album – Page 2 – Ferocious Blog

Solo acoustic guy..

It’s no secret on these pages that I’m a huge fan of Gaz Brookfield – his latest recorded offering Solo Acoustic Guy landed on my doormat on the day he played Rock City along with Mad Dog Mcrea and Ferocious Dog providing me with the perfect soundtrack for heading on into Nottingham. It’s a product of an agile musician – announcing the idea, canvassing Facebook fans to choose tracks, recording, producing and sending within a few weeks.

This CD straddles the divide between a studio and live recording – recorded in a studio, but in a one-take live style. The promise of mistakes, bum notes or forgotten lyrics being included – a warts and all exposé of an artist clearly not feeling too vulnerable with being able to deliver the goods. Bearing in mind that by the time this was being laid down he was probably already starting to suffer from the lurgy that rendered a couple of FD’s dates sadly Gazless.

For a mere tenner (or more, if you feel generous) you’re treated to nineteen tracks chosen by frequency of comments on his Facebook page, with enthusiastic levels of suggestions from his back catalogue. Ella and I made it our mission to get Glass Half Empty on there – even though I reckon we are the only ones who put that one forward we were delighted to see it there nestling on track fifteen amongst the other selections people made.

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Freeborn Al / 2nd December 2015 / Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

The Splendour of the weekend to come..

Whilst I’ve been still basking a bit in the warm fuzziness of last weekend at Wistful, it will be good to get a bit of full-on Ferocious Dog this weekend at Nottingham’s Splendour Festival. I’m not generally a huge fan of Splendour, it’s pretty pricey (although I guess if you divide the ticket price by the number of acts you want to see it does work out good value this year). FD played it last year but an early slot on a small stage so I didn’t indulge, although I did go to it when the Levellers played a couple of years back.

The list of terms and conditions are potentially entertaining too depending on how many Hell Hounds descend for the 5:15 showtime. We shall see! Definitely this year I won’t be attempting to smuggle in a litre and a half of rum (successfully) like I did on my previous visit… after consuming that I found myself practically asleep against the crash barrier for much of the Levellers set. Mercifully this rendered me unable to ‘appreciate’ the headline act of Dizzee Rascal too so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad plan!

This year though with Roots Manuva, The Specials and James on the bill too there’s more to look forward to than just Ferocious Dog which is always a bonus, and there’s sure to be new acts to discover. The other drawback to Splendour is the lack of camping option – on account of the potentially vicious deer in the park – although whilst not my current home Nottingham is a place I can find places to stay pretty easily – and I’m sure there’ll be a few folk out and about to make it into a suitably fun party!

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Freeborn Al / 16th July 2015 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Music, Other Bands / 0 Comments

New album artwork revealed..

I’m sure most of you will have spotted on Facebook that Dan has revealed the forthcoming album cover as we’re looking at a slight delay to the release date. It features two sinisterly feature-limited and thus dehumanised police officers restraining a person – rather roughly judging by the blood splatter on the floor, with a third standing behind smiling at one of his companions.

Those of you who’ve had a chance to absorb some of the new songs at gigs (or had a listen to some of the unmastered recordings) will have already attuned to the underlying disquiet either at specific events or the current political climate – which all hooks into the album title From Without too – the first album just bore the Ferocious Dog logo (and indeed name), whereas now we’re seeing something that draws together the themes from the songs and gives it accompanying imagery and a name, a consistent message.

Exciting times! The countdown is almost over…

Freeborn Al / 1st July 2015 / Band, Music, Photos / 0 Comments

Glaston-buried, but the fun doesn’t end..

I think it’s fair to say that Ferocious Dog‘s debut at Glastonbury has been a resounding success – just look at this photo I pinched from Scott! Certainly the number of search engine hits to this site searching for more information about them has increased since Monday. The cherry-on-the-cake of some BBC coverage of course never transpired, but with folk uploading photos and videos to Facebook we did at least catch a glimpse of the performance, to the third biggest Avalon crowd of the weekend. Fantastic. (special shout out to Colin who was uploading stuff as it was happening).

