The Blogs

Matt's Relaunch BlogWow - well, here we are at long, long last. I've been working on this new website since July, and it has finally come to fruition.What a thrill it is to be able to bring MiM back to your lives - thanks to you all for the emails and ongoing support, and I really hope you enjoy what we've done with the new site.First and foremost, we're now MiM Radio, which is a big change for us, as it means all of the website's focus is now on the radio show, and on promoting new Manchester bands through the radio show.Also new is our 'MiM Videos' section - this is a dedicated server that we have purchased to host all of our video clips, music videos and past radio shows. It's like our own mini, Mancunian version of Youtube, and we're sure you'll love it!Equally important is our online MiM Merchandise shop, where you can buy our DVD, the New Bands CDs and other goodies. All of the profits from the web store go directly to Unicef, a charity doing some amazing work the world over with disadvantaged kids.So, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the new-look site. There's loads of new features, such as voting and messaging facilities, links to our Myspace and other pages and lots of hidden extras - if you find these, you win prizes, so get looking!Much love,Mattxx

Kim's Relaunch Blog

Wow, it's great to be back! I've got loads of stuff to tell you after an all-too-long Summer break, so let's get straight into it:

Fake Guitar Stars “If only you had come when it was cheap, sat in all the best seats. Keep your fake guitar stars, they’re already in ….. too deep” So sings out the chorus to All The Kings Men’s song Fake Guitar Stars. I wish you could hear it cos it’s a great chorus, great song altogether actually. ‘Course it’s gonna be going around and around in my head now, but that’s OK because I love it….. hmmm, I digress because this isn’t about the song or the band but is about what the song is all about; a clever and entirely appropriate pop at the pseudo cool new bands that seem to be spreading like MRSA in the charts. You know the way you can hear a song and immediately it hits the memory button transporting you to another place and time? Well it was the line in this song that goes:“So join the M.E.N. front line to go and see The Feeling, think what you’re missing, if you believe in…..”.As soon as I heard it I was down the Time Tunnel like a shot to last year when I saw The Feeling at The Hammersmith Apollo. Given what the gig was like I can’t believe I just admitted that!! In my defence, when I first heard The Feeling as an unsigned band they had a credible reputation, a fan base like me who seek out fresh, new and exciting bands, who pay their fiver at the door of some dark and dingy venue, who “come when it was cheap, sat in all the best seats” to see bands that give us raw, honest, believable music. Then for some reason, once they get signed most of them become ugly caricatures masquerading as serious musicians. My daughter had latched onto them in the early days too. When she heard they were touring she wanted to go to see them but her partner didn’t and not wanting to go alone …. well the good mummy that I am (mug more like) agreed to go with her, so off we went. I guess to be fair I should say that they filled the venue with creativity, drama and egos. They excited and entertained. Impossible not to with a catalogue of catchy, sing-a-long chart hits! So what’s the problem? Simple …. they’d sold out, and sold their soul. What I saw on that stage wasn’t an honest band playing music they believed in. I saw contrived cabaret – nothing more. From the over the top opening sequence that introduced the band, to the lead singer rushing about the stage, knee sliding while strangling chords out from his guitar like some rock god, spinning and dancing, leaping up on the drummers platform dramatically kicking the cymbals in beat with the music and generally behaving like a drama queen, the whole thing looked staged. It was as if they knew they couldn’t hold their audience based on their music alone so had to pretend to be something they weren’t, musical theatre but without the story. There was nothing genuine about the performance at all - they were the epitome of Fake Guitar Stars. From where I was standing on the balcony I could see the mosh pit and honestly; it looked more like a bouncy castle full of young kids with flashing bunny ears and laser wands. It might as well have been The Tweenies up there! These kids weren’t there for the music, they were there for the spectacle. Is this what an honest Indie band wants to see …. a collective Pinky and Perky audience with an average age of 14 looking back at them squealing every time one of the guys does a little dance or runs up to the front of the stage?? I bet the bar sales were down that night, maybe they made it up with the sale of M&M’s……. And don’t think that for one minute this fakery is anything to do with the fan base they’ve acquired, though I would like to know what came first, the cabaret or the kiddies. I saw the exact same thing with Take That a couple of summers ago …. yes I saw Take That. I really am putting the nails in the coffin of my street cred