Another dark day

I wasn't in town when the accident happened in George Square, my immediate family are all fine, but another horrendous event in Glasgow. 

Thoughts and prayers with all those affected - including the bystanders, and the emergency services

Blabber n Smoke review

Another good review here : 

 https://paulkerr.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/the-primevals-tales-of-endless-bliss-closer-records/

Record available online, including from our friends at Love Music 

http://www.lovemusicglasgow.com/index.php/discogs

Reviews and feedback

Tracks from the album have been played on Radio Scotland, and on Bill Kelly's show on WFMU. 

Primevals at 28:00 Whole show well worth a listen if you like the rock and roll. http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/58435 (and I know you do!) 

Some good reviews coming in,  including this one - 

http://www.i94bar.com/albums/tales-of-endless-bliss

Back Home

We played 8 gigs in 9 days, did 4,000km in the van, and had a wonderful time.

Love and hugs to all our French friends, who promoted us, let us borrow their guitars and amps and drums. put us up, fed us, danced and shouted and made us feel (as we always do) que quand nous retournons a France nous sommes ou nous appartenons. 

Here are some youtube clips -

Predeliction For The Blues (Montaigu de Quercy) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhaqIVZBYo

Re-Frame It (Rouen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weTKh1It8Jk

Way Beyond Tore Up / Saint Jack (Paris) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G-SZpFRycA

and some photos from Brittany (covering both visits):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanmichelbaudry/sets/72157631774268595

To Montaigu de Quercy!

‎We had great fun playing in Montpellier despite a few hiccups onstage - spilt beer, an amp that needs a check and a tone know falling off my guitar (now recovered and fixed) 

Quite a good drive in glorious weather. Tonight will give us the chance to meet up with our old friends Jacques and Pif. We had a riotous time playing at their venue Le Rad 3 years ago.

Fab range of pastis here in Montpellier. Good drive down, lovely venue. Tout va bien!

Rocking in Pau

‎The Clanks supported us, direct and honest punky rock and roll. Our friend Christian plays bass. We had a blast, sold some LPS, and went to a great pub afterwards - number 5, run by a Scottish ex-pat. Now on the road to Montpellier - the Pyrenees look like a painted backdrop 

Sent by magic

A bit of a sketch

We had a great time playing at Le Galeon In Lorient. Lovely people, good sound. We stayed with the irrepressible JB, who runs the bar. Early start in the morning, out of his flat at 8:30, packed up and on the road in an hour. 

We took our time on the road, mostly staying at 110km/h - fuel conservation ‎can bring big savings over 4000 km. We got to Pau at half past 8. And the journey included some wild Satnav misdirection.  The roads that it has details on have been replaced by newer builds, so we had 20 minutes of being told to turn into toads that were not there. Our friends had been delayed on the road, so we couldn't get in to the house. We went for a pizza, then bought some beer, water and wine to sit in the van and have a blether. This kind of event, where carefully planned events go away, is identified by the Primevals as "a bit of a sketch". We were mostly all asleep when they arrived at 01:30. Hugs, shower, bed. 

Glorious sunshine here, I'm sitting in the garden barefoot enjoying the fresh air

Rouen

‎Tiny gig at Le P'tit Bar. Lovely food beforehand, wild crowd, including a guy who had seen the band in 86 with The Cramps and asked us to play St Jack. So we did. 

Tiny PA, so we are a bit hoarse today

 Nice hotel. Tout va bien. 

Rouen is a glorious city - it would be worth another visit. 

Paris!

The gig in Paris went very well. Lots of friends there, including this lady who last saw the Primevals in January 85 at the QM in Glasgow, our last Scottish show before we went to France for the first time.

La Java is a wonderful venue.

In Paris

The flight went very smoothly, and our friend Bernard picked us up in the tour van. We spent a few hours rooting through his guitar collection and choosing five of them to take on the road with us. 

We had a great lunch in a local boite, no name outside, very local. The waitress spoke French at a bebop velocity - I got about one word in four. 

We now have the CDS and the LPS will be here tomorrow. We were delighted to get the first order for an LP by email when we were waiting for our bags at Charles de Gaulle.  

Picture is the Winners' Enclosure - the guitars we picked to take on the road

Nearly There!

Flight tickets printed out, all checked in, last rehearsal tonight, fly out Thursday. Can't wait to be back in France. 

