Unity Rocks

Unity 10th January 2008

2008-01-05T10:58:00.001Z

Thursday 3rd January 2008

2008-01-02T10:30:00.000Z

This is the very first Unity Thursday gig at Goodbarns.
Don't forget we've got a new starting time of 8:00 - 8:30pm for the music. This allows people a chance to see all the acts before the have to go home. So get there early.

The Rumours are True

2007-12-29T14:16:00.000Z

So you've heard rumours. Unity has gone into Partnership with Art & Soul Magazine. We're changing venue from Spirit & Soul Bar to:

Goodbarns Yard
64 St Johns Street
Peterborough

We have not fallen out. We are continueing albeit in the new venue. We will continue to support local bands and give them a platform to perform on. With our partnership with Art & Soul Magazine we can further support local talent and bring them the exposure they deserve. We will also be inviting out of town bands to play for your enjoyment.
Unity as of 3rd of January will resume it's FREE ADMISSION policy. The bad news accordingly is that we will not be able to pay the bands who play.
Another important change is as of Jan 3rd Unity will be starting earlier. The music will start at 8:30pm not 9:30pm. So come earlier and go home without missing anything.

There's been a change around in the team:
The day to day running of The Unity Office has now been taken over by

Mike (Da Hat) Harris and
Mel Elliot

Shaggy and Richard will now be in charge of the Unity Special events. The big Unity events and festivals.

Moony continues his valuable job of being the link between Unity and our very good friends at Muddy promotions and The Glass Onion.

Tasha continues to be Tasha.

Sunday

2007-12-22T09:11:00.000Z

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns Yard

2007-10-20T16:15:00.001+01:00

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns 21st October

2007-10-16T10:27:00.000+01:00

Thursday 11th October

2007-10-13T16:39:00.000+01:00

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns Yard

2007-10-13T16:36:00.000+01:00

Jack Brown @ Unity 2

2007-10-13T09:15:00.000+01:00

Thursday 4th October 2007

2007-10-06T17:40:00.000+01:00

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns Yard

2007-10-06T17:37:00.000+01:00

Thursday 27th September 2007

2007-10-06T17:34:00.000+01:00

Unity 2 This week

2007-10-04T11:57:00.000+01:00

Unity 2 this week

2007-09-29T15:42:00.000+01:00

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns Yard

2007-09-26T18:51:00.000+01:00

Unity Too at Goodbarns Yard is an attempt to get back to our roots. Something I know Richard is very keen on. This week we had Filthy Wandering Hands who are Tim, Piper and Jimmy D. They played a set of covers but brilliantly. Tims distinctive vocal talents giving the songs a gravelly edge. Piper playing his Melodica made it different enough to be very different but enjoyable. Vince later played some excellent stuff. Next week we've got an open mic session. This is where you play and we give you free beer. It's devastatingly brilliant in it's simplicity. Come on down have a play have a jam or just listen. It's at Goodbarns Yard, St Johns Street, Peterborough. Kick off about 8:30 PA system supplied. Admission Free.

Meanwhile the proper Unity that you all know and love continues this Thursday with a stonking line up. Double Handsome Dragons and the Hendo San Project. Gonna be good.

Thursday 20th September 2007

2007-09-22T17:37:00.000+01:00

New band from St Ives Strawbear brilliant original sound aided by Ian Rays remarkable vocal range. Short catchy songs, with the set ending in two anthemic blockbusting songs. We're sure to be booking them again if you missed them first time round.Don't we just love Charlie here at the Unity Office. That's Charlie in the pic with the colourful hair, singing, She also co-wrote all the songs with her partner in crime, the legend, Mr Mick Davison. They aint a country and western band they are alternative acoustic rock with very memorable and beautiful songs to play. This week they played an acoustic set and were aided by the very talented Kat Moore on fiddle.

Next week we have the start of Unity 2 which is at Goodbarns Yard Pub st Johns Street Peterborough. This week we're featuring "Filthy Wandering hands" you may not have heard of the band but you certainly know the guys. They are Piper from point of Origin Busker Tim and Jimmy D. So that promises to be great. BTW We're having open mic before and after if anyone wants to play. 8:30pm start.

The Thursday Unity, at Spirit & Soul as Usual, features the fabulous "Double Handsome Dragons" who are an experimental instrumental band, but play with so much energy you'll be left breathless. Along with DHDs we are pleased, no proud, no pleased and proud to present the fabulous "Animation".

Fozzys Drum Spectacular

2007-09-22T17:28:00.000+01:00

The poor old drummer always stuck at the back providing the engine for any band, never seen, never gets in the photographs hidden behind a stack of drums cymbals and other percussion bits and bobs. Tonight Fozzy brought together Peterboroughs premier drummers to shine in their own right. Fozzy himself arguably Peterboroughs finest drummer gave a fifteen minute master class on how it's done, including almost every trick in the book. Even the up and coming youngsters had a go, proving that bands in the future have got talent on the way.

Unity 2 @ Goodbarns Yard

2007-09-22T15:22:00.000+01:00

We're trying a change of scene for Unity on Mondays. We'll be relocating to Goodbarns Yard (next door to the BP garage behind the Cathedral) where this week we have the musical stylings of Filthy Wandering hands. You may not have heard of the band but you all know the guys involved. So come along, it's gonna be very informal, open mic before and afterwards if anyone is interested.

This week @ Unity

2007-09-19T16:48:00.000+01:00

Unity 7th September 2007

2007-09-15T16:23:00.000+01:00

The Glass Onion 1st September 2007

2007-09-03T17:36:00.000+01:00

Well life continues at Planet Onion this week with The Brackets in full force. It was also Mels birthday, Mel being the editor of that magazine you all love so much Art & Soul. I'd have posted a few pics of her drunk but she threatened me with untold violence and misery if any of the pics saw the light of day. So you'll just have to imagine. Meanwhile dontcha just love The Brackets? Oh me oh my it's those girlies from Creche Collective hammering out a set full of Altered Images lots of screaming and enthusiasm, not to mention rolling about the floor in spilt beer. This is what we want, anarchy at it's best.

Thursday 30th August 2007

2007-09-01T14:40:00.000+01:00

We all have our favourite people, people we love and admire, well imagine a day when loads of people you love and admire all come to the same place at the same time. That's Unity. We've loved Heather McVey for years, I think she loves us because she keeps coming back for more. Here she is playing her little heart out with Claire Cordeaux supporting on Bass.Yeah yeah yeah get in the queue, line up all of you for your declarations of love for Unitys first daughter Abi. Here's Abi and the boys in their incarnation as Fre3peace. They are actually pretty damned good. Their style is coming together and building. At first it was good but maybe a bit experimental, now they've settled into the routine like wearing in of a pair of shoes, it all fits nicely now especially with the addition of their new bass player.
We Love The Neumes, they come all the way from North Yorkshire to play for us. They never fail to entertain. There's always new songs. God knows how many songs a week Charlotte writes. In between writing concertos for Piano and saxophone. This is the third time they've come to Unity, and hopefully not the last.

Unfortunately our other headline band Keltrix had to pull out due to illness. They send their apologies. Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule another night for them.

Meanwhile next week we have for your enjoyment The Underdogs, Blue Mary Jane and Shane Poole.
Underdogs are a Preston based band, combining ‘indie with attitude’ and an exuberant onstage energy. Strong, dynamic lyrics and original guitars come together to produce a positive, distinctive sound not far from their influences, which include Oasis, The Smiths, The Sex Pistols, The Stone Roses and The Beatles.
Blue Mary Jane: fast & furious and a lot of fun. Blues rock with leanings toward Rolling Stones Chuck Berry and the Ramones.
Shane Poole: check out his myspace site, there's some great songs on there.

then on the 13th September we have Fozzys drum extravaganza. Two drum kits loads of drummers and bassists. if you want to be part of it speak to Fozzy at Live Music Lincoln Road Peterborough and while you're at it buy some new kit.

Rock on dudes until next time

PS We're going to see the Brackets at the Glass Onion Saturday night. Any one else coming?

The 30th Peterborough Beer fest

2007-08-28T17:54:00.001+01:00

So we toddled over to the beer fest to has a looksee at who's playing. Here's the Brays. Awesome as ever Acer raging on stage to a much bigger audience than usual but just as appreciative.
Finally the big draw of the Festival The Counterfeit Stones. Featuring Nick Dagger, Keef Rickard, Bill Hymen, Charlie Mott and Ronnie B Goode. Brilliant entertainment with all your favourite stones tracks featured.

The Display Team

2007-08-25T10:28:00.001+01:00

Another glorious victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. With just a few hours to kick both bands due to play on thursday cancelled. However stepping in to save the day The Display Team (formerly known as Mumrah). Fantastic band with loads of energy, particularly the bass player who bounced around the stage like a duracell bunny. We are extremely grateful to The Display Team for travelling at short notice all the way from London and putting on such a fine display.

We're so excited about next weeks gig it's gonna be huge. We're so made up about it we've even got poster for you to look at:

Err guys we made a bit of a whoopsee on the poster it's the 30th not the 31st. But I bet you already guessed that being as you're all so damned clever an all.

Randall Rootz Festival Mk1 Saturday

2007-08-18T15:42:00.000+01:00

The crowd was heaving everyone and his dog turned up at The Brewery Tap, I used the term "dog" metaphorically, because there were actually precious few dogs there on the night. So we had a great party atmosphere going with loads of eager anticipation. Angryman were first on stage. There's a brilliance in the simplicity. Just two guitars one strummed and the other put through various effects pedals but played by the guitar virtuoso Steve Bean. Various songs were played against a backing track of Mark Randalls original drum track. The Dead Rabbits with special guests, I forget their names, that's how good I am, any way they were members of the Original Pogues line up one was called Spider or summat. The other? who cares? It was a great night. They raised loads of money for the Sue Ryder Trust.

Unity Thursday 16th August 2007

2007-08-18T15:40:00.000+01:00

The Glass Onion 11th August

2007-08-17T11:02:00.000+01:00

See stuff does go on around and about this time it was at The Glass Onion, which is a very friendly place. Here at Unity we're big fans of The Glass Onion and even bigger fans of those lovely volounteers who give their time selflessly every week. So all the way from Spalding it's Blue Mary Jane. They got their name from a John Lennon song of a similar name. They're good, a bit of chuck berry vibe a bit of Rock and roll, a bit Rolling Stones and a lot of enthusiasm. Catch them next at Unity in September.Here's the new golden boy on the block. The name on everyones lips. OK maybe not everyone. My mum hasn't even heard of him "Daniel who?". And some of you will know my mum is pretty rock and roll for a 74 year old. She's on first name terms with all the local rockers. Well maybe not all. But there are those in the know, those with their fingers on the pulse, who rate this guy. Daniel Fridholm.
Finally before my head exploded with the excitement of what is the Glass Onion we had "Dirty As Muck" who were launching their new long player that night. Interestingly the drummer alternated between using drum sticks and his bare hands to play drums. Showing a deftness of touch unheard of in your local thrash metal band. Also as a kindness to all those who turned up the band were giving away their new long player for free. You should have seen Lisa squeal with excitement at that one, as she dashed in to score her own copy.

This Thursday we are very excited to tell you we have Barrellass on stage. Those of you who saw them last time will know they are not to be missed.

Thursday 9th August 2007

2007-08-11T13:53:00.000+01:00

The entertainment goes on, this time with Staceman opening the show. With his oh so powerful and clear voice resonating around the venue through Shaggys new improved speaker system. As if we hadn't enough speakers on the case, he's added a couple more on stands to aid the top end. OK Hands up those who read the evening telegraph review of a few weeks ago where they accused Alpha Red of being "plod rock". Ooops! I bet they loved that. Then he said our sound system was tinny. Yikes. Er hello that's why we've done got some more high end speakers because it wasn't tinny enough. Anyway thanks for the plug in the Evening Telegraph it's always appreciated. I bet The Brackets loved their plug as well. "Jaunty and Riff driven". Fabulous.So those energetic guys from Riot TV were on next. They did a very creditable version of Hendrixs Purple haze with the lead guitarists whizzing up and down his fret board. All he needed to make the scene perfect was set fire to his guitar and play with his teeth. Maybe that's above and beyond the call of duty. Although the bass guitarist did the rock hero bit by slinging his bass guitar off the stage at the end. You don't get much more Rock and Roll than that. Maybe that's when they should have set fire to something. Not that I condone any forms of arson.
Oh those GODs of rock, The Contrast. Super tight set all held together by Fozzys surgically precise drumming. There he is hiding amongst his cymbals. I might as well take this opportunity to mention September 13th. Fozzy is organising a drum extravaganza at Unity. It'll be fantastic. We did it before at The Fiddlers Elbow, I gotta say I was very sceptical at first. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. So we're doing it again, Fozzy is getting the citys best drummers on the case. Rumour has it Paul from Live music. We're hoping Lee from The Brackets. If you want to be part of it get hold of Fozzy not us we're having a short break to tidy up the Unity office.
Next week we're honoured to present to you the .... insert favourite superlatives here... Firegarden. Also for the 1st time at unity all the way from such exotic places as Ramsey and Easfield Road, Andog. Their drummer had the audacity to go on holiday for this gig (it's all about drummers this week isn't it?)so they're playing an acoustic set. Well if Nirvana can play "unplugged" so can Andog.

Shaggys Super Secret Surprise Birthday Party

2007-08-04T14:27:00.001+01:00

We like to think it's a testament to how much lurve you have for our main man Shaggy for so many of you to turn up for his Super Secret Surprise Birthday Party. Or was it because we had four class acts performing on our stage? Or was it both? Whatever we had a great time. Just recently we had an email from the BEE BEE CEE asking us who's hot and who's not in the music scene right now. Yeah we're THAT important here at Unity towers. So we had no hesitation at all in recommending the BBC check out our first act on tonight, Pip & Phils Magical Penny. Comic songs played 1920's style with a bit of Flanders and Swann thrown in on Guitar Mandolin and acoustic Bass. Judging by the applause they received I think our recommendation was right on the nail.Our next act on stage Rigo Jancsi. Rigo Jancsi formed late in 2005. Inspired by a story discovered when randomly looking for a chocolate cake recipe. ‘It was scandalous! She was a princess, and he a gypsy prímás called Rigo Jancsi. He played violin at the restaurant while she dined with her husband. Eyes must have met, hearts fluttered.’ The Princess left her husband and gave up everything to live with the gypsy violinist. Great story, great band, who were winners of the 2006 Band of East Anglia competition. What more can we say.
Our very own favourite band Opaque, who were trying out new songs for Shaggys birthday.
I don't know how many times we've said it about bands getting better and better each time they play, but Columbian Necktie are no exception. They started off by taking the piss out of them selves and just having fun. Recently featured in Art & Soul magazine they confirmed that they don't take themselves seriously. Well perhaps they should do because they have matured into a very tight and tidy band giving good return on the entertainment dollar.
And finally..... here's some of you having fun. Top left a little message for our good friend, la petite Francaise, Mél who is now back in France. Come back soon.
Next week the fun continues with Riot TV and The Contrast taking our stage
You can check out The Contrast cos they've been featured in this months Art & Soul Magazine
(That's issue five) also check out the Stretch limo pic. Actually it's a Ford Consul that's been stretched. Cool huh?

