Wednesday 30 October 2013

Mixing with the stars!

Having experienced what it is like to mix with people of a high status such as the likes of Dion Dublin , Andy Hopkins and Stephen graham all previously at celebrity LUKE 1977 golf day, our latest addition to our celebrity fan base is session drummer Ash Sheehan. Ash drums at gigs and concerts all over Europe for artists such as The Twang and Busta Rhymes. He is a very down to earth guy and originally from Walsall! , he was quick to join the lads from the band for a night out down town and even quicker to bag himself a ticket for our upcoming headline gig on 15th November at the O2 academy in Birmingham.

M.A.S photoshoot

After weeks of 'paid for rehearsals' down at burntwood's studio's , M.A.S felt it was time to take that next step in terms of promoting our band. Rehearsal time has helped us massively towards developing our music , becoming tight as a band and finding our sound. Most of all it has opened up more opportunities to concentrate on other things that come with being in a band. This past weekend we took part in a photo-shoot down at our previous rehearsal area A.J.S metals. We felt it would be a great background for the photo-shoot as it is a family scrapyard and has played a big part in developing the band.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Finding our sound! (control)

Having recently been working hard these past few weeks in the studios we believe we have managed to emphasise the sound we aim to promote in our most recent songs. We also thought its about time we shared our music with you to give you an idea of what sort of band we are, the writing process we go through and the sound we offer. The following tune has been recorded and put up on Soundcloud for you lot to listen too, the tune is called 'control' and is a very upbeat song. You can listen below at
Soundcloud.com/the-assist/control

'LUKE 1977' gig

Last night we played a golf day gig for clothing range 'LUKE 1977' at culderfields golf course in Walsall. The day overall was a great day and we managed to gain a few celebrity fans. We had an early set time of 6:30 opening the indoor music bill whilst everyone returned from there 18 holes. The day will be remembered for a long time as the day Stephen graham (This is England, Boardwalk Empire) became a fan of The Assist. His exact words were "you lads really capture the essence". He was quick to snap a demo CD off us for his car and also made himself aware of our upcoming tour dates.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

The Assist at Liverpool

This week just gone consisted of our first of many gigs to come across the big cities of England. Where else to kick it all off with a day out and a gig in Liverpool. After numerous trips to and from the car park carrying all our gear , an afternoon in the cavern and a cracking pre gig steak, we eventually played our 45 minute set to a reasonable audience of 100 people at famous Liverpool venue , The Lomax. Oasis and stereophonics both played this venue during their early days and road to fame.


Midlands live band of the year?

We have recently felt we had done plenty enough gigs within the midlands area to now begin gigging elsewhere to broaden our fan base. This thought could not have been more solidified by recent news that we have been nominated for the 'midlands live band of the year' award. Along with three other bands we will be attending an awards ceremony held at well known midlands venue 'The Robin 2'. We will be asked to play in front of 4 judge panellists and a possible audience capacity of 700, tickets are available to purchase on the venues website. We believe if we was to achieve such an accomplishment and have the label of 'midlands live band of the year 2013', it would be a great way to end our year where we first began at 'The Robin 2' supporting Bruce Foxton's From The Jam.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Gigging further afield!

After recent successful gigs at venues such as the Sunflower Lounge , the O2 academy 3 and the Little Civic , we felt it was about time we left the midlands and began searching for gigs further afield! The next few months we plan to hopefully widen our fan base with gigs in both Liverpool and Manchester. The plan is to get more material up online with the help of M.A.S records which will hopefully give us  the opportunity to share our music with promoters nationwide , and hopefully receive gigs across the UK rather than just locally.


Thursday 18 July 2013

M.A.S records!

Proud to announce that tonight after a short lived meeting and studio audition ,we are officially signed up to M.A.S records! The record label originated in Kidderminster in 2001 and were founded by legendary vocalist of led zeppelin , Robert plant! Since 2001 the record label have gave bands such as swim deep a bass to build upon in order to reach a breakthrough , we look forward to working with the guys and further news will be made available when the drawing board is out! Here's to an exciting year to come with M.A.S records.... http://mightyatomsmasher.com/

Wednesday 10 July 2013

The Assist LIVE at the O2 Academy - Ghost Broke My Guitar


NEW VIDEO: check out our latest addition to the set! , video and audio by Trix Dubz , we will be returning to the O2 academy 3 on november 17th to headline the venue! as for the gig on friday...we smashed it!! however we struggle to remember anything beyond that point as we certainly made a night of it!! #UTA

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Checkpoint!

