Ferocious Dog

Week 48 - Pagan Blog Project. Free pass for the letter X, so here's a blog I wrote earlier this month.

Yay! I got a bobble hat!!!

The red ink from the Rescue Room stamp, really does not want to wash off.  But that's OK, it is a reminder that last night actually happened.  Sure my muscles ache from being bounced around like a pinball and my clothes are in a soggy pile in the wash basket BUT the whole night is a tad hazy and Otherworldly.

I've read some great reviews of this band before and I've always thought I could write a really good one. I'm not a music journalist, I just love music. All sorts of music and it really is the food for my soul.  This is why I wanted to be a DJ since I was a kid, making mixed tapes up from the charts and doing the dodgy talk over... and these days, I have my own radio show.  And that's where my journey with Ferocious Dogs starts.  Back in 2012 I was organising the first Pegged It Rally and received an email from Dan asking if his band could come and play for us.  I listened to the tracks he sent and would have booked them then and there if it wasn't for the teeny tiny budget I had, to pay for a band.  There was no way I would pay them a penny less than what they deserved.  I was dead keen to play their music on my show though and wangled a copy of their debut album Hell Hounds. It's fair to say that a Ferocious Dog track is in my show playlist every week and other DJ's I have introduced to FD, love and play them loads too.

Imagine my glee when I heard they were playing Rock and Bike Fest in 2013.  I covered the event for 100% Biker and wrote this:

The band I’d really wanted to see was Ferocious Dog, an originals band that I’ve followed for a while now. I was ready to jump in that pit and mosh around like a nutter but after seeing it in action, decided that I was no match for it. It was one of those that if you took your eye off it, it sucked you in, ground you up and spat you out the other side. Ferocious is about right! A great band, excellent material and a real crowd pleaser - they bought their own moshpit with them, how hardcore is that!

That was my first time. The second time was a couple of days after my birthday in March and a week after I had a double knee op. I went to the sold out Rescue Rooms gig, in a wheelchair knowing how animated the audience got, but I really didn't care.  For that whole time, I forgot I was in a lot of pain, I forgot about the people banging into my knees and I bounced up and down in that wheel chair.  The icing on the cake was Ken saying happy birthday to me... granted he got my name wrong but the look on his face later when I said 'did you mean Naomi?', was priceless lol.  I always get called Natalie for some reason... *shrugs*  Incidentally, my arse was too wide for that chair and the wheels scorched my thighs to the point of having to leap out of it and hobble along on the crutches. My mates had a great time in it hahahaha.  This brings me back to the third time. Rescue Rooms had sold out yet again, which as most of you will know, was the second time this year that Ferocious Dog had achieved this. The ONLY unsigned band to do so in the venue's history and only two other acts had managed it, one of them being Jake Bug.  I was determined to be in the middle of the mosh this time - damned right!

I said earlier that it was Otherworldly and that's cos I swear there's some kind of magic going on.  I don't know how these music journos write about crashing drums and fat rifts because I didn't hear individual instruments. That is not to say I don't know how to listen to just the fiddle player or just the bass guitar... you just don't get to with this band.  You are 100% caught up in the Moment.  There is no individual player, there is no band, there is just the Music.  The world just spins by as the Dance takes you and you release those inhibitions and are Free.  Yes, capital letters... if you've been and seen them, you're probably nodding. If not, go and you'll see.

by me

According to legend, every standing stone was once a dancer who got carried away with the music and danced on the sabbath.  So here you have a band, capable of invoking that spirit of the dance in every single person in that room.. all 500 of them.  Everyone singing, fists pumping the air, spinning around, bouncing about, climbing up high and being caught up in the Moment.  Like others, I went over and landed on my arse. I lay there laughing my head off, immediately friendly hands were there to pull me back up and push me back in to the fray.  I've been in my fair share of mosh pits and as mental as the Hell Hounds are, it's friendly.  One moment the room is going nuts, the next it's still as someone is climbing up on shoulders, not wanting them to fall in the surge.  It was all over too soon, yet they'd played every song - time stopped for the Dance.  As we all poured outside to cool down, it was a like a steam room as cold air hit hot sweaty bodies.  Everyone was dog wet and grinning.