That's it for now. We'll be back. Hasta la vista babies

Thorpe Hall Fund Raiser Night

2007-07-28T16:29:00.000+01:00

When Thorpe hall Running Club approached Unity a few months ago asking if we'd host a fund raiser for Thorpe Hall, well, we were honoured to have that privilege. The nurses/runners proposed a class line up of acts to appear on stage. The first being Staceman whose repertoire has grown as has his ability to perform. It's interesting to note that to keep going the fund raisers at Thorpe Hall have to raise annually 1.2million pounds just to keep the place afloat. This is no mean feet. Especially when it has to be done year after year. Next up on stage The Ghears. What can I say you've got to witness the passion to believe it. Never have we seen such emotion put into a set as we had this night. Outstanding.
Our good friend Dan Donovan on stage next as his altar Ego king kool variously described as Swamp Rock, garage Rock, Grunge Rock, Bombastic guitar, whatever you call it, it's powerful. hardly surprising when he let me into the secret which I hope he doesn't mind me sharing with you. Drop down E string to D then put the guitar through two amps. Yes boys and girls count them, two amps, one guitar amp, then a bass amp to get that massive bassy grunge sound. So now you know. Oh yeah the other secret is you've got to be as good as King Kool. Rock on Danny boy.
The final act of the night the gloriously talented and funkadelic Groove Cartel, who never fail to entertain. Groove Cartel carried on the party atmosphere that had developed throughout the night.
We're proud to announce that we raised over £200 on the night for Thorpe Hall Hospice, and had a lot of fun doing it. It's such a worthy cause.

So next week is Shaggys birthday party at Unity. To celebrate we have local legends Opaque on stage. Those crazy guys Columbian Necktie. Pip and Phils Magic Penny
and finally all the way from Norwich winners of Bands Of East Anglia 2006 so they've got to be good, Rigo Jancsi. They've also got a new single out so it'll be your chance to hear it live. So wew want you there. It's Shaggys Birthday for Chrissakes come and celebrate with him. Thank him for all the hard work he's put in to bring you amazing live music every week. Lets Partay.

Thursday 19th July 2007

2007-07-21T13:28:00.000+01:00

Welcome to another edition of "wassyourgame sonny". Firing off the night with all guns blazing Richard hall and little sis Mel performing selections from Richards new long player Horizons. Available at all good record shops and the Glass Onion. Then to further confuse people reading the programme of events we had the impossibly tall John Litchfield and the impossibly talented Sir James Chadwick on stage to do a couple of songs. Just as you think it's safe to go to the bar Disposable man take the stage complete with backing tracks and a choir of angels on hard drive. You aint seen nothing yet. Not until you've witnessed Disposable Man. Political like Billy Bragg, poetic like John Cooper Clark, angry like all of us. Yet spitting it out to the brilliant guitar work of Steve Satori. If you'd like to receive more words of wisdom from the motormouth that is Richard verbal I've a sneaky feeling you needn't look any further than the Palmerston Arms on Oundle Road.
Double Handsome Dragons rising from the ashes of what was Sidearm. They got their name from a Japanese film about a marshal arts soccer team. Well they exploded onto the stage and never let up the energy. No vocals just pure enthusiastic playing, visually very exciting and for your listening pleasure? Well would you expect anything less than brilliance from those Sidearm boys? Check out how handsome those Dragons are.
Next week for your entertainment pleasure. Unity is hosting a fund raiser for Thorpe hall Hospice. Those lovely nurses at Thorpe Hall are organising the event and we'll be hosting it. So we'll have on stage Groove Cartel, The Ghears, King Kool and Staceman. It's a cracking line up and all for only £4. It's a good cause so get down here next Thursday 26th July.

Peace Love and Unity

Thursday 12th July 2007

2007-07-14T15:22:00.000+01:00

We couldn't have been more excited about tonights gig, seeing the return to the stage of the legendary Angry Man, after a long absence. Steve and Scot managed to pull a fantastic performance out of the bag to rapturous applause. It's great to have them back on the scene. John Quinn and friends as Alpha Red, rocked the place.
Finally a triumphant return to the Unity stage The Brackets who in a very short period of time managed to make their first ever live performance at unity and then follow that up with winning Unitys Band of 2007 competition against very stiff competition. But todays star performer award has to go to Mr Cameron, The Brackets drummer. He performed a masterclass on how it's supposed to be done, his brilliance shone throughout the set.
...and here's some of you enjoying the evening....

Don't forget next week we present live on stage: Disposable Man, Double handsome Dragons and Richard Hall.

What's on this week

2007-07-11T15:04:00.000+01:00

Greetings summery folk!

Time for a return of the Muddy update - I'm hoping that this can become a weekly mail again now as I suddenly find myself with a little more time on my hands. Hooray!

Hope the summer (what summer?! lol) has been treating you all okay. We've had some lovely times already within our community and many more are on the way.

Newfoundland Festival tickets are now on sale at the Glass Onion for only £25(!!!!!!) and there's only 100 of them selling there so snap them up double quick before they go. The festival will be 7-9 September in central Wales, and Muddy Promotions are privileged to be running a stage at what will be a very special event showcasing live and electronic music, literature and visual arts. Like Grassroots last year there will only be 500 people on site including artists and crew, so you are guaranteed a lovely intimate community vibe for the weekend. What more perfect finish to the summer could you have?

Something lovely is growing locally from within our community for the 1-2 September as well. Gary and co have been working like crazy people to put together the first Exhibit:U event, to be held in Central Park, Peterborough. This two day event will be free and will be focused on two large temporary art galleries showcasing work by local artists, as well as a small stage showcasing local musicians too! This will be a free event - please support it or come and get involved with it and maybe it can become a yearly event.

More immediately you will find the Muddy geo-dome set up at Secret Garden festival (nr Huntingdon 27-29 July) presenting workshops and and open mic stage. If you are at the festival come and say hello.

Anyhow - onto the happenings of this week:

Thursday

Unity at Spirit & Soul (24 Lincoln Road) have a particularly special line-up on the go this Thursday (and it's still free to get in). Alpha Red is local legend John Quinn's new incarnation - and has been receiving a wonderful response everywhere they have played. The city is also very glad to see the return of Angry Man to the stage after a long break since the untimely death of their drummer - Mark Randall (keep your eyes open for details of the Randall Rootz events, in honour of Mark.... mid-August). Completing this quality treble bill are Unity band of 2007 winners The Brackets - who always make for a great show. Doors are 8pm till 1am.

Friday

The city's most successful acoustic night/open mic is still running at the Muddy's home the Glass Onion (Burghley Road) every Friday night and always has a lovely vibe and great music. And it's still free too. Music from 8pm. And for later bizzle:

Contact returns to Spirit & Soul on Friday night for another outing electronical wizardry. The boys are very excited to be hosting special guest Phase - a London based techno-producer who has released through Lost/Cosmic records, Inogma and Inceptive Records. Alogside him in the techno-themed main room will be Contact regulars such as Sys-Ex *LIVE* (Inceptive Records), Static Noise, MJ Dubs and Techno 303. There are two more rooms on offer as well. Peddlebreaker is hosting a room showcasing breaks and dub, and Revolution-Arry is hosting a housey/techy room (including a debut hour of wrongness by the imaginatively named F*ck). Doors are open 10pm till 4am and entrance will cost you just £4 before 12 and £5 after.

Saturday

Get up nice and early on Saturday morning and make your way down to Farcet Fen, where you will find the Muddy geo-dome set-up with workshops and a live performance from the band Opaque. The event is running from 12 till 4 and is free.

Later in the day there's a fantastic four band line-up at The Silver Jubilee (North Bretton). Point of Origin are hosting the event and have invited some amazing acts along in support. Many of you will already know Mr Zed - of you don't, why not? They are dubadelic space rock pioneers based in Cambridge and always put on an amzaing and energetic line-up. Free Will & the Bad Influences are also from Cambridge and play a funky kind of blues rock that harkens back to a bit of seventies sleaziness with a modern flavour. Completing the four band billing is Free Peace, who's new demo is sounding lovely by the way - well done guys. Entrance is free, there's a beer garden you can smoke in, and live music starts around 19:30 so get there nice and early!

If you're looking for an all night electronic dance affair check out Bish Bash Bosh at Spirit & Soul - who have established themselves firmly in the city's calendar with their diverse mix of hard dance, hardcore, drum & bass and breaks and more. They start at 10pm and finish at 5am. Entrance is £5.

Sunday

Sunday nights are film night at the Glass Onion, with big screen showings diverse flicks. Entrance is free and showings start around 8pm.

Until next time - peace love unity and respect.

Thursday 5th July 2007

2007-07-07T13:31:00.000+01:00

Charlie Alexander one of the lads lads. He ducks and he dives, he's up for fun. But beneath that rebellious exterior is a thoughtful character full of emotion and depth. His songs reflect this, the lyrics full of colourful imagery and the music the same. Charlie has a unique style developed from when he first started playing guitar never having been taught. Not knowing the chords he played around until he found sounds he liked, chancing on chords and chord progressions not normally considered. He's since learnt all the chords and music theory but his unusual style luckily stayed with him. He plays with passion, it's not very often you see a solo acoustic artist break into sweat playing a love song. He plays with such intensity he told me "There's no point unless you give it 100%." and that's what you get with Charlie, on stage, off stage, he's 100%, living life to the full, and playing as if his life depended on it. Midwezt, the creation of a partnership between Charlie Armitage and the local legend that is Mick Davison. I've never heard them play so well as at Unity this night. Every song a well crafted classic that could easily be heard on any radio show. You know they're good. The intensive rehearsals shine through in their faultless tight performance.They certainly won a few extra fans tonight.
The Hendo-San project. Jay the bassist called me answering a plea for a band to step in at the last minute due to Intwined pulling out through illness (Don't worry we'll rebook them later)"we've been playing together for 12 years" he said. "You're booked" we said. They turned up "It's our first gig." Jay says. "What the f***?" "Don't worry we're good." Whenever you see the word "Project" in the name of a band, you know it's going to be experimental. Well true to their word and the theory they were experimental but were good, turning out a set so intense even the audience were sweating.

Now then we're really excited about next weeks Unity. We've have The Brackets, winners of this years band of 2007, Alpha Red and the band with a rapidly growing cult following Angry man. This is the "must see" event of the year. You really need to be there.

Rock on dudes

Peace Love and Unity

Summer Playlist

2007-07-03T10:49:00.000+01:00

OK here's the summer term playlist for all those studenty types. Just to let you know what those clever little buggers have been listening to whilst swanning around at university, and presumably what they're listening to over the summer hols. I can see them now packing their little bags ready to dash off to Kirrin Island armed with lashings of ginger beer, eggs and bacon. Oh and don't forget Timmy the dog. And as they investigate strange goings on at the old manor house and the curious behaiviour of old man Jacobs they'll have their iPods crammed full to the gunnells with Snow Patrol, The Fratellis, Editors, and Andy Williams. Oh to be a student again... interrailing around Europe, sleeping on trains and on the beach, getting arrested and mugged, visiting far off distant lands, and, ignoring the cry of "Don't drink the water", getting dysentry. So what will you be listening to this summer?

1. White Stripes - Icky Thump
2. Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm
3. Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder
4. Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
5. Funeral For A Friend - Into Oblivion
6. Maximo Park - Books From Boxes
7. Snow Patrol - Signal Fire
8. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Hump De Hump
9. Arcade Fire - Intervention
10. The Fratellis - Ole 'Black 'N' Blue Eyes
11. Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Is Not Enough
12. Chemical Brothers - Do It Again
13. Biffy Clyro - Living Is A Problem (Because Everything Dies)
14. Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry
15. Gossip - Listen Up
16. Queens Of The Stoneage - 3's & 7's
17. Fall Out Boy - Thnks Fr the Mmrs
18. Groove Armada - Get Down
19. Mutya Mueno - Stop Me
20. CSS - Let Make Love
21. Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running
22. The Twang - Either Way
23. Bloc Party - I Still Remember
24. Jamie T - Sheila
25. Kings Of Leon - On Call
26. Mutya Bueno - Real Girl
27. The Wombats - Kill the Director
28. Hello Goodbye - Here In Your Arms
29. Maximo Park - Our Velocity
30. The Killers - For Reasons Unknown

Thursday 28th June 2007

2007-06-29T16:33:00.000+01:00

Only two acts on tonight. First in our regular acoustic slot Graham who some of you wil remember was a key member of Opaque in another incarnation. Here he is again gone solo and getting better with each gig. Our headline band tonight from Cambridge GODFATHER. We'e having a Mario Puzo moment here. They tell me their name was conjured up not to say they had any mafia affiliations but to reflect their no nonsense, focussed dedication and get the job done attitude to music. They certainly get the job done with their unique blend of 70s funk and rap with a tincy bit of disco thrown in for good humour. Actually if you listen to the words there's a load more humour in there as well. Any way they're in the middle of recording their new long player and hope it's gonna be out towards the end of summer so watch out for it. It's gonna be brill. We know that because we got to hear, live, a load of tracks from the new CD. How lucky are we? So here's the pics...
Next week at Unity we have the on stage for your entertainment folk rock wizzos INTWINED doing an acoustic set plus new alternative country (they hate that "We are NOT a country band") rock band Midwezt featuring the lovely Charlie on lead vocals and the legend that is Mick Davison on geeetar. Midwezt have just recently won a place to play at the beer festival this year. They beat Intwined by just one point.But despite that the two bands are best mates. Oh and did you catch INTWINED on the Steve Titman show the other Thursday? (BBC Radio Cambridgeshire thursday 6- 7pm) Brilliant.

The on the 12th July we have a massive line up of talent new boys Alpha Red, well worth a listen, The Brackets up and coming indie rock band and finally Angry Man who's reputation is akin to cult status. People whisper in hushed tones claiming to know them personally or have met someone who once saw them play live. If ever there was a band that deserved a cult following it's this band. if you haven't caught them before now, here is your chance and there hasn't been that many chances recently. I was honoured to be present during the photoshoot where this next pic was taken. No amps no effects just Steve and Scot playing acoustically, it was a moving experience.
Rock on dudes

Myspace of the week

2007-06-26T16:14:00.000+01:00

We're having a bit of a change this week. Normally myspace of the week goes to a band or a musician. This week I want to introduce to you cultural officionados, the up and coming Artist, Ruth Joyce. Ruth is 20 years old and currently studying Medieval History in London. She's your typical do- my- own-thing rebel who refuses to paint pretty flowers and landscapes, instead opting to paint rock bands and extreme sports (which she's passionate about), she's also a cool cartoonist. The illustration is of two of her creations the radical cats, Wuss'n'Boots.
So go and check her out. She's cool. You'll love her art. I don't think she plays guitar but who cares when you're that good with a paint brush.

