The Scratch are Tunatheday today - with WAG Potential!

http://www.tunatheday.com/go/catchoftheday

Thanks to Ade at Tunatheday for making WAG Potential his Tunatheday… and to all of those who contributed with their comments!… I’m guessing Mr C hasn’t seen the video?

http://vimeo.com/27593102

And yes Ade… ‘Great Adventure’ is going to be our 4th album… (release date unconfirmed, but if you think Spring, you won’t be a million miles orf!)…

MrC: “Very smart studio work here. In spite of the thrash it’s clear, dynamically varied and continually interesting, I particularly like the bits where the vocal is left exposed and the instruments drop out, it’s like we’re transported into the singer’s head space.

I’m not one to judge the ethics of the lyric but while the camp delivery suggests to me that there is a comic camaraderie to it’s meaning, it also sounds catty and could be construed as cruel.

As long as there have been people being vain and thoughtless, there have been people poking fun at their behaviour, if we disallow that critique we get into very dangerous waters.”

MrTuna: “I think it more a homage to the world of WAGS Mr C - maybe!”

Jimbob: “Awesome!! Behind the chaos is a bunch of good musicians here, love the lyrics and the whiff of danger from this track. F A N T A S T I C !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

—————————

There’s just 11 days to go now until the launch… so don’t delay, ‘cos these tickets are HOT ;-) !!!!

Endorse IT 2011 - Bournemouth Echo review mention

pic courtesy of pbase website.

Thumbing (or should that be scrolling?) through the internet as we do from time to time looking for soundbites and news, we came across this little snippet, that we’d missed from the highlight of our summer…

Endorse It In Dorset, Sixpenny Handley

11:45am Monday 15th August 2011

• By Gavin Haines »

WITH its ragtag line up, kooky clientele and defiant lack of commercialism, eccentric Endorse It is always a breath of fresh air during the busy festival season.

And it was back with a bang at the weekend, as the usually sleepy village of Sixpenny Handley played host to three days of cider-fuelled revelry.

The music kicked off on Friday afternoon as the patrons arrived; The Scratch, a five piece rock outfit from St. Albans proved an early highlight with a set that was good enough to earn them a slot supporting Noel Gallagher on a previous tour. Doubtless their lively performance and catchy tunes earned them a few more fans.

pics courtesy of redsnapper

full review here of the festival here…

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/leisure/reviews/9195892.Endorse_It_In_Dorset__Sixpenny_Handley/

Camden calling - 3rd Birthday party - on the edge of the Olympic village…

The M25 on a Friday weren’t gonna rock…. And it didn’t, but at least we weren’t driving up from Bath like the 4th Suit!…

Friday night saw us play our second (and certainly not last) gig for Alexis Brookes and her amazing homeless charity musical collective Camden calling… The venue was the famous but threatened with extinction George Tavern on Commercial Road… Sitting perilously close to Olympic 2012 ‘‘re-gen’ territory… It reminded me of Charlie Buckets house in the story about the Chocolate Factory, dwarfed in the long shadow of Canary Wharf… You have to fear that this big old run down but glorious East End boozer may not be around for the CC’s 4th birthday. … Let’s hope it is!…

Anyway onto the night that as was as ever, eclectic to say the least. Tonight though took it to new levels - for not only did it contain, punk, hip hop and natty dreads, it also featured an appearance from none other than the Lord’s only son… (The party had been billed as a Hollywood themed fancy dress, with Alex (in Wonderland) and Dekay and D’mans seemingly the only ones who read the small print…) that was except of course for Jesus aka ‘Ben is a dark horse’ who kicked the night off with a spell binding/haunting guitar infused set, laced with a generous helpoing of razor sharp lyrical Whit. All of this was played out to a backdrop of some excellent Daniel Johnsonesque cartoons, projected onto the back wall… drawn (as we later found out) by a friend of the CC gang who’s sadly no longer around to attend such great nights, but at least Tasha Hollywood’s great talent lives on through. 

