Ripple rocks on...strangely... again.

So, here we are again and blowing my own trumpet, but I had a blast as usual...
Joy T. opened up the proceedings as compere and did a nice little opening set
and she was followed by the 'Rock band' of the night, Letchworth's Hot Wet Dogs.
Bearing in mind the age of this bunch who are just about to start their GCSE's they do make a very nice noise. Even Bob Mardon and Mark Astronaut are quite impressed by them so I'm glad to have given them another go, as I did book them for 'Rhythms' this year and they impressed then,also. Definitely a good band.
Then it's me... A bit of relevant old stuff and a few newies of which the re-do of The Stranglers 'Gordon (golden) Brown' is probably the highlight until I managed to blot the old copybook with a bit of Sam Cooke's 'Twisting (Fisting) the night away'.
Whoops ! Ok, it is overtly sexual but it was past 9 o'clock so no apologies, and besides I did offer the crowd a choice but they all wanted a 'new' one...
To finish we had the guys from Welwyn Garden City, Noble Drowning Heroes.
I really like what they do but they are very experimental in their outlook and 'tunes' are not what they are into. I find them quite challenging and they will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea but they are mine...
I had a good night. What more can anyone ask ?

Saturday gigs and Sunday gigs...

Here's a couple of dates for your diary...

Brian Robert Neal is giving a reading at Royston Public Library on the afternoon of Saturday 29th September
and
Chris Ripple is playing Hitchin's Club 85 on the evening of Sunday 30th September as part of the 'Ripple rocks on...Strangely' gigs, along with Hot Wet Dogs and Noble Drowning Heroes. £3.00 entry and please, please, please bring I.D. if you are old enough to drink but don't look it. The bar shuts at 10.30pm but the music can go on until 11pm. Running order is as follows...
Your Compere is Joy T. Chance and she will open proceedings followed by Hot Wet Dogs, Chris Ripple and Noble Drowning Heroes.
At this time I would like to extend my thanks to the local rag for not mentioning a gig I'm performing in... again... It's a regular occurrence so check the gig guide in the 'Comet' because that's the only place it'll be mentioned... If I ever get famous they can kiss my black cat's arse before I talk to them... So watch this space !

Parnassus' own Brian Robert Neal on Stevenage Boro' F.C's win at Wembley...

One of the great things about Parnassus Performance is the effort and energy that the members put into their live performances... This is one of the items that Brian performed live at Stevenage Leisure Centre for Stevenage Arts Festival in June of this year after he'd gone to Wembley to see Stevenage Boro' F.C. win the final of football's F.A. Trophy cup, becoming the first football team to win a cup competition on the new hallowed turf which is a record that all of Stevenage should be proud of... even if they are not football fans, and... It was a damn fine game too, being exciting to watch and just as importantly, it was played in a sporting manner... which is more than can be said for some of the teams of overpaid prima-donnas who usually 'perform' at this particular venue.

Owing to the death of the C.D. drive we cannot currently download any live events and so in all its pride and glory... Here is Brian's football monologue in full.

It was taken from issue no. 16 of http://www.myspace.com/thebroadhallway... The Stevenage Boro' fanzine who were the first to print it in full, and when the C.D. drive is replaced and vista accepts some of the cleanup software without rejecting them out of hand, you should be able to download a complete live version from this site... And while we are on the subject...

If you go down Brighton way

Any home game Saturday...

You'll find a bloke by the name of Attilla The Stockbroker (a poet of some reknown in the circles we move in) doing all the match links at the game and throwing off the odd scurrilous rhyme for Brighton fans with some abandon... Now other teams have official poets too... So... ????

You can tell where this is going, can't you ?

How about it Stevenage Boro' ?

Come on... Join the real world and have a little fun and I promise not to mention all those bottles and glasses that the mindless fuckwits who spill out of the Executive suite and Broadhall suite

throw straight over the hedge into Roebuck Woods... (seven champagne bottles after Wembley... and the rest...) Any chance somebody could have a word with the offenders and ask them to cease and desist ? It is not just anti-social, it's bloody dangerous too...

Maybe I should write a poem... ?

Anyway... Enjoy Brian's poem... Note for any opposition fans... The bold type bits are for singing and chanting.

