RIOT ACT AND KAINE TOUR – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

28 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment
Tour Trailer

How did this tour come about? Well, I was contacted by Giles Lavery (GLM-Artists (Artist Management)/Global Rock Records) not long before our tour with Chirs Holmes earlier this year and asked if we would be interested in putting on some dates with Riot Act, ahead of their visit to British Steel Festival in France in October, where they would be playing the classic Riot album Fire Down Under in full. We met Riot Act last year when we both supported Lillian Axe on their UK tour last year, and they were both brilliant guys and a fantastic live band Fire Down Under is a favourite album of mine, so it was a no-brainer for me!

So, what was the logic behind the venue choices? We are an East Anglian band, and our network of venues and audience is based in and around these areas. These are all venues I know and trust, and venues I knew we could sell tickets at. The worst thing for a band coming from abroad is to come to the UK and play to small crowds in venues that aren’t suitable. If we travelled further afield to say the midlands, northeast, and northwest there would be a greater risk of lower attendance due to our draw being a lot lower in those places, and lacking the network and contacts in those areas to promote those shows well. If we had gone to Scotland and Wales, there would have been similar issues. We also had to keep travel costs down, travel times reasonable, and enable an easy trip to France for Riot Act. We’ve played it safe, and so far the decision has proven to be the right one, despite a few cheap digs at us online from other promoters!

So, for those who do not know, who are Riot Act and why do you need to see them live?

Riot Act was formed by former Riot members Rick Ventura and Lou Kouvaris alongside vocalist Don Chaffin, born in Long Island New York, Don has toured the U.S.A. opening for Godsmack, Foreigner, Disturbed, Alice in Chains, Powerman 5000, Dr. John, Steve Howe of Yes, Robbie Krieger of The Doors, Vanilla Fudge and more. Don is the Lead Vocalist for the new band RED LAMB which features Dan Spitz (Anthrax ) and is co-produced by Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) Don is also the Lead Vocalist for Voices of Extreme (formally co-managed by Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden). Since 1995, Don has worked hand in hand as co-writer and co-producer with the legendary team of Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz from the Kasenetz and Katz Allstars. Don is currently the new Lead Vocalist for the project featuring RAM JAM. In addition, Don has performed countless appearances with projects such as O2 / LUB / John Macaluso Union Radio / Empyreon / and many more. Expanding his palette of well-known music Icons, Don has also worked with Jim Bralower and Ace Frehley of Kiss.

On bass is Paul Ranieri, born in Flushing NY has been playing professionally since he was 18 Known for his slapping technique and melodic style on Bass, his musicality has propelled him to the forefront with professional bass players across the country and internationally. He has played and recorded with dozens of artists, recently Mondo Electro, Stratopheerius, and Emmy Award-winning Electric Violinist Mark Wood and is also a Band leader, Clinician, Teacher, and Music Director . On drums is Claudio Galinski was part of the Argentinian Heavy Metal scene in the 80’s with his Thrash Metal Band ULTRAJE, sharing stages with such bands as Hermetica, Horcas, Lethal and Others. He moved to New York City in the 90s and immediately started playing with bands from the area, local gigs, studio work, and touring for several years. Claudio teamed up and joined forces with RIOT ACT to bring a solid heartbeat back to the life of classic songs with a new and fresh exciting approach. He endorses and plays instruments from such companies as Istambul Mehmet Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, ProMark Drumsticks, Gretsch Drums, Axis Pedals and Hardware, Phoenix Drum Co. snares, Gig Gloves, Shure in ears and mics. Claudio attends and performs yearly at the NAMM Show in Anaheim CA. Lou Kouvaris sadly passed away in 2020.

Rick Ventura was born in Brooklyn, NY. Along with Mark Reale, he comprised the guitar-driven, high-energy sound of Riot. Rick picked up the guitar at 16 listening to bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. His first guitar was a Univox Mosrite copy which he eventually smashed. “He then got his first real guitar, a white Fender Stratocaster after seeing clips of Jimi Hendrix. He went on to play and contribute songs on four studio albums and two live albums including the legendary Fire Down Under, touring the world with the likes of AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Rush, and so on. His guitar of choice is a vintage Les Paul which he calls “a mystery guitar” along with Telecasters and Stratocasters. Rick Ventura was a member of the classic Riot line-up that recorded the legendary albums Narita (1979), Fire Down Under (1981), Restless Breed (1982), and Born In America (1983). He also appeared on the Riot Live (1989) live album. Fire Down Under is considered the ultimate Riot album, having made the Billboard 200 on its original release.

Riot Act released their debut double album Closer to the Flame (Global Rock Records) in 2022 which features both original material and re-recordings of Riot classics.