here! Their whole set was completely staged, it was circus, theatre and cabaret rolled into one with acrobats and ballerinas … what was that all about? Yeah, I know Take That were contrived from the very beginning but that Gary Barlow did write some beautiful songs and I just wanted to see them performed beautifully and honestly. The fans looked the same though with their diamante cowboy hats, flashing bunny ears and laser wands, they were just 10-15 years older. Just think that could be The Feeling in ten years time – please, I bloody hope not! Over the past few years I’ve seen some great unsigned bands, I’ve gone to see them when it was cheap, had a fantastic time and lots of laughs. I’ve seen them lay their hearts on the line for their music and been touched by the clarity and honesty with which they perform. I’ve seen some big names too that have laid their hearts on the line for their music and I have been touched too by the clarity and honesty with which they perform, so it’s not obligatory to sell out just cos you make it big. The only difference is that it’s no longer cheap to see them and they usually throw in pretty good lighting effects You can’t have a pint and a laugh with them after the gig though, but aside from that they have clung onto their self belief and more importantly their self respect. What’s worrying is that so many credible bands end up prostituting themselves on the bed of commercialism with all its shallow fakery in order to succeed. If only they had a little more faith in themselves, a little more courage to stick to their guns and not be railroaded into becoming crappy and tacky so that they become a product that will sell merchandising to teeny-boppers rather than music to the fans that they won when they played their first dingy venue and shared a pint and a few laughs with after the gig. There are less and less honest bands making it big these days, the industry seems intent on grooming bands and artistes who are merely here for their 15 minutes of fame and celeb status. You will find them though if you look in any bar or club playing live music. You’ll pay your fiver on the door and stand in the best spot in some small intimate venue seeing first hand the emergence of the next band to make it big, and when they do you’ll be glad that you saw them when it was cheap, I just hope for our sakes that when they do we’re not standing up the front surrounded by flashing bunny ears and laser wands watching Fake Guitar Stars. If you want to listen to the song that inspired me, listen to it here:www.myspace.com/allthekingsmenweb Fake Guitar Stars Oh you can go watch your favourite band right now but you don't.Stand way up at the front clap your hands and watch the singer be a cunt.Some don't like the cold, don't like to follow, until we're grey and old and we're playing the Apollo
What if there's no tomorrow ….
Well I’m sure you look the part in your converse and your skinny black jeans.And the band your mates all like don't play guitar still they're all so very Keane!So join the M.E.N front line to go and see the Feeling,Think what you’re missing, if you believe in,Just what it’s meaning.
If only you'd have come when it was cheap, sat in all the best seats.So keep your fake guitar stars they're already in too deep
Some of them will listen when you say you're in a band and be surprised.Once the words have left your lips its all images of Goths and demon eyes.So come along and gawp as we get pissed and wreck our bodiesJust boys with average hair not a scally in a hoodie,It’s not so bad cos …..
After all you got potential with the clash and David Bowie on your phone.And apologies to those of you right here it’s not for you, it’s for those boys and girls sitting at home.So we risk the world and more with something better in our sights,It’s the bottom of the river to the heavy London heightsThink what it might be
If only you'd have come when it was cheap, sat in all the best seatsSo keep your fake guitar stars they're already in too deep ©All The Kings Men Label: Changes Music

An Audience with All The King’s Men … again Changes pt 1 In the last issue of MiM we announced that All The King’s Men had signed to Swedish label Changes Music. We promised you the full story behind the signing and here it is, an exclusive interview with All The King’s Men on their trip to London and subsequent signing that has the ‘in the right place at the right time’ kinda good luck story that the signing of Oasis to Alan McGee’s Creation label had. To set the scene it’s around 8:30pm at Manchester’s Club Academy on Saturday 26^th April. The Reds among you will no doubt realise that it was on that very day that United played Chelsea away …. and lost. Having been in a pub all afternoon watching the game the guys had been cheering their side on and eventually drowning their sorrows in true ATKM style. As ever in the company of All The King’s Men lots of mirth and merriment ensued. Let me introduce All The King’s Men to you, they are: Ben (drums)Sam (bass)Martin (lead singer) Jimi (lead guitar)

MiM The Dublin Castle interview ended with you guys about to go to London to record an EP and promote the band, so what happened, how did the recording go?