Check her out here http://www.myspace.com/imsurethataintlegal
Say hello make friends. Do what young people do.
Go on it's only polite.

Don't forget this week at Unity we have the brilliant Godfather on stage supported by Graham (ex Opaque) giving us an acoustic set.

FR3PEACE @ The Brewery tap

2007-06-25T14:24:00.000+01:00

So Abi has been on the blower for the last week asking me to come and see her at the Brewery Tap, because her and the boys have worked out a new sound. So I went, what else am I gonna do? So the new sound? It's a little like Paul Simons Gracelands, with that African rythm vibe going on. Well I gotta say it's pretty good and the audience thought so as well. So here's Abi and the boys in glorious colour.We've got Godafther playing this week @ Unity. Shaggy says they're the dogs bollards but I could have misheard him. Anyway get down to Unity and check 'em out.

Rock on dudes

Thursday 21st June 2007

2007-06-22T16:32:00.000+01:00

Finally we persuade Chopper to do a solo set of his own material. And what material it is. Virtuoso finger picking accompanying some great songs often humerous and the whole set interspersed with Choppers impersonation of a sicilian mafia Don il capo di capos. He's the Man. You may recognise these next guys as "Rigollo". They played at our band of 2007 competition earlier in the year but they've been reborn, harder faster moodier and better and now called The Galaxy.
How can you put these guys down? The awesome Revenue who many think should have won Band of 2007 but fate snatched victory from their grasp and gave it to the Brackets. But in many eyes there was nothing in it. Either band was worthy of being the winner. For shear energy and enthusiasm alone they would have certainly won.
Meanwhile across the Road and down Geneva Street In Faith, those guys from The Glass Onion are at it again. Here they are again showing just how caring and compassionate they can be. This time they've organised through a group called lava Lamp a fun DJ dance night for people with learning disabilities. Well they may have learning disabilities but just like the rest of us they know how to have a good time. As always The Glass Onion is struggling for funding for events like this. So if you have the ear of someone who can say yes, bend it now. Tell them that to continue doing all this very valuable work that is a BENEFIT to the community they need the money. GIVE THEM THE MONEY!!! I feel like Bob Geldoff now "Give us your money". No don't give it to me give it to those people who very modestly and anonymously call themselves "The Volounteers". They don't get paid. Most of them don't even have jobs, but they give up their time to help the community. They do it because they care. And people criticise the younger generation? Per-leeeese. Have a look at what they achieve and be amazed. I was honoured to be asked to take the photographs for this event. Here's a few...

Myspace of the week

2007-06-22T15:22:00.000+01:00

Oh I am such a fan of this band now. I heard them last night on BBC Radio cambridge on the Steve Titman show and immediately resolved to find out more. This band is a must see band. Well you must see the myspace site which has the obligatory four tracks loads of endorsements and the best off all three glorious videos, each one worth watching for bizarre humour, a Fritz the Cat Sorry I meant Felix the Cat type cartoon full of good versus evil whackiness, and finally an old time musical vaudevillean extravaganza featuring music on mandolin and various other instruments. It's priceless.
I mentioned them to Shaggy. "D'ya fink we cun book'em for Unity?"
"Mebbe."
Watch this space. Meanwhile watch this myspace

The band it's Flipron. They're fabulous.

http://www.myspace.com/flipron

Thursday 14th June 2007

2007-06-16T16:35:00.000+01:00

There are no words to describe the deep lurve we have for Irene Rae. Her heroism is an inspiration to us all. From being sold into slavery as a child and subsequently brought up in the slum tenements of Stamford, weaving persian rugs for the rich and famous for tuppence a day. She has risen above all that and grown into the consumate artist she is today. She is in demand all over, for her original songs and her vast repertoire of covers. She's even found time to record songs for a CD, the profits going to Cervical cancer research. So go and buy it. Not only will you get a chance to help a worthy cause but have the opportunity to listen to some beautiful music...and so onto The Gangsters. It's Sterrets birthday bash. He's ahem years old. The gangsters, led by Sterrets passion, are famous for their Funk ska sound. It's a big sound from a big band starring a big man and an even bigger drummer. Man! he's tall.

We've got some great acts on the way check out the Unity Calendar to see who we've got coming to entertain you. Meanwhile here at Unity towers we've been working hard and things are afoot to make Unity bigger and better. So watch this space we'll tell you more in due course. Don't forget to tell your friends what they';re missing. It's a lot of fun and still FREE!!!

Rock on dudes until next time

Peace love and Unity

BBC Spring Watch

2007-06-12T18:45:00.001+01:00

The BBC Springwatch event at Central park Peterborough. Here's Richard Hall and Claire Cordeaux with special guest appearence of Melissa Hall.A pared down Hamfatter.
AOB (Any Other Business)
Opaque of course
Waht day wouldn't be complete without Point Of Origin

Thursday 7th June 2007

2007-06-09T15:53:00.000+01:00

It's a heavy metal night tonight. First onstage rather confusingly renamed The Darren Macer Poetry Experience. Well that'll be our old friends Pattern of sin then without their former band mate er... Darren Macer, who presumably has become a poetry buff. waxing lyrical on such stuff as clouds wild flowrs and lurve. Not that we at Unity Towers knows anything about that.Moving on. This is "Sever the Wicked". I don't know why they use that name because they're not at all wicked and what they intend to "Sever" I don't know. Any old ways they are obviously getting rather popular as this is the last gig in the boro for ages maybe this year as they are fully booked up to play places that aren't Peterborough.
Now then 1000 Fires. One of their first gigs if not the first. Well we were impressed the relentless tribal drums acompanied by ferocious guitar playing that was so tight you wouldn't have got a rizla between them. Fantastic. and there's more to come.
The headline act of the night Barrellass. They came on stage like a horror film version of The Village People, the Doctor covered in blood, the monk, the evil leprechaun (I'm assuming here) the Bavarian Superhero Drummer, Che Guevara and not forgetting Kid Kendo the all in wrestler on lead vocals. Actually he's not really an all in wrestler his mates bought him the mask just recently, but he does a good impression. Not since The Super Penetraitors has Unity seen such madness on stage. We love it.
The world marches on and next week we have the fabulous "Gangsters" supported by that lovely lovely Irene Rae. So don't miss it.

Thursday 31st May 2007

2007-06-02T15:13:00.001+01:00

Pink & Ruby on stage at Unity. We didn't care they were late. WE didn't care they got lost in Northborough. Because they were brilliant. Gob smackingly beautiful songs, couldn't understand a word, but who cares, the songs were a triumph of subtle harmonies and delicate finger picking guitar. Hardly a surprise when they recieved the biggest ovation heard at Unity in a long time. Tres Cojones. No vocals here just flamenco gypsy jazz guitar with percussion thrown in. I've got to say we've been watching young James career from his very first public performance at Unity about 18 months ago to now. Gone are the nerves and instead we have a guitarist with the confidence of a matador and skill to match. All in all this band have the Cajones to continue and be very sucessful.

Well we're all off to Strawberry fair now. See you there.

Ciao bambinos

Life beyond Unity

2007-06-01T11:18:00.000+01:00

Just to show there's life outside Unity and your bedroom, here's Untamed at Goodbarns Yard with their full on heavy metal assault on the senses. Untamed used to be a heavy Metal covers band but now concentrate on their original songs.Meanwhile the same night King Kool AKA Dan Donovan, appeared at The Glass Onion. Wouldn't it be nice if a band that was supposed to be on stage at 9pm were on stage at 9pm and not 11:30pm. Mind you we can't talk, at Unity sometimes we run late too. Last night for instance. Pink and Ruby got lost. In Northborough. So much for Sat Nav.

What's on this summer

2007-05-30T17:10:00.001+01:00

Greetings long lost friends and distant cousins!

It's now a long time since this weekly mailout ceased to be a weekly mailout, and I think we may as well accept that with a busy summer approaching it is likely to remain that way. So I figure its worth us having a quick run-down of events that you should be aware of over the next few months.

Don't forget you can always keep yourself updated of events at the Glass Onion by picking up the bi-monthly programme from the Centre. And keep checking on the Muddy myspace which is regularly updated and on the main muddy site ( www.muddypromotions.org.uk ) which will be relaunched very soon after much hard work from our volunteer web designer.

So update time:-

The Glass Onion

The Onion is going from strength to strength thanks to the support of all of you and of course the dedicated team of volunteers. Please don't forget that they always need more help though - a little time from a lot of people goes a long way :)

Events at the Onion include the regular acoustic/open mic session every Friday night from 7pm, which has hosted some wonderful acts in the last 8 months and will no doubt continue to do so.

The Saturday night summer sound sessions, taking place most Saturdays over the summer, are also proving to be a magnificent success - with lots of wonderful bands playing and wonderful people turning up.

Sunday night is still film night and is still free to get in.

Keep an eye out for one-off events too - there have already been some great drama, comedy, cabaret, debate, educational, and healing events at the Onion and these will continue to keep rolling into the building for your pleasure.

The Drip-Dry records studio, based at the Onion is now functioning, and the first recordings are rolling off its presses. If you would like to make use of the facilities talk to Benny T.

The Art room and Rehearsal rooms are also ready to use. Ask at the bar.

Unity

Unity is still running every Thursday night at Spirit & Soul (formerly known as Lisboa), 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough. There have been some fantastic acts playing on the Unity stage in the last few months - though support from local music lovers can be a bit hit and miss (possibly due to the sudden range of events on offer in the city). The Unity team would love to see your smiley faces back in the building - and since its FREE entrance all night every Thursday there aren't many excuses left open to you :)

Here's the line-ups for the next few weeks:-

31st May - Pink 'n Ruby (acoustic set & electronic live d&b set - from London)
Tres Cojones (flamenco/gypsy jazz)

7th June - Barrelass (experimental metal)
Sever the wicked (metal)
The Darren Macer Poetry Experience (experimental metal)
A Thousand Fires (progressive metal)

14th June - The Gangsters (ska & rocksteady)
Irene Rae (acoustic)

there will be many more quality line-ups like these on the way. Keep up to date at www.myspace.com/unityvenue and check for pics of the events afterwards at www.unityrocks.blogspot.com

Strawberry Fair (Sat 2nd June - Cambridge)

Strawberry Fair is one of the largest free & unsponsored festivals in Europe, and its right on our doorstep. At this year's Strawberry Fair you'll find the Muddy geo-dome with DJ, drum, and arts workshops for your participation. You'll also find many acts close to our heart on the other stages of the festival. Point of Origin, Mr Zed, Talullah Rendall and Flipron are all playing on the Theatrikals Tent. Opaque and Free Love & the Good Plant are playing on the East Stage. Keltrix and Ed Cox are also playing (unsure of which stage). And of course the heavy heavy dub tent will still be rattling and shaking as always :) The fair opens at midday and music stops at about 10pm.

If you are looking for something to do on your return to the boro we would suggest you check out Wrong Way Up at Spirit & Soul, one of the most refreshing new promotions to pop up in our city in the last few months. Their music is an interesting mix of prog/tech-house with a bit of minimal techno and deep, glitched out pounding straight beat grooves. Doors are 10pm till 5am and door tax is £5.

Psychedelic Breakdown (Sat 16th June)

The bods behind Psychedelic Breakdown are most chuffed to be bringing a very special event to the city for their last party before a summer break.

The party is taking place at Spirit & Soul, 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough on Saturday 16th June from 10pm till 6am, and will take place over three rooms (psy-trance & psy-breaks / electronica & dubs / house & breaks) with a line-up boasting producers, DJ's and live acts from 8 different record labels - including Shakta (Dragonfly records), Digitalis (Sinister records/Point Red Records), Soundhacker (Amp Bit Go records), Stylus Rex (Punk Funk records), Steve Broca (Cactus Island records) and Hibernation (Aleph Zero/Interchill records). For full line-up details please check http://www.dontstayin.com/uk/peterborough/chat/k-1782450

The team are most chuffed to have the Woef and Bex from the Indigo Children crew coming back to the city to decorate, and Mr Zed and the newly fixed Lukus providing visuals.

Exhibit:U Festival - Central Park Peterborough (August Bank Holiday weekend)

Peterborough sees a very special new two day event taking place in Central Park over the Saturday and Sunday of August Bank Holiday weekend this year. Exhibit:U is growing from within the Muddy community and promises to be something very unique. With two marquee art galleries and a stage for drama, spoken word and music this promises to be one of the most exciting arts events to take place in our city to date (and it will be free).

We'll keep you updated with info on this one and things progress.

Newfoundland Festival (7-9 September)

With Grassroots sadly missing from the Muddy calendar this year, you will be relieved to know that Newfoundland Festival will bring you a breath of similar air.

The festival is taking place in mid-Wales on 7-9 September. It will be run on a Temporary Events Notice just like Grassroots last year, meaning this is underground with only 400 tickets for sale, but is guaranteed to have a lovely vibe with a diverse and creative crowd.

Two stages will be on offer - one run by Indigo Children and Atlantis presenting psy-trance through the night and spoken word poetry/literature panels with best-selling authors during the daytime. The second stage will be run by Muddy and will present acoustic acts, bands and electronic DJ's and live acts of a myriad of styles. There will also be an art gallery. Local arts organisations have been involved and the local community engaged positively.

This will be beautiful!

Tickets are on sale from the Glass Onion for face value of £25 including camping. Alternatively you can buy them with a plastic card over the internet from www.accessallareas.org

There are only 100 tickets on sale through the Onion, and the one's through Access All Areas are subject to a booking charge, so get your's quickly. The tickets are going to run out pretty early on!

More info to follow.

....and finally.....

Keep your eyes peeled guys - there is still alot of wonderful stuff continuing and growing anew within our city, our society and our world. Don't miss out.

Peace love unity and respect.

PS The Glass Onion now has a drum workshop on saturday Afternoons. Get yourself down there and get some rythm.

Unity is FREE

2007-05-25T14:59:00.001+01:00

We had a bit of a rest this week. No bands as such just a good old marathon jam session. It seems audiences are dwindling, despite the fact we work our butts off to bring you the best of live entertainment every week at Spirit & Soul. So why is this? Well there might be some confusion about the door tax. Well we gotta tell you this. There aint no door tax. Unity is FREE. We do it for the love of it. We know you love the music, so why don't you come down and enjoy it? It aint gonna cost you a penny. Not a dime. The shekels in your pocket will not be affected. It's like the life of Brian, you come in with nothing, you go out with nothing, except you had a great time in between.
So we'll be back next week as normal when we have the massively entertaining Pink n Ruby who went down a storm last time at the equinox party. What's more, did we tell you, it's FREE to get in.
.. and just to show you life goes on here's Jeremy the Robin. he's been living in our back garden for a while looking after his chicks. Here he is posing on our fence with a gob full of grubs.
Meanwhile rock on dudes.....

