| Past gigs...part 4 |
| *6th Jan '05, Bar Academy, w/ Sunset Cinema Club, the Getaways and Blisst- SEF were meant to be on third but for some reason i can't remember they got to play last which was cool. Lloyd jumped around with a strobe light David had got for his birthday and played some keyboards, the SEF Claw was prominent in the crowd and the Family played with grace. They ended with a cover of 'Take me with you' by Prince which was ace. Two guys jumped up onstage and danced really camply at the end of the song and David played the Golden Axe theme on the keyboard. |
| *30th Dec '04, Jug of Ale, supporting Distophia and Champion Kickboxer - This gig was ok but not great. The sound wasn't all that hot but they played a cover of 'Bunny Rabbits' by the Magnetic Fields which was new and exciting to behold. SEF had a new cd which they sold a load of after they'd played. The set was pretty sloppy but Bryn kept grabbing his hat off and throwing it on the floor in the dramatic bits which was funny. Bryn's dad said afterwards that he shouts too much but 'Bunny Rabbits' was good. pics |
| *2nd April '05, Jug of Ale, w/ Bom and his Magic Drumstick and Baby Pancakes - Tuning problems and a couple of false starts meant it took the 'Family about 45 minutes to play 8 songs. Despite this it was a good gig, pretty much the usual but with the added pleasure of Bryn taking his shirt off for the last song (he caved to the pleas of the boys in the audience). Tom Grant and a few other young fresh fellows got up and danced during 'Beers and Weirs' and someone threw quite a funny hat on stage which Bryn wore for a while. It goes without saying that being there was a lot better than reading this... |
| *15th February, The Dry Bar, Manchester - This was the first out of town SEF show, and it was good. We were gonna practice when we got there but we didnt want to buy a practice room which seemed to be the deal in Manchester so the valentines weekend was largely spent playing gamecube and listening to Frank Black and Tom Waits, romantic no? We also took a trip to Quasar, and spent a few hours in a squash court, where we played a game kinda like squash, only with a tennis ball and using our hands. If you've ever played Fives, it was similar to that. Anyways, there were maybe only 20 people to see us play in the end, as we were put on an hour earlier than we'd been told. So some people who came along to see us missed it, which is a shame cuz we played well. Still, those who did see us seemed to like it, and we sold what cds we had left. Afterwards we hung out with Rob from White Dwarf who happened to be living in the same building as Andrew in Manchester.- RALPH |
| *Summer '04 - After the longest break from SEF activities yet (no shows at easter as David was in Japan) we made our return at the exactly 3 years after our first ever show at the Jug of Ale - 7th July, supporting Distophia - the last show in Birmingham had been the requests show, so for this gig out went the gimmicks and in came the new songs 'Euro Court' and 'Britney Please', along with 'Sealed with a Kiss' which became the cover of the summer. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Following this show we moved into Grant Mansions for a month, setting up a studio on the landing. During this time we recorded a version of 'Euro Court', started work on new song 'Blood Ass' and played a show in the conservatory notable only for the 30 minute version of 'Take my Breath Away' which closed the set. After a month we moved out and started work on a set for our first show at Bar Academy - 19th August supporting Midas - this was our best show yet. 'Blood Ass' was played for the first time along with a new song that only got played this once, not that it was bad it just needed work. Oh and i got into university that morning, so all in all it was a good day. A lot of the usual SEF crowd were away at the Reading festival for the next show at the Flapper&Firkin - 27th August, supporting This Side Up - however Steve, Karl, Tom and Yellobelly were there, so it felt like an old show, only with better songs. There was a recording made of this show, which isnt that great as because we didnt play all that tight but a good time was had by all. Also Bryn improvised a song about Oreos and supporting the headline band. The summer ended where it began at the Jug of Ale - 3rd September, supporting Kailand w/Tybalt - the sound was bad, Bryn was suffering with a cold and we messed up the newly resurrected 'Wendy Ate the Grapes'. It wasnt all bad though, new song 'Beers&Wiers' made it's live debut and if you ever get to hear the cd made of this show it wasnt nearly as bad as it seemed at the time, however it was a disappointing end to an otherwise good summer for SEF... - RALPH |