Jimi It went really well, the actual week recording was class we had a mint time. We stayed in a hostel and were sort of like drinking all night and recording all day.

Martin And the Chinese girl ….

Jimi Yeah, there was a Chinese girl.

MiM Really? Tell me more.

Jimi … we won’t say too much about that.

Sam Stuart .. ask Stuart about a tin of red paint.

Jimi There was an Irish girl, an Australian girl as well, an’ Sam felt the ……

Sam I felt the tremors of the Irish girl, first hand, ha ha!

Jimi It was a class week but unfortunately as far as the recording went with the people that we did it with, nothing came of it.

MiM But the recording was OK?

Jimi Yeah the recording was good we thought it was really good, I mean the recording was class, at the end of the day we had a mint week we did a really good recording.

MiM In what way didn’t it go well, what were you hoping to get out of it?

Ben We thought we might get a bit more out of it than what we did.

Martin Well they promised us basically that they’d do something, pass it round a few contacts they had in the industry and when it came to it they just said you’re not ready for that.

Sam We needed some kind of idiom, apparently!

MiM A what?

Sam An idiom!

Jimi A manifesto.

Ben We ended up with a demo … alright a very good quality one but we could’ve ended up with a demo in Manchester.

Jimi We spoke to him at the end and he was gonna like sort it out and pass it round and then I spoke to him like a week later on the phone and he said right I’ve got some ideas just hit me with any ideas that you have, but then he said basically that we need to have some sort of manifesto. I think he was talking about like a theme.

Martin Like us all the same in black hats.

Jimi Like The Levellers and The Pogues.

Sam Basically some shit that we were never, ever gonna do …. bloody disgrace.

Jimi They were Finnish though weren’t they?

Martin Yeah they were Finnish.

Sam It was quite a Scandinavian thing this whole week we spent in London.

Jimi This while year’s been like it.

Ben Except there was Australia, China, Ireland ….

MiM ……. worldwide then.

Martin Oh all sorts of stuff going on!

MiM That didn’t materialise as you’d hoped but something happened in London and after you got back you were on a high, so what happened while you were there?

Sam Is this about the Irish girl?

MiM Ha ha, no .. no nothing about the Irish girl!

Sam Basically the hostel we were staying in had a roof terrace with a Jacuzzi on, really nice little place … erm our kid liked that Jacuzzi. So one night me and Martin were a bit pissed about half three, four …. pretty late on, and we got chatting to this kid on the roof terrace who was Swedish. We got talking cos he was bang into Manchester and we must’ve given him a CD or something like that cos a few weeks later he mailed us asking us if we’d go over to Sweden to play a couple of gigs, and that was Anders. So…. it was pretty good.

Jimi Top lad aint he …

Sam Yeah he’s a bloody king!

Jimi Yeah he is a bloody king …. a Swedish king. What’s their King called?

Sam King Carl Gustaf.

Well, didn’t think anything of that, we were wasted.

Martin We didn’t think anything of it we were drunk at the time it was like 4 o’clock in the morning.

Jimi We didn’t even know that he was operating or involved in music and stuff.

Martin He was just someone we met.

MiM He didn’t tell you that he was in the business?

Sam Well he could’ve have but me and Martin were shit faced.

MiM Ha ha, you wouldn’t have remembered then?

Sam We remember meeting him,

Jimi It was more like we met a couple of foreigners and we were having a chat and that was it.

Sam Then we got an email first saying that he’d listened to our tunes and really liked them and then about another month later we got another mail saying that him and his partner, whoever he was working with at the time, really liked them and wanted us to come to Sweden to play. And then we thought, that’s fucking great!

Jimi We never thought it’d come off to be fair.

Sam Well you know you take it with a pinch of salt don’t yer..… “Oh we we’re gonna pay for your flights you don’t need any money for beer ……”

Martin “You don’t need any money to stay anywhere just get yourselves to Stansted and we’ll do the rest”. Which is actually what happened!