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Freeborn Al / 1st July 2015 / Band, Gigs, Interview, Music, Photos, Videos / 0 Comments

Gaz Brookfield – True and Fast album review..

I’d be amazed if anyone vaguely into Ferocious Dog hasn’t encountered Gaz Brookfield too – he’s been support a few times to the band as well as making starring appearances at the last couple of Dogfests. I first saw Gaz as the early support act for the Levellers and immediately rushed off to buy an EP – that was obviously a striking occasion as it features in Land Pirate’s Life subsequently.

On that day as a competition prize I was due to collect some merchandise from the Levs backstage so even had the chance to meet him briefly behind the stage at Rock City and congratulate him on a cracking performance – not that I imagine that has stuck in the memory. I hope not anyway, I was in the midst of a particularly ridiculous Movember effort at the time – but ever since then I’d decided to keep an eye out for him.

Lucky for me then that he subsequently seemed to forge a relationship with the other main band in my life – so as well as taking in as many of his own gigs as I’ve been able to I also benefit from his support slots with FD as well. The autumn tour will be doubly a treat on this score since he features on the bill for the vast majority of these! So anyway, background aside, Gaz’s new album True and Fast dropped in my mailbox yesterday much to my excitement.

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Freeborn Al / 6th June 2015 / Music, Other Bands / 0 Comments

All the world is waiting for you brave young girl..

As the clock ticks down to Something to Smile About on Saturday there’s also the excitement of Ferocious Dog releasing Ruby Bridges as a digital single on Monday too. I talked about the song when previewing some of the rough cut tracks from the album a while ago, briefly summarising the subject and that the song was conceived in Dan’s mind when Ruby would’ve hit the news having just turned 60 last year in September.

Dan had earmarked the song as a potential idea for a co-written piece with Maelor Hughes, but subsequently liked what he’d started too much to not have it as a Ferocious Dog track that he finished off with Ken.

The story of Ruby Bridges is one of real inspiration though. In 1960 a federal court order decreed that public schools in New Orleans, where the Bridges family lived, were forced to desegregate. Put simply, white and black children were no longer to be educated separately. Black children from kindergarten were tested to see who would be put forward to go to an integrated school – Ruby duly passed this test and the first challenge was to overcome divisions within the family.

Her father was understandably reticent – worried that the act of his daughter going to a mixed school was ‘just asking for trouble’ whilst her mother saw the opportunity Ruby could have for a better education and future prospects, and of course the bigger picture of taking a opportunity of a real tangible step forward toward racial equality. Eventually after much debate within the family it was this view that won out, and it was decided that Ruby would indeed attend an integrated school in November 1960 – a date decided by a federal judge.

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Freeborn Al / 4th June 2015 / Band, Music, Thoughts / 0 Comments

Rest and recuperation..

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(Ferocious) Dog tired

The tour schedule has a handy break this weekend for a bit of much-needed rest and recuperation.

It’s been a busy week at work so that’s much appreciated. It’s also given Ferocious Dog the opportunity to get back in the studio to put what are hopefully the finishing touches to their album – they’ve been pretty quiet about how things have gone which I’m taking as a good sign. It was clearly a gruelling schedule they were undergoing given the photo of Waggy asleep in a chair that surfaced on Facebook earlier in the week!

Speaking of Waggy, he’s been confirmed as the official tour manager for the band – a great choice! He’s also caught up with his photo albums, so you can check out pictures from Bridport, Plymouth, Exeter, Stamford and Newbury – there’s some crackers in there as ever – let’s hope he’s able to delegate what ever during-gig duties he might have as tour manager to make sure that camera is still in action!

