Author: Frankie Ward

Anchors and flowers

I’m having a bad face and hair day today…

There are some reasons why this is extremely bad timing, but I won’t bore you with those.

I seem to be having a great run of bad luck recently – like the world has said to me “right, we’ll let you record with Get Frank after two and a half years of desperately trying to organise something, but we’re going to have to compromise on everything else.”

For example, last Saturday morning at approximately 2am (I went to bed before 11pm in the hope of being ‘refreshed’ for my Halloween gig with The Union Choir), I woke up with severe stomach ache which was followed by vomiting etc… I got food poisoning on the morning of the night of the gig I’d been looking forward to for six weeks! And I’d missed the previous gig with tonsillitis. Wonders never cease.

Top by Gap £7.99, Shoes by H&M £14.99, Capri pants £19.99 by Zara, Bag £16.99 by Interacionale

Yes, in this picture I look distinctly unhappy with the universe. I’ve decided to try and cheer myself up by wearing red heels in the daytime. I’m not standing very well here and something distinctly nappyish is going on with the trousers… I attempted to iron them. (It’s not my strong point, ironing.) The trousers are a bit big on my legs but they’re one of the best fits I can find. I really love the Gap t-shirt though. Gap t-shirts are the best quality I’ve found on the high street, with a nice comfy fit.

Hair flowers £1.99 a pair by H&M, 'Frankie necklace' bespoke by ladyluckrulesok.com

My mum gave me the cherry earring after one of her many fancy dress events (she’s a fancy dress genius, and I do not use those words lightly! She is incredible.) I only have one ear pierced so always get people being ‘helpful’ and telling me I’m missing one etc… The necklace is from Ladyluckrulesok.com. I followed the site for seven years before designer Leona Baker decided to move onto a new project. The shop was hugely successful so maybe she wanted to feel more independent again – who knows?

The light is deceptive in this picture too (thank you attic sky lighting!) My hair and face are both messy today. I appear to have developed acne at the late age of 21. The flowers are a desperate attempt to look like my hair is deliberately big and ‘fizzy’ (I hate that word but feel it’s appropriate here. Vogue may get away with it, I do not.) ‘Rah’ girls spend ages backcombing, hairspraying and boofing up their roots to get ‘just out of bed’ hair to match their uggs and jogging bottoms. Again, they and their Jack Wills jumpers are part of an exclusive club that I just don’t get.

Thank goodness I’m off to the cinema, at least!

Also, Get Frank recordings are just having final touches and changes made and will be online very soon. Our first gig in Newcastle is at the Northumberland Arms on the 25th November. Hope to see you there (details to follow.)

A terrifying musical debut!

I’m playing my first gig as ‘Member No.11’ of The Union Choir tomorrow at The Star and Shadow Cinema with Brilliant Mind, O’Messy Life and John Egdell tomorrow… and I can hardly contain my excitement.

For this isn’t any old gig… this is a Halloween special!

Wig by Smiffy's, jacket by Religion, top by H&M and faux leather trousers, £38 by Topshop

I was going to go as a convict before realising that I should probably have some kind of matching stripy hat. I’d already ordered the handcuffs for less than a pound from Amazon so I invested another pound in a bandit mask. I don’t think I’ll wear the mask over my eyes much because it covers my nose and is a bit too wide for my face! I decided to keep the handcuffs for my costume by pretending that I’m a robber that has been ‘picked up and put in a police van in cuffs, but escaped en route to the cells.’ My amazing manager Kev at Amazing Radio found the wig in a cupboard and said I could have it so I’m wearing it to ‘up the bad girl status’.

If there’s any night of the year that you can go ultra vampy with deep, dark lips and messy black eyes it’s Halloween so I’m preparing to go all out with my crayons!

The Union Choir are playing last and I’ll only be practicing with the some of the band for the first time on the afternoon before the gig so personally, it’s going to be nerve wracking stuff! I’ve also been known for writing and interviewing bands for the radio so to suddenly make my Newcastle stage debut in front of a lot of them will be quite terrifying.

Me and Anna, the cellist from The Union Choir will be carving a couple of pumpkins before practice tomorrow so I’ll pop some photos of them on shortly. Apparently South Shields (where many band members are based) is all out of pumpkins so we may be a few jack o’lanterns down!