Next up were the aforementioned ‘Baron village dwelling’ 70’s punks - ‘The 4th suit’, with their straight out of the Roxy 1977 assault! The packed and varied line up then morphed further into a more hip hop/urban tip, first with ACcobra, then with the ace Rukas, (“back after a short live sojourn”)… Until finally, the one we were personally really looking forward to - Dekay and D’mans. As we stated in the last blog these dudes  and dudettes rock in a ‘street, hip hop, 60’s funk and Californian acid stylee’ that should be way bigger than it is… The nearest way to describe the music would be classic Beastie boys ‘Ill communication’ era lounge funk, be-jewelled by the diamond sharp D’mans incisive lyrical blow darts… 

Then, finally it was time for The Scratch - back playing in surroundings that suit us best, tight, hot and edgy. Our latest short sharp ‘best of ‘set, this time included a lightening fast cover of The Ramones classic ‘Commando’, an extended ‘Teen Idol’ intro, forthcoming single ‘Wag potential’, our prog/Shakari skewed ‘No two castles are the same’ and a ‘Critical Mass’ encore that included a shaky legged table top dance and a flamboyant chair twirl finale, that Marc Bolan (who’s 34th anniversary co-incided with tonights events), would have been proud of!

Massive thanks to Alex and the guys for another excellent night, we can’t wait for the next one (even if you just come to see Dekay and D’mans it’d be well worth the train fare). Giant thanks also go out to newbie Scratchers and Scratchettes - Tatum and her gang for trekking across London in their stylish shoes… We hope its the first of Many and you got home safe guys? And last but by no means least, it was great as ever to see McEwan and all the other familiar faces. 

Next stop the WAG launch do - 18 Nov. Keep an eye for ticket news and a few extra special ‘deals’ we’ve got going in conjunction… it’s gonna ROCK!

PS Final, final thanks goes out to all those who sent concerned email’s and txt’s re-the loss of ‘THE’ white jacket… thankfully ‘Super’ had it wedged in the crack…. between the seats in his car!

X

The Scratch back at the BBC tomorrow night!

Dear All, as promised, here’s details of tomorrow’s BBC session:

The Show starts at 7pm

At 7:20: We perform our first live track on air….. you’ll have to wait and see what it is! ;-)

Then at 7:30: We have a live interview with Gareth Lloyd

At 7:40: It’s BAND ON A BIKE! - featuring Steve Filth as he tries to beat his previous best time around the BBC offices on trike!

And at 7:50: We play our other live track….

How can you listen to us?

We can be heard on www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties - click listen live Friday night between 7-8pm if you miss it you can click listen again!

Listen locally on…

98 FM (High Wycombe)
104.5FM (Bucks)
103.8FM (Herts)
95.5FM (Beds)
94.7FM (Aylesbury Vale)
92.1FM (South Herts)
90.4FM (East Herts)

The hour-long show is available on demand on the BBC iPlayer for seven days after the radio broadcast. You can also text the show on 81333 and start the text with ‘3CR’ texts will be charged at the standard network rate - or email 3cr.introducing@bbc.co.uk

So one way or other we hope you get the chance to listen in!

x

The Scratch - Endorse IT in Dorset 2011 … Our latest ‘Great Adventure’…

For those who don’t know it, Endorse IT in Dorset, is a GREAT, chilled, family friendly, alternative style festival, in it’s 11th year. Featuring a vast and interesting mix of old, new, famous and infamous, Punk, Ska, Alternative, Crazy and Folk music.

At a time when a lots of smaller fests are loosing money and even getting cancelled, it was great to hear as we left, this year, Endorse IT had made record profits, with over 6,000 paying party goers!

12th August: The convoy of John, Steve, Super, Francis (Bez and photography) and Andy set out on time at 10am. The rest of the gang, detailed on various and PR duties were Lucy (Fakers, bakers, quakers GAT, Davies) and Daina (Lucy’s friend and singer in her own right www.dainashmore.com) who were meeting us in Dorset under their own steam and bringing up the rear were to be Jake (Bootleg recording) and Ed (video), who were alsomeeting us at the fest.

