ROCKING A RACEHORSE & GLADSTONE...BUDGET.

ROCKING A RACEHORSE & GLADSTONE...BUDGET.

    Hello Gladstonians, old Sherlock's Dog here with an update on what's been occurring in the Gladstone camp, well on 18th May we treaded hallowed boards at The Racehorse in Northampton, this iconic pub has hosted many local legends and it was great to finally play there.

  The event was "Rock on Stage 4th edition" and featured Lynchpyn (London), Podagra (Birmingham), The Red Triangle Circus Gang (Northampton) and us...we went on first. We had a 30 minute set to do and we started off in our traditional way with Night Creatures, The Madness of Tilly Matthews ect, at the end of our slot we were encouraged to play one more, so out came God Save the Queen....with further encouragement Mr McBuggerballs V and Mr Evil gave a roaring version of For Whom the Bell Tolls which brought to an end any more of our shenanigans. The gig went very well it was so good to see so many of our friends in the audience, thanks to everyone who made it your efforts are very much appreciated and many thanks go to Mr Joe Foley (of Tape fame) for playing Bass for us at such short notice.

    So we move on to 25th May and north Leicestershire for the much looked forward to Glastonbudget, there were several Steampunk bands on alongside us, they were Birthrite, BB Blackdog and Metropolis. It was (thankfully) a warm sunny day and just outside the marquee where we were playing was the Steampunk market area where our good mates Steve Frearson and Jacklyn Hyde (Jaqui & Giles) were plying their trade,we also met up with Claira who showed us around (I think she should have been working, but I won't tell!).

Johnny & Chris of Metropolis invade!!!

     There was a great atmosphere and each band performed magnificently, we were on at 6.15 and again we only had a 30 minute set, this time we included Jack Hall in the set list which went down well, we threw everything we had at giving a good performance as this was going to be Paul "Shovel Hands" Hutchins last gig with us, it is with great sadness that he must leave but we wish him well and the very best of luck with his future endeavours, for our future gigs we are proud to introduce Mr Mike Bower as the new member of Gladstone and I'm sure all Gladstonians will give him a rousing welcome.

    .......and so, what's next I hear you ask, we will be finishing the mixing on the album and trying to get a release date for around the Summer Solstice, as this is a totally DIY enterprise (how Punk is that!!!) we must crave your patience as it's not easy, but we are getting there I promise. Our next gig will be on Friday 28th June at the 2nd Steampunk Solstice at the Pavillion in Matlock Bath, lot's of bands and hods of traders it will be fantastic, I hope to see many of you there, many, many thanks go to the photographers who as always have done an amazing job, they are Irek Broda, Giles Warhurst and Fletch Photography https://www.facebook.com/fletchphotography1982, until then TTFN and stay safe.

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More photos, I hope you enjoy them.......

Mike and Cloud.....I presume!

Mr Evil.

The Spook.

Amy smiles!!!

Birthrite's Erazamus  Voss.

Mike on backing vocals for "Tilly Matthews".

Amy and Jaqui.

Gladstonebudget!!!

Thanks Paul, it's been an honour.

A Tremendous Time in Tewkesbury.

Claira's Birthday party.

Happy Birthday Claira.

    It was Saturday 11th May and we were off west to the beautiful town of Tewkesbury, the occasion was our good friend (and fan) Claira's birthday party at The Northway pub. After a warm welcome we set up and sound checked, then at around 10.30pm we went on.

    We began with Night Creatures and were soon into The Madness of Tilly Matthews during which we dragged Claira up on stage to sing the chorus....ain't we cruel!!!

    We played a full set and really enjoyed ourselves, after Newgate the birthday cake was presented (a chocolate caterpillar....ooohhhh yeeesssss!!) then we carried on, Dave in full horror clown costume gave a disturbing performance of Jack Hall and we finished on a rousing

rendition of For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was a great party that went on until the early hours, many thanks go to Mr Joe Fairbrother for stepping in at the last minute, the awesome Mr Shadrik Easton for taking the photos and of course Claira for inviting us.

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The Day of the Dog and Undead Dudley.

The Day of the Dog and Undead Dudley.

Sherlock's Dog reports on a busy weekend..........

