28th
We've had a
fabulous weekend of gigs to finish February off in
style playing at two of Mike and Lisa Pedlow's fine
drinking establishments. Friday night at The Tarn
in Yeadon was a lots of fun playing to a busy
pub with lots of familiar faces along to support us.
The whole gig was a riot, some great playing and Liz
was in fine voice as ever.
Saturday eve was something of an experiment, but one
which worked out very well for everybody. We
had been booked to play at The Victoria in
Saltaire but when it dawned that the gig was
going to clash with the Saltaire Beer Festival
we were asked to give the gig up as they couldn't
spare the floor space for a band! The sums were
pretty convincing for Mike & Lisa - they could
probably shoehorn 30-40 dedicated ale drinkers in
the area we would have taken up as it was guaranteed
to be stupidly busy. So Mike suggested we play
at The New Inn in Baildon, a pub which
isn't even a regular venue, rather than just accept
the cancellation of the Victoria gig. We got
the word out to as many supporters as we could and
this turned out to be a great gig despite the
awkward layout and poor viewing for the punters.
The place was full with a good natured bunch of
people giving us fantastic support, despite us
restricting access to the ladies loo for most of the
evening! We've booked some more dates in at The New
Inn and hopefully last night's gig will encourage
Mike & Lisa to book regular band slots in here as it
has the makings of a decent little venue. Just
remember to go for a whizz before the band starts,
ladies...
Just
a reminder that NEXT SATURDAY 6th MARCH is
the first Rock Of The North event of 2010 at
The Tut & Shive in Yeadon. As ever
this is a charity fundraiser for Cancer Research UK,
and enormous credit has to go to Steve Lally and
family for coordinating the efforts of local
musicians and venues to put on these fantastic shows
and raising a superb sum of money for such an
important cause. This is something close to my own
heart after losing my uncle just before Christmas to
this dreadful disease. The gig starts at 2PM and
features 5 excellent bands - COSMOS, 3 DAZE LOST,
MOTUS, SUICIDE BLONDE and the mighty ERICS
to wrap things up in the evening. Motus are
due to play around 6.30 and will be playing
approximately a 45-min spot. Come down for the
day if you can it promises to be a great show and a
fine opportunity for some dedicated Saturday
drinking...
15th
Hello
everyone. We aren’t dead, nor have we failed to pay
our webspace subscription… No we are just plain
lazy!!!! Quick reports for the chosen few is that we
have had 2 great gigs to start the year with. The
Brewery Tap on Fri 5th was an absolute
joy. Great crowd, our new songs seem to be well
received and there was plenty of random stupidity
going on. Greatly helped by Egor and his merry crew
of lunatics. Madness, utter madness.
Its so rewarding when
you learn new songs and they are applauded, even if
you haven’t written them its still a good buzz.
This week's return to
the Lion was a good one. We were getting worried as
the turnout was low up until about 9-20. Seems that
two local and very well known Castleford bands were
playing either side of us (Scooby and Shameless) and
perhaps had taken a lot of potential out of our gig
but as it turned out by the time we got on stage
there was a good number in and it kept swelling all
night. Our old pal “Italian” Tony kindly offered to
do the sound for us using the Lion's in house rig
and by golly did he ever give it a good thrashing.
By the mid point of the second set I was aware that
the volume level had been creeping up and up and
up!!!! Good sound though, just very very loud…..
Thanks Tony, you is a gent. Pardon?
In other news our gig at
The Victoria in Saltaire has been moved
because of the beer festival that weekend. We will
be playing at one of Mike's other pubs , The New
Inn in Baildon (BD17 7JN) Just a short throw
down the road from there, I have done a
reconnaissance mission and it will be an interesting
one but it could be fun so why the heck not? Great
stuff...
Graham
January 2010
25th A
very belated Happy New Year to everybody! Thought
I'd get a post on here seeing as the first gigs of
the year are approaching, and we have been busy
knocking some new songs together to invigorate the
Motus set. I won't reveal what the new stuff
is on here, but I'm happy to report that they are
sounding fantastic indeed and are joyous to play.
We shall rock hard this year. Oh yes.
Funny
thing happened at our rehearsal last week at Factory
Street Studios in Bradford. This BBC dude was in
there reporting I guess on the studio and the story
behind its creation. He ended up interviewing Liz
and then filming us performing old Motus staple
'Satellite' live and (very) loud in the rehearsal
room. Not sure how and if this footage will
get used but he promised to let us know. So if we
find out we'll put a message on here to warn you to
watch ITV while it's on!
December 2009
26th
Well where do I begin? 2009 What a year.. It all
started in a mess with Faron leaving and scurrying
back to Oz in a domestic catastrophe . Left in a
total quandary I think a few times we were all
thinking that it may be the end for MOTUS for some
time. Then by chance Liz had a conversation with a
former band mate of Steve who once aware that we
needed a drummer actually rang us!!! All within a
week or so of knowing that Faz had gone. Bizarre.
Next thing you know we were back on track, just
faced with the daunting task of getting the set
together again for the second time in 4 months. As
it worked out Steve really put the hours in and
surpassed all expectations. We made a conscious
decision at this point to concentrate the set on
entertainment (cover songs!!!) for a while. I knew
we had been forcing the album Content down audiences
throats for some time and well received though it
may have been we are realists and know that after a
hard week at work, the people in most of the venues
that we play in probably just want to have a good
old drink and enjoy themselves listening or rocking
out to familiar songs. Not exactly rocket
science..... Its worked for Liz and I in the past
with PLC and its working again now. We knew that we
could do this in style and I hope that by choosing
an eclectic bunch of tunes that are less often
covered, and taking best advantage of the band
members unique skills, we are right back on course.
We have had some magnificent gigs recently, and the
reaction to the new set from audience members old
and new has been resolutely positive and genuinely
inspiring.
Main thing is we are still playing, rocking out and
having fun and its just the fun you have to have. I
love playing the guitar. Did you get that? I LOVE
PLAYING THE GUITAR, and the louder and more
enthusiastic an audience I can do it in front of
then so much the better. And if there happens to be
a big PA on board as well. Result. Not that there is
anything wrong with our own much loved Mackie rig of
course.....
2009 also saw a new guitar enter the arsenal. In the
form of the Charvel So Cal, Candy Plum, who deffo
sounds like a porn star in name. Sounds like a rock
monster however through a cranked amp!!! Though
still on the semi-reserve bench next to the Reverend
she is inspiring me no end, and that's never a bad
thing. For those who care she has a lovely lovely
neck!!! Who woulda thunk it? Me and a Floyd Rose
equipped guitar getting on just dandy...
So 2010 beckons. A decently full diary already,
plenty more to come. No bike rallies booked in yet
which is a shame, but we have done a lot of them
over recent years so can't complain, still plenty of
scope to book some though. Don't be shy you bike
rally organisers, get in touch.
We have a lot of ideas in the band at the moment, I
hope we can bring more than a few of them to
fruition and unleash them upon you all.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Liz,
Mike and Steve for being part of Motus with me
through 2009. For me, the band is at its best ever
now. I am truly proud of what we do. No niggling
doubts, and no bloody egos!!!! Its not the easiest
thing being in a band at times and my stress levels
can quickly rise I know, but when we are cooking up
some good music it's a truly wonderful situation to
be in and I salute you all for your fine choice in
guitarist!!!!
Thanks also to all and every single one of
you that has ever cheered us on, bought us a
drink, offered bizarre physically adroit
sexual favours (when?) or just been there
and enjoyed yourselves at a gig.
ROCK ON
one and all!!!
Graham
16th
Last
Saturday's gig at the Tut & Shive was a lot of fun
and it was good to be back here after more than a
year. Place has been done out and looks great,
and viewing is much better than before.
Unfortunately, the heating was 'broken' on a
freezing cold December evening and I swear it was
warmer outside than it was in. The cold drove
a few people away, but those hardy souls that
remained gave us warm and enthusiastic applause and
took to the 2-foot square mosh pit... you had to be
there to understand that one.. This was another
solid gig where Uncle G got the sound bang on and we
played a blinder.
Another reminder - we have our last two gigs of the
year (the decade!) coming up this Friday at The
Mallard in Cusworth, Doncaster - this is a great
venue again with perfect viewing for watching a band
- and on SATURDAY we play the GASWORKS Bar in
central Bradford (just behind the Alhambra Theatre),
a big rock club that has cheap entry and must be the
best place to see a live band in the area.
30,000W PA system, lights and a huge stage area -
this is a perfect way to finish off the year and it
would be great if you could join us.
6th
We got the
call around a fortnight ago from the Cross Keys
pub in Morley asking us to fill in for local band
Mojo who had to rearrange their gig - we were
happy to do it as it is a great venue and Howard and
Lynn who run the place are perhaps the nicest folk
you could ever wish to meet. Unfortunately the
turn out was terrible! There were maybe 30 to 40 in
the first set which thinned out for the second set
to probably less than 20. Its such a shame and makes
you fear for the future of music pubs like the Cross
Keys cos that level of support isn't going to
sustain things. But we soldiered on and played a
pretty good set which was appreciated by the meagre
few - the show must go on! Regulars Mav and Bev were
in (of course!) and Mav put a nice review of the gig
on the Rock of The North site but he was clearly
angered by the lack of support for this venue, and
justifiably so. Thanks for your support Mav,
it's very much appreciated mate. Here is Mav's
comment, with a liberal dose of spell-check applied
for good measure:
Back
to business regrettably tonight saw a reality poor
turn out for the evening's band Motus, who by far
are one of the local scenes most talented &
respected bands on the circuit. Covering a heap of
covers backed up with the bands own original
material which is of the highest standard the band
gave two excellent sets of a wide & varied selection
of music a lot not being the norm but some
outstanding unfamiliar numbers not often heard from
the likes of Australian band Baby Animals & a very
well arranged & sublime version of Kate Bush's
Wuthering Heights sang superbly by Liz who has to
have one of the great female rock voices around &
the area is well blessed by its fair share. One of
the other highlights was an airing of the band's
Satellite which is quite an exceptional number. As
usual Graeme was @ his best making his guitar do the
talking & well supported by Mike on bass & Steve on
pots n pans though great musicians in their own
fields. Shame the turn out was on the poor side I
know money is tight & Xmas is just around the corner
& you cant drag people in off the streets but it
makes blood boil & so angry when a band with so much
talent the venue staging the gig doesn't get the
support they deserve, I know punters have there
favourites but if it wasn't for the venues & the
live bands we would be all cabbages watching the
likes of crap factor & the dancing thingy. But to
top it all this is one of my favorite bands & I
could watch Motus in a empty or bursting @ the seems
venue because this is one class act.
November 2009
29th
It's late on
a Sunday, I ache all over and the chances of
successfully getting up early in the morning seem
far fetched, but despite all that I can look back on
a fabulous weekend of gigging fun and games for
Motus. We started off at the New Roscoe and
perhaps we are seeing the signs of audience turnout
at this venue getting back to where it used to be.
Plenty came in although some of the regulars were
conspicuous by their absence! Not to worry, we
played a blinder and Graham got the live mix spot
on. A new song in the set went without a hitch
and went down well, although perhaps the set order
could have been a little slicker.
Saturday night at The Victoria in Saltaire was one
of the most ludicrous gigs we have ever done. Word
had got out and the place was absolutely heaving by
9pm. There is no stage area here at all, we
basically just chose one end of the lounge bar and
set up there with bits of gear propped up all over
the place. The pub ended up so busy that people were
spilling out on to the 'stage' area and I had to
weave out the way each time somebody wanted to go to
the loo - during the first set this was getting
farcical and I confess I lost my temper a little
with one or two people but I guess they were
desperate for the loo and weren't going to let a 6'
3", 19-stone musician slow them down. Although I
really tried... Second set in particular got
everybody going and it was a shame to have to call
it a night at nearly midnight. Turns out this was
the busiest night The Victoria has had for many a
year, so a huge thank you to everybody who came down
and made this one a night to remember. We're
back in February next year and will be booking a few
more for later in 2010. ROCK!
26th
Please note
that Motus are now no longer playing at the DNE
Venue in Wakefield on the 11th December as the event
was double-booked. Good news is that we have been
asked to do a short-notice gig at The Cross Keys
pub in Morley on Saturday 5th December. If you
haven't been before, this is a great venue with a
proper stage and great viewing and it needs
everybody's support to keep going as a music pub.
Please come on down and support us at the Cross
Keys.
14th
Motus played
a very enjoyable gig at the legendary Boot & Shoe
pub in Ackworth last weekend to a very vocal Sunday
evening crowd. I was going to write a review on here
but I don't need to as local music fan and regular
Rock of the North correspondent Baz was in the crowd
and he wrote the following report for their comments
page, which was not only very kind of him but also I
think aptly sums up where we are as a band these
days. I've also put on here Steve Lally's equally
kind response too, cos it makes me feel all warm and
fuzzy:
Baz: Hi RotN, if
there's one thing I like at a gig it's the
unpredictable. And that's just what you'll get these
days at a Motus gig. I mean c'mon, who would think
to have a set list that included AC/DC, Guns N'
Roses, Kate Bush, Skunk Anansie, Fleetwood Mac,
Marillion & the Pet Shop Boys! Ok so now you get the
idea. I'm still trying to get my head round the fact
Liz can soar away on Wuthering Heights, then get
down an' dirty (vocally) for ZZTop's Jesus Just Left
Chicago. And when Graham let rip on yet another solo
there were genuine howls & woahs from the audience,
especially on Aerosmith's reworked/revamped Walk
This Way, and a driving Boys Of Summer. Even on
obscure numbers such as Heartache Reborn by Francis
Dunnery, the band had us in the palm of their sweaty
mits. If this was Come Dine With Me (admit it you
all watch it) I'd score them a nine. I'm docking a
point for them not playing their self penned Erase
........or any Steve Earle! But they did manage to
plug RotN and your forthcoming cd, by playing their
own song David.
ROTN:
Great stuff Baz, and they are a top band, a great
solid rhythm section, Liz's brill vocals and I've
said it before but Graham's solos are complete, they
have everything and I'm a fan. The RotN CD is richer
for having David included, it's a slightly leftfield
but superb composition. Truly one of the very best
bands on the circuit.
October 2009
29th
Motus will be playing at the new
DNE Venue in Wakefield (see
www.dne-music.com) this should be a fantastic gig for us and we
would love to see some Motus fans down there to make it a night to
remember! We will play a short set around 10pm and then play a longer
set at MIDNIGHT. The DNE plays host to many touring bands and some of
the bigger semi pro bands on the local circuit. We love to play the
bigger stages as you will know. The date for this gig is Friday 11th
December 09.
23rd
IMPORTANT NOTICE! The New Roscoe
in Leeds is showing on their gig guide that Motus are playing on Sunday
1st November but this is an error! I'm not saying you shouldn't go, but
we definitely won't be there...
21st
Please note that the imminent
Boot & Shoe gig has moved from the Friday to Sunday 8th November. It was
the venue's fault, not ours! Sunday gigs at the Boot start at 6pm.
18th
No report on here for a while,
apologies for my laziness! But there has been plenty going on in Motus
World to report on. Some new songs have been added to the set and
we now find ourselves with too much material so we get to vary the set
each time we play, something we have been working towards for some time.
Last night's gig at The Brewery Tap in Idle was a real eye opener in
some ways, 'cos we got the balance of music just right and we had an
absolute cracker of a gig. The place was rammed and everybody was in
full voice, giving the band such a lift we played a blinder. It just
shows you don't have to play 'rock standards' all the time, you can
throw in some Skunk Anansie alongside a bit of Marillion and Don Henly
and the place goes nuts.
Friday night at The Tarn
in Yeadon was also a good gig, a large crowd and plenty of familiar
faces here to see us again. I still had the usual fun and games stopping
drunken dancers falling all over the stage area, but its all part of the
experience! Hosts Mike and Lisa have taken on another pub, The
Victoria in Saltaire, and have booked us to play there on Saturday 28th
November. We've no idea what this will be like, although we have
heard it's a small room, but this will be a kind of 'local' gig seeing
as Graham & Liz live just up the road in Shipley. So we should be able
to raise a good sized crowd for this one - if you fancy it come on down
cos if we can have a good night in there it will only help to put this
place on the map as a live venue.
Finally, keep an eye on
the gig list on the right of this page as there will be some more
bookings for next year to be added shortly.
September 2009
26th
It was touch and go, but we made
it to the Factory Street Studio opening night despite sore throats and
man-colds doing their best to keep us away. Graham had been down
with some horrible bug all week and decided to share it with the rest of
the band (thanks mate, I feel bloomin' grim typing this). Liz had a sore
throat and was worried she wouldn't even make it through the first
song... It wasn't just Motus suffering. Alex, proprietor of Factory
Street along with Richard, had spent the day hoofing his guts out.
But all in all it was a great evening, despite the germs. First band up
were known as SSHP which stands for something to do with Shilpa Shetty I
think, really can't remember... These guys don't get out and gig often,
they were telling me, which I have to say is a real shame cos I thought
they were great. Next band up were called The Rudiments, who were
kinda Arctic Monkeys-esque stylistically, and they had some good riffs.
Motus finished off the live music and ended up playing about half an
hour longer than we intended, but hey it was all good fun. And who would
have thought cheese encores would be more popular than rock encores?
Following the bands was this DJ guy who lives on a barge in Shipley, who
blew everybody away with loony drum n bass stuff.
To Alex and Richard - if
you would like us to play here again, whatever the reason, we would be
well up for it. A brilliant night had by all, just next time I
would like to be feeling a little more healthy...
14th
NEWS - Motus plus another act (TBA)
will be playing at Factory Street Studios in Bradford (go to
www.factorystreet.co.uk for
details) on Friday 25th September for the launch night of the premier
rehearsal and recording facility in Bradford. This event is open
to anyone - see the large ad on our homepage.
I would encourage any local musicians to check this place out, I can't
think of a better facility run by nicer people than this place!
13th
Two gigs this weekend to report
on, the first at The Thornhill Arms in Stanningley was definitely the
best one yet here. A packed house and everybody up for it, just what we
like! A new cover found its way in to the set, ZZ Top's Jesus Just Left
Chicago, which was cool.
Saturday night we filled
in for a late cancellation at The Royal Oak in Paddock. Jury is still
out on this one, it was a tough gig as we were competing with a party at
the pub over the road, and there were one or two idiots in the pub who
were not there to see live music if you know what I mean. Can't
win 'em all!
7th NEWS - Motus have a last-minute booking at The
Royal Oak, 158 Church Street, Paddock, Huddersfield HD1 4UN THIS
SATURDAY 12th September. Join us for rock and fried chicken if you can.
In other news (yes its
been a while since the last blog on here) Motus finally got back on
stage after a long Summer break at The Tarn in Yeadon on Friday night.
It was great to be back playing, and we had a fantastic audience as
usual at The Tarn, lots of familiar faces. If you fancy seeing us
there again you haven't got long to wait - Friday October 16th soon
enough for you? We will have some new tunes in the set too by then, I'm
pretty confident!
July 2009
31st
Hello, bit late coming
through with this one but can Motus just collectively communicate our
thanks to all involved with the Ganton Gathering last week. Sound
and lights were superb, Graham and Joe put a load of effort into the
lights and Mick on the desk (who we have worked with before) just got us
a sound that was killer. Good news that Graham wasn’t lobotomised by his
gravity defying lighting truss!!!! Oops!! I have to say a special thanks
to Graham and the crew for repairing Steve's bass drum pedal in the
second song of our set. That was quick work and to spot it and act so
courteously was extremely
appreciated. Cheers mate!!! The gig itself
was wonderful, great crowd (who kept passing me hip flasks full of lord
knows what mid song), just couldn’t fault a moment of it, and the rain
held off too. I must admit driving over I thought we were going to be in
bother as it was just relentless, just a torrential downpour. It did
however stop as we approached the site, which was just uncanny!!! Thanks
again to all, and to the MAG event organisers who I couldn’t possible
name individually as therewould be a long list,
thanks very much for having us (cheers for the booking Sheila) and for
your great feedback after the gig. Rallies ROCK. Have a good weekend all
and to those who are playing, crank it up and have a great one!!!!
14th
It's been a busy few weeks, but
for me its been perhaps the best time for Motus since we started. After
all the drummer problems and line-up changes over the last 8 or 9 months
it feels like Motus has matured into an even better live act than
perhaps we dared hope. New boy Steve is really hitting the mark now and
is such an asset to the band now he's put his cheat sheets away! Let me
tell you what we've been up to...
July 3rd was a gig we
were looking forward to, not only because the Thornhill Arms is a
pleasure to play but also because Col Challinor, bassist with Mojo and
JD Band, was coming along to record the gig with his mobile multi track
studio gadget. The gig was a really hot and sweaty affair and we
were plagued with electrical noises and buzzes, and I'm yet to hear the
recording but I can already imagine that it will be littered with
'mistakes' as we were more interested in performing and working the
crowd. But this is what we do best, and if you come and see us
maybe you shouldn't expect to see a flawless performance as so much of
what we do is open to spontaneity and blind luck... But I'm looking
forward to hearing the recording and the plan is to make some of the
results available on CD or via download from this website. Thanks again
to Col for taking the time and for being a thoroughly nice chap! This
gig was notable for being the first performance of Kate Bush's Wuthering
Heights which is a tricky beast to perform as a four piece band.
The end result was bordering on metal, and Liz sang her guts out.
This cover has become a bit of a talking point amongst audiences now as
it is obviously a brave number to do, but happily it seems we are
pulling it off well!
Saturday the 4th saw us
back at The New Barrack in Sheffield. This was an odd gig - turns
out local boys Dosch were playing in town and lots of the regulars were
out to see them so it was initially rather quiet. But without much
of an audience to work with and without Col there to record the gig
would you believe it we ended up performing a near faultless set and
Graham had the live sound absolutely nailed. The punters started to
drift back in the second set and we had a great gig in the end.
No rehearsal midweek and
straight back out on Saturday 11th to The Cross Keys in Morley.
This venue has struggled to get the crowds in so we kind of expected a
quiet one, but we need not have worried as plenty came in and gave us
tremendous support. Another great gig, and for me it was a joy as
I got to try out my new bass, an Ibanez Doug Wimbish signature 5-string
which had only arrived a few days earlier. I like new toys, and
this one is a beauty!
Next day we were back at
the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth after almost a year away. We got the timings
all wrong, expecting to be on stage at 5pm but it seems Les has changed
the band slot to 6.30pm. So we had no choice but to sit outside
and drink beer. What a chore... Despite the delay this was well
worth waiting for and was perhaps the best overall performance I think
this band has played this year. Graham had the sound absolutely perfect,
in fact one observer told us it was 'recording quality' - fine praise
indeed! Plenty of folk in there and a great atmosphere, and we did
the business. One of the regular correspondents of the Rock Of The
North website, "Baz ex Skella" was in the crowd and he wrote the
following post on their website which I am sure no one will mind me
reproducing here:
Hi RotN. It doesn't seem
possible that the band Motus could get any better. But that seemed
to be the case Sunday at the Boot & Shoe. With an absolutely crystal
clear sound and a refreshing choice of songs, everything just fell
into place. I say refreshing because no one expected Wuthering
Heights to be belted out. Think Kate Bush eating gravel for
breakfast and you're someway there! Numbers by Skunk Anansie,
Fleetwood Mac, Marillion and The Who followed, plus a clever
re-working of Aerosmith's Walk This Way. But the icing on the cake
for me was the Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks 'Stop Dragging My Heart
Around'. This was the best rendition I've ever heard of any cover in
a pub, Liz on vocals absolutely nailed it, it was simply stunning.
On this performance they could do no wrong..... Well apart from the
intro to Sweet Child O' Mine, oh and the inclusion of a few more
originals wouldn't go amiss.
Thanks for the kind words
Baz! And Graham sends his apologies for the fluffed intro to Sweet
Child! Okay, this Friday is the big one, the Ganton Gathering rally.
This gig is sold out so there will be some 800 folk there plus a
10000-watt PA system for us to abuse. Lets hope the weather holds!
June 2009
23rd
Hi all, just a quick update on our exploits these
last few days...
Friday night saw us back at the New Roscoe in Leeds, this was a
great gig and we really came together and played a fantastic set.
Unfortunately the punters were fairly thin on the ground and this
has been a common theme at the Rsocoe this year. Hopefully the
numbers will swell again soon, as without doubt this is a fantastic
place to come and see a band. Highlights of the evening were an
extended jam on Walk This Way which was totally off the cuff and
extremely inventive, just one of those happy accidents were you have
three musicians really feeding off each other. Lots of fun.
Saturday night we played
the Brewery Tap in Idle, always a pleasure and never a chore. After
playing the night before the band was on top form and we played
another solid set, topped off with a decent kebab afterwards. The
rock and roll lifestyle, eh?
