September 2009 Archives

After we played Insomnia, our trademark opener, the roar from the crowd was incredible. The Monsters had pulled it all off again. Resplendant in our special outfits - Amy wore a vintage blue and red jumpsuit, Kieran sported a blue and red conductors jacket trimmed with gold and a pair of aviation googles, Dave spent the evening tied up in his huge zebra print dressing gown and Carly looked stunning in a black and pink dress (photo's by Joe Steele to come soon). We played our hearts out, being reunited with David for the first time in a long while! The Monsters were back and on terrific form. We introduced two new sets in the first half - The Witches and Red Monster , you'll be able to hear them soon at one of our gigs. The first slot came to a close amid a throng of steaming dancers and we took a leisurely interval (it was our party and we'll chat if we want to, right?). During the interval we scoffed on monster munch, a  monstrous amount of cheese and a monster cake made by carlys mum with an actual monster on it! Thanks Sheila! 

We cracked open our second set with some more album tracks from 'Make Me A Dancer'. Including Lamb Biscuit which has been released on the iphone with the iherd application (more on that later). After stomping through some more sets it was time for the big finale - we started Stomach Steinway (the last track on M.M.A.D.) and through a live laptop collaboration with The Touch finished the set with a huge backdrop of pounding beats, the Star and Shadow erupted! Cries of 'more', shouting and screaming at the end of the set were cut off when The Touch Kicked in the full high octane remix of the Stomach Steinway. We jumped off stage and get down with the rest of the crowd.

The Monsters have been busy little bees over the last couple of weeks. We've been playing a few local gigs, supporting Shooglenifty at Off the Tracks, had our first radio play, some exciting news from WOMEX and finally, a lovely review from Bright Young Folk. So grab yourself a chocolate HobNob, a cuppa tea and we'll tell you all about it! 

We had some bad news not so long ago - David our bassist broke his finger. So we have been playing all of our recent gigs with the fantastic Jonathan Proud of the Rachael McShane Band (plus one gig with Paul Susans of The Baghdaddies). If you've seen us live over the past month or so, you'll have seen that for yourself. The good news is that David will be back playing with us for the album party! 

We had Jonathan with us at the fantastic 'Durham Streets of Folk' gig we did as well as at Off the Tracks Festival down in Derbyshire. What a gig that turned out to be! For once, we decided to leave TWO HOURS free for our arrival time and what a good idea that was! The A1 is a mischevious mistress and does her best to beat you up for the whole time you are travelling on her and this time was no exception. We spent hours in traffic jams and made it to the gig by the skin of our teeth, straight out of the car, straight in to sound check, the world's quickest string change by Kieran and then on stage and playing. We had a great reception and by the end of the gig we were screaming at the crowd who in turn were screaming back! Plus if you have a look at the picture on Facebook, you'll see we found our spiritual father, Al.... 

You'll be able to see us playing live in Newcastle soon. The Monsters are hitting the streets to do a bit of busking and promotion towards the end of the week. On Saturda,y we'll be performing on the band stand in Leazes Park with Joe our DJ. Plus on the Following Wednesday we're having our ALBUM PARTY at the Star and Shadow Cinema: tickets are £4 OTD. 

To top it all off, we were listening to BBC Radio Tees on the 10th September and were very pleased to be featured on the introducing section of the programme! Our first play on National Radio!! We where extremely pleased to be played given that we play ceilidh/folk music. Though there seemed to be some issue with whether the Monster Ceilidh Band was really big or just one monsterous giant with a loin cloth. We are honored to be one of the few ceilidh bands to have been played on commercial radio... mobile phones, radio, the internet, what next? 

We also noticed that the lovely young folk at www.brightyoungfolk.com reviewed 'Make Me A Dancer'. You can read it here - 

http://www.brightyoungfolk.com/gigs/make-me-a-dancer-monster-ceilidh-band/record-detail.aspx 

We have some more exciting news in the pipeline and can't wait to tell you, but we're going to save it untill the next blog! Wooooooo!!! 

Peas out and lots of love, 

The Monsters