Steampunk at the Lab

Steampunk at the Lab

 Gladstone returns home.

    4th April saw Gladstone back on home turf when we returned to the Labour Club legendarylabourclub, a venue we last played on 3rd March 2012!! It has been too long, the Lab is an awesome venue tucked away in darkest Victorian Northampton and a perfect venue for a Steampunk event. Steampunk at the Lab was hosted by Matt Appleby and Bungle Lord, who's other half Heather is proprietor of Heathers THE place for Steampunks (and anyone else for that matter) to go and have tea and cake.
    The event began at 2pm with an array of stalls ranging from Goth clothing to books, which included both Heart's Cog Imperative and Automata Wars (see this blog for there launch events) and the workshop "Starwars: Steampunk'd" by L.M. Cooke and Steven C. Davis, as they say "this is YOUR story, so don't blame us, who were merely your humble conduits".

Nathan Jones

    The evening event was kicked off in great style by the Northampton alternative poet Nathan Jones who was witty, clever and very entertaining as well as thought provoking. Next up was our old mate Dale Rowles of BB Blackdog who did an amazing acoustic set with songs from Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Radiohead and many others, it was so good to finally share a stage with him again and to cap it all it was his partner Karin's birthday, happy birthday my dear.
    Next to tread the boards was another bunch of our mates, the wonderful Birthrite, they gave as usual a very tight and powerful set, their energy is as addictive as their songs are catchy, as with Dale if you haven't seen them live then do try, to quote The Jam.....that's entertainment!!

Dale Rowles

    Last up was local boys and gal Gladstone, it is always a pleasure to play Northampton and this time was no exception, with mask and sonic assault we launched into Night Creatures, two of the three new songs got an airing, Gaslight and King Ludd as well as old classics such as The Madness of Tilly Mathews, Curse of Tutankhamun, Twisted Lip and Dr Dexter's Dream.
    The night was fantastic, thanks to Pete the sound man, the audience were amazing and it was so good to see old friends such as Biff Raven-Hill, Michael Sumner, Graham and Heather Hayden, Alex Novak and the lovely Karen who I haven't seen in an age!! There are rumours of another Steampunk at the Lab event, if this happens then please come to Northampton for it, this event deserves to be a must for you all and the beer is very good. Gladstone's album is available for download here; Tales from the Jago, the photos were taken by Spooks daughter Rachel Stoker, here's some more;

Birthrite

Heart's Cog Imperative book launch.

Risc Cafe, Reading.

    On Saturday 7th March we found ourselves in the privileged position of taking part in the launch of the Steampunk novel Heart's Cog Imperative by Steven C. Davis and S. J Stewart, in their own words "The Heart's Cog Imperative is the tale of the stolen Royal British empire airship the Herbert George and her crew, headed by bookseller-turned-rogue, Captain Jasper Woods. He is ably assisted & hindered by his crew of Thistle Wales, Fuschine Nagle, Pallograph Smith, Hadron Templeton, Prometheus Jones, Rain Silvermore, and others ...Heart's Cog Imperative FB page

    A donation was also raised for the charity New Futures Nepal who do excellent work raising awareness for orphaned and disadvantaged children in Nepal (New Futures Nepal). The night began with a reading from the novel by Steven C. Davis, Jane Setter and Gladstone's Gordon Stoker, this reading outlined the basic plot of the novel introducing important characters and setting the scene for the next reading which would follow first a tournament of tea dueling, a well fought and courageous clash of wills.

    Following many a fair fought duel came the superb Crimson Clocks, with songs from Celtic mythology to evil geniuses, it was good to see Trevor on good form.

 Sadly as Steve could not make it on this occasion Dave Evil of Gladstone joined the Crimson's for the song Red Violin, the set also included among many others Shadow, Limbo and Crossroads. The set went very well and Linzi, Colin and Jo performed magnificently (Crimson Clocks).

    Another reading from Heart's Cog Imperative followed the Crimson Clocks, this reading expanded on the rebels and described in very exciting detail an airship battle between East Indiaman airships and the Herbert George airship stolen by the rebels, to know more seek out the novel!!

   As the evening drew to a close Gladstone came on in traditional noisy fashion with Night Creatures and carried on in that vein with Bluey, Twisted Lip, The Madness of Tilly Mathews, Dr Dexter's Dream, Purple Reefer, Newgate, Curse of Tutankhamun and the haunting Gaslight.

