GIGS  TO COME

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I WANT TO BOOK PRINCESS DRIVE
 

Gig 16: Cellar Bar 8, Cambridge, 11/11/2005

                'Welcome to La La Land'
                Cambridge Evening News

    BORED of waiting for something to happen, four bands have clubbed together to release a compilation CD with a gig underneath Cambridge's sedate streets.

    The CD, called Dear Cambridge, LA LA LA, consists of a local punk contingent: Cosycosy, The Furious Sleep, Bomb Factory and Princess Drive, who all play at
the launch night on Friday.  Ranting Jack, who fronts Bomb Factory, came up with the idea. He says: "It's a way of doing something that isn't nine to five, same old, same old, string
yourself up on the clothes line tedious.  All these bands give a 110 per cent, put on a blinding show, because we all know this is our chance to squeeze some actual life out of our existence, to
squash several years of delayed excitement into those 20 or 30 minutes on stage.  Also we wanted to play a gig with bands that were on a similar wavelength.  The Furious Sleep, Cosycosy and Princess Drive are all really, really good bands. I cannot stress how good. So much better than the sludge that slops out over your shoes when you turn on the radio."

    The launch gig kicks off at Cellar Bar 8 in Napier Street where more than 200 copies of the CD will be given away free.  "It just seemed to us these bands should be heard by as many people as possible", says Jack. "And that was not going to happen sitting around waiting for irregular gigs in pubs. So we hired a big cellar and put on our own gig.  The CD is part of that. It's totally free. You know the way it is - you go to a gig by a band you've never heard of and they try and flog you a CD.  It doesn't matter if they've bust a gut up there, if they're sweating fat drops of blood, hardly anyone ever buys it. Give it away free and people are queuing up.  We don't mind that, this is meant to be a showcase and the CD lasts longer than the couple of hours spent at the gig - it's a musical kick-start for your memories."

                Red Pages, November 2005

"Four bands figured they'd make a bigger noise if they all shouted together.

Sick of the fact the Cambridge music 'scene' seemingly exists of nothing more than Jools Holland playing once every 6 months at the Corn Exchange (or so it seems when you're stuck playing the same pub every week to the same 15 people), they stopped hoping for someone to lift them out of their musical dead-end, and started learning to fly.

So, deep under the Cambridge streets, under this twee corner of English heaven, they played a gig. And handed out free CDs. They pulled a huge crowd. Got everybody dancing. And tried to promote the do it yourself ethic. Because when everybody else is too busy working 9-5, too stuck in a stoned stupor, too oxymoronic to even contemplate promoting anything other than apathy, you can't just awake yourself. You have to scream so loud you wake up this whole damn city.

So, The Furious Sleep, Cosy Cosy, Princess Drive and (the) Bomb Factory, We salute you for trying to pull us out of this with you. So what if there's a motto about those who dare to fly? We’ll see you the other side of this bleak horizon.

Send us a postcard."


i No Jail For Thought ii This Is Not An Exit iii It Doesn't Make It Alright iv We Have No Past v Still I Rise vi I Went Into The Boardroom (with Ranting Jack) vii Crash And Burn

Gig 15: The Portland Arms, Cambridge, 27/07/2005
  
With Special Needs and Red Organ Serpent Sound.
 
i No Jail For Thought ii This Is Not An Exit iii Last Act iv We Have No Past v Still I Rise vi Crash And Burn


Gig 14: The Tavern Club, St Ives, 10/07/2005
 
Rock and roll fun in a near empty fenland pub.  Good pay.

i No Jail For Thought ii This Is Not An Exit iii Last Act iv We Have No Past v Still I Rise vi Crash And Burn


Gig 13: The Man On The Moon, Cambridge, 25/06/2005 
  
Turns out Adam caught mumps off Pat at Strawberry Fayre.  Struggled through.  Bomb Factory and The Volunteers add to the general sense of chaos and

i No Jail For Thought ii This Is Not An Exit iii Last Act iv We Have No Past v Still I Rise vi Crash And Burn


Gig 12: Strawberry Fair Future Tent, Cambridge, 04/06/2005
 
Pat had mumps, but didn't know at the time.  Our first gig with Adam.   Short Video Here.
 
i No Jail For Thought ii This Is Not An Exit iii We Have No Past iv Last Act v Still I Rise vi  Crash And Burn

 Gig 11: Portland Arms, Cambridge, 12/02/2005
 
Acoustic set.

i Still I Rise ii This Is Not An Exit iii It Doesn't Make It Alright (specials cover) iv We Have No Past
 

