Lots of great news to impart, so make yourself comfortable & pin back your ear ‘oles…!!

Personally speaking the recent dates we played on our 25th anniversary UK tour were an AMAZING experience. OK, admittedly, some of it felt like ‘missionary work’ in Aberdeen, Colchester & a surprisingly low attended Liverpool on a Monday night – BUT Manchester, Birmingham, Bedford, Newcastle, Sheffield & (best of all for me for a variety of interconnected reasons I’m not going into here!!) Glasgow were ALL knock-out gigs, ace nights. Thank you ALL so much for your good taste & appreciation of what we do. We’d missed playing to our British fans, something brother Chris & I really wanted to do ever since we reformed The Godfathers in 2008 but were unable to pursue because previous line-ups point blank refused to undertake such a tour. I’m SO glad that WE did it. I think we proved beyond any doubt that the Coyne/Coyne/Bartle/Nicholas formation certainly delivers the rock & roll goods – ask ANY British fan that saw those concerts, I’m sure they’ll have to agree. When certain elements are in place THIS band rocks like no other on the planet. ‘I Can’t Sleep Tonight’ & ‘Back Into The Future’ worked their magic every night, with many punters complimenting us by saying they were the best songs in the set. We met so many great characters on this highly enjoyable tour, too many to mention individually here, & it was absolutely OUR pleasure to meet up with you all afterwards & have the chat. So thank you ALL!!

This Sunday 23rd May we play the Orange Blossom Special festival in Beverungen, Germany, described by Rolling Stone as one of THE best in the world. A beautiful outdoor, Alpine setting & The Godfathers live & evil onstage? What’s not to like - so get your arses down to OBS this weekend & we’ll promise to give you a sonic experience you WON’T forget!! Michael H, Stefanie & Andrea please get in touch with me if you’re likely to be attending & I’m sure I can sort a number of things out for you…We look after our fans, see.

Here’s the plan on recording & NEW releases. Between live dates we have started recording versions of ‘Back Into The Future’ & ‘I Can’t Sleep Tonight,’ which along with 2 other brand new, killer songs will be released/unleashed on Corporate Image in early October 2010. This October release will be the FIRST new extended play release in a series of 3 EP’s – we want to follow that EP release with another 4 track EP release of new material in February/March 2011 & then the third in June/July 2011. ALSO later in October or early November 2010 The Godfathers will be releasing a 6 track TOTALLY live mini-album featuring AMAZING (trust me!!) versions of ‘Public Enemy Number One’, ‘Birth School Work Death’, ‘I Can’t Sleep Tonight’, ‘Back Into The Future’, ‘Cause I Said So’ & ‘I Want Everything’. These live versions were recorded in an Amsterdam studio late last month for a live session for top Dutch radio station 2 Meter between our dates in Holland. Great studio sound, TOTALLY live, with fantastic performances all round from everybody in the band. As a live document of where this band is at right now we thought it was TOO good not to release it…so that’s coming out as well. Around ALL these releases The Godfathers will be doing one of the things we love to do best, playing LIVE…with dates in the UK, Europe & (at long last for our long suffering Scandinavian fans) concerts in Finland, Sweden, Denmark & Norway being scheduled for October 2010. We are also SERIOUSLY working hard at setting up a LENGTHY US tour at some stage & might also be returning to Australia as well!! Please be patient, American & Aussie fans – we’re like you, we want EVERYTHING & we want it NOW! But it will happen WHEN it happens & I can assure you we are doing ALL in OUR power to make that happen

So looking forward to the 100 Club on Thursday 17th June!! Commemorating exactly 25 years since The Godfathers played their first gig ever at London’s Embassy Club on June 17th back in ’85, the 100 Club (which we’ve ALWAYS wanted to play but somehow NEVER got round to) is going to be a very special event in the career of The Godfathers. In the last few days we have confirmed the very excellent Fabulous Penetrators as our special guests for the evening & it has all the hallmarks in place for a superb evening. If you lot don’t sing Happy Birthday to us on the night, then we’ll take you out of the 100 Club, line you up along Oxford Street & have you shot!! We’ve performed enough songs for you over the years!!!

To wrap things up here, we might be adding 1 or 2 more tasty European festivals this summer as well as playing Strummercamp, Mid Summer Fayre & Rebellion in the UK. Also we’ll be putting 100 pictures up on MySpace over the next few weeks as part of our promise to release 250 NEW, RARE & CLASSIC photos to celebrate this 25 year anniversary thang.