Thursday 17th May 2007

2007-05-20T11:21:00.000+01:00

Back on stage at Unity Free Will and the Bad influences with their bluesy Led Zepellinesque rock. Even will himself sports the Roger Daltry hair style. Wow! Acer rocking it up.
Jimmy and the boys in Point 7 Pistol.

Thursday 10th May 2007

2007-05-12T15:44:00.000+01:00

Andy Whittle a firm favourite at Unity and an old friend kicked off tonights show, accompanied harmonies by Rebecca Dawson. That's him standing in the pouring rain outside Spirit & Soul after his set.Well we've been waiting for ages for this next band to grace our stage. The Winterkings. They didn't disappoint. Excellent. Love the way they could just change the pace they played hard rock rock then gentle melody seemlessly. A joy to listen to.
Not content with having two great acts on stage we get a third great act with "Blind io" all the way from Manchester. We spoil ourselves. Here at Unity we're rapidly getting used to regularly seeing great bands play our stage. Blind io is another great band.
By this time we're almost beside ourselves with excitement, three great acts and then Unity favourite "Wake" this time they've toned down the heavy rock and gone all Acoustic for us. Which is always nice just for a change.

Oh my God! Next week. Don't miss it. We've got Acer, if that deosn't make you pee your pants in excitement Jimmy Kidnap and the boys of Point 7 Pistol will be rocking it up, not only that Band of 2007 runners up "Free Will and the bad influences" where does it all stop because we have Julian Stone making an appearence as well. So if that lot don't float yer boat we don't know what will. See you there...

meanwhile ... er.... rock on mes enfants

Myspace of the week

2007-05-09T10:58:00.000+01:00

There are those that push and there are those that need pushing. This weeks myspace of the week goes to a guy who falls into the latter category. Chopper. Quiet and unassuming. I guess there must be people who have seen a different side of him. He doesn't blow his own trumpet and is very modest about his achievements. What's more on his myspace there's only one song. But what a song. It's fantastic. "Mind sounds". Jody plays flute and there's a mean piano too. Chopper himself plays virtually everything else, showing just how versatile he is as a musician. I for one can't wait to hear some more, once someone pushes him into the recording studio and loses the key until he's finished.

NOw I know you're desperate to have a listen to his amazing Mind Sounds so you can click right here. http://www.myspace.com/chopdchop
oh and see if you can hear the camel right at the end It's there. Honest it is. Now there's a reason to listen to all of it if nothing else.

Thursday 3rd May 2007

2007-05-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

John Litchfield steps in at a moments notice to take on the world armed only with a borrowed electric guitar. Here he is doing his Colonel Kurtz impression. The Horror The Horror!James Chadwick taking over the mantle of folk rock God. Does this mean he's not so evil anymore?
The unstoppable Sidearm who's famous drum changeover routine went so smoothly.
Opaque. As if you didn't know. Well perhaps you didn't recognise Moony now he's had a haircut and shaved off the famous moustache.

Myspace of the week

2007-04-30T09:42:00.000+01:00

This weeks myspace of the week isn't a band or a musician. It's something much more important. We'd like to draw your attention to JOMAP Just A Minute Of Peace. This is an organisation promoting peace in this world. Take a few minutes to have a listen to Dan Akroyd saying a few words and sign the declaration. If enough of us do that it could make a difference. You know it's the right thing to do, for yourself, your children and everyone else on this planet.

Go take a look make friends

http://www.myspace.com/jamop

You know it makes sense.

Peace be with you
(We thought we'd get this in before Cornelius does)

Thursday 26th April 2007

2007-04-28T16:37:00.000+01:00

First on stage the very talented and enthusiastic Jack Brown and The Dead mans Orchestra, playing selections from his latest and very succesful show on myspaceNow you don't get many girl drummers, but when you do they are usually pretty good. When you get Sarah leanne Palmer on drums as well as being the lead vocalist and song writer you know you're in for a treat. Here she is with her band.
All the way from London, but you'd be forgiven if you thought she was a local, because she plays here regularly, Tallulah Rendall. This time pared right down to a solo performance having left her band behind in the smoke. Note we don't miss any opportunity to have her posing with Peterboroughs very latest arts magazine "Art & Soul" Check it out at your nearest venue, Spirit & Soul, The Glass Onion, The Office, and many other places. It's jam packed with reviews, features, photos, of all your favourite local artists and much more.
Fabonacci rounded off the night. Rounding off a brilliant nights entertainment.

Don't forget next week we have Opaque, James Chadwick, The Beautiful Sleezy, Runners up of the band of 2007 competition,and mad rockers Sidearm who can never be accused of lacking enthusiasm. So it's going to be a memorable night.
We're off to Great Stukely now for the BMF music festival at the Four Horseshoes. Where you can see such great acts as Point of Origin, Opaque, The brackets, AOB, Circus and Richard Hall amongst a whole bunch of other acts on stage. So if we don't see you there we'll be back at Unity next Thursday. Until then ...Rock on dudes.

Thursday 19th April 2007

2007-04-23T15:26:00.000+01:00

Here's simian Hybrid. You may remember the Staceman as a drummer. He is now back with a new ego to try on for size as ace singer songwriter who happens to now have a band as well. Fingersmith. What again? You may be asking yourself. You may not. You may not have been paying attention to what's going on. But if you did ask yourself the question all we can say is shame on you. We keep asking these guys back because they're brilliant. An if you'd paid attention and if you'd seen them before you would know what I'm talking about and you would never have even thought of asking the question. You'd have just said "Hoorah! they're back again." AND they come all the way from suffolk to play for you.
Cripes it's the Contrast. When questioned by some idiot "What's The Contrast like?", Fozzy feigned total ignorance. "Never heard of 'em" he said climbing on stage to sit behind the drum set.

...and here's some of you enjoying the evening.
Until next time ...er ... rock on mes enfants.

Unity News Roundup

2007-04-18T10:10:00.000+01:00

Britney Spears stole my virginity. World exclusive. "I am the baby's father". World Famous Peterborough Photographer in shock paternity scandal. Mike Harris AKA Mike Da Hat is reported to be "over the moon" with suggestions that he is the father of Charlotte Churchs love child. Meanwhile closer to home local playboy, Richard Hall, is vehemently denying any suggestion that he is the mastermind behind a plot to overthrow Robert Mugabe in strife torn Zimbabwe when questioned about it Richard (34) said "Robert who..?" Conclusive proof that he is covering up more than he's letting on. Following in Madonnas footsteps world famous magazine editor and journalist Mel Elliott, Art & Soul Magazine, is planning a trip to drought ridden Malawi to adopt a goat. "I've always wanted a goat and doing this gives me the chance to save one and give it a better future." The goats parents were unavailable for comment at time of going to press. Madonna declined to comment.
Following kate Middletons departure from the Royal Fold it has been reported that Moony is considering taking her place in the media circus. "..purely for publicity purposes...Prince William and I are just good mates....although being the wife of the heir to the throne wouldn't do Opaque any harm at all." Sources close to the palace suggest the prince actually has his eye on Tasha. Excited bookmakers have put odds on Tasha as the next queen to 150,000 to 1.
Reports are coming in that Andrew Gates, AKA Shaggy, has had a windfall. Unbeknown to Andrew he was the secret love child of one Bill Gates Multibillionaire and philanthropist. The Nouveau Riche shagster said the money would not change his life at all. Speaking from his yacht off the french Riviera The Shagster said "it's the begging letters that get me, they never stop. I've even received one from myself that I wrote before I got rich."

Thursday 12th April 2007

2007-04-14T16:16:00.000+01:00

Johnny Funghi and his unique brand of acoustic talent. Great lyrics. Very entertaining.All the way from oop north in Barnsley Gaia turned up to amaze everyone. We were so impressed. Their style blends a lot from early Hawkwind with their driving base lines and Uriah Heep with a touch of Dave Gilmore (pink floyd) style electric slide guitar thrown in for good measure. This with luck wont be your last chance to see them. We're hoping they're going to come back and entertain us all over again at the summer festy. Meanwhile if you can't wait check them out on their myspace site www.myspace.com/gaia
Point of origin need no introduction no write up. Brilliant as usual.
And here's a few of you enjoying the music and atmosphere at Unity.

Thursday 5th April 2007

2007-04-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

First of all Unity would like to wish Tasha a Happy Birthday. Those of you who know Tasha will know she's been helping out Unity since the beginning, for which we are extremely grateful. She's usually first on the dance floor and full of enthusiasm. We all love her. Happy Birthday Tasha from all of us.Free love and the Good Plant. What an excellent band. Very different from the usual and I think that's what made them so interesting. Many varied styles of music all married together along with a varied pace. Excellent stuff.
Whoopee! It's Opaque again. What can you say that hasn't already been said? Entertaining as usual.
Here you all are in all your glory.
Don't forget next week we have the wonderful Gaia, with Unity Favourites Point of Origin and what night wouldn't be complete without Johnny Funghi. It'll be a blast. You know you want to be there. Until then.....

Rock on mes enfants.

Myspace of the week

2007-04-03T15:21:00.000+01:00

Blimey why haven't we nominated this band before? We've known about them for ages ever since our good friends at Muddy promotions gave us the nod. And it's nothing to do with the fact that they're coming to play at Unity on 10th May and we want you all to come and share the joy with us. No sirreee Bob! It's down to the fact that they are very very good. There's a bit of Nick Cave stylee in there, there's classic riffs, there's a grandeur, there's subtlety, it's kind to your ears. I gotta say we've been listening in the office and we've enjoyed it. So who's our myspace of the week this week?
Yes of course it's The Winterkings

Go on have a listen, you'll love them. Not only that if you love them as much as we do here in the office you've got two chances to check them out live. Unity on the 10th May and The Glass Onion on the 18th May. Go one give your ears a treat you know you want to:

www.myspace.com/thewinterkings

Gizz Butts Rock Academy

2007-03-31T15:29:00.000+01:00

Muddy Equinox Party

2007-03-26T18:12:00.000+01:00

Here we go here's some pics from the muddy equinox party. Point of Origin, Opaque, Corneilius (bless him), James Chadwick, Alison Small, Keltix and a few faces you'll recognise.
Our guest photographer this week is the one and only Dayglow Joe who captured all these images on the montage below.

The Muddy equinox party. What can we say? It was a triumph. Brilliant music lovely people and a great time was had by all. So you don't have to wait a moment longer here's the pics of you. Muddy Promotions love you, Unity Loves you, you love you. Richard came back all the way from Spain because he loves you. Shaggy loves you. Moony is overwhelmed by your love. Corneilius loves you all. It's all love love love. Here you are...

Thursday 22nd March 2007

2007-03-25T21:01:00.000+01:00

Columbian Necktie as you've never seen them, acoustically, not that is unless you've been in their front room on a bender.Actually it was pretty good, the usual unusual that you'd expect from the guys.End of the Day continue to entertain. In a Forest in a wood being one of my favourites, not least because Danny goes crazy, except he didn't this time.
MrZed who supplied the visual backdrop controlled by a PC in the sound booth,which incidently also inspired these photos. We went for a more surreal psychodelic look in the pics this week. Why? Because we can. It's done by using a slow shutter speed to capture the ambient light and a flash to capture the action. A little bit blurry in parts but that's the trade off.
Of course no night would be complete without our audience. A more lovely bunch of people you couldn't hope to meet.

Oh this Thursday we've got something different. Unity is hosting Gizz Butts Rock Academy. It's the first gig for all of the four bands on stage, but they've all been personally trained and guided in all aspects of rock music by the world famous Gizz Butt (ex Prodigy). It's £4 to get in but it promises to be a very interesting night. If you come after 11:00pm it's free. But then you'll miss the bands.

It's great to see Richard back from his sojourn in Spain. He's back on the Unity team with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. Watch out very soon for pics from The Muddy Equinox party. It was great.

See you soon, until then, Peace, Love and Unity

What's on this week

2007-03-21T17:20:00.000Z

Greetings mud monsters!

It's that time of year again - the spring equinox is upon us and that means its time to party - celebrating the oncoming summer and all the extra partying it will bring! The Grassroots Equinox Party is taking place at Spirit & Soul (formerly Lisboa), 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough this Saturday from 4pm till 4am and promises to be a really special event. See below for more details.

But that's not the only thing on the agenda for the week and weekend:

Wednesday

The Glass Onion will have Arry in session with his weekly DJ workshop for you to learn and hone your skills on the wheels of steel. The workshop will run from 6pm till 8pm and is free.

At 8pm the Bar area at the Onion will become a meeting space for discussion and planning of the City Roots Festival - which Muddy are working on in conjunction with Peterborough City Council and which will take place on the Embankment on 4&5 August this year. This meeting is open to anybody who wants to get involved on any level or who is just interested in hearing what is going on.

Thursday

Thursday nights are Unity nights at Spirit & Soul, and after the success of the relaunch party the team are proud to have another kick ass line-up of music.

Mr Zed are Cambridge based psychedelic phreaks with a 6 piece band playing intensely original music taking in elements of drum & bass, Pink Floydesque psychedelia and dubedelic skank.

End of the Day have made quite an impression on the local scene in their short time on it. Their synthed up rock has been compared to Sonic Youth and they are always a treat.

Columbian Necktie are playing in acoustic guise (something you don't see every day). We're as fascinated as anybody to see how their comedic rock insanity translates into the new format.

Ghost is a breakcore/experimental producer from Cambridge record label/party crew Life 4 Land. He will be playing a DJ set of his own tunes from his laptop.

DJ Urb needs no real introduction. This time around he will be playing drum & bass.

Entrance is FREE before 9pm, and is only £3/£2 muddy members afterwards.

Doors open at 8pm and will close when we've had enough. :)

Alternatively round the corner at The Park you'll find local rock wonders Acer, Point Seven Pistol and Wake playing from 7pm. There is a headline act on the bill too but I don't remember their name right now.....oops..... Tickets are £5.

And at the Glass Onion it's games night from 4pm till 12 midnight - with games consoles on the big screen, free pool, chess etc etc. Entrance is free.

Friday

There are two wonderful acoustic shows on this Friday - the city is being spoilt this week!