As you will have read, this is a band of some pedigree and this will be a rare opportunity for classic Rock/Metal fans to see Rick perform the FIRE DOWN UNDER album in full, as well as all the other legendary Riot tunes from the 1980s. Having toured with them last year, I can confirm that they are an amazing live band, performing both their songs and those Rick did with Riot. To have these guys come from New York to these intimate, local venues is a real honour and I look forward to sharing the stage with them each night.

We’ve deliberately picked venues and areas which are easily reachable for the majority of people who regularly support our gigs, and priced the tickets at just £8 to make the events as affordable as possible. I have booked the venues, paid for the hire, promotion, and will be managing the tour overall to the best of my ability. This is something new for me, and I have had to use my experience from what I have organised with Kaine over the years to ensure it works as best as it can, as I said it is a privilege for someone like myself to have this opportunity and I am looking forward to kicking things off in Ipswich on Saturday!

You can still buy advanced e-tickets for the following dates/venues:

YET MORE TOUR PROMOTION WORK AHEAD OF REHEARSALS TODAY – TOUR BEGINS NEXT WEEK!!

24 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment

We’re heading up to Cambridge with Rachel W. Photography again today to take some more promotional pictures to help promote the tour. We have already taken photos in Ipswich, Norwich, and Colchester (previously).

Our tour with Riot Act kicks off next week. There are still tickets available and we hope you are able to attend one of the following dates:

After the pictures are taken it is straight to Colchester for rehearsals, and this will be our last session ahead of the tour itself.

TOUR KICKS OFF IN 2 WEEKS! TOUR REHEARSALS AT UNIT ONE TODAY

17 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment

Our tour with Riot Act kicks off in just two weeks time. Riot Act will be heading over to England for a short run of dates ahead of their festival appearance at British Steel in France. They will be playing the entirety of Riot’s Fire Down Under album. You can still grab tickets for the tour from here.

We will be ensuring we are in the best playing shape possible and working hard at Unit One Studios today on our tour set. We took a break from rehearsals last week to take the above photographs with Rachel W Photography. These were taken to help further promote the tour dates.

PHOTO SHOOT TODAY FOR FINAL TOUR PROMO

10 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment

Today we’ll be visiting locations for the tour to take promotional pictures with Rachel W Photography. This is part of our final push to promote our forthcoming shows with Riot Act, coming from New York. We hope the more localised imagery will encourage more Rock and Metal fans in those areas to back the tour by buying tickets. We are absolutely determined to make this a success and are working hard to sell out every show.

You can grab tour tickets from here: https://www.firedownundertour.co.uk/

REFORGED IN EXTINCTION LIVE ALBUM MIXED – CD AND VIDEO TO BE RELEASED SOON

10 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment

This week we have finally finished mixing the Reforged in Extinction live album with Talon Payne at Gallow Wood Media. The CD release will be ready soon, along with a Patreon exclusive video of the event. The album was recorded at the band’s five-year anniversary celebration of the current lineup of Rage Sadler, Liam Etheridge, Toby Woods, and Isaac Healy coming together in May 2018. The album contains a selection of songs from both Reforge The Steel and After Extinction, as well as one track from the Extinction After EP. This was recorded at Three Wise Monkeys, Colchester, earlier this year. You can pre-order the new live album here.

BACK TO REHEARSAL TODAY – FIRE DOWN UNDER TOUR STARTS THIS MONTH!

3 Sep 2023 — Leave a comment

After yesterday’s Mearfest appearance at The Queens Hall, Nuneaton, we are back to rehearsal today. The focus today will be preparation for the forthcoming tour with Riot Act. Riot Act will be playing the entirety of the legendary Riot album Fire Down Under on this tour, and we’re really looking forward to hitting the road with them later this month. We are aiming to be in top playing condition for these shows!

Mearfest went well for us also, many thanks to Stevo for jumping on and filling in for Isaac yesterday. We think we got away with it! This was Stevo’s first appearance with the band for 5 years, and he had never played any of these songs live with us before, so we are thankful for his efforts to learn the music and help us out with this one.

PATREON UPDATE – LOSS OF 41 SUPPORTERS IN RECENT WEEKS

30 Aug 2023 — Leave a comment

All t-shirts and CDs for the 2022 pack have now been sent out. The patches have been printed and will be sent our ASAP. Once these have been sent out, we’ll announce our 2023 package. This will be a new shirt design, new patch, and new CD release.

Band backers will also receive two additional shirts, the Second Coming shirt, and the Extinction England shirts. If Band backers have already ordered these shirts, we will offer a selection of made to order designs for you to select from instead. You can join the band backer tier here. Band Backers will also received the new live album for free, or if they have already ordered an equivalent release they do not own.

