. As soon as we were offered the chance (by one of Jim’s work associates) to play in the back of  truck, we were powerless to say no. We enjoy trucking (now a phrase for playing in the back of trucks, not just for driving them).

And so the Quadro-fun began – I believe that a certain Jim was there from rather early on to sample some of the cricket and help set up some staging equipment ready for us to arrive later on at about 6pm. As the show (for us) was not starting for a good 2 hours it meant that we had plenty of time for a soundcheck and other such luxuries (drink. food. drink). We were fortunate enough to get these provided for free (SCORE), and I enjoyed a jug of Pimms with keysman (Pete is now just known as keysman) before waltzing on.  Soundcheck was interesting – mostly fine, but then it turned out that a certain Michael Wilkins had a mic that appeared to no longer work. EEEEK. So with a regular “I can’t dance and play anymore” stand up mic. For Mike (heehee). 

This proved only a slight hinderance and mild annoyance in our quest for playing tunes as we put in a fairly solid set. I say fairly, because although I thought it sounded good, it was hard to see what the reaction of the audience was as 1. It was dark, 2. I had Aviators on 3. I probably should have been wearing my actual glasses rather than aviators, and 4. As the rain was so intense the majority of the audience were a good 40/50 feet away (I’m bad with distances so this may be exagerated or under estimated. I’m just not sure).  Well played to those who did boogie on down in the rain though – we felt the love.

So yes, the set: we integrated some covers (not as many as we have done on the last 2 gigs, but some)  in amongst our own brand of sound,  and we played it pretty well. Sax balance was lacking, though all solos were transferred to my mic which meant at least the important bits were heard (arguably of course the trumpet is always more important than the sax due to it being a superior instrument, but I won’t go there :p ). I give this gig a B-. Excellent hospitality and nice event but unfortunately weather along with minor sound issues did not permit. Looking forward to the event next year though!

Adam

HA!

For those of you familiar with Rugfest, good work. For those unfamiliar, shame on you. But I will explain all anyway. I’m nice like that. Rugfest is a festival based in Wallingford and run by the Rugby club – mucho entertainment was provided at said event (including beer of the alcoholic type) and fun to be had by all. And so to recap the Quadro-day up to point-of-play:

The day for us started about 5pm when I left Oxford enroute to the most happening farm there has ever been for final preparations and convoying fun. Practice was good: ran some dodgy parts (not that there were any, it’s just a figure of speech), finalised the set and then packed up and ready for our trek to Wallingford.

The venue: we arrived nicely in time – about 2/3 hours before playing and parked up at the front of the rugby club. We then strolled on up to the entrance (which, being a festival, was a field. Not that I think I’m above playing in fields. I am though in case you are now wondering) got our all-area rockstar passes (complete with booze voucher) and ventured on up to take in some of the surroundings. And I have to say, the sound coming from the stage was very impressive. We were to play out of the back of a truck (well, the side) with a huge sound system and several engineers catering for all of our needs – even a full drum kit was provided which was, as far as I could tell from Dan’s face, a little more than adequate.

And so for the gig. As it was my birthday (waay) I was starting to get a little tanked/merry/drunk/blind (waaaaaaaaaaaaaay) through free drinking and also just buying lots of drink. But I was fit to play (fortunately). And so at 11pm we soldiered onto the stage ready for an performance under intense heat (the lights really were warm and they actually made me feel justified in wearing aviators at 11pm). Some of the audience had started to part as there were lots of families (and Quadrophobe is too hardcore for family entertainment. Not really, if you are a family please come and see Quadrophobe), but there there was still a strong contingent ready for our own brand of sound. And brand it we did.

The music I thought was great – lots of energy, generally together and a good all round performance. I say generally together because those of you see us regularly (yay for Quadro-fans) will realise that often we are playing on a smaller stage (oh yeah, this was a BIG stage, probably as big as our ventures at the O2) and so some of the eye contact we usually get going on (not the dodgy pervy type – the type where we communicate in order to play together) was a lot tricky to do when sexy wing-man 1 is about 40 feet away! As well as the lights being slightly blinding. But it rocked still!

Music went down very well with the crowd – there was a combination of people loving the music and watching intently as well as some who were at that stage in the drinking where they could not help but dance dance dance (which Quadrophobe LOVES by the way) and I think I even got my (left) nipple out at one point (on request, not just because I like being shirtless. That was just a happy coincidence). And when we came off we were all shattered – coated in sweat (gorgeous) out of breath (lovely) and in need of a sit down (eurgh). Now THAT is the sign of a good gig (as well as the musical element. That counts for some too)

Overall this gig gets a strong B, a B+ in fact. Great audience reaction, all the energy in the world and some gooood tunes played (and Dreadlock holiday was loved this time around. SCORE!).