The Glass Onion is hosting it's open mic session from 8pm, with special guests this week Andy Whittle and 3DM. Earlier in the night there's also the weekly drum workshop with Dutch Tony, this is also free to take part in, is open to all and takes place from 5 till 6. This Friday also marks the start of a public disply at the Onion relating to the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

Meanwhile in other haunts you'll find Abi's acoustic session at the Brewery Tap from 9pm till late with performers Fre3 Peace (Abi, Stacey and Kez from Point of Origin unfame), Jennifer James and John Litchfield. Entrance is free here too.

Saturday

Well it's time for that Equinox Party again!

The venue is Spirit & Soul, 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough. Doors open at 4pm and the first band is local faves Point of Origin who will play at 4:15 pm so get there early. Entrance is a mere £3 if you get there in time for POO, afterwards is £6/£5 Muddy members.

Check out this line-up:

BANDS STAGE:-

Excentral Tempest www.myspace.com/excentraltempest
Touring with her large entourage of musos bringing conscious and socially aware hip-hop to the people.

Gideon Conn www.myspace.com/gideonconn
"Think Beck at a jamming session with The Shortwave set. Gideon's lyrics, often rapped, tell of heart-warming and humorous tales and produce laughs without fail. His band variates in size and instruments, sometimes including violin, jew harp and trombone." - www.last.fm

Joe Driscoll www.myspace.com/joedriscoll
"A sonic wonderkid who creates his 21st century 'folk' live onstage, sample by sample, beat by beat... one to watch." - Time Out

Keltrix www.myspace.com/keltrix
Diversely described as Country/Dub to Folk/Punk. Have a listen and you try

Opaque www.bandopaque.com
Local alternative heroes who really need no introduction on this board.

Point of Origin www.myspace.com/pointoforigin123
Another set of local bods you probably know by now, if not come and see them....

ACOUSTIC STAGE:-

James Chadwick www.jameschadwick.co.uk
....and another one who should really need no intro. If you don't know him where have you been?!

Corneilius www.corneilius.net
"the aim in all good conversation, in communication with heart, is that there can neither be victor nor vanquished, only well informed, enlightened and reassured people."

Sarah Bear www.myspace.com/sarahbearsounds
Conscious acoustic music from Sarah, who works closely with groups such as Sunday Sounds, Peace Not War and Rhythms of Resistance.

Julian Stone www.myspace.com/julianstonemusic
...who? lol

DJ's:-

Pony (Small World )

Small World's festivals have become legendary in the UK. Pony plays a diverse mixture of music from world to ska to dum & bass.

Luvlea (Tripycyty/Scarymonsters?/Twyst)
Luvlea is a psy-trance DJ currently working with Cambridge based crew Twyst.

Shaggy (Playskool/Psychedelic Breakdown)
Psychedelic breakbeats from man from Playskool.

Urb (System Abuse/Playskool)

Dirty and twisted drum & bass from our resident world record holder.

Don't miss out - this party is going to be really special! Come along, bring your friends, tell the whole world. Rock da Grassroots!

...till next time

Peace love unity and respect.

The Unity Relaunch Part-ay

2007-03-16T16:14:00.000Z

Well we've run a very successful Band of 2007 competition. A huge thank you to all the bands that took part it was a lot of fun for everyone. Special congratulations to The Brackets, Revenue and Free Will and The band Influences for getting to the final. But now we're back with a bang and a glimpse of how we mean to go on. Our first artist Graham Edwards you may remember him from such bands as Opaque etc anyway here he was doing a solo spot with his own original songs, very nice too. A band that don't need much introduction if you're familiar with the Peterborough music scene, the grooviest band in town the guys who put the funk in funkaliscious - Groove cartel.
Our special guests tonight all the way from London the amazing Lazy Habits who really know how to have a good time and entertain. Their man Beatbox (bottom left) what? We had to check to see if anyone else was playing, he did the drums, vocals and horn section all in the one microphone amazing.
and of course there's all you guys. Yeah you knew we wouldn't forget you and your own private little quests for fame, so here you all are having a great time.

Ooooh news hot off the press, our man Richard is back on Wednesday, so he'll be back on the Unity team, with his usual enthusiasm. I guess he got fed up with riding camels. But the main thing is he's gonna be back in time for next Thursdays show which will feature Mr Zed (they usual have an audio visual show as well), Columbian Necktie and End of the Day. Not only that the show will feature you guys as well as our audience, because without you what's the point? So we'd love you to turn up. We want you to have fun and we want you to hear some incredible music from some very talented musicians. in the meantime er..... rock on dudes

What's on this week

2007-03-13T17:10:00.000Z

Greetings long-lost friends and regular companions!

It's been a long-time since this mailout hit your inboxes, apologies for the suspension of the service.....we are now back online and you will receive your weekly dose of info once again.

A little bit of catching up to do as well I guess so it's update time.

The Glass Onion is still open and just about keeping head above water. The volunteer crew is strong though still quite small and any time you can give to the project to help out on the bar or with anything else is gratefully received.....this is the only way for the project to work.

The face of Peterborough's nightlife has changed considerably in the last year and a half, with many venues changing hands and policies - we like to think that we have had a hand in the positive changes we have seen in the boro, and are chuffed to find that on our travels people are beginning to recognise Peterborough as somewhere populated with friendly and creative folk and interesting parties.

The summer is nearly hear too - I can smell the spring creeping into the Earth as life slowly spreads through the soil again and the sun slowly gets stronger. The Grassroots Spring Equinox party on Saturday 24th March will be our celebration of this - building up to a busy summer that will leave many smiles on many faces and bring us all new friends, experiences, knowledge and memories.

The sad news is that the Grassroots Festival will not be taking place in 2007. We have had many months of frantically trying to find a site since the sad news reached us that last year's site would not be available this time around. Having chased many many leads and scratched our collective heads plentifully we have had to come to the conclusion that we will not be able to make the festival this year without putting ourselves in great financial risk and compromising the nature of the event itself to its detriment. Work is already afoot on plans for the festival to return in 2008 - we still don't have a finalised site for it so anyone who knows of any prospective sites please let us know about them. We need to have space for party, camping and cars for up to 1500 people and would like to be as isolated as possible.

All things happen for a reason though and with all of the projects currently bubbling maybe it is for the best that we have a break from Grassroots this season. What we do have to look forward to is great:

1. Muddy Promotions are working with Peterborough City Council to run a two-day festival on the embankment in the centre of Peterborough. This won't be quite Grassroots but will be a party that will reach a much wider audience and hopefully cause much positivity in our locale. There will be a great diversity of music on offer and we hope that there will be much smiles, laughter and happiness caused. The event will take place on August 4 & 5. More updates to follow.

2. Newfoundland Festival is growing into a fully licenced event for the first time this summer - and the Indigo Children and Newfoundland people have kindly invited the Muddy collective (strongly headed by the Playskool bods for this one) to run one of the two arenas. We will be taking live music, DJ's, visuals and the arts to the event, and there will also be psychedelic music, spoken word poetry, literature and much more courtesy of the Newfoundland organisers. Links are being grown to Welsh arts group CADRA in order to maximise involvement of the local populous to make a truly multi-dimensional art and party experience in the beautiful Welsh countryside. The Newfoundland Festival will take place on September 7 - 9 and will be an intimate event for less than 500 people, with tickets for very cheap prices and a strong community focus (resonances of Grassroots anyone?). For welcome involvement please email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk with Newfoundland as the subject. Much more info to come and tickets will be on sale shortly.

3. We have also had the pleasure to be invited to take our dome, interactive arts experience and some of our DJ's to take part in the Secret Garden Party - one of the finest events in the UK. It will take place in countryside near Huntingdon on 27-29 July. We are only able to take a small crew with us but would love for the Muddy community to be there for a great party. I believe tickets are already on sale. I'll update you as to where soon.

4. The Grassroots name is not on hold just because the festival is, the indoor festivals for the Equinoxes are Solstices will still be rocking and keeping the spirit alive! The next Equinox party will be taking place at the newly renamed and refitted Lisboa Bar - now known as Spirit and Soul - on the 24th March. Keep your eyes peeled for the flyer and for further info. The line-up is superb and the party should be rocking so help keep the fome fires burning at this very special day and night event.

5. The Glass Onion is open full time with many interesting events. I think it's safe to say that the Friday night acoustic sessions and open mic has established itself as the best event of its kind in the local area, and we've also had the privilege of hosting performing artists from the worlds of theatre, cabaret and the full world the arts. Keep check at the Onion for the regularly updated program and on the forum at www.muddypromotions.org.uk/forum

6. Our affiliate and constituent groups have continued to do sterling work for the party and music scene in the boro.

The Playskool Sound Collective continue to bring multi-genre underground parties to the boro and some of the crew have also established Psychedelic Breakdown as the first purely psychedelic music focused event to take place in the boro ever - having hosted artists, DJ's and decorators from all over the country.

Unity are still running every Thursday at Spirit and Soul. Since the start of this year they were running the Unity Band of 2007 competition which has boosted the local live music scene and has now come to its completion (big congratulations to The Brackets - who won the crown). Unity are now relaunching their event and have some amazing line-ups of local musicians as well as some of the best artists from around the country.

Contact continue to experiment with music, visuals and art. They returned to the city with a fantastic line-up after a short break just last week and the event looked and felt better than ever.

System Abuse are still keeping the underground drum & bass parties rolling and have plans to kick some serious fire into their events in the near future.

A new promotion for reggae and roots styles (from dub, ska, and dancehall to rootsy reggae grooves) is being born shortly. Vital Rhythms are chuffed to have the wonderful Vibronics on board for their launch party - taking place on 13th April. They hope to put some much needed skank into the step of people in Peterborough and will also be bringing their party to the Glass Onion for an event in early May.

7. The recording studio at the Glass Onion is now functioning and Drip-Dry records, our in-house record label, have already had the privilege of recording and releasing Richard Hall's beautiful debut EP. He's now in Spain taking his songs far and wide for a while but the Drip-Dry work contines with Circus recording and many more in the pipeline. FOr more info or involvement pop into the Onion and have a chat with Benny.

Enough of the update and on to the immediate business in hand - what's on this week to take your fancy:

Wednesday

The Glass Onion is open for normal business with DJ workshops courtesy of Arry running from 7pm. If you would like to learn the art of DJ'ing, or perfect your skills pop down - it's free after all!

Thursday

Tonight is the Unity relaunch party - with a fantastic line-up of the finest in live music and DJ's:

Lazy Habits - live hip-hop/jazz fusion from London - www.myspace.com/lazyhabits
Groove Cartel - local jazz-funk & soul - www.myspace.com/groovecartel
DJ Urb - eclectic styles weaving the live acts together
Local - DJ from Playskool Sound Collective playing jazzy deep house

The venue is Spirit & Soul, 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough. Doors open at 8pm with the open jam session running till 9pm. Entrance is FREE before 9pm and only £3/£2 muddy members afterwards. Kick out time will be late.

For a quieter evening its the Glass Onion's games night. Free entrance and lots of stuff to do.

Friday

The city's premier acoustic night/open mic will be rolling along happily at the Glass Onion. Entrance is free as ever, vibes are friendly, music is top notch and music starts at 8pm.

If you fancy a mission further afield Point of Origin www.myspace.com/pointoforigin123 and Opaque www.bandopaque.com are playing at Sound, Leicester Square, London with support coming from The Meercats. I think that entrance to the gig is £5. The afterparty will be the Liquid Records party at the Colosseum in Vauxhall, London - with the best psy-trance, chill and electronica on offer in a wonderful vibe and environment. Advance booking of tickets (£15) from www.accessallareas.org is advised.

For a groovy dance party closer to home Diszkotek are back in Spirit & Soul with underground tekno to get your stomp on to! Doors are 10pm till 4am and entrance is £5.

Just down the road in St Neots (at The Wrestlers) is another chance to see the finalists from Unity's band of the year competition - The Brackets, Revenue and Free Will & the Bad Influences. If you missed it last week you now have another shot at it - and all three bands are very good indeed.

Saturday

Playskool are in Spirit & Soul on Saturday night with two rooms of the best underground electronic music - taking in d&b, psy-trance, deep house, breaks, progressive and hard trance. Entrance is a snip at £4 and door times are 10pm till 5am.

Sunday

Sunday nights are film night at the Glass Onion, with a diverse selection of stuff always available on the Onion's big screen. Entrance is free.

...and finally

Many thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of Muddy Promotions and the arts and music scenes in Peterborough and beyond. Here comes a great summer.

Peace love unity and respect.

Myspace of the Week

2007-03-13T13:39:00.000Z

I've been scouting around, turning out files and searching in vain for some inspiration then what happens? I get a mailshot from a friend who says "Check out these guys". So I did, and I found the eponymous "Hairy prog rock Monsters" very retro, and sounding like early Led Zepellin. (You remember led Zepellin dontcha? They were some of the original Hairy prog rock monsters.) Anyway these monsters have got four tracks on their myspace which is two thirds of their latest CD. They describe themselves as being a mix of classical, rock, folk and blues. So that promises well. Actually if you like your folk rocky and your rock folky and your folk rock with a classical bluesy flavour you'll love these guys. So go check 'em out. What I didn't tell you their name? Well it isn't Hairy prog rock monsters. It's "Blind io" and you'll find them nestling all comfy and cosy right HERE

http://myspace.com/blindiomusic

Oh God it doesn't rain but it pours. I'm sitting here at my desk minding my own business fielding mails from wannabee popstars and rappers, when Shaggy walks into the office loaded with doughnuts and a Skinny Latt-ay. "Hold the press!" he says spitting out half a doughnut, "I've got your 'myspace of the week'."
"I've already done "myspace of the Week" it's those Hairy prog rock monsters."
"Well we've got to have a double header myspace of the week then."
That's unilateralism for you. No discussion, no debate.
So the second entry for this weeks "Myspace of the week" is a new magazine that you can also read online which is really cool, because you can push a button and the pages turn. But that's not just why it's so cool. It's got great stuff in it and what's more you can contribute to it too. If you want. It's even got a forum. Yay! There's photos by Simon Colson; they're good. Photos by Mike Da Hat as well but not obviously mentioned. There's articles on Opaque Point of origin and .... hello so that's why he wanted it to be myspace of the week. An I thought he'd gone all altruistic on me. Gee we're learning some words today.
Anyway the new magazine is called Art and Soul and it's got it's own myspace which is

http://www.myspace.com/artandsoulmagazine

and if you want to have a peek at the mag itself have a look right HERE

There's a website too it's HERE

Now I've got to beat the crap out of Shaggy for forgetting my Large Americano with extra azucar... er... rock on dudes.

Open Mic Opportunity

2007-03-13T09:12:00.000Z

Here at Unity we've been approached by a local pub who would like to put on an open mic night every week. Yeah Yeah yeah yet another one. How many musicians are there to go round all these open mic nights? But if you do it properly and get the right vibe going then it could well be very successful. So if you're interested in running your own open mic night in a pub in the north of PETERBOROUGH. Give Mike Da Hat a call on 07841 705049 he'll put you in contact with the relevant landlord.

