It would be safe to say that 2010 was a year of ups and downs for everyone from that drunk fecker on Kildare steet and his mates to Joe Soapbar and Johnny Punkrock. What started off as a kicking year of gigs with The Len Price 3 and the Shitty Limits, soon took a turn for the worse when Gaz lost his favourite hat at a house party in the always a bit dodgy Dublin suburb of Killiney. While the Shitty Limits were playing an absolute screamer of a gig mid-sitting room, some heartless bastard made off with an accesesory that had up until then added an air of intellectualism to Gary's usual air of dipsomania.
Anyways, both gigs were scorchers and a good laugh to boot. The next Moutpiece related shenaniganery was the late Gerry Ryan, playing
Eric Clapton is God on the Undercurrents segment of his wildly popular daytime radio show. Gerry obviously was overcome with the rock and made a bit of a show of himself with a mouth guitar rendition of the song's main riff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzSoX2tA6xM
The song was then included in the late Road Records, Record Store Day Complilation CD and I defo saw people dancing to it when I picked up my complimentary CD whilst out shopping with the wife and kids.
In a move no one in the world saw coming. Gaz was named as the face of RTE digital radio and even got Miriam O’Callaghan’s digits. (Keep that bit under your hat)
The GGI was back in Ireland this year and as always, it was a shit ton of fun. No amount of buzzkilling Garda intrusion could derail what was a great weekend.
Next up was a handful of Female Hercules gigs with added Gaz on geetar. First for Conzo's Birthday in the Mercantile on Dame Street. Which was a great night of tunes in which everybody got their dance on. And then onto the Button Factory as part of the Road Records Farewell Extravaganza, a night in which few people in the venue got as much dance on as I did.
Things kept (rock and) rolling along into September as The Loving Room Floor took it's act to the Gypsy Rose Bar with ourselves kicking life into the club and truly getting the ball rolling.
The gig with Mudhoney saw us return to our rightful place, in a big music venue with a kicking sound system and a key coded green room with a fridge full of beer, couches full of aging rock stars and tray after tray of cold cuts and cheese.
The story of the year Moutpiece-wise has to be the many other projects everyone was involved in. The Gazzy Wazzy's Loving Room Floor Radio show evolved from a saturday night bit of craic on a free stream to a weekly dose of insanity on the national broadcaster's greasy virtual step child, 2XM. Late in the year, a new, more focused and musically driven Gaz exploded onto the scene. Gary's solo project, Retarded Cop has now set a new gold standard in speed and quality in the writing and recording of pop ditties and rock masterpieces.
RETARDED COP-COPVAN by Gary Keogh
The new Gaz played a stormer as did the rest of the band at the Final Fag Enablerz gig of the year in the Gypsy Rose which proved one thing- That Moutpiece are one kick ass punk rock unit of power and it hasn't just been the drink talking.
The twilight hours of 2011 saw Moutpiece enter RTE studios to record 4 songs for the Dan Hegarty Show. It was nice to be shown a little bit of the respect we undoubtedly deserve by the national broadcaster although Joe Duffy wasn’t up for much of a chat about Christmastime in Dublin town’s run for Christmas number 1. In fact he seemed downright uncomfortable with the notion of Gaz’s new venture and I was frankly surprised not to hear him rail against such a blasphemous notion as a Retarded Cop the next day on his consistently high brow radio programme. The day was a roaring success for the rock, but unfortunately, due to a contract dispute, all photographic evidence of the session is now owned by Pat Kenny. None-the-less, the songs will be aired on Dan Hegarty’s 2FM show on Tuesday 25th January.
The new year packs loads of promise. Gaz is in the kind of song writing form seldom seen round these parts. We’ve got a bag full of cracking tunes to record and we’ve got the time and the patience to record them. It’s hard to know what the new year will bring, but after 2010, it will take a lot to truly surprise any of us.