Having reached over half way point of our journey into becoming recognised as a fine band we thought it would be best to take a back seat and reflect on what we have achieved. From our first gig as a 3 piece at the local library it is insane to think that in less than a few months time we will be playing a headline slot at O2 academy 3 in Birmingham. Along the way we have hit incredible highs as well as lows however it is the experience which has helped us to develop as a band and mature as musicians , it is less than 2 months ago when we supported jam legend Bruce Foxton in his current tribute band 'from the jam'. This was our first gig as a four piece and since then we haven't looked back. We have a busy schedule from now up until late August and we have plenty of news to share with you within the coming weeks , from a new practice lock up too high status venue headlines , here's to an exciting second half of the year.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Live Video

Our gig at the Wharf last week was amazing in many ways, it turns out the gig was recorded with live audio and also video. This now means we can release some live tracks from the night, but more importantly we've now got a live video. The video was recorded and produced by Trix Dubz at https://www.facebook.com/trix.dubz. let us know what you think because we think it's amazing!

The Assist Live at Wharf 08/06/13

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Charitable Lads

This past weekend has to be the band's most successful one yet, having played both Newhampton arts centre in Wolverhampton and the Wharf bar in Walsall, we certainly left a strong impression on the audience we played to. Both gigs went down very well , the Wharf was great as it was such a local venue to us and literally everyone we knew was there . To keep the band momentum up we have hit practice hard this week as the gigs are coming thick and fast! We have plenty of exciting news to share with you over these next few weeks as the band continue to progress. However for the meantime we will be preparing for another gig this Sunday at "Compton in the park" charity festival at Wolverhampton West Park in aid of Compton hospice.

Friday 7 June 2013

Express & star!

"hard work doesn't go without recognition"... A phrase which is often used these days which couldn't sum this post up any better! Massive thanks to journalist Jenny Ormsby for her article in a west midlands local paper the express and star on our band "The Assist". The article covers all aspects of our band from what we do in our everyday lives , to what we plan to achieve as a band! We see the article as a fine advertisement for the band and gives the public an insight into what personalities are present within the band! Finally we also see the article as a great chance for everyone to become aware of the upcoming gigs we have in the next few months! UP THE ASSIST!

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Gigs!!

After a considerable amount of time away from social media we've been focusing on live performance in order to be fully prepared for a busy upcoming schedule , weeks of practice have payed off as we now have managed to complete our 45 minute set which will be played at numerous venues around the midlands in the next few months or so.
Gigs kick start this Friday at Newhampton arts centre in Wolverhampton where we will be performing with four other live bands, the following night we are then straight back at it with a gig supporting great local band Two 'N' Eights both night are set to be full of great live music and a lively audience. Later dates have also been arranged such as the 5th of July we are at the O2 academy 3 in Birmingham and to finalise our latest gig line up we finish on the 19th headlining the sunflower lounge before we then begin work for summer festivals. If there is anyone who would like to come to any of the gigs be in touch!! Below is a picture to just give you a bit of an insight into the dramas that occur in practice... Hence the broken guitar!!

Friday 3 May 2013

Alterations

Having made changes to our band structure changes to our music were also going to happen , we believe to highlight the progress made throughout the year , steps back as well as steps forward are needed. All band members have agreed that in order to progress further the current recordings which were released earlier this year are to be taken down , having reached a high band chemistry writing music has became that little bit easier , alterations have been made to our previous tracks and new and improved versions will be released later this month. the removal of all previous media material is a step back however in order for you to see the progress we have made as a band , the re-recorded tracks as a four piece must be released, to end on a positive note here's our very first fan cake!!



Saturday 27 April 2013

From The Jam Gig

Last night we played our first gig as a four piece supporting 'From The Jam' at the Robin 2 in Bilston. the night flowed well having arrived on time at half 6 to complete our sound check and enable ourselves to spend a little time backstage. Once again we would like to say a big thank you to both Carl Windsor and Toby Fletcher for the backline support and music knowledge they shared with us. Being the first of two support acts which were playing on the night we still however managed to play to a crowd of around about 200 , we believe that our music fitted the bill very well on the night and went down a treat with the crowd there , although the second support act had a genre of music which wasn't best suited to the audience there they also put on a very good show. in the next coming weeks having established our set our main objective is too begin to push through with as many gigs as possible.

New Line-up

Got some important news  we are now a four piece band with the addition of a very talented bass player and the replacement of our previous drummer .The band now consists of Ben Faulkner on drums , Jak Baker on bass guitar , Ryan Stanton on lead guitar and Mikey Stanton on vocals. Our previous drummer left because of commitment issues, our new members have added so much to our music and we can't wait for you to hear our new stuff!