Of course the other big news this week was on Monday when the autumn tour dates were finally revealed – twenty dates in all, including the previously announced gigs with Mad Dog Mcrea in Camden, Bristol and of course at Rock City. Exciting times. Whilst I’m on a good run of FD gigs so far this year (!) I’m coming to terms with the fact I’ll not make it to all of them – even so, I’m pretty sure I’ll be on for most. I’ve been plotting with the work holiday planner and a good few are already booked in, with a fairly hefty number on the ‘to order after payday’ list.

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Freeborn Al / 1st May 2015 / Band, Hell Hounds, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

Reflections, revelations and anticipation..

Last night I was having a long overdue catch up with one of my friends, Sarah. Killing two birds with one stone I took her to Ye Olde Dolphin Inne in Derby for a bite to eat before Paige Seabridge was due to take the stage there. It was a lovely evening and Paige was on sparkling form – she’s one of many amazingly talented acts I’ve gotten to know thanks to following Ferocious Dog. You should definitely check her out, an amazing singer, songwriter, guitar player and generally lovely lass.

Anyway, I digress right from the start. On the drive down the A52 we were chatting about the weekend just gone – as we’re friends on Facebook she’s familiar in photo form of what a typical weekend of Ferocious Dog gigs looks like, but hadn’t ever heard them. “What do they sound like?” she asked, “This is them now” came the reply – I forget which track was playing, but I think it was Living on Thin Air. “Wow, this is really tuneful – I saw the pictures and imagined it was death metal or something!”

First impressions are funny things aren’t they? You can form them without even a fraction of the facts and they can be difficult to shift. Sarah had filed away Ferocious Dog as something I enjoyed but she probably wouldn’t – now she’s shifted that perception and if she can’t wangle Deerstock then we’ll definitely be looking for her debut at a gig on the autumn tour some time once the dates are announced – on Monday, so keep an eye out on Facebook for that!

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Freeborn Al / 23rd April 2015 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Music, Other Bands, Thoughts / 0 Comments

Preparing for a road trip!

Today’s been a good day – a nicely truncated working week finished, and anticipation of a road trip starting tomorrow heading to the South West for a triple-header of Ferocious Dog gigs in Bridport, Plymouth and finally Exeter. Given how broken I was after just two consecutive gigs last weekend this will certainly prove an interesting experiment!

What better way to get into the mood than by enjoying some video compilations of Waggy’s awesome photos from the Cambridge and Derby gigs? I certainly can’t think of one! I’ve just had an exciting offer to travel down to the West Country on the Dog bus too… wow! This could prove memorable!

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Freeborn Al / 15th April 2015 / Band, Gigs, Music, Photos / 0 Comments

From Without (from within)..

Eeee! New Ferocious Dog songs ON MY PHONE!!

After a pretty full-on weekend of Ferocious Dog and a Monday morning fresh after the school holiday it was always going to be a bind to get to work this morning. Once I’d arrived and grabbed a sneaky breakfast I was settling down to get my to do list beaten into shape when my phone rang. It was Dan which was rather unexpected so I grabbed the phone and excitedly said yes when he offered me the chance to listen to a few rough-cuts from the new album recordings.

A link to Dropbox was duly texted through and after some faffing around I fashioned a way to have a crafty listen to the tracks whilst finishing off a Powerpoint presentation. Some were already surprisingly familiar from the live performances, some less so – one mentioned in a teaser post by Waggy on Facebook a few days ago. My remit is to review them without giving too much away – particularly the tracks that have yet to be aired on the tour as yet.

I’ve not quite decided how to tackle this so I’m free-typing on my keyboard in the hope that inspiration strikes. I posted earlier about listening to Ferocious Dog giving you the urge to drive fast – this evening I was home from Solihull in around 42 minutes – normally I’m happy if I’m not too far north of an hour. The new stuff, even pre-mastering, is clearly pretty heady stuff… I get the chance to hammer it to death over the next few hundred miles I drive to start to learn some of the words. I’d best start watching out for speed cameras.

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Freeborn Al / 13th April 2015 / Band, Gigs, Music / 0 Comments