All GOOD, BRING IT ON!!

So, one week to go till our Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre at ULU. Has it been a year already since we played The Metro in Chicago? Time certainly flies…

Quite a few people have asked who is the sultry looking woman featured on the flyer/posters for this years SVDM at ULU. That’s the damn fine actress Gloria Grahame. She appeared in many film noirs, starred alongside James Stewart as the good time girl gone bad in the perennial Xmas classic ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ & in a highly memorable scene psychotic gangster Lee Marvin throws a pot of scalding coffee into her face in Fritz Lang’s ‘The Big Heat’. They don’t make ‘em like that any more!

I can confirm The Godfathers will definitely be playing at least 2 brand new songs on Valentine’s Day at ULU. Our song writing endeavours have been going really well recently & we now have about 12 superb new numbers in the bag, so we’re 50% of the way towards our projected target of 24 numbers to choose from for the new album. I am very, very pleased with the songs Chris, Del & I have come up with so far. The three of us always were a great song writing team together in The Sid Presley Experience days, coming up with several bona fide classics & it’s great to hear that artistic link remains unbroken.  More importantly for us we are having enormous fun putting them all together. I would urge fans to please be patient while this process takes place. I know you want everything & you want it now, but for Del, Chris, Grant & I it’s finished when WE say it’s finished. We’ll make sure that the eventual results are certainly worth waiting for. But in the meantime we’ll be delivering a couple of sonic treats onstage at ULU on Sunday February 14th to whet your appetites for the forthcoming album.

Anybody who hasn’t seen our ULU special guests The Nightingales before is in for a serious treat, they are a fantastic live band – sort of like a rocking version of The Fall, but in my humble opinion a million times better. Their singer/front man/head honcho Robert Lloyd is a great character/wordsmith – I saw him once trying to get a couple of disinterested punters to clap along to The Nightingales’ throbbing beat, when they point blank refused Robert pulled out a £5 note, gave it to them & they instantly complied. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.

The Godfathers will be playing lots of festivals/concerts all over Europe in 2010 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band’s formation in ’85. Full details to be announced in the coming weeks.

Right, I’m off to be interviewed on Resonance FM – hope to see you all at ULU on Valentine’s Day.

Peter Coyne/The Godfathers

The Godfathers have revealed news of a brand new line-up, following the amicable departure of Mike Gibson and George Mazur from the band. Founding members Peter Coyne (vocals) & Chris Coyne (bass/vocals) together with original Sid Presley Experience guitarist Del Bartle (who joined spring 2009, effectively combining two classic cult rock & roll bands into one) are now joined by former drummer Grant Nicholas. Nicholas played several world tours with The Godfathers during the 1990's, performing (& co-writing some numbers) on The Godfathers’ last studio album ‘Afterlife’.  Bartle was the co-author with the Coyne brothers of The Sid Presley Experience’s smash independent single ‘Public Enemy Number One’/’Hup 2 3 4’ and also co-wrote several songs for The Godfathers’ classic debut album ‘Hit By Hit’.

Support at the SVDM gig at ULU in Malet Street, London on Sunday February 14th 2010, will be provided by the Godfathers special guests The Nightingales. The influential indie sensations will be supplying alternative punk rock & roll and there will also be rocking sounds from DJ Martyn Myers of Bonanza and Resonance FM fame.

The GODFATHERS

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre at ULU, London – with special guests

Sunday 14th February 2010

Tickets available from 0844 477 1000 and www.ticketweb.co.uk

Legendary British rock & roll band The Godfathers celebrate 25 years since the group’s formation in ’85 by announcing details of a Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre concert in London in 2010 & their first German tour in over a decade in December ’09.

The Godfathers will headline ULU in Malet Street, London on Sunday February 14th 2010 with special guests to be confirmed closer to the date. Tickets for The Godfathers’ Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre concert at ULU are available now from www.ticketweb.co.uk www.seetickets.com www.ticketmaster.com

The Godfathers will also play Schlachtof, Wiesbaden on 14th December, Bang Bang club, Berlin on 15th December, Lagerhaus, Osnabruck on 16th December, Backstage, Munich on 17th December, Waldsee, Freiburg on 18th December, Red Hot, Juchen on 19th December and Molotow, Hamburg on 20th December ‘09.

The Godfathers are currently writing material for a brand new album to be released sometime in 2010, their first studio album since ‘Afterlife’ in ’95.

