25/10/97 - LONDON BARFLY GIG / BAND INJURIES

Our gig at the Barfly in London on Monday 20th October was a stormer. The smallish venue was very busy and had a large turn out of A&R people. As usual it was very hot in the venue and twice as warm on stage under the lights. A whole new set of new songs was performed, which went down very well.

Sadly not everything was peachy though. The day before the gig Chris and Grant had been playing in a pub football team. It was just typical of our luck that just a few minutes from the final whistle, Grant picked up an injury. Although not hugely serious his ankle had swollen up to such an extent that a cautionary visit to the local Accident and Emergency hospital was advisable.

He had badly strained a ligament, was badly bruised, but there were no broken bones. They strapped him up and gave him a pair of crutches. Unfortunately this meant that he was unable to help us with loading or unloading the equipment. Not that he's that much use when he's fit. He couldn't put any weight on the ankle, so had to rest on a stool during the gig, which allowed him to use his footswitches.

Bobby was also carrying an injury. At the end of August he came of his mountian bike while on a regular run around some local roads. After a visit to hospital, he was told that he had broken his collar bone in four places. In considerable pain he took it easy for several weeks to let the bones heal. However, as we recording some demos three weeks after the incident and were palying a gig at Glasgow In The City at the end of the month, he didn't have a great deal of time to rest before having to strap on his bass again. Fortunatley, he was fit enough for his discomfort not to have too great an effect on either performance.

While we were in London we visited Gen and his wife Monica's new baby Elenor. She is a great baby. Very well behaved, quiet and very cute. Chris gets into some baby talk (far right).

12/10/97 - BIG CHANGES

Apologies for not writing for a while, however there's not been a huge amount to report over the last few months. That's not to say that there haven't been things happening though. Sadly things with Atlantic Records in the USA did not work out. After they fired our A&R person, there seemed to be a lack of support for us at the label. In the summer and after a request from us, they said that they didn't want to stand in the way of us becoming successful, and said that they would let us go. I guess we were getting used to people not realising what they had.

After some negotiation we have now been released from our recording contract. So hear starts the search for a new record company. So far the reaction to our new demos has been very encouraging. We are going to be looking for a new deal in both the UK and the USA. The plan is to have a new deal in place by the beginning of next year. From there, we'll get stuck straight into recording the third album and start touring again.

It's been a bit up and down for us over the last couple of years, however we're not beaten yet and have perhaps got even more enthusiasm now than ever before. The new demos sound great and we're really looking forward to making a new start. As part of the new start there will be a new name for the band. We'll let you know more about that in the future. The line-up will stay the same. If you join our mailing list you'll have the opportunity to hear samples of the new demos.

11/7/97 - FRENCH / LONDON GIGS

Our most recent tour of France went very well, with us visiting two new towns and re-visiting one. Unlike our other tours of France, we were traveling in a "transit" van. This made the trip even more tyring, however also a bit more interesting. If we're on a bus, we travel at night and sleep. In the van, we saw a lot more of the countryside than usual. Although sadly, it was more often than not through the windscreen wipers going back and forth, as it rain heavily most days.

The London gig at Barfly at the Camden Falcon was packed out. It was very hot in the small back room that is the venue, as everyone squeezed in. It seemed that Bobby had brought his own fanclub, as several people were shouting at him as soon as he came on stage. Grant's guitar strap broke in the middle of a song and as he had to sing during the rest of it, he had to pull the mike stand down and play his guitar on his knee.

FULL REPORT MORE PICTURES

18/4/97 - RECORDING DEMOS

In late April we went into the studio and recorded three new songs - "Heaven Only Knows", "Conversation" and "Follow The Swallow". We had no money to pay for the studio time and so ended up swapping a spare Marshall amp for it. As the recording was being done in some "down time" the studio had, we were told that an engineer that had not worked in the studio before was coming to engineer for us. As he was being tested out for another position in the company. I spoke to him and made arrangements to meet up on the first day at the studio.

Well, time went by and there was no sign of him, so we decided to use our knowledge of studios to start setting things up. We were getting on OK and there was still no sign of the guy. The equipment was in need of a major overhaul, which added to our limited knowledge of how that particular studio was wired, meant that progress was sometimes a bit slow.

