The Brook, 466 Portswood Road, Portswood, Southampton SO17 3SD
Box Office Hours - 1.00pm - 7.00pm Mon - Sat (023) 8055 5366
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December 2008

Tickets On Sale When Price is Shown

 

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The Return of the Irish Rockers - Again!!!

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During the past twelve months, The Saw Doctors have toured non stop in Europe, USA, the UK and Ireland promoting their new album cd entitled The Cure. The Galway band made four trips to the USA , selling out the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, New York and headlining the Governors Inauguration Ball in Baltimore , Maryland.

Last summer, The Saw Doctors played every Festival from Shetland to Dubai and back again for the V Festivals in Essex and Staffordshire. In November, The Saw Doctors turned up in Celtic Park, Glasgow, playing three songs before the Manchester United versus Celtic Champions League match

Now in their nineteenth year as a touring band, The Saw Doctors revolve around the songwriting partnership of Davy Carton (Vocals) and Leo Moran (Guitars).

The Saw Doctors came together in Tuam, Co. Galway in 1988 when Leo Moran, realising that the potential for Irish reggae was somewhat limited, quit Too Much For the Whiteman, and got together with Davy Carton after his punk band Blaze X disbanded , despite the fact that their first single "Some Hope" was chosen as Single of the Week on Irish radio.

Success came early for The Saw Doctors – their second single, I Useta Lover, went to Number One in Ireland in September 1990 and was still Number One that Christmas. The Saw Doctors then re-released their first single N17 and on the back of I Useta Lover's success, N17, which was produced by Mike Scott of The Waterboys, went to Number One. The first album, If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back, was Number One for most of 1991.

After picking up a lot of Irish press and entertainment awards in the early ninties and posting a second Number One album (All The Way From Tuam), The Saw Doctors set about touring the UK and in February 1996, the band's third album "Same Oul' Town" went to Number Six in the UK Top Twenty, yielding two Top Twenty UK singles, World of Good, and To Win Just Once. The Saw Doctors appeared on Top of the Pops in January and July 1996 to promote the two singles.

"From country to punk to pop and rock'n'roll", explains Leo Moran on their success, "we stole all our favourite bits".

In April/May 1997, the Saw Doctors undertook their first major coast to coast US tour and as a result landed a US record deal with Paradigm Records in New York. The compilation album, Sing A Powerful Song, was released in November 1997, prompting Geoffrey Himes to write in The Washington Post "the Saw Doctors are one of the world's most appealing roots-rock outfits" ….in "To Win Just Once" they have crafted an anthem for the losers of the world".

Songs From Sun Street, the Saw Doctors fourth album was released on both sides of the Atlantic in 1998. The album release was celebrated in the UK with a sell out show at London's Royal Albert Hall. In America, the Saw Doctors headlined the American Fleadh concerts with Van Morrisson and Sinead O' Connor. At the Fleadh in San Jose (June 99), they had the crowd "jumping like human pogo-sticks" according to the San Jose Mercury News.

In a Saw Doctors' song, you'll listen in vain for the usual swaggering rock cliches about life on the road, drug problems and easy sex. Instead, continuing the tradition of all-time greats from Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams, their songs range from bringing in the harvest, to running away to join the army; from the plight of Ireland's unmarried mothers to the effect of strong religion on a nation's youth; from playing gaelic football against a neighbouring village to loving the prettiest girl in town but lacking the courage to tell her.

During 2000, The Saw Doctors spent most of the year writing and recording their fifth studio album, Villains?, working with programmer and producer, Giles Packham. Villains? was released to critical acclaim in October 2001. Craig Harris noted in the Boston Globe "with their latest CD, Villains?, a hook-laden mix of rock, pop and traditional roots, the Saw Doctors assume their place next to U2, The Pogues, and Thin Lizzy as one of Ireland's great rock bands".