With still time to thrash a few more songs out Cloud sang For Whom the Bell Tolls, then God Save the Queen followed by Boilerplate Dan, finally finishing on a well received version of Jack Hall (Gladstone). Download the album "Tales from the Jago" here; Tales from the Jago.

    I would like to thank Steven C. Davis and L.M Cooke for the photos, here's a few more;

  

Gladstone at the Purple Turtle, Camden.

Halloween at the Purple Turtle.

    The iconic venue The Purple Turtle hosted the awesome night that was THE Halloween place to be in London, the line up included The Memepunks, Gladstone and Aurelio Voltaire.

The Memepunks

    First up was the super fun mash up band The Memepunks, in a jocular fashion they smashed together songs you will recognise with theme tunes that you will also recognise to produce a heady mix of musical fun.  While dancing, there will also be humming and singing along; catch them if you can.

    Next up were your old mates Gladstone who gave their all despite gremlins in the bass amp!! They kicked off with Night Creatures then Bluey, The Madness of Tilly Matthews, Newgate and Twisted Lip, next was the new song Gaslight which went down a treat, during one of the bassless bits Dave and Spook performed Jack Hall which was followed by Dr Dexter's Dream and The Curse of Tutankhamun, a superb gig which every member of Gladstone hugely enjoyed, it was so good to see Cloud back on guitar after his short break.

    Finally it was over to the headliner Aurelio Voltaire who was, as always, very popular with the crowd with his Gothic folk extravaganza, he was indeed raised by bats!!

Please give us a "like" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GladstoneUK

    Many thanks Heather and Graham Hayden for selling so many Gladstone CD's and to the following for the photos Loz Fancourt, Julia Gosling, Gordon spook Stoker and Edmund West, here's some more;

     

Steampunk at The Workhouse.

A Full Steam Metal Racket Miracle!!!

    With the final demise of Alt-Fest after what seemed like an age of rumour a new festival was put together in just 10 days!! This miracle was worked by Dale Rowles, Silver Johnson and Rich Starkie (if I've left anyone out I'm sorry) and it comprised of the Steampunk and parts of the S.O.P.H.I.E stage. The venue was that awesome place The Workhouse in Llanfylin, Wales, where we played nearly exactly two years ago.

 

We left Northampton on the Friday evening and arrived in the middle of the night, we managed to put three tents up by the light of car headlamps, then we were off to the bar for a well earned pint or three. Festivities had started on that Friday night and we were sorry to have missed Montague Jacques Fromage III's opening, Dark Patrick, Needle Poppets, Skreamer and the late night burlesque show, but we really enjoyed ourselves on the Saturday with amazing bands such as Dark Design, King Bains, Mysterious Freakshow, Skorbut, BB Blackdog, The Wattingers (slaughterhouse blues steampunk!! I kid you not), Frenchy and the Punk (so pleased to see them again) and Craig Sheridan all compared fantastically by Mr Montague Jacques Fromage III.

    Gladstone were on at 6pm and we threw ourselves into giving as good a show as we could, this was Captain Joe Sparrowlegs first gig with us on guitar and he proved himself with style, starting off in time honoured tradition with Night Creatures followed by a new song King Ludd, we rattled through Bluey, Newgate, Jack Hall, The Madness of Tilly Matthews, Twisted Lip and another new song Gaslight, Dr Dexter's Dream, Purple Reefer, Mountain King and The Curse of Tutankhamun, finally finishing on Sex Pistols God Save the Queen which saw Spook off into the audience yelling "No Future!!"

    Another drunken night followed with Dale giving us the last bottle of his excellent home made elderflower wine, cheers mate :), songs were sung around the camp fire well into the early hours, we made many new friends and caught up with many old mates, in all it was a fantastic weekend and we look forward to it all happening again next year.

    So, with all this going on what else is there to report, Gladstone are being played regularly on Mick Mercer Radio, for his latest broadcast click here (Mick Mercer Radio broadcast-33-august-24th-2014), the album "Tales from the Jago" is now available on hard copy (at the moment just from gigs) but the bandcamp download is available here Gladstone, Tales from the Jago.for just £6 or individual tracks for £1 each.

    Many, many thanks go to the photographers David Broadbent (DavidBroadbentPhotography), Giles Warhurst (JacklynHyde) and Chris Wolf Deaton (Dark-Wolf-Photography).

Please give us a "like" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GladstoneUK

    Well that's it for just now, this is Sherlock's Dog signing off, so long, fair well, auf wiedersehen, ta ta ;)

GLADSTONE PRESENTS, TALES FROM THE JAGO

Ladies and Gentlemen GLADSTONE proudly presents.....

