2012 is our 10th Anniversary Year!

It was the year 2002 and the new year had just begun. We (at the time singer Atul and bassist Adam) had been out of a band for a few months but were still practicing and hitting up the jam nights at college. We needed two more important members to make up a full band. A lead guitarist and a drummer.

We saw an ad by a drummer and a lead guitarist looking to jam. And on 3 March 2002 Atul and Adam met up with Mike and Matt in the practice room at Imperial College. The musical chemistry was amazing as we blagged a bunch of covers together. We jammed, we laughed and we jammed some more. We played song after song and it was incredible, we could just do them together as if we had been playing together for years.

It was like a puzzle fitting together perfectly. Boom! DonkeyBox was formed.

So 2012 is a very special year for us indeed, we have been going for 10 years! More on this theme over the coming year and we are so excited to have last so so long in a business where you are forgotten in a matter of weeks or months.

Fiddler’s Elbow Gig – 5th January 2012

It took us over 9 months to do our first gig of 2011 but we sure fixed the record for 2012 by doing a gig in this new year in just 5 days. And for what a great cause too, we booked this gig for a Save the Children charity gig and all the bands on the night collectively raised over £300.

After our previous gig we were now on a roll. We had already colloborated with a duo called Hat’s Off Gentlmen It’s Adequate and when they offered us a charity gig in Camden we just couldn’t refuse!

We were on as third act on the night and we’d missed the sound check as two of us were stuck on the London metro network and just couldn’t make the sound checks. So we were a bit nervous when we went on stage, but it really was our lucky day soundwise. The venue and the amps were absolutely amazing and the sound Engineer was a pro too. The result is that we sounded so hot on stage it was unbelievable! Compare that to the last gig where lead guitarist Matt’s amp cut out through one song.

Donkey Box flyer Fiddler's Elbow

The result of this great sound on stage was that we were super tight and well rounded in our set. We opened again with Hypnotised and you could see the gasps in the audience as they were hit by something truly amazing

On this occassion we dropped our debut song from last time Crossroad and Lost Odyssey, instead reviving our old classic The Score again. Here’s the set list from the night:

1. Hypnotised
2. Out of Power
3. Just Walk Away
4. Crap Day
5. The Moment
6. The Score
7. Pointless

Many thanks to all those who were there and the other bands who played on the night and raised money for charity, and also to the sound engineer for giving us a great sound on stage. Enjoy this amazing video of Hypnotised taken in the audience.

Year in Review 2011

What a year it has been, a year of recovery followed by amazing creativity is the best way to put it really.

Musically this has been the most creative year for us ever. 2010 wasn’t the greatest of years for us and the first half of 2011 continued our bad spell from last year. Last year we only played 4 gigs and this year it went down to just 3 so the depression from last year carried over! Our search for a bass player was proving to be futile and with other commitments getting in the way we were rehearsing less than ever.

It wasn’t looking good.

Donkey Box line-up 2011

But as we couldn’t gig we made the most of it by jamming and writing new material. We even went into studio for test recording The Moment. We learned to play together better without bass. In late June 2011 we finally had a helper on bass and the discipline we learnt in song writing and playing tighter as a 3 piece actually helped us a lot when we did have Matt B on bass.

As we worked hard on the background, we launched our first gig of 2011 almost at the end of the year all the way out in September! But one hell of a launch that was, we did two brand new songs, made a brand new banner and for the first time ever we had our very own branded t-shirts for sale!

With this huge push we were now on a roll, we did two more gigs and launched another two songs. It was now clear that our sound was changing and becoming more rounded and well defined. And our gig in December 2011 showed this to be the case.