Catch you soon peepies

Adam

HA!

Yes, it is that time of year: school is not only out for summer but out for good, and who is there to help celebrate it in Quadro-style? Yes, it is QUADROPHOBE! Not many people have mastered said Quadro-style, but somehow we manage it. Somehow.

As I recall it has been a month since we last blessed anyone with our unique brand of noise, and a month since I last blessed you with my unique attempt at writing coherent English. And when I say blessed, I mean truly blessed!

For those of you who did not know or were unsure, Quadrophobe is in fact an ensemble heralding not only for Wantage, but all from the wonderful weird and wacky institution that is King Alfreds. So when we got the call asking us to play at such a prestigious event we said “I dunno, sounds pretty boring to me but okay then”. And so there it was, Quadrophobe had been booked. The setting was PERFECT.

This magical musical event was scheduled to happen aty Lains Barn, a venue whilst familiar to the eye was not so familiar to the ears as a place of performing awesome music. So we Quadro-convoyed it up from the farm with all the gear we could ever need for this particular gig and soundchecked pretty much instantly on arrival. As stated earlier in this blog, we had never played this venue before and so we were intrigued as to the acoustic that a barn could offer us. The sound system was set up nicely for us on arrival (though we brought extra microphones jsut to make sure that every single noise we make is heard) and looked pretty comprehensive: PA avec huge subwoofer, monitors and a carpet even so that the drumkit did not slide about. And we even had 3 sound engineers catering to our every need. Perfect.

Soundcheck was fairly standard: we played a bit and then the brass got told off for being too loud. So we got quietened (the rest of the band forget that if I decide I’m not loud enough then I just play louder until I feel that I am dominating the sound sufficiently. HA!). A couple of attempts at “Few Last Words” (ON THE NEW EP!) and we were sorted for the night. Score. Before we were then asked upon to perform our eclectic mix of awesomeness we then pigged out at the hog roast which nicely filled a hole. Then when the hole was nicely filled I ate another one. Nice.

Preceeding us in the billing was an act from the school – a certain Mr Warne – who provided folk for the masses, which went down very well. Quadrophobe were going to have a tough time following this act.

But on we went: we had judged that the mix of current dedicated Quadro-fans and “potential” future Quadro-fans was stirred nicely, and so we would have to produce some material that was known by the masses who were less familiar with our collection of songs (and by less familiar, I mean don’t have a f*$&ing clue who we are). We also kindly agreed to split the set into two halves so that the formalities of the awards ceremony could take place. How kind we are. Also, I welcomed the beer break with open hand.

So to our set: we started off with some favourites of ours – a bit of Few Last Words and Tibet as well as others before moving onto to some songs that the lesser-committed-Quadro-fan would recognise. I think this first set went down really well – people seemed pretty keen for our stuff as well as covers (less keen for ours perhaps, but there was still dancing so I allowed this). And the sound system was sounding pretty good as well (I could even hear myself clearly in the monitor. Sweet).

As for the second set this went down pretty well, though our brand new cover of Dreadlock Holiday did not get quite the reception we were expecting. And by not quite the reception, we mean not a single person danced to it. Shame on you KA’s leavers for not recognising an awesome tune! But there we have it. We continued on with our set mixing recent covers (Love Machine) and not so recent covers (Lady Madonna) in with our own stylings. We then finished strong with some Badger fun and Bad Guys. There seemed to be genuine enjoyment/quite often simply drunkardness on the faces of those dancing.

This was a good gig, and we showcased a good number of tunes over the 90 minutes that we were in charge of everyone’s fun for. I give this gig a C. Perhaps some further tailoring of the set could have helped keep the crowd more into it (a couple more famous covers is my feeling), but we were loved thoughout the entire gig . And that is all that really matters.

Laters

Adam

HA!

Hello again loyal Quadro-fans. It is good to be back and good to be well. Having been away, found myself in Peru (hiding in a mud-hut) and contracted some very sexy (but mostly unsexy) diseases/illnesses, spent the entire Quadro-earnings on what can only be described as “a complete waste of time, effort, and Llamas”, I am now back in the country and ready to perform for the masses. Also, I may play some trumpet for you too (waaaaay).

Firstly I must thank sexy wingman no.2 for his insightful bloggings of the previous gig – though I am ashamed to say that your review gains a rating of only C-. People want to hear about the gig Jim, not your ramblings over whoever and whatever. Anyway, back to THIS gig.

