Happy Birthday Andy!

We'd like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our very own drummer, Mr Andy "The Legend" Smith! Here's hoping you have a great day on the eve of a New Year. Double whammie reason to get pissed and have a good time xxx

The Chase - 24/07/10

Well...the Chase... What can we say!?

They had it large and they loved it!

We arrived though hesitant with great concern for our faithful singer. What with suffering a terrible bout of Chlamydia, he was dog rough!!! But worst of all, he was suffering with a cold too and had trouble singing. We all thought he’d collapse and explode after the first song but how wrong we were... Mummy’s little soldier stuck it out with an intravenous Lemsip drip and smoking some Halls Soothers. He’s the man!! Anyone else would have cancelled but he was there giving it the Beanz...literally!!

After setting up our instruments and monitors, we managed to get the right volume and sound that we were after. As we started to play our sound check, our faithful slave Wayne walked in with his Bodyguard Gayvid and promptly proceeded to feck it all up!! Nice one Wayne, but we love you anyway!

We began the first set with style, flare, finesse, unquestionable and unfathomable awesomeness....and that was just Jock!! Scanning the “crowd” we started to wonder if anyone was going to turn up. Sure enough though, the locals started to limp in.

Towards the end of the first set, we were in the middle of rockin the khasbar when Jock started to wave at someone....who the hell is he waving at...we turned to see a ghostly figure of Heidi standing in the doorway with her vertically challenged friend Lisa. Bloody Hell!! It was the first time we’d seen her in ages, we thought Harley had buried her under the patio...which would have been hard as they live in a flat!

The first set finished on a high and we legged it into the garden to get some air and cool down before we started the second set. Whilst enjoying our drinky poo’s, we kept an eye on Beanz in case his lungs fell out. We also noticed the pub getting fuller...the second set was going to be good!

We flew into the second set and kicked arse! Punk numbers were flying out of us here there and everywhere. The crowd loved it and started dancing along to our tunes. We continued into our dancy numbers and lifted the mood even more. We finished the set on Free Bird (a well loved song in this pub). Harley even extended his solo a little longer this time and managed to keep to playing the right notes!! (Remember the rule of the dots...)

When we finished, we still weren’t allowed to leave until we’d given them some more encores. Not too many though as our singer couldn’t really do much more. We finished on a high and left the crowd screaming for more! We really did let them have it. Rock on!

The Spotted Cow - 16/07/10

We came, we saw we conquered again!!

We rocked up to the pub to unload our gear and quickly set about the process of setting it all up! The task was made simpler this time as we didn’t have to mic up all the drums and even more amazing, Harley managed to remember to plug the monitors in the right way this time….although he forgot to actually turn them on and connect them to the amp!! Ooops!

Kicking off with a different first set list was awesome!! I don’t think even we could realise how awesome it would be. Feet were tapping, heads were bobbing and many a person was singing along!

The A32s joined us and gave us some great backing vocals!! They were truly on form!

Our second set exploded into life with punk oozing from every orifice…Meanwhile, Beanz’s orifice was busy exploding and oozing something else!! Love Shack went down a storm, with people dancing to I love to Boogie, Brown Sugar, Freebird, Crazy little thing and more! Andy rocked the Kasbah with his sacred sticks of awesomeness and Jock powdered up his beard and set it to stun!! The crowd loved it!!

During Johnny B Goode however we had a little scare. We started wipe out as per usual and noticed Beanz going into the crowd…nothing unusual there, he loves to dance the truffle shuffle to this one. But then, he carried on walking into the toilet! What!!??! Not now Beanz!!?!! For those of you who know Beanz, this could not have been more worrying for the band as there’s no telling when he’s coming back and we were running out of time fast!! Jock was just about to start singing something into the microphone (which as it turns out would have been a little hard as he didn’t know the words!!) and Harley was about to pull another 5 minute solo out of his a**e to give Beanz a little more time when all of a sudden, the crowd parted like the Red Sea and Beanz came rushing through. This was also strange as there was no food on the stage but yet he was moving quite fast….maybe he was hallucinating again!! In any case, the bearded ginger warrior of rock made it to the microphone in time to sing, but impressively managed to sing the whole verse in 2 seconds and looked with shock and amazement at Harley as he couldn’t remember what to do!! It all ended well though, we finished the song to the sounds of the crowd shouting for more!!

…What could we do?!! It would have been rude not to! We let them have it in the form of Tush, Can’t get enough and God Save the Queen but they still wouldn’t let us go! We had to bite the bullet and pull out Vertigo, a song we haven’t done in ages but Beanz gave it large big style with the help of Darren from Paparazzi! Cheers mate. You rock!

We left the landlord a happy rocked out bunny, packed up our gear and went to offload it. The atmosphere was fantastic, the crowd absolutely brilliant. The Spotted Cow is one pub we’ll always love! We can’t wait for the next one and hope you can’t either.

Keep on rockin…

The Admiral Drake 09/07/10

COMING SOON!!

The Colonial Bar 25/06/10

What with Jock off filming School of Rock II: Revenge of the Picks; we had to kindly ask our dearest friend Chaz to stand in for him! What with the height difference and different beardage we figured people would notice the difference, but what the hell!!

We blasted into action with Paranoid! What a way to start the gig. We rocked, but perhaps too hard! It was absolutely boiling!!! The sweat poured off us like a rapist in a police line up!

Andy’s brains were flying around in his helmet trying to break free. He’s just learnt “Hate to say I told you so” and was holding back sneezing for fear of losing it all out his nose... You see, sneezing is the easiest way for a drummer to forget stuff, so we get quite worried when ours learns new material and then starts snuffling!

We wrapped up the first set quite nicely with people giving the usual head bobs, foot tapping and moo moo’s jiggling all about!!

After the short break, we kicked off again with our punk numbers and proceeded to blast through them like Beanz through a mixed grill kebab! We stormed the place moving onto our dancing numbers. People were boogying on down to “I like to boogie” and “crazy little thing called love”

Now literally losing weight from sweating in the unbearable heat, we thought that surely the crowd would have had enough by the time we reached our final number....we were wrong...

