So I don't know what it is about the hoover that makes me so damn horny I just know that hoover time (does that makes me sound like MC Hammer) is humping time. So I thought I'd introduce you to my best friend Mr Snuggles who's help I find invaluable in such times of need.......now my music of choice on that particular occasion was by a local band called The Ultras who I'd discovered whilst investigating local music venue The Citadel (more of which later) with a view to hopefully getting some bands together for a bit of a promotional concert type thingy some time in the future.
The Ultras
The guys are from Haydock, here in St Helens so are proper local but producing toons that should be heard Nationwide! As far as I can tell they remain unsigned which is hard to believe when you listen to tracks like 'Set the Night on Fire' or the excellent 'Shine'. There's not a lot of info on the guys which I'll try and resolve however there was this poignant missive that was written a few years ago which I'll share with you........
....make you feel like quitting.
Every now and then, every band must feel like this. You wonder why you're doing it, are you wasting your time? Are you not as good as you think? Do people lie when they tell you that you're good? For 3 gigs in a row now, things have gone wrong.
(Please bare with me, it sounds like I'm moaning but read it all).
We had 8 people at the gig on Friday. The owner of the venue was understandably pissed off, we were embarrassed. We almost cancelled the gig at one point.
I'd just like to thank those 8 people for turning up, we really appreciate it and are very grateful.
Over the past couple of weeks, for the first time ever, I've actually questioned why we do it. Why do we travel miles and miles just to play a 30 minute set?
Why do we put up with being talked to like shit by a promotion company who act as if we should be grateful that they've give us a 25 minute set in some tiny, shit hole in manchester with no sound check, when they've fucked up, put us on first, on a Metal night when we told them TWICE, 2 months before the gig that we weren't a Metal band. Where would they be without the bands? Fucking nowhere.
Even the weather was against us at one point recently. We played an open air festival and just as we were setting up to go on, the skies opened up and it pissed it down like you wouldn't believe, thunder and lightning, forcing 90% of the audience to take shelter inside.
I can't blame them, I wouldn't have stood there and got soaked either.
Then the stage started to leak water in. Surely there is some kind of safety risk when water is dripping through the top cover onto your head and you're holding a guitar that's plugged into God knows how many voltz of electricity. We finished the set though. As far as we know, the next band on decided to give it a miss and play indoors instead.
So why the fuck do we do it? The time we've put into it can't be measured anymore, just to get a rejection email from some record company saying they're not interested with no explanation as to why, or if they do say why they come out with some bull shit like, "sorry, you're a bit too Epic Rock for us." What the fuck is Epic Rock? Is that a new genre? It sounds good to me! The money we've put into it over the years must be thousands and thousands of pounds spent on studio time, equipment, websites, petrol, cd's, badges etc and for what?
I've began to think that we've risked our safety, wasted our own time, energy and money for fuck all. So why do it anymore?
We got an email this morning from someone in America. They asked to be added to the mailing list and wanted to know how they could get a copy of the album. They said they stumbled across us on myspace, it was the first time they had heard us and they loved our music.
Ah right… that's why we do it.
We do it because we fucking love it.
We do it because it's all we really want to do.
We do it for people who want to listen, we do it for people who are prepared to stand there in a storm just to watch us play live. We do it to hear them cheer and applaud when we finish a song. We do it to see them smile and shout for more when we finish our set (whether it be to 8 people or 500).
We do it because we actually believe we're good enough to make it. We believe that if someone in any position to help actually took the time to come and watch us live or spent more than 30 seconds listening to our songs then they would see the potential we have and that we're worth a chance.
We do it because we are determined to make it.
We do it for the feeling we get when we play live, the rush it gives us. For the way it feels when we're writing new songs and they start coming together. The way it feels when we hit a set of chords and the hairs on the backs of our necks stand up. For the ringing in our ears after a gig that reminds us that we had a great night. We do it for the people who are kind enough to come and tell us that they enjoyed it too.
It took me a while to realise, but I won't ask myself, "why do we do it," ever again.
So there you have it.....the mysterious but excellent Ultras.....but don't take my word for it.....what do I know......I hump a teddy......go check them out on MySpace
