Happy New Year, and welcome to our first blog entry of 2015! By now you should all have recovered from the celebrations which accompany the adding of 1 to the tally of years since the (approximate) birth of Christ. By now you may also be back at work, school, college reflecting miserably on how little has actually changed since that 1 was added. If so then you are probably right, but the arbitrary chopping of time into years does at least allows us to try and draw a line on the awfulness/celebrate the successes (delete as applicable) of the previous year, contain it and move on. So, although a quick glance at the newspaper is enough fill us with a sense of foreboding and dread for the future (I read today that Jennifer Saunders had completed a script for an Absolutely Fabulous movie) we should try and look ahead to the coming year with a sense of hope.
The adding of that 1 is, however, also a gift to anyone who has TV schedules, column inches or indeed a blog page to fill. The last week of 2014 was filled with ‘review of the year’ type shows of which I watched a couple; some ITV trash whose selection of 2014 events in the country I live in I witnessed for the first time (Dapper Laughs?) and Charlie Brooker’s 2014 Wipe. Both were entertaining in their own way, but left me feeling indignant that they ignored the last days of 2014 which followed their recording and transmission. Who knows what could have taken place in those last days of the year which were ignored? With this in mind I resolved to write the Candi’s Dog review of 2014 in 2015 and in the month named after Janus, the Roman god who looks both forward to the future and back into the past. Either that or I just couldn’t be arsed to write it until now; you decide which is most likely.
So below are the highlights of Candi’s Dog in 2014, and I should point out that we agreed on these with NO ARGUMENTS WHATSOEVER! I think that alone is grounds for hope for the future. Thank you once again for your support, we look forward to seeing you in 2015!
GIG OF THE YEAR
Monday 23rd June, The Lawn Club, Spinningfields, Manchester supporting Josh Doyle
A beautiful summer’s day at The Lawn Club at Hardman Square, an oasis of calm in bustling Cottonopolis, with cool breeze blowing through the open roof as we played to a fantastic audience, great music from Josh Doyle and She Makes War, followed by freshly baked pizza in deck chairs on the lawn. Actually the pizza alone was enough to make this memorable, but the gig was good too. We met some wonderful people that day; so sorry we left it so long to come back to Manchester but we’ll be there on 16th May 2015. See live dates.
VENUE OF THE YEAR
The Sage, Gateshead. 17th October, with R.J. Thompson
Candi’s Dog get about a bit and in the past have gigged at all kinds of venues including crappy pubs with stages made of beer crates, sound engineers who appear to be seeing electrical equipment for the first time in their lives and toilets where it is more hygienic not to wash your hands. At the other end of the scale is The Sage in Gateshead a purpose built venue whose beauty is more than skin deep. From the sleek, clean dressing rooms, friendly staff who escorted us on to the stage at the exact minute we were supposed to be there and sound engineers, who despite a rushed soundcheck gave us a live sound you would expect from our own personal tour staff. All we had to do was not mess up on stage! We could well get used to such treatment.
NEW (and only!) RELEASE OF THE YEAR
Candi’s Dog EP
We have a real love hate relationship with recording. We love the result, but hate how long it takes. When we are doing it we miss the immediacy of live performance, but there’s only so much a three piece can do live, and the songs were just crying out for Matthew’s lead guitar playing, Daniel’s percussion and our multi-part harmonies. We hope you enjoyed the result. Check it out here.
BLOG OF THE YEAR
Our New EP and the Mangled Spuggie
You chose this one yourselves, our most read blog entry.
MISCELLANEOUS STUFF OF THE YEAR
Getting a new website, blog, a brand new logo to help make them look good, being on radio, an attempted moustache, getting reviews and interviews, some great gigs and learning how to spell miscellaneous.
candisdog.com 