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Gigs for Ryan Giggs.

2009-12-01 09:42:49

On Sunday night we had the weirdest gig of our life. We were playing a charity gig on behalf of UNICEF, at Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. It started off badly and went down-hill from there. We left London at 6am, having been asked to arrive at the venue 9 hours before we were actually playing for a sound-check that ran 6 hours late, and the minute we walked in the room, we knew it was going to be a nightmare at the Theatre Of Dreams.

It was a black-tie dinner for 600 people including the entire Man United squad (which as a life-long season ticket holder, you can imagine my excitement). So picture one of those posh suites. The room was very long but very narrow, with the stage facing forward and so there would be 300 seated guests to the left of the stage, unable to see anything, another 300 to the right of the stage, unable to see anything and about 5 tables in front of the stage who could see everything. To make matters worse, we were asked to do our ‘performance’ during the main course. We suggested that the guests may not want a loud band playing over their meal when they might want to talk and be sociable, but the organisers said they would all listen and it wouldn’t be a problem. Famous last words.

Having spent the entire day in a posh box, looking over the Old Trafford turf, watching the Merseyside Derby, Arsenal v’s Chelsea and the Madrid v’s Barca game, we were finally called down to do our ‘performance.’ It was a bit surreal. As I stood on stage, on the table to my right, there was Rooney and Coleen, Michael Carrick and others, on the table next to them, Scholes, Giggsy and Rio Ferdinand, to the left Vidic, Van Der saar, even Ji Sung Park and everyone other member of the squad seated nearby. For once I was performing for the Manchester United team and not the other way round.

So we started with Ready To Love Again and it was going really well. For 17 seconds. Rooney was nodding his head, Giggsy stopped shovelling the Tarte Terine into his mouth and looked up. Berbatov even tapped his foot. More energy exerted than an average home game for him. And then Sir Alex Ferguson had to go and ruin everything. Problem was, they'd sat Fergie right next to the bloody speaker and so immediately, he asked the organiser to turn the volume down, which our soundman did. And then 10 seconds later asked for it to be turned down further until it was so quiet, I’m told out-front all you could really hear was the drum-kit, the feed from the guitar amp and the sound of posh mancs chatting about Coleens’ post-baby flab. It was such a shame, finally playing for my heroes and we may as well have been a band like The Saturdays, going through our paces - incidentally they were the after-dinner 'entertainment' and I'm not sure if that means they performed their latest hits or as a girl band were the after-dinner 'entertainment' for the footballers to choose their wives from.

Gig over, off we all trundled to our Premier Lodge across the road from Old Trafford, wondering if the United players ever stayed in one of these after a game on their £100,000 a week salaries.

And when it couldn't get any worse, I arrive back in London, pick up my car, make a phone call to Nick to say I'll see him at mine tomorrow and just as I'm saying bye, a lovely police-man jumps into the middle of the road, pulls me over and fines me £60 and 3 points for being on the phone, whilst driving. Naughty I know, but you all do it, I'm sure. I told him about the rubbish gig in the hope that he'd let me off out of sympathy. His parting words were, "I'm an Arsenal fan, so if it were down to me, I'd give you 6 points!" I said if he stopped giving 3 points away so willy-nilly, his footy team might do the same and drove off.

Gig next week. With volume. Come it shall be fun. London. Water Rats, King's Cross. Monday 7th Dec.

Mike
x

There's 2 sides to every story

2009-08-12 11:41:17

Mike: ‘I moved to London from Manchester six years ago as I heard the streets were paved in gold. They’re not. They’re paved in drunks, slabs and bird poo. A guy called Dick Whittington said it. With a first name like that I should have known better. The dream was to become a songwriter, producer or a rockstar with my band Kintish Town so naturally spending a large chunk of that time writing a play was the obvious route to achieving that dream. Fast-forward 3 years and I was holding a read-through for a play. I needed a young guy to play the part of the brash, cocky and annoying son. Nick Ingram’s name was suggested. “He won’t need to act,” I was told, “He fits the part perfectly,” They were right. He didn’t need to act. Which was a pretty good job, because between you and me… he couldn’t.’

Nick: ‘I always wanted to be a singer. I never wanted to do anything else. That’s why I trained as an actor. I was at home one day in North London being unemployed, when a friend called me about a play-reading of some sort. “It’s only a first draft so the play will probably be crap,” she said, “But the writer, Mike, will pay you £20.” She was right about the play. ‘Crap’ is one of many four letter words I can think of to describe it. As for the £20, this Mike chap told us he’d transfer the money into our bank accounts. He had a suspicious face. I wasn’t wholly convinced.’

