April Newsletter

 

April - a smasheroo month for the Blokes, and thus a bumper monthly newsletter! Featuring a larger selection of full-colour photographs then ever... and all the secret stories that form each thread of ours lives. The moments in between...

April fools came a day late as I foolishly fractured my pinkie finger - clearly it was a minor bc 3 days later I ran a 3:17 at the Southampton marathon - sorted.

The lads got back together and continued to develop new songs for the setlist - this time math rock waltz "Heaven's Co-ordinates" began to take shape. A few days later Tiago climbed the stepladder to success, and over coffee we discuss Hegalian dialecticals - rehearsal finished 5 minutes early as a pot of tuna chunks 2 miles away was boiling. We also had at "Not Worth Hearing" and got a pretty decent new arrangement off the ground but for morale reasons it has been shelved, for the time being. "Watch the changes".. "jazz".

I went round with a totebag underarm - scissors, tape, blue tac, but mostly Four Blokes posters. A year ago there had been a guerilla campaign across Sholing bus stops but this time we were up in various local businesses! Indoors, same from the elements, to be viewed by all who sip oat dirty chais and wear vintage band tees.

(Left to right)

Eric's Vinyl and Coffee, Beatnik Emporium, Olaf's Tun Craft Ale Bar, Bookshop Alehouse, Hobgoblin Music, Coffee.Woolston, HMV, The Fine Brownie Company, John Lewis Toilets

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job - 3 and a half months of searching after my Tesco temp time ran out, I was once again employed. But the prospect of working at a bar, for £2 less than minimum wage, for the foreseeable future was a bit horrifying so I decided to apply to Uni- more on this story as it develops.

Once more into the dingy shed - and then it was gig day. How fast it flew from horizon to touching distance... book a couple hours at Pure rehearsal and entered under the mock tudor facade for 2 excellent run-throughs of the set - the boys was ready! So, we set off to Heartbreakers with various guitars, amps, and suitcases, ready to face the music - the monster we had created with our own fingertips. The French Laundry arrived in beatnik regalia (Danish scout leader uniform, black turtle neck, English Teacher merch) swiftly followed by Gegenpress - esoteric London fields microbiomea. A gaggle of familiar and unfamiliar faces rolled through Heartbreakers doors and past Harry the doorman (upon display of a valid ticket and/or payment to the value of £5). Former members of Four Blokes, current members of Auden, many members of the Four Blokes mailing list... people from running club, American exchange students, the fella out of Escher... oh! It's 8:02 and the first band is going on. Given this is Four Blokes' first concert appearance since the newsletter began circulation we have decided to run a special feature, a play-by-play post mortem of the gig.

A JOURNEY INTO THE FRACTURED PSYCHE OF THE WEST

First up to the plate were The French Laundry, for their live debut. In the absence of Spanish bass player Ash, the line up was as follows:

Will - guitar ran through synth + 1 analogue synth + monologue synth + desk lamp

Tom - TR-8S drum machine + saxophone + lead vocal

Ed - guitar with variety of pedals

All electronic equipment was laid out upon Tom's nan's ironing board. My insight on the performance? Visually stunning, that must be said - Tom's vocals were very very pretty and had a melodic and vulnerable quality I've not seen in his other work. Ed's guitar work at times locked in with the robotic repetitions of pre-programmed synth and drum patterns and at others went off a languid journey across audio dandyism. Will's synths ranged from arps to lead melodies to counter points to big BRRRRRRR noises. It was certainly a raw version of this band, but all the ideas are there - with a little taming of the machines, there is something wonderful here.

Next up were Gegenpress. To be honest you'd be better off asking anyone else in attendance as I was actively doing doorman duties during their set and, seeing as we were on next, my mind was elsewhere... it was certainly dynamic. At moments ny-on whispering and at others rocking harder than ever. I wonder if, sandwiched between French Laundry and Four Blokes, they were perhaps a bit too conventional to live long in the memory. Right band, in the wrong place? If you were there and you enjoyed them that is enough for me - I was literally facing away from them on doors so to give my opinion is almost pointless.

After that dive into the morals of journalism, we turn our heads to the headline act - Four Blokes... Tschicovsky and Mingus played over the tannoy, and then the boys were ready. What follows is a song-by-song review of our performance by the singer/songwriter of the band which is likely a rare insight as surely anyone else would outsource this 

1) Murder of Crows - we made a point of opening with a new song, and in fact the planned opener of the second album. Defy convention! Went down pretty well I thought - little intro solo slightly ropey but we found our way in from there. A live debut, it will only improve with time.

2) Mango - an absolute classic, played at every Four Blokes gig so far. Placed second in the set for a little bit of familiarity... nice sing along chorus for the crowd, always affirming to hear that. Oscar's new guitar solo in the bridge is a very nice addition too.

3) Heaven's Co-Ordinates - started well and rapidly went very wrong. Oscar snapped a string and for reasons I cannot quite understand this made his guitar rapidly go out of tune, +16. Trying to play an instrument that is getting progressively more out of tune throughout the song is not easy - none of us had quite realised this had happened as we could not hear each other to any meaningful degree. The frets were running away from him - each time the chorus came round the melody had moved to a new unknown place. An enigma machine of an instrument. Everyone else played well - in fact given the circumstances Oscar still played really well, given the fact the song was moving location underneath his fingertips by the second.

