June 2008

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

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:

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 40^th 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 (14^th) 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 uber MOTUS stylee at the Gasworks on Friday July 27^th. 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...

13th  Motus 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. www.motusweb.net 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 eve