Cream Tangerine session on Adam Walton’s BBC Radio Wales show

 

🎸 Cream Tangerine – Band Profile (Wrexham, Wales)

🧱 Formation & Line-up

• Formed: Summer 1999, Wrexham, North Wales

• Members:

  • Gini – guitar, vocals

  • Joni – keyboards

  • Laszlo – drums

  • Zen – bass

  • Joey – guitar

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🎶 Style & Reception

• Described as eclectic with “good material”.

• Blended alt-rock with melodic and experimental tones; likened loosely to early Elbow, Geneva, or Six By Seven in spirit, though remaining very much underground.

• Gained positive attention from Adam Walton on BBC Radio Wales, a key champion of Welsh emerging music.

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📀 Releases

1. EP: Horseface – released April 2002

2. EP: 7 Deadly Skins – July 2003

3. Track: Kerb This – March 2004 (included on Glastonbury Unsigned Bands 2004 compilation, Concrete Recordings)
   

   
   
   

📻 BBC Radio Wales Session

• Live airplay: Adam Walton’s show in March 2003

• Radio session: 31 July 2005 (does anyone have a recording of this?)

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🎤 Live Performances

• The Stand, Rhyl – 30 September 2000 – broadcast live on Radio Wales

• Supported:

  • The Bluetones

  • The Stands

  • Haven

• Active in the North Wales–Liverpool circuit (notably Sound, Central Station, Barfly, and Telfords Warehouse venues)

GIG REVIEW - THE DAMNED @ Central Station, Wrexham

It all slotted into place really. Steve Sync accompanied me and I did my monthly stint on BBC Radio Wales with Adam Walton. We had to pre-record it because we were off to see The Damned, so we played Blind Justice and the Psycho Sexual Sex Terrestrials, had a quick coffee with Adam and Ben Soundhog and headed for Central Station.

Parking somewhere safe in Wrexham town centre and then having to run the gauntlet of Chavs through the streets is quite an experience! But we safely made it unscathed right on cue for The Damned to alight the stage.

I had earlier commented on air that I’ve seen these 15 times, a slight exaggeration I’m sure, but let’s try and recap anyway:

Colwyn Bay (1981), Chester Northgate Arena (1984), Manchester International (1985), Finsbury Park (1986), Llandudno Conference Centre (2003), Wrexham Central Station (2005) and again tonight! So that’s 7 times, err… not quite 15 but hey! I get excited!

I get even more excited when Captain Sensible announces they’re celebrating 30 years since the release of that seminal album ‘Machine Gun Etiquette.’ He then realises he should’ve said 25 years, and we could’ve corrected him for it’s 26 years!

Jesus! 26 years since first I pogoed around my bedroom to that LP, torn between which one I was gonna be in my bedroom mirror performance… Am I the cool slick Dave Vanian or the guitar god but circus clown that is Captain Sensible?

So The Damned kicked in, as that excellent LP does, with Love Song, and following the track listing to Second Time Around then I Just Can’t Be Happy Today. The sound was awesome, it was loud enough to raise the roof on this wet Sunday night and the power took your breath away. I did think we were going to be treated to the album in its running order and entirety but that stopped with the fourth track Street of Dreams, which was introduced by acid crazed keyboard player Monty as ‘Cunt’ !!!

The immense sounding History of The World preceded the lament to Michael Jackson, Neverland, which is off the latest Damned release ‘Grave Disorder’ (available and highly recommended on Nitro Recs). By now drummer Pinch was looking worse for wear and it was announced that he was suffering from a 3 day hangover all in one day after the Rock & Blues Festival. Anti-Pope followed and the excellent free form punk bits where the rhythm section chug along allowing the Captain to express himself and impress us with his guitar skills were smattered throughout this short set.

We even had a Monty solo before blasting into Melody Lee then Plan 9 Channel 7 and more of the free forming with Looking At You which just about covered ‘Machine Gun Etiqutte’ (for now). The Damned did teach the punk fraternity that there was more than three chords available and I was watching the bassist during Disco Man and lost count of the notes played in the riffs, astounding!

‘Chavs are a bucket of turds.’ Shouted the Captain having explained he’d noticed that Wrexham is full of them and they ripped into Would You Be So Hot (their tribute to John Lennon – not!) then still keeping to the latest album, the haunting Absinthe. With Eloise played like it should’ve been in the first place it left enough time to pay tribute to those that have gone before us and Neat Neat Neat was dedicated to John Peel, Joe Strummer and The Ramones.