We have lost 41 Patreon’s in recent weeks, which is an equivalent of £1,476 a year (lowest tier) income for the band. We understand that packs have been slow getting out, but we had two unexpected tours this year (which Patreon helped fund), and it takes a while for us to get designs made, shirts printed, and music recorded and mixed. If you have cancelled your membership, we ask you to reconsider and re-join us by clicking here.

Every penny goes back into the band and helps us continue, we have no label support, no management and we are entirely self-funded. Rehearsals alone cost £36 (plus fuel) a week, gigs are largely petrol money only and we rely purely on merch sales to continue to afford to play live.

Our bottom tier costs just £3 a month.

FINAL MEARFEST REHEARSALS TODAY AT UNIT ONE

28 Aug 2023 — Leave a comment
Last weeks sessions at Unit One

We will be having a bumper rehearsal session today at Unit One Studios ahead of Mearfest next week. Isaac Healy is now unable to do the show because of work commitments, so former bassist Stephen Ellis will be stepping in for the show and has been learning the band’s new set this week. Mearfest is the first Kaine gig since our return from the Chris Holmes Mean Man Tour in June.

The new Extinction England shirts will also be available to purchase at Mearfest. These will be £20 on the day, or if ordered in advance from Bandcamp just £15 from here.

STEPHEN ELLIS TO PLAY MEARFEST FLAME

23 Aug 2023 — Leave a comment

Former Kaine bassist Stephen Ellis will make a return to the band for the forthcoming Mearfest performance in Nuneaton at the Queen’s Hall.

Current bassist Isaac Healy is now unable to make the show due to work commitments. Stevo was originally pencilled in to play guitar for Kaine at this event, as it was expected that Rage Sadler would be going undergoing surgery for calcific tendonitis and chronic bursitis in his shoulder in July, this would have meant Rage would not be able to play guitar at Mearfest Flame.

This surgery has been pushed back meaning Stevo was stood down from covering on guitar, however, this has fortunately made it possible for him to step in for Isaac on bass instead. This will be Stevo’s first performance with Kaine in 4 years, the last being the tenth-anniversary show in 2019, where the A Crisis of Faith line-up performed together for the very last time. Stevo’s run with the band was between 2015-2018, and he appears on the A Crisis of Faith album. He has also performed in other acts such as Drop-Dead Fred and Mercury Rising.

The line-up of Rage, Liam, Toby, and Stevo has performed together once before, back in May 2018 at The Smokehouse Ipswich, alongside Scream Serenity and Vice, this was during a transitional period when Isaac was still learning the set with the band.  

Stevo is learning the bands current set, and the group will be rehearsing together at Unit One, this forthcoming Bank Holiday Monday.

You can grab tickets here: https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/mearfest-flame-queens-hall-tickets/13083075?REFERRAL_ID

KAINE GEARS UP FOR MEARFEST FLAME 2023

20 Aug 2023 — Leave a comment
Our last studio sessions^

We will be preparing for Mearfest today, which takes place on the 2nd of September. This will be our first gig since the Chris Holmes tour, so we’re excited about getting out there and playing again.

Mearfest has always been a very special occasion for this band, in fact, the “Crisis” era of the band played Mearfest twice back in the day, the first time at the Borderline in London and the second at the Carlisle in Hastings. This will be the 14th Mearfest show held in total. This year is Mearfest Flame, at the Queen’s Hall in Nuneaton. This is of particular significance to me as to be frank, I wasn’t even supposed to be playing guitar at this event. I have a case of chronic bursitis and calcific tendonitis, something I have fought with for close to a decade now which now requires surgery. I was due to be operated on in July however this has now been delayed until later this year (hopefully). I am now available to play the event (and subsequent tour) whereas we had drafted in an ex-member to cover for me for this show, who has now been stood down.

Mearfest Flame not only features us, but bands you may know, another East Anglian band called Hedra who are based out of Norwich, you have another band from the new era called Chemikill, General Jack who are new to us, NWOBHM legends in Quartz, Troyen, and Desolation Angels as well as Stormchild who were originally formed in 1979. The Queens Hall is a fantastic venue, we played there twice back in the day in 2011 and 2013, as well as playing the second stage there (the Crew) more recently with Kev Riddles Baphomet in 2022. This will be our only show before the Fire Down Under Tour with Riot Act, and our last midlands show for 2023, so we hope to see you there.

You can still grab tickets from: https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/mearfest-flame-queens-hall-tickets/13083075?REFERRAL_ID

I hope to see as many of you at the show as possible. Today is our first rehearsal in a few weeks as Liam buggered off to Bloodstock! I am looking forward to getting back to work today!