The REOFFENDERS

Punk Rock: Classic and Modern

The REOFFENDERS are on an indefinite break. Never say never, but we currently have no plans to play. However, we had joy and we had fun... and we blogged about it. Enjoy reading and reliving some good times.

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Sunday, August 20, 2006

We Came... We Saw... We Conquered!!!

group hugThe REOFFENDERS survived the trip to Cornwall! We're all a bit tired but have had the most amazing time. I kept notes while we were away so you've got a full blog of all the on and off stage antics.

Gig Highlights

  • Seeing the huge posters at Camborne

  • The St Ives Contigent! You guys rock!!!

  • Lighters in the air as the Harlyn Inn sang along to Good Riddance

  • The moshers at the Harlyn Inn

  • Cries of "Huzzah" at St Ives

  • Tosh's drumming during "The Middle" at St Ives! Awesome

  • Bermuda shorts at Camborne

  • The Golden Lion - the energy, the friendliness and the beer



Non Gig Highlights
  • Everyone picking up "Hotisms"

  • Buying hats and being silly in Newquay

  • Drawing in the sand! SMB!

  • John's mate Mark finally getting to see what we get up to

  • The Cliff Top Bar

  • Watching bats and stars



The main highlight was spending time with my band mates who are bloody good friends. I'm proud to say that they are the nicest people that I could hope to be in a band with. I love you guys!


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Saturday, August 19, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 8 - Plymouth

Yes I know Plymouth is in Devon! But it was a fitting finale to the tour to play at The Hub with Too Hot.

It's the first time we've been to a gig where there's a proper backstage. This included a fridge full of beer, a tray of donuts and cakes, a fruit bowl and crisps. Rock n roll! But where were the smarties? I asked for orange smarties dammit!

The Hub is a great venue. There's the bar, a chillout room, a bottle bar and the main room where the stage is. The chillout room was a particularly nice pre gig hangout spot.

While Hoover negotiated with the technicians to get the longest mic lead possible so he could wander, Hot and I tested out standing on bass cabs and drum risers!

Zero Consent started the evening, a ska punk band from Southampton. We went on at 10pm and played for an hour. Because I'd been working out rock poses with Hot, I hadn't checked the length of my mic lead so I was on a bit of a short leash. It meant I couldn't cover the whole stage and do as much as I normally do. Walk Like an Egyptian was unbelievably fast. I was actually struggling to spit the words out quick enough and breathing? Forget it... haven't got time! Me thinks our Tosh got a bit excited!

OUCH!John was crouching on the stage during one song and one over enthusiastic girl bit him. Like REALLY bit him! And didn't let go! He's got a mouth shaped bruise on his leg. That's a scary way of saying hello!

After we finished, a very nice girl called Becky asked me to join her, Mike and Mark for a drink which I was very nice of them. Oh and Sam too. It's so nice to get so much good feedback! I also enjoyed the fact that they thought I was 10 years younger than I actually am :-D

Sourz were bought, then Aftershock, then Tequila. Urgh! But it was Tosh's birthday so we were being less than sensible. Too Hot came on and I got in there and skanked my socks off. I was dripping with sweat, I really don't know where I found the energy.
They were great, as always.

As it turned midnight, I tried to talk to Rich between songs but didn't manage it. So I wrote him a sign to tell him it was Tracy's birthday. Glyn made a big deal about it which was great, our lil' Tosh is 26 now!

Thanks to Too Hot for letting us support and thanks to Annie for running such an awesome venue.


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Friday, August 18, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 7 - Camborne

We didn't see alot of Indesit today due to him catching up on lost sleep. The rest of us went for a walk along the cliffs and enjoyed the first real day of sunshine. Ain't it typical that the sun comes out at the end of the holiday! I am feeling abit sad that we're near the end of the tour.

That's us, that is!We arrived in Camborne and John went in to find out about parking while we waited in the cars. He came back and uttered the words "It's fucking massive!". He was indeed correct. It had a great stage, lighting, etc. We sat in the other bar gawping at the A0 size poster with our mugs on! Gosh!