Me ? I know nothing about football... I'm a Man. City supporter.

Parnassus Performance Re-Issue Department...

Well... It seems to have taken forever but we've finally got our backsides in gear and done what (at least seventy people) have asked for. All the old cassette releases have been cleaned up by going back to the original two track masters and digitalising the tracks and we are finally making them available again to the cognoscenti of that sort of thing, but with as many extra tracks as we can find in the archives added.
They are all being re-issued by our own Peasant Poetry label in no particular order, so if you had a favourite from way back in the nineties then this is the place to come.

The first re-issue is in glorious lo-fi mono anyway because that is how it was recorded and that is...

EIGHT GO MAD... IN EDINBURGH.

Those of you who already had the cassette version will know that the edit of the gig ran for ninety minutes but the cd doesn't. Unfortunately, cd's are not quite as long as ninety minute cassettes and so the editor's scissors had to come into play for a little judicious cutting... Only fifteen minutes, but it had to be done and hopefully without ruining the flow of the event.

While I'm on the subject, those of you who are awaiting the 'Kocaine' album re-issue of 'What Attitude Problem ?' will have to wait a little longer as the four track master of one track has gone missing and when it finally turns up Andy has kindly said he'll re-mix the album totally to get rid of all the compression we used, and so, until I find the master...

Unless otherwise notified all Peasant Poetry Backtrack issues will be available for £3.00 each when available, and so far there are no plans to make them available for download although this might change in the future.

Certain other items will however be available, so keep watching this space for details...

Issue No. 2 will be Grant Meaby's 'From A Fragile Landscape.' Details of which will be posted as soon as...

And finally... Bass Relief go commercial... NOT.

I suppose being asked to be on the cd this year came as a bit of a shock, but I think we fit in with what the others are doing so I'm not too worried as to how we sound.
The particular track 'In Quiet Dignity' was picked by Adam out of three possible suggestions by me as Joy was away visiting her son in Japan and I knew he had the wherewithal to play with the minidisk recording that we had of the gig.
It was recorded on April 29th at Club 85 and there are some photo's further down the blog of the event if anybody wants a look.
The fact that it was our first gig with our new Bass player Ollie' Glaze, made it something even more special because it always takes a little while for a new member to fit into any band, but Ollie' just seemed to dive headlong into it, and so I wanted a track chosen for 'musical' reasons rather than any other and Adam chose this one.
I have to say that I had hoped he would pick this track rather than either of the other options as even though Joy isn't on it, we can do the shorter version of this one without necessarily changing the sound too much, and both of the other tracks would have sounded a little thin without her contribution... But it was Adam's choice and I think he made the right one, and so did Joy when she returned.
Are we all cool over it ?
Yeah... You betcha !
The track itself was written for a Tsunami benefit gig that Joy put together at Club 85, and I performed it there solo without any music. Now I'm glad I thought about it for Bass Relief because I think it suits Adam and Ollie' s style perfectly and when you add Joy to the mix it becomes a little showpiece of its own...
Yeah... I'm pleased... Who wouldn't be ?

Hey... All this talent in Parnassus Performance...

Bass Relief-Rhythms 2007.

Well, here are the first two photo's from Bass Relief's set at Hitchin's Rhythms of the World festival. Please notice Simran (alto sax) & Sukhmani (tablas) to Chris's right...
We asked them to jam on two numbers and they stayed for three... Hopefully somebody might supply us with a photo' of all six of us on stage ? Anybody ?
Brother and sister... and both consumate musicians, It was great playing with them.
Also, please check out my friend James (age 3) in the darker green t-shirt in front of the stage.
we go to festivals together... See you at Cropredy, mate...
James enjoyed our set... His mum (Hi, Liz) said if he doesn't dance then it's useless...
He danced...
Please try not to notice the homemade speaker coverings which we had to put on because it pissed down... and believe it or not, the whole Arcade was absolutely packed with people, but you get no idea when looking at any of the shots I took while it was on.
Never mind, those who stayed around know what it was like.
I'm going to do an absolute mammoth blog on Rhythms 2oo7 next, so...
Check out http://blog.myspace.com/chrisrippleparnassus for photo's and the lowdown,
You know it makes sense.