09/12/05
You know those end of year polls? The ones where people think back over the year and pick out the best songs or albums (or haircuts) from the last 12 months?
Waste of time.
How can you choose between, say, Arcade Fire's debut and Rufus Wainwright's amazing 'Want 2'? But hold on there a darn minute, 'A Very British Earthquake' just got voted 'Fav Tune of the Year' by one of Leeds Student Radio's presenters...
Those 'Best of lists', eh? Ace idea!
You can read the full write up here. Here's raising a toast to more of the same!

06/12/05
Apologies to anyone who went to the Primrose gig last weekend only to find I'd pulled out - I was hoping to play right up til the day before, but I hadn't shaken off the cold. However on a positive note, the event raised over £500 for the NSPCC, Samaritans and Help The Aged.
No more gigs lined up for the rest of 2005, but there are already 3 booked for January 2006
5th - Mixing Tin, Leeds
26th - Cobden Club, London
29th - Bar Vida, Derby.
Also we've had two more album reviews from Vibrations Magazine and Melodic.net and a live review from October's Primrose gig. Once again, they're all positive!
Right. Back to the Lemsip.

18/11/05
Cough, splutter, sneeze etc. Yep, It's that time of year that all the festive bugs and viruses take up residence in the nearest nose / throat. A week of the Captain's life has been surreptitiously swiped from under his red raw hooter.
Anyhoo, whilst not much has happened in the last 7 days, the previous week included the gig at the Vine, which went swimmingly. The set list was nigh on the same as the last gig at The Primrose, apart from all new song "Confetti, Champagne and Roses" acoustically kicking off the set and "I Haven't Got Any Famous Friends" being relegated to the bench on this occasion. Supportive crowd too!
So, you might well ask, when can I catch the next live installment in the barnstorming serial that is 'Captain Wilberforce Live'?
Well, as it so happens, the answer is Sat 3rd December, The Docstoc charity alldayer, The Primrose, 280 Meanwood Road, LS7 Tel: 0113 2621368 Onstage 4pm. This is quite possibly the last gig of 2005, but there are already 3 gigs pencilled in for January (Leeds, London and Derby) and a new 'Gigs' page planned for the site soon.

03/11/05
And more musical analysis! First from Leeds' own Music Guru, who pick out the "...Beatlesque / Monkees / early Bowie" references in a generally pretty spiffing review. Then, all the way from the USA, a barnstorming account of Mindfilming from 'Access All Areas' Reviewer Tony Sison. Not one to mince his words he ends the review with "I have one statement to make. Get your hands on this album and rediscover your love for great pop music." Good thinking, fella.

02/11/05
Just came across this review from America's Fufkin.com e-zine: "Mindfilming...is the group's debut and within its 32 minutes, the freakbeat enthusiast will find sufficient evidence of genius in tracks like the jaunty "A Very British Earthquake," the dynamic glam-infused "Vaselined Eyes," the folky "No Guarantees" and the intriguing title track.".
Freakbeat, eh? How the hell does anyone keep up with all these sub genres! If everyone stuck to calling what we do 'pop music' we'd all be happy.
Still, genius is always good...

28/10/05
Wow!
I'll say that again, WOW! Cheers to all of you who came down to the Primrose last night and made it such a great night; it was cool and mildly disconcerting playing to a full room! For the poor souls that missed out, the set was pretty much the same as Teatime Shuffle, and looked like this...
Algebra Take Me Dancing
Teaching You To Swim
No Guarantees
Vaselined Eyes
Excuses
The Incredible Commuting Mole (Must Die)
I Haven't Got Any Famous Friends
A Very British Earthquake
Sandman Magazine came along to review the gig (The November issue is just out and has a review of one of the Captain's open mic nights from September, which you can read here).
So all that's left to do is prepare yourselves for the next live extravaganza at The Vine , Headrow, Leeds. Onstage at 8pm, tickets are £4. Be there.

21/10/05
And extra hot off the press: first live reviews are here! More as and when...

18/10/05
Hot on the heels of the debut comes a FREE! (yeah, you heard right) FREE! gig at The Primrose, 280 Meanwood Road, LS7 Tel: 0113 2621368, next Thursday 27th October onstage around 9.45pm. It'll be a full set with support from various open mic artists. Hope to see you all there...
Don't know if any of you caught the interview on 40,000 Volts on Sunday, but it came out okay - The Captain even let the interviewer get a word in at one point. Oh, and for completists it includes acoustic versions of both 'Algebra Take Me Dancing' and 'Excuses' (Cheers to Daz the mysterious!), so track it down! Bill Everatt on Celtica Radio will be podcasting the show for the next 6 weeks and after that it'll be streamed from here, so there's no reason not to listen in!

15/10/05
So, 1st gig under the belt and only good things to report. The Hifi club is a spanking venue with a proper PA system and someone who knows how to use it. Ok, so by 6.30 the room wasn't quite packed to the rafters, but those who were there made lots of noise: Cheers to all of you who came down! By the time Stateless made their entrance it was standing room only. It was cool to see that reviewers from Music Guru and Sandman Magazine had made the effort. Did they like it - only time will tell...
The setlist (for all you afficionados out there) ran like this:
Born Again Brand New Man
Algebra Take Me Dancing
Teaching You To Swim
No Guarantees
Excuses
The Incredible Commuting Mole (Must Die)
Vaselined Eyes
A Very British Earthquake
I found out afterwards that the gig had been plugged on Leeds Student Radio LSRFM who said "Wilberforce is responsible for British pop in the Ballboy/ Teenage Fan Club mould that you can’t help but tweely bob along to" (More here) which would be grounds for a severe beating if only the Captain wasn't so damn twee himself. Anyway, don't they know that twee is the new rock?

11/10/05
The reviews keep on coming: Music Guru (the essential resource for all things band related in Leeds) say that we have "an uncanny habit of writing some great indie pop songs". Damn right.
Oh, and just a quick heads up - the Captain will be interviewed and play a couple of acoustic tracks on 40,000 Volts this Sunday (16th October) between 9.30pm and 11pm.

07/10/05
Tickets are now available (only £4) for our gig next Friday (Oct 14th) at the Tea Time Shuffle @ The HiFi Club, Central Road, Leeds 0113 2427353 from Jumbo Records or by emailing The Captain. Further info on the gig can be found below (31/8)
Exciting news too, that we're on one of the the coolest sites of the moment MillionDollarHomepage.com though it may take you a while to find us! We challenge you to email us our grid reference - there's a prize in it for the first correct submission!