Monday 14 July 2008

Here's a few pic's to look at of the 'Absolutely Feral' sounding N.P.W./Chris Ripple X-perience...















Before I post any sort of comment whatsoever... Thank You Sarah and Herby for taking the pic's, and everybody else who keeps sending them along...
Cheers people. We appreciate it.

So... What was it like then ?
Difficult to describe, but two people stopped me afterwards and the younger one said
'Hey mate... They never said they was havin' punk bands on... Wish we'd known earlier 'cos we only caught the last three numbers...'

And the older one said, and I quote... 'Bloody Hell ! You lot were absolutely feral... The programme said it was going to be short and sharp but fuck me, that was something else...'

Oh well... We made an impression.

Actually, I'm laughing at both quotes because if either of them only knew the problems we faced on the day then they might have guessed why ?
The Stage's P.A. arrived at 12.45am... Three quarters of an hour after the stage was supposed to start and then took 15 mins to put together for the first act so we were immediately an hour late starting.
Of course things just go from bad to worse after that, with hordes of fans turning up an hour early to see the artists they're interested in...

The N.P.W. has of course, double booked the day.
Not his fault, but Pete Doherty is playing his re-sheduled date at The Albert Hall and he's got tickets, so we're not just being hassled by punters, but by an increasingly agitated 'Wolf' as time is dragging on.
We'd got through three quarters of the set when he ran for his taxi and so we finished it accapella style.
It was, as they say, something of an X-perience...
Having said that, it was also hugely enjoyable... And we got a heckler...
Some sad drunken fuckwit who decided he was going to invade the stage and did until I manhandled him off, security kept an eye on him from that point on and the next thing we know he's arguing with them and I lost touch after that.

We did get a recording of the gig but the sound is all over the place.
The N.P.W.'s guitar drowns the vocals totally, which is a drag but it'll get posted somewhere, I promise.
I'm now crossing my fingers for the film of the event, but I'm not running about today... Just trying to chill a bit and catch up on my sleep.

Anyway, just enjoy the pic's for now.
Ps. Who's gonna win the best stage clothing competition then ?
Were we colour coordinated or what ?
Yes, we were the men (and woman) in black...
A bit more Johnny Cash than Tommy Lee Jones if you get my drift ?
(You can work it out... It ain't rocket science).

Maybe it was more like rocket science bearing in mind the amount of people who have stopped and asked me ?
Ok, here 'tis...
This is (nearly) a quote from a Johnny Cash song.

'But just as a reminder of the ones that are held back
Up front... there ought to be some guys (a man) in black...'

As The N.P.W. put it... We did what it said on the tin.
One chord, and the scream...
Some will ask what politics has to do with poetry or music ?
The answer comes from The Nuzz...
Get a life. Get real ! Your generation's on vacation...

Pps. If you want to check out the complete action from the two days then click on google and punch up chrisrippleparnassus and you should get my myspace page.
Click on my pic's and you're in. They're all labelled as to what and where.

There is also, I have discovered, a small review if you punch up Chris Ripple into Google and then click onto BBC-Beds, Herts and Bucks-Entertainment-I love the(Rhythms of the World) which looks as if it might have something to do with a band named The Pocket Gods. Check it out. Hawkwind crossed with W.B.Yeats ? That was us. Joy T. gets a mention about her solo set too.

Thursday 10 July 2008

Ok... The Programmes are out... It's Rhythms Of The World 2008.




I'm so far behind on posting stuff that it'll have to go in out of order as 'Rhythms Of The World' is upon us once more, and there have been a few last minute hiccups as usual, so I've spent all my free time trying to help sort them out.

Anyway, check out the billing on the old flyer...
Not bad, eh ?
Even if I do say it myself.
(And there's me sharing a festival date with the first 'Bobby And The Midnites' drummer... Who'da thought it ?)

WARNING NOTICE.

Ok, that's yer warning.

THE N.P.W/Chris Ripple X-perience hit The Arcadeclectic Stage at about 4.15 pm on Saturday July 12th...
And we're feeling quite good about it.

There are four of us all told, with maybe a couple more guest backing vocalists if they don't bottle out before the event, but I won't embarrass them by naming them (yet).

The official lineup is as follows:-
The Nuzz Prowlin' Wolf-Guitar.
Chris Ripple-Vocals and Percussion.
Joy T.Chance-Backing Vocals and Percussion
Grant Meaby-Backing Vocals and Percussion.

For anyone who has seen me on and off musically in the last (It's nearly twenty... I won't lie about it) few years, I have to say that this lineup is closer to the early nineties KOCAINE aggregate but is much more 'stripped down' soundwise, and with chorussy bits as well.
I adapted one old Johnny Cash number that I was working on, for me and The Nuzz' and the rest just seemed to fall into place around it, and then when Joy and Grant came on board the possibilities became endless.
How long we last together is anybody's guess as we are all pretty distinctive, personality wise, but we are at least 'planning' another 'biggish' gig somewhere in the Stevenage area later on in the year ?

Me working with Nuzz ? There are no differences creative or musical whatsoever.
The guy is just amazing, and the ideas just seem to flow out of him...
I've always said he's my musical blood brother and I've always meant it.
Joy T. I worked with in our (retired for a bit) Jazz/Poetry band, Bass Relief, up until the early part of this year, and she is still my preferred co-star or co-compere at any gig I do.
Grant, of course, is my colleague from Parnassus Performance when the local poetry outfit does one of it's periodical gigs, and is getting a worthy reputation locally in his own 'write'. (Sorry... Couldn't resist it).

The beauty of the four of us working together is that three of us can write for the 'band' and arrange it how it's heard in their own head without the usual arguments over who does what, and then give it to da' Nuzz to kick it about a bit before revving it up, speeding it up and taking it off somewhere else entirely...
Strangely enough, it all seems to make sense to us, although what audiences make of it is another matter entirely ?

Check out The N.P.W's Blog if you are in any way into Politics and Punk and how it affects us all to this day.
http://www.nuzzprowlinwolf.blogspot.com/