Tracklist:
01) Fishtickbreath
02) It Wud Be Rude Not To
03) Mark Luvs Emma
04) Who Put This Thing In Here?
05) Fonecharga
06) Simon Luvs Carrie
07) Smellybellybutton
08) The Night Sky
09) A Nicer Slice Of Brie
10) Three Pints At Spoons
Personnel:
g.w.lang
All tracks by g.w.lang
Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Tracklist:
1) A Game of Soldiers
2) Random Thoughts On the Possibility Of A Supreme Being
3) Five Major Ways To Soften Your Brain
4) Memories Of You
5) Untitled
Personnel:
g.w.lang
Written by g.w.lang
Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Available from Bandcamp with a "name your own price" deal.
SJI's final run-out of the year is as part of the 8th annual Out Of The Trees festival, taking place in Warkworth, Northumberland. From their website:
Out of the Trees is an independent music festival that takes place annually in the small Northumbrian village of Warkworth. It is the only alternative music festival in Northumberland and one of the most unique events on the North East music scene calendar.
This year’s Out of the Trees will take place on Saturday the 29th December 2012 and will be our eighth year.
The festival originally began in 2005 as a strange idea on a winter night and has gradually developed over the years to become a day-long festival that show-cases some of the most original musicians and artists from the North East and further afield.
All profits raised from this year’s event will be going to SPOWE Uganda, a grassroots charity that supports victims of AIDS and HIV. You can read more about the incredible work of SPOWE here: http://spoweuganda.blogspot.com/
You can find all of the details about the event from the festival's website here.
Note: There are three venues, SJI's appearance will be at The Mason's Arms.
SJI were guests of Nick Newcombe's excellent Kick Out the Jams show on Koast Radio with the brief of choosing tracks that had been influential in our musical development, or musical lives, or something. Whatever the brief actually was, we did our own thing in the end.
g.w.lang's choices:
John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Street Listen
Squeeze - Up The Junction Listen
The Specials - Friday Night and Saturday Morning Listen
The Jam - Down At The Tube Station At Midnight Listen
Jilted John - Jilted John Listen
mark oliver's choices:
Laurie Anderson - O Superman (For Massenet) Listen
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Never Understand Listen
American Music Club - Western Sky Listen
Belle and Sebastian - String Bean Jean Listen
The Horse Loom - Valley I could only find one ropey sound quality version on YouTube, so:
More info about Kick Out The Jams HERE
More info about Koast Radio HERE.
Thanks to all who came out to spend an evening with us and our friends Cerys Atchison, Cinematic Submarine, Nev Clay, and Wrist! at the beautiful and venerable old venue The Morden Tower. We decided to split our contribution so that we ran through the evening like a stick of sour rock.
Links to YouTube Clips where available (thanks SmogDog!)
Set 1: The Organist Entertains
1 - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) [Shelley]
2 - Blue Spanish Eyes [Singleton / Snyder]
3 - As Time Goes By [Hupfeld]
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Organ)
Set 2:
1 - Next [Brel] Video1Video 2
2 - That Sick Rose Video
3 - Thanks A Bunch, Fat Boy
Set 3:
1 - Gang Of One Video
2 - What Use Is Love? Video
3 - Adjunct Video
4 - Eight For A Fiver Video
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Guitar, Autoharp, Keyboards, iPad Apps, Vocals), Tony Bennett (Drums), Bing Bongo (Bass, Vocals), Mark Oliver (Guitar, Autoharp, Vocals), Andrea Woodyer (Saxophone, iPad Apps, Vocals).
The previously announced Set 4 could not take place due to time constraints. It would have been a full-band take on That's It, It's Done, It's Over Now.
We had such a fun night, we may well do another some time soon. Watch this space.
The night garnered reviews. The first (with much potty-mouthed swearing) appeared on the noredindian Blog. Mr. Noredindian also posted a different video of our spirited romp through Jacque Brel's Next to the one provided by The SmogDog. Two videos of the same thing from two different angles. Imagine! If that much attention had been shown to President Kennedy in Dealey Plaza, there'd have been lot less fuss afterwards.
This was the second, by Rachel Brown on the KYEO.TV Blog:
Wrist!, St. James Infirmary, Nev Clay, Cinematic Submarine, Cerys Atchison @ Morden Tower, Newcastle (24.10.12) Words: Rachel Brown This bedroom-sized venue, hidden in the heart of the old town walls, is the stuff of legends, and tonight it provides a fitting backdrop to a blurry night of bizarre delights, brought to us by the self-proclaimed Rolling Stones of Ashington.
