Sunday 25 November 2012

Pigtails and Army Boots returns!

Just an update to let you know Pigtails and Army Boots will be back on the air from Monday 10th December over on Firebrand Rock Radio! The show will be going out every Monday night live from 8pm UK time.
So I'm now open again for you to send your new music for airplay, and/or reviews for the blog.
I always play two independent/unsigned bands in the show, as well as an unsigned/indie band for artist of the month- if you want to be considered for the coveted artist of the month slot, you will need to send at least 4 mp3's.
I also play a cover version at the end of each show, so if you have recorded any great covers, then also please send those over!
To be considered for airplay please send your track/s to pigtailsandarmyboots@gmail.com- in MP3 format please. If you're interested in having your album/ep/gig reviewed on this blog you can contact me on the same address.
Looking forward to bringing you more exciting female fronted music!

Friday 2 November 2012

August Gone

You may remember the awesome music of Le Monnier, who have been a previous artist of the month on Pigtails and Army Boots and also played at two of the gigs I've organised.
Sadly, the guitarist left the band, and Le Monnier are no more...

but from the ashes come an exciting new band
'AUGUST GONE' - still with Alex's amazing vocals, backed by Aaron's guitar playing and new drummer Kayli Williams adding the backbone.
The debut song is 'Watch you Bleed' a stomping rocker, a mix of 90's tinged grungy guitar with the stunning powerful vocals- I'm personally very excited to hear more and there is a promise of an album in early 2013...

You can download the song 'Watch you Bleed' from their Facebook page

Thursday 1 November 2012

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra at KOKO, 23/10/12

When I arrived at the KOKO, the queue had long since formed, having been to several AFP shows now, I recognised certain faces who have been at every gig. The usual mix of people who had glammed themselves up, people in black, glitter, goth, alternative- the lot.

Excitement kicked in when AFP arrived on stage with a bottle of wine in hand and flowers in the other, but she wasn't there to start playing she was there to introduce the first support act (I think there was another one before I arrived too). The first one I saw was the bassist of the Grand Theft Orchestra's band and he was very impressive- I think he was surprised how well the audience reacted to his brand of music which included classical arrangements. After him, we saw a friend of AFP's who was a singer (please forgive me for not knowing the names, I really should have wrote this review sooner)! and also the guitarist of Grand Theft orchestra's band who were very 80's style and had flamingos on sticks that they passed around the audience- one of which ended up with it's legs being pulled off!

AFP had been saying before introducing one of the acts that she was taking away the anticipation of her entrance by introducing all her friends, but that really wasn't the case- as the stage finally lit up to the interval piece from 'Theatre is Evil' and flowers were thrown from the stage- I didn't really realise until I caught one right in my hand! Then, as if that wasn't enough they went into 'Smile' and there was a t.v screen behind them with the photos members of the audience had submitted to the '7 photo upload' appeared very fast, and I caught two of mine flick past several times- me with Robots in Disguise, and my face framed by my hands!

The entire show was one big party- as she blasted through songs off the new album- my favourite track 'The Killing Type' got a particularly good reception. Dresden Dolls song 'Missed Me' saw the orchestra swapping instruments.

After 'Grown Man Cry' things changed pace a bit as she read audience's responses to the question 'what's something sad that's happened in your room' - some of them had a wry humour about them, most of them very emotional and you could see people were crying as she then went onto play the beautiful song 'The Bed Song'.

Next amazing moment- AFP crowdsurfing over us (well near enough so we could reach her) during 'Bottomfeeder'.
Later in the show she pulled even more surprises out of the metaphorical hat, as Scroobius Pip came out to perform his 'Letter from God to Man' - followed by an awesome cover of 'Careless Whisper' and THEN of course where there is AFP- there is almost always Neil Gaiman- and there he was singing a song called 'Psycho' with a SAW ORCHESTRA!!! The love between them (Neil and Amanda) was so clear and beautiful as he appeared on stage.

THEN- as if things couldn't get any better, RICHARD O BRIEN came out and did The Time Warp!  a very packed KOKO attempted to do the time warp, this has to be one of my favourite gig moments ever!

The final encore consisted of a very audience participation version of 'Want it Back' as AFP and soem of the members of the orchestra appeared on one of the balcony's-

this would be a much better, more informative review if I hadn't left it so long to write it- but here's some photos, videos etc which I hope will help you to envision how wonderful it was!


















Setlist:

  1. (Amanda Palmer cover)
  2. (Yazoo cover)
  3. (Wham! cover)
  4. (Leon Payne cover) (with Neil Gaiman)
  5. (From the balcony backed by the audience)