Christmas message...

Ding dong merrily on high
For Harry C is singing
Alex, John, Martin and Dan
Are twanging, banging, plinking

Here's a sneaky peek into some of the new material, as well as an insight into how musician's communicate with each other during rehearsals.

Happy Christmas - looking forward to seeing you at a venue somewhere in 2009!



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Stop Press!

New blog with Christmas message and snippets of music of the new band will be arriving tomorrow. But in the meantime, I'm off across a frosty London for a Christmas feast.

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The 12-step guide to making an album...

Hello you beauties.

Lots going on at the moment, some good, some bad. Despite this, as the band continues to come together, I continue to film the process. I'm currently working on the next blog update, so keep checking back and I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I've found my VHS tapes of Moke recording Carnival at Rockfield Studios in Wales. I thought I'd lost the tapes, so am delighted to be able to finally share a few moments with you. The album sessions began in Los Angeles, but we didn't like it there, so decamped to sunny Wales. It was also about as far away from our record company as we could get. We stayed two weeks, I only wish it could have been more.

Rockfield is where many, many great albums have been made. For example, the piano in the clip really is the one used on Bohemian Rhapsody. Pretty cool, eh...? Add to that a fabulous collection of mics and outboard gear, great sounding rooms and best of all...total seclusion!

Next to the studio is a house, each one of us had our own rooms, with en suites (complete with whirlpool bath, no less). Every evening you'd write on the blackboard by the kitchen what time you'd like to be woken in the morning, as well as what you'd like for breakfast. And at around 5pm each day, a cordon-bleu chef would arrive and cook you a three-course meal for dinner!

After Rockfield, we went to London and spent several further months recording before finally heading back to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks where the album was mixed.

Below is advice on how to make a record...


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Rehearsal No.4...

Feckin' Nora!

Rehearsal No. 4 took place last night and another song was added to the pot. Harry’s written some corking tunes – we’re all very excited! Everyone’s getting on top of the harmonies, as well as the instrumental parts that change subtly from verse to chorus. These subtle shifts mean learning the songs is a right old mental workout. If you’re not concentrating it’s easy to lose track of where you are. Good thing that we’re all such pros then. Er…

I’ve been filming select bits as we go along. I’d love to show you some of the music, but at this stage I can’t. Anyway you’ll just have to come and see it for yourself. Things are shaping up - gigs to follow soon.

Instead, here’s a short film about everything else that takes place when rehearsing. It packs sizzling facts, wise advice, poetry, epic voyages, hilarious jokes and lions, yes lions, into just two minutes! Spielberg and Tarantino are shitting themselves.

Rehearsals can be dull affairs, but not with this band.




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Homebrew...

Strewth!

Johnmoke's Mum makes her own wine. She distributes it to her son in a petorl can, which makes you feel really naughty each time you go for a top up. Or should that be stop to refuel? Anyway, you could almost certainly power a small vehicle with it.

The wine was consumed whilst we rehearsed with our new supergroup. I'm very excited about this project, which will be coming to a venue near you soon. The music is written by Harry Collier - amazing songs played by a fantastic group of musicians.

It's the best band I've ever been in.

To celebrate this, we drank the wine. All of it.

And then didn't play so well.


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p.s - new Moke clip below. Thanks Heylad, whoever you are!

My Degeneration (live)...

Zap!
Pow!
Kerblat!

Rock as hard as this don't come easy. Yes, Moke have their sex faces on, but when generating riffs of such gladitorial magnitude, is it really surprising?!?!

Ladies and Gentlemen...the mighty, MIGHTY MOKE!



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New music...

There have been requests for new music and I'm planning on putting some new stuff up in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I hope you've been resourceful enough to check out the Moke myspace site.

Here, you'll find our first single, I Dream Abused, two previously unreleased tracks, Leather Drag and Take It Out On Me, as well as a demo from the unreleased third album, The Fashion.

Also, the Moonhead track, Lovely Day (featuring Alex and John) is available from the audio area of the Moke website, along with another B-side, Seven Lives.

So all in all, quite a lot of freebies so far, with more still to come. Trouble is, I AM SO BUSY at the moment, it has been extremely difficult to find time to get round to working on the Moke website.

You see, I've been developing an alternate career in television. There will be more on this soon. So very much more!!! I've also just bought myself a harmonium, see picture above. Which naturally has seen me performing a number of rude sea shanties, much to my children's delight, instead of concentrating on things I should be doing.


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Fixed it...

Clever old me! Moonhead now available for all - feast yourselves my beauties!

By way of celebration, let's go jam with Roger Manning Jr & pal...

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Moonhead...