First up is singer-songwriter Cerys Atchison, a velvet-voiced teenager whose efforts, though somewhat wispy and insubstantial, belie a nascent talent.
With St James Infirmary’s first set comes the social club atmosphere which will prevail for the rest of the evening, as their pub-folk cabaret, Thanks A Lot, Fat Boy humour, and Smartprice lager get the crowd in swing.
Stealing the show completely are Cinematic Submarine. With their frantic energy, breakneck temp changes, and uniform shorts that make it at times difficult to tell if this is a gig or a particularly manic PE lesson, it’s not unlike bring in the passenger seat of a car hurtling round a mountain road with the wind screaming in your ears. It’s to be hoped that rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
SJI take the stage once more for a slightly more serious, musically-driven set, before the appearance of Nev Clay, who is tonight as charming and sweet-toned as ever, constantly interrupting his own songs with jokes, questions, and running commentary.
Finally it’s the turn of the Marc Almond-esque vocals of oddball showman-with-a-capital-S, Wrist! Rattling through a set of tragic-comic ditties, and at one point employing a flipchart as accompaniment, he’s certainly not your average performer, but his mirth and sheer zest for life are infectious, and soon get the crowd in the palm of his hand, where they remain til the end.
Thanks all!
An Evening with st. james infirmary and Wrist! with special guests Nev Clay, Cerys Atchison, and Cinematic Submarine:
Approximate times as follows:
8.00 - the organist entertains
8.20 - Cerys Atchison
8.45 - st. james infirmary
9.05 - Cinematic Submarine
9.30 - st. james infirmary
9.50 - Nev Clay
10.10 - Wrist!
10.47 - st. james infirmary
Door price is £5.00 and there is no advance payment.
Please note, The Morden Tower is a tiny, one-room venue built in the old castle wall and therefore capacity is limited. You may choose to arrive early rather than risk disappointment.
Also, as The Morden Tower is a tiny, one-room venue built in the old castle wall with very limited capacity, there is no bar. Bring yer own booze / blue pop.
Thanks once again to Jason Thompson and Radio Northumberland for inviting us to take part in their Introducing... show.
Now that it has been aired, I can link to the archived version of the show on the genuinely amazing Archive.org website.
Tracklist:
01 - Eight For A Fiver
02 - Someone Took Bad At The Bingo Again
03 - Beneath The Blue Star
04 - What Use Is Love?
05 - Peace Of Mind
06 - Bears (For Richey)
07 - Adjunct
08 - A Hurt To Be Proud Of
09 - Back To The Barstool
10 - You Can't Make Somebody Love You
Interview Personnel:
g.w.lang, Mark Oliver, Andrea Woodyer
Available from Bandcamp with a "name your own price" deal.
Tracklist:
01) Autumn Message
02) Am I Flipping?
03) Boy Junk
04) The Greatest Story Ever Told
05) Gary Lang's Dead
06) Spilled Milk
07) Be Kind To Frank
08) Memory Babe
09) The Walking Dead
10) Watching TV
11) Jill
12) Happy Families
13) Do The Solar Swivel
14) Oh No
15) Too Much Too Soon
16) We Could Be Giants
17) Untitled #1
18) Untitled #2
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Vocals, Guitars), Tony Bennett (Drums, Vocals).
All tracks by g.w.lang, except Happy Families & Too Much Too Soon by Handyside/Lang and
Oh No by Cormack/Lang
Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Tracks 1-16 originally released as the cassette "Kiss This" (1986). Remastered for CD by Jimmy Buxton, September 2012.
Last Thursday, g.w.l, Andrea Woodyear, and Mark Oliver met up with Radio Northumberland DJ Jason Thompson to record an hour-long SJI special. It features ten tracks from the archives and general chit-chat. It airs for the first time tonight. Tune in here: http://www.radionorthumberland.com/index.html
Dunno quite how I forgot to post this here, but Eight For A Fiver got reviewed in the latest issue of The Crack:
St James Infirmary
Eight For A Fiver (Dibble Records)
Ashington based St James Infirmary are the local indie semi-legends who have
been through more band members than The Fall. And chief ringmaster G.W. Lang is
showing no signs of being jaded on this release which is a nicely frothy
combination of The Ramones, Half Man Half Biscuit and Lawrence (of Denim and Go
Kart Mozart fame). Great! DP
Out now
There'll be more details soon, but SJI ventured beyond the city walls of Ashington and made it to Newbiggin in order to record an interview for Radio Northumberland. http://www.radionorthumberland.com/index.html
It's going to be an hour long and feature 10 tracks plus chat. Thanks Jason Thompson for the invite!