We pulled “Born to Be wild” off with our usual style and flare and loved every minute of it, as did the crowd.

We finished and joined the crowd for a quick dance before legging it outside to cool down. It was just aswell. Andy’s turbo kicked in and we needed to cool him down before he spontaneously combusted.

After we packed up, we said thanks to Margret and made our way home. We left the drum-kit there as Andy was playing with the Late Slack Harry. RIP Guys, you were good......but we’re better!

Big thanks go to Margret, we love that place and hope we can always come back to play! Thanks for letting us play! Thanks to Wayne for playing with the sound. You’ll get there one day son, there’s something there just keep working at it.

The Salty Dog 19/06/10

Well what can we say...we came, we rocked and we conquered!

Our lead singer Beanz aka Slipper-Clutch-Daisy had gone up early with the Legend Andy to take full opportunity of the free food on offer while our Jock the Rock had gone to pick up Harley at his girl gui..Scout camp in Wickham!

Jock the Rock wasted no time in making the journey to Little Mo’s house in the Olympic Skoda where they were met by their chubby compadré of rock to complete the rest of the quest to the Salty Dog Saloon.

Once there, they unloaded their instruments of fury and gauged the location with much caution....we’d been told it was a bit like Beirut on a Friday night. Nevertheless, the three unlikely warriors of rock entered the Saloon like three camp cowboys from a Clint Eastwood Spin off under budget cinematic flop where they found the Legend tucking into his triple burger with chips and a bowl of Chilli. Sensing food and suddenly undertaken by an insatiable animal-like appetite, Beanz and Harley instinctively made their way to the kitchen where they found Stu preparing their feast. He sedated the pair of animals with the promise of more triple burgers, chilli and a huge bowl of chips. Harley went and ordered a drink, while Beanz supervised Stu to make sure food was actually on its way.... Satisfied with our gourmet food, we were ready to grab this pub by its goolies and give it a damned good thrashing! Cheers Stu for your amazing cooking, your chilli rocks! 

We enjoyed music from a newly formed band of locals known only as Parallel Ground. These unlikely warriors of rock had managed to recruit Jack Black as their drummer. Needless to say, our own JB Stunt double was most impressed. Don’t worry Jock, there’s only one bearded rock god in this county and it’s definitely you baby!! These guys rocked the hell out of the pub so much that we had to pull up some reserve ass kickery to rock the khasbar even more!

We kicked off with the usual numbers... Paranoid went down a storm. Thanks to Elsa for her assistance with backing vocals. There’s definitely something there... we’re not quite sure what but keep at it and you’ll make it someday!

The pub got a damned good rockin for a couple of hours and loved it. We were definitely a hit. Thanks to Mo and her pals for making an appearance and also Di (the Bride!). Always nice to see a friendly face! Harley was able to play the guitar with no hands after you gave him a kiss on the cheek goodbye!! What a guy...

Andy and his ancient waterpistol of awesomeness went down a treat and cooled us down with a much needed soaking! Damn it was hot!

We finished the gig off with some free bird action where Harley was forced into playing another 5 minute guitar solo. The poor guitarist’s chubby fingers have third degree burns all over their bad-selves!! The legend had to fasten his hat on extra tight to stop his brains from falling out and Beanz just took his shirt off!! ....maybe that’s why the pub emptied so fast... Jock the Rock kicked ass with his Beard... He’s like Sampson, if he ever shaves it off, his powers will fade!

At the end of it all, we felt that we had done our job. We came and we rocked! Without a doubt! Stu was happy and that’s all that mattered really.

Thanks for the opportunity mate, we loved it. Keep that pub rockin and watch this space!

The Chase Inn 08/05/10

COMING SOON!!

Colonial Bar 01/05/10

COMING SOON!!

Colonial Bar 12/03/10

On a last minute cancellation, Kneeslider were faced with playing the Colonial bar with 2 days notice and for the first time since formation, without a sound engineer. After some technical hitches, the band were set up well within the time constraints set by the Colonial Bar and were more than glad to see Wayne who had agreed to be the sit in at the sound desk for this evening.

The crowd attending this evening were expecting another band and when Kneeslider took to the stage were initially unresponsive with some ‘Boo’s’ heard from the balcony which were quickly dispelled by a solid first set of punk orientated songs and the help of the door staff ejecting the disapprovers.

The second set was not without its faults from all concerned, but better received and warmed the audience over enough to gain 2 encores. A highlight of the second set being a near perfect performance of love shack by the B52’s. Perfectly executed by Shil and Kerry's vocals. Beanz also needs to take credit for continuing to improve vocally and for his stunning stage performance this evening. An energy fuelled performance by all who stole the audience who were expecting a different band but were won over by shear effort. Special credit to Wayne for his sitting in on the desk. You did an excellent job and for the first time produced no feedback!

The Wedgewood Rooms 25/02/10

The Wedgewood Rooms has always been one of those venues that either makes or breaks a band. Mainly because it is the place to play in Portsmouth and if you don’t pull it off live here then you don’t get a second chance. Andy and Jock have both played there before respectively 15 years apart. Harley and Beanz were naturally ‘nervous’ especially as Kneeslider were the only covers band on a bill with other local bands of the indie persuasion playing ‘original’ material.

On arrival it became evident that there was going to be a shortened set and no sound check. This didn’t do much to help the nerves, but it was nice to not have to set up all the gear for a change and the band concentrated on getting the little gear they bought with them on stage and retiring to the bar next door for a drink and to meet those had made the journey to see their band play the Wedge.

On return to the Wedge, the first band started off with a set of original material which did little to get the crowd pumped up. At around 9.25 the distinctive image of fours guys dressed in black shirts took to the stage. Firing through the first 3 songs, the crowd certainly took notice with some of the audience recognising the songs and singing along from the rather oppressive barrier in front of the stage.

Kneeslider delivered and continued to work through their shortest set yet with the drive and general take no prisoners attitude finishing with down under which appeared to totally surprise the crowd.