Obviously having a PA would be a great advantage. Unless it's run unplugged.

Don't forget this Thursday at Unity "Lazy habits", "Groove Cartel" and "Jennifer James". You know all about Groove cartel Peterboroughs foremost groove funk band so no need to say anymore about them LazyHabits are Beats, Rhymes & Brass of the highest quality, based around a five piece core of drums, bass, brass & lyrics, with a extended collective comprising a variety of other artists & musicians.... You know you need to be there.

Band of 2007 The Grand Final

2007-03-10T15:48:00.000Z

Capacity crowds, great atmosphere, brilliant bands what more could you ask for in a perfect nights entertainment? The tension was high as the first band hit the stage. Free Will and the Bad INfluences who stormed to victory last week in the last of the semi finals. Second band on stage were Revenue who went completely crazy before they even reached the stage geeing up the audience with screams of "We love Revenue", once on stage they blasted through their set much to the appreciation of the crowd.
The Brackets, a relatively new band who first cut their teeth with a live audience on Unitys stage a couple of months ago. Since then they've improved and fine tuned their performance. A great favourite amongst the crowd.
So the votes needed to be counted, it was a close run thing as seems to be the tradition during this competition. But during the counting and checking of the votes we were honoured to have the very talented Heather McVey do a set with her manically bizarre sidekick Tristan.
The winner on the night was despite chants and screams for one band or another, The Brackets and here are some of you enjoying yourself. This week we had a Guest photographer (Clare) doing the papparazzi shots. That's Clare at the bottom right of the montage below.

Don't forget the Unity relaunch party on the 15th March featuring the Fabulous Lazy Habits ably supported by the coolest funk groove band in town Groove Cartel.

Myspace of the week

2007-03-06T16:49:00.000Z

Ok we've got a little nepotism going on here I admit it. We're making one of our own myspace of the week. But to be fair it's well deserved, and a little late because the man in question didn't get up off his arse to produce a page, leaving it to little sister, Mel, to produce. Got enough clues yet?
So why do you want to check out this myspace site? Well you get to listen to two great tracks of the new album from one of Peterboroughs best vocalists and talented guitarists, who at the moment is riding a camel in Morrocco. Come on surely you've guessed it by now. His new album is on sale at the Glass Onion for a mere £5 it's called "Horizons". Go get it it's brilliant. How many clues do you need?

www.myspace.com/therichardhall

Don't you just love that? He's not just Richard Hall or Rich he's THE Richard Hall and his songs prove it. And if you haven't already bought his album I strongly urge you to do so. It's in my car on repeat play.

Stop press
Just in case you didn't notice that we've changed the special guest for this weeks grand final of the competition, we now have the lovely Heather McVey doing the vote counting slot after the three bands have played. I gotta tell you ever since we found Heather , she's been a firm Unity favourite and has played on numerous occasions for us, each time winning more and more fans.

Just a few more days until the Final and word has come in that bands are going all out to bring in supporters and fans, Free will are bussing coach loads from cambridge, The Brackets have press ganged loads and Revenue are flying in a shed load on a private jet. So I guess it's going to be busy. We can't wait. Three of the areas finest bands playing on the same night on the same stage.In some respects we don't care who wins (because we have to be impartial) because we know it's going to be one of those very very special nights. I know a lot of the bands who have competed have made new friends and found mutual respect with everyone they've met.

So until Thursday... er... rock on dudes

Band of 2007 3rd semi final

2007-03-03T15:04:00.000Z

From the very first opening bars it was obvious that Free Will & The Bad Influences meant business. Solid bluesy rock songs with on occasion, wailing harmonica accompaniment. You could see jaws dropping as people mouthed the words "wow" and "awesome". It can't be bettered........well you'd say that until the next band stalked onto the stage, The Beautiful Sleazy, early stones with that confident Mick Jagger strut going on. Fantastic. thirty minutes of brilliance. What would you expect from bands that got this far in the competition. You wouldn't expect anything less. So who do you choose as the best band to go on into the final, no one yet because next up....
...we have Final Epitaph. Now I suppose it's common knowledge through my comments over the years that I am not exactly the biggest fan of death metal there is and if there's a choice between having root canal surgery without anasthetic or listening to yet another death metal combo I'd be off to the dentists in a flash. But I'm going to make an exception to this. Final Epitaph. These guys are awesomely good. They really know how to have a good time. You can't just dismiss these guys on a whim because they happen to play a genra of music you don't particularly subscribe to because these dudes are genuinely talented. Not only that they know how to party. They were not restricted by petty boundaries like the stage area, like free style ice skaters they used every available space to their advantage, coming out into the audience and rocking.
But of course you were there weren't you. You saw all this excitement and while you were racking your brains trying to decide who to vote for, and it was, yet again a close call, we had the very wonderful Jack Brown without his Dead Mans Orchestra to do a set for you.
..and the winner was....hushed silence for dramatic pause....Free Will and the Bad Influences. Who go into next weeks grand final.

So the official line for the grand final on March 8th is:
The Brackets
Revenue
Free Will & The Bad Influences

as if that isn't enough to make you pee your pants in excitement we have as our special guest to entertain you during the counting of the votes, the one, the only, the very lovely, Heather McVey. A great vocal talent whose voice will make you melt. I thank you.

Band of 2007 3nd semi final

2007-02-28T15:52:00.000Z

It's getting exciting. This Thursday we have the last semi final to secure for one talented band a covetted place in the grand final on the 8th March.
This weeks semi finalists are:
The Beautiful Sleazy
Free Will & the Bad Influences
Final Epitaph

So we're in for an exciting night. For any fans of the bands I urge you to turn up and vote. The audience vote is absolutely vital and as in last weeks competition one extra vote from the crowd could have changed the outcome completely. So be warned.

We're also excited to tell you that this week we have a special guest appearence of the legendary Jack Brown who will be on stage after the competition to entertain you while the votes are being counted. So that's another great excuse to turn up.

And while we're at the announcments have you checked out the Unity myspace? on it you'll see our lovely calendar and you can marvel at how hard we've been working on your behalf. Gasp at the wealth of talent we've lined up to entertain you. We've got james Chadwick, Opaque, Acer, Point 7 Pistol, Gaia, Fabonacci, Mr Zed, Groove cartel and many more great bands and artists. There's some cracking line ups already and more to come so keep watching. As we finalise the deals we'll post the dates.

Ok we've done a tie in with The BBC and they've done a feature on Unity Band of 2007 on the BBC website Check it out HERE

We've got a few projects in hand with the BBC not least securing airplay for the best bands of the Band of 2007 Competition. As and when other things happen we'll let you know.
Finally myspace of the week this week goes to John Russell
have a listen to his sublime acoustic guitar playing and great voice and have a look at his entertaining site complete with videos archived songs what more could you ask for? Go have a look you know you want to.
Until then.....

Peave love and Unity from the Unity Office
Shaggy, Mike and Craig.
PS Craig our new public relations man is P'ed off because we haven't got him his own desk in the office yet. Why does he need a desk when he's always up making us coffee? That's the way it is, you start at the bottom and work your way up. Rock on.

Band of 2007 2nd semi final

2007-02-24T15:38:00.000Z

The competition goes on and it's getting more and more intense as the weeks go by. As we get closer to the final and the covetted first prize of hard cash in the relevant grubby little hand the bands are giving it everything. All except maybe Alpha Road who despite getting through to the semi finals chose not to turn up for reasons best known to themselves, whichis a shame because lots of people thought they were pretty cool. Anyway Intwined turned up and having fully integrated their new drummer into the band proved to be better than ever, recieving rapturous applause. It's those Brackets again. How many times do we have to say that we're impressed with these guys, not many more because they got through to the semi final and got even more rapturous applause from the audience.
And so to counting the votes, meanwhile to keep you all entertained the impossibly tall and bizarre John Litchfield.
Hello I know you only log onto this site to see yourselves and see how great we've made you look in the photos. Hmmmm some of you even get a facial makeover before publication. It's like being on telly. Aye caramba here you are.

The voting was very tight. The audience vote was split with identical amounts of votes for both bands. The Judges were split one judge for Intwined one voted The Brackets and the third had it as a draw. So what to do. Well Shaggy got out his Texas scientific calculator and with the use of calculus and integrated equations tried to find a winner. Finally with only one point difference, but someone has to win and someone has to lose, The Brackets win a place in the grand final. They can smell the money already, except of course they compete against Revenue who were sh*t hot last week and the winner of the last semi final next week which features Free Will and the Bad influences, The Beautiful Sleazy and Final Epitaph.

That's thursday March 1st next week. You'll be sorry if you miss it.

Rock on dudes.

Band of 2007 first semi final

2007-02-17T13:07:00.000Z

As befitting a semi final all the bands were on top form and the audience turned up in droves to support. First on stage tonight were Pattern Of Sin who surprised the bejaysus out of everyone by winning their heat a few weeks back.Oh my word those "End Of The Day" boys (and girl) rocked it out with a great set and an impressively manic finale, I was waiting for them to set fire to their guitars and smash them up, but it was great to see Danny rolling around the floor. Brilliant.
Highest scoring runners up turned up in party mood. I'm not sure if they thought they were going to lose or what but they were going to make sure they had a great time. They played like they were possessed by demons, as the set went on it became apparent to everyone they were doing something right and the crowd went wild dancing and cheering, at this point I think even the band themselves knew they'd cracked it and stepped up a gear and went even crazier. Needless to say Revenue have come back from the dead and proved that being a runner up doesn't stop you getting to the grand final.
Well this is what you've been waiting for. Pics of you lovely people having a great time.

Don't forget next weeks semi final features The Brackets, Intwined and highest scoring runners up Alpha Road so it's going to be another cracking night.
May I remind the bands that the audience vote DOES MATTER they do make a difference so bring a crowd. You knows it.

Band of 2007 Heat 6

2007-02-10T15:23:00.000Z

Here at Unity things are hotting up in the heats. First on stage this week Our Mutual Friend. Now I wasn't a judge but if I were I'd be carlsberg judge for these guys. I thought they were pretty damned good. But what do I know?

Next up a last minute entry, I say last minute entry into the competition it was really eight hours. Death Metal boys "Final Epitaph". Now I'm not a huge fan of Death Metal, I stand their thinking I need a hearing aid because I can't make out the words. But it's got to be said these guys can actually play guitar and bass and as it happens the drummer was a bit tidy too.

Our final act of the night was Alpha Road who came all the way from Cambridge to compete, a bit nervous at first but soon settled into some decent tunes with words you could hear.

So I guess a few people were gutted and a few more very surprised by the result. The Death Metal combo Final Epitaph make it to the next round. But credit where it's due technically they were brilliant. Oh and young James Chadwick turned up to entertain us while the votes were being counted. So that's twice I've heard him tonight once on the radio and once live. Do you think he might be getting famous? We'd better put a stop to that right now.

Don't forget next week is the first of the semi finals with Pattern of Sin, End of the Day and Revenue. It's gonna be great I tells you.

BAND OF 2007 Heat 5

2007-02-03T16:02:00.001Z

Heat 5 and we're on a roll, minus the Shagster who buggered off to cambridge being famous an all. First on stage in this heat was Sever the Wicked, always entertaining , always manic and of course they destroyed the stage, well who wouldn't.

Oh yes the good ol' boys Sacred Heart, pumping out solid rock for everyone to love.

Finally on stage, From St Neots, The Beautiful; Sleazy. It's not often that you witness something special, but tonight we did. This was just their fourth ever gig and you would never have guessed it. The crowd screamed for more. Now rules is rules and competition rules say no encores, but hey rules are there to be broken so they went on again.

Needless to say The Beautiful Sleazy won the day and go on to the next round.

Doing A Poo at The Silver Jubilee

2007-01-31T18:12:00.000Z

Local leg ends Point Of Origin (POO) returned to the stage at the Silver Jubilee last Saturday.

And here's a few of who turned up to enjoy the night

Don't forget Heat 5 of Band of 2007 Thursday night 9:00pm kick off doors open 8:00pm and it's free entry as well. Bands appearing, contrary to popular belief and what's been advertised, this week are Sacred Heart, The Beautiful Sleazy and Sever the Wicked. All trying for a place in the semi finals.

Band of 2007 Heat 4

2007-01-27T15:28:00.000Z

It doesn't get much tighter than this. Yet another nail biting finish to a heat with three bands all equally matched in talent and ability fighting it out for a place in the semis. First on stage after drawing the straws was Revenue. I gotta tell you all the clever money was on these guys to win. Brilliant.

Next on stage were last minute stand ins for St Elmos Fire who couldn't make it, Intwined with their unique blend of folk rock and harmonies. They seemed to capture the audiences attention despite having several technical difficulties with sound.

Finally Loose Baby Charlotte taking the last slot. A faultless performance.

But there could only be one winner and tonights surprise winner, fooling all the clever money, was INtiwned who go on to the next round and also guaranteee themselves a slot at This years Muddy festival on the Unity Stage. OK you've really been waiting to see your selves in the pics so here you are.

Don't forget "Point of Origin" Saturday night Silver Jubilee North Bretton.
Until next time

Rock on dudes

Band Of 2007 Heat 3

2007-01-20T12:27:00.000Z

Welcome to Heat 3 of Unitys Band Of 2007 and what a great night we all had. We in the Unity Management team recognise that you are all self publicising fame freaks so with that in mind here you all are.After the straw drawing fate decreed Tauracine go on first. They set the benchmark for others to follow. And what a bench mark. A lot of other bands would shake and shiver "How do you follow that?" Tight playing brilliant harmonies and a good solid performance.

Drawn second the ever popular The Brackets, who despite a shaky start managed to rally themselves and play a blistering set to the delight of their fans.
The third band on stage hadn't even entered the competition. But stood in for "Wolves At My Childhood" who couldn't make it on the night. "John Doe" their first outing since rejigging their lineup with a new guitarist played beautifully despite apologising to the crowd for lack of rehearsals before the night.
It was a tough call for the judges but the audience portion of the vote tipped the balance in favour of The Brackets who go on to the next round and are confirmed a slot in this years Grass Roots Festival in July.

Richards Launch Party

2007-01-16T09:55:00.000Z

Wwlcome to the Glass Onion mission control of Muddy promotions where Richard Hall launched his new Extended player called Horizons. Here's a whole bunch of pics from the night.Parties don't come much better than this with a host of talented musicians on stage for your enjoyment. Nick Thomson, Charlie Alexander, John Litchfield, Jules Morgan, Moony, Skin, Chopper, Alison, Kev (ex Within) and of course Richard himself.
Richard is off to Spain at the end of the month and rumour has it Vince is going along for the ride to look after our boy. Although who will be looking after who is debateable. We wish them well.

