Notes on the Mysterious Fate of McBeth's Tavern

This poem is based on true events. It was recounted to me by Mark Bavistock, a close friend of the family, who was a direct participant in the events recounted here. I wrote it down in the form of a children's poem. Show it to your kids. It'll make them laugh and give them a history lesson at the same time!

Notes on the Mysterious Fate of McBeth's Tavern

In 19 and 20 in the heart of the Amazon
A restaurant lounge in the jungle - McBeth's
A welcome repose in the heart of the interior
A chance to rest weary and overused legs

With champagne on ice and fans in the ceilings
For pushing around the thick, sweaty air
And monkeys with fans leap from table to table
To refresh the customers sitting around there

The manager serves up whiskies and sodas
Staunch in his suit, despite the temperature
Refusing to compromise his appearance
To keep up the image of haute couture

The waiters are tigers in suits who walk upright
The owner has proved this quite safe, he thinks
They all deserve jobs as he's in their dominion
They slink around, topping up everyone's drinks

Let our attention rest on a good natured captain
Whose obsession lies in a meaningful death
He sails with his crew all over the ocean
To find something worth giving his final breath

He's deeply conversing with Timothy Blighters
Who only reads Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe
He believes them to be the only writers
Who effectively capture his existential woe

The captain pontificates, opining loudly
"It's only worth reading naval charts!
What I get from reading my maps of the ocean
You can never obtain from your H. P. Lovecraft."

That man in the corner, does he look familiar?
He should do, he's the famous Sir Alfred Wrath
Notorious for inventing the very first time machine
In the year 2000, he pops back and forth

A party of rowdy would-be-explorers
Have taken up residence, having journeyed so far
They've discovered the head of a famous explorer
Their proclamations of victory can be heard around the bar

The manager says "Please can you keep the noise down?
You're disturbing my regulars, I tell you!"
They produce from a sack their bounty and order
"A drink for each one of us, and our companion too!"

A mountainous regular with a weak constitution
Is about to lose his reputation in the bar
A nearby ice bucket comes in particularly useful
When the rowdy men bring forth the head in the jar

The people to whom I have just introduced you
Are the same people killed in yesterday's fire
They accepted their fate and they all went down laughing
When a meteor crashed down in the forest outside

Well, that was the story portrayed in the papers
But papers don't always report accurately
Sir Alfred thought quickly and saved all their bacon
They live in 2000, as happy as can be!

Clockwise from top: Sir Alfred Wrath (mid-dematerialisation), Unknown, Timothy Blighters, Capt. Preserved McIntyre, Second Mate Arnald Van Bousen, Unknown, the late Professor Harald Montague Fisher, Unknown, (bar owner) Marion McBeth, his partner Jeremy Squires, budding explorer Mark 'Mark Bavistock' Bavistock, and another budding explorer Timothy Blighters - not to be confused with bar regular and H.P. Lovecraft fan, Timothy Blighters (third from top).

The Big Blog

With Stones in His Pockets had an interview published in the Croydon Advertiser a few weeks back.

Here it is, if you fancy a read:


Fascinating.

Here are some pictures from the recent gig for Amnesty International that I put on at the Cross Kings. It was ten times better attended than I thought it would be, and even though Amit Chadda couldn't perform cause of an injury, the spot was ably filled by White Rhino. Lettie played a blinder, and I played by best gig in a long while, which was great. Thanks so much to The Cross Kings, Lettie and White Rhino.

I also had the honour of playing Screamfest, the first Scream Studios Music Festival, which was held in the Brief pub in Croydon in early August. I played both days - the first day, on the acoustic stage, I played absolutely the worst gig I have ever done. Thankfully there was nobody around to see me play so badly. Ironically, this is the reason I was so out of tune with the moment, and played such an awful gig.

The second day, I was on the main stage, fully amped up and running with electricity. Due to my blase attitude following the previous days disaster, I played with no fear and played the best gig I ever have done. I was joined for a song by singer/songwriter/percussionist Stef on tambourine, and played for longer than my alloted time.

Setlists:

Amnesty Gig:

Hello
Point & Click!
O! Sunshine
We Are All Bad Actors
Speaking in Tongues
Are You Awak'd?
Meine Kleine Cosmonaut
Parting of The Sea
Because of This War
Rolling Back The Years

Screamfest First Day:

Rolling Back The Years (Stopped halfway through due to terrible crapness)
O! Sunshine
Speaking In Tongues

And then I stopped... be thankful I only stopped doing the gig. I just just about ready to put down my guitar forever.

Screamfest Second Day:

Are You Awak'd
Hello
Because of This War
Rolling Back The Years

So that wraps up the little mini-tour I have been doing over the past few weeks, which started at The Good Ship, Kilburn on 29 Jun 2008. It's been great fun, and I hope to organise a proper tour sometime in future - with an official poster and lots of stuff.

Anything else? Um...

Things We Have Learnt:

• Grinderman is better than the latest Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album.
• Stephen Malkmus is a better songwriter than anybody.
• The latest Mogwai album sounds like Mr. Beast but more solid and just a bit better.
• There aren't any violinists. Anywhere. Ever.
• Watching the Big Brother finale after not watching the entire series of Big Brother is fun and confusing.
• The Dark Knight stands up to at least 3 viewings in the Cinema.
• Mogwai have the best song titles ever - 'Stupid Prick Gets Chased By The Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend'. Beyond awesome.

A Musician's Perogative

Here are two videos from one of my recent gigs.

Thanks to Penny B for the filming.

We Are All Bad Actors:



Because of This War:

Ever such a lovely review... and a new song!

Farewell Happy Fields has recieved ever such a lovely review from those kind souls at...