We were in the middle of setting up when the St Ives contigent arrived! Kane said he had to do a 13 hour shift at the Golden Lion the next day to be able to get the night off to see us. They'd paid in the region of £70 for a taxi to bring them to the gig! It was great to see them again and what an amazing boost!

The original plan had been to use both our PA and the venues. It was proving difficult to get them to work together so we went it alone with our Yamaha. I was so proud of it. It's got a lot of umph for its spec.

The boys in shortsWe went on at 10.30pm and apart from having the kick drum moving forwards all the time on the wooden floor, it was problem free. During Jetplane, Indesit and Hot stripped down to bermuda shorts! It's the first time I've seen Justin wearing clothes that weren't black, and certainly the first time I've seen him with so little on! The audience should be grateful though.... he was going "commando style" and almost mooned. The DJs who were waiting to play after us were bemused by the shorts escapade which was then followed by Justin climbing ontop of Paul's shoulders whilst they played. Well, we like to be different!

It was so good to play such a big venue and have everyone jumping around in front of the stage. Definitely in our top memorable gigs so far. There was much hugging afterwards.

Our mates at St IvesWe made sure we got photos with the St Ives contingent before they had to dash off in their taxi. Apparently they've got photos of us all over the pub along with posters that they'd got us to sign. Thank you SO much guys, it was awesome! We are really quite choked up that you made such an effort to see us again.

After they'd left, we got down to the business of packing away as quickly as possible. I'm renowned for talking after gigs and being pretty useless at putting things away but Justin was planning on going home straight after the gig, so we all mucked in. We'd started the gig an hour later than originally planned and with a 2 hour car drive ahead of him, he was anxious to get going.

Marnie did a sterling job as beer roadie, which included several Apple Sourz. Oh dear, this is becoming abit of a ritual.


2 Comments:

Cheers Kayne... we had the BEST time!

Thank you and the St Ives posse once again! You guys are very special to us!

By Blogger Heather, at 5:53 pm, August 24, 2006  

Forgot to mention one particularly impressive moment during the Camborne gig - Justin broke a bass string!!!!

He's never done that before! How hardcore is that?

By Blogger Heather, at 5:53 pm, August 24, 2006  

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 6 - Perranporth

We've had a quiet day today. Paul's ribs have been hurting because the boys couldn't make the balloon burst by body slamming last night so John sat on Paul and bounced up and down until the balloon gave in. Hmmm, that possibly looked abit dodgy!

Tonight it's our alter ego, Calling Orson to play as a Thursday night gig was proving abit ellusive for the REOFFENDERS. The venue is amazing and much bigger than anywhere else we'd visited this week. We all said it would've been perfect for the REOFFENDERS. The pub is actually on the beach so you park up and wait for a truck to collect the equipment and drive across the beach. Awesome.

The audience was cheering wildly from the first song which was great. It's one of the best audiences Calling Orson has ever had, without doubt. The rock songs in particular went down well. The rest of the REOFFENDERS were in the audience and there were many shouts of "Huzzah".

Eric! Star of the Show!It was very very funny when Eric the duck came out for the Scissor Sisters song. Kids flocked to the stage and it looked like John was a kids entertainer. Its a definite alternative career he could consider.

Towards the end of the second set, John asked if anyone in the audience could play guitar. A few hands went up, as well as Paul's. So to narrow it down, John asked "Can anyone play guitar who's ugly and smells". Step up Mr Indesit! Bless!

All in all, a damn good night! We had a brief visit to the Cliff Top Bar when we got back before rain closed it. Paul and Marnie sat up all night yakking whilst everyone else crashed.


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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 5 - Harlyn Bay

I felt very smug this morning because I didn't have a hangover. Tosh looked (and apparently felt) like crap! Tee hee

We sat around the campsite most of the day and then went to Harlyn Bay to look for tea. It's a really nice beach there but it was a wee bit windy and cold so we went off to Padstow. Pasties all round and a little sit at the harbour and then it was back to the pub to setup.

