Did you miss us?

It's been a long time since the last Blog. At times we thought that 300ft Gorilla was finished, but here we are back and ready to start again!

As has been documented on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/300ftGorilla Vocalist Hutch decided to leave the band in mid 2010. So I'd like to say a few words about him before I move on to future plans.

Anyone who saw Hutch singing for us, will know what a great singer and frontman he is. He came in as a complete stranger to the rest of the band in mid 2007 just after the release of Gorilla Tactics. Previous singer Graham had decided to go on hiatus and eventually left the band before we could promote the album. The album's co-producer, Andy Watson, passed a cd on to Hutch and he said he'd love to get involved. Initially sceptical about whether we could make the band work with a singer living 200 miles away in Glasgow, we set about organising a low key jam in Paul's loft and were blown away by his voice. So we set about trying to make the band work, over such a long distance. Hutch and the rest of the band soon became firm friends, with practices taking on a full weekend of playing, drinking in Newcastle and generally enjoying ourselves. Soon the gigs started rolling in and we decided we'd better record some new stuff.

Writing occurred via the magic of the internet and the monthly practices started turning into monthly gigs. For midweek gigs Hutch would leave work at 5pm in Glasgow, drive down to Newcastle and literally walk straight on stage and give an incredible performance before getting back in his car and heading back up the road. Now that's commitment!

Unfortunately, due to a mystery chest infection that stopped Hutch singing we ended up cancelling a few gigs towards the end of 2009, but managed to get it altogether for a Christmas gig at The Cluny in Newcastle http://www.youtube.com/300ftgorilla#p/a/u/1/yuyckn5z9gA It was a great night with support from our friends Skneepa and Scottish friends the Richt Hoat Chili Peppers, even if the snow tried to stop the Scottish band members and our sound guy from getting there on time. It all turned out ok in the end.

During 2009 we released our EP Better Life, with Hutch and Paul joining their writing forces to create some superb songs - Mr Raspberry is Dead and Better Life being the highlights.

Unfortunately the mystery chest infection raised it's head again and we cancelled a few gigs in January 2010, and told Hutch to take six months off to recover properly before we booked anything. Six months later we were all disappointed to learn the Hutch had decided to call it a day.

So before I say anything else, I'd like to thank Hutch for being involved, spending all that time driving down to Newcastle to play and write with us. It was a blast! Guitarist Paul and I are continuing to work on music with Hutch and guitarist Archie Kinnear, and we very much hope to get some BVs out of Hutch on our new album.

On to the rest of the band story.

With Hutch taking 6 months off in Feb we were left with a great band, a great practice room and the desire to keep on playing. We jammed and wrote for a while, but it all seemed quite fruitless. We'd been playing some of those 300ft songs for 10 years or more and were frankly getting bored of them. The band remained in a state of limbo for a while as we tried to think of our next move.

Then in February 2010 my long time friend Chris gave me a copy of his band Seven Mile Stare's new album. The band were a group of friends based round the country who got together every month or so to jam and write. The album sounded great, but more importantly I was absolutely blown away by the singer, Ian. What a voice! And he was based in Newcastle! A quick phonecall to Chris and it became apparent that Ian had very similar influences to the rest of 300ft, so I asked if he minded me approaching Ian about doing a covers band.

When Ian actually read his emails (after a couple of weeks!) he gave us a tentative yes and came down for a jam. I think it's fair to say that we gelled instantly and the covers band Dogman was born - playing our favourite rock/grunge/alt/metal from the 90s, Dogman can still be seen every couple of months at Trillians in Newcastle.

Realising what a great singer Ian was, we then started thinking about writing some new material in early 2011. As a write this we have 5 finished demos and 4 songs which are nearly ready and an album is on the cards in early 2012. We debated on whether to start this as a new project, but decided in the end to continue the 300ft Gorilla legacy. So now on our third singer we hope the current line up will be more permanent.

We'll be out and about gigging again from Feb 2012, and hope to have the album out very soon after that. The new material is sounding fantastic and we're all very excited about the new direction and sound of the band.

See you all soon

Neil