Ok, Ok...
Stupid bleedin' website problems.
Bear with us.

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Glastonbury part 3...

Now I've been to festivals. Many, many festivals. Unfortunately, over the years, these have varied in quality.

Low points...
Greenbelt festival, England '95.
As performer, Moonhead - band introduced by BBC Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo, who had just waxed lyrical on how his parents accepting his ear ring was a bit like how God / Jesus is accepting of many similar challenging issues. OK Simon. Nice use of analogy. To the unitiated, the Greenbelt Festival is run by "an independent Christian charity working to express love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel". Which despite my lack of religious convictions is just fine, until your sarcastic guitarist, arriving ten minutes late for the set, rushes on stage mid-song and announces through the mic that he's sorry for his tardiness, but en-route to the festival he suddenly saw the light and found Jaaaaaaysus.

Jools Holland, Beddington Park, England '95
As performer, Moonhead - supporting Sir Jools and his mighty Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. Unfortunately, the man from the council came round with his noise-meter, to check that the bands weren't playing too loud, decided we were, and shut the PA system off mid-song, thus terminating our performance. Band then proceed to get regally drunk, enjoy Lonnie Listen Smith's and Jools' sets, ...and ultimately wake up cold, damp and alone behind some flightcases in a tent, unsure of time and how to get home.

Some fucker in Atlanta, GA, USA '99
As performer, Moke - sorry that I can't be more specific about the festival name, but we flew from Chicago...no the battery's flat (think about it) to Atlanta. Then we had to drive about 250 miles through torrential rain to the festival site. We did this, jumping off a major tour (arena shows), because it was, according to our label, "a fantastic opportunity". Which in essence translated to a fantastic opportunity to look at a load of electrical cables under 3 inches of water, a sagging, wind destroyed stage and three acid-soaked groovers, dancing to the beat of the monsoon that was lashing the festival site. Whilst we absorbed this, the poor promoter explained that the festival was off. No shit, Sherlock. Cue return 250 mile drive, 2000 mile flight...resume tour.

Glasonbury, England, 2000
As performer, Moke - best EVER on stage sound. Wonderful!

Cropredy, England '96
As security guard(!), Camp Site 4 - I stayed awake from Thursday 'til Sunday.

Rock Am Ring, Germany '99
As performer, Moke. Great show - other bands included Senser, Ash, Smashing Pumpkins and The Prodigy. The next morning, Seanmoke and myself decided that we needed to go home. An epic journey ensued, which included traveling in German Police cars (they're BMWs you know), several buses, wonderful smooth punctual European trains, two planes, a short visit to Switzerland, before finally arriving at Heathrow.

My final thoughts before moving away from the festival thing...

On the whole, committing to attending a festival is a bit like a trip to McDonalds. You know from the outset it's fraught with potential badness. But the reality is actually quite good.


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p.s - Moonhead were a lovely band with John and Alex, amongst other members. I will post some music by Moonhead next week.

Glastonbury part deux...

MGMT
Goldfrapp
Kings of Leon
Ting Tings
Neil Diamond
The Raconteurs

I get it.

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Glastonbury...

The Verve - I just don't get it?!?!

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Busy...

Man, we've been busy!

It has come to my attention that none other than Sean "Topol" Genockey has been busy keeping journalists in gainful employment. Sean featured in The Guardian last Saturday, and has also been busy talking studio wizzardry to techie publication, Audio Pro Magazine. If that's not enough, the Gnock's also just played at the Isle of Wight festival with Wills & The Willing, featuring none other than Moke No. 5 Charlie Morton on drums.

Similarly, Hogg have also been busy, playing the Isle of Wight two days after Sean & Charlie. Their next date is at the Hyde Park Calling festival on the 28th June. I've just mixed a track for them, called Television Blues. It can be downloaded for free from their rather snappy new website.

Now if that isn't enough activity for you, Johnny Morgan and the magnificent Senser have been busy enjoying a range of service stations accross the UK whilst touring, something they will continue to be doing throughout the summer. A new album is due out in September - details available here.

Blimey, I'm knackered just thinking about it all. I'm off for a rest...

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On the radio, part 2...

I hope you were listening on Wednesday evening to the rather wonderful Ally Lee show on Lionheart Radio. As you know, Moke were the featured artist that evening, but I also heard some excellent non-Moke music including the late greats Johnny Cash and Bo Diddley, as well as my new favourite band, Airbourne - check them out here. With song names like Runnin' Wild and lyrics such as...

I got the wind at my back
And my foot to the floor
I ain't comin' back to you no more

...you know these fellas mean business.
And their business is to rock.

