2008 changes.......

I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I am going to slightly change this blog, to be primarily a Wolfmen blog and perhaps Ant related, not so much emphasis on Adam anymore. Carty does an excellent Ant website, keeping the news updated, as does Adam-Ant.net now, so I think another Ant related one isn't needed, and anyway to be honest I prefer The Wolfmen these days than anything else........ so I think i will make a few tweaks and edits to this blogsite later in january when I am finished celebrating the new year.

Stay tuned!!

Here's the 2 Wolfmen videos again to go with that.

Wolfmen News update

Live and direct from The Wolf's Lair... Enjoy the

madness of our debut gig and Islington's Carling
Academy from a couple of weeks ago in the comfort of
your own Lair, courtesy of a brilliant documentary film
by Stephen Pook.

If you missed the gig, or want to relive some of the
highlights and check some backstage action, you can
find it on YouTube 





The set list for Islington ran: Needle
In The Camel's Eye , Love Is A Dog, Jackie
Says , Up All
Nighter , Do The
Ostrich , Kama
Sutra .  Our support act - Bishi
(pictured below)

 - came back onstage for
Cecilie, Needles, and Thieves & Liars.  Look out for
her album Nights At The Circus, out now online and in
shops.

The first half of next year for The Wolfmen will be really
busy.  We'll be recording Daler Mehndi's
album Theives & Liars, which will spawn at least one
single. And we'll be finishing the debut Wolfmen
album too, and will have another ingle out in March.
We'll be on stage again quite soon, as we're putting
together a residency at the Embassy Rooms
which starts in February...

...and P.S.  Happy Christmas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Wolfmen -
Marco Pirroni and
Chris Constantinou

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ian Peel at the Wolfmen office: ian@thewolfmen.net
Official website: http://www.thewolfmen.net
Official MySpace http://www.myspace.com/thewolfmen

Wolfmen Steven Pook Live Teaser

More Wolfmen Live Pics

Here!

I hear they both enjoyed the gig and that there will be more early next year, once the album is completed, which they are working on now.

More Wolfmen Live Pics

Here!

I hear they both enjoyed the gig and that there will be more early next year, once the album is completed, which they are working on now.

Wolfmen LIVE reviews and pics!

Thanks to Msdayglo who moderates the Punk77 forum, I have a picture and hopefully some more later to post here.

The Wolfmen played

Needle in the Camel's Eye
Love is a Dog
Jackie Says
Up All Niter
Cecilie
Do the Ostrich
Kama Sutra
Cecilie
Thieves & Liars

Two GREAT reviews:

www.musicomh.com/gigs/wolfmen_1107.htm

The Wolfmen
@ Islington Academy, London, 15 November 2007
When you've been part of the rock'n'roll furniture since before most of your contemporaries were born, you're allowed the chutzpah of doing things differently.
This is certainly the case with the debut gig by The Wolfmen, a band that describes itself tonight as 'British folk music from Brick Lane' and on its website as 'where The Velvet Underground, T-Rex, Adam & the Ants and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas are plundered to make retro rock for the 23rd century'.

Tonight is, for example, the first time in 15 years that lead guitarist Marco Pirroni has performed in front of a live audience even though The Wolfmen have already scored a number one single - Two Eyes, with Daler Mehndi - on the BBC Asian Network. And while The Wolfmen themselves may not be Asian, the radio station has certainly taken them to its heart, lending them DJ Bobby Friction to introduce tonight's performance, arranged to showcase the launch of their new single Cecile.

This might not be the road usually trod by wannabe musicians on their way to the top, but that's because lead guitarist Marco Pirroni, as well as bass guitarist and lead vocalist Chris Constantinou, have been there and done that already. With seminal '80s punk-popsters Adam & The Ants on their CVs, along with, between them, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Drill, Guy Chambers and Sinead O'Connor, not to mention three Ivor Novello songwriting awards, they don't actually have to hawk their wares before the grubby public at all. They're doing it just because they want to.

And grateful we should be for it, too. The first half of the show lays before us the simple truth that Pirroni always has been, and clearly still is, a hugely talented songwriter, capable of effortlessly blending new wave energy with the power of punk but without its anger, producing instead something playful, danceable and memorable.

If it sometimes sounds a little dated, a flashback to the '80s devoid of the influence of The Strokes or The Libertines, that's only because the music he created first time round has endured so well. Jackie Says, All Niter, Do The Ostrich and Kama are all perfect examples of this.

Using two drummers on the other hand, is something The Wolfmen can claim as more unique to their own sound, pushing percussion boundaries within the usual rock'n'roll set up in a way that has marked Pirroni out all through his career.