So, here’s what we got out of 2011 then:

• Found Matt B on bass
• New songs “Just Walk Away”, “Hypnotised”, “Lost Odyssey” and “Crossroad”
• A new t-shirt finally printed after two years of stops and starts
• A brand new cool banner hand painted
• Got some new moo cards printed
• Found new flyer designer
• Went to an open mic night together

And if you are on twitter (our most favourite social networking platform), we have met some really really cool people this year..people we haven’t seen yet but will slowly meet). Hopefully we can make a little community of DonkeyBoxers around the world who we can connect together

So here’s a big thanks to the twitter crew this year for all the fun banter you have given:

Gosia in Poland (can’t thank you enough for your constant encouragement and song feedback) Jess in Sweden, Layan in Saudi Arabia, Mia and Kesia somewhere in South England, Beth (who has designed our flyers) in North England, Carmen in Canada, Andrea in Mexico, Niloofar in Iran, Alex C and Cliffy in North England, Stephen in London (you’ll make it to a gig soon dude!), Corrie in Scotland, Japs, Niraj, Billy A and Ben W in London (the last 4 have been to our gigs and we know in real life).

Lastly, for those of you who have actually turned up at our gigs and bought our stuff, there can be no better support than that to us so a massive thanks for actually showing up and supporting us for real.

A Happy New Year 2012 and let’s keep the good times going!

Tower Tavern Gig – 10th December 2011

We did some really spectacular stuff with our music for this gig. And it is fair to say this gig marked the departure from our old classic sound to a more coherent, rounded and well defined sound. The 5 new songs we have written in about a year outnumbered the 2 older songs of our classic set. We had to make some tough decisions to do this but we boldly went ahead with things and it paid off well!

DonkeyBox live on 10 Dec 2011

The Score is a song we have played since June 2003 at every single set we have ever played. And it has almost always been our set closer and the final song of the night. We decided to ditch the song. Another song we truly love playing live is The Moment and that too we had to skip. So what was left then if these two critical songs were left out?

We opened with a song that has only seen two gigs previously, a brave move indeed. But Hypnotised went down very well as an opener. But this gig wasn’t about Hypnotised or any of the other songs.

Our total re-jig of the DonkeyBox setlist was prompted by yet another brand new song we launched at this gig! The song is called Crossroad and it has a riff that is similar to the famous “Smoke On The Water” riff as many people in the audience pointed out to us The song didn’t even have any complete lyrics (including a chorus) until about 3pm on the day of the gig!

Not only that but we were so reluctant to drop any songs that the decision for the set list was made after we had sound checked. The set played on the night eventually was:

1. Hypnotised
2. Out of Power
3. Just Walk Away
4. Crap Day
5. Crossroad
6. Lost Odyssey
7. Pointless

DonkeyBox flyer

It truly was incredible watching lots of new people dancing and singing along to Crap Day. No matter how many times we play that song live, even we are surprised by how much people love that song and it hits a chord with them. It is humbling to see that reaction from stage. Out of Power and Just Walk Away were more refined this time with added backing vocals from drummer Greg. And finally, our new set ender on the night Pointless was shortened by removing the audience interaction bit that was replaced by a funky new Lady Ga Ga riff.

We signed up new fans on to our mailing list and gave out loads of copies of our free EP, Backstage Pass. This is one of the gigs that has marked a change in the flavour of our set and in just 3 gigs this year we have launched 4 brand new songs.

Thanks to Mark of Wheel Tappers Music for putting on the night on, The Frayed Laces for playing an awesome slot before us and helping us co-promote this gig, Joe for designing the flyer, everyone who was there (including parents of drummer Greg and guitarist Matt) and everyone who supported us in the background to make this gig possible.

Our First Ever T-shirts!

When are your t-shirts going to be ready?

It’s a question Brian asks us very regularly. and he’s been asking us this question for over two years now! But persistentce pays off and his t-shirt will be posted to Washington DC soon.

DonkeyBox T-shirt

We are so so so excited to announce that we have our first ever t-shirt designed for sale! The t-shirt has been designed by Meri Gadd who also designed quite a few of our flyers back in 2009. You can buy this t-shirt at gigs and they will soon be available for sale on our website. They will cost you £10 plus postage and packaging.

