so this is somewhat late already, however on the 14th of january we made our, extremely hungover, yet merry way up to leamington spa to play our first ever show!! The previous night, in celebration of my birthday, we had taken our best shot at clearing exeter of all its alcohol! a fantastic evening was had by all, however the resulting hangover/still steaming drunk following day, made for hard work in our attempts to leave the big exciter, yet somehow, after Laurie “The Hunter” Vincent, had finished emptying his stomach lining into the nearest toilet, we gathered ourselves into chris’s car and forged on, midland bound.

We arrived in Leamington to be greeted by Larry and Laura along with our good buddies in Caves and one helluva vegan curry treat!! perfect!!

Once loaded in and set up in one of the strangest venues i’ve played in, we took to playing our ramshackle/still drunk/slightly nervy four song strong first set….and it went ok….not amazing but we were happy, and people seemed to dig it, so thanks to all that turned up clapped/cheered/howled and heckled! 

So first set over we topped up our beers and relaxed into what turned out to be one of the funnest shows i’ve been too.

Cannons and tanks were next up on only their fourth show, it was bowel worryingly loud as to be expected from a lewis/larry combination, but boy was it good!! i fell in love instantly with this band and i think you will too!! a mixture of small brown bike, young livers and the obvious shermer comparison makes cannons and tanks top of the post punk game!

Caves next….I love caves, you love caves, leamington spa most definately loves caves!! having spent a large chunk of 2010 with caves i knew what to expect, that glorious mid-nineties indie punk sound, solid riffs and sing-a-longs a plenty! as usual they were tight as that double knot you could never undo from your school shoes, and the addition of minty on bass has only upped their game. Treating us to new songs which are still stuck in my head weeks later, again, all i can say is I LOVE CAVES!!! dugga ding ding dugga ding ding dugga ding!

i unfortunately missed section 13 as i was downstairs shooting the shit with some old friends and trying not to get punched in the face by the growing mass of scallies!!

back to the safety of the upstairs punk show and Attack Vipers had just kicked in! I’ve caught these guys a couple of times now and i knew i liked them, it was only tonight i realised quite how much so!! and it was obvious just how much everyone else was enjoying it too with the evidence lying in countless human pyramids, a punkrock conga line and a piggyback mosh pit!! the addition of a couple of drugged up 80’s metaller throwbacks made for an even more entertaining set! All this aside it was the band themselves that made this so good, Attack Vipers are my idea of what hardcore should be, fast and hardhitting yet melodic and thoughtful at the same time, and with a frontman who brings the party to you, you cant go wrong!!

more booze was consumed, a slight lunge off ensued and the night ended, i’m pretty certain with everyone smiling!! MOVE TO LEAMINGTON IT’S SOLID RAD!!

the following day we bid farewell to leamington and our punk rock comrades as they embarked on an adventure up to leeds, we headed home to recuperate, not before stopping in on warwick to drink tea in the home and resting place of Thomas Oken, i was going to talk more of Oken here but i’ve already turned this post into an essay so just be safe in the knowledge his old home is now one of the finest tea shops in the land!

We arrived home safely, made lasagne, drank a couple vodkas to take the edge off and settled down to enjoy top gun followed by cocktail! tom cruise-athons are good, dont let anyone tell you any different!

Sunday arrived and we were back in the car and on our way up the M5 to bristol for our second show,and two day reunion featuring Cannons and Tanks, Caves and Attack Vipers!! 

After the gained confidence from having played our first show, and also having sorted out the sound a bit better we played our four songs again to the bristol crowd, and i think we done pretty darn good!! many compliments were thrown our way for which i am always grateful and lewis took some lovely photographs of us enjoying ourselves (see above)

The afore mentioned bands all killed it, yet again and  my dude-crush on minty reached new levels!

also on this line-up was Slow Science, for those of you who don’t know slow science were born from the ashes of serf combat, if i’m honest these guys were the band of the weekend for me, jons trademark vocals and melodic pop punk stabbing guitar style with pauls technical intricacies is always something i enjoy but this complemented by the awesome basslines and vocals from stacey and hit perfect pacey drums from al made for an ace slab of pop punk not normally heard on these shores!

headlining tonight were The Social Club, i believe a bristol band? i’ve not come across them before and i wasnt too sure what to expect, they played a solid indie rock set reminiscent of tellison and in parts get up kids, filled with hooks and humour, they won my heart - especially the animated beardy keyboard player!! i hope i get to see a lot more of these guys in the near future!

I cant say i’m a great writer or anything but i hope i’ve done all the bands i saw this weekend justice, because i literally have not one bad word to say about any of them, and considering i started this trip declaring i now hate music i think this says something! 

We as a band feel priveledged to have been asked to play these shows as our first, and we cant wait for more of the same, Thanks to everyone involved, you are all heroes!!

love

Kevwhan!! xx

if there’s tea we’ll be drinkin!!