In July 03, Tyrone Productions (Riverdance Producers) filmed a one hour documentary on the Saw Doctors and the documentary "A Different Kind Of World" along with a 80 minute concert that was recorded at a live show in Galway, was released on DVD and CD in March 2004. The DVD and live both entitled Live in Galway were launched at a sell out show at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom.

Over the years, The Saw Doctors have built up a reputation as a great live band. They have toured in Australia, Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Norway and the UK. Paul Sexton of The Times in London observed that "if they could bottle the sort of bonhomie that can make an entire concert hall feel better, The Saw Doctors would have the medicine show to end them all".

For more gossip on The Saw Doctors, log on to the band's website

Read Review of the 2004 Gig ::

With a highly successful festival season behind them and having signed to Fiction Records and released their new album 'Everything's The Rush' in May, Delays play a unique run of hometown gigs.These special dates give you the opportunity to hear tracks from the new album alongside hits such as the disco fuelled ' Valentine', the glorious 'Nearer Than Heaven' and 'Long Time Coming'. Catch the band close up and personal while you still can! This is one night not to be missed.

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Since we last met, Delays have played sold-out U.S tours, recorded, ‘Stardust' style, in a chateux in Spain, and found themselves a new home.

"The last couple of years have been the biggest rollercoaster ride you've ever seen" smiles Aaron Gilbert (electronics wizard and brother of Greg).

"It's been sad and beautiful all at once. I've been rushed back from tour with nervous exhaustion, the works. But I wouldn't change a minute of it."

"Put it this way" smiles brother Greg. "We've come a long way from playing songs in a garage, dressed like The Sweet!"

Delays have long been British rock's best kept secret. A heady concoction of angelic harmonies, beat-group hauteur and groove-based hedonism, they belong to British pop's most regal bloodline: (early) Floyd, The Smiths, The Stone Roses.

Hitch a lift with them to North America, however, and you'll see their euphoric ballroom blitz send fans into a frenzy. Head south of the border and it's a full on teenage rampage.

"We played a sold-out stadium gig at this bullring in Mexico" says Aaron. "We got a limo to the gig and they were selling bootleg Delay's t-shirts on the streets outside the arena. Not bad considering we haven't even released a record there."

Sometimes a delay can be a good thing. Had a brisk north-easterly not slowed the progress of the Armada when it was bound for the South Coast in in 1588, you'd probably be reading this in Spanish. Equally, having formed a decade ago in Southampton as glam-rock reprobates Corky -recruiting Aaron en route- the band have forged a bond which trumps faddishness hands down.

Aaron: "We've known each other from school. Because of that, we've got a really deep connection, which comes through in the music. We're a proper gang, we grew up together, we just do what we feel is right."

Such togetherness has brought with it a keen sense of purpose, as well as a pan-generic psychedelic know-how covering all bases from Oz to Prince to the Aphex Twin.

Having signed to Rough Trade in 2004, they released their debut album Faded Seaside Glamour the same year. A riot of page-boy haircuts, nifty riffs and celestial harmonies, it boasted top Twenty hits ‘Long Time Coming' and ‘Nearer Than Heaven' and prompted the Guardian to describe them as "the first guitar band in a decade to lay claim to the melodic guitar pop throne invented by The Byrds and the Hollies."

Follow up You See Colours (2006) saw their psych-pop blueprint delivered with added BPM. A brooding mix of "Voulez Vous' and ‘The La's', it spawned alpha-pop hits ‘Valentine' (NME Track Of The Week) and ‘Hideaway' and brought both an army of new admirers and a mutually agreed split from Rough Trade.

"It was a weird situation to be in" explains bassist Colin Fox. "We'd be playing to huge crowds at Glastonbury and T In the Park, all the while aware that we didn't know who was going to put the next record out."

"In a strange way it galvanised us" adds drummer Rowly. "We did a self-financed tour with the last of our money, and those were best shows we've ever done.The last date was at the Guildhall in Southampton, and the cherry on the cake was that we signed the new deal that night."

"It's a cliché to say it," laughs Greg, "but after all the hassles, signing with Fiction was like that bit in the Wizard Of Oz where it goes from black and white to colour."

