Author: punkrocknroll

Well it’s been a while ain’t it.

The last time we spoke was at the end of 2020. I bet you thought we’d left you.

Nah, you’re not that lucky.

2021 was a strange one for sure. Once we were finally let out to play in the summer by our Dad’s in Downing Street, we were off. Like every other band out there we avidly read the Music Union’s guidelines.

All the cooped up frustrations of the past 18 months or so were released in a glorious mess of punk ‘n’ roll nonsense.

The Kingcrows were flying high again.

Gigs were planned all over this greenish and mainly pleasant land.

We expanded our little noisy crusade with fans in tow down to Nuneaton (Queens Hall), which was fun. This was a gig laid on by the Dudes Punk Rock Show.

We went down so well that they’ve asked us back again this year – Idiots!

Next, we had our first gig abroad, well Wales, but it is another country so you’re not taking this from us.

So, anyway, flying through gigs we were, until October when Covid got our intrepid singer. Bugger. We ended up cancelling a few gigs due to this but these things can’t be helped.

This kinda set the scene for the rest of the year to be honest.

Gigs were cancelled, bands pulled out, bands stepped in. Like I said, a truly weird one.

We finally managed to get our collective arses to Birmingham, which had been on our bucket list for a while now.

Great gig and the crowd were really welcoming. Indeed, we’re so flipping fantastic this is another venue who wants us back.

By December 2021, we ended up doing a massive 12 gigs, not our finest number, but you play the hand you’re dealt.

So, any doodles onto 2022.

This is going berserk at the minute. We have a ton of gigs planned for the rest of the year, including the big shiny new Punk Festival in Scarborough. This has been postponed twice due to the lurgy, so third time lucky. We’re really looking forward to this one.

So where are we band wise now?

We’re all still here, which is good. We’ve been actively working on new material for the new album. We’ve gigged some of these tunes which have gone down well.

It’s always tricky bringing in new stuff as inevitably some old stuff has to be moved.

It’s a tough choice deciding.

Already we have the new album written with 13 tracks of the finest Kingcrowsium available.

Something for everyone.

Maybe even a surpise or two.

We’re in no rush to record yet – we’re gonna get everything gig ready first. We never record anything that we’ve not played live, ‘cos we’re “musicians”, it’s what we do and we do it well.

We’re still getting played on the radio which is always a joy to hear. We’re in touch with even more USA & UK stations too who’ve not played us. We demand to know why and don’t they realise who we are ????.. sheesh.

The band have put feelers out for European gigs, and Japan too. That will be a bit special.

So in wrapping up, we’re not dead yet, we just smell that way.

Keep those peckers up kiddies……..

As I sit at my desk peering into the winter void, existential dread has it’s icy, dark claws clamped around my soul.

I hear its seductive, silky whisper asking me in its’s taunting, mocking tone – what have you done with 2020 and was it worth it?

Well, screw you ‘cos guess what, it really was .

2020 started great with gigs booked in for the year, right thru. Festivals, theatres, the whole shebang. Up, down and across this green and pleasant land. Well, that turned to crap fairly quickly. Four gigs! that’s it.

Then the world changed. Not just for us but for every bugger else.

Brakes on. Game over. Did The Kingcrows stop? Did we hell. We grabbed this opportunity by the nads and gave it a damn good talking to.

So here’s what we’ve done during lockdown to keep ourselves busy:

LEARNING TO USE ZOOM FOR VIDEOS

We started having weekly band chats on zoom. Before long, we looked into other zoom benefits. Well, it turns out that you can actually make a video that way. So we did, and we brought you “I love myself” – the ultimate lockdown vid. Phil E Stine crafted the wonderful jellytastic “Rip it up”, plus we also snuck thru “on the road again”.

NEW WEBSITE

The fact that your reading this blog would also lead me to point out that we’ve redesigned our website from the ground upwards and it’s looking pretty spiffing.

MERCH

We’ve released more lines of merchandise than ever. It’s great to see people buying as much as they are. It warms our wallets nicely and allows us to keep on keeping on.

RADIO

Big news is that we were interviewed live for Renegade Outlaw Radio from America. That was an experience. We’ve since been played on oodles of other radio stations, so we’re definitely getting about.

JAPAN

We’re making baby step inroads towards Japan, which is a goal we have in mind. We’ll have to see how that pans out, but we’re hopeful.