Radio Newcastle interviewed the head of Dibble Records, Mr Keith Thompson about his roster of Northern misfits and Mr Wrist! himself (aka Ant Davison, aka Bing Bongo) talked at length about his new single That Football Song.
SJI were discussed and the track Thank You, I'm Sorry, But You're Not The One I've Been Waiting For was played. It's a fun interview, and you can check it out below.
Is there anything more grimly onanistic than desperately searching on Google for people who might be talking about you? Possibly not, but nevertheless, that is the job and purpose of this blog- to document the ongoing travails of the ongoing, multi-decade, multi-media meta-project that is St. James Infirmary.
So it was that last night I set about searching for public response and reaction to Eight For A Fiver, our new single. Mostly what I found was links to this blog, but there were enough sparkly bits within the silt to keep me going.
Firstly, this review is from The Manifesto website: You’re not the one I’ve been waiting for’ has a heartfelt and selfish lyrical ambience, as it describes a man’s pain of finding a women whom isn’t his dream, this accompanied with the hypnotic acoustics and sombre vocals, lets the listener identify with the track. ‘EIght for a Fiver’ is a more uplifting record, the school children chatter at its beginning creates an innocent base with the Libertines esk instrumentals and a Morrissey sounding vocal, are chaperoned by a brass section at the latter end of the chorus to culminate a mesmerising record with diversity.
PUNKY fun rock takes centre stage in Eight For A Fiver which plods along happily and shows that St James Infirmary aren't ones to take themselves too seriously.
The track examines the availability of eight cans of lager for pounds 5 and the impact it has on the community and that pretty much sums up what you can expect lyrically.
But instrumentally the group, which is the brainchild of singer-songwriter GW Lang, knock out powerful and precise beats that culminate in a catchy tune that would easily get a moshpit worked up.
You'll like this if you're a fan of: Buzzcocks
And then I found these. I don't know what personal charts are, if I'm honest, but they seem fun and there's some tracks I need to check out myself. Plus, you know, for probably the only time ever, SJI and Bob Dylan appear on the same chart:
Okay this was something. For those of us of a certain age and geographical location, The Riverside music venue at Newcastle was THE place to see the bands that we loved. Yes, it was out of the way, and yes it was a converted warehouse, and yes, the walls did drip when it was full, but it was the Riverside, and we loved it.
There's going to be a movie about it:
But it turns out movies aren't made for free, out of goodwill and pixie-dust. So there's been fundraising drives:
And last night a fundraising event at The Cluny. SJI were very proud to be asked to play alongside Kathryn Williams, David Brewis, and Dubstar. It was great, it really was.
Setlist:
01 - Avuncular
02 - Nicky Knack Guest House
03 - Anthem For The Squeezed Middle
04 - Let's Wallow In Despair (Like We Did Last Summer)
05 - Thin
06 - Eight For A Fiver
07 - Matty Cabbage House
This set was notable for seeing the last run-out of several old favourites, several of which have been quietly taken to the vet gone to live on a beautiful farm. Yes, good old Nicky Knack, faithful old Wallow, dear old Thin, even malleable old Matty Cabbage House (oh, how we abused her, but she was a game girl: up for owt). All gone; gone the way of all things. What will we play when we next play out? Don't ask me!
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Gtr, Mandolin, Vox), Tony Bennett (Dr), Bing Bongo (B), Mark Oliver (Gtr), Simon Foster (Gtr), Andrea Woodyer (Sax).
For the second year, SJI were pleased to play at Ashington's RecFest festival at the rugby ground.
Due to the inclement weather, and the potentially fatal consequences of playing electric guitars outdoors in the rain, the RecFest line-up and stage times were spontaneously rejigged to accommodate everybody playing inside the tent.
Setlist:
01 - Eight For A Fiver
02 - Anthem For The Squeezed Middle
03 - Let's Wallow In Despair (Like We Did Last Summer)
04 - Thin
05 - Matty Cabbage House
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Gtr, Vox), Tony Bennett (Dr), Bing Bongo (B), Mark Oliver (Gtr), Simon Foster (Gtr), Andrea Woodyer (Sax).
