Tubesnake

Our New Years Eve 2007 gig at Crook F.C. was, as expected, a damn good party with all 100 tickets being sold. Victims of The Fury opened and warmed up the room with their best performance I’ve seen to date. Next, the extremely youthful, The Unnamed, got a very enthusiastic reception to their set since, apart from it being great to see such young-uns putting it out, their choice of songs were probably known by nearly everyone in the room. Teenage Kicks (Excellent!). An acoustic duo version of Mojo Hand provided the next variation of the night with a batch of ballsy blues numbers. Tubesnake dimmed the lights, banged on a slide show and completed the first set with minutes to go before the midnight hour. We led the crowd into a traditional sing-a-long verse of Auld Lang Syne before a 1-2-3-4 count launched us into a Punk version of the same. Great fun for us and the crowd. Can’t even remember the second set which followed and problems developed with the in-house P.A. but I don’t think anybody minded too much by this point. All the best for 2008! … Lenny

The Blue Bell, Alston, Saturday 22nd December 2007. Debbie and her son Richard, who run the pub, were great hosts. Ok, we only had about 12 locals watching but we had a great night (home for 2.40am). A roaring log fire, JD’s and dark rum with Chris scamming the band with some dodgy card game in your typical village local. We totally mixed up the set and busked The Kinks and The Who before settling into our usual tirade. Reckon we could’ve just drank the bar dry and crashed on the bench seats. One of those unusual but special gigs! … Lenny

Tubesnake at The Daisy Hill, Friday 21st December 2007. Well, this was the venue where my audition and first practices with the band took place, the first time I met Lenny and Woody as well, but the first time I’d played a gig there. Quite a biggie for me as well, as I know the band have played there countless times before, and there was a lot of long-time friends and fans of the band who I hadn’t met before. We also had another ‘Pro Photo shoot’ of the band, thanks to DM Photography (Dänni Mustarde), taken outside the venue in the nice ‘chilly’ atmos.

Highlights of the gig for me were Jumpin’ Jack Flash, getting the dancers up early (the crowd were brilliant throughout the gig!), Sympathy For The Devil (reviving my SRV poses!) and a heavier than usual Roadhouse Blues to finish off the night. Brilliant venue, brilliant crowd, and one of my fave gigs to date. Can’t wait to get back there in the New Year! Cheers … Tom

The Lizard by Lenny Mustarde

One hot afternoon
I entered father’s garden
With a handful of friends at my side
We walked among
The cold grey marble
We had no reason to hide

The sun pierced the trees
And spat at the ground
Like summer rain it pattered down
We were drawn to the place
Where the Lizard King was laid
A handful of friends had gathered ’round

Now you’ve broken through
Have you found it to your liking
Still we stand on the sidelines
You did all the risk taking

Assure yourself of this
You have not been forgotten
The Lizard still stalks the horizon
And with my Feast of Friends
We drink to the memory
Of the man who was Waiting For The Sun

Now you’ve broken through
Skim the stars on your Moonlight Drive
Soon we’ll follow you
No One Here Gets Out Alive!

… written August 5th 1982 (after visiting Jim’s grave, Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris, Wednesday July 28th 1982)

Exactly! So we headed off to No Place near Stanley for a gig at The Beamish Mary Inn on Saturday 1st December 2007, almost six months to the day (Saturday 2nd June) since we last played here and launched the ninth line-up of Tubesnake with Tom Atkinson on guitar.