| *Summer 05 - was a fairly low key summer for SEf, not necessarily a bad thing. With Andrew away for the first couple months we settled into David's garage, setting it up as a practice space. This time was mainly spent working on new songs, listening to Steely Dan and occasionally cutting loose to Donkey Konga. We also went on a shopping spree with the money from the previous SEF show (picking up California Games and the movie Interface to name just two) and played a couple songs at a house party with Matt on drums, 'Blood Ass' was captured on video. Our first show back was to be at - Bar Academy, August 4th w/Photo and Plinth - we didnt get much full band practice for this show, still we had one new song and we played ok. About 3 songs in everything started to go a bit wrong, 'Bunny Rabbits' went outta tune and we had to start 'Beers&Weirs' again having messed up the first time, but there was no shame in that, as Bryn noted 'many men have the same problem', and the second half of the set went better. Still we felt we could do better, and Plinth and freinds laying into us on blogs after the show soured the experience a bit too, but you gotta take stuff like that on the chin right? Things were to get better. It was around this time we got invited to play - Cold Rice, Bar Academy, August 20th, supporting Johnny Foreigner w/Uncle Pete - having messed up the last show we decided to play the bare essentials, just a 5 song set, still just one new song ready enough to play, but this show went more to plan. Again it felt like we could play better, but there was really nothing we could do about that except rush to finish the new songs, which would have been even worse. Just three days later we played what was to be the final show of the summer at - the Flapper and Firkin, 23rd August, supporting Paperweight Industry, w/Sixer - we finally got into our stride with this one. The playing was good, the banter was friendly and we had some fun for the first time that summer. We even managed to recover the new song mid song when missed my cue. Damn good times. (n.b Shortly after this Bryn played a solo show with some SEF songs and some solo material like 'ScreamBox', it was good.) We had to cancel a final show at the Jug, but it gave Tom Grant a chance to showcase some hip hop to a Jug crowd and gave us the chance to do some writing and record a session for the Volts Show with Paul Ross providing backing vocals on an accordian version of 'Euro Court'..and we got a call about playing in Nottingham......RALPH pics |
| *30th September '05, Junktion 7 Nottingham, supporting Seachange and Distophia - Our second outta town show was a freshers event. Distophia's ever raising profile and Seachange being from Nottingham and signed to Matador et al ensured a big crowd, maybe the biggest since Cotteridge, certainly the biggest for a while and the show was a success. It was a little shaky at the start, mainly cuz we hadnt practiced in a month but once we got into it we played well. Thanks to the wonders of MySpace, and a group of Mancunians travelling down with Andrew 'Euro Court' even got a cheer when it was announced. A new song 'Stert and I say Hi' almost got it's first outing but didnt quite make the cut. Seachange and the people working the venue turned out to be really nice and everyone seemed to enjoy it. A few pictures from that night can be found here |
| *6th January '06, Bar Academy, w/support from Half the Battle and Cylnder:Sound - a Christmas holiday riddled with drawbacks meant that once again we found ourselves without much practice time. Despite this, a headline show at Bar Academy with friends Half the Battle was too sweet to turn down. To breathe some life into old songs we enlisted the help of (the writer of most of these past gig reviews, and Bryn's brother) Lloyd Bowen and Ben Churchill to play some extra guitars and keyboards. With Ben's help we also gave new song 'Stert and I say hi!' it's first airing. The sound wasnt great, but the crowd that turned out were, so we managed to play one of our better shows, even getting to play our first encore. The whole show was caught on dvd and makes for reasonable viewing. A good way to sign off for the next couple months. Thanks to everyone who came along, Lloyd and Ben, and Charlie for videoing the whole thing - RALPH just a few pics |