The encore brought a great treat for Damned fans with Jet Boy Jet Girl, a track I’ve not heard live before, followed by New Rose and the ultimate Smash It Up where a net was thrown over the sprawling crowd, and a punter was invited up to play the last couple of riffs.

Great entertainment, great band!

FESTIVAL REVIEW - Pigstock 2005 – Denbigh

Something’s not quite right. It’s the day after Pigstock, its mid-afternoon and I don’t have a hangover. And yet I drank enough to sink a small ship; kept up with Andy Fatman pint for pint and picked him off the floor on numerous occasions! Funny old thing alcohol – you can have two pints and feel quite giddy or have thirteen and feel, well, yes pissed, but in control (almost!). I think the trick was to cart along the Crudlets and Fatman’s sprog for the afternoon, therefore instilling a sense of responsibility into the proceedings and not go hell for leather for the gutter before the evening!

Waking up at 11.20am meant there was no way we’d get there to see the opening set by Melaphobia and ‘the d word’ (Der Bomber) were obviously not on the bill and were replaced by some wedding band from Ruthin I think.

Someone from the band Jacknife Juggernauts asked me this morning what my thoughts on the day as a whole were. My reply was, ‘Great day, shit music.’

If you’re gonna spend £12 to see some bang up to date and up ‘n’ coming bands from the local area then your money would be better spent elsewhere. If you’re gonna spend £12 to chill out in a friendly atmosphere and have a great day out and catch the occasional snatch of brilliance from the stage then this the place for you.

The music (if you’ve been kept in a dark shed for two months and fed bullshit) has been a bone of contention since the line up was announced, and for some great entertainment pay my Message Board a visit and start at the thread titled ‘Absolute Fucking Travesty’ – it’s an excellent read that has spawned great publicity for both Pigstock and ‘the d word’.

Someone did mention that the bongo player in a blue shirt (who is actually Chris Godfrey) had been on stage three times in 3 different bands and wouldn’t it have been better to have put on some local talent instead mates and their jazzy jams. I agreed but did point out that this wasn’t a cutting edge festival, it was a cutting hedge one!

But let’s face some facts here and make a few points. If you’re the organiser of Pigstock you have to look at the point that this is in Denbigh and if you put on a load of bands making waves on the coast then they’re going to bring crowds with them. You have to weigh up the possibility that some could get drunk and will play up a bit. Denbigh people are all for having a bit of a laugh and a joke – amongst themselves. When some upstarts turn up and start laughing at them or treading on toes then things could turn ugly. Yes, it’d be a great day for music but it would probably be the last ever Pigstock! Although it would’ve been nice to have seen at least a couple of today’s performers replaced by the likes of Khagool, Gintis, Lantern, David Wrench, The Alarm, Crave or (god forbid!) Der Bomber.

The Holloh provided the afternoon’s first foray into what readers of this website would describe as good, with some fast driving indie rock with a punk edge – or so the NME would say. They played a great version of Johnny B Goode in a Sex Pistols stylee which introduced the first casualty of the day when a sole headbanger (with no hair) got up to rub his denim and play his air guitar.

The Giro Gypsies received the loudest cheer of the afternoon with their colourful animated line up and progged out sound – great guitar solo at the end by Stewart – check out their profile on the North section of my site.

We also had MK Ultra, Y Moniars, Sarah Davies, Cosmic Charlies, Geth & The Celebrities, Zoot Serious, Mid Life Crisis, who are all good at what they do. It was there to provide a background to a glorious day, obviously not my bag at all but they served the purpose of keeping the proles happy.

Duncan Black (main pic) provided my highlight of the day with a brief but exquisite display of guitar genius, and let’s face it, there was some stiff competition in the guitar hero category provided by Mid Life Crisis, Cosmic Charlies and the Giros. But Duncan took it to a different level up there on his own with an array of pedals and coming across like a mute Nick Harper crossed with Ed Alleyn-Johnson, two artists who you should most definitely make yourselves familiar with. Coming on just after 9pm he was backed by a light show, lots of smoke and the opportunity to perform in front of a big crowd. Duncan later explained to the organisers that he was used to playing in front of strange goths and headbangers who would throw things at him for not being metal enough!

Check out his album ‘Ubiquitous Guitar Mercenary’ out now.

We missed the fireworks display and the following bands as I had to save Andy Fatman’s liver.

Here’s to next year!