There was a big screen showing the football and a pub full of people watching it. We decided we'd be very unpopular if we switched if off 15 minutes before the end so we changed our planned start time and let the punters watch England stick 4 in the net.

Tosh!The pub was rammed and we had a good mosh pit happening. They got a bit carried away, fell on people, stomped on our monitor smashing a cable connection, the cable got ripped out of the lights pedal and beer was spilt everywhere.... but they enjoyed themselves.

It was really nice to be reunited with Hot after his days off. There have been far too many gag opportunities that have passed. Hot and I sat at "The Cliff Top Bar" until 4am watching shooting stars, bats flying around, satellites moving... it was very cool. Indesit was also there but was flat on his back catching Zs.


2 Comments:

Oh, I forgot to mention.... Paul announced to the audience that the tour was ticking off one "thing he wants to do before he dies" off the list. The other two things are having sex with a dolphin and swimming with twins... if anyone knows any twins, he'd see them on the beach the next morning!

But the funny thing was, there was two blonde twins sitting grinning at him and waving! Poor sod forgot the next chord but it made him a happy bunny :-)

By Blogger Heather, at 1:25 am, August 23, 2006  

Just wait till she gets the printing on the front done! Nice :-)

By Blogger Heather, at 11:06 am, September 02, 2006  

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 4 - Day off

Tosh and Indesit planned a mission to Newquay to get drunk. I was still abit delicate from the night before but as it was our last day off, what the hell!

We left the campsite at about 4pm. Indesit dumped his car somewhere for the night and then our first stop was Skinners Ale House!

"Arrrrg, the Black Pearl....". They had a beer called Black Pearl. Each time it was mentioned, I did my Captain Barbosa impression. I was asked how much I'd had to drink... erm, I'm waiting to get served my first!

We had three pints before Tosh decided it was a good idea to start on Sourz. I had pineapple, she and Indesit had Tropical. Yummy! We had 4 which probably isn't a good idea at tea time before food. We had a nice chat with Scott, one of the locals who used to be in a punk band called Cidervision years ago. We had a good old chat about music in general, but especially punk. He got very excited when I told him the Anti Knowhere League were playing Topsham in October.

Paul looking particularly fetching in silly wig and hatWe were feeling abit silly and giggling by then. "We need hats" says Indesit and so the silliness got more silly. I found a fantastic wig too so wore my big red sparkly hat with a long red curly wig. Very subtle. Scarily Indesit looks better in that wig than me.

We went to Wetherspoons for some tea and a very uninspiring pint before heading to The Barracuda for the Punk v Metal night. On the way it started raining torentially so I gave my rendition of singing in the rain, complete with running up and down steps, swinging round a lamppost and jumping in a big puddle!

There were three bands on in the Barracuda. I felt abit sorry for the first two bands because it was early and there wasn't many people in yet. It's a huge room and it must have been abit disheartening to play to such a sparse audience. Favourite band of the night were Even Nine.

The DJ after the bands was great playing Machine Head, System of a Down, Nirvana, Pantera, Toy Dolls... lots of things to make us jump up down like idiots. We got slightly carried away jumping around to "500 miles" which resulted in Tosh falling into all the drinks, sustaining a wet bottom and us nearly knocking over a pole dancer. Oops.

Indesit and I switched to coke while Tosh decided putting a double shot of JD in hers was a much better idea. Ah the young and foolish.

We got home at about 2am I think, stayed up for another hour probably and then hit the sack


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Monday, August 14, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 3 - Day Off

This morning I discovered that I'd lost my digital camera. The one that I bought three weeks ago! Bugger! I had some really good pictures of us on the beach.

Indesit, Tosh and I went to Newquay for a fried breakfast and then wandered round the shops abit, peered in the tattoo shop (Indesit's craving another one) and then ended up in the pub. We're doing alot of that!

Hot went home last night for the days off. He gives private guitar and bass lessons and Monday is a busy day for him. We did miss his humour

The sun finally came out this afternoon.


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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 2 - St Ives

It wasn't great weather today. Paul wanted to watch the Charity Shield so we went to the Walkabout in Newquay after a brief trip to the beach.