It's when they return to the stage for their three-song encore, however, that The Wolfmen really come into their own. Joined now by Bishi looking, at half the age of anyone else on the stage, like a sitar-wielding Asian Lily Allen, they launch into a more Banghra-influenced sound, starting with new single Cecile and ending on the tour de force Two Eyes. Genuinely different, genuinely fusing Bengali and Brixton, the crossover style they've hit on may well be as deep a treasure trove as anything Pirroni has mined in the past.

That they achieve all this amid technical difficulties and less than perfect sound engineering bodes well for future performances. Plagued at times by feedback, at others by a sitar too low in the mix, it was difficult to shake the impression that they're just too big for this venue. Little matter. The second gig is bound to be much, much bigger.

- Jenni Cole

And this from Planet Mondo...

http://planetmondo.blogspot.com/

“Aaaaaooooowwww” that's me last Wednesday after being left bitten and buzzing by The Wolfmen.

Formed by Marco Pirroni (guitarist and co-writer in Adam's Ants ) and Chris Constantinou (bass playing ex Ant) I caught them strutting like roosters, and stomping like champs live and unleashed at the Islington Academy last week. Opening with a thundering cover of Eno's 'Needle in The Camel's Eye' The Wolfmen tore the place up with a snarling, snapping set of their own two fisted tunes and GlamGaragePunk all fired out with the vibe of vintage Roxy Music, and spirit of Johnny Thunders and Marc Bolan jamming down at Devil Gate Drive.

The Wolfmen's songs Cecile, Jackie Says, While London Sleeps are all hugely infectious (spin them up below) and highlight why Adam Ant went from being the King of Indie clang with 'Dirk' to King of The Wild Frontier and the Prince Charming of Pop after hooking up with Marco as a songwriter. But there’s more to this Wolf pack than tattooed knuckled sugar Pop Punk , Two Eyes is all space age breakbeats and Bhangra anthems wrapped in screaming guitars, flutes and sitars with a lead vocal from Daler Mehndi (Daler was unable to make the gig unfortunately, having being detained for something dodgy) but the celebrity credit rating was still high with endorsement from gig attendees Pete Shelley,Simone Stenfors, and Radio One's Bobby Friction all going wild for the Wolfmen.

If you like Rock that sparkles and Pop that wallops watch out for The Wolfmen in case they're prowling and preening near you soon.

STILL the endless Adam and the Ants mentions, but hopefully someday they will be able to be reviewed without that and appreciated for what they are.

Wolfmen Debut Gig!!

Ok if you're in London Next Wednesday then you have NO EXCUSE, go see this fantastic band!
I would too but I unfortunately won't be in the UK on Wednesday. I will hopefully however be seeing the band rehearse on sunday before I leave.
Please feel free to email me with reviews of the gig if you go and I will put them up here.

Marco Question and Answers Vive le Rock single and Out of Bounds.

I asked Marco a few questions about both of these, we've fallen a bit behind with updates here, but I aim to be back on track and finish the singles off at least.

So here are Marco Pirroni's thoughts on Vive le Rock, Out of Bounds and one about A.N.T.S!

Vive Le Rock: Who wrote the music for this one?
We both did

Are there any songs on Vive Le Rock that you wrote all the music for,
like you did with some on Friend Or Foe? Or were they all written
together?
All written together

Why did you not play any of the b sides live except for Physical and
Press Darlings?
I dunno...no reason, it just never occurred to us at the time.

What are the main influences for Vive Le Rock (Song and album)?
Malcolms t-shirt

How long did it take to record the album?
About 6 weeks

What was Tony Visconti like to work with?
Alright

What happened to the bass on Vive Le Rock (It's quite buried in the
mix most of the time)?
Ask Tony he mixed it!

Were you aware at the time that you were so different from every other
band around?
If I had have thought about it then I would have noticed...but i didn't care anyway

Do you still have the big white Gresch that Adam is holding on the
front cover?
Yes...er...I think so

You rejoined the Vive Tour as guitarist full time, what changed your
mind?
People going on and on and on at me to do it

Were you involved with Out of Bounds?
No, nobody ever asked me to involved and for that I was quite grateful

What did you think of it?
Never heard it

How did Out of Bounds come about- were Adam and Stewart Copeland
friends?
No idea but we were managed by Stewarts brother Miles at the time so that had something to do with it, I don't think Adam and Stewart were friends at all and they certainly weren't afterwards, but Stewart is a bit hard to take over a long period.but nice enough if its just hello and goodbye!

A.N.T.S- When did you record that and why?
We needed a track for a flexidisc and as we were going to ditch it anyway (we felt the joke had worn thin) ,so we thought we would do a quick recording of it, it took about 3 hours and was just Adam, Hughes and myself and we had a good laugh doing it.