For a band so absorbed by pop's kaleidoscopic past -a quick straw poll of current faves reveals a love of doo-wop, The Flaming Lips and Mogwai- it makes sense that their new circumstances should be seen as as an awakening into technicolour. But their journey from darkness into light has also given Delays a hard won perspective on the pop process.

Greg: "In the last year I've come out of one really long relationship, met someone new and signed a new deal. Inevitably, that's all going to end up in the music."

All of which brings us to Everything's The Rush. Recorded over twenty days in Spain with producer Youth (Primal Scream/Verve/Paul McCartney), it is the sound of Delays striding confidently into the big league. The tunes are brighter, the choruses are bigger, the need for emotional rescue greater than ever. If the urgency can be put down to a desire to make up for lost time, the super-charged guitar sounds and soaring synths owe something to psycho-geography.

"We recorded at Youth's chateux in Grenada, which is high up in the mountains" explains Aaron. "The live room has got a huge window with panoramic views over the Sierra Nevada range. When you're staring at a mountain in a room full of amps, you want to make a sound that's as big as the sky."

From foot-to-the-floor opener ‘Girl's On Fire' -think The La's at Red Rocks- to neurotic space disco "Friends Are False" to sky-scraping strings-assisted stomp ‘Touchdown' (key lyric: "I'll be calling on your radio!") Everything's A Rush is final proof that Delays have the melodic nouse to slug it out in Stadiumsville.

The music may be the musical equivalent of a huge gulp of alpine air, but listen closer and the lyrics reveal a darker aftertaste.

"One third of the album relates to the detritus of us getting out of Rough Trade and our private situations, and the other two thirds are about the joy of discovering new things and the beauty of making music again" explains Greg.

"We're almost back to the point we were at before we had a deal. We decided to throw it all in there - take the soul of what we do and explode it. "

With Aaron providing vocals and an acerbic lyrical wit on four tracks (not least on idlers anthem ‘One More Lie-In'), it's the sound of a band scaling new peaks, tackling their personal demons along the way.

"A song like ‘Hooray' sounds really uplifting, but it's actually about me having O.C.D laughs Greg. "It seemed too easy to write a maudlin song. For me, music is at it's best when it's fragile and human; people crave that connection."

Aaron: "For us, melody is king. We want to make music which sends a shiver down your spine."

It's been worth the wait.

Turn up the speakers; join the rush.

Paul Moody - (Taken from Delays Website)

Spacey Rocksters need no introduction

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Moody, Floydian Celtic-tinged Rock

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Mostly Autumn are a seven piece band from York and have been formed for over nine years playing music that has been described as organic emotionally charged rock with Celtic undertones. They are hailed as the band rock fans have been waiting twenty years for. The amazing seven-piece have all the hallmarks of the great bands from the seventies – there are echoes of Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Genesis and all of the greats, but the sound is unmistakably their own.

Like the Autumn season itself, their music has a romantic, organic quality and are a rare naturalness, but it also combines elements of sheer power and intensity. The songs seem to grow into life rather than emerge as the work of a laboured writing process.

They have recently won "best band", "best track", best classic rock gig", "best guitarist", and "best vocalist" in the international "Classic Rock Society" awards, voted for by the public.

After signing a major record deal worth over 1.2 million with "Classic Rock Productions" two years ago they have repeatedly played sold out concerts in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Norway, New Jersey, Mexico and all over the U.K.

After an amazing 3 years with Classic Rock Productions, both parties decided that Mostly Autumn should be set free and on 4th June 2005 The New Astoria, London saw the launch of Mostly Autumn Records, and a live recording of this gig 'Storms over London Town' was released early this year.  They are currently writing and recording their latest (6th) studio album 'Heart full of Sky' which will be on general release next February 2007.  A limited edition double album is available to pre-order now and will be pressed late November or early December this year.

 " I've been listening to this amazing new band called Mostly Autumn" Rick Wright from Pink Floyd on BBC Radio 2.