James D Clarke

Monday night was a blast from the past. My friend and former Dum Dums frontman Josh Doyle played in Birmingham on his first UK tour since the Dum Dums split up and he moved to the USA in 2003.

From 1997-2001 I ate, slept, walked, and talked Dum Dums, going along for the ride of a lifetime with Josh, my cousin Steve, and Stu. In 2000-2001 they went from being an unknowns to having top 20 singles, a top 20 album, appearing on almost every TV show in the UK, touring the world with the likes of Bon Jovi and Robbie Williams, and playing numerous festivals, culminating in a sell out show at the legendary Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. It was an amazing time for everyone involved, and we all had a ball before we were really old enough to appreciate what was going. As with all good things, it had to come to an end, and in mid 2001 during the writing of what would have been their 2nd album the band imploded, taking their final bow before a huge crowd at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. Relationships were strained after the break-up and I only saw Josh once very briefly before he sold everything he owned and moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his wife in 2003.

Having kept in sporadic contact via email over the last 7 years, I was pretty excited when I got an email from Josh a few weeks ago saying that he was planning on returning to the UK to preview his new solo material, particularly as he was coming to Birmingham. It was a long time since the Dum Dums had split up but I was secretly hoping that Josh, Steve, and Stu would be able to put their old differences aside and enjoy the occasion. Luckily, everything turned out brilliantly!

Josh approached Steve and Stu in advance and asked them if they'd be interested in doing a couple of Dum Dums numbers at the encore of his Birmingham show...and they were both game And so, the worse kept secret in the history of the band was born...

At the gig Josh played a great set with his makeshift band of UK-based friends, including my good friend Rich Johnstone who put in a sterling effort on bass guitar (nice one Rich!). The set stretched Josh's career and included Dum Dums tracks, as well as song from his EPs 'The End Of Fear' and the new 'Values and Virtues', and before long, Steve and Stu joined him on stage much to the 'surprise' of everyone in the audience.

Having not played together since 2001 they were understandably a little rusty, but in true Dum Dums fashion bashed through 'Photographs', 'Robot Boy' and debut single 'Everything' (which they'd run through once in soundcheck), before Josh decided it was a good idea to attempt 'Lonely Hearts Company' and 'Can't Get You Out Of My Thoughts', completely unrehearsed. Strings were broken, capos were dropped, songs were re-started, jokes were made, and everyone had a great time! It was rough around the edges, and just like the old days when no one knew what might happen next, but they pulled it off and everyone finished with smiles on their faces. It was great to see so many familiar faces at the gig - a real testament to the band's influence.

After the show we headed back to Rich's house and talked into the early hours. It was a really special night, and it was great to see Josh, Steve, and Stu joking around as if they'd only seen each other yesterday.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Dear Steve...

Today you turned 30 and are no doubt recovering from last night's shenanigans, like the rest of us. As you now know a bunch of us have chipped in to buy you a shiny new Powerbook to replace your ageing PC, but I also wanted to do something else for your birthday and have decided to make a 'Songs of Steve' mix CD full of songs that remind me of you, and some of the good times we've shared. I've not got as far as making the CD itself yet, but here are the stories behind the songs that remind me of you...

Pearl Jam - Alive

Pearl Jam are a band Steve and I have both loved for a long time. Big time. We discovered Grunge together in the early 90's despite the fact that Steve was living in Amsterdam, Holland and I was in sleepy old Aldridge, England. Every few months the postman would deliver a jiffy bag stuffed full of cassette tapes, albums by the latest Grunge sensations, fresh from Amsterdam! Bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, Screaming Trees, Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, Stone Temple Pilots, and so on arrived through my letterbox and I lapped them up.

Every summer Steve's family came back to England for a few weeks and we'd spend hours listening to the cassettes and catching up on what each other were listening to, something we still do to this day. Pearl Jam are one of the few remaining bands of this era, so 'Alive' with it's "I'm still Alive" lyric is pretty apt.