On reflection, had the Wedge been better attended and our allocated time been more than 30 minutes then Kneeslider would have stormed the place. As it stands Kneeslider played well and certainly warmed the crowd up for the other bands. The opportunity to play the Wedge certainly should not be overlooked and was a great experience. Kneeslider certainly left their mark. It was also nice to see the regulars and other bands supporting, thanks Paparazzi.

Keep checking the website for great photos which were taken this evening. Did The Wedge break Kneeslider? No it just made us realise that we can hold our own in any situation!

The Colonial Bar - 12/02/10

Well, one year in the waiting and numerous cancellations later we finally did the big one! A milestone on the Kneeslider CV! The totally awesome and highly reputable Colonial Bar has now experienced the Rockness of Jockness; The Handyness of Andyness; The Leanzy of Beanzy; The Riff Strums of Harleybums and we made 'em 'ave it!

As Hampshires most exciting live music and food venue, we were determined to give it 110% (despite feeling a little pressure) and try to leave a good impression. We loved absolutely every minute of it, mistakes an' all and we hope the feeling was mutual!

Arriving a little earlier than usual we started to unload the gear around 630. Due to its popularity, and the fact that it is also a restaurant, we had to make sure that we humped all the gear in from the van and started setting up before the place got too busy to move. Initially we were a little concerned that being Valentines weekend, people may have decided to stay in until Saturday or Sunday night leaving our Colonial debut a bit short of audience - How wrong could we be?!! We all admitted to being a little nervous about something or other. Andy was concerned that he wouldn't be up to scratch after such a strenuous day at work, Harley admitted the need for several toilet visits throughout the day, Beanz, well he craps himself everytime anyway and Jock was just Jock, easy going, experienced and looking forward to a pint or six! Our nervousness was amplified by the fact that this was our first gig without sound man Dan.
We had the opportunity of a professional sound engineer for this gig and being as it was so important to us, we took advantage! Known only by Andy, Big Dave gave up his Friday night to come and work for us and what a legend! Without being asked he helped unload the van, and managed to set up all of the equipment he was in charge of in a record 30 minutes, leaving only the Mic's and sound check to be done. You could tell just by watching him that he was a Pro let alone the sound he delivered! According to our entourage it was the best sound from us ever, and from the band, well, not one snap, crackle or pop from the gear and we heard everything 100%. Would you believe us if we said he has just finished touring with the Black Eyed Peas? Well it's true and we were lucky to have him on board for the night. Cheers Dave, everybody commented on what a difference you made and we are truly grateful. Despite leaving at the end of night having broke all the equipment down on your own, you left expecting nothing. We have set aside a share for you as a thanks and a token of appreciation! We understand you are a busy man, but please, if you ever feel like getting out and earning a few bob, you will always be welcome to come along!


Within about an hour and a half, we were ready to sound check and kicked off with "Tush" by ZZ Top. To our amazement, it was perfect first go and we still had an hour or so to go before we went on! That's got to be a first and allowed us all to chill out beforehand. The pub was still quite empty at this point and what made a complete difference was the fact that there was a disco going on to get people in the mood prior to the bands commencement. During this time, we were blown away by the amount of effort put into this gig by our followers. We didn't realize that it was as important to them as it was to us. Initially our thoughts were that maybe a few of them simply come along because they feel obliged too, but a short sharp telling off from the Guvner aka Wayne Tarrantino assured us that this is not the case and if people didn't want to be there, they wouldn't. Thanks to Wayne promoting us with posters and Mo (Andy's girlfriend) bringing a minibus no less, full of new faces to watch us perform, the pub seemed to fill quite quickly and a party atmosphere became apparant very early on. By 900, the place was extremely busy and you couldn't walk from A to B without saying "excuse me please" or nudging the big blokes beer or unintentionally rubbing yourself against another persons booty! But the people were great and there was no prescence of lairy binge drinking lager louts anywhere. The staff at the Colonial are obviously very selective and it shows. Hats off to them for making the place not only a success financially, but by doing it with decorum! Quite a few ladies were already up dancing around to the disco and having time to walk around before going on, we can honestly say that the pub was full of people who just wanted to have fun on their Friday night - the atmosphere was absolutely superb. Whilst in comparison, the pub may not have been as busy as it normally is on a Friday, it is certainly without doubt the biggest crowd we had ever played to in one session and as Derek the DJ kept counting down the minutes to our debut, nerves were starting to kick in!


All of a sudden, the lights went down and then came our introduction from DJ Derek! "Ladies & Gentlemen, we've got a group of bikers here tonight to give you some good 'ole Rock tunes, please put your hand together and give a warm welcome to "KNEESLIDER"! - A professional introduction with a deafening cheer and applause for the first time ever, we were made to feel like professionals!


Andy kicked right in with the infamous double quick intro to "I Fought The Law" by the Clash, followed by the lead and bass from Harley and Jock. Before the first verse was over, nods, foot taps and lip syncing confirmed appreciation throughout the audience. As a result of our last performance we rejigged the set yet again allowing the first three songs to roll into each other without stopping. "Can't Get Enough" by Bad Company followed and the Knacks "My Sharona" with excellent backing from our girls "The A32's" finished our intro a treat and through the applause, we were able to catch our breaths and compose ourselves ready to go again! Never in our long history of one year have we had people up dancing in the first set! Tonight it seemed was a first for many new experiences and we were loving every minute of it!


Whilst immensly enjoyable, the first set was full of mistakes by all - we believe down to nerves, but either they went unoticed or people simply didn't care! (With the exception of one quite large one and if you can't remember what it was, we're not about to remind you!) Despite these little incidences and concerning the mood, the first set here seemed like a second set anywhere else, but the major misfortune was that in trimming our set and rolling songs into each other, we actually finished our first set with time to spare. It would have been wrong to cut it so short whilst people were still having fun on the dance floor, so quick thinking, we took "Paranoid" from the second set and continued with that to enable us to run for a further five minutes. By the time it was over, all four of us were buzzing and looking forward to a short break. DJ Derek kicked back in and we alighted the stage beaming from ear to ear at the heroes reception from our people.


