MATTHEW NORTH MUSIC

North and Parker Exeter Cavern 29th Dec 2010 About 2 weeks ago, I though, Hummm, I wonder who’s playing the Cavern in the next few weeks, and just by chance I sent Dave at the Cavern a text to see if there was any support slots going, and good as he is came back with a gig straight away Dave top man as ever. Anyhow, on the day of the gig because of the snow we hadn’t had much chance to go through the set so we had to do it in the afternoon, we did a short set of about 26 minutes so we were able to run through the set a couple times. One thing that worried me was that I haven’t done an electric gig for so long, doing the acoustic stuff has been great and I’ve really got the hang of it, but the electric is still a little tricky and I’m mostly referring to the vocal side of things here. So we pile in to the cavern and there is plenty of time to grab chips always a good thing to do. Dave even bought us a round of drinks, marvellous. There were 3 bands on, sound checks all we...

23rd Dec 2010 another great night at the Picturehouse Well last night was a really fun gig, by far the best one of the year I reckon. Started off a bit differently a friend of ours wanted to sing a song, so we did a cover of Stuck In the Middle with Ellie on vocals and Lee-Anne played bass, this went down very well indeed. Ellie had never sung before in public and really enjoyed it. Then it went to my set, I hadn’t really prepared the set just gone through a few songs at hope, as it turned out it was a varied set and went on for about an hour! Set List: Stuck in the Middle (with Ellie and Lee-Anne) Fortunes Light (Played on a Mandolin) Blue Sky Feel Don’t Look Back (Lloyd Cole song) Crimson Close Down To Behold Carnival Of Souls Jessica Love is a spirit (Arthur Brown song) The Widow’s Blame (with a very extended guitar solo) After the set we were treated to an encore of The mighty Super Punk Muffins Goth Detectives quality stuff, and a Quality night. On the way home ...

Tres Desole at The Exeter Picturehouse 9th Dec 2010 So another trip to my second home the Picturehouse in Exeter, I was suppose to have been joined by Niall for this one but he was unable to attend so I did it on my tod. Some variation in the set tonight, I added Into The Light, as the MK3 version of ALF’s songs seldom get a play these days, one of my friends Steve was there, and he requested a couple songs, and out of his list I picked Tres Desole. The set went like this Fortunes Light Feel Blue Sky Tres Desole Into The Light Broken Dream To Behold It was also the day that I released my Solo EP called Broken strings, if you would like to hear it use the played below, and you can also download it and set the price you wish to pay, if though you wish to have it for free I’d really appreciate it if you could post a link to it on your facebook profile, thanks.

Gigs and Stuff at the weekend This weekend was really a game of two halves. Up early on Saturday morning for a trip to London, and this time for a specific reason, I noticed on Kevin Armstrong’s website that Reeves Gabrels was doing a guitar master class in London. Well this was something I have always wanted to do , learn some tricks from the master, I have always regarded him as one of the greatest guitar players in the world, so I had to do it. So got into London ans went to Vintage And Rare guitars in Denmark St which was where it was happening. Now there were 2 other guitar students, both teenagers and both very good players. I had flashbacks to working at Bills where every Saturday you would have some kids coming in that could whiz up and down the fret board at 100 mph! Anyhow, Reeves and Kevin were both really good, and I learned a lot, specifically about making the usual ‘Standard’ solo techniques more interesting, and to adding discords etc to it. It was all over far...

40 Years of Atom Heart Mother 40 years ago my favourite album of all time was released ‘Atom Heart Mother’ by Pink Floyd. It was the bands first UK No 1 lp and it took the band to a much higher lever than before. Its beautifully produced and has some terrific elements to it, yet the band and the fans don’t really like it. The main port of the album is the title track, now Pink Floyd really worked at their material, so many bands no simple go from writing to recording then release it and tour it. Pink Floyd up to the animals album always played new material before they recorded it, Atom heart mother was first played live a good 9 months before the album was released. It was even shown on TV and played live on the Radio before it was released. The title track is a long instrumental in 6 parts, with Choir , Brass and of cores the band. The avant-garde composer Ron Geesen crafted the original piece (Known as The Amazing Pudding). It’s a stunning journey starting with a Brass drone (that so...