In other news, Liz has
booked us her first gig in 5 years - a private party in November in
Pudsey. I am in a state of shock and have booked several
sessions of therapy to come to terms with Liz's new-found proactive
behaviour...
15th
Saturday, Golden Lion, Pudsey. A new venue for
Motus and a good time we had too. We weren't sure what to
expect, but there was a fair mix of folk in there and our first
impression was that this pub was a first-stop for the younger lot
who were heading in to Leeds to dance round their handbags. I
think this assessment was pretty accurate cos I saw lots of
handbags, but we did enough to keep a decent number of punters in,
and happily it seems quite a few are interested in coming to see us
again in a few weeks time at The Thornhill Arms in Stanningley,
about a mile or so down the road. So a good result for
everybody it would seem.
The stage area was about the same size as my mum's
downstairs loo, which, if you haven't seen it, is pretty pokey. But
we squeezed the gear and our bodies on there somehow and even
managed to put some lights up and point them in the general
direction of the band, and then we put on a good show. We had a new
song up our sleeves which we were going to try out but then we lost
out bottle and filed it back under 'work in progress'. I'm not
telling you what the song was, you will have to try and work it out
on Friday at the New Roscoe.
Mike.
9th Well Sat night went off with
a bang. I have to admit being quite nervous as we set up in the
cavernous surroundings of the new Gasworks club in Bradford
on Saturday night. Its okay playing through a wonderfully set up and
funky 30K rig but by golly you are going to feel lonely if no bugger
shows up. As it happened I needn’t have worried. We took off at
about 10-30 and throughout the course of the set the place just got
more and more people through the doors. More importantly they were
all good old rock fans, seemed to like us just fine. Plenty of
singing, huge amounts of boogieing a great cheer at the end of each
toon and a fucking stupid version of the “Yeah”**game!!!!
And let me tell you, playing through big rigs is soooo much fun,
its just a very humbling experience hitting out with that
much wattage and speakerage behind/in front/all around you.Even the drum monitor was the size of a garage!!!!
Egor was legendarily drunk,crap
roadie Mark took some hilarious pics, the ones that can be seen in
public are on the Myspace page now and hopefully will find their way
on here too. Congratulations are in order also to Carol & Dave
of Spank the Monkey fame who were out on there respective hen
and stag nights and had converged on the Gasworks in a dual assault.
They seemed in fine form and the whole party had definitely been on
the sauce to say the least.
To cap it all there was even a dressing room, though it did smell of
pee, but within it laid a crate of complimentary beer. So far so
good on that one. To say we want to go back would be an
understatement. Max and the crew down there have done a fine job and
to me it will only get better. Its in a fine locale, will attract
people that may not ordinarily venture into a rock club and is
already starting to establish itself as a circuit venue for National
and International acts. Can’t say fairer than that, and its in
Bradford!!!! Remember when Bradford had a ROCKscene to be proud of? Well it still has I reckon. Good luck
to them and they need your support. ROCK ON!!! G
** Yeah Game – The Rules;
i)
Band member (usually G) shouts “Yeah” at audience.
ii)
Audience shouts “Yeah” back.
iii)
Band member then chastises audience for not being loud enough (even
if they were).
iv)
Band member gets audience to shout “Yeah” again but more
enthusiastically and attempts to generate volume competition between
different areas of crowd.
v)
Repeat until zenith is reached. Bask in stupidity of whole thing and
start next song whilst grinning hugely.
It’s a Motus tradition. Don’t ask…………….
May 2009
10th
A series of fundraising gigs
organised by Rock Of The North are now underway to raise much needed
funds for Cancer Research - please see our homepage for details and also
please make a donation to the
Just Giving site.
Cancer effects all of us directly or indirectly at some stage, please
contribute what you can!
7th
As promised, a
new date for the Tarn in Yeadon has been added for Friday 16th October.
Told you we'd get another one there didn't I? Now, if you can't wait
that long then we are back at the Tarn on Friday 31st July, and then the
following week we are at the recently re-vamped Tut & Shive (just round
the corner from the Tarn) on the 5th September. A veritable
smorgasbord of Motus/Yeadon conjunctions await you, you lucky music
fan...
4th
Friday night saw
Motus back in Yeadon for the first time in ages. The Tarn pub has
started putting bands on and after hearing glowing reports about the
place its fair to say we were looking forward to playing there.
And it turned out to be a fantastic night! The place was rammed full
with plenty of familiar faces. Uncle Graham engineered us a great
balance through the trusty PA system, and we played a blinder. New
additions to the set went down well too. This was a blast from
start to finish, and it just goes to prove that pub rock is far from
dead and buried - Mike and Lisa have a top venue here and we will do our
best to support them in whatever way we can. Note that we are back in
July and if you keep an eye on the gig guide here then we should be
arranging another date for the back end of the year too.
So, we
have another unfortunate little break again just as we are gathering
some momentum. Not to worry, we will be using the time to get some
new stuff in the set.
April 2009
29th
Unfortunately the
gig this Saturday at the Ringway pub in Horsforth, Leeds has been
cancelled by the venue in favour of a private function. Apologies for
the late cancellation, there is nothing we can do about it. The
gig at The Tarn in Yeadon on Friday is still on, and it will be great to
play here cos we have heard some good reports about the place.
Rock on!
17th
Blimey, the
Tut & Shive
in Yeadon
is reopening on the 2nd May!
I was beginning to think we'd never see it open again but apparently
they've spent a fortune on the place refurbing it. Even more
importantly, we're booked back to play there in September and December,
check out the gig list opposite.
Motus are
at the New Roscoe tonight, first time in ages after having to cancel a
few earlier in the year due to colds and flu etc. See you there,
we got some new material for you...
March 2009
28th
By a stroke of
luck yesterday afternoon we got the call from Ray at the Brewery Tap in
Idle - the scheduled band had cancelled at the eleventh hour and he was
wondering would we be able to play at short notice? This is one of our
favourite gigs and it was hard to have to cancel our gig there a few
weeks earlier when Liz was suffering with a sore throat. So this
was perfect, we would still get to play the Tap! Once we got there
word seemed to get out that we were on, and it started to fill up pretty
quickly with some familiar faces. New drummer Steve played his
best gig for us yet without doubt and we rocked the place, it was just a
lot of fun to play in front of the fantastic Brewery Tap audience! To
Ray, the landlord of the tap, we all hope you have a full recovery after
the accident mate. As guitar players it's our worst nightmare to
be going through what you are going through... Makes me wince just
thinking of it... We got a little break now before the Roscoe gig
on the 17th April, so we are aiming to put the time to good use and
perhaps learn some new material
In other
news, ex drummer Faron Young seems to be settling in nicely back home in
Oz. It has been great to get a few messages from him, and he has
written the following postscript to his tragically brief stint in the
band. It was only a few months mate but we all had a great time
and we miss you lots:
"G'day from Down
Under, Faron here.. Well as a lot of you would already know after
just a short time with Motus I had to make a gut wrenching decision.
Due to circumstances beyond my control I had to pack my bags and
head back to Oz. Just as we were really rockin and ready to take on
the World. So I thought as I sit here on the verandah with a cold
beer I would put down some words to let you know about my time with
the Band.
First of all I want to say what a great bunch of people Motus are. From
our first meeting in a Pub in Horsforth I knew I had met some top notch
people, what I didn't know is how much I would come to love these guys
over a short time. From day one I was welcomed into the band and made
part of the family. We certainly had some great times on stage and boy
did we have some wild times off stage . As we all know to play in a band
is one thing, but to get along is the most important ingredient. However
this is not to say that I wasn't also blown away by them musically. From
our first practice I knew they were good. Mike, you are a killer bass
player, solid as a rock with a great ear, the best bass player a drummer
could ask for, and that big rig is killer, and as we know buddy their
aint no band without the rhythm section. Graham, you are a madman, and I
mean that, because it takes one to know one. During our time together I
heard solos that made me nearly fall off my stool, you are the man,
great guitarist, great tone and always great fun. And of course Dear
Liz. You have one of the greatest rock voices around. So many times I
was lost in your words, especially as they pumped through that massive
monitor. You rocked my world. It was a privilege and a pleasure to play
with Motus and I miss it greatly.
So as you can
see Motus had a massive effect on me and there will always be fond
memories, which leaves me with just one more thing to say. Motus now
have a new drummer in and are back rockin, so if you are already a
fan keep on supporting this fantastic band and if you haven't seen
Motus yet. GET YOUR LAZY POMMIE ASSES DOWN TO THE NEXT GIG, BUY A CD
AND BE PREPARED TO ROCK LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER ROCKED BEFORE.
Good Luck guys
and gal, your the best, keep in touch and until we meet again.
F**KING ROCK ON."
Faz 23rd March
2009
11th
Unfortunately, the Brewery Tap gig this weekend is going to have to be
cancelled. Liz has a throat infection which seems to be getting worse
rather than better. We doubt she could get through a verse let alone two
sets. We are absolutely gutted to have to cancel this date. The Brewery
Tap is one of our absolute favourite venues. We will be making attempts
to re-schedule. Hope we can sort something out. Apologies to all.
9th
What a great
weekend its been! Andy Milner filled in for Steve on the drums for us
(while Steve enjoyed a few days with the missus in Paris) and what a
wonderful job he did. Andy I mean, not Steve! Friday night was a new venue for us, the Thornhill
Arms in Stanningley. Any nerves we might have had with our new
temporary line up were quickly dispelled once we cracked in to the first
few numbers. 'Heartache Reborn' and 'Walk This Way' got things going
nicely before a slamming version of 'David'. Uncle Graham got the sound
spot on for such a small place. Fantastic pub and a good crowd, were
looking forward to getting back here in July.
Saturday
night, we made the trip 'convoy style' down to Sheffield to play the New
Barrack Tavern. It was a relief to be doing this gig after we had
to cancel the last one due to my goddam appendix op. Steph and Kev made
us very welcome and fed and watered us in style - that jalapeño/cheese
burger was legendary! There were plenty of people in and we put on a
good show despite Liz's voice starting to fray round the edges. My
ears are still ringing after being an inch away from Andy's Demon Crash
Cymbal which was going off like a thunderclap in my lughole.
But the
whole weekend was a blast and just lots of giggles all the way.
Thanks again to Andy for stepping in and helping us out. ROCK!
5th
Below is the post
Graham recently put on the Rock of the North website in case you didn't
see it there:
Thanks to everyone for all the positive comments coming our way
since our return at the Cross Keys on Saturday. Its been very
flattering and we do appreciate it. As you know we have had a bit of
a revolving drum stool of late, and our new compadre Steve is along
for the ride now, but he wasn't able to do a couple of dates that we
have this weekend. So, we had two choices, cancel/postpone them or
find a way of not doing so. We are very pleased to say that we
didn't cancel. We don’t like cancelling gigs so a long standing pal
of mine is filling in for us. The chap in question is Andy Milner,
the proprietor of Northern Drum Centre in Bradford, I am sure a lot
of you guys know him. Now I knew Andy was a great drummer but
nothing could prepare me for the rehearsal we had on Monday night.
Between his frankly awesome playing and his hilarious renditions
(amongst others) of the Duracell bunny running out of power I came
out of the room somewhat inspired. I don’t think Andy gets to play
quite so much ROCK in his other pursuits so it was a good do for all
I suspect. I might have to also be inspired to buy a bigger amp
cause he don't half hit 'em, Hahaha. Anyway he is graciously filling
in for Steve at The Thornhill and The New Barracks Tavern Fri/Sat
this week respectively, so any of you merchants of bash out there
that may know the man but might not have seen him play get yerselves
on and have you a look-see. (Shameless attempt at a plug to
encourage bodies through the doors…..)
Now this is not to imply that our new guy Steve is anything of a
slouch behind the kit because he most certainly isn’t, and we have
come out of our rehearsals with him with massive cheesy grins
plastered all over our faces because of his tasteful rhythmic
explorations behind us. Its just Andy has a different style, it’s a
little more, how could you say? Forceful? As in being dragged
kicking and screaming towards the end of the song by a bulldozer
that keeps time with you….. Something like that….. Great fun.
Looking forward to these two gigs for sure, well I look forward to
any gig really. Hope to see some familiar faces there. Don’t forget
that The New Barracks is a real ale pub of legendary quality brews.
And guess who is driving, again? ME!!! Ahhhhhhhhggghh. Ah well, save
me some take outs of Elsie Mo’ Steph. I’ll have a good Sunday for
sure……
2nd
After all
the hard work over the last few weeks it was fantastic to get the show
back out on the road at the Cross Keys in Morley. The pub was
fairly quiet but it was still a real pleasure to play on such a great
stage and the punters gave us excellent support. This was Steve's
first gig and he played a blinder, slotting straight in to the live set
up with no worries at all. Great to see some friends there such as
Phil formerly of Hard To Handle and his missus, Shaun and Jen of SJN
Photography fame and also Mav and Bev, regulars of the Keys and big
music fans. Mav wrote the following nice review of the gig for the
Cross Keys website (www.x-keys.co.uk)
which I'm sure he won't mind me reproducing here (with a liberal dose of
Spell Check!):
"Saturday saw the
return of top originals and covers band MOTUS back at the Cross Keys
since last July. Though the numbers in were few the band played two high
quality sets featuring a selection of their own material and a couple
more well recognised covers from their vast repertoire. Personally I
think they are at their best when they play their original numbers but
you would find it hard to fault this talented band on their performance
of the more established numbers. The band is led from the front by the
very talented Liz on vocals whose voice seems to get better and stronger
as the night goes on, supported by three great musicians. Motus in my
opinion are up there with the best the local music scene has to offer."
The Old Git Mav 01.03.09
Cheers
Mav for the kind words. I'm sure we can build the audience up at the
Keys as we have done elsewhere, it's a great venue.
Ok, so
now we have some fun ahead! The next two gigs will feature Andy,
proprietor of the Northern Drum Centre, guesting on drums. We're
having a knock about rehearsal tonight to see if we can get a set
together! Wish us luck...
February 2009
24th
OK, as promised
we have some new gig dates! Have a look at the listing on the right
here, we have some new dates added for the Little 'Un in South Elmsall
nr Pontefract and a new venue, The Tarn in Yeadon. The Tarn gigs
are very welcome after the demise of the Tut & Shive, Yeadon needs a
great live music pub. More gigs will be booked shortly, keep
checking back on this 'ere page...
23rd
Some new gigs
have been added - we're back at the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth (near
Pontefract) in July and November. Keep an eye out for some new
dates to be hopefully added over the next few weeks.
20th
Rehearsals with
Steve have been going very well and its all down to the hard work Steve
has put in to learn the set in just a matter of weeks. On
Wednesday we had just our third rehearsal with the man and we played the
entire set including 'Shadows' which will be making a return to the set
now.
One or
two gigs on the horizon Steve can't do cos of prior commitments, so we
will have Andy, proprietor of the Northern Drum Centre and general drum
wizard, with us to help us out. Its gonna be great to get back out
there after all the crap that has gone on recently!
8th
Apologies for the lack of posts on here these last few weeks,
unfortunately its been one of the most testing periods for the band
since we started out. After two very enjoyable gigs in early January and
a great photo shoot, we were poised to get busy on the promotion of the
band and stride forward. Then, like a thunderbolt out of a clear
blue sky, came the sad news that our friend and brother Faron had no
choice but to leave Motus and head back home to Australia. I won't go
into the reasons why on here as they are Faron's business only, but this
devastating news brought us to the brink in some ways. Luckily there was
enough time for us to get together for a drunken evening to see the man
off before he flew home. But his leaving left our plans in tatters and we
had just said goodbye to a good friend, so it is fair to say that
initially the enthusiasm, dampened by the utterly horrible weather, was
severely lacking. But at least now we have a mate over in Oz who
should be feeling sufficiently guilty enough to put us up for a few
weeks so we can enjoy cheap holidays in Australia!
And
anyway, after a bit of soul-searching it didn't take long to find the
enthusiasm once more. After all, we had a similar set back last year and
we survived that and came out stronger. So we set about looking for a
new drummer.
To cut a
long story short, we seem to have fallen on our feet again. I am
delighted to welcome Steve Cookson
to the band, a talented and experienced drummer indeed. We've got our
work cut out to get back to where we were only a few weeks ago before
Faz left us, but you just know we are gonna try. So it's once more unto
the breach, dear friends. Some hard work and consolidation for Motus
over the next few weeks/ months and then we shall get back on the
bandwagon with a vengeance.
See you
all soon
Mike
January 2009
25th
Hi all, please
note that the two New Roscoe gigs due in February have been cancelled
due to personal circumstances. Really sorry for any inconvenience!
11th
Ok, where do I
start. It's been a busy few days! Thursday night came around and we
played over in Baildon at the Malt Shovel. Not as mental as last
time we were there but considering it was first week after New Year
there was a decent turn out and the Baildon faithful gave us great
support. Good to see the man who shall only be known as The Metal
Chef along to support us with his bunch of crazy associates, they are
guaranteed to liven any gig up! Hope you guys liked the additional Skunk
Anansie track we have added to the set...
Friday at
The Gasworks, well we knew it was going to be quiet - we only had 1 day
to try and get the word out that we were playing it, but in the end
there was a better crowd in there than I ever thought there would be.
Unfortunately the club layout means everybody is miles from the stage so
it felt a little like we were playing to nobody, but this gig was a lot
of fun and the sound was fantastic through the in-house PA rig.
Our good friends Shaun and Jen came along and took some photos of the
gig which have come out great so expect to see some of these on the site
here before long.
Desperate
for some new promo photos now Faron has joined the band, we convened at
Graham and Liz's place on Saturday lunchtime to get some photos done in
the grungy old cellar once more. Shaun, Jen and young Nathan gave
up their time once more (thanks so much guys) to work the camera and
give us some much-appreciated guidance and ideas. I haven't seen
the results yet but I am anticipating some good results which will I
hope make suffering the sub-zero temperatures worthwhile! It was
mentally cold, it took me until about Sunday afternoon before I started
to feel warm again. But a good day indeed with lots of laughs and
everybody relaxed in each other's company. Good times indeed.
Expect to see some of the results on here soon.
In other
news we intend to resurrect the Motus Mailing List on this website but
this time do things a little differently. Look out for it and sign
up!
7thBREAKING NEWS!!!
Our old friend Max at The Gasworks
club in Bradford has asked us to play THIS
FRIDAY 9th Jan
to cover a band who has let him down last minute. So, without any
opportunity to advertise the gig we will be there so see if you can get
down to The Gasworks, sample the Jagermeister, and see the Motus show
through a big-ass 10K PA system! YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE! Look out
for further Gasworks gigs later in the year too.
December 2008
29th
A lot seems to have happened to Motus this year, most of it good I’m
happy to say. Looking at what my fellow band members have already said I
can only agree with our good fortune to have Mr Beau Hills’ input on
Motus track 'David' and his enthusiasm affirming that we have good songs
which do have a chance of possible success if put in the right hands.
This has certainly been a boost to our confidence and makes us ready to
charge ahead in the New Year, you know…..’We will fight them on the
beaches etc’……And I believe we will!
It was a great shame that Ely our ex drummer decided to move away as
he was with us from the beginning of Motus, but saying that we have
found Faron who fits with us to complete the jigsaw once again. It
feels like one of those ‘meant to be’ situations as he arrived in
the right place at the right time and we all have unexpected things
in common, also of course he is a great drummer which has given the
band a different and positive take. Of course the other great thing
is that we/I have found a new friend who is his wife Kate and soon
to be shopping partner for me ha-ha!....I hear the sales are
on?.....Super darlink!!
I also would like to thank all the lovely people who make it all
worth while and come out to support us on wet and windy nights
(Carmel, Bill and gang amongst many others) and if you are reading
this you probably will be one of them so I hope you’ll keep coming
out to play in the New Year .
On that note I will now go and climb on my exercise bike or go and
pour a glass of mulled wine…..er,…I wonder which it will be…..
…..Where’s the corkscrew gone?.....
Liz
23rd
G’day all. Well its another year down and the Madness
of Christmas is in full swing. Friday night saw us back at the New
Roscoe. All fired up to rock. Fortunately our die hard Motus fans turned
up to watch us play which doubled the size of the crowd and made for a
very responsive audience. As Graham said for a smallish crowd they made
a hell of a lot of noise. On stage we tried a couple of new songs in the
set (that we only learnt on Wednesday) Closing Time (Semisonic) and
Hedonism (Skunk Anansie). And they went down pretty well. All in all
though for us it was a bit of a flat gig and in the words of Mighty Mike
“we can play a lot better than we did”.
Roll on Saturday. And what a night. Back
at our old favourite The Brewery Tap in Idle, we were pumped up to
finish the year off on a high. And boy did we rock, it was one of those
great nights, great crowd, great venue and without sounding too cocky
great music. Any musician will tell ya there is nothing better than when
everything just clicks. From Liz’s awesome vocal work on Hedonism to
Grahams scorching solo in Walk this Way and not to mention how good the
rhythm sounded during Kayleigh. I think its fair to say we nailed it.
I'd just
like to take the opportunity to thank all the venues for your
continued support for local live music. Without the venues the music
would not get to the people. And while I’m on the thankyou’s I just
want to say a big thanks to Motus: Liz, Graham and Mike its been an
honour to join you this year and play with you all. Bring on 2009.
Motus
have a bit of a break over the festive season, so we will be hitting
the rehearsal rooms with a vengeance. Many big plans are in stall
for next year so watch this space.
Merry Christmas to all
and a Happy New Year. Rock on.
Faron
22nd
A tale of two
extremes over the weekend. Friday night at The Roscoe was unbelievably
quiet with seemingly no passing trade at all and just the Motus faithful
there to scream and shout. I got the date wrong on the website so
sincere apologies to anybody who missed out - it didn't help that the
venue didn't put any of our posters up either. After a few weeks
off the band was a little rusty but we got chance to try out a few new
songs, which were pretty good. Not so many in the pub but the
dance floor was full all night and the response at times was
overwhelming - thanks to the faithful for giving us such great support!
Saturday
night was a whole new fish-filled water-boiling apparatus. We were
back at The Brewery Tap in Idle and there was a very healthy sized crowd
in there and we played a really good set. Everybody was fired up after
the Friday night performance and we nailed it - new cover of Skunk
Anansie's 'Hedonism' was really good and Liz sang it beautifully.
Marillion's 'Kayleigh' had all the light and shade it needed, and was
tight as a gnat's arsehole. The whole gig was tight as hell to be
truthful, it all just felt right as if the Roscoe gig had just been a
warm up for this. And the traditional pudding was offered to Faron by
landlord Raymond in the first set, although we didn't get chance to
demolish it until after the gig...seemed a better idea than a kebab.
On a
personal note, this has been a tough but very rewarding year for the
band, and there has been times when we have been tempted to throw in the
towel but since meeting Mr Faron Young we have made giant strides, not
just musically but in terms of our intent and desire to make a name for
ourselves. 2008 started off very positively with the 'release' of the
Content album, which really was a representation of everything the band
had achieved in our formative years. Some excellent gigs happened
along the way, notably the East Leeds Lions Rally and the Yorkshire
Pudding Rally, plus some fantastic local gigs at The Brewery Tap and New
Roscoe to name but a few. Sadly, one of us got distracted elsewhere and
became a passenger in the band and the rest of us lost the will to carry
him along. Credit to Ely for resigning when he did, it was clear that he
was no longer contributing anything positive. But who would have
thought that within such a short space of time we could meet Faron, who
has worked incredibly hard to learn a pretty demanding set and join a
busy gigging band like Motus? Furthermore, the liaison with rock
producer Beau Hill has pushed the band into realms we could only have
dreamed of, and to have recorded material of the standard we now have is
a massive boost and time will tell how we can capitalise on the fruits
of Beau's labours.
2009
seems like a fresh start and we are full of optimism. Already
there has been some new song ideas coming out and we are aiming for a
new project for the new year - new songs, possibly new recordings and
the pursuit of new venues to allow us to promote our music to new
audiences. Expect to see us gigging a little less for the first
half of the year, but be assured we are going to be very busy and having
a lot of fun along the way.
Thanks to
my partners in crime Graham and Liz for maintaining belief in the band even through the
darker days and coming out brighter than ever. Special thanks to
Faron and Kate for joining the circle and giving us the impetus and
motivation to carry on and move forward with big smiles on our faces.
Onwards and upwards! Merry Christmas to you all.
Mike
10th
Apparently ALIVE
gig listings have us down as playing the
Malt Shovel in Baildon
on the 27th December - note that this is WRONG and was probably a
reference to our gig on the 27th November? Motus are back there on
January 8th,
don't miss it.
