Telecom giants O2 hunted down the Gallops track ‘Miami Spider’ for use in their latest TV advert for German screens. Check it out below:

Gallops – Miami Spider – O2 Germany Advert from Sentric Music on Vimeo.

Links

Gallops MySpace

Related posts:

1. Gallops bag TV advert theme
2. Gallops to embark on European tour
3. Gallops to headline Reading and Leeds Festival

The wrexhammusic.co.uk nights return from a long hiatus on Friday night with a special performance from a band who have been long missed on the local music scene; Leaving Isaacs Shop.

They’ve layed low for what seems an unbearable amount of time whilst guitarist Sam took off to live in Japan and now, he’s only gone and come back to blighty, which can only mean one thing – reunion!

The ‘Shop, as they are lovingly known, are reforming for a handful of shows with the wrexhammusic.co.uk gig at Central Station on Friday 3rd September being their first. To celebrate their return they’ve setup a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leaving-Isaacs-Shop/130257193685272.

Also playing are No Room For Heroes, Stop the 64, Juno and the Mook and Gintis. A fine, fine line up I think you’d agree. Following the bands you’ll be treated to the Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll club night until the wee hours and then probably a large stinking kebab (this however is not included in the entry price), which is a measly £5. Doors are 7pm, see you there!

Click here to view the Facebook event.

Related posts:

1. Leaving Isaacs Shop bag top support slots
2. New offerings from Leaving Isaacs Shop
3. Leaving Isaacs Shop video helps guitarist win at National Festival

On Saturday September 11th, Wrexham promotion company ‘The Gashienda’ will be hosting their 1st birthday party at the venue they had their first night at, The Centenary Club.

To mark this occasion, The Gashienda have put together a very unique line up. Three bands will be reuniting on this evening; The Rigbys, The Company and The Witherdons, who all had local success around Wrexham before disbanding. Also on the bill are Wrexham’s finest, Trader and Chester newbies, Tuesday Hangover.

The Gashienda have branched out to a total of 3 venues in Wrexham and Cardiff and they pride themselves on putting together the best line up possible which in the past has included Joe Carnall and the Book Club and local talent such as Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle and No Room for Heroes.

This will be the first time The Rigbys and The Company have played since 2008 and they will both be playing all the songs that gained them a following when they were first gigging.

Tickets are on sale now, and are available through contacting Danny or Craig via The Gashienda facebook event page, (http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=126874140692287&ref=ts), and are priced at £5.

Related posts:

1. The Gashienda move to Central
2. Friday 3rd April is our 3rd Birthday!
3. The Faction’s 1st Birthday!

Nia Evans, CIW Wrexham’s Officer, said that:
“Y Ffin Festival’s little sister at Y Ffin Fach L’etage in Wrexham on October 8th will give local bands from Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham the opportunity to come together and take part in a Battle of the Bands. This will be an exciting evening, admission is free, and in addition the popular band, Masters in France, will be headlining the evening. The band from Caernarfon have garnered considerable praise after airplay on Radio 1, and they were huge crowd-pleasers when they played Gwyl Y Ffin 2010 in Holywell”.

Y Ffin Fach will also host the first round of Battle of the Bands BBC/C2 2011. The winners will go on to the regional rounds, and perhaps to represent north Wales in the finals! The most promising bands of the evening will be offered the opportunity to record and burn a CD in a recording studio, and to play at Y Ffin Festival 2011.

Rebecca Davies from Menter Iaith Sir y Fflint said,
“Nobody from north Wales has won Battle of the Bands since Wrexham’s NO STAR in 2005. We want to change this! If you are between 16 – 21, can play in Welsh and think you have the talent to compete, come to L’etage on October 8th, and let’s see if we can get a band from the north crowned winners of Battle of the Bands 2011.”

For more information about the Ffin Fach gig, or to find out how to compete in Brwydr y Bandiau, e-mail post@yffin.co.uk.

Related posts:

1. Y Ffin returns with amazing line-up
2. Bazaar gives local musicians a chance to sell their wares
3. 02/07/09 – Polly Mackey at Benicassim, Y Ffin Festival, Athlete in Wrexham

Seminal reggae artist and producer Lee Scratch Perry has just released a new album ‘Revelation’ which features guest slots from Keith Richards (Rolling Stones), George Clinton (Parliament, Funkadelic) and David Stewart Jones – from Wrexham.

‘Stew’, has he’s known, has worked with Scratch Perry’s producer Steve Marshall on several occasions and was invited by Perry to contribute to this new release. Stew plays a finger-style guitar technique with a sweep picking style which enables him to play very fast flurries of notes. He has played with Perry live on a number of occasions.

Stew plays in the Paul Sturman band and is currently playing gigs around the Wrexham area.

