Gigs and Getups

Hello!

It's been a while, my bad. But I have been busying myself, mucho promiso. There are exciting things afoot with my shop Pretty Used Things, so please keep an eye out on the internet for that shizzle. 

Last night my band Screaming Maldini supported our fellow label mates and cool cats Johnny Foreigner and Tip Your Bartender at The Harley here in Sheffield. It was absolute U16s moshpit chaos by the time JF graced the stage, which was awesome to watch!

I had about 10 minutes to get ready, and I chose to don this dress which I haven't worn in years. It was £10 from a jumble vintage shop here in Sheffield, and with a nod to the pastel trend, I thought I was doing OK.

Belt: Peacocks
Bag: Vintage
Shoes: ASOS

Victory Rolls rushed to imperfection.

Have a looky at some gig snaps...they're awful! But what a handsome crowd!

The morning after the night before I HAD to wear my new Johnny Foreigner t-shirt. What a cool teacher I am. The kids will love it. I love that I can dabble with a 40s/50s look one night then throw on a shorts and t-shirt the next day. As much as I admire Vintage purists like Fleur de Guerre and Judi Yesterday and the Bright Young Twins (see my blog reel) I can't help but dress it down sometimes and feel better off for it.

Shoes: ASOS

Bag: Vintage

 Morning enthusiasm on 6 hours sleep.  Nutter.

BYE BYE

X

no fashion for bands on tour:part 2

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Oh how I was depressed the day tour ended. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep…for at least 1 hour. So where did we leave things? Ah I do believe we had just rocked L’Orient. 

Onwards. In many’a car we drove to the hostel where we thought we might be butchered in our sleep as it looked like a horror film set. There were suggestions of hide and seek but when it came to the fact that I had to make Lex stand outside the toilet while I went for a wee, I opted out. It was THAT scary. However, we did make mischief, inspired by the likes of Joe Pharaohs. We ruined stuff then went on the roof. I don’t think Jeff was very impressed. 

BEDTIME. “Hey Junior, Lex…it’s 5:15am” they reply “It’s cool we’re up at 12.” WRONG “GARBLED LOUD FRENCH TRANSLATING TO GET UP AND GET OUT AND NEVER RETURN” at 9am. 

oopsie. 

So we head to the market after a little chill around a lake where the entire population of L’Orient go jogging. I bought a really unsatisfying crepe, some apples and some clementines. Inigio Pharoahs and I share a love of courgettes. Joe Pharaohs likes Kelly Brook. Food envy made an appearance when I see most of Maldini eating incredible pork sandwiches, then , as soon as I want one they run out of bread. IN FRANCE. RUN OUT OF BREAD? I know, right? After this we left, this journey was probably like most of the other ones. 

One of the first things that happened in Brest was tres drole. Tim Maldini collided with Jon Maldini and they rolled, oh how they rolled gleefully among the grass and the dog poo. Oh yes, that is (maybe) true. The venue was awesome like an old Cabaret hall with a lovely big stage, lights and a muscly sound engineer. The next interesting thing to happen was seeing Papa Jeff  sing with his band Heliport - that man has some moves. I’m getting me a stage kick. Je t’aime, Jeff!

 PHOTOS

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Photos: Ray LeMann 

Oh and this happened too:

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Drunk hairdresser Pharaoh meets willing Maldini. Thankfully, all things worked out for the best. “I’ve never cut hair so well being this drunk.” Brilliant. 

The venue gave us lots of cheese and bread again, naturally we took as much of the other stuff in the van as we could and after packing up, we all piled into the van, minus Pharaohs. After an emotional farewell we hit the road, for 18 long hours. 

All I can say is that it was such a pleasure to tour with Johnny Foreigner again, they are fast becoming three of my favourite people and I cannae wait to see them again. I can also say that Pharaohs are four top lads, it’s always a worry to go on tour and fear you won’t be with people who are on the same wavelength, thankfully we all melded into one massive ball of musical fluff. Last but not least, monsieur Jeff of HipHipHip! an enormous MERCI for you. It could not have happened without you!