The day started off with me coming from work (yes, I now have a job! BELIEVE IT BABY) and meeting the rest of the Quadrophobes at the Cellar. I had managed to avoid the lovely heavy lifting (my muscles are so toned already I decided to leave it to the rest of them) and so the sound check began. Those who follow us regularly (woop) will know that we have played this venue quite recently before and know how much of a fan I am of this stage and sound – words cannot describe. Actually, they can. It is good. Since we were there first we also had the pleasure of soundchecking first. And what a pleasure it was.  Things went fairly seemlessly, no major problems. Unless you count 3 of us being ill as a major problem (unfortunately my acute case of rabies was spreading). But I digress (unlike me really): The stage was perfectly set up for a night of rocking rock and rolling roll. A quick stop off at KFC for some kentucky fried love and then back to sample some of the fun that was in store for all tonight.

For those who were not aware (as I was not – I pay little attention shamefully), this event was a charity gig in aid of NSPCC and we were lined up with some Jack FM finalists from our shenanigans previously – Beck Lanehart and Inlight (if I knew how to hyperlink these two to www.myspace.com/becklanehartmusic and www.myspace.com/inlight then I would right now and look reseanably clued up on the whole tech-thing). Unfortunately Beck had also come down with illness soon before the gig (I don’t think it was as hardcore as the rabies Quadrophobe had contracted but sympathy was there), though still put in an enjoyable performance. Then it was time for the (Quadro)phobe….

Given the 2 of the 3 voclaists (yes, I’m starting to count myself as a vocalist) were ill I thought we put in a reasonable performance. I wouldn’t say that the audience was full to capacity, but those there did seem to have some fun! We even managed to throw in a first live public performance of Edit Me This which went as well as we hoped it would. Given that we have been spending so much of our efforts focusing on new material (yes, there are more in the pipeline!) I think ou regular set went well. I give the overall gig a C- though: the audience reaction was good (from those who were there) but I wasn’t feeling it myself I must say. Nect time though we shall be better!

To conclude I feel I should mention the headliners too – solid performance from them, got the crowd going and showed why they were a finalist for JackFM – was a pleasure sharing the stage with you!

Laters

Adam

Greetings Quadrofans,

I feel it is my duty to report that, last week, Adam Johnstone lost all of his money and clothes in a game of tiddlywinks with Wilks and Dan. We believe that this was the spark that sent him on a spiritual journey to ‘re-find himself’. He left what can only be described as a ’small etching’ on the Quadrofridge explaining that he has gone to Peru for 3 weeks to herd llamas. We wish him the best. True story.

Anyhow, this meant he missed our latest gig at the Abingdon road house party last night. The theme – eighties! So, as your humble Driscoll, I feel I should report the proceedings in Bom’s absence.

After Richard, Ashley and myself had gorged ourselves silly on French cuisine we made our to Dan’s to collect the equipment – So began the now customary Quadro-convoy. En route to the venue we discussed Kafka, Lionel Blair and Mulletts (we were going to an eighties party after all). We arrived at our destination high on life and safe in the knowledge that we’d be greeted by some familiar faces. The party was in aid of Becky’s (a new recruit to the Quadrofan ranks) Birthday. Rumour had it that members of local favourites, Stornoway, and our fellow Jack FM finalists, InLight would be at the party to hear our sweet beats – but sadly neither materialised.

After an extended set-up period we bashed out two 35 minute sets, mixing old and new material – with a liberal sprinkling of covers that spanned the decades. In all honesty we perhaps had one relevant cover. One Step Beyond was the only true eighties song and got the crowd bopping along nicely. We premiered our new song ‘Trousers’ to a receptive gathering.

It was a good night, even with only 66.6% of the band in attendance and it was definately an occassion where the covers garnered the most attention – though it must be said that the audience participation in Super Badger and Above Me was admirable! Adam didn’t leave me his grading chart before going away but, on the fact that we were made to feel so welcome and stayed to join in the festivities afterwards, I’d give this one a B+ .

Farewell for now. We will speak again the next time Adam leaves the country in a hurry – Quadrophobe-ho!

J

HA!

Hello all Quadrophobians (like amphibians but more Quadro-like). I’m going to spoil the surprise right now and say that we did not win the Jack FM final (sorry guys), BUT we did put up a good fight. Onwards with the actual write-up though.

For those of you who have not kept fully up to date with proceedings in the Jack FM comp up to this point I shall fill all of you in now (I’m a gentleman like that). The first I heard of it was Jim sending an email round saying “oh yeah, by the way, I’ve sent of an mpg of Super Badger to Jack FM to apply for this contest”. We weren’t really expecting to hear much back, but hear back we did. Oh yes. It turned out that we were shortlisted as semi-finalists based on this one “demo” (the idea was to send off a little demo of us. We went for overkill and sent off about £300 worth of studio and mastering time efforts. Seemed to work). Having been chosen in the top 20 out 127 bands (127? 140? 60,786? not sure of the exact figure) we were starting to take this quite seriously, especially given the prize at stake. For those of you unaware of the prize at stake, it was a place at Wychwood festival and a £2000 recording session. Not too shabby. (continue reading…)