7th
Greetings now from
Snotsville!!! Oh yes, the dreaded colds of winter have been put upon us,
and do Motus ever know about it. Faron was knocked squarely on his a**e
by a monster flu bug earlier in the week. Conveniently this little
beauty infected his wife Kate soon after thus acquitting him from any
taunting reference of it having been “man flu”. So that was Thursday's
intended rehearsal cancelled. I started to come down with something
rotten on Friday, just as Faron started to recover. Luckily I have just
got a tw*t of a head cold and not the full blown f**k you up version. So
last night's gig at The Ringway
in Horsforth was a veritable festival of greenery, sniffles and cough
percussion (great addition to Kayleigh that, 8^) “Kayleigh. So sorry, I
never meant to hack up a loogie”. Ha ha…. Good gig though, we are just
enjoying playing so much lately and it is coming across in the music I
hope…. Personally I can’t thank my Motus accomplices enough. Music is
truly the food of the soul. Forward we move and in 2009 we are going to
have some fun upon fun. I can feel it in my….. nose. Oh no. That’s my
snotfestheadcold. Well I can feel it anyway.
It was freezing cold last night and we have to say thanks once again
to everyone who came and danced but especially Carmel and Bill and
the entourage for once again coming along and supporting us. Hope
you had a great party afterwards, how you get your energy and
capacity for fun amazes me…..
Anyway, enough of all that nonsense - I installed a new pickup on
the Reverend guitar and it sounds awesome. It’s a Rio Grande Muy
Grande humbucker, which is pretty bodacious, opulent even, but has a
coil tap which I was missing from the BBQ bucker.; It all gets
rather confusing I know, and believe me I wish I didn’t care as I
would be far richer than I am. But I do, so its gonna happen.
Basically as well as tearing your head off it has the facility to be
almost soothing now…. And certainly twangy!!! Any wiser? Probably
not….. I think it scared Mike at first but he seemed to like it by
the end. It does have some woof in the low notes eh mate? Mind you
his bass was doing its level best to rattle a trophy cabinet from
off the wall above me and onto my head all evening so he can’t
really talk can he? Would have been funny if that had actually
happened… well, my head would hurt, but it does anyway because of
this cold.
So another day another
68 cents less tax and more tax and national tax again. You might
notice the new audio player installed on our homepage and Myspace
for your delectation. This will play you a remix of the song
David,
which was completed by Beau
Hill
recently. You know, the American producer, sold 50 million albums or
something and now wants to be associated with us…. Odd that, but I
thank him for his good taste. Check it out and if you do, please let
us know what you think.
Did I mention the Muy Grande? Oh yeah. Right then, time to cook a
cuzza of bum melting proportions (my version of Beechams) and drink
my cold away….
Peace (unlikely) and understanding.
Graham of Motus
4th
NOTE - Tut & Shive
gig on 13th December is in doubt now after Kat & Jo had no choice but to
leave the pub several days ago. If a new relief manager is found
then the gig may go ahead - please check this website or with the venue
itself before making a journey there, we don't want you to have a wasted
trip!
NOTE -
Beau Hill remix of David is now playing on our home page - check it
out!!
November 2008
28th
A quick note on
last night's gig at the Malt Shovel in Baildon... brilliant, brilliant,
brilliant! Packed to the rafters with good natured music fans of all
ages, just a top night out from start to finish. Despite blowing the
power halfway through the first song it was joyous from beginning to end
and the band played a blinder. Graham and Egor got totally pissed,
Faron broke his snare drum and Liz forgot the words but some nights
nothing can stop you having a good time. This was definitely one of
those! Keep an eye out for some new dates at the Malt Shovel in the new
year.
27th
Great 'mini
rehearsal' last night at Faron's place - he's got a music/chill-out room
that is the envy of the rest of the band... A few practice amps and an
electronic drum kit were all we needed to make some fantastic noises
(until the neighbours complained) and there were some hilarious extended
jams that I'm sure the neighbours just loved... Interesting stuff
happened, like a reworking of Motus song 'Changes', and we had the
opportunity to tighten up some of the set ready for tonight's gig at The
Malt Shovel in Baildon. Cool.
Check out
our MySpace page (click icon on our home page) cos I've uploaded the
Beau Hill remix of 'David' on there. Of course, the compresses audio
streaming of MySpace hardly does it justice but it still sounds the
business! Beau will be uploading the song on to his website shortly too,
more info and a link will be provided once this happens.
Mike
8th
Friday night at
The Mallard in Doncaster was a blast! A healthy-sized crowd gave us
great support and despite a few shaky moments this was a good
performance indeed. Not many bands could play original music, Guns
N Roses, Katy Perry and Baby Animals back to back but we got away with
it very easily in the end, and the Donny crowd loved it. Keep an
eye on the gig guide cos we should have some 2009 Mallard dates
pencilled in soon...
In other
news Beau Hill has pretty much finished the remix of Motus song 'DAVID'
and we intend to use this track as a promo demo mainly, so expect to
hear it on the MySpace page or somewhere very soon. We have also
talked about getting it available for download too via iTunes etc, so
more news on that once we have a plan of action.
Reet, we
got a few weeks break from gigging now. The first thing we are going to
do is get together, drink heavily and eat curry. The next thing is to
see about getting some more photos done with our good friends Shaun and
Jen of SJN Photography, plus learn some new material for the set.
There have been plenty of positive comments from people at gigs who have
welcomed the changes to the set we have already made so can't see any
reason why we shouldn't keep experimenting with new songs. Plus
get some new stuff written and worked in to the set...
2nd A busy weekend for
the band saw us Saturday night at the New Roscoe in Leeds and on Sunday
at The Bridge in Huddersfield playing for the NABD charity bash.
Saturday was something of an
anti climax unfortunately with a low turnout, but we had an excellent
sound courtesy of Tony Bianco on the mixer. Many people commented on the
clarity of the mix. This was Faron's second gig and he just improves
exponentially, really starting to lock in with the rest of the band and
playing his heart out. Our friend Steve Parker came to see us and
took some pics to add to a review he will be writing for the SDPTV site
he runs. Great to see him again. Also Shaun and Jen of SJN
Photography brought some wonderfully expensive looking cameras down too,
so between Shaun, Jen and Steve we will have some new pics to add to the
website here very soon. The gig was good and we sent everybody
home humming Gravity as usual...
Sunday at The Bridge in
Huddersfield was a top gig with a very healthy turnout, and Motus moved
up another gear for this one and really nailed it. This was one of
our best performances for months in my book, and proves why Faron is
such an asset to the band. Anyway, enough praise for the drummer he will
only get big-headed. From now on I'll only mention on here how many
mistakes he made!
The gig was the finale of a fund raising weekend at The Bridge for the
National Association of Bikers with a Disability (NABD) and we were
proud to be part of it.
October 2008
29th
Hi all,
this is Faron and this is my story. Well the big day finally arrived, my
first gig with the band, after much hard work and a few nerves Motus
were set up and ready to play the Brewery Tap
in Idle. And what a gig it was. With a good crowd ready for a rocking
night out we took to the stage and got underway. The first set rocked
out even managing to sneak in a new cover of "The Chain" which went down
a treat. Once the first set was done and dusted, which seemed to just
fly by in a blur, we cracked on with the next set.
With a few new songs added
into the second set, a rockin version of the big UK chart hit "I Kissed
A Girl" and "Early Warning" by the great Aussie band the Baby Animals
things were really cookin'. We did have a bit of a break while the crew
from the bar presented Liz with a Birthday cake and a bottle of
champers, as well as a strong rendition of happy birthday from the
crowd. A big thanks for making Liz feel special. We cracked on with the
rest of the set and finished the night in good form.
All in all it was a top gig,
it was great to be back playing with a great bunch of musicians. A big
thanks to all that attended, especially my good friends Shell and Paul
and my wife Kate. Your support was greatly appreciated. So that's the
first gig out of the way. Time for a few more rehearsals before we gig
again next weekend. I am looking forward to getting things more polished
and rocking and am very excited about the future with the band. A big
thanks to Mike, Liz and Graham for all your support and making me feel
so welcome. We are Motus "lets rock"
16th
**NEW BARRACK GIG CANCELLED**
After all the hard work put
in to getting the set together for the New Barrack gig, it is with
regret that I must now announce (a little belatedly) that Motus won't be
playing this one. Your favourite bass player here went to hospital
on Monday morning with severe stomach pains, and I've just got home
today minus my appendix. I'm so sore I can barely move, so we've had no
choice but to pull out of the gig. Sincerest apologies to Steph and Kev
of the Barrack, you guys know how much we were looking forward to
playing there again and I am bitterly disappointed with the crap timing
of all this. I'm just gonna have to make sure I'm well enough to
play the Brewery Tap gig on the 25th...
In more
positive news, Motus will be returning to an old haunt, The Malt Shovel
in Baildon on Thursday 27th November.
12th
Motus enjoyed a
marathon 5-hour rehearsal yesterday as we try and batter the set into
shape ready for the gig on the 17th at the New Barrack in Sheffield.
Hats off to Faron who has evidently put so much work into learning the
set - we said it would take a monumental effort from him and that's
exactly what he has done. Roll on the 17th, it could be twitchy at times
but can't fail to be fun!
8th
I am delighted to announce a major
turning point in the fortunes of Motus - after a period of some
stagnation within the band, drummer Ely has decided to retire from Motus
and pursue a new life in Nantwich. It is fair to say that after
some considerable upheaval in his personal life he felt that he could no
longer be an active member of the band. Myself, Graham and Liz wish Ely
the best of luck and thank him for his contribution to the Content album
and also the live performances over the last four years.
So, without further ado
we would like to introduce a new member of the band! In next to no time
we have found the perfect addition to Motus in the shape of our new
Australian friend Faron Young. Stylistically he lends a new
dimension to the band, and we are working very hard to rejuvenate the
set and be ready for the New Barrack Tavern gig on the 17th October.
In other, quite
spectacular news, Motus are delighted to be working with legendary rock
producer Beau Hill, who is remixing some of the tracks from the
Content album. Beau is famous for working with acts such as
RATT, WARRANT, ALICE COOPER and STEVIE NICKS to name but a
few from a very impressive roster. The first track to be given the Beau
touch will be 'DAVID', needless to say we are thrilled to bits that such
a high profile name in the music biz has approached us and wants to work
with us, lets see if this can give us the leg up we need to raise our
profile.
And finally, note that
our 2009 gig list is expanding and with our new line up we are hungrier
than ever to get out there and spread the Motus lurve.
We are Motus Reborn.
And you will know this.
Rock on!
Mike
6th
Not too much to
report on yesterday's afternoon gig at the New Roscoe, other than it was
very well attended and we got to play longer than usual as the evening's
band had cancelled! But to be honest it was not a good performance for
various reasons, and we do set ourselves high standards. We aim to
be rejuvenated for the next gig at The New Barrack Tavern in a few
weeks.
In other
news, we had the following correspondence from Steve Daykin and Martin
Lamb, two of the guys who organised the recent fundraising gig at Idle
Fire Station in aid of Greenfield's School:
"Hi all , just a
quickie to again thank you for a great night at the station the other
week. We have had a lot of feedback, especially from the older end
surprisingly , about how much they enjoyed your performance . I think
we made between 6 and 7 hundred pounds for the school that night so I
would say the night was a success. As I said to Liz after , your
version of Crazy was fantastic as this is a particular favourite of
mine since I heard Jeff Scott Soto do it with Talisman. Looking
forward to going to Firefest V at the end of October to see Mr. Soto,
Danger Danger and others including the amazing Firehouse, but will
definitely be getting to a few of your gigs with some of the lads
later in the year. Once again thanks so much, and I hope we can get
you back again sometime." Steve Daykin
"Just to thank you all once again for a great night.....Thought you
may like to hear some of the feed back I have received. I can
honestly say that I nor anyone else we know have received any bad
comments about the night. One group told me they were just coming to
support the school and didn't really care for a heavy rock band. They
are now admirers and asked when they can see you again. I have given
them your web site address and they will come to the local do's. Cant
get better than that can you.
Some other quotes:-
"Sexy lady, great voice"
"Great guitar solos, didn't realise he was stood at the side of me on
the chair. Sounded just as good on stage as he did outside.
What technology"
"Best rendition of that song I have ever heard". Sorry, I have
forgotten the name of the song as I was out on a fire call when you
sang it.
"Great atmosphere".
"When are they coming again".
From an ex-player, "solid bass line, very very good"
I have read your comments on your web page and you seem to have
enjoyed yourselves as much as your audience. Thank you very much. We
are still counting but thanks to your help we think we raised just
over a thousand pounds on the night. Please, on the Committee's
behalf, thank all the band for their great and generous effort on the
night.
We are planning some further do's next year, management allowing, for
our Social Funds so we will see if we can invite you back and pay you
proper this time.
Once again, many, many thanks. Martin.
September 2008
28th
Another slammin'
gig tonight at The Lion in Castleford, we had a good appreciative crowd
in and on reflection I'm preferring the new paint job they got in there
(the Halloween theme they had before was pretty creepy and the ghouls
used to get tangled up in the bass headstock!). Our good friends
the Crap Roadies were with us tonight and were pitifully inept as usual
when it came to winding leads up etc but bless 'em for trying.
21st
Motus had a very unusual
gig last night. Playing for charity in the engine “hangar” of Idle fire
station!!! It was quite an experience to be sure. This was a gig in aid
of Greenfield’s School in Idle. The fire station has committed itself to
a series of charity events to raise desperately needed cash for them.
Martin (who booked us) and the fire crew guys had gone to a great deal
of effort to make this a good night for band and audience alike. In
order to create an atmosphere they draped huge curtains all around the
room, and hung a load of military issue camo netting from the ceiling.
They had even rustled up a stage from somewhere for us…. Looked great,
hopefully someone took some pics, we stupidly didn’t……
Thanks very much to Idle Fire Station for all this, and for lifting
our gear in and out without even being asked. Oh and for the beers…..
Anyway the gig was well attended with a crowd that probably don’t get
to see bands too often in such cosy confines. We got a great reaction
from all of them and after some gentle coaxing (me shouting at them
and hamming it up completely) we got the requisite amount of dancing
girls up on their feet which kicked everything up a notch. Great night, great cause
and we would be happy to do another anytime for them.
You will have perhaps
picked up on news of an imminent line up change within Motus as Ely
sets his sights on a new life in Cheshire. Just so everyone knows, all
2008 gigs are unaffected as he is honouring all commitments. We will
keep you posted as our search for a replacement unfolds……
Rock on.
Graham
7th
It's been a great
weekend indeed - Saturday night we returned to the Tut & Shive in Yeadon
and had a blinder of a gig. After the rather dismal turn out last
weekend it was great to be back playing to a great big noisy bunch like
the Tut crowd! As always, when presented with an appreciative bunch we
step up a gear and play out of our skins. Icing on the cake for me was a
chap who came over to shake hands after the gig was over who said that
somehow we manage to get even better each time he sees us but he doesn't
know how we manage to. It was a great gig.
Sunday
saw us return, rather nervously after the Terrace travesty, to York for
an afternoon gig at The Speakeasy. This is a brilliant place with
in-house PA and lights and has a vibe similar to The Duchess Of York
that used to be in Leeds. Sunday afternoon gigs are a new experiment for
the chap who runs the place, Motus being the third band to volunteer.
The idea is that there is a band swiftly followed by a jam session.
To be honest there weren't many in but those that were gave us great
support and the place started to fill up as the second set got under
way. Think we ended up doing two encores and had a lot of fun,
this was another really spot-on performance to rival the one the
previous evening.
1st
Sunday afternoon
at The Bridge in Huddersfield on another soggy August day isn't perhaps
the place to be so we can understand why not so many people turned up
for our second gig here. But we played a blinder and those that
braved the torrential rains saw us perhaps at our best. It is a
great sounding room, and I had a few new stomp boxes to try out so
personally I couldn't have cared if there was nobody there at all cos I
was having joyous fun in my own World of Bass. It was great to
blow away the remaining cobwebs after our break so we are back firing
and ready for the Tut next Saturday. Let's hope we get a decent
audience cos recent turn out has been absolutely dire. The pub
scene is officially on its arse it seems, nobody is really interested
apart from the die-hard few, God bless 'em.
August 2008
31st
Motus got back
together last Tuesday after a month off and rehearsed at The Cross Keys
pub in Morley for a couple of hours to blow the cobwebs off. Big
thanks to Howard and Lynne for kindly letting us use the room for free,
and the new stage is fantastic and really makes the Keys look a like a
venue to rival the Roscoe or the Boot & Shoe or any of 'em.
Unfortunately the first gig after our break was probably one of the
worst we have ever done. Any band thinking of playing The Terrace
in York then please think again, cos they have absolutely no idea how to
stage a live music event. I'm not going to say any more about it cos
they don't deserve any kind of publicity whatsoever, good or bad.
Let's hope this afternoon's gig at The Bridge in Huddersfield will put
some smiles back on our faces!
14th
News of a new gig
for September - Motus are delighted to be playing a charity gig at the
Fire Station in Idle, Bradford on September 20th. This is a
fund-raising event for a local special school, Greenfield School, who
need to raise £40K to construct a 'calm room' for teachers and pupils.
Tickets are available from the fire station at a cost of £5 please call
on 01274 613103 for details.
6th
Greetings all,
just a short report on our wonderful experience at the Yorkshire Pudding
Rally last Saturday: to say we had been looking forward to this
one is an understatement, and it is rare that an experience can exceed
expectation but in this case it really did. The weather held, and
the whole camping experience was hilarious and from my vantage point in
my tent I had a disturbing yet enlightening insight into the life of
Graham and Liz as they settled down in their hideous floral tent
alongside mine. Graham had indigestion from several platters of
beef and a legendary amount of beer, and Liz had makeup to remove.
Cue lots of chuntering and arguing shattering the silence, very funny
indeed. Crap Roadie Tony, who lifted very little all evening as
usual, snored loudly and had an argument with himself in his sleep.
In the morning the silence was shattered by a monumental fart emanating
from the Charman tent signalling Graham's return to consciousness. Cue
Liz falling out of the tent retching and gasping for oxygen - the joys
of camping eh? Very funny indeed, god help us if we ever have to share a
tour bus...
As for
the gig itself, it really couldn't have gone better. Motus were
second on the bill after Resurgence, who played a great set mixing the
likes of Blondie with Georgia Satellites of all things, and very well
received they were too. Once they finished there was a mad
equipment changeover and without pause for breath Motus launched in to
their set - we played about an hour and mixed a few highlights from our
album, namely Air, Heartache Reborn and Self, plus a bunch of high
energy covers by the likes of ACDC, The Police, Skunk Anansie and Guns
and Roses. The crowd loved it, and what a crowd. A huge
thank you to Shiela and Vanessa for organising the event and inviting us
to play - do not hesitate to ask us to play again cos this was fantastic
fun and just the sort of gig we live for. Last band on were Spank
The Monkey, who played a huely enjoyable set of classic rock from the
likes of Van Halen and Whitesnake. Very accomplished musicians and
they finished the evenings entertainment off perfectly. This gig
definitely ranks amongst the best we have ever done and the memory of it
will linger on, bloody awesome!
July 2008
22nd Its a few days
late (work got in the way) but here is my report on the weekend's
activities:
So,
Saturday night and there we were back at the
Brewery Tap in Idle, the
only rock pub with hanging baskets. We had been looking forward
to this one as its always a pleasure to play here and Raymond and Gary
are friendly hosts indeed. Ely was so looking forward to it I
think he had his drum kit set up at about four in the afternoon, three
hours before the rest of us even turned up... And it turned out to be
a brilliant night, there was nobody in at 8 o'clock and I was just
starting to fret and frown about the possibility of it being a real
non-event but I needn't have worried. By the time we got on
stage it was plenty full, packed even, and it was so good to see so
many familiar faces in there turn up to give us great support.
And it just got better and better, I reckon we played pretty good too
and we walked out of there with big smiles on our faces as we
swaggered all the way over the road to the kebab shop like true rock
legends. All except Ely that is, who had been handed a hot
Christmas pudding mid set by Raymond (a long standing joke now,
tickles us all silly!) so he didn't have much room for a dirty donner...
Sunday
was a bit of an adventure as we were playing a new venue, Waterloo Bowling Club
in Huddersfield. Not often we play club gigs cos we ain't really
into that whole scene but this one was lots of fun and we managed not
to upset the decibel meter overly so the whole thing passed by without
a hitch. There was a good crowd in who gave us good support too,
but I was upset by the lack of a raffle at half time and the complete
absence of glitter curtains or requests for Black Lace. I may
have to reassess my stereotypes here! They asked us to come back next
year and play for them again, which we will do for sure.
After
the gig we moved on to the main event.
Marston's Southern Fried Chicken
shop just up the road. THE best chicken we've ever eaten, and
you didn't see how much we ate. A perfectly self-indulgent way
to finish off a really, really good weekend. I wish it was
always this much fun.
Mike
19th New video for
'Shadows' can be viewed by clicking the image above, this was filmed
several weeks ago by our partner in crime Steve D Parker of SDPTV - we
think this has come out very well and has the perfect creepy
atmosphere required for such a twisted song as Shadows! Look out for
new photos from Steve and also Shaun and Jen Allatt of SJN Photography
which I will be adding to the site just as soon as I get some time to
do it.
15th Note that due to
a clash with the much-anticipated Yorkshire Pudding Rally we have
moved our gig at The Ringway in Horsforth to December 6th. We
are waiting on confirmation as to which evening we are playing at the
Pudding do, which we are told is completely sold out! Motus will be
camping and drinking and enjoying this one I can tell thee!
13th It's always a
slightly nervy experience playing new venues, but last night's gig at
The Cross Keys in Morley was a blast so there was nothing to worry
about. Other than trying to remember a new Blondie cover we had
thrown together just two days previously... The Cross Keys is a big
old place with high ceilings and lots of awkward seating and stuff
that makes it hard to set the gear up - landlord Howard is going to
put a proper stage in and I reckon once he does this then he will have
a venue to rival any other in the area. Second set especially we
had a good and appreciative crowd, and a real posse on the dance floor
who enjoyed themselves so much they started throwing their underwear
at the band! There were some great moments, like ripping through
Motus song 'Erase' at a rate of knots with Graham doing a 'Weird
Science' wearing a bra on his head. We like to present a professional
image you see... So all in all July has been fantastic, apart from the
bloomin' weather - new venues and every gig has been great, sweaty
fun. The band is on top form, can't wait for the
Brewery Tap
next week for more of the same.
9th
New gigs added -
Sunday 7th September
at The Speakeasy
(formerly Cert 18 bar) in York and Friday 17th
October back at the
New Barrack Tavern
in Sheffield. In other news we have a rehearsal booked for
Thursday night this week and have a new cover song to try out and a
new Motus song to mess with.
6th
Last week
we played in Castleford, at the Crimea. Jimmy is a lovely bloke and
Stig too. Castleford, you seriously did
not rock….. The post gig depression was so bad that your resident
guitar player had to act as therapist for 50% of the band. Still, what
does not kill you etc etc….
So, after clawing
our way back out of that particular rough spot we approached this
weekend slightly cautiously. Needn’t have worried, from the first song
at the New Roscoe on Friday our slightly modest but
enthusiastic crowd were behind us all the way. It was great to see
our old pals from Minorca back in England by chance for the weekend.
Their enthusiasm knows no limits. Also we made some new friends from
Slovakia (Led Zeppelin dude!!). Talk about an international band or
what? Am I seeing a pattern here but Europeans just seem to really
love live music. They get “it” completely, and aren’t afraid of
showing that they are enjoying themselves. You are all missing out on
quite a lot hiding behind your pints you know……
Great
gig, and we also had some photos and video
done here from two independent professional sources. First
pics that came through look great. And the
video is apparently brewing well. Thanks to Shaun
and Jen of SJN Photography and once again to Steve Parker of
SDPTV for taking the time.
Saturday night we
travelled down to Sheffield to The New Barrack Tavern. Finally
a real ale pub (possibly THE real ale pub) that does live music!!! And
guess who was driving? Me. Big mistake!! The ale here (the two pints I
did get to sample) was superb. And the list available was, to say the
least, extensive… Seemingly a long lost art is good beer keeping these
days but this was total nectar. Of particular favour were the Castle
Rock Brewery tipples (Midlands based Micro Brewery). Investigative
work is commencing now. The gig itself was great. A music audience!!!
Woo woo. They do exist out there. We seem
to have made a few new friends here and will be looking forward to our
return in October. This makes me happy. Great set up too. And our
hosts Steph and Kev were as gracious as any we have ever played for.
Lovely couple and thanks for the bottles of take home ale that I
forgot to share with Mike!!!
