My doesn't billions of pounds make you happy!

I am of course refering to the proposed take over by the middle eastern money men of Manchester City. If it all goes through, we are informed that it's a question of crossing the T's and dotting the I's on the contract, it should mean city joining the premier league elite league.

Obviously money doesn't buy automatic success but if City follow the Chelski model there should be silverware coming across from Salford within the next 2 - 3 years. Hell, we've waited since 1976 so I think we can hold on till 2009/10 season for a trophy or two.

This season with the return of the prodigal Shaun Wright Phillips (oh and that Brazian lad) we should bomb on in the league and hopefully in the Uefa Cup too.

Obviously I've been critical of Mark Hughes but with the money men coming I think his cards are marked anyway and next season he'll be shipped out for a 'big name'. What a shame!

Anyway, onto www.shaddersonline.com and the weekly update.

The shadders shoegaze section continues to develop and Veil Veil Vanish (from the states) are now included as the first in a series of shoegaze myspace challenge (14 shoegaze related questions!).

Also on the album reviews there's an extensive review of 'Forth' by The Verve and also from the states is one man band Unknown Component.

Remember plenty more coming up again online next week.

Cheers and enjoy the rain!

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Hi

Just a quick heads up (don't you just love blue sky thinking and the like!) on what's new on www.shaddersonline.com this week.

The biggie is that our fav Russians Punk TV have done an interview for us, it makes pretty good reading too (fortunately it is in English!). Check it out via the shadders interview menu.

On the albums review page we've just done reviews of the excellent second album by The Automatic and finally got round to posting the review of the not so good offering by Scars on Broadway (which to be honest is a bit rubbish!).

Finally you may notice a new menu entiteled Shadders shoegaze. This section which will be coming soon will have memories of the hey day of the scene that celebrated itself (including remembering Slowdive, Ride, Chapterhouse etc) plus we've been promised articles by Daniel Land and the Modern Painters who are on of the new breed of shoegaze bands for the take on the current shoegaze scene and a look at the american scene too. If you click on the menu there are links to exclusive interviews with Rachel Goswell (slowdive, mojave 3) and Annie Barker (american whose album was produced by Robin Guthrie).

So have a great bank holiday weekend and enjoy the sun (or more likely more rain!).

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

I was talking to a good friend on Sunday about his attendance at the rather wet Weston Park leg of the V Festival. He went on about Kings of Leon and Hot Chip then just popped in that Girls Aloud had played. I was gobsmacked, even more so when he said that on Sunday Girls Aloud were playing! What on earth has happened to the UK festival scene, Jay-Z and Girls Aloud has the world gone completely insane or what!

Most of the summer I've aimed most bile at Glasto but suddenly realised that the main problem is actually V Festival, it ain't a music festival but some kind of fashion, lifestyle event. It always got my goat through the fact it's just a musical francise, a brand extension always in it for the profit and not the music. Therefore it pitches itself not at music fans but at people who want to see Girls Aloud! Shocking stuff.

On a more serious note I read over the weekend that a young music fan was sexually assaulted at the Beached 08 festival in Scarborough over the weekend. If the man who did this (who has been arrested I'm led to believe) is guilty they should literally throw the book at him. You should be able to feel safe anywhere in life and that's especially true of a music festival.

On a more positive note we saw Doncaster's The Beaus at the weekend, they were rather fine so there's a full review in the Live Review section.

Also I received the new album by The Automatic at the weekend, given it a spin this morning and at first hear it's pretty good. Full review should follow at some point this week.

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

If you're in a band and give fans access to free download tracks give us a shout.

We are about to set up a page on the webzine www. shaddersonline. com which will give music fans links into bands websites / myspace etc so they can download new music for nothing.

So if you give fans free tracks drop us a line via myspace or via email at mail@shaddersonline.com and tell us the link. Even better if you have a banner email us that and we'll feature it.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers

Colin

www. shaddersonline. com

** new Levellers, Rascals, Wedding Present and Elliot Minor pics added to the photo gallery on www. shaddersonline. com **

 Just found by accident some of the pics I took of Nottingham band Headway on the internet. They can be found on:

http://virb.com/headwayband/photos

So that's in addition to the Ian Brown pics that are on his official myspace pages.

Also we had a recent pic of The Automatic printed in the West Yorkshire lifestyle magazine 'Beyond Leeds' - always nice to see your work in print!

