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Text Box: July 2005: Books: After John Hellier's sincere words of praise after seeing Contrast live in June (see the Homepage / Comments), we decided it was about time to look at some of the great music books out there including those by Hellier: 'Here Come The Nice' by Paul Weller and John Hellier, a Small Faces documentary, will be available from October. Hellier's other book (with Paulo Hewitt), released June 2004, 'All Too Beautiful' is a documentary of the famous Small Faces vocalist, Steve Marriott, and is available from to purchase from good book outlets. With a four and a half star review on Amazon, this has been quoted as being an excellent biography. Hellier also produces the quarterly Small Faces magazine, 'The Darlings of Wapping Wharf Laundrette' (see www.wappingwharf.com). Another two great books are written by Terry Rawlings. 'Then, Now and Rare - British Beat 1960-1969' is an excellent account of the numerous British beat bands who played in the 60's. This includes the famous groups, and many who only had one hit record ... or not even that. Rawlings' other book, 'Mod - a Very British Phenomenon' provides the reader with an extensive insight into the world of 'mod', from the original 50's/60's mods, through to the present day. An extremely interesting read (and with some great pictures too!!). .......................................................................... June 2005:  Events coming up:  Contrast celebrate their one-year anniversary this month by performing a special gig at Bar M, Chatham, Kent on Thursday 2nd June. It was one-year ago since Richard joined the band, and Contrast were formed. DJ’s will be spinning tunes, before and after the band play their set.  At The end of the month, on Sunday 26th, Contrast travel ‘down South’ to play a gig alongside other mod/indie bands (including Mark Joseph) involved in the Mod Aid 20 single release. Certain big names within the music industry will be there, as will Ace’s/Jimmy’s Vespa scooter from the Quadrophenia film.  In July, Contrast travel even further South …… across the water …… into France …… where they will represent Kent in a Music and Arts Festival. Two dates have been selected, the 4th and 20th. The band can’t wait to ‘conquer France’!  Keep checking our gig list to find out when we’re playing in your area. .......................................................................... May 2005: MOD AID 20 - The Official Press Release - Single due for release on May 31st: Biff Bang Pow Records have recorded new versions of The Small Faces “What’cha Gonna Do About It” c/w “Afterglow” for release as a CD single (Cat No: BBPCD0002) in early May 2005, with all resulting profits to be donated equally to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal and the Band Aid Charity. The single will also include a Promotional Video of “What’cha” as well as an exclusive acoustic version by chart star Mark Joseph. Twenty years ago when the first Band Aid single was released, “Spectrum” (featuring Steve Marriott, Chris Farlowe, PP Arnold etc) brought Mod musicians together to raise money for the Band Aid Charity and Ronnie Lane’s ARMS Charity through the “All Or Nothing” single and subsequent concert.  With the recent devastation and tragedy unfolding in South East Asia, and the continued starvation in Africa, the Mod Scene has once again come together with musicians who have been a part of, or associated with, the Mod scene over the last 45 years contributing their talents to raising as much money as possible for these appeals under the moniker, Mod Aid 20. The recording sessions, which were undertaken in an electric atmosphere, were produced by Ian Page of Secret Affair and featured Ronnie Wood, (The Rolling Stones/The Faces/The Birds), Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene), Mark Joseph (Warner Records), Chris Farlowe, PP Arnold, Molly Marriott (Steve’s daughter), Jimmy Winston (Small Faces), Emma Winston (Jimmy’s daughter), Mike Evans (The Action), Art Wood (The Artwoods), Billy Nicholls (Immediate Records), Andy Ellison (John’s Children), Dave Cairns (Secret Affair), Steve Rinaldi (Rinaldi Sings), Roger Dunbar (The Untamed), Fay Hallam (Makin Time), Buddy Ascot (The Chords), Simon Stebbing (Purple Hearts), Brian Kotz (Back To Zero), Rod Spark (Modus), Small World, Mark Le Gallez (The Risk), Paul Hooper-Keeley (The Threads), Andy Houghton (Yeh-Yeh), Brent Yeomans (17 Black), Trevor French (The Clique), Danny McAllister (The Boss), Dave Winthrop (Secret Affair), Tony Uprichard (Little Barrie), plus numerous bands of today such as Face, The Points, The Hideaways, Peacock Avenue, Roundabout, Contrast, J60, Smashing Time & Grasp etc. One of the most poignant moments of the weekend was when Steve Marriott’s daughter, Molly, sang a stunning vocal of her Dad’s song, “Afterglow”, in front of the women he wrote it for (PP Arnold) on what would have been Steve’s 58th Birthday. A promotional video was shot over the weekend of the recordings and captured a massive scooter cruise organised by the Bar Italia Scooter Club as well as an impromptu open air mini acoustic set by Mark Joseph, Dave Cairns and Fay Hallam to the delight of the large crowd that had gathered outside and remained there over the duration of the weekend. .......................................................................... April 2005: 3 random tales and embarrassing moments! At number 3: Mat’s new version of ‘We Gotta Get out of This Place’: Before Contrast’s first public gig, we played a couple of private gigs to a few friends. In the second of these Mat started the bass