The REOFFENDERS

Tshirts Out and About

2009-07-02T09:20:00.004Z

I knew I'd forget to tell you something....

At Glastonbury, we wandered into the real ale tent to see a guy wearing a Reoffenders t shirt. Turns out to be Kevin who we got up on stage at Exmouth on his birthday. It was great to see the t shirt out and about and to learn that half an hour earlier, a guy from Taunton had been there wearing one. Yay!

Festivals

2009-06-30T18:02:00.002Z

The new rhythm section has been sitting at home twiddling their thumbs for a couple of weekends whilst we've been off to see other bands at festivals, starting with Download.

Indesit, Hoover and I went up the other weekend and were treated to Sevendust, Slipknot, Trivium, Therapy?, Volbeat, Faith No More, Chris Cornell and Pendulum, no name a few. We were also subjected to the mess that was the end of Marilyn Manson's career! Shame, he used to be rather good live. But we did have 4 days of perfect sunshine which was great!

This last weekend saw Hoover and I going up to Glastonbury Festival for Madness, Specials, Gaslight Anthem and the show of the weekend from Pendulum. Awesome stuff which made Bruce Springsteen rather dull afterwards. There have also been several reports of the BBC cameras picking up Johnny Hoover dancing down the front at Status Quo! And he's not in the slightest bit repentant! Apologies to anyone who was offended by it (yes, that does include you, Rob).

We did have a couple of days of sunshine but also had 9 hours of uninterrupted rain on Friday. Only in Glastonbury!

The mud has been shaken off, the wellies are back in the cupboard and we're back and ready to raawwwwk! Let post festival blues be banished by the power of Punk Rock!

Crackin' Weekend!

2009-06-22T00:17:00.003Z

Ok, so if John and I had known that we'd be bedding in a new rhythm section, we perhaps wouldn't have chosen to bugger off to festivals every other weekend. Weekends off between great weekends of gigs are a bit frustrating. The newbies (how long can I call them that?) are settling in well but need gig practice which isn't helped by me, Hoover and Indesit going off to Download, and then me n Hoover going off to Glastonbury next week! Ho hum!

Anyhoooo, we had a great gig on Friday at the New Quay in Teignmouth. Teignmouth was having a folk festival (!!!!!) and we were playing the New Quay, specifically cos it was Ian the Landlord's birthday and he wanted a fun night! The place was full to the rafters with an appreciative audience who were up for something non folky! Yay!

The highlight had to be Seasons in the Sun (which time?) with a pub full packed in like sardines bobbing up and down whilst 'doing the dance'. Good to meet Mrs Magimix :-) Plans seem to be afoot for a rather messy Cornwall tour by the sounds of it! LOL!

Big Thanks to Exeter City Fans

2009-06-09T12:09:00.002Z

We appear to have some friends that we didn't know about! A friend mentioned to me last night that our Exeter gigs regularly get a mention on the Exeter City FC discussion forums.

That's very cool! Thanks you lot :-D

Better Than the Weather!

2009-06-07T12:16:00.002Z

We were woken early yesterday by the sound of thunder. Very loud thunder which appeared to be just above our house! arrrgh! The heavens opened and it rained, and rained, and rained...

And continued to rain all day and followed us up the M5 towards Minehead.

It was our first visit to the York in Minehead which is a nice sized pub with a stage and proper lighting. Nice! We like it like that :-)

After we got setup, we got some food and had a beer while we waited for showtime. There was a captive audience as soon as we started and we made the most of the L shape of the room to create competition between the two sides of the room in how much noise they could make - very pantomime stylee.

John was introducing one song and was asking the audience if they were having a good time. Most people cheered but one guy replied that we were "better than the weather". LOL. High praise indeed!

I continued my "soggy" look that I'd started on Friday by going outside at halftime and getting soaked in the rain. Oh and I was jumping around like a nutter with a dozen Par56 lights on me... that'll do it too!

All in all, a very enjoyable first gig and hopefully not the last. Cheers Drew

Hot and Sweaty at the Stoke

2009-06-06T10:44:00.001Z

Blimey, it was hot!

We setup at the far end of the pub this time rather than opposite the bar which gave us slightly less space but made a better area for the audience. There were lots of familiar faces from last time, and from other gigs that we do around Exeter... good to see Dom, Debi, Helen, Simon, Darren, Bev and Dave as well as the guy who danced like a nutter to the Clash last time ;-)

The most memorable part of the gig for me - notable rather than a highlight, I'd say - is when the band started playing Dammit and I stared at them blankly! I knew they'd keep going till I started singing but could I hell remember the first line of the song! Very embarrassing and the first time I've ever done that! So between every song after that, Paul started playing the opening riff of Dammit to torment me. Hmph! The words flew back into my head and we played it but grrr, how annoying!

