I thought I would do a write-up on the year with the band given it’s been our busiest ever. In the early part of the year, we played a run of gigs put on by One Eye Toad Records which really helped us get back on the road again after the Covid-era restrictions were finally lifted in most cases. Most of these gigs were with Neverworld and Planet Fatale, two bands we have played with on a number of occasions over the years and with who we enjoy playing alongside. It’s worth mentioning that John Morter who organised these gigs and helped us get back to a regular gigging schedule sadly passed away last month. For all of his hard work and dedication to the scene, he will be greatly missed.
Coda – 9/3/2022
During that run of gigs, we had a one-night-only reunion with Anthony Murch on lead guitar. Ant was in the band from 2012-2015 and played on our first two albums. Anthony again played songs from both his time in the band and later albums since his departure. He’s currently playing alongside our former drummer Chris MacKinnon (who likewise joined in 2012, but after our debut album before leaving in 2018) in a band called It’s Not A Phase Mum, covering the 2000’s era classics which can be found here.
We made our return to two of our favourite venues this year too, both the Melbourn Rock Club and the Rock Den in Hatfield, both of which were fun nights.
A large portion of the year has been taken up with recording, editing, mixing, mastering, and so on. We worked extremely hard to get our new album After Extinction finished this year, as well as recording a further 10 tracks for two EPs, one of which has been released digitally and the other is currently being worked on. I have said previously that I cannot remember a time the band has been busier and 2022 certainly was a challenging year, but I feel a great relief to know everything on our end is now completed and there is very little remaining to do going into 2023.
It is worth mentioning that there will be a new Falling Through Freedom t-shirt and patch coming to all our Patreon’s soon, with two EPs (which include a multi-disc set) on CD heading out to everyone paying £3 or more ASAP. We have been slightly delayed in getting these out due to the Extinction After EP still being finalised! These will be with you soon, depending on Royal Mail strikes!
In August of course we joined the Lillian Axe/Riot Act (ex-Riot) tour as a replacement for Kim Melville. This is the first tour this line-up has done, and we had an amazing time on the road, and we are very thankful for the opportunity to play with two exceptional bands here in the U.K.
We aptly finished the year with two hometown shows in Colchester both at the Brewhouse on the 25th of November and Coda, on the 14th.
We also introduced a new Patreon tier, a band backer tier which was to help the band fund an opportunity we were recently offered. Without giving too much away at this stage, an official offer/contract has come through and we used some of the new Patreon funds to have the offer independently accessed by an expert, as well as general guidance on the best route forward for the band in 2023, with more the be revealed at a later date.
We will be heading to Unit One tomorrow to prepare for our next two gigs next weekend in Cambridge and Hastings. We return to our regular line-up and will be playing a mixture of songs from Reforge The Steel and After Extinction.
On Wednesday night we played a one off gig with Anthony Murch while Toby was away. We did a mixture of songs from Reforge The Steel, The Waystone and Falling Through Freedom which can be seen on the above video.
The previous Friday we had played Club 85, Hitchin.
We had a very successful return to gigging last night at a packed Club85 alongside Neverworld, Death Valley Knights and Planet Fatale. It was one of the best nights of live music we have played and it shows the scene is in great health going into 2022!
Anthony Murch is filling in for Toby Woods at next weeks show.
Tomorrow we are back in rehearsals at Unit One Colchester with Anthony Murch for the show at CODA, Colchester on Wednesday again with Neverworld and Planet Fatale. We will be playing tracks from The Waystone and Falling Through Freedom for the first time in many years.
We are pleased to announce that Anthony Murch will be stepping in for Toby Woods at the March 9th show at Coda, Colchester to play lead guitar for the band. Toby Woods is unavailable for the evening which is why Anthony is stepping in for the night.
One night only Kaine line-up from 2017 featuring Josh Moreton (drummer 2009-12), Stephen Ellis (bass 2015-18), Rage Sadler (vocals and guitars 2009-present and Anthony Murch (lead guitars) 2012-15
Anthony last played with Kaine at The Smokehouse on May 20th 2017 for a unique one night line-up of Rage Sadler (vocals/guitars), Stephen Ellis (bass), John Moreton (drums) and Anthony Murch (lead guitar) to celebrate the band Elimination’s ten year anniversary.