We had been aiming to arrive at 1ish on site, but unlike last year where we hit a huge traffic Jam, we were wrist banded and erect (tents), by around 12.45. We had needed to be on site 3 hours before performance which was 5, so it left us just over an hour to crack open a can or two, before artist check-in!

Our arrival under the obligatory slate grey skies, (or so it seems for Endorse IT), saw us greeted by a small, but growing queue at the box office. A relaxed demenour enabled us to get a bit chatty with the locals and some of the other bands, one particular decent bunch of well groomed cider swigging gents were Portsmouth based ‘Archive 45’ who described their sound as old school punk. We exchanged stage times and went to get prepared.

As we checked in at the hospitality tent, excitement was building for our opening slot on the main stage was, now under 2 hours away, we met the excellent crew, and sound men Matt and Matt, and readied our gear on the large stage. A quick run through of Teen Idol and half of Narcotic Hearts and we were done.

Time began to fly, a couple more cans and we were soon squeezing into the glad rags in the backstage portacabin, as a succession of old, original, new and stand in punks began flowing in and out of view, most notably at the this stage The Vibrators, who were chowing down on their rider.

5pm was soon upon us. As we entered the stage from the backstairs, it was fair to say (unsurprisingly as there had been no live music on site to this point), that there were a few gaps in the crowd… That was soon about to change however as Super and John began to rumble the specially extended festival intro of Teen Idol…

It’s never easy to gauge a set list, especially on a large stage with a longish set, as you need to get the balance right to keep the crowd interested. We have to say, this one wasn’t far from perfect, with each track the atmosphere, crowd and cheers grew.

Gas Taps as ever brought the set to a fine chaotic conclusion, as the stage manager beckoned us that it was last track time, Andy dived into the crowd and lassoed the official photographer with his mic lead and finished the song off with a running, leaping, piked summersault with back landing that probably should have ended in disaster - powerful thing adrenalin! Wow what a roar from the crowd, what a gig.

Drenched in sweat and adrenalin, we stood, beaming back stage, whilst experiencing one of those musketeeresque ‘all for one and one for all moments’ unanimously agreeing that, we had probably just played the best set we’d ever done. A big boast I know, but to turn a near empty tent (on the first chord) the size of the main stage Endorse IT, into a bobbing and whooping throng by the last (chord), with a performance like that, really was something to be proud of. With hardened members… of our entourage barely able contain their excitement… We knew we’d certainly made the desired impact and some.

Full set:

1) Teen Idol
2) Texture to the flava
3) Desire to be thin
4) Out faking the fakers
5) Narcotic hearts
6) Against the grain
7) Commando
8) No two castles are the same
9) WAG potential
10) Weirder than we are
11) 88th Day of rain
12) Critical Mass
13) Dear Maniac
14) Smell the gas taps

Once the euphoria had subsided a little, John was sadly soon to bid the party farewell, as a prior engagement meant he’d have to drive straight home, Ed (video man) had to do the same, leaving the remaining eight to embrace the festival experience in full affect… Which they surely did! Culminating in the trio of Grim, Andy and Francis, re-discovering past and new glories in the ever rammed dance tent, way, way, wahay into the night!

The others had gradually petered off to bed hours before and missed the huge down poor that now soaked the trudging trio as they headed basecampwards singing the Rainbow TV theme tune and giggling girl like! A brilliant and in the end completely unmemorable (brilliantly so!) night, was almost spoilt however as we realised Francis had lost his phone somewhere between the naughty step, the backstage catering era cup of tea stop and home, what a bummer…

This however like everything of a truly great weekend ended with good news the following day, as a kind person had handed said phone into lost and found and texted Lucy to come and pick it up… in a world where people mug the injured, trash and burn hard earned businesses and generally show little respect for their fellow man, it was a heart warming act and really summed up the vibe of this great festival, thanks whoever did that, you made a great weekend, perfect!