French Dates

Delighted to get the updated list of French gigs through

Primevals French Dates-

Vendredi 24 Octobre La Java - Paris
Samedi 25 Octobre Le Saloon - Fougères
Dimanche 26 Octobre Le Gallion - Lorient
Lundi 27 Octobre Le Dispensary - Toulouse
Mardi 28 Octobre Le Café du Parc - Pau
Mercredi 29 Octobre Le Black-Out - Montpellier
Jeudi 30 Octobre L'Enclos - Montaigu de Quercy
Vendredi 31 Octobre Le Thunderbird Lounge - Saint Etienne
Samedi 1er Nov L'Imposture - Lille

Gigs!

When we get back from France, we have a couple of gigs lined up in Scotland to launch the album.

Glasgow - Broadcast, Sauchiehall St, Friday 7th November (support from The Reverse Cowgirls and the Pharisees)

Edinburgh - Citrus Club, Grindlay St, Saturday 8th November (support to be announced)

A good shift

We rehearsed without Michael, our singer, tonight. (He's in Bordeaux, lucky fellow).

We needed to do some speed drills, and hone a few intros and ends - so we worked through 41 songs, focusing on how we start them, any tricky changes or aspects of arrangement, and reminding ourselves of what the cues are. We put in a good shift. We also re-sequence the draft set - 21 songs plus another 8 or so that are on the bench.

Volume levels were good tonight, ears not ringing now. So I can enjoy a blast of Charles Mingus with my glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

4 rehearsals to go - next few will be proper work, lined up as for a gig, bumping in to each other and blasting through the set, bumpless changeovers.

Lille Poster

We are finishing the tour in Lille on Saturday 1st November. We played there last time, and had a great night. Manu, who owns the bar, put us up after the gig at his flat, and his wife sat and chatted with us for a bit. Her Mum was Scottish, so she loved hearing our accents.

One big difference about playing in France as opposed to in the UK is that the people who run the bars that you play in are welcoming in France, glad to see you. offering beer or coffee, happy to feed you good local food. Not always the case at home.

Here is Mr John Honeyman, in fine touring mode, settling in at the bar of L'Imposture last time :

and here is the gig poster for this time:

Back in the Woodshed, again

A rocking rehearsal. I simplified my signal chain to the bare minimum - a tuner and a Boo Vibrato pedal. Maximum shimmer.

Signal Chain - Tuner, Boo Vibrato

Peavey Classic 20 - a rocking humdinger

We got through 15 tunes - I think we now have about 40 on the slate.

Tonight's tunes -
I've Never Seen You Looking So Clean
Where The Bones Are Buried
One Sweet Drink
See That Skin
Burden Of The Debt
Fertile Mind
In A Violent Way
Heya
Hipster Beware
It Don't Feel Free
Lowdown
Pink Cloud
Prairie Chain
Sister
You're Not Here Now

6 rehearsals to go !!

St. Etienne

We've got the first gig poster in - St Etienne on October 31. 

Excitement starting to build, now! 

More Woodshedding

Another diligent night in the rehearsal rooms, working on older tunes, building the set.

Tonight's tunes -
You're Not Here Now
Primeval Call
Burden Of The Debt
Black Cloud Comin'
In A Violent Way
Fire & Clay
Long Screamin' Slide
Early Grave
Defying Science

Late Night Lineup (click for bigger)

I tried out a few combinations of Distortion Pedals too.

Left to Right :
Joyo Tremolo
Langtronics Fuzz Junkie (good ONLY on its own, into a clean channel)
Marshall Guvnor 2 (excellent Marshall sound)
AXL Tube Overdrive
Ibanez Tube Screamer (these 2 play well together)
Korg Tuner.

I might need 2 distortions for the tour - I'll try next week using the Guvnor and the Tube Screamer to see how they are together (in the band context)

We also played a brand new tune - endless ! Joy!

Now - a glass of Bordeaux and some Necks.

I just did the count - we have got 32 songs pretty much under our collective belt, with another 11 to be learned in the next couple of weeks. That gives us plenty of material for the tour. A couple of rehearsals of running through them all and then gather to construct a set with the main spine in place and a pool of tunes to add as we see fit - shaping up nicely!

Wishaw

We had great fun playing  in Wishaw at Be In Belhaven. A short set, because that's what the organisers wanted. (click on any photo to see it bigger)

Stage - side : guitars ready to roll

My Moon guitar, Big Black, is now 28 years old. Still a joy to play

Minimalist Signal Chain

Simplest possible stage setup - Guitar -> Tuner -> Vibrato -> Tube Screamer -> Amp

Rocking at the fun fair

The Primevals - Tell It Now - Merchant City Festival

Woodshedding

A good rehearsal - the set for Saturday in Wishaw is sorted, 10 songs, 32 minutes.

Onstage around 7:30 as part of Be In Beltane, in Belhaven Park - Sat 16 August.

We also ran through a bunch of songs from the "long list" for France. Preparations are going well.