On his journey to the little boys room, a new experience for Beanz was being grabbed by a girl on the dance floor! Using him as a wider than usual pole, she started to perform a dance around him and he said the experience was actually more scary than going on stage. Terrified and looking to Harley for assistance Beanz could do nothing but stand like a frozen, frightened little schoolboy whilst his guitar playing sidekick looked on wetting himself with laughter! We're pretty sure that you're average bloke would have played along, but Beanz having been married for 14 years and accompanied by his wife this evening was petrified to say the least!


After a very strict 15 minutes, we were welcomed back on stage by Derek and Wayne stressing about finding the girls proceeded to send out a search party for them before we started. Anyone would think he was the guvner!! We went back on at 1030 and delivered another one of our strongest "The One I Love" by REM. The second set was our danciest stuff and bearing in mind that loads had been dancing for an hour already, we were really looking forwad to it! As expected the dance floor filled again and the audience participation through "Ruby" and "Parklife".was overwhelming. Our girls, Kerry & Shirl aka "The A32's" delivered another superb performance of "Love Shack" which gets better every time and the final line "Tin Roof, Rusted" brought the house down! Not only did they sound good for the women to join in, they looked good doing it too with many a jaw drop and dribble seen from the blokes on the balcony, who at that height got more of an eyeful than we could! Also, for the first time ever, despite us advertising the fact, we had a nice young girl come up and join us unprompted through "You Really Got Me". Well done Sarah, brilliant - we wish we had more like you!
Throughout the second set we found ourselves clock watching, concious that we had robbed a song out of it, but by the time we played our last song of the set, our good old "Johnny B Goode", we were pretty much on time and in true welcoming fashion they shouted for more. Of course, this reaction is the best bit of any gig and we were surprised to hear that some bands that play, refuse to do it! Not Kneeslider! We love it and kicked off the encores with our own version of "Down Under" leading straight into "Born To Be Wild". Still not satisfied and shouting for more, DJ Derek stepped in and beefed us up. "If you want them to play one more you gotta shout louder than that!" and they did. Being as lots of people had been dancing most of the night, we thought the opening verses to "Freebird" would have been the ideal song to bring things down a little bit and being as it was Valentines weekend, gave people the chance to have a slow one with their partners. Quite a few did before Harley, Andy & Jock exploded into their big finale. Harley even chucked new bits in that we never heard before (yes H, we noticed!) and it finished the night off brilliantly. DJ Derek got back to discoing and we left the stage, soaking with sweat, happy and confident that we left some sort of impression at our first Colonial gig.


In addition to the customers of the Colonial Bar for making us feel so welcome, big thanks to Wayne & Mo for showing your support yet again by promoting and bringing loads of additional people to the event. Thanks to all the others that came again, Dave, Sam, Rupert, Stu, Donk, Simon, Darren from the Paparazzi, Tanya from the Brewers Arms and especially John & Mazza who came all the way from Winchester to support our big night!
Well done and thanks to Kerry & Shirl for another great performance, and for being on hand when we needed you. We understand it was as nervewracking for you as it was for us!
Extra big thanks to Big Dave, our sound engineer for the night. You made a big difference that was complimented by everyone!


Our biggest thanks this time round has to be to Margaret for giving us the opportunity to play her great venue, and for giving us more than one gig date despite not having heard us play before. It was so nice to hear you say that you gave us the chance through reputation - and especially your comments about wanting a party atmosphere and the fact that we delivered it makes us feel that our efforts are all worthwhile. Still in our youth, this is what we started out to do.


We make no apologies for the length or content of this blog as it is a large milestone in our bands infancy. One that shall be remembered and referred to throughout our journey!


Thank you and see you soon!
xx

Farewell Dangermouse!

It is with mixed emotions that we announce the departure of Dan, our sound engineer. Dan has been with us from the beginning, starting out as our bassist and had proved to be a valuable contribution to the band in the past. Due to conflicts of interest, he has now moved on to greener pastures and we wish him every success in the future. We are not looking to replace him at this time.

Kneeslider Obtains 4th Web Award

Thanks to DRH design for taking the time to review our site and give us some constructive feedback on areas to improve.

Comments:

Congratulations,

You have been awarded the DRH Design Merit for 2010

Overall Design: (7)

A dark background can be harder to read.... White text on a black background is hard to read..... Pictures are clean and at an adequate resolution.... There does not seem to be a coherent color scheme throughout the site..... The fonts do not seem to be coordinated throughout the site.... Careful with the animated gifs.

Content: (12)

We appreciate you making your music available to the Internet community.

Functionality: (5)

Navigation is difficult since the Table of Contents is not available at all times..... No award index for awards.... Could not locate the award page from main menu.

Appeal: (7)

Congratulations, your site received (31) points qualifying it for the DRH Design Merit for 2010.

Brewers Arms 30/01/10

Another cracking night at our old standing favourite "The Brewers Arms".

It was a special one tonight as it was the 60th birthday of Gorilla. A regular to the pub and a fan of ours it appears! We were honoured that you asked us to play for the second time at one of your lifelong milestones and would do it again, no questions asked!

The night started off as usual at Andy's house with all five of us turning up to undertake the crap bit of loading the van. Yes, you read that right, EVERYONE turned up this time and the van was loaded in record time allowing us to chill a bit before actually leaving for the gig!

We used the Beanzmobile this week allowing Andy to have a drink. Although seeming happy, he needed a bit of TLC. You see, if reversing his van into another car last week didn't upset him, his tree climbing experience this week in the Porsche certainly brought a tear to his eye and he is starting to question whether or not he is too old to continue as a chav. Luckily, our bass player Jock is a full time psychiatric nurse and was available to listen with an unbiased ear. In no uncertain terms he confirmed that yes, Andy is too old to be a chav and should stop driving his collection of toys like a toddler on a skateboard! Whilst initially in denial, Andy agreed and says that his problem stems from a lack of horsepower during his childhood. He perked up after a camp but not gay group hug. Nothing like a bit of male bonding to get you perked and ready to perform!

