Rootin' around

When we started in 2011-ish (I know - mad innit?) PigDaze came out of a vague idea of mine and Englebert's to create a pop-up acoustic band with less of the physical and mental effort of an electric set up. Armed with a bunch of original songs which hadn't fitted with our previous band, we felt they'd suit a less super-charged sound. We were going to have a flexible line-up with a makeshift ethos and open-minded approach to material. Along with Mr Mapes, JDog and Delia we somehow developed as a more solid unit than anticipated. With influences spanning across the spectrum of the Clash, Specials, Wonder Stuff, Pogues, Waterboys, Motorhead, old-school ska, Johnny Cash and Lonnie Donnegan it was always going to be an interesting experience, not least settling on an answer for the inevitable "what genre" questions. We settled on skufflepunk and have been stuck with it ever since. I hate to think how many gigs and shut doors that has cost us!

Anyway, across various line-up changes we've been dead lucky with the chemistry between us all. If we had a motto, I guess it could be 'No egos, all vetos'. We never play anything if a single band member doesn't fancy it, and any of that 'fancy Dan' shit you hear about in some bands gets mercilessly shot down. The one thing I've always missed since Mr Mapes departed though, is someone up front to take 'point'. Whilst I'm happy to talk nonsense over the mic and play the fool, I've longed for someone with decent pipes to take the pressure off and give us some extra options. Yes, alright - someone who can sing!

That's a convoluted way of getting to the point that during our enforced hiatus, me and Englebert have had time to think about the stockpile of partially finished songs we've never got around to recording or including in the live set and guess what - there's loads of them waiting on the shelf. Some go right back to the early days, some were rudely interrupted by that covid thing and some somehow drifted into cobwebby corners of the PigDaze HQ cellar along with discarded stage costumes and busted bits and bobs. Well, there's a bloke we know who can croon a bit and is a like-minded soul and we've been dabbling in acoustic versions of some of those forgotten gems with a view to giving them an airing at some open mics in the near future. With a full band full electric sound re-emergence on the back burner until next year, it's pretty exciting to be able to root these numbers out and breathe new life into them.

So, look out for us soon at an open mic near you. It's PigDaze, but not as you've known it recently.