Non-set tunes this week were : 

Pauper's Grave

Prairie Chain

Long Screamin Slide 

Early Grave

Defying Science

Sister

Have Some Fun

Heya

Justify

Someone to Love

Tunes for next week : 

You're Not Here Now

Primeval Call

Starting All Over Again

Burden Of The Debt

Black Cloud

Where The Bones Are Buried

Down Where The Madness Grows

In A Violent Way

Girl It's Me

We managed not to be as loud as last week, and we had fun playing Prairie Chain almost too fast - a proper "ramming speed" version. It doesn't swing at that pace, we are just on a runaway horse hanging on for dear life - but it's great fun. Some variability on hearing my vocals in the monitors too - all good prep for being on the road.  

I am stripping back the pedals so I can have as few as possible on the road - tuner, vibrato, one distortion - and maybe a spare distortion. This way I know I can get a decent clean amp sound, gussy it up with a stomp box I like, and I'm all set. 

Now - some Corte Mayor Rioja, and no music at all, because my ears are kind of done in. 

Free Rock & Roll!

As part of the Merchant City Festival, we are playing on Sat 2nd August on the Blackfriars Stage.

The rest of the bill is excellent too - homegrown rocking goodness.

Whole thing kicks off at 3pm, we will be onstage 6 or 6:30

France! Encore!

So, it begins, again. Last night I booked the flights for our next French tour, in October.Or, as any right-thinking person will now call it, Rocktober. 

Individual gigs are being finalised, but we will definitely be playing in Paris, and hoping to get back to Lille, and also to play for the first time in many years in places like Bordeaux and LeHavre.

Dates to follow once they are confirmed!

Photo of us supporting The Sonics - by Martin Windebank

THE SONICS!

Delighted to announce that The Primevals will be supporting Washington State's Original Kings of Garage Rock, THE SONICS at The Arches, Glasgow on Friday May 9th.

We covered their song "He's Waitin' " in very early sets, and I didn't really think I would ever get to see them live.

It will be an absolute joy.

Here's Boss Hoss

UPDATE - in the way that memory works, where there is a primordial soup of Jock & Roll memories and I can't be certain if this happened to the Majestics or the Beat Poets, I have checked the archive and confirmed that The Beat Poets covered "The Witch" at our first gig, June 86.

Here's The Witch (The Sonics version - ours escaped without being recorded)

Record Store Day 2014

We rehearsed tonight for our set at Love Music, Glasgow on Saturday 19th April for Record Store Day.

We will be doing 20 minutes, including Girl It's Me - our single for Record Store Day, part of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce tribute series, and also Many Mansions, because it is a blast to play!

Many Mansions takes me back to 2011, the first tour of this lineup to France, listening to Ask The Ages in the van as France sped past us, all of us grooving to Sonny Sharrock with Elvin Jones & Pharaoh Sanders.

If you are in the area, we are onstage (in-store) at 5:30pm on Saturday.

Of course this also reminds me of playing in Nimes at the end of that tour, a showcase set in FNAC which was a joy, too.

Record Stores are (generally) forces for good - we will be doing our bit over the weekend to keep them going

The Barrowlands

Last month, we were part of an event at the Barrowlands - a Celebration for the Clutha. This was to raise funds for the people affected by the helicopter disaster. Headliners were the Alabama 3 and Big Country, and the bill also included our old compadres James King & The Lonewolves.

The event was organised by Dutch Rukowski - an indefatigable man!

As Michael said on the night "I've stood down there a million times, always wanted to say this ... HELLO GLASGOW!".

Some photos from the night :

And a youtube video of our set

A 7" Single for Record Store Day

The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project
The Double A-Side Split 7”
Release Date: 04/19/2014 · Format: 7” · Catalog-No: SI GR 804

This is the perfect appetizer for the upcoming new album by The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project „Axels & Sockets“ (GR 796), which will be released on May 2nd.

Both tracks will NOT be on the full length album, so we have two exclusives fort he Vinyl afficionados! „Zonar Rose“ is a rowdy, wild rocker that features bay area legends Keith Morris (founding member and first singer for Black Flag) and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), who both nowadays serve as frontman and bassplayer for the mighty OFF! plus fellow Californians Ty Segall (The Epsilons) and John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees). „Girl It’s Me“ sees one of Glasgow’s finest bands, The Primevals at their best. A catchy, raw and driving song, perfect for any garage/punkrock jukebox with some of the finest slide guitar lead parts.

This single is exclusively available for Record Store Day 2014 and limited to 666 copies worldwide!

01 Zonar Rose
02 Girl It’s Me

The Double A-Side Split 7”