ULU, London - Listing

Date: Sunday 14th February 2010
Venue:  ULU
Address: ULU, University of London Union, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY
Doors:7pm - 11pm
Admission: £12.50 Adv - £14 on door

It is my absolute pleasure to100% confirm that The Godfathers (that’s Peter Coyne, Chris Coyne, Mike Gibson, George Mazur & Del Bartle to you) are currently all writing new material for a brand new Godfathers album to be released SOMETIME in 2010. There have indeed been many distractions along the way since we reformed last year, but right now I’m tingling with excitement at the prospect of our creative sparks rubbing together and what we are going to come up with next!! I’d like to see us write at least 20-25 great numbers first & then select the absolute best 12-14 for single/album release next year. What ‘direction’ or ‘shape’ or ‘form’ this new material will eventually take is down to us as individuals & as a group – but I’d personally want to hear plenty of freaky rock & roll music, ultra-melodic stuff that gets stuck in your brain & won’t let go, something shockingly different to the majority of crap that masquerades as modern music these days…you know, The Godfathers - but NOW!!

As far as I’m concerned we’ve already made a great start to our song-writing with a number of absolute crackers under our belts already (a couple of work-in-progress titles to share with you here, ‘Back Into The Future’ & ‘Primitive Man’) but of course at this very early stage of our endeavours it’s hard to tell whether these may or may not appear on any eventual release – nothing’s set in stone. That’s just the tip of the iceberg coming your way, but all of us in the band have definitely got a lot of serious work to do on the composing/writing front this summer/autumn. Sure we love performing fantastic songs like ‘I Want Everything’, ‘Birth School Work Death’ & ‘Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues’, but we want to be able to add those classic numbers & complement them with shit-hot new material as & when we see fit. We’re The Godfathers, that’s our right & I’m really looking forward to the adventure, the challenge & the tremendous buzz of it all.

Wish us well & trust in our taste!!

Peter Coyne/The Godfathers

PS Don’t forget The Godfathers are onstage at The Garage on Friday 24th July bang on at 8:40pm as there is a strict 10:00pm curfew – so come early!! See you all there at a red-hot & sticky Garage – we’ll be playing a couple of classics we haven’t tried previously!!

Live at The Garage, London – with special guests The Priscillas & Sleaford Mods

Friday 24th July 2009

Tickets available from 08700 600 100 and www.ticketweb.co.uk

I can confirm that The Godfathers’ recent tour of Spain & the Basque country was (as per usual) a fantastic experience for both the band and our beloved audience. It has always been an absolute pleasure for us to tour in this beautiful part of the world and our recent trip there was no exception to this rule. Temperature wise Spain was very hot and musically so were The Godfathers. Let me give you a little taste of what went down…

Our first port of call was a very early 8:30 concert (usually in Spain you go onstage around midnight) at Intersecciones in Gijon – a cultural centre that puts on theatre productions, cinema and the occasional gig. It was a packed, seated auditorium, but after a swift tongue-lashing from my good self we soon had the entire audience up on their feet and rocking away. The next venue Gruta 77 in Madrid reminded me very much of the famed Marquee club in London’s Wardour Street (where back in the day we made our bones as a band) and it was in Madrid that The Godfathers really got into our stride and started to hit the nail firmly on the head. Former Sid Presley Experience axe hero Del Bartle is and always has been an exceptionally talented rock and roll guitarist. Del is a lovely, lovely guy and a great songwriter/performer to boot – mark my words and make no mistake about it he is going to prove to be a very serious addition to The Godfathers’ line-up. Playing to our strengths we’d added two classic Sid Presley Experience numbers to our set (nifty versions of ‘Hup Two Three Four’ and ‘Public Enemy Number One’) and the Gibson/Bartle guitar partnership was sizzling away nicely. ‘Puta Madre’ is a particularly salty, evocative expression peculiar to Spain – the closest equivalent in English would be ‘fucking great’ or perhaps more precisely ‘THE dog’s bollocks’. Well on that balmy night in Madrid at Gruta 77 The Godfathers were indeed PUTA MADRE and the assembled crowd loved us for it and noisily demanded several encores. Mucho gracias Madrid!!

