Tuesday 21 June 2011

Runnin' Wild!

Hello hello you lot!

4470 Views? Wow.

So, yeah, it's been a while hasn't it? I hope you're doing well, if you aren't,I hope I can be a help, because we all need someone who writes about themselves to comfort us right?

However, I offer everybody here a hug, especially those that need said hug.

Where do I start? Things have been crazy cool this past fortnight, so much going on, which is precisely the reason I haven't written you all in a while, with the band, the band's wobsite, brainstorming for DFWTB's new projeKct, gaming, trimming the beard, admiring said beard, gig and so on, so forth.

I haven't managed to comment on
  • E3
  • The passing of Clarence Clemons & Ryan Dunn
  • Duke Nukem Forever
  • 19 months since I lost Dad
  • The Actress & Bishop show
  • How bad Duke Nukem Forever was
  • Sunglasses
Which is alot to comment on in one blog, but I have time to kill and a 3 hour playlist. My back in the saddle was exceptionally long, and that got my most views ever in the history of the LCB.

E3, what a show eh? from what I saw I personally enjoyed the whole thing, Microsoft actually making some "games" for Kinect, YouTube on the dashboard and a whole host of games that aren't Call Of Duty: Modern Shovelware 3, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, Minecraft 360, Street Fighter X Tekken, Gears Of War 3, Metal Gear Solid HD Remasters are the ones I can remember off the top of my head, so yeah, the rest of this year is looking good...

We don't talk about Nintendo


Tragically this week saw the death of Clarence Clemons, one of the best saxophone players on earth who played in Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, and laid down some of the best Sax solos I'd ever heard, Born To Run, Badlands, just to name a couple any record I heard him on, I instantly knew it was Clarence, his sound was unique and he just had that effect on fans and musicians alike, I can't really pay tribute at all, all I will say is a big thank you, the legacy over the years is what you have left us, and that's a more fitting tribute than I can ever come up with.


Thank you Clarence.

Another loss this week was to Ryan Dunn, one of the guys from Jackass, he wasn't killed by riding a mattress down Everest, but a high speed collision, I've seen pictures of the wreckage and it's no surprise he was killed, what makes it worse is that he could only be identified by his beard and tattoos, he was my favourite of the Jackass guys and he provided endless laughter to me and others, thanks for everything Ryan.

*Jackass guitar riff*


Now a couple of weeks ago, the long awaited Duke Nukem Forever was released and with it came high expectations, so I went right out and bought it, and as imagined, it was poo.
Big smelly poo. I honestly regret playing it, it was that bad, I honestly think I could have made a better game.

It's a damn shame, however if you want a no holds barred FPS, that's manly and satisfying as hell, Bulletstorm is what I would highly recommend, at least Grey can hold more that 2 shit weapons at once, and now it's been out a while, you can pick it up for less than DNF.

Bulletstorm, the FPS of choice for Luke Clarke.

Duke aint got this shit!



Now I'm writing this on June 22nd, the 30th will mark nineteen months since I lost my father, it's only just hit me how quick that time has gone and how much I wish he were here to see all that's going on with Framed and everything else, it makes me very sad when I think about it, knowing that all of this that I'm doing now I know he would have loved, very saddening indeed, I miss him dearly as you all know, but nothing will bring him back.

What a daft git.

So, last Friday was a really satisfying gig, over at The Actress & Bishop in Birmingham, there was a lot of pissing around before we actually got our gear on stage, partially because of the knobbish lot of amateurs myself and the gang could see in front of us.


At a glance we thought it was a “Fender/Line 6 Showcase Evening”. Myself and Joe having a giggle at the shiny gear these other guys had brought with them, as we grew further impatient and angry, because well...they didn’t bring a bass amp for The Cardboard Man to use, however when one appeared, it was like seeing a shoebox with Laney written on it, laughs were had.

First things first I’d like to thank everyone that helped us with the gear.

Secondly, all of you fantastic folk that came along to see us, thank you for making it a brilliant night, from behind tinted shades I could see you all feeling the rhythm, singing and dancing, afterwards we got some awesome feedback from everybody there, except for the poo band that were, who I’ll be honest just seemed to ignore us, I saw them taking the piss while we were warming up with “Don’t You Ever”. I gave them the bird and carried on having a beard and outplaying their whole band.

However, there are some big things on our horizon, Framed are taking some time off to write and record the album, we’ve got the time to do it and the drive to do it. With all the input we all have, I have a gut feeling you lot are in for something special.

and that's it for now folks
as usual, thanks for reading, and remember
B. Cool

Your pal
Luke Clarke


Friday 10 June 2011

ProspeKcts & ProjeKcts

Greetings readers, fancy bumping into you here.