The Saturday was generally a quieter affair than the maniac Friday, as our team gradually diminished through other commitments and fatigue. First highlight was when Daina charmed the acoustic Saturday afternoon Tea Stop tent at midday with a great little 30 minute set, leaving all present ‘tingling’ in a good way, (rather than a hungover one).

On that subject, certain people had looked barely human for most of the afternoon, due partly to a lack of sleep… but by the time, the stragglers of the party, by now numbering, Super, Daina, Lucy, Steve and Andy, returned the favour and supported Archive 45 in the bus bar, beer (or cider to be exact) was back on the menu.

A chilled evening, had time to take in more of the interesting array of acts on show, that included Steve and many of the local children climbing (small monkey like), over the impressive array of metal sculptures that littered the festival grounds. Musically, by the end of the night, there were two other bands who had joined the 45’s on our list of ones to mention, first up were the superb Rezillos on the main stage, the other was a new band to our ears, ‘Brass soaked’ Bournemouth based ‘Disco’s out, Murders in!’ on the Wildcat stage, who delivered us a great end to another great day.

Thanks to Lucy, Daina, Francis, Jake and Ed, plus all the others who showed us such great support and enabled us to have such a good laugh. We had heard good things from independent people around the main stage since our performance so hopefully it will percolate up to the organisers :-) We’re really getting a feel for this fest! Special and final thanks goes to Lamma and the stage crew of the Desmond Dekker stage. We’d LOVE to be back again next year.

Pics by Lucy, Daina, Jake and more to come from Francis

x

Verulam Radio - Endorse IT - Wag vid

Dear all, thanks to Chris Saunders of Verulam radio for the intreview with Andy last night and for playing three tracks by The Scratch (I Relax to Spiral Scratch) to publicise the freebie giveaway ep that we are offering to celebrate our forthcoming performance at the fantastic Endorse IT in Dorset fest tomorrow. (Go to our shop at www.thescratch and grab yourself a legal freebie!)…he also played Teen Idol, the track we are intending to kick off with tomorrow, plus our new, but as yet unrelease dated single ‘Wag Potential’, the fab video of which our very own John Scratch has conjured from the great work of Steve Teague, Sarah Vince and a host of other future stars! It’s not to be missed, so keep an eye out, we will be previewing it in our September mailout!

Our attention now turns to Endorse IT, we can’t wait, this will be our third appearance in four years, this one being particularly special for us, as we are opening the whole fest from the main stage at 5pm tomorrow.

If you’re going, don’t be shy, we’ve got a hand picked street team handing out more freebies during the set, so it’ll be well worth it for that if nothing else!

See you all in Dorset x

Endorse it freebie!!! - Not much these days is free… But this is, so get it while you can!!!!

Following the incredible success of our Leopallooza free 3 track download, we’ve decided to reprise the idea for our final fest of the summer at endorse it in Dorset this weekend fri 12th to Sun 14th. We’ll Be giving the downloads info away in ltd edition free Scratch branded goodie bags… So your best chance of getting one is near our stage time of 5pm, as we have the honour in this our 3rd appearance of the fest or opening the main stage! if you can’t make the fest however, have no fear, simply visit http://shop.thescratch.co.uk/ and you can download it there…

To find out more details of this, our forthcoming new album and all the our news, tune into Chris Saunders Verulam radio show on 92.6 FM tonight from 7.

Otherwise we’ll see you all Friday! X

The Scratch - Leopallooza 6 - July 30th 2011…

Before we begin, we must rewind 6 and half years to late November 2005 and the first time we met Lee (opallooza). Same location, but things were a lot different, we had been introduced to Lee by Andy’s mate Sam, as a suggested recording studio where we could record live tracks for our forthcoming Night Bus or Milk Train album. Following said session in Lee’s barn studio, the evening became a typically drunken Cornish affair and the conversation turned to a party idea that he, Sam and a couple of mates had been planning, the idea was to put on a party in the adjacent field, with a few local bands, have a bonfire and get drunk… “Yeah sounds great we said”… boy have we regretted not being available for Leo’s 1 and 2 since, as from then on it’s success grew out of all proportion and then we couldn’t get in! We’d been looking forward to this weekend, since a visit to last years Leo 5 totally blew us away!

