High Rise Diaries play The Cluny on July 23 alongside Hey Bulldog, Air To Achilles and Night Of Sevens. Tickets are a bargain three quid to see four of the region’s finest bands. Grab them from any the usual outlets.

We love Night Of Sevens here at Toonwaves and were pretty stoked to discover that they’re releasing their brand new “Anaesthetised” single as a free download. You can get hold of it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/yml5zzyluyw/Anaesthetised.zip

The single was recorded, mixed and mastered in the band’s studio one weekend back in May.

Words: Casey Spence

Up and coming Newcastle band Night of Sevens are well and truly throwing themselves into 2010, as their alt-Garage sound leads them from strength to strength. With regular sessions at music stalwart The Cluny, a growing number of support-act slots and a brand new EP just around the corner, the band are becoming a notable presence on the Newcastle music scene. We spoke to band member Wes Hartley to find out more:

Toonwaves: Describe the Night of Sevens sound.

Wes Hartley: Organic, visceral, insubordinate…beauty framed by jagged edges.

TW: Who are your key musical influences?

WH: The Stooges, Nick Cave/Bad Seeds/Birthday Party, Neil Young, The Fall, The Drones, Wire, Television Personalities.

TW: Where do you find the inspiration for your songwriting?

WH: As far as the lyrics are concerned, they are inspired by anything that stirs the emotions. The EP we are about to release features romantic love – the relationship between idealism and genetic predisposition, nostalgia and dreaming, stream of consciousness, revolution, selfishness and jealousy. The music arrives as a collage and compromise between our collective personal influences and a shared sense of taste. Recently we have been veering towards a more minimalist and simplified song writing approach, paying particular attention to tone and the function of space in the soundscapes we are creating.

TW: What do you think about the North East music scene?

WH: There’s a lot of unsung heroes endeavouring to keep things progressing in the North East, without which the music scene would undoubtedly struggle and for those people we give thanks and praise. However, a couple of new venues, some better rehearsal space and a few more genuinely exciting rock ‘n’ roll bands on the scene wouldn’t go a miss.

TW: What does 2010 hold for Night of Sevens?

WH: 2010 has started well so far. We’ve just been on BBC Introducing: Tom Robinson’s ‘Fresh on the Net’ show on BBC 6 Music and we’re releasing a 5 track EP on June 14th called ‘The Flood Sessions.’ This’ll followed by ‘The Flood Sessions: Abused & Unused on July 12th along with a short documentary about the recording of the EP in our studio in the old Tyne Tees Television Studios which is being pulled down as I type. Along with this we’ll be giving away the songs that never made it on to the EP as a kind of ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ compilation in homage to the time we spent in the Tyne Tees Television Studios. We’ll be playing select gigs throughout the country in Spring/Summer including some festivals, but the highlight for us was putting on the legendary Television Personalities @ The Cluny back in April. We’re all big fans of the band and it was a really interesting night!

The band play The Paraglider’s Ball in The Lake District on June 5 before returning to Tyneside for a gig at The Cluny on July 22.

Check out the band’s MySpace page here:

http://www.myspace.com/musicofsevens

Our friends over at Narc Magazine have announced the line-up for their forthcoming fourth birthday bash, taking place at The Cluny on April 1. Featuring some of the region’s very best young bands, it’s definitely not one to miss. Here’s who’s playing:

Night of Sevens
Ryoga
Wolves At The Door
Baskin’s Wish (pictured)
Let’s Buy Happiness
+ DJ Ewan McIntyre (NARC./Songs From The Kitchen Sink)

Check out the Narc MySpace page for all the details:

http://www.myspace.com/narcmedia

Offshore 44 is a strange place for a gig. Amid the nautical paraphernalia that covers every available inch of this usually townie-dominated pub is a stage so small that the drum kit has to be set up at the side rather than the back. With a cramped live room that has all the feel of Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club, it’s a brilliantly off-kilter choice for brand new indie night Roxy.

First up are Newcastle’s ownNight Of Sevens. Ideally suited to the claustrophobic surroundings of Offshore, the band’s explosive drone-rock is simply breathtaking. From the minute front man Bobby takes the stage amid a howl of feedback to the final overdriven squeals of their incendiary set closer the band are mesmerising. Walking the same indie-psych walk that turned Kasabian into arena fillers, bigger stages surely beckon for the talented five-piece.

Fresh from a string of summer support slots with now-defunct Manchester rock gods Oasis, headliners Twisted Wheel slip effortlessly back into performing in front of an audience of hundreds rather than tens of thousands. Like the maximum r ‘n’ b of High Numbers-era The Who, the band’s explosive mod-punk cuts straight through the crowd. Loud, brash and loaded with swig-along melodies, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the clusters of drunken Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and Pretty Green-outfitted indie boys packed into Offshore’s back room.

Through the closing chants of “Whee-uuullll, Wheee-uuullll, Whee-uuullll,” it’s pretty clear it’s been a triumphant opening night for Roxy. A great venue with an even greater line-up, local outifits Love Bites & Bruises and Manila Chapter will have a lot to live up to next week.

For all of Roxy’s forthcoming listings check out their Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000616591916

Currently being mastered by Dave Brewis from Field Music, a new five-track EP from North East psych-rockers Night Of Sevens is imminent. Titled The Flood Sessions it will be followed by a b-sides and rarities collection in the next month or so. In the meantime, don’t miss the boys in action at Offshore 44 for the launch of brand new indie night Roxy on March 3 alongside Twisted Wheel.

Read my interview with the band here:

Q&A: Night Of Sevens

Oldham-based mod-rockers Twisted Wheel play brand new indie night Roxy‘s launch party at Offshore 44 in Newcastle on March 3. Support comes from local indie outfit Night Of Sevens.

