The Day Seattle Died
Many people do not realise that April 5th is a significant day in this Grunge Rock history. The reason being is, that April the 5th was the day that both Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley, sadly, left us. Different years (1994 & 2002), but coincidentally the same date. For those of you that already knew, you will appreciate that it is a sad time of year for die-hard Grunge Fans around ‘the day that Seattle died.’
Music has always been an ever-evolving beast, from rock and roll in the 50’s, psychedelia in the 60’s, disco and punk in the 70’s and electronic music in the 80’s…then something happened in the air over a town in the north of the USA…perhaps a touch from the Rock Gods? Whatever it was, a new movement began to grow in Seattle, which became a seedbed for some truly astonishing new music by extraordinary musicians with other-worldly lead vocalists.
Spearheaded by a meteoric rise of a local 3 piece that you may have heard of…Nirvana…other bands rode the wave and became global stars themselves; particularly Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. And so Grunge was born…not so much a ‘sound’ (although Seattle Sound has been used to describe it) but a collective movement, all hailing from the same remarkable breeding ground. Some have even said…that Grunge is in the soul, not the sound!
Like many musical movements, some fantastic music was produced and many fans acquired, but perhaps one of the truly great things about this new music was the power of the vocalists…truly iconic voices. Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder – do we need to go on?! All playing in the same town (OK, grunge purists – we know Eddie wasn’t technically from that area). What was in the water there?!
Sadly, we have lost many of these star talents far too early. Many of us remember where we were when we heard the news that Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley had died. More recently, we’ve suffered the grief of losing Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) and tragically Chris Cornell last year. Even before all of these, Andy Wood from Mother Love Bone; the pre-cursor band for Pearl Jam. Many people have joked about bubble wrapping Eddie Vedder, but perhaps it’s not such a bad idea. We’ve lost too many already.
Whilst we acknowledge that April 5th is a sad time of year for Grunge Fans, our band likes to get out and gig around this time, to help celebrate the lives of the late greats.
Grungecase – celebrating the lives of Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain.
We are honoured to be playing The Sussex Music Festival (SMF) again this year. Partly as a Showcase (or Grungecase) for bands playing at the festival this year, they have joined us in organising a gig to celebrate the lives & music of the legends that we lost, on the 5th of April! What better way to remember KURT COBAIN & LAYNE STAYLEY than by playing their music…LIVE & LOUD!
The night will feature three of the hottest new original grunge acts around, who will be paying tribute to NIRVANA and ALICE IN CHAINS, but at the same time reassuring you that Seattle Sound is very much alive and well!
SMF Grungecase – 5th April – Line Up
From Fire – will be the first band to be slapping the audience around the ears as they open the night with their badass blend of alternative rock and epic melody-driven sounding songs. These boys are local to Guildford, and we can’t wait to see them rocking the Star!
Echoes in Red – from West Sussex, Echoes in Red are a solid three piece hard rock band, creating highly accessible hard rock sounds, with soaring choruses and melodies. For fans of Nirvana, QOTSA, Dinosaur Pile-up, Foo Fighters, Royal Blood and many more. These guys are also rocking the Sussex Music Festival this year, and boy, are they an electric act to catch!
There you have it, Grungecase is featuring a selection of the best local, Seattle sounding, bands that the UK has to offer, so don’t stay home alone on this sad day… get out… and come and celebrate with us, and be around your Grunge Brothers & Sisters…and rock out! What better way to pay tribute to… ALL… our fallen heroes.
Help build the Grungecase Intermission Playlist
Simply click the link below, follow the playlist author on spotify, and then you can start adding songs to the playlist. Alternatively, let us know what your favourite songs are, in the comments below, so that we can add them to the list for you. The bands will also be looking to see if they can pick a couple of songs from the playlist to play live on the night…so get your favourite tracks in there as soon as you can!
Loud love – Free Recovery
x \m/ x
P.S.
GRUNGE IS NOT DEAD!!
Rock Wars (US v UK)
Our first headline show in some time coming up this Feb 10th, get your early bird tickets now! #freerecovery #freerecoverygigs
The Backroom at the Star (#Guildford) presents – Rock Wars (US v UK).
Featuring some of the best rock bands from the UK and the US of A. Two American Bands & Two UK bands go head to head, by grabbing each other by the rock horns! \m/ #ROCKWARS #STARWARS #ENDOR \m/
Book Now!
In the Red Corner (playing for the UK) we have Free Recovery and Sons of Endor; two of the finest local rock bands that the UK has to offer.
In the Blue Corner (playing for the US of A) we have Pure Ed and Radio Cult; two awesome American rock bands who will both be on tour from America this February…so don’t miss them.
Rock Fans will be the winner on this epic night, as bands from across the Atlantic come together to rock your socks off!