Exeter Picturehouse 14th October 2010 So back to the picturehouse after about a month, this show was to be a little different to normal as unlike previous picturehouse shows, Niall was playing slide guitar and not bass. Ben Tallamy went on first, years ago he was in a band called Parasol Star that supported ALF back around 2002 he also played at the Exmouth festival a few months ago, he’s a really talented singer songwriter and plays a variety of other instruments too inc. the flute. We did a not too dissimilar set to last time, with the exception to the last song. We were having a before hand strum and ended up going through Just Like Heaven by The Cure, thinking it was a good Idea, Andy the manager of the Picturehouse printed out the lyrics for me off the internet and we added it to the set. Lee-Anne joined me for this one. Fortunes Light Feel Friends Forever Drowning Love is a Spirit Broken Dream Just Like Heaven Afterwards came our pals Super Punk Muffins, who kicked off ther...

Two nights in Bristol 26th September 2010 So on a very nice Sunday afternoon I ventured up the M5 to Bristol to play 2 little gigs in the city. The first one was at a place called The Rose Of Denmark, now I cant count how many times I have been plat this venue in the last 20 years going to various gigs in the City, but on this occasion I actually set foot in the place. Was a bit odd when I got there as most of the pub was having a roast dinner, while a PA was being set up in the same room and soon after backline and drum kits were being piled in. Still I was on first so bang on 4pm I took to the stage. The first set consisted of Fortunes Light Feel Friends Forever Love is a Spirit Broken Dream The set went down OK and it was good to have some decent monitoring while playing. So after the set we ventured into the main city centre, was very useful that a lot of street parking was free no a Sunday. Had a late lunch at a place called Zerodegrees wasn’t bad there they did a good Pizza. The...

The making of ‘To Behold’ Well this is a story that goes back to spring 2009, I was working on a few ideas and I came up with the basic riff and bass line, I added some keys and just jammed over it. After the initial recording I took it home to work on and I did some work on the drum programming, then it sat for a good 6 months. In the meantime I had written a chorus for it and some lyrics and I started playing it live at my solo gigs that I have been doing and in the spring I worked on the band recording put in the choruses and had a structure there. I then went to my friend Roger O’Donnell’s house and asked him if he wouldn’t mind recording some Moog on it for me. His initial solos were great but he was using his trademark muted sound, and after much nagging I got him to open up the filters a but to make it sound a bit more rock, and what he recorded to my ears was amazing, exactly what I wanted. He did 3 takes and I edited some of it together to give some layers. This song then sat...

20th September 2010 at the James Street Vault Well first things first, I will start with Mondays gig at the James Street Vault. Now the JSV is a pub that is right in the middle of the University in Plymouth , but innless you know its there you would have no idea of its existence if you get my drift. I played a short acoustic set down there a few weeks ago, and impressed Mark the promoter down there enough to give me a gig. Is a bit tricky for me at the moment not actually having a band for the first time in 18 years, but the ‘North and Parker’ concept is a very neat bridge as we can have a full sound and play whatever we like, new songs, old songs even the odd cover, and it can be electric or acoustic, and all the way it keeps the chops up and hopefully keeps the audience entertained as well. So we got there about 8pm set up our kit, had to wait till 9 for the pa to set up but once arrived sound checking was a relatively easy and simple process. We made up a song on the spot ...

Acoustic set at the Pilgrim Inn Bristol 9th September 2010 So last night I ventured up to Bristol to play an acoustic night at the Pilgrim Inn run by Mark Venus whom puts on a lot of acoustic nights in Bristol. I only had a 20 minutes set so was a tricky choice of what to play, in the end I did Fortunes light Jessica Love is a spirit To behold I didn’t intend on playing Jessica I blame it on not having a pen to write a set list, I was going to do either 29.9 or Broken dream. Anyhow the set went down pretty well, looks like I will probably be playing some more stuff in Bristol in the not too distant future.

