Girls Are Meaner Than Boys

I thought I shall start writing about the stories behind the songs on 'Act Of Defiance'. Where they came from. What happened in the studio etc... I could do this in two ways ... In the order of the album or in the order they came ... Well roughly. My memory is not always the best. I thought I'd better start from the beginning.

Track 10 - Girls Are Meaner Than Boys

I wrote this song in May 2006. I remember coming home from work on a nice sunny afternoon. I remember being in a bit of a mood but also quite jolly. I sat on my sofa and picked up my guitar and bashed out the chords Am G C E to a pacy rhythm. I don't know! Something must have got my goat that day ... But I just started chanting 'I Say Girls are Meaner Than Boys Alright!!!!' over and over and over ... I started to smile. I didn't know why girls were meaner. Possibly Clare who I was living with may have annoyed me but I don't remember anything significant at the time. I used to have a little sleep on an afternoon after work if I had been on early shift. However on this day I sacrificed it. I got out my 8 Track recorder put a beat down and recorded the chords and the chorus straight away. It was pretty much the same musically as a previous song called '42nd Street' I didn't let it distract me. I had cheered up a lot at this point ... and felt in a humorous mood. So I thought of an imaginary gang of girls that terrorised old ladies and bullied young boys. Happy slapping was all the rage at the time. I wrote the two verses pretty instantaneously ... and for the third verse I used a sample of a lady on the news who was a victim of happy slapping recounting her story. I was surprised months later that at all the newspaper headlines on a daily basis with 'Girl Gangs' written everywhere ... I started to realise that I had a knack of picking up on what was going on around us.

Below are the lyrics.

"I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright!!!

I took a walk the other day
And this is what I found
A gang of girls chinning this lad
They beat him to the ground
They took his money and they took his phone
They took his bus fare so he couldn't get home
He was crying and they all laughed at him

I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright!!!

I read the paper ... the evening post
Some old lady got attacked
They filmed her cry on their mobiles
She was happy slapped
They called her a bitch ... they called her a tart
The lady is bruised she takes it hard
Now she darn't leave her house again

I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright
I say Girls Are Meaner Than Boys Alright!!!"

I pretty much wrote and recorded the whole demo in the space of 2 hours and had it on myspace straight away ... I was getting a lot of good feedback from it ... people claiming it was the best thing I'd done so far. So I knocked up a few copies on CD with some help from my mate Scotty who was a printer. I nicked the artwork idea off the Blondie single 'Rip Her To Shreds' which I had on 12" and it was hanging on my living room wall. Pockets from Strummerville picked up on it and I also got picked for 'Leeds Bright Young Things 2007' on the back of it too.

In January 2007 I was in Touchwood Studios in Hyde Park re-recording the song for the Bright Young Things compilation CD. I was proud of the finished recording but still it has never sat right with me. I think I preferred my guitar sound on the original demo. It was my first time in a recording studio so maybe I was a little daunted. It was also my first time playing bass guitar. The song was generally well received. I was pleased.

I recorded another version or two of the same song in 2008 but with another girlfriend of mine singing it. It's a brilliant version. However I don't like her thus decided not to let anyone hear it ... Plus by this time I was in The Yalla Yallas and concentrating on that.

When we formed The Yalla Yallas in Dec 2007 ' Girls Are Meaner Than Boys' was naturally the first song called upon to run through. It is a good pop song. Obviously we dropped the dance beats and the guitars got meatier. It became more punk and chantier. Which is sort of what I always wanted. Some people still argue that the original version is better. To some degree I still agree. It's just this version is different. It's a great live song and I love playing it. The girls in the crowd love it. Some days I hate it. When you've been constantly working on a song for over three years and its still evolving it can do your nut in a bit.

When we recorded it for the album in February 2009 it was such a fun weekend. Stressful but fun. We were nearly at the end of the recording of the album. We recorded all the drums for 'Girls' on the Saturday and the music for 'Rock n Roll Kid' but we over ran somewhere which left us lots to do on the Sunday. We had already invited all the girls down to come and sing backing vocals so we needed to have all the music recorded before they arrived plus my guide vocals. Musically I think it might be my best performance on the album. I added a lot of little guitar bits in that song ... As did Will ... We layered it up really well I think. We wanted it to be pop again after the blistering punked up live versions. When everyone came to the studio I was nervous as hell. We had been holed up - Just the five of us for what seemed like forever. Nobody had heard anything we had done. We stocked up on food and beer for our guests ... It was such a great atmosphere ... and everybody got really involved. We recorded the rest of the vocals and thus finished the song ... Jenny Reynolds also joined me in the vocal booth for a little breakdown in the middle. Eva(Grant - Our Producers Daughter) and Alex(Matt - Our Drummers Son) were both in fantastic voice ... You can hear them loud and clear on the finished version. As we were packing up we also had time to record an impromptu live acoustic version of the song which will be on the iTunes/MP3 release.

However for some strange reason with this song I still don't feel like its finished with ... I reckon there's already six or seven versions of it ... Danny Pig (A local DJ-Remixer) and myself want to do some remixes of it too ... Unlike the other songs I don't feel like it's reached its potential yet ... I don't know why ... I just doesn't sit right. Maybe I'm not meant to sing it. I have always had this image of someone like Girls Aloud, Sugababes, or Lily Allen doing a cracking version of it. Some ballsy female pop star. I think it should be played in nightclubs.