We got to the pub around 745 and proceeded to unload the van. There were a few chaps playing darts where we normally set up so we bought a round of drinks and sat down allowing them to finish their game.

Actually, that's not true! We did buy a round of drinks but then we all went back out to the van and left Jock who volunteered, to politely ask them to hurry up! Not sure what he said but the guys came running out of the pub scared out of their wits shouting "That blokes a nutter!" We can only assume that he used his Hannibal Lectar style councilling tactics...........That's not true either! We unpacked the gear around them and waited for them to finish in their own time. Once allowed free roam of the band area, we all mucked in and did our bit to set the gear up. As we were doing so, the guests started rolling in and Gorilla himself gave each of us a handshake.

We kicked off around 905 with a new sound check song this time round. We did a version AC/DC's "Back In Black". Not a strong one, but our first time doing it live. Going forward, we intend to soundcheck with our newly learnt stuff -  a) to see if goes down with the crowd ok, and b) to ascertain what it sounds like live. You'd be surprised at how different live gigs are compared to practicing in the loft! If we can put a tick in both boxes, then we will consider putting a new song in the set list somewhere.

Speaking of the set list, we crammed as much as we could on this one, especially as it was a party as such, but on reflection afterwards, we have decided in fact to trim our sets down a bit, allowing us to focus on a more quality performance. Less is more as they say, however this doesn't stop you asking for more when we've finished! In fact, taking some stuff out of the usual performance means we will have more to play with at the end of the night! With such a full two sets on the bill for tonight, plus the time we wasted during our shock role reversal (more about this later), we did actually run into extra time with the performance and had to knock off our ever requested "Freebird".

With the exception of adding a couple more, we kept our set pretty much to the same format as our last gig at The Drake which seemed to work! One comment from the singer of another band that came to see us was along the lines of "Blimey, that's a hard work first set. We prefer to open up with some good 'uns, then come down a bit to warm up ready for a great finale!" Whilst this does seem to be the typical format, we prefer to go all out hard performance from the beginning in a hope that people will notice, remember and recommend the time and effort we put into our gigs. As our band motto suggests, we don't have grand delusions of stardom, we are not rockstars, nor are we a tribute band. We're not trying to secure record deals here or make loads of money, we're up there because we enjoy doing it so much and love the people that visually express their appreciation for us!

The first set was predominately our rock and punk stuff. A young lad showed great interest in our musical taste and was asked several times to come up and join in. He knew the words and was rocking out real good, but was wasted sat at a table! As mentioned in previous blogs, we don't mind, in fact we love people to get involved. As it happens, when we kicked off God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols, his dad looked at Beanz for permission to come aboard which of course was granted immediately! Steve actually did the duet extremely well and performed it with attitude. Exactly what the doctor ordered for a song like that and Beanz said afterwards it was the best duet he had ever performed with the band. Not only was it entertaining for us, but it pleased the crowd too, who will now probably go away and talk about it to others. Steve, you were a star mate, well done and please feel free to participate again!

The set went down quite well and we all retired around 1000 for a well earned break. Once again, despite telling ourselves to be more disciplined on break time, we ran over again but with good reason. As this was a party, we had to allow people time to consume the food. We were very impressed that there was any left as it was strategically placed on the pool table directly next to Harley who resisted temptation and didn't touch any! Well done mate - true to your word you're actually sticking to your diet and looking good for it too! Keep on at this rate and we'll have to beat the girls off with the spare guitar! Beanz wishes he could apply the same amount of successful will power to his smoking habit. We are all ever hopeful and sure that his vocals could only get better if his lungs were permitted to de-pollute! Jock was happy tonight too despite not drinking as he had to drive home and Andy was Andy. He's always happy but suffering with a bit of stiffness since moulding his car around a tree trunk. Coincidently it seems we all have a need to shed something recently. Andy's "boys toys", Harley's weight, Beanz's smoking and Jock's lager!

When we were confident that everyone had consumed enough food, we went back on at around 1045 and kicked off the second set with a difference. Unaware to the musical talents of Harley, Jock & Andy, the audience were in for a treat! Or was it a total waste of time? We all enjoyed it but if you didn't, let us know! It was a little light entertainment that's all!

We started the set with Paranoid by Black Sabbath but the musicians of the group switched places. We now had Jock on lead guitar, Andy on bass and Harley on the drums. It didnt appear that anyone noticed so we deliberatly started the song totally out of tune and out of time. Still not the reaction we had hoped for so we mucked it up again. Finally we had to step in and sort of prompt the situation. We asked birthday boy to approach the stage and said to him that something has gone wrong and it simply wasn't working. A very drunk Gorilla sort of looked puzzled and then realized saying, "Well, 'ang on a minute! He should be there, he should be there and he should be over there!" Yay!!! he got it!

We assured him that we would sort it out and instead of switching back to their origional places, Jock, Harley & Andy simply swapped thir infamous hats so that each one corresponded with it's normal instrument. Harley gave Jock his Stetson; Andy gave Harley the shiny helmet; Jock gave Andy the Cliff Richard tennis peak and just to top it off, Andy pulled out a spare beard from his back pocket and put it on! Superb, even Jock didn't know about that bit!! It's seems to be a rule of thumb for us that bass players sport beards! Jock has one and our occasional stand in Chaz also sports a bit of facial hair, so why not? Andy's theory was you can't play the notes if you don't have the growths!! With all of that out of the way, we then played the song as if nothing had happened. Harley banging the drum kit could have passed as the ape on the Cadburys advert; Jock looked like he could have actually been a living member of Lynyrd Skynyrd on lead guitar and Andy, well he looked like Brian Blessed as a bus conductor. It was funny and we enjoyed doing it not to mention the applause that followed. It's not every day that you get to see band members switch instruments! The only one who didn't was Beanz but then we don't do any songs that require the use of a badly played recorder anyway!

