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Monkey Steals the Drum. News, mp3's

Tribute Gig
Christian Ashcroft 1/9/76 - 21/7/06

31 August 2006
Following the tragic death of Chris, there will be a tribute gig at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool on 31st August 2006. Everyone is welcome.

Love and sadness. Monkey Steals the Drum

WEBSITE EXPLODES. NATION SHOCKED
5 May 2003
Yes, the rumours are true, last week we had a terrible accident. The highly trained chimps that run our website died from exhaustion/lack of food/terrible working conditions. We were shocked. Fortunately we are currently in talks with a Brazilian smuggler who claims he can supply us with a steady flow of fresh chimps within the next few weeks (hopefully avoiding any similar website-down-y tragedys in the future).

Your patience as Adrian (our head chimpanzee rangler) gets things back to normal, is appreciated.

In the meantime, laugh.

RANDOM WORDS
11 June 2002
To give you a taster of things to come on the site. Have a go at the new random words game. Click here

RECKLESS BREAKFAST BALLOON
10 June 2002
Saturday 22nd June @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge

This is the new series of slow movements. Your awareness will increase in sympathy with your determined physical intelligence. Please be prepared to experience physical intelligence.

Any fool can hammer the dents out of a hollow lead wolf; It takes a wise man to construct a lead wolf, it takes a genius to fashion the lead wolf around himself as he works thus allowing him to accomplish the work of the fool more easily.

This is the plan. We ask you all, politely, to imagine a crunching sound that lasts the whole of your life. Whilst that happens we are organising. Little things at first, like rehearsals and van hire, right down to gutsy hard-line choices like Welcome Break or Moto*?

Load up all pipes! The M4 are back on the M6! So come on down to any of the following live dates. There will be music, hair, on-stage re-string delays and literally thousands and thousands of fantastic Spiderman(TM) goodies to give away!**

MORE LIVE DATES HERE SOON

* Formerly Granada Services

** No Spiderman(TM) merchandise will be available

JAPANESE GRAVITY WAVE EXPERIMENTS ARE SMALLER
12 Dec 2001
What would YOU do if your son was at home crying upstairs on the bathroom floor 'cos he's hungry, and the only way to feed him was to sleep with a man for a little bit of money? First things first things first. No doubt whatsoever about the controversial health benefits of a moderate crack romance; boosted self esteem, a heightened roboticism towards the right honourable members of the opposition, fashionably slapstick motorskill phenomenon.

Apologies to passengers for the delay and the total lack of any correspondence since June. Casual clothing has been enforced to induce mock hypocrisy amongst the well pressed and henceforth regular updates, which have long stood as the flag-ship of our teetering institution, will be re-imposed.

Will Smith once said, 'S'up Unca Phil?' Time may distance us from the zeitgeist of these words, but their timeless wisdom echoes on: What is happening Uncle Phil?

Put in brackets (much in rehearsal room twiddling and very little in on-stage wiggling). We plan to be releasing a full LP early next year.

RoadKill fanzine will be running an interview with our good selves next issue. Email captainbadger@nme.com for further details :)

Circuit magazine will be available quarterly from all good record shops. Some of the bad ones may have it also.

Best wishes for the approaching Christmas. Keep an eye on the 'artists to ignore hit-list' sponsored by Gap.

Mount Rushmore don't push for the ultimate prize. A leafy suburbian Cuba ain't wise.

THE HEAT IS......ON!
29th June 2001
Pests of every glistening hue flood the scented, crimson air of another summer evening and irritate the garden alcoholic. The rivers of vanilla ice-cream attract wasps like an insectile strip-club on coupon day and another haphazard generation is blinded by our nearest star. Nature is doing it's damned best to remind you how much being at work sucks.
Ten for a pound yer lighters!

We managed to finally make it down to Norwich to play at The Ferryboat this month and what an excellent night it was. The Wombat Wombat Collective made us feel truly welcome and so did the beer and wine they gave us. The support acts were top notch too.
Big up to The Charlie Horse.