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

We went down to an old steam railway near Derby last weekend and came across probably the best festival we've been to in years. Indie Tracks celebrated it's second birthday at the Midland Railway Centre with some great bands.

It put the word indie back into the festival market as it didn't feature you usual 'bloc party plays every festival' nonsence. They had a music policy that stood firmly away from that do did veer well into the twee musical world, not that they were ashamed of that.

The vibe was excellent, a lot of like minded individuals enjoy the sun and music. No sign of any trouble just a good time.

It had three stages, the main stage indoor in the engine shed (which did look a bit like a small B&Q store cleared out with a stage at one end! The sound was good though so no probs there). The second stage was a hgv trailer which is a cool idea then a further stage in a tin shed church, that was rammed and very hot so we gave it a miss which was a shame as it looked really cool through the window.

Anyway, we saw some great bands including Punk TV from Russia of all places and a sterling performance from Airport Girl. We went down mainly for The Wedding Present who were stunning, they never let you down live. Gedge was a miserable (and that's a compliment!) as ever on stage and they just blew the place away. Classic indie guitars from the masters.

Just one more thing... the organisers of indie tracks run gigs throughout the year, I'd suggest dropping by and checking them out. It'll be well worth it.

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Last weekend was the third and we have to say the best Doncaster Music Live.

The big gig on Saturday night was packed but with the addition of a big screen a good view was had by all. Elliott Minor brought plenty of fans and The Levellers fans brought the average age right up!

We got there in time to ignore Tiny Dancers and then see cracking sets by Elliott Minor and the brilliant scouse outfit The Rascals. Whilst the headliners aren't exactly up our street plenty were there just to see The Levellers and they didn't let them down, proper pro's they strapped it on big time for their faithful support.

Sunday was Doncaster bands day and we managed to pop down in the afternoon for a hour or so in the afternoon in time to see the ever popular and improving The Beaus who were damn fine. We also saw a bit of The Thieves who reminded us of 60's retro revivalists The Chartists from Sheffield, pretty good though. We begged off as the tempo hit rawk with some unfortunate metal outfit.

Still a pretty decent success over the weekend, just hope they do it all again next year.

Hopefully they will be a bit more adventurous with the highlight act and not invite Tiny Dancers back!

This coming weekend it's Indie Tracks which should be a real blast, bring on the weddoes.

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Hello there...

The weekly site updates include...

Newcomers on the Myspace interview challenge are Pop Smear (from New York) and The Listeners (bit closer to home in Retford!).

Also we've started the football galleries with a couple of Belle Vue, former home to hometown club Doncaster Rovers. Many more to follow from City of Manchester Stadium, Belle Vue and Wembley.

The Great Myspace Interview Challenge hits 50...

Yes this week the myspace interview challenge (including the Doncaster myspace challenge) chalked up 50 responses. Quite a milestone I'm sure you'll agree; some aren't great but the majority are a damn fine read and funny as hell too. Here for the record is the full list, including which page they can be found on...

Doncaster Myspace Challenge: Area 15, M101, Darren Bell, Jery at' controls, The Alyscamps, Armour for hearts, Guy Honeymoon and Little Thoughts.

Myspace Interview challenge 1: Circuits, Boz Boorer (moz backing band), Peter Hook (new order), Otherside, Circle 3, Aurora Low, Hooverdams, Vicky Stuart, Odi, The Flithy Youth, Rachel Kitchenside, Admiral Culture and Nephu Huzzband.

Myspace Interview challenge 2: The shoplifters, the lazy daylights, Andy Griffin, Beats for beginners, Miss Flag, Richard Staines, Mavis, Jam Richie, Jack Millican, This City Romance, The Rigg, The Youths, Roses Kings Castles (Adam from Babyshambles), The 66 and My Captive audiance.

Myspace Interview challenge 3: Kick Box Riot, The Moskovits, The Parish Music Box, Deltasound, My first Tooth, Daniel Land & the modern painters, Openfire, Censored, The James Cleaver Quintet, Unknown Component and The Listeners.

Hopefully plenty more to come too.

Doncaster Music Live

Just to let you know it's Doncaster Music Live weekend so we'll be down there Saturday night to sample the delights of The Rascals, Elliott Minor, Tiny Dancer and err The Levellers. Sunday is local bands day from 2pm so try and check some of the excellent local talent out, no promises but we'll try and pop down for some of that too.

Cheers & have a cracking weekend.