They will be available in all the standard sizes ranging from extra small, small, medium, large, extra large and extra extra large.

So what better way to show your support than to buy one of our t-shirts. It’s a really cool looking design as well, so order your’s now and wear it with pride!

The Comedy Gig – 18th October 2011

The one that got away last time didn’t get away this time!

This was the second gig of 2011 for us and after our last gig we were feeling like things were falling into place and we were getting a good gig ryhthm (excuse the pun!). For us this gig was the launch of our new song “Lost Odyssey”. This epic 8 minute piece is one we have been working over all summer. A sharp, strong and syncopated song this was pretty difficult to practice and rehearse. And we were going to launch it at the last gig but had to abort last minute as we already had two new songs on our plate.

Just like at the last gig we had the highest turnout of all other bands, we were also joined by Hats off It’s Adequate Gentleman again and we are going to do more and more gigs together. This is a great new collaboration that we are enjoying.

The set definetely had two flavours, part a) the light side and part b) the dark side. The light side had the lighter more poppy end of the set and the heavier side was darker and heavier. This is a pretty accurate reflection of what we do as a band and our different flavours. Our new songs “Just Walk Away” and “Hypnotised” were performed at this gig, giving them a total of two performances so far. They sounded more solid than last time. Although sadly we had to leave Pointless out of the set to accommodate the new material.

The set list on the night was

1. Just Walk Away
2. Out of Power
3. Crap Day
4. The Moment
5. Lost Odyssey
6. Hypnotised
7. The Score

Special thanks are due to Wheel Tappers Music Promotions who put the night on, Hats off It’s Adequate gentlemen, Kunal from Chaos theory, Andy M for taking photographs, Beth F for making the flyer and everyone else who helped us out in the background to make this gig possible.

Crap Day Lyrics

Woke up in the morning, head stuck by the pillow
The sun was shining, outside the window
Felt great and jumped right out of bed
Coz a sunny day just can’t be wasted

Sometimes no matter how much you try
You just can never win
Everybody’s out to quash your high
You might as well pack it all in

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

Running to the station, I’m always in a hurry
Can’t think straight my eyes are still so blurry
Missed that train, I saw ‘em shut the gates
Wasting away again I wait

Sometimes no matter how much you try
You just can never win
Everybody’s out to quash your high
You might as well pack it all in

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

Sometimes no matter how much you try
You just can never win
Everybody’s out to quash your high
You might as well pack it all in

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Nothing’s gone my way today
It’s been a crap day (crap day)
Just like every other day

Crap day, crap day, crap day, crap day
Crap day, crap day, crap day, crap day
It’s been a crap daaaaaaaaayy
Crap day yaaaahaay, yaaaay, yay yay yay yah!

© 2003 DonkeyBox

The Comedy Gig – 13th September 2011

Were you making babies?

DonkeyBox flyer by Beth Fisher

Came the shout from the back when we said we’ve been away from gigging as a band for a whole 9 months. In many ways she was right with her comment. We were indeed making babies! Well ok not in *that* way…a baby to a band is a new song. And after a very long 9 months we were back on stage to launch two brand new songs “Just Walk Away” and “Hypnotised”.

But we also had a huge new band backdrop/banner and a bunch of really cool t-shirts for the first time ever. Not only had we spent all that time on new songs, but we made our identity and brand more solid too.

Back in 2002 when we first formed we did two gigs about 6 months apart but this time it had been over 9 months. In the summer of 2003 we made a big shift as a band, we wrote 3 new songs and transitioned from a covers band into a real, originals band with our own identity. The last 9 months has seen us re-invent ourselves. We were writing a lot of songs simultaneously and we launched 2 of these songs. One had to be aborted last minute as it was still not quite ready

Drummer Greg and bassist Matt B

We were without a doubt the biggest crowd bringers of the night and we stormed away with our set. We played these songs in this order:

1. Just Walk Away
2. Out of Power
3. Crap Day
4. The Moment (with ex-bassist Martin)
5. Hypnotised
6. Pointless
7. The Score

We also had a special appearance by one of our ex-bass players, Martin! Martin in fact played the last gig with us 9 months ago and has been living in New York for the last 7 months. But he was on holiday this week and what perfect opportunity to get him on stage. And that we did, he had his moment with “The Moment”.