A Gig: REPEAT Ramones Covers Party, Portland Arms, Love Music Hate Racism/Cancer Research Benefit, 29/12/2004
 
Hilariously, playing 'The BNP Took My Baby From Me' (cover of the Ramones' 'The KKK Took My Baby Away') resulted in lots of hardcore Nazis leaving insults on our guestbook.

i R.A.M.O.N.E.S ii The BNP Took My Baby From Me  iii You Don't Come Close
 

Strangely enough, a large Saturday night in-crowd packed into the Portland to see us with Corporation:Blend, Nebraska, and The Blueberries who were all very good.  A good gig.  Gave away some free demos, and agreed to go and play some gigs somewhere outside Cambridge with Bomb Factory.  An aggressive advertising campaign, consisting of fly posting and guestbook sniping meant, impressively, we have finally developed people who hate us.  The Evening News ran a large article on us the Thursday before, but I don't think anyone saw it.  No one threw any bottles at us either.

i No Jail For Thought  ii This Is Not An Exit iii Last Act iv Still I Rise v Crash and Burn vi Choke 
 

Princess Drive rock and rolled their way to a middle (!) slot in front of a average Portland crowd.  The set was described as "brilliant" by Rhythm Online, but,  when you play such an intent and aggressive set the majority of the crowd are in shock and unresponsive, especially in between songs, and the atmosphere is so solid you have no choice but to bang your head against it until it breaks.  We wouldn't have it any other way.

i Choke ii No Jail For Thought iii Last Act iv Still I Rise v This Is Not An Exit vi Tell Me What You Want vii Crash And Burn

An absent Pilmer led to a Pat acoustic set.  The small Portland crowd saw a special cover of The Clash's Spanish Bombs, with new lyrics befitting the occasion ("US bombs, you're the killer..., back home the streets were full of people, lets show them what we think of their war, Mr Blair where's the real Great Britain?, on the streets or in the house of lords?"), with extra harmonica noodling by Tom.  Later, Indigo Child played generic "alternative rock", before Bomb Factory blew everyone away, including themselves.

i Choke ii Tell Me What Your Want iii This Not Is Not An Exit iv Last Act v It Doesn't Make It Alright (specials cover) vi US Bombs (clash cover)

Gig 7: Strawberry Fair Young Performers Tent, 06/06/2004
 
Princess Drive emerge from hibernation with haircuts, revision and new songs.  The young peeps tent was packed full with crap bands and great bands, and we had the honour of the middle-ish half five slot, resisting the urge to get drunk beforehand (well done Pilmer).  With We Can Build You but a distant memory, our hate/hate relationship with other bands continued, but, in comparison, The Azadi Collective don't take no shit because they are always ready to sign their lives away to EMI, at least for a few minutes.  Our set went well, with less fuck ups and a much bigger audience then usual, but no one could understand a word.  After exiting stage left, the world was still the same as when we took to it.  If every gig was like this i would be happy.
 
i Choke ii Tell Me What Your Want iii No Jail For Thought iv Last Act v This Is Not An Exit vi Crash and Burn
 

 
 
A Gig: Portland Arms, 10th Anniversary Kurt Cobain Benefit Gig Thing, 10/04/2004  

Tom and Pat played acoustic Nirvana covers celebrating the good music Kurt Cobain wrote and inspired, and the shite music he wrote and inspired. The gig was sold out, but as we were opening we only played to a select few. Tom played harmonica and bass, and pat played guitar and shouted, and a good time was had by all.

i Dumb ii Serve the Servants  

Gig 6: The Man On The Moon [hurrah], 08/01/2004 

A hastily organized gig.  Although we only played to six people (including the other band Possum Fodder), it was our first headlining gig (if that's the word) and our first experience of the (unique) 'Moon.  People don't seem to realise that the only reason bands play here is so they can go and headline somewhere bigger later, and not play with ska-punk Moon Ska dilatants like Possum Fodder.  But it was a good gig, and although we weren't what fuckwits call "tight", we jumped around and shouted "good evening Wembley" (as in our heads a tiny crowd is not an excuse not to think, at least, that you are playing Wembley stadium) at every possibly satisfying opportunity, in the back room of a rather scary pub. 

i Choke ii Tell Me What You Want iii Last Act iv Guns Of Brixton v This Is Not An Exit vi Crash And Burn

 

Gig 5: LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM BENEFIT, Portland [again], 22/11/2003
            Release party for 'FEAR OF A BLACK KENNET' or 'In which Princess Drive decide to play great punky songs instead of crap meaningless songs"