Jimi And they even offered to pay for us to get to Stansted didn’t they..?

Sam Yeah they did.

MiM You came all the way to Stansted and you didn’t pop in for a brew?!!

Sam Yeah well it was about midnight to like 3 o’clock.

MiM I’d have been having a sandwich that time of night!

Sam Well we could’ve come in for a bloody bite to eat!

MiM Yeah you could’ve done.

Ben Lets face it if someone turns round and says right come over to Sweden to play a few gigs, we’ll pay for it, we’ll do everything, you don’t need to put your hand in your pocket, you’re not exactly gonna say no …..

MiM OK, so you got on the plane, landed in Sweden, how did it go?

Martin It was great, it was fantastic. It was unbelievable, we played a gig and they treated us like we were The Beatles or something like that, like signing autographs for an hour afterwards. It was just madness, like we were chauffeured around the whole weekend and everything was done for us.

Sam To be fair, the one bad thing…. the women could’ve been a bit better looking to be honest in Sweden.

ATKM Yeah ….. right, ha ha!!

Sam There’s no room for improvement there.

MiM That’s rough innit!

Martin Yeah there were lots of attractive females weren’t there!

Sam Yeah it was a fantastic place to visit and play. Really good.

MiM What about your accommodation and everything else?

Ben Yeah it was all done for us.

Sam And as we stayed with Anders we were living like kings weren’t we?

Martin We were living like kings, it was fantastic!

MiM When we spoke earlier you were telling me about the free beer?

Ben Ahhhhh ….. well you need that don’t yer, over there it was about £20,000 a time.

Sam It was fantastic, I mean there was a fridge, an upright fridge like you get in the newsagents over here, in the back room with a shit load of beer in it that had written on the front of it All The Kings Men. It was just our beer, and then I thought, shit we’re getting to the end of it and then I came back in for another one thinking I’ll nail one of the last ones, and they’d replenished it all!

Ben Dodgy bastard to the end ain’t he …

Martin They’d filled it all up again!

Jimi We were taking three bottles at a time as well.

Sam Anders actually put a bottle of beer in front of our amps for us before we went on stage and then half way through the gig he came and put more out for us.

MiM So how did you actually manage to play?

Sam Oh well … can’t remember …

Martin What we played did we? I thought it was a holiday!

Sam Friday night the gig we did in Sala, I was an absolute disgrace!

Jimi Sam couldn’t see his bass.

Sam I couldn’t see my guitar, I stopped half way through Bootle Street Nick, just stopped.

Jimi I was pretty bad on the second night.

Sam Yeah you were worse on the second night weren’t you.

Ben I was fine for both, cos I’m a legend.

Martin But they both went well though, nobody noticed.

Sam Even when we played in Preston the other week and we were shit faced, I thought we were terrible, everything went wrong that could, but the people that were there just loved it.

MiM That’s something that I get from seeing your performance, you just have so much fun that it doesn’t really matter how you are, I mean ……

Sam What you trying to say Kim?

Graham (MiM photographer) There’s a compliment there somewhere!

MiM Ha ha, what I’m saying is that what comes from the stage .. the way you perform and involve the audience, you have so much fun that you don’t actually notice till you listen back to a recording that maybe it wasn’t perfect.

Martin Do you know what Anders said to me? What he said to me the other week at The Hope and Anchor was that you play with your hearts not with your brains.

Ben That’s a good job really cos I’d be fucked wouldn’t I?

MiM That comes back to the honesty in the way you play that you talked about in the Dublin Castle interview.

Sam We’re in it because we’re close friends, we love playing guitars and getting pissed.

Jimi The thing is we know that if we didn’t drink anything we could do an absolutely perfect spot on set …..

MiM You might as well get the CD out!

Sam Yeah exactly.

Jimi But we wanna enjoy it as much as we can and we put in as best performance as we can but I mean, we think fuck it if we miss a couple of notes.

Ben We’ve all got a drink problem so ….

Jimi Yeah you’re right! We get to a gig and anyway ….

Sam We’re never gonna not drink.