Rock Wars (UK v US)
–Stage Times–
19:45-20:15 Radio Cult
20:30-21:00 Sons of Endor
21:15-22:00 Pure Ed
22:15-23:30 Free Recovery
The venue capacity is limited and whilst tickets have been allocated to be sold at the door we will only be allowed to do so until the venue reaches capacity. So please make sure you get your tickets online to avoid any disappointment.
Tickets are £7 online and £8 on the door or £4 for students.
Get your tickets here……and you will rock!
Book Now!
Rock Wars – opening band ‘Radio Cult’ in action.
#yeshallrock
\m/
Free Recovery
Pure Ed
Sons of Endor
Radio Cult
Staycation Live Festival Gig 2016
Free Recovery is glad to announce that it is playing the main stage at Staycation Live Festival on Saturday the 6th August 2016 from 1:20pm-2:20pm, and is calling all rock fans to come out and support their show.
Free Recovery’s sell out grunge tribute gig at the Asahi Backroom at the Star, Guildford. Photo by David Pullinger
Free Recovery frontman Jimmy is excited to play in the town where he first started gigging and eventually went on to run the open mic at the Red Lion pub in Godalming, before starting the band.
“The band is really stoked to be playing Staycation. It kinda feels like ‘coming home’ for me, so it would be great to see a big turn-out to support us and rock music in general.” Jimmy
Staycation Live is one of Surrey’s fastest growing music and arts festivals, with an ethos for showcasing a broad range of music, food and entertainment, and this year it is adding grunge rock band Free Recovery to the lineup, which now gives a lot of rock fan/festival goers something to rock out to! Free Recovery who recently released their debut EP in 2015, has been recognised by Classic Rock Magazine (click here to find out more) as one of the most up-and-coming bands of 2016; so don’t miss their blend of full-fat grunge rock if you are going to Staycation Live Festival this year.
Although a free entry event, Staycation do ask that you please support the event and its chosen charity by donating on the gate and in any of the collection buckets you will see floating around on site throughout.
This year the chosen charity is Godalming based charity Halow Project.
Starting with the Headline Act, the lineup for the Saturday afternoon is:
Jenna and the G’s
Ushti BABA
Jeramiah Ferrari
Free Recovery
Plus : Frank the Cat – Soundation – The Peas – Spotlight Cannibal – Ginger Beats – The Free Radicals – Pete Christie – Northsyde
See you all at the festival…here is a ‘taster’ of what you can expect from us!
Don’t forget to track us on Bands-in-Town for news of upcoming gigs.
Peace, Love and Rock \m/
Grunge Tribute Night – Guildford – Sat, 9th April
A Grunge Tribute Night to celebrate the lives & music of the legends we lost on the 5th of April! What better way to remember KURT COBAIN & LAYNE STAYLEY than by playing their music..LIVE & LOUD!
The night will see two incredible awesome tribute bands pay tribute to NIRVANA and ALICE IN CHAINS, whilst 3 of the hottest new grunge acts around reassure you that Seattle Sound is very much alive and well!
The ground-breaking album NEVERMIND is 25! Come and celebrate Kurt Cobain’s life and the anniversary year of the album that brought the underground to the mainstream and defined the ’90s
Endless Nirvana UK Tribute – will perform NEVERMIND LIVE in its entirety plus a selection of songs from Nirvana’s breakout era in their roaring set!
Brothers in Chains unplugged – An undying love for an ALICE IN CHAINS is echoed by Joe and James as they play the MTV Unplugged set, whilst channeling their inner Layne and Jerry!
Free Recovery – will be lighting up the Star with their full fat grunge sound that is capturing the attention of die hard grunge fans everywhere. Let them recover your lost grunge soul!
Sons of Endor -a stoner / grunge / star wars inspired band from Guildford will slap the audience very hard around the ears with their epically heavy stoner riffs! Their incredibly tasty riffs will turn you from the Dark Side!
C.LOU.D DOGS – have to be on of the most talented 3 piece grunge rock bands playing around London at the moment. They will bring their loud, messy rock,blues,punk,funk,drunk
Grunge Tribute Night
Related show
Cancer Research Gig – Guildford – Fri, Feb 26th 2016
Free Recovery are finally returning to the Star in Guildford, as part of an awesome night raising cash for cancer research. Considering all the legends that have been cut down by Cancer in the last year alone – let’s help kick it in the butt before we lose any more people to it.
£5 on the door, from 7:30pm. All the cover charge will go to Cancer Research UK
Four bands will play on the night bringing you rock, funky rock, instrumental, punk and grunge!!
It will be a fun night, all in a good cause! On the bill, for your entertainment, we are most pleased to present:
Stage times are as follows:
There is a facebook event if that’s your thing, and you want to share it.
If you can’t make it for some reason there is also a just giving page for the gig for you to make donation and still help us raise money for Cancer Research!