Ah well ... Rock n Roll!!!!

Time To Relax!!!!!!

It's safe to say we have hammered the gigs lately. We are on form. However I'm now excited at the fact that I have the next couple of weekends off. It isn't often that this happens ... Which in a way it is a good thing ... I'm chuffed to hell that I'm in a band that can play most weekends. Anyway what will I do with my time off from the band? Knowing me I'll pick up my guitar and start thinking of new songs for the band. I'll spend some time on some artwork or posters for the upcoming gigs and generally fill my time away from The Yalla Yallas with band stuff ... Defeats the object really doesn't it?. I really do need to learn how to relax. I can't switch off though ... I love the fact I'm a focused driven person ... but it does do my nut in. Haha!!!

Ah well!!! I've been thinking about the track listing for the 2nd album a lot lately. I don't know why I have been doing this. As the next album is a long way off and as of yet we have no plans ... There will be another album that is inevitable but we've only just released the first ... I guess these thoughts are only natural. Anyway seeing as these blogs are achieved I reckon I could refer back to it one day and see how my thoughts and track listings change. Here are a few song titles for inclusion.

Under Attack
Come Home
Getting On With My Life
Living In The City
Smash It Up
Represent Me?
The Effects Of Alcohol
Everyone Back To My Place
Like A Diamond In Dirt
Walkaway
Say No
Lost Control

Well that's 12 to be going on with ... I'll probably write a few more in the next few months ... Lets see how many make the final cut.

London Baby!!!!!!!

As I approach our forthcoming gig in Camden this weekend ... I cannot help but get a bit sentimental. It is 3 years to this month since my first London gig. Oh, and how things change. I'm in love with London. Really fascinated by it. However I don't want to live there ... I do though, Enjoy a ride out every other month to the capital. I remember the first time I went there as an adult. It was for my gig at The Lark in the Park in Islington. I was doing my solo electro project then. Things had started to progress as an artist for me. In June 2006 I remember giving up on music ... Any hope of progress had started to wane. I had just finished a new demo called 'Girls are meaner than boys' it was a re-write of one of my old songs called '42nd Street'. I uploaded the demo on Myspace and thought nothing more. Early August 2006 I get a message from Pockets at Strummerville. Rob, Your music is great ... We want to help you ... I'll be in touch ... Send me your number!!. I had read about Pockets ... I knew he was Joe Strummer's close friend. I knew about Strummerville. They found me ... I never sent a demo out. In fact up until recently with The Yalla Yallas I had never ever posted a demo out for review or consideration to anyone. Anyway I was obviously delighted with the message ... I remember sat in my apartment thinking 'Shitting hell this could be good'.

Rightio, Now with a sense of purpose I thought I better get gigging. I booked three Leeds gigs and a London gig for September/October. The Islington gig was a great weekend ... Myself, Clare, Pollock and Dempsey all went down. Pockets couldn't make the London gig but some other people turned up on his behalf. At the time I wasn't getting many plaudits in Leeds ... In fact probably a lot of criticism. So doing this gig was the chance to get some honest feedback. I went and I played pretty well ... Probably at the time it was one of my best gigs. The band who went on after me announced that I was the most 'Rock n Roll' act they had ever seen and dedicated their gig to me ... Ha ha nice touch!!! At the time I was buzzing with dreams and ideas ... I had recently lost all confidence and now I was thinking about doing an album, playing festivals, and getting real fans. I was in love with a beautiful girl. I had my own place. It couldn't have been more perfect. Cheers Pockets (Even though at this stage he hadn't done anything - Just say he was going to help me - Ha ha).

I came back from London and entered 'Girls are meaner than boys' into the Leeds Bright Young things competition. Strummerville had put a link to me from their sites ... and I had an enormous sense of victory after the Islington gig. I then find out I was selected as one of the winners of Bright Young Things. All of a sudden I was doing interviews, recording in a studio, photo shoots. I spent 2007 playing gigs, doing festivals, interviews, getting my own radio show, BBC News 24 did a feature on me. I started getting people writing to me from all over the world ... I was hanging out with some of my heroes. In November 2007 I had played my last solo electro gig and had nearly completed the demos for my solo album. I didn't know it at the time but I was to just leave it all behind - Still to this day I have no plans to go back to it. My head was a mess ... Me and Clare were not best of friends and hadn't been for a while. I went to Amsterdam with Pollock and decided now was time to form a band. I was fed up and tired. By the time I got the line up together ... Matthew Dempsey on Bass, Will Grinder on Guitar, and Kevin Bellwood on Drums it was December 2007. I was turning up to the rehearsals crying my heart out because of my break up with Clare. I swear this is why our songs developed an angry energetic feel... I just had to get it all out of my system. The Yalla Yallas played their first gig on the 5th Anniversary of Joe Strummers death.

Time goes by and I think as to what we've achieved since then. Playing fantastic gigs nearly every weekend ... Meeting so many beautiful people. Recording at Mick Jones' Rock n Roll Library. Playing at Glastonbury. Bradford Mela. Recording and releasing a fantastic debut album that were all so proud of... and having our music played all around the world. It doesn't get much better than that. So this Sunday at Belushis in Camden I for one will be celebrating ... and I hope things will keep progressing for us so we can keep playing gigs, and enjoying everyones company ... Rock n Roll!!