GLM, A Landslide In Stereo.

The last time I wrote about GLM they'd released a video of their single Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) and were planning to release a 5 track EP this year. Well....things haven't gone to plan, upon hearing the bands new stuff their record label suggested an album instead, the recording of which has been making good progress and it's due out sometime next year. As a little taster GLM have just released a free download single and a video to view over at their website. The single, Smiling Inside is another classic slice of GLM; a bouncy, catchy and killer riff'n'roll tune with a slight pop flavour to it. The video is another great eddieredblood offering, as with all his visuals for GLM it compliments and adds to the music, creating a total artistic assault on the senses. Nearly Home (Tuning Pages) finds Gods Lonely Men at the edge of the unknown. It's like nothing they have recorded before; A beautiful atmospheric anthem, Stark and stripped down, fragile yet solid, haunting and hypnotic, a slow pounding catchy hum. A simple and simply stunning piece of work by GLM.

GLM - Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) THE VIDEO

Here's the video to GLM's Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) featuring Jack Nicholson's back and Nicole Kidman alongside Esso, Pete and Nigel. Great video by eddieredblood for a great song by GLM. Summer Nights is also going to be featured on Can't Stop The Heat, a 5 track EP that GLM are releasing around April/May. The Future Is Calling also makes a return appearance, along with three new ones; Not The Real Thing ,Smiling Inside and There Goes Deborah. Pete Stride (Guitar/Vocals) reckons the new songs are of a “Pretty hard and fast style with a touch of pop at the same time.” He also went on to say that they went for an EP rather than an album, because an album would have taken to long to do, and the band like getting new stuff out as soon as possible to keep people interested. There will also be a video out at the same time as the EP,' GLM's album Chemical Landslide is currently available from their web site at the knock down recession busting price of £4.99. A bargain if you like your Rock'Roll hard, heavy and tuneful. The best songs The Lurkers didn't write!

2013....The Beat Went on!

2013....What's been released this year and going round and round on my CD player. Well....In no particular order we have.... JOHNNY THUNDERS with Hurt Me, this album showed his tender side; stripped naked with just a guitar, a brittle and beautiful listen NIKKI SUDDEN, The Boy From Nowhere Who Fell Out Of The Sky is a six CD box set. A lovingly crafted and compiled collection of Nikki’s work. Both these were reissued by the wonderful Easy Action Records. Sweet Revenge by the criminally ignored Punk'n'Rollers the LIGHTNING RAIDERS, was not so much a re-issue, because back in the day it was never released. Knox may not be touring with THE VIBRATORS but On The Guest List shows he's still part of the band, with a collection of songs that rank amongst the best he's written, and all supported by a cast of special guests. The UK SUBS, they just keep going, and going and getting better as they go, maturing with age disgracefully. CHARLIE HARPER and CAPTAIN SENSIBLE, this was a real surprise Too Much Reality....took Punk to a new Psychedelic underworld of neon grey. GLM, released three blinding Rocky yet slightly poppy download only tracks from their website. DEADCUTS, do just that....they cut you dead! A switch-blade to the throat of all the taste-makers and trend-setters. Deadcuts are out there and have got something special going on. BABYSHAMBLES Sequel To The Prequel, a brilliant album, Pete Doherty has been the only real Great British Rock'n'Roller for the last....fuck knows how long. THE MOB returned with a single Rise Up! an anthemic call to arms. THE FITS, reformed legends of the UK82 Punk scene, returned with some Punk Rockin' action with their Lead On EP. NEW MODEL ARMY, released a dark and moody master piece, and JAMES KING AND THE LONE WOLVES crawled out of the wreckage with some sublime swamp rock blues. Finally a couple of Punk'n'Roll supergroups cut through the crap this year. THE CRUNCH with their album Busy Making Noise which is a blast of pure Power Pop Punk, their line up includes former members of the Cockney Rejects, Lords of New Church/Sham 69 The Clash and Diamond Dogs. THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS, include a Twenty Flight Rocker (Gary Twinn) Sex Pistol (Glen Matlock) a Gen X/Chelsea (James Stevenson) Blondie (Clem Burke.) released three stompin' tracks via their web page. Hopefully an album will be released in 2014. Finally PRIMAL SCREAM's 2013 was a real return to form, a musical and lyrical statement of intent. Well there you have it a year in my Rock'n'Roll world....Here's to the next one!