We headed off to St Ives at 6ish. The landlord Derek was very friendly and welcoming, and he keeps a good pint! Always a bonus with me.

From the first song, the place was jumping! It was very full - people obviously enjoy their music there! It was one of the best pub debuts we've ever done!

We were congratulated at the end of the night for not playing Sweet Home Alabama which apparently they get alot. Hmmm, not in this band.

One eccentric looking customer kept shouting "Huzzah, huzzah", "kick out the jams" and "play some punk, you tw@ts!". Expressions that would be heard repeatedly around the campsite in the coming week.

Ouch!I sustained a band injury. The post gig balloon bursting body charge was carried out but after three charges with Justin, the balloon was still in tact. Indesit and I have a 100% record so we went for it. The balloon burst but I fell back and bashed my hand on the light unit. My thumb went black and swelled up like a pudding almost immediately. So I sat with a bag of ice round my hand while the rest of the band packed up.

I can't move my thumb much. Oops!


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Saturday, August 12, 2006

Cornwall Tour: Day 1 - Launceston

We left Exeter in convoy and got to Launceston at about 6.30pm in time for a game of pool and a beer. Tosh was modelling one of the new tour t-shirts which she'd picked up from the printers this week. Very nice!

Setting up was finished in superfast time as our start time was brought forward by half an hour and then we stormed through a two hour set. The audience was abit sparse but everyone there enjoyed it.

The Cliff Top BarWe got to our base for the week at Watergate Bay at about 1am and then sat on the cliff overlooking the beach, drinking beer and chatting. We got to bed at about 4am.

It was very very windy outside and bloody freezing. I slept in two fleeces with an extra sleeping bag on top of the one I was in. Brrrrr


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Friday, August 11, 2006

Hoover's T-Shirt

John's TshirtWe get asked alot where Hoover got his graphic equalizer t-shirt from. Well he got it as a leaving present at work. However we have found it on the internet, so to put you all out of your misery, you can now go and buy yourself one at Gogo Gadgets


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Je Suis Un Rockstar!

Bonjour!

Hoover and I have just arrived back from a few days in Paris and have just got enough time to say hello to the cats and to repack for Cornwall! Slightly different wardrobe required for this trip me thinks!

Weather forecast so far is good apart from Tuesday when its gonna pee down. It's one of our two days off so I suggest we find a pub! All in favour....?
I'll check the 5 day forecast on Saturday morning to get the latest.

While we're away, I'll be writing my blog with pen and paper :-O
But fear not... it shall be translated into electronic format when we get back. I can tell - you're all waiting with baited breath!


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Monday, August 07, 2006

A Triumphant Debut for Tracy

The REOFFENDERS at the BoltonWe visited Brixham for the first time on Saturday, to the Bolton. It was a very hot and sticky night and we were sweaty before we'd even soundchecked. Tracy had been buzzing all day (well... all week actually) with it being her REOFFENDERS debut.

We did two sets to accommodate the pub's late licence and it was just as well. I much enjoyed my 15 minutes standing outside at half time to get some air. Not very punk rock I know but CHRIST, it was hot!

Tracy did fantastically! We only auditioned her at the start of July and for her to learn the set so well and keep her endurance up through the fast and furious bits, well.. the girl has done good!

And have I mentioned how cool it is to have another girl in the band ;-)

P.S. Come on Cornwall!!!!!!


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What time is it?

It has been noted by some of our loyal followers that it is common for me to post blog entries in the wee small hours of the morning. Right enough.

However this morning I'm sad to say that it's not due to rock n roll excess and being a dirty stop out, it's dreaming about setting up PAs, mentally packing sleeping bags, planning routes... it's a week to go until the Cornwall tour and my brain is on overdrive!

We're all getting very excited. This is the first time any of us have done anything like this with a band and although its only for a week, it's going to be immense fun. The weather hopefully will stay good and there'll be some quality time recovering on the beach inbetween gigs.

My mp3 player is loaded and I'm ready to go!


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