shoot yourself in the face

Sir Ben Kingsley STOMPS into the shoes of Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye from Mean Magazine on Vimeo.

MEEJA HOR

I've got and idea, let's write a song, we'll call it, 'Bright Grey' and you'll sing along.

HYPE 3.0

Potential for success

If you're as old as 3 quarters of us are and played in a punk band when you were at an age when it was slightly more acceptable then you will have ventured into the wonderful world of demo cassettes... Running around your house utilising every available recording deck to try and get as many done before the gig that night, using the lower quality 'high speed' record function that 9 times out of 10 would fuck up the tape and not actually save you time, having to effectively listen to your badly recorded demo over and over and over again so you knew when to stop the tape until you hate every last second of its poorly played existence, also doubly hating that extra 'secret track' bit you put on at the end because it was funny at the time but actually having to sit there and wait 10 minutes before it even starts is now the opposite of funny, like really not funny at all. Wow, those were the days.
Well we're taking ourselves back to those days... to co-incide with the new record we're putting together something very special with our friend Matt over at Suplex cassettes and you will shortly have something to play in your car, if it's a bit old, or you parents stereo.

WATCH THIS SPACE ----> <------- for more details.

yes.

HYPE

So yeah.

We called that one Breathe In. Which is something you should do... then hold it until the 29th September. Then do the other one...

No brainer

Enlargement

Ok ok ok ok....

So there's this -



Yup, we're releasing a new album. Near the end of June we wrote the first song on the album while we were waiting for pavey to turn up to practice... that was the first song to be written. We booked the recording a week later for the end of July, wrote some more songs, had a couple of practices, then headed down to Devon to see Mr. Peter Miles. Whilst in Devon we wrote some more songs, spent 2 days in one room going insane, writing lyrics and fighting hornets. Then we spent 2 days recording everything we'd managed to come up with in the month previous. We then cut some stuff out, made sure there were no gaps and we ended up with our second album 'BRIGHT GREY'. We're all pretty stoked. We've then spent the last few weeks putting together the artwork for the album, with Pavey being the workhorse/focus of insessant emails demanding change, this time around. It got sent off this morning, we'll get it in a months time and then you'll get it in your hands here -

LP Release show: Weds Sep 24th - Bacchus, Kingston

or Pre-order from here -

http://www.banquetrecords.com/index.jsp?item=9817

These are the details of the record -

Released on CD & LP
Vinyl info: First UK press - 300 copies on one sided Clear / Grey "Colour inside a colour" LP

1. The Possibilities are endless
2. Disconnected
3. Dave Gets Mad
4. No Control
5. Fashionless
6. The Angles
7. Repeat
8. Keep Moving Forward
9. Got Ideas
10. Horror Vacui
11. Breathe In
12. Statues
13. Kids With Kids
14. Keep It Simple

We have some other shows coming up soon (check the 'SHOWS' page, duh.) and we will also be heading out on their first UK headline tour in January and will hit Kingston, Guildford, Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Exeter & Swansea. Details to be announced soon!

So there. should be fun.

x

The Possibilities are Endless

Get on the Boogie Train

Hi,

So i've been meaning to put something up about this for ages... as always i've procrastinated to the point of ridiculousness so now i'm going to do it when I should really be going to bed.

ANYWAY. As you might have seen/heard we have a split 7" out with a band called Beat Express. I'm pretty sure most people who are into our band probably thought, "Who the hell are Beat Express?!" and if they bought the 7" put on their side and were surprised to not hear double time and shouting.

Well, i thought it was probably best to explain and give some context to what we've done.

We've effectively done what I consider to be a pretty big first in music history and put out a record with a learning disabled band (Correct me if i'm wrong on this but I couldn't find anything else of it's kind when I researched it). We all thought this was an amazing opportunity to try and do something different and break out of the mould of a typical hardcore split 7" and maybe even try and educate people a little... as racism/sexism/homophobia issues are all well covered within punk rock we thought Disability Rights could have some attention. Especially now.