Playing in Kaine in 2015
Anthony Murch played on Kaine’s debut album Falling Through Freedom (2012) and it’s follow up The Waystone (2014) before departing the band in late 2015. He currently plays alongside former Kaine drummer Chris MacKinnon in the band It’s Not A Phase Mum which can be found here.
Anthony’s one off return coincides with the 10th anniversary of the bands debut album, Falling Through Freedom.
Our first gig was on May 26th 2018. It was one of our regular shows there as I had booked a reasonably busy schedule that year to help promote A Crisis of Faith. We arrived at the venue early and were chatting outside prior to load in when Dan Mailer and Josh Birch arrived together (from Osmium Guillotine) pulling up in the carpark, I had a half empty bottle of Coca-Cola which I was able to throw through the passenger window, past Josh’s head and straight into Dan’s face as he pulled up. Dan, looking for revenge, jumped out of his car and came charging up the B2 steps towards me, having forgot to put his handbrake on, turning to see Josh and his car going for unplanned trip into the Brickmakers beer garden!
From one of the early shows in Camden
The other amusing moment from that gig was the late great Wayne MacConnachie had arrived with Peter Keliris for the gig, he looked at me, looked at the guys and said “where’s ya band” obviously having not heard the news, I said to him that this was the band, he looked at me, looked at them “your fucking joking aren’t you?” I said the others had left the band and he was gobsmacked “they left you? They all left you? They all fucking left you?!”. Wayne simply couldn’t believe the last line up had left! That was sadly the last time I saw Wayne alive and were informed of his passing on the way to the Reforge The Steel Live recording gig in November 2019. We played a tribute to Wayne alongside Osmium Guillotine and Walk in Coma in January 2020 in Braintree.
Gent aka local legend Andy Martin opened the night, and Osmium Guillotine obviously also played. Dan Mailer jumped on on stage with us for the encore and all in all it was a successful first gig with very few mistakes. I think we genuinely shocked a few people. The band was formed in a fortnight and was already playing live, and to a good level, the transition seamless from the previous line-up.
An early B2 Show
Our next gig was a charity event in Long Melford, famous for being the place the legendary Hellfire Club was founded and much of the local folklore surrounds nefarious activities by the local nobles at Melford Hall. It is also famous for Beatrix Potter having stayed there. The gig itself was for our friend Bonnie Kelly’s fathers best friends memorial – Bonnie has her own band New Pages which can be checked out here. Toby and Isaac had to perform double duty as Cannon were also on the bill. Chris MacKinnon was also doing sound that night, obviously unable to stay away from us! After that we played the Unicorn in Camden for the first time. We would play a few gigs there in 2018 which were all really good, but weirdly after that we were never invited back! Kaine actually hadn’t played the gig since 2013 when we supported Canadian Metal legends Striker there! Again the gig went well and the band started to gel on stage.
After that we played with Alter the Sky at the Blue Moon, Cambridge. This is another venue we used to play a lot back in the day when it was the Man on the Moon, we even had a residency there for a bit in 2013. Again the show went incredibly well and people struggled to believe that this was a brand new band. We also started playing songs from Reforge The Steel around this time in the set as well. We were literally rehearsing, learning the Crisis material and adding new material into the set as well which really helped progress the Reforge The Steel album quickly.
Our one and only appearance at The Rock Den!
It was in this period that I wrote the 8 tracks for Reforge The Steel at home. I decided that to prove the band wasn’t dead and this band was as good as ever, I had to get a new album out as quickly as possible. I wrote Reforge The Steel, Black and Rebirth first, Wake was a song and I and Saxon Davids started working on some years previous that we even played live in instrumental form toward the back end of 2017, and songs like Master of Mankind and In Cold Light were written later with Loudwire being the last one I think I wrote for that album. It was important to show the world that we were still going and that is why Reforge The Steel came out so soon after A Crisis of Faith. We just learned the new songs between the Crisis material, and then played them live to iron out the cracks. It was a very busy period for the band. I had also started a new job around that time, which was less all over the place then the warehouse work but infinitely more stressful!
We had another gig at the B2 in July. Anthony Murch joined us for a few songs that night and a solo trade-off on stage, which I part inspired the ending of Master of Mankind! As Ant arrived the venue I was able to sneak around his car with a traffic cone, and block his door off so he couldn’t get out of his car! Is it any wonder people leave my band….Having looked back at the dates we had a very busy 2018! We were back at the Unicorn that month and also played our first and only gig at The Rock Den in Hatfield, another venue we’d previously been a resident band at.