For this, our eighth gig together, we invited The Glammed to join us for what was quite a “celebratory” weekend. The night before, Tubesnake played The Bonny Moorhen in Stanhope for my daughter Dänni’s 18th, and the day after The Beamish, Sunday 2nd December, was both mine and Woody’s birthday. The Glammed got up first to entertain a packed room with an hour of Glam-Rock/70’s/Punk. Just before going on Stephen Wakefield ‘Waka’, in full “let’s have a party” mode, turned his back on the audience and in 30 seconds flat managed to plaster glitter all over his face and apply eye-liner without the use of a mirror. Impressive! The lads kicked off with Blockbuster by The Sweet and ploughed through a stack of well known numbers that were well received by the crowd. Good job done. We also had a blast with our two sets which, at one point, saw Tom having a quick lie down on the stone floor during one of his guitar solos. I didn’t even realise he’d done that until I saw the photographs later! … Lenny

Turned up on Sunday 25th November 2007 at The Vane Arms, Sunderland, a venue I’ve played a couple of times before when the Sunday gigs used to be on afternoons so I was interested to see what an evening gig would be like. It was looking like no one was gonna turn up until just before we went on and 15 or so people arrived. The atmosphere picked up straight away, and we kicked off with Helter Skelter, without a soundcheck. The energy on stage was noticeably higher than a couple of previous gigs, and everything just seemed to go well! We started the 2nd set once again with Crackerman (one of my personal faves by Stone Temple Pilots), and got a request to do some Doors, so shoved all The Doors tunes we do into one big clump in the second set, and it went down really well. When The Music’s Over has evolved to have a few more little quirks here and there, as has L.A. Woman and Riders On The Storm. A couple of Stones songs to finish off: Paint It Black and Sympathy For The Devil, then White Room and Roadhouse Blues for encores. A really enjoyable night, really appreciative crowd. The Vane’s a great venue, nice long room and a canny stage as well. Cheers! … Tom

Low lights, loud, hot and sweaty at The Pemberton Arms in Cold Hesledon, Seaham on Friday 23rd November 2007.

I always loved this venue but we hadn’t played there for quite a while (26th August 2005 in fact). It was three weeks since our last gig at The Golden Fleece in Sunderland so we were dying to get back out there. Seeing a load of faces that I hadn’t seen for ages really made the night for me. Genuinely loved the support and eagerness to see the new Tubesnake line up and amended set. We seemed to be well received. This was our fifth gig as the new 4-piece presenting some new songs and a few variations on some of our old standards. We are high on energy, but being a picky lot, some amendments are already coming to the fore. The new version of Sweet Jane is “fun to funky” but will probably revert or be ditched for a while. The new line up has revitalised us but we want more new songs in there so listen up.

Highlights para mí last night, Eleanor Rigby (all praise to Tom and Woody for developing that shamanistic, tripping, extended ending during our Daisy Hill rehearsals this summer). Our Stone Temple Pilots offering Crackerman (it’s a challenge presenting a song that most people probably don’t know). It’s short and sweet but it rocks. The Red Hot Chili Peppers number By The Way (seemed like everyone in the room identified with this as a recent memory song and were singing along to it). Excellent gig but, in the words of Mr. Mojo Risin, “When the music’s over, turn out the lights!” … Lenny

Wednesday 31st October 2007, Halloween at The Golden Fleece, Sunderland. Great venue, good size room and a nice stage area, with an arch in the middle (this gave Len lots of posing opportunities!). The lights (provided by JAM Lighting) were superb, really added to the atmosphere, the room was kitted out with spider webs, skulls all over the place etc. Kicked off at about 8.30pm to a good crowd, but it was chocka by the time we were midway into the first set. It was probably the best gig to date (for me, anyway!). I think we’ve now got ‘the sound’ that we’ve been looking for since the first gig. A few tracks stood out for me: Just, When The Music’s Over (everyone was really into this one, once again – love the track), the new arrangement of Eleanor Rigby (I was chuffed after this one, I reckon it’s our best go at this so far) and Sympathy For The Devil, which easily ran past ten minutes. A BIG thanks to all who turned out! … Tom