Jimi We can’t stop ourselves, just can’t help it.

Sam It’s always worse when United and Chelsea play!

MiM You did the gigs …

Ben Oh, can I just say that Martin learned to say in Swedish, “I love you all”.

MiM Yeah? Can you demonstrate?

Ben I don’t think he knows it now…

Martin No I learnt, “we love you” ….. which is vi älska er

Ben He was frantically sat there all Friday night trying to learn it

MiM So, you did your gigs and when you got on the plane to come home what was going through your minds?

Jimi We were still drunk on the Sunday weren’t we?

Sam We were still shit faced at the airport.

MiM Well did anything happen while you were there with Anders … crumbs that sounds a bit erm …… I’ll rephrase that!

Sam He crept into my room one night .. oh he’s a dirty little man. That Anders Bjurenvall, dirty little man, ha ha….!

MiM What happened after the gigs? That’s a better question.

Martin How d’ya mean .. what on the night?

Sam I thought this was family magazine Kim.

MiM Ha ha …. alright, you got taken over there by Anders, he loved your music, you did your gigs so what was the follow on from that?

Jimi Nothing really. When we actually left Sweden nothing, we knew we’d got on really, really well and knew it was gonna be something we were gonna be doing again. We knew he was gonna get us back and he contacted us afterwards sometime on Myspace. We knew he was gonna start a label up and The Unconditionals that supported us in Sala, they were gonna be his first band and they were …

Sam They were arguing among themselves

Jimi Arguing on stage, they hated each other. They were a decent enough band, but

Sam The guitarist was looking at the front man on stage like …

Jimi It was hate, sheer hate. I’ve never seen anything like it.

He wanted to jump across the stage and beat him to death, he really did, and it was obvious though. So they were going to be the first band that he signed and when he saw us and like obviously with them being argumentative fuckers, he got on the blower to us afterwards and said that we’d really like it if you were the first band that we represent, and we were like… he’s a great, great fella

Sam He’s a grafter aint he…

Jimi And the way he sorted everything out for us, like everything just went into line. Y’know we got over there and the beer was sorted out, the food was sorted out, the beer was sorted out, everything was just there.

Sam The beer was sorted out I’ll tell you one thing though, and I’m sure Anders won’t mind us saying this….. he’s got a very, very hot shower.

Jimi Yeah he has got a hot shower.

Sam There’s no need for that, I told him that myself

Jimi Was steamy as well when he got in with me … steamed right up, ha ha….

Sam Sponging you off…. arghhhh.

Jimi This is James Williams saying goodbye.

(Jimi had to leave us …)

MiM So to the signing. You were approached by Anders to sign up to his label, what label is it?

ATKM Changes Music

MiM And how did that take place, when did it happen? And how did it happen?

Martin Well basically it was …..

Sam We knew it was on, we knew we were doing it, it’s just the physical signing you want to know I think innit?

MiM Yeah ….

Martin I was gonna say if you keep interrupting me when I’m about to speak ….

Sam Well I’m sorry Martin.

Ben You can’t stop him talking! It’s the beer, the beer it controls what he’s saying. That beer just takes over his words.

Martin We’d just like to say Sam stormed out of the interview ..ha ha!

MiM Elvis has left the building... haha

Martin Exactly! Well basically…. it was all done over the internet cos obviously we don’t live in Sweden, we have to do everything over the internet on MSN, and Anders decided he wanted to come over to London to watch us at the Hope & Anchor and do the signing there, like get the record contract ready and do it like a public sort of thing. So basically, yeah we ended up going to London cos we had a gig there in the Hope & Anchor, Islington and they came over…. three of them for the gig.

Ben Two co-owners and the other guy, Joel. I think Joel is the one putting some of the money in.

MiM I’m hoping to talk to Anders at some point to get his side of it.

Ben I don’t fully know, but I know that Anders and Frida are the co-owners and I’m pretty sure that Joel is the sort of money man isn’t he?

Martin I presume so… I think that’s what it is.

MiM So you signed this very interesting looking contract?

Ben Very Factory-esque it was, very Factory-esque.

Martin It looked like Tony Wilson had written it himself. Basically it ends with “The band has the right to fuck off whenever they want”, which is basically the same as what happened with the Factory label.