Do you/ did you think Vive le Rock was rocky enough?
Never been happy with the mix,we wanted the poppiness of TREX and the rawness of the pistols, dunno if we really nailed it tho.


Would you use Tony Visconti to record it again if you had the choice?
Absolutely, he loves guitar players and said I had an authentic Bolan tone! He gave me one of Marc's ring modulator pedals and i gave it to Boz for his birthday, we were never sure what it was supposed to do and it just sounds a bit fuzzy but it was Marc's so it is a holy relic!

Did you know he says in his book that Vive is his favorite record that
he has ever produced?
No i didn't know that, i never read his book, how many chapters are devoted to me?

(None, just a couple of pages!)

From Tony's website:

Q: I've followed your records for over 20 years of my life and they still sound vital and fresh in the late '90's. One album that was very overlooked here in America was Adam Ant's, "Vive Le Rock'. I thought it sounded very joyous and live. What was it like to work with Adam?

A: What a creative ball of energy! He was great to work with. He's very opinionated and knows what he wants. We didn't quite agree during the mixes, he kind of wanted everything very trebly and I'm a bassey kind of producer.

Tony Visconti Myspace
Tony Visconti website

Images taken from Carty's website cos I am lazy.

Wolfmen Widget

Cecilie Coming Soon

In the weeks since we last got in touch Marco and Chris have been hard at work putting the finishing touches to the latest Wolfmen single release - CECILIE. This one's going to be bigger and better than ever before...

Following 2006's now extremely sought-after vinyl-only limited editions, Cecilie will be a full single release, with a DVD/CD single, a 7" vinyl limited edition, and a special download package. Each format will offer exclusive tracks, there will be a brand new video - shot by feature film director Paul Hills - and the 'making of' the Cecilie video will air on UK TV in August, and in the US in October. This release will be available from all the normal outlets, but we're directing everyone to one retailer - Townsend Records - because their sales affect chart positions... and they're also BIG Wolfmen fans! Exclusive tracks are in the works for those that pre- order and buy through Townsend, as well as competitions to win various artefacts from Chris and Marco's attics. So to stay up-to-date with the Wolfmen team at Townsend, please click this email link:
wolfmen@townsend-records.co.uk

Wolfmen update

Shooting has just wrapped on Dogging: A Love Story, the latest Wolfmen film project. The darkened corners of Newcastle’s car parks provide an unlikely setting for a skewed romance about a young man’s introduction to the al fresco swinging scene, described as “A love story about sex, monogamy (or not), the search for love and the joy of dogging.”

It’s the latest from Vertigo Films (The Football Factory, The Business, It’s All Gone Pete Tong) and is directed by up-coming British talent Simon Ellis. This is the first feature from this award-winning director whose seventeen short films have enjoyed four hundred screenings on the international film festival circuit, various television broadcasts and MTV rotations.

"Simon is one of the most visually interesting directors out there,” One For The Road director Chris Cooke told the BBC DNA recently. “There's something quirky, leftfield and completely original about his approach to filmmaking. He can tell the most sensitive story (10 Again) or the most violent (What About The Bodies), and it's like you recognise his handwriting on it.”

The film stars Luke Treadaway, Kate Heppell, Sammy Dobson (pictured) and - in their own particular way - The Wolfmen. Marco and Chris make a cameo in one scene, perform some new material in another and are working on a contribution for the soundtrack. Music superviser on the movie is Lol Hammond who was previously music superviser on films such as Football Factory, It's All Gone Pete Tong, Dirty Sanchez, Pusher 2 and the recently released, award-winning London to Brighton. Currently in the editing stage, Dogging's theatrical release will be later this year – more news when we have it.

More U.S.Airplay
Some of these new tracks are continuing to rip up US alternative radio: in the last two weeks The Wolfmen have remained Top 10 on the FMQB Album/EP Chart and Top 20 on the FMQB and Mediaguide Singles Charts. New plays have come from KZON Phoenix, AZ, WAXQ New York, NY & KIWR Omaha, NE with interviews and on-air CD giveaways at KUPD Phoenix and WPGU Champaign, IL.

Free CDs?
If you want to own one of these strictly limited edition, promo-only Wolfmen US radio CDs then help us spread the word. Just send names and email addresses of five friends that would be interested in receiving these updates to info@thewolfmen.net, and include your name and postal address. We’ll pick 20 people at the end of Feb. and send their CDs straight out.

More news coming soon. Stay tuned...
The Wolfmen -

Marco Pirroni and
Chris Constantinou

---

email: ian@thewolfmen.net

web: http://www.thewolfmen.net