North and Parker at Ryan's Bar Torquay 3rd September 2010 Last night was a bit of a special gig for us, really the first official post All Living Fear gig, billed as North and Parker and as we were the only band on the bill we had to extend the set, so the obvious thing is to play 2 sets one acoustic and one electric. The acoustic set was made up of Fortunes Light Feel Friend Forever Drowning Love is a Spirit (Arthur Brown Cover) Broken Dream What made this different to the normal acoustic sets that myself and Niall have done is that Niall was playing slide guitar rather than Bass, this had a great sound, especially as he was playing his guitar through a compressor and a memory man analogue delay pedal. After a break of 5 minutes we then took to the stage for the electric set, there was only really 1 stable All Living Fear song in the set specifically Jessica, the rest was either song I have written in the past year as well as a few of my older tracks. To Behold (With Synth solo) J...

Torquay Ryans Bar Acoustic Gig 28th August 2010 Well last week I played a show for the very excellent charity Rowcroft Hospice. The show was at Ryans bar in Torquay, a special town to me, I was born there, I formed my first band proper with people from Torquay and played my first proper gig there. I had recently had a car accident and was temporally without transport, this meant 2 Cabs, 2 Trains and 2 Buses but I got there! The venue is a great little pub, well its really 2 bars in one, the top bar where the gigs happen has a good atmosphere and an excellent PA that puts a lot of venues to shame. A few old friends turned up which was great, the set that I played was Fortunes Light Feel Drowning Broken Dream Love is a Spirit To Behold Twenty Nine Point Nine Jessica It was then a mad dash to the bus to get back and tomorrow I return to the venue this time with a full electric and acoustic set. Above photo taken by Dee Ryans Bar landlady

The Cure Rocket Reunion So Last night was The Cure Rocket Reunion at the Railway in Crawley. When I got there found a pub full of 50% locals and 50% Goths mostly members of bands. Section 3 the other band that Steve was playing with tonight were setting up, complete with a vintage Lynn drum machine the sort of thing you only ever see in old episodes of Rock School. Anyhow, the bands kicked off and Steves lot were on first, carrying on pretty much where Complicity left off about 12 year ago, good solid set. I started to get things together while Luxury Strangers were on stage, little practice in the beer garden and we were ready. This gig was a little odd as 2 members were missing, Niall and Nev were not there, still using a track with bass on pumped through a meaty bass amp gave it enough thud in the bass dept. We did a 35 minute set that had To Behold Jessica Wait For Yesterday Crimson (First time in ages) Hey You (well it IS the Cure festival after all) Stranger To None Twenty Nine P...

Some films I’m not one for watching films, but recently I have watched quite a few, I’ve seen all the Hannibal films and a serial killer film called Copycat, though my real passion is documentaries and I’ve seen 2 very good ones this week. It Might Get Loud This is a film where you get 3 of the most important and influential guitarists of the last 50 years. Jimmy page – for the Classic rock prospective and legendary riffs The Edge – For the technology Jack White – for the no frills back to basics raw guitar playing The start of this film shows Jack white litrally building a 1 string guitar before your very eyes, the film then moves on to how the 3 respeticve guitarists got into playing, first guitar, what it isn’t a film about is just a biopic about the bands they formed. Then they get into a room together, looking very uncomfortable at first, but they soon warm and start talking about their influences and do a little jamming of each others riffs, one of the best scenes is Jimmy Page p...

Exeter Picturehouse 29th July 2010 Last night was another trip up the A38 to the Picturehouse in Exeter. I must have played there more than any other venue in the last 2 years, and it’s a great test bed for what I’m doing. Tonight I had put in some new songs, because I have been practicing singing every day weather with the band, recording or whatever the nerves factor isn’t kicking in like it was. The first act on was Rosie Eade and a chap playing Piano, they were VERY good indeed, I think it was one of their first gigs too. After her set I went on, was nice to have a gang of mates in the audience. The set went like this Fortunes Light Feel Drowning (A new song) Broken Dream (A new ish song that will be explained in a few weeks time) TO Behold Love is a Spirit (Arthur Browns Kingdom Come song) Twenty Nine Point Nine Jessica I decided to do Love is a spirit as a kind of last minute thing, I remembered the lyrics were on the Tantric Lover CD so I typed them out, played it through a co...