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com 

Hi forgot to say in previous blog there are some of our Ian Brown photo's now online at www.myspace.com/ianbrown They can be found in the 'World is yours 2007' tour album.

Well worth a look as some of the other pics on there are cracking!

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Glastonbury – not sold out by selling out!

So it’s the Glastonbury weekend which should be the highlight of the festival calendar but it just isn’t anymore. That’s not cause there’s hundreds of festivals these days, the mega corporate V and Leeds / Reading weekenders just don’t appeal either. The trouble is that the whole ethos behind music festivals has been taken away, they are now an event, somewhere to be seen in fact the music isn’t just secondary but now way down the list of importance.

In fact this week on dirty Jo Whiley’s radio show they were discussing festival fashion… festival feking fashion! Here is the grim reality of Glastonbury; you are in a stinking field with 130,000 people, you piss in a hole dug in the ground, there is no running water and everyone tends to be off their tits. So what’s the fashion tip from us? Don’t bother cause after three full days of this you are going to look like a freshly dug up rotting corpse and probably smell like one too. Can you get that look in Top Shop or Primark??!

So anyway back to the music! So the hot topic is Jay Z headlining, I thought the big headline act closed the joint of Sunday so lets get this right The Verve are actually headlining so that’s cool by us. Anyway back to the hip hop, urban nonsense. I’m with Noel Gallagher on this, urban has no place at Glastonbury not that I’m against different genre’s of music but they have their place. For example you wouldn’t have Take That or Kate Nash headlining Download would you, well not unless you wanted a feking riot in the East Midlands! The big picture is that Glastonbury is too big and they are trying to cover too many bases and it’s starting to backfire.

The Eavis’ have lost the core Glasonbury ethos, it was the premier indie music festival and random freakshow, now it’s a fashion parade! As Westwood says white sneakers and mud don’t mix so next year drop the capacity; lose Lupe Fiasco, Estelle and Jay Z and get back to basics.

Anyhow I’ll still be watching on tv as these days I prefer a weekend where you can get a wash and not stink of corpses!

And it's gotta be said that The Verve were amazing on the headline slot on Sunday night.. more of that Michael!

Later

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

I've got to say that I'm really excited, coming soon is an interview with non other than Yorkshire's living indie legent Dave Gedge of The Wedding Present!

To say that we are fans is an understatement, their seminal early nineties album 'Seamonsters' is always in our top three albums of all time, it is that good.

And despite what seems like 100 line up changes they still are some live force.

By the way if you want to catch them this year let me suggest you go down to the indie tracks festival in July, sure to be a great gig.

Will update the blog as soon as the interview is online, hopefully real soon.

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Quick update on Doncaster's very own festival.... Doncaster Music Live which will again take place in Doncaster market place (and various other venues round town) on July 19 & 20.

Our sources have informed us that the headline act is to be The Levellers which has to be said is a bit of a let down. Previous headliners include Sheffield's Little Man Tate, The Bluetones and last year was The Wedding Present. Now I know they aren't exactly sparkingly great headliners but we can see where they were coming from with The Weddoes; local with a bit of history and presence.

The trouble with The Levellers is that they are a spent force and have no relevence to todays music scene, it's a real shame as the organisers have missed a real opportunity to put Donny on the musical map.

I'm not stupid and am well aware that these things have to be done on a budget and I suspect the one for Doncaster Music live ain't big but I feel it may have been worth missing off a couple of the other bands off the bill ie Elliot Minor and or The Rascals and getting a decent headliner to compliment a load of local talent.

For exemple it might have been worth blowing the budget and getting a band like Reverend and the makers for saturday night, then moving Tiny Dancers to headline Sunday night and have the rest of the bill made up of the finest Doncaster home grown talent who would no doubt play for free or peanuts.

Anyway that's my viewpoint but I'll still be there supporting the event and no doubt have a few beers too!

Also must remember to add check out indie tracks festival in July - lo fi excellence!

Cheers

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

Now lets look at the evidence, some mega festival want you to spent over a ton of your hard earner a year in advance to see bands who haven't even been announced... err no I don't think so. It's stupid that 'event's like T in the Park sell tickets to the following years festivals the week as soon as the dust (or mud) settles on this years events. It's even worse that some muppets pay them!

We say sod these mega festivals, they have become just a money spinning exercise for big business with the same bands on a roundabout across the country. Take last year Bloc Party seemed to be at them all doing exactly the same flipping set, wow let me get my credit card to see them again this year, I don't think.

