Author Archives: grooveboxadam

Just before the lockdown I’d been caught in the desperate grind of function band work, spending what felt like an eternity sat in the back of a van to before lugging huge speakers up dodgy fire escapes to play the same old set for a few quid a night. It was a bit shit toContinue reading “Them blues”

A few years back I was necking a few at Bar Loco open mic night when a bloke took to the floor. Unaccompanied, without shoes and through gritted teeth he spat the lyrics to a collection of anti-establishment anthems and obscure folk tunes. So menacing and aggressive was the performance that during the first fewContinue reading “Punk?”

A few months back I was driving down a random street looking for somewhere to buy cans and saw Brass Monkey stood on the roof of a house. Not wanting to startle a man at such a height by honking the old car horn I continued about my business and doubled back down the sameContinue reading “Brass Monkey – Miracle”

It’s took years but finally on Christmas day the first track from the band that’s not a band will go live on streaming services around the world. You can catch the music video premiere on youtube (produced by Torn Apart TV), featured in this interview in Narc. God bless us, everyone.

I feel like my entire musical career has been an endless challenge to do what I can under unfavourable circumstances. So when the pandemic hit I couldn’t believe how many of the bands I played with went into total hibernation, vowing to get back on it when things blew over at some hypothetical moment inContinue reading “Freeze – The Nick Gladdish Band”

You’re canny tall and it’s still bigger than you. At half price it was still more then any of your electric basses. Playing it hurts. Carrying it hurts. There’s never room to lie it down so once it’s set up you can’t move from that spot ’til you put it away again. It fits inContinue reading “Upright Fucking Bass”

This little ditty started life as an exercise in Konnakol with me chanting ‘takadimitakata’ repeatedly to form a seven beat phrase to jam on. A few jazz chords later I had a track to sling around and see what came back. Once again, Moz and Timney took it to the next level.

I haven’t been able to play as much as I would have liked to recently and since music’s pretty much the only thing I’ve ever been able to stay focused on in life, without it I start to notice other things. Most recently thoughts of an old friend known as ‘Captain Disaster’ returned to meContinue reading “Without Music…”

Don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that sometimes I play harmonica. I’ve learned a few tricks over the years from some lovely folks who’ve been willing to share a bit of the old noodle wisdom, most notably Andy Naughty Fingers, Smitty, Kieran, and Jim. So a few weeks back I laid down a track for theContinue reading “Ebb – Harp”

For years I’ve wanted to shoot a music video on Copt Hill in Houghton-le-spring, a prehistoric burial mound which was home to a group of beech trees known as the Seven Sisters. These days there are only six. Finally today I got my Christmas wish as my marras from the band that almost was, TripContinue reading “Trip Awake and the 6 Sisters”