Ben Which is good cos that’s exactly what we want.

Martin Which is great, great for us.

MiM How much control has the label got over you then?

Ben None!

Martin To be honest with you none. That’s the thing, we’re happy to work with them, we like working with them, it’s great. They’ve given us a great opportunity. They decided this Factory Records style is going to be the best thing.

(Sam and Jimi returned)

Ben I think it’s all because of the film 24 Hour Party People.

Martin They really are big fans of 24 Hour Party People.

Sam Joseph, Joseph .. make sure Joseph gets in there, he loves it.

Ben He’s gonna be like our engineer when we do our album in Sweden.

Graham (MiM photographer) So you’re gonna do your album in Sweden?

Martin Yeah hopefully

Graham (MiM photographer) Are you gonna re-do all your tracks then?

Martin Erm .. we don’t know what we’re gonna record yet and what it’s gonna be.

Ben We’re releasing Peterloo next month.

MiM Is that the same EP that I’ve got?

Sam It’s the same EP.

Martin It’s gonna be re-packaged and everything not re-recorded.

MiM The next thing then is your EP launch, and that’s at MAPS Festival in Manchester, when is that?

Sam 24^th May, yeah! *

MiM Good, and what formats is it coming out in?

Sam CD, it’s gonna be on a 7” vinyl and gonna be download as well.

MiM After the EP launch, what’s next?

Ben Off to Sweden again, we’ve got a couple of gigs over there.

Martin We’ve got two gigs booked over there, one in Sala and one in Stockholm again.

Ben Two confirmed at the minute.

Martin Two confirmed at the beginning of June so we’ll do that. If we can get to Malmo and Gothenburg as well, get those gigs booked for the same thing then that’ll be good, but I’m thinking we might be going back maybe later in the year to do something, I’m not sure. It depends what Anders has got planned.

Sam Anders is the man with the plan at the minute, we’re just gonna keep playing good gigs including the one tonight in Manchester, big gigs that should be really good, obviously we’re all looking forward to them, and getting back to Sweden. And we need to book a few more in London soon too.

MiM Yes! Yes you do.

Martin We’re trying to at the moment.

MiM So is there anything we’ve missed out?

Sam Only that our kid is a complete dickhead.

Ben That’s a bit strong innit….

MiM Well I don’t need to know your favourite pudding or anything like that. We’ve done that before.

Martin Yeah babies head innit!

MiM I think that’s about it then, thanks guys!

Sam That’s it, lets go and get pissed then? Thanks Kim good, come on everyone …….

And so All the Kings Men left the room cheering, clapping and whooping all the way to the bar.

Interview with All The Kings Men @ The Club Academy, Manchester 26.04.08: Kim Etheridge

Get Well Soon, John

MiM Radio's own Rockin' John Cron has been very poorly recently, and is currently fighting a very brave battle against cancer. We're sure the entire MiM Radio family of fans, friends and co-workers will join us in wishing John a speedy recovery, and we're glad to say that we'll still have John's fantastic shows on the site whilst he's currently in hospital, as he has recorded them several months in advance.

Get well soon mate - you're in our thoughts and prayers.

Matt and the MiM Team xx

Soul Connection Show Online Now!

From The Soul Guy:

Just a quick note to let you know I've recently recorded a Soul Connections Special for MiM Radio. You can find the show HERE

New Bands CD

'New Bands 2008' CD available now!

It only costs a fiver, with all profits going to UNICEF, and features the finest unsigned talent in Manchester today, handpicked by visitors to this site!

Manchester's Global Music Station

The Blogs

Get Well Soon, John

Get well soon mate - you're in our thoughts and prayers.

Matt and the MiM Team xx

Soul Connection Show Online Now!

From The Soul Guy:

Just a quick note to let you know I've recently recorded a Soul Connections Special for MiM Radio. You can find the show HERE

New Bands CD

'New Bands 2008' CD available now!

It only costs a fiver, with all profits going to UNICEF, and features the finest unsigned talent in Manchester today, handpicked by visitors to this site!

Simply CLICK HERE to find out more

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