Just give them a miss or in fact you can watch the best bits on telly, bbc three has some natty coverage of Glasto, T in the Park and the Weekender festivals so save yer cash and watch them on telly for nowt instead.

So with your spare cash get yourself down to some quality local 'indie' festivals. There's some excellent free events popping up all over the country, take for example Doncaster's very own Doncaster Music Live with a decent open air stage that has been headlined by the likes of Little Man Tate, The Bluetones and The Wedding Present. Yeah so they ain't 'big' names but at least it ain't Jay-z or Rage Against the machine!! And it's all free too, so you can afford a few pints whilst you're there.

If you want to shell out a few quid here's one great festival now in it's second year and a stella idea, Indie Tracks is situated on a steam railway in Derbyshire! They have gigs over a weekend on a train, in a church and a traditional stage too. It costs about a third of yer T in the Glasto Weekender and no doubt will have three times the good times and atmosphere.

Come on leave all the corporate cattle herding mega festivals alone, give them a wide berth and go out and find something more interesting instead!

We will, I dare you to do the same.

Stay lucky

Shaddersonline.com

Another feather in the blooming Doncaster music scene is the introduction of Doncaster Music Week. It runs from March 15th through to a final gig featuring Sheffield's Little Man Tate on March 22nd. Inbetween there's loads of stuff going on including seminars on everything from promoting, management to a demo judging panel where new bands can bring along their music for an industry panel to give them feedback.

There's a couple of other gigs planned too, one a Raw Talent gig at the Leopard on  March 20th is to be broadcast on BBC and features some of Doncaster's bright new things.

If you want to find out more check out www.doncastermusicweek.co.uk for further details and how to apply for free tickets for most events.

Come on Doncaster!

Hi All

Just a quick mention of how THE GREAT MYSPACE INTERVIEW CHALLENGE is going, a dedicated page is online now with the first four responses. First up was Circuits a set of spikey punk pop types then we've had some excellent responses - really funny answers but honest too. So we'll keep sending the questions out over the next couple of weeks and keep updating the page as we go.

Looking forward to seeing some more quality answers.

Keep checking back, I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Cheers

Colin

Hi and welcome from the great myspace interview challenge organised by us the music website www.shaddersonline.com.

What we're doing is sending 15 generic / questions to all the bands and musicial artists on our myspace 'friends' list. Everyone gets the same questions no matter whether it's a unsigned solo artist writing their first few songs to somebody of the ilk of Coldplay.

What we want to know is:

a, Who actually looks at their myspace page!

b, Who will actually be bothered to spend their time responding to messages posted on their myspace page.

c, Who will answer the questions honestly

d, How will the responses differ

Anyway the first questions will go out shortly and we'll set up a dedicated page on the site for the interview returns. So keep checking to see who is first to respond!

later

Colin

www.shaddersonline.com

I got an email the other day about the release of The Very Besy of Mick Jagger and it got me thinking about which side of Jagger gives the longest lasting impression. Is it the plastic faced, scene stealing, money grabbing elderly rocker than doesn't know when to give up or should it be the impression of a rock god who has been instrumental in making rock and roll what it is today.

Personally I'd like to think that people will think of him as the latter. He written and performed some of the best music of the 20th century and really shaped the way rock developed. Obviously the band The Rolling Stones will always be the better known rather than his solo work and that's really the way it should be but it could be worth having a listen, a full review shall be posted when we get our hands on a copy. It's out at the start of October on Atlantic and should prove an interesting and probably compelling listen.

Later

Colin

You may have seen the Yorkshire floods on TV well were in the thick of it!

I had to drive home on Monday through what seemed at times like a river, fortunately the diesel car is a godsent and it handled the floods with ease and I just about held my nerve.

However, worse was to follow as Ebeck which my house backs onto went into overdrive and flooded all over the place. Behind our house usually lies a storm drain / dyke for ebeck, some common land, a railway line, some waste land then ebeck. Come 4am Tuesday morning there was three foot of water on the train line and the rest was a huge lake! The only thing saving us was the banking of the dyke. We ended up with sand bags at the doors and everything, at either corner of our estate houses ended up flooding too, fortunately we were lucky and the banks held.

The rest of Adwick le street where we live was less lucky, some streets had upwards of five or six feet of water in them, I went for a walk to see how bad it was and it was bloody awful. Church Street had a car flooded to it's roof with kids swimming down the street! In fact it was so bad behind our house we had people on jet ski's!