As always there’s lots of people to thank. Mark Williams from Wheel Tappers Music for putting and promoting the night, Matt B for playing bass for us temporarily (he is really a guitarist in a nu metal band Scrape), Martin for doing that one off song on stage (flying all the way from New York!), Beth Fisher for designing an awesome flyer, Nirmala Rana for hand painting the new backdrop, Matthew G for vectorising our logo, Tyrone for printing the t-shirts, Alok Rana and Andrew McK for taking photographs.

And last but not least to everyone who was at the gig and you who have supported DonkeyBox through the years See you again friend.

London Riots August 2011

Like the latest fashion
Like a spreading disease
The kids are strappin’ on their way to the classroom
Getting weapons with the greatest of ease

The gangs stake their own campus locales
And if they catch you slippin’ then it’s all over pal
If one guy’s colors and the other’s don’t mix
They’re gonna bash it up

Hey man you talkin’ back to me?
Take him out
You gotta keep ‘em separated
Hey man you disrespecting me?
Take him out
You gotta keep ‘em separated
Hey they don’t pay no mind
If you’re under 18 you won’t be doing any time
Hey come out and play

By the time you hear the siren
It’s already too late
One goes to the morgue and the other jail
One guy’s wasted and the other’s a waste
It goes down the same as the thousand before
No one’s getting smarter
No one’s learning the score
Your never ending spree of death and violence and hate
Is gonna tie your own rope
Tie your own rope
Tie your own

Lyrics written by Offspring in 1994 for the song called “Come Out and Play” on their seminal album Smash.

And although they are written about more serious violence and crime by youths, a lot of what they say resonates at the situation in London at the moment. A tiny tiny minority of kids have hit the streets of London and taken advantage of the protection they get from the under 18 laws.

Kids that come from broken homes with no parents. What parent lets their kids stay out all night and come back home with a 42″ TV? The parenting is not there, no one has raised these kids properly and there is no sense of respect. Worse still is that how can so many grown adults just stand aside and let this happen?

The answer is amongst an old discussion that we found on the BBC from the year 2006:

No one intervenes when they see a bunch of youths committing a crime, to do so would to take a risk and the added fear of the perfectly legal reprisals. If you try to physically intervene you WILL be charged with assault. If a weapon is produced and you defend yourself, the “child” might be cautioned and given a free holiday, you WILL be charged with assault. Basically, unless you are willing to accept a criminal record in return for doing the morally correct thing, you need to turn a blind eye.

And this is at the heart of the matter, why the adults are actually too scared to intervene. In the meantime we hope that the perpetrators have surely “tied their own rope” and will face the ultimate wrath of the court system and justice will be done.

Just the two of us

Atul and Matt eat their guitars

We joked along with the lyrics of the famous song:

Just the two of us

we can make it if we try

just the two of us..

We’ve been singing that old song as our last 3 weeks have seen us in low power again. 3 weeks ago the rehearsal was off altogether as drummer Greg couldn’t make it and neither could bassist Matt. And for various reasons that continued on for another two weeks.

So the original founders of the band and the guitar wielders extraordinaire Matt and Atul have been rehearsing themselves for the last two weeks.

It’s been really cool though as it has allowed us to focus on a lot of even newer material and get some of the song writing basics sorted in a singer song writer type setting. We’ve also been enjoying the sound of our guitar crunch and tones…yeah, guitarists love that.

And we’ve joked around a bit and may have a joke song in the pipeline too…we’ll see.

But this week, it’s fingers crossed and hopefully a full band practice…yessss!