Bon Jovi - Keep The Faith I have a very vivid memory of a story concerning Steve and Bon Jovi - and not the obvious one. It was an important moment in my life as a music lover. At the tender age of 11 years old I travelled to Amsterdam without my parents to visit Steve and his family. On one of our many trips into the city we ended up in a record shop, where I made an important decision. I had enough spending money left to either buy 'Keep The Faith' on cassette single, or lunch at McDonalds. I chose Bon Jovi, and have never looked back - music over food!

Faith No More - Caffeine

FNM are one of Steve's favourite bands. I can remember him re-telling so many stories he'd heard about them, most of which were pretty outrageous, and therefore very appealing to teenage boys. There was also Steve's own story of the first gig he ever went to - to see Faith No More at a football stadium in Rotterdam. Being a rather naive gig goer he made his way to the front of the crowd during the support act, somewhat surprised at how easy it was to get to the front. Before long FNM took to the stage and opened with 'Caffeine' - the next thing Steve knew he was picking himself up off the floor at the end of the song, covered in ice cream, at the opposite side of the stage from where he'd started.

Feeder - Tangerine

A couple of years after coming back to the UK from Amsterdam Steve was on the move again, this time to Nottingham with his band the Boot Brothers. Having already been to Amsterdam alone aged 11, geting the train to Nottingham at 14 was a piece of cake. I made several trips there during which Steve and I went to Nottingham's Rock City to see bands such as Terrorvision, Ugly Kid Joe, and Feeder - who became a favourite of ours for the next few years.

We saw Feeder several of times, and on one occasion came up with the brilliant idea of sneaking tangerines into the gig so that when the band played their song of the same name, we could throw the tangerines on stage (Geniuses!). The only flaw in our plan, having smuggled the oranges into the venue in our boxer shorts was that whilst we were in the mosh pit trading blows with fellow concert goers, the tangerines in our pockets were getting pulverised.

Six songs into the set Feeder abandoned the gig as their singer had the flu and was losing his voice. In a move of desperation we scooped what was left of the tangerine pulp from our trousers and hurled the contents at the stage. The fifteen fans that had turned up at the gig were looked on amused, and the band who were leaving the stage at this point looked rather bemused and left the stage grinning. They hadn't even got around to playing 'Tangerine'! Steve and I left the venue grinning like loons, with wet stains down the front of our trousers, smelling of oranges.

Jellyfish - Joining A Fanclub One of the many band's Steve has been a part was 'Cheapskate'. This band consisted of Steve, Mike and Jimmy Mac. I remember one memorable gig when whilst playing at a Church in Derby the only goth in the youth fellowship group stood up at the end of their performance and set about tearing strips off the congregation for not showing their appreciation for the band. 'Joining A Fanclub' was a Cheapskate regular and the first Jellyfish song I ever heard, thanks Steve.

Carrie - Molly

In 1998 Steve and the Dum Dums were on the verge of signing a record deal. Confidence was high. One cold winter night we were headed to The Varsity in Wolverhampton in Steve's blue Metro to see Carrie play. En route we were pulled over by the police. At the time it seemed that wherever we went in the Metro we got pulled over. (Possibly something to do with that bloody blonde stripe in Steve's hair?).

After the usual questions the Policewoman asked Steve what he did for a job - he explained that he was a musician, in a band etc. The Policewoman then asked "Are you any good?" and Steve being Steve replied "Yeah, we are!", "Sing me something then..." she said, so Steve & Stu began singing their song 'Can't Get You Out Of My Thoughts' on the road side. Once they were done, the Policewoman offered to get them a gig at the local Police station - they politely declined and we continued our journey to see Carrie, who were great.

The Lemonheads - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You Before Steve moved to London to pursue his Dum Dums career he very kindly helped me and my friend Gav out and played bass in our band 'Carousel'. Steve took us under his wing and gave us the benefit of his musical experience, giving us songwriting and performance tips, almost like a 'musical director' - something I've since seen him do numerous times with other bands. Along with a handful of original songs 'If I Could Talk I'd Tell You' by The Lemonheads was one of the songs we played and we clocked up a fair few gigs The Vaults in Walsall, along with the odd gig at The Wharf. Every time I hear this song it reminds me of the three of us rehearsing and playing gigs together - good times!