Looks like this weekend is going to be bad too so the sandbags stay for the moment and our figures remain well and truely crossed!

Welcome back from across the sea!

The Shadders team have just returned from our holiday jaunt where we took the trusty focus over the sea to the Emerald Isles. Whipping in 1006 miles in a mere 8 days we had a good blast to Kinsale just past Cork.

Whilst we had a pretty good time including a trot on the beach (my that Atlantic ocean is blooming cold!), trip way out west and a good wander round Cork City itself. Also we had a good few of the local brews, nice one Kinsale lager! But we did have a few surreal experiences including one of the leading radio broadcasters RTE2. Now there is a bloke who does the daytime slot who sounds like Terry Wogan but one day he was discussing the merits of been nu rave and emo! The following day talking at great length to a reformed smackhead about the biography about his drug and crime habits in the seventies and eighties, can you imagine uncle Terry talking about that! Then when we hit the town one night we were having a some sociable Kinsale beers and happened upon a bar featuring a raucos irish singer, not surreal you may think but the sight of a shit load of trolleyed Dutchmen wearing pink dancing and singing along was a little bit weird!

Highlights – Kinsale Lager! Gallagher’s Boxty House – Dublin’s finest restaurant visited on our way back. Good Weather – tan on the first day was pretty neat.

Lowlights – Rain, two days solid ain’t much fun!

CD soundtrack

Snow Patrol  

REM

The Thrills

Blondie

Inspiral Carpets

The Jam

Feeder

The Automatic

I was at the Leadmill the other night to see Dogs & The Twang and I was lucky enough to scoop a photo pass to get in front of the barriers to take a few pics.

Now I ain't no professional but I know a good pic when I see one and the ones in the photo gallery to me and top notch (wouldn't have put them on otherwise). The trouble is I don't have a pro camera that cost a grand or owt like, just the trusty Olympus 3.2 mega pixel point and shoot that I used to take all the pics in the gallery.

Unfortunately I'd forgot how snobbish others can be, they may do it for a living or whatever but they ain't no need to look down their flaming noses.

All I've got to say I got a few decent pics so you can go ballacks!

Cheers

Colin

And now onto the next level!

Firstly you could use Shaddersonline to read about some quality music and next you could see some pics too (some rubbish but that's not the point!) and now you can hear the music too.

From today we've created Shadders Radio which is a jukebox where you can listen to new, unsigned bands and artists. First up is our mate Lee Griffiths who we think is one of the great singer songwriters of our generation.

Hopefully over the coming months we'll be uploading plenty of other tracks too, so just keep clicking on shadders radio to see what we're listening to and low and behold you can listen too.

Cheers

Bad news... The Cooper Temple Clause are no more.

Music will be a worse place for the coopers split. Shadders has been huge fans from nearly day one after receiving a copy of the 'Crayons' single and seeing them on their first nationwide tour. Their blend of rock, electro and a bit of pop really hit the spot and their live shows especially in the early days were nothing short of riotious.

We'll continue to keep plenty of coopers content online and here's the final message from Dan. We'd like to add thanks for the good times!

Dear Team Cooper

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I must announce that The Cooper Temple Clause have decided to split up.

Last week I informed the rest of the boys that I would be leaving the band. As I hope you will all be able to understand, it was perhaps the most difficult decision I have ever had to make. When the only life you have ever known is that of your five best friends and the music you make, the thought of leaving that life is not one to be considered lightly and I assure you all that the decision was not an easy one to make. Nonetheless, it was something I felt I had to do. I can only apologise from the bottom of my heart for the disappointment this will undoubtedly cause many of you.

In the wake of this decision the rest of the boys agreed to call it a day and pursue other interests. Friendships are well and truly intact and the love very much remains within the camp.

We would like to take this moment to thank all of you for your support over the years and the love and acceptance you have shown us. It has been an honour to be your servants, for that is what we have been. A band is nothing without its fans, without the people who come to the shows, buy the albums and make us feel that we're not alone in the world, that there are other people out there who see the world as we do in all its wonder and absurdity. People can say what they like about The Cooper Temple Clause, but the unswerving loyalty and dedication of you guys, the ones who really matter, can never be called into question. From the very beginning you have shone brighter than we could have ever hoped, from the street teams to the forum administrators, from those of you who saw us in the Bull and Gate to those who made the earth shake at Fuji Rock on the other side of the world; we thank you all, each and every one of you. When we stood as children in front of our mirrors brandishing tennis rackets and singing into upturned golf clubs, never did we imagine the fantastic adventure we would embark upon thanks to you, the greatest fans in the world. We can only hope that we touched your hearts as much as you have ours.