For any new visitors to the blog, can I give a quick orientation session to what you can find here.
The purpose of this blog is to try to keep a track of the insane ongoing project that is St. James Infirmary.
In here you will find set lists, video links to YouTube and to free downloads on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Have a look around, and say hi whydoncha?
Check out this beautiful poster by Paul Nelson of MazzyCranks.com! He's done lots of glorious posters with us on, but I think this is his best yet. Edit: I'm informed that it wasn't by Paul - sorry Paul, and sorry actual artist!
So as you can see, it's a three-day music festival, at the knock-down, drag-em-out price of £5 per day (with accompanied U15s free!)
Friends! Family! Rejoice, there is now a video for the soundtrack to your summer; the singalong number one smash that is Eight For A Fiver. Compiled by Dibble Records boss Keith Thompson it features SJI in concert and in the studio. What a treat!
Looks like a fancy studio don't it? It was! Help us pay for it by buying the single, either as a digital download from:
Or if there's any left, physical CD format from Dibble Records. There are only a hundred, so when they're gone, they're gone. If you think we'll just press up another batch, you don't know g.w.lang very well.
“You get to heaven and it looks a bit like Pegswood!!!”
Now if you’ve ever been to Pegswood then you might understand what G.W. Lang (Gary to his friends) is on about. This is a lyric from a long forgotten tune that St James Infirmary released on tape back in 87 or 88. Yes folks this is no new band of whippersnappers. Gary and the gang have been putting out material for 27 years. And this, “Eight for a Fiver” is their latest release. A catchy ditty about how many cans you can get for £5 in Ashington, I presume. Its reminiscent of the stomping bashfullness of Half Man, Half Biscuit. Gary is like a Mark E Smith character keeping his band going year after year. Although I doubt he has been through as many band members or wives as Mark!!!
You may remember we featured St James Infirmary a while back. They release CDs on a regular basis and give them away to fans. This “Almanac” is a treasure trove of goodies. Get in touch and they’ll send you some. Because of their kind spirit I had no doubts about sending off my money for this their first official release in years. A two track single released on the “Dibble Records” label. As well as the mightily catchy “Eight for a Fiver” (check out the video below for proof and you’ll be singing the tune in your head all day!!) It also features “Thank-you, I’m sorry, but you’re not the one I’ve been waiting for”. Which sounds like a title Dave Gedge would come up with but is in fact a folky lullaby which reminded me of “Easy Pieces” period Lloyd Cole & the Commotions!!! Anyway check this lot out. In my research for this piece I discovered another song called “Still hate Thatcher” I’ve included a link to it below. Now there’s a sentiment we share here at The Northern Line…….
Hokay, even though I try to make this the one-stop-shop for all things SJI, and try to pull everything together into this one place, we do have other homes on the web.
Like a great silent ghost-ship sailing the digital oceans, the creepy, desolate MySpace has an SJI presence. If you listen closely, you can hear the voices of the damned: http://www.myspace.com/thestjamesinfirmary
Facebook, that MySpace killer, has a clunky and un-navigatable SJI presence too (although they deleted all of my message-board posts, directly inspiring this blog, so thanks for that Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/pages/st-james-infirmary/29297320680
We're sad to announce that we can't play at the Woodhorn Lane Music Festival this weekend due to band sickness.
There's only one of us is sick, but it's the one irreplaceable component in the slick and well-oiled machine that is St. James Infirmary. Them's the breaks. Watch out for us in August.
01 - I Still Hate Thatcher
02 - NickyNack Guest House
03 - Anthem For The Squeezed Middle
04 - Eight For A Fiver
05 - Freebird (Snippet)
06 - See Monkey See, See Monkey Do
07 - Let's Wallow In Despair (Like We Did Last Summer)
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Gtr, Vox), Tony Bennett (Dr), Bing Bongo (B), Mark Oliver (Gtr), Simon Foster (Gtr), Andrea Woodyer (Sax).
For the third year a-running SJI are thrilled to be included on the bill of the Three Horse Shoes Beer and Music Festival.
This is a great family day out, there's a really good play area for the kids, there's excellent pub-restaurant food if you want to sit down, hog roasts if you don't, a range of beers to try and a whole host of bands. And it's FREE!
SJI are due to perform on Sunday he 15th at 3:45, but these things slip and slide so come early and enjoy the day!