The doors for the gig open tomorrow at 7.30pm so I hope to see you there! And don’t forget to leave a comment telling me what you’re dressing up as!

Behind the scenes of Awake, Not Drifting

This weekend was spent in the studio at the University of Newcastle with the rest of the Get Frank guys recording our debut EP Awake, Not Drifiting.

I realised after looking at the track listing that three out of the four tracks are connected to the theme of ‘bed’ so it seemed apt to name the EP after the line ‘When I’m awake/Not Drifting’ from one of our quirkier numbers, Next Door.

Here’s a short ‘behind the scenes’ video of us in the studio. It was shot on my Kodak Zi8 and my new Casio Exilim camera (final shot only). You can occasionally hear my voice, but I’m the one behind the camera.

We recorded the EP live with me singing guide vocals behind the screen in the control room. I then rerecorded the vocals the next day. The trickiest track was Next Door as it features a variety of tempo changes – unlike the rest of the band however, most of the vocals used in the final mix were done in one take (which can’t be said for the other tracks!) We only used a click track to record ‘1 minute 20 second wonder’ It’s Not You.

We haven’t got an order yet but the EP will feature.

1. It’s Not You

2. Bedspread

3. Next Door

4. Vacant

I think one of the biggest surprises about working with the new lineup is that Vacant (formerly known as Untitled), which was the first song I wrote as ‘Get Frank’ back in Summer 2008, has become a firm favourite to play with the band. Having a real piano (and an expert musician in Neil Andrew Smith on keys) makes a real difference to the sound. Neil and Todd Green (guitar) both have solos at the end of the track and they both sound gorgeous.

The guys with Producer Rob

There have been multiple incarnations and lineup changes of Get Frank (I still feel that core member James Chester from the last couple of Birmingham lineups is present in the form of his friend, bassist David Mabbot), and it’s quite surprising that our current group has only been together for about six weeks.

More studio pics over at http://www.facebook.com/getfrankmusic

I always feel slightly overwhelmed when I hear what other people bring to my songs. I love that feeling of realisation – when you hear the track as you imagined it, with extra flourishes (such as David Mabbot’s ‘sensual bass-line’ in Next Door that felt like the natural progression from the ‘orgasma-bass’ of former player Richie B Brookes in Brum). Our last Brummie lineup felt quite ska in nature, whereas in Newcastle we’re heading towards a more organic, acoustic jazz feel. The unmixed recordings sound chaotic, but very much alive – hopefully our producer Rob Blazey will have an idea of what to do with them!

It was always a dream to record – I don’t think it’s set in that we’ve done it yet!

Now we need to find some Newcastle based gigs…

Crazy for Peacocks

Regular readers of this blog (and people who know me) will probably know that I’m a massive Peacocks fan.

I often look online to check out for new products (and am a regular in both the Gateshead and Newcastle stores.) I recently bought these loafers in brown and these Victorian boots that I’m itching to wear more.

Pearl Lowe's new Christmas range for Peacocks, released November 14th

I’ve been indulging in X Factor and Facebook this evening, and earlier on noticed that the Peacocks Facebook group was getting active over the fashionable side of X Factor. It was then than I noticed that preview pictures of Pearl Lowe’s new Peacocks collection had been revealed and a few new bags. The picture above has really excited me… I am obsessed with the dress on the far right. It’s beautiful! I hope that champagne colour will suit my skintone… I also really hope I’ll manage to get my hands on one. I have some purple 5 1/2 inch Irregular Choice heels that will go perfectly with it! Fingers crossed.

 

The Beatrice bag... arriving mid November

This bag is also on my wish list. I absolutely love the colour, the fake ostrich texture and the clasp – the perfect Mad Men inspired bag combined with this season’s ‘it colour’ of red (check out Jess Cartner-Morley’s Guardian article here). I haven’t really got any ‘little’ bags so for me I have an excuse to run out and grab it the day it hits the stores…

I really am obsessed aren’t I?

On a music/fashion note I’m looking for band T-Shirts to start ‘styling up’ for this blog so if you’d like me to write about your band and wear your t-shirt then please get in touch!

Leather bum

Apparently it was all about winter shorts on the front row of the recent ‘fashion month’ which got me wondering… what makes a pair of shorts ‘wintery’?