Take heart and carry on, dear Team. Never be afraid to be yourselves, to be individuals, to fly in the face of common sense and listen to your hearts, to do it your own way. We made a bunch of albums. We played a bunch of shows. We met a bunch of people who changed our lives forever.

We love you all.

Thank you so much.
Yours, in absence of a cheesy line from one of our own songs to end this post,

Dan

The Cooper Temple Clause

January we have written off, but we've sprung to life as the snow has started falling (where's global warming when you need it). We hit our first gig of the year last weekend, the excellent +44 at Nottingham Rock City with a few more gigs pencilled in for the next couple of weeks.

We've got some quality albums to review as well, check out the website over the next few days as we post reviews of the new offerings from Fall Out Boy, Bowling for Soup, The Hours and the third long player from our big friends The Cooper Temple Clause.

So keep looking and we'll keep you posted on some top music.

Later

Hi all,

Just had some info on our friend and fav Manc singer songwriter The Lee Griffiths. According to sources that have been confirmed by a quick browse new songs have appeared on myspace for Griffo and that's something to rejoice!

To check them out see the following pages:

www.myspace.com/leegriffiths

www.myspce.com/thetlg

If you're into this myspace thingy then why not become one of Lee's 'friends'?! Go on you know you want to!

In the interest of self publicity I've put a few posts on bands message boards (Coopers, The Automatic, Kaisers etc) but the other day I put up a post on the Oasisnet message board to let people know about the Stop the Clocks page here on Shaddersonline. Obviously I was well aware that my tastes are different to other peoples, hence the reason why out of the 18 tracks only 9 or so are the same as the bands choices. However, what I didn't expect is for some loser to say that I deserve to die purely because of my track listing. A bit extreme I felt! Obviously they didn't bother to back up his rash statement with which tracks actually mean certain death if you listen to them but that would take a bit of thought which this loser is probably incapable of.

Fair play to other users of the board, one of whom thought that I should have included Live Forever and Some Might Say, I replied to him saying that LF is a fair point but I don't really like Some Might Say so I would never pick that to go into my 18 best of selection.

Just as I was thinking over the whole message board situation I was reminded that somebody was actually murdered by a nutter who had an arguement on one of these message boards and stalked them then killed them.

All I have to say on the matter is everyone has their own tastes and views, death threats however serious or not they may be aren't really that funny and some people shouldn't take these things so seriously.

It's only a bit of bloody fun after all!

Later & Live Forever!

Howdy out there,

It's been a while since I last blogged so thought I'd best give it a spin. Just a little update really just to say what we've been up to and what's been on the old CD player. There's been quite a few updates on the site recently including the welcome return of The Cooper Temple Clause, the review of the Barnsley show is in 'live reviews' as we speak. I've also uploaded some comedy pics I've taken with my phone (which is a must at gigs these days, in fact most people seem to enjoy watching the entire gig through their phones which I find kind of weird!). Some pics are awful (the bluetones one for example) but some are okay, anyway it's only a bit of fun. I've also uploaded a new interview with Manchester songwriter Ria Bright who also puts on her own gigs too, check that one out if you fancy a show in the Manc area and hopefully soon we'll have a brand new exclusive interview with former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson, just waiting to hear back from the states on that one. Then to celebrate the release of stop the clocks we've dedicated a whole page to Oasis, I've already uploaded some stuff from our fanzine 'Shadders? on me Lungs?' back catalogue and then we'll do our very own tracklisting for the 'best of' album along with reviewing the bands selection.

Anyway what have we been listening to? From the archives I've been listening to Chrome the second album by Catherine Wheel plus Rob Dickinsons solo album from last year. I've also got the new Milburn and Holloways albums which I've given a spin, Milburn are without a doubt Sheffields second best band at the moment and that quite a compliment! And this morning I gave another spin to legacy, the best of Mansun which is awesome.

Anyway have a good read of the site and will blog later...

Cheers

Colin aka shaddersonline

Aye up long time no blog!

