On and Off the Road with Grinn

All systems go!

2008-06-19T19:18:00.002+01:00

Yes, its been very quite here for a while but things are afoot.

Finally, we have a new bass player to take over from Nev. In the end we didn't look very far and we've now acquired the services of Graham who has been our and the Smurphs sound engineer of choice for many a year.

Last night we had our first practice of the new line-up, which includes a fully reinstated Paddy, and after half an hour of knocking the rust off it was starting to sound pretty damned good.

First order of business is to get a live set polished up and then we are straight into writing and rehersng album number 4.

Give it a couple of weeks and I'll be chasing some support/opener gigs to get up to speed.
Bands/promoters please, feel free to get in touch with any gig offers?

It's great to be back!

Spam Bastards

2008-05-14T22:23:00.002+01:00

Looks like some spam bots are using our domain again. Sorry if you've got some spam from this grinnuk.com - it's not from us. The bloody responses are cluttering up our inbox!

Bootlegging

2008-03-05T22:04:00.004Z

The live bootleg "Grinn live at Bannermans" is now available for free listen/download via lastFM along with all of Grinn's other albums.

The recording was made during Grinn's recent gig supporting The Begrudgers in Edinburgh on Jan 26th 2008.

Moonlighting again

2008-03-05T21:38:00.004Z

Last Wednesday (27th Feb) Ian and Paddy could be seen supporting The Mission at Shepherds Bush Empire in some other band which also feature original Grinn bass player Mark!

Also visible in the photo on the far right is Rhombus front man Ed havening invaded the stage to join in the vocals for the final song of the set.

Sad news

2008-02-13T14:51:00.002Z

It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you all the Nev will be leaving Grinn with Immediate effect.

Last year he suffered a fork lift truck related industrial accident which although sounding spectacular has left him with a severely injured hand. Nev has struggled on valiantly for the last few months, through some extreme pain and played some cracking gigs but after further medical consultation advising a recovery time of 3-5 years he has made the very sensible decision to step down from Bass duties within Grinn.

Nev's last gig was the stormer at Edinburgh - I've just heard a bootleg recording and you'd never guess Nev's predicament listening to the expert bass playing demonstrated.

Grinn will continue in some form to be decided, and any interested bassists should therefore drop us a mail.

Good luck Nev.

Edinburgh Gig

2008-01-27T17:33:00.001Z

I'll write up a bit more about this gig when I have chance - but suffice to say it was a corker!

The Dirty Pickups debut was a stormer, we really enjoyed Cezare and The Begrudgers were excellent!

We played fast and loud and thanks to everyone for giving us a fantastic reception. As promised to those we spoke to after the gig, email us your postal addresses and well send you some CDs and stuff - info@grinnuk.com.

Edinburgh gig poster

2008-01-15T22:51:00.001Z

Originally uploaded by GrinnUK

Veging out

2007-12-20T20:31:00.000Z

Marvel at the vegetable orchestra.

Bloody Spam

2007-12-18T09:11:00.000Z

Looks like some spammers are using our domain for their nefarious schemes. If you've received a mail which purports to be from grinnuk.com and isn't directly related to the band then its not from us.

We've taken every security precaution we have at our disposal but sorry it you've been a victim.

And for the record, we neither buy nor sell Viagra, our manhood's are all plenty large, thank you!

Studio

2007-12-07T16:12:00.000Z

This is one of the funniest things I've seen on YouTube for a while except for Binocular Football of course - check it out.

Loyalties Gig

2007-12-07T15:53:00.000Z

Lets make no bones about it - I love The Loyalties, just as I loved The Yo-Yos which featured various Loyalties over the years. And lets not forget to mention the Dogs D'amour connections! So I was really looking forward to this gig.

The usual Rock n' Roll travel logistics mishaps meant that no sound check for us as by the time the Loyalties and more importantly their speaker cabs arrived, we were already past stage time. So we just throw the gear on a started.

The sound engineer was preyty damned good and managed to iron things out by the end of the first song.
There was some weird mis-tuning thing happening during Ordinary Day, which screwed that a little as I really couldn't tell where to pitch the vocal - not being able to tell what instruments were in and which were out, but everything else was good.

Of course, the big thing for Grinn was that this was our first gig (of note - lets not count Pontefract!) since Paddy returned - its good to have the double guitar attack and backing vocals back!

Up next were the new look Violent Angel who bashed though their dirty rock n' roll before Germany's Radio Dead Ones, tore the place apart - awesome and really nice guys to boot!