Spent the evening of Saturday 20th October 2007 at Crook F.C. for a “Birthday Bash Gig” with Victims Of The Fury (V.O.T.F.). Both Tom (guitar/vocals) and Chris (bass), from Tubesnake, had clocked up another year in the few days prior to this gig. Together with Martin Bell (drums) they do a Bluesy-Rock set based around 70’s artists such as Robin Trower, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Rory Gallagher. In keeping with the intended party atmosphere of this gig, various combinations of guest musicians took to the stage halfway through the second set to provide a well thought out selection of alternative musical styles. I joined the three victims for 20th Century Boy, Suffragette City and Jumping Jack Flash. This was a nice warm up for the next Tubesnake gig at The Earl Grey, Gosforth the following night, Sunday 21st October 2007. This is a new venue to us and the few steps leading up to a small, rail-enclosed stage gave me something to work with while we took the opportunity to further tighten up the new four-piece. Great response to The Doors stuff in the second set, especially When The Music’s Over. Good Gig! … Lenny

Got off to a 4.30pm start at The Ropery, Sunderland on Sunday 7th October 2007 to a very decent turn out of bods despite the murky mire outside. Gigs are now held in the bigger room at the end of the building rather than the ground level bar in the middle where we’ve played many times before. Acoustics were good and the low lighting provided a great ambience and hid any facial disfigurements we may have been sporting. We’re buzzing at the moment and loving putting out the new line-up and amended set. Great to see a crowd from The Clarendon, where we gigged the previous Sunday, (excellent audience participation from one of the Clarendon ladies who provided dancing as well as an impromptu tambourine solo and then went on to demonstrate her frontman undressing skills). Good to hear some after-gig positives from newbies as well as peeps who’ve known us for years in one shape or another. Thanx to all in the room! … Lenny

Thanx to everyone who turned up to see us at The Clarendon in Sunderland on Sunday afternoon 30th September 2007. Our first outing since June which cemented our new ninth line-up of Lenny, Woody, Chris and Tom. It was a storming gig and for us meant new songs and fresh interpretations of our regular stuff. Eleanor Rigby and Sweet Jane won a free make-over and have emerged transformed. For those of you who didn’t catch the name, the band who opened up the proceedings on the day were called Wrong. They delivered a tight, punk edged onslaught of original material vocalised by an angelic banshee that shook the walls. Spine tingling class! Thanks to Lenny the manager for hosting and John and Caroline from The Creepers for sorting the P.A. Bloody great day. Looking forward to a return! … Lenny

After eleven years with the band, guitarist Dave Lunn performed his final gig with us on New Year’s Eve 2006 to concentrate on his already established other projects White Noise and Black Sabbath tribute band Sabattica, signalling the end of the Eighth Line-Up of Tubesnake. The three of us decided to take some time off and look for two new guitarists and return to the 5-piece format that we’d previously ran with from 1992 until 2003. Using advertising and word of mouth we ended up with fifteen applicants and auditioned five of them in February 2007. We settled on veteran of the local music scene, Steve Reay and a 17 year old friend of Chris, Tom Atkinson. After a dozen or so rehearsals we arranged an “Invite Only” gig at The Beamish Mary, Stanley on Saturday June 2nd 2007 to showcase the new 5-piece. We played to a full house with a re-arranged set and 8 new songs. After five months of not gigging we had a blast and the night was a great success. However, shortly after the gig, Steve announced that he would have to step down since, due to other recent commitments in his life, he knew he would find it difficult to gig as regularly as we do. The 2nd June gig was to be his only performance with us. Collectively, we decided to simply continue as a 4-piece, which we’d been used to for the last 4 years anyway.

The next Tubesnake gig will be at The Clarendon, Sunderland on Sunday September 30th 2007 featuring the now confirmed Ninth Line-Up: Lenny (Vocals), Woody (Drums), Chris (Bass), Tom Atkinson (Guitar).

www.tubesnake.co.uk goes live

Welcome to the brand new Official Tubesnake Website launched 1st September 2007. Thanks to Dan Mullen from Stunshot for getting the site up and running and online. Take a look around and remember to keep checking our Gig Dates page to see where we’re playing.

Hope you enjoy the site 😎