REHERSALS

We’ve been in the rehearsal studios a few times since september and once the cobwebs were shaken off things came together fairly quickly.

NEW SONGS

We’re back in the process of writing again so hopefully once we do see you all “out there” we may have new songs to delight and charm you with.

GIGS

Oh, and in the few days when lockdown rules where slightly relaxed, we did a gig in September – which felt great. Hopefully it won’t be long now before everything is back to normal and we can bring you our own peculiar brand of Punk Rock & Roll again.

So finals thoughts, yeah 2020 was weird but sod it, life goes on.

28.9.2020

Blackpool Waterloo 13th September – The Kingcrows, The Sentence, Benefit State. Zero Tolerance, MC16. (Socially Distanced Gig) – Band Review – LJ Kingcrow

Gigging in the COVID world…

Well bugger me if we haven’t only gone and done a gig!

This report should’ve really been done two weeks ago whilst it was fresh in my mind and before the copious pints of road crew fuzzed my shizzle up.

Anyway, it was the 13th sept at the marvellous Waterloo bar in Blackpool. Hosted by the equally wonderful KDS promotions. It was our first official socially distant gig, believe me when I say we’ve had plenty that weren’t intentional.

The lay out of the room was impressive. It was like a jazz lunch, people sat tapping their toes. Like a west coast Ronnie Scott’s. Only without the awful jazz nonsense.

A big shout to all the bands who were playing that day. MC16, zero tolerance, benefit state, and the sentence.

To be honest, the gig went great for us. Could’ve done with an on stage sound check before we played, but that’s a minor nit. We’d only rehearsed twice since lockdown but the songs came flooding back. Like old noisy friends who refuse to fuck off.

The set flew by, as they always do. It was novel to see Mr Stine actually stay on stage for a full gig. He generally buggers off and causes a nuisance in the crowd towards the end. It must’ve killed him! Oh, and we did an unplanned encore. One we hadn’t prepared for but we’re awesome and it went smoothly. Which was nice.

So it was great to be back. We’re supposed to be out in November but we’ll see how things pan out. And next time I’ll write it earlier. Maybe. Who knows…….LJ Kingcrow

UPDATED FROM 19.9.2020

Beat the lock down, spend your hard earned cash now. Give The Kingcrows your money straight away.

Be awesome with the dandy new tote bag on your arm. Stick the new back patch I’m there too, along with the unbelievably brilliant coasters.

All these wondrous treasures are now available at The Kingcrows emporium of quality stuff you never realised you needed.

Until now. No really, give us your money.

23.8.2020

The KINGCROWS – Brute Force & Ignorance is ALBUM OF THE WEEK on HARD ROCK HELL RADIO Tune in to BADASS MARTIN’s SHOW on Sunday 23.8.2020 3pmhttps://hardrockhellradio.com/

UPDATED FROM 6.8.2020

Welcome to our new website and even newerer news page.

Let’s start with the obvious, there’s bugger all happening in any band right now due to the pandemic. But that’s not to say we’ve been lazy. Not totally anyway…… So, here’s where we are since lockdown.

Firstly we’ve got a nice shiny new website – oooh! It’s super easy to navigate and it looks cool on your phone whilst you’re taking a poo.

Secondly, we’ve managed to squeeze a couple of videos out during our downtime – so that’s nice. We’re all waiting on confirmation of when we can go back into the rehearsal studios, it’s been 4 months or so and I’ve forgotten more than we can remember. So the first few rehearsals should be fun.

Hopefully we can get out on the road before the end of the year but that’s purely in the lap of the gods now. So this has been our first real catch up. Drop us a line via the usual methods and let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see mentioned here. I’m sure I can help…….. Lee J

UPDATED FROM 5.5.2020

The Kingcrows actually get together for the first time during the COVID 19 outbreak via Zoom – it was good to catch up. Plans were made to update the new website, add a new merc store and make a new video via Zoom…Stay tuned as this will blow away the Zoom video the Rolling Stones did.. The zoom went well so we plan to carry them on whilst we can’t meet up.