Links

Paul Sturman Band Facebook group
http://www.electronicbeats.net/News/Music/Lee-Scratch-Perry-to-release-new-album

Related posts:

1. Debut album from The Roseville Band
2. Sinner Men to record with Bush guitarist
3. Leaving Isaacs Shop video helps guitarist win at National Festival

Camera have entered a competition to win a slot at Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival in September which features over 140 bands playing around Hamburg’s once famous ‘wicked mile’ area which is now a haven for cutting-edge music clubs.

Camera are pitching against only 8 other acts in the online competition which allows you to vote once per day for the band you want to play the festival. Other acts in the run are ‘Toy Horses’, ‘Gurdan Thomas’ and ‘Krause’ – all ridiculously rubbish names and don’t deserve to win, I think you’ll agree.

The closing day for votes is next Monday, so head over to http://simpleshoes.sonicbids.com/BandDetailsVideo.aspx?b=15466&bn=camera and vote like you’ve never voted before.

Links

Camera Myspace
www.cameratheband.co.uk
www.thefirefliesep.com

Related posts:

1. Camera release Fireflies EP as free download
2. Camera get debut airing of new EP
3. Heal the Last Stand in bid for Greenman Festival

The small nightclub above L’etage, ‘Frenzi’ is the sort of place you could imagine some truly incredible gigs taking place in. ‘Sweatbox’ would be an apt word, were it filled with over 100 people. However, tonight it seems very sparsely populated. Flags adorn the walls, one proclaiming ‘Wrexham Fans, Virtus Verona’ (a flag owned by a local Wrexham F.C. fan, who helped organise the gig. Coming all the way from Italy, Los Fastidios somehow make the room feel like their own. Whether it is the charming manner and relentless affability of the band members, or indeed the decoration of the room, you feel like you’re about to witness a truly great gig.

Unfortunately however, once Chester band ‘Skullet’ manage to interest a crowd of about fifteen with their fast paced punk stylings, a trickle of people into the room brings the crowd to about twenty. For Los Fastidios, this must surely be another day at the office, for every band plays to one man and his dog at some time or the other, but the discomfort of the audience is shown by the gap directly in front of the stage, and the way in which the audience hugs the side walls as if afraid to get sucked into the centre of the room.

Los Fastidios

Los Fastidios start up, and a mixture of Italian and English encouragement from Enrico leads way to some fast, melodic, and meaningful punk numbers to get the night started. The sound suffers a bit, but in a venue of this size you’re always going to struggle with the sound bouncing towards you from all directions. The drummer, Giacomo, pounds at the skins as if his life depended on it, whilst the bassist and guitarist hop around and howl down the mic in backing to Enrico. You sense that if the room was full, then the place would explode like a firework, however the thin crowd means Enrico’s forays into the crowd just end up being him walking onto the dancefloor in front of the stage area.

At this point, you’re wondering whether Los Fastidios will actually make an impact on the people gathered here tonight (save for the five or so onlookers singing the words right back at them). And then something special happens. Enrico announces a song (in rapid Italian) called ‘Animal Liberation’. The song is, you guessed it, about animal rights. With its imitable cry ‘FIGHT FOR ANIMALS!’, you see one or two onlookers start to nod their head and move their hips a bit. Three songs later, and almost everyone is on the dancefloor in front of the stage area, skanking and dancing as if their life depended on it. Against all the odds, and unprecedented to any similarly poorly attended gig I’ve ever seen, Los Fastidios manage to win round a crowd that, ten minutes previously, looked as if they would rather be anywhere else.

Four more songs fly by in what seems like an instant, including the superb ‘Football is coming’, and then the final song is announced with a cascade of rapid Italian (I caught ‘non fascismo’ and ‘Wrexham’ a couple of times), and then the battle cry ‘COME ON, COME ON’ introducing the punk anthem ‘Antifa Hooligans’, a call to arms for anti-fascists everywhere. With lyrics such as “we are singing, and we scream, all our hate for the Nazi scum”, what’s not to like about this band? The song sends the amassed crowd into raptures, and I’m not ashamed to say this reviewer lost his composure and managed to sing a few words down the mic in the singer’s outstretched hand!

It’s somewhat sad that the gig was not better attended, however witnessing a room of twenty or so people enjoying themselves, dancing, singing and bouncing would make up for two hundred disinterested people any day. At the end of the day, it’s the messages and stories being given to us by Los Fastidios which makes the night, and as Enrico tells me, it makes no difference whether there was a thousand people there or one. And Enrico my friend, I completely agree.

Verdict: 9/10.

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1. Review: Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds
2. Spann Report: Future of the Left
3. Spann Report: Sonic Boom Six

Our man Chris Spann took some time out with Sonic Boom Six singer Laila and bass player Barney when they played Wrexham’s Central Station a couple of weeks ago.

Listen to the interview below:

Read Chris’ review of the Sonic Boom Six gig: www.wrexhammusic.co.uk/spann-report-sonic-boom-six-ce/

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1. Spann Talk: Chris meets Soulfly’s Marc Rizzo
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