NEWS

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Latest news, stories, activities
LATEST NEWS
(Updated 18th October 2006)

    The Jury
    As well as working as the Phantom Dee-Jay, and Actor, Ian has joined The Jury.  Look out for 'Jury' gigs and come and say Hi sometime.



    Phantom Dee-Jay
    Coinciding with the almost total evaporation of Phantoms gigs,  you can now check out the same sounds the band played out from The Phantom Dee-Jay. 
    Check out the regular Thursday 'HoG RoX' gigs at The Hog's Head, Sidcup on, errr. . . . .  Thursdays.! 
    The plan is to make this a solid regular slot, creating and establishing an Indie/Alternative vibe that will rock Sidcup 
    See you there.



    Our Latest Number One Fan is......
    Maria, from Watford.   There, you made onto the website, see you next time.



    Latest Gigs!
    Sorry to everyone from around our South-London/North-West Kent base, we've been playing away from home a lot.
    Venues are always in a state of flux - bar managers change more often than Phantoms guitarists, exclusive agent agreements come and go, as do entertainment licences, and there's always the good old sound-limiter/bands calling themselves bands but actually playing to backing tracks problem.   But.......
    O'Neill's was a blast the other night, getting rowdier, you guys are getting just too familiar! and the Hen was a really fun gig at the weekend, maximum enjoyment.
    Everything's getting later these days, we're not doing too many 9:00pm starts anymore, in fact most are now kicking off at times would have been finishing!  Best check the website/e-mails/Ents24.com for details.


    The Band - Chris is well and truly back ! (for good, this time)
    Over the years it seems The Phantoms can rival the Chilli Peppers for the number of guitarist changes they've been through!.  In March they  parted company with guitarist John Coombes, and temporarilly alternated between two ex-Phantoms guitarists, Peter. J. Pinto and Mike Crump.
    But we also spoke to another ex-Phantom guitarist, Chris Kelly.  Chris left the band last year due to a house move to East Anglia which for one reason and another didn't happen, and was still around.  As soon as we found out about his situation, and he ours, well it was like Kismet man!   We're all itching to get back to where we left off a year ago.
    Chris's return will give the band the opportunity to return to playing some of the more recent material they played in the last couple of years, and get back on track to the contemparary music of the last decade as the core of the set, as well as some kick-ass classics.
    The real bugger has been the band holding back on gigs, this has now come to an end.   Whilst the band is not seeking to return to the 3-4 gigs a week we were doing, we'll be playing often enough to come by your way, wherever you are, on a pretty regular basis. 



    The Set
    The Phantoms originals are: 'Blinded', 'Inspired' and 'Happiness Remembered' - 'Happiness' is on the site to download as a sample too.  The Band have stopped performing originals live for now.
    New material being rehearsed for the set is:  Greenday's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'.
    Thanks for the suggestions for new material at gigs - keep em coming, the band do listen, and act!


    UK Tattoo Artists Convention-Gillingham
    After great reviews in Skin Deep and Back Street Heroes from the Band's appearance in Gillingham last year, the band were booked for a return.  This years convention, the weekend of the 14th and 15th June, was a great success, and the band appeared on the Sunday.
    Thanks to all those who came down and got their tats out!



    Recordings
    In January 2002 the band went in the studio and recorded their original material plus the most popular covers from the set.  The Band also recorded the Hobgoblin (Holloway) gig on 1st March 2002,  The sessions were mixed down at Crystal Cut on 17th April.  Sample  tracks have also been uploaded to the website.


    No, not what you think it might be.  Take the link to The Wonderful Wankometer. This machine enables you to measure the quantity of Management Wank in a piece of text or web page.  Simply type the address of a web-page, or paste in some text.  The Wankometer will return a Wank Factor which indicates the overall wankiness of the text.
    are proud to announce that this site (out of a score of 1 to 10) scores only 0.45 and consequently has a very low wank rating.


    'Christian O'Connell's Breakfast Show'
    Was 16th, 15th, 14th, 13th, 12th 11th, 10th (now 9th?) biggest in LONDON! - We're helping to make it number 1!  Thanks to Christian for the Xfm Breakfast Show football shirts.  If you've seen the band playing in them and you wondered why they all had 'O'Connell' and the number 16 on their backs you now know why.
    Two Cups of Tea and a Packet of Biscuits - if you've heard this feature on the show, what you might not know that Ian came up with the idea for the name.
    World Cup Ruck - Christian ran a sweepstake for the dirtiest team in the World Cup.  Ian won it with Turkey, he was live on  Xfm and won........a signed Jon Bon Jovi plectrum - nice!.



    'Reviews'
    Xfm started runing a gig review response line.  Anyone that's seen a live band and wants to post a short review can phone in to a answering machine and the reviews are played out on air.  The number to call is: 020 7 766 6868.  In addition, the Xfm website is running an e-mail address you can send gig reviews into: xfmonline@capitalinteractive.co.uk  If you liked a gig, tell everyone!  If you didn't, tell us.


    The Victoria Bitter Tour
    Seems like an age ago, hope you enjoyed it.... don't stop drinking the stuff though.  See you next time, hic!


    Mosh-Cam Photos
    We're still posting the Mosh-Cam photos.  Unfortunately there's still too many unusable!  -  Thumbs, beer glasses and blurry faces ( I guess point-and-click gets a little difficult after 6 pints of Guinness and 4 Vodka jellies).  We going have to get the camera out to you guys earlier in the night, before you get pissed (oh dear, that'll be pictures of the band setting up then).


    Pages on the site:  Quotes Page the Mosh-Cam (2) Page & Reviews Page
    Quotes Page  It's always great when people walk up and say hello at gigs and say what they think.  The band were getting so many comments from you guys it took over the home page.  So we've given your voices a page of their own.  People who haven't seencan get an impression of the band - you might just recognise yourself. 
    Mosh-Cam (2) Page  All recent Mosh-Cam photos are uploaded, can you see yourself?  This will be a regular feature now, so watch out for the camera at gigs.  You're in for a laugh if you get as much of a buzz out of it as everyone who's had a go so far.
    What's Mosh-Cam?   The Mosh-Cam puts you in creative control, take pictures of yourself, your mates, girlfriends (especially girlfriends) - Oh yeah, just try and make sure you get the band in the photo too.  The wildest, most imaginative, artistic (and, ahem... the one's with the best women) will get on the site, and you'll get a mentch - just fill out a mailing list form with your details.  Mosh-cam is coming soon to a gig near you.
    Reviews Page  Independent reviews of the band are now posted on the site, look here to see what the music and media professionals are writing.



    Phanx
  • Andrew Perkins & Nick Daperis at Crystal Cut Studios & Mobile. 
  • Aaron P Stone, one of the coolest guy's you'll get to meet (also with the coolest car!) - a real friend to the band.
  • Massive thanks to Mr 'Alternative A-Z' Steve Taylor at Xfm for the gig-guide mentches - thanks too to Iain Baker.


Take it easy, take care....keep it .... and see you again soon,
 

Ian, Kev & Chris

are always interested in what you've got to say.
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