Ben Folds Five - Steven's Last Night In Town The week before he moved to London, Steve, Mike, Dicko, and I were all at The Vaults in Walsall where we spent almost every Thursday and Sunday night. Mike ran a live music night where a lot of our friends hung out, this meant we were able to play whatever songs we liked on the PA in between bands. As a tribute to Steve and the fact that he was leaving Walsall for the bright lights of London town (possibly to never return!) I played 'Steven's Last Night In Town' over the PA, cranking the volume up. Being a jazzy number it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the mix of Ad Heath-approved Chilli Peppers and Hendrix, but then Steve never was one for blending into the background.

Lit - My Own Worst Enemy It was the summer of 1999, Steve and the Dum Dums had just signed their record deal and completed their first tour supporting Nik Kershaw. I was heading down to London to visit Steve when I got wind that Lit were playing at The Garage in Islington. We'd discovered Lit via the video for their song 'My Own Worst Enemy' on the The Box music channel and at that time they were the embodiment of the kind of music we were into - super-catchy pop melodies, loads of harmonies, and Elvis Costello-esque vocals, pounding bass and drums, and crunching guitar riffs - power pop at it's finest!

We booked tickets and after meeting up with a couple of friends headed to Islington on the tube. It was a swelteringly hot summer's night and The Garage was rammed. Lit took to the stage to heroes welcome, despite it being their first ever UK show, and they were great. The highlight of the set was of course their soon-to-be hit single 'My Own Worst Enemy' during which we moshed our socks off. We left the gig drenched in sweat, hoping that one day the Dum Dums might get a reaction like that. Within 6 months they'd sold the same venue out!

These are just a few of the songs that remind me of times I've spent with Steve, here's to another 30 years of them!

We went on a little trip to London last weekend to do some of the touristy stuff we never get around to when visiting for gigs. I'll post more photos soon, but for now check out Steph, The Blonde Kid and the in-laws surveying the Dome from East India Docks in Canary Wharf. UPDATE: More photos can be seen here.

The Blonde Kid will have his revenge. from James D Clarke on Vimeo. Check out the teaser trailer - full movie COMING SOON!

Tomorrow we head off to Hesfes 2008 for the week. We went to Hesfest last year and had a great time, for a while it looked like we weren't going to be able to go this year, but lady luck was on our side and Steph got a new job which meant she could book the time off, and we could all go!

Hesfes is great family orientated event, short for the 'Home Educators Seaside Festival' it involves hundreds of Home Educators camping on a huge campsite, with lots of workshops and activities, along with live music and seminars on all aspects of home ed. As someone who was home educated along with both of my brothers (the younger of whom is also coming), it's a great oppurunity to catch up with some like-minded people, many of whom have a similar outlook on life. Our clans constsits of my parents, my younger brother Al, Steph, The Blonde Kid, and Me - there'll also be lots of other people we know on site.

Despite going to school The Blonde Kid had a brilliant time last year and made lots of friends, so much so that he was already talking about coming this year during the car journey home! We also came to an arrangement with the new school he started at last September that they will mark him as 'educated off site' (as opposed to an 'unauthorised absence') when we chose to take him out of school during term time for Home Ed events, which is great.

Steph and I will be blogging in varous forms whilst we're away (after all geeks take their techology on holiday with them!), so should you want to, you can track our activities below...

- See out photos on the joint Hesfes Moblog here (includes some of last year's photos).

- Follow our Twitter updates tagged '#hesfes08' here.

Check back for updates and 1000s of photos from Steph on our return!

(If you're twittering from Hesfes, follow the user @hashtags and include #hesfes08 in your tweets and they'll appear here.)

#hesfes08

The Blonde Kid: "There's only four things I want...although they are quite expensive" Me: "What are they then?" 1. "A Ben 10 decorated bedroom" 2. "An M3P player or an iPod to listen to my music on" (I think he means MP3 player!) 3. "Virgin Media/Sky (Cable TV) in my bedroom" 4. "A Laptop computer to play Club Penguin on" Not much of an ask then? Suppose we'd better get saving...son of a geek you say?