Finally we'd like to introduce to you a new member of the Unity Team, who is taking over from Richard, Craig Lyons. That's him bottom pic second row second from right. Craig has recently moved to Peterborough from St Neots. He's a musician, but then aren't you all, and will be taking on the role of publicity. Say hello to him he's a great guy.

Myspace of the Week

2007-01-15T16:44:00.000Z

Ah Ha! I changed it to Myspace of the week, which is a little more accurate than myspace of the day, although to be truly accurate it should be myspace of the day I can be arsed to do something, which is a bit of a mouthful. Anyway this weeks myspace is truly wonderful, anarchic and totally bizzarre. It's The Kazoo Funk Orchestra there's a bit of Goldie Looking Chain in there, there's a lot of Kazoos a bit of everything but mostly there's fun. The band members sporting such names as Big Beard, Little beard,jim 'n' tonic which reminds me of that Gong spin off band that toured festivals years ago "Here & Now". Anyway you don't want to be going on reading this stuff you want to be zipping off to myspace land where you'll find

The Kazoo Funk Orchestra

Band Of 2007 - Heat 2

2007-01-12T17:29:00.001Z

Judging heat 2 of Unitys Band of 2007 competition proved to be a challenge with three excellent bands competeing for a place in the next round.
First on stage the wonderfully named "Free Will and the bad influences"Next up The Fake Exterior, competently rocking the venue.
Finally "End of the Day".
I've got to say it was a very close call. But "End of the day" claimed the victory on the night. But either of the other two bands could easily go through as well as best runner up. We'll let you know.

Meanwhile news just in Bar Lisboa is changing it's name. Same management same venue but new name and soon new look. The new name is "Spirit & Soul".

See you all next week for Heat 3 when The Brackets, Tauracine and Wolves ate my childhood all compete for a place in the semis. Wicked.

Rock on dudes

Band Of 2007 Heat 1

2007-01-05T09:36:00.000Z

This was the first heat of Band of 2007. First on stage by drawing of lots was "The Librarians"Here's death metal mayhem from Switch Theory.
Finally, and this weeks winners, were "Pattern of Sin"
The two that didn't win because we're not being negative and saying losers have a chance of still getting through to the next round if they are one of the highest scoring runners up.

Unity 28th December 2006

2007-01-04T17:14:00.000Z

OMG we're late this time with the pics of last week. I blame it all on the horizontal lubricant that we've been forced to imbibe and all the parties we've been forced to attend. So here's the pics from Unitys post Christmas laid back folksy type night. Kicking off for us were Cruel Folk singing incredibly cruel songs about cruel people doing cruel things to each other. Surprisingly Cruel Folk are not at all Cruel in real life and are infact very nice. But you know the quiet ones are the worst.The leg end that is Terry Emm. He's another very quiet guy who is unassuming in character, but what a performer. We can't think of anyone who weren't totally blown away by this guys talent.
Finally before the DJs we were treated to Intwined, who despite lacking their usual drummer, played a beautiful set full of great riffs and lovely harmonies.

Beatles Stones and Elvis Night

2006-12-23T15:22:00.001Z

Here's the pics of the legendary Beatles Stones and Elvis night.

we wish you all a very Merry Christmas from Unity

What's on this week

2006-12-23T09:18:00.001Z

Greetings Xmas shoppers and anti-consumerist resistors!

Once again apologies for the lateness of this mailout - we're looking at alternatives to solve the problem I keep having with this mass mailing out thing - should have it all sussed very soon.

While we're here I may as well inform you on happenings for the whole Xmas and New Year period - that way I can relax over the silly season myself (relaxed = mash-up).

Friday 22nd

It's time for the Grassroots Winter Solstice Party at Lisboa tonight - with live music from Circus, Opaque, Point of Origin and Pink and Ruby and DJ's Lukus, Local & Kendo (Playskool) and Peddlebreaker and Sk9 (Contact/Drip-Dry). Entrance is only £3 if you're a Muddy member (£4 otherwise) so get yo asses down for the fun. Door times are 8pm till 4am.

Saturday 23rd

It's behind you! is the cry ringing out of the Glass Onion this Saturday - it's time for the adults only Muddy Panto, written and performed by a rag-tag bunch of very Muddy Folk. This will be a great night - with warm up performances from musicians and the like from 7pm and the panto itself starting at 10pm. Entrance to this very special event is £3 members, £4 others.

Dizzy Funk are having their Winter Solstice celebrations with a night of underground house music at Lisboa this Saturday. Doors 9pm till 5am and entrance only a fiver. Get down and get deep and funky.

Sunday 24th - Xmas Eve

Muddy Movie Day at the Glass Onion - which is serving alcohol from 2pm on this day. Films from 3pm till midnight.

Monday 25th - Xmas Day

Xmas day itself! The Glass Onion's dedicated volunteers are spending their day with their spititual family at the Onion, for a day entitled The Queens Peach. Alcohol will be on sale throughout the day and there will be games, stories, films, Xmas dinner and a festive quiz. Entrance is free.

Tuesday 26th - Boxing Day

The Onion is open from 2pm till late and will once again be serving alcohol throughout the day. This day is themed on jazz and comedy with stage acts from 7pm. Free entrance.

Wednesday 27th

There is a huge charity event going on at The Cavendish pub, Cavendish Street (off town end of Eastifield Road). This is to benefit children with cancer and boasts a huge line-up including (to name but a few) Opaque, Point of Origin, Point Seven Pistol, Columbian Necktie, Julian Stone, Haku*Sama, Richard Groom and lots lots lots more. Live music from 12 till 12 and free entrance (but please dig deep for the charity).

Meanwhile there is a very diggerent marathon going on at the Glass Onion from 3pm till 3am, where the extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings films are being shown.

Thursday 28th

Unity @ Lisboa have a folky and laid back post-Xmas recovery session planned for this night, including EMM From Bluebird records Winter Tour and acoustic bands Intwined and Cruel Folk. The music is going to be absolutely first rate for this one so come down and chill out to the beautiful sounds. Entrance is £2/£1 Muddy members.

Friday 29th

The Glass Onion plays host to the Muddy end of year Extravajamza on this night, with Drum workshops with Dutch Tony from 5pm, Open mic from 6pm, and alternative country, folk and blues from Midwezt & Friends from 8pm till late - there will also be an appearance from David's harp - gotta be seen to be believed. Entrance is free.

Or if you fancy dancing your socks off into the early hours check out Skankateria at Radius (above Solstice). This special event is an annual thing put on by local legends the Gangsters. They have kindly invited jazz-funkateers Groove Cartel and Point of Origin along for the ride, as well as ska and reggae DJ's including Urb. Live music begins with POO at 9:30pm and doors are 8pm till the wee hours. Entrance is £5 before 10pm to Muddy members and the key to this party is DANCE DANCE DANCE. Gonna be smiley.

Alternatively you'll find Contact at Bar Lisboa kicking out experimental electronic sounds from residents and with special guest Nigel Noise from London. This may be the last Contact in its current incarnation too. Door times are 9pm till 3:30 am. Entrance is £3.

Saturday 30th

The bods from Clear have hooked up with the bods who used to run the Strictly Soulful d&b nights in Bogarts to create Strictly Clear. The first conjoined party will take place at Lisboa on Saturday 30th and boasts two rooms - one full of all kinds of breaks and one full of all kinds of drum & bass. It's gonna be a phatty party so don't miss out. Entrance is £3 and doors are 10pm till late.

Sunday 31st - New Years Eve

The Glass Onion are hosting a New Years Eve party for Muddy members only (who get free entrance too!!!). The licence has been extended allowing the party to run from 6pm till 4am with lots of local musicians and DJ's on the bill and a few surprises thrown in for fun.

Alternatively at Lisboa you'll find DJ's from many underground crews representing the cream of Peterborough's underground electronic scene for a party from 9pm till 5am. Entrance is £8, including a free glass of champagne at Midnight. More exact line-up tbc.

....and Finally

Massive thanks to all of you for making 2006 such a special year in Peterborough and beyond, and more importantly bringing all of us such beautiful memories of this year to carry forward with us in our lives. It's just over one year since Muddy Promotions put their first ever event on, and things have moved quickly - most notably with the success of the Grassroots Festival and the opening of the Glass Onion Community Music and Arts Centre. Thanks to all of you who made all this possible in the million different ways that you have. Here's looking forward to 2007.

Have a great Xmas and New Year - best wishes from all of us for 2007.

Peace love unity and respect.

Myspace of the day

2006-12-19T16:25:00.000Z

This weeks myspace of the day goes to The Waheys, who recently have just got a mention on MTV by Kasabian who they supported. Kasabian is reported to have said they're the "greatest band ever" (sic)mainly because, allegedly, they trashed the stage. That been said The Waheys are actually a great fun band playing mod rock. We're not sure whether recent comments from Dan the lead singer that Mike Da hat used to change his nappies is going to ruin Mikes reputation or his own. We leave it for time to tell.

So whaddya waiting for? Go and check out "the greatest band ever".

http://www.myspace.com/peterboroughsthewaheys

Unity 14th November 2006

2006-12-16T09:37:00.000Z

Despite three quarters of the band being sick and bad with the dreaded lurgies, the Playful Rays took the stage like professionals. The Playful rays are an all girl Punk pop band none of them over eighteen.Blankit the heros of the pre gig jam session and post gig jam sessions which they enjoyed so much they promise to come back regularly. So if you missed them tonight you'll certainly have a chance to see them jam in the near future, blazing away on lead guitar, bass and drums.

Next week we have the Unity Christmas bash in the shape of our Beatle Stones and Elvis night. It's ceretainly captured the imagination of a load of people and promises to be a great fun night.

What's on this week

2006-12-13T08:34:00.001Z

Greetings snow flurries and wintry showers!

The days are still getting shorter, and colder....but it's nearly solstice-time and then we can start the home run back towards summer fun and warmth! In the meantime things are going to get busy with Xmas and New Year just around the corner.

Let's have a look at what's on this week to distract you from the consumerist frenzy that is Xmas shopping.

As always if you would like to unsubscribe to this mail please reply "unsubscribe" thanks.

Wednesday

Wednesday nights is time for the weekly pixie folke open mic session at Lisboa (24 Lincoln Road) Doors open 9pm till late and entrance is free.

Thursday

Unity as Lisboa has the pleasure of hosting to young rock bands this week, Cambridge based punk rockers Blankit and young all-female boro band The Playful Rays. The jam session will start proceedings as always at 8pm and kick out is in the early hours after DJ Urb falls over from exhaustion (not likely). Entrance is £2 or £1 to Muddy members.

Or if you are in Stamford direction for the night check out Irene Rae at the Mi Familia Tapas Bar, where music starts at 9pm and entrance is free.

Or if you want to venture even further afield check out Opaque at Insomnia in Derby. Email opaque_moony@hotmail.com for more details.

Friday

The Glass Onion's acoustic night has the pleasure of having the wonderful Irene Rae (back on the scene after a few health problems - good to have you back around Ren). It's also an open mic session for the rest of the night so come along and bring your instruments and music!

Down the road in Bogarts local funkateers Point of Origin have their first Peterborough appearance after a long break due to bods being away at University - entrance is free and music starts at 9:30pm ish.....and there've been no rehearsals since September so if you want to see the band scared as f*ck this is your chance... :)

For an electronic tip Funktional return to Lisboa this Friday for another session of funky house. Door times are 9pm till 3am and entrance is £3. DJ Clark Fader is in da house for a hip-hop turntablist session this time around too! Booyah!

Around the corner in the Brewery Tap, Jules the DJ is bringing a Xmas Disco..... (I can't quite get over the naming of this one......reminds me a little bit too much of school.....sorry Jules!)

Saturday

After the success of their first party Psychedelic Breakdown are back with something bigger, longer and phatter (this sounds far too rude at this point). For the first time Lisboa has an extended licence allowing this party to run from 11pm till 7am!!!! Both floors of Lisboa will be open, decked out with copious amounts of UV decor (courtesy of Indigo Children, Mel Playskool and the Twit Twoo lovelies), and kitted with digital visuals. Music upstairs will be psy-trance and breaks, including on the line-up Craig H (from Point Red Records - the new breaks sub-label of Alchemy Records) and Jimmy Tango (hero of the East Anglian psychedelic scene). Downstairs will be deep house, minimal techno, dub and chill. Hot drinks and snacks will be available downstairs to keep you going too. Entrance is a mere snip at a fiver each - don't miss out.

And if you can't wait for all that fun, the pre-party for Psychedelic Breakdown will be taking place at The Glass Onion from 7pm till 11pm - with psy-chill from Bidbod and progressive psy-trance from Kendo. Entrance is free.

For a live band alternative the Brewery Tap is hosting the Brown Stripes.Entrance is free before 10pm.

Or at a bigger distance you will find Opaque at Night and Day in Manchester. Email opaque_moony @ hotmail.com for more info.

Sunday

At the Glass Onion you will find a Xmas Craft Fair taking place on Sunday.

...until next time....

Peace love unity and respect.

Unity 7th December 2006

2006-12-08T10:14:00.000Z

Unity continue to stage incredibly talented musicians. Below are the brilliant Micawber, who's sublime harmonies captivated the audience. These guys come from Oakham and play beautifully.Ok from the sublime to the downright outrageous. The Juzzt have re-emerged with Rock and Roll Andy fronting the band in his own inimitable style. He is a God amongst men. Posturing on stage and frightening the front row of the audience. if nothing else he knows how to entertain and he does that very well.
What diverse line up we have tonight. Straight from Anthony Burgess's "A ClockWork Orange" we have "Columbian Necktie", brilliant alternative rock.

Don't forget next week we have the mighty "Blankit" and those cute little girlies with attitude "The Playful Rays", they might be girlies but they know how to rock.

Myspace of the day

2006-12-07T09:34:00.000Z

Todays Myspace of the Day goes to Point Seven Pistol, not just because they've been working hard in the studio (Batcave) but because they've created some really great new tunes that rock.Three of them featured on their myspace page "Return","Burden" and "Push". I'm particularly biased towards the guys because they kindly allowed me to photograph their recording session and I was down in the dungeon with Jimmy while he was singing, banging my head on the roof and falling over boxes. So you've all got Point Seven pistol as friends on Myspace (if not why not), so isn't it about time you checked out what they've been doing recently. Then order a copy of their new long player. Well go on then what are you waiting for? They're just a click away

http://www.myspace.com/pointsevenpistol

Muddy News

2006-12-05T10:34:00.000Z

Hello day dreamers, believers, sceptics, agnostics and lunatics

Here's a round up below of all things Opaque (www.myspace.com/bandopaque) & all things Muddy (www.muddy.org.uk).