Well that was a surprise! Last night my girlfriend went out for a drink with a friend and I was going to pick her up after work, I get a text from her around 10 pm saying to bring my guitar with me. It turned out that I had been booked a slot on an acoustic night at a venue called the James Street Vault. Id never been there before but its basically in the middle of the university, It’s a kind of a cross between the Dev in Camden and the Timepiece in Exeter . When I got there a Irish folk band were launching into full swing, then there was a French blues guitarist and after him it was me. I did 3 songs in totally I should probably have done a few more but I didn’t want to over cook it. I did Fortunes Light, To Behold and 29.9 I was very pleased in how it all went down, I was quite nervous and I’m always nervous when it comes to using the loop pedal you only have to knock it out of time by a fraction and it sounds awful but I managed to get it spot on. It’s a great little ven...

Update 14th July 2010 Hi all Well I thought it was about time for an update, though I’m still rather excited by the news that last Saturday David Gilmour and Roger Waters performed again together, If you didn’t know they did a charity gig in Kidlington Oxfordshire for the HOPE for Palestine charity inc one generous audience member who paid 50 thousand quid for them to do an encore of Another Brick In The Wall. You can read more about here here http://www.davidgilmour.com/ The photo was by Polly Sampson. Anyhow I have been writing and recording, I was looking at putting something out as a free download by the end of the month, I hope this to still be the plan, there are 2 songs almost finished, one called Drowning and the other called Feel that I have performed live a few times on my acoustic gigs. Yes I am also going to do another All Living Fear download this like the last one will be free and will have maybe 2 or 3 tracks, and maybe an extended mix of one of the songs as well. There ...

So that’s it ? Yes I have finally laid the mantle All Living Fear to rest. I always had a plan, the plan was simple, I was going to give All Living Fear one last shot over a 6 month Period. I did this by firstly getting a new band together to play some shows and maybe write some songs. The thing is for any band, if the line up isn’t anything to do with the bands last CD people are seldom going to want to see said band, as was the case with the Autumn tour. That’s why the non ‘Goth Scene’ gigs were great and the Goth Scene ones were awful. Another thing I had to do was to do a one off gig with Paul just for the fun of it and Play Into The Light one more time, we did that in Torquay in February. I also wanted to do one more gig in London, we did that at the Underworld that was a great gig and really should have been left there. But there is a couple more commitments, one was in Cambridge and then we have the Cures rocket reunion thing in august that again will be a fun gig to do with som...

Hi all Well it was a busy one this weekened On friday I had rehearsal with Niall for the gig at the Underworld, practice was pretty good, then I had to go into work as we had a Cure Disintegration special on Radio Devon. This included an interview with Roger, 6 Music had the producer but I got a member of the band, well not that its especially difficult for me to do that haha! You can download it here. http://www.sendspace.com/file/8vnh8n Saturday I went to the Exmouth festival, I had been booked to do a short acoustic set, when I set off it was raining and I figured nobody would be there, I could hear the gig on the radio as I was driving up and it sounded like it was reasonably busy, and the sun did come out. There was a lot of quality acoustic acts there, and I was rather nervous about it to be honest, there was at least 1000 people there, still about an hour later than advertised I got on stage, and did just 2 songs Fortunes light and a long version of To Behold . It went down r...

All Living Fear - Twenty Nine Point Nine is finally finished have a listen here, and PLEASE download it and spread the links to it wherever you can remember its all free. <a href="http://alllivingfear.bandcamp.com/album/twenty-nine-point-nine">Twenty Nine Point Nine by All Living Fear</a>

Exeter Picturehouse 20th May 2010 So I return to the Picturehouse, almost my second home gig wise these days. But it’s a good set up and its exactly the sort of regular gig that I need to get the old confidence up and to try new stuff. Was a bit quieter than usual I guess the film they were showing wasn’t too popular! I played a similar set to last time. Fortunes Light Feel Destiny Friends Forever Hey You Tower of Strength (well the first 20 seconds of haha) Twenty Nine Point Nine To Behold Jessica I thought I made a fair few bluffs, but I was standing up and its sometimes tricky to play the loop pedal. I got a few ideas for next time, I wanted to use my electronic percussion pad though Niall has it in his studio. Was a good night though, and it was great to have the regular posse of Lee-Anne, Tony and Kal there.