Back to the present and the advance party of Filth, Andy Scratch, Super and in car 2 Jordan rechargedradio and Mrs Jordan (lauren) Rechargedradio… We left Supers at 9.30 and were pleasantly surprised to have missed the M25 rush hour hangover.We made good time to Bristol, so decided to stop off at Filthy’s dads holiday camp at Burnham on Sea. We’d driven through sporadic drizzle on the way down, but as we tucked into burger and chips the sun came out… a good sign!

Soon back on the road, we’d been warned that Satnav may not find the festival site as it was tucked in a labyrinth of leafy lanes… but they hadn’t reckoned on the free nav app! We arrived through the dusty gates at 3.20 and were delighted to be greated by three of the main protagonists Lee (opallooza) himself, Samuel L Babylon party lord of Cornwall and Matt or Coops as he’s known in these parts, who handed out our wrist bands and itineraries and then directed us to band camp where we set about our erections!

Question was do we pitch near the small orange generator or by the hedge near the stage?… we went for the orange and formed a semi circle…in a formation of decent £75 tent, new £8 tent (that only took 1 minute to set up btw) £100 ish tent and other £8 tent, which upon pumping lilo, you could just about squeeze in a couple of snakes and a supermodel… John’s gonna love his tent… leaving room for Grim’s pop up… it was time for a stretch of leg and possibly a cheeky lager?…but first a trip to Bude’s local ‘Mozzers’ where we purchased, pasties, sarneys, a ridiculously cheap, but fragile ploughmans platter, 3 cases of San Miguel and 3 bags of ice… “Do you need help with packing?” asked the smiling checkout girl… “No thanks we’re 3 big boys!” we heartily guffawed)…but thanks to Super and his, ‘I obviously get Mrs Super to do the packing skills’… there was soon platter everywhere…

On the way back to the site, a slight detour took in the gorgeous Widemouth Bay… Where commenced a mini photoshoot possibly for the artwork for album 4!…

Once back at the site we teamed up again with Jordan who had sidestepped the camping and sorted his lodgings with friends Mark and Sarah. A brief encounter ensued where it was decided that as the bar wouldn’t open until the next morning, we should nip back to Bude for that beer we’d mentioned, but still not had. Soon we were sat outside the Falcon Hotel to await the arrival of Nick and Rosie, Brother and Sister in law of joint Scratch founder 1.

Following a short stop for Nicks rider of Guiness we were soon continuing an assualt on the beers at the site, as the crew obviously thirsty from their incessant toil, had begun to test the beer pumps… It was great, our little band of band and followers settled in for an evening of chatted anticipation with the hugely friendly but still hugely busy locals, who had now numbered the hundreds, as they kept appearing like ‘sprites with hammers’ from behind every tree and bush, each with his final task to perform, there was no calm before the storm… there was too much too do!

John and Grim, finally arrived at 11.30 following M25 hell and we saw a brief resurgence in the drinking, that coincided with Steve’s final deterioration from happy drunk to lippy teenager…,Retirement to bed a little after 1am was now the best course of action…

SHOWTIME
Saturday saw an early rise, partly due to a deflated lilo and an urgent chemical loo appointment, but mainly down to supreme excitedness… Unfortunately the result of which left 5 hung over and hunger wracked band members 2 hours to wait before the sweet relief of Bacon roll heaven, or in John’s case egg…

As it does in these instances, time was starting to speed up… so much so infact it wasn’t long before the band were entering tent C backstage to deposit outfits and up line checking, borrowed and brought equipment. This is where we were introduced to the stage clock. Placed in front of the monitors it was there to keep the bands from over running their sets and screwing up the precision timings of stage managers (‘Drakey’ on the main and ‘Munch’ on ours). Over running bands in the past had been a nightmare, especially with the ingenious and excellent leopallooza two stages a quarter turn of the hips apart, meaning the crowd basically doesn’t need to move more than this to see the next band strike up dead on their set time, so clock was brought in and worked perfectly, when Man like me over stayed their slot allotment.