Monday 1 April 2013

Single Release

As Followers of our blog you know we've recently been recording and we've now got a great sounding demo, we have now planned our first release as a band. we will release the song 'Nicole', it will be avalialbe on itunes and also physical copies will be made. To coinciede with this release we're doing a video shoot and also a number of gigs. we're really excited by this and to get you in the mood here's the artwork for the release, let us know what you think!!

Monday 18 March 2013

Social Networking

The progress keeps on coming as this week we enhanced our social presence. We now have an up an running facebook page which you can find at www.facebook.com/theassistband. We also are now on Soundcloud  at https://soundcloud.com/#the-assist. We hope everyones that has followed us from the start can continue to support us on these sites. We've had our music tab up for a few days now and we still want as much feedback as possible, so feel free to drop us a comment.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Logo

 
We made another huge step today as we finalised our logo; it was designed with the help of inDrecords. We Believe a  logo is very important to a bands image as it is often the first thing people associate you with. We're also hoping to put our logo on merchandise like T-shirts to sell at gigs.
 
 
 
 
 

Friday 15 March 2013

Recording Part 2

We turned up to this recording session with great enthusiasm having been looking forward to it all week. As we had gained some experience we felt really comfotable in the studio and we were making great progress. within this last week we have managed to complete 3 songs a high standard, however this didn't come easily, spending 7 straight hours in the studio without a break eventually catches up on you. we had a great time and nothing beats hearing your song played back to you for the first time. we've now got a music tab where you can have a listen to two of our latest tracks.
 
 

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Recording

Today we had our 1st ever recording session, we desperately needed a demo so we can show everyone our music. The recording process began slowly as it was a multi-track recording; we had no experience of playing to a click track or playing on our own without the rest of the band supporting us. We spent 4 hours their today and managed to complete one song. We had planned to complete more than just the one song, however we was a little too ambitious with our aims and didnt truly appreciate how long it takes to master a song to perfection. If we were to give any advice to anyone wanting to record it would be to certainly get the right producer. Our producer Carl Windsor has amazing experience touring the world in a tribute band The Complete Beatles, he knew exactly the sound we were after and he directed our song brilliantly. A big thanks to Carl and the work he did with us today , we look forward to continuing our work with him over the next few weeks to get more songs recorded. The current track we are working on is 'Be Yourself' and we hope to be sharing it with you by the end of this week!!!

Friday 1 March 2013

The Flapper

In contrast to previous gigs, this night seemed to have a much more relaxed approach and a very chilled atmosphere. With the crowd beginning to fill up, setting up and soundcheck seemed to fly by with little nerves. We began our set with "Be Yourself"; the hours of practice put in by Mikey on the bass definately paid off as all went well with this being the first time we had Bass guitar in our line-up. The crowd consisted of good friends who came to support us (who certainly seemed to have a good night) and also new faces who we seemed to be a hit with . Our set consisted of the original seven songs plus 2 new songs: "Same Old" and "She's a Witch. We couldn't go through a post about last night without mentioning the complimentary shoutout from Two Days Late labelling us "The new Twang!!". Staying on topic Two Days Late are an unbeleivable band, top lads, check them out at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Two-Days-Late/151776984885592?fref=ts

Overall it was a great night at The Flapper and the gig signalled great progress for us. Our focus for the next month is to get a few songs recorded so we can really start to promote our music!!!!


Wednesday 27 February 2013

Exciting Plans

This week we decided upon trying a new rehearsal space, our current studios were taking our young age and lack of experience for granted by overcharging us and giving us poor quality equipment. The new reharsal studio we tried was Unit 7 Studios in Dudley (picture below), we found that practice was very efficient with great equipment, a laid back atmosphere and affordable prices. we spent three hours there and i'd go as far as saying it was our best ever practice, this sets us up well for our biggest gig yet at the Flapper in Birmingham tommorow night. were in the process of booking more gigs and were also planning on making a progression checklist outlining important checkpoints for us to achieve. Last week we also hit 1500 blog views which is another great milestone!!!

Saturday 16 February 2013

Gig Update

As a band we're currently trying to get as many gigs as possible to build our fanbase. Next friday the 22nd we will be returning to the venue that gave us our first gig Bloxwich Bookmark to their prestigous open mic night where we will be playing our full set for only the 2nd time. We have also secured a massive gig supporting Two Days Late at the Flapper in Birmingham on Thursday the 28th of February. The gig is being put forward by PWS promotions and we would like to thank them for this opportunity. We have been allocated our first ever set of tickets to sell, and they even have our name on!! If you would like to attend our gig at the Flapper get in touch with us on our new contact page.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Line-up complete

