ellis – Page 2 – Ferocious Blog

Newbury revisited..

Aye aye, Capt’n Burns!

Whilst obviously disappointed at missing out on what sounded like an amazing night at Exeter (actually we only partially missed out, Laura was thoughtful enough to video call Ella during the gig so whilst the audio stream was pretty bad we had fun watching the moshpit and the band for three or four songs, including getting the chance to wave to Ken, John and Ellis and watch Dean surfing!), there was a high degree of consolation in making a return visit down to the Arlington Arts Centre just outside Newbury.

On Friday night, clearly sympathetic to my dilemma, Addie had invited Ella and I to go with him, Jane and Tommy to West Midlands Safari Park on Saturday too. Sod it, we thought – it’s practically on the way to Newbury from here so why not make a full day of it – we also considered the logistics in heading into Newbury itself after the gig to catch the end of Gaz Brookfield‘s set in The Monument. That would prove a step too far in a very long day, so sorry Gaz, the minds were willing but our bodies weren’t!

So a fun day was spent of accidental crocodiles, sea lion shows, feeding lorikeets and goats and other general animal fun – followed by the M42-in-rush-hour simulator that is the drive through safari experience. With the added danger of the fuel light coming on part way round, we were genuinely worried we might have to survive for days on a sachet of mayonnaise and some deer food the traffic was so bad – that said, we did see some wild dogs, lions, cheetahs, rhinos and assorted deer-like things before we took advantage of a shortcut to escape.

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Freeborn Al / 10th April 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

Re-living Rock City..

I’m probably late to the party for anyone who reads this blog – but whilst Rockstock and Rolling out the Festival Barrel was a perfectly justifiable excuse for missing trips to Buckley and Burnley at the weekend with Ferocious Dog, waiting for me when I got home was what might prove to be my salvation when financial and logistics make a trip to Exeter and Newbury highly unlikely next weekend. Yes, the hotly anticipated live CD and DVD from November’s sell out gig at Rock City in Nottingham!

Having got back from Willington Ella and I spent a chilled afternoon airing the tent in the garden listening to the CD – the sound quality is great! Remembering poor croaky Ken just a week before the gig in the rehearsal studio, it’s pretty amazing really. After that the doctor ordered him to cancel the gigs in Stroud and Cardiff right before Rock City – the transformation that rest and recuperation yielded is incredible. Not so much as a lyrical slip either!

If you’re a ‘full contact’ Ferocious Dog spectator frankly quite often nuances either visual or aural can easily be missed in the blur – and on Rock City day, okay – the Hell Hound AGM – it had been a long day! Coupled with a raft of awesome music before the main event, plenty of drink and food (and Ella and I were both feeling ill) – my memories of the night itself are a bit blurry, the amazing atmosphere, getting my surfboard nicked (ha!), being pinballed round the moshpit – but above everything else an amazing homecoming and moment of history, watching them take to that famous stage and frankly own it for an hour and a half.

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Freeborn Al / 4th April 2016 / Band, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

Aber-done!

Forgive the delay, but waking with a fuzzy head then a 433 mile drive home left me not exactly feeling like firing up the laptop during the evening before recommencing a working-week! The trip to Aberdeen of course started in Glasgow, I awoke fuzzy-headed with a vague memory of getting back to the hotel – although a walk outside and to the car sorted me out. T’was pleasant enough out, but the air was certainly fresh enough to blast away the cobwebs of the night before.

We hit the road and headed out to Aberdeen – again once out of the built up area appreciating the lovely scenery on offer, and the scores of stately crows and ravens by the roadsides. We did fall foul of the temptation to follow a brown sign promising a scenic route, which promptly stopped being signposted and with limited signal to get the sat nav to help us having been ignoring her for a good few miles, but never mind! It was a pretty drive, and we made decent time to the granite city, eventually finding our hotel.

We’d had a bit of a side mission – we’d got a bit of a battery shortage issue for our electronic cigarettes, and neglected to pack the charger. Despite trips to Maplins and even a Vape Scotland shop (outside which a young lad seemed delighted to shout ‘mohawk!’ repeatedly at me at a traffic crossing) we utterly failed at resolving this, so started rationing our supply of electricity quite severely. A lesson for the future – pack the battery charger, or get more batteries!

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Freeborn Al / 21st March 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Photos / 0 Comments

North of the wall..

We opted for an earlyish start to hit Scotland – you never know what horrors might occur on the roads, plus it’s always nice to not have to rush about once you arrive somewhere. As it happens, the roads were pretty clear – the sat nav decreed the M6 was the best route up so it was also incredibly scenic as we hit the Lake District and into Scotland – I’m always struck when I visit these areas how stunningly beautiful they are – it certainly didn’t disappoint.

