MATTHEW NORTH MUSIC

I can’t believe it’s been best part of 2 years since I played a gig in Bristol. So having a free day last Sunday I contacted my friend Mark Venus whom promotes a lot of acoustic gigs in Bristol and arranged a couple of shows for a Sunday afternoon. Mike wanted to tag along for the ride so he came along with his Djembe. The first gig was at the Hatchet Pub located by the 02 Academy, it’s a great pub and its usually the place I head to for food before a gig or if I happen to be in Bristol, they also have quite a few good alternative and 80s nights there too sometimes. We went on at about 5pm and the set went like this. Fortunes Light Broken Child Jessica Feel Love is a Spirit To Behold Mike did some great percussion of feel giving it a great groove, that song is developing all the time from the simple original acoustic song that it was to start with.   We had some great feedback from the audience which is always greatly appreciated. After this gig we popped over to Fishp...

So while thing are going very well for secrets for September we have had a slight problem in that our Bass Player JP has been away for a long time. We had a show that our usual stand in was unable to attend as well so I had to decide whether to cancel the gig or find someone else. One of my neighbours Andrew Leigh came to mind he is an Ex pro that was in several name bands inc Spooky tooth, Keef Hartley band and Matthews Southern Comfort and goes by the name of Andrew Leigh. So knowing that we have a few mutual friends I found him on Facebook and asked him if he fancied doing a gig, to my amazement he said yes this was only about 10 days before the gig. We had a couple of rehearsals with just a tape of the drums and then off to Kozzfest we go. This was a great little festival that Matthew ‘The Wright Stuff’ Wright even turned up to and mentioned on his TV show. We played the usual Secrets set minus reflections due to set time. And a good time had by all. Set List To Be...

Last night was all a bit bonkers really, My initial intension was that I was going with my girlfriend to the Picturehouse to have a Pizza and listen to music, and that’s what we did, though as one artist postponed I thought I might do a couple of tunes, and some how it ended up being a Pink Floyd a thon. I thought earlier that I fancied doing Pigs on the Wing, then one thing lead to another and I ended up doing. Pigs on the Wing (part 1) The Post War Dream Fortunes Light Morning Dew Jessica Mother Another Brick In The Wall Part 1 Another Brick In the Wall Part 3 Goodbye Cruel World Comfortably Numb Broken Dream Broken Child Outside The Wall Pigs On The Wing (Part 2) So 4 All Living Fear tunes and one Cover + a truncated version of the Wall haha! It was fun with Andy B Playing bongos, and Lee-Anne on the Shaky Egg. 

In the 1950s there were 2 kinds of musician, there was the ones that Played 5 nights a week playing anything they were asked to play, and there were the few that just wanted to do their own thing , the latter came out of the former. 2012 There are 2 kinds of musician, the ones that play whatever they are asked to (Covers / Tribute bands etc) and the ones that want to do their own thing, these mostly never went near the former. In between the 2 era’s there was this little bubble called ‘Independent music’ This started in the 60s but really thrived in the 70s and 80s and started to fade in the 90s. This was where major labels and smaller companies invested in artists doing their own thing in the hope that it would yield some return in many cases it did in others it didn’t, but with good marketing and product with the people at the top making some money this filtered down   and we had a healthy recording industry. We are now back to how things were in the 50s, there was an ...

Back to the Picturehouse and the Return of All Living Fear So last night then. Usual fun at the Picturehouse, not played there myself since January so was looking forward to playing a few tunes, as it happened Mike was free so I dragged him along this going from really a Matthew North solo gig to an All Living Fear gig this being the first one for a couple of years. We didn’t have any rehearsal Mike was just bashing his Djembe to the beat I was playing. Also we did one song that I had never sing before. I think we pulled the gig off rather well it was like a Goth Tyrannosaurs Rex. Set List Broken Child (New Song) All Living Fear Each And Every Way Love is a Spirit Last Goodbye Tomorrow (With extended solo at end) I really liked the sound of what we did, I was looping guitars and I was using this new pedal called a Ravish Sitar that I got for Xmas that give more texture to the sound. No longer had All Living Fear played its set than Ellie came to the stage and we did a Sec...

Blog March 2012 I really can’t believe that I have not done a blog since January. Well here goes, Things have been very busy the last few months. The new line up of Secrets for September is working out better than I could have ever imagined. Before we announced Ellie we did a couple test gigs, one just before Xmas at the JSV, One at the Picturehouse and one at Mama Stones, they all went pretty well, knew this was a winner from the start. We have been practicing constantly and this has paid off as we are tighter now than we have ever been. We started playing live by doing a radio session for BBC Radio Devon to 80,000 listeners. Ellie had never done anything like this before, she hadn’t even done a proper gig so it was a steep learning curve for her, but she did it effortlessly and sang beautifully. Above taken by Fiona Walsh Photography http://www.fionawalsh.co.uk We have written and recorded several songs, and have plans for another single called ‘...

Paint The Picture - Fallen off the easel for now Well as you may have seen we have had a line up change with Secrets For September, this also means that our début album ‘Paint The Picture’ will no longer be coming out. It was almost finished during the summer, we were just waiting for a time slot to re do some vocals, and a bit of additional mixing and it was finished. Most of the artwork ideas were put down. And it had a Catalogue number and everything. So had the album been released it would have been thus. Secrets for September – Paint The Picture Label – Dangernoise Cat No DN225 Distributed by PHD in the UK Via Resurrection Track Listing : To Behold (North) Traces (North / O’Shea) Upside Down (North / O’Shea) Paint The Picture (North / O’Shea) Right Here (North / O’Shea) Hold Your Peace (North / O’Shea) Needing (North / O’Shea) Got To Give Up The Ghost (North / O’Shea) Line up – Marina O’Shea – Vocals Matthew North – Guitar / Keyboards Mike Soundy – Drums Dave Holwill – Bass With G...

First gig of 2012 Exeter Picturehouse 5th Jan 2012 Well last night it felt like I hadn’t played a solo set for years, was probably a good 4 or 5 months. Most of my solo gigs will be based on All Living Fear material in preparation to the shows that we will do in the autumn. So the set went. Fortunes Light All Living Fear Blue Sky Breaking The Fire Love is a A Spirit (Not an ALF song but a tune I intend to play on the tour) Then Ellie Taylor joined me for a couple numbers, they were Letting Go (A new song that we wrote with Lee-anne) To Behold (in which I introduced the stylophone !!) Was a pretty fun set to play Roger and a few others turned up always a pleasure to play the Picturehouse. Above Falling Trees Ben, Padders, Ellie Ben will be playing on some new Secrets tracks that we are in the process of writing.