Last Friday night we played our set in full for the first time, we got some great feedback but also some constructive criticism.An often occurring subject was the lack of depth in our music without a bass player. This week we decided to put an end to this controversy and finally insert bass into our music, our lead singer Mikey has challenged himself to learn bass. This week we also hit over a 1000 page views on our blog and continue to gain more followers on our Twitter https://twitter.com/TheAssistBand


Friday 1 February 2013

A Progressive Week

It's been a week full of progression for us as we reach the end of our first month. Firstly we've been rehearsing hard and have finalised our live set, the set consists of 7 original songs and lasts around 20 minutes. Our set will be played live in full for the first time tonight at woody's music bar in Cannock/Hednesford, it's for a Battle of the Bands competition so it should be a great experience. Our blog has also had some changes as we continue to improve the layout and look, the most notable change is the new picture page. Finally we have created a twitter account where you can follow our progress at https://twitter.com/TheAssistBand

Saturday 26 January 2013

Our First Live Performance


It was all very last minute as we turned up at Bloxwich Library for their Open mic night, they had an amazing set up with PA system ,stage and full drum kit so this was a great opportunity for our first performance. We got threw in at the deep end and went on stage first. We were all nervous but everything went perfectly, we played two songs Be who you want to me and The Stories. We couldn't of asked for a better response as the organisers of the event asked us if we'd headline a future show!!. A big thanks to Bookmark Bloxwich for this opportunity!

Thursday 24 January 2013

New Video Blog





Haven't posted in a while as we've been working away at our introduction video. You can find the video at the link posted above, it's got some samples of our tracks and gives you an insight into who we are. We also recently hit over 500 views and would like to thank everyone who's followed our progress so far!!!

The Assist

Thursday 10 January 2013

From Venezuela to Australia

It's mad to think that within under a week we have reached 286 views, we've even had views from Venezuela and Australia!!  Just 5 days ago we began this blog, we are more than grateful to those who have taken time to review our page and share our ambition. We continue to work hard during practice and it shouldn't be long until we have some work to share with you. Recent practice and progress in band chemistry has resulted in the booking of a recording session at our local studios with aims to record our first song. After family and friend orientated feedback we can also safely announce that the name of our band has been declared as The Assist. we believe that the confirmation in our name is a strong statement and we can now push on to further broaden our reputation by opening up social networking pages on sites such as Facebook twitter etc. The idea is to have all pages set up and running by the end of the month as well as our first song so that you'll be able to hear what we are all about. Recent posts have been written by guitarist Ryan , however we have came to an agreement that further input should be put into the blog from both I, Mikey and drummer Will .

Thanks Mikey.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Naming our Band

Naming a Band can be the most challenging part, a great name is vital. Our first idea was to take inspiration from the Arctic Monkeys and have an animal in the name, this lead us to Otter Freckle. We liked this for a few weeks then realised it wasn't for us, after reading many articles on choosing a band name we decided to take inspiration from a song name; we came up with Tumbling Dice (Rolling Stones) but then realised there were a few 60's cover bands with this name. Our next step was to stop over thinking the name. last week when in the studio we got a lot of reverb off the PA system and thought we'd came across a great name, after a quick internet search we realised every other band seemed to be called The Reverbs. We then decided our band name needed to mean a bit more to us so we decided to reflect football in our band name. Our first idea was The Deficit, but we figured it could be easily misspelt. Our latest idea is The Assist. We're still putting thought into our band name and want to make sure we get it right, any feedback would be appreciated.

Monday 7 January 2013

The Youth of Today

First of all the process of writing this blog has been painfully slow as my whole estate has been without internet. The youth of today decided on new year's eve to burn out the estate's junction box, its a sign of the times and leaves us without internet until the 11th of January!!! We've been practicing hard and trying to get to the studios at every opportunity, weekends are manic as we all play for different football teams on a saturday and sunday.Yesterday we went straight to the studios in our football kits looking the part! Here's a picture of us practicing from last week:

Friday 4 January 2013

An Introduction

Music makes the world go round and we've always dreamt of being in a band and playing live. Our band was formed towards the end of last year, the band consisted of Mikey Stanton a lead singer who had no real experience, Will Osborne on drums who was a complete beginner and Ryan Stanton on guitar. We started practicing at our local studios in Walsall and we had real chemistry, by the end of the first couple of practises we could play along to a  few covers well . Mikey has a huge passion for song writing and worked really well together with Ryan as being brothers we could be completely honest with each other without falling out. After around 5 practices we had 3 of our own songs that we could play all the way through and that sounded really good, by this time we had all improved as musicians dramatically. We are yet to have a band name, yet to play live, yet to go on any social networking site and yet to have a single listener. We want to see how far we can progress in terms of song plays and listeners in 365 days. We hope to share our passion for music and the challenges we face through this blog and hope it makes good reading.