TALES FROM THE JAGO.

Available from 31st July from here; Gladstone, Tales from the Jago.

    This album has been about two years in the making, this is due to it being totally home made, proper Steam PUNK, it was recorded in a work unit in a village in Northamptonshire using equipment bought by Mr Dave Evil who learned how to use it himself, he also rendered the album and mastered it all through trial and error.....but he did it, it took blood, sweat and many tears but he did it!

    The artwork was crafted by our very own Miss Amy "Teacake" Bradford who has recently graduated from university where she studied animation design, she managed to juggle studying and playing in the band for three years, well done Amy.

    What about the name I hear you cry, this was Spooks idea, he reads a lot and he had just finished "Child of the Jago" by Arthur Morrison, the Jago is a fictitious slum in the east end of London approximately where the Old Nichol was just north of Spitalfields, if you want to know more, read it, you won't be disappointed.  

    As for Paul we were so pleased when he returned to the fold as our bassist, it was great to have him back from his short break and the endless re-recording and frustrations have finally born fruit, it is with a heavy heart that we must say goodbye to Cloud Gingeris McBuggerballs V, who remains a close and valued friend, what ever he decides to do and in what direction he wishes to travel we wish him well and all the luck in the world. This album is testament to a band that didn't give up, I hope you enjoy our efforts.

    The album will be released on 31st July and is priced at £6, each track is individually sold at £1, it is downloadable from our Bandcamp page here Gladstone, Tales from the Jago.

    So, what's next for Gladstone, hopefully Alt-Fest will be our next live outing where we will be debuting our new guitarist Captain Joe Sparrowlegs and a couple of new songs "King Ludd" and "Gaslight", after that it's back to the studio and work on another release, lets hope it won't take too long...........

Please give us a "like" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GladstoneUK

Songs for S.O.P.H.I.E.

A VICTORIAN VALENTINE......

    People sometimes say to me "Sherlock's Dog....get off the couch!" and at other times say things like "are you an old romantic?", well I suppose I am and a very happy old dog I was when I traipsed up to Stoke-on-Trent with my old mates Gladstone, we were heading for The Underground in Hanley and what a crackin' venue it was. The event was hosted by Ceri Roberts and Rich Starkie of Neon Tiger Productions and was in aid of The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Sam & Cal of Hex.

    After a quick load in and sound check it was doors open and away we go.....first to tread the boards was a great band called Hex, these guys are usually a three piece Heavy/Glam rock band but they had been reduced in numbers to two and so armed with acoustic guitars they still rocked the place, they are massively talented and huge fun.

    Next to launch themselves into the spotlight was Gladstone (hurrrahhh!!), Spook, his face hidden within a mask for the sake of public decency, began proceedings with the intro to the first song "Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark, brandy for the parson, baccy for the clerk ect......" and so Night Creatures began, this was closely followed by Bluey, Newgate, William Winter, The Madness of Tilly Matthews and a new song that was played here for the first time, Springheeled Jack. They then went on to play Twisted Lip, Dr Dexter's Dream, Mountain King, The Curse of Tutankhamun, Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Sex Pistols God Save the Queen, for an encore they belted out TMTWNBBFN's Boilerplate Dan and ended on a rip roaring version of Jack Hall.

    A superb night, Amy Teacake, Mr Evil, Mr McBuggerballs V, Spook and Paul Shovelhands would like to thank everyone for the warm reception you gave us, Paul had quite a romantic surprise when his fiancee Evie turned up out of the blue (well actually smuggled up there by Spook!), he'd already bought flowers, nice work Mr Shovelhands.

    Finally the awesome BB Blackdog rounded off the night with an incredible performance, their blend of blues/psychedelia/funk creates a sound that BB have made all their own, it was great to catch up with these guys  again, we hadn't seen then for soooo long, we finally got to meet their new bassist, a fine lady called Molly and blimey can she play bass!!!!

    Sadly the night ended there, many thanks to Neon Tiger for letting us play and also many thanks to the very talented photographer Mr Steve Morrey who has kindly given me permission to use his photos here, cheers mate you are a star. You can see more of Steve's work here http://www.capturedfocus.co.uk/ and if you wish to find out more about The Sophie Lancaster Foundation or if you wish to donate to this very worthy cause then please click on this link https://www.facebook.com/thesophielancasterfoundation.

Please give us a "like" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GladstoneUK

See you again soon playmates, here's some more photos.....