The Observer’s weekend magazine solved it for me quite quickly just this Sunday as I read their article on dressing for one’s age. Accompanying the article was a page of high street picks (by catagory, i.e boots.) Apparently, as a 21 year old it is my destiny to wear black leather shorts throughout winter (and pay a hefty sum for the privilege).

I decided that if destiny had started making my style choices, I might as well have some kind of influence on how things panned out (without completely ruining what fate had previously decreed via the pages of OM Magazine.) Thus I headed to Zara, where I had seen these shorts on a previous trip.

 

Top £16 by Topshop, Shorts £29.99 by Zara

 

So yes, apologies for the dim photo, but my ‘twist’ on fate was to choose brown shorts (some might say the colour of ‘Leatherface’ from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but that kind of felt relevant due to Halloween being on the cards!) I’ve tucked the slubby breton Topshop top into the shorts in the above pic, although it’s quite short and deliberately oversized which means it particularly goes with slim cut cigarette trousers (I’ve yet to find the perfect pair…sigh).

 

Shirt £7.99 by H&M, Scarf £3 by Primark, Boots £25 by Peacocks

 

Aside from shorts being very much in vogue with the fashion editors at Paris fashion week, they were reportedly worn with bare legs (eek!)

 

 

Vintage jacket from Cancer Research (customised with Tiger Balm logo applique)

 

Ok so there’s a lot of brown in the last outfit, (and it’s not even shade-of-the-moment-camel-shock-horror!), but I do love this jacket. I got it four years ago at a Cancer Research charity shop in Maidstone from their ‘retro rail’. I took out the shoulder pads and stitched on a Tiger Balm appliqued logo that I’d rescued from a hemp tee that had gone wrong in the wash. I might wear this more as a winter-to-spring get up, although time will tell what the seasons will bring weather-wise! On a more realistic side of things I believe I’ll be teaming this shorts up with a creamy opaque pair of tights and these boots, or roughing things up with some tall, woolly tights and my canvas boots (with the bouncy rubber heel that I pray people never notice.)

On a slightly different ‘style’ note I need to find something to wear for a band photo shoot with the new Get Frank lineup – ideas much appreciated!

We’ll be heading into the studio at the end of next week to record our first EP – we’ve made light work of my back catalogue and are ready to go. There’s more of a freeform improvisational feel to some of the tracks and I’m very excited to finally get some proper recordings circulating (I’ve never had any at all so these will be the first). We’re looking for gigs in and around Newcastle too so ideas are again very welcome!



Stone Roses

The other day I received a parcel…

 

The welcoming label!

 

I don’t really get many parcels so I was rather excited… particularly when I opened it and found a note handwritten on luxury paper just for me!

 

How pretty!?

 

I was sent the mystery package by Stone Bridge, a Kent based luxury hair accessories company that had spotted my curly tresses and thought that they could do them justice!

I lived in Kent for about eleven years so hearing that an international company was successfully flourishing not far from where I grew up was something to feel proud of. Kent isn’t really known for much other than hops and livestock, so it’s nice to see something slightly more… well… fashionable!

The company was set up by entrepreneur Melissa Hill. In 2006 she spotted a gap in the market for couture hair accessories and set about commissioning wearable works of art from around the world as well as ordering pieces from highly skilled designers from America, France and Italy (and further afield.) Due to the handcrafting processes that go into each piece, each design is of limited quantity which means I’m rather unlikely to turn up wearing the same head gear as someone else!

 

Almost real: Rose Silk Alice Band by Stone Bridge

 

Now I have to apologise for the following pics… I have finally spent some pennies on a nice compact camera, but I’m awaiting the delivery of a tripod so I can finally start posing proper. What I’ll be doing in the near future is assembling potential outfits to match one certain item, such as this alice band or other hair bands and barrettes.

My approach to fancy headgear is a bit like shoes – why own something if you can’t wear it more than once? The white colour of this headband makes many think of formal occasions such as weddings and christenings but I think it’s got potential for far more outings. I’ve often worn dramatic feathery headbands and fascinators to Get Frank gigs in the past so I’m definitely looking forward to having fun with this white beauty.

 

Lipfinity Lasting Lip Tint in #06 by Max Factor, £6.99

 

 

Click on the pic to check out more Rose Silk Alice Band colours.