Adam’s old band Cardinal
At the end of July we played Swanfest at the Swan, Ipswich in what was one of the hottest gigs I have ever played. Long term band friend Adam Prowse (who had played bass in Cardinal) joined us for the encore on vocals. The Swan is famous for having Ed Sheeran play there before he was famous. Ed recently having sponsored Ipswich Town Football Club, my football team and is famous for other things, but for me that’s the most important! Much like me he’s a regular at Town games, but at least he has a successful musical career to drown out the misery! It’s good to see him plough some money into the club under the new owners, but having said that if the club dropped any lower then I could have probably afforded to buy it, let alone sponsor it!
From The Smokehouse, Ipswich
So I thought I would give a little detail on our early gigs as a band. It’s weird to think this was all three years ago now. I will cover the back end of 2018 and the start of the recording of Reforge The Steel next week.
The album, originally released in 2014 has sold out for the 4th and final time on CD with vinyl version having sold out a number of years ago. A full statement on how many copies were sold/streamed will be released at a later date. The Waystone is Kaine’s best selling album and best known for the lead single “Iron Lady”.
The 2020 version of Iron Lady
There will be no further print runs of this album, it has been removed from digital platforms and will become a Bandcamp Members only release which can be found here along with many other exclusives including the bands debut album Falling Through Freedom, which is also no longer available to buy. Some copies remain on re-sellers sites such as Discogs which can be found here.
The band re-recorded for of the songs from the album for a limited edition EP release which can still be bought on CD here. Less than a 100 copies remain to buy on CD. A handful of Waystone patches are also available to order here. Both of these were released to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the original album.
Anthony Murch (Guitarist for The Rock Dinosaurs and It’s Not A Phase Mum) has done a play through on his new YouTube channel AHM Music of the song Iron Lady from the 2014 album The Waystone.
Anthony Murch was the lead guitarist in Kaine from 2012 to 2015 performing on the Falling Through Freedom and The Waystone albums. He has since appeared as a guest on stage with the band and a guest solo for the single version of Black on Reforge The Steel.
December 29th, 2012 – Hole in the Wall, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Dan Mailer: Bass/Vocals Anthony Murch: Lead Guitars Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: The band were offered a slot as a last-minute support for Coronach at the Hole in the Wall. Chris MacKinnon who had recently joined the band was unavailable for the gig so original drummer Josh Moreton filled in for the night where the band played its debut album Falling Through Freedom in its entirety for the first and only time.
May 16th, 2014 – The Barfly, Camden, London
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Dan Mailer: Bass/Vocals Anthony Murch: Lead Guitars James Balcombe: Drums
Background: James joined the band on the final show of the Renegades Tour with Monument when Chris had to perform for his university exams finals in Colchester on the same day. James joined the band for what was the most intense nights in the history of Kaine, as they dropped their association with MGR for management and as a record label that day due to incidents that occurred on that tour.
February 5th, 2016 – The Soundhouse, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer, who was at that time playing in Ipswich based Death Metal band Daemona joined the band onstage as guest vocalist for Solidarity during the bands set, a song which Rage broke a string and had to perform the final song of the night Quality of Madness as purely a vocalist. It was also the first gig the band played with the new four pieces line-up after Anthony Murch left making it the start of the Crisis of Faith era.
February 24th, 2017 – The Asylum, Chelmsford
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: This was the night A Crisis of Faith live was recorded the band played a large number of the new album songs before they were even recorded at this show and were joined by Dan Mailer on vocals for Iron Lady and Solidarity and Josh Moreton on drums for the Iron Lady, a song he had never played with the band before. Chris joined Dan Mailer in joint lead vocals for Iron Lady.
April 15th, 2017 – Hope & Anchor, Islington, London
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass James Balcombe: Drums
Background: Chris was unable to do the show, so long time band friend James Balcombe of Osmium Guillotine stepped in to perform on the night for the second time. The set was recorded and is available to bandcamp members here.