Valencia’s Durango club is a little bit like the Titty Twister in ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ without the vampires. Whatever genius put this venue together certainly knew what they were doing. I have to be honest, while we didn’t exactly reach the mighty heights of the previous night’s show in Madrid (an extended ‘celebration’ with our fans afterwards coupled with an enormously long drive dread early the next day to Valencia probably didn’t help) we were still pretty damn good. But in true Godfathers’ fashion we saved the best till last. Helldorado in Vitoria (or to rightfully give this amazing city it’s proper Basque name, Gasteiz) is quite simply one of the best venues I have ever played. The Godfathers rose magnificently to the occasion and duly delivered a corker of a set that many of our Basque fans thought topped the stunning, sold-out show we performed in February last year at Café Antzokia. My brother Chris & I are very proud to be Irish and our Basque brothers and sisters are certainly just as equally proud and protective of their heritage. Like the Irish the Basque people have the same generosity of spirit, the same beautiful madness, the same lust for life and The Godfathers have always felt very much at home in this region. They are lovely, lovely, lovely people. The food is so good here that even our drummer George was asking for more and let me tell you that our Mr Mazur is very, very choosy about what he puts down his neck!! So, all in all, a great trip.

Before finishing I would like to extend special thanks to all our Spanish and Basque fans for their fantastic support (we know that you love us, but we love you MORE) our soundman Max Bisgrove for his super-sonic assistance (there’s only one Max Bisgrove!) and our Spanish/Basque promoters Inigo & Gorka from Noise On Tour for ALL their hard work on the tour and bringing us back to Spain and the Basque region. Lastly I want to say thanks to Mike Gibson, George Mazur, Del Bartle and little brother Chris Coyne for making it all happen. Please feel free to check out some great photos that the band themselves took on our Spanish/Basque jaunt on the photos section of www.myspace.com/theoriginalgodfathers with a session by a professional photographer from the same tour coming real soon.

Next up for The Godfathers is Petrol club in Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday 13th June and The Garage in London on Friday 24th July.  As the Fab Four once wisely put it a splendid time is guaranteed for all and I for one can’t fucking wait !!!

Peter Coyne/The Godfathers

The Godfathers

Live at The Garage, London – with special guests

Friday 24th July 2009

Tickets available from 08700 600 100 and www.ticketweb.co.uk

The Godfathers have announced details of a new London show and European dates as well as revealing that former Sid Presley Experience guitarist Del Bartle has replaced Kris Dollimore in the line up following The Godfathers’ first ever American Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre concert in Chicago last month.

The Godfathers will headline the newly refurbished Garage in London on Friday 24th July with special guests to be confirmed closer to the date. Tickets for The Godfathers at The Garage are available now from www.ticketweb.co.uk

Del Bartle had previously played alongside Godfather brothers Peter and Chris Coyne in their legendary cult rock and roll band The Sid Presley Experience in the mid 80’s. Bartle was the co-author with the Coyne brothers of The Sid Presley Experience’s smash independent debut single ‘Public Enemy Number One’/’Hup Two Three Four’ and also co-wrote several songs with them for The Godfathers’ debut album ‘Hit By Hit’. 

Del Bartle joins Peter Coyne (vocals), Chris Coyne (bass), Mike Gibson (guitar) and George Mazur (drums) on The Godfathers’ forthcoming May Spanish tour -
Intersecciones, Gijon on Tuesday 19th May, Gruta 77, Madrid on 20th May, Durango Club, Valencia on 21st May and Helldorado, Vitoria on 22nd May.

The Godfathers also play The Petrol club in Antwerp on Saturday June 13th.

More European dates and festivals for the band are expected to be announced shortly. In 2008 The Godfathers vastly expanded 2 CD re-issue of their classic debut album ‘Hit By Hit’ was released to significant acclaim on the band’s own Corporate Image label. 

www.godfathershq.com                                      www.myspace.com/theoriginalgodfathers

Press enquiries - godfathershq@googlemail.com

The Garage, London - Listing

Date: Friday 24th July 2009
Venue:  The Garage
Address: 20-22 Highbury Corner, London, N5 1RD
Doors: 6.30-10 pm
Admission: £ 14 Adv
Tube: Highbury & Islington (Victoria Line)
Box Office: 08700 600 100

The Godfathers have announced that former Sid Presley Experience guitarist Del Bartle has replaced original Godfathers member, Kris Dollimore in the line up.