Very strange thing
here but Ely didn’t break one stick. All night.
Don’t think I have ever seen that happen before. This needs sorting as
I need the firewood…
Graham
PS - Graham
totally forgot to mention the incident involving a fire alarm and a
smoke machine... I will leave it to him to tell the full shameful
story... Mike
June 2008
26th Its been quiet on
the Western Front for the last few weeks but now we're back and ready
to get back out there starting with our second visit to the Crimea
Tavern in Castleford. Looking forward to this one, last time we
played here it was a Sunday afternoon and somebody had started a
rumour that a music magazine was coming to do a feature at The Lion
pub opposite. So maybe people were queuing up not only to see Riff
Raff do their AC/DC set but also in the hope of getting their picture
taken - turns out no journo turned up at all but the Lion looked
pretty full. But we still had a good appreciative crowd in at
the Crimea and played a blinder - hopefully the good folk of
Castleford will remember and turn out to see us again!
Rehearsal last night blew the cobwebs
out pretty effectively, and we tried a tricky new cover song which we
hope will get an airing on Friday for the first time. Hope to
see plenty of you there.
9th And so
after a decent break Motus returned from our respective holidays to
play The New Roscoe once again in sunny Leeds. It was a belter of a
day too. 24 degrees apparently. Thanks to all who came along in
preference to lighting their BBQ’s or just getting a sun tan. We had
an interesting start as SDPTV Steve had lined up this particular date
to do some pre-emptive filming on a rather impressive HD digi-video
camera. Not something you will see often but Motus were miming along
to a track from Content………. Interesting experience, never mimed
before. Cheating it felt like….. but the big boys do it so I guess we
have to follow suit.
Look forward to
seeing the results of this as Steve will no doubt put his vivid and
extraordinary imagination to good use……
So.. To the gig
itself, needless to say it was a sweatfest of immense proportions, one
guitarist making himself very ill by dehydrating completely post
playing. A little tip for you here, do not mistake dehydration for
hunger. Eating two Mc-Meals post gig will only result in Mc-Chunder,
Mc-Stomach Illness and Mc-instant sleep. Mc-Mofo, urgh. Not good. Note
to self. Drink more water during summer gigs…… And don’t eat Mc-f***ing
anything ever again.
After two weeks or
more without a note played between us it was interesting to see what
happened during the gig. There were some great moments for sure. It
always puts a fresh slant on things when you have been guitar-less for
a while. Like, which way round does it go? How loud can I make it!!!!
Why are my ears whistling…..But beyond that I find that it enables a
distance to appear between the comfort zones and the immediate playing
so its more tempting to stretch out a bit and see what's going on in
areas of the fretboard you may not visit too often…..Well it made
sense at the time…..
All in all a most
enjoyable experience. Got another diary gap now until the end of June,
I am looking out for gigs though and have been offered a few whilst we
were away, its likely that a cancellation or two might slot into
place. Holiday season always makes this sort of thing happen.
Hopefully it will work in our favour, so keep an eye on the gig guide.
We now have copies
of the live bootleg available for your delectation, as a bonus we are
doing a deal if you buy both from us at gigs. We will work out the web
order side of things soon. Just mail us if you want anything.
Okay then. Its
Monday, work is hell and the weather is far too good to be thinking
about anything other than beer, BBQ and maybe a couple of hours
sunshine. If anyone can make it a good weekend weather wise then
please cast your spells freely.
Graham
7th
New gig added for July - The New Barrack Tavern in Sheffield. This
is a new venue for us and will be our first Sheffield gig of 2008!
In other news, after various band members have been off sunning
themselves on Greek islands, we are playing the New Roscoe this Sunday
8th June at 3.00pm and Steve Parker of SDPTV is planning on filming us
with a very expensive camera - I hope we are not too rusty after a 3
week break but at least we will have nice sun tans! Please come
down and give us some support - we should also have copies of a live
bootleg recording available featuring a mix of Motus originals and
covers as recorded at the last Roscoe gig in April this year.
May 2008
21st Hello
all, late report on the weekend just passed. A late cancellation saw
us return to The Boot and Shoe in Ackworth
to cover a gig for The Brew who were supposed to play. Quite a few
turned up to see them but this worked out great for us as they seemed
to enjoy what we had to offer. We love borrowing audiences, and they
seem to like us doing it too!!!! Our long standing supporter
Baz from Skellow
was there and offered the report you can see below which he graciously
posted on Rock of the North. Thanks Baz.
I must say that I
think we were on top form. Everyone in the band seemed to be inspired
and injecting new life into the set. I was particularly pleased with
the live mix which as Baz said “Don’t
touch a f**king thing mate!!” Always a good
thing to hear…. And no doubt that helps fire the band and audience
alike up. And as for Motus doing Skunk Anansie's
'Weak'. Collectively lets say to Liz
“We told you so!!!!”
Our new friend
Steve Parker once again
joined us and took about 700 photos during the set, and has made some
fantastic images already for our site and his SDPTV too. This man’s
enthusiasm is infectious. Salute you we do.
So to a few weeks
break again for some much needed sun and fun in the Motus camp. Mike decamps to
Zante and myself
and Liz are off to Crete. Greek islands rock, last year we came away
from Kos with a contact that enabled us to
get the Content album mastered in a full bore pro studio that would
have cost thousands ordinarily. We got a bargain on that one for sure.
Someone has got to top that this year…… hope so anyway. Always fun
handing your CD’s out to random foreigners anyway….
And then sporting
suntans (I hope) we converge on the Roscoe for a Sunday afternoon (8th
June) of ROCK with Mr Parker threatening to film us on a new HD
digital video camera he has access to. Please come along and get
yourselves immortalised in HD video stylee!!!
Onwards then and its starting to feel good this year already, so much
is happening later on with the Yorkshire Pudding Rally and many other
“look forward to” moments. Bring it collectively on
I say!!!!!
Rock on!!!!
Graham
Baz’s
ROTN review here;
Hi
Rotn, witnessed yet another sterling
performance by Motus at the Boot & Shoe, if there’s a premier league
of pub bands then this band are surely in it. Mixing covers with a
healthy number of originals they got the balance just about right.
Even the covers were given the Motus treatment, whether it was on the
groovetastic Black Dog or Welcome
To The Jungle (probably the best version
i’ve heard in a pub or club) or the heavy
re-working of Message In A Bottle. But don’t forget their own songs
which can stand toe to toe with some of the classics, a particular
highlight being Erase, especially with it’s
solo. Oh i almost forgot about their take
on Skunk Anansie’s Weak, bloody brilliant.
Note....loads must
have turned up to see the Brew but weren’t left disappointed, with
quite a few people commenting on Liz’s voice in between spots, also
the sound was spot on, absolutely crystal clear. On this showing
there’s no doubt they’ve just earned themselves some more fans.
Ps ...I was
accosted by a drummer outside the Boot and hit on the head....I’m now
suffering from percussion.
ROTN reply.
Cheers
Baz,the band are gold plated, pure class
and will surely become legendary as we all grow
old. There are a few bands in that Premier league to be honest,
we’re really lucky to be able to go to a pub and see such great
entertainment for nowt! So Ely caught up with you eh...
9th
Please note we have another gig squeezed in this month before Yours
Truly goes off on holiday - Sunday evening on the 18th May Motus will be
playing the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth near Pontefract. We haven't
been here since last year so its great to be back, especially with the
Red Beck cafe down the road...
April 2008
15th The
weekend was so much fun that Liz has posted the following comment in
addition to my earlier report:
Wow! What a great weekend Motus has had. The New Roscoe in Leeds
never or very rarely fails us, such a warm and receptive audience of
both our original songs and the covers as well, what a joy!
The pressure was on as we were being recorded live and we were also
being filmed at the same time (which was a shock as I was not aware of
this being scheduled, often the best way though). Hey, it was darn
good fun and even though perfection may not have been achieved in some
peoples eyes, probably ours, it was a good experience for us and a
learning curve as performing always is.
I met a chap called Steve d Parker after the gig who had taken some
great photos of us and is currently writing a review on our new Album
‘Content’. He is an interesting and talented man so watch out for it!
The Brewery Tap in Idle also ‘delivered the goods’, much fun to be had
by all, particularly me as I had a few Sherries if you know what I
mean (hic!). When everybody is with you (and by that I don’t mean just
in the same room) it makes you realise why you get up on stage and do
this, I have been known to question myself now and again!
We now have some time to relax and gather our thoughts for our next
plans of action as we are not playing now until sat May 10th
at the Tut And Shive in Yeadon…..BRING IT ON MO !!!
Over and out, Liz
13th
Fantastic gig at the Brewery Tap on Saturday
night, baking under the lights - why didn't we record this gig instead?
Great crowd as always in the Tap, apart from one prat who thought it
amusing to start rearranging the PA... there's always one unfortunately!
This has been a great weekend with two very enjoyable gigs and a good
few more copies of 'Content' sold, and those that have already heard it
are very enthusiastic about it, so if you haven't bought it yet get on
the link on our home page here and invest in one today!
In other
news, please be aware that the gig that was scheduled for 19th April at
the New Inn in Guiseley is cancelled even though it was still on our gig
list - sorry for any confusion.
Right, we
have a bit of a break now before the Tut gig in May. We intend to
use this time to revamp the set a bit, book some gigs and promote the
Content album some more. Any regulars who have any suggestions or
avenues worth exploring etc please get in touch.
12th
I ache all over this morning. Another good
gig at the New Roscoe in Leeds last night although perhaps not quite as
busy as normal? But everybody made so much noise it sounded like it was
packed! Our new friend Col came along to record the gig with a Roland
digital multitrack machine and lots of wires, and Italian Tony once
again came along to do the sound for us and as usual did a fantastic
job. I never knew our humble PA could sound so L-O-U-D... I think
landlord Noel was looking a bit twitchy at one point but I always say
stick with it cos your ears will get used to it in time... pardon?
Lets hope
the recording came out well - I seem to recall just about every song in
the set having at least one moment of mild fumblication and others an
utterly spectacular glaring cock-up of whale-mating proportions.
Buggering things up isn't normally a feature of our live show, it all
started with a microphone stand collapsing on to the drum kit mid-song
and we just never seemed to recover after that. I know these
things are personal and few in the audience will have noticed, but I bet
we go out tonight to the Brewery Tap and play an absolute blinder while
there's nobody there recording us. But last night was a great gig
and lots of fun, so if the performance wasn't exactly flawless we made
up for it in pure enjoyment. If the recordings are good we will
find a way of making them available to you. Rock!
6th
New venue for us last night - a bar in a squash
club! Heaton Squash Club isn't the most obvious place to put live
music on. Imagine a thoroughly modern fitness centre with fluorescent
lights and trophy cabinets, and lots of long and daunting flights of
stairs. Not the most rock and roll of venues, but this was
fantastic fun regardless. Despite hard floors and tin ceilings we
got a decent sound and maybe the lure of free Chinese chicken and rice
brought the punters in more than the prospect of live music, but beggars
can't be choosers. Right from the opening medley of 'Changes' and
'Heartache Reborn' we knew we were in for a good night. Great
performance from the band and we won some new admirers and despatched
more copies of Content. And Chris, who had been out on a drinking
sesh all afternoon, managed to last the distance despite falling for the
girl at the reception desk. Chris, when a girl mentions her
boyfriend half a dozen times within 5 minutes of meeting her then she's
probably trying to tell you that she isn't so interested...
2nd
Sunday afternoon saw us play a new venue for us, the Crimea Tavern in
Castleford. This place has long had a great reputation as one of
the best-run and best-supported live music pubs in West Yorkshire. All I
can say is this reputation is well deserved and this was one of the most
enjoyable gigs we have done for some time. Tony Bianco once again came
and worked the mixing desk for us and did a fabulous job as always.
We squeezed onto the small and rather lofty stage and despite the
rumours that everybody who was anybody would be at The Lion pub opposite
hoping in vain to get their photo in a magazine (long story) there was a
great turnout. We ripped into the set and its fantastic when you
get a crowd who are happy to hear original music and don't expect the
usual rock standards. A proper music audience for sure! Landlord
Jimmy has to be the most enthusiastic and helpful chap ever to run a
music venue and had some great things to say about us. From a man who
has seen countless bands come through his establishment we take his kind
words as a big compliment. We look forward to playing here again
in June.
Phil, the
drummer from Hard To Handle, was in the crowd with his missus Jill and
posted the following comment about us on Rock Of The North. Its
pretty humbling stuff when a musician from another successful Yorkshire
band has such positive things to say about us:
"Hi just want to say that Jill and
I had a fantastic time at the Crimea last night. A big thanks to Motus -
wish I had known about this band sooner, for me the best band on the
scene I have ever seen that goes for Jill too. You could pick this band
up and drop them in an arena and they would not be out of place, Liz on
vocals is a natural; you could watch her iron and be entertained!
Her voice lends itself to whatever she sings. You start to think that
the covers that they do were written with the intent that at some point
in the future Liz would be singing them, and their own material is so so
good that I for one could listen to that without the covers. Not
many bands could pull that off, the standard of writing is outstanding
and as a band they gel oh so well. Ely on drums a true messiah, again I
can't remember when I've seen better, Message In A Bottle what can I say
amazing. From start to finish the pub rocked, clever arrangements
of songs that breathes new life into them. Outstanding players what more
could you ask for. A humbled Phil."
In other news, unfortunately
we have had to cancel the gig on Saturday 19th April at The New Inn
Guiseley by mutual agreement.
March 2008
24th What a weekend!! I am
a little in late in posting but I can only echo the sentiments expressed
by all participants and revelers that the East Leeds Lions rally was
indeed fantastic. We had an absolute riot playing for everyone and
loved every second of it. We took the step of bootlegging ourselves and
the recording is incredibly cool. Great live sound mix courtesy of the
great PA and crew from Showtec, and what a crowd.... Hats off to you
all. Wasn’t it bloody cold though? That backstage heater saved many of
us from hypo-booza-thermia!!! From Motus I thank everybody involved,
especially Graham H, Tony Bianco and the Showtec and Lions crew who were
on hand to make sure everything rolled on smoothly for everyone. Looking
forward now to the Yorkshire Pudding Rally in (hopefully slightly
warmer) August. 8^)
Graham
18th
Last Saturday at The Wellington turned out to be a
pretty good gig after a disastrously quiet start! Attendance was
affected I guess by three Six Nations rugby games on TV including an
improbable England win over Ireland, so I guess most folk had been out
all afternoon or stayed in front of the telly. Lucky for us people
came in as the gig progressed and despite the odd shaped room and weird
stage layout we had a good old gig. Certainly it was a warm up for
the Lions Rally this weekend!
We hope
to see lots of familiar faces this Friday at the Lions gig - if you
haven't heard about this event see the banner at the foot of our
homepage and click on it for more details. I think that tickets
have been sold but there is plenty of space for folk who want to pay on
the gate. There's some great bands on, and we are planning a
drinking sesh of legendary proportions...
8th
I was about to write a review of last night's gig
at the Bridge in Huddersfield but I don't have to. Dawn, the landlady of
this fine establishment put a nice comment on the Rock of the North
website about the gig, so I will put her comment on here instead!
"hi guy’s we had the band MOTUS play a gig
for us last night if you haven't seen them then you're missing out big
time ..they were absolutely brill they rocked the place good
style...will definitely be having them back ...well done guy’s ...great
band keep rocking ...they're playing at the East Leeds Lion’s motorbike
rally on the Friday night we will be there rocking with the best
..thanks Dawn ..THE BRIDGE HUDDERSFIELD"
3rd
Just a few bits of news to report - firstly some last minute 'tweaks' to
the CD cover artwork are being done by our good friend Egor and his
friends in Computer Club. These guys seldom see the light of day,
and could drain your bank account just by pressing Control, Alt &
Delete. Luckily, they are on our side, and know lots and lots about
graphic design. Tweaks is probably understating it a bit - they've taken
the theme and upped the ante a bit for sure! The Content album is
still available via this website and at gigs with the original (and
still fine) artwork.
In other
news, Motus played the FRock of The North charity gig last Saturday in
Allerton Bywater. We were very pleased to do our bit for Cancer
Research, and thanks to everybody at the last Roscoe gig who helped us
contribute a chunk of change towards a total of over £2000 the whole
event raised. The gig itself was lots of fun and it was great to
see some other bands we hear a lot about but have never seen! A full
report on the gig is currently on the News Page on the Rock Of The North
site at
www.rockofthenorth.f2s.com
Lastly,
I've deleted all the old pictures from our Pictures page on this website
and put up a selection of new photos, most of which were taken in 2008.
We would rather the pics on here reflect who we are now rather than what
we were doing several years ago... It's fantastic when people take
pics and send them through, all the live shots here were taken by
enthusiastic punters with expensive cameras without us asking, so a big
thanks to you, keep 'em coming through!
February 2008
17th
Motus returned to the Shoulder of Mutton in
Gomersal last night for the first time since the new management took
over. I'm sure the whole evening has convinced Craig the owner
that live music is the way forward, the place was rammed and there was a
great party atmosphere, some very exuberant dancing and a hot and sweaty
band giving it plenty and playing pretty close to their best.
There was the usual head scratching as we tried to figure out just how
to get the gear into such a small space, even though we've done it
several times before every time we're faced with it again it just seems
impossible but somehow we shoe-horn it all in! The new lights made a
huge difference again last night, they look the business!
10th
What a fantastic gig at the Roscoe last night!
We chose a
perfect night to make the new album available for the first time - the
place was rammed to the rafters and I think we sold just about every
copy of the cd we had with us. Brilliant result, and it is very
gratifying indeed to know that so many people are taking an interest in
our original music. Many thanks must go to the Roscoe audience for
taking part in the charity raffle we organised - this was our
contribution to the upcoming
Frock
Of The North
fundraising gig for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Everyman Cancer
charities. £100
was raised for what everybody must agree is a very worthy cause.
Thanks to Italian Tony for doing the sound again for us last night and
making us sound absolutely massive!
See you
all at The Shoulder of Mutton in Gomersal on Saturday 23rd.
Note -
new gig added The Wellington
in Eccleshill
added Saturday 15th March.
5th
New gig added - Saturday 16th Feb at The
Shoulder of Mutton in Gomersal (near
Cleckheaton)
3rd
Motus are well and truly back on track after a few weeks of early
January rest and relaxation. We have played two great gigs this weekend
starting with The Mallard in Doncaster on Friday night which had a fine
turn out of appreciative people which was good to see, I thought the
hideous cold wet weather might have deterred them. But no! The smokers
braved the night and stood outside puffing away and hopping from foot to
foot to keep the circulation going. (Very brave I thought....and
slightly mad but...). We felt on form and relieved to be back to work
again. Can we call it work? I think not, its way too much fun to be
classed as work.
Saturday night was spent at The Lion in Castleford. We looked forward to
playing it before hand anyway as we feel the people are 'our sort of
crowd' and it has a great atmosphere, a true rock venue with attitude
and the ambience of the sleaziest graveyard party. You'll know what I
mean if you ever set foot in there because it is like Halloween every
night due to the various ghoulish statues flying at you from all
directions and the surrounding gravestones standing against the
walls...just got to love it as they dare to go where most wouldn't
venture. In short the gig was kicking even though I couldn't see much
due to the stage lights frying my eyeballs (thanks for the migraine!) I
know we were revved up to the max. Check this space for our next
encounter and I hope it's of the third kind!
Liz
January 2008
27th
Happy (belated!) New Year to you all! Apologies for the lack of
updates on this news page, but we have been anything but idle since the
Christmas festivities and mince pie eating ended. So much to
report, where do I begin?
I'll
start with news on the new album "Content" which is taking far too long
to finish off but we are very nearly there at long last! The final track
listing seems to be agreed now, and runs as follows:
1. CHANGES
2. HEAD
3. SATELLITE
4. DAVID
5. AIR
6. ERASE
7. GRAVITY
8. HEARTACHE REBORN
9. SELF
10. SHADOWS
11. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (bonus track)
In a
final push to get the artwork finished we got together for a photo shoot
on a wet Saturday evening in mid January. Not being the sort of
band to venture too far away from the comforts of home we chose to take
some pictures in Graham & Liz's grungy old cellar. Armed with
several budding photographers (namely Crap Roadie Mark, Chris and Egor
Nick), several thousand watts of stage lighting, a laptop and several
boxes of beer we ventured down amongst the spiders and made a start. All
was going well until we overloaded the mains and started a small
electrical fire adjacent to Graham's guitar collection...
Undeterred, we extinguished that and carried on and got some excellent
results, some of which you can see on our myspace page.
Speaking
of Myspace, I have just uploaded some of the new songs on to our profile
page if you would like to go check 'em out - if you do, feel free to
leave us some comments on there we really want to get some feedback on
this. Check us out at
www.myspace.com/motusmotus
The CD
cover artwork is now very nearly finished as a result of the photos we
got from the depths of Graham's cellar. I'm hoping we can get the
thing finally nailed and sent off for printing in the next week to 10
days. If you want to be one of the first to get a copy of the
album then use the PayPal link on our homepage to order a copy now and
we will send it out as a priority once the covers come back from the
printers.
After not
playing together for a month we booked a rehearsal down at Beever Creek
for Tuesday 22nd Jan. On the Saturday before, Graham thought he
should check his Trademark amp out as it had made an odd noise at The
Wellington gig Christmas week. Good job too, as the odd noise had
morphed into something much more alarming and hideous, prompting one of
the greatest examples of panic buying I have witnessed for some time.
The chaps at Sound Control in Leeds did him a good deal on a worrisome
Line 6 40-watt tube amp with many buttons and flashing lights which to
be honest is totally lost on a bass-player like me. Graham needs
to write a post on here to explain what it's all about. But if you
think 40 watts is not likely to cut the proverbial mustard then think
again. Brutal doesn't really do it justice. Imagine pressing
your ear against, say, Concorde in full 'after-burn' and that gets you
somewhere close. One chord at 'gig volume' sent the shop staff in
to fits of arm-waving apoplexy and caused several expensive Les Pauls to
disintegrate into clouds of over-priced sawdust. Fearsome stuff.
So we got to rehearsal and after my ears had stopped bleeding I actually
started to appreciate the thing. I suspect there will be more
knob-twiddling to be done before the G-Man is truly happy with his new
purchase but it would be boring if this wasn't the case. It would
be like buying the latest and greatest game for your Nintendo and
beating it at the first attempt.
So, two
January gigs to ease us back in to the thrill of gigging in post smoking
ban Britain. Friday 25th was at the Brewery Tap in Idle and we hit
them hard with Ely's new set list. No longer is the first set a
preamble for the second. Now, the first set leaves us several
stone lighter and barely able to walk! It rocks. This gig also
gave us chance to try out the new light controller which really makes a
massive difference. It's nice to know that after all this time we
have finally got some excellent and highly portable stage gear which
makes us self-sufficient and able to play anywhere. Small
electrical fires notwithstanding...
Saturday
night and we were back at the Tut & Shive in Yeadon, which surprised all
of us as we never expected to play here again. Not the biggest
crowd in there these days, thanks to Tony Blair, but this was a great
gig and we played out of our skins. Nice to see Italian Tony
again, and thanks for the positive comments about my bass sound! I've
dicked around with my rig like a true amateur for ages and it has just
clicked for me now, so to get an endorsement from you made my evening.
The
Mallard in Doncaster and The Lion in Castleford to come this weekend.
See you there.
Mike
December 2007
30th
Interesting gig
last night at The Wellington
in Eccleshill.
At first it looked like it was going to be another one of those horribly
quiet, post smoking ban, spent-up Christmas week no-show gigs but it
actually turned out to be pretty good! The room we set up in was
tiny and a giant wall prevented most people from actually seeing the
band, but everybody gave us great support and it was a lot of fun
despite being perhaps the most unlikely place to stage a live rock band
ever. And Graham's funky new lights were a success and provided
some much-needed colour washes and effects, making the most boring room
in Bradford look like it was ready to stage a Pink Floyd show. At
least partially anyway. Triumph over adversity. You can't
keep a good band down you know.
23rd
Last night's gig
at the Silver Fox in Stocksbridge was a bit of a let down as punters
were thin on the ground once more. Its hard to see what's gone
wrong here, it used to be a great venue but all the local bikers and
rockers seem to have found somewhere else to drink. The band still
delivered a good set and there was great support from the punters, all
25 of them...
So, just
a few days to Christmas now, I've finished all my shopping and I've just
come down with a nasty cold/ headache bug just in time for the big day
(as seems to be tradition!). Merry Christmas to you all, see you
on the greasy side.
Take care
Mike
xx
17th
It's back to Mike
for the web update! As is the custom on this here web page, I
wanted to report on last weekend's activities as we played a couple of
blinding gigs, firstly at the New
Roscoe in Leeds
on Friday and then at The Boot &
Shoe in Ackworth
on Saturday.