riff to ‘The Animals’ classic ……… it wasn’t until James came in with the guitar after the first verse that they found that Mat was playing in the wrong key! At number 2: James’s guitar tuner: James once sent his guitar tuner back to the company that sold it claiming that it wasn’t working properly …….. only for them to send it back saying that the battery had run out!!! In his defence, he had tried a couple of different batteries in it prior to sending it off! At number 1: Richard’s first photo-shoot: The band spent half an hour trying out different poses with different backdrops……… it wasn’t until the very last photo that we noticed that Richard’s flies had been undone throughout the shoot!!! Unfortunately (or fortunately … whichever way you look at it), none of the photos came out anyway because the camera had an incorrect setting on it! .......................................................................... March 2005: So………… Who Were the Small Faces? Mod Aid 20 (The National Release single that Contrast were involved in alongside lots of big names) is now due out in April ‘05. The songs recorded were two Small Faces numbers. So………… who were the Small Faces? The Small faces were Steve Marriott (vocals and guitar), Ronnie ‘Plonk’ Lane (bass and b/vocals), Kenny Jones (drums), and Ian ‘Mac’ McLagan (organ and b/vocals). Jimmy Winston (who features on the Mod Aid Single) was the original organist, but was replaced by McLagan after their first single. The Small Faces are often dubbed ‘the most perfect English pop group’……… and for me, they were THE mod band. The group was signed after only one month together (the difference being that they didn’t win a cheesy TV pop competition based on looks and their ability to sing cover songs of old classics, reaching number 1 in the first week, only to fade away in the next……as seems to happen a lot today)!!! Their first single was ‘What’cha Gonna Do About It’, a mod classic, based around the riff of Solomon Burke’s ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ (Yes……that was the one that the Blues Brothers sang)! The song reached number 14 in the British charts. From here on, the Small Faces became a major league band, gaining 12 top 40 hits in 2½ years. ‘Afterglow of Your Love’, the flipside of the Mod Aid single, featured on the ground breaking ‘Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’ album (which also featured ‘Lazy Sunday’). This is often thought of as being one of the best Small Faces songs. To date, ‘I Can’t Make It’ is the only Small Faces song that Contrast have covered live, but their influence goes without saying. Below are our favourite Small Faces songs (in no particular order): James: Song of a Baker, All or Nothing, Tin Soldier, Afterglow of Your Love, Wam Bam Thank-you Mam (I couldn’t narrow it down to less than five, that was hard enough as it is)! Mat: Tin Soldier, Get Yourself Together, Wam Bam Thank-you Mam Richard: What’cha Gonna Do About It, Sha La La La Lee (Check out our messageboard for comments about the Small Faces) .......................................................................... February 2005: Mod Aid 20: On the weekend of the 29th and 30th January, Contrast were involved in the recording of a single which is due for National release on 7th March. The contributors included some rather famous musicians, alongside specially selected unsigned bands (including us). So what did this event consist of? Well to start with … a lot of time spent in the pub (Mat loved it!), whilst the professionals did their stuff!!! Amongst others, on Saturday we saw Steve Craddock (Ocean Colour Scene) and Ron Wood (Rolling Stones – if you didn’t know that then where have you been for the last 30 years?!) stroll in, and do what they are best at (playing great guitar solos). Stunning stuff!! On the Sunday, over 50 mods arrived on their scooters to show off their suits and desert boots for a BBC documentary (and annoy a guy in a car who was trying to get past them, whilst eating a banana – I won’t tell where some of the mods told him to stick it!). Other greats such as PP Arnold, Chris Farlowe and Reg Presley (The Troggs) did their stuff. Reg stayed a little longer than he wanted to, as his car was blocked in by someone from the church next door! We were treated to some live entertainment from new chart wonder Mark Joseph, with an acoustic sneak preview of his new single (he appeared on Des and Mel the following day). Top quality guy. All the unsigned bands crammed into the studio to sing their hearts out to the chorus of What’cha Gonna Do About It. However, the recording had to be stopped half way through because we were bouncing around too much on the sprung floor and were warned that we would end up going through it! Take 2 was ok though. Watch out for us in the video! We are hoping for a top 40 slot and a Top of the Pops showing of the video. .......................................................................... January 2005: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – a Review of 2004 Well, it all really started in 2004 …… Contrast’s first public performance back in February (we had only played to family and friends previously) resulted in us being asked to support Who’s Who in May, and being hugged by certain individuals (don’t worry, we won’t mention your name Steve). Contrast went on to play a number of other gigs with other popular bands in the Medway area. June saw a line-up change, with Richard entering the scene, ‘called-in’ literally a couple of hours before the start of a gig! Dismay of being let down at the last minute by the previous drummer, led to a great feeling of excitement as the band felt ‘as one’ …… complete. In August Contrast made their first studio album, which was launched in November. Much positive feedback has come from the album, some of which, from David Stark, who is a member of the voting academy at the Brit awards, amongst his credits.  