I was a little worried about The Loyalties as I heard that their set in London was only 20 minutes long, but they all seemed in fine spirits especially Tom who was 'nicely drunk' and we got a fair old set.

Unfortunately due to the late starting we ran up against the venue curfew and they weren't really going to let the bands indulge in too much post gig drinking - which was a real shame.

Thanks to JJ for getting us on the bill!

Edinburgh bound

2007-11-27T10:05:00.000Z

As promised we - or more accurately those lovely punks of the AYM collective - have rescheduled our long delayed Edinburgh debut - Sat Jan 26th at Bannermans on Cowgate. An excellent 4 band bill 2 of which feature Neil, erstwhile drumming band mate from Dolefin!

The Begrudgers, The Dirty Pickup and Cezare along with Grinn - what better way to start the new year?

Pontefract Gig

2007-11-27T09:55:00.000Z

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Never again!

Still, great to catch up with The Vegas!

New Gig - Pontefract Nov 20th

2007-10-31T11:54:00.000Z

So we just has a call on the Bat Phone from Slash Vegas offering us the support slot for their gig at The Turks Head in Pontefract on Nov 20th.

We said yes of course.

Edinburgh gig postponed

2007-10-02T17:59:00.000+01:00

Shame this, but AYM are having venue issues and have had to pull the gig on the 20th. Don't worry, it WILL get rearranged for later in the year or early 2008!

Google Gig reflections

2007-10-02T17:54:00.000+01:00

This is a little late but we have all been very busy.

Gig was a blast.

We played pretty well- in fact on stage it sounded like one of our best ever - unfortunately the FOH guitars were too quiet by all accounts - that's the last time I use the limiter on my amp head.

Slash Vegas were awesome as ever - these guys sound better every time I see them.

Velvet Star were pretty fine too, though they also suffered from disappearing FOH guitars.

Obviously if you only buy one unsigned band's CD this year we hope you make it Grinn but we don't mind at all if you pass us up for either Slash Vegas or Velvet Star's offerings. Do yourself a favour!

Sheffield Corporation Gig report

2007-09-02T09:47:00.000+01:00

Well, that was a great way to introduce our selves back into Sheffield (my home town - though I left 16 years ago), and hopefully raising a quid or two towards relieving flood stress.

As bill openers we started to a fairly sparse audience but the punters trickled in during the set and the reception warmed up.
We blasted through our 35minute set with only a couple of fluffs and enjoyed ourselves greatly. Stage sound was pretty good thanks to the efforts of the very professional crew Frank and er, damn - forgot.. any hoo, they were both good guys.

It was great to meet Ian and Jane who made the trip especially to see us - thanks guys and thanks for the very positive comments; we "sound like a band is supposed to sound" - cool! Catch you guys soon.

A big thanks to JJ from Violent Angel who put the whole thing together, is a thoroughly decent chap and has incredible taste in music :-) Thanks dude! Oh and Hi to Sophie too!

Middle band were 10 Foot Dolls who were saying farewell to their current guitarist - Enjoyed them a lot - fantastic singer.

The Headline spot featured Silver Jet who's fine line in rifftastic bluesy, sleazy, glam rock went down very well indeed.

No pix from this one I'm afraid. Can't wait to get back to Sheffield in November!

Grinn 3/4 and lost songs recording session

2007-08-30T21:35:00.000+01:00

Last night we were joined at our practice studio by Paddy, who after his year away from Grinn is now ready to get back into the action.
We will introduce Paddy back into the live work steadily over the next few gigs so we'll be appearing as both a 3 and four piece intermittently for a while.

Having Paddy back will be great live as it means we now have access to our entire back catalogue - some of the songs just can;t be done as a three piece as the double guitar and vocal parts are integral. Its going to especially good to be able to resurrect standard set opener 'Bully for you' and traditional set closer 'Def Con 1' among others.

It's going to take a bit of work getting up to speed again with Paddy - as a three piece we have become as tight as the proverbial gnat's whatzit, but it'll be worth it for the double guitar attack, the twiddling, vocal harmonies and writing contribution, not to mention welcoming back a non drinker who drives a van!

Working as a three piece has been great - it's forced me to improve my playing and given a little more space to push Nev's bass playing forward. Lee's drumming has jumped another quality notch, and it was pretty damned good already!
So when we finally hit the road and studio as a four piece again we should have progressed. It will be the same old Grinn but not the same old same old old Grinn - if you know what I mean!