   On 13th April off I went as fast as my paws would carry me to Matlock Bath and what I thought was a Derbyshire version of Crufts, instead I was greeted by my old mates BB Blackdog and what a superb day it was! This was the fund raising event to help BB Blackdog replace their equipment after it was stolen last December, the event was organised by Cas Sharpe and what a superb job she made of it. All the action took place at The Fishpond and at 2pm Whiskey Bob Shaker kicked things off, Whiskey Bob is a very talented musician, he is a one man band using loops to to create an amazing sound, check him out you won't be disappointed. Next was Punk band Gripper and the Gurnards, featuring BB Blackdogs ex-bassist John Ferguson on drums, it was quite a sing-a-long to the old classics (aahhh those were the days!), local rock duo The King Bains entertained us next with some outstanding guitar work and they were closely followed by Heavy Metalers 3 Second Fuse who played a mixture of original and cover songs, for a while they were accompanied by Mike Bower of BB Blackdog on bass.

    Refreshment time saw us legging it down the road for a pie and a pint and we were soon back for the steamier second instalment which kicked off with Crimson Clocks, the Crimsons gave an excellent set, it's always good to see Linzi's pussycat being stroked so lovingly, to continue in true Steampunk fashion the wonderful Metropolis hit the stage, they are just dazzling these days, a superb band.

"Supergroup"

    It was now time for the auction, many traders had donated their wares for this day and the audience did not disappoint, they were biding like demons and many funds were raised by their generosity, now it was time for the Supergroup Birthrites Jonny Zygen, Mark Thinsliced and Gladstone's Dave Evil were joined by BB Blackdog's Mike Bower in a thundering rendition of "Paranoid", when this was finished the BB Boys were grabbed, forced into seats and when the supergroup were joined by Dave Sharpe on vocals they were well and truly "gimped" much to the delight of the audience.

BB Gimped!!

    The night carried on in style with Birthrite blasting onto the stage and in fine form with Erazamus dancing with the crowd, next were my pet humans Gladstone entering with the usual ethereal bells and smugglers song before launching into Night Creatures, Bluey, Ballad of William Winter, Twisted Lip, Newgate, Dr Dexter's Dream, Hall of the Mountain King, Curse of Tutankhamun, Madness of Tilly Matthews and ending on Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls especially for Giles and Jaqui ('cos they like it!) at which time old Spook decided to jump off the stage and headbang....with no hair!!

BB Blackdog

Birthrite

    Finally the band for whom the day was all about, BB Blackdog began their set, it had been quite an emotional day for them and when they found out how much had been raised they were amazed and quite overwhelmed, it had been a great day and well done Cas not only for organising the event but also for being brave enough to invite Birthrites Mark, all of Metropolis and all of Gladstone back to her house!! Dave cooked an amazing Chilli con carne and the very generous Giles Warhurst donated a massive chocolate cake (made by the Tattooed Cake Company) that he had won at the auction (I hope Jaqui is speaking to him for this selfless act), it tasted wonderful!!

Gladstone

    Next day it was back to Matlock Bath and The Fishpond to clear all the equipment away and head off to the China Rose for a slap up meal with loads of friends, what an amazing bunch you all are, soon it was time to say goodbye and go convoy fashion (Metropolis in front, God help us all!) to Rock Zombie in Dudley.

    We arrived just after 6 and loaded in, Rock Zombie is a new venue and it has a great atmosphere, a must visit if you're in the area (and you like you're music fast 'n' noisy that is), Gladstone were first on and they gave a cracking set, as the time given was the same as the night before (45 mins) the set remained the same, the crowd were a bit different to the usual Steampunk events, in this venue there were Bikers, Metal Heads, Punks, Goths, a real cross section of "alternative" cultures and it was fantastic, after Gladstone came

Metropolis who also gave a great energetic set and went down very well as did the headliners Birthrite playing on their home ground they gave their all. This was the first Steampunk event in Rock Zombie and by the sound of the feedback I doubt it'll be the last, it was a superb night but all too soon it was time for us all to go our separate ways into the night.........

Next time.....to Tewkesbury!!

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Many thanks to Giles Warhurst and Lucas Fairbrother for these photos, here are a few more, you guys are amazing....

GLADSTONE STEAMPUNK ADVERTISEMENT.

This is an advertisement on behalf of Gladstone, it won't take a moment.

    Hello I'm Sherlock's Dog, I have been asked by that bunch of ne'er do wells Gladstone to do a spot of advertising, so here goes.     "If you like your Steampunk dark

                                            and if you want to hear me bark

                                             then off you go and take a look

                                            at this link to facebook.........and Reverbnation.