They're playing at Donnington later this summer, for those interested. But back to Ally Lee's show, much fun was had, and it was nice to hear that people from various parts of the UK were listening and texting / emailing in. We even had Moke fans from as far away as Canada listening online. Gotta love that internet. I plan to put highlights of the show up on the website at a point soon - meanwhile click here for a little taster.

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Palace O'Piano...

Hello

Happy 1st of June y'all. A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month, and no returns. Though where is the sunshine?

Just a couple of things. The first is to remind you of Moke's forthcoming appearance on the radio, details in blog beneath. I'm not going to stop plugging this because I think it's fantastic and am looking forward to tuning in.

The second is that I've been busy moonlighting, recording some rather fabulous piano for the progressive rock supergroup, Frost. Much fun was had, and you can see the results here.

Quite why I'm known as Dr. Ean dates back to around 1986, but it's a title I like and an alias I wear well. I will be adopting a similar guise on Monday this week, when John and myself will be donning our mixing capes. We're working on a system that will revolutionise the record making process. The theory is, you can take several days mixing a track, or you can take just a few hours. We'll be testing the theory that a few hours produces better results than several days.

And I reckon it will too.

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On the radio...

Moke will be on the radio, on Wednesday 4th June 7.00 - 10.00pm GMT. That's the time in London, England for you non-UK based Moke afficianados. The show is Ally Lee's Rock Show and Moke will be the featured artist that evening. The radio staion is www.lionheartradio.com - you can access them here.

Rock on...

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Sonic fun...

I've just got me one of these. Such fun, though it's keeping me from working on the website, something I should really be doing.

In light of this, I should draw your attention to the comments feature at the end of this blog, which can be used to submit encouraging, supportive and motivational messages. Go Alex...GO! And if there are enough of these, you'll find me sprinting, Rocky Balboa-style, to the top of the Moke Youtube steps with a special musical treat.

Also, some news...I think there's going to be a Moke special on the radio in the next week. And coz it's on the internet, EVERYONE will be able to listen. I've just been recording idents for the show, something I haven't done in six years. An ident is when you say "Hi, this is Alex from Moke, and you're listening to (insert DJ's name here) on KLCX 108.6...the home of ROCK!"...or something like that. It used to be a task left primarily to John Hogg and myself, and not because Sean and Johnny weren't welcome to do it, but because we would actively seek out the opportunity to do so. Why? Within minutes we'd be reduced to fits of side-splitting laughter, tears rolling down our faces, barely able to breathe, whilst the increasingly frustrated DJ looked on.

I was going to post some outakes from John and myself, but then I stumbled upon a couple of pros. I think they best demonstrate why recording idents can be fun.

Which reminds me, I should call John and get him over to record some right now. And maybe have some wine.

Back soon...

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p.s - for interested parties, Memory Man stuff here!

Celebrity fan No. 2...

We kicked Keanu's arse. How? Well...

Moke were the first band signed to our American record company. Dogstar, Keanu Reeve's band, were the second. The label thought it would be a good idea to send us out on tour together. This made a great deal of sense, particularly seeing as we were both about to release debut albums and The Matrix was doing rather well at the box office.

Being naturally inquisitive souls, we wondered if when backed into a tricky situation, Keanu would put his Matrix style moves into practice. Following a few weeks weaving our way across America, opportunity came a-knocking in a hotel swimming pool one evening.

Now it turns out, when faced with a bit of tasty Saaaaf Laaaaaaaaaaandan action, fancy kung-fu is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Yes - we did split his head open, but as it was all in the name of fun, nobody thought anymore of it.

Our label, however, were shitting themselves. Apparently, damaging the face of one of Warner Bros' biggest movie stars is NOT a good move. Fortunately, Keanu is a very nice man and the threat of lawsuits quickly subsided. Tell you what though - if our paths cross again, one almighty big can of Whoopass will be opened Reeves, make no mistake about that!

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Celebrity fan No. 1...

Someone's just called me to let me know that they've just seen English novelist, reviewer and columnist Will Self lighting a roll up with a Moke cigarette lighter (soon to be available from our forthcoming, high quality, internet-based retail outlet).

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Farewell to Brewer St...

This Monday saw our UK record company finally moving out of their premises in Brewer St, Soho. Soho is like a village that landed in the middle of London. Or more to the point, it's like a village that London surrounded, because that part of London is pretty old. But I digress...

Dorado, our record company, had been operating out of their Brewer St premises for sixteen years. The office was a few doors away from the pub pictured above. Though the Brewer St office has now closed, the label is alive and well - you can see what they're up to here.