Opaque Gigs

Sat 9th Dec (9pm) - Moony plays acoustic to open up for Underbelling & Vow's Caberet. It is aboard a boat on the Thames called "The English Maid" (She moors between Vauxhall and Lambeth Bridges on Albert Embankment, Southside). Please Contact Amanda on gettrup@yahoo.co.uk for more info & Tickets.

Sat 9th Dec (10.45pm) - Hope & Anchor, Islington, London.

Tues 12th Dec (6.30pm) - The John Clare Theatre, Peterborough. Opaque Acoustic - Opening up for the premier of Hills & Horrors, a local film production supported by Muddy Promotions.

Thurs 14th Dec (9pm) – Insomnia, Derby

Sat 16th Dec (9pm) – Night & Day, Manchester.

Thurs 21st Dec (9pm) – Dublin Castle, Camden, London

Fri 22nd Dec (9pm) – Muddy Promotions Equinox Party, Bar Lisboa, P’boro

Wed 27th Dec (2pm) – The Cavendish, P’boro

Muddy News

At The Glass Onion over the next couple of weeks we have thrills a plenty, I've picked a few highlights for your diary. I have also listed below a couple of Muddy Promotions parties that are being held in December.

Glass Onion

Every Mondays - Quiz Night

Every Wednesday - DJ Workshops & Cultural Escapades

Every Thursday - Games Night

Every Friday - Drum Circles, Acoustic Performance & Open Mic Night

Sunday 10th Dec - Amnesty International's Human Rights Day - A day for Darfur. A day of awareness for the troubles faced in Sudan. Inc Sudanese Hip Hop, Food, African Drumming and more.

Sunday 17th Dec – Xmas Craft Fair

Saturday 23rd Dec – “It’s Behind You” – Glass Onion Adult Pantomime

Plus kids clubs, juggling workshops, ladies night, jewellrey making, life drawing and so much more I can't begin to describe the wealth of tallent and creativity that is crawling out of the hidden depth of Peterborough & beyond.

Muddy Parties

Fri 22nd Dec - GrassRoots Winter Solstice Party, Bar Lisboa's, Peterborough.

Live Music from Opaque, Point of Origin, Groove Cartel, Pink n Ruby, Circus.

DJ sets from Peddlebreaker/SK9, Kendo, Lukus, Local.

8pm til 4am, £4/£3 to Muddy Members.

For any further information please do not hesitate to contact either myself or any of the Muddy volunteers at The Glass Onion.

Much love

Moony

Zodiac Party

2006-12-05T10:06:00.000Z

Well there was a couple of cancellations for the Zodiac party. But that didn't stop us from having a great time with a fabulous line up of stars. And stars don't get bigger than the impossibly tall John LItchfield. Next up taking a short break from their world tour of Guildford Abi and Stacey.
It's those Sidearm boys again. Are they fantastic or what? I'd like to think that when they appear on Later with Jools Holland and headlining Glastonbury they'll still be the same old crazy guys we've known and loved for years.
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to have the Neumes back in town. I want to take them home and feed them and keep them forever. I'll look after them, honest. So that's Eleanor, Charlotte and Emily (left to right in the bottom pics) with Tim and Amanda keeping things solid at the back.

Unity 30th November 2006

2006-12-02T15:18:00.000Z

Tonights Unity was something special in that we featured "Some TCD" all the way from London and The Brackets who were playing their very 1st gig. Not forgetting all their loyal supporters who added to the brilliant vibe going on. Talking of loyal supporters here's a whole bunch of you having a great time. Here's "Some TCD" That's Abi and Tristan, two lovely people, who's main forte is beautiful harmonies, and laid back tunes. Wow! we want them for next years Muddy Festival in the Troubadour tent.
What you've been waiting for pics of "The Brackets" playing their first ever gig to a packed house. We at Unity were really impressed with the performance, so much so, we're going to push to get them a slot on the Unity stage at next years Muddy Festival. Great band.
To round off the evening Richard and Abi played a set as Istari.

Don't forget Saturday night at Lisboa we have the wonderful "Neumes" all the way from oop north in Yorkshire. Three sisters who are going to blow you away with their jazz folk swing stylie thing. You can't pigeon hole them. Just come and listen. Also on stage, Unity favourites "Sidearm" you can not beat these boys for enthusiasm. Rock at it's most entertaining, also "Godfather" and "Radicus" two bands who recently have gone down a storm at Unity.

Next Thursday at Unity we have the very popular Columbian Necktie, Micawber (folk rock duo) and Juzzt (funkay) so there's something for everyone there. And it's still only £2 to get in. £1 with Muddy membership. You can't beat it for value for money. It's the UNity bargain pack for music lovers.

Rock on dudes.

Pixy Folk 29th November

2006-12-02T13:20:00.000Z

Oh 'ello. Here we go again and what a right old bunch of reprobates we've got here for you. Not an ASBO between them. They're all lovely people. Here you are at Pixy Folks special night.Dana and Jez (top left) Irene Rae, some dude on a Harpsichord who was brilliant. You could hear jaws crashing to the floor when he played. Gobs were well and truly smacked. Very special.
Aye oop its our Heather McVey (centre top of pic below) and Tammy Garcia.
Chomskis Chainsaw AKA Circus. Vince Nathan and Nick rocking it up with help from Jimmy D on drums.

What's on this week

2006-11-29T16:12:00.000Z

Greetings bubbles of joy and anarchic freedom!

A phrase is landing in the heart of the Muddy world this weekend that I don't think I've heard since childhood days watching Blue Peter (did I just admit to that? - have you got any sticky back plastic?). This Sunday (3rd December) the Glass Onion is hosting a BRING & BUY SALE to help raise some funds and keep up with the paying the bills game that running the centre involves.

The Onion is currently running at a loss and since we still have no backing Muddy Promotions has got no financial cushion to sustain this situation for long.....any help you can give will be gratefully received. Many thanks.

There's also the Muddy Sagittarius Party at Lisboa on Saturday - any profits from which will roll straight into the Onion's coffers - yet another way that you can support this project while having fun and maybe even getting quite hammered......if you like..... :)

In fact there's alot of stuff going on to grab your attention this week - so without further delay let's have a look at what there is.

Wednesday

The Pixie Folke team are presenting a wonderful and inspiring one-off evening of music and art at Lisboa (24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough) tonight..... and entrance is by voluntary donation, with all door profits going towards recording costs for demos for two of the local artists performing.

The line-up is beyond compare - here's just some of it:

Tammy Garcia and the Flamenkines - flamenco passion from Brighton (well....Spain actually)
Dana Wylie Band - folky three piece from near da boro
Chomsky's Chainsaw (formerly known as Circus) - you must know these by now
Ady & jo (Fiddle & Squeeze) - all the way from Brighton
Ru Jones (Crowzone) - also all the way from Brighton
Heather McVey - soulful acoustic soloist from Cambridge
Jonny Fungji - oooh, an old boro legend in acoustic format
Irene Rae - a current boro legend in acoustic format
The Singing Monk - famous for his many Pixie Skin appearances
Mike da Hat - the Unity photo man from the other side of the mic for a change

This is all going on spread over both floors of Lisboa, with shedloads of amazing artwork being displayed and candlelit dinner being served in the acoustic lounge downstairs too.

......don't forget, entrance is voluntary donation! Door times are 7pm till late.

Thursday

Unity at Lisboa this week proudly presents:

The Brackets ( www.myspace.com/thebracketsmusic ) - boro based Indie bods.
Some TCD ( www.myspace.com/sometcd ) are a London based acoustic duo of the highest order - check them out, really beautiful harmonies (even Wainwright might like them...lol)

Doors open for the open jam somewhere between 8 and 8:30 and entrance is £2 or £1 to Muddy members.

Friday

Friday is time for the Onion's weekly open mic session, always a laid back treat and a lovely way to start the weekend. Why not pop in. Beer on sale from 6pm and music from around 8pm till 1am.

For a much noisier start to your weekend System Abuse are continuing their monthly residency at Lisboa for another evening of sick and filthy drum & bass. This time around with guest DJ Khanage (Offkey/Ohm Resistance), the world record breaking Urb, alongside other SA residents Kodo, Scar Red and Vendetta. Doors are 9pm till 4am. There was a lovely atmosphere at the last System Abuse event so get down there and check it out. £4 on the door.

Saturday

It's time for the Muddy Sagittarius Party! This is taking place at Lisboa, and is running from 8pm till 4am.

The live line-up is of top quality and eclecticism (as you have come to expect):
The Neumes - ska/folk fusion from yorkshire
Godfather - sleazy funk from Cambridge
Sidearm - art rock wonders, gotta check them if you haven't already!
Radicus - local punks with good vibe and happy attitude
Magic Lamp - live techno-trance, celebrating their success at Synergy last weekend (big up guys!)

To top things of Dj's Bidbod (Playskool - psy-trance) and Audioholic (Clear - Breaks) are ready to be served up on the menu.

Entrance is £4 or just £3 to muddy members. Look forward to seeing you there.

Alternatively much further afield the Synergy bods are holding a very special community gathering at their community centre in Camberwell, London. They've kindly invited local favourties Opaque to go and rock it out on stage. If you would be interested in attending contact Moony on opaque_moony@hotmail.com for travel details and stuff. For full details of the event check www.thesynergyproject.org

Sunday

Don't forget the bring and buy sale - you might be able to pick up some Xmas present bargains and you'll be helping the Onion stay afloat!

Later in the day Sundazed Sounds enter their second week at Lisboa - with eclectic chilled out grooves from DJ's and acoustic artists. Entrance is free and door times are 3pm till late.

....and Finally

Our good friends the Gangsters have asked us to mention that tickets are now on sale for the Skankateria 07 (the Gangsters annual Xmas Party). The line-up is phat and funky with The Gangsters, Groove Cartel and Point of Origin all on the bill, as well as ska and reggae DJ's on the night to make sure that it's an event to dance dance dance at! Advance tickets are £5 and they will be more on the door. The party is happening at Radius (above the Solstice) on Friday 29 December and is set to be a stormer. For ticket info email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk

Till next week bods - keep it happy - and please help keep the Onion alive.....it would be a crying shame if the Onion got the chop.....

Peace love unity and respect

Pay attention you people

2006-11-27T23:42:00.000Z

Hi all,

Hope you are all well.

A few things to mention to you's all:

1. On Thurs Dec 21st we are throwing the Unity Xmas party at Lisboa. This is going to be a themed night called "Beatles Stones and Elvis night" where faces from the local scene present one or two covers of tracks originally by the Beatles, the rolling stones or Elvis. If you would like to come and get involved we'd love to have you on. Backline will be completely provided on the night so you won't have to carry loads of kit it. Email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk with "Beatles Stones and Elvis" as the subject line. Please include your preferential choice of tunes. Thanks.

2. Unity's Band of 2007 competition will commence in January. We still have spaces left in it. Prizes on offer to the winner are £350 cash, a slot on the Unity stage at Grassroots Festival 2007, and a photoshoot by Mike da Hat. If you are interested in taking part please email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk with "Band of 2007" as the subject line.

3. The live stage at next year's Grassroots Festival will be called the "Unity stage" and will be booked and manned by the usual Unity crew. If you would be interested in playing please email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk with "Grassroots Unity stage" as the subject line.

Thanks to all of you for your support past present and future.

Peace love unity and respect.

Andy

Unity 23rd November 2006

2006-11-25T09:49:00.000Z

Simon Lee Morgan of the swings played some lively and often humourous songs.After Four. These guys are ones to watch having already performed over 100 gigs this year alone, and all of them under 18. For youngsters they showed a remarkable maturity in their playing. Great performance.
We are still open for people to play at our charity Beatles Stones and Elvis night on the 21st December. It's going to be a real fun event. Everyone will be playing either Beatles Stones or Elvis numbers we've got a good line up of local "stars" playing but we've room for more if you want to come down and play.

Don't forget next week we have on stage Some TCD and The Brackets it should be good. See you there.

Myspace of the day

2006-11-20T13:20:00.000Z

Todays Myspace of the day comes from those Funky dudes down at the Buena Vista Social club. What they've done is get a load of your favourite artists and rerecorded their tracks with a cuban latin feel. Get a load of that brass section and marimbas baby.
Anyway artists that have been given the Buena Vista treatment are The Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Sting, Jack Johnson, Dido and Faithless, and Coldplay amongst others. I think you'll find they've used the original vocal track and then built around it.
Anyway have a listen it's a lot of fun. Off you go, quick as you like my lovelies

www.myspace.com/rhythmsdelmundo

Unity myspace of the day has started to become very influential, I mean where would the likes of the Rolling Stones and Elvis be if it wasn't for Unitys myspace of the day? We are making and breaking bands here.

Unity 16th November 2006

2006-11-18T15:19:00.000Z

What a great night at Unity. Three brill bands to thrill and entertain you. And here you are...Our very good friends the amazing Super penetraitors who get more and more outrageous everytime they play.
New kids on the block "Zhen Merit" who's sound intitially had a nod toward Radiohead. We were impressed by their interesting use of vocal effects. Not many other bands seem to do that. Lots of potential here then. And they seem to have stolen Wakes drummer.
Oh wow! King Cool. These guys have got to be seen to be believed. All you've got is a guitarist and a drummer. But what a guitarist. Dan Donovan plays like he means it and sounds like a full band all by himself. A sort of american bluesy rock thang. The drummer keeping a very tight beat on things. Dan Donovans talents don't stop there he's also a photographer not only that he's a great guy. Not only that he wants to come back and play again. Not only that we'd let him.

Pixy Folk 15th November

2006-11-16T16:38:00.000Z

Despite it being a quiet night at Pixy these three guys played their hearts out. In fact they were pretty damned good. Haven't a clue who they were or what the bands called. Perhaps someone can enlighten us. Richard leapt in to do the occasional vocal. There has been unconfirmed rumours that local bad boy Chopper was seen to be skiing down the stairs of the town hall on a fold up chair. Whether this is true or not I don't know.

Christmas Cards

2006-11-15T13:20:00.000Z

This year we at Unity intend to send all our friends Christmas cards Psychically. So during the next couple of weeks we'll be thinking very hard of a Christmas card and psychically sending it to each and everyone of you via telepathy. We'll be doing it individually because we're not sure our powers are enough to do a one off global telepathic mail shot.
So if during the next few weeks you get a thought about Christmas and Christmas cards, well that will be us here in the Unity office sitting in a circle holding hands and sending you a Psychic Christmas card. It could be just a fleeting thought because as I say we're just beginners at this telepathy lark, but be sure to know it's us here in the Unity Office thats sending you the greetings. if you think of Christmas more than once it may be us trying again because we weren't confident we got through first time. Just treat the second thought as a missed call and ignore the rest of your christmas thoughts. Or rejoice in the knowledge that we care about you so much that we're making you think of Christmas a load of times.

This has been a public service information announcement on behalf of the Unity Team