Friday
was a special treat as Italian
Tony kindly gave
up his time to do a spot of sound engineering, removing Graham's nightly
headache of having to juggle playing with managing the live mix.
Tony did a fantastic job, dozens of people all commented on how good the
band sounded and Liz's vocal was crystal clear - thanks mate!
Graham pretty much remembered to hit record, so we got a bootleg of the
gig which confirms just how good a job Tony did with the mix.
Friday was also Crap Roadie Tony's
40th birthday party - it isn't actually his birthday for a while yet but
he shamelessly hijacked our gig so all his mates thought he had hired
the band. Shame on you mate! Tony's family and guests swelled the
ranks in the Roscoe and all seemed to be having a great time, so all in
all we had very busy night and certainly one to remember. We also
got to try out an invigorated set with one or two new songs crammed in
there.
On to
Saturday at Les's Boot & Shoe.
Les had a special curly perm and rather fetching goatee beard cultivated
just in time for Christmas, and still managed to cause feedback even
though we weren't using his PA system! As usual, the stage looked
fantastic with the lighting rig and a liberal blast from the smoke
machine. The Boot was pretty busy but the place just seems
different since the smoking ban took hold, maybe non-smokers are too
reserved and don't party as hard as those with a death wish? Who can
tell. Personally I thought the band played a great set, we had a
tight, big-assed sound and after the gig the night before we were right
on the money too. This was my first gig using my new bass guitar,
a Status Groove 5-string, and to be honest I can't remember the last
time I had this much fun playing bass. I mean, I love playing bass
it's all I want to do, but I just loved every sound it produced
that night, even the odd finger fumble sounded great! My MusicMan
may no longer get a look in...
Just two
more gigs to go in 2007. It's been a good year all in all, and we
start 2008 with a fantastic first album mixed and ready to be heard and
just maybe ready to make a big difference to our fortunes too.
Keep
rocking!
Mike
9th
Greetings one and
all.Graham here with a
quick report from the weekends activities.Only one gig last night
at our old favourite the Brewery Tap
in Idle. We are trying a few
experiments with our sound at the moment, attempting to add some
compression to the vocal mix for one. Its
been something we know we should have been doing for ages, but have
never had any success at. I guess a little bit of RTFM never goes amiss
and having blown the 1cm layer of dust from the stored compressor unit
we had another go. Seemed to work but the jury is still out on its
functionality. Mike
is making attempts at producing a less thunderous rumble from his bass
skyscraper, I am feeling guilty because at my suggestion all sorts of
tinkering has been going on and I seem to have caused the man a
headache. I am trying to get the bottom end more focused and tight
across the whole mix with less muddiness in the midrange but it is no
mean feat without destroying or significantly altering the core sound of
the bass itself. This is doubly complicated by us playing with a fairly
enthusiastic drummer so the backline is always going to be pretty loud
(we can’t just rely on the PA) to sit in with him for our stage mix. You
see what we go through to bring the Motus sound to you?
Confusion generally speaking really. So last
night our soundcheck was of mammoth
proportions, hopefully we got somewhere near in the end.
So the gig last
night, hot and sweaty as ever, there were slightly less bodies than we
normally see in here but there was 40th party happening
somewhere which took a good handful of the regulars out allegedly.
Filled up for the second set though and I genuinely enjoyed the evening.
Its always a pleasure to play there and we
always see a lot of familiar faces. Thanks to Julie and Ricky
for being our test audience for the new album, it seems to have been
received well. We were totally spurred on by the relentless cheers and
whistles from Paul (?)
Angela and Taz who saw us at
the Beat It event and traveled from Odsal to
see us here. Thanks so much for your
enthusiasm guys. Apologies if I have got your name wrong but I am very
interested to hear about your graphic design abilities mate, and that
guitar lesson is there for you any time you want it. Thanks as ever to
Raymond and Gary.
Also worthy of
mention is that I got me a new geetar.
Thought I would play a few songs on it but it ended up doing the entire
gig. I was enjoying it immensely. Has a few
tricks up its sleeve that are very impressive. It also a whammy bar,
very new for me. It was trashed electronically when it arrived but
Shane Haigh
(the String Surgeon) sorted it out in no time and as always swore a lot
and was beyond enthusiastic. I keep meaning to check his band out (Piston
Broke) but have
yet to catch them.
Still finalising the
new CD.
Will it ever end this? As mentioned we are looking at many options to
get the cover done, also the track listing is causing some consternation
too. We do have a title for it now though and a concept for the art and
webpage etc.Unfortunately this
little known thing called Christmas is looming large on the horizon and
I expect is going to delay things slightly.
Worthy of mention too is our crap roadies
Tony and Mark who were absolutely
sozzled by the end of the night, they
roadied to above and beyond the usual
standard and then proceed to have a drunken wrestle outside the pub.
Hilarious. I wonder who
won? Not
Mike's
car as they managed to knock a bit off it in the process…
Ooops.
Its Tony's birthday on Friday (14th)
and he is having a party at the Roscoe (coincidentally when we are
playing) This, I suspect will be carnage of a high degree.
Onwards then, we have
a rehearsal booked on Tuesday and hope to get a few new songs in the
set. Tremendous.
Did I mention my lovely new guitar? Oh yeah….. I did.
Its lovely. See for yourselves.
http://www.fernandesguitars.com/rrestb.html
3rd
An interesting weekend's gigs for sure. Saturday night at the
Silver Fox
in Stocksbridge was just plain awful. Its been awhile since we
were last here, six months easily, and there was probably only about 35
people in there whereas there used to be easily over 100. Add to
that some sound problems and terrible weather (which undoubtedly kept
people away) and it all adds up to a pretty poor experience.
Sunday night, however, was a totally different story. 50th
Birthday party in Rawdon, complete with balloons and buffet.
Perhaps not the most rock and roll of settings, but the hardcore element
of Motus fans there made this into a really memorable gig.
Highlight for me was Ely eating a mince pie during Sweet Child without
dropping so much as a beat. Very funny, but beyond the humour
there was a great performance here which just underlines why this band
needs an 'up for it' audience to play to.
November 2007
25th
Yesterday was the
last ever gig at the Shoulder of
Mutton in
Gomersal, also known as The Smallest Venue In The World. Its the
last gig there cos the owners, Harvey & Sue, are giving up the pub game
and having some time off, and the new manager doesn't want live music,
the blithering idiot. It was a typically noisy gig, a great and
very vocal crowd and I hope we gave Harvey & Sue the perfect send-off!
The chicken kebab from the shop next door was up to its usual standard
too...
16th
NEWS ALERT!
Unfortunately tonight's
gig at the TUT & SHIVE at Yeadon will not happen due to a sudden change
of management. We were still trying to get some kind of
confirmation from the brewery right up to the last minute that the
relief manager, if they have found one that is, would be prepared to
have us on but no such luck so regrettably we have to blob the gig.
Uncertainty remains as to whether the Tut will continue to host bands at
all, I do hope so otherwise the place will just die on its arse.
May as well turn it in to a Starbucks. Or a hand car wash run by
Eastern Europeans. We shall see...
11th
Back to Mike I'm afraid for this report! We have had a break for
the last few weeks, been out and seen a few bands and Liz got 1 year
older. So it was great to get back into it again, so here is my
report on the weekend's fun and games.
On Friday
we played a short set with some excellent bands at The Manor in Farsley.
This was at the "Beat It LIVE"
gig raising money for the Macmillan Cancer charity, and hats off to the
organisers. The event was sold out and yet more paid on the door
to get in to see some excellent bands do their bit. The place was
absolutely rammed.
DeSilva
opened the show with a slick set of 'modern classics' of recent years
i.e. Stereophonics, Keane etc. Then Motus
got up and we decided to play a classic rock covers set with the
exception of our own future classic, "Self". Great fun! The next
band were the highlight for me -
Contraband ended
their set with a very well performed Queen medley which was brilliant,
three-part harmonies and a great drummer! Optic Nerve
did their AC/DC thing before US4
ended the night with their excellent U2 tribute. The crowd loved
it, I've no idea yet how much was raised but it was fantastic to be part
of it and what a great venue too. Did I also mention that a
certain guitar player and bass player from Motus had deadly hangovers
the next day?
Saturday
night and we were back at The Lion
in Castleford
with its brilliant Halloween decorations. Good gig this one,
special mention to Emms and Lee who braved the cold to come and see us
(on the right day this time!).
In other
news, Motus has a song included on the cover-mount CD with Devolution magazine.
Check out
www.devolutionmagazine.co.uk and
www.myspace.com/devolutionmagazine for more info or to order a copy.
This is brilliant news for us, Devolution has an expanding readership
who now get to hear
'Erase',
the first song we ever wrote together, alongside 14 other very varied
unsigned bands. Check it out and buy a copy from their website.
Finally,
this weekend's gig at The Tut &
Shive in Yeadon
remains in some doubt - as I sit here writing this the place is still
without a relief manager and is actually closed. Keep an eye on
this website, I will post on here if the gig is to be cancelled.
October 2007
21st Greetings one and
all.Graham here, guitariste
de Motus. In keeping with our new policy of not allowing
the website to remain without an update for ages here I am with this
weekends report.
What can I say? These
were two great gigs. Brewery Tap
on Friday was nice and busy as usual, always a pleasure to play here and
Raymond and Gary
are a fine pair who are clearly very
dedicated to keeping this venue, and live music very much alive and
well.It was fantastic to
see so many familiar faces here, looking out down one side of the room I
felt very proud to see that so many people had turned out to see us once
again. Thanks guys and gals, it really means a lot to us.
Of particular mention
this night were my “straplock” problems. In
order to keep a guitar safe and secure on your strap most players use
locking mechanisms intended to prevent expensive musical instruments
performing impromptu unsecured bungee jumps mid song… I do too, but
unbeknownst to me mine were broken. Apologies to anyone who was put off
by all of this, by the fifth or sixth time I was getting mighty upset by
my guitars determined suicide attempts.. It
certainly threw me off my stride somewhat, those “jazz” moments were
quite interesting, despite being somewhat atonal!!! The problem is now
solved, but my main Reverend has two or three imprints of the Brewery
Tap's significantly hard stone floor tattooed on it forever… One could
be more serious than I am prepared to admit so some surgery could well
be in store…
Also of serious
praise is Ely’s
partner Nicky’s attempt to drink all
the wine in the pub, goaded on by Chris
(Uncle Jack is right by your side mate!!!) and Evil
Egor Nick who had
done a five pint late afternoon session before he even got to the gig.
Good skills guys. The dancing was great!!! Nicky seemed to underestimate
the power of the demon grape though and proceeded to make the rest of
Ely’s
evening (and indeed Ely
himself) very colourful in a technicolour
yawn kind of way!!! Hilarious. The hangovers
must have been extreme to say the least.
Saturday night saw
Motus at the Ringway
in Horsforth,
near Leeds.
I played here ages ago in a band called El Diablo. This is like twenty
years ago…. I couldn’t remember that one too well. We were not expecting
much from this one, first gig new venue and the Rugby
final seemed too much to expect to triumph in the face of.I couldn’t have been
more wrong. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic and responsive crowd,
some great cheers during the “yeah” game and a performance by all of us
that was absolutely inspired. Why didn’t I record that one? Or rather
bring the recorder and forget to press record. (Where is that mp3 from
the Roscoe Mike?
I expected that to be soundforged within
hours!!! Let the world hear of my failings!!!) Truly
some great drinking going on in Horsforth
last night. I like to think that we have inspired many a drink
too far in our gigging history but last nights post gig comments ranged
from the utterly incomprehensible to repeated mantras that would make a
Buddhist monk proud. Just what you need when you are packing down!! Love
it really but please understand guys when sweaty
musicians face the nightmare of the pack down you may only
receive grunts on occasion…. We aren’t being grumpy,
we are just tired and emotional.
Also of note was the
Ringway itself, a lovely Art Deco building
that wouldn’t look out of place on the seafront at Blackpool.
It was described as a reverse Tardis by
someone…Looks huge but when you get in its
like a maze of rooms and tunnels. Odd things happened to architecture in
the 1920/30’s I guess. Great place though, wonder what it was before it
was a pub?
So a quick two week
break, the Warden’s birthday is next week and we have to get on with
finishing the mastering of the album. Its
going on holiday to Greece
to an incredible facility over there that has equipment to dream of. A
mixing desk that sits firmly in the Rolls Royce category, a
Neve 8078 as used by, oh little bands like
Pink Floyd and others!!! I am
looking forward to hearing this for sure. I wish I was going to
Greece
along with it to see it through….
We also want to start
a new page on the site. To all you lovely people who come and see us
regularly we think it only fair that we should include you here. So send
us some pics in, or take some (or we will!!)
next time we are playing. Preferably of the band and yourselves and we
will post them here. It will be a great way to remember all your names
too!!!! Seriously, we truly thank you all for your support and continued
interest in us, and we want to embrace you in any way we can. Wearing
the t-shirts at the gigs makes us feel great too. Nothing quite like
that to inspire a good start to the gig I can tell you and it is a very
cool shirt. In fact, the first best picture we get from you gets a free
T shirt. How about that? Get them in….
Last few shirts left
now before we do the next run to coincide with the album.
Get ‘em while you can. £10 posted anywhere,
multiple discounts available, just ask.
Over and out.
ROCK ON!!!!!
G
15th
Well well well… Ely’s
turn to update the website today, and I've had strict instructions to
keep it clean and I cant use any C’s or B’s or F’s apparently… so here
goes:
Well Friday saw the
gang descend upon Ackworth to play the mighty Boot & Shoe.
After a two week lay-off the band were back in fine fettle… there’s not
much really to tell after Friday's gig; well there is one thing I would
like to share, but Motus regulations won’t allow me to enlighten you all
on my findings at Ackworth… Les, you da man!
The gig on a whole was quite
good really, only a couple of little glitches here and there but nothing
resembling the near train wreck of last week's gig in Otley… The crowd
was all a bit scared to let themselves go a bit really, and would only
respond loudly if goaded by Graham… I also seem to remember coming
off stage and nearly throwing up outside after the heat from Les’s
(hotter than the sun) lights boiling my blood to black pudding…
Saturday however was a very
different gig for the Motus crew. Once again we played the New Roscoe
in Leeds
(first Saturday night there since March or was it May?)… Has been a
while anyway. It was great to see so many Motus t-shirts in the
crowd for our gig and the crowd although not the busiest we have seen it
there were once again SUPERB !!!
Many of the usual faces were
there to see us rock, and rock we did…
Graham had a nightmare
through the day before the gig with an electrical problem on his car, so
by the time the curtain went up he was more than ready for some therapy
Motus style!!! He even managed to press Record. Everyone was ready for
Saturdays gig, and Liz sung a blinder putting her heart and soul into
everything. Go girl! Overall the gig was a real riot, snapped string
during “Rosie” guitar solo forced Graham to do an impromptu guitar
change… only after realizing he was screwed for the main riff after his
blistering solo, and I managed to pop a cymbal completely off the stand
right on the last crash of “Ace of Spades”… never done that before, but
you can all guarantee I will be trying again in the future for similar
results.
Thanks to everyone who
bought t-shirts and cd’s on Saturday night, now me and Mike can buy
shoes for our kids!
September 2007
30th
Its been a busy
old week for the band - 3 evenings at Chunc Studios
mixing the new recordings was gruelling but it appears we have got the
results we hoped for, cos they sound fantastic. Credit again to
Joe and Shaun for all their hard work and skill, thanks guys. The
next stage is mastering the cd for duplication. Graham has been
scouring the world it would seem to find a studio capable of what we
want, and we are likely to go with some guys Graham and Liz met in
Greece this summer who have a state-of-the-art pro facility in Athens.
As mentioned earlier, we now have the 'raw' mixes from the Heads & Tales
sessions which we will subject to the same mastering process. If
we can achieve a high level of consistency between the older recordings
and the new then we have the material for our first album, so look out
world!
We topped
the week off with two gigs this weekend, the first at the Three Horseshoes
in Otley
which was slightly hard work after not playing for a few weeks. It
always amazes me how the rust sets in after just a single weekend
without playing! Just to keep ourselves alert we tried to jam more
than usual and throw out many of the standard solo sections and adopt an
'anything goes' approach. It worked most of the time, although a certain
AC/DC track teetered dangerously on the precipice but somehow righted
itself before a catastrophic train wreck could bring the whole thing to
a red-faced and premature end! Very funny moment it was!
Just this afternoon we rocked the
New Roscoe in Leeds,
a short but hugely enjoyable gig and we were back to firing on all
cylinders once more. Bloody loud it was too... It was great
to see some faces from the Horseshoes gig the night before again, and
thanks to all those who bought t-shirts and cd's! It really helps 'cos
we have a studio recording to pay for!!!
23rd
Apologies to
those who went to the Tut & Shive in Yeadon last night to see Motus only
to find we weren't there - one of the band's family was taken critically
ill which meant racing down to London last minute to be with them.
Album
update - mixing begins in earnest this week, if all goes to plan we will
be at mastering stage by the beginning of October.
8th
Last night's gig
at the Lone Wolf Brotherhood Bike
Show was one of
the best gigs of the year. This seemed a much better organised and
attended event this year with a great PA system totally suited for the
size of the marquee. These things always run really late, we
didn't get to start playing while 1.00am! Dusty Miller's Green Mac
played a brilliant non-stop set before we hit the stage feeling slightly
nervous as it was first gig back. I think the great sound just
lifted everybody and we absolutely nailed it, some inspired moments and
new cover 'Schools Out' was much fun. Many thanks to Lou and
Stuart of the Blue Angels MC for asking us to play this event two years
in a row, we would be delighted to play for you again just get in touch.
6th
We're back! Motus return from holidays and back operations fighting fit
and ready to raaawwwwk!
A great
rehearsal last night in preparation for this weekend's bike rally gig at
Eccup was as much a test of Ely's state of health after his third
serious spine op in as many years. This time they have inserted
something called an X-Stop between several vertebrae. Looks like
something the Terminator lost, but seems to be doing the trick despite a
huge 'IBP' on his lower back....
Suffice
to say he got through it in flying colours, and after a slightly rusty
start after not playing together for over a month we soon got back in
the groove. And more importantly all the gear still worked.
A new cover was put in the set, seemed only appropriate with several
private gigs coming up. Great fun - and we should be back in the
studio within the next few weeks to get on with the final mix of the new
recordings.
August 2007
1st
Motus are delighted to have been asked to play at a charity event
organised by Steve Lally and co at
Rock Of The North.
The gig will be on 1st March 2008 at the Bag & Barrow in
Allerton Bywater and features exclusively female-led bands! The
gig hopes to raise much cash for Breast Cancer and Everyman charities -
please come along and support this event! So far, other bands
booked to appear are
Angel Of Sin,
Hard To Handle,
Resurgence and Angabart.
In other
news, the new studio recording is progressing very nicely indeed with
Liz making a start on her vocals over the next few days. Important
lessons have been learned from our previous studio adventures and we
continue to raise the bar in terms of performance and production - we
have a very strong idea about how we want this to sound! We are
now taking a month off gigging so we can have a break, catch a few
holidays and stuff and just devote time and energy towards finishing the
recording and making it so good it will melt your faces.
July 2003
23rd
Recording is
going very well, we have pretty much the whole drums bass and guitar
parts down for five tracks now and it already sounds superb, and that's
before Liz gets to put her lungs to work on it (not to mention the part
where we start threatening Graham with keyboards). Ely set the
tone with some fantastic kit parts which just took his playing up to a
whole new level - very inspiring stuff. Graham spent today layering up
guitar parts and trying to demolish the studio from the inside out with
a painfully loud amplifier set to kill rather than merely stun...
Great fun indeed, and some top notch performances from everybody.
Lets hope we get the thing finished before the studio monitors totally
give up the ghost. Those poor Tannoys have just about been beaten
into submission!
In other
news, MOTUS have been asked to play at the East Leeds Lions Biker Rally
again next Easter 2008. This is great news, we had a great time
this year and are delighted to be taking part again.
21st
Yes folks, today
we're back in the studio! Great rehearsal last Thursday and the
band is on top form, we're all buzzing especially Ely who broke his
snare drum and then got a killer bargain on a new Dennis Chambers
signature snare which sounds like a grenade going off. I'll put
updates on here as things progress over the coming days.
12th
While Graham and Liz enjoy a break in sunny Portugal (lucky people) the
rhythm section Smikus and Ely got together tonight to have a 'bass and
drums' jam. Absolutely great fun, really helped iron out a few
bits on the new songs too, and we must have really pissed the band off
that were rehearsing next door. We was bloomin' LOUD I can tell
you!
Just TWO
WEEKS to the Gasworks gig, please come down and support us if you can.
Lets make it a night to remember, eh? Coolio..
7th
It's a pity, but we have had tonight's gig at the Coniston 'cancelled'
last minute by the landlord Phil in such a disgraceful manner it beggars
belief. Full story will follow shortly, but suffice to say the
Brewery Tap
will be our only gig in Idle
from now on. Let's hear it for Phil, putting the 'CON' into
'CONISTON'...
However,
lets not allow this to spoil a great weekend! Last night at the New Roscoe
was a superb night, and for all the bad press this place has got from
the ROTN regulars you just can't fault this place really. A packed
house, defying the smoking ban, and just going mental from song #1! Some
early sound gremlins just seemed to get chased out the door by the
enthusiasm of everybody in the room. Brilliant. Shifted more
Motus Merchandise, and met some great lads from Majorca who just loved
every minute, encouraged along by a bottle of Irish whiskey...
New songs
are starting to really cook too. Just in time for the studio sessions in
a few weeks!
June 2007
30th
Last night at the
Three Horseshoes
in Otley
was pretty nondescript and Otley was like a ghost town. Every bar
was quiet. The 'Shoes was very noisy but we had sound problems and
amps breaking etc. At least we got to play 'Out Of My Head'
(or whatever it shall end up being called!) for the first time in front
of a crowd, not to mention the very first live performance of 'Gravity'
from Heads and Tales.
24th
A post from Graham of Motus:
Uncle G gets to write the news update for once…. Okay guys panic not,
this will be a rant free zone, and I won’t
mention fuzz boxes once. Uh oh, I just did….
Been two events of
worthy mention in the last few days.
Firstly, we had yet another really productive rehearsal on Thursday, not
a cover song in sight and some real progress made for our upcoming
studio jaunt. Its getting to be very exciting
as we run up to the beginning of this project. We are being overtly
attentive to our little sonic babies and it feels like every bar is
being dissected and scrutinised before being rebuilt in a form that
suits all. We have started at the beginning and gone to the outer
reaches of the stratosphere only to find ourselves starting at the
beginning again, odd that. But at least we have exhausted all
possibilities…
Maybe…
Secondly, last night
we ventured to the Tut &
Shive in Yeadon.
Always an interesting one this is. Well it can be. Years ago, when this
venue started putting bands on the crowd were really carefree, used to
be bouncing off the walls really. Over time it has calmed down a bit as
band after band has gone through there and the audience have, I suppose
been de-sensitized slightly to the thrill of live music. Last
night was a good one though. Even though most people spent the majority
of the first set hiding from us around the side of the bar we knew they
were there from the loud cheering, come the end of the first set and the
ice was officially broken and the dancing began in earnest.
Fantastic, the Tut delivered once again.
Must be something Martin was putting in the beer last night. I wouldn’t
know I was driving. Sadly.
Second set went down
a storm, truly inspirational moments coming both off the stage and from
the audience. ‘Tis a good thing this rock n
roll. And the louder you cheer, I assure you
the better night you will all have. It kind of spurs the sensitive
musician types onto new heights you know? Thanks to all.
New song Give Me
Air was played again and was received fantastically. Wait until we
record this one. It’s a monster. We though we had a poltergeist in the
house as a glass fell from nowhere onto the stage area, but it turned
out to be a carefully placed booby trap set cunningly by the Warden.
We ended the evening in a sweaty mess, it was
one of the hottest gigs of the year for sure. Its
like having a sauna sometimes up there. Love it,
it has to be good for you.
Please note that in
order to allow for holidays, recording/mixing and further back tuning
for Ely
that we have no gigs in the month of August. All August gigs have
been cancelled/rescheduled.
And please come and
see us in full flight uberMOTUSstylee at the Gasworks on Friday
July 27th. We will be playing a predominantly original
set and will be supported by Dollshouse
Inc. It will be a bloody marvellous night.
Hopefully with a few surprises. Watch this space.
Peace love and over
and out.
G
16th
Worthy mention
required for a great rehearsal on Thursday night at Jam Studios.