Monday afternoon found me retreading a familiar path, from Waterloo Station, through London's sunny streets, to Dorado HQ. On the way I had to walk through Trafalgar Square. Strangely, at that exact moment, so did Prince Charles. This was of great inconvenience, as around 1,000 tourists were rubber necking the jug-eared heir to the throne. Though he does make nice sausages, I'll give him that. And cakes. Again, I digress...

I arrived at 5'ish, to a haze of skunk smoke, copious amounts of ice cold beer, a sea of cardboard boxes, towering piles of vinyl, CDs and other paraphernalia. Other artists signed to the label soon turned up, and before long a right old knees-up was taking place.

By mid-evening I was pleasantly toasted and cruising back to Surrey in a cab, chockablock full of Moke goodies. Rummaging through the stock rooms of the label has unearthed CD singles & albums, 7" & 12" vinyl singles, posters, 1,000 Moke cigarette lighters, live recordings of concerts, unreleased studio material...oh and all the master tapes too.

Result!

The question is, what to do with all this stuff next...


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The Bounder...

Man...we had a bounder. Or more specifically, we had The Bounder...THE Bounder. It looked very similar to the one in the picture above, but ours was pimped. And I mean PIMPED! The Moke Bounder had another set of wheels towards the back, a satellite dish that you cranked up with a handle linked to a huge television, fridges, a kitchen, a shower, toilet...and best of all, electric steps that popped out at the touch of a button. We eschewed the black paint job and went instead for pure beige. Classic, sleek, sexy...cool.

We first met The Bounder in Florida. It had been driven out to the East coast by our driver for the next twelve weeks, Hans. The man was, and hopefully still is, a legend.

Over the course of that tour, The Bounder took a bit of a kicking. We regularly overlooked to retract the electric steps. What would alert you to this was a horrific metallic scraping sound, which would only happen when the vehicle turned right. This could be ten, twenty minutes into a journey.

The satellite dish? Navigating a low bridge at high speed took care of that one. The huge wing mirrors? Casualty No. 1, entering a checkpoint at Disney in Anaheim, CA. Casualties Nos. 2, 3, 4... - I don't remember where, but what's important to understand is that there were multiple casualties.

We also ripped the roof off and crashed the fucker on a daily basis, usually at the back, which when you look at the design of the vehicle is understandable. Approximately one third of The Bounder's length was behind the rear wheels. You'd go to swing out of a parking space, and destroy the back of the bus AND a street sign in one fell swoop.

Inside, The Bounder was a palace when we took possession. Check it...




...just like Dolly Parton's living room. By the time the tour ended in Houston, Texas, it had also been destroyed. Following the incident with the roof, water had leaked in, helpfully all over the 1,000 or so Moke T-shirts we were carrying at the time. We chain smoked throughout the 600 mile daily drives, and in the tradition of all considerate rock bands, entertained well wishers in the vehicle following a show, instead of our hotel rooms. Hot rocks, spillages, general bon viveurie took care of the soft furnishings and interior decor. And due to the lack of a boot (GB) / trunk (USA), flightcases rolled over the floor on a daily basis had ripped the lino to shreds.

The final straw was when we travelled to a show somewhere in the mid-west. As we drove through a densely wooded area, a sprightly deer suddenly leaped, gazelle-like, into the road in front of The Bounder. I was riding shotgun at the time, and as we hurtled towards it, the deer's head turned - we locked eyes. What followed was that special moment, where animal and man are in perfect harmony. We understood each other completely.

"Maybe, just maybe, this isn't going to happen...?"

Then...

THWACK!
CRUNCH!
BUDOOMP!

May it's enormous great bulk R.I.P. And I'm talking about The Bounder, as well as the stupid deer.

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Analogue...

As you're now probably aware, the webiste is back up and running in some capacity, though some pages remain under construction. In particular the media section. Oh the media section! There are countless video clips, photographs, demos, B-sides, live recordings and interviews for the band to sift through in order to work out what's fit for public consumption.

What's causing some delay is that Moke operated in an analogue world. The past six years has seen the digital revolution consume the media industries, which doesn't half make life easy NOW. But back then...phew! As you can imagine, trying to find a four-track cassette player is proving...interesting, though I think we're getting there.

Watch this space...

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Back again...

Welcome one and all to the allsinging, dirtydancing, hardrocking M O K E B L O G, part of the newly revamped moke.com

Through various portals, and for some time now, people have been sending messages and asking questions...

Why did Moke come to an end?
Where are the band now?
How can we buy CDs?
Will downloads ever be available?
What about a live album?
Are there plans to release any new material?

The relaunch of moke.com plans to address all of these issues. And so many more.

Until next time…

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p.s - thanks to Dougorama for the excellent photo used above. You can see more of his rather snazzy work here.