Songwritin Blog Part Two - Little Louisa

Here's the second part of my blog on the background to some of our songs. I'm often asked how I go about writing songs. What comes first, the words or the music? Well thanks to this lovely blog site, I've now got the opportunity to shed a bit more light on the behind the the scenes of The Fore!

Little Louisa

This was my attempt of trying something a bit rockier. I was getting into a bit of garage music at the time, and of course I've always liked The Kinks' early stuff as well. Little Louisa was a result of all that. The words are definitely influenced by all that garage scene. Check out some of The Sonics stuff - most of their great songs have a story to them. That's my take on those songs.

There's also a bit of the old Motown song 'Money' in it (also recorded by The Beatles) - the floor tom drums bit is influenced by that song. The first recorded version was much slower than what it is like now. My first demo version was done just on acoustic guitar and I used a cardboard box and wooden spoons to do the drum bits!! A bit different to the awesome drum fills that Si now does week in week out...

And who's Louisa? Now that would be telling :)

Spencer

Unsigned Chart & Counterfeit Beatles Gig Review

Lots to catch up with!!

Firstly, we managed to stay at Number 4 in the Unsigned Chart. This is a great achievement, considering that most acts only seem to stay in the chart for no more than a week or two. Hopefully next week we'll be pushing on up to Number 1. Thanks to everyone who tuned in and gave us their support. The Unsigned Chart Show is quite a big industry site, so hopefully, with your support, we can push on a get recognised.

The Counterfeit Beatles gig.

On Saturday we had the little matter of supporting the Counterfeit Beatles. I've known of the Counterfeits for years, having seen them a number of times over the years. They probably are the premier Beatle tribute act in the South East. As it turns out, they were extremely nice guys as well to boot, and we all got on really well. Sadly, as we were playing as a three piece, we couldn't really show ourselves in the best light, but we did really well and played fantastically. We ended up playing around a hour and earned an encore of Little Louisa to boot.

Now it's for a week off before our next gig which is in Bromley. It'll be a short rest though cos the Bromley gig kicks of a run of loads of gigs, in which our Showcase Tour takes us to Guildford later next month as well as regular haunts like Bromley and Sutton...

Listen To The Fore On The Unsigned Chart Show This Monday!

Tune in at 7pm to the Unsigned Chart Show Podcast to see how we are doing on the lastest chart. Last week was our debut on the chart and we entered in at number 4!!

Listen in to Dave and Lee's great show by clicking on the below link:

http://www.unsignedchart.com/page/page/show?id=1683114%3APage%3A61543

If you don't get a chance log in to the Fore blog later in the week to find out how we did!

GIG - Saturday 25 October, Acacia Hall, Dartford

Fresh from a week off from any gigs (last week's gig was cancelled at short notice), we now have a gig that we all are looking forward to. On Saturday we return to Dartford for the first time in about 18 months, supporting the popular Counterfeit Beatles in the Acacia Halls.

The Counterfeits were the first tribute act I ever saw and they are pretty well-travelled, having just come back from a short tour in Asia.

If you'd like to get a ticket the best thign to do it to come early and buy a ticket at the door (doors open at 7pm). Tickets are £12.50 each. We are on at 7.30pm for approx an hour's set before The Counterfeits do their thing...

Spencer

London / SE Showcase Gig In Sutton CANCELLED

We're really sorry to announce at short notice that we have had to cancel today's gig due to illness. Apologies to everyone that made the effort to go to the gig this weekend - we know we had people coming from across London on this occasion.

We hope to see you at another gig very soon.Spencer

Gig Review - London / SE Showcase Tour - Bromley

Had a great time today in Bromley as our Showcase Tour continued. Soon we'll be heading down to Medway in Kent and off to Guildford in Surrey, but for the timebeing it was back to Si's hometown. And what a great time we had.

Once again big crowds showed up to see us play, quite a few that we had seen before which was great, and I really can't believe how lucky we were with the weather. We're still down to a three piece following Luke leaving the band, and it's still really weird having to sing I Got A Girl and Someone New myself. I really should learn those words better...

Thanks again to everyone who showed up, bought the album, applauded and took photos of us whilst we played. We really can't wait to get back to Bromley.

Next up is Sutton next Sunday, maybe see you there :)

Spencer

Our London / South East Showcase Tour Continues This Sunday!

Our Showcase Tour is starting to gather up some speed now, with several new towns being lined up in the near future. We have already played to THOUSANDS of people this year, but hopefully we're aiming to make the tour bigger and better, performing further out to Kent and Surrey.

In the meantime it's back to one of our 'home' towns for the timebeing - Bromley - this Sunday. We'll be there from 12 noon onwards. This weekend we'll be giving away Fore posters as well as badges - so make ure you come down and get your merchandise.

Songwriting Blog Part 1 - Love For Sale

I'm often asked how I go about writing songs. What comes first, the words or the music? Well thanks to this lovely blog site, I've now got the opportunity to shed a bit more light on the behind the the scenes of The Fore!

I've been writing since I was 14 years old and most of my songs are worked on an acoustic guitar. That's not always the case, but it is most of the time. Nearly always the music & tune will come first. A melody will often come to me when I wake up/about to go to sleep, when I'm walking home or when I'm jamming on the guitar. I can happen anywhere! I've got a little mono tape recorder at home and I use this to put down my ideas - however bad they are!!! When I come up with an idea I'll pick up the guitar and play through the makings of the verse or chorus I have and always continue adlibbing afterwards. This is often how I pick up new sections of songs. I also have a list of song names which I will turn to if I'm looking for a catchy title. Run & Hide, Rumours & Lies, Forgive & Forget and Love For Sale are all examples of this!

So what about the songs that we're recorded? In this blog I'll be occasionally running through a number of the songs that you all know from our recordings/gigs and give you a history to the song :) First up...

Love For Sale

Love For Sale starts up Black & White and is probably best known for its 12 string guitar. When it was first written though I didn't even own a 12 string guitar!

It actually started pre-Fore days when I used to be in a cover band. We used to do this old song by The Searchers called When You Walk In The Room, which tended to be a set favourite. I wanted to write my on 'Room' song and I already had a partly writtne song hanging around which was like Girl Don't Tell Me by The Beach Boys. It was called Love For Sale, but was just a couple of verses with a different middle section. I used this song and worked out an opening riff - although it was origanally going to be on 6 string. Of course that all changed when Matt came on board in the band and I started to look to songs that could use the 12 string - so Love For Sale was born!!

Obviously there's other influences in the song - The Byrds spring to mind particularly - but the real origins of the song go back to those covers days and me trying to come up with my own When You Walk In the Room!

Of course its a song that Matt sings, and no one else could realyl do it justice. I've sung it once before, at a gig that Matt couldn't make, and I was rubbish at it! I guess it's quite handy that we've got more than one singer in the band...

More on our songs in a later post. Until then I'll see you around!!

Spencer

Run & Hide Snippets Now Available on Myspace

Well, the launch date of our second album 'Run & Hide' gets ever closer. We're still hoping to release the album in early November which is now only under 7-8 weeks away. In a couple on weeks we'll be heading to SRT, who boast Universal Music as one of their clients, to complete the final mastering and production process of the album. At the same time we are working on the album cover design. Everything's going to plan and we'll update you as when we have further news.

In the meantime we have released 'snippets' of a number of songs from Run & Hide on our myspace page and on our Overplay website. To hear the sampler, please follow the link below

http://www.overplay.co.uk/band.asp?band_id=1005268