Gig at Exeter Havana 4th May Ok so this is a new venue for me, the last time I went anywhere on the quay in Exeter was around 1995 / 1996, the whole place has changed a lot. Havana is a recently done up bar, its very big, has a stage and does very good chips. There was 4 acts on tonight, 3 of them including myself well all one man and a guitar, and the night ended with a dup where one of them also played one of those boxes you sit on and play like a drum sounded very effective. I felt much more confident performing tonight, for one thing the PA was good and I could hear everything crystal clear through the monitor, plus there was a healthy amount of claps from the audience that is always a good sign. The Set List I played: Fortunes Light Feel Friends Forever Hey You (Yes the song by The Cure) Destiny Twenty Nine Point Nine To Behold Jessica This was a solo show as Niall was not available and for once I was feeling comfortable doing it, roll on the next one which will be at the Picture ...

All Living Fears London show 30th May 2010 OK dear readers, ticket sales have been a little low compared to more 'Goth Scene' friendly gigs that we have played, but this is probably your ONLY chance of seeing All Living Fear in the capital this year, so please come along, remember its a bank holiday the day after so you have no need to worry about it being on a work night :) Post punk legends Punishment of Luxury return to London on Sunday the 30th May 2010 Full Line Up: Punishment Of Luxury Rubella Ballet All Living Fear Never a Hero Zeropunk Venue Address 174 Camden High Street London NW1 0NE You can order tickets direct from us at the face value of 11 uk pounds with free postage and no booking fee. More info http://www.flagpromotions.com/ http://www.alllivingfear.co.uk/gigs.htm

Exeter Picturehouse Gig 8th April 2010 Last night I played a solo set at the Picturehouse, It was Niall’s birthday, so he was off doing something, birthday ish. I did 7 songs Fortunes Light Feel (New song first time live) Friends Forever Twenty Nine Point Nine (another new song first time live) Destiny To Behold Jessica I ended up going on last, or top of the bill depending on your POV. I felt more comfortable this time, haveing a monitor would have helped, I had been working on some of these songs, and re wrote some of the words so I had the lyrics on a stand, this in some ways was more of a hindrance than a help! Still it was good to have a few friends in the audience, as well as Lee-Anne & Twinpeeks was good to see Slink and Kal there too. The PA also had the reverb turned up to 11, thats always good :) Hopefully there will be another once soon as I do enjoy the Picturehouse gigs.

Friends Forever By Matthew North Some of you may have notices that I have changed a few words in this one Friends Forever He worked for 40 years, serving for his Queen When he left his school was told it was his dream Took some lives, he couldn’t forget Praying on his mind, the lives ignored What will we do, what will we say What will change to give life some pride What will we do, what will we say To give this life to give this gravity See The Poor Man Begging For His bread Summers over, his brother was left for dead Holding a cup lost respect he’s entitled to Waiting for the charity that died long ago The pride of a man that serves his guard Turns his blind eye, the children laugh What will we do, what will we say What will change t give life some pride What will we do, what will we say To give this life to give this gravity

Destiny Im finding posting lyrics to here handy because its an easy way for me to find them. I hope you like them to and sing along at the next gig :) Matthew The Statements a Matter of fact Looking through the will Take what’s yours and leave what’s mine You will drink yourself so blind Every Day, Every Way Is nothing to look deep inside? Anyone’s there And nobody cares Wait for something isn’t there (Chorus) Beyond the edge Beyond the trail Nothings left For you to tell Everything that needed me Has gone away for destiny (Verse 2) Give me summer give me rain If I am ever back again You will see Nothings Left Nothings for Free Every Day Every Way Is nothing to look deep inside? Anyone’s there And nobody cares Wait for something isn’t there