“Twisted Wheel have a tight sinewy sound that takes up from where the Libertines and Artic Monkeys left off and skews it with a Manc attitude and a curiously Johnny Cash-style stripped-down engine room of rock n roll.” (DiS)

“A numerology-inspired rock ‘n’ roll democracy, Tyneside-based outfit Night of Sevens unleash a fearsome barrage of apocalyptic psychedelia. Drawn together by a shared love of outlaw literature and socialist ideals, the acidic drone-pop collective are firmly in control of their own destiny.” (BBC Tyne)

Here’s the line-up for next week’s Dazed & Fused at World Headquarters:

OUR SECRET SINS

-Our Secret Sins are a musical experiment from the northeast of England, Teesside to be precise, this is the place that they call home, with all of its faults, all of its virtues, all the highs and all the lows, its weaknesses fuel their strengths, and its strength’s fuel their weaknesses’ .

-This is the place they formed with their sights set on making a difference, a difference through music for themselves and possibly a difference through music for anyone who would listen.

—————————————————————————————————————-

SPIES IN LIMBO

-Spies In Limbo (pictured) reside in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

-Last year the band appeared at the NXNE festival in Toronto, Canada, headlined the Artkoustik Festival in France, and then played at Festival Terre Neuvas Bobital- France’s second largest music festival, alongside The Verve, Travis and The Sex Pistols. They also performed at the In the City ’08 music industry conference in Manchester.

-Spies are currently mixing a new E.P. set for release this summer on their own Protective Atmosphere Music label.

—————————————————————————————————————-

Enveloped in the current climate of shit, soulless, half-hearted, limp-dicked, trend loving, phrase dropping, politically correct, piss wet through, superficial girlie bands, we formed our own.

NIGHT OF SEVENS

-Considering ourselves an autonomous garage rock ‘n’ roll movement and collective brotherhood, we set out to contribute to the history of righteous music with conviction and the greater aim of upholding the age old fight between good and evil.

—————————————————————————————————————-

DJ JOHN-PAUL (spector)

Interview: Toby Rogers

Numerology-inspired indie-psych five-piece Night Of Sevens are a band firmly in control of their own destiny. A fearsome rock ‘n’ roll democracy built on shared musical ideals and a love of outlaw literature, their lysergic drone-rock is simply breathtaking. We caught up with them for a chat about their journey so far.

Firstly, how are things going?

Things are going well. After releasing our debut single on our own label RagTag Records in March we’ve been gigging throughout the North to promote it. We had a brief set-back when our drummer hurt his wrist but we spent the time recording new material until he was fit. We’ve just completed a round of gigs including Evolution Unsigned, a gig for Dead Young Records in Leeds, supporting Future Sound of The Left at The Brickyard in Carlisle and we just played the best gig we’ve ever played at The Paragliders Ball in the heart of the Lake District. The organisers were great, the setting was beautiful and the crowd were wasted and bang up for it, people getting on the stage and jumping about. It was a really intimate atmosphere, a real pleasure to play there.

Who does what in the band?

Bobby – vocals, Kev – bass, Nathan – drums and vocals, Shaun – guitar and lyrics, Wes – guitar and vocals. All the songs are written by jamming ideas and recording everything we do. We’re the only true democracy on the planet.

How did you get together?

Through a natural process of gravitation brought about by a love of similar music, literature and shared ideals.

Where did the name come from?

It was a pain in the arse coming up with a name. It took us about three months of deliberation. At the time there was an interview with Nick Cave in Mojo about his new outfit and he was saying how all the good names had gone over the years and he’d had real trouble settling on one until he came up with  Grinderman. A few days later a friend of ours mentioned Night Of Sevens would be a good name for a band. It’s the the seventh sister’s birthday in the Chinese lunar calendar, equivalent to Valentine’s Day in this country. We’re not into numerology or any of that bollocks but seven is a lucky number and it just so happened that the elements conspired in our favour and we played our first gig on 07/07/07 at The Bridge Hotel in Newcastle a few months later.

How would you describe the band to someone who hasn’t heard you yet?

In an effort to avoid comparisons, visceral rock ‘n’ roll.

You’ve been enjoying some pretty good press lately. How does that feel?

You’re putting yourself out there to be judged and when people are complimentary there’s a certain sense of gratification in it, but for us there’s so much bullshit gets written because people want to promote their nights or be seen to be writing nice things about the right bands that it’s hard to know what’s genuine.

Who are your biggest influences?

Apart from our five major senses we’re listened to a lot of Neil Young, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground to name a fraction. Literary figures that have had a bearing on our collective mindest include Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and Irvine Welsh .

What are your plans for the future?

Apart from a great deal of uncertainty the future holds a lot of promise for us. We’re getting a bit of interest at the moment and being careful to choose the right path. We’re currently busy holed up in our studio recording two EPs to be released simultaneously in the autumn of this year, under the name The Life And Death EPs . These EPs will be followed in the spring by our debut album. We can’t give too much away but it’s going to be a concept album of epic proportions. We’re consciously moving on from the stripped-down garage-rock approach. Having had our own studio for the past nine months has given us the freedom and space to experiment, unconstrained by time and completely cut off from the world. Every band should have that opportunity. It’s the only way to fulfil your potential. We’re looking to push ourselves into new territory now and recreate live what we’ve been forging in the studio. We’re in a constant state of becoming.

Night Of Sevens celebrate the official launch of RagTag Records at The Cluny on August 8 with suport from psychedelic troubadour Fading Face.

Check myspace.com/musicofsevens