Ferocious Dog are a combination of genuinely lovely people, amazing musical talent with thought provoking and meaningful stories behind the lyrics. Tragedy, history, betrayal, love, protest, fun - signature moments in our times.  I was at the Kill the Bill protests. I know people who were miners or were at Beanfield. I have lost a 'brother' in a similar way and all that entailed and all of this powerful emotional stuff, is wrapped up in insane music that carries me away.  I'm glad they don't want to be tied down with a record contract - you can't harness that kind of spirit.

If I had to use just two words to describe Ferocious Dog, they would be - fucking awesome!
Love you guys, you put a smile on my face - thanks!

Best gig pic ever! I'm in there somewhere.  Taken by Pete Waggy 

LINKS:  Facebook page. Website. Twitter

Mabon

week 26

Winds of change have come again
the russet leaves become my friends
As I walk and reminisce
the autumn equinox I dare not miss
make amends and carry on
for all too soon autumn's song has been sung
forgive and forget
wipe the dust from the shelves
ease into the season and forgive yourself!

MABON

Everyone has a festival that they are particularly attuned with. I do not know why, but mine is Mabon aka the autumn equinox.  Mabon is not wiccan, whatever wikipedia says. Mabon is part of Celtic mythology, which I really enjoy reading.  You already know my love affair with Slaine.

For me, Mabon is the time of year that every thing changes. It's almost like a new start. As always, I do a little research whilst writing my blogs to see other perspectives on it and share any interesting links. There's a fair amount of fluff out there about Mabon. This quote is from a website that claims that there's no evidence of Mabon the Welsh deity pre-1970's but I'm fairly sure I've seen him mentioned in Mabinogion. Anyway, the quote rang a bell within:

So Mabon is a celebration and also a time of rest after the labour of harvest. In terms of life path it is the moment of reaping what you have sown, time to look at the hopes and aspirations of Imbolc and Ostara and reflect on how they have manifested. It is time to complete projects, to clear out and let go that which is no longer wanted or needed as we prepare for descent, so that the winter can offer a time for reflection and peace. And it is time to plant seeds of new ideas and hopes which will lie dormant but nourished in the dark, until the return of Spring.

The part that resonated with me is the clear out and let go of things that are no longer needed/wanted. It's always a time of year when it's all change for me.  I find myself becoming very peaceful within and reflective.

Another good site I found has the story of Mabon in detail. Yep, says it in this text that Mabon features in Mabinogion and some other old texts - ha new age fluffy site - HA! In fact, Mabon is entwined in many myths including Arthur's.

Ten years ago I was gifted The Celtic Shamans Pack by John Matthews/Chesca Potter, from the lady who used to run our development circle. I pretty much balk at anything with the word 'shaman' in the title as it's usually a load of hooey but this set of oracle cards are alright.  I don't use them very often but I feel myself turning away from the Mythic tarot that I've used for 20 years, to another form of divination.  I love Celtic mythology and feel that maybe it's time I relearned these cards.

John Matthews is no stranger to our ancient stories. In the card meaning of Mabon, he says that search for the lost child (Mabon) had animal helpers, the blackbird of Cilgwri; the stag of Rhedynfr; the owl of Cawlwyd; the eagle of Gwernabwy and the salmon of Llyn Llyw. They led the heroes of the tale to the place where Mabon was imprisoned.  The cards meaning goes on to say how we lock away the inner child as soon as we reach puberty and it's all too seldom that we learn how to set it free again.  Our inner child is trapped by our own self.  Now I'm not completely sold on this inner child stuff that gets banded about but there is something to it.  If this was the medicine cards, it would be Porcupine. Childlike play, playing with innocence and abandoning your husk gruff exterior (bear) to be child like.  People say 'grow up' and 'stop acting like a child' like both of those things are bad.  They really aren't. We suppress our selves to meet some grown up world ideal.  Fuck that!  Fart humour will still have me crying in laughter and rolling on the floor like an 8 year old.  Does you good to let your inner child laugh at the absurd grown up world.  John says that by freeing Mabon, you are freeing something from within you.