Twenty Nine Point Nine by Matthew North 11th March 2010 (Verse 1) Everybody knows there’s something wrong Take your time and listen to this song Words of fortune, words of faith Do what you can before it’s too late The Man on the door offers you hope You didn’t see the rate oh what a joke Twenty nine point nine you’re unlucky number Take your money you’re going under (Chorus) You Work all day and you work all night He’s knocking at the door and you get such a fright You signed on the line and you made it easy Twenty nine years and you life is breezy Working all day and working all night You didn’t think the loan would take your life Money is easy but work is hard You better think twice when you take that card (Verse 2) Five years gone you are no better You’re at the mercy of the debt collector Robert Johnson sold his song Nobody knew him till he was gone Nothings worth getting this mess Forget the car and save the stress Kill the TV in the morning Go outside enjoy the glory

Here is some lyrics to one of my new songs. Feel – 10-03-2010 Everybody that you see today Wants to get there and is happy to pay Doesn’t matter if you sing or dance You just want to have the chance Reality is a wonderful thing It’s not your dreams that they want you to bring Through the door with a broken heart That’ll get you to the start Dreams may come, and dreams may go Nothing to win, if you get on the show The only thing you can guarantee Is you will loose you dignity Money for something you cannot spend They take your soul to the very end There’s no short cut to be a star Just open your heart and play your guitar Everything you dream is not as it seams Manufactured waste is your only scene Think long and hard before you take the step Or you’ll live in a life of debt Come on through to the other side Your soul and heart is so alive Do the things you want to do Don’t let the high trousers turn the screw There’s no substitute for something that’s real For something from the heart ...

Torquay Reunion show 27th feb 2010 Well last Saturday night was our homecoming show at Ryans bar in Torquay. Many faces of old showed up inc people that I have known for over 25 year and even a couple that were at our first ever gig in 1992. The set was split in half, the first set was Myself and Paul performing the ‘Into The Light’ album in full to add contrast I played the opening track Fortunes light on the Mandolin Here is a video clip. After the main set we also did Morning Dew to finish off. The after a break of about 20 minutes we did the electric set. We had 2 new songs The set went:- 1 To Behold 2 Each And Every Way 3 Jessica 4 Wait For Yesterday 5 Wait Here 6 The Living 7 Home Too Soon 8 Destiny 9 The Widows Blame 10 Tomorrow And we did an encore of Jessica again. To Behold we have played live acoustically but Destiny this was its first live outing. Reception was very favourable to the new material so there will be more in the next set. More photos on the bands Myspace and Fa...

Camden Palace 5th Spt 1996 One of the shows that we will always remember is the day we played at the Camden Palace now called KOKO on the 5th of September the day before Matthews 24th Birthday. Here is the flyer This gig was filmed by 3 Cameras one was fixed the others were operated by David Milner who filmed the band right through the 90s and a fan called Mickey. Up until recently this footage was forgotten about, and we have edited together a track from that gig, unfortunately there is no mixing desk audio, so we have dubbed on the sound being as faithful as possible to the sound that the band had on stage that night. Enjoy some nostalgia

Recent live acoustic shows Well this week I played a couple last minute acoustic shows. The first was on Thursday at the Picture house in Exeter, this was due to the one we had booked on the 18th was cancelled as there is a comedy gig happening there that night. There was some good acts on, most notably my mate Chris Woods whom I’ve mentioned before. Myself and Niall performed 5 Tracks, Fortunes Light, Jessica, To Behold, Home Too Soon and Tomorrow. I was very happy with how we played, I think in some ways it’s the best acoustic show thus far, not perfect by any means by getting there, this was also pointed out boy a few of the regulars that came to my Exeter gigs. Then last night, I played a few songs on my own at an acoustic night in a pub called the Tamar Inn in a place called Calstock, now to get there the satellite navigation took us all over the place, down tiny little lanes up hills, and eventually we found the place, though there was hardly anywhere to park! I did just 3 songs,...

All Living Fear Tour Video I have put a compilation of the tour together as a video with the soundtrack being one of the new songs that I have written and that we performed on the tour. This in many ways is a starting block for the Mk 4 version of the band. We have got a very big deal gig for the end of 2010 so we have something solid to work for. Id also likes to point out that though I’m singing I’m not a singer, I’m a guitarist that happens to be singing at the moment.