Our biggest gig to date and, for possibly the first and last time, we played with people we wanted to play with ie Greg Macdonald, Virgin Suicides, My Hifi Sister and the damn amazing Cosy Cosy. After realising half our songs are crap, we opted for a short punky set which went down well. We accompanied it with lots of jumping around and things, and (shock horror) no snapped strings. huzzah!
Oh and another thing: buy the 'Fear Of A Black Kennet' compilation. It features such great and awe inspiring bands such as The Dawn Parade, We Can Build You, Cosy Cosy and The Virgin Suicides and is very good, even though we aren't on there, and is a benefit release for love music hate racism which can only be a good thing.
Oh and another thing 2: Cosy Cosy are very good so buy their demo and love it. Same goes for Bomb Factory.
Oh and another thing 3: We must find somewhere to play apart from the Portland Arms.

i Choke ii Tell Me What You Want iii This Is Not An Exit iv Last Act  v Crash and Burn
 

Gig 4: R*E*P*E*A*T night, Portland Arms, 23/10/2003

Simon had the flu, so Pat played an acoustic set, including Specials, Clash and Nick Drake covers, and managed to make a good impression, as no one seemed to leave the room for the bar; quite an achievement methinks.  We've worked our way up to middle (!) slot, so fellow Hills Roaders, Diamorphine, opened, and played a lively set.  Hidden Signal followed Pat and played a lot of Chilli Peppers sounding songs, and then a Chilli Peppers cover, which I thought was quite ironic, but I suppose they sounded OK if you like that kind of thing.  Spooky Hi-Fi finished synthly and poppily.  Richey got drunk on cheap vodka and we all ate dinosaur eggs.

PAT ACOUSTIC: i Choke ii It Doesn't Make It Alright (specials) iii Tell Me What You Want iv At The Chime Of A City Clock (nick drake) v This Is Not An Exit vi White Man In Hammersmith Palais (the clash)

Gig 3: R*E*P*E*A*T Night, Portland Arms, 11/9/2003

We were going to be supporting the uber Neo, but for the second time, they pulled out. It must be that they don't like us. The slightly less inspiring Clearless were late additions to the bill to headline. The first two songs sounded tremendous, but this feeling of satisfaction was dulled when i broke a string (we promised apocalyptic scenes) at the end of There Must Be Something In Your Mind. I then borrowed a guitar from a guy from Clearless, which i then broke within a couple of strums. Que a 3 minute break for a changed string, another broken string in the next song, and, to top it off, another one soon after. Leaving me with 4 out of tune strings for the last song. More annoyingly was that we had to drop our Clash cover and the new This Is Not An Exit. Dammit. I think the frustration did make the gig seem a little better, and it was a very fun gig (aren't they all?). Matt Charlton was a bit of a ledge after us, Lebatol were quite good, and Clearless, and i could hear this from the bar area, were shitey. Oh well.

Set list ruined by broken strings.......

Gig 2: R*E*P*E*A*T Night, Portland Arms, 16/06/2003

Loophole opened. Greg from Neo, and Scarlet Soho (quite damn good electro beeps) followed us. I thought we sounded absolutely amazing in soundcheck, playing to just rosey and a soundman. Pilmer got pissed off because the Loophole drummer's cymbals weren't cymbals, according to him, they were gongs.  Pat broke two heavy (e and d!!) strings in one star jump power chord in the Crash And Burn freak out. The lead singer from Scarlet Soho watched our set quite scarily from right under our feet, I don't know whether he liked us or not. 
 
i Into ii All I Want Is Everything iii There Must Be Something In Your Mind iv Guns Of Brixton v Tell Me What You Want
vi Crash And Burn

Gig 1: Strawberry Fair Young Performers Tent, 07/06/2003

We debuted all the songs we could play as a band, unfortunately including Intro, plus a cover, the clash's Guns Of Brixton.
The Strawberry Fair program described us as "punk-pop with attitude- think the clash, the manics and miss black america", causing a crusty punk to complain that we didn't sound enough like the clash. The soundman "forgot" to set me up a mic, otherwise I would have gone on a rant about how we could sound pretty much like anything and still sound like the clash, given their eclectic output.  Unfortunately Pat didn't dedicate our weird Guns Of Brixton (where we still didn't sound like the clash) cover to that punk.  Me and Pat stayed, ate our free curry, drank our free water, bought some cheap books from a hippy stall, stayed to watch the great We Can Build You who were tremendous.

i Intro ii All I Want Is Everything iii There Must Be Something In Your Mind iv Guns Of Brixton v Crash And Burn

 

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