May 20th, 2017 – The Smokehouse, Ipswich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Stephen Ellis: Bass Ant Murch: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: Kaine were originally due to play with AJ Kemp of Dismanibus fame on Lead Guitar alongside Josh Moreton and Dan Mailer on bass as a special one of show playing songs from the original album. However, Dan was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome (he and Josh were playing with Elimination at that time and on the same night for the bands 10-year celebrations) so had to drop out. Stephen Ellis was then drafted in to play bass, alongside Anthony Murch to play a set comprising of material from the first three albums. It was the first time Josh had performed with the band since 2012 and Anthony, which was 2015.
May 4th, 2018 – Voodoo Lounge, Stamford
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Liam Etheridge: Drums Chris MacKinnon: Vocals
Background: Chris joined the band on stage for Frailty of the Blade on vocals, the second time he had performed solo as a vocalist for the band the first being when he joined Dan Mailer to sing Iron Lady at the Asylum for A Crisis of Faith live. This would also be the last show played with Saxon and Stephen as official members of the band.
May 26th, 2018 – B2, Norwich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer joined the band on stage, coincidently for another new line-up debut at the B2 Norwich for Iron Lady during his tenure as the lead singer of lone time Kaine friends and collaborators Osmium Guillotine.
July 7th, 2018 – B2, Norwich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Ant Murch: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals
Background: Ant Murch joined Kaine on stage to play an encore of songs from The Waystone and A Crisis of Faith eras including a solo trade off with Toby Woods.
August 11th, 2018 – Scruffy Murphy’s, Birmingham
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer again joined the band on stage for a rendition of Iron Lady with the Reforge The Steel line-up.
September 14th, 2018 – The Cavern CM7, Braintree
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals Dan Mailer: Vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass
Background: Liam Etheridge was unable to perform at this show (which was Osmium Guillotine’s album launch) so Chris MacKinnon covered on the drums, Saxon Davids joined as an additional guitarist for a set which was a mixture of Crisis of Faith and The Waystone material which also featured Dan Mailer again on guest vocals for the Iron Lady and Stephen Ellis joined the band for the encore which was The Mind is Willing, the penultimate time that song would be played and that line-up would play together.
December 22nd, 2018 – Scruffy Murphy’s, Birmingham
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals
Background: Saxon Davids joined Kaine on stage for several songs from the A Crisis of Faith album.
April 27th, 2019 – Arts Centre, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass
Background: After the Reforge The Steel line-up performed, the A Crisis of Faith line up closed the night as that line-ups final gig to celebrate the first 10 years of the band. A double album was recorded and released featuring both sets.
Kaine’s debut album Falling Through Freedom, originally recorded in 2011-12 and released in 2012 with a remastered version being released in 2017 has sold out again on CD. The album was recorded and produced by Ade Hare of Threecircles Recording Studio and is the bands only release to feature the line-up of Rage Sadler guitars/vocals, Dan Mailer bass/vocals, Josh Moreton drums and Anthony Murch on lead guitar. Ant Murch joined the band during the recording process of the album.
The albums most popular songs are Lost Sage’s Tower,
Helpless Salvation, Waking Dead, Valnir and Quality of Madness which were a staple
of the bands set for many years following the albums release. The album, although
not critically acclaimed upon release helped launch of the band from relative
obscurity to one that was regular booked on the British underground circuit and
helped laid the foundations leading to 2014’s The Waystone.
Now the album has sold out on CD the album will officially
go off sale and will not having further prints on CD, the digital version of
the album will be members only in future.
Many thanks to everyone who has bought a copy of the album
on CD since it’s original 2012 release. Kaine will celebrate 10 years of being
a band on April 27th, 2019, and appearing will be Josh Moreton from
Falling Through Freedom with his new band A Bribe for the Ferryman. Tickets for
the show are available from the Arts Centre website.
It’s worth noting that it was now over 4 years ago that The Waystone was being recorded. The album, which went on to sell our numerous times selling over 1000 copies on CD/Vinyl and being streamed over 50k times since release. It was the first full length album to feature drummer Chris MacKinnon and the final album to feature Dan Mailer on bass and vocals, and Anthony Murch on lead guitar.
You can now stream the album for free in full on YouTube (above) with a limited number of CD’s still available for sale here.
The vinyl is now out of print and we will not be getting another run of these made, however there are some still available on the internet from time to time, so keep your eyes peeled. These are all hand numbered.