GLM - Summer Nights (Are never like movies) *A REVIEW*

Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) is the third and final release of 2013 from GLM, like the previous two: A Perfect Storm and The Future is Calling, it's available free from their web-site, and it's another rip roaring riff and lick laden track.... “A landslide on stereo!” Guitars chime, cymbals crash, drums roll and the bass bounces, while Pete tells the tale of someones night out that doesn't end well; the reality is never as exciting as the dream. The strength of Pete's vocals lies in their weakness and vulnerability which fit perfectly with the words and music, non more so than on Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) GLM have saved the best till last, with tunes like this the future is calling and if there is any justice in an unjust world 2014 will see GLM kick up a perfect storm in the world of Rock'n'Roll.  

GLM - THE FUTURE I5 CALLING. (*A REVIEW*)

“LONELINE55 I5 FOLLOWING MY WHOLE LIFE,
 EVERYWHERE, IN BAR5 AND CAR5,  
5IDEWALK5, 5TORE5 – EVERYWHERE, THERE'5 NO E5CAPE.
 I'M GOD5 LONELY MAN.”
-ROBERT DENIRO A5 TRAVI5 BICKLE IN TAXI DRIVER

YOU CAN'T 5TOP THE ROCK, AND GOD5 LONELY MEN JU5T KEEP ON ROCKIN' FOLLOWING ON FROM MAY'5 A PERFECT 5TORM, THERE'5 ANOTHER NEW TUNE, THE FUTURE I5 CALLING UP ON THEIR WEB PAGE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE, AND YOU'D BE A FOOL IF YOU DIDN'T. IT'5 A 5OLID 5LAB OF 5LEAZY POP'N'ROLL, A5 CATCHY A5 A WINTER COLD AND THE CLO5E5T THEY HAVE COME TO 5OUNDING LIKE THEIR FORMER LURKING 5ELVE5. WITH EVERY RELEA5E THEY UNLEA5H GLM JU5T GET BETTER AND BETTER. HERE'5 TO THE NEXT ONE.

GLM - New Single

“Feel the power, Feel the heat” of a new GLM single; A Perfect Storm, which is available to download for free....now at their website!

GLM have developed their own unique and distinctive sound, a pounding, pulsing Punk and Metal hybrid with a dark pop undercurrent. A Perfect Storm is a catchy and hook laden song that crashes into your head then cruises around it. You'd be crazy not to give it a blast!  

GLM - Now Is The Winter

Like what you've seen and heard? Then visit the GLM website, where there's a new video for the album track Surviving to watch, there are also a few songs from their Chemical Landslide album to listen to, you can also get the album from there. In these trouble torn times thank fuck for bands like GLM blasting away all the bullshit with some good old honest Rock'n'Roll!

GODS LONELY MEN - Article/Review/Interview.

Chemical Landslide is the album by GLM (Gods Lonely Men) What an album....Fourteen tracks of Rock'n'Roll energy from Pete Stride, Pete 'Esso' Haynes and Nigel Moore, formerly known as The Lurkers. GLM could easily have become The Lurkers MKIII, but they are not, they've kept a link to their past but aimed straight for the future, and....Bullseye! They've hit the target! 2013 not 1977/78. The progression of time is reflected in the song-writing and playing, which sounds now and not then. There is that old Lurkers feel to the songs on Chemical Landslide, but there's something else, something a bit heavier and darker, a claustrophobic beauty and bleakness, a warm darkness that engulfs and absorbs you.

What follows is an Interview/Article/Feature on GLM. It has been constructed from some emailed questions to Pete Stride and Nigel Moore, and a phone call from Pete'Esso'Haynes.