Oxford was equally as friendly where we supported the oblivion psychedelia of NOUGHT. Free booze and backstage schmooze all added to make a very buoyant R'n'R soufflé. Fantastique!

Aside from much needed camping we shall also be undertaking some much needed recording. New tunes and new recordings in the pipeline.

Join the Mailing list to have the latest news e-mailed straight to you.

That's all for now. May your joy never cease...Let the good times roll..etc..

THE WIND'S STICKIN' TO ME FACE MAN!!
21st May 2001
Where Archimedes had his bathtub and Newton his apple, so, according to the usual suspect legend, Galileo had a church lamp, swaying back and forth, time and again, on and on, sending its message monotonously into his consciousness...

We have a brand new barbecue. And with glorious weather we come together to cook...some...meat.

Thanks to everyone who came down to the Masque on Monday 7th to support the People Not Profit collective. Apologies for the short notice of the gig, it was short notice for us also. Overall, it was one in the eye for the despicable capitalist machine with a particularly passionate display of defiance from 'Mugstar' which ended in a classic bout of R'n'R guitar destruction. Castro bambasto!

We have a small but rebellious uprising of gigs currently tunnelling their way to you, including The Lomax on Wed 13th June, for those of you who are local, that's with Shifty Disco's Nought from Oxford and local band Flamingo 50.
Tickets are available online at Oxfordmusic.net We also have a new live review from Oxford based Music Magazine Nightshift, you can read it all on-line here: http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE THEY GOT IN THERE, KING KONG?"
17th April 2001
Happy Easter everybody. We finally have all our stuff replaced and we are now ready to take the stage again. Our first show will be at The Cellar in Oxford on Tuesday 17th April. Not much rehearsing has been done, but we're hoping our hunger for noise will force a powerful show.

We have been working with our friends Birdman recently, helping to record their demo, expect them to be playing with us in the not-too-distant future.

We have put some pretty pictures up in 'Goat Delights' for y'all to flick through so check them out if you like.

That's about all for now really. Oh, if anybody knows of a good van for sale, let us know!


BUY INJURED BIRDS ONLINE


THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US, MAKES US LOUDER
24h March 2001
I know we promised a deluge of updates and written material since our van disappeared, but we've been so busy! Busy driving to Milton Keynes to buy amplifiers and playing bass rigs in music shops so loud that we get kicked out! Boy, not being in a band for a while is just like being in a band. We have almost replaced all of our equipment within not very much time at all. Special thanks must go to Andy at 'adc Drums' in Liverpool.

You will notice that the 'Old Gigs' section on the website has been replaced with 'Words and Pictures' which contains photo's, reviews and links to other bands websites and folk we've met along the way.

Also, check out our groovy new links page, which you can access from the 'Goat Delights' menu.

Thanks to all of you who sent us e.mail in the last couple of weeks. They were the spoonful of sugar that helped the rather unpleasant medicine go down.

TRANSIT BANDITS, HALF-INCH OUR BAND BITS
5th March 2001
A misfortune of unimaginable proportion befell us in London during the early hours of Saturday morning. Our beautiful ex-morgue cruise beast was unceremoniously hot-wired into the dawn, along with all of our precious noise tools. Our drums and amps are probably being hustled for crack hats down The Swan and Bat as you read.

We will, regretfully be unable to fulfill any of our posted Upcoming live engagements. We can't even rehearse :(

During the slow process of chasing up insurance and generally scrabbling after money like some greed riddled city coke-boys, we will channel our creative energies into the website and beyond. Please feel free to email us during this period with your comments and contributions.

Expect frequent updates documenting our phoenix like rise from the ashes. This kind of thing should only happen to Nicky Wire. Yeah...just him, over and over...

IN SQUINTING GRATITUDE WE SALUTE YOUR BLAZING MAJESTY!
27th February 2001
...And with the nourishment of your endless mercy, this arid and unforgiving land shall bring forth a multi-screen cinema and waterslide park. Maybe even a B&Q.