I want tour again. But as you can see, we all look bloody awful. So maybe we’ll leave it for a bit. BYE BYE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

no fashion for bands on tour:part 1

                          

I’m back and I don’t have much to say about clothes today, but I have just got back from tour en France avec Johnny Foreigner et Pharaohs. It was far too short, I’d just got going and it was all over. I’ve decided to convert my below avergae fashion blog into a tour blog. A tlog. 

It is Wednesday night and it is around 1am and I’m going to France in 1.5 hours and I haven’t packed or sourced my passport. But it’s ok, don’t fret, I packed and I found it so that’s that done. They say open with a grabbing…uh opener right? 

We arrived at Tri Postal in Lille and met Papa Jeff who is also very sexy and though writing Papa and sexy in the same sentence is a little unsettling, it’s true. The venue is super cool and I feel super untrendy. We meet Pharaohs, well 3/4 of Pharaohs as Jonny is poorly. They tell me their names and when I hear the drummer is called “Inny” I say “oh. really?” however, turns out he’s a babe so it’s OK that he has a fake name. They made some ace food for us and there was squabbling “How come you got balsamic and I didn’t?” but aside from that it was ideal.

The gig was great, Pharaohs nailed it to say they were without their frontman and JoFo carried on with traditionally cocking up the first gig of tour and we, Maldini, were a solid 6/10. First gig done and I’ve never been so tired. Despite a vomit ridden toilet and sharing with Andy Malsnoring I managed a cracking 7 hours sleep. 

Quick sexy food breakfast, Joe eats an entire Camenbert and remains a skinny twat, van journey of approx 3 hours, arrive Paris at L’international. In short, this was the best Friday night of my days ever. Getting bored of sentences, here are some bullet points:

• The sound woman knows her stuff, incredible stage sound.


• Cous cous.


• We meet Jonny and his Mum.


• Joe suits faux fur.


• There is a big crowd.


• Pharaohs play.


• We play.


• JoFo play.


• Guillaume’s gay brother Max is terribly handsome.


• We all get very drunk and I flash Lex, fondle Inny, kiss gay french men and forget decking it in the dressing room. 


• We leave gear. oops.


• OH AND SHIT MAN LEST I FORGET! We danced on the fucking bar! In true Coyote Ugly style the bar maid sprayed us all with water, never been as happy. 

Here are some photos ….

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We made use of our friendship and did a few special appearances in JoFo’s set. This is Tim rocking out to one of JoFo’s new power ballads. One of my faves.

Andy was a trooper and drove the van with lots of drunk people in it to our hotel where we slurred broken french at the receptionist and then slept. We left at “10am” (11am) and prepared for the potentially shit 6 hour drive ahead. There was a badly designed petrol station that played music but as far as I’m aware there was no other point of interest on this stretch of the journey. 

We arrive at L’Orient and it’s all a bit grey and it smells badly of fish and all I can think about is food which was soon resolved with a bloody good spread of cheese, pea soup, bread, leaves and meat with some splendid wine. Moods improve instantly. 

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Again, the sound was VERY GOOD. But our green room was ALSO GOOD as it had two pianos and luckily Cornish is a stunning pianist so he provided the talent, Jeff clambered onto the grand piano as a slinkily dressed woman would, it tickled me. 

Jesus, I’m slowly forgetting everything that happened. I’ll finish this part with the pre-hostel visit as that part is particularly funny. I felt as though this backstage time was a lovely time for good old conversation. Mr Joe Pharaohs has a seriously high quality of banter. We discussed J cloths, wind and timed laughter. I know right? Inny made a sturdy leg rest and I poured my heart out to Guillaume in stunted Franglais. We had two backstage visitors who decided we weren’t rock n roll enough and I took an instant dislike to both of them and wished they’d leave. I think one of them groped Kelly, those lesbians eh? Then again, Kel is nuff sexy so I totally get it. Unfortunately I can’t write down all the fun piano singalong stuff, I’ll leave that for Bloggy Foreigner, because I was loading the fuck out of the venue. I heard it was fun though. NOT BITTER AT ALL PROMISE.

I’ll continue this tomorrow, probs.

x

With the release of Johnny Foreigner’s new album Johnny Foreigner VS Everything here is a fun Friday treat for you all. It’s a classic.

[youtube=[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-PY53SdyUY&w=420&h=315]]