During the conversation with Esso I probably did too much listening and talking and not enough writing of notes, and then struggling to read the hasty scribblings I did take. Anyway, enough let the show begin.

Nigel Moore - Bass

HOW COME ITS TAKEN NEARLY 30 YEARS FOR YOU GUYS TO RECORD/RELEASE MORE MUSIC?

I think we all just wanted to do different things and none of us wanted to join up and just trot out old Lurkers numbers again and again.  Happily once we decided to start recording again the creative juices flowed easily.  If it had been a painful process we would have knocked it on the head. - Nigel Moore

I got a phone call from Nigel a couple of years ago,could I meet him and Esso down the road (pub) that night to talk about getting back together and making an album, well that sounded good cos I had started playing quite a lot of guitar again after a long break and I also had some rough ideas for a couple of songs. So anyway we met up and it became clear that none of us was too keen on going out as The Lurkers yet again. we felt that the name had been very over exposed and devalued through Arturo’s efforts. Esso suggested Gods Lonely Men so that there was a clear link which old fans would pick up on, and I said lets make it a bit more punchy and go for GLM. So it was decided......- Pete Stride

WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING DURING YOUR HIATUS?

Pete'Esso'Haynes - Drums

I gave up touring with the Lurkers in 1990,Ii wasnt enjoying it anymore,once Esso and Nigel had left it really didnt feel like the same band.i took a good long break from music and then around "95 I started learning about recording and mixing stuff in a small home studio  .I was doing stuff with keyboards and drum machines and it was good fun for a while.  I started getting back to playing guitar again about 5 years ago – Pete Stride

I went off to University directly after I quit The Lurkers but I've kept playing in bands/writing music practically all through.  I even played drums (sort of) and recorded in a Rockabilly/Rock & Roll band for a while –Nigel Moore

Pete'Esso'Haynes also went to University, lived in Belfast and worked with a victims group, and has had several books published, including one called Gods Lonely Men, which takes “an insiders journey through Punk Rock while maintaining an outsiders view on society” Check out his website for more info about his books and plays.

HOW COME THE SOUND HAS BECOME HEAVIER AND THE SONGS DARKER THANTHOSE YOU DID WITH THE LURKERS?

The heavier sound just developed naturally,we didnt plan it out that way.but once i started using the more "metal"guitar sounds everything seemed to fall into place.the effect of having my voice(which is quite light sometimes) combined with the hard guitars gives a bit of an atmosphere to the material i think,makes it a bit "haunting"maybe. also the lyrics are somewhat darker than in the past but I will say more about that later.... -Pete Stride.

WAS IT A DELIBERATE MOVE NOT TO BE THE LURKERS MK3?

We wanted to add to the old Lurk's sound not ignore it. It's important to keep up your interest when rehearsing/recording songs and to do this you must challenge yourself musically otherwise you get a severe case of head rot. To my mind a band that is simply trying to recreate their old glories 30 years on is pitiful, it shows a complete lack of imagination. With 'Chemical Landslide' The Lurkers sound has been added to not ignored. - Nigel Moore

It took 3 years to record We didn't attempt to make it sound like anything different. The sound just evolved naturally as there was no pressure with recording or releasing the songs. - Pete'Esso'Haynes

WHAT HAS THE RESPONSE/REACTION TO THE ALBUM BEEN LIKE?

Really good.  We've had constantly good reviews from all publications we sent the album to and positive comments on our web site from those who have bought the album. - Nigel Moore

Actually I am very chuffed with the reaction to the album,we have had some of the best reviews we have ever had. I think people realise that we are putting a lot into it and genuinely trying make exciting and current music that isn’t stuck in the past.
Also we have just started to get some airplay on underground and college radio in the States which should help to get our name out there, we know its gonna be a slow process but that’s fine. - Pete Stride

It was recorded live in a small box room, using no click track or funny trickery. The drums were recorded in one take, which gave a raw live feel, with no time to be flash as we had limited resources. - Pete'Esso'Haynes

Esso feels that GLM have a broader sound than the punk bands of today, with poppy melodies and dark lyrics, he then talked about getting the album played on Metal/Rock Radio Stations, and went on to say that the band are proud of the album. (...and so they should be.)