Just a quick note regarding Doncaster Music Live 2006, just like to say a big well done for getting it up and running. It's not perfect by a large shout but getting a free music event going is never easy and fair play to The Bluetones, Little Man Tate, Mohair and Battle for giving some quality performances.

Also coming up at Doncaster leading toilet circuit venue is the annual 'Somethings Covention' gig. These gigs feature the cream of the Doncaster music scene (and come to think of it any old nonsense who are connected to the Doncaster scene!) and is on the 12 August 2006. Tickets are £8 advance (with free CD) or a fiver on the door with no CD. Starts at 1pm and will no doubt go on until the police are called!

Also just got The Automatic's & Seafood's new album - give them a spin, well worth it.

Later

Colin aka shaddersonline

Hello outside world

Apologies for the lack of activity on the website for the last couple of weeks this is due to a break from the keyboard down in Newquay and North Cornwall.

Just like to say what a fantastic place Cornwall is with epic scenery, a terrific cool vibe and some sunny weather. There are some top beaches packed with surfers all trying to out cool each other and half the time looking like berks when they crash and burn!

Anyway we should be putting a few updates over the next week or so, just watch this space.

Later

Just like to say DON'T BUY TICKETS OFF EBAY! This is not because I don't agree with touting, in fact I feel the touts do a pretty useful job but people are getting ripped off when they don't need to be.

For example I was at the Boy Kill Boy NME gig at Sheffield Leadmill last friday night, gig sold out - where can I get tickets? Ebay right.... wrong! When I arrived it was just after 7pm with the first band on at ten past, there were four sets of people outside the venue all with spare tickets, not touts just regular Leadmill punters trying to shift spares all willing to sell at FACE VALUE.

The recent Ordinary Boys tour, sold out immediately and tickets straight on Ebay, however, on the night there was literally hundreds of spares, the touts couldn't give the tickets away.

Therefore my advice is give Ebay a miss and go to the venue, some even sell returns on the night otherwise hang tight outside the venue and I 95% sure you'll be in before the band hit the stage and you might just have a few quid spare to buy me a beer!

On Saturday night I witnessed the ultimate gig, it was Richard Ashcroft at the Doncaster Dome he was quite literally on fire. Playing for an age he treated the sold out sports hall that is the Dome to treats from his excellent solo career and a number of choice Verve cuts, it was the stuff of legends. A full review will appear later this week plus some pics too.

It was only after the gig I was thinking that this northern lad from a working class background was like another true northern genius, John Lennon. He's worked with a legendary band although not quite as successful or big as The Beatles but even so Verve wrote epic tunes and were always a band on the edge of greatness. But his solo stuff is just superb and I wouldn't be at all suprised if he knocks out the next 'Imagine' on his next record, in fact I might put a tenner on it!

The shadders team are frequent visitors to the great northern town of Manchester mainly due to our 'loyal, bordering on stupid' support of the mighty Manchester City. Between the Victoria railway station and the Arndale centre is a park next to the cool new Urbis centre, in this park gather the 'nu goths'. Now it started off as a informal meeting place for obviously a few goth types who were all friends however last time we pasted through there must have been well over a couple of hundred of them. It looked like a bloody scene from life of brian! They all looked the same, now I'm not in the business of dissing people for being themselves and trying to stamp their own personality on this cold world but for god sakes they looked like a bunch of clones - all trying to be individual together!

That was the headline for the local paper in and around Leeds and rock it they did. We travelled up on the Saturday to Leeds Millenium Square gig and we treated to a superb support set by Graham Coxon and a star performance by Leeds favourite sons The Kaiser Chiefs, a great time was had by all. Full review of the gig will follow in the next couple of days, also coming up soon will be a new 2006 interview with returning Cooper Temple Clause, more on that later.

Howdy,

Just a little note to say received a copy of the new Shack album at the weekend, had a bit of listen and it sounds spot on. Full review will appear as soon as I get the reviews page up and running. Watch this space!

Just a quick note to say welcome to the first upload of shadders online, hopefully there is plenty to interest everyone. Also to add there's plenty more to come as we've got some photo gallaries to upload including pics of The Cooper Temple Clause, Ordinary Boys, Kasabian, Battle & more. Plus to come soon are album reviews section and a section on what we think are 50 albums you should own. So don't be a stranger come back soon!

Ps - we've mainly this weekend been listening to the Hard Fi album, Ride Live at Reading festival and the new Graham Coxon album.

Later