One stop at Tebay for lunch and coffee and we were straight into Glasgow and our car park, a short walk from the hotel – giving us time to have a bit of down time before wandering to the designated pre-gig drinking venue, The Horse Shoe Bar, where we immediately encountered Dean, Sarah and Wez – before being found by the assorted other folk. To say it was a little before 5 on a week day it was already pretty damn busy in there. It was good to just have the chance to have a drink and a natter.

With the gig having an early curfew presumably for the venue to reopen as a club night the doors opened at 7 – so we headed there for then, despite the early start we were being treated to two support acts. Stereo is a stylish cafe bar beneath which nestles the music venue – it’s pretty small, but it was homely with a sufficiently raised stage to avoid any mishaps despite the lack of barriers. Once inside we got to catch up with more folk – not least the band, Waggy, Dom, Leanne et al.

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Freeborn Al / 19th March 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

Fine fettle down in Settle..

When I originally bought a ticket for the Settle gig it was going to be in June last year. I’d naively thought ‘oh, it’s Yorkshire, I’ll probably drive to and from that’ – it wasn’t until more recently, having acquired another ticket for Ella for the rescheduled show, that I troubled to look at a map and realise quite how far up Settle was in North Yorkshire. Seeing Clitheroe nestled beneath it meant a quick search for accomodation for the evening was very much the mission – luckily I found somewhere suitable, more on that later.

We’d arranged to meet up with Michael, Daren and Michelle for lunch in nearby Malham, having set off in good time we were running an hour early on arrival estimate so pulled into a services. Checking in on Facebook as you do revealed we were actually really close to Michael’s house – sense prevailed and we arranged to go and pick him up, meaning a chance to catch up wtih Rebecca too which is a bonus – and head onward with a much better carbon footprint than if we’d gone in separate cars!

The Lister Arms is a lovely pub. Malham was absolutely snidered with cars, we were worried the pub would be rammed – but it seems the streets and carparks were full of vehicles of walkers rather than pub goers so we soon found a table and awaited Daren and MIchelle’s arrival. A hearty meal of mostly pies and mash or chips (or cajun chicken for Ella) was demolished, followed by a bloody nice selection of cheese with a glass of port (or sticky toffee pudding and a cuppa tea for t’ladies). A very pleasant few hours before hitting the road to Settle. Definitely planning on a return visit at some point!

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Freeborn Al / 6th March 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

Dogfest..

I just spent a good ten minutes trying to think of a witty headline, and then figured – why do I need a witty headline? Dogfest kinda speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I certainly don’t pretend to be able to speak for it, but I’ve just breached 2,500 words trying – I’d probably better stop there!

I think this was the fourth Dogfest. Certainly it’s the fourth Dogfest I’ve been to, and like much about Ferocious Dog related activities they illustrate a stark exponential progression – from a handful of folk rattling around the main hall of the Black Market venue in 2012 to a jam-packed room of folk, many of whom have come to be firm friends. Plenty that’s familiar, plenty that’s grown – the only problem with that was how bloody hot the mosh pit gets in there, and the difficulty in navigating the room with tables in the middle. Small issues with an otherwise amazing day.

It started for us at Dukeries Lodge in Edwinstowe where we set up base this weekend – breakfast was a welcome addition with Adele, Drew, Simon, Richard and Julie – whilst I might’ve overdone it more than intended at A Bit of Bothering Before Dogfest I was feeling relatively fresh. Ella opted for a lie-in instead, and once we were about ready Becki arrived so that we could get ourselves sorted and in the car ready to head to Warsop – again, eager to get there for the start of proceedings.

We arrived in plenty of time, time to get wristbanded up, greet the countless folk also already there – and down to the stage in time for Brad Dear to open the day. He’d got a few chaps filming some up-to-date gig footage for them – and it was great to see so many people there early and in the party spirit, I’m looking forward to seeing the footage! Plenty of familiar songs like They Say, Festival Bar Blues, Save Our Souls and Far Away kept us all bopping and singing along.

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Freeborn Al / 15th February 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos / 0 Comments

A cheeky little DVD teaser..

If you’ve been pondering ordering the Rock City DVD and CD or simply can’t wait to see it, Dan’s provided a nice little teaser of the start of the gig with the band launching into Gallows Justice. The image and sound quality looks to be cracking, production should be this week or so, shipping straight after – just the thing you’ll need for the post-Dogfest comedown!

Freeborn Al / 9th February 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Music, Videos / 0 Comments

Peace in the valleys.. not!

