Rob Clarke

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Played with Rob at the National Freestyling Championships this weekend just gone on Weston beach...

He played a decent set on Saturday but topped that with a much more accomplished one Sunday. Going on straight after the consumate professional that is Adam Lipinski is never easy but Rob took it all in his stride and charmed the punters and cameras with his cool look, catchy but quirky songs, intelligent lyrics and nice banter. Fair play mate looking forward to seeing lots more of ya. I don't know what my favourite song of the set was as they were ALL good but 'Comes To Something' is his promo song at the moment and I saw at least two local muso's singing along so I'll go for that one...

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Oh Aunty Beryl... I love Em to bits but she don't half make some ropey cups of tea! She's going to London to see the queen (or maybe her mate) this weekend and Rob may come over to mine (ideally with Strodey the roadie and his guitar) for drinks, music and giggle. If you wanna pop round Sunday morning and make us all a brew then Matty may even be inspired to do one of his famous breakfasts! Wonder what Ali B is up to?...

[Kellie]

I am going to bring this tread back to the surface as I am being a fan of this guys, yeah you heard it here first! I may be the biggest fan of lips around though I hear I have some competetion from the africans but thats nothing a swift punch and some free rice cant sort out. So guys check out the myspace page www.myspace.com/albertrocker and tell you what add the guy, comment the guy and for god sake listen to the guys tunes and make him a happy chappy!

Ow and Matt the vocals on lips from urself are awesome, plus the recording is pretty seamless, It is quickly becoming my favourite song of 2006, hooorar

Anyways go, go people go listen especially you beryl reckon its right up ur street there lady!

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He's alright!

[Kellie]

Rob you deleted your post you tart!ha ha h ha I just wrote Ron! opps

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I'm playing at The Market House in Weston-super-Mare with Rob this coming Friday, the 8th December. I've seen a lot of my former band mate recently and he seems really happy making music with Mark Correll as Seventy Seven and doing his acoustic gigs as well. He came along to watch my set at the myspace Christmas bash in Bath recently and also made me a lovely mix CD for my birthday. Top la.

The Creep Out by Dandy Warhols was really trippy. Typical heavily effected, spacy guitar parts performed and produced by Courtney Taylor-Taylor. They are a great band. Rob and I were part of the generation who looked forward to a daily mid-afternoon slot from Radio 1 DJ's Mark & Lard. 'Every Day Should Be A Holiday' was the first track I heard from The Dandy's. Rob and I were then songwriters for South West UK band Tremor and often encored with a pounding version of 'Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth'. I remember playing a mid-afternoon slot at the British leg of a World Surfing Championship in Croyde Bay, Cornwall; England. Thousands of those dudes rocked out to us playing that along with my pop-punk song 'Hearsay' and Rob's super cool ballad 'Lips'. We're still in touch with the other guys from Tremor too; bassist Nick Koulias is now lead singer, bassist and songwriter in popular South West UK band Eleven Eleven. Drummer Alex Browne was also in the Eleven Eleven for a while and played at The London Astoria and in Bristol with the band as well as playing on the band's first independent album 'We Never Dare'. Nick also played bass for Bristol band Phonic before committing full time to Eleven Eleven.

When we were in Tremor we'd often crash at the apartment shared by Alex, his dad and partner. After late Saturday night gigs and later drinking sessions we'd wake up late Sunday mornings and lounge around playing our interactive 'Remember Nirvana' game. I'd never heard the track 'Sappy' before and wasn't to be disappointed! Really tight, hard, bitter-sweet, melodic and instant. Typical Nirvana really! I really love the track that was released in the UK a couple of years ago 'You Know You're Right' too. 'Incesticide' the collection of Nirvana B-sides and rareties would serve as long topics in discussion between young dreamers hopeful that their carefully crafted hard edged bitter-sweet pop/rock/indie could have the same impact in music lovers and musicians lives. Not quite yet but like the rest of us Alex is still pursuing his dream in a band called Hi-Flyer who gig lots.

The Elbow track 'Switching Off' is quite cool. Rob's well into his Elbow and digs out footage of them doing a wicked performance on Later... With Jools Holland. For a while we had a keyboard player in Tremor who ended up playing lead guitar and smashing a cheap guitar up in a promo video for the band! Doogs is now promoting open mic nights and other small events around Bristol. He made a beautiful recording of some music on his home computer that I wrote a song to and recorded vocals on. Unfortunately Doogs' PC blew up a couple of years later and none of the rest of us have recordings of the song. 'Don't Fade Away' lost forever? Doogs went on to play bass in Filer who had a residency @ The Cooperage in Plymouth. Sean Filer, the singer/songwriter in the band had a similar beyond dulcet, mournful tone as the singer from Elbow.

The Nick Drake track 'Parasites' is incredible. As usual delivered in Drake's precise yet flowing, floaty but solid individual guitar and vocal style. Jimmy Galvin introduced me to Nick Drake's music at his apartment in Clifton. 'River Man' was one that he used to play me the most and I later got the 'Way To Blue' compilation CD which had this, 'Cello Song' 'Hazy Jane' and 'Poor Boy' on among others. Rob got into him when he went travelling in Australia for a year. We used to jam 'Know' at acoustic showcases, open mic nights and impromptu gigs after playing it one afternoon in his mum's living room to a load of family and friends.

Mean Mr Mustard is a track Rob introduced to me the other week at his pad when trying out one of the endless f**king quizzes he compiles. Pretty cool.

Wire are quite cool. Wicked backing vocals. Saw a four piece band at the myspace Christmas bash last Saturday who all song. Somehow it was so tight and delivered with such raw belief that it was far more cool and impressive than the untuneful, off putting row that half the bands on the circuit serve up. Tuneless nonsense, go home!

Evan Dando is a genius.

Turnip Fish by Sultans Of Ping FC @ The Imperial Jam Night will have to wait for another time anyway.Far too late to go into that now.

FRIDAY 8TH DECEMBER: MARKET HOUSE: WSM: DOUBLE TROUBLE ROB CLARKE & MATT WESCOTT FROM 8.30PM...

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Had a good night with Rob again last night when it was cool for me to go and be an audience member for a change...

He had a 20min slot at a charity event in Bristol @ cool venue Joe Public's. He was slightly thrown at the beginning by having to stand up but took it in his stride far better than he would have done even a couple of months ago.

Rob's always had good songs but is now getting far more consistent at performing them as a solo artist. Fair play to him if he plays like he did last night and even improves he'll be a popular draw for sure...

'Coat' is a good pop tune simple as that. He does a well cool cover version of Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' which in Alex Lipinski's words was 'a bit like summat off of Kid A'! You gotta hear it really folks

Next up was Rob's old crowd pleaser 'Lips'. Just goes to show the guy's been writing tunes for a fair few years now and this was an early good un...
'Comes To Something' is a quality song. Think the demo is still on his myspace site so check it out if you haven't already... had the Bristol mascot, Jeff tapping along anyway

Wasn't sure if he was gonna play another or not as he's notoriously polite and may have gone over by a minute or two! But he did ;D

'Ay to Be' (will have to check on the spellings) is another good quality newish song and one that I've heard him play live on a couple of occasions now. Good stuff, gets into your head more after each play...

So all in all our Robbie did well. I know from personal experience that it feels like a bit of a step up playing a solo gig in Bristol as compared to Weston but you've just got to bear in mind that good music's good music and music lover's love it, which they did! Good work fella