We then heard that the new engineer had been in Glasgow, but couldn't find the studio. He then went back home saying "I didn't want to do the session anyway". Which was complete rubbish as he'd said to me about two days before that he was looking forward to it. We laughed in total disbelief of his un-professionalism and worked on.

We started laying down some tracks and Grant closed the door to the booth that his amp was in. He then couldn't get the door open. It was locked and there was no way of opening it. Oh! I forgot to mention, Grant was inside. Locked inside! This came as no surprise to anyone and we all laughed at him through the glass. I went off to get a key, but by the time I'd got back he had managed to escape. Damn. During a particularly loud and enthralling take, Chris was jumping up and down in the control room playing his guitar. Everyone has getting right into it, when all of a sudden there was an almighty thud as the leather strap on Chris' guitar snapped and the guitar crashed to the floor. Not to worry, he just picked it up and finished the song.

It was annoying that we had to cope with the inadequacies of the studio facilities. For example - the tape machine played fast or slow after you pressed play, then having to press stop, rewind, play, stop, rewind, play, until it worked. Having said that, we mixed the tracks a couple of weeks later and are very happy with the results.

NEW CHAOS BABY

Gen has been over in Japan with his wife for the last few months. I am glad to say that she gave birth to a lovely baby girl at the end of May. Both mother and baby are well, although mother had to endure a 27 hour labour!! (I'll try and get a picture.)

DAVY RECOVERING

Last weekend Davy was suffering from breathing problems and back pains. An ambulance was called and he was taken in for some tests. Although at one point they suspected that he had a collapsed lung, fortunately it was finally diagnosed as Pleurisy. He was given some antibiotics and is now on the road back to full health.

8/4/97 - SORRY!

It's been over two months since I last updated the site. There have been a few things that I would have liked to put up, but there has been no "earth shattering" news to report. The good news is that there is now quite a few new things to see and read. Now for some other news:

PHOTOSHOOT - At the end of February we travelled down to London to shoot some new pictures for the USA release of "Love Your Self Abuse" and do some press shots. This was the first time that Gen had been involved in a photoshoot with Baby Chaos. The photographer was Phil Poynter who works at "Dazed and Confused". For the shoot we went to Pinewood Studios (home of the James Bond movies, amongst many other major blockbusters) which was quite a buzz for everyone. During a break we took time out to have a quick walk round.

We saw the big tank that the water scenes for the Bond movies are filmed. They were actually setting up something for the next Bond moviewhile we were there. We also popped our head into the "James Bond" sound stage. It's really just a big shed and at the time they were at the very beginning stages of building the next set.

The press shots were fairly boring. Just pictures of the band looking cool. It was the pictures for the album artwork where things got a bit more interesting. The plan was to in some way continue the theme of the front cover album artwork. This was achieved by having the band look as if they were running away from someone. For the running bit we got in a very big tread mill. Like the ones you get at gyms, but much bigger. So big that you could get 4 people across the way!

We then added a big wind machine, to give the running some authenticity. Not content with that, a rain machine was then added to the wind so that the band was running straight into a force nine gale and gallons of freezing cold water. Phil had several motor wind 35mm cameras and just click, click, clicked away. It was quite exhausting and uncomfortable, but we ended up with some great shots. These will be used on the inside and back cover of the US release of "LYSA".

STUDENT PARTY - At the beginning of March we made a 1,600 mile round trip to Lille to play at a College student party. Money is very tight, so we just hired a transit van and filled it with gear and ourselves and cruised down there. The stage was in a large tent that had been built in the courtyard of the Student Union. It was weird when all the punters were arriving, as they were all dressed up - suits, dresses, etc. We hadn't realised that it was this sort of event, but they know how to rock and everyone had a great time.

#1 FAN LEAVES - The world of Chaos received a blow at the end of March when, due to "corporate downsizing" our A&R girl and number one fan, Janice Fike was let go from Atlantic. I understand that this was nothing to do with her ability, but was more of a company political thing. We now have Craig Kallman acting as our A&R guy and as he is also a Senior VP at Atlantic, things should work out OK.

CATHOUSE GIG - Our gig at the Glasgow Cathouse on Saturday 5th April was top. It was our first gig in the UK this year and lots of fans came out to see and hear what we'd been up to. The set list was: She's In Pain, L.Y.S.A., Sperm, Breathe, Conversation, Get Along, Kicking Things, Mental Bruising For Beginners, Had Enough, Pink, Try Hard To Be Psychic, Heaven Only Knows, Superpowered, Hello, Golden Tooth. Some pictures follow:

23/1/97 - THE START OF THE YEAR

Our first news report of the new year trusts that you all had a nice Christmas and had a suitabley "wet" New Year. It's been a fairly quiet start to the year, with only a trip to London to master the "new" album. When I say new, it's "Love Your Self Abuse", but with three tracks taken off and two added. The running order has also been changed slightly. Details will follwo later.

ALIENS PERFORM IN GLASGOW

Some friends of ours dropped by on there way to another Galaxy, for a quick gig at Nice'n'Sleazy in Glasgow, just before the New Year. Calling themselves "Gay Dog", they performed a short set of covers, which included : AC/DC, Frank Sinatra and Grease. The stunned audience left the building fully appreciating the talent of our friends from the far reaches of the Universe.

16/11/96 - GENERAL UPDATE

The first leg of our French tour went very well. Lots of fans were there to support us on our first live dates in France since last November, when we were touring to promote "Safe Sex, Designer Drugs...". There are lots of pictures in the Photographs area and Grant is in the process of writting a report. Hopefuly it won't take him as long to finish as the USA report.

We will be playing a Christmas gig with our old friends The Wildhearts in Glasgow on the 21st December. The Garage is the venue for what we're sure will be a stormin' gig.

For the U.S. release of "L.Y.S.A." we will be changing the songs that it contains. Three songs are coming off and two brand new ones are going on. From the session that we have recently completed in London (for which new drummer Gen is writting a report), "Swimming Trunks" and "Kicking Things" will be added. The first single will be "Hello". The album is scheduled for a May release, with the single being out in April.

20/10/96 - RECORDING NEW SONGS

A few days ago we travelled down to London to properly record some demos we had recently done on 4-track. We were originaly only going to record two of them, however choosing the two out of the new material was too hard so we're recording three.

The studio is apparently one of the best equipped and sounding in Europe. It's technical spec is more than adequate, however it's artist rest and recreation facilities are somewhat lacking. The most usual of leisure pursuits - a pool table, is not supplied. Found in nearly every other studio we've been in, the pool table becomes the centre of activity when not actually recording. Leuges are drawn up, small wagers are placed and tempers can fray. This studio offers limited satelite TV and a Playstation. The most popular games at the moment are: Wipeout, F1 and International Track and Field.

We've got a day and a half before we head back up to Scotland and all we need to do is finish the mix on one track, complete another and do some single edits. When we get back we will be rehearsing for our trip to France.

26/9/96 - IF ONLY IT WAS ALL TRUE

The following article appeared recently on page three of the Scottish Daily Star :

Slipped disc gets rockers reeling
A giant cock-up has given a rising Scots band the break of their lives. Rockers Baby Chaos have landed a mega-bucks contract in America after their music was pressed on to the WRONG CD... And sent to record company chiefs in New York by MISTAKE. Yank bosses were baffled when they thought they were listening to a new album from Manchester based chart stars The Fall. And when they realised their mistake, bigwigs at Atlantic Records in Manhattan had no idea how to contact the mystery rockers.

But after a six-month-long transatlantic search, they finally tracked Baby Chaos down to Stewarton, in Ayrshire and snapped them up with a £500,000 deal. Singer Chris Gordon said last night: "This is like a dream come true. It was a complete fluke that our songs were pressed on to a Fall CD by mistake. And it was even more bizarre that it found its way on to the desk of a record company boss in the Big Apple." Chris added: "Now we plan to move to the States and make a fresh start."

I don't know where they got the £500,000 from, but we wish it were true. Even a fifth of that would be fantastic. A press release was sent to the paper giving the true story. Isn't it amazing what the papers will print. And the moral of this story - never believe what you read in the papers (perhaps with the exception of the "quality press").

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