Moving on into the more well know dancey section of the set, Kerry & Shirl, looking as gorgeous as ever came up as the A32's once again and performed "Love Shack" with us. It was more of a success this time round as they had obviously been practising! Not only did they sing, they gave a little dance with it too! Excellent, you girls looked good from behind so out front should have been even better! They also backed for us on a few of the others too but Parklife and You Really Got Me were reserved tonight for birthday boy Gorilla. We knew how much he loved joining in last year when we did his anniversary so he didn't need to be asked twice this time. What a good sport - it was good entertainment for all!

Towards the end of the set, Harley; Jock & Andy had been working on away to integrate two songs together reducing the need to take a lunch break between songs. Incorporating his own chord change riff, Harley ran I Love To Boogie straight into Crazy Little Thing Called Love and the splice went well. He did however, manage to break a string through the song and had to use his quick thinking to get over it. Rather than stopping altogether, he made something up that seemed to fit unoticably. Beanz decided that introducing the band in the middle of I Love To Boogie was getting a bit monotonous for everyone including us, so decided to try it through Little Willy instead. Again, this seemed to just "fit" better. It's not always easy or sometimes appropriate to chat and banter with the audience so we will be looking to splice other songs together soon which should reduce the amount of time wasted. The final few songs had to be performed with Andy's spare guitar and fair play, despite being a totally different brand, style and size, Harley did it with little or no fault.

We finished well over time tonight with good old Johnny B Goode and it was nice to see Tanya and her daughter getting up and doing a bit of rock 'n' roll dancing! Despite the time, an encore was requested and we carried on with Down Under rolling into Born To Be Wild. More applause and requests for Freebird were vocally thrown towards us but we really had run out of time and just couldn't do any more! After chilling out for a bit, we proceeded to break down the gear and reload the van whilst everyone else prepared to depart.

Another fantastic night over. Thanks to all who came. Thanks to Kerry & Shirl for appearing as the A32's once more but our biggest thanks goes to Gorilla for having the faith and confidence in us to perform for you in a personal booking for a second time. The closing note of your e-mail after the event speaks volumes and we appreciate it!

"Ta - You De Boyz!"

Kneeslider website awarded "Trustworthy Site" badge

Trust - The web site is reliable, noble, honest and trustworthy.

Worthy - The web site is of value to the internet community.

This is to certify that all web sites showing the ‘Trust Worthy Website’ seal are:

• Family Friendly
• Child Safe Surf
• Highly Ethical
• Spam Free
• Legal Web Site

All merit goes to their respective Webmasters and Webmistresses for their professional work!

Kneeslider obtains second website award!

Wow! Another company we sent our site off to evaluate and feedback any errors and has come back to us. Not only have they provided us with a comprehensive evaluation and constructive feedback concerning certain issues, they also attached a "Bronze" award to the e-mail aswell!

Whilst we weren't expecting one, we are chuffed to bits with the feedback and can now start to resolve the functionality issues and go for the next step up the ladder. This award program offers Bronze; Silver & Gold awards with a Merit or Non Evaluation available for sites that don't quite meet certain criteria. As said previously, we have built our website ourselves and to have feedback like this is fantastic!

You may or may not have noticed the Nodus Award Badge on our homepage - if you get 5 minutes, please click on it and leave your own feedback for us and others to read. We need your input to imrove!

Comments from evaluations:

Your site (http://www.kneeslider.net) now has an official Nodus Awards score. You have been awarded Bronze! (10 / 16) Congratulations! ...Your site is of good quality in most areas but lacks a polished feel overall.

For it's genre - probably one of the best i've seen! Not just about the band but quite a bit of misc pages and interactivity too!

The Admiral Drake - 22/01/10

Once again we find ourselves in an embarrasing situation! Despite making it public in the last blog (Heroes) that Beanz would make a special effort to remember a mention for Dan (our sound engineer) whilst introducing the band...........HE FORGOT! Sorry Dangermouse, it's not intentional but Beanz sort of got sidetracked with all the excitement! Feel free to come up and kick him in the goolies next time - he won't forget then!

Right then, The Admiral Drake......wow, what a cracking night! Another cancellation gig based on reputation we'd like to think. Calling just the night before, Simon asked us to cover and of course we obliged. The Admiral Drake is another "sort after" venue on the live band circuit and like a few others, we've been trying to get in since we started out over a year ago. Not only was it our first Portsmouth gig, it is renowned as a "biker" pub and we knew beforehand that a lot of our old Portsdown Hill Biker crowd use it as their local.

Against the grain so to speak, it appeared quite empty when we first arrived. Oh dear! Either the band that was due to play weren't in for a good night, or people heard we were gigging instead and fled the city! (Did we mention that Dan is our sound engineer?)

We arrived around 730 a little stressed as Andy had pranged his van a couple of hours beforehand, and the Beanzmobile was well out of the area. We were not sure at first if we were able to use it as the back light and door was slightly dented, but it all worked fine so we cracked on with it. (Tip for Andy, if you hang your shiny tin helmet on one of the mirrors, you might get a better view around the van!) Being a Friday night, both Jockness and Harleypoos turned up when they could due to work commitments. Andy, finishing early on Fridays and Beanz being a doley proceeded to set up with Dan (did we mention that Dan is our sound engineer?) Hang on.......no I'm mistaken.......Jockness met us at Andy's and assisted with the loading this time! See, I should have wrote this blog whilst it was fresh in my mind, my memory seems to be omitting bits!

By the time we were set up the pub still seemed only half full. Feedback from other bands who have played there had mentioned that the crowd were hard work to get any reactions and in conjunction with the lack of body's, it sort of put a downer on things. We aslo noticed that whilst preparing, the jukebox playing in the background blurted out three songs from our set list. This isn't particularly a good thing and should be avoided where possile but we looked at it in a different light. If someone actually paid money to listen to those songs, then it means whoever it was appreciated them and wouldn't mind hearing them live! Due to our guvner, Wayne Tarrantino, advising us that Highway To Hell, despite only being a sound check should be avoided, we did it with Sandstorm by Cast instead. (By the way, did we remember to tell you that Dan is our sound engineer?)