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WERE EXPECTING A LURKERS MK3?

Yes.  This was a concern all through recording, would the old Lurk's fans reject it.  Luckily this has not been the case. - Nigel Moore

The band were not restrained by boundaries or barriers. - Pete'Esso'Haynes

Pete Stride - Vocals/Guitar.

Now I'll hand you over to Pete Stride to talk us through the recording of some of the songs on the album and how some of the lyrics came about. Although Pete is the main songwriter, as Esso pointed out GLM are greater than the sum of their parts. Here we go then....Pete's thoughts about the albums recording, and some of its significant songs.

Now is the Winter

Very important song for us,it was the first and also the basic GLM sound was developed during its recording. When we began I had the opening riff and the verse and a rough chorus,it sounded ok but needed a bit extra. We decided that halfway through there would be a total stop and there would be some kind of solo guitar part which would lift things up. so we tried it a few times but I wasn’t coming up with anything very exciting,then out of the blue I switched to a big metal guitar sound I had programmed into an old digitech stomp box and just started playing this really nasty but cool riff the others joined in one by one and we just played that riff for about 3 minutes,when we stopped we all just looked at each other and said "that’s it,that the fucking sound" .Once the song was recorded I did a mix of it which was ok but simply not loud enough to compete with pro stuff,I sent it off to a mastering studio I found online. A couple of days later the man from the studio called,he sounded a bit shocked,he said all the dials in his studio had all gone straight into the red and he wasn’t able to work with it. Esso made some calls and Pat Collier was recommended , we took a long drive across London to Pats studio and he said no problem he would mix it for us and he ended up mixing the whole album eventually.

Beyond the Pale

We wanted to try and do something that wasn’t 4/4 time and also had a quiet/loud dynamic like Nirvana,think it worked out well and is maybe my best vocal, think I had all the vocals recorded within an hour or so which is pretty good its also got some impressive drumming from Esso.

Chemical Landslide

Probably the most obvious "single"on the album, very tight arrangement and plenty of attack. Nigel came up with the end chorus section which really lifts the song towards the end. maybe the vocal is a bit light but I think it works ok.
When we came to record Landslide coda we still had our guitars tuned down from some earlier songs and I don’t think the key was great for my voice but we were running out of time so we let it go.

Every nights a story

With this song the whole sound came together and it became the benchmark for the songs which followed Pretty good vocal and a big bonus for me was having some space to let rip on the lead guitar for a change.

Army of angels

We were going for a real metal sound on this one,don’t think we quite managed that but its meaty stuff and a nice big chorus too.

Now here is a little bit from Pete about the lyrics: 

Often the lyrics just come into my head without really thinking about it and I will write them down and try an make sense of it all later,I think it is important for me to work like that because I feel that I am getting some kind of emotional "truth"that way, also I have steered clear of trying to force concepts into songs on this album. There is a definite darker feel to the words now which I wasn’t particularly aware of until other people started mentioning it. Hopefully its not actually depressing though, I think maybe a lot of it is simply to do with getting older and going through all the things which that entails, my mum was extremely ill and only just made it through and I also lost a good friend who died ,so it all has an effect on you,

I'd like to thank Pete, Pete and Nigel for taking the time and effort to make this post happen, but for more importantly recording and releasing, a very special album, one of the best I've heard in a long while.  Right then....That's it for this article/interview/feature, all that's remains to be said is to get hold of a copy of the album. It drops you down then picks you up while punching the air and kicking the ground at the same time. Lurkers fans will not be disappointed, because some of the tunes on Chemical Landslide are the best that The Lurkers never wrote. Get hold of a copy from their web-site.  There are no immediate plans for any GLM gigs, but they do intend to play live in the not to distant future.