Ruby Friday

An absolutely fantastic gig at Ruby Lounge on Friday, special thanks for the dancing and for buying CDs, thanks to The Transmitters and extra thanks to The Chords UK for playing and making it such a great night. And also thanks to Alan May of 6Towns Radio's 'Glory Boys' show and Paul Lomax for their photographs.  
All ace-ness apart from the sound engineer falling off the stage and twisting his ankle before we started; hope its better Chris! Massively appreciated that you kept going through the pain
Set List:

Day In Day Out
Seen It All Before
Checkered Land
Checkpoint Charlie
I Can't Say
Maid Of The Grey
Love
Girl On The Roof
Sit By The River
Shut All The Clubs
There's No One There

 Chris Pope and The Chords UK

The Transmitters

Femme Fatal

Saturday's 'What's The Alternative ?...' gig with Nina Gerstenberger was tremendous, big thanks to all of you that turned out to see and to watch her film that we screened between sets. Regulars know we like a collaboration and we played Femme Fatal with Nina taking the Nico role but doing it in her own style. This is exactly what live music is about. Unique and ephemeral passing moments.
Set List:
Checkpoint Charlie

I Can't Say
Shut All The Clubs
Girl On The Roof
Day In Day Out
Little Miss Restless
Maid Of The Grey
Seen It All Before
Sit By The River
Femme Fatal
There's No One there

Three sets in 15 hours

Thank you to Doncaster for dancing and getting what we we're doing on our first visit there - you were great, Scootfest is always a blast and was even bigger this year and we did something we haven't done for three years, we played a cover... Next its a 'home' gig at Kings Arms Salford with Nina Gerstenberger  and then with Chords UK at Ruby Lounge Manchester.

Doncaster setlist:

Glide On By
The War-game
Checkered Land
I See You Everywhere That I Go
Checkpoint Charlie
Substitute
Love
Seen It All Before
Sit By The River

and
the 2nd set:

I Can't Say
Chalk Circle
Only Everything
Girl On The Roof
Maid Of The Grey
Day In Day Out
Overlooked
Femme Fatal
Shut All The Clubs
Little Miss Restless
There's No One There
Uhrwerk

back home at 03:30 then out again to get to an 11:00am soundcheck at Haslingden... we did think about driving straight there.
There were cool sets from 5ft Fez and The Transmitters too

Scootfest setlist:
I Can't Say
Checkered Land
Chalk Circle
Checkpoint Charlie
Girl On The Roof
Maid Of The Grey
Shut All The Clubs
Day In Day Out
Love
Substitute
Little Miss Resltless
There's No One There

Elizabeth Gaskell photo-shoot

We had a photo-shoot at Elizabeth Gaskell's House - one of Manchester's hidden gems,

In the drawing room, having a cup of tea in 1860. This is the room where apparently Charlotte Bronte's overwhelming shyness made her hide behind the curtains to avoid a visitor while she was staying with the Gaskell's.
It is exactly the kind of room where its tempting to climb through the looking-glass and see what we found on the other side but we resisted.
Huge thanks to EGH for making us welcome.

back in real time

We've finally caught up and are back where we were in September last year and the new album is starting to get beyond the demo stage at last. Dan Astles and Carrie Lawson with Aziz Ibrahim stepped in at the last moment - and massive thanks to them for doing so when The Remnants couldn't make the trip up north, we'll have another gig with them next year instead.
Set List :
I See You Everywhere That I Go
I Can't Say
Checkered Land
Chalk Circle
The War-game
Only Everything
Uhrwerk
Maid Of The Grey
Girl On The Roof
Love
Seen It All Before
There's No One There

September is a busy month, back in the studio recording and four gigs, stay tuned for updates
And big thanks to David Meyers for these live photographs.

Real Music for Real People

It was an immensely pleasurable 'What's The Alternative?...' gig on Saturday, and great to be able to say "It will be Chris Pope on after us" fantastic to have him here again after such a long gap (1980).

set list:

Seeing It All Before
Checkered Land
Love
The Wargame
Little Miss Restless
Only Everything
Chalk Circle
Uhrwerk
Girl On The Roof
Maid Of The Grey
Day In Day Out
I Can't Say
Checkpoint Charlie
Sit By The River
There's no One There

Chris did a mixture of Chords/Pope/Solo and NEW songs, starting off with Something's Missing and ending on Maybe Tomorrow... and dedicated one to TSOS "playing real music for real people" - thanks! all fantastically intimate and I'm still smiling. Brilliant stuff.

Indian Independence Day 'may' have been celebrated after the gig with curry.

We're back again for more on 22nd with The Remnants and their dirty garage fuzz.

What's The Alternative?...August

Two August What's The Alternative gigs: 15th is Chris Pope in his first Manchester/Salford appearance for 35 years playing a solo set ranging from The Chords, to Pope and Chords UK then 22nd has pure dirty garage punk from The Remnants making their northern debut.
The Speed Of Sound have been working on some new and reanimated material too so there'll be new stuff a go-go, and with Paul the new drummer everything is sounding new anyway.