Whilst having a quick google for images I could use, I found this blog. I will copy and paste it in full and credit the blogger fully, although, I'm not sure if they didn't copy and paste it themselves. It's another part of the story of Mabon:

MABON was the young son of Mother Modron. Throughout the world there was not a huntsman who could hunt with the dog Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid, the son of Eri, except for Mabon the son of Modron. He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it was not known where he was, nor whether he were living or dead.  Gwynn Mygdwn, the horse of Gweddw, that was as swift as the wave, carried Mabon the son of Modron to hunt the boar Twrch Trwyth.   Mabon could not be sought for it was not known where he was unless Eidoel, his cousin kinsman in blood, the son of Aer, was found. 

The whereabouts of Mabon son of Modron who was taken away at three nights old from his mother were known only to the Salmon of Llyn Llyw. In Gloucester it was that Mabon the son of Modron was imprisoned; and no imprisonment was ever so grievous as that of Mabon, neither that of Lludd Llaw Ereint, nor that of Greid the son of Eri.
Arthur summoned the warriors of the Island, and they journeyed as far as Gloucester, to the place where Mabon was in prison. Kai and Bedwyr went upon the shoulders of the fish, whilst the warriors of Arthur attacked the castle. And Kai broke through the wall into the dungeon, and brought away the prisoner upon his back, whilst the fight was going on between the warriors. And Arthur returned home, and Mabon with him at liberty.

And after that Arthur went into Armorica, and with him Mabon the son of Mellt, and Gware Gwallt Euryn, to seek the two dogs of Glythmyr Ledewic. And when he had got them, he went to the West of Ireland, in search of Gwrgi Severi; and Odgar the son of Aedd king of Ireland, went with him. And thence went Arthur into the North, and captured Kyledyr Wyllt; and he went after Yskithyrwyn Benbaedd. And Mabon the son of Mellt came with the two dogs of Glythmyr Ledewic in his hand, and Drudwyn, the cub of Greid the son of Eri. And Arthur went himself to the chase, leading his own dog Cavall.
Mabon the son of Modron, came up with Arthur at the Severn, upon Gwynn Mygddon, the horse of Gweddw, and Goreu the son of Custennin, and Menw the son of Teirgwaedd; this was betwixt Llyn Lliwan and Aber Gwy. And Arthur fell upon Twrch Trwyth together with the champions of Britain. And Osla Kyllellvawr drew near, and Manawyddan the son of Llyr, and Kacmwri the servant of Arthur, and Gwyngelli, and they seized hold of him, catching him first by his feet, and plunged him in the Severn, so that it overwhelmed him. On the one side, Mabon the son of Modron spurred his steed and snatched his razor from him, and Kyledyr Wyllt came up with him on the other side, upon another steed, in the Severn, and took from him the scissors.

These pictures are from a trip I made at Mabon (2009) to the gorsedd at Avebury. I visited the beeches and there definitely felt like a passage to another place here. I don't normally sense it when I've visited before but it was definitely there in this pic. The next image is of me and my son Aaron at Waylands Smithy on our way home from Avebury.  I don't do ritual or anything like that for the changing of the seasons. I feel it, I observe it, I give it a nod... it knows what it's doing, it doesn't need validation from me.  The first harvests are already being reaped... the second harvest won't be far behind that, then it's Samhain and then Solstice... you can feel it in the air, see it all around.  It's constantly changing, as are we.

NOTE: It's 3.47am, I just looked up and it's still dark outside with a hint of a dawn. A month ago it would have been nearly sun up, it would be a light as day out and all the bird would have been up since 3am. In the space of a couple of weeks, we are already sliding towards the nights drawing in.  Righto then, I'm offski to bed!