There were endless stretches of M6, terrifying cabaret acts, indigestible service-station fudge, sleazy live sex shows, gut busting all-you-can-eat carvery meals, hand shakes with Satan, influenza-distorted slices of Saturday night TV and crates and crates and crates of lager.

Now for the other half of the tour...beginning on
March 12th at The Fleece & Firkin, Bristol
and finishing on
March 19th at The Moles Club, Bath

Thank you to everybody who snapped up a copy of ' Injured Birds' and pushed us up to number 7 in the indie charts. We have been informed by the cats at Shifty Disco that the limited run of 1000 copies has sold out from their distribution company (Pinnacle). Copies may still be available online, or from shops who are 'down with it' and ordered plenty, before they realised that limited run, meant limited run.

To get hold of a copy of Emancipation fanzine (stocks are limited) which contains an interview with us, some Slak Fox action and plenty more besides. Please e.mail us with your name and postal address, and we'll get one out to you.

INJURED BIRDS RELEASED INTO THE WILD:
MONDAY 29TH OF JANUARY

26th January 2001
We are now firmly up to our ankles in the year 2001. No manned missions to Jupiter as yet, but soon, the worlds most powerful Texan will unveil an orbiting antinuclear defence system that will turn our beloved home planet into a suicidal version of the Death Star. I feel safer already.

To celebrate this great leap sideways in the evolution of mankind, we have unfurled a mammoth 16 date (and counting!) tour, kicking off on Monday 29th January at The Lomax, Liverpool. Supporting us on our home turf will be America's one and only 'Jack Drag,' fresh from their adventures in Europe, as well as experimental guitar architects 'Birdman'.

This show also coincides with the release of our second single 'Injured Birds' under Oxford based label 'Shifty Disco.' The first 20 people through the doors at this particular show will receive a free 'Shifty Disco' promo CD, and will get straight to the bar with minimum hassle.

Copies of Emancipation Fanzine, containing the first ever 'Monkey Steals The Drum' interview (and much more besides) will be available from us at the approaching live shows for an irresistible 50 pence. Or send £1 to Ruth at Emancipation

Well, that's all for now, keep watching the skies...see you on the road.

2001. BEGINS WITH MONKEYS. ENDS WITH PSYCHEDELIC LIGHT SHOW.
26th December 2000
Merry Christmas everybody!

The Christmas holidays draw December to a close as far as live shows are concerned. We only played three gigs this month, one being a private gig solely for the benefit of one Sarah Lee, cousin to our guitar player, Phil Lee. The other two being at 'The Blues Tavern 2' in Sleaford, Hampshire and 'The Back Yard Club' in London. The Tavern gig is worth mentioning if only for the 'hair incident' involving Adrian's wayward dreadlocks becoming entangled with Chris' guitar tuning pegs during 'My Chinese Burns'. Very Spinal Tap.

Coming up early next year is the release of our 2nd Single!!
'Injured Birds' will be released through Shifty Disco on the
29th January 2001.

This CD is part of the Shifty Disco Singles Club and will feature Galileo as the B-side.

To accompany this release we will be touring throughout the UK.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if you weren't showered with gifts. Check the website for a big Christmas slice of 'Slak Fox' - and something altogether new... 'Goat Delights', a unique Internet experience. There is no effective way to explain it...just enjoy the forbidden pleasure!

That's it for 2000. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm, all of your letters and e-mail's (we'll keep trying to answer them all) and for generally making it a fantastic year for us. Have an excellent Christmas and we'll see you out there in a crazier, louder and downright better 2001
:oD

SINGLE OUT NOW!
Buy it Online From Action Records


For older monkey related affairs click here are read the old news archive.

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Website created and designed by John Walker.
Website maintained by Adrian Cunliffe. Address all website related questions to him.

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John Walker and Adrian Cunliffe unless otherwise stated.
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