The sound check went well with little complication and by the time it was over, it was pretty much time to start. Beanz jiggled the set around a little bit and instead of taking it easy for the first set allowing both us and the crowd to warm up, we went balls out from the start! Our first set was predominately rock and punk and from the off, we heard cheering and applause following each song. This immediately put us at ease and confirmed that really, we didn't have much to worry about. Even Simon, the landlord, came downstairs during the first set and apparantly, according to the locals, this is a rare occurence. Coincidence? We don't know but it made us feel good anyways! Nearing the end of the first set, the pub was still quiet in comparison to a normal Friday night, but was full enough to see most people were enjoying themselves, singing along and dancing around. Despite us becoming stricter on our break in the middle, we allowed ourselves longer tonight as we had about another hours worth and Simon wanted us to play until around 1130. (Did you know that the little guy sat at the table with a load of knobs and switches is Dan? He's our sound engineer!)

During the break, we took it upon ourselves to mingle a little bit as we were extremely curious to know what the general feeling was towards us. We didn't hear any bad feedback and one guy in particular went right up in Waynes face shouting "Them boys are in a class of their own. Covering all genres. F***ing brilliant!"

Drunk or not, he's our friend for life! We went back on about 1030 and by this time, even more people had flooded the bar area. Our second set was the more dancey stuff and there were quite a few people up front jigging about. In the absence of Keychelle & Shirl of the A32's, we'd like to thank Beanz brother-in-law Warren for getting up and doing some backing vocals with his mate Sam. It's nice to know that if we are ever short of a bass player, Warren could fill in and do it vocally! We'd also like to thank Pauline, the lovely Mrs of Russ from Russ's Tyres for coming up and backing too, though drowned out by a very drunk susquatch, (Warren), she showed good spirit and helped us out!

(If you happen to see a little rodent like geyser playing with knobs, that's Dan, our sound engineer. Did we tell you that already?)

We finished just about on time around 1130ish with our usual Johnny B Goode featuring Wipeout and it went down really well. Instead of standing like a lemon whilst Jock, Harley and Andy did their superb performance, Beanz went and sat down so that thet were forefront of the view. It's a horrible thing to say but when Beanz stands in the front, you can't see much else!

Simon glanced over and stuck two fingers up with a wink. No, he wasn't telling us to go forth and multiply, he was requesting two more songs! We were so glad as the pub were shouting for more and didn't seem to want us to leave just yet. In true Kneeslider fashion, we did one of our strongest, Born To Be Wild and ran it straight into our personal favourite at the moment, our own version of Down Under. The response to this particular song was unbelievable and at first we thought something was wrong with the equipment. It turns out that most of the pub were singing along to it and drowning us out! Rock On! That's exactly what we want! As it came to a close, and we said our goodnights, they still weren't satisfied and of course, the shouting for more, more, more had to be subdued with our rendition of Freebird. Apart from Down Under, it seems to be the favourite amongst our entourage at the moment. It was funny to see Warren at the back of the pub waving a lighter around, enticing people to sway their hands in some sort of Mexican wave. He was however, alone, but due to the sheer size of him, it appeared that loads of people were joining in! That was until the slow bit drew to an end anyway and then Jock, Harley and Andy went absolutely bananas for a big finale with loads of applause.

Overall, a superb night. Once again, we came, we rocked! We made 'em 'ave it as the bearded one would say.

We'd like to thank Simon of Admiral Drake for giving us the opportunity to play his pub. We hope you get as good feedback in our absence as we did whilst there. Thanks to Darren of the Paparazzi for stepping up and helping Beanz out with the vocals for Vertigo, after he was slowly running out of puff! Thanks to all of our usual followers for showing support yet again but most of all we'd like to thank everyone in the Drake that night for making us feel welcome and doing completely the opposite of what we were told you'd be like!

We sincerely hope you enjoyed listening to the gig as much as we enjoyed playing it and we hope to be back here soon.

One last thing, if you were the man stood at the end of the bar wearing a suit and sporting a well used camera that night, please get in touch. Whilst you looked like you were enjoying yourself, your constant photo taking and mingling with the crowd whilst pointing at us, has got us all all intrigued! Who are you?

On a final note, we'd like to introduce Dan, he's our sound engineer. Cheers for doing another good job mate and Beanz says if you so much as try and kick him in the goolies, you'll know exactly what feedback is, by way of a microphone up your nose!


Best Regards,

The Boys

The Heroes - 15/01/10

Our first gig of 2010 and in a new venue, but before we commence reminiscing the event, Beanz would like to apologise to our Sound Engineer Dan. Once again he forgot to mention him whilst introducing the band and we know how Dan likes to feel included! Sorry Dan, wasn't intentional and Beanz promises to write your name in big letters on his notes in future! xxx

Right, that's the serious bit out of the way, lets crack on with the gig!

Pretty much like the Colonial Bar, we had been pestering the Heroes to give us a try out since we started in 2008. Umpteen phonecalls and visits to the pub had seemed useless in our attempts to play, but we understand that they are quite a popular live music venue and have "big" bands on all the time. In the beginning, being unknown, it was hard for us to get opportunities anywhere, let alone here.

We managed to secure this date thanks to Darren of the well known and respected "Paparazzi". They have played the Heroes on numerous occasions but due to an injury sustained by one of their band members in the recent weather conditions, they were unable to gig. What was an unfortunate loss to them was an opening opportunity for us and we are really grateful for the nomination.

It turns out that when Darren suggested that we cover the date for them, the pub responded that they had heard of us and intended to book before, but simply never got round to it! Cheers Darren for prompting them and nominating us to step in for you!