4) I Can't Help Being A Lover - after the music gods punished us for trying something new, and Ed's guitar replaced Oscar's strange mind-of-its own machine, we went into the classic reggae ode to adultery we all know and love. Pretty routine, but some cool new guitar parts in the second verse.

5) Party Drug - a fantastic version for a solid minute; Reagon hammering away at that bassline, Oscar playing a funky little rhythm part - Tiago played the Chorus 6 bars early purely because he could not hear what anyone else was playing clearly enough to know where the Chorus actually was. I curse the soundmun... I think it was at this point I decided to take it in a daft direction. If things are going wrong and you're playing it straight, you just look daft and it's all awkward. If things are going wrong and you're playing it daft... it's all a reet good laugh. Psychology in the field.

6) Muscovado - we all sat round in a circle for my little piano ballad. Baroque in styling; if I could have it my way this would be played on harmonium but a mini-korg is far more portable. Many commented on how sticky the floor was but I hope the song sticks in their memory as well.

7) Light of the Lord - went daft. At the end of the finale quadruple chorus we sped up to warp speed levels of wereallonecolourinthelightofthelord before signing off with a cheeky outro.

8) Cara - once the opener, I think we have fallen "rapidly out of love" with it over the forty years we've been playing it. The lightweight guitar part of days gone by has been replaced with a deep rhythmic chugging. Went round and shook everyone's hand for a laugh.

9) Torture - the traditional Four Blokes closer, moved up slightly in place of more shocking things. Nice bit of wall-to-wall sprinting, a kneeslide that broke the skin, and getting various members of the audience to go "AHH"! 

10) Xylazine Addiction - the triumph of the whole night in my opinion. 3 minutes of atonal jamming before eventually settling into D Minor 7 - my que to come in. A further minute of lounge type shit, a chronicle of the downfall into addiction, before switching to full blown noise rock was the first hit of Xylazine is taken by the protagonist. The Four Blokes are each on their own journey to make the most horrible and pained noises they can. Melody and structure are abandoned all together - the new aim is to sonically express the agony of festering flesh-eating wounds. "The people around me lose limbs and lay limp in donated wheelchairs" I sing. "From skin to fat to muscle to bone, a skeleton before my grave". The guitars continue to screech and scream as Oscar smashes away at the kit. At this point I am in the fetal position screaming the word opiods and chanting, almost as if it is a mantra "I want to bomb America to the ground". As the performance breaks down into eventual silence - 9 minutes later - the guitar sounds more like an overheating generator than a musical instrument.

11) Popworld (encore) - after umming and ahhing about what to do next (Girls and Boys by Blur was one option) Myles returned to the stage and played the iconic opening riff... the crowd were rapturous, many of them having expressed disappointment at the lack of Popworld on their way in (it had been leaked that we weren't playing it by someone...) the hard driving punk beat of the original was nowhere to be sound - Oscar, who had never heard the song before, instead came up with something that just simmered under suspensefully, dripping with sixteenth notes. After some verses and choruses (some of the vocal duties were deferred to Tom, in the crowd) we went back into the noise-rock mode of Xylazine Addiction and Popworld ended with "I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna die". 

As we exited the stage to Simon and Garfunkel and then Cameron Winter, there was a strange odour in the air. Perhaps it was not the return to stage we had envisaged but a fun night was had by all. We can't wait to be back - hopefully this time the wait will be far less than 7 months.

Right! With our "special feature" out of the way we ought to wrap up the rest of April in rapidfire fashion. The day after the gig me and The French Laundry went to retrieve various items musical and otherwise from the venue and cram them, and us, into a mini cooper. We all stopped at mine for a cuppa and to stretch our legs... bye lads! It wouldn't be long before we reconvened.

The next I went to Wembley; a victory like no other over Aston Villa, a spot in the cup final, and a takeover of central London. Throat hoarse from song, I returned to Southampton and spent the next 9 hours dropping E bombs and watching music videos in the lounge of a student home, tweaking the fuck out. It was magical. Unfortunately we ran out of gum so I spent the following week with a badly lacerated mouth which made it rather painful to eat and/or be conscious. This did not help ease the mega comedown which came with an unrelenting and unplacable sense of dread. I feel fine today though so I suppose my brain chemicals are back to normal!

As a final aside, I went up to London one Monday to be auditioned for a place at BIMM university, seeking a place on their songwriting undergraduate course. Unfortunately they had lost track of my audition and there was no one avaliable to audition me on campus, so I went and did a pub quiz with The French Laundry and friends in Islington. We won! 2 bottles of wine the prize - 1 set aside and the other passed around while we played guitar and sang in tender unison in a scorching uni accom. I awoke at 4:45 AM to run the 5 miles to Waterloo.

Anyways! That's all for this month's bumper newsletter. Smasheroo. I'm off for a nice iced coffee in the sunshine before a six hour shift at my depressing workplace.

As for Four Bloke's plans for May? A return to the studio is almost certain, and I also strive to get our next concert date booked in. Until then... keep it 💯

Cuddles and kisses

Harry