The rider arrived around 12 and was instantly set upon, as Jordan and Mark were press ganged and thrust their Scratch t-shirts for their during set duties! Jordan who can never quite relax (we are all so similar!), couldn’t resist a quick backstage interview as the band put in their last stretches and prayers and as 1pm ticked on the stage clock… The Team was ready!

So as the last chord of local Cornish grungers ‘The Sum of’, died on the light summer wind, the clock was punched and stage manager Munch was announcing our long awaited (by us at least) arrival at Leopallooza… The set began with a flourish of guitar and symbols, (a trick echoed by approximately every other band for the rest of the day)… before Grim bought semblance to the madness with his cultesque ‘Rain’ era riffology… and we were into the newly extended intro of Texture to the flava, tight and urgent the bands oldest live song… gave way to the rejuvenated Critical Mass… at this stage of the day approx 1.23 in the afternoon there was no need for stage lighting, for which the incumbents were grateful as the sun that had began to beat down on the field was heating the second stage to microwave proportions… Narcotic Hearts was next up followed by Commando the ever prevalent Ramones cover which the band had decided to throw in at the last minute. From the stage Jordan and Mark standing out well in their banana yellow t-shirts we’re already being relieved of goody bags as Against the Grain (seeing Filthy’s first foray off of the stage), gave way to 88th Day of Rain… Then it was the holy trinity of Maniac, Teen Idol and Gas Taps… which today featured an Iggy pastiche, stunt dives and an impromptu guitar smash of 2 parts of two previously smashed and bolted together bits of ancient historic artifacts dating back to the last century!) Said guitar had been brought along to star in the annual celebratory burning of the car at the end of the evening, but in a spontaneous act of wanton vandalism, it smashed into at least 4 bits with just one blow against the metal crash barrier in front of the stage)…  spilt beer cans, torn set lists and pocket fulls of plectrums, lay dead and dying, as 3 young ladies at the front of the crowd wrestled the broken guitar parts into their handbags… (we caught up with them some hours later and they were still clutching said booty with supreme devotion).

Fantastic, no mistakes and we gave it our all.  Huge thanks go out to Munch for his masterly stage management, Kenva for his excellent stage maneuvering and Matt for his fantastical organization, we were now going to enjoy the rest of this day in a big way! Thanks to everyone who came up to us afterwards and said such great things throughout the day and the ones who bought or took goody bags from our gallant helpers. And finally, thanks to the guy inThe Smiths T-shirt who had our sound somewhere between Big star and the Ramones.

We, as you do at fests, didn’t stay in one place long and flitted back and forth from base camp for a snooze, back stage to pat a band ot two on the back, the bar and of course the loos that really held up well, it has to be said!

Of all the acts we saw, collectively I think our picks of the weekend were Exit International (2 bases and drums, adrenalin infused mayhem!), La Shark (A heinz 57 of Japan, Sparks, B52’s, Talking Heads and Beck) and Kill it kid (probably the youngest band there, who though more straight ahead, grunge rock, looked to have a big future).

We have to say The Datsuns were a bit of a disappointment, it felt a little like farmers field generator more than Harmonic Generator at times and as for the bands/agents rumored to be wrangling for one slot higher up the bill, shame on you, you prima donna’s… you’re really missing the point!

In essence Leopallooza is a mini glastonbury, or at least in ethic the glasto of it’s heyday, no corporate sponsorship, it’s for the people by the people. £35 for a whole weekend of such diverse entertainment get real, there ain’t many bargains left in the world, but this is one of them!… If we’re not on it next year, (Go on guys, you know we won’t let you down!)We’ll see you there anyway for Leopallooza 7. As Matteus the beautiful faced silver wolf  was heard to say as we left on Sunday morning.. “This truly is, the best house party in a field anywhere!”

Next stop Endorse IT in Dorset for more of the same! :-) x