The way it came about was I started volunteering for a charity called Carousel just under 2 years ago now and through that I started working with Beat Express. At the beginning of 2007 I started playing second guitar and helping facilitate and support the band so they could rehearse, play gigs and do outreach. They're amazing people and a brilliant band. I always thought that they were way more punk than any band that I had been in. I was slowly finding out more and more about what they had to go through to just exist as a band, and this still blows me away. Their sheer love of writing and playing music, and their work ethic is unbelievable. I always wanted to find away to share their music and the things that i've learnt from joining the band.

Beat Express has a history that doesn't exactly follow conventional rock band stories I guess. They formed initially five years ago from a music project run by Carousel. The thing that puts aside Beat Express from a lot of bands is the difficulties they face in just being 'in a band' as 3 out of the 5 members have learning disabilities. This also gives context to their songwriting and the honesty of their lyrics, when Lee, Claire and Chris are screaming, "We Need SPEED!" you might be able to understand that for these guys visceral experiences can be hard to come by, often caught up in a labyrinth of risk assessments and often encountering people that treat them like children. Their songs are about themselves but reach out to their community, talking about their lives and offering a voice that understands them without being patronising or condescending.

If it wasn't enough for these guys to be in a band, writing songs, practicing and playing gigs around the south-east and London, they also work collaboratively with other art-forms and work really hard within their own community, as educators and positive role models. In 2006 they wrote, (in a staggering 24 hours over 12 weeks) the story and 14 songs for a Rock Opera called Debbie Rock Angel. This was a collaboration with learning disabled film makers from Junk TV and Carousel's Dance Company, 'High Spin'. It was performed live to two sell out audiences at the Komedia in Brighton and at several other locations across the south-east of England. The band for the last few years has also run outreach workshops in schools and after-school clubs for people with learning disabilities. Going in, helping groups write their own songs and perform them in front of the rest of the school. Beat Express have also been running a year long OCN accredited music training course, so far extremely successful, this has been an incredibly positive experience for all involved, teachers and students, creating a space where their skills and confidence can grow.

Ok, so i nicked a load of that from a press release i wrote for them, but you get the idea...

They're in a band, they write all their own music, rehearse, play gigs, record themselves, release their own records, go into schools to help kids to write their own songs, run a music training course for people with learning disabilities, educating and acting as positive role models... basically they're amazing.

I can't really say enough good things about them.

So, I hope this clears up a little of the confusion which may have arisen from the split 7". I do hope you enjoy it and I hope if any of this seems interesting to you you might want to do some research . A few starting points -

Self Advocacy
Social Model of Disability
Carousel
Ouch!

Thank you for reading,

Richard "Telecaster Man" Phoenix.

Summer Updates

Hello friends!
So we have finally got off our arses and released our split 7inch with the band Beat Express. It is £3 from most places and features 2 new tracks from us called "The Score" and "451" and track by Beat Express called "We Need Speed". It comes wrapped up in a sexy 2 colour A2 screenprint designed by longtime Steal friend Wil Exley. You can either buy it straight from us at shows or through our webstore. You can also buy it from the lovely people at Banquet Records in Kingston and also the equally lovely people at the Punker Bunker in Brighton.

As well as the split I have updated the webstore with new stock of the Steal Crest shirts and also the A3 screenprinted poster I produced for The Don Ramos Players Record release show.

On the Summer shows front we have 2 booked, one supporting Fucked Up in Kent on the 3rd July and one in Leeds with The Don Ramos Players (amongst others) on the 18th July.

Whilst trawling the internet I found some pretty good videos of when we played the Punktastic Unscene Release show filmed by Gary Lancaster. Either check them out on his youtube page or you can watch them as embeded files on our media page.

Thanks very much to everyone that made it down to the Against Me! shows as well as the Don Ramos Release show, it was really rad seeing some faces of people I had not seen in over 7 months! Hope to see some people I recognise at the next few shows.

lots of love
Mark

xxx