What a coincidence!

How're you all doing? Well I hope, it's been a little while since I last blogged, simply because I just haven't gotten around to it, however that said, it's given me time to gather some thoughts and put them into a readable format for y'all!

The past week has been...odd, to say the least, I've felt really rough in general and my head has just been all over the place, but I've (thankfully) had a lot of support from my friends, I won't name names, but a lot of you fine folk have been around to talk to and I thank you all for it.


Get clued up about the latest goings on in Framed by clicking the respective buttons!

As you'll guess from those blogs, last practice was a bit naff, click those and you'll find out why and why there are big things on the horizon, I've never been as creative as I am currently, I use music as a healer for any symptoms I suffer, as cliché as it sounds, it certainly is a big part of my life, which is why I strive constantly to be the best I can be, considering my lack of musical knowledge and my gammy hands.


Alot of new albums in the rotation this week, I'll be getting some mini-reviews up soon, along with my word on Duke Nukem Forever, which I can hardly believe I have sitting on my shelf!

Another thing that may be in the works with Rob & Chris, is a gaming based website, it's just an idea at the moment, however I think the potential is massive, so keep your eyes on mine and Rob's Blag. On a different note, me and Chris are working/brainstorming on a YouTube series based on the adventures of a UK lorry driver, which I'm looking forward to doing the voice over(s) for, it'll be similar to various conversations we've had as cockney cab drivers before.

I've got 3 songs in the work, which I intend to have a crack at with the band after the next gig at The Actress & Bishop, Friday 17th June, which is we enter our period of re-invention, so to speak, a clean slate as we write towards an inevitable Framed album!

Now that's all I can think of
B Cool, take care

Luke Clarke

Thursday 2 June 2011

Nothing Happens By Chance.

Hey Empire.


I dunno if I've told you this before, I keep coming back to this quote from "Bono on Bono"

"Nothing happens by chance. You don't end up in front of 20,000 people on a stage by accident, I had a bigger hole to fill, a rock star is someone with a hole in his heart almost the size of his ego"

 I keep coming back to it, even more so after some comments just lately about me and my "off my rocker" approach to music and life, I know I'm not a fantastic Guitarist/Musician, but I get such a buzz out of what I do, and I thoroughly enjoy having the kind of energy I have, it helps me believe in myself a lot more than I used to, being overly loud, ostentatious and sometimes narcissistic gives me more confidence in what I can do and egg me on to push myself further onwards and upwards.


If it verges on vulgar, I apologize.


So, remember last blog I mentioned how I was longing for a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier? 
Well, I went out the next day to PMT in Birmingham where there was a tasty second hand Dual Rectifier priced up at £1099, I tried it out with an awful Les Paul, and it had a brutal sound, 3 channels and I won't bore you with the specifics, but all of my rhythm bits had a really nice bark to them, and the lead sounds for solos etc were really nice and smooth, so I'll sell the AC30, my Mom said she put the rest, which shouldn't be much and Joe says he'll fit a cab up with some nice speakers for a good price, what a bloke eh? It's a slim straight up cab aswell, the kind I like!

Really excited to hear what it sounds with my Gibsons through it, with the 500T pickups? It'll demolish buildings, I'll name the finished cab "THE EMBALMER" forget branding or making up a technical name, I'll be running a Dual Rectifier into The Embalmer!


Heh, it'd keep people guessing right?


So, I've not long got in from a visit to town with a good friend of mine, Maccie, we had a laugh at his random shouts at things, while I shouted LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE from time to time, he brought a Flip camera which set alarms off in every shop we went in, so we ended up in the pub, was good to get out of the house, cheered me up and it was good to see Maccie, it'd been a while, but we have plans for  a new YouTube series, which should be a (extremely loud) laugh.


I've got a whole lot of new albums I've been getting into, below is a montage of all the covers!






They're all very good, a nice variation, something for everybody there, they're all worth a listen, however, some of them are VERY hard to get a hold of. I really had to search high and low to get these albums in reasonable quality (I say 320kps reasonable). They are out there, and they are great albums!


South of Sheol is a solo album by a guy on YouTube called Dave "Dingle" Reeves, He's a brilliant guitarist, a big user of Bugera amps and all around top bloke, go pay his YouTube channel a visit! His album is £7-ish on iTunes, totally worth it, a truly brilliant sound!


Dingle 'Ere


Just a quick update this time
Catch you later
B Cool
Luke