Biff Bang Pow records wanted to use one of the songs from the album on a compilation CD. They’ve also asked Contrast to feature on a Band Aid Charity single, alongside some rather famous artists (see the news page). We can’t wait!!!...... Of course, none of this can beat getting a ride on the back of a truck to carry equipment to the stage at the Danson festival in July. We felt like stars!!! However, Contrast certainly haven’t been lucky with the weather!!! The first gig that was due to take place outside was at the Command House in May, but Mother Nature beat us, and we had to play inside. The Danson festival was dry until Contrast got on stage. James promptly changed the lyrics of We Gotta Get Out of This Place, to “We Gotta Get Out of The Rain”!!! The next outside gig was even worse. Gravesend was sunny until Contrast (with a stand-in drummer as Richard was in Sunny Spain) turned on their amps (no….. literally). Before the gig we’d made jokes about it going to rain when we were due to go on, and sure enough…..it did. Three songs were played before the stage was becoming so flooded that the set had to stop. Literally everything got soaked (the drums, the amps, and us), as the roof of the stage, turned out to be not that effective! Finally, thanks to those Contrast groupies who danced…. and danced …. and danced during our set at the Manor Club in October (totally drunk of course, but groovy dancing none-the-less). Great stuff – hope you’re coming to all the gigs girls!! All-in-all, it’s been a great year. Contrast have materialised from a nobody ……… to ……. a nobody who plays good music!!! Thanks to everyone out there who has supported us. .......................................................................... December 2004: Contrast officially announce their new band member: Well …. who is the latest addition to the band? …… it’s Charlie the Contrast Chimp! Charlie made his first live appearance in August at The Command House in Chatham. The mod monkey normally takes his position on top of James’ or Mat’s amplifier. And does he fit in ….. you bet he does ….. he wears a pinstripe mod suit ….. with a black and white checked tie …… he plays a custom-made red guitar …… and makes less mistakes during a gig than the rest of the band members!!! Charlie normally prefers to stay away from the press, being of a quiet nature, but you can catch him live at the gigs …. where he’ll be happy to sign autographs!!! Next month: Contrast sum up what’s happened in 2004 …...  the good ….. the bad ….. and the ugly parts!!! .......................................................................... November 2004: In this month’s focus, Contrast will take you on an exciting trip ……… well, not that exciting …… but our groupies keep asking about everything we’ve been up to…… so here goes……… Brighton scooter rally: Yes, Contrast were at sunny Brighton only a few weeks ago on a scooter rally, (none of the band members actually have scooters, but never mind). Well, after getting there rather late, we found that there were actually loads more bikes than there was scooters (it wasn’t like that in the 60’s!!) We met up with a few of our mates who had ‘scootered’ down, only to find that a couple of them had got lost on the way, somebody’s tyre had nearly come off during the journey, which had resulted in his friend hitting the car in front!!! (This is actually true)! But never mind, we can have a laugh about it now! We then visited the famous alleyway (Jimmy and Steph in Quadrophonia …… need we say more……), to find that the Contrast internet address had been plastered over the wall up the alleyway by an adoring fan (thanks Steve, we’ll slip you that fiver later)!! Lastly, (after the fish and chips) we decided to have a bit of a photo shoot. The problem was, it was slightly windy …… so much so, that if you were wearing a pork-pie hat, it wouldn’t have remained on your head for very long …… therefore, most of the photos came out with the members of the band looking like they had quiffs , instead of neat mod haircuts. Well, that’s it for this month, tune in again for more Contrast capers. .......................................................................... October 2004: Songwriting Focus by James (‘Time Machine’ and ‘One Heart Broken’): For this month’s focus I have chosen to look at a couple of songs that are on 'Right Equation'. If you’ll excuse the pun, the songs are very 'contrasting' in their style as are the reasons behind writing them. ‘Time Machine’: I wrote this song sometime around spring 03. At this time I was trying to set up a band, and wanted to write some ‘60’s sounding material. This was the first of a batch of songs that I completed in quick succession, others included ‘Played It All’, ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Red Light’. The main riff to ‘Time Machine’ came first, and then I worked out a chorus. Wanting to project a ‘mod’ feeling to the song, I decided to write (quite truthfully) about how I wished I could travel back in time to the ‘60’s – “Give me a time machine to go back to ‘64 / ‘65 / ‘66”. The song explains about how sometimes I feel I’m living in the wrong decade – “It’s the wrong time for me, ain’t that a crime, and my hair don’t fit in, nor the place that I’ve been”, whilst also having a dig at the music scene of today– “music played by an invisible band now, the