 

I also like to post outfits for occasions so my next challenge is to compile something to wear for my first gig with The Union Choir on Friday. It’s at Plugged Inn in Sunderland (yup, no idea where it is exactly) and I’m going to have to head straight to the venue after work at Amazing Radio. I’m thinking that this head band is absolutely perfect for the gig because even if I’m stuck wearing my casual work clothes, this head band will provide a slice of instant glam to proceedings!

Another lovely thing about this head band is that it’s ultra comfy – some alice bands I’ve owned in the past have been too tight or snagged my hair upon removal – causing headaches in both senses of the word! Also I don’t face the problems I had with my headband in this post, where the head band kept slipping so much I’ll probably never wear it out of the house again.

My super talented friend Ruth Kilpatrick took a couple of photos of me wearing the head band at an Amazing Radio session interview I did with Charly Coombes and the New Breed for this Wednesday’s Afternoon Show so hopefully I’ll post those soon with a potential Friday gig outfit and a bit more about Stone Bridge themselves – let’s get supporting independents eh?

Where do you think I should wear the Rose Silk Alice Band? Comments and suggestions much appreciated!

 

Too young for Mad Men, too old for Rydell High?

I finally have shoes!

My dad and his wife finally made it up to Newcastle so I have shoes and dresses once more… hurrah! Most of the dresses are meant for evening, but there’s a few skirts including the Topshop full circle skirt in the following shots.

Skirt by Topshop, shirt by H&M, belt by Zara
Shoes and socks both by Primark
Headband by H&M, Necklace by ladyluckrulesok.com

I bought the scallop patterned skirt last summer whilst interning at Channel 4 for a bargainous £10. I’ve not worn it too much because I’ve never had a top to wear it with… until now. The full skirt is very much in vogue at the moment, with Mad Men taking the fashion world by storm. I feel the softness of the peasant style shirt and brown belt softens up the look slightly, whilst the just-above-knee length makes the look younger too (more Grease than, say, fifties secretary.)

Although the shoes are difficult to see, they’re a navy bow detailed pair I got from Primark a couple of seasons ago. I wouldn’t necessarily team them with pink socks, but I want to make the most of getting away with summer before it gets truly cold outside. I might really go for colour as it gets colder with this look and go for bright tights (such as a sheer red, or maybe even a yellow),

I’m very excited about my shoes too as my Dad brought a load up. There weren’t as many has I had originally as I had to have a bit of a clearout… I haven’t counted how many I have yet! I did pick up a new pair of amazing Victorian style boots from Peacocks today for £25. When I saw them online it was love at first sight… In the shop today I went dizzy trying to decide between brown and black but went for brown because I think they’ll be wearable right into Springtime that way… although I’m severely tempted to get the black colour too!

Boots £25 by Peacocks, Socks £2 for 3 pairs from Primark

This is really more of a springtime look, but I figured that I could team this with tights, a cardi/jacket and a wooly beret to keep the look cosy. (Roll on springtime!)

The boots fit perfectly so I’m pondering attempting the walk to work in them. My only worry is that I’ll wear into the heel too quickly… most of my shoes need reheeling as the nails are all exposed at the bottom. I must be pretty tough on them!

Shoe porn is on it’s way soon, I promise!

The perfect white shirt

I’m always seeing articles about ‘the perfect shirt’ in style magazines, but I’ve never been able to find one that suits me.

On an impromptue window browse yesterday I came across a rack of reduced shirts and went crazy in the changing rooms. (H&M let you take in a whopping seven items… I had eight.)

In the end I bought a peasant style loose blouse and a shirt dress, both white. The only issue is that they’re both a tad see through – so it’s going to be a case of nude underwear and leggings for future outings! I thought I’d have a go at ‘styling it up’ like an article I read in a back issue of Glamour magazine.

Shirt dress £7 (was £14.99) by H&M
Leggings (£7.99), shoes (£14.99) both H&M

I saw these shoes on the same trip and fell in love with them instantly. They’ve got a suede texture, and are of a comfy height so I’m not scared to wear them out during the day as well as the evening. I also like the casual ‘beatnik’ look of the leggings and shirt – it’s probably a bit too flimsy for Autumn, but September isn’t always too bad for the cold (not that I’m aware of Newcastle’s climate yet!)

I’ve heard talk of pub tonight so might take the look on a test drive!