For once there wasn't an almighty atonal din coming through the walls so
we could actually hear what was going on in OUR room! More importantly
it really felt like the songs we are planning on recording shortly are
coming together so well. 'Older' songs like Shadows
and David
had a dusting down, even a new middle section was added to Shadows even
though this song was written maybe 3 years ago! Sounds the
bollocks. And the new songs are really strong too. First few
days in the studio are only a matter of weeks away now and everybody
seems so on top of their game its untrue! Bring it on!
New gig
has been added - The Coniston
in Idle,
Bradford
on Saturday 7th July.
10th
Saturday at the
Brewery Tap
was a hot and sweaty affair, unfortunately the place wasn't as packed as
it can be but it was a great night anyway, lots of improvisation and a
chance to play new song Give Me
Air, which was
well received by the locals! In other news, the studio time at
CHUNC
has been provisionally booked for July so we can at last crack on with
this new recording. Cooool.
8th
Sooooo.... ok, I accept the criticism from Graham on the forum for the
lack of updates on here. I am a useless dog and should be
punished...
A note to
anybody who was planning to come and see us at The Ringway
in Horsforth, Leeds on Saturday 16th: the venue has cancelled this as
they are redecorating or something. Unfortunate, but not life
threatening. And maybe we can take advantage of a free weekend and
get another rehearsal in to keep working on the new Motus stuff we are
planning on recording soon. Two songs, tentatively titled 'Give Me Air'
and 'Out Of My Head',
both are sounding really great - we were planning on doing '...Air' at
the Boot last weekend but Liz bottled it last minute! I don't mind
naming and shaming on here at all, although to be fair she is still
playing around with phrasing and all that singer type stuff which is
totally lost on this humble bass player.
May 2007
29th
Just a quick report
on the recent gig at The Mallard
in Doncaster
last Saturday. Motus hadn't played at all for a few weeks after
cancelling the Hallcross gig due to more unfortunate voice problems.
But after allowing time for Liz to recuperate from a sore throat we were
hungry for it, and sure enough we delivered it to the Mallard crowd like
a band possessed! Absolute pure fun, a great crowd who really got into
us, and an awesome sound too. Don't think we put a note wrong, and
some great improvisation too made the whole thing extra special. A
fine vocal performance by Liz just capped off a great evening, I sure
hope we can play here again soon. So on to this Saturday's gig at
the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth, where hopefully we get chance to air a few
new songs...
13thMotus
were back at the New Roscoe
on Friday, weather was absolutely horrible so that may be why it was a
tad low on attendance this time around. But those that were there gave
us great support as usual, even if we felt a bit rusty after a fortnight
off (always amazes me just how much better things are when we play every
week). It was my 'birthday gig' too, thanks for the impromptu
Happy Birthday singalong from you all! Fair warmed my heart, that did!
Last
night was a top night too, we went for a slap up meal at the most
wonderful Sandinsta
tapas joint in Leeds for my birthday. Crap Roadie Tony
must be singled out for being especially drunk and embarrassing his
missus the most. I had a fantastic night, what birthdays are all
about, cheers!
In other
news, we have decided to revamp the set up a bit and inject some new
tunes. So we are working on a few new covers to recycle the stuff
we do a bit more, and as previously mentioned on here we have some new
self-penned material which we will be recording soon. We will be
gigging the new original stuff before long to iron them out and get them
where they need to be before we hit the studio. We are all excited about
the new songs, they are gonna sound immense when we get them recorded!
5th
Hi, sincere apologies to anybody who hoped to see us at The Silver Fox
in Stocksbridge on Friday - we had to cancel due to a horrible flu bug
flooring our Liz, it just wouldn't have been possible I'm afraid.
Apologies to the venue too for any problems caused.
April 2007
30th
Ahhh, after two
utterly dreadful "venues" it was very good to be back at the Shoulder in Gomersall.
Tiniest pub on the planet it may be, but it is always a good do and
restored our faith in the general public's attitude to live music after
spending too much time on the miserable fringes of Bradford... And the
chicken kebab lived up to its reputation - fantastic. The band was on
top form with an awesome sound, and I gotta mention my new Ampeg bass
cab. It rules. May gigs are generally round and about South
Yorkshire, so lets see what that's all about then!
27th
Bloody hell, and
The Woodman
in Bradford
is horrific too. Dance music on the juke box and the telly left on
all night showing yet more sport while the band is on. I knew it
was a lost cause when some kid after the first set asked if we knew any
Oasis. PLEASE save us from this misery and come on over to the
Shoulder of Mutton,
Gomersall
on Saturday 28th,
and lets all have some much needed fun before we decide to pack it all
in and work on cruise ships...
PS - if
you can make it, check out the kebab shop next door. 'tis the
stuff of legends.
STOP
PRESS! Many thanks to Nick,
aka Egor,
for rescuing our domain name.
is back! Egor has also kindly set up a new FORUM which you can access
from the link on our home page or via the Feedback page. Please
sign up and get the thing working for us! Incidentally, this
old website is now hosted on a new server (thanks again Nick!), so we
got oodles of bandwidth and space to really expand this site. And
I can finally stick two fingers up at NTL, simply for generally being
crap.
23rd
So, with a fair
degree of trepidation, Motus ventured out on Saturday night to the
Ring O' Bells
in Queensbury.
The nervousness was due to us playing here last year during the World
Cup, where a huge fight started outside and the police had to be called,
although the gig last year was actually OK all in all. Not so this
year. Deeply disappointing and not a little bit intimidating too
as the largely monocular, seven-toed, cap-wearing clientele who graced
the place on this occasion looked more likely to kill us and steal our
gear than try and enjoy a live performance. And for a venue to be
serious about putting bands on, how about turning the Ultimate Fighting
Championships off the big screen while the band are playing? Just a tip.
Kinda distracting. The Ring O' Bells now joins Rockaholics in
Hoyland on the 'over my dead body' places to play list.
So thank
God for the New Roscoe on Sunday afternoon. Always a great
atmosphere and a pleasure to play, even if I hadn't changed my undies
from the night before. But it totally salvaged the weekend, even
on their wages.
In other
news, two new Motus songs are well on the way to being ready to perform
live in front of a crowd, and to be recorded too. If the Chunc
Boys are reading this, it's time to dust off that mixing desk, we're
back! Yahooo!!!
16th
Another great night
at the Tut & Shive
on Saturday and it was very nice to be back here after so long! Great to
see some familiar faces from the East Leeds Lions do the week before
too. Highlight for me was a great version of Satellite,
and it went down a storm too!
9th
Motus rocked the
East Leeds Lions
bash on Good Friday! A brilliant evening, despite the power cut midway
through the set, and the news is there were 1700 rockers attending the
event which raised over £5000 for the
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
- a fantastic result. A huge thanks to Graham
of Export
and the East Leeds Lions for having us on, we really enjoyed the
experience and would love to do it again. Any clubs wanting to
book us for an event should drop us an email at
motus.music@ntlworld.com
we would love to hear from you. Pictures from the gig will be uploaded
on to our pictures page shortly - see the link on the left.
1st
Sorry there hasn't been an update on here for some time - I've been
wrestling with those utter fools at Lycos over our domain name and it
kinda took the gloss off this whole web maintenance thing. Tossers.
Anyway,
while I've been neglecting this news page, lots of great things have
been happening in the world of Motus. We've done some great shows
- the Three Horseshoes
in Otley last weekend and the New
Roscoe in Leeds
last night were both fantastic fun and we sold plenty more t-shirts and
CDs for all you lucky people. Many thanks again to Italian Tony, this
time for lending us some brutal bass bins which could have filled most
stadiums...
We are
back writing again with two great new Motus songs coming together very
well, and loads more ideas waiting in the wings. We aim to hit the
studio again later this year all being well which we are all very
excited about. The Chunc boys won't know what's hit them this time!
Big
Thanks to everybody for the continued support and enthusiasm for what we
do, it gives us real belief.
March 2007
18th
A quick
report on our first gig at The Lion in Castleford - what an improved
venue this is now! A great stage area, lights and a very appreciative
crowd - thanks to everyone for making us welcome and digging the music!
Note that we are back here at the end of July.
Unfortunately the gig at The
Magnet in Ferrybridge
on 12th May
has been cancelled as the pub has been sold and is no longer doing
bands. Another venue bites the dust.
3rd
The much-anticipated gig at the
Gasworks on
1st March
really lived up to expectations, in fact I don't think it could have
gone any better for us! It is very liberating to play a powerful set
almost entirely of our own songs, and reminds us how good these songs
are and how proud of 'em we are too!
The
evening started off with the news that Furyon,
a late addition to the evening's entertainment, were not going to play
after all, so instantly that gave everybody more breathing space and
Dave the sound engineer time to give us a proper soundcheck. The
verdict was that we had a fantastic sound, and it was very heart-warming
to see lots of Motus t-shirts in the crowd. Plenty of CD's sold too,
thanks to Italian Tony
and Liz
for helping with the merchandise and continuing to give us such
tremendous support!
Hydrogyn
drummer Josh
and our Ely had that weird drummer
mutual respect thing going on and Ely ended up lending Josh half his
drum kit. Made a difference too, Hydrogyn's drum sound was
absolutely awesome and their set was blistering. Josh played their
entire set proudly wearing a Motus t-shirt! Respect!! It was great to
meet and talk to Julie and the guys from Hydrogyn,
this gig has definitely been the highlight of the year so far for us.
To Jeff& Julie,
thanks for all the nice words and advice, we look forward to hearing
from you after the tour. Some new pics added to the Pictures page
(use the navigation button on the left). Check out
www.hydrogyn.com too.
February 2007
23rd
Awesome rehearsal
last night and I'm delighted to say that Liz got through the whole
experience with flying colours, so it seems the dreaded throat lurgey is
finally about to leave her in peace... All bodes well for the Hydrogyn
support next week; the band sounds in fine form despite a prolonged
lay-off and some older material has been dusted down especially for the
gig. Please come along and support us! New MOTUS t-shirts
and CD's will be available on the night.
Expect
some new MOTUS original material soon - lots of very strong ideas are
floating around which demand attention, and with one eye on some studio
time later this year now is the time to get busy on them. The next
'new' track you here in the Motus set will be self-penned, I totally
assure you!
In other
news, Les at the Boot and Shoe
in Ackworth
has completely messed up and double booked us, so our March gig is
cancelled. I guess we'll see you there in June then!
18th
Went to the
Gasworks Bar
last night to see
a very good band, 3 Mile High
- a good live band these lads with a great singer. Smikus recommends
them, oh yes. Motus are all looking forward to our next visit to
the Gasworks, supporting HYDROGYN
on their Strip 'Em Blind UK Tour.
We will be performing a mainly original set and we will have CD's and
t-shirts available at the gig. Please come and support us if you can,
this gig is very important to us for reasons we will be able to reveal
if things go to plan...
12th
Note that all February gigs
are off as we give the Warden more time to recover. Have no fear,
the Gasworks gig supporting HYDROGYN is definitely gonna happen!
8th
IMPORTANT! Continued illness
forces us to cancel this Saturday's gig at The Hallcross in Doncaster.
Once more, apologies to Gary at the venue and to all who were planning
on making the trip. We will be back soon!
5th IMPORTANT! We regret to announce that due to
illness we have had to cancel this week's gig at
The Angel in Baildon. We apologise to Tony at the
Angel and Brian Glover, for the last minute cancellation, and to all of
you who were coming out to support us. If you are reading this after
coming out to support us and wondering where the hell we were, then
again we apologise. If problems persist this website will try to
give as much advance warning as possible. Thank you.
4th Two great gigs this weekend
to report! Friday night was a new venue for us, The Mallard
in Doncaster. New venues are
always a slightly nervy affair, especially when breaking in a newly
repaired bass cab (grrrr...) but this was a top night, a great crowd who
gave us fantastic support. Then a triumphant return to the
New Roscoe on Saturday and it was honestly absolutely
packed, busiest I've ever seen it! Loads of familiar faces, and we
absolutely kicked ass, have no doubt! Graham was deaf in one ear, Liz
was croaky, Smikus was severely unshaven and Ely was struggling to keep
his limbs working after the workout the night before, but what a night.
The Roscoe gets bad press for the pay being so crap, but you could do
nights like this for free. Superb - best gig of the year so far
without doubt! And the Ashdown cab sounded beefy!
January 2007
28thTony Bianco
saves the day! 'twas almost a complete nightmare at our Friday night gig
at the Silver Fox
in
Stocksbridge
as my bass cab decided to pop before we even got as far as a sound
check. So, the game was up but then Tony came to the rescue and
brought his very excellent Ampeg 6x10 cab down.
Cheers,
Tony. A deserved addition to RotN's Hall of Fame I think! And well
done for fooling them that you use a Fender Jazz!
23rd
Playing at the
Gasworks Bar is a great way to start the gigathon that is 2007. We were
so keen to get set up on Saturday that we arrived before Max had even
opened the club, and maybe we were a tad rusty after several weeks off
but the lights and big sound make it so much fun that I couldn't really
care less. Roll on next Friday at the Silver Fox, looking forward to
that one for sure.
In
other news, Hydrogyn's record lable, DA Records, have asked for our demo
CD and press kit etc. If anything comes of that then watch this
space for news!
Also,
note that the BAR 15 gigs in Halifax have been cancelled as the
place is no longer hosting live bands.
8th
We'll start the
year with some good news shall we? The benevolent Max
at the wonderful and most excellent Gasworks Bar
in Bradford has succumbed to sustained pressure and put Motus first on
the bill supporting 'The Next Big Thing' in rock, Hydrogyn,
on 1st March along with Shadows Of Wrong.
West Virginian band Hydrogyn are creating a bit of a stir, and have a
track 'Breaking
Me Down' on the
Bands You Need
to Hear in 2007 CD
with the latest
Classic Rock
magazine.
This is
just the kind of gig we are always on the lookout for and gives us
chance to focus more on self-penned stuff rather than the covers.
Although I'm sure we will still cover something on the night! More
info as we get it, we really hope you can support us and join us for
several beers afterwards!
2ndHappy New Year! Motus brought the new year in with a bang at
The Shoulder of Mutton in Gomersal, a gruelling gig indeed
with over two and a half hours on stage with no room to move (this is
the smallest pub on the planet!). When Graham finally remembered
to press record we got some of the gig bootlegged - if the quality
proves any good I will post some on this site. Anyways, Motus has a bit
of a break now, so we will spend some time in the rehearsal room and see
what else we can concoct ready for The Gasworks gig on the 20th.
Can't wait for that one!!!
December 2006
30th An ok-ish night at the
New Mason's Arms in Mexborough. It is fantastic that there
is a bunch of die-hard supporters who always come along to support the
bands here, but it would seem that the locals are still largely
uninterested in live music. The stage set up doesn't help as it
looks anything but like a venue, and it is very hard to get a decent
sound, but lets hope perseverance pays off for John. And the pork
loin he produced after the gig was absolutely first class! Overall there
were some great moments and the few that were in gave us good support!
24th
Brilliant gig at the Brewery Tap
in Idle
last night with a packed house and great atmosphere! We were bold enough
to put the song 'David'
back in the set for the first time maybe this year, which was very well
received, and also to try our new version of 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'
for the first time. Special mention to Crap Roadie And Birthday Boy Tony,
who was utterly mashed and incomprehensible before we even started
playing, and it went downhill from there...
So,
Merry Xmas Everybody, as the song goes! Thanks to everyone who has
supported the band throughout 2006, thanks to all the landlords,
promoters and venues, friends and family, I raise a cold one to you all!
Now pass me a mince pie, goddamit, I'm going to put me feet up!
22nd
Note that the
Queens Hotel gig due on Thursday
18th January is cancelled. Apparently nobody was turning up,
we had a tip off that the landlord had had enough, so there we go.
Shame, nobody likes to see a potential venue fail...
17th
Have to mention a fantastic gig at
Yeadon's Tut & Shive
last night, cos it was a total stormer! It seems the miserable local
resident who was forcing live bands to finish at 11:00pm has died/moved
away/spontaneously combusted, allowing us to keep the place rocking
until nearly 11:30. Excellent stuff, right from the first song until we
finished off with a blistering version of Black Dog. Hurrah for the "World's Worst Roadies"
Mark and Tony for surviving a night on the absinth, and somehow not
dropping anything... Just one more gig before Christmas, the
Brewery Tap in Idle.
Should be a good one, hope you all can make it!
9th
Put my Chrimbo tree up today,
and damn fine it looks too. Apparently even Bah Humbug Graham is getting
himself in the festive spirit this year, and will allow a small
fibre-optic tree from the Pound Shop in his living room... Ha! Ok, we
had a good night last night at the 3 Horseshoes
in Otley. A fairly quiet start but it soon livened up. Some great
pogoing (how do you spell that?), and I'm always amused by folk who try
and shake guitarist's hands while they are in the middle of a
face-melting solo... A great gig, Liz was pissed, and the chicken kebab
was worth the wait.
6th
New gigs for 2007 still being booked, check out the gig list on the
right which is now fully up to date right up to December 2007. Christmas
is approaching fast, and I haven't done any shopping whatsoever...
November 2006
19th A proper storming gig last night at the
Sliver Fox in
Stocksbridge, great to see so many familiar faces back out
to support us! Definitely one of the best rock pubs on the circuit with
a great stage and nobody ever complains about the volume. And it
was loud last night, my ears are still ringing thanks to Ely's snare
drum in my right lug. New covers went down very well, only downer
for me was my wireless transmitter dying on 'Black Dog', and sorry we
didn't play Rosie...
Last weekend's gig at
the Tut & Shive in
Yeadon was fantastic too, plenty of
bodies in and a great response from the normally reserved Tut crowd.
One of the best evenings we have ever had here without doubt. As
for the gig at the Old White Horse
in Bingley, well what a non-event
that was. Utter shite.
11th
"Changes"
continues to do very well in the GarageBand charts, it is now in to
round 2 and flying 'high' at number 252 out of 1388! Remember this is a
global rock chart, and the song continues to draw strong opinions from
everybody! Please follow the link on our home page, listen to the
tack and rate the song to push it further.
6th Panic over it seems. A rather rusty Motus got up
and rocked the Roscoe on Sunday afternoon, but Liz got through it
all okay and despite a rather laughable train-wreck at the end of the
first set it proved the perfect way to get back in to the swing.
Good stuff, roll on next weekend!
4th
We're back! Motus rehearsed with Liz last Thursday to test out the vocal
situation, and Liz passed with flying colours! Nearly took our heads
off, to be honest. Thanks to all those that attended the auditions
but it seems we are going to be ok (only joking Liz!). See you at The Roscoe
on Sunday afternoon.
October 2006
26th Just thought I would make
mention of our rehearsal last night, 'cos it was a blast! Liz is still gargling TCP and trying
to recover her voice, so the rest of the band booked a rehearsal and got
working on some riffs and bits that had never been turned into complete
songs. The curse of a being a pub band is that it is very easy to spend
most of our time learning a new popular song to vary the set and keep it
feeling fresh for people who see us regularly. But this means that
we suddenly realise that we haven't been even remotely creative for such
a long time that we can begin to forget why we started this band in the
first place.
So we turned up and plugged in, looked blankly at each other for a few
minutes wondering what to do without Liz in the room, then just started
to play. Result? Two monstrously rockin' ideas which just need a
bit of TLC and input from the badly-missed Warden to finish them off.
It is so good to be in a creative environment again, I can assure you
dear readers!
22nd
In the absence of
anything else to report on as we continue to trust to luck that Liz's
voice problems will mysteriously disappear sooner rather than later, I
thought I would mention the pizza I ordered last night. I was
drunk and it seemed a good idea to order in a late night special.
Needless to say it was rank, and I haven't ventured very far from the
throne at all today. It was a 'hot shot', and I think somebody must have
accidentally spilled some napalm on it or something and neglected to
warn me. In other news, Liz has added a new blog to the Warden's
World page (click the link on the left) on this website.
17th Again, we will have to miss this Saturday's gig at the
Ring O' Bells
in
Queensbury.
Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
12thMotus
have had to take the rare step of cancelling this weekend's gigs, which
were due to be at theNew Roscoe
in Leeds on
Saturday 14th
and the Roman Bath
in York on Sunday 15th October.
This was a
difficult choice as we hate to let down venues and people, however it
seems that Liz's
continued vocal problems just aren't getting any better as she tries to
kick a nasty cold bug. Rest seems to be the key, we hope.
Everybody in the band sincerely apologises for any disappointment
caused, and we hope to back up and rockin' as soon as possible.
1st
My feet are killing me. A very busy weekend,
three gigs on the trot, and the good ship
Motus is well and truly back on
course. Friday night at The New Masons
in Mexborough, well, landlord John is a great bloke but it is such a
shame that the locals are just not really that interested in live music.
I do hope he can turn this place around, not least because it is a
bloomin' long way to drive... But we tried, and Liz battled
through a cold and sore throat quite admirably. Saturday night and
we were back at the Shoulder of Mutton
in Gomersall. Never thought it could be as good as last time,
because that was truly special, but crikey it really was! Packed to the
rafters and everybody grinning and cheering like they had never seen a
live band before. Fantastic, and we are back there on New Year's
Eve too! And then to Sunday night as we dragged our weary bodies
and our increasingly heavy gear down to
The Boot & Shoe in Ackworth for the
early evening spot. Les was in good form as usual, and despite one
or two fluffs and a bust snare skin we rocked. And somebody (Baz)
finally recognised Heartache Reborn!
So, a few weeks off to recover and
work on some new stuff, and maybe get our writing heads back on because
it has been a while...
September 2006
29th
New gigs added - Sunday December
10th at The Unit, Yeadon and
Saturday January 20th at The Gasworks, Bradford
25th What
a fantastic venue
The Gasworks
is! A brilliant stage, PA system, great crowd, fridge full of beer,
dressing room - you name it this is the best local venue by some
distance! We had a superb night, and the whole thing was captured
on video. Check out our home page where I have added a link to
YouTube.com
where there is a video clip there for all to see. Please use the
rating system there to push us into the spotlight some more!
Friday
night at Bar 15 was a huge let down after waiting until 11.30pm before
we hit the stage. It was plenty busy, and everybody was dancing
and throwing their arms in the air, but after each song there was just
no response whatsoever. And nobody even looked at the stage, as if
we were just a very loud DJ or something. Most odd, and very
off-putting to say the least! I mean, they were obviously all having a
whale of a time, but didn't give us anything back at all. The
jukebox generation, it would seem...
19th
New gigs added for 2007, and some new venues too! Plus some great new
recipes added to The Naked Walrus's page, but not by the Walrus
himself... Who be hijacking the Walrus Page?
17th
Oops, forgot to update this news page for a while, but hey I've been
busy, right?
I'll
start off with a mention of last weekend's top slot at the Leeds Custom & Classic Bike Weekend
at the New Inn in Eccup.
To say it was bloody cold is an understatement, and for some unknown
reason I decided to turn up in a pair of shorts. But true to our
plans we arrived early doors to see the other bands who were also doing
their thing. Black Rising
were excellent, despite an 'unkind' PA mix, and Voodoo
were fantastic, what a top band - check these bands out if you can.
So, anyway, all this meant that we did not get to stat playing until
11:00pm, and did I mention that it was cold? I went for a pee afterwards
and had to snap it off... But we played our asses off and verily we
rocked. Triumph in the face of adversity as there were one or two hard
men in the throng, but I know it was too cold for some folk to take
their hands out of their pockets and clap! Great fun, and to the
organisers, thank you for having us and please do not hesitate to ask
again.
Last
night (Saturday 16) was the second night of the Folk Festival in Otley,
and somebody booked Motus to play the Three Horseshoes.
A recipe for disaster, you might think? Far from it! We had a few
banjo-wielding Morris dancers strumming in the pub early doors with
fingers in their ears, but Ely's drum soundcheck sent them scurrying off
to find a glass of mead elsewhere. With a hey-nonny, go do one. So we
had a very busy pub and perhaps the sweatiest and dirtiest gig of this
long summer, we played just about everything we know and one or two that
we didn't, and to be honest its for nights like these that we all
started playing in the first place. (Well, and also to get laid lots,
but alas no more...) Top drawer, and thanks to all those who
bought a CD and boogied until midnight, come and see us again in
December!
9th Now this is what its all about! A
fantastic night at the Brewery Tap
in Idle was the perfect start to the weekend, and gets the band in a
fine frame of mind for tonight's headline spot at the
Custom & Classic Bike event in Eccup.
The new owners at the Tap (Gary & Ray? Forgive me, but my memory is not
what it used to be...) seem determined to carry on the tradition of live
music here and to make it even better, which is great news as this is
one of our favourite venues. So, on to tonight's gig. We are
gonna get there earlier I hope so we can see
Black Rising's set, and suss out the PA/ sound engineer
conundrum...