Mike: ‘Nick and I went to the pub after. We talked football and music and spent hours talking about bands we loved in common…Queen, The Beach Boys, the Police, Tears For Fears, Madness. The list went on. We must have drunk a lot because before I knew it, my wallet was empty and my face was even more suspicious than usual’

Nick: ‘We went to the pub and chatted for hours. I still didn’t know whether to trust him or not so when he went to the loo, I took £20 out of his wallet, just in case. Oh and another fiver for my tube home. Expenses and all that, you know.’

Mike: ‘Nick came round to my home studio a few days later and we started writing a song, which turned out to be ‘If I Could’. His voice was incredible and after the near misses I’d had as a songwriter and producer over the previous few years, I thought this could be the project. I was prepared to exploit his talent, even if it meant working him to the death. He was expendable. I apologised that I was having a few problems with my internet banking and would write him out a cheque for £20. What a nice guy. He told me not to bother, because he’d enjoyed the play so much.’

Nick: ‘We were writing this song and he made up some rubbish excuse about his internet banking being down. I told him not to worry about the £20. He seemed really grateful. And so when he went to the loo, I took another forty out of his wallet to teach him not to try and screw me over. The song we wrote was right up my street. We added lots of vocal harmonies. And more harmonies. And when we’d finished the harmonies. I added a few more harmonies just in case’.

Mike: ‘ I left Nick to finish off the harmonies and went to the pub. I came back 2 days later. He was still doing them.’

Nick: ‘We spent the next few months holed up in Mike’s bedroom studio – (not sure he ever washed his duvet cover mind you) - writing and recording and we suddenly had a collection of songs we thought had legs. We spoke on the phone a lot. ‘You alright, mate,” I’d say. “Yeah, You?” he’d say. “We need a band name,” I’d say, “I’ve got no ideas,” he’d say. This went on daily. “You alright, mate?” “Yeah, You?” “Any ideas” “No, You?” The rest as they say is history.’

Mike: ‘So The Yeah You’s did a few gigs, talked to a few record companies and suddenly for about an hour, we were the most talked about new band in the industry. We signed a record deal with the folk at Island Records in May 2008 before going off to LA to record our album with producer du jour Greg Wells. a bit like Soup Du Jour but without the basil. Two months in LA was a great experience. Living with Nick for two months was amazing fun.’

Nick: ‘Two months in LA was amazing fun. Living with Mike for two months was an experience alright. Unfortunately, we only finished 5 tracks in that time….’

Mike: ‘…Cos we spent 4 weeks doing the flippin’ harmonies.’

Nick: ‘But we did come back with great tans.’

Mike: ‘And so after the sun of LA, the million pound Californian studios and the genius of Greg Wells, we were back in my freezing cold West Hampstead bedroom, finishing off the rest of the album ourselves. “What’s that Nick? You want to add another harmony? Oh boy…'

THE BEST DAY IN THE HISTORY OF EVER

2009-09-28 11:44:33

Nostradamus failed to predict it.

Thousand of conspiracy theorists got the date all wrong.

The most important day ever is in fact today, the day that from now forth will be known as the day our debut album was released! Excited? Us too.

'Looking Through You' is here and we're cock-a-hoop about it because after years of work, harmonising and waiting, we can share it with you lovely lovely people.

Get it from Amazon for a bargain £6.98 by clicking on this link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002CJN414?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwumusiccouk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B002CJN414

It's got '15 Minutes' on it, our new single 'Getting Up With You' and a whole pop bun full of musical nutrients we reckon you might love as much as we do.

Join us. Today is our day.

With all the love and excitement there is...

The Yeah You's.

Check out the new video!

2009-07-20 10:11:32

Check out the video for our new single 'Getting Up With You' over at www.qashqaisland.co.uk!

The Yeah You's single-handedly saving the economy

2009-06-18 12:15:56

We, your friends The Yeah You's, would like to thank you, the people of the world, for buying our debut single, '15 Minutes'. Apparently Britain would have disappeared forever down the endless toilet of recession yesterday at 4.20pm if you hadn't... and it means we're at 29 in the iTunes chart! Huzzah! Praise be the musical Gods!

But it's only midweek! So even if you've already got it yourself there is still plenty of time to buy it for others. It's Father's Day on Sunday... why don't you stick some quality pop in the old man's pipe!

Buy Buy Buy!

Love from The Yeah You's.