I've upgraded my blog to Wordpress version 2.5, so I thought I'd test the built in gallery function with a few photos from a recent stag do my brothers and I went on... [gallery]

About a month ago we had the big party to celebrate my youngest brother Alex's 18th Birthday. We hired a venue, invited 100+ people and put on a great night of music, food and drink. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun, all of my close friends and family were there, and it was the best 18th Birthday party I've ever attended!For one night only the band 'Manimal' was born - this consisted of myself, my brothers (Stat and Al), our cousin Steve, long suffering front-man The Dicko, and as previously mentioned a special guest appearance by my Dad aka 'Fishman'. We played a 15 song set which included a couple of original tunes from our regular band 'Scrat' and a bunch of party-friendly covers. Check out the video above of us performing Bryan Adam's 'Summer of '69', which ironically was the year my Dad left school...more video can be found on my YouTube Channel here.

'The Middle Of Yesterday' is no more, I'm now blogging under a new domain name; 'www.jamesdclarke.com'. I've decided to switch my blog over to a new domain name - my own name! I've done this for a couple of reasons, firstly because it's becoming harder and harder to get your hands on good dot com domain name, and secondly in an attempt to build my online profile/brand - something that is becoming more and more important these days (or so I am told), especially when using the internet to make a living as I do. There's a lot of James Clarkes with an 'E' out there - so I decided the time was right to bag my name whilst I still could. Hopefully my Mom will be pleased about the 'D' for Douglas as I was rather ashamed of my middle name as a kid. I remember vividly the only time I got a proper slap around the face from her - I was 10 or 11 years old and we were in the car on the way home from my birthday party at McDonald's (I was too young to know any better then), my two best mates were in the car and grilling me about my middle name. I was tight lipped, however my Mother (ever the protagonist) told them both, to which I quickly yelled "you bitch!" and SLAP, there it was! So, I apologise for calling you a bitch Mom, but you shouldn't have wound me up. I hope you like my new domain name!

My 'little' brother turns 18 at the end of the month and we've decided to put on a big party to celebrate. The plan is to hire a venue for late February (so Al is over 18 and can drink legally!) and put on a mixture of live music and food, along with some drinks and some DJ spun tunes. As part of the live music four fifths of my band 'Scrat' will be performing. Myself, both my brothers (Stat & Al), Dicko and Steve will be making up the numbers, however there's a slight line up change (and a name change) whilst Dave sits it out and prepares for his wedding and we're going to be joined by a very special guest.....my Dad! Now, Fishman (as we affectionately call him) has a history steeped in rock 'n' roll. He played in several bands when he was in his 20's back in 1970 something, including the infamous 'Mantis' who were once paid by a promoter not to perform the second half of their set during a gig at a bingo hall! In fact, Dad confessed last night that Status Quo were 'in his psyche' - so he's definitely the right man for the job! Last night was our first rehearsal and I haven't had so much fun for a long time. Not only was I playing music with both of my younger brothers, but my Dad was playing too! It was awesome! We decided to start off with a few covers and threw in some golden oldies that Fishman would know in the form of 'Teenage Kicks' (Undertones) , 'Rockin' All Over The World' (Status Quo), and 'Summer Of '69' (Bryan Adams) - which we were informed (somewhat ironically) by Dad was the year that he left school - perfect! To our collective surprise Dad picked things up really quickly considering he'd not played guitar for 20 + years (did I mention he was playing his custom built 70's Fender Tele copy, fresh from the loft?!) and before long we were rocking! He even began to let rip with some Clapton-esque riffage over the end of 'Summer Of '69' and at one point had us all in tears after attempting a Pete Townshend style jump mid-song, which ended up with Dicko burst into laughter! So that was our first rehearsal, it couldn't have gone any better. I really can't wait for Dad to get back from his week long holiday so that we can get back to rehearsing for the gig...this is going to be brilliant!