4th
We're Back! And so it came to pass, after a month off and Ely's back
surgery, that we finally made it back out and blew the old cobwebs out
of the speakers. Friday night at the Tut was a solid performance,
nothing too spectacular but we got through it and Ely did amazingly well
to say just 3 weeks had passed since he'd been under the surgeon's
knife. The venue was fairly quiet as usual, but we didn't let it
put us off.
Saturday afternoon saw us down at
The Silver Fox
in Stocksbridge
along with Yorkshire bands Red
Mosquito and
Vamp,
all bands and the venue giving their services for free for a worthy
cause, the annual NABD fundraiser at the Silver Fox. We may have
had the best spot as the rain forced everyone inside and it was
absolutely heaving during our afternoon spot as we played around the
various auctions and competitions. It was fairly hard work having
to stop every few songs, but we were very well received and enjoyed it
tremendously! Any biker cubs who would like us to play at any events you
got coming up, please get in touch at
motus.music@ntlworld.com
I
stayed to watch the beginning of Red Mosquito's set, unfortunately I had
to get home so couldn't stay to watch any more, but at least I have made
a start on my pledge to try and see more local bands! Red Mosquito
play a varied, muscular set, and have a great set of lights! And
their bass-player looks like Don Logan off the film Sexy Beast (played
by Ben Kingsley). I'm sure he has heard that a thousand times, but
I had to mention it!
August 2006
31st
New gig added - Sunday 12th
November @ The Old White Horse, Bingley
6.00pm start.
27th
Another recipe from
the kitchen of
The Naked Walrus
has been added - see the link on the left...
24th Crikey. A whole month off from gigging
and I just don't know what to do with myself! Roll on September so I can
start having some fun again!
In other news,
The Walrus Of Rhythm - Mr Ely to his
friends - seems to be making a good recovery from his recent back
operation. Only down side now is he is only 4' 3" tall.
Graham and Liz recently suffered a
break in, but luckily the intruders deemed Graham's vast collection of
Formica guitars to be not worth stealing. As for me, well I'm well
and truly back from Malta and suffering the horrors of work once more.
Only difference is I'm married now, so I guess I should try and work a
bit harder now to keep the wife in the style she is accustomed to...
The wedding was fantastic, by the way. A superb venue, the weather
was brilliant and we had a ball! I may even post some pictures,
once we get them through?
July 2006
26th
No sooner do we
find another good venue then they go and book up till the end of the
year! I'm referring to our first gig at The Angel
in Baildon
on Tuesday (yes, Tuesday!) 25th. Thanks to landlord and budding
drummer Tony for looking after us on what was Officially the Busiest Tuesday Gig and
Best Bar Take at The AngelEver! Not our best performance by any means, too many fook-ups for my liking,
but we delivered with attitude and that is what counts boys and girls!
I'm sure Tony will have us back in 2007, when everyone will have
forgotten who the hell we are...
It's
now time for our summer break. That means a wedding for Smikus and
Ashlie, a holiday for Graham and Liz, and a rather tricky back operation
for the main man Ely. All the best for a speedy recovery mate; we
got a busy September and I really can't be arsed trying to program the
drum machine!
23rd
Another top night at the
Silver Fox, although again not too
many bodies in for the beginning of the first set. But once things got
lively, even the young kids on WKD Blue seemed to be digging it! We
played so good, the backdrop fell off the wall!
Motus are proud to be
part of the NABD National Association of Bikers
with a Disability charity event at the Silver Fox on
Saturday 2nd September. This
is a free event featuring 4 rock bands from 11.00am right through to
11.30pm. Motus are due on stage around 2.00pm, and the day will
also include competitions and prizes etc, plus copious drinking...
22nd
Ahhh, sunny
Mexborough. It was very nice to be back at Ron Jeremy's
New Masons Arms on Friday night, and despite a
slightly lacklustre start to the evening things soon picked up!
Graham Oliver of Saxon fame was seen
lurking against the back wall, plus an enthusiastic air-guitarist
sporting a ROTN t-shirt traded licks with Motus wireless-axeman Graham
during Highway To Hell... cracking stuff. Hope for John's sake it
gets busier and busier in here as it truly has the makings of a great
venue.
16th
Another good night at the
Brewery Tap in
Idle. C'mon RoTN, this isa pretty
good venue despite no obvious stage, 'cos the punters really appreciate
a good rock band! There was a good crowd in despite the sweltering heat,
the original material was warmly received too, and we sold a bunch of
CD's, so all in all a good evening had by all. This venue is about
to be taken over by new owners, so lets hope that it remains a decent
live venue and doesn't become a karaoke bar or something equally
tragic...
11th
It took several
years, but Motus' drummer extraordinaire Ely
has now officially broken his gig-booking cherry and got us in at the
Golden Lion
in Pontefract
on Sunday 8th October.
Congratulations indeed from the rest of the band, we hope there's plenty
more to come! Unfortunately, Liz, this now totally exposes you as
the laziest arse in Motus... And by some distance, too.
And a
quick update on the beer-a-thon that was Smikus's Stag Weekend.
The first leg started on Friday afternoon at 2.00pm in Leeds at the
excellent Sandinista Cantina,
and finished some 13 hours later staggering around trying to find a cab.
I refuse to go into detail over just how disgraceful an evening it was,
as future wives also have Internet access... We learned lots of new
tricks and phrases, however, such as the "Hairy Jaegermeister"
and the "Tactical Chunder".
A truly enlightening experience (or certainly my wallet is much lighter
since...). The second leg just nicely coincided with an excellent
gig on Saturday night playing a private do for the Aire Valley Riders
over at The Manor
in Farsley.
Thanks to Mark for providing accommodation in the form of the largest
tent you have ever seen, and thanks to Nigel and all the staff for
giving us such a great time and keeping us refuelled until 5.00am!
If we can ever be of service again, please get in touch!
2nd Graham made it back from a stag
weekend in Amsterdam just about intact and just about in time for a
Sunday afternoon at the New Roscoe.
It was about 30 degrees outside, and possibly 10 degrees more inside
Ely's shirt... It was a proud day for me, by the way, as my seven
year old son threw his first goat at a rock gig... A nice turn out
despite the warm weather got us fired up as much as a Sunday afternoon
will allow and this was a darn good gig indeed. And the new box of
CD's took a bit of a dent too, which is fantastic! Don't forget to
buy your copy from our homepage...
New recording of 'Changes'
has been entered into to the GarageBand.com
chart in the 'Rock' category - see the link on the left hand side of our
homepage to have a look and to vote us up the charts!
June 2006
25th
So, a good gig can happen during a World Cup! Saturday night at the Tut
was a noisy thing of wonder compared to some of the half empty (or
should it be half full?) pubs we have encountered recently. After
reading Rock Of The North's
site I can see that low attendance has been a problem for many other
bands too, but I guess people have only so much cash to spend and they
will all be out watching the England games, so I'm sure it is a
temporary blip and things should pick up again in a few weeks. I
hope so, or else I'm gonna take up stamp collecting instead.
24th I'm enjoying
the World Cup, but constant football doesn't mix too well with the live
music scene it would appear. Otley was something of a ghost town
last night, but no doubt every pub will be packed on Sunday to see
England go out in a penalty shoot-out
with Ecuador. However, even though the Three
Horseshoes was a bit thin on the ground the punters gave us
fantastic and very enthusiastic support, and it was our official
NEW CD LAUNCH GIG, so we were
determined to have some fun! New CD looks and sounds the business, don't
forget to purchase a copy from our homepage.
PS -
Existing orders will be posted this weekend, apologies for the delay xx
18th A cool email has been received from Aneta in
Poland. Remember the Polish Dancers?
Very nice to hear from you Aneta!
New Roscoe
gig in August
has been cancelled due to holidays etc. Makes sense to have the
entire month off and get some sun, recharge the old batteries!
We are still booked to play here in July, October and December this
year, however.
17th
Motus have pulled out of the Atrium gig, which was due to happen
on Tuesday 20th June in Leeds.
A very quiet night for the band at
The Snooty Fox in Keighley, in fact
I think this must have been the smallest audience we have ever had to
play in front of, so it was fantastic that the die-hards came along to
lift our spirits! Is a shame, because it is a decent room with a stage
etc, but there was no effort to promote the gig from the venue, so maybe
they should think about that one. Posters cost money to print, and
if we can be arsed posting them out and phoning to make sure they
arrived, then it really pisses me off when the staff can't be arsed to
put them on the bloody wall. Was a good performance, however, even
if not many saw it!
13th And here
follows Graham's Ted Nugent gig
review (as promised!)
Well I made it!!!!
Despite the best
efforts of the summer cold to end all colds the Warden and myself made
it through and on Sunday the 4th June we totally were at the gig.Funniest thing was outside the venue, we got accosted by a MOTUS
supporter from Leeds who was also there on a pilgrimage to see Uncle
Ted!!! The man has taste, obviously.
Any ways, following a
spirited support from the twin les paul guitar attack of Rattlesnake Remedy
(worth watching out for this lot, sort of early Guns & Roses meets the
Quireboys with posher accents!!!) the lights were out and it wasn't long
before the decibel level had moved up a notch or seven and Tedly was
about to make his entrance. That guitar sounds like a chainsaw.......
To say the man has
stage presence is something of an understatement, when Ted gets on a
stage, you will pay attention. Its as simple as that. I could go on
about every little nuance of the gig, but its not really the point. You
see players like Nugent, though ludicrous to a certain extent are one of
a kind, and certainly the last of a generation (genre perhaps) of guitar
players that will never be seen again. Someday there will be a big gap
in the music world and it ain't gonna be filled by Simon f**cking Cowell.
Can you imagine...........
No one in the world
plays like Ted, just as no one in the world played like Jimi Hendrix, or
Eddie Van Halen, or Dimebag, or Stevie Ray, or Billy Gibbons, or BB King
(This could be a pretty big list there are a lot of these guys
thankfully).
They are all
originals, truly, and when the opportunity presents itself to witness a
live performance by a player at this level, you better motivate yourself
and take notice, because the sacred goodies being delivered from that
stage aren't going to be around forever.
When I see a guy like
Nugent perform (and yes I have seen Van Halen, and Stevie Ray, and Billy
G and BB and a bunch of those great great players) I always liken it
that the notes appear to come from the air into their fingers. Its
effortless, pure unadulterated emotion channeling. Its is a joyous thing
indeed. A higher purpose? Who knows but it sure is fun to watch and
listen closely to.
Inspirational as heck
too.
What a night, could
have been even more exceptional had I felt better, wish the
Warden's feet hadn't
set on fire halfway through the evening, but they did. My ears were
still reminding me of the gig three days later, and my ears are pretty
weathered to high volume!!!!!
Hopefully Ted will be
back in Europe sooner rather than later. If you want to see some pics,
set lists and reviews get yourself over to
This is a fansite and
is a great resource of all things Nuge.
Peace and love
through superior firepower.
G
12th
Plenty of new website changes
added today - I was feeling pretty motivated after another top gig last
Saturday... PAYPAL link on homepage now allows you lucky people to place
an order for the new Motus CD prior to the planned release date of the
20th June. Any pre-orders received will get you a signed copy plus
a night out with Ely. To mark the occasion, and because so many of
you have waited so patiently for us to get this recording finished, I've
added some previews to three new MOTUS recordings on the Downloads Page
of this here website. For your listening pleasure. And
because we love you all.
Still waiting for Graham's Ted Nugent
gig review. Sure it won't be long.
11th
Looked at first as if it could be disastrous, but Saturday's gig at the
Ring O' Bells
in Queensbury,
a new venue for us lot, was actually really good fun. We hadn't
played or rehearsed for 2 whole weeks, but it didn't show and the whole
pub was jumping! And England won 1 - 0 too. Ain't life
grand?
2nd A message to
all our readers, from the G-Man himself:
Tedley Von Nugenburger
And so it
came to pass that following a pilgrimage to London to see
Ted Nugent in June 2002, Graham the
humble guitarist for MOTUS thought that he had seen the ultimate guitar
madman for the last time. BUT NO!!!
At the
tender age of 57 Mr Nugent announces a string of gigs in the UK.
And guess where Graham is
going on Sunday?ROCK
CITY in Nottingham.
To see TED
NUGENT!!!
Oh yes. Not only is he as mad as a
box of frogs but he is one of Graham's most
admired six stringers. Its a guitar lesson with a difference watching
Ted do his stuff.Won't that be a riot
boys a girls?
I will attempt to bring back
pictures!!!!!
May 2006
29th A
busy Bank Holiday weekend for the band, starting Friday night at the
Boot
in Ackworth. Little bit of a let down this as there was a race
meeting at Pontefract so it didn't busy up until later, and the AC/DC
gang were conspicuous by their absence (i.e. it was quieter!), but all
in all not a bad carry on at all. As is now customary, we indulged
in some post-gig light snacks at the Red Beck
all night cafe. I'm still recovering...
Saturday night arrived and we had a new venue on our hands, The Fountain
at Liversedge.
Turned out to be a very good night indeed, we shifted yet more CD's and
won over a difficult crowd who were evidently not used to witnessing
some in-yer-face rock 'n' roll at close quarters...
So
now a small break coming up, which will give us chance to maybe learn
some new stuff, finish this bloody CD and also kick back a bit and enjoy
the World Cup along with the rest of you. There are a few new
venues for us to try in June, so if any of you are local to these please
come along and give us some support!!!!
21st Another gig and another great
crowd at the Brewery Tap in
Idle on Saturday 20th gave us chance
to air a new song and also goof around with the set list a bit.
It's noteworthy that Motus the band has moved a long way away
from the PLC set list, and without doubt after a year's worth of gigs we now
have something of a reputation in our own right. And its no wonder
after gigs like this one - the Tap is a hard place to get a good sound
in as the bar splits the pub into two separate groups, so we have to try
and mix two sounds for each side of the pub! And I think this time
we pulled it off - for the first time ever nobody came over and said
they couldn't hear Liz clearly! Everybody in the room was in fine
voice and we had a great time, and we got to meet some interesting
people who wanted to help us and get involved, and others who wanted to
promote us. If any of you are reading this and haven't got in
touch yet, you have our details! Call us! Mail us!
And I also just
wanted to mention the Auralex Gramma. The best 50-odd quid I ever
spent.
10th
Not been an update for a while on this 'ere website, mainly because the
weather has been too nice to even contemplate sitting in this pokey room
and switching the PC on... But it is worth putting the factor 50
to one side for a moment to make mention of a cracking gig last Friday
at the New Roscoe
in Leeds. Leeds Utd
had just equalised against Preston so everybody was in buoyant mood!
To put it mildly, the place was jumping and the band was rocking, in
fact listening back to the bootleg recording of the gig there was some
real 'out-there' stuff from
Uncle Graham
and The Walrus of Rhythm,
and even the cock-ups were tight! The old Motus machine just seems
to notch up a gear every time we have a full house, it really is a joy
to be part of. It was great to see so many supporters here again,
and especially nice to see
Shaun and
Joe
of Chunc Productions
come down and get thoroughly pissed. Shaun joined us for an
up-tempo rendition of
Heartache Reborn,
as Liz pointed out at the time it was the first occasion we have had a
guest up on stage with us, and he did a damn fine job too! We are
all enjoying a weekend off, some more than others as Graham and Liz are
off boating in Norfolk or something, but were are already looking ahead
to causing some more mischief at the Brewery Tap
in Idle
on the 20th.
April 2006
30th Tired this morning.
Granting late drinking licences is all very well, but nobody considered
that bands have to work later! Two gigs this weekend, both
finishing around midnight. Yawn....
First was at the Tut on Friday 28th.
Not much to report here, there were some good moments and it was a
pretty good evening, however the punters were unfortunately fairly thin
on the ground. Nice to see
Official Band Sponsor Carmel and friends out to support us
again!
Saturday night arrived and we dragged our weary bodies to a new venue,
the Shoulder of Mutton in
Gomersall. This is by far the
smallest venue we have ever played, and the area we set up in was about
the size of a postcard, but what a fantastic night! You lot like
to party, and we had an absolute ball (despite suffering deep vein
thrombosis afterwards due to the cramped conditions). The pub got
a tad wrecked, but I'm sure the till receipts kinda put things in
perspective...
Note that we are
back here on the 30th September.
In fact September is starting to look a bit mental, we got some
absolutely great gigs lined up!
24th
After Bingley, the band were on the verge of suicide, but we have just
had one of the most enjoyable (and thoroughly knackering) weekends of
gigs ever, so we are all smiles again. Problem with the Bingley
gig was a room full of grown men drinking alco-pops and snorting coke on
the steps were never gonna appreciate a live band, so we might
just as well have put down our instruments and spent the evening
lighting each other's farts for all they cared.
So
onto better things - starting with a new venue for us on Friday, Bar 15
in
Halifax.
This is a top little venue, and I hope it really takes off here.
Is a late do (we didn't even start while nearly 11.30pm), but a very
appreciative crowd spurred us on to play one of our best performances
for some time. If you were there, we are back in September!
And then Saturday night saw us back at the Silver Fox
in sunny Stocksbridge.
Bloomin' ace gig this, right out of the top drawer. This gig just
gets better and better and dirtier and sweatier, and it is great to see
familiar faces each time we return here - thanks for your support!!!!
Mark tagged along and took some very good snaps of the gig, so once I
get motivated enough I'll post them on this here web site.
So
on to next weekend, and the Tut in Yeadon. Now, what was the
number for the Samaritans again?
20th Gig update - Queens gig in
Bingley was an absolute bag of nads. Nothing more to say on that
one, really.
13th
New Motus album finally completed!
Graham and Smikus
are working on the cover artwork and duplication etc, with a view to
making the thing available in the next few weeks. Want a preview?
Go to the Downloads page by clicking
the link on the left and sample a taster of new track
'Gravity'.
New gig added - The
Fountain
in Liversedge,
near Wakefield Saturday
27th May.
3rd New gig added -
The Angel in
Baildon, Tuesday 25th July.
Yes folks, it's a Tuesday night gig!
2nd
Studio
update - after 3 months it appears we are nearly done with the new Motus
recording! I have to say that it already sounds fantastic, even
before we get fully involved in the mixing, and credit to the band for
producing some very fine performances and equally to the Chunc boys Joe
and Shaun who have been superb throughout. In no particular
order, the new disc will include 4 Motus songs: a reworking of
live favourite 'SELF'
and a fresh version of
'WON'T BE BACK AGAIN',
plus new song 'CHANGES'
and a brand new thing called
'GRAVITY'.
We always wanted to re-do Self
and Won't Be Back
as we had only just written them when we recorded them first time round
back in 2004, and after 10 months of gigging they have improved and
matured in to very fine songs. In addition to the originals, we
have recorded 2 very much Motus-ized cover tunes: The Police's 'MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE'
and 'HEARTACHE REBORN'
by the great Francis Dunnery
http://www.francisdunnery.com/
Everybody is working towards finishing the mixing and mastering by 2nd
week in April, and with duplication and artwork to consider we should
still be on course for completion by the end of April!
March 2006
6th Goddamn, this year is
going fast. See? That's my age, must be. Soon I'll be
complaining about the youth of today, and how music was much better in
my day, and how the new 5p is too small...
Anyways, a few
more gigs and stuff to report on! A busy weekend for the band,
starting at the Hallcross Rock Bar
in Doncaster on Saturday night.
Despite some criticism from other websites about this place, we have had
two great gigs here. Thanks to everybody who piled in and shouted
and screamed, it made the long drive and painful load-in worthwhile.
On Sunday we
headed back to South Yorkshire to try out a new venue, the
New Masons Arms in
Mexborough. Innocent enough
looking place with nice curtains and a few old dears behind the bar, but
what a great little venue this is! A very enthusiastic bunch of
rockers came down who share landlord John's ambition to turn this place
in to a top music venue, and gave us tremendous support. It was
great to be made so welcome, and we are delighted to be heading back
here on Friday 21st July - make a
note in your diaries!
This year has been
fantastic so far, the band has really got better and better and
February's shows were all out of the top drawer. Plenty more CD's
sold and signed, and a new venue picked up along the way too! Plus
a new CD in the pipeline which is starting to sound pretty damn good...
February 2006
27th
Well, it has been some time since I last updated this page, but it has
just been totally manic in the life of Smikus lately, what with
birthdays, family stuff and the goddamn day job sending me in a spin.
But things continue to go well for the band - after a lengthy pause we
were back in the studio with the Chuckle Brothers last Saturday, and the
music is just about laid down now, with just one or two more bits and
pieces to go before Liz can start to croon for England. Then the
mixing will start, and it will be fascinating to see how it will all
start to come together. Fingers crossed that we will get the end
result we want, but suffice to say if we don't first time then we will
keep going until we do...
Some top gigs in February to report: Saturday 18th
saw us at the Boot and Shoe
in Ackworth, and it was great to see so many familiar faces back again
to support us. Hats off to the AC/DC gang
who were in full voice, but for f*cks sake, WE DON'T KNOW BACK IN BLACK!
Well, the boys do, but Liz doesn't... The following day we were
back at the
Roscoe
in Leeds for the Sunday afternoon "will anyone turn up or not" game.
Thankfully, lots of people did, again, and it turned out to be a lot of
fun. But just a tip - turn up before three o'clock if you want to
see the full set, 'cos we have to finish at five whether you want us to
or not!
On
Saturday 25th,
we dragged our weary bodies back to Yeadon's Premier Fun
Pub, the Tut 'n' Shive.
But, shock horror, we actually had a pretty good evening! Granted, I've
seen it busier, but we had a good sound, played well, and behold: the
Good Lord sent us air-guitarists! We got to try out a new set of
lights that we acquired courtesy of EBAY, and I guess it really helped
that the stage looked a whole lot better than it normally does with the
paltry 3 spots we used to bring along. Hurray for Ebay, the Global
Garage Sale. Only downside for me was getting pulled over by the
law on the way home. But they were friendly enough, and luckily
didn't find the bodies in the boot...
So, onwards to the
Hallcross Bar
in Doncaster
this Saturday 4th March.
It's definitely on, 'cos I saw a giant red MOTUS poster in the window...
13th New PayPal link added to our
Homepage to allow you to get your hands on the final run of the Motus
original demo! This disc will still be available to buy from us at
gigs, however we anticipate that once this lot are gone we won't be
pressing any more as the new demo should be available by the end of
March. So get one while you can, they may be worth a fortune one
day!!
06th New
gig added! June 10th Ring O' Bells,
Queensbury
04th Last night at the
Brewery Tap in Idle was a bonzer
performance, despite Ely's 'drummer's elbow' adding to his already
chronic back in the pain stakes. Really tight playing by the
Walrus as always! Yet more CDs sold (and signed!), so all in all a
perfect start to the year. However, armed with the new recording,
should it turn out as we hope, we fully intend to see just what we can
do with it to promote us ever further. Wish us luck, the day jobs
really suck more than ever...
January 2006
28th The new recording at Chunc
Studios gets chunkier by the day. Today was our third day of recording and
it was Uncle Graham's
turn to strut his stuff after the drums and bass parts had gone down
over the previous two sessions. Producers Joe
and Shaun
seem to have a knack of bringing out good performances from everyone,
and the early signs are incredibly positive. Somebody gave Graham
free rein to unleash the
'Guitar Smorgasbord'
on an unsuspecting mixing desk, practically causing it to explode as
track after track of boutique high-gain fuzz tested it to the point of
destruction.
Particular reference must be made to
a small box of horrors known only as the Z VEX Octane
III, which
makes a sound roughly akin to a wounded rhinoceros raping a particularly
unwilling air raid siren. Only louder, and less pleasant...
Friday's gig at the New Roscoe
was a blast, despite the slightly nervy start while the band remembered
which way up their instruments went after a 3 week lay off. A
great crowd and a good opportunity to road test a few new cover tunes
(as we promised we would!). Some neat improvisation and some very
interesting dancers!! Plus several laps of the pub mid-shred from
Graham. Bloody nutter...
24th New gigs added -
Shoulder of Mutton, Gomersall and
Queens, Bingley. Studio
recording continues to go well, drums and bass parts down and Graham
champing at the bit to start laying down some of that there fuzzy geetar...
First 'proper' gig of the year is coming up at the
New Roscoe in Leeds, so thank god for the new rehearsal
room so we can brush up a bit. We have a new original Motus tune
'Gravity' which may get an airing at
the Roscoe - this is a new idea from vocalist
Liz and has the catchiest chorus ever. We are kind of
writing this one as we go in the studio, so if we can agree on a
suitable 'live' version this may be added to the set along with one or
two new covers.