Considering this was our first gig for quite a few weeks, and one that was taken on at very short notice, we were a little apprehensive about our 'rustyness'. We had our first practice only two days previous and it actually seemed we had gone backwards six months. Experience says, crap rehearsal good gig and vice versa. This wasn't strictly true on this occasion! After a night full of mistakes by everyone during practice, exactly the same happened on the night but we have been playing long enough together now to anticipate what to do in the situation. It's irrelavent as long as we laugh it off, have a good time and relay the fun out into the crowd. We have succeeded in this on more than one occasion and typically people don't care as long as they're having a good time.

We arrived around 730 after loading the van, which took longer than usual due to having to walk it all over very icey pavements. As per usual, we went in and checked out the stage area prior to setting up and immediately a light bulb appeared over our heads. The stage was a raised wooded area and we had forgot to pack Andy's 4x4 peice of carpet. Without it he would have ended up drumming in the rear garden area by the end of the night! Luckily enough, we were only 5 minutes away and Dan kindly ran Andy home to get it whilst Beanz, Harley and Jock continued to unload the van. We did the best we could considering the drums are typically set up first. Every minute that passed seemed like fifteen - time was going too quick with loads to do - it was going to be tight getting started on time. By the time Andy got back, everything was spread over the floor and he set up his drums in record time! For the first time ever, it seemed that everybody 'mucked in' setting everything up rather than their own equipment leaving Dan to sort the cabling. It worked well and we were ready to sound check by 900. We kicked off with 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC to iron out any problems. Dan made sure there weren't any major issues and due to the late start, we went straight into the first set. Reactions were slow coming in the beginning but towards the end of the first set, more people came from the other bars to join us and seemed to appreciate our efforts. Despite rumours that the Heroes had become quiet of late, and the regulars being prominately of the younger generation, we were pleasantly surprised to have quite a full pub with varying age groups.

We were strict with ourselves concerning the break this time round and after a quick drink and a fag, we promptly cracked on with the second set. We had no volunteers to assist us with the songs requiring "backing" in this set and it was nice as always to have Kerry & Shirl (two out of our three guest backers "The A-32's") on hand to fill in the blanks. Where was Dil? Come back, we miss you! We still maintain that we would love nothing more than people who feel like they want to have a sing song to come up and join us. It's not all about the music, it's also about having fun! So your mates might laugh and take the Michael but they will love you for it and talk about it to others for days to come! There are a lot of bands out there who get really stressed out if things don't go to plan, or people try to muscle in on their limelight. We're not one of them so if we perform a song that you know or like, get your hiney up on stage a grab a mic. Your talents are wasted stood in a crowd of people and we don't bite!!

Towards the end of the second set, what we call the 'dancey' bit, there were a number of young ladies dancing next to the stage and to try and keep them from retiring to their seats, we discretely changed the set list to suit the mood. We finished off with good old crowd pleaser 'Johnny B Goode' and yet again, despite not expecting it tonight, we weren't allowed to say "That's It, Goodnight!". Unless you are a performer yourself, you can't begin to imagine who gratifying it is when your efforts are truly appreciated by the shouting of "More, we want more!" That little thing, if nothing else makes it all the more satisfying for us and keeps us perservering. Three encores, including one of our favourites at the moment, "Down Under", followed by the ever requested Kneeslider rendition of "Freebird" finished off the night superbly.

Aside our usual 'groupies', for who we are forever grateful to for sticking with us (and not getting bored with the routine, and Tanya & Charlie from the Brewers Arms) we had some new faces come to show their support this time. A few people who are aquaintances but had not yet come to watch us. We'd like to say thanks to Mark, guitarist for Slack Harry; Ebay Dave from Portsdown Hill Bikers; Ron & Graham from Insane Creations Drag Racing; Steve & Emma from Solent Renegades and a fair few others accompanying them - (really sorry but we don't know your names!) - Welcome to the family all of you and we hope we haven't scarred you for life and that you come again real soon! We'd also like to take this opportunity to give special thanks to the above mentioned Graham! He was prancing about like a ninja most of the night, camera in hand, endeavouring to capture some decent shots of us. We seriously hope we didn't break your lens and we're all looking forward to seeing the shots and maybe publishing them on our site (with your permission of course).

Once finished, we all retired as per usual to chill out and mingle. The landlord came over and shook our hands for a job well done, emphasising the fact that we should expect a phonecall for more bookings. That's another favourite outcome, second only to being kept on the stage. So watch this space people, a very enjoyable and successful first gig at The Heroes in Waterlooville, the first of many, we are hopeful.

Kneeslider obtains Website Award!

It is with a sense of pride and great pleasure that we announce that we have obtained the Feebleminds "Award of Excellence" for our website!

As it is today, the site has taken about a year to build inhouse and by a complete novice. The past twelve months have seen numerous changes and concepts in an attempt to make it interactive; increase traffic and moreover, raise band awareness. Many of the changes made have been as a result of constructive feedback from our visitors, and we'd like to thank all concerned.

Site builders often takes things for granted as during construction, they know where everything is. Often, this is not so easy for the visitor, and for this reason, we shoot our website address off to a couple of reviewers to evaluate and feedback to us, anything that may cause a visitor to simply "give-up."

We have used the feebleminds website on several occasions to obtain some of our graphics and have never come away empty handed. It seems that everytime we want a special picture or graphic for our site, they have it or can obtain it. If you are contemplating building your own site, or simply want add-ons for your blogs or social networking sites etc, we totally recommend them!

In addition to providing 1000's of free images, Jeff at feebleminds also offers a review service, but there is strict criteria to meet and few awards are given out.

Whilst Jeff provided some valuable feedback concerning errors on the site, he was "that impressed", he gave us the pretigious award anyway!

We'd like to thank Jeff for taking the time to review our site and feedback where we can improve it. We'd also like to sincerely thank him for awarding us his certificate as we appreciate that they are hard to come by!

QUOTE

"First off the site does not comply with my award requirements. However, I'm that impressed, and for the first time ever you've got it!

Very nice simple design,Good layout, Good navigation, Nice colours and graphics

The bad part.

Completely useless for the search engines.

Completely useless for the visually impaired, the software they use won't get through the coding and with the lack of the image alt information tags they won't know what the images are about.

Please find my award attached.

Regards, Jeff"