UPDATED FROM 18.4.2020

It is great news that the Scarborough Punk Festival which was cancelled due to the Corona Virus has been moved to Saturday, 27th March and Sunday 28th March 2021
BAND LINE-UP:

*SATURDAY*
(Scarborough Spa)
The Skids
Anti-Nowhere League
Peter and the Test Tube Babies
The Vibrators
Menace
999
Hot Rockets
The Kingcrows
The Ramonas
Hung Like Hanratty

*SUNDAY*
(Scarborough Spa)
The Wildhearts
Discharge
The Varukers
Vomit
Satanic Malfunctions
Anti-System
Mau Maus
Warchrist
Active Minds

23.3.2020

As you are aware measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus – or COVID-19 – have meant that the UK is in lockdown and people are encouraged to practise “social distancing”. In reality this means that venues, pubs and clubs all shutting up shop for the time being, this obviously has a huge impact on our live music scene and it is with regret that we have cancelled all gigs until it is safe to tour without endangering ourselves or any of our fans. Please see our gig list for further details of latest gigs and festivals affected.

1.12.2019

Apologies for the radio silence since April, chaos has reigned ever since the album came out. Not that we haven’t been busy – we’ve been gigging constantly ever since, including a hugely fun appearance at the Rebellion Festival!!
Anyway, we’re back, we’re doing stuff, and we have a big announcement….
THE KINGCROWS ARE ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Yes, Brute Force And Ignorance is coming out on 12″ plastic!! Y’see, when we were kids, you were only a proper band if you had a record out. There’s something mystical about a real live vinyl album. CDs are convenient, but LPs are important. And now we’ve done it. And not just that, but we figured if we were going to do it we might as well go mad with it, so it’s on Neon Green vinyl. It’s limited to 250 units, it’s selling for £15 a go (plus postage) and it comes out on 1st December. Preordering is up on the Emporium Of Stuff right now. Go on, you know you want to!!
So it’s coming up to the end of the year and we have three gigs left. Firstly we’re in Coalville, Leics at the Victoria Bikers Pub this Saturday (30th November) headlining a bill featuring Born To Destruct, Mispelt, Leftovers, Disowned and Cracking At The Seams. It’s an early start (first band on at 5.30, we’re on at 9.30 and the whole thing finishes at 10.20), and it’s free in!! Six top bands for NO MONEY. 
Then we’ve a busy weekend to finish the gigging year – Friday 13th December sees us back at Westgate 23 in Heckmondwike to play their Christmas punk bash with Vomit and Eye Licker. Again, it’s free in, and the punk shows at Westgate 23 are always utter mayhem, so don’t miss it!!

The next day (Sat 14th), we’re honoured to be on the bill for the annual Leeds Punk Rock Christmas alldayer at the Brudenell Social Club. We had to pull out of last year’s, so we’re really looking forward to finally doing the thing!! This year’s bill is an absolute stormer too: GBH, Cyanide Pills, Duncan Reid & the Big Heads, Geoffrey Oi!Cott, Knock Off, the Kingcrows, the Swindells and the Allergics. It’s a hell of a way to see the year out!! See ya down the front!!

UPDATED FROM 25.11.2019: Brute Force and Ignorance, now on 12” neon green vinyl, will be officially released on December 1st through our own Corvus Rex label. £15 +p&p
The first 100 come with a limited neon green bottle opener key ring and badge 

UPDATED FROM 14.4.19:
People of Earth, your attention please. The wait is over. The long-awaited new Kingcrows album BRUTE FORCE AND IGNORANCE is here!! Four years on from the release of our last album FUNLAND, we now bring you thirteen more tracks of sleaze-punk-n-roll insanity with all the subtlety and refinement of a boot in the jewels.

Tracklisting:

PSYCHO RADIO, BLOOD BROTHERS, CAR CRASH CADILLAC, I LOVE MYSELF, VIC THE VIGILANTE, CITY KIDS, BUM NOTES AND FEEDBACK, Z-LIST CELEBRITY, SATURDAY NIGHT ROCK CITY, ONE NIGHT ONLY, DO WHAT YOU DO, RIP IT UP, MY HEART – MY LIFE

 We’re really proud of this album and we can’t wait for you lot to hear the thing. The official launch is this Friday, 19th April, and we’ll have copies with us for our slot at the ANARCHY AT THE WATERLOO festival in Blackpool that day (we play at 5pm, but get there earlier cos all the bands are great!!). The CD can be ordered now at our Official Emporium Of Stuff for a piddling £7 (+ £2 p&p)…go to it!!