14th We
made a great start on the new Motus recording today at Chunc's studio in
Leeds, officially the smallest studio in the world... Everybody is
very excited even at this early stage, because Ely laid down some
excellent kit parts for no less than six new recordings. The drums
have a very tight and natural sound, which is precisely the sound we
were hoping for. Shaun and Joe already seem very inspired and full
of ideas. Next Saturday we aim to lay down the bass parts and
start on the guitars, so a long long way to go but a totally positive
start!
1st Just a quick update, it is
New Year's Day after all... Happy New Year y'all - keep an eye on
this news page for updates on how January's studio project goes.
2006 should be a busy year for us, and the recording sesh is the perfect
way to kick start the New Year. I hope also to develop this 'ere
website some more, adding a forum instead of the Guestbook for starters
I reckon. If any regulars to this site have any ideas about what
they would like to see, please let us know (email us from the Feedback
page!) and we'll see what we can do. Maybe. Haha!!
December 2005
24th
Great gig at the Three
Horseshoes
in Otley,
a perfect way to get in the Xmas mood! Merry Christmas to you all
- I'm off now to get pissed...
17th Lots of
good Motus things happening at the moment, including three great gigs
that we are very much looking forward to. But more importantly we
have booked several sessions in January at Chunc Production's basement
studio in Kirkstall, Leeds, to record some new material, plus maybe a
reworking of a Motus oldie or two. The band met Shaun and Joe over at Chunc last week, and we were very impressed with their knowledge and
easy-going manner. All the vibes are there that this could be
exactly the environment we are looking for to 'up the ante' and get a
much better recording. I'll keep this site up to date with how
that project develops.
Perhaps more importantly (!) Smikus has upgraded his bass guitar to
something much better. The
GEAR page
will be updated just as soon as I can be arsed...
4th Unfortunately our
next gig, the Malt Shovel in
Baildon, has been cancelled, which
is a damn shame as we were all looking forward to playing here again.
Seems like changes to management and a subsequent review of their
entertainment policy is the reason. I do hope that this isn't a
permanent end to live music here as this is one of our favourites, and I
can't think of any other form of entertainment here that could ever be
as popular.
New Roscoe gigs now booked for
2006. Diary is starting to look healthier...
3rd A
troublesome night at the
Brewery Tap
with lots of gremlins and electrical buzzing noises, seemingly caused by
a dodgy mains supply from the newly-relocated plug sockets? Who knows
what caused it, but we had to tame things down a lot and it didn't
really settle down sound-wise until the second set. Most odd, but
we pulled it round and had a great night.
In
other news, we may have found a suitable rehearsal place, so watch this
space for updates. We are at a stage where we are desperate to
finish off some very promising originals, not to mention shake up some
of the cover tunes, and we want to get our minds set on returning to the
studio to record some new Motus moments. Unfortunately almost 6
months of almost total non-rehearsal have been a source of frustration
for everyone in the band as we don't want to stand still. Fingers
crossed it all works out, it would be the perfect end to a great year if
we can use this new room with regularity...
November 2005
26th What an amazing night at the
Boot and Shoe in
Ackworth, quite possibly one of the
most sweaty and dirty gigs of the year, and against all expectations
too. We had decided to use our own PA tonight despite
landlord Les's preference for all
bands to use his in-house system, because this has proved to be a
nightmare in the past due to deafening feedback and the PA being, well,
just too darned loud and nasty. Sorry Les. But thanks to him
for letting us use our rig, and what a difference a P.A. makes...
Check out the Pictures page to see for
yourself how much fun we all had! If you were there (especially the
AC/DC boys and girls) you may well spot yourself on this here website.
If you do, then send us an email or sign the guestbook and tell the
world why everyone should come and see Motus for themselves before
Graham gets too grey to carry on...
Thanks to a very
drunk Mark Varley for getting into
the role of photographer with Mike's crap camera with such enthusiasm -
I'm sure anyone would agree he got some good ones despite difficult
subject matter on that there stage!
The whole evening
finished off with us sitting in a 24-hour transport cafe a few miles
down the road eating the fantastic mixed grill - check out the pictures
and see every known meat product known to man on one plate (the
slaughterhouse compendium party pack I think it got christened).
What the hell were we thinking of. It will probably take me about
7 years to digest that lot.
Note that we are
back at the Boot in February 2006 -
see you then!
21stNew Roscoe
gig went pretty well on Sunday afternoon, although maybe the mix wasn't
the best in the first set. Always funny how it can sound like God
during soundcheck then it goes crazy once the room fills up with bodies!
And no, I didn't turn my amp up on the sly! Some choice moments, and
Uncle Graham recorded the gig (Chris in charge of the record button -
always best to have a failsafe mechanism when recording and Graham are
involved), so that will be interesting to listen back to. We will
hopefully be speaking to landlord Noel when he gets back from holiday in
the next week or so about booking some more dates here for 2006, so keep
an eye out for us!
19th Sorry, didn't get round to
updating this diary after The Bush
gig in Royston on the 11th November,
and my internet connection has been down for the last few days thanks to
those unbelievable tossers at NTL... To be honest, there wasn't
much to say about this gig. Other than it would seem that this
venue won't be a venue for much longer as the bands aren't drawing the
punters like they used to, so expect regular live music at The Bush to
stop after Xmas. Shame. The gig was much fun for us as we hadn't played for a week and we had a great sound from the trusty Mackie
PA, and Liz lost her voice at the end of the first set, but was ok
nonetheless. Looking forward to the Roscoe gig on Sunday afternoon
(20th Nov).
Anybody reading
this site who knows of a place where we can rehearse midweek in the
Leeds/ Bradford area please let us know, as we are soon to be without a
rehearsal spot at all! This is especially important as we are
planning on devoting the entire month of January to getting new material
in the set. Send us an email via the Feedback page if you know of
anywhere suitable!!
October 2005
(a busy one)
30th
Another cool weekend of gigs - Friday night saw us at The Hallcross
in Doncaster,
a new venue for us, and Saturday we played a private party for Dave's 40th (Happy Birthday,
mate!) at
a pub in Kirkstall, Leeds.
Much fun had by all, I reckon, although both gigs reminded us that we
desperately need a roadie or two... Hallcross gig had roughly a quarter
of a mile yomp between the car and the stage, whereas the do on Saturday
night was like carrying heavy gear over the Krypton Factor assault
course... The Hallcross looks like it could be very cool, we
really enjoyed the experience
(despite Graham forgetting to plug half the PA in and not realising
until we were in to the second set! Dude, it sounds so much better when
you plug it in!!)
and look forward to playing here again! And the CD continues to
sell!!
As
for Carmel,
know that we are VERY interested in your ideas and I think we need to
talk some more. Expect a call from Auntie Liz
anytime soon.
23rd Saturday night at
The New Roscoe, Leeds and all
memories of the Chavaholics gig the night before are quickly banished!
We tried out a new set tonight, as we were determined to include more of
our original stuff which sometimes gets neglected in favour of a
floor-filler. This turned out to be a good move as Won't Be Back Again and
Rewind went down great! Also the
new Motus interpretation of Message In A Bottle
got its first airing tonight, and had everybody singing at the top of
their lungs! Band is on a high after this performance, hope this
means that our reputation as "A Band Worth
Seeing" at The Roscoe is firmly established...
22nd
Many thanks to Ely for feeling that he had to share his cold germs with
the band. It is this selfless commitment to the band that makes
him so valuable. Thanks pal. I feel like shit.
Friday at G&T's (Rockaholics)
in Hoyland
was officially our
"Worst
Ever Gig".
Great credit to the management and Rossi for trying to resurrect this
place as a live venue, however more needs to be done to draw a 'rock'
audience in there to make it work. I really hope the message gets
out, as this place could be great, although the in-house PA system needs
a serious rethink. Sure, it's loud, but it sounds abrasive and painful,
and nobody knew how to get any vocal FX working. Any gig where the
band is playing second fiddle to the 'DJ' is always a disaster.
And the audience we encountered was largely
an inbred bunch of underage Burberry-clad glue sniffers, no doubt breaking
curfew, intent on making us feel unwelcome. To Rossi and the
management, all the very best of luck. To the Hoyland Yoof, go
piss up a rope. Needless to say we Won't Be Back Again...
Thursday night at the Malt
Shovel in
Baildon
was a total joy - a great crowd and everybody up for having a good time.
This is turning in to one of our favourite places to play, so anyone
reading this please continue to support live music at the Malt Shovel,
and we'll see you back here on December 8th!
9th Now, this is more like it.
This was the first time Motus had played at the
Three Horseshoes in Otley,
so anybody who has seen PLC strut
their stuff here over the last few years should have seen something a
little different, while hopefully enjoying the familiar anthems we have
kept in the set! Despite migraines and sore throats, we enjoyed
this one and I guess we are all deserving of a two week break before
things busy up again towards the end of the month.
A fairly
disastrous rehearsal on Saturday; we tried a few new covers and none of
them were very inspiring. It would appear that our time is better
spent finishing off some very promising original ideas that I just know
will enhance the set far more than some bullshit cover tunes, so
there...
A great mini
'rehearsal' at Chez Charman on
Thursday, which even included a cameo from Liz on the bass and Ely
showing off on the drum machine. Very funny indeed, especially
when the neighbours started hammering on the door due to the noise...
But again, some solid ideas came out. Seems that we can't plug in
without a riff or a melody emerging from somewhere. This bodes
well! Motus always writes more during the winter months...
2nd A
good ol' crowd at the Tut &
Shive, Yeadon
and plenty of you said how much you enjoyed the show, but it felt a tad
awkward, as if we had farted at a funeral or something. Guess you
can't please everybody. We're back here just before Christmas, I promise
we'll have some fresh stuff for you to completely stonewall.
September 2005
30th Nice to be back at the
Silver Fox, Stocksbridge. A
cracking gig this one, although we need to find ways of getting you all
past the barrier and on to the dance floor. We'll make it our
mission, eh? We're back here twice in December - it could get
messy...
26thBradford Rio's
pics now added to the Pictures
page on your friendly neighbourhood Motus website. Be amazed at
how little room we had, and how drunk we all were by the end of the
evening... Unfortunately PR Nick's
badger costume didn't make an appearance, however I'm sure it won't be
long. A reminder to you all - please take pictures at gigs and
email them to us via the
Feedback!
page, not necessarily of us (as we aren't very photogenic) but just of
you lot having a good old Motus night out. Try and keep the file
size reasonable! We would love to have pictures on the site from
just about every gig we do, so send them in. I always forget the
bloody camera, so I need you to help me out.
25th
Bradford Rio's gig supporting
Deepest Purple... A huge thank you to everybody who came
along to support us and for spending your hard-earned on the door.
We really appreciate it!! It was a weird night for us, maybe I will tell
the whole sorry story one day on this website, but suffice to say we
made the best of unhelpful circumstances and delivered a pretty darned
good gig. I'll add some pictures on to the site just as soon as my
hangover subsides, so bear with me....
20th New gigs
added in October and December at Silver Fox Stocksbridge
and The Malt Shovel
in Baildon.
10th A full house at the
Boot & Shoe in
Ackworth, and despite landlord/ amateur soundman Les's best
efforts to butcher the vocal sound with deafening feedback, this was a
top night! More CDs shifted and lots of new friends - if you came to the
gig please note we are back on Friday 25th November. Put the date
in your diary and bring everybody you know, and we shall all drink and
be merry and rock like bastards.
2nd A
new venue for us, and it felt like an age since we had last played
together, but our first Thursday nighter at the
Malt Shovel
in Baildon
was a lot of fun, despite Ely's bad back doing it's best to ruin his
evening... An appreciative and good-natured crowd, and a stage area
roughly the size of a postage stamp, and we are already looking forward
to returning soon! We aim to be back there this side of Xmas, and we are
about to start booking gigs for 2006 in the very near future too.
August 2005
22nd This is really cool - 'SELF' is
due to be played to the masses at the upcoming
Reading Festival by one of the DJ'S. Just wish I could
be there to hear it!
13th
Two gigs to finish what feels like 'Phase 1' of the Motus saga.
Everything this last 6 months has been in many ways building up to
Graham and Liz getting married, and as that is now only a few weeks away
the band can enjoy a well earned break before we begin 'Phase 2', which
will hopefully see the band back in the studio and continue the quest
for higher profile gigs. Am I making sense here? Probably not, but
we have come a hell of a long way these last few months and we have much
to be proud of, but now is a good time to take a step back, take stock,
and renew our energies for the second half of this year.
Old White Horse
in Bingley
was much fun, an appreciative crowd and no bother from the resident
ghosts! I do hope this continues to be a venue as it is a great
pub run by nice people, and a handy little Thursday nighter for the
Motus diary...
Brewery Tap
in Idle was a blast, save for
a slightly dodgy mix in the first set, but once everything settled down
we played out of our skins and the punters were in fine voice!
Dodgy chilli burger after the gig kept webmaster Smikus within running
distance of the loo most of Saturday, but even that couldn't dampen his
spirits after such a good performance from the band!
July 2005
30th
A
comparatively quiet one at the Bush
in Royston on the 29th, but all
bodes well for when we return on the 11th November. And a storming
night at the Tut in
Yeadon, featuring the return of the Polish dancers for one
last time before they headed back home. This gig was double the
fun mainly because the gig nearly got pulled at the last minute due to
Liz suffering a horrible migraine/ vomit-fest experience all day.
But the Warden came back strong and delivered, I think, one of her best
Motus performances. Much fun, I think we finally dragged ourselves
off the stage at 10 to midnight...
CD continues to
sell amazingly well, and some nice feedback from those of you who have
listened to it. We plan on returning to the studio this side of
Christmas to record some new tracks which we will probably make
available as a CD single or EP. Watch this site for more news on
new recordings!
25th NEW GIG!
We love doing the covers, after all it keeps
us off the streets where we may only end up causing trouble, mugging old
ladies etc. But anybody who has followed this band at all will know that
the whole reason for its existence is for us to write our own material
and to get our music out into the world. And have fun along the
way. So, we are very excited to announce our first ever
ALL ORIGINALS set, which will be in support of tribute act
Deepest Purple
atBradford Rio's
on Saturday 24th
September. Doors open around 7.30pm I
believe. Tickets are available from the usual
outlets, or from us. If you would like a ticket, please email me at
motus.music@ntlworld.com
and I will arrange it with you, otherwise collar us at any upcoming gig. Needless to say the more tickets
we can sell the more gigs we will hopefully be able to arrange with
Rio's, so your support would be warmly appreciated!
24th A thoroughly enjoyable night and a good performance at
The Great Northern, we hope the
imminent new landlord will continue with the live music as we would all
love to play here again. Funniest part of the night was closing
the gig with a version of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" which we
had only just run through for the first time that afternoon. And
judging by the headbangers and the folk stood on their chairs at the
back I guess we damned near pulled it off!
11th
New gigs added - The Great
Northern, Thackley
on 23rd July; The Malt
Shovel, Baildon
on 1st September; Hallcross
Rock Bar, Doncaster
on 28th October
09th Another good do at the New Roscoe. Congratulations
to the two Polish dancers, who managed to keep going for the entire
second set! More importantly, Ely got through the entire night
with no problems following his back surgery only a week previously. Bloomin miracle if you ask me.
07th The prototype Motus video was
aired for the first time, and it looks great, spurring us on to do the
'proper' version just as soon as we can. Thanks again to Mark and
Chris at ASAP Productions for all their hard work and talent.
June 2005
30th
New gig added - G&T's Bar in Hoyland, Friday 21st October
26th A busy weekend for the band saw us have a riot at
The
Boot & Shoe in sunny Ackworth on Friday 24th, followed by a swift
rehearsal on Saturday afternoon to make a start on a new song idea from
Liz. As expected it was in the most guitar-unfriendly key
imaginable, but who can knock her sense of melody? Hats off to The
Warden. Then a last minute cancellation saw us at the
Tut in
Yeadon on Saturday night. CD continues to sell well and we are all
having a ball! And as for Smikus's Gene Simmons moment at the
Boot...
15th Mike and Ely went to pay homage to U2 at Manchester
Stadium - it was a total last minute spur of the moment grab the
opportunity for the tickets who cares how much they cost kind of thing,
but well worth it as they were absolutely stunning. What a great
night! Awesome stuff.
12th Great night
at the Silver Fox! None of us had ever played here before so we weren't
sure what to expect, but I reckon the landlord has a great venue
here and bags of enthusiasm to make this a top venue for live music.
Special thanks also to Stormbringer and friends for their support!!
Mark Woolhouse also braved a nasty chest infection to come down and make
a start on the video for "Self" (see March news below) plus run around
like a loony taking pics with a camera that looked nearly as expensive
as our backline. Expect to see our ugly mugs plastered all over
posters and CD covers very soon...
11th
New run of Motus CDs now ready, featuring Satellite and Rewind for the
first time, plus some nifty cover artwork by Uncle Graham. Let's
see how many of you can spot yet another spelling mistake by the
reproduction company...
May 2005
30th Migraines and herniated
discs prevented us from rehearsing before the Tut gig, don't forget that
none of us Motus types are long for this world...
Those of you that were there, I hope you enjoyed what you saw. It
took some of you a while to get used to hearing our own stuff alongside
the covers, and we weren't at our very best, but all in all we had lots
of fun. Please come again on the 30th July, we'll have some new
stuff for ya!
22ndBrewery
Tap - what a great night! This gig finished off what has been an
unbelievable week for Motus - three hugely enjoyable gigs, an entire box
of CD's shifted and such a positive vibe from Joe Public that it feels
like we can do anything! The Tap was heaving, the bar staff
were run ragged and the response just blew us all away. What the
hell is going on?!?! Could things be any cooler???
20th Gig at Old White Horse
in Bingley, great gig, nice people and the long-awaited Motus Backdrop
gets its first public airing! Seems like Graham is becoming an old
pro at juggling and tweaking the mixing desk mid-shred... If you were
there and enjoyed the gig, note that we are back on the 11th
August.
17th Well,
it was our first 'proper' gig together after all the hard work and
preparation, not to mention frantic PA purchases and sleepless nights
worrying about how to use the mixing desk, but for us the New Roscoe
gig on the 15th was a joy from start to finish (and something of a
relief!). So there were a few fluffs, but most of it felt so good
we even blew the fire doors open! I guess we had no idea how our
music would be received, but judging by CD sales and nice comments it
looks like maybe we aren't so preposterous after all... Thanks for
making us so welcome, and we hope to see you next time 8-)
11th New gig added -
Thursday 19th May at Old White Horse, Bingley 7th New Mackie PA
and 12-channel mixing desk acquired, plus drum mics, stands, 10,000
leads and a large receipt, courtesy of Sound Control, Leeds. Sounds awesome,
and we are now busting to get out there and make some noise in front of
you lovely people. Bring it on!
April 2005
30th Threw
ourselves into the minefield that is PA
supplies and rental. If anyone could make sense of the huge array of
information we have accumulated in the past 3 weeks then good luck to
you. Do we? Don't we? You need this you need that. We have heard them
all. Hopefully we will make some degree of correct decision soon. And
these things are not cheap so it had better be the right one.
17th
New gigs confirmed with venues. The Motus machine finally gets
into gear! New gigs to be announced, make sure you keep this page
bookmarked so you know where to see us...
March 2005
29th Guestbook added
to the 'new look' Motus site... Go to the Feedback page by clicking on
the tab on the left and add your pearls of wisdom for all to see!
25thGraham & Liz are finally getting married! After several
millennia together bickering and squabbling over hairspray, guitarist
Graham has finally got down on one arthritic knee and promised to make
an honest women out of our Liz. The wedding will be a family thing
down in Cornwall this summer, no doubt followed by a kebab and a pint
for the happy couple... My congratulations to both of them!
24th After
discussions with Mark and Chris regarding the video promo, we have
settled on 'Self' as being the obvious choice rather than 'David'.
This track seemed to inspire everybody more, and we had a great meeting
at the Fulwood Inn, Sheffield, to bounce ideas around. Work should
hopefully start on the video soon.
02nd
Sheffield amateur film maker Mark Woolhouse and his esteemed colleagues
have offered to shoot a video promo for the song 'David' from the first
recording session. This is pretty exciting stuff for all of us,
mainly 'cos it will be a lot of fun and also as it will be a great
promotional tool. We'll keep the site up to date with news of how
this develops.
01st Due to
overwhelming response to the 'free CD' offer to reviewers we have had to
pull this offer from the site! Sorry, but it was getting out of
hand...
February 2005
19th
Writers block sets in, but we are making some progress on some new ideas
and stuff. No-one said it was easy writing an album...
January 2005
30th Well, it's been
a quiet month as we have had one or two personal matters that have
prevented us from rehearsing. Got to mention today's rehearsal
though, sometimes everything just totally clicks and every moment is a
joy - this was one of those! Everybody buzzing, oh yes indeedy!
25th Great
songwriting sesh at Uncle Graham and Auntie Liz's gaff, two new ideas
formed and my God, is that a cover we are considering???
9th Our very own
Axe Murderer and self confessed chili addict Graham makes his TV debut
on a BBC documentary about obsessive tendencies. Graham reveals
his love of spicy foods and chili sauces to the world, and now can
honestly claim that the inside of his fridge has been on national TV! If
I can find a legal way of linking this footage to this site I promise
I'll do it - I only just stopped laughing this morning!
December 2004
31st
- Brief mixing session on 'Satellite' to actually remove some of the
overdubs! This is a great track with a very strong vocal melody, we
didn't want to f*ck it all up and bury it under lots of wailing etc.
Back in there on the 4th Jan to make a start on mixing 'Rewind'.
12th - Studio
session at Woodman Studio to record two new numbers, tentatively called
'Satellite' and 'Rewind'. Great day had by all (except probably
Jerry the engineer, I think we worked him a bit hard!) and what appears
to be some nice performances laid down.
10th
- Full length Motus track 'Self' from the first recording session posted
on the BBC Radio Leeds website. Listen to it or download it, we
don't care so long as you all like it! There is a link to it on our
homepage or alternatively click
here - check it out and if you like it please submit your comments
to them. Who knows, this may reinforce our chances of getting
Radio airplay. Watch the downloads page for more freebie motus stuff! 9th
- Motus Christmas Party and Pre-Studio get together held at
Rozina curry house in Shipley. If you like your rubies, get
yourself down to Rozina's! Wonderful stuff!
November 2004
27th - First run of
CD's picked up. Can't believe Graham got one of the track names
wrong, mind you this is the same man who always forgets to press
'record' too, just as we are about the perform the über-version of The
Greatest Song Ever...
26th
- Studio time booked at Jerry's wonderful Woodman Studio near Halifax to
record new material and to do a few 'tweaks' on the previously recorded
stuff. Liz reckons she can do a better vocal part on Won't Be Back
Again, although it sounds blistering to me (then again I'm just a bass
player...)
20th - more promo photos
done, plus a stonking rehearsal! Nailed two new tunes and made a start
on a new thing, which rocked
19th
- First run of demo CD sent for pressing
Gigs
- 9.00pm start unless otherwise
indicated
Please check with the venues before making
your journey
March 2010:
Sat 6th
ROTN To The Core Event: Tut & Shive
- Yeadon, Leeds with The Erics, Suicide Blonde & 3 Daze Lost
Sat 13th
Cross Keys
- Morley, Leeds
Fri 26th
Tut & Shive
- Yeadon, Leeds
April 2010:
Sat 10th
Charity Event
-Woodbottom Club, Baildon
Fri 16th
Boot & Shoe
- Ackworth
Sat 17th
New Roscoe
- Leeds
Fri 23rd
Thornhill Arms
- Stanningley, Leeds
May 2010:
Sat 8th
The Victoria
-
Saltaire, Bradford
Sat 15th
Private Party
- Penny Bridge, Cumbria
Fri 21st
The Tarn
- Yeadon
Sat 22nd
Brewery Tap
- Idle, Bradford
June 2010:
Sat 12th
The New Inn
-
Baildon, Bradford
July 2010:
Fri 2nd
New Roscoe
- Leeds
Sat 3rd
Cross Keys
- Morley, Leeds
Fri 16th
Thornhill Arms
- Stanningley, Leeds
Fri 23rd
Boot & Shoe
- Ackworth
Sat 24th
Tut & Shive
- Yeadon, Leeds
Sat 31st
The Victoria
-
Saltaire, Bradford
August 2010:
Fri 13th
TARN BEER FESTIVAL - The Tarn
- Yeadon
7pm
September 2010:
Fri 17th
Brewery Tap
- Idle, Bradford
Fri 24th
The Tarn
- Yeadon
Sat 25th
Thornhill Arms
- Stanningley, Leeds
October 2010:
Fri 1st
New Roscoe
- Leeds
Sat 2nd
The Victoria
-
Saltaire, Bradford