Also, we are set to record a session of lost songs for our split EP with liquidhead. These are songs which either didn't seem right for the albums, weren't ready in time or were written during the various false starts in 2005 when we were trying to gain momentum again.
Some of the tracks we have gigged - other although old to us will be new to even the most ardent Grinn fan.
The songs set for this session are most likely:

China Doll - Moody heavy alt rock which we dropped from the Bubblegum & Machine Guns album at the last minute in favor of Radio Waves because we weren't entirely happy with the arrangement.
Do what you want - A bit of pop rock nonsense which we dropped from the Ordinary Day album in favor of Rip it Up
Ordinary World - A conceptual sequel to Smallville which fell between the cracks when Paddy went for his break
American Hero - Another slice of Paddy script pop punk fun which didn't fit with the more straight ahead heavy rock of the ordinary Day album
Bully for you - I've never been happy with the album version which somehow seems to lack the balls and big guitars, let alone the pace of the live version, so it will be nice to have another crack.

Recording these songs is a slight exercise in clearing the decks of unfinished business ( how many metaphors can you mix?) before we settle down to writing album 4.

There are a few other lost songs kicking about including Persistence, and some early Primal Scream type affair I can vaguely remember from about 6 years ago that Paddy wrote and was something about motorways or highways or something. Anyhoo - these will probably stay lost or maybe we'll steal riffs from them for other songs.

To keep costs down, we'll be recording the session in The Grinnstitution (our practice studio) using digital multi track recorders and an exquisite collection of microphones as blagged from Liquidhead and Rhombus.

Ian

Damned Gig Pix

2007-08-21T11:07:00.000+01:00

Hey,

So pics are starting to drift in from the damned gig - thanks to all those photographers out there. Any more? Get in touch!

Damned Gig

2007-08-10T01:43:00.000+01:00

:-)

How much fun can a rock band have?

That was great - I'm pissed and deaf so I'll save the review writing until I'm in a better state.

A big thanks to everyone that turned out to support us, anyone who saw us for the first time and got behind us, everyone who visited our merch stall and Paddy for the last minute guitar tech duties!

I think Martin (Liquidhead) got some good photos - stay tuned!

Lee's impressions of the gig are available on his blog.

For the record our set list was:

Dog Star
Scars
Ordinary Day
Wrecking Ball
The trouble with Johnny
Lets hear it for the Freaks
Angelina Crush
Rip It Up

++ -- ++ -- Stop Press ++ -- ++ --

Nige has some great photos of all tonights bands on flickr

Damned gig start time

2007-08-08T22:16:00.000+01:00

So, we'll be the first act on tomorrow so please get there by 7:30 if you don't want to miss our set.
I lost count of the amount of times we've had a coach load arrive as our last chord hangs in the air.

See you there!

Anyone who still wants tickets mail 'tickets ~at~ grinnuk.com' and we'll leave them on the door for you.

Goth - Moonlighting

2007-08-05T10:18:00.000+01:00

Ian, who literally just flew in from the States will be gigging tonight in Leeds in his capacity of Rhythm guitarist for the Sisters of Murphy. The smurphs are rounding off the Heartland goth-tastic weekend and will be playing the Basement (or whatever it's called now) suported by Rhombus - small world eh?

More details here.

New Album OUT NOW!!!!!

2007-07-25T10:25:00.000+01:00

Yes, at long last the new Grinn album "Ordinary Day' has been released. It may take some time to make it to a record shop near you, but you can get it right now by ordering from the Grinn online shop. Whats more it will only cost you £6 +P&P.

While you are at it, why not order a T-Shirt or one of the previous albums.

If you are new to Grinn there is a fantastic online only offer to buy all three albums for just £12 and complete your Grinn back-catalogue in one go.

"It's here! Smell The Glove is here"

2007-07-24T09:56:00.001+01:00

Yep - the first pressing run of the Ordinary Day album is complete and delivered. The Grinn shop will get a revamp in the next few days and you'll be able to order your copy online.

We are working on some distro now and also will get copies into record shops locally.

New Rhombus Album

2007-07-19T10:19:00.000+01:00

Our good, good friends Rhombus have finally released their new album. For the uninitiated Rhombus are an "Upbeat Goth Rock" band combining sonic guitar-scapes with a line in extremely witty lyrics. The new album Remembrance Day is on world wide distribution via Resurrection Records and available direct from the online shop section of Rhombus' web site.
Mya from Stricken, Smurphs and EM and Liv from Endorphin Machine among other things add a bit of class and backing vocal talent, but of course what really makes the album stand out are the backing vocal contributions of Grinn's own Ian and Paddy ;-)

Oh, and the album is very good!

Rhombus are also sharing the bill with Grinn for The Damned on Aug 9th.