Look, I'm a dog not a bleedin' poet, but please if you haven't already....give us a "like", thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gladstone/228685370476192

http://www.reverbnation.com/gladstonesteampunk

Steampunks in the snow, Steampunks at the seaside.

Steampunks in the snow, Steampunks at the seaside.

Another day in the life of Sherlock's Dog.

 

Friday night arrived in a swirl of snowflakes, it was all very pretty....miserable!! It was 22nd March and we were off to the Charles Bradlaugh, Northampton, we were playing with some awesome bands that night but because of the white menace Birthrite had to cancel. So it was up to the other three bands to put on a good show, first up was LHASA Calling a Northampton post-punk band on their first outing and they pulled it off magnificently, next was

Gladstone with a masked Spook wandering around lantern in hand to Amy's tolling bells. We went through the usual set only leaving out a couple because of time restraints and ending on Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen", in all a good gig, it made a change playing in front of a local audience and we really enjoyed ourselves. Headlining was the superbly dark Venus Fly Trap who had just completed a European tour, it's always a pleasure to see these guys play, they did tracks from their latest album "Nemisis" and a superb cover of The Cramps "Human Fly".

Venus Fly Trap

  It was great to see some of our friends turning up and braving the inclement weather, many thanks to you all, soon it was time to load up and it was like a blizzard!! This worried us because in just a few hours time we were driving 180 miles down to Camber Sands and.............. Steampunk at the Seaside.....

    We left a very snowy Northampton at 10am Saturday 23rd and drove carefully out towards the motorway....which was clear so there was no problem, we were off!! Arriving safely we booked into our caravans and explored, we bumped into many friends and familiar faces, always smiling, always friendly. At 5 it was time to sound check, the headline band for the weekend had arrived......The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing!! They sound checked first and played two new songs (we were the first to hear 'em), then we did ours, doors opened at 7pm, Gladstone were on at 8.30.

    "It's an odd feeling singing a song about the place your standing on!" said Spook later, but that's what Night Creatures is all about, smuggling on Romney Marsh, as usual it was performed with mask in place, Cloud looked every inch the mad axeman with his sheep skull (it's called Alan) around his neck and a devilish gleam in his eye! and with a thundering bass from Paul "shovel hands" we went into The Madness of Tilly Matthews, Bluey, The Ballad of William Winter,

Mr Evil, Jack Hall.

Twisted Lip, Newgate, Dr Dexter's Dream, zombie Dave Evil entered the crowd and played his snare drum for Jack Hall, then Purple Reefer, Hall of the Mountain King and The Curse of Tutankhamun. At this point something we will remember for a long time happened, usually in our set at this point we play Boilerplate Dan but TMTWNBBFN were here and looking at us, haha!! we had their permission so we played it anyway, it went down a treat, it was a weird and exciting experience!! We ended on God Save The Queen and For Whom The Bell Tolls which had the audience bouncing around, at the end they shouted for more...oh dear...more..err, ok, so we gave them Twisted Lip again then ran for it!!

    To top the night TMTWNBBFN played an AWESOME set, they are without doubt one of the best SteamPUNK bands in Europe, they played all the classics you would expect from both albums plus the two new tracks Gin and (please forgive me if I get it wrong) Necropolis, we were singing "Jesus was a f**king Cockney" for the rest of the night! All too soon it was over, Marc and Andrew DJ'd for a few hours while we drifted further and further into a befuddled state thanks to several pints at the bar.

    Next morning it was big breakfast and even bigger mugs of tea...uurrgg.....we arrived back in snowy Northampton with some great memories, it was fantastic, thanks to Thadeus Tinker, Lady Elsie and the VSS for having us, the Steampunks for being sooo friendly and TMTWNBBFN for just being good mates, cheers.

    The photos used here were taken by Giles Warhurst, Lucas Fairbrother and Michelle Cooper, many thanks.

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Tales of a Shed and a Library

Tales of a Shed and Library.