singer ain’t still there, the backings from a machine now baby, and the song’s going nowhere”. ‘Time Machine’ was one of the first songs that I introduced to Mat, and he came up with a great bassline which complimented it. It became a band favourite straight away. Since then, Contrast have played it consistently, often using it as an opener. We like the energy that it gives, and also the fact that it’s a nice comfortable one to play for first song!!! ‘One Heart Broken’: This is quite an old song that I wrote around 1997. It was written for a friend of mine who was having ‘girl troubles’ at the time! It states that although I don’t know how to advise him, I will always be there for him, and he needs to find a way of coping, otherwise the problems could destroy him – “You keep asking me questions, but I don’t know what to say”, “Only one heart broken can destroy you”, “you’ve still got friends, so don’t forget to use them, and live your life how it was before”. A couple of weeks after writing the song, it was recorded as part of a jam session with an old friend who played drums. When the song was played back to the person it had been written for, he loved it (thank God!). Since then, he has only heard it played at the odd gig. ‘One Heart Broken’ is a slow ballad, quite different to most of of the other material that Contrast play. For this reason, (and the fact that Mat keeps forgetting his basslines for it!!!), it hasn’t featured at many gigs. However, it was on the album recorded in August ’04, “Right Equation”, and personally, I really like it, and feel it is one of the stronger songs of its type that I have written. .......................................................................... September 2004: The Recording Sessions: Day 1: Work began at 10am on Tuesday 24th August 04 at Jim Riley’s Ranscombe Studios, Rochester. First job……… lug the equipment in, set up, and make Jim a cup of coffee! After taking a good look at the number of posters and record sleeves plastered all over the walls, Contrast got down to business! The rhythm backing tracks were recorded onto tape (this was performed live as a group). Basic drum, bass and rhythm guitar tracks were completed for most songs by the end of the day. And Richard made coffee for Jim - “The Boss”! Day 2: The second day involved finishing off the rhythm tracks and then adding other guitar parts into the mix ……………… and Richard making coffee! Day 3: Thursday saw session musicians attend to add backing to some of the songs. Anthony Brooks, from Medway band ‘Maker’, took a day off work to add Hammond Organ onto ‘Time Machine’, ‘Storyteller’, ‘My Religion’ and ‘Catalogue of Life’. Gemma Dand managed to get down for the last hour of the day in time to add some soulful backing vocals on 'My Religion'. Vocals were a major part of the day……… as was the coffee making ……… and Richard was becoming an expert coffee maker! Day 4: Friday saw the completion of the vocals and guitar parts. Then came the mixing. As it was, this took a long time and Contrast returned on Sunday 29th to oversee the final CD production……… and feed Jim with cofee! Our favourite bits: Well, there was the part where Jim said that ‘My Religion’ ‘filled his heart with joy’, also the time that Mat said he had learnt more about recording in the four days in Jim’s studio than he had in a whole year at college!! And James attempting to sing like a girl for the backing of ‘My Religion’. But the funniest moment had to be when Richard heard his own singing being played back, and promptly shouted “NO WAY”, when he realised it was out of tune (you had to be there)! The four days had been a very enjoyable experience. Overall, ten songs were recorded. Most songs have the feeling of a Contrast live gig. There are some ‘contrasting’ songs – ‘One Heart Broken’ a slow, emotional ballad / ‘My Religion’ a gospel Motown sounding tune complete with handclaps and tambourines. The three songs that were on the original Contrast demo – ‘Time Machine’, ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Loaded Gun’, all audience favourites, were recorded again at the studio – with them now sounding better! Lastly, Contrast would like to thank all the people who have supported them and made the CD possible. Now all you have to do is “give us yer money”!!! .......................................................................... August 2004: “CONTRAST” – The Name and Logo James and Mat were punting around names for what the band should be called after the first few practice sessions together. A long list was devised, and each of the members put their initials beside the names that they liked. A couple of names were initialled by all band members, but “Contrast” was the favourite. Mat had come up with this name after hearing a member of his family state the word “Contrast” in a conversation (it’s amazing how genius brains work)! James felt that it was appropriate as he saw the band being quite contrasting to a lot of the young bands around today, who are influenced by totally different kinds of music. After the name was agreed, unknown to the other person, both James and Mat set about creating a name logo. James’s effort was black and white writing (so the letters were contrasting!), with an arrow as a line underneath. A black biro and a small piece of paper were used. Mat’s on the other hand, was a wonderful detailed painted version of the logo that is plastered all over this website – needless to say, when James and Mat met it was agreed that Mat’s logo would be the one used. The moral of the story is that James should stick to writing songs, whilst he lets Mat come up with the other ideas!!!