I hadn’t really got that excited about this gig, other things going on in our family meant it rather snuck up on me. But once we’d got in the car and underway at lunchtime on Saturday I must admit I was gearing up for a good mosh, it’s been a long time since Rock City after all. Even the increasingly awful weather and occasional aqua-planing down the roads didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. Ella chose to use the trip to start to testing out her Go-Pro (video below), an experiment that was curtailed by a technical glitch, but shows some real promise for a fun way of documenting gigs and festivals.

Despite the rubbish weather it was a clear run through to Cardiff and a pretty easy job to get parked up and checked into our hotel. Opting to have a bit of chill time we’d noticed the rain had stopped a bit, which was cause for optimism. Alas, by the time we were ready to emerge it was once again pissing it down – after a bit of a wander we found (after a couple of attempts) Hopbunker. It had been recommended to us on Facebook by fellow Hell Hounds Martin and Diane, who work there and are very proud of their bar.

And with good reason – just opposite the castle and down some stairs you’ll find a grotto of real ales, craft ales and ciders – but without the wanky pretentions that seem to attach to such bars in my experience. A fun relaxed atmosphere, and just £3 a pint from a fine selection of pumps – I tried a pint of Ella (had to be done didn’t it?) a Ginger beer and an IPA whose name escapes be before switching to Reveller cider – which was lovely. Dave and Sally arrived with us, and countless folks of a Ferocious Dog persuasion followed. Once the Rugby was over the bar was awash with Ferocious Dog related music. Highly recommended pub if you find yourself in Cardiff, and the urinals in the gents were a work of genius – and alas, the only thing I took a photo of in there!

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Freeborn Al / 7th February 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Lee Bonsall, Music, Other Bands, Photos, Videos / 0 Comments

TV personalities..

Hopefully most of you got to see Notts TV’s hour long Ferocious Dog special which aired last night at 10pm. Those of you that missed the opportunity through geographical constraints or not having Sky will get the chance to catch up online once their systems update (it doesn’t appear to be quite so quick as more established channels at catching up!), but I thought that it was a superb introduction to what Ferocious Dog are all about from presenter Mark Del.

The programme centred around the climax of the tour – the sell out gig at Rock City, the first ever unsigned act to do so. My only pedantic quibble was the repeated claim of them being the first local unsigned act to do it – they are the first act, full stop, in 35 years of the venue to sell it out without the backing of a label. Whilst it is of course nice they’re local, it’s not relevant to the feat at all.

A mixture of interviews from before the gig – constant references to the fans (well, okay, family) – when Anton from Rock City was interviewed before the gig he made some astute references to the relationship between hell hounds and the band being akin to that he’d seen before with the Levellers and New Model Army, and not from other bands since then. He was also pretty on board with the idea of pushing for more national coverage for the band too – good news!

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Freeborn Al / 2nd January 2016 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Interview, Lee Bonsall, Music, Photos / 0 Comments

2015 – The year of the Dog..

Okay, so Ferocious Dog have been around a little longer – but this last year has felt rather like a landmark. And not just because back in February it’s when Ferocious Blog was born, ha! The lead up to a new year is traditionally a time for reflecting back on the year just gone and looking forward to the next one, so I figured it’d be nice to trawl back through the months and pull out a highlight or two for each month of 2015, it will be tough to pick just one or two so feel free to chip in your own in the comments – despite my best efforts I didn’t quite make it to every Ferocious Dog gig in the year!

January 2015 – a light month, Ferocious Blog was yet to be created (although it had been an idea kicking around in my head for at least a couple of years). Checking my calendar and personal blog doesn’t reveal much at all in the way of Ferocious Dog activity – we’d have been still basking in the warm glow of Dogfest back in December – I latterly discovered that a 3 Piece Acoustic performance took place in honour of Ella’s 21st birthday in this month, but alas I didn’t know Snotty at this juncture!

February 2015 – the blog is born after an acoustic appearance by Ken and Dan at the Brown Cow in Mansfield. Seldom has one of Sam’s nights had such a huge crowd packed in. The demand for the event was the perfect excuse to arrive early and chat nonsense with friends for the afternoon. An afternoon of drinking had taken its toll on Dean who for the first time decreed I needed to get up and surf in his place – a great way to start what became a year of extreme ‘dogging’. These smaller intimate gigs are as enjoyable for me as the bigger and bolder shows that are to follow. We were first introduced to Scott at this appearance too.

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Freeborn Al / 30th December 2015 / Band, Gigs, Hell Hounds, Music, Other Bands, Photos, Thoughts