    Good day to you Ladies and Gentlemen, Sherlock's Dog here again with some more band news. First off  a short trip to Leicester and our re-scheduled audition for the Glastonbudget festival (the first was cancelled due to very snowy conditions...frozen paws, not nice!), this took place on 1st March at that amazing venue The Shed. We did a 30 minute set which included our faster songs like Night Creatures, The Madness of Tilly Matthews, Bluey, Twisted Lip, Dr Dexter's Dream, Hall of the Mountain King and finishing with The Curse of Tutankhamun. The gig went down very well and I must thank our fans for turning up and giving us some incredible support, the good news is we got through and we will be playing the Glastonbudget festival along side (so far) BB Blackdog, Birthrite and Metropolis in May, the times and running order has yet to be finalised but you can keep up to date with developments here; http://www.glastonbudget.org/.

    So what's this about a library I hear you ask....well, on the 9th March off we went on our travels again this time to the furthest north we have ever played, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. This was a bit of a homecoming for our singer Spook as he hails from Morpeth, just a little further north! The Anachronism was a celebration of all things Steampunk/Cyberpunk and was held at Gateshead central library, in the Caedmon Hall was a large stage and lots of great stalls selling all sorts of wonderful goodies. Through the day there were craft workshops, talks, Tea Duelling, 99th Garrison the Star Wars Sith cosplayers looked incredible and local rapper B Type entertained us before the first band took to the stage, this was the awesome Birthrite!

    Birthrite played a fantastic set (as usual), Erazamus Voss bouncing all over the place and dancing with....anyone really! They played for about an hour and then it was our turn, now, there is something I have to confess, for the first time in the bands history we changed the line-up! What happened was......

Gladstone with Paul on guitar and Joe on bass.

due to personal reasons our beloved guitarist Cloud could not play this gig, it all happened at the last minute so we moved Paul "Shovel Hands" onto guitar and stole a bassist!! So introducing our new stand in bassist Mr Joe "Sticky Fingers" Foley, we have played with Joe's band Tape (http://www.facebook.com/tapethetape) several times before (Sept 2011 Brixworth, May 2012 The Bantam, Northampton), Paul and Joe had three days to learn and practice the set, with Cloud's help they worked a miracle.

    The gig went very well, we started with Night Creatures, Tilly Matthews (during which we had the privilege of having Erazamus Voss and Mark Thinsliced of Birthrite on backing vocals), Bluey (during which Dave split his bass drum skin!), a very different version of The Ballad of William Winter (which sounded great!), Twisted Lip, a guitarless Newgate and Dr Dexter's Dream, Jack Hall, Purple Reefer, Mountain King, Curse of Tutankhamun and ending on a rip-roaring version of TMTWNBBFN's Boilerplate Dan. It had been a great day, but it was not over yet, after the gig we travelled north to Morpeth where we had a great feast at Spook's parents house and then drove into a cold snowy night to visit William Winter's Gibbet.....

    Next time...Cloud returns for a big Northampton gig and Steampunk at the sea side, stay tuned, be safe TTFN Gladstonians.

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A New Year and a Steampunk Convivial.

A New Year and a Steampunk Convivial.

    The new year kicked off to a flying start with the release of the compilation CD Northampton Under Glass 2 from White Elephant Records, along with other great Northampton bands such as Ethereal K and Venus Fly Trap the CD features Gladstone's The Madness of Tilly Matthews. Other band news, we've been busy recording tracks for our first album, it's been a slow process but we're getting there.......honest! The band were also mentioned in The Squash Magazine in an article on Steampunk written by our good friend Biff Raven-Hill, read it here;

http://issuu.com/create-a-brand/docs/squash_feb_march?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

    So, to our first gig of the year, The Second Surrey Steampunk Convivial which was held at The Royal Oak, New Malden. The day was filled with splendid events such as Tea duelling, clockwork snail racing, shadow puppets and the incredible creations of Herr Doktor. Laughs (and groans) for the day were brought by the excellent Count Rostov, the music began with Dirty Spoons, a lively folk band followed by Moth who gave us a great set and got the audience ready for Birmingham's own Crimson Clocks. Following the Crimsons were the excellent Birthrite who gave us a great set against a back drop playing black and white films, finally it was Gladstone's turn on stage but unfortunately time was not our friend this night, the venue had a live music curfew of 11 o'clock and we hit the stage at 10.40!! So with time fast disappearing we ran swiftly through Night Creatures, The Madness of Tilly Matthews, Bluey, Twisted Lip, Hall of the Mountain King and The Curse of Tutankhamun, it was disappointing but we did our best to play as many songs as possible. Next up, The Shed, Leicester and our Glastonbudget audition.....see you soon Gladstonians.

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