If you're interested in having a read, here it is:

Being the first winner of the weekly Bandidge Radar Artist of the Week will always give Rob Tamplin, aka With Stones In His Pockets a place in the site’s history.

But can his E.P stack up to the praise heaped on him by readers and fans?

The impressions given on Farewell Happy Fields suggest so. There’s a great deal of comparisons with musical peers to be found within this five track E.P – whether liked or not – there’s the sounds of New York scene on Parting of The Sea, whilst Are You Awak’d? is a soundalike to recent solo troubadour, Napoleon IIIrd.

Those are far away from the mark when it comes to opening song, We Are All Bad Actors, with its live feel and looping guitar that sounds like it’s from the 1960’s. It ebbs and flows as it takes its natural course, encompassing a slight Pixies vibe with its off kilter song structure as it stops, starts and changes pace and direction.

After listening to this E.P, it becomes apparent too that there are a varied array of musical directions and styles on show that also manage to somehow fail to fall too far from the tree. It’s a good position to be in, allowing subtleties and different interpretations of style and meaning to form over time.

The acoustic-led Speaking In Tongues is a good example. With just additional vocals alongside the guitar throughout the song, it at first washes over with great ease, but as the plays stack up it all becomes a lot more sinister, as those voices merge with the lyrics to provide something that’s a lot more haunting.

It’s a definite highlight, and it almost comes as a shock when the electronic beats and audible desecration of Are You Awak’d? comes in. The culmination of these two tunes provide the best moments of the five-track release, with their split personality soundclash becoming nothing but enjoyable.

During Meine Kleine Cosmonaut, it’s almost passable to hear some Bowie-like intonation in the vocal delivery, especially as the lyrics divert themselves toward Germany; home to some of Bowie’s most influential songs. Those with a more recent mindset may here some of Blur’s balladry from the mid nineties in the musical arrangements, with overall thoughts leaning toward the ‘pretty good’ category.

New York guitar setups reign supreme on disc closer Parting Of The Sea, with a dark, menacing undertone never staying too far away from the surface. As stripped down guitar parts overlap and stumble over eachother (in a good way) before settling down into a unified parallel, subtle strings come into earshot, providing a pleasant musical conclusion - even if the lyrics are slightly less so.

A solid set of tracks from Tamplin. 56% of voters can’t be wrong, it would seem...

3.5/5

Also, I demo'd a new song with my erstwhile producer Mr. Amit Chadda the other day. It's called 'Because of This War' and is about a man who goes into work and experiences a terrible vision. It's a song from the old days, when With Stones in His Pockets was a post-punk 3-piece, as opposed to a post-punk 1-piece. You can hear it here, on With Stones' myspace player.

Hope you're all enjoying the very lovely weather.

Over&out.

Peace

& Peace Rain'd From Heaven's Eminent Buckets Upon This Earth

these pictures were taken by mr. amit chadda, producer of 'farewell happy fields', and one of the best undiscovered (soon to be discovered, i hope) singer songwriters in the country.

when i posted these pictures last night, i had come to a strange sense of peace with the world around me. by world, of course, i mean people, because they are 80% of my world. unfortunately, a lot of the people i know and care about most are going through incredibly hard and life changing experiences at the moment. all my music is written for and dedicated to them, not that it matters.

i suppose it's the feeling of equilibrium which comes after playing a show. a come down of sorts, but a fairly pleasent one. i've stopped feeling low after shows. this is because i have ceased to try and emulate all of my favourite rock stars in my stage mannerisms, and just be myself. forgive me, i am but a lamb. i haven't done many shows on my own and i still don't quite know what i'm doing.

the set list for the above gig was as follows:

are you awak'd?
because of this war
black rivers/all things fall apart
untitled tree song
speaking in tongues
untitled hello song

Behind The Scenes At The Museum

so, even though i feel like it's a long way off, with 'farewell happy fields' only just having been released, and me hardly having toured or promoted it, me and amit got to talking about 'with stones in his pockets' next project.

i don't know whether it's going to be a full length, or another ep, or even what it will sound like or be called (actually, i do have an idea what it will sound like, but i'm not telling), but i played a couple of songs ('because of this war' and 'untitled hello song') to amit the other day. his reaction was very positive, and he said he knew exactly what he could do with them.

if it is a full length release, i'd say i have about roughly half of it written, and have an idea of what tracks will definately feature. 'because of this war' and 'untitled tree song' are 100% definately gonna be on there. 'untitled hello song' is about 70%. i am also working on annother new song entitled 'sunshine', which is about one of my aforementioned friends.

but needless to say, it is a very exiting time to be in 'with stones in his pockets', and i am looking with great excitement to the future.

i hope you are all well.

over & out.

Gigtures!

Some pictures from With Stones in His Pockets' gig at The Green Dragon on 09/04/08. Kindly taken by Oliver Rankin. Check out this talented photographer's work here.































The set-list was:

Untitled (Hello)
Meine Kleine Cosmonout
Speaking In Tongues
Because of This War
Black Rivers/All Things Fall Apart
We Are All Bad Actors
Are You Awak'd?
Untitled 2 (Tree Song)
Parting of The Sea

the great social networking revolution!

in the wake of the digital music revolution, which i am a big, big advocate of, there are many social networking opportunities out there for bands and musicians. i have been going a little crazy for them lately.

consequently, here is a list of sites where you can find profiles on with stones in his pockets. they all offer different things and are all pretty awesome. in varying degrees. very varying.

myspace is the mothership, the hub... where it all goes down. the whole ep is up there. it's good.

but you can also...

come vote for me on xfm uploaded

become a 'fan' on facebook

do loads... loads of stuff on reverbnation

scrobble me on last.fm

and do something i'm not quite sure of on indiestore

so there you have it. with stones in his pockets all over the web.

over&out.