The Godfathers’ Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre at The Metro, Chicago proved to be some kind of rock & roll miracle. The following are some of the more salient, gory details fit to print! We landed at O’Hare airport on Friday 13th February (note the auspicious date…) WITHOUT bass playing brother Chris Coyne. US Homeland security in their infinite wisdom did not clear Chris’ work visa in time for him to travel – a gutting blow to Chris & the rest of the band we only discovered on the eve of our departure to the States. With the US tour being cancelled only a few weeks before, there was no way on God’s earth that The Godfathers were not going to play Chicago. Same as I said on stage that night, only death could stop me performing at The Metro. I saw it as a debt of honour to our American fans. So our American agent, the very excellent & luvverly Matt Suhar, lined up a stand-in bass player, Steve Jacula, who had most certainly done his ‘homework’ in learning our songs & approximating Chris Coyne’s inimitable bass sound. After sleeping off the jetlag we rehearsed the whole set once with Steve on Valentine’s morning (A big thank you to Todd for letting us use his rehearsal studio at such short notice) & then off to The Metro for the sound-check & an interview with Fayth Koga from NBC.

Godfathers’ US tour cancelled due to economic meltdown but Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre show at The Metro in Chicago is still on!

THE GODFATHERS had hoped to tour the USA for the first time in 20 years through February. And it is with sincere regret that the group have to announce that this tour has now been severely curtailed due to the ongoing credit crunch. In the financial Armageddon currently laying waste to banks and financial institutions there are plenty of innocent victims. CD and record shops, music retailers, venues and record companies are all struggling to survive the collective belt-tightening of a world living in fear for it's jobs and security.

The Godfathers' projected US tour in February is the latest victim of this financial meltdown. Only announced just before Christmas, the seismic shifts in the world economy and general doom and gloom in the music business has unfortunately led the tour to be radically restructured.

THE GODFATHERS FEBRUARY 2009 US TOUR (* CANCELLED)

* Wednesday 11 Boston, MA-The Middle East
* Thursday 12 Washington DC-9.30 Club
* Friday 13 Cleveland, OH-The Grog Shop
Saturday 14 Chicago, IL-The Metro
* Sunday 15 Minneapolis, MN-Seventh Street Entry
* Monday 16 Milwaukee, WI-The Shank House
* Wednesday 18 Hoboken, NJ-Maxwells
* Thursday 19 Brooklyn, NY-The Bell House

Hello everybody

Since I last wrote The Godfathers have played some pretty amazing concerts around Europe. A storming set at Ancienne Belgique, Brussels in May (the promoter kindly included several cases of cherry beer in our rider that night which helped fuel a lively after-show party attended by PV Ramone, the ever-gracious Gandolfi brothers - who had flown in from London especially to see the show – and various other chums of the band. For aural and visual proof of a fantastic night in Belgium please feel free to check out MP3s of great versions of  ‘Those Days Are Over’ and ‘I Don’t Believe In You’ here and Sandra de Bruyne’s stunning set of B&W photos of our gig here. This was followed in June by an appearance at the Nova Rock Festival, Austria. Nova Rock is a massive 3 day festival and the roster of artists appearing this year was highly impressive – Sex Pistols, Motorhead, Rage Against The Machine and The Verve, who headlined the night we played. I thought The Godfathers performed well and it was great to catch up again with Justin Sullivan and the New Model Army lads who go way back. I can also confirm Mike Gibson’s account in his previous blog of wine-based debauchery back at our Austrian hotel – the night before we actually played Nova Rock we got so pissed on the delicious, locally produced vino we couldn’t even be bothered to see The Pistols! Now that’s punk rock!!

Hope to see you all somewhere on planet earth very soon...

Peter Coyne/The Godfathers

I know everybody in the band had a blast playing all those great songs again and we could really feel the love coming back from the audience. The 4 Spanish concerts in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia (whoever stole my tambourine off the stage there, keep it I got me a new one!) and Bilbao (my personal favourite of the 4 at Kafe Antzokia in the Basque region) that preceded The Forum show were also a fantastic, uplifting experience for us all. If anybody took photos or shot film at The Forum or in Spain, please do send them in to us as we'd love to see them. Our fans are truly the best - without you we're nothing!! Contrary to our public persona The Godfathers are very approachable people and we really, really enjoyed meeting up with everybody after the concerts. Next stop for The Godfathers is the two dates in Greece in Athens and Thessalonika on the 14th and 15th March and we are well and truly revved up for them and can't wait to play again. I always saw the 4 dates in Spain, the Valentine's Day Massacre at The Forum and the 2 dates in Greece very much as stage 1 of what we are doing this year with the band. What stage 2 is going to be - I haven't got a clue at this present moment in time, but I certainly hope it includes playing more concerts and festivals around the world with The Godfathers. I would also like to publicly extend thanks and love to Chris, Kris, Mike and George - gentlemen, it's been a privilege, an enormous pleasure and a fucking great blast!! Let's do some more!!!