There's a lot of stuff going on in the SJI camp at present, and while each of them deserves their own blog entry (and will get one, eventually), consider this a place-saver until I can do each of them justice.
ALMANAC 3.0 RETURNS
After a hiatus last year due to several unavoidable and unignorable life events, Alamanac picks up where it left it off with numbers 3.6 and 3.7. These have already gone out in physical CDR format to those folks on the mailing list, but the rest of the world will have to wait a little bit until I can get them uploaded to Bandcamp. It will happen, watch this space. In the meantime, why not take the opportunity to catch up on what you missed by heading to Bandcamp.
SINGLE RELEASE - EIGHT FOR A FIVER
Everyone's favourite anthem to the thirsty underclass will be released in the summer of 2012 on Dibble Records. Watch out for it on limited edition CD and unlimited edition digital download.
Read about Dibble Records here.
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTE RELEASE - ANIMATE
We are currently in negotiation with an excellent local record label to release a limited edition (100 copies) cassette of previously unreleased SJI tracks. More news to follow, hopefully!
UPCOMING GIGS
Festival season is almost upon us, and SJI are pleased to have been invited to play at the following:
We had a whale of a time at The Bridge Hotel last night, with three excellent local artistes: Girls Afraid, Trev Gibb, and The Gospel According to Jonathan Lee.
I'm not sure whether our set was videoed, so YouTubes may or may nor be forthcoming, At least some of the set was videoed, so YouTubes will be along in a bit. The above photo was posted to Twitter by @antmacari.
Setlist:
01 - D (E for Andrea)
02 - NickyNack Guest House
03 - Red Coo Coo
04 - Tapes
05 - Eight For A Fiver
06 - Anthem For The Squeezed Middle
07 - Matty Cabbage House
Personnel: g.w.lang (Gtr, Vox, Cornet), Tony Bennett (Dr), Bing Bongo (B), Mark Oliver (Gtr), Andrea Woodyer (Sax).
Thanks to Ian Evans for putting this on and inviting us to play.
After our early appearance at Hoult's Yard, SJI continues and ended their Jubilee Mini-Tour of Newcastle with a set at The Star And Shadow opening for the legendary R. Stevie Moore.
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Keys, Vox), Dawn Furness (Vox), Matt Selman (Vox), Tony Bennett (Vox), Bing Bongo (Vox), Mark Oliver (Vox), Simon Foster (Vox), Andrea Woodyer (Sax, Vox) .
Ok! So SJI are playing twice(!) on the 4th June. We're starting the day at the extremely funky Hoult's Yard opening for Leeds' finest - the legendary CUD. This will be quite the do, starting in the afternoon with barbeques, DJs and acoustic sets before moving on to the main event in the evening.
We then skedaddle about a mile up the road to everyone's favourite independent volunteer-run venue The Star and Shadow Cinema, where we're thrilled to be opening for the godfather of DIY self-released music, and cover star of this month's WIRE: the magnificent R. Stevie Moore. More details Here.
Both of these are likely to be sell-outs, so get in early and buy your tickets in advance!
St. James Infirmary feature on a new compilation cd called Music For Movements. The track is I'm Calling Out, recorded at Escapade Recording Studios, Greenwich in 2004. Engineered by the awesome and inimitable Gary Brady.
Tracklist:
1 - No Fit State - No Borders
2 - Les Cox (Sportifs) - Omnia Mea Mecum Porto (demo version)
3 - Silver Fox - Listen Up
4 - St. James Infirmary - I'm Calling Out
5 - .end now - Tearplugs
6 - One Night Stand In North Dakota - That Takes Ovaries
7 - Milky Wimpshake - Chemical Spray
8 - Shrug - Cunning Man
9 - Winona Forever - My Life As A Vegan Cupcake
10 - Rexine - Wildness Wakes
11 - Pale Man Made - It Started In 1966
12 - Nev Clay - Dog On A String
13 - Fathoms - Vultures
14 - Casual Terrorists - I Will Die In My Sleep
15 - My Attorney - Chino Necker
16 - Greg Genre - For The Children
17 - Reckoner - When She Finds Home
18 - Future Loss - Falling In
19 - MJ Fitz - Get The Music
Personnel:
g.w.lang (guitar, vocals, various), Gary Brady (bass), Guy Whitby (drums, possible backing vocals), Joe Wilkes (guitar), Mark Oliver (backing vocals), Bing Bongo (possible backing vocals).
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