The Rock Gardens R.I.P.

2009-06-05T14:27:00.002Z

I was saddened by a call this morning from Darren at the Rock Gardens. They've had noise complaints from one neighbour and as a result are having to close their doors on Sunday.

They're in a residential area and can hold around 500 people which gets noisy. However, they were granted a license to be a music venue in the first place, presumably with no neighbour complaints.

They are seeking an alternative venue at the moment, but my heart goes out to Darren and Terry. They've put a hell of a lot of work, time and money into making that a cracking venue and were getting gigs such as Enter Shikari which is both high profile and a major coup. It seems they're a victim of their own success.

Good luck finding a new place, guys!

Crazy Night in the Garden

2009-05-26T19:36:00.002Z

John and I spent most of Sunday in a car travelling back from Leeds having had a weekend visiting Bethy Bosch. It was 25 degrees and we don't have air con! Deep joy!

We arrived back at home with time to shower, pack and grab a quick sarnie before the troops arrived to travel in convoy to Wellington.

We got to the Vintage in time to hear the last half an hour of The Tree Frogs' set which was great. Funky stuff! After they finished, we gave them a hand getting their stuff to their van and they helped us with ours. A very civilised state of affairs and good to meet them, they're nice guys ;-)

We started playing at about 9.15pm to a full beer garden which was very quickly a full, bouncing beer garden. Dancing stayed reasonably sedate for a few songs before I saw Nigel appear from nowhere and launch himself into a moshpit of sweaty blokes jumping up and down - I think that might've been White Riot by the Clash.

The beauty of the Vintage is that the carnage there is always very well behaved and friendly. Everyone looks out for each other and no-one gets hurt and nothing gets trashed. Perfect! We ended up with two different levels of the beer garden for different dancers: one level for the sweaty moshers and one level for the "nice dancing".

The band seemed tighter and more confident already. This probably sounds a bit soppy but, I'm very proud of them ;-)

Update on Bully

2009-05-25T23:58:00.000Z

As you may know, Bully got rushed into hospital on Wednesday night. The word is that he should hopefully be coming out on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. He was in the operating theatre for four hours so I'm guessing is going to be a bit sore and fragile for a while.

New Bass and Drums at the Longbrooke

2009-05-23T10:57:00.002Z

We arrived at the Longbrooke in plenty of time to get setup and to have a quick runover any songs if it was needed. Which it wasn't! Hurrah for the new boys!

The guys did brilliantly well, having only had two rehearsals and about two weeks to learn almost two hours worth of songs ('ang on a minute... that's a lot of two's!). There were some loose ends but that was probably more evident to the band than the audience. Certainly the comments at half time were very positive.

About halfway through the first half, I regretted not giving Rob a mic as he and Hoover struck up a good banter. By the second half, he was miked up. If you're gonna insult the lead singer, do it publicly! That's what I say!

The highlight of the gig had to be Toxic! John hadn't found a suitable victim in the audience so decided to initiate Rob DeLonghi instead. Before John had had a chance to pucker up, Rob clamped himself onto John's face, apparently like a hoover on suck! That'll teach him ;-)

Thanks to both Rob and Madge for rising to the challenge with such a short timescale to work with! I'd also like to give Paul a mention because he's directed rehearsals brilliantly, helping both guys with stops and starts (oh and correcting the key when I've given people the wrong soundfiles! Oops!)

Onwards and upwards...

Introducing Rob DeLonghi

2009-05-22T08:13:00.001Z

As all die-hard punksters will already know, the essence of a truly rude punk sound comes straight from the bass, and there's nobody ruder than Rob DeLonghi. But with that in mind, it's surprising to note that Rob is also a virtuoso on the tibetan prayer bells, a skill he nurtured in his early years as a novice at the Ringo Starr Khrishna Temple just outside Crediton.

In the end, he was forced to renounce the teachings of the great "Beatle", unable to submit to their strict regime of porridge and water. Today, he's back to his old punk self, living mainly on a diet of marmite sandwiches and beer.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

2009-05-20T23:30:00.001Z

I had a phone call about an hour ago from Bully's missus, Corrine, to tell me that he'd just been admitted to RD&E with suspected Appendicitis and may not possibly be gig ready tomorrow!

aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh

On the plus side, we've been training up a new bassist, Rob DeLonghi. So, wearing his plastic pants, Rob will be gigging a bit sooner than originally intended ;-)

Welcome Paul "Madge" Magimix on the Drums

2009-05-07T16:27:00.001Z

After a spell working the dance circuit from Liverpool to Ibiza, 'DJ Magimix' has once again swapped turntables for tom-toms to spread the punk word anew.

But, he's no stranger to the world of rock as Paul's been out there with some of the greatest bands in the world. In a long career, he's toured with the likes of The Specials, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, Greenday, and Blur, before deciding that driving busses was just long hours for low pay.

And as Paul says himself, 'once you've seen one naked groupie smeared with marmite, you've seen em all'

New Lineup

2009-05-06T00:16:00.002Z

We now have a complete lineup once again! Hurrah! Silly names and background stories to follow soon

Happy happy, joy joy!

Welcome Return to Newton Abbot

2009-04-27T00:10:00.002Z

It's been a few years since we played Newton Abbot. We were a fairly new band when we last played Newton Abbot and for whatever reason, we've not hunted gigs there since.

The Ship has new management and is building a reputation for being a good music venue, and we were happy to be asked to play although we wondered what kind of audience we'd get.

A mental one, that's what! From the first couple of songs till the last, we had a dance floor full of people absolutely loving it! There seemed to be some die hard punk fans there and I did worry a bit that they might not like the sillier songs that we do but they boogied to ABBA like gooduns!

A great night, a happy audience and a very happy landlord. Can't wait to come back and do it again :-D

Brilliant Night at the Old Barrel

2009-04-19T21:37:00.003Z

Just before we started playing, there were only a few people in the pub and it looked as though it might be a quiet one. But as the first song got underway, it appeared that a bus must have pulled up in the car park because the pub filled up instantly. Hurrah!

There were a lot of guys who were loving the classic 70s punk but also the girls were enjoying the cheese and so a good balance was found for everyone. The last half hour of the gig had a moshpit jumping about to every song!

A cracking atmosphere!

Jersey

2009-04-14T14:52:00.004Z

Saturday

We accidentally had a beery afternoon the day before our trip to Jersey but got to bed at 1am. We were planning on unveiling a new song (Dammit - Blink 182) and I'd been really struggling with the words. So everytime I woke up, I heard the guitar riff going round in my head! Aarrrghh! I think I got about 2 hours sleep, interspersed with subliminal lyric learning.

The flight left Exeter at 7.10am and we went straight to the hotel and then out for breakfast and a wander. John and I went for a walk around the new Quay and then to Chambers to meet up with the others. Bully, Dave and I went in search of real ale while Paul and John watched the footy on Chambers' supersized TV. After a quick lunch, we stopped off at the hotel to pick up some stuff and then back to Chambers to soundcheck.

Will pointed out a balloon that was stuck in the light fitting. He thinks its ours from last time! Oops! I'm rather impressed its still inflated.

We went out for a really nice meal at 9pm in Ristorante Romano where Paul had his first pizza of 2009! Can you believe it? Then we went onto Chambers to get ready for the gig. We had a great night, the audience was really up for it. It was quite a modern setlist and Rancid, Sum41 and Blink 182 seemed to work particularly well. I was rather chuffed that I nailed the words to Dammit. Perhaps now I can get a good nights sleep.

Sunday

John and I woke up at about 10.30am. We'd missed breakfast but had appreciated the extra sleep. We phoned the boys room an hour later when we were ready to go out but they were all still comatosed so we left them to it.

We found a bicycle hire place and took a couple of bikes along St Aubin and along a really nice cycle path that used to be a railway which takes you to La Corbiere. I'm guessing our round trip was 10-12 miles but it was a gorgeous day and we stopped along the way for icecream and beer.

We went back to the hotel at about 6pm to rendezvouz and then went for more pizza. Paul's getting back into his stride how ;-)

I personally found it a harder gig tonight but Bully found it a lot easier. Funny ain't it! The audience weren't as into their cheese as Saturday but did like the more classic punk so we shuffled the setlist on the fly to adapt to the audience.

We stayed up chatting back at the hotel and one by one, we sloped off to bed. Except me, who had Bully and John sat on my bed talking. So I just crashed. It's not often John's awake after me!

Monday

We missed breakfast again, no real surprise there, but we had to get up to vacate the hotel rooms. We only had a few hours before we needed to get to the airport so after a late breakfast in a cafe, we went to the pub for a couple of pints of "Jimmy's" from Jersey Brewery. Very nice it is too.

Then it was off to the airport and back home by 7ish, absolutely knackered!

But I reckon we made some new friends and hopefully they'll all turn out for us again in October! Big thanks to Will and Ross for booking us, looking after us and doing the sound. Cheers :-D

Bassist and Drummer Wanted

2009-04-14T12:24:00.002Z

Sigh! It's that time again!

Due to changes in personal circumstances, Bully and Dave will be leaving us this year. And before the Spinal Tap gags start flooding in, no-one's exploded on stage or choked on anyone's vomit ;-) It's all very amicable and no grumpiness amongst any of us, hence the reason the guys will be playing with us until we find replacements.

But if you're interested in auditioning for the band, please contact me on heather@reoffenders.co.uk or 07778 105454.

Punktastic Party

2009-03-29T18:40:00.002Z

Last night, we played at Bodmin's 65th birthday party in Wellington. Bodmin had told guests that it was punk theme fancy dress and it really helped everyone get in the mood. There was a great assortment of wigs, some brilliant home made outfits and more tartan than can fit in the whole of Scotland!

Bodmin had also given us 6 bottles of beer and cider to give as prizes throughout the night for people getting into the spirit. Hoover was making up the competitions on the fly which ranged from "Most Tartan Worn", "Best Eurovision Song Contest Dancing" and "Lippiest Bird in the Room"!

Ewan Oosami joined us in his DJing role and assured me there would be no Come on Eileen or Dancing Queen, instead there was Iggy Pop, Janes Addiction and Green Day. Superb!

A top night and a pleasure to be asked to play. Cheers

Palmers 200 Induced Comedy Show

2009-03-29T17:47:00.003Z

The Crown in Bridport is owned by Palmers brewery. John's favourite beer is Palmers 200, so I suggested that perhaps tonight I'd drive so he could enjoy his favourite beer. What I'd forgotten is how much he talks between songs when he's had a drink. Instead of being a 5 piece band, it felt more like the Johnny Hoover Show!

The audience appreciated the comedy show which was added to by my utter frustration in getting him to do as he was told. Normally, if we're short of time, I decide what songs to cut and relay that to the rest of the band who accept that I have a plan and know what I'm doing. Anyway, that's what NORMALLY happens! sigh!

I think he's driving from now on at every gig!

p.s. great to see Clare and Rose there! Thanks guys!
p.p.s. John is annoyingly talented and funny when he's squiffy

New Venues

2009-03-20T17:11:00.001Z

We've played a couple of new venues lately, the first being The Brass Monkey in Teignmouth. A customer of theirs really liked us so had asked for us to be booked by the pub for their birthday. However, in the months since we were booked, I'd been asked by lots of bands that we know.. "do you realise how small it is?". Oh dear, I thought.

As it happened, we had much more room than I'd been led to believe, although its one of those funny shaped pubs for a band so there was a bit of head scratching for a bit while we worked out the best way to setup.

The night went well and Dave, the birthday boy, joined us on the mic for the encore of My Way. He looked a happy bunny.

Our next new venue was the Stoke Arms in Exeter. As we were setting up, a guy who'd obviously had one or two shandies during the day, requested some lesser known Clash songs which unfortunately we don't do. I was concerned at this point that if we had a room full of hardcore punk fans, we might get bottled off when we played some of our more cheesy songs.

I need not have worried. Three songs in and the same guy is begging for Britney and poledancing round a pillar. A sight for sore eyes!

We had a few familiar faces in the audience but there were lots of locals who didn't really know what to expect, and they loved it.

Hurrah for us and to the Stoke for taking a punt on us. We'll see you back there in June.

Home Gig at the Crawford

2009-03-08T11:52:00.002Z

The Crawford is one of our favourite venues - we have a home crowd, plenty of space and an elevated position for us.

Aiden was in the audience and was on fine form, in danger of upstaging us with his dancing on tables and patio umbrella dance. But he's great to have in the audience - he jumps around like a nutter but never knocks anything over ;-)

We unveiled our Abba Song and subjected Paul and Bully to wig wearing. There seems to be no limit to how much cheese our audience can take!

Dirt Devil Dave's Biog

2009-02-26T10:38:00.000Z

After weeks of intensive interrogation, we've finally extracted the truth about Dave's background.

Dirt Devil Dave got his nickname from his days working the bins in Rotherham and Mexborough in the early nineties. To supplement their meagre wages, the lads would suspend Dave upside down in the wheelie bins to enable him to drag out any items of value for "recycling". Accidentally shut in a commercial-sized bin for over three days, Dave was eventually rescued thanks to his rhythmic banging on the side with two discarded jars of Marmite. Spookily his drumming still sounds like that today.

Thanks to Guesswork

2009-02-07T20:44:00.002Z

I logged onto eFestivals today to be greeted by the message that Slipknot had self confirmed for the Download Festival!

:-O

A couple of quick conversations later and I've budged our gig at the Crawford from the Download weekend to mid-July.

Big thanks to Guesswork for being so accommodating. We'll definitely pop in and see you at the Stoke Arms next Friday.

The Socks in Exeter!

2009-02-02T10:15:00.003Z

For Christmas, John wrapped up a pair of his socks. Odd, I thought, until I found a note inside one of the socks saying that the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are playing the Barnfield Theatre in Exeter on February 28th. You're shitting me! I shit you not!

This is a great chance to see a great comedy show. They've sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in two consecutive years, and this year are playing at Dartmouth Comedy Festival at £10 a ticket so this is a bargain at only £6

Here's a couple of my favourites, Life on Mars and Reservoir Dogs: