the Wilson movie. We gave a sneak preview last week at a local film night...which was in the venue where we played the gig. So that was pretty strange to see! Kinda infinite regression faux 3D. With time travel. Ungh...

There are clips from the Wilson DVD to be seen on youtube.

Planet Misery presents

at

THE RACEHORSE

15 Abington Square, Northampton NN1

on

SUNDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2006

THE WOODENTOPS

plus

WILSON

This will be the first live show from the legendary Rough Trade chart-toppers since 1992,

a special warm-up for their gig at the 100 Club in London on Wednesday 13th.

Support comes from NN1's award-winning Gangster Goth combo, Wilson.

Doors open at 8:00pm in the back room of the Racehorse.

Admission is 5:00

Please get there early, as this event will sell out.

Doors: 8:00pm

Wilson onstage 9:15pm
Woodentops onstage: 10:15pm
Bar closes at midnight

Sunday 7th May The Racehorse, Abington Square, Northampton NN1 Planet Misery presents WILSON www.wilsondub.com http://www.myspace.com/wilsondub Northampton's original dub goth prog punk bruisers are back! admission free

Wilson have just emerged from a very pleasant three days at Premier Studios in Corby http://www.premierstudios.co.uk with new recordings of two tunes, Police Chief and Buffalo Sniper .

Wilson conclude their run on the BBC Weekender Chart with a second consecutive week at Number One. So our chart positions for the past few weeks look like this: No. 1 - No. 3 - No. 2 - No. 2 - No. 1 - No. 1. An impressive tribute to the power of the Wilson electoral machine. Thanks to everybody for your support!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/entertainment/weekender

Wilson are delighted to report that they are back up to Number One on the Weekender chart. Thank you all for your votes, and please keep them coming. http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/entertainment/weekender

Congratulations to Jon and Griff of the BBC Weekender on winning gold at the recent Gillard Awards for broadcasting. A righteous result! Wilson are currently flying high at No. 2 on the Weekender chart. Please take a moment of your day to pass by http://www.bbc.co.uk/weekender and register a vote for us there. Thank you!

Wilson are down to Number 3 in this week's BBC Weekender chart. Please, people, do take a moment of your time to help us topple the -admittedly excellent - Columbus & Crusoe from their lofty heights and raise the mighty Wilson back to their rightful spot at the top of the charts. You will have your reward on a higher plane of existence, or possibly in a pub.

Top of the Charts again!

Wilson returned to the top of the BBC Weekender Chart with a bullet last night - straight in at Number One. Many thanks to everybody who voted for Critters. As DJ Griff said on last night's show, "Wilson have the international vote with fans all over the world, and who are we to stand in the way of that?"

Of course, it remains to be seen if we can hang on to that top slot, so please do keep on voting over the next few weeks at http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/entertainment/weekender

While you're at it, check out the rest of the Weekender site and see why the show is up for a prestigious Gillard broadcasting award. You can listen to the show online and they do a podcast as well. You'll be supporting Wilson, supporting the best radio show that Northampton has ever had and supporting the UK music scene in general. Can't be bad.

Once again Wilson find themselves in the running on the BBC Weekender chart. This time they didn't even tell us. I think it's a test of our electoral support. Fair enough. It's important to maintain vigilance on behalf of democracy.   But will we be caught out? Will our loyal heartland vote be revealed to be a mere chimera, a nine day wonder, the fickle flickering of the flame of fortune on the chrome dome of our secret Antarctic headquarters? Of course not.

Good people, take a minute of your day to pass by http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/entertainment/weekender and cast a vote for Wilson's rather ancient home-made rendition of Critters. You can listen to it as well.

In fact, you can listen to shedloads of good stuff on this site. The Weekender boys have got it going on. You can listen to their show anywhere in the world on your computer. You'll hear all the freshest new UK releases alongside the best of everything going on in the Northampton area. Unbelievable but true! So support your local digital underclass senile delinquents and support the mighty Weekender at the same time.

The First Wave penetrates the Balloon Festival at about 3:30 on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Happily Julie Reinger and the Weather Prophets have got it badly wrong. Deluge there is none. It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. The first thing we find as we enter the backstage compound is the Mystic Crew, which is a good way to start. Northampton's finest original reggae rockers have the slot before ours this afternoon, but right now the Drake Music Project are onstage. They are an extraordinary band, made up entirely of some pretty severely disabled people. With keyboards and percussion they are weaving a mad, precise and rather beautiful sort of mutated sixties soundtrack samba sound. It's like nothing you have ever heard. See them if you get the chance; you won't believe what's going on in front of you. more...

It is three thirty on a damp afternoon in the teeth-grindingly picturesque village of Castle Ashby. A large silver station wagon packed to the gunnels with boxes of black and chrome slides stealthily along a quaint country lane. Two faintly desperate looking men in sunglasses are in the front, their windows wound fully down, as though the day were much sunnier than it is. From those windows comes a cloud of acrid smoke and the unmistakeable roar of Killing Joke's mighty Asteroid. The first wave has almost made it to Security Checkpoint One. more...

People~

This weekend Wilson go festival happy: come and join in, why don't you?

Friday 19th August - Air 05 Festival, Grendon Lakes, Northamptonshire - Onstage 10:00pm
Saturday 20th August - Balloon Festival (Weekender Stage), The Racecourse, Northampton - Onstage 5:00pm

Hope to see you.
Your pals,
Wilson

No boats required! We said it would be drier than Glastonbury, didn't we? Another super night at the Racehorse for Wilson. Our projector made its live debut, running kung-fu movies and footage of...uh...Wilson over the band and the PA from Phoenix Soundworks performed admirably under severe pressure. The Importers got the show under way with a bright and tuneful set of original pirate material that certainly revealed their fondness for New Order. It was only their second ever show, but despite the occasional wobbly moment where band and backing track didn't quite see eye-to-eye, they acquitted themselves well. We shall surely be seeing more of them. More...

Wilson have been invited to take part in Twinfest once again. After last year's surreal episode playing in an empty park at an hour when we would not be normally out of bed, we made a few gentle enquiries...with the result that you can see Wilson in the Racehorse garden at 8:00pm sharp on Saturday 4th June 2005. As far as we are aware, entrance is free.

So the current rundown of Wilson gigs in the near future is this:

Tue 17th May - The Soundhaus, supporting POLYSICS. £5:00 admission, Wilson onstage at 9:00pm sharp.
Sat 21st May - The Labour Club. Free admission, Wilson onstage at 10:00pm sharp. Support and disco.
Sat 4th June - TWINFEST at The Racehorse. Free admission, Wilson onstage at 8:00pm sharp. Many other bands.
Sun 26th June - The Racehorse. Free admission. Wilson onstage at 10:00pm sharp. Drier than glastonbury.

Wilson are currently rehearsing up new songs. We have styled the current crop of tunes "Battle Garage". There's one date to add to the listings: Saturday 21st May - The Labour Club, NN1 (support tbc).

Wilson have been invited to headline at the Tom Hall Memorial gig at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, Wantage Road, NN1 on Saturday 23rd April. Full details in due course, but we already know that the show also features sets from Curtis E. Johnson, Mrs. Pilgrimm, and Ghost Train. It will not be in the afternoon. It will be in the evening. Nor shall we be without our artillery. We shall be drummed up to the hilt.

Wilson have a very limited number of tickets for a private party which we are playing in Northampton Town on Saturday 5th February 2005. If you want one, come and find us...

Thanks to everybody who voted to make Wilson the People's Choice on BBC Radio Northampton's end of year awards.

We won Best Song and Best Band. Coz we have the best fans. Thanks!

Once again the local BBC rock show, The Weekender, has embarked upon a cyber-election, this time to make their awards for the year 2004. The votes will be counted and the winners announced on the Weekender show on Friday 17th December.

The Wilson posse are entered in three separate categories this year: Best Band, Best Song and Best Weekender Session (all right, so this was a Pat Fish session, but he did play Buffalo Sniper). We would really appreciate your votes, so please go check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/weekender/awards_about.shtml and cast your votes for the NN1 Sound. You'll be helping us a lot.

Remember, you need to cast your vote before Friday 17th December.

Many thanks in anticipation, Your pals, WILSON

It's time to make An Announcement.

The Wilson Five are once again restored to their proper number.

Starting from the gig at the Racehorse on December 5th Wilson will be joined by drummer, Steve Beswick. Steve has previously played with the Heart Throbs and Mark Refoy's Slipstream. He also played alongside Agent Wilson in the Love Ambassadeux, a long-gone Northampton band now strangely popular in Croatia.

Well, there goes our month of chart action, and many thanks to all who voted for Wilson. Final tally: 2 weeks at #1 and 2 weeks at #2. I reckon that makes us #1 for the month of October, don't you? Yeah, course you do. Thanks again, everybody.

Headstone
xxx

Wilson have been toppled from their lofty pinnacle. We're down at Number 2 this week. (No, really, no need to say anything - we know)

So...uh...please do keep voting this coming week.

Citizens~

The midweeks are in for the Northampton radio chart, and Wilson are in trouble. We're down at Number Three. It's not too late for a last Floridian push here, so please stop by at and cast a vote for Wilson some time today or tomorrow.

Many thanks,
Karl Rove

Many thanks to everybody whose votes made Wilson Number One on the BBC Radio Northampton Weekender chart for the second week running! But please do remember, this thing goes on all through the month of October. A whole new week has started now and the way that this thing works, all bets are off - so please do visit again and cast your vote for this week. Let's see how long we can keep Wilson at the Top Of The Charts!

Go vote for Wilson

Vote Wilson

BBC Radio Northampton show The Weekender is a top suporter of local talent. For months now the boys Jon and Griff have done wonders to showcase good local acts and they have been enormously supportive in giving the oxygen of publicity to the Masters of Budvar nights which I organise at the Labour Club. They've interviewed me a couple of times and they have broadcast an acoustic session with me playing versions of Niagara and Buffalo Sniper.

Now the Weekender have decided to run a local chart. It works like this: you visit their website, you check out tunes by various local acts and then you vote for your favourite.

For the month of October Wilson are among the short-listed bands. The tune is our rousing tribute to John the Baptist, Istanbul Connection. Now, in the grand tradition of Florida electoral process, Wilson have decided that they are going to win this one, and this is where you come in.

Please, take a minute of your day and go vote for Wilson

You can vote any time during October. So please, music lovers - vote early, vote often! Let's make Wilson Number One in NN1.

Headstone

Headstone will be interviewed live on the BBC Radio Northampton show "Weekender" on Friday 17th September 2004. The show, which runs from 6:00 to 7:00 o'clock every Friday evening, will be coming live from the Roadmender in Northampton NN1, featuring live music from a number of local bands. http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/music

It's an overcast Sunday afternoon in Northampton. At the Cricket Club they are staging the first Tom Hall Memorial Cricket-for-All Challenge Tournament. In Abington Park there is a Gay Pride knees-up with bands and stuff. I am sitting in an otherwise empty Racehorse bar, my Burns in my lap, struggling to free the ball end of a broken 10 string from the body of the guitar.

Congratulations to MC Bot and Tamsin on the birth of their daughter, Freya Violet Joy, Wednesday 18th August 2004

Another Wilson gig appears. We've been asked to play the Racehorse front bar on Sunday 25th July. So we shall. And it will be free.

Wilson Involved in Festival with Hard-to-Understand Name

As part of the Twinfest cultural exchange knees-up, where bands from our twin towns of Poitiers and Marburg come to play in Northampton, Wilson will be playing at an event called SPONGE. Wilson remain unclear as to the exact nature of SPONGE at this stage, but we believe it to be an open-air event taking place in Becket's Park in Central Northampton on the afternoon of Sunday 6th June. More news on this one as it comes up.

Masters of Budvar, Headstone's guerilla promotions operation, are hosting a gig by our good friend from Leeds, D. Millard. D. Millard will be playing at The Racehorse, Northampton NN1 on Sunday 9th May 2004. Admission is free.

Once seen never forgotten, D. Millard is a dapper young solo performer who plays guitar and keyboards. His uniquely bitter n' twisted worldview is stamped all over monster tunes like "Religion Out", "James Bond is an Upper Class Copper", "Drugs Versus Sport" and, of course, the truly monumental "Don't Write a Song About It". You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hurl. But you won't pay to get in.

www.dmillard.co.uk

Long ago, in a pub very far away, they did occasionally have a band on in the Racehorse bar of a Tuesday night. I can just about recall seeing quite a tidy band there, named Skuravi after the stylish Czech striker of the day. That would have been about 1992. But for years now it's been the same: you just don't get bands on in the Racehorse bar of a tuesday night.

Until, that is, now.

Headstone's been busy at the old typewriter: Moles Club gig review, The Folk House gig review, and The Labour Club gig review

Well, the Romanian benefit at the Racehorse passed off well. It was a warm and friendly night out, with an awful lot of faces rallying round to raise money for the Fred Ryan's guerilla hospice-building operation and the Lovelight Romanian Children's Project. There was even a raffle! More...

A couple of positive developments on the Romanian benefit at the Rockin' Horse. First off, the bar will be open late. (Notice how this is becoming something of a trend at Wilson's Northampton performances? This town is on the move, subtly shapeshifting into the new Barcelona. Oi, New Yorkers - you can smoke in the pubs here. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ooooh-Ho! Ho! Ho! Security!)

Second off, because there is more time, we're adding another band to the bill, namely the very fine young band called A Fat Dog Sound.

So for your fiver you now get 4 top groups, a magisterial DJ and a late bar. Beats Live Aid.

It appears that Fred Ryan, the proprietor of those legendary Welsh parties, is going to Romania to build a hostel for sick children. Benefit concerts in Northampton and Builth Wells will be announced soon.

A return to action for the Wilson Five, as Mister E. Wilson succumbs to the slumber-related after-effects of a festive feed. With the Rocket Hi-Fi boys unable to make it, DJ Ethan comes to the rescue (direct from the hospital) with a top set of dirty breakbeats, house and shouting. The night is free, the room fills up. In the cupboard beside the stage there is a dense fog.

The rest of the story...

Greetings from the geriatric ward...

This has not been Headstone's week. First the fool managed to up-end himself, tripping over his treasured skinning-up granite and sailing through the air with Klinnsman-like grace (Arsene Wenger is reported to have said "I did not see eet"). This left him with a massive limp. Then he caught the flu.

The rest of the story...

Well, nobody got arrested last night , and our comical home-made PA held up too. We ran everything (DAT machine; PA amp; Mixing desk; Bass Amp; 2 Guitar amps; Curtis' Amp; Curtis' Air-FX; Curtis' Delay; Pat's Delay; Pat's tube-in-a-box) off one power socket (now you couldn't do that in America, now could you?) Went down very well, all things considered. (Curtis on ecstasy? Perish the very thought...) We played pretty early (about 9:15 to 10:00) so as to avoid too much neighourhood grief, which did mean that a few of the hardcore only bowled up as we were dismantling our kit. Sorry about that...

Among the party-goers was Andy Skank, who is single-handedly turning the Labour Club into quite a happening place. As part of his ongoing campaign to bring Groove to the Government, he offered us a couple of gigs there.

Well, it's finally happened. We've been holding out on the capital for 2 years now. We didn't want to play in some indie dullard basement with sticky carpets and 19 year-old trustafarian shitheads on the bill, but the wait has been worth it.

We are playing at a club night called For Your Pleasure, which takes place at Cargo, 83 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London EC2. It's well central, and is supposed to have one of the best sound systems in the country. Should be a top night.

Wilson Executive Travel

The bus to Cargo is now fully booked. It will leave from The Racehorse, Abington Square NN1 at 6:30 sharp on Thursday 16th. Bus fare £5:00. Gig entrance £5:00 (special rate for bus riders - normal entrance £8:00)

Regular readers might recall that last October, just when the band was starting to get good, we headed out in convoy to Builth Wells in Mid Wales for a gig at one of Fred's legendary parties. It was a memorable evening, but the members of the posse who don't eat meat did have one small problem, what with curried goat being the dish of the day. Your correspondent had a whale of a time on a diet of Liquorice Allsorts, as it goes.

We've got a new intro to our set. With sheep. And rain. Yes, we're on our way to Wales this weekend for a Fred's Farm Special...

Stevie G returned from working in Leicester last week to find that his clueless flatmates had gone and spent about three hundred pounds of Steve's own money on a nice holiday for him. They had cheerfully ignored his suggestions that a trip to Turkey starting on Monday might be just the ticket. Instead, they booked him onto a holiday trip that departed on Saturday morning.

the rest of the gig report..

Gig: Sunday 27th July 2003

At rehearsal last night "Secret Government" returned to the set after a lengthy period away. It's back, but with a definite soupcon of the UK Garage about the instrumentals. We are unable to disclose the source of this development, and rumours of Mr. E. Wilson taking a "nice long walk in the woods" with the security services are - we can assure you - entirely unfounded.

Johnny P. will be in attendance with his astonishing lights. We shall also be featuring Barry Hale of the Don't Look Now Film Collective, who will be showing the very first Russian footage taken in space!

More gigs:

Wilson will be hitting the road again in August 2003 for a weekend of Home International mayhem.

We will be at Weedon Village Hall on Friday 22nd August. Entry by invitation only! If your name's not down, you ain't coming in!

Then we shall return to Builth Wells in Wales for a 6 band extravaganza on Saturday 23rd August. This show will also feature the exellent P-Hex, Wiggy Bot (Northampton's own Stooges tribute riot) and three Welsh bands.

Wilson will be playing at the Green Festival in Abington Park, Northampton on Sunday 7th September 2003 (12:00-6:00pm).

That's it for now.

Wilson have been invited to appear on the next co-op compilation (as they are called) from Heyday Records of California. So Quality People will be the first thing by the band to be released. The album, which also features David J (!) and Marty Wilson-Piper, will be out in a few weeks. More as it comes up, but meanwhile you can take a look at: http://www.heyday.com

Steve wore the wookie suit. And Russ wore the Darth Vader outfit, yes, even the helmet. I couldn't believe how long he managed to keep it on! Bot was Han Solo, re-interpreted as some manner of post-Cobain existentialist interplanetary hooligan outlaw. Mister E. Wilson and Headstone came out dresed in full-on monk outfits, Headstone allegedly "The Emperor".

Star Wars day, apparently...will Steve really dress up as a wookie? Where do you get that kind of gear? Russ suggested renting him a bear suit and throwing him to some dogs. He'd probably end up making the right sort of noises, at least.

update Wilson go E-Bay. While Headstone pursues a match-worn Tottenham shirt bearing the legend 16 - WILSON on the back, Stevie G is seeking a reasonably-priced Wookie suit. Worse, Agent Cooper has found him one. In Canada.

Johnny P has signed up to do the lights for the Racehorse on May 4th., delighting us all. Movies, the lot.

Well, the Nazis got smashed once again, and later (in our own little way) so did we.

Eaglehead went on first and played a blinder. Unfortunately, nobody gave them any idea as to when to stop. They eventually finished with a ferocious cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walking", while Pig Unit and Wilson shuffled around nervously, wondering how the hell they were supposed to squeeze their sets into the sixty minutes that remained before closing time. more...

We never escape. Every time we play Leeds on a Friday we are confronted with the Wankers' Parade, proof positive that a transport system reliant almost entirely upon private cars is already discredited, doomed, dull, dirty, dreary and shat. more...

The Labour Club show went well, with a nice turn-out and a good vibe in the room. We sold all the copies of "Istanbul Connection" that we brought with us. Andy Skank played all the punk rock songs about war that he could think of. How long since you last heard the Stranglers singing "I can drive my very own tank"?

The 2 new tunes worked well and we played 2 encores. Afterwards we had a fine party at Misery's yard.

There have been changes to the bill at the Brudenell Social Club on 11th April. The confirmed line-up is now: Wilson; Sammy USA (hotly tipped, I'm told); the very wonderful D. Millard; Random Number; and The Unpleasants.There will be two stages. Expect Wilson on in the middle of the evening, around 9:00 o'clock, perhaps.

Our CD single, Istanbul Connection b/w Quality People will be available from our gig at the Labour Club on 29th March.

If we were younger people, we might call it a "record release party".

But it's not.

It's a squalid, loud, stinky little sociopaths' hoedown in a hot, cramped, smoky little room on a backstreet in the Murder Mecca of the Midlands ("Triple M" to the in-crowd) on a Saturday night in the middle of an illegal war. It may be a little frightening at times. But, hey! The records are tops and they only cost two of your English Pounds. What do you want from life?

People who can lay convincing claim to having a bar or a club where we can play, or to representing a recording company, can e-mail us via freeshit@wilsondub.com for a free copy.

Istanbul and Quality People are the tunes we have recorded with Donald Ross Skinner. They'll be finished and in the post by the end of the month.

We are finishing off our "proper" recording on 3rd February, so copies should be winging their way around the globe by mid-Feb.

Planning on entering a studio in December with Donald Ross Skinner (of Copey infamy) producing. Looking forward to that, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Visitors' comments for this page

phippsville festival pete_garofalo-at-yahoo.co.uk - pete_garofalo 6Apr2005 11:40 AM (19 years 108 days ago) hi wilson, I'm supposed to oficially confirm that you'll be headlining at this gig but you already know that & so does everyone else but at least wev 've done it in triplicalte; so ad fitinitum see you at the